Analysis of Rupa (Lecture)

Discussion of Abhidhamma and related Commentaries
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Eko Care
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Analysis of Rupa (Lecture)

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Detailed Analysis of Materiality. (which is needed for distinguishing rupa from nama)

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Eko Care
Posts: 1107
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:13 am

Re: Analysis of Rupa (Lecture)

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Handouts

IIT Facebook Page
Introduction
Ultimacy - the actuality behind the empirically observable world - has been one of major, if not the
greatest, quests in the history of philosophy. In the ancient Western hemisphere, the Phoenician
philosopher Thales suggested water to be the element out of which the whole world came into being.
Thales’ successor, Anaximander, assumed an unobservable phenomenon called apeiron to be the root
cause of all animate and inanimate things. Pythagoras explained the existence of the world through a
numerical theory. In ancient India, Vedas posited that the world was created by a supreme being called
Mahābrahma. During the Upaniṣad-era, some ascetics held that all animate souls are parts of a
universal soul, and the ultimate liberation is to be united with that mother-soul. In Christian and Islamic
doctrines, the almighty God is understood to be the creator of all creatures and the world.
The Buddha, too, advocated a reality of life and the world. He expounded that beings are constitutions
of aggregates (khandha), bases (āyatana), and elements (dhatu). These realities are impermanent,
suffering, and non-self, and they exist in generations. However, the generation of these non-selfrealities, due to certain conditions, will continue to exist even after the death of a being. The Buddha
taught that bringing this continuation to a full stop is the ultimate liberation.

Fundamentals of Theravāda Buddhism - Ultimacy By Ven. Watagoda Maggavihari Thera
Course 01: 2021/Jan-May International Institute of Theravāda
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