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@Johnny:
Kalala – first cell (zygote) with gadhabba; see, “What does Buddha Dhamma (Buddhism) say about Birth Control?“.
Abbuda – fetus in the second week after conception
Pesi – fetus in the third stage
Ghana – fourth and final stageOf course, the Buddha knew all these well-before modern science.
Scientists still do not know how “life” comes to the zygote that is formed by the fertilization of an egg by a sperm. Until a gandhabba takes hold of the zygote, there is no life there.
There is a nice Pali-English dictionary that has many of those words above:
“Concise Pali-English Dictionary by A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera”
This is a better dictionary than most I have come across.Inflib asked, “What is vatthu kama?”.
It means cravings to own material things that provide sense pleasures. “Vatthu” means basically “one’s property”.
For example, going to an art gallery and looking at famous paintings is not enough. One with vatthu kama for paintings would like to own such paintings.
When one gets to the Sakadagami stage, one would lose vatthu kama, but one still likes to enjoy sense pleasures. So, one may not desire to own paintings in the above case, but one still likes to look at them and enjoy them. That desire or craving is also lost when one gets to the Anagami stage.
You can apply it to anything that provide sense pleasure.
Hi Johnny:
Yes. Laws of kamma are too complex to be sorted out. We can only see the general trends.Johnny said, “ Could Einstein’s work explain how the Buddha, His great disciples, and the Brahmas, astral-travelled from one place to another in less than the time taken for a strong man to flex his arm? This knowledge just does not lie in our domain of conventional wisdom. Light is simply too slow for Brahma to reach earth.”
1. Gravity and QM work in two separate domains. Gravity takes time (at the speed of light), while QM effects are instantaneous.
– In other words, if the Sun moves off its track, it will take several minutes for the Earth (us) to feel the effects of that; that is because gravity travel at the speed of light.
– However, if we have two entangles quantum particles, and if we disturb one on the Earth, the other one will feel that instantaneously even if it is located at the other end of the universe.
– These are accepted facts by science today.2. Dhamma (which include kamma beeja) in the mind plane (in “mananca paticca dhammeca uppadati mano vinnanam”) come instantaneously to our minds. Also, trija kaya of brahmas (and of gandhabbas) is smaller than an electron or a photon and thus obey quantum rules of instantaneous interactions.
– However, electrons and photons have finite speeds.
– I cannot discuss details yet, but it is the “instantaneous application of quantum rules” that makes it possible for brahmas and gandhabbas to travel “instantaneously”. So, that is the basic idea.Yes, Johnny. Quantum mechanics (QM) is actually simple.
The problem today is that QM has been “overtaken” by mathematics. Most physicists today just use the Schrodinger’s equation and calculate outcomes of experiments. They do not understand the underlying physics. It is like faithfully following a recipe to make a cake; it works. The underlying physics and philosophical issues remain unanswered. This is why QM is treated as “mysterious” today.
Richard Feynman died in 1988. Most of the key experiments on quantum entanglement (that clearly show the nonlocality of Nature, which is the basis of our new interpretation) were conducted after that and the final confirmation came in 2015. Professor Feynman would have of course made the connection well before 2015 if he was alive. I am amazed that no one has been able to figure it out so far. Even when we submitted the paper, those reviewers could not understand; they apparently do not “get the basics”. The advantage of the website is that I can explain things in more detail here.
With this section, an undergraduate physics student, or even a good high schooler, should be able to understand QM. One needs to know things like vector addition and the concept of phase angle. If you know anyone who is interested in understanding QM, please ask them to study this section. If they can understand the posts there right now, they should not have problem in understanding the upcoming posts.
By the way, I came up with this interpretation because I have been thinking about the connection between quantum entanglement and the laws of kamma for a while.
Having a separate space for meditation can be helpful for many people. It is just to setup the “right background”.
People’s gati can be in one or more of the following five:
The five mental faculties (indriya) are saddha (faith), viriya (effort), sati (mindfulness), samadhi (concentration), and panna (wisdom); see, “Panca Indriya and Panca Bala – Five Faculties and Five Powers“.Each person has one dominant and others to varying degrees. I would say having a meditation space could be really beneficial to those with dominant saddha the most.
Here is another possibly useful post that I just found on the web:”Create A Meditation Space in Your Home“.
Johnny said: “Do hormonal changes affect consciousness, or the other way round, or both support each other?”
We can look at it this way: Can the body affect the mind and/or can the mind affect the body? It is both, but the power of the mind is much more dramatic.
