Thanks for your reply.
Ñāṇa wrote:
I was just paraphrasing the professor's own words. Karunadasa's The Dhamma Theory: Philosophical Cornerstone of the Abhidhamma:
As I remember, the way professor's work is structured is that he presents one bit of material and then draws a conclusion, then presents another bit of material and modifies the conclusion accordingly, etc, so the entire work needs to be considered, not just bits and pieces. As I remember from previous discussions, different people interpret differently what the professor says overall, and then there's the new edition which is supposedly even less in favor of realism... In terms of more bits and pieces though - tilt collects some interesting ones in this thread that seems relevant to some extent, though I suspect you're probably familiar with most of the quotes there:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 99#p111695" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Ñāṇa wrote:He goes on to say that "a dhamma is a truly existent thing (sabhāvasiddha)." This is a completely realist view.
Of course, I can say here - "No, it isn't." - but that won't get us far in terms of a constructive discussion, so I am kind of hoping that you can give a bit more, er, substantial (sorry couldn't find a better word here) explanation regarding realism in the face of conditionality. You do mention the consequence below, but I'm really interested in your reasoning that describes the actual cause that leads to the consequence I guess.
Ñāṇa wrote:And the inevitable consequence entailed by this realist view, wherein all conditioned dhammas are "truly existing things," is that path cognitions and fruition cognitions of each of the four paths and fruits must occur within an utterly void vacuum state cessation, which is considered to be the ultimately existent "unconditioned."
Hm, not sure what you mean by the "vacuum" thing. As I remember, during stream-entry, nibbana is said to be the object of consciousness and accompanying mental factors such as mindfulness, wisdom, etc. I don't quite understand how does that relate to a "vacuum state cessation"? Perhaps you could elaborate a bit? Thanks.
Ñāṇa wrote:This is described by Jack Kornfield:
In Mahasi’s model, enlightenment—or at least stream-entry, the first taste of nirvana—comes in the form of a cessation of experience, arising out of the deepest state of concentration and attention, when the body and mind are dissolved, the experience of the ordinary senses ceases, and we rest in perfect equanimity. We open into that which is unconditioned, timeless, and liberating: nirvana.... But there are a lot of questions around this kind of moment. Sometimes it seems to have enormously transformative effects on people. Other times people have this moment of experience and aren’t really changed by it at all. Sometimes they’re not even sure what happened.
This notion of path and fruition cognitions is not supported by the Pāli canon. Moreover, there are now numerous people who've had such experiences sanctioned by "insight meditation" teachers, and who have gone on to proclaim to the world that arahants can still experience lust and the other defiled mental phenomena. Taking all of this into account there is no good reason whatsoever to accept this interpretation of path and fruition cognitions. Void vacuum state cessations are not an adequate nor reliable indication of stream entry or any of the other paths and fruitions.
Well, this is sounding like "my teacher is better than yours", and even though I'm not a Mahasi student, there are some here who are, so I'd propose not to take the discussion in this direction, there's plenty already that we can discuss above.
Best wishes