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In the following, I will try to address oetb’s questions.
“1. Why kusala-mula paticca samuppada starts with “kusala-mula paccaya sankhara, …” and not with “pañña paccaya sankhara, …”?
One CULTIVATES pañña by cultivating the Eightfold Path. When one attains the Arahanthood, then pañña is complete.
– If we go in a sequential way, one MAY first start at the “moha” stage, where one may have one or more of the ten types of miccha ditthi.
– After that, one is able to comprehend Tialkkhana (anicca, dukkha, anatta) and START on the Noble Eightfold Path as a Sotapanna Anugami.
– Only then one will be able to cultivate the “kusala-mula paticca samuppada” that starts with “kusala-mula paccaya sankhara.
– However, UNTIL one gets to the Arahant stage, all those below that stage may also be engaged in the “akusala-mula paticca samuppada” depending on the situation.
The following section could be helpful:
“Living Dhamma”“2. Why is only the desire to attain Nibbana for oneself that characteristic, and not too the desire for others to attain Nibbana? (or the desire to help others to attain Nibbana)”
I am not sure where you got that idea. I have not attained Nibbana (Arahanthood) but I am spending a lot of time on this website trying to help others understand what I have understood.
– Others at this forum do the same.
– Most bhikkhus allocate a significant fraction of their time to teach others.
– However, we must also keep in mind that only one can cleanse one’s own mind and attain Nibbana. Others (even a Buddha) can only teach the way to do it.“3. What prevents a bodhisattva to learn Dhamma?”
I think that is the wrong way to look at it.
A bodhisattva spends an uncountable number of lives fulfilling “the requirements” (or paramita) to become a Buddha.
– But he cannot even attain the Sotapanna stage because then he would have learned Dhamma from someone else. A Buddha discovers the true nature of this world by himself WHEN a Buddha Sasana (Ministry of a Buddha) is ABSENT in the world. That way, he will be able to reveal Dhamma to many. That is why Buddha is a very special person.
– Two Buddhas DO NOT appear in this world at the same time. That would defeat the purpose of having a Buddha who spends so much time and effort to become a Buddha.
See, for example, “Pāramitā and Niyata Vivarana – Myths or Realities?”I think if you go through the above-suggested posts, you may find answers to the other questions in them too.
If not, or if you run into other questions, please feel free to ask.
The following post is from oetb.
Welcome to the Forum!
I am sorry that you could not post it yourself. That is an intermittent problem. Others run into it sometimes too.I read about kusala-mula paticca samuppada, and I have some doubts. Paticca samuppada starts with “avijja paccaya sankhara, …”. That paticca samuppada is the akusala-mula paticca samuppada, then:
- Why kusala-mula paticca samuppada starts with “kusala-mula paccaya sankhara, …” and not with “pañña paccaya sankhara, …”?
If the characteristic of that kusala-mula is the desire to attain Nibbana:
- Why is only the desire to attain Nibbana for oneself that characteristic, and not too the desire for others to attain Nibbana? (or the desire to help others to attain Nibbana)
Bodhisattvas has the desire to reach Buddhahood to help others reach Nibbana. We are said that in all this stuff of kamma, sansara, etc. there is no entity deciding what is good or bad kamma, or which is the next bhava/jati of a sentient being; all that works based on natural laws. Then:
- What prevents a bodhisattva to learn Dhamma? The article SengKiat posted says that for an aspirant to become a Bodhisattva he, among other qualities, should be able to become an Arahant in that very life (hetu) and should be able to see a live Buddha (satthara dassana). How could anyone with those qualities not be able to grasp Dhamma?
- Could be the case that there is no real prevention, just that if a Bodhisattva that has not received yet the niyata vivarana learns Dhamma and becomes a Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami or Arahant, he loses his Bodhisattva condition?
As I understand now, the Buddha taught about suffering and its end. For that purpose, he taught tilakkhana and paticca samuppada among other teachings.
One who fully realizes tilakkhana becomes an Arahant. An Arahant has no avijja, then paticca samuppada does not cycle for him. Then he will not grasp new existences in this world of 31 realms.
- Have I made any bad assumptions at this point?
- Could be that not cycling for him paticca samuppada really means that he will not grasp new bhavas via akusala-mula paticca samuppada, but to say nothing about cycling for him kusala-mula paticca samuppada, that not begins with avijja? I mean, he will not grasp new bhavas motivated by any kind of hope in mundane happiness in any of the 31 realms, as he knows the tilakkhana nature of this world. In other words, with no avijja, there will be neither akusala abhisankhara nor kusala abhisankhara rooted in avijja (then also rooted neither in lobha/raga nor dosa/patigha). But:
- What prevents him to do abhisankhara rooted in pañña? Or, similarly, what prevents him to grasp a new bhava, not motivated in any future happiness (as he knows tilakkhana) but motivated to help others to reach Nibbana (motivated by compassion)?
- Is doing abhisankhara rooted in pañña an oxymoron?
- If the answer to 8 is yes, then what is puññabhisankhara?
- Why puñña kriya are not puññabhisankhara?
I just realized that since I just edited the previous post, it was not time-stamped with the revision. Thus, some people who had read about revising the recent post may not have seen it.
