[Jaro]

Hi Lal,

Thank you for your new post on this topic! I have two questions.

1. You wrote that seeing the anatta nature requires understanding the origin of colour perception through the kamma generation process in Idappaccayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda. Is that origin about the moment-by-moment process, where each sensory event starts with the built-in distorted saññā? Or does it also cover how that saññā came to be built into our bodies across existences? In #11 of “Introduction – What is Suffering?” you write that it is built in via “upādāna paccayā bhava” and “bhava paccayā jāti.”

2. One cannot watch the purāṇa kamma stage directly. In #1 of “Upādāna Paccayā Bhava – Two Types of Bhava,” you write that attachment at that stage is automatic and instantaneous, and that we have no conscious control over it. We only become aware of it at the upādāna stage, a few seconds later. So does understanding the purāṇa kamma stage mean watching upādāna and working back from there?

[Lal]

Good questions. I will think about them and answer later today.

• I just revised #13 of that new post, “Consciousness and Color Perception – Current Scientific Understanding,” as follows. 

13. There are two aspects to ‘clearly see with wisdom’ the ‘anatta nature’:

1. To fully realize the implications of the fact that our sensory experiences are not real, one must also understand the origin of color perception. To see that, one must fully understand the complete ‘kamma generation process’ (including the ‘purāna kamma‘ stage) in Idappacayatā Paṭicca Samuppāda.
2. One must also connect this to the issue of ‘suffering’.  Any ‘pleasure’ experienced is temporary and leads to much more suffering in the cycle of rebirth. 

• That is why understanding that color perception is illusory is not enough to ‘see the anatta nature’ as long as one believes that illusion arises in the brain. 
• Regarding (ii): the ‘eye faculty’ in any existence depends on the ‘gati‘ (pronounced ‘gathi’) that led to that specific existence. See “Loka – Each Person Perceives the ‘External World’ Differently.”
• Thus, scientists and philosophers will never understand the ‘anatta nature’. They are trying to figure out how perception and consciousness can arise in inert matter, i.e., in the brain. They are on the wrong track.
• A brain made of atoms and molecules cannot generate consciousness or any type of perception, let alone the perception of light. Also see “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind.”

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Again, I will follow up with another comment later today. Please feel free to ask further questions. All are encouraged to ask questions. This is the only way I can decide which issues to address.

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Jaro

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