the illusion of continuity

sova

discuss

David

Well, that was a bit of a let down.

What do you want us to assign continuity to?

Or not?

how

C'mon sova

Is the Sova who started this thread without expressing any view except "discuss"
not the continuity of the Sova who will return to add anything.
If continuity is an illusion, should I just say it was good knowing you?
Isn't anything not one dimensional.....continuity?

karasti

how about you offer your opinion.
Ultimately, everything is an illusion.
But we live in a relative world.

Jeffrey

How do dimensionless points (empty) of a geometric line combine those points into a line? If they are dimensionless then how does a line form which is a collection of those points? Kind of like the paradox of going halfway there each iteration you never arrive.

federica

@Sova, please don't do that again, otherwise I will simply close the thread.
Such a limited comment is really unacceptable.

e await your expansion, thanks.

pegembara

Is Sova who posted this thread a continuation of the Sova as a child?
How could anything continue if it changes every moment?
Does anything ever continue?

lobster

@sova said:
discuss

I like to discuss

sometimes when sad I smile

I still iz but I iz different

DairyLama

I don't think continuity being an illusion is the problem, it's simply that things always change whether we like it or not. And not always for the better. So the problem is clinging to a particular state of affairs or set of circumstances.

sova

A candle flickers in the night and every new instant of that flame is not the same.

We like to say that there is a "flame changing," but meditation has taught me to try my best to view the entire cosmos as "completely being destroyed and completely being instantiated" ... again and again.

Does a plant grow? This is a familiar example to anyone who has read discourses on the relative and ultimate truths. (Like the Salistamba Sutra)

Every instant is a fresh entirety. With steady practice we can come to see this.

Daniel Ingram has a wonderful book called "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha" and he talks about "the illusion of continuity" ...

Sometimes I like to think of it as increasing the refresh rate. If someone posts a new post on this site, you can see the new content by hitting F5, or clicking the refresh button. Imagine doing that with your ability to be aware. Imagine being able to feel every droplet of water as it graces skin while you're in a shower or a rain storm.

Operating on a level that is closer to the true state probably makes all the myriad relationships and causeways of domino-dalliance apparent.

It's so amazing that adhering to the principle of causing+effecting, we can arrive at the Absolute, which is free of extremes.

To paraphrase Nagarjuna, "to be able to understand emptiness of phenomena and at the same time see/know cause and effect as completely reasonable, this is more wonderful than wonderful, more amazing than amazing."

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/nagarjuna.pdf
Section Two and Section Three (Nagarjuna's Commentary to The Heart of InterDependent Origination)

So in a like manner, (whether) the mind at the point of death and the mind which belongs to (the subsequent) birth are identical or different is inexpressible. Similarly, from a flame, an oil lamp (is kindled); from a form, an image is produced in a mirror; from a seal, an impression, from a sun-crystal, fire, from a seed, a sprout, from the juice of a sour fruit, saliva is engendered (even in the mouths of others'); or yet again

from a sound, an echo is produced. Thus, the wise should understand the non-transmigration as well as the re-emergence of the aggregates.

"Those who see the real are freed"

DairyLama

Watching waves break has taught me a lot.

anataman

@sova said:

Sometimes I like to think of it as increasing the refresh rate. If someone posts a new post on this site, you can see the new content by hitting F5, or clicking the refresh button. Imagine doing that with your ability to be aware. Imagine being able to feel every droplet of water as it graces skin while you're in a shower or a rain storm.

Once your mind starts to coalesce and condense around the water droplets hitting your skin such that you see them as WATER DROPLETS you are no longer fully aware of the all encompassing shower or rain storm experience that was what you were aware of in your field of awareness, before you started thinking about them as individual water droplets separate from an experiencer - you are clinging and drowning in the thoughts and concepts of water and 'my skin' and 'my identity' as being separate from them.

Scanning for new content (F5) is just your mind 'seeking'. Catch it as it goes to strike F5 - now let it go before the thoughts arise...

What fun
meditation can become!

...\lol/...

pegembara

@SpinyNorman said:
I don't think continuity being an illusion is the problem, it's simply that things always change whether we like it or not. And not always for the better. So the problem is clinging to a particular state of affairs or set of circumstances.

We want change only when it suits us. Change is not the problem. Our hopes and desires based on delusion are.