- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I recently encountered a difficult question. Sankhata refers to everything that undergoes uppada, thiti, and bhanga. Then, is namagotta sankhata? If it is sankhata, it is a contradiction because namagotta does not undergo bhanga. If it is not sankhata, then is namagotta asankhata? But this also does not make sense, so it is a contradiction. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could kindly enlighten me about my ignorance.
-
It is a good question.
The main ideas to resolve that puzzle are the following:
7. Since dhammā have energies, they can “come to a mind” on their own. That is how kamma bijās bring their vipāka. For example, suppose you hit someone and injured him last year. It was an incident, and a memory of it is in viññāṇa dhātu. But besides being a memory, it has kammic energy associated with it so that it can bring vipāka at some point. They bring vipāka under suitable conditions, and we have some control over that by being aware of that; see “Anantara and Samanantara Paccayā.”
- Nāmagotta (records of memories) are also in viññāṇa dhātu, but they don’t have any energy. Therefore, they don’t come to our minds randomly. But we can willfully recall them. For example, consider another incident that also happened last year, say meeting a famous person and shaking his hand. That is only a memory because there is no kammic energy associated with it. But you can probably recall that incident. If someone tells you, “Didn’t you meet that person last year?” you take a moment to recall it, and that memory comes back to your mind. That is a nāmagotta that came back as a dhammā when you tried to recall it.
The above is from the post “Rupa, Dhammā (Appaṭigha Rupa) and Nāmagotta (Memories).” You need to read the post to understand it fully.
- “Nāmagotta” are not “entities” in the sense of a “material thing” or “energy.” Thus, it is not a sankhata but a “record of a sankhata.”
- For example, consider the “seeing event” of looking at a tree. It registered in the mind as a sankhata (cakkhu vinnana, which is only a vipaka vinnana.) That sankhata arose and passed away; only its “record” is saved as nāmagotta, and no energy is associated with it. To recall that memory, one needs to spend some energy, as explained in that post.
2 users thanked author for this post.
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.