The body can affect the mind in the sense if one does not take care of the body, one can get obese and face health problems. That will affect the mind, even for a person who is trying to make progress in the Path. So, we must exercise and eat well to stay healthy. Furthermore, the body (especially the brain) naturally degrades as one gets old, so one must strive on the Path before getting old.
When one makes progress on the Path, one starts realizing the above and will act appropriately. Learning Dhamma and contemplating on deeper concepts will help brain function too. Furthermore, when one attains magga phala, one’s brain will definitely undergo drastic changes. It would be interesting if there is an study on one’s brain (and body) as one go through higher stages of magga phala.
For example, an Arahant’s bones (at least some) will crystalised and become “dhatu”, that will last until the end of this Buddha Sasana. I discussed this briefly and have pictures of dhatu in the post: “Parinibbāna of Waharaka Thēro“. Furthermore, an Arahant is not afraid to die (fear of death is there because one has so many things in the world that one values). So, there will be dramatic changes in the hormonal system.
More information at, “Truine Brain: How the Mind Rewires the Brain via Meditation/Habits“.
For those who may not have read that post: What are assāda, ādīnava, and nissarana?
– In simple terms, assāda means enjoyment of a sense object, in this case taste of cupcakes.
– Ādīnava means (especially) the long-term bad outcomes of that activity, in this case obesity and health problems in a mundane sense.
– Nissarana is the result. In this case losing craving for cup cakes.So, the steps that Donna (inflib) described are likely to be involved in the ādīnava stage (trying to get rid of the bad habit). As one slowly gets rid of the bad habit, nissarana stage starts and one starts feeling the niramisa sukha.
Of course, it can be applied to getting rid of worse types of cravings too.
If one can have the determination to persevere and get rid of the habit, that is when the niramisa sukha is optimized. One does not have that burden in the mind anymore.
By the way, scientists are only beginning to discover the power of the human mind.
I am glad that Embodied asked this question. I found that bullet #12 of that post had an error that went without catching my eye since it was originally written probably in 2014. I just revised it. Scientists have it wrong with the “Big Bang theory”.
Regarding the questions:
a) “STILL IF A HUMAN HAS GOOD KAMMA SEEDS HE SHOULD REBORN AS HUMAN, NOT AS AN ANIMAL ?”
Not necessarily. We all have innumerable good and bad kamma seeds.
– It depends on which kamma seed is most potent: a good kamma seed leading to a human birth or a bad kamma seed leading to an animal birth.
– Also, good kamma seeds have many varieties: human, deva, brahma, etc and an innumerable varieties within those. For example, a human can be born healthy, handicapped, rich, poor, etc.
– Similarly, bad kamma seeds have many main varieties: animal, preta, vinipata asura, niraya beings, etc, and an innumerable varieties within those.
And each person may have innumerable kamma seeds both good and bad. Which one comes to the front depends on many factors. This is why the Buddha said kamma is one of those things that can never be fully grasped by anyone other than a Buddha.
– But the important fact is that if one is a Sotapanna, no bad kamma seed leading to a birth in lower realms will not be effective. In effect, they lose potency when one attains the Sotapanna stage.b) There no traceable “beginning” to the pancakkhandha. We have to remember that each living being (whether human, deva, preta, any animal including amoeba) has its own pancakkhandha. Pancakkhandha is infinite for a given living being. Panca upadanakkhandha is a tiny, tiny fraction of it.
@Embodied: Your question is not clear.
Satipatthana is simply being aware of whether defiled or unwise thoughts are arising, and to stop them.
If good thoughts arise one should cultivate those; this part involves cultivating panna.
By the way, what needs to be done is closely associated with the satara Sammappadhäna, which is conventionally translated as “Four Supreme Efforts”, in the 37 Factors of Enlightenment:
1. Prevent immoral qualities that have not yet arisen from arising.
2. Abandon immoral qualities that have arisen.
3. Maintain and cultivate moral qualities that have arisen.
4. Initiate moral qualities that have not yet arisen.See, “Two Versions of 37 Factors of Enlightenment“.
As always, dasa akusala are the measuring stick. Of course, cultivating wisdom (panna) also involves learning Dhamma concepts like Tilakkhana is included.
So, the only skill needed is determination and knowledge.
That is true. But all these can also be thought of as how one responds to a given situation based on one’s gati. However, the situation can change one’s gati, if one does not have a “solid set of morals”.
This is true even outside the practice.
For example, when two people get married, they will both HAVE TO change their gati to some extent to accommodate the other person. At least, in successful marriages it happens.
But if one develops “moral gati” that will help in any of those cases you mentioned. For example, in the first example of the couple, if they learn Dhamma and have that common and good focus that will be an added benefit, because not only will they common gati, but they will be ‘moral gati“.
