Lankavatara Sutra

[hubi]

"Arhats rise when the error of all discrimination is realized. Error being discriminated by the Wise turns into Truth by virtue of the 'turning about' that takes place within the deepest consciousness."

 

This striking phrase occurs repeatedly in the Lankavatara Sutra - "the 'turning about' that takes place within the deepest consciousness". I believe this is "asraya paravrtti", sometimes translated as "transformation of the basis", "overturning the basis" or "revolution at the base of consciousness".

As a practitioner with an interest in Chan, I have come to associate this with the early Chan practice of "contemplating mind" the direct path in which the mind turns back upon itself and counter-illuminates the non-dual, space-like mind-source. This practice perhaps continues in Zen's "eko hensho" and the "backward step that turns the light and shines it inward".

 

[Jonesboy]

I found this to be helpful later in the chapter.

 

Those who are dependent upon notions of being, regard the world as rising from a causation that is really existent, and that this actually existing and becoming world does not take its rise from a causation that is non-existent. This is the realistic view as held by some people. Then there are other people who are dependent on the notion of the non-being of all things. These people admit the existence of greed, anger and folly, and at the same time they deny the existence of things that produce greed, anger and folly. This is not rational, for greed, anger and folly are no more to be taken hold as real; they neither have substance nor individual marks.

[Jonesboy]

Moving on to emptiness...

Then Mahamati asked the Blessed One, saying: Tell us, Blessed One, how all things can be empty, un-born, and have no self-nature, so that we may awakened and quickly realise highest enlightment?

The Blessed One replied: What is emptiness, indeed! It is a term whose very self-nature is false-imagination, but because of one's attachment to false-imagination we are obliged to talk of emptiness, no-birth, and no self-nature. There are seven kind of emptiness: emptiness of mutuality which is non-existent; emptiness of individual marks; emptiness of self-nature; emptiness of no-work, emptiness of work; emptiness of all things in the sense that they are unpredictable, and emptiness in its highest sense of Ultimate Reality.

Any thoughts?