Outside of the individual who has become "nibbana-ized" by freeing him... Hehe, I like that one. :smile: Nibbana-ized or nibbananized? Haven't heard that before. Sounds a bit like cannibalized. Cannibalizing on samsara perhaps? Lovely. I have heard "the unconditioned" explained once as "the stream ...

Once again, interpreting things according to your own physiological definitions and wondering why it doesn't make sense. Oh, it makes perfect sense what Kingsley says. It's just in contradiction with what you stated earlier. But I am getting used to it. As in the case of naming Mahavihara a "sect",...

Perhaps you might take your theories to a Physiology forum, in search of enlightenment. Been there done that. :tongue: This was probably intended as sarcasm, but it is actually important for me to be able to understand the dhamma in contemporary terms. Once again, we have reached a point in the con...

I was referring to the bracketed part of this... "sense impression (in the sense of nerve impulses reaching the brain)". The Buddha did not say that. Of course the Buddha did not say that, because the Buddha lived in a pre-scientific age, where neuro-science was unknown. But what else could it poss...

It would appear that you define the Buddha's words by your own definitions and then wonder why you cannot make sense of what is said. The words "sense impression" is not my own definition. It is a standard translation of phassa. Mostly, the word phassa is just translated as "contact" (eye-..., ear-...

Retro, I had read it the first time, but I am wondering how this ties in with cessation of sense impression. Where does it say in the text that sense impression (phassa) has ceased? It would appear that the cessation of sense impression (in the sense of nerve impulses reaching the brain) is neurolog...

The question then is, "Do arahants attain phassanirodha or do only dead people achieve phassanirodha?" I'd be interested to know how phassanirodha is possible with a functioning body. Perhaps using a sensory deprivation chamber? But even in a sensory deprivation chamber, there is still mental conta...

Avijja" in the Conditioned Arising (paticca-samuppada) refers to the previous lifetime. Or not. See Buddhadasa. Question is: is this really such an important distinction? I can see how it can be interpreted both ways. Perhaps the "lifetime" perspective is just one frame of reference, as valid as an...

These photos of monks participating in the protests have been circulated in the Thai cyberspace: http://www.fwdder.com/data/mail/2010/04/30/1272613709079/image/__fwdDer.com__-144829396-s6.jpg http://www.fwdder.com/data/mail/2010/04/30/1272613709079/image/__fwdDer.com__-144829441-s12.jpg http://www.f...

I don't think this is a particularly good idea, as it would automatically foster interventionism, overmoderation, and censoring. This board appears to do quite well without it.

Cheers, Thomas

Pretty sure I've defined my terms. No, you have certainly not defined anything. You have stated that I misused the word "essence", but you failed to explain why. You did not inform us how you see the term misused, and what is is actually supposed to mean (in your view). math or circles or formulas ...

alan wrote:The problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of the idea of "essence".

Perhaps you could enlighten us about its proper meaning then?

Cheers, Thomas

Well, to me these are claims. To call them "claims" doesn't really say very much. What type of claims? Empirical? Epistemic? We have to distinguish propositions about empirical facts from logical propositions, for example. To say that the patterns we express with mathematics have no reality beyond ...

This is a big claim! It is based on an assumption that the way we observe the universe is more or less, the only way. But they may actually observe in a radically different way and perceive different patterns to us and develop different 'science/maths" to deal with those. Why should aliens observe ...

This question appears to target nibbana. If nibbana is the unconditioned state and if the unconditioned state implies the absence of sankhara (in the sense of fabrications), then it follows that language cannot even get close to describing it, because language is based on fabrications.

Cheers, Thomas