Reality in Theravāda Buddhism

[smokey]

Is reality in Theravāda Buddhism considered to be real or unreal?

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Reality in what sense?...

Ontological? Phenomenological? etc

Metta,
Retro.

[smokey]

Greetings,

Reality in what sense?...

Ontological? Phenomenological? etc

Metta,
Retro.

In ontological and Phenomenological.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Smokey,

Would you consider "existence" to be synonymous with "reality"?

Metta,
Retro.

[Pannapetar]

Regarding reality, there is a distinction in Buddhism known as the two-truth doctrine that distinguishes between two types of truth, relative and absolute truth. So the dhamma contains these two types of truths. Relative truths are common-sense statements which are useful, but do not hold up considering ultimate reality, whereas absolute truths are statements that relate directly to ultimate reality. The dhamma makes few explicit classification statements about these two types, so it is not obvious which suttas express which type of truth. The two-truth idea is developed fully in Mahayana, especially by Nagarjuna, but the notion is also present in Theravada.

Theravada is ontologically agnostic, at least this is the official view. Some people have ascribed realism to Theravada, but I am not so sure about that. Perhaps you can find epistemological realism and moral realism, but I doubt that you find much ontological realism. It has always been my impression that Theravada leans heavily towards phenomenalism.

Cheers, Thomas

[smokey]

Greetings Smokey,

Would you consider "existence" to be synonymous with "reality"?

Metta,
Retro.

Well, yes. I asked this question because for an example reality in Dzogchen is considered literally unreal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_in_Buddhism

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

In that case, the following sutta may go some way to answering your question...

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html

.. plus there's a topic going on at the moment about nama-rupa which may also help.

Apologies that neither are specifically Abhidhamma focused.

Metta,
Retro.

[smokey]

No need for apologies

[mikenz66]

Smokey, Some of the issues have been discussed in other threads such as: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1784
And see: http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index. ... try1215334

Metta
Mike

[kannada]

Hi Smokey,

Is reality in Theravāda Buddhism considered to be real or unreal?

Could you please define 'real'?

Regards

k

[tiltbillings]

Is reality in Theravāda Buddhism considered to be real or unreal?

Are you wanting an answer from specifically an Abhidhamma standpoint, or from a more general standpoint including the suttas?

[Ben]

Dear all

Since the question has been asked in the Abhidhamma Forum I ask that all members provide textual support from the Abhidhamma or Abhidhamma commentaries or works from later Abhidhamma scholars in answering the OP's question.
Thanks for your cooperation.

Ben

[smokey]

Smokey, Some of the issues have been discussed in other threads such as: http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1784
And see: http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index. ... try1215334

Metta
Mike

This gave me answers. Thank you all.