"The Buddha as Biologist?"

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
Post Reply
User avatar
Sam Vara
Site Admin
Posts: 13482
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:42 pm
Location: Portsmouth, U.K.

"The Buddha as Biologist?"

Post by Sam Vara »

Another essay from Bhikkhu Cintita Dinsmore, building on his earlier themes:

https://bhikkhucintita.files.wordpress. ... logist.pdf

He deals again with Dhammanupassana, tackling the problem of the difference between a "lightweight" (i.e. contingent and dependent) conception of consciousness described in the here-and-now, and the "heavyweight" (i.e. kamma-bearing and transmigrating) version. He also elaborates more on his extremely interesting and subtle conception of khandas:
The five aggregates categories of aggregates represent different
facets of the world of increasing depth or abstractness; we can
think of these as building up layers of physical reality, unfolding
progressively, starting with colors and shapes, then affective
tones, then things and qualities, then structural relations among
things and finally complex configurations of things and relations,
as they arise in our experience interdependently. The categories
are not discrete, but rather roughly nested, with consciousness at
one end encompassing the four other aggregates, etc. This nesting
is evident in our meditation, since, as our stillness sets in, the special
qualities of consciousness, in all their complexity, will be the
first to disappear, followed by the composite qualities of the formations,
the perception of things and so on.
Post Reply