retrofuturist wrote:Greetings Tilt,
tiltbillings wrote:What is interesting is that an not yet dead arahnt's khandhas obviously function.
The perception of khandas is itself the delusion perpetuated by sankharas, which are perpetuated by avijja, Tilt. That is what the sutta above tells you, and I what I have been unsuccessfully trying to tell you throughout this correspondence.
Goodness. First of all the khandhas are a way of talking about experience. No need to take them as things or some sort of absolutes, and the delusion is taking them as self-referential things. The point of practice is seeing just that; however, that does not mean that the idea of "khandhas" cannot be useful tool in getting at what is going on in one's experience. Obviously the Buddha thought so.
For you to say, "a not yet dead arahnt's khandhas obviously function" means that you obviously do not see khandas as formations, formed by avijja.
What is formed by ignorance is the misapprehension of a tool as being something other what it is.
Now, I will quote you something from another author (whose name shall not be mentioned, lest it give rise to aversion and non-receptivity), which provides some clarity on why I think your insistence on measuring arahants in terms of khandas is (beyond even the suttas quoted so far) misguided.
I am not saying anything beyond the suttas, and you have not shown that I have. So don't make such accusations.
"One discerns that 'If I were to direct equanimity as pure & bright as this towards the dimension of the infinitude of space and to develop the mind along those lines, that would be fabricated. One discerns that 'If I were to direct equanimity as pure and bright as this towards the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness... the dimension of nothingness... the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception and to develop the mind along those lines, that would be fabricated.' One neither fabricates nor mentally fashions for the sake of becoming or un-becoming. This being the case, one is not sustained by anything in the world (does not cling to anything in the world). Unsustained, one is not agitated. Unagitated, one is totally unbound right within. One discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'
"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, one discerns that it is fleeting, not grasped at, not relished. Sensing a feeling of pain... Sensing a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, one discerns that it is fleeting, not grasped at, not relished. Sensing a feeling of pleasure, one senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of pain... Sensing a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, one senses it disjoined from it. When sensing a feeling limited to the body, one discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to the body.' When sensing a feeling limited to life, one discerns that 'I am sensing a feeling limited to life.' One discerns that 'With the break-up of the body, after the termination of life, all that is sensed, not being relished, will grow cold right here.'"— -- MN 140
And here is the tool in play as a way of talking about what is going on with one's experience from an awakened point of view up to the point of death, using khandha talk. There are many ways of talking about these things, but when there is talk about cessation, it certainly cannot mean a literal cessation of anything other than a cessation of the
upādānakkhandhas colored by greed, hatred and delusion. Obviously for the living arahant what we might call the khandhas as a way of talking about experience are still in play, but there is no further putting together based upon greed, hatred, and delusion, which could be characterized as as a cessation of the
upādānakkhandha.