We look at our external world from the perspective of our biological body. We must admit, however, that our body gives us a restricted, distorted picture of reality. Our body is adequate for Darwinian fitness but not much more. We can, in other words, be deceived by its desires and drives.
As humans we begin as a fertilized ovum then pass into the infant stage after which we become a child. Eventually, we experience our youth and grow into adults. Over time, we lose our beauty and vigor only to become old, wrinkled and decrepit.
We are witness to all this and cannot escape it. Some hope their death will be final. The logic here is that I believe I am 100% this biological creature. When it dies so do I. But this belief doesn’t accord with Buddhism.
In Buddhism, it is consciousness (vijñāna) that attaches to the fertilized ovum. It then becomes attached to the growing and developing biological body. Like a spectator, it goes through the ups and downs of adult life. It eventually experiences death only to enter another existence.
Consciousness, in other words, survives death. It is consciousness that takes up a biological form; even a spirit like form.
The consciousness which is continually reborn into biological forms, partaking of the allness of the all, is samsaric consciousness. It can only lead us to different degrees of suffering. It seems that it cannot escape its doom. But according to the Buddha there is a way to escape this.
When consciousness is no longer hampered and bewitched by the senses including the sixth sense, thought (manas), it becomes transcendent, that is, unfixed consciousness (viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ) — infinite, radiant all round (DN I.223). The subject-object split, which is inherent in samsaric consciousness, suddenly, ends insofar as the adept perfectly intuits what the two sides, ultimately, depend upon, thus escaping the doom of rebirth.
lighten up
Posted by: Buddha | November 24, 2019 at 02:22 PM