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Yes. This is a better format for the translation of Waharaka Thero’s discourses.
I have not listened to/read it, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. But if anyone has questions about a possible error with the translation, please comment, referring to the video’s exact time(s).
Thank you, Sacket!
As I said, I cannot explain these things without you having a basic understanding. It is just a waste of time for both of us.
This is a common problem. People want to get into complex things like “where are memories stored?”, “how do gandhabbas communicate?” etc., without understanding saññā, the difference between rupa and rupakkhandha, etc.
- Spend the time and understand the basics. That will be a good investment.
- I will be happy to discuss any issues with the posts that I have suggested.
“I will read and try to ask question from your posts then.”
OK. That is fine. There is no point in discussing gandhabba if you cannot understand saññā, the difference between rupa and rupakkhandha, etc.
Hello Sachin,
You should first understand what saññā is. Please read the post:
“Saññā – What It Really Means“
Also, read the first two posts in the section, because that helps solidify the concept of saññā with examples:
“Essential Abhidhamma – The Basics“
Question by LDF: “I think intuition is related to saññā, in some way, is that correct?”
Intuition on a given object is based on first recognizing (saññā) the object and any other relevant objects.
- For example, your intuition of not to touch a red-hot metal comes because you recognize that metal is heated and can burn.
Hello Tobi,
Consciousness (vinnana) is many types. But they can be divided into TWO main types.
1. Awareness (Consciousness)
You become aware of a rupa (say, a tree) when you look at it. That is cakkhu vinnana (eye consciousness). When you become aware of a sound, that is sota vinnana (ear consciousness), etc. The sixth is mano vinnana, where you become aware of a past event (memory). That last happens via “manañca paṭicca dhammē ca uppajjāti manō viññāṇaṃ.” The first one happens via“cakkhuñca paṭicca rupē ca uppajjāti cakkhu viññāṇaṃ.”
Those are vipaka vinnana (of six types.) We cannot avoid them while we live.
2. Creating a Mind (rebirth consciousness or patisandhi vinnana) for a new existence (in the rebirth process)
This happens at the end of current existence (say, Deva) and grasping a new existence (say, human).
This happens via “upadana paccaya bhava” and “bhava paccaya jati” steps in Uppatti Paticca Samuppada. This also involves a dhammā.
- However, this dhammā differs from dhammā in recalling a memory in #1 above. This dhammā is a STRONG kamma bija that can lead to rebirth.
- These are kamma vinnana.
EXCEPTION: There are not so strong dhammā that can bring vipaka vinnana during life. These are more than memories. Memories don’t have kammic energy. These also belong to #1 above.
See “Viññāṇa – Consciousness Together With Future Expectations.” see #3.
Think about what happens when you see an object. How do you recognize it?
Suppose someone gives you an orange. You look at it and instantly recognize what it is and how an orange tastes. That recognition is saññā.
Now, for that identification to happen, you must have seen and eaten oranges before.
Your past “seeing events of an orange is in your memory; it is in your “pile of past rupa” or rupakkhandha. Furthermore, you remember the taste of orange from your past experiences, i.e., the “taste of an orange” is in your saññākhandha.
Let us get that issue resolved first. Please read the following post and point out anything you don’t understand:
“Difference Between Physical Rūpa and Rūpakkhandha.”
If you understand, read the first six posts in that section and ask questions. Please quote the post and bullet # in question:
“The Five Aggregates (Pañcakkhandha)“
The sutta is “Sattaṭṭhāna Sutta (SN 22.57),” linked to the verse Johnny quoted.
The verse, “Yaṁ rūpaṁ aniccaṁ dukkhaṁ vipariṇāmadhammaṁ” is MISTRANSLATED as “That form is impermanent, suffering, and perishable” in that translation. That is what Johnny is quoting.
Anicca is not “impermanence,” and vipariṇāmadhammaṁ does not merely mean “perishable.” Vipariṇāma also includes “unexpected changes before demise.”
I have discussed those, especially anicca, dukkha, and anatta in many posts: “Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta“
I also discussed that briefly in the latest post, “Dhamma and Dhammā – Different but Related.” See #8 and #9 there.
- As mentioned in #8, ““Rūpaṁ kho, ānanda, aniccaṁ saṅkhataṁ paṭiccasamuppannaṁ khayadhammaṁ vayadhammaṁ virāgadhammaṁ nirodhadhammaṁ..” That holds for vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā, and viññāṇa as well (as mentioned there.
The translations at Sutta Central (as well as in most English translations) can have many problems:
“Word-for-Word Translation of the Tipiṭaka“
Thanks, Tobias!
I just made that change of one word. The rest is OK, as I see.
There may have been an issue with the website loading this morning for some of you.
- We found the problem, and it has been resolved, at least temporarily. Please email me ([email protected]) if the website does not load for over five minutes.
- The issue was with the plugin switching to the “dark mode.” I have deactivated it for now. So, the dark mode will be unavailable until the issue is resolved.
