detrop wrote:to say that experience takes place "within the brain" doesn't sound right to me. Firstly, the experience of "other" people cannot be found at all, neither in their brains or elsewhere. Secondly, "my own" experience doesn't appear as "something" that is contained "within" another "thing", be it a brain or anything else.
Didn't sound quite right to me either. Good point.
ancientbuddhism wrote:“Thus he abides observing the body (…sensations … mind … mind-states) internally … externally (ajjhattaṃ vā … bahiddhā vā).”
Also from the Satipatthana Sutta:
"Furthermore, the monk remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media (ajjhattikabāhiresu āyatanesu). And how does he remain focused on mental qualities in & of themselves with reference to the sixfold internal & external sense media? There is the case where he discerns the eye, he discerns forms, he discerns the fetter that arises dependent on both. He discerns how there is the arising of an unarisen fetter. And he discerns how there is the abandoning of a fetter once it has arisen. And he discerns how there is no future arising of a fetter that has been abandoned. (The same formula is repeated for the remaining sense media: ear, nose, tongue, body, & intellect.)