[Buddha-l] scary stuff from "Buddhists"

[Bruce Burrill]

At 01:08 PM 11/16/2005, you wrote:
>On Tue, 2005-11-15 at 18:45 -0500, Chan Fu wrote:
>
> > Unitarians are scary

Yes, they are; this was just posted in the uub-f list:

The Discourse on Right View, The Sammaditthi Sutta and
its Commentary
Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli Edited
and Revised by Bhikkhu Bodhi The Wheel Publication No.
377/379 ISBN 955-24-0079-1

   found here:
http://accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel377.html

What really struck me is the poor understanding and
therefore poor translation given to Consciousness:
Several years ago I published on this issue in my
website www.dyad.org - the true nature of
consciousness..But let us not get ahead of our sparse
Pali translation, which gives us the following:

57. "When, friends, a noble disciple understands
consciousness, the origin of consciousness, the
cessation of consciousness, and the way leading to the
cessation of consciousness, in that way he is one of
right view... and has arrived at this true Dhamma.

58. "And what is consciousness, what is the origin of
consciousness, what is the cessation of consciousness,
what is the way leading to the cessation of
consciousness? There are these six classes of
consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness,
nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness,
body-consciousness, mind-consciousness. With the
arising of formations there is the arising of
consciousness. With the cessation of formations there
is the cessation of consciousness. The way leading to
the cessation of consciousness is just this Noble
Eightfold Path; that is, right view... right
concentration.

59. "When a noble disciple has thus understood
consciousness, the origin of consciousness, the
cessation of consciousness, and the way leading to the
cessation of consciousness... he here and now makes an
end of suffering. In that way too a noble disciple is
one of right view... and has arrived at this true
Dhamma."

   This to me, is a very sparse representation in
English of what is being said here.  To make this
issue clear, using western language, we need to
separate the two words attention and consciousness.
People often treat them as interchangeable words, they
are not.  Consciousness is an extra layer upon
attention.  Attention can exist without consciousness,
as living in the moment can occur without building a
historical reference for later retrieval.
Consciousness allows indexing and retrieval of events.
  This extra layer is habitual and unconscious in most
people.  It appears 'natural' to be conscious, but it
requires extra effort, and it diverts attention away
from the here and now.

    This extra layer is a triangulation with another
viewpoint.  A strong parent or strong teacher often
provides this 'formation' which seems to act to
'magnify' attention.  Unfortunately this
'magnification' is an illusion, as extra baggage, this
formation, gives only the appearance of understanding.
  At it's heart, this formation is a contamination of
the present moment.  It 'clicks-in' to substitute for
understanding.  It prevents deep listening and results
in the common 'I understand' as an oppositional state.
  In extreme example, it is the life of a reactionary
person.

    I know of what I speak, because I spent hundreds of
hours meditating and  many days in dyads.  These
'formations' were found inside me, standing in and
acting as me.  Once I found them, in me, I could
'translate the Pali' and see what was spoken of.  It
is not possible to go the other way.  You don't 'read'
about it and see it so.  That would bypass the
richness of living and the meaning of life.

    Only through direct experience can the Dharma be
made real.  If people are not willing to do the work
of getting to the bottom of their inner illusions,
they will wander forever in Samsara.  Like squirrels,
collecting nuts, but not eating them in understanding,
we are too full of outside to be inside.

    May we all remember, to pay attention inside, to
allow 'translation' of the outside.  Otherwise we
might miss the harmony and peace that is everywhere.