This is pretty simple to answer really. The Arhat who is truly liberated knows that he is truly liberated, and thus knows the consequences of his liberation. Knowing the consequences of true liberation, he knows that, in the future, there will not be another six sense bases with associated contacts, feelings, etc.retrofuturist wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:42 am Greetings,
I'm unsure whether this Sutta has been mentioned yet...
SN 35.117
To anyone who adopts the Buddhaghosan 3-lifetime model of dependent origination.Friends, when the Blessed One rose from his seat and entered his dwelling after reciting a synopsis in brief without expounding the meaning in detail—that is: ‘Therefore, bhikkhus, that base should be understood, where the eye ceases and perception of forms fades away…. That base should be understood, where the mind ceases and perception of mental phenomena fades away. That base should be understood’—I understand the detailed meaning of this synopsis as follows: This was stated by the Blessed One, friends, with reference to the cessation of the six sense bases (salayatananirodha).
How do you account for the cessation of the eye, if eye is the fleshy physical thing you regard it to be?
How can that base be known, if according to you, it only ceases at death?
If you don't believe that certain things are set in stone, that certain people can know the future knowing that certain things are "set in stone" as a matter of consequence and inevitability, then of course the Dharma as it has been traditionally passed down by the Samgha will never be verifiable to you.