Logical Conclusions written August 2023

One is a Buddhist if he or she accepts the following four truths/seals

All compounded things are impermanent. All emotions are pain. All things have no inherent existence. Nirvana is beyond concepts.

or

1. All conditioned phenomena are transient.

2. All polluted phenomena are dukkha—unsatisfactory or in the nature of suffering.

3. All phenomena are empty and selfless.

4. Nirvana is true peace.

The Buddhist path is fundamentally a process of shedding that which is not in accordance with the nature of reality. It is about being fully awake and sober to what is causing us to circle within the cocoon of our ego-reification and suffering.

Chogyam Trungpa on Tibetan Buddhism (as compared to Zen):

Another branch of the Mahayana school, which developed in Tibet, can be seen in the Gelukpa tradition. In India, the Nalanda and Vikramashila universities developed a school of logic in which instead of doing pure sitting practice, you practice sharpening your intellect. This demands that the basic sophistication of intelligence is raised up to the highest point, as much as one can, to the point of limitlessness. At that point, ordinary logical conclusions and logical debates become meaningless, and one develops higher thinking, the epitome of the highest way of relating with the reasoning mind.

brain image from jennysserendipity.wordpress.com