To test the validity of an idea, it can be a good thing to try to refute it and see how it stands to scrutiny. This is especially true when some use this idea to affect their practice. Ex: "Since there is no self... you can't practice because there is no "you" to practice, and if you do try to "control", then just more self views are built up and maggaphala is further and further away. etc etc"binocular wrote:Why does one want to refute it?...
What do you hope to accomplish by pondering possible refutations of statements in some old scriptures?
Do you think Buddhist idea of parinibbāna is some indescribable eternal consciousness that somehow enjoys parinibbāna?binocular wrote: If death (as is usually thought of in secular Western culture) means the end of suffering - you will not experience the end of suffering. So relying on death to end your suffering is futile.
Absence of experience = total peace. No observer. Years ago I used to have problems with the idea of final end thinking
"What is the point of practice just to cease forever?" Now I think that even one life is too much.