The Ultimate Distinction Resolving Our Biggest Philosphical, Spiritual, and Practical Problem

by Mullen, Matt

• ISBN13: 9781591811695
• ISBN10: 1591811694
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-16
• Publisher: Sentient Publications

Summary

Taoists call it yin and yang; Buddhists refer to the two truths: existence is both absolute and relative. Just as physicists accept that a subatomic particle is also a wave, we can understand that the universe is both one (absolute, undivided) and many (conceptual, material). Mystics get lost in the absolute, while most of us see only the relative. Matt Mullen points out that both are necessary for living a life in concert with the way things really are.

Author Biography

For ten years, Matt Mullen has studied Zen under Steve Hagen, a widely respected, best-selling author of books about Buddhism and philosophy. Mullen is a pragmatic, logical, down-to-earth teacher of philosophical and spiritual matters.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Our Problem	p. xi
Terms	p. xiii
Things	p. 1
Examination of the Idea that Things Have Real Existential Boundaries in Space	p. 2
Examination of the Idea that Things Are Solid or Substantial	p. 6
Examination of the Idea that Things Have Real Boundaries in Time	p. 8
Examination of the Idea that a Thing Retains a Particular Identity over Space and Time	p. 9
What We've Seen from the Examination of These Basic Ideas	p. 10
How Our Confusion About Things Leads to Suffering and Strife	p. 13
Space and Time	p. 17
Examination of the Idea that Reality is Divided into Separate Places in Space and Time	p. 17
What We've Learned by Examining This Idea	p. 21
Self	p. 23
Examination of the Idea that There Is Something About the Self that Remains the Same over Space and Time	p. 24
Examination of the Idea that There Is a Real Existential Boundary Between Self and Other	p. 25
Examination of the Idea that There Are Real Temporal Boundaries to the Self	p. 27
Examination of the Idea that the Self Is Eternal	p. 28
What We Have Learned from Examining These Ideas	p. 28
How Our Confusion About Self Relates to Suffering	p. 29
Truth	p. 31
Absolute Truth	p. 31
The Limits of Relative Truths	p. 33
How Confusion About Truth Is Related to So Many of Our Troubles	p. 35
Consciousness	p. 37
Mastering the Distinction	p. 41
Practice	p. 45
The Distinction in Action	p. 49
About the Author	p. 57
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