A series of questions

A Dietrich Ringle, modified 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 5:11 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 5:11 PM

A series of questions

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
Arahats, how do you recall phenomena that occurred temporally in the past? For example, how can you say your experience is centerless or agentless? Is this some kind of altered state, or are you comparing it to some other state of centeredness, etc?

Do you find yourself praising the dharma and the path, only to find yourself miserable later...forced to keep face because of prior attainments?


I ask these questions because non of my insights seem to hold weight to the drudgery of daily existence. There seems to be no escape from it, neither now nor in the future.
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A Dietrich Ringle, modified 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 6:19 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 6:19 PM

RE: A series of questions

Posts: 881 Join Date: 12/4/11 Recent Posts
I want to know why some people have so much confidence and understanding about things like nirvana.
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Ian And, modified 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 7:04 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 7:04 PM

RE: A series of questions

Posts: 785 Join Date: 8/22/09 Recent Posts
Adam Dietrich Ringle:
I ask these questions because non[e] of my insights seem to hold weight to the drudgery of daily existence. There seems to be no escape from it, neither now nor in the future.

It seems you must be laboring under some false impressions and wrong views. Best to correct those first before arriving at any judgments about the efficacy of the Dhamma.

Right view involves a shift in how you perceive (act and re-act) to the reality that confronts you. It doesn't change the facts; the facts are what they are. What changes is the depth of your perception about what it is that you think is occurring. This is difficult enough to explain until you arrive there and see for yourself. Then you will know. emoticon

Adam Dietrich Ringle:
I want to know why some people have so much confidence and understanding about things like nirvana.

What is your understanding of what nibbana refers to? This is a good place to start if you want to discover an answer to your question.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 11:24 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 3/10/14 11:24 PM

RE: A series of questions

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Alright, I will give those a shot.

Re: remembering phenomena: memory is a basic human function. Nothing strange about that. It functioned before and after.

Re: centerless or agentless: it is just obvious. Everything knows itself where it is in the whole field naturally, and this is obvious, like color is obvious, like experience is obvious, so that is straightforward. I am comparing it to the years of having a sense of a "this" that was observing, controlling, etc. some "that", this being a memory, but also comparing it to the experience now, in which I can see the various elements that were previously not perceived well (things like parts of the head and eyes, intention, mental echoes of things (impressions that follow them), thoughts of past and future, thoughts that strung together some sense of continuity, and the like) and know how not perceiving them well can cause trouble and a sense of duality, etc.

Re: praising the dharma and the path and something about misery: actually the path worked well and I am happy about that. I followed instructions and they worked out. This is not very odd either, really. I vastly better off than before I started practicing and have no regrets. Paying attention to how things are and getting better at perceiving things is just a good idea on lots of fronts. I recommend it highly.

Re: if none of your insights are sufficient, I suggest some better ones, and there are better ones. Follow instructions, practice well, pay attention to things clearly, noticing things again and again.

What insights have you gotten that didn't help? What does this have to do with arahatship? What's on your mind? What is the background to your questions?
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