anatta_anicca_dukkha

Nothing is permanent. All arises and decays.

The root word is anicca -- not always.

---

No essence. No permanence. No perfection.

TySixtus

Do you have a point in posting these three threads? Because not only could they have been one thread, you haven't actually offered anything up for debate.

Ty

anatta_anicca_dukkha

I wanted to see how each was received.

One is a lot harder to accept that the other two, but all three give problems to different sorts of ignorance.

---

No essence. No permanence. No perfection.

PoodleLovinPessimist

The problem with mysticism is that it's not really possible to discuss it. Either you've had the mystical experience, and there's no point in talking much about it, or you haven't and there it's impossible to understand.

There's nothing wrong with mysticism per se; it's a hell of a lot more honest, IMnsHO, than the pseudo-metaphysical baloney that western religions tend to feed us. It's still difficult to talk about, though.

Bobinius

I agree.

This is the place where Heraclitus meets with Buddha Gautama : Pantha Rei - everything flows.

All the philosophical culture of the West stands between Parmenides and Heraclitus. All the non sense talk about absoluteness, ideas [eidos], fixed essences is the heritage we got from Plato. One of the great viral memes of our western culture.

anatta_anicca_dukkha

Wow! Heraclitus -- the only old dead greek who made any sense!

I wouldn't call that meme great -- except in the same sense as the Anit-christ meme is great.

All dhammas are on fire -- or as Heraclitus would say: This cosmos was not made by gods or men, but always was, and is, and ever shall be ever-living fire.

---

No essence. No permanence. No perfection.

mirage

I'm not sure this is actually mysticism. There is a lot of Buddhism that makes some straightforward sense. Is no permanence supposed to be a big deal or something? Seems pretty unobjectionable to me.

anatta_anicca_dukkha

It's not difficult to talk about. It's impossible to talk about.

The basic point is that ideas are human creations, and whenever we attempt to describe the world as if there were no ideas we are doomed to failure. There is the normal every-day reality we live in within the universe of ideas, and there is the unspeakable non-reality which cannot even be described as beyond ideas.

I find the talk of many Mahayanists about Ultimate Reality rather annoying... Especially given that when pressed they start saying things like "the Ultimate Reality is that there is no Reality." Of course there is a reality -- the reality I live in day-by-day of common ideas. There is ordinary reality, and there is the indescribable non-reality which is without our human notions.

---

No essence. No permanence. No perfection.

PoodleLovinPessimist

I tend to use understatement for ironic effect.

Gawen

Moving to Non-Abrahamic Religion & Philosophy