Re: Meditation, conditionality, and anatta
Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:35 am
While all that is true that if I act badly that bad action has an unwholesome root, but in the real world what grouping of conditions is solely one thing or another, solely unwholesome or wholesome? There is a reason we do certain practices to cultivate wholesome roots and to attenuate the unwholesome. It is gounded in choice.Alex123 wrote:But the sutta state that they come due to present roots, the required causes for action. If there is unwholesome root, then action will only be unwholesome. If there is wholesome root, then the action can only be wholesome. The wholesome action to "plant the causes for more wholesome roots in the future" depends on wholesome roots.tiltbillings wrote: Wholesome and unwholse actions do come about because of choice, kamma. Where else would they come from?
Then you are saying there is not a thing we can do to alter our conditioning, which makes the Buddha a liar, but fortunately the Buddha taught us that we can, indeed, alter our conditioning and that choice - kamma - is very much part of what we are and it is the tool we use.The idea that this strict conditionality can be bypassed through choice or will or whatever, just adds to the Self View, it just adds more delusion, and makes liberation be further away.