240811: this is an excellent, middle-way treatise, between extremes of academics and popular/accessible reading. though the latter is presuming the reader is familiar with buddhist concepts as 'fetters', 'conceptual bondage', 'four truths', and that metaphysics of 'constant process', of 'no mind' etc. so maybe not the first buddhist text to read...
'signless' remind me of the assertion in several previous texts that in this buddhist ontology there is no is/is not for these are only 'signs' as rain, ocean and lake and river and stream water, snow, hail, are all 'signs' of H2O as they transform, but nothing is 'lost'. this is not as beautiful as the book from which that example comes [book:The Art of Living|32051888], but is true as well...
so the first step on the path to nirvana is to abandon 'signs', in act, in thought, in words, and experience 'exactly what is' through 'bare consciousness'. bhikku gives several examples. the main idea seems to be everything from 'concept' to 'intention' merely adds layers interfering with this original 'bareness'. this is the first half of the book...
'deathless' is an epithet for 'nirvana', and critically interrogates the contention buddhists were not concerned with an afterlife. the key is how the buddha resolves this debate between 'anihillationists' (like materialists) who think when the body dies the person dies, and 'eternalists' who think the soul of the person persists (like religious). the buddha insists there is no such 'person' to begin with!
deathless involves the 'twelve steps of dependent origination': 1: Ignorance (avijja)2: Volitional formations (saṅkhāra) 3: Consciousness (viññāṇa) 4: Name and form (nāma-rūpa)5: The six sense fields (saḷāyatana) 6: Contact (phassa) 7: Feeling tone (vedanā) 8: Craving...
deathless is 'liberation' in life... is 'stepping out' of our conceptual bondage: great discussion of how this is not misery of suicide but joy of transcendence. 'stepping out' seems to be application of understanding how illusory are signs, definitely passing them... descriptions of 'enlightenment' all agree on how this is positive experience...
if you want more: [book:Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality|4329466]
[book:The Art of Living|32051888]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
more technical:
[book:The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā|1048288]
more:
[book:Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming Against the Stream|1480709]
[book:Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha|11200695]
[book:Gender Equality in Buddhism|12180850]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
[book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy|22619704]
[book:Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis|1709074]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:Ethics Embodied: Rethinking Selfhood Through Continental, Japanese, and Feminist Philosophies|9447857]
[book:After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|25246817]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535]
[book:Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings|6531274]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:Self, No Self?: Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions|10336218]
[book:After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|25246817]
[book:Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School|979829]
[book:The Kyoto School|21349529]
[book:Nishida And Western Philosophy|8274818]
[book:Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach|18443946]
[book:What the Buddha Thought|6980500]
[book:Wisdom Beyond Words: The Buddhist Vision of Ultimate Reality|4329466]
[book:Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction|2487511]
[book:An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy|2280672]
[book:Why I Am Not a Buddhist|44439993]
[book:Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey|6716321]
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