Reply To: Can an Ariya get Alzheimer’s Disease?

#38919
Lal
Keymaster

I did a search on “alzheimer” using the search box on the top right:
Search Results for: alzheimer

The first result is your new question. The others are also discussions and posts with the word “Alzheimer.” I don’t think I had a post exclusively on “Alzheimer’s.”

The “sensing elements” that EXPERIENCE vision, sound, taste, smell, touch, and memory recall are NOT the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, and brain.
– The “sensing elements” are in the “energy-body”/”manomaya kaya/gandhabba. Those are the set of pasada rupa (cakkhu, sota, jivha, ghana, kaya) and the hadaya vatthu.

In terms of the recent post, “Three Types of “Bodies” – Poṭṭhapāda Sutta (DN 9)” we can say the following (see #3 of the post):
– The eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, and brain are in the “A solid, heavy physical body.”
– The real sensing elements of pasada rupa/hadaya vatthu are in the “mind-made subtle body”

Many sicknesses/diseases/injuries happen to the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, and brain.
– That is the price we pay to “enjoy close physical contact (taste, smell, and touch/sex)” with the physical body.

In many cases, the eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body, and brain “malfunction” due to kamma vipaka or old age.
– Alzheimer’s disease is a brain problem. If the gandhabba comes out of the physical body (as in an NDE), likely, it would not have any memory loss.

The following video (which was in the above-referenced recent post) clearly illustrates this point w.r.t. vision:

– That is a critical point. I have now posted this video on several posts, but I am not sure how many people grasped its importance.

Also, see “Brain – Interface between Mind and Body

P.S. Yes. An Ariya (a Noble Person) can get Alzheimer’s. It is a kamma vipaka. Remember that Ven. Moggalana was beaten to death, and that was also a kamma vipaka.
– Anyone with a physical body is subjected to kamma vipaka, like Alzheimer’s, injuries, and diseases. Even the Buddha had some physical ailments like back pain.
– Suffering stops ONLY at the death of an Arahant, i.e., with the death of the last physical body.