ChatGPT makes huge mistakes! I am recording a conversation I had with it just now:
ME:what is the dimension of an average atom and how does that compare to the dimension of the nucleus?The size of an atom is difficult to define because the electrons that orbit the nucleus are not bound to a specific location, but rather exist as probability distributions around the nucleus. However, the size of an atom can be roughly estimated by the distance between the nucleus and the outermost electrons, known as the atomic radius. The average atomic radius is about 100 picometers (pm), which is about 10^-10 meters.
The size of the nucleus, on the other hand, is much smaller than the size of the atom. The average size of a nucleus is about 5 to 10 femtometers (fm), which is about 10^-15 meters. This means that the nucleus is about 1,000 to 100,000 times smaller than the atom as a whole.
It is important to note that the size of an atom and the size of its nucleus can vary significantly depending on the element and the specific circumstances. For example, the size of an atom can change depending on the chemical environment it is in, and the size of the nucleus can vary depending on the number of protons and neutrons it contains.
ME:If all atoms on the earth are collapsed to the nuclear dimension what would be the earth’s radius?If all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, the Earth would be much, much smaller than it is currently. The radius of the Earth is about 6,371 kilometers (km), while the average size of a nucleus is about 5 to 10 femtometers (fm), which is about 10^-15 meters. This means that if all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, the Earth would be about 10^-15/6,371,000,000 meters in radius, or about 10^-21 meters in radius. This is a very small size, much smaller than even a single atom.
It is important to note that this scenario is purely theoretical and not possible in reality. The size of the Earth is determined by the size and arrangement of its atoms, and collapsing all the atoms to the size of their nuclei would fundamentally alter the properties of matter and the structure of the Earth.
ME:should that not be roughly 6371 times 10^-5 kilo meters or about 63.71 meters?I apologize for the error in my previous response. You are correct that the radius of the Earth would be much larger than the size of a single nucleus if all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei.
If all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, the Earth would still have the same mass, but its volume would be much smaller. The average size of a nucleus is about 5 to 10 femtometers (fm), which is about 10^-15 meters. This means that if all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, the Earth would be about 10^-15 meters in radius. Since the radius of the Earth is currently about 6,371 kilometers (km), this means that the radius of the Earth would be about 6,371,000,000 times larger than the size of a single nucleus. In other words, the radius of the Earth would be about 6371 meters if all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei.
Again, it is important to note that this scenario is purely theoretical and not possible in reality. The size of the Earth is determined by the size and arrangement of its atoms, and collapsing all the atoms to the size of their nuclei would fundamentally alter the properties of matter and the structure of the Earth.
ME:I think you are still off. Should not that be roughly 6371 kilo meters times 10^-5 or about 63.71 meters?I apologize for the confusion in my previous responses. You are correct that if all the atoms in the Earth were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, the radius of the Earth would be much larger than the size of a single nucleus.
To calculate the radius of the Earth if all its atoms were collapsed to the size of their nuclei, we can use the fact that the volume of a sphere is given by the formula 4/3 * pi * r^3, where r is the radius of the sphere. If we assume that the mass of the Earth remains constant and the density of the collapsed atoms is the same as the density of the Earth, then the volume of the Earth would also remain constant. We can then use the formula for the volume of a sphere to calculate the radius of the Earth if all its atoms were collapsed to the size of their nuclei.
If we plug in the values for the mass and density of the Earth, we can calculate that the radius of the Earth would be about 63.71 meters if all its atoms were collapsed to the size of their nuclei. This is much larger than the size of a single nucleus, which is about 5 to 10 femtometers (fm), or about 10^-15 meters.
I hope this helps clarify things. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
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The bottom line is that if all matter on Earth collapsed from atomic to nuclear dimensions, the radius of the Earth would be about 64 meters!
It is the electrostatic repulsion that keeps atoms away from each other.
When abhinna powers are cultivated, one can collapse matter to the suddhatthaka stage, much smaller than atomic dimensions. That is how one with abhinna powers can go through walls/mountains:
“Buddhahood Associated Controversies“
P.S. Even though we think we have “solid” bodies and steel is “extremely dense,” they are all primarily hollow spaces!
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Pali words cannot be translated to one’s liking.
Anicca can be understood in two ways:
- Anicca = na + icca, “cannot be maintained” according to one’s icca. P.S. Similarly, the combination of “na āgāmai” (not coming back to the kama loka) is pronounced, “Anāgāmi.”
- Nicca = “can be maintained” according to one’s icca; anicca is the opposite of nicca.
Pali words are not necessarily meant to rhyme with Hindi or Sanskrit.
- Icca is pronounced “ichcha” and nicca “nichcha.” P.S. Anicca = na + icca, is pronounced “anichcha”; Anicca = a + nicca, is also pronounced “anichcha”
- Those conventions for writing were adopted by European scholars to shorten the Pali words written with the Latin (English) alphabet.
- See “Tipiṭaka English” Convention Adopted by Early European Scholars – Part 1” and Part 2.
I hope you get better soon, Jorg!
The “Dovacassatā Sutta (AN 6.115)” is a short sutta. The English translation there is misleading.
In many cases, this and other modern translators provide the mundane meaning because they do not know the deeper meanings.
