Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Discussion of Abhidhamma and related Commentaries
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dhammapal
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Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by dhammapal »

According to my limited understanding of the Abhidhamma, cittas arise and pass away each mind moment which is an extremely short duration of time.

So being stuck in a bad mood means trillions of mistakes per second, the teaching in response to each being Majjhima Nikāya 61, Instructions to Rahula.

Coming back to the breath or any appropriate object can overwhelm the mistakes with trillions of good decisions each second.

So lots of opportunities to learn from one's mistakes.
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by Spiny Norman »

dhammapal wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:53 am According to my limited understanding of the Abhidhamma, cittas arise and pass away each mind moment which is an extremely short duration of time.

So being stuck in a bad mood means trillions of mistakes per second, the teaching in response to each being Majjhima Nikāya 61, Instructions to Rahula.

Coming back to the breath or any appropriate object can overwhelm the mistakes with trillions of good decisions each second.

So lots of opportunities to learn from one's mistakes.
There is no way of noticing trillions of anything per second, and this all sounds very theoretical. Is this what the Abhidhamma actually describes?
IMO the best we can do is notice our present state of mind, and then take appropriate action.
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mikenz66
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by mikenz66 »

Dinsdale wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:08 am There is no way of noticing trillions of anything per second, and this all sounds very theoretical. Is this what the Abhidhamma actually describes?
Not the Abhidhamma Pitaka itself. It is in the Commentaries, but it takes some interpretation to get an actual number. You won't find it described in terms of terahertz...

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Akashad
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by Akashad »

dhammapal wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 7:53 am According to my limited understanding of the Abhidhamma, cittas arise and pass away each mind moment which is an extremely short duration of time.

So being stuck in a bad mood means trillions of mistakes per second, the teaching in response to each being Majjhima Nikāya 61, Instructions to Rahula.

Coming back to the breath or any appropriate object can overwhelm the mistakes with trillions of good decisions each second.

So lots of opportunities to learn from one's mistakes.
Yes that kind of scared the living day lights out of me when I realised unwholesome state of mind can generate millions of bad vibes but when one switches to metta or other meditation objects that generates really powerful wholesome vibes especially metta object.I'm not sure if it can neutralise a bad karma though.
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by Spiny Norman »

mikenz66 wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:20 am
Dinsdale wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 8:08 am There is no way of noticing trillions of anything per second, and this all sounds very theoretical. Is this what the Abhidhamma actually describes?
Not the Abhidhamma Pitaka itself. It is in the Commentaries, but it takes some interpretation to get an actual number. You won't find it described in terms of terahertz...

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Mike
I get the point that ones mind state can change very quickly, but I'm less clear about the usefulness of discussing minuscule time-scales that are impossible to notice or relate to.
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mikenz66
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by mikenz66 »

Dinsdale wrote: Sat Jul 06, 2019 7:48 am I get the point that ones mind state can change very quickly, but I'm less clear about the usefulness of discussing minuscule time-scales that are impossible to notice or relate to.
I'm not well-enough versed in the Commentaries to be sure about what is or is not said to be observable, but some teachers claim that it is possible to observe these states. If that is the case, perhaps the interpretation of the frequency calculation is incorrect.

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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by SarathW »

Say when you watch a movie eating popcorn and holding the hand of your love one smelling her perfume there are millions of sensory experience come to you. However, you have attended only one of them at a time.
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by Spiny Norman »

SarathW wrote: Sat Jul 06, 2019 10:45 am Say when you watch a movie eating popcorn and holding the hand of your love one smelling her perfume there are millions of sensory experience come to you. However, you have attended only one of them at a time.
Sure, the brain is continuously processing a myriad of data from the senses, and presenting what seems most important at any one time. This process is largely autonomous, and unconscious.

But here we're talking about the level of detail we can notice when we pay close attention to one aspect of experience, and over what time-scale we can actually notice things changing. And what the point of this exercise is.
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TLCD96
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by TLCD96 »

If, in an unwholesome state of mind, you're making millions and millions of "mistakes" per second, then in a wholesome state of mind you're making millions and millions of good actions each second. To me it sounds like the difference between a kilometer and a thousand meters.
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Re: Trillions of mistakes per second when stuck in a bad mood

Post by confusedlayman »

there are people who take good decision in angry/deluded state of mind and there are also people who take terrible decision when they are in good blissful mood. example- gambler who won 1 million was so happy that he instantly did another gambling game and lost everything. example 2- Mom is angry of his son playing xbox before exam day and broke it in anger and frustration but she actually saved her child wasting more time in it and child passed the exam. (if she happy, she would have said don't worry son, just play for sometime and then study but kid might keep on playing).

Its not about mind emotional state, its about right view and wrong view. if someone has right view and can see penetrative through all phenomena of that situation even if he angry, he takes decision based on dharmic principle. if he have wrong view, even good times he take decision based on delusion.

I never read abdhidharma because it needs elder monk supervision for interpretation, but bad mood or good mood both can make mistake not only bad mood alone make mistake. example- with right view, a first stage attainer will never take decision that leads to suffering of himself and other even when he is provoked to maximum extent. so if u have right view, when u get bad mood u work hard to calm ur bad mood and bring stable to mind or work to bring good mood because u realise bad mood is burning you instantly. but wrong view, if bad mood comes, he tries to calm the bad mood by initiating revenge or do harm to others externally. I personally think if someone has wisdom / right view, then emotional mood of Brian don't matter much. I maybe wrong too.
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