Taryal’s essay reads well and is a good summary.
- I thought of adding another perspective. That is to pinpoint and highlight where the uniqueness of Buddha’s teachings lies.
1. Soon after attaining Buddhahood, the Buddha realized that teaching his “newfound worldview” to humans would be challenging.
- That is described in the “Brahmāyācana Sutta (SN 6.1)” and is highlighted in the following verse (which also appears in many suttas, including DN 1, DN 14, MN 26, MN 72, MN 95.) “adhigato kho myāyaṁ dhammo gambhīro duddaso duranubodho santo paṇīto atakkāvacaro nipuṇo paṇḍitavedanīyo.”
- The translation in that link: “This Dhamma (worldview) I have discovered is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the scope of logic, subtle, comprehensible to the astute.”
- “Adhigato kho myāyaṁ dhammo” means “This Dhamma I uncovered.” “gambhīro” means “profound.” Thus, the rest of the translation is good, but “atakkāvacaro” does not mean “beyond the scope of logic.”
- “Atakkāvacaro” means “beyond the scope of erroneous logic of humans” OR “cannot be analyzed/debated with mundane human logic.”
2. In the same sutta, the Buddha further explained why it is difficult for average humans (puthujjana) to see the validity of his teachings.
- Starting at marker 1.5, he explains why. That verse is better translated as “But people like clinging to sensory pleasures; they love it and enjoy it.”
- @ marker 1.6: “It’s hard for them to see the truth, i.e., idappaccayatā paṭicca samuppāda.
- Idappaccayatā paṭicca samuppāda explains how a mind starts in an undefiled state and is defiled within a split second. It also describes the accumulation of pañcupādānakkhandha.
3. Idappaccayatā paṭicca samuppāda explains how we accumulate kammic energies (that sustain the rebirth process), starting with the attachment to sensory pleasures.
- That attachment and subsequent kamma accumulation happen in two steps: “upaya” and “upadana.” Initial attachment ALWAYS occurs in the “upaya” stage (also called the “purana kamma” stage), and strong kamma accumulation occurs in the “upadana” stage (also called the “nava kamma” stage) only in SOME cases.
- An average human’s (puthujjana) mind ALWAYS goes through the “upaya” stage. That stage happens in a split second and depends only on how many samyojana (samsaric bonds) remain intact. A puthujjana has all ten samyojana intact. Since an Arahant has none left, even this initial stage is absent, and thus Idappaccayatā paṭicca samuppāda (and hence kamma accumulation) NEVER takes place for an Arahant.
4. The KEY POINT is that the “purana kamma” stage plays THE critical role of INITIATING kamma accumulation.
- If a mind avoids attachment to a sensory input from the very beginning (as in the case of an Arahant), one would have attained Nibbana.
- The reason for a mind to automatically attach to every sensory input in the “purana kamma” stage is the “distorted/false sanna” built into” a human.
5. That last sentence captures the essence of Buddha’s teachings.
- Arising of the “distorted/false sanna” is “beyond the scope of erroneous logic of humans” OR “cannot be analyzed/debated with mundane human logic.”
- It can ONLY be explained with an understanding of the Idappaccayatā paṭicca samuppāda based on “distorted/false sanna.“
- No matter how many experiments scientists conduct, they are all compatible with the “distorted/false sanna” built into humans and animals. That is the reason why Buddha Dhamma is “beyond the scope of erroneous logic of humans.”
- That erroneous logic has roots in “distorted/false sanna.“
6. I suggest reading the posts “Upaya and Upādāna – Two Stages of Attachment” and “Purāna and Nava Kamma – Sequence of Kamma Generation.”
- With the above explanations (#1 through #5) in mind, those two posts may help clarify the ideas/concepts I have been trying to explain for over a year.
- Most of the posts in “New / Revised Posts” are on that subject, starting with the post “Uncovering the Suffering-Free (Pabhassara) Mind ” on 8/5/23. Those interested can scan through and read selected posts there as needed.
- Of course, I would be happy to answer questions.