Monk chat: Questions about reality and attaining liberation

Questions covered:

• How is an arhat defined in the Vajrayana tradition?
• Why do things that are empty of inherent existence seem so solid and real?
• Is there an objective physical reality or is it just a mental impression?
• Is everything we experience the result of karma?

How is an arhat defined in the Vajrayana tradition?

• An explanation of different Buddhist traditions – clearing up confusion about what the Vajrayana tradition is
• Two sets of obscurations on the mind: afflictive and cognitive
• An arhat has eliminated all the afflictive obscurations and is free of samsara
• The Buddha has done that and also eliminated more subtle defilements, the cognitive obscurations
• Buddha as all-knowing vs omniscient

Why do things that are empty of inherent existence seem so solid and real?

• Ignorance totally misapprehends how things actually exist
• How things appear to us and how we grasp them is erroneous
• Understanding the object of negation
• Being criticized or insulted is a good point to start to analyze the “I”
• There “mere I”, which is not inherently existent, but merely designated

Is there an objective physical reality or is it just a mental impression?

• If there were, everyone would see things exactly the same way
• We think there is, and it’s the source of a lot of problems in the world

Is everything we experience the result of karma?

• Different systems of causality: physical world, chemical, biological, psychological, and karmic causality – different, but connected
• The principal way we experience karma ripening is through feeling (not exclusively)
• Karma does not cause things like earthquakes, but affects whether and how we experience them