The Folly of Saccaka the Jain

Throughout his teachings the Buddha said that we must not regard as our self or atman that which is not our self (anātman).  To do so is a case of misidentification.  It is only by ignorance that we misidentify what is not our self with our our self in the example of Saccaka. Saccaka believed:  “Form is my self, feeling is my self, perception is my self, choices are my self, consciousness is my self” (rūpaṃ me attā, vedanā me attā, saññā me attā, saṅkhārā me attā, viññāṇaṃ me attā).

Yet modern day Buddhists attribute the denial of self to the Buddha when it is really a nihilist proposition.  There is not a single statement made by the Buddha where he says, categorically, there is no self (in Pali, natthattā).  The problem is misidentification not denial.  

Just like Saccaka we think of our earthly, human body that we were born with as being our self.  To this the Buddha said that physical form is not the self.  What is not the self should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus:  This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.  This holds true for feeling, perception, volitional formations and consciousness.

But we moderns go one step farther, we also believe that our personal mind is somehow the product of our anatomical parts so that when our body dies so do we.  There is no postmortem survival, in other words.  We became interested in Buddhism because we believed that the Buddha taught there is no self or postmortem survival.  In this we are completely wrong.  Again, the problem is misidentification not denial.

Who we truly are is more fundamental than this body could ever be which, in our ignorance, we cling to like a drowning person grabbing at water.  But our human body is no refuge and neither is its death.  As long as we fail to see our unconditioned true nature rebirth in samsara is certain.

 

 

Comments

[DANIEL J PAVLOVSKY]

Who sees Me by form,
Who seeks Me in sound,
Perverted are his footsteps upon the Way,
For he cannot perceive the Tathágata.

[Jung]

Yes, a true Saint all-right;

"The early days of Jaggi Vasudev are quite murky. He was accused of the murder of his wife Viji. Viji, was found dead under mysterious circumstances and Jaggi explained it away stating she had attained Moksha. But Viji’s father Ganganna thought otherwise. In his complaint filed with the Bengaluru city police, Ganganna alleged that Jaggi killed his daughter Viji, due to an affair with another woman."

Powerful government contacts in India are always handy when you want to get away with murder. Especially if your business idea is to "sell" dharma to gullible minds.

more here...
https://www.savukkuonline.com/13378/

I would highly recommend, to anyone still enchanted with this clown, to carefully read the Maha-parinibbana Sutta, Bodhi-dharma´s Bloodstream Sermon, or even the Sanghata Sutra to at least purify their mind from enough worldly clogging and misperceptions as to enable it getting a tiny glimpse (kensho) of its own true nature.

[marx slayer]

i love serendipitous coincidence , the humor and profundity of it. I feel the joy of the wisdom of which it comes! To this end I just experienced it again in relation this post and this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58s2DYG_U4U

see for yourself if you think they are addressing the same subject. No politics please.