By 'authentic experience', i meant meditate to directly
experience the timeless Presence (Buddha Nature) which is your true
nature.
Once, you have that direct experience, you will know, without
any doubt, that the true nature is forever.
"Soul' is very subjective... All kinds of teaching will say all
kind of things that are contradictory to each other. And where does
soul starts and you the personality end? You get what i mean?
To me, the closest match to the word 'soul' is the subconscious
mind.
But, then you only will experience the sensate reality. If you
do not experience it, then it does not exist for you.
That is why 'emptiness' in Buddhism is such a profound truth.
For people who doesn't realise it, they will alway think that there
is something 'beyond' their existence.
For in truth, there is no something beyond what is being
experienced. For example, if you meditate and experience the
'soul', then the soul only exist for you at that moment. That
moment is just right for the conditions of the 'soul' to be
experienced.
By that definition, 'soul' is nothing but that experience of
pure 'intent' that is being experienced at that moment.
Through this way of understanding, you will know that there is
no separate entity elsewhere that is call the soul. It is just
another altered state of your own consciousness.
Once, this is known, the lifespan of the soul becomes a
meaningless question.
Do you get what i mean?
Yes usually when people think of 8th consciousness, it can
become misunderstood as a soul, as a place or a storage location.
In fact it's called 'storehouse-consciousciousness', but we have to
understand that it is spoken out of convention -- there is no
actual permanent unchanging entity storing anything. It's just a
flow of conditionings succeeding moment to moment. 8th
Consciousness is also empty [not a fixed entity, doesn't have a
fixed location, or anything like that]
Thusness: Whatever you think you have a way of doing
something can only take place not immediately. They can only take
place as a form of imprint, very deep into your consciousness.
Becomes imprint and momentum, and then resurface out as effects
only at much later dates. It always work this way. This is what one
has to understand. So now, this is the momentum that is preventing
a person from seeing.
Also,
With regards to Alaya, I posted before:
Something about the idea of storage... in Thusness's
opinion we must get rid of the entire idea of there being a 'place'
where seeds are being 'stored'. 'Storage' is simply spoken out of
convention.
There are always imprints and tendencies, nothing lost.
It has always been like that. 'Stored' actually means an on going
process to mean that the tendencies are there. But not to see it as
a place keeping track of something.
These tendencies/momentum/karma are our 8th consciousness in
action. They are subtle and subconscious and will not be detected
unless one meditates.
Also, they will not manifest into karmic ripening UNTIL the
conditions are present for them to manifest, hence for example...
some people who commit tremendously evil deeds may appear to be
well off, while good people may sometimes suffer their whole
life.
This is because the conditions are not yet ripe for the karmic
seeds they planted this life to ripen. What they are experiencing
are ripening of karmic seeds/imprints/momentum brought over from
their past lives. But their rebirth would be affected their actions
in their lifetime.
For example, the beggar who was so delighted when Maha-arhat
Mogallana [or Mahakasyapa?] (out of compassion) asked for the
beggar's 3 drops of gruel in his bowl (he was initially saddened
when he thought he had nothing to give him), and as a result of
this pure deed the beggar died like a week later and was reborn in
the heaven of 33 gods for 90+ kalpas. For the beggar's case, the
karma arising out of this pure intent is too strong and manifested
very quickly. For others, it will not manifest until a long time
later.
The continuity of karmic seeds spanning over lifetimes may seem
that we have a fixed 'soul' or a 'self'. In actuality, it is just
the succession of our sub-conscious karmic tendencies over
lifetimes, waiting for the conditions to ripen.