'Consciousness Only'

[willytex]

This tradition was founded by Shakya the Muni himself and was
later expounded in the Lankavatara Sutra. Almost the whole of
Zen Buddhism supports the consciousness only metaphysics.
Not to mention Naga Arjuna's Madhyamika and the Vijnanavada
Tradition of Asanga and Vasabandhu.

In the Upanishads, there are Shankara and his guru Gaudapada
to refute and the whole host of Advaitins up to and including
Ramana Maharshi. The Kashmiri Swami Kaksmanjoo supported
the 'Trika' system which takes Pure Consciousness as the
Ultimate Reality.

In the West, you'd have to argue against Immanual Kant, George
Hegel and Arthur Shopenhauer. Not an easy task.

Excerpt from Mandukya Karika IV by Gaudapada:

"Duality is only an appearance; non-duality is the real truth.
The object exists as an object for the knowing subject; but it
does not exist outside of
conciousness because the distinction of subject and object is
within conciousness." (IV 25-27) Sharma, p. 245-246.

Excerpt from Mahayana Sutra Lankara by Asanga Maitreyanatha:

"Pure conciousness is the only Reality. By its nature, it is
Self-luminous." (XIII, 13). "Thus shaking off duality, he directly
percieves the Absolute which is the unity underlying phenomena
(dharmadatu)." (VI, 7) Sharma, p. 112-113

Read more:

From: Willytex
Subject: Vimshatika-Vrtti on Karika
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental
Date: January 31, 2005
http://tinyurl.com/ybfesn8

[willytex]

Things and events - phenomena - are not real, yet not
unreal either. They are like an illusion in that they are
not exactly as they appear to be, yet they are real in
the sense that they are presented to us as illusion.

So, it would not be correct to say that phenomena
are unreal; they are simply dream-like because
phenomena can't be known or experienced without an
intermediary something - we call it 'consciousness'.

We do not experience phenomenon directly, but through
the lens of the senses, which change the objects of
perception.

Dreams are real becuase they are dreams. Something
that is unreal is something that never existed, a
figment of the imagination for example. But quite often
people see with double vision simply because they
have a mote in their eye, or they see the horns of a
hare when in reality, there are no horns on a rabbit.

According to Marshy, all actions are accomplished
due to the propensity of the gunas - we do not
really act at all.

There's no 'mind' to be separated from, that's just
a metaphysical term. In reality there are only the
gunas born of nature that regulate our actions. The
whole idea of transcending is to go beyond 'mind',
beyond thinking, to a state of pure conciousness.

Gaudapaada was the first thinker to expound on
Adwaita - he was the real thing, not a neo-Adwaitan.

"For those well versed in the Vedaanta the world is
like a city of Gaandharvas - an illusion."

Source:

'Gaudapada'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudapada

'Dispelling Illusion'
Gaudapada's Alatasanti
by Douglas A. Fox
State University of New York Press, 1993