https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/1h4hnwv/the_ultimate_beyond/
created by MaxCad on 02/12/2024 at 00:07 UTC
4 upvotes, 8 top-level comments (showing 8)
Wondering people's thoughts on this topic. This idea of the ultimate outside or beyond our universe.. It seems like our souls need the physical universe to survive though. Confusing
Comment by krodha at 02/12/2024 at 00:17 UTC
8 upvotes, 2 direct replies
In buddhist teachings the so-called “ultimate” is not somewhere else. Ultimate truth is just a modality of cognition. Awakened beings perceive the same phenomena you are presently cognizing but they perceive it accurately.
Comment by gregorja at 02/12/2024 at 01:56 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Inside, outside, all the same.
Or as Master Hakuin said in his Chant in Praise of Zazen[1],
1: https://www.rzc.org/library/zen-center-chants/master-hakuins-chant/
What is there outside us,
what is there we lack?
Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes.
This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land,
and this very body—the body of Buddha.
(Edited for formatting)
Comment by Sneezlebee at 02/12/2024 at 02:27 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The very question is foundationally mistaken. This is often asserted, but the Buddha even explained why in a very important, very short discourse[1]:
1: https://suttacentral.net/sn35.23/en/sujato
Mendicants, I will teach you The All. Listen …
And what is The All? It’s just the eye and sights, the ear and sounds, the nose and smells, the tongue and tastes, the body and touches, and the mind and ideas. This is called The All.
Mendicants, suppose someone was to say: ‘I’ll reject this All and describe another All.’ They’d have no grounds for that, they’d be stumped by questions, and, in addition, they’d get frustrated. Why is that? Because they’re out of their element.
Go ahead and try all you like, but you can never, ever fathom or describe a reality other than one which is defined by these present sense domains. You can sort of speak about it conceptually, but that's the limit, and only by leaving out the very qualities by which such a reality is supposed to differ from this one. You can never actually describe or experience it in any meaningful way.
Comment by Holistic_Alcoholic at 02/12/2024 at 00:17 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
"Soul" meaning?
Comment by Triffly at 02/12/2024 at 00:28 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've thought about the "outside" quite a bit and it always gets me like a zen koan. I think it is another one of those unknowables!
Comment by mylifeFordhamma at 02/12/2024 at 00:32 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Yes. To be spoken in a metaphoric sense.
The ultimate exists in our minds. The ultimate, the unconditioned. It is said the physical world, but the physical world is simply a representation of our mental one.
Comment by Lontong15Meh at 02/12/2024 at 23:52 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You might be interested in reading this Sutta:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/BuddhaSmiles/Section0003.html#sec1.1
It is the story of a monk who tried to find the edge of Universe.
Comment by ChanCakes at 02/12/2024 at 00:44 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
In the Dharma there is no ultimate other than the time and place we reside in at this very instant.