In other words, two people with bad moral getting together and starting dealing drugs, they will both end up in a bad situation eventually.
So, there are many ways to think about this. You are right. These are the “real meditation topics”. But one thing is certain: A person with a “solid, unshakable, set of morals” can change gati of those around him/her, and thus change their nibbatti lakkhana!
Yes. That is true.
Nibbatti lakkhana is basically the blueprint for the building up of any sankata. One is born with a blueprint, but IT CAN BE CHANGED.
As Johnny said, it can be changed by changing one’s gati. This works not only for one’s own body (part of the rupakkhandha or the matter aggregate), but also for one’s thoughts (which have the other four mental kandhas). This is a good meditation topic and one can get deeper into the subject.
Just take one’s body. Even though one will not be able to change the basic features like skin color, height, etc, one will be definitely able to change one’s health, including the brain function (and avoid diseases like Alzeimer’s). I know this by experience. Even though it is hard to get rid of my back problems (I always think about the fact that the Buddha himself had back problems; so such bad vipaka are definitely hard for us to avoid), I am in better condition than I was even 15 20 years ago. I used to take sleeping pills (not strong ones, just mild ones) when I was working. I have not taken one for many years now. I hardly get a headache or flu even though I have never taken a “flu shot”. These are small things, but they make a big difference in one’s state of mind and well being.
Even mental aggregates, one should be able to see the difference after starting on the Path for a few months. You don’t react to things the same way. Your life becomes much more simple, and less burdened.
Each thought is a sankata. A thought arises due to an external stimulus, and those initial thoughts (mano sankhara) depend TOTALLY on one’s gati. And the way to change one’s gati is to change one’s vaci sankhara (especially the part of talking to oneself) just after realizing what those initial and automatic mano sankhara are. I have discussed this in several recent posts. This is the basis of Anapana and Satipatthana meditation.
@Inflib: I just revised that post to add the following:
“In the rebirth process, we all have been born a man and a woman innumerable times. If I remember correctly, the Bodhisatva was a woman when she started cultivating paramita to becomes Buddha. But at some point (probably after getting niyata vivarana), he had been a male.
There is a slight difference between male and female. That may not be politically correct to say these days, but that is the reality. One is a man or a woman because one has cultivated the corresponding gati. No matter how many laws are passed, the military is always going to be dominated by men, for example.”
By the way, what I wrote about Ven. Sarputta missing a prediction about who was going to win a war under a another topic, that incident is also mentioned in this post.
Inflib said: “So, the energy is more dense (vaci sankhara rupa) as opposed to mano sankhara that come unconsciously.” AND
“For example, I look at the card and say “four” in my head, in an instant she tells me it’s a “four”. On the other hand, if I just look at the card w/o speaking it in my head, she doesn’t know.”That makes sense. When you consciously think “it is a “four”, that makes it a vaci sankhara, versus just seeing that it is a “four” which is a mano sankhara.
Regarding y not‘s question: “What of future events?”. Some people do get premonitions (strong feelings) of what is about to happen in the future. That may or may not turn out to be correct. However, for some, chances of “getting it right” are higher.
Unless it is a “niyata vivarana” that a Buddha gives to a Bodhisatva, no future event can be predicted with certainty.
For example, once there was going to be a war between two factions (say X and Y). Bhikkhus asked Ven. Sariputta who was going to win the war, and some months later his prediction (X) turned out to be wrong. The bhikkhus went to the Buddha and asked why Ven. Sariputta could not get it right. The Buddha said that Ven. Sariputta was right at THAT TIME, that X were going to win the war based on the conditions at THAT TIME. But since then conditions changed.
@Embodied:
Question 1: Yes.Question 2: “there’s a lot of people refusing to do immoral things to gain sense pleasures, does that make them Sotapannas or on the way to become it?”
This is tricky. Of course most people would not like to do such immoral things.
However, if one has not not attained Sotapanna stage, one MAY make a “bad decision” IF the temptation is HIGH.We all have heard about “good citizens” being charged for rape and murder especially. Even if they thought they had “things under control”, they apparently did not.
These decisions are not CONSCIOUS under such stressful conditions. Split-second decisions are based on one’s gati. So, unless one had truly removed “apayagami gati“, such things are possible to happen.
It is always a struggle in the mind between picking between a sense pleasure and (possible) bad consequences. The perceived value of sense pleasures decrease and the fear of bad consequences increase as one starts comprehending Tilakkhana. At some point a definite boundary is placed where one’s mind will NOT make a bad decision, no matter how tempting the sense pleasure is.
