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Back to Peter Harvey, it is correct that I.B. Horner did an article, "Buddhism: The Theravada" (p. 263), in the book, The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, but the translation (Anguttara-Nikaya i. 149) on page 289 is not Horner's but Woodward's. I think if I were Harvey, I would forget the reference to Horner. It would be the safest route.
In Buddhism, the 'I' or the sense of self isn't a permanent entity as in Hinduism but something which keeps changing. This moment I am angry, so 'I' in this case is anger. Next moment I am sad, so the 'I' is sadness. And so on. So the I is one thing now, another thing later.
But wouldn't this pose a problem when it comes to practicing meditation? No permanent I ... so who's meditating?
Exactly so. Who IS meditating? When you look for who is meditating, that is when you really start to see the impermanence of "I".
Exactly so. Who IS meditating? When you look for who is meditating, that is when you really start to see the impermanence of "I".
It is not really the impermanence of "I" or the inmost first-person but, instead, the impermanence of the five aggregates consisting of material shape, feeling, perception, habitual tendencies, and consciousness which we wrongly believe is who we are.
This moment I am angry, so 'I' in this case is anger. Next moment I am sad, so the 'I' is sadness. And so on. But wouldn't this pose a problem when it comes to practicing meditation? No permanent I ... so who's meditating?
This moment I am angry, so 'I' in this case is anger. Next moment I am sad, so the 'I' is sadness. And so on. But wouldn't this pose a problem when it comes to practicing meditation? No permanent I ... so who's meditating?
Comments
Back to Peter Harvey, it is correct that I.B. Horner did an article, "Buddhism: The Theravada" (p. 263), in the book, The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, but the translation (Anguttara-Nikaya i. 149) on page 289 is not Horner's but Woodward's. I think if I were Harvey, I would forget the reference to Horner. It would be the safest route.
Who IS meditating? When you look for who is meditating, that is when you really start to see the impermanence of "I".
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."