Originally posted by pradtfEither case... he has to explain "mind" or "soul" before "leaving it" has meaning?
i thought he equated the mind and soul in that post not the body and mind.
but i may have missed something and apologies to both of you if i did.
i am very interested in how this discussion develops.
in friendship,
prad
1 edit
Originally posted by pradtfAh yes, thank you. I misread his post. He claims that the mind and soul are the same, but that the mind inhabits a body. I'll reformulate the point I made above.
i thought he equated the mind and soul in that post not the body and mind.
but i may have missed something and apologies to both of you if i did.
i am very interested in how this discussion develops.
in friendship,
prad
Now, I thought that Buddhism conceived of reality as being ultimately non-dual. If this is so, then any real distinction between physicality and spirituality is merely samsara. If so, doesn't it follow that the mind and body are essentially the same; that they are both aspects of some underlying "such-ness"? If this is correct, then doesn't that undermine your claim above that there are properties bodies have that minds do not? Essentially, such a claim would result from your being in the grip of an illusion, or entagled in samsara.
Note: I'm only familiar with Mahayana Buddhism, and the Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen. So, if your Buddhist school is substantially different, then perhaps my argument above does not apply.
Originally posted by StarValleyWyStarvalley, no offense intended, even if thats the way you'd prefer it.😉
Still caught in the cult I notice.
Try... "prad" next time.
But if you hate NO ONE,(but maybe the acts they perform) then you will always win.
Hate devours the very essence of your soul.
The soul that knows itself is opaque.
The spirit is no doubt the controlling agent of our existence.
In benevolence,
A fellow human.
😉
Originally posted by DreamlaXLimited to recycling rather than refinement. Karma as I understand being the principle of refinement or purification of the soul. I think I can make a case that refinement/purification is also a physical property.
But here, you are assuming the soul takes on physical properties. If the soul did take on physical properties, re-incarnation would be limited.
Originally posted by bbarrThe supreme mind of union sees clearly ultimate existence, but that does not contradict conventional truth. Food is still necessary for the body to survive. Yes, it is true, that the mind and body do not exist ultimately, but because they exist in a conventional way, they are separate. If we see things in an ultimate way, we see them truely just as karmic appearances. Before we can understand ultimate truth we must first understand conventional truth. Our mind and body do not exist ultimately, but they do conventionally. I am typing on a computer that lacks inherent existence, but it exists conventionally. You are reading letters and words that lack inherent existence, but you are reading them because they exist conventionally.
Ah yes, thank you. I misread his post. He claims that the mind and soul are the same, but that the mind inhabits a body. I'll reformulate the point I made above.
Now, I thought that Buddhism conceived of reality as being ultimately non-dual. If this is so, then any real distinction between physicality and spirituality is merely samsara. If so, doesn't ...[text shortened]... your Buddhist school is substantially different, then perhaps my argument above does not apply.
Buddha always taught the middle road. We must not always think that nothing exists ultimately. We must not also always be holding the view of conventional truth. We must know when it is appropriate to view what, how.
Moving on:
The body is physical, we know it is. This doesn't need further explaining (at least I hope not!).
If our mind was physical, i.e. part of our body, such as the brain, it would follow that it would be a combination of our mother and father's mind also, meaning we would take on similar interests, similar habits, and so on. If we were given the same environment as our parents, we would grow up just like them.
We know this isn't the case. In fact, my teacher often tells the story of his family being fond of fishing and hunting. His brother would often catch insects and pull off their legs and so forth, whereas my teacher would be the only one not interested in killing, and try to save the insects.
Gifted children hardly come from gifted parents. Why is it that a child can outstand his or her parents in particular subjects? If the child's mind was a combination of two minds that had nearly nothing to do with the subject, how can the child do so well?
There is often a case of twins that, although given the same growing environment, turn out to be very different people. They may look identical, but they may think very different.
What causes us to have interests and habits that our parents don't have? We take on the interests and habits we had in previous lives. If for example we excelled in mathematics in a previous life, if we are introduced to it in this life, it is said that we have 'karma' with mathematics and we develop interest for it straight away (or nearly). However, there is no physical relationship between me and all my previous past lives. The relationship, must be purely non-physical.