Forum: Dharma Overground Discussion Forum

I know this is counter-factual, but it's been playing on my mind recently... What if things were other than they are and sensations presented themselves as 'permanent', 'part of self', and 'a source of satisfaction' because that's how they truly were? What if there actually were a permanent, separate self? How would existence be specifically different from how it is, if that were the case?

What kinds of things would then be possible or impossible? I've been thinking about this, but finding it quite hard... If there were a permanent, separate self, then compassion wouldn't be possible - that seemed quite clear... Also, our ability to learn would be compromised, I think - especially the kind of learning that comes from breaking old habits, or seeing through established patterns of thinking...

So: loving and learning would be affected, for sure... I wondered if anyone else had any thoughts on this, or had seen it discussed in any texts...

Duncan.

Hi Duncan,
interesting speculation. A few quick shots:
- no passage of time (trivial solution)
- perfectly self-contained "monads" - no interaction with anything
- those would be the ideals we ordinarily work towards: we want to keep things stable, satisfying, our own.
- the story about the fall of man in Genesis comes to mind - I've always been mildly puzzled about the nature of the fruit, and the ambiguity whether the transgression or the knowledge of good an evil was the reason for the fall.

I'm looking forward to more opinions!

Cheers,
Florian

while totally speculative, this ties into that millenia old-debate about the "natural state of mind" or "deep mind" or "causal body" or whatever, all of which is beyond both my practical and intellectual understanding

Here's another perspective on the subject I just remembered (from Daniels Book, the chapters on "what went wrong" and "the three doors"):

Collated below, they show "three sides of the same coin each"

not-self ~ "true self" ~ aversion
suffering ~ compassion ~ attachment
impermanence ~ the unconditioned ~ ignorance

So in your "anti-dharma" universe, attachment would satisfy, ignorance would pass by, and aversion would be identification (that last one is a tough one, not sure about it).

Okay, back to practice...

Cheers,
Florian