Sangha of Auspicious Companions

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

The Need for Reasoning
All Buddhist schools agree that the analytical reasoning process which leads to an inference (a conceptual realization) derives from basic, shared, direct perception. As an example let us consider the following reasoning:

A plant does not inherently exist because of being a dependent-arising.

You begin by reflecting on the fact that a plant is a dependent-arising because its production depends on certain causes and conditions (such as a seed, soil, sunlight, and water), but eventually the reasoning process must be supported by direct perception, or it cannot stand. We can see with our eyes that plants change; they grow; mature, and finally dry up. In this sense, inference is blind, since it must eventually rely on direct perception. Inference depends on reasoning, which in turn rests on basic, shared, indisputable experience through direct perception. (p.153)

–from How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins

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