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In your own words, what is the perception skhanda?
Jeffrey
Veteran
I used to think it was the mentation of the bare feeling of a sense. But now I am thinking is things like 'she needs this' 'i shouldn't' 'i did it wrong'
What do you think on the topic of what perceptions skhandas are as we experience and understand such outlook?
Mods, I meant to put this in advanced ideas, but the topic is pretty experiential so a beginner could dive in directly.
What do you think on the topic of what perceptions skhandas are as we experience and understand such outlook?
Mods, I meant to put this in advanced ideas, but the topic is pretty experiential so a beginner could dive in directly.
0
Comments
Smell + nose + contact = smell consciousness (smell).
then feeling, craving, etc.
this can overlap with thought + mind + contact = thought consciousness (thought).
pretty amazing how the mind links two distinct experiences together.
Would a thought be like 'dog sam is looking out the window' and is that a perception?
And then the mental formation is: 'dogs are just animals' or 'he is just anxious'
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/14200/learning-meaning-of-restraining#Item_11
and follow along with a big piece of paper.
Also thought is conscious of thought. Sound is hearing sound. Each are different streams of consciousness (phenomena).
Look in your experience. Don't focus on content but focus on what it is. Thought is thought. Language is just sound.
Keep it simple.
You see a barely-glimpsed white something floating around a dark cemetary at night. Your perception might be that it's a ghost. Your perception might be that it's probably a snowy owl known to inhabit the area. Or, it might be a white plastic bag blown about by the wind. Preception. The piece of fuzzy white might even be a stray particle floating around inside your eyeball.
You see a man holding a cardboard sign saying will work for food. He looks healthy, but smells like he hasn't had a bath in a year. Is he a bum, going to spend any money on drink or drugs and too lazy to hold a job and making more begging than you do working? Is he a homeless man down on his luck who lost his job due to the rich fat cats moving all the jobs overseas and reduced to this by circumstances beyond his control? Is he a schizophrenic or otherwise disabled in ways that don't show to our eyes? Pick one, and that is your perception. It's the same man standing there.
A dog sees my pen as a chew toy.
A human sees my pen as a function tool used for writing.
Another human may see my pen as an ice pick.
Thus emptiness of pen and projection from mind based on karma onto pen.
When thinking its just noise that is understood because of karma.
Language can be visual or non verbal.
Symbols and letters. Pictures.
Frankly anything can be language as long as there is a mind that links meaning with a sense impression.
your eyes + word 'upekka' + your eye conscious = contact
with this contact (with these three) there is a picture comes into your mind like 'a member of the forum' or 'the person who wrote that and this' or 'something that is in your own mind (consciousness=vinnana)'
this is perception (sanna)
another example:
listen to something that you can hear at this very moment
whatever sound comes to your ear
with the sound there is an 'image' come to you
let us say you hear a sound and your mind says a 'bird chirp' or a 'door bang' etc.
you have to use all your five senses (mind also but at the beginning try to use other five namely, eye, ear, nose, mouth, body)
see yourself and try to understand
it is a pleasure to see that you are on the right track
But in practice, I guess this isn't that important. Like taiyaki said: try to focus on the reality of what you experience. It doesn't matter so much what name you give it. Again, it seems to be just a matter of what name you assign to it. In reality, the experience is the experience: when there is seeing, there is seeing; when there is hearing, there is hearing etc. As meditators we should be able to distinguish this experience from the interpretation (or meaning) our minds give to it (regardless of whether or not you see this interpretation as also falling under the category of perception). The experience of seeing and the thinking of "I am seeing this" are two very seperate experiences.
You can see this in (insight) meditation. On the one hand there is the experience (for instance seeing or hearing) and on the other there is the "mental activity" about it. And our mind is so quick that most of the time we can't catch this distinction.
For instance when I meditate, I can sometimes hear the sound of someone stumbling about in the next room. But then I realize that in reality, there is only sound (or better yet, only "hearing"): the idea that this is "this person stumbling about in the next room", is something my mind projects on it. And this projection goes so fast and is so ingrained in our ordinary attitude towards the world, that we're normally not aware of it.
Now this may seem like a very simple and ordinary realization, but in fact it seems to me to be very profound. Because it is what we do all the time. For instance when we see a person: there is not just seeing, but there is the whole idea, the whole projection by our mind of who this person is, what he/she is like, how they behave, what they mean to us etc. When in reality, there is only seeing (and hearing, feeling, thinking etc.); the idea of "a person", "a living being", is an illusion. In fact this is how we create the illusionary idea of "entities"; by going beyond the simple awareness of the reality of the experience...
Most of the time we seem to be caught up in these ideas and projections and this gives rise to a lot of stress...
Yes, I think that's a very good description.
Spiny