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Sphere wrote: <<Tang,

The word "Law" is simply a reification.  What we call laws are nothing more than
descriptions; which are by their nature inexact.

As I see it, there is nothing but patterns of interaction. It happens that these
patterns exhibit regularities.  To these regular repetitions of patterns we attach
descriptions; which we call laws.

One very fundamental regularity in these patterns is the fact that a given set of
interactions give rise to another set of interactions which are very similar to the
first set. This pattern of cycles of patterns seems to have structure; which we can
through delusion interpret as substance. Dependent origination is nothing more than
a description of this fundamental regularity of patterns coming together and
conditioning new patterns of interaction very similar to the first.  (I'm not
entirely happy about my use of the term "set" here.  But such is the way of
words...)

Dependent origination is conditioned by the patterns of interaction.  Without the
interactions there is no dependent origination.  There is no Popper's 3d world.>>

The main idea of the Buddha, Sphere, is regularity of nature, expectableness of
nature. What he revolts against is the Brahmanical idea of the irresponsible will of
the God-Creator, which is the same as what Christian theologians praise to the sky
as God's inscrutable will that answers to nothing other than itself.

As I have often said, Brahma created our world by thinking it, maintains it by
thinking it, and Brahmans pray to him every day so that he keeps on thinking it and
thus maintains it in order. The day the last Brahman dies, no prayer comes to Brahma
to keep the world in order, so Brahma stops thinking it (not: thinking about it) and
its goes poof! The world then dissolves into total disorder.

So, in the Brahmanical world-view (in the strong sense: a world-view creates the
world that it views), order (rta) depends entirely on Brahma, and Brahma serves as
the support for the world. The Buddha revolts against that artificialism, and
proclaims that the world runs itself by regularity of nature, and this regularity
(dharmata) is called Dependent Arisal.

His entire thrust is that thing-events follow each other in regularity, can be
expected to follow each other in regularity, don't depend on any will for that
regularity, therefore the world can be left to run itself without us bothering about
its dissolution if somebody like Brahma stops thinking it, and on the contrary our
thinking is the veil that blocks us from seeing reality as it is, so we should stop
thinking the world and instead just receive it passively in raw sensation in order
to see it as it is (not as we wish it to be, not as we think it to be).

That's what Dependent Arisal is: a means (not an end) to put our thought to rest
about the world, so that we can stop worrying about the world and instead turn our
attention inward to check up on ourselves, to see whether we have any substantial,
permanent identity called "self" or not. As we pay attention to ourselves, we then
notice that thing-events arise and fall according to regular patterns, and by
following those expectable patterns, we can verify that there is no such
substantial, permanent self, only a regular flow of impersonal events, whereupon we
can let go of any and all thinking and just stop at pure consciousness of raw
sensation.

You say: "there is nothing but patterns of interaction. It happens that these
patterns exhibit regularities." In the Brahmanical/Christian world-views, it does
*not* happen that these patterns exhibit regularity (in the singular): regularity is
imposed by Brahma/God and will be gone when Brahma/God withdraws it.

All of the Buddha's teaching, including Dependent Arisal, is mere means, to lead us
to that state of perception of reality as it is (yatha-bhutam), and once that
end-goal is attained, all of the Buddha's teaching, including Dependent Arisal, is
let go of, just as all thinking is let go of, without exception.

You say: "Dependent origination is conditioned by the patterns of interaction".
Wrong. The world is made up of interactions, which occur in patterns, and these
patterns are set: regular, expectable. Thing-events (us included) occur, and occur
according to set patterns, the whole of which is called Dependent Arisal.
Thing-events (us included) are conditioned by each other horizontally, including the
state where we no longer link on to another life, due to the absence of fuel (which
is desire), and this state is called blowing-out (nirvana).

Dependent Arisal is the whole set of rules that governs comings and goings, arisals
and settings, including the state when the persons no longer link on to another life
-- their streams of consciousness stops at their deaths and do not perpetuate
themselves beyond that point, therefore no longer arise and fall. Their
consciousness in life is not supported by anything, from the sense-fields to any
transcendent entities like God/Brahma, and upon death does not throw forth (project)
another platform (name-and-form, the body-mind complex) to stand on in the next
life.

Thing-events (us included) are governed by Dependent Arisal, but Dependent Arisal is
not conditioned by anything or anybody. It is not made by anybody, and the Buddha
simply discovers it and teaches it.

You say: <<The word "Law" is simply a reification.  What we call laws are nothing
more than descriptions; which are by their nature inexact.>> In the Brahmanical and
Christian world-views, given that the world is created by the mind of God/Brahma, it
and its parts can be thought perfectly, can be grasped perfectly by thought, without
any residue of opacity, but in Buddhism, thought is imperfect and can never grasp
anything (itself included) perfectly, right down to the least bit of dust. The
Buddha says: "What and what they think it, it is/becomes otherwise". So Dependent
Arisal is thinkable to some extent, just like everything else, but can never be
thought to the end, perfectly. So it is inexact, for nothing in thought is ever
exact. Good enough for conventional life, but never ultimately exact.

We receive the wold and ourselves in raw senation, and the Buddhist sage stops at
that. But we deludeds go on to cut up that wholesome sensation and fit its parts
into our conceptual/affective apparatus, impose a label on each part ("I", "you",
"others", tables, chairs, cats, dogs, etc.), and all such concept-delimited bits
(samj�aka-dharma) are reifications, including laws. In awakening all of them are
stopped, and only pure consciousness of raw sensation remains.

The only ultimate in life is to receive raw sensation in pure consciousness, without
any interpretation. The Buddha says: "in the seen there will be just the seen".
After the end of life, at death, the ultimate is not to relink to another life at
all, in any form whatsoever.

Tang Huyen