Those Goofy Buddhist Lists

First off, a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to all. Hope everyone enjoyed time with family and friends and that Santa's problems delivering everyone's gifts didn't hit your home.

Secondly, wishing everyone a wonderful new year. Wishing all peace, happiness, and fulfillment.

Lastly, i have been reading through the first volume of Gateway To Knowledge, by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche today. It's a primer on the basics of Buddhism, much like What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula, but written from the Tibetan viewpoint, which doesn't change a lot.

Anyway, as the Buddhist like to do, especially (it seems to me) the Tibetans, the book is list after list after list. And in the chapter on the Skandhas, the five aggregates, we find the lists associated with the skandha of perception. There seem to be six types of perception, and leaving out the details, those are perceptions with characteristics, perceptions without characteristics, lesser perceptions, vast perceptions, immeasurable perceptions, and .....

Number six: "The perception of nothing whatsoever causes the sphere of nothing whatsoever to be perceived."

There you go. If you were ever in doubt of how on earth, or in any of the three realms, it was possible to perceive the sphere of nothing whatsoever, the path has been laid out here. Granted it may take years of effort and hours upon hours on your zafu, but all that is required is the perception of nothing whatsoever.

Glad i got that straight. :-) Now how do i convince people to take Buddhism as a serious path with things like that on the list?

Happy New Year.