Of course you can be an Aristotelian Buddhist. Just subtract final and material causes and add withdrawal (emptiness).
It makes much more sense, from a luminosity point of view, than thinking that reality is an illusion subtended by a transcendental beyond. Reality is like an illusion. The like is the key word.
Claiming that Buddhists don't think or appreciate substances is just nihilism or atomism disguised as Buddhism. Buddhists chop wood and carry water. They brush their teeth.
Why Nagarjuna and the entirety of the "zab mo lta brgyud" (lineage of the profound view) are not nihilists:
ReplyDeletehttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/contradiction/#LNCBudTet
".. neither LEM nor LNC is directly at stake in the tetralemma: you can have your Aristotle and Buddha too."
In this sense, young man, you are quite correct.
:-)
Yes, quite interesting, the use of these two words together, like and illusion... To wit, from the Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra:
ReplyDelete"In the space of a single moment, may I behold
all lions among humans of past, present, and future.
May I continually engage in their field of experience
through the power of illusion-like spiritual liberation."