“Someone who uproots all those anusaya only becomes more him/herself.
This is becoming more and more authentic.”
Now, with all traces of anusaya, gati, six roots, tanha, avijja and asavas removed – what is left? What is left to differentiate one person from another? We find ourselves landed in the Mahāyāna concepts of emptiness, unconditioned being, undifferentiated consciousness – and ‘authenticity’ would equate with non-distinction (between one being and another).
I too had given a lot of thought to this and could arrive at no satisfactory answer. But when the Buddha says that we have been wandering on, you and I, from a time without a beginning – what does it mean? Not that there is no beginning to a ‘person’? No beginning to that ever-changing stream of consciousness? No beginning to the accumulation of all these sets of conditionings – gati, six roots etc. ?
And does it not follow that some trace of individuality must remain even in Arahants, otherwise there will be no distinction between one Arahant and another and we are back to Mahāyāna concepts. And where could the causes of that individuality be if not in all the experiences throughout sansara – to wit, in all those gati, asavas, anusayas, 6 roots etc.? Where else?
I hope this makes it in time for Lal’s reply to Sybe’s question: ” How does the behaviour of an arahant arise when it is not due to gati, six roots, tanha, avijja, asava and anusaya?”
Metta to all