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一念無明法性心

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: dharma-nature and ignorance in one moment of thought

Senses:

  • This is a statement of the thoroughgoing identity of ignorance and dharma-nature according to Tiantai Buddhism. One single moment of thought in an individual sentient being contains the pervasive awareness of all negative and positive factors 具足一切法, including the contaminated thoughts of those sentient beings suffering in the hells and the rarified thoughts of those sentient beings enjoying the purity and tranquility of the Buddha realm 佛界.

    In accordance with this picture of non-duality, the practitioner does not eliminate all of the negative factors 不斷斷 corresponding to the mental states associated with the nine realms subject to ignorance 九界, but in maintaining an active awareness of these negative factors, s/he realizes a liberated mind free of affliction 解心無染.

    Each and every thought in the mind of the individual sentient being is 'non-dual' in that is encompasses either pole of any polarity. Thus, each thought is both 'momentary'  刹那 and 'eternally abiding'  常住 (Mou 1989, vol. 2, 614). One thought reveals the ten aspects of thusness 十如是, including complete, fundamental wholeness 本末究竟等. This tenth aspect of thusness includes past, present, and future retribution. The contents of one thought moment are thus beyond mundane conceptions of time.

    References:

    Mou, Zongsan [牟宗三]. 1989. Bore yu foxing 般若與佛性 . Taiwan:  Taiwan Xuesheng shuju.

    [Billy Brewster]
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    Entry created: 2019-04-14