Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1109020123500.10518@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: flawed
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 01:25:32 -0400 (EDT)
flawed http://www.alansondheim.org/oops2.png http://www.alansondheim.org/oops3.png http://www.alansondheim.org/oops4.png http://www.alansondheim.org/oops5.png Twelve analogies of the illusory body (summarized): 1. Illusory body created by a magician. 2. Reflection of the moon in a clear body of water. 3. Shadow. 4. Dream body. 5. Illusory body of a yogi. 6. Echo. 7. Town of Gandharvas coming into existence wherever they are born by the power of their karmic actions. (Gandharvas are 'spirits who are called smell eaters.') 8. Hallucination. 9. Rainbow. 10. Lightning. 11. Bubbles bursting from water. 12. Image in a mirror. (From Paths and Grounds of Guhyasamaja According to Arya Nagarjuna, Yangchen Gawai Lodoe.) Many of these are characterized by projection and/or altered states of mind. Projection may be physical or mental (if one insists on such a differentiation). Altered states are mental. Avatars are projections, altered states, mental, physical structures; avatars are maps; maps are illusory avatars. Are there any other kind? Yes, there are wobblers or cloudings. Are wobblers or cloudings illusory? They are not. They are murky and real in the murky mind.