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The Continuation of all Actions
There are two kinds of truth: conventional truth and absolute truth. Conventional truth offers halfway teachings (bất liễu nghĩa), which are caught in pairs of opposites:
- Birth and death
- Same and difference
- Coming and going
- Being and non-being
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Eternalism and annihilation
Absolute truth (liễu nghĩa) hits the bottom of the truth, where these notions are removed. When the notions of birth and death die, perfect silence and great joy are realized.
To understand what happens after the body disintegrates, one must observe what is happening in the present moment. To be means to become, and we are reborn in every moment through three kinds of action, or karma:
- Mind action (thinking)
- Speech action (mouth)
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Bodily action (body)
These actions exist as karma cause (karma-hetu) and karma fruit (karma-phala). Our views, thinking, speech, and action are our true continuation, and no action is ever lost.
Liberation from fear, despair, and attachment to forms is achieved through three doors of liberation:
- Apraṇihita (aimlessness), which means no searching, running, or attainment.
- Animitta (signlessness), which allows us to recognize our continuation and our loved ones in different forms, like seeing the cloud in the rain or tea.
-
Śūnyatā (emptiness).
By practicing mindfulness and concentration, we can use the keys of impermanence, non-self, interbeing, emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness to unlock the doors of reality and touch the ultimate in the here and the now.
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