Dear Thomas,
Op 22-mrt-2010, om 23:51 heeft thomaslaw03 het volgende geschreven:

> If you say: 'These momentary elements are
> ... in the ultimate sense ... impermanent, dukkha and anattaa',
> then they should not be 'real' but 'empty' of real in ultimate
> sense. Why are these momentary elements are real in the ultimate
> sense???

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N: These momentary elements are real in the ultimate sense. As I said
before: the term ultimate may be misunderstood. Paramattha dhammas
are real. They can be experienced one at a time through one of the
senses or the mind-door. They have characteristics that can be
directly experienced when they appear, without having to name them or
think about them.
If you touch your computer, hardness appears through the bodysense.
Hardness is real, we may give it another name. but its characteristic
is just hardness. It seems that it can stay for a while, but it falls
away immediately to be replaced by another unit of hardnes. The fact
that it falls away does not make it less real.
Computer is not real in the absolute sense, it is a concept we think
of. It does not have a characteristic that can be experienced through
one of the senses or the mind-door.
We need concepts in our daily life to do our work, to communicate,
but they are different from paramattha dhammas. It is essential to
know the difference between conventional truth and ultimate truth.
The term 'ultimate' is used to denote that it is different from
concepts or conventional ideas.

The �Abhidhammattha Sangaha�, a compendium of the Abhidhamma composed
in India at a later time, states that concepts are only shadows of
realities. When we watch T.V., we see projected images of people and
we know that through the eyesense only visible object is seen, no
people. Also when we look at the persons we meet, only colour is
experienced through the eyesense. In the ultimate sense there are no
people. Although they seem very real they are only shadows of what is
really there. The truth is different from what we always assumed.
What we take for a person are only n�mas and r�pas that arise and
fall away. So long as we have not realized the momentary arising and
falling away of n�ma and r�pa we continue to believe in a lasting self.

It is good you ask, because it may not be easy to understand the
difference between paramattha sacca and sammuti sacca. If my answer
is not clear, do ask again,

*****
Nina.





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