keller wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 2:26 am
I can highly recommend reading foundational texts of phenomenology or existentialism for a broader context to interpret Venerable Nyanamoli's teaching. Books like Heidegger's Being and Time and Sartre's Being and Nothingness are, of course, valuable for any contemplative person to read whether or not they want to understand Venerable Nyanamoli's teaching specifically. Just the first 100 pages of Being and Nothingness might be enough.
I suggest reading a good introduction to phenomenology. Sokolowski's introduction is an excellent place to begin.
pulga wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 12:08 pm
I suggest reading a good introduction to phenomenology. Sokolowski's introduction is an excellent place to begin. Introduction to Phenomenology
Thanks for the link, pulga! This looks a bit more intelligible to my limited understanding, thus far.
"Whoever avoids sensual desires
— as he would, with his foot,
the head of a snake —
goes beyond, mindful,
this attachment in the world." - Sn 4.1
keller wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 1:09 pm
Regardless, all of this "hierarchy of existential primordiality" stuff is just continuously pointing people towards thrownness-- towards the ungraspable, empty, temporal "thus-ness" that the puthujana gratuitously attempts to find solid ground within. The deeper you go into the hierarchy, the more obvious it becomes that nothing truly has any ownable foundation. The body is simply "there", and any meditator can tell you how obviously outside of our ownership and control the process of thinking is. How much more so those less primordial aspects of engaged experience?
For an arahant, even designating a hierarchy of things as more or less primordial is gratuitous. It's just sankharas all the way down.
Thanks for sharing your recent insights, Keller. These are particularly helpful.
"Whoever avoids sensual desires
— as he would, with his foot,
the head of a snake —
goes beyond, mindful,
this attachment in the world." - Sn 4.1