Something that might piss off Buddhists

I am going to say something that might piss off a lot of Buddhists.  Okay, here goes.  If you are extremely attached to your psychophysical body (i.e., the Five Aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional formation and consciousness) you either believe the self to be your psychophysical body or you believe there is fundamentally no self.  Oh, one more thing I  forgot to mention.  The psychophysical body belongs to Mara the Evil One (S. iii. 189)—the self doesn’t.

The psychophysical body is also incapable of acquiring intuitive knowledge (jñâna).  This same body is also incapable of dhyâna, samadhi, sambodhi, etc.  Nor does the psychophysical body win nirvana.  (If the psychophysical body attained nirvana this is like saying Mara attained nirvana.  But Mara the Evil One is the adversary of Siddhartha.)

As long as one remains extremely attached to the Five Aggregates allowing even for the possibility of a transcendent state or ultimate reality is out of the question.  The reason for this lack of openness is that by being attached to the aggregates as instruments of cognition they are incapable of recognizing ultimate reality.  It is like a fishnet trying to catch space.

The only means acceptable we have for attaining nirvana or awakening (bodhi) is to transcend the psychophysical body.  This is what the Buddha teaches throughout the Pali canon.  In short, the Five aggregates are not our self (anattâ); our self is beyond their range.  Being free of their power constitutes awakening and our deliverance from samsara.   

From the viewpoint of the Lankavatara Sutra the Five Aggregates have no real existence.  They are illusory.

“The Skandhas, of which the Vijnana is the fifth, resemble the reflections of the trees in water; they are to be regarded as Maya and a dream, they are so by thought-construction; make no discriminations!” (trans. Suzuki)

From this it stands to reason that anyone who is deeply attached to the Five Aggregates or skandhas is using a measure that is either going to find no self or absolute or worse, assume the self to be one or more of the skandhas.  As for the present state of modern Buddhism, too many Buddhists are deeply attached to the Five Aggregates, so much so they’ve ended up denying the self!

 

Comments

[Kojizen]

Rubot, Give up.

[Rubot]

Kojizen - then what does one do?

[Kojizen]

Rubot, Unfortunately, the Buddha doesn't mention in any Sutta or Sutra how to attain right view (the vision of nibbana) or bodhicittotpada (bodhicitta).

[Rubot]

The only means acceptable we have for attaining nirvana or awakening (bodhi) is to transcend the psychophysical body. This is what the Buddha teaches throughout the Pali canon.

This sounds right. But how does one transcend the psychophysical body - what method does the Buddha prescribe?

[Bob Morris]

Might have pissed me off years ago when the old psychophysical body was still in good shape and worthy of attachment.