In Prajñāpāramitā, IMO, we have to read śūnyatā as a reference to the cessation and subsequent absence of sensory experience in meditation.
No condition is required to be present to bring this state about, it occurs when all conditions for sensory experience are absent (śūnya). Hence this state of absence is considered an asaṃskṛta-dharma.
@jayarava
'What you mean "we,"' as the old song goes? 😉 I need to re-read your essay on the topic of sunyata, I guess, which I don't remember as being quite so extreme. I'll probably always think of sunyata as related to anatta and everything-happening- by-itself, the no-there-there realization that the "Diamond" and Perfection writings talk about. I can't see the distinction between your notion of sunyata and coma or death. Could that really be what the authors intended?
Your analysis of May 2018 touches on a similar, and I presume related, point, in talking about the meaning and use of anupalambayogena. Is it really about attempting a vegetative state, though, or is it (as I think more likely) plain old non-attachment, if at a more thorough approach? I've no doubt, given some incomprehensible behavior amongst us humans, that there may well indeed have been attempts by practitioners to chase after the state I was in when anesthetized for surgery. But is that really what the Perfection works are recommending as a practice? Seems counter-productive to me, unless they thought of suicide as productive. (Which I guess they very well could have.)
Looks like my argument is mostly "I don't like it!" at this point, so I guess I have some work to do here. At least it won't be boring. As always, thank you.