“Dovacassatā” and “pāpamittatā” essentially refer to asappurisa.
- “sovacassatā” and “kalyāṇamittatā” refer to sappurisa.
- As we know, sappurisa are Ariya (Noble Persons). See #7 of “Dhamma – Different Meanings Depending on the Context .”
I linked above to the verse “Dovacassatāya pahānāya sovacassatā bhāvetabbā, pāpamittatāya pahānāya kalyāṇamittatā bhāvetabbā, cetaso vikkhepassa pahānāya ānāpānassati bhāvetabbā.”
That verse is translated with the mundane meaning in the above link: “You should develop being easy to admonish to give up being hard to admonish, good friendship to give up bad friendship, and mindfulness of breathing to give up a distracted mind.”
It should be translated as: “You should associate with those who speak the correct Dhamma, not those who speak adhamma, a Noble Person and not an immoral person, and practice ānāpānassati to remove confusion/distracted-ness of the mind to get to samādhi“
Mindfulness of breathing CAN BE give up a distracted mind temporarily. It WILL NOT help remove any anusaya/bad gati!
- In the same way, “good friends” that one associates to have a good time, are, in most cases, asappurisa.
We can elaborate on the descriptions a bit more.
1. Bhava – refers to different types of existences in this world of 31 realms.
- Vipatti means “encounter bad experiences,” and sampatti is the opposite of that, i.e., good experiences.
2. Sambhava (“san” + “bhava“) refers to how those existence result (via Paticca Samuppada) due to different types of “san“.
- Worst “accumulations” or “san” have “lobha, dosa, moha as roots,” i.e., via apunna abhisankhara.
- “Good” existences result via punna abhisankhara and anenja abhisankhara. But they also do not end suffering.
3. End of suffering can result only by following the Noble Path based on “bhava uddha Dhamma” or Buddha Dhamma or Paticca Samuppada.
- That is possible MOSTLY while born in the human realm. The key factor associated with the human realm is to be born with a brain.
- As we have seen, the brain “slows down” our responses to external stimuli. That gives us a time window to be mindful and stop the progression of various abhisankhara. Thus, one cannot cultivate the path while in the human gandhabba state. A physical human body (with a brain) is NECESSARY.
- That is why we must be grateful to our parents for allowing us to be born with a physical body.
That is a crucial point requiring some thought.
4. In all other realms, citta flow is fast and uncontrollable. Mano sankhara turn into vaci sankhara and then kaya sankhara VERY QUICKLY. Thus, one’s responses are according to the gati one is born with.
- Such gati are cultivated in the human realm (while born with a physical human body.)
- Then one is born in either an apaya (with dugati) or a “good realm” with sugati or good gati.“
5. While in the human realm, one cultivates both good and bad gati.
- Then one spends time in those realms until those kammic energies are spent. During those existences in other realms, they do not accumulate gati (at least to any significant extent.)
- As discussed in the Agganna Sutta, at the beginning of a “newly-formed Earth,” most sentient beings (below the Abhassara Brahma realm) are humans.
- Then they branch out into other realms.
That is a summary.
Namo0804 wrote: “Of course, there are exceptions like born in asanna realm(500 maha kappa), but it is a very small bit.
To compare sansara to a workplace, we have never retired from a job, just went on vacation rarely.”
Yes. Good insights.
- Vacations (like births in human and higher realms) are rare and short-lived.
- Most time is spent in the four lowest realms (apayas).
- That holds for any sentient being who has not attained at least the Sotapanna Anugami stage (that includes all humans, Devas, and Brahmas).
pariyesanā – to investigate, analyze possibilities
pariggaho – to grab firmly, like an octopus grabbing with all eight feet
ārakkho – trying to keep for oneself; that is done with chandaraga and macchariya with the expectation of lābha.
In other words, you got close enough.
The following dictionary is useful (it still has some wrong translations too):
“Concise Pali-English Dictionary –A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera“
Tanha and avijja go together. Both are wholly removed only at the Arahant stage.
- Vibhava tanha is the worst, the assumption of no rebirths. Then one would not be afraid of doing any immoral deed. That goes away at the Sotapanna stage.
- The strongest part of kama tanha is associated with kama raga and goes away at the Anagami stage.
- Bhava tanha is to “wish for” specific existences/titles/etc. The strongest component of an “unchanging soul” goes away at the Sotapanna stage. Cultivation of anariya jhana is included in bhava tanha.
“Kāma Tanhā, Bhava Tanhā, Vibhava Tanhā“
P.S. Yes the second post in #1 in my first comment is: “Icchā (Cravings) Lead to Upādāna and to Eventual Suffering“
Here is a recent video that corroborates my initial impressions about ChatGPT when it was first announced.
- It is a good resource, but it is not intelligence. It has the unique ability to scan and preserve a lot of information and then converse like a human based on the information it was trained on.
- Apparently, it can write complex computer programs too. That may put some programmers out of business.
- However, genuine intelligence is the ability to develop original concepts, like E = mc^2 . My prediction is that it will never be able to do that.
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