Basically, the original post as it was posted on April 24th does not need a revision.
y not asked: “When we need to recall the memory…” But exactly WHAT triggers the memory, what prompts that need,.”
Memory recall happens only when one TRIES to remember something.
What you alluded to in “Now, in the time of the Buddha one bhikkhu was admonished by both his fellow bhikkhus and by the Buddha for ‘having the harmful misconception’ that vinnana travels from life to life..” is a different thing.
– That is patisandhi vinnana which happens at death (or more precisely at the cuti-patisandhi moment) is a kamma vipaka. That is not memory recall.Thanks, y not.
The link is, “Dhamma on Air #5.”P.S.
I watched a few minutes of the video.It seems that he is trying to explain memory in terms of stored in the brain. That is not correct. Here is a brief summary of what happens.
– The brain has a “mana indriya” with a transmitter and a receiver. One’s experiences are transmitted to the “nama loka” that it out there in space.
– When we need to recall the memory, the transmitter again sends a signal to the “nama loka” and receives a “blueprint of that memory.”
– That is the dhammā that the brain then transmits to the hadaya vatthu (that is in the gandhabba and overlaps the physical heart.)
– Then “mananca paticca dhammeca uppajjati mano vinnanam” re-creates the previous experience as if one is experiencing it at that moment.I will get to it in the upcoming posts. But I mentioned the mechanism with a bit more details in, “The Amazing Mind – Critical Role of Nāmagotta (Memories).”
I thought about the revision that I made to the post, “Difference Between Rūpa and Rūpakkhandha” this morning.
The original version was fine. I have restored the original version. My apologies for any confusion.
Please feel free to ask questions.
The following post is from Lvalio (Lair).
What’s to note about this Ven lecture. Dhammavuddho and what is necessary to pay attention is that when he refers to the conditions to progress on the path. Lord Buddha told Ven. Ananda that the preservation of the Dhamma depends 100% on good friends (kalyāṇasahāyatā kalyāṇasampavaṅkatā.)
– The translation of the Pali into English as “good friends” and it is wrong.
– The correct translation is, “friends who penetrated the path of the Dhamma”, at the very least a Sotapanna -an Ariya.And in this lecture, the Venerable speaks clearly of good friends AS Ariya…
See, “Half the Spiritual Life (SN 45.2)“.
– So the translation is wrong. It is not only “good friends”, but “good friends” who understood the Message of Lord Buddha, i.e. The Dhamma of nature…Here is the link:
7.4. SopākaAnswer to the question, “Is rūpakkhandha synonymous to nāmarūpa?” is no.
It will become clear in the upcoming posts. But the following is a quick answer.
Rupakkhandha of “old memories” can back to the mind when one just tries to remember that memory. For example, one can recall what one ate for lunch yesterday.
– That does not involve Paticca Samuppada steps, “avijja paccaya sankhara, sankhara paccaya vinnana, vinnana paccaya namarupa.”We will discuss the mechanism for recalling past memories in the upcoming posts.
– It is essentially, “mananca paticca dhammeca uppaddati mano vinnanam.”
– But that requires more explanation.The following comment was by y not.
When I tried to add the link, the post disappeared. Luckily, I kept a copy.Googled ‘Arahant at 7 years old’ and got this for starts. I do not know whether there is more.
At seven years old
I received ordination.
I bear my final body—
oh, the excellence of the teaching!And this:
I was only seven years old
and had just gone forth..
“he is Anuruddha’s novice,
assured in psychic powers.
Made a thoroughbred by a thoroughbred,
made good by the good,
educated and trained by Anuruddha,
who has completed his task”…
Having attained ultimate peace
and witnessed the unshakable,
that novice Sumana has the wish:
‘May no-one find me out!P.S. I just added the links to the references that y not provided.
Thank you, y not!Lvalio wrote: “It takes 7 (seven) years for the brain to achieve a degree of development capable of realizing and judging the world around it, with rare exceptions.
But after those seven years, the brain needs to experience the world before it starts judging it. So, we can say that a reasonable age for a person to become a Buddhist is 12 years..”Actually, there is an account in the Tipitaka where a seven-year-old attained Arahanthood. I don’t remember the name of the sutta.
Yeos asked: “how does the manomaya kaya/karmic body sees the world through the eyes of a baby?”
Yes. One can think of as the gandhabba “trapped inside the physical body.”
All external sensory inputs come through the “doors” in the physical body. Vision comes through the eyes, sounds come through the ears, etc.
– Then those signals are processed by the brain and transmitted to the gandhabba inside.
– That is a simple explanation. For details one needs to read the following posts:
“Our Mental Body – Gandhabba“; see #8 specifically.
“Clarification of “Mental Body” and “Physical Body” – Different Types of “Kāya”“Second question: it is said that “there is a nervous system in the gandhabba that overlays the physical nervous system.” Is there in the Tipitaka any other info describing what constitutes such nervous system?”
The Tipitaka may not have direct references to everything. We can figure out some things on our own. But the key references to gandhabba in the Tipitaka are at:
“Gandhabba State – Evidence from Tipiṭaka”
