May 25, 2024 at 4:31 pm
#49935
Participant
Dr. Lal, thank you for the response. I went through your explanations in this thread and read a few other pages pertaining to this topic. Based on my understanding, I will try to summarize my response in the same format below:
- So according to the law of Paticca Samuppada, it is not correct to say that ‘I’ don’t exist because I do. But I should also understand that what I perceive to be me/mine are the 5 aggregates which are not under my complete control. These evolve according to natural causes and not according to my desires. Of course, I don’t want to be born as a wild animal and get eaten alive. But if I have the appropriate character or gati, it can happen. The fact that majority of the discovered sentient beings are in the wild gives a clear sign that many of them have the existence they didn’t desire. So it is not fruitful to say that the 5 aggregates are “mine”. This almost appears paradoxical because how can I say that ‘I’ exist if the 5 aggregates aren’t mine?
- Since the law of paticca samuppada causes a person to exist, a human does have free will?
- Yash RS clarified what I meant. So each human has a built in distorted perception. What makes an arahant unique is that their perception won’t be defiled since they won’t attach to any sensory input. The 3 marks of existence (anicca, anatta, and dukkha) are crystal clear to an arahant’s mind which is why they naturally (or automatically) avoid generating mental defilements. This means that they do not take the 5 aggregates to belong to them or their “self” but till they die, they do have personality attributes.
- I should have been more clear on this. An arahant obviously has a heightened awareness, right? What we can perceive with our senses is pretty limited, considering the complexity of the universe. For instance, the visible range is tiny compared to the wide electromagnetic spectrum. Even an unenlightened individual can use anariya jhana to increase their awareness. An arahant has perfected insight to the true nature of this world. So they should likely know, precisely, what Nibbana is. By that, would an arahant’s mind be discernible to us?
- This is really interesting. People that do “astral travel” say that when they have an out of body experience (OBE), they are still connected to their physical bodies via a “silver cord” and as soon as they think about their bodies they are pulled inside. I wonder how “different” are the cases of Near Death Experience (NDE). Dr. Sam Parnia described that death is more of an ongoing process rather than an instantaneous event. When an NDE experiencer is temporarily out of their body, I wonder if they are still connected to their bodies like in the case of meditation induced OBEs and if so, at what point they become disconnected.
I agree that Buddha’s teachings are really deep and difficult to understand. As a 22 year old software engineer, I thrive with logic and reasoning but I also have many personal issues. I apologize for my confusions but most discussions of Enlightenment I find online are just philosphical arguments that only perpetuate my confusion. Hopefully, my understanding grows with time.