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I just saw your posts. I am a bit busy these days, as I am traveling.
- I will try to respond today or tomorrow.
Thank you, hojan!
- Yes. Many old posts need revision. My plan is to finish the series on Satipatthana and then start revising old posts.
- Generally, posts from the past two years should be OK. Even some of those could be fine-tuned.
- Buddha’s teachings are deeper than anyone can imagine.
I am looking forward to seeing comments from those who try Hojan’s ‘Pure Dhamma GPT.’
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Thank you, Jittananto.
- I watched the above videos on the defections in the sensory capabilities of some people.
- Our physical bodies are tailored to provide specific saññā associated with vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch using numerous built-in sensors and the nervous system.
- The ‘abnormalities’ reported/discussed in those videos are cases of kamma vipaka. Those people cannot fully function like others.
P.S. I have made a few revisions to yesterday’s post: Colors Are Mind-Made (Due to Kāma Saññā)
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October 18, 2025: The following post explains the difference between ‘mundane truth’ and ‘ultimate truth.’
Colors Are Mind-Made (Due to Kāma Saññā)
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New:
Colors Are Mind-Made (Due to Kāma Saññā)
Revised:
Cognition Modes – Sañjānāti, Vijānāti, Pajānāti, Abhijānāti | Pure Dhamma
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Hello Diogoreberto,
I see your comment in #55296 above, just below my original reply that you are aware of ancient yogis attaining the fourth jhana.
- So, it cannot be the Samma Samadhi, correct?
- It is not clear whether you have any other questions about it. Is the issue settled now?
Quite insightful comments. Please keep up with your efforts.
- Yes. The next post will focus on the Sotapanna stage, and I will attempt to make connections to the concepts we have discussed so far in the new series, “Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta – New Series.”
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I am going to write a post on this issue. Please ask any other questions that can be addressed there.
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1. The confusion arises from not recognizing the existence of two realities: mundane reality and ultimate reality.
- In mundane reality (i.e., within the framework of the world of 31 realms and all the living beings in it), all investigations will prove that the sensations of ‘pleasure’ and ‘pain’ are real.
- In ultimate reality (where everything in this world of 31 realms arises via Paticca Samuppada), all those sensations of ‘pleasure’ and ‘pain’ are ‘mind-made.’
2. Even a living Arahant (in daily life) will experience the sensations of ‘pleasure’ and ‘pain.’ They also experience the mundane reality. But they have fully comprehended that those are all mind-made and will last only until the death of their physical bodies.
- The mistake many people make is to try to overcome these sensations of ‘pleasure’ and ‘pain’ by force. They cannot be overcome in the sense that they are ‘built-in’ to our physical bodies.
- The ‘ultimate reality’ must be understood with wisdom; it is called ‘dhamma cakkhu.’ That is in the first sutta, “Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11):”‘Idaṁ dukkhaṁ ariyasaccan’ti me, bhikkhave, pubbe ananussutesu dhammesu cakkhuṁ udapādi, ñāṇaṁ udapādi, paññā udapādi, vijjā udapādi, āloko udapādi.” The translation there is better as: “This is the noble truth of suffering.’ Such was the dhamma vision, knowledge, wisdom, and realization of truth (vijjā udapādi) that arose in me regarding teachings not learned before from another, leading to my separation from the world (āloko udapādi).”
3. If it is not possible to understand what I am trying to explain, it is better not to try to ‘force it in.’
- In the “Alagaddūpama Sutta (MN 22),” the Buddha stated that ‘sensual pleasures’ provide little gratification and much suffering and distress. That “little gratification’ is the “feeling of pleasure’ one feels with sensual pleasures at that moment; that is the ‘mundane reality.’
- But they can bring suffering and distress in the long run. At markers 6.4 through 6.12, he gave many analogies to ‘sensual pleasures’, including a ‘pit of glowing coals.’ That is in the ‘ultimate reality.’
- At marker 6.14, the Buddha tells Ariṭṭha that Ariṭṭha has misunderstood his teachings. Please read the sutta from the beginning to understand the context. Ariṭṭha had many misconceptions about Buddha’s teachings.
- At marker 10.10, the Buddha explained to Ariṭṭha that grasping his teachings the wrong way can be deadly. It is like trying to catch a cobra (snake) by its tail. The cobra will twist back and bite. It must be caught by close to its head.
- If they don’t make sense and lead to stress, it may be better to avoid reading these posts. Sometimes it is not easy to express concepts with words. I always worry about that.
