Re: Is Theravada "Realist"?
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:13 pm
Greetings SDC,
It does to me - well said.
Metta,
Retro.
It does to me - well said.
Metta,
Retro.
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SDC wrote:
I think this is just another breakdown of experience in order for it to be observed and understood properly in separate, specific ways. I don't see that it is confirming an objective reality.
If you or I believe in matter existing "outside of experience", we are believing in the validity of a concept (that we constructed) which represents all other possible concepts that we believe could eventually be formed. But since it is explicitly something "outside of experience" it will never be experienced, because once observed it would cease to "outside". It will not fit the criteria for that concept of matter "outside of experience". Defining it strictly as "outside experience" doesn't allow it to ever be anything, but a fantasy.
I think that makes sense.
SDC wrote: I think this is just another breakdown of experience in order for it to be observed and understood properly in separate, specific ways. I don't see that it is confirming an objective reality.
If you or I believe in matter existing "outside of experience", we are believing in the validity of a concept (that we constructed) which represents all other possible concepts that we believe could eventually be formed. But since it is explicitly something "outside of experience" it will never be experienced, because once observed it would cease to "outside". It will not fit the criteria for that concept of matter "outside of experience". Defining it strictly as "outside experience" doesn't allow it to ever be anything, but a fantasy.
I think that makes sense.
Right. If a person drinks a tea that one thinks is healthy but is poisoned in reality, that person will still get poisoned. If one puts salt into one's tea thinking that one is putting sugar will still make the tea salty regardless of one's beliefs in what one is experiencing. Such kind of examples are many.santa100 wrote:At least some level of "realism" will be needed to make sense of conventional phenomena. Else, our houses would cease to exist when we're sleeping or lost consciousness. Viruses and bacterias would never exist before the invention of the microscope. Neither did stars and galaxies before the invention of the telescope, etc...
If this were so how could there ever be liberation from dukkha? It would be utterly impossible.Alex123 wrote:My understanding is that phenomena are anicca, dukkha and anatta regardless of whether one knows about it or believes in wrong views (nicca, sukha, atta).
At first I thought I understood this and then I realized I didn't....can you explain this a bit more. For instance...are you saying that the Buddha's teachings are metaphysics....or that some of them are and some are not? Are you saying that there is a realm where the Buddha's teachings do not apply? Can you give an examaple of "going into metaphysics beyond useful and pragmatic limit"?Alex123 wrote: Of course I don't think that one should go into metaphysics beyond useful and pragmatic limit, but the reality independent of mind should not be totally denied.
One of the more peculiar aspects of Buddhism is that if I hit you with my fist for example your pain is not due to my fists hitting you but due to your own karma. Also being hit-by-a-fist is of course no reality but your different streams of consciousness reflect different rupas one after another based on inversions of your own past intentions and those are then interpreted by you to be "fists that hit me".retrofuturist wrote:Greetings,
Friends, is Theravada Realist? If so, in what form?
To start with, here's a definition from our friends at Wikipedia...
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Realism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.
Of course I don't think that one should go into metaphysics beyond useful and pragmatic limit, but the reality independent of mind should not be totally denied.
If one takes the view that the 3 characteristics are inherent properties of conditioned existence, then logically liberation from dukkha would require liberation from conditioned existence.TMingyur wrote:If this were so how could there ever be liberation from dukkha? It would be utterly impossible.Alex123 wrote:My understanding is that phenomena are anicca, dukkha and anatta regardless of whether one knows about it or believes in wrong views (nicca, sukha, atta).
Kind regards
That isn't the impression given in the first 2 verses of the Dhammapada.Alex123 wrote: Since consciousness is not the first cause, it doesn't determines The Truth.
So are you suggesting a difference between dukkha as a characteristic which is experienced, and anicca and anatta as characteristics which somehow exist outside of experience?Alex123 wrote:Phenomena are anicca and anatta regardless of whether there is perception of it or not.
I think that we must accept the possibility that this is the case and then we should look to see if it is present in our own experience. Once again, if we accept it as something happening "regardless", then we run the risk of trapping that concept in obscurity.Alex123 wrote:My understanding is that phenomena are anicca, dukkha and anatta regardless of whether one knows about it or believes in wrong views (nicca, sukha, atta). Phenomena are anicca and anatta regardless of whether there is perception of it or not.
Well yes, but conditioned existence is conditioned and not unconditioned as Alex123 seems to imply.Spiny O'Norman wrote:If one takes the view that the 3 characteristics are inherent properties of conditioned existence, then logically liberation from dukkha would require liberation from conditioned existence.TMingyur wrote:If this were so how could there ever be liberation from dukkha? It would be utterly impossible.Alex123 wrote:My understanding is that phenomena are anicca, dukkha and anatta regardless of whether one knows about it or believes in wrong views (nicca, sukha, atta).
Kind regards
Spiny