Tantra and Zen Buddhism: Part 2

Recording Location
Lone Pine, Calif.
Recording Date
? June 1974
Recording Information

Franklin Merrell-Wolff continues this series by introducing an interlude that is not specifically connected with his main thesis. He addresses the logic of Nāgārjuna concerning the nature of ultimate reality, examines the meaning of the terms shunyatā and tathatā, and proposes a new interpretation of these terms based upon an analysis of the fundamental logical dichotomy that is part of Aristotelian logic. He suggests that the notions of Sangsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Paranirvāṇa are logically equivalent to the conceptions of the object of consciousness, the subject to consciousness, and Consciousness-without-an-object-and without-a-subject. Wolff then introduces another interlude connected with the Buddhist doctrine of suffering. He makes a distinction between the suffering inherent in the vital-physical domain and the sense of adventure, discovery, and victory that characterizes the conceptual domain. He then proceeds to offer a statement concerning the objective of this discourse, namely, to describe the importance of type psychology with respect to yogic method, to discuss the relevance of the aesthetic and theoretic philosophic orientations presented in Northrop’s The Meeting of East and West, and to affirm that it is definitely not necessary for Western man to deny or repudiate his own orientation to follow the path of yogic Realization.

Transcript
Recording Duration
52 min
Sort Order
182.00