To elaborate on my previous comment:
1. It is worthwhile to contemplate the “Paṭhamalokadhamma Sutta (AN 8.5)” I mentioned above.
- The “eight worldly conditions” of gain/loss, fame/disgrace, blame/praise, and pleasure/pain are about 50/50 in the human realm. We ‘get down’ with loss, disgrace, blame, and pain sometimes, and then something happens to provide the opposites. The Buddha advised us to deal with both in equanimity. Don’t be depressed with the former and don’t be too much elated with the latter. Yet, there is no need to avoid the latter, and of course, try to avoid the former.
- It is good to keep in mind that all those are transitory. In the highest Deva realm, there is hardly a moment of loss, disgrace, blame, or pain. Still, that existence is also temporary.
- The opposite is true of the four lowest realms (apayas). In those realms, loss, disgrace, blame, and pain dominate.
- We must break this perpetual cycle of going through all those realms by striving for Nibbana. The Sotapanna stage is the most critical step, where one can be assured of no more rebirths in the apayas.
2. The second aspect is that even those ‘highest pleasures’ available in the highest Deva realm are an illusion in ‘ultimate reality.’ Those ‘pleasures’ are mind-made too. The same applies to the ‘jhanic pleasures’ in the Brahma realms. It is really a ‘magic show’ created by the mind itself through a complex process; see “Fooled by Distorted Saññā (Sañjānāti) – Origin of Attachment (Taṇhā).”
- When I get the time, I should write a post on the “Paṭhamarūpārāma Sutta (SN 35.136).” One can get the general idea by reading the English translation in the link.
- At marker 2.1: “Rūpā saddā rasā gandhā, phassā dhammā ca kevalā; Iṭṭhā kantā manāpā ca, yāvatatthīti vuccati.” Translation is better as follows: “Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touches, and ideas/memories, all of them—they’re likable, desirable, and pleasurable as long as you believe that they are real.
- Next verse @3.1: “Sadevakassa lokassa, ete vo sukhasammatā; Yattha cete nirujjhanti, taṁ tesaṁ dukkhasammataṁ.” Translation is better as follows: “For all the world with its gods, this is what they deem happiness. When ‘those mind-made pleasures’ cease, that is what they consider to be suffering.”
- Next verse @3.1: “Sukhaṁ diṭṭhamariyebhi (diṭṭham ariyebhi), sakkāyassa nirodhanaṁ; Paccanīkamidaṁ hoti, sabbalokena passataṁ.” Translation is better as follows: “The noble ones have seen that ‘true happiness’ is the cessation of sakkāya (pañcupādānakkhandha).” That is the insight ‘seen’ by the Noble Ones who comprehend the whole world (sabba loka), which is the pañcupādānakkhandha.” As we have discussed, by “loka,” the Buddha referred to the pañcupādānakkhandha. With the cessation of avijjā (or the ten samyojana), the ‘whole world’ filled with suffering ends!
- True happiness is to stop even a trace of suffering! In this world, a little happiness comes with much suffering. A given ‘lifestream’ spends much more time in the apayas, compared to rare rebirths in the realms at or above the human realm.
- Furthermore, any ‘happiness’ is really a ‘(distorted/viparita) saññā‘ generated via Paṭicca Samuppāda. This takes an effort to understand. We have discussed this for over two years now. That is the ‘essence of the Buddha’s teachings.” Seeing that with wisdom (dhamma cakkhu) is the critical step of “passato” in jānato/passato.” See “‘Jānato Passato’ and Ājāniya – Critical Words to Remember.”
I’m glad to hear that you’ve accepted a job offer. Focusing on that will help calm the mind. These issues are inevitable in life. The Buddha referred to them as “aṭṭha lokadhamma” or “eight worldly conditions:” Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain. All of them are inevitable as we go through life. See “Paṭhamalokadhamma Sutta (AN 8.5).”
- We just have to deal with them as they come up. Nibbana is the only long-term solution.
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Taryal is probably going through a rough time, Christian. We should be empathetic to his situation. Additionally, he is a young person with limited life experience. I should have also paid more attention to that.
After posting it, I wondered whether my comments were ‘too harsh.’ I don’t even know whether you wanted to be a Sotapanna. Your concern was probably about finding that person with whom you had a ‘genuine interaction.’ You are also worried about your job situation. My comment was very narrowly focused; I am not qualified to offer advice on mundane issues.
- So, don’t even worry about replying to my previous post. I hope your mundane issues will get resolved, especially the job situation. Of course, we must be concerned about those mundane things. It is essential to resolve those issues first. Insight meditation requires a ‘settled mind.’
