We should get this issue resolved before proceeding further.
- There is no point in writing more about “distorted saññā” until people have a good understanding of what saññā means and how it arises.
- I think a big “mental block” exists in many people’s minds to look at the gandhabba as an alien entity. You are your “mental body,” and the physical body is secondary. Your thoughts (cittās) arise in your mental body. However, the physical body (and the brain) play significant roles, while the mental body is entrapped in the physical body. Once outside the physical body, the mental body can see, hear, and think on its own; of course, it cannot taste, smell, or touch.
- It has driven into our mind that our physical body (or the brain) creates thoughts. But the physical body is just a “shell” that becomes useless once the mental body (gandhabba) comes out of it.
- As we have discussed, a human bhava (existence) may last many thousands of years. It is that “mental body” that lasts through that whole time.
- Your essence is not your physical body or the brain but your mental body (gandhabba.) However, the physical body and the brain play major roles, while the mental body is inside the physical body.
Now that we have many specific posts on gandhabba and saññā to review, I will stop writing more new posts in the new series on “Sotapanna Stage via Understanding Perception (Saññā).”
- Instead, we need to discuss and clarify any questions that may arise while reading those posts that are specified above, including those posts in the new series. Of course, there are many more on the website.
- Please refer to the post in question and the specific bullet numbers when asking questions.
- Of course, you can ask any other related question too, on this thread.
