2010.08.05 06:40
What is the Self? Among all the Buddha's teachings, those on the nature of the self are the hardest to understand, yet they are central to the religion. In fact, "fully perceiving the nature of the self" is one way to define enlightenment. The Five SkandhasThe Buddha taught that an individual is a combination of five aggregates of existence, also called the Five Skandhas or the five heaps. These are:
Various schools of Buddhism interpret the skandhas in somewhat different ways. Generally, the first skandha is our physical form. The second is made up of our feelings, emotional and physical, and our senses -- seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. The third skandha, perception, takes in most of what we call thinking -- conceptualization, cognition, reasoning. This also includes the recognition that occurs when an organ comes into contact with an object. Perception can be thought of as "that which identifies." The object perceived may be a physical object or a mental one, such as an idea. The fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices and predispositions. Our volition, or willfulness, also is