- However, I hope my comments could be beneficial for at least some others.
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OK. That is kind of what I expected. I think most of those who read my website probably would say the same.
1. You wrote at the end of your first post: “If I deserve strong criticism, please don’t hesitate. This kid needs to learn and move forward.”
- The following is not a criticism, but rather my honest evaluation based on your posts, along with a few suggestions.
- Since only a Buddha can determine someone’s ‘status,’ I am not certain whether what I say in #2 is correct. But that is my best guess. I considered not being so direct, but I think it could be useful for many to gauge their ‘status.’
2. My evaluation was based on the following two observations: (i) Your main issue is “Anxiety and Panic attacks after 2 years” and (ii) At the beginning of your first post, you wrote “2 years ago … I saw a video by Daily Stoic’s Ryan Holiday on “memento mori”.
- Regarding (i): a Sotapanna would not get panic attacks.
- Regarding (ii): I have not studied Stoicism. But I find the following description in “What Is a Stoic Person?” to be revealing of its philosophy: “Stoics thought that, in order to be happy, we must learn to distinguish between what we can control and what we cannot. Those things in our life that we can control, we should try to steer towards their best outcomes for all. Those that we cannot control, we must learn to accept.”
- I am not sure when you looked into Stoicism. If it was after you “started practicing Dhamma,” that means you were still not certain about Buddha’s teachings. This is not an admonition not to look into other teachings, but one of the characteristics of a Sotapanna is that they have “unbreakable confidence in Buddha’s teachings.” Additionally, regarding the highlighted section in the above quote: With the Buddha’s teachings, we can achieve “total control.”
3. Based on your post in response to my request, I would say that you are at the ‘jānato‘ stage. That means you have “received enough information” about Buddha’s teachings to be able to get to the Sotapanna stage. But to get to the Sotapanna stage, one must have also gone through the ‘passato‘ stage, where one has “seen with wisdom’ the implications of what one learned. See “‘Jānato Passato’ and Ājāniya – Critical Words to Remember.”
- Now, to some suggestions.
4. The most critical stage is to reach the Sotapanna stage. The Buddha said that one would have overcome 99% or more of all future suffering at that point. If all future suffering of a puthujjana is compared to the size of the Earth, the amount of suffering left for a Sotapanna is the size of a pebble (small stone).
- That is because most of the strong/potent kamma are done with wrong views or ‘miccha ditthi.’ In particular, all apayagami kamma (those that can bring rebirth in an apaya) are done with miccha ditthi.
- Thus, the most critical step in following Buddha’s teachings is to first remove the ten types of miccha ditthi (which includes not believing in rebirth and not believing that kamma can (not deterministic, but could) have their corresponding vipaka or results), and then to remove the deeper wrong views/miccha ditthi that ‘sensual pleasures in kama loka‘, ‘jhanic pleasures ‘, or ‘arupa samapatti pleasures’ are beneficial and can lead to overcoming suffering.
- Most people have removed the ten types of miccha ditthi. Removing deeply ingrained ‘deeper wrong views‘ requires more effort. After all, one would have removed 99% or more of all future suffering at that point.
5. I think a major obstacle in that second phase is to focus on the anicca nature of external objects (one’s possessions and even one’s physical body) and not to focus on the anicca nature of ‘mental constructs’ that arise in the mind based on those external things.
- There are over 50 suttas in the ‘Vacchagottavagga‘ of ‘Saṁyutta Nikāya 33′ that address the issue of deeper miccha ditthi. In all these suttas, Vacchagotta asks the Buddha the same question: “What is the cause, what is the reason for these various misconceptions (diṭṭhi) to arise?”
- In all those suttas, the Buddha’s answer is the same: “it is because of not knowing each component of the pañca upādānakkhandha, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.”
- As we know, those five components are rupa upādānakkhandha through viññāṇa upādānakkhandha. In the suttas, these are abbreviated as rupa through viññāṇa (rupa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa).
- It is obvious that vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa arise in one’s mind. But many people consider rupa to be ‘external objects.’ That leads to serious misconceptions. Here, rupa refers to “the mental image that arises in one’s mind based on an external rupa.” That mental image is based on one’s experience of previous rupa and thus is rupa upādānakkhandha. The ‘upādāna‘ part comes because one’s wrong view that they are ‘real and can be beneficial’.
- See “Rupa, Vedanā, Saññā, Saṅkhāra, Viññāṇa – Mostly Misunderstood.”
6. Let us consider the first of the 50-plus suttas mentioned above.
- In the “Rūpaaññāṇa Sutta (SN 33.1),” Vacchagotta asks the Buddha the question: “What is the cause, what is the reason for these various misconceptions (diṭṭhi) to arise?”
- At marker 1.6, the Buddha answers: “Vaccha, it is because of not knowing rupa, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.” (The four subsequent suttas in the series repeat the verse for vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa. The rest of the suttas in the series describe various other related aspects.)
- As we discussed above, rupa does not refer to ‘external rupa,’ but the one that arises in one’s mind based on an external rupa.
- An ‘external rupa‘ can be a sight, sound, taste, smell, or a ‘body touch.’ Let us consider a sight (also called rupa for ‘rupa rupa’ or ‘vanna rupa’ to distinguish from other types). The Buddha has explained that the attachment to a sight (rupa) is experienced in two steps: rupa paṭisaṁvedī, immediately followed by “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” for those who have not eliminated kama raga samyojana. However, that second step does not occur for an Arahant or an Anagami who has eliminated kama raga samyojana.
- If one can fully understand this, that is one way to become a Sotapanna. See, “Sandiṭṭhiko – What Does It Mean?“
7. The reason that one may attach to a certain ‘external rupa‘ with greed for anyone born a human (puthujjana or Arahant) is the following: That ‘external rupa‘ leads to the creation of an “appealing version of it” in the mind of anyone born a human. The human body and the external world are both “designed via Paticca Samuppada” to provide a “kama sanna” that triggers a “sukha feeling.”
- The mind of a puthujjana will automatically attach to that ‘mind-made rupa‘ with the ‘subha/kama sanna‘ (rupa paṭisaṁvedī, immediately followed by “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī”). That is the very beginning of a series of attachment steps that may lead to the accumulation of potent kamma. That is why the initial stage is called “purana kamma‘ meaning ‘the initial kamma accumulation stage.’ If further attachment in subsequent steps occurs, it leads to the ‘nava kamma‘ stage, where potent, new kamma is accumulated. There are many posts on the website on this issue; see, for example, “Purāna and Nava Kamma – Sequence of Kamma Generation .”
- On the other hand, only the rupa paṭisaṁvedī step occurs for an Arahant or an Anāgāmi who has eliminated kāma rāga samyojana. They still feel the ‘sukha vedana‘ due to the “kama sanna,” but their minds do not undergo the “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” step.
- Now, a Sotapanna has ‘seen with wisdom’ (with dhamma cakkhu) this process. Thus, they have removed the wrong view that those ‘kama sanna’ are ‘real and can be beneficial’. That has led to the removal of the three ‘ditthi samyojana‘ (sakkaya ditthi, vicikiccha, silabbata paramasa). However, since they have not removed the kama raga samyojana, their minds will still become attached and undergo the “rūpa rāga paṭisaṁvedī” step. Still, they are attached with three fewer samyojana than a puthujjana, and that is why those attachment do not lead to ‘apayagami kamma.’
- See, for example, “Sotapanna Stage from Kāma Loka.”
8. Also see “Avijjā is Triggered by Kāma Saññā in Kāma Loka” and other recent posts in “New / Revised Posts.”
- One cannot hope to eliminate “99% or more of all future suffering” by just casually reading a few posts. One must make a serious effort! I am not saying this to anyone specifically; it is the truth. Think about how much time a person spends getting a good education. That will hold only for this lifetime. Reaching the Sotapanna stage is for an eternity!
9. Please feel free to ask questions to clarify any issues that may not have been addressed. It is impossible to do that in a single post. But I thought some of you could benefit from the above summary. The key is to ask questions to clarify any ‘difficult issues.’ I may write a hundred posts without addressing them, because I’m unsure how much of what I write people understand.
I read Taryal’s post carefully and would like to ask him some questions. Please feel free to reply to only those you feel comfortable answering.
1. What do you mean when you say, “Long story short, I became a Dhamma practitioner and I am happy to say that so much of my mental vexations naturally went away.” Briefly explain (only if you feel comfortable) what the ‘practice’ means.
2. Do you believe in rebirth? How much do you understand about concepts like the anicca nature and Paticca Samuppada?
- Have you read the post “What Reincarnates? – Concept of a Lifestream“?
- Have you read my posts on (distorted) saññā? If so, what do you think are the major implications of it?
3. Regardless of whether you answer those or to what extent, I can make some general comments. My questions are designed to gauge your level of understanding, so that I MAY BE able to provide some specific suggestions. I know that you are a well-educated and intelligent young person. But those are different from “understanding of Buddha’s teachings.” Please take your time to respond.
