Dear venerable Bhikkhu Kumara and all,
Thank you for your well thought out post. I shall add a few remarks.
Op 16-jan-2012, om 4:32 heeft Kumara Bhikkhu het volgende geschreven:
>
> To me, both approaches has its value. Even going purely by
> Theravadin commentaries has its value. It depends on what we're
> seeking.
>
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N: I have heard people say that commentaries confuse the teachings as
it is taught in the Tipi.taka. I understand this, because sometimes
they are heavy reading. This may be partly because of the translation
into English, it can be heavy reading. Also the similes used at that
time may not appeal to us today. The Dhamma is deep and hard to
understand and the sutta may seem so clear at first sight, but we are
bound to miss the deep teaching contained in it and then the
commentary brings out points we had not noticed before. Sometimes it
helps to return to a text that did not seem clear at first and
suddenly we may get it. We need patience.
>
> ---------
> Bhikkhu K: Btw, wouldn't it be a good idea that we all be conscious
> of our state of mind as we write our emails? As my meditation
> teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya once advised me, "Kumara, when the mind
> has anger, it's better not to speak. Otherwise, what we say will be
> unwise."
>
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N: How very true. What are the cittas like at this moment, can there
be awareness of naama and ruupa just as the Buddha taught?
Satipa.t.thaana can be developed during whatever activity, writing,
studying, speaking.
I am very grateful to the commentaries for clarifying the development
of insight and the understanding of the present moment.
Visuddhimagga Ch VIII 39: Life, person, pleasure pain--just these
alone join in one
consciousness moment that flicks by. Ceased aggregates of those dead or
alive are all alike, gone never to return. No [world is] born if
[consciousness is] not produced; when that is present, then it lives;
when consciousness dissolves, the world is dead: the highest sense this
concept will allow. (Nd1 42)
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Commentary:
The words "just these alone" mean that
it is unmixed with self (atta) or permanence.
"When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead": just as in the case
of the death-consciousness, this world is also called "dead" in the
highest (ultimate) sense with the arrival of any consciousness whatever
at its dissolution, since its cessation has no rebirth-linking (is
"cessation never to return"). Nevertheless though this is so, "the
highest sense this concept will allow (pa~n~natti paramatthiyaa) --the
ultimate sense will allow this concept of continuity, which is what the
expression of common usage "Tissa lives, Phussa lives" refers to, and
which is based on consciousness [momentarily] existing along with a
physical support; this belongs to the ultimate sense here, since, as
they say "It is not the name and surname that lives."...
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N: When we suffer from a loss of dear people it is good to remember
this. Life is only one moment of experiencing an object. Life,
pleasure, pain, all in one moment. It is very temporary but we make
it into long stories we are thinking about. The shortness of the
moment, we find it all in the suttas, but we are bound to overlook
such passages, or we do not realize that they all pertain to life at
this moment. The Buddha spoke about seeing time and again and then
about being infatuated with the outer appearance and the details of
things. We do not know seeing as only the experience of what is
visible, and we immediately are engaged with thinking about what is
seen, usually with akusala cittas. It is all because of conditions
but it is good to know. The Abhidhamma and the commentaries are of
great help to disentangle our life.
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with respect,
Nina.
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