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Chapter 15: Refuting truly existent characteristics

Verses 351-353

Refuting the inherent existence of production, duration and disintegration, the characteristics of products. Part of a series of talks on Aryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way.

  • Looking at dependent designation using the soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
  • Refuting the inherent production of that which exists and that which does not exist
  • A product cannot be produced, come in to being, independently under it’s own power
  • Refuting inherent production by examining the time of production
  • What exists at the time of production? sprout or seed or both?
  • You cannot pinpoint an exact moment the seed becomes a sprout, but it can be labeled conventionally

93 Aryadeva’s 400 Stanzas: Verses 351-353 (download)

http://www.youtu.be/59Qe3UPptMw

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.