On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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mikenz66
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by mikenz66 »

binocular wrote: Does anyone here think that the above is a form of solipsism?
To me the same comment applies to 'the world' in that discussion as kirk applies to SN 35.23 over here:
http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 00#p251389
kirk5a wrote:Hm. I think people who love to quote SN 35.23 really need to read all "the all" suttas to be in line with what is being conveyed there. That would be SN 35.23 through 35.52. SN 35.23 does not stand alone as some kind of philosophical/metaphysical trump card. That simply establishes the scope of what the Buddha is talking about in the following suttas. The emphasis is on abandoning the all, understanding the all, experiencing revulsion and dispassion for the all, uprooting all conceivings.... for the sake of ending suffering, the liberation of the mind by non-clinging.
:anjali:
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tiltbillings
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by tiltbillings »

binocular wrote: Does anyone here think that the above is a form of solipsism?
That would be so, assuming that the Buddha was doing a Western style descriptive philosophy, which he did not. The quote in question is not making a descriptive comment on reality. It is making a comment on soteriology/epistemology, what is necessary to know for awakening.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Gaoxing
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

binocular wrote:
chownah wrote:and conversely can you think of any part (or the entirety) of the whole Universe which is not part of your experience?
Another person's privacy - another person's kamma, for example.
This can't be kamma. There is nothing independently arising anywhere. There is no privacy of action. This idea of 'another person's kamma' is central to the WORLD of suffering. A sort of escapism. Even liberation does not arise by itself it's beginning is with the damma which did not arise by itself either.
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Gaoxing
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

binocular wrote:
reflection wrote:I'm not familiar with solipsism, but I said "it's what you have to work with" as a practical advise, not a philosophical point of view.
Solipsism (Listeni/ˈsɒlɨpsɪzəm/; from Latin solus, meaning "alone", and ipse, meaning "self") is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist. As such it is the only epistemological position that, by its own postulate, is both irrefutable and yet indefensible in the same manner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism


Solipsism sometimes arises as an unintended consequence of some lines of reasoning.

tiltbillings wrote:
    • It is in this very fathom-long physical frame with its perceptions and mind, that, I declare, lies the world, and the arising of the world, and the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world.[26] — SN 2.26
    26. The import of this significant declaration can be understood in the context of those suttas in which the Buddha defines the concept of the world. The 'world,' for the Buddha, arises in the six sense-spheres (See above Note 21). Hence its cessation too, is to be experienced there, in the cessation of the six sense-spheres (salaayatananirodha). "I will teach you, monks, how the world comes to be and passes away... What monks, is the arising of the world? Dependent on eye and forms, arises visual consciousness. The concurrence of the three is contact. Conditioned by contact is feeling. Conditioned by feeling, craving. Conditioned by craving, grasping. Conditioned by grasping, becoming. Conditioned by becoming, birth. And conditioned by birth, arise decay, death, grief lamentation, suffering, despair. This is the arising of the world.
    And what, monks, is the passing away of the world? Dependent on the eye and forms arise visual consciousness. The concurrence of the three is contact. Conditioned by contact is feeling. Conditioned by feeling is craving. By the utter fading away and cessation of that craving, grasping ceases, by the ceasing of grasping, becoming ceases, by the ceasing of becoming birth ceases, by the ceasing of birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamentation, suffering, despair, cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire man of Ill.

    This, monks, is the passing away of the world." (Such it is also in the case of the other senses).

    The same sermon is introduced in the preceding sutta with the words: "I will teach you monks, the arising and passing away of suffering..."

    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... tml#fnt-26
Does anyone here think that the above is a form of solipsism?
Nope what is forgotten is what is not spoken about, that which can't be uttered without mind and consciousness. What is uttered and written is conditioned phenomenon. The Buddha never spoke in terms of philosophical issues but handled each situation to its conditioned state skillfully giving what was needed to set in motion the liberation from suffering for that specific situation. In the world but not of the world, so to speak.

In Chinese Mahayana the 'Mind only philosophy" only serves as a tool and not as an answer. In the same way solipsism and any western philosophical idea/concept can serve as a tool to help/assist awakening but can never be the answer.
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by danieLion »

Gaoxing wrote:The Buddha never spoke in terms of philosophical issues....
Never?
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Gaoxing
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

danieLion wrote:
Gaoxing wrote:The Buddha never spoke in terms of philosophical issues....
Never?
Yes. Buddhism is not a philosophy.
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reflection
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by reflection »

Philosophy can also be a practical way of looking at the world. But to argue over this is arguing over vague definitions, not really about Buddhism itself.

Anyway, I came across this sutta:
Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self.
I don't see how this would be a strategy. It's clearly a statement of there being no self in the world, the aggregates.
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by chownah »

binocular wrote:
chownah wrote:and conversely can you think of any part (or the entirety) of the whole Universe which is not part of your experience?
Another person's privacy - another person's kamma, for example.
But of course another person's privacy is part of my experience as well as another person's kamma....this is certain evidence that I still have a doctrine of self which arises from time to time....by this I mean that another person's privacy as part of my experience manifests as a self concept for another person coupled with the idea that that self does something or has something which that person does not want another self to know about so I have indulged in a doctrine of self many times here first for myself and then for the person who has privacy and then for the things to be kept private and additionally I project a doctrine of self onto that private person as evidenced by my assumption that that person thinks that there are other selves from which things must be kept private.
ANYTHING THAT IS NAMED IS EXPERIENTIAL AND EVERYTHING THAT IS NAMED IS EXPERIENTIAL......
......... or do you accept the delusion that all those "things out there" come complete with names as part of their innate makeup? Seems like it would be a lot of baggage for a photon to carry around with itself all of those names in all of those languages from all of those sentient entities throughout the universe(joke).
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binocular
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by binocular »

chownah wrote:But of course another person's privacy is part of my experience as well as another person's kamma....
Then tell me:
What is my favorite color?
What is it like to be me?
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
daimond
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by daimond »

your favorit color must be one from the rainbow color.
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by danieLion »

Gaoxing wrote:
danieLion wrote:
Gaoxing wrote:The Buddha never spoke in terms of philosophical issues....
Never?
Yes. Buddhism is not a philosophy.
That's different from your original statement and it also depends on what you mean by "philosophy."
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by danieLion »

reflection wrote:Philosophy can also be a practical way of looking at the world. But to argue over this is arguing over vague definitions, not really about Buddhism itself.

Anyway, I came across this sutta:
Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, "It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

"Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty. And what is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self? The eye is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self. Forms... Eye-consciousness... Eye-contact is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self.
I don't see how this would be a strategy. It's clearly a statement of there being no self in the world, the aggregates.
No. It is merely a statement of the aggregates as not-self.
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Gaoxing
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

binocular wrote:
chownah wrote:But of course another person's privacy is part of my experience as well as another person's kamma....
Then tell me:
What is my favorite color?
What is it like to be me?
It's a delusion full of suffering.
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Gaoxing
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

danielion wrote:That's different from your original statement and it also depends on what you mean by "philosophy.
Every statement is different. Change is inevitable. With philosophy is meant what the Buddha never did.
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Re: On Thanissaro Bhikkhu's anatta teachings

Post by Gaoxing »

danielion wrote:No. It is merely a statement of the aggregates as not-self.
Correct and that's why there can be no-self. :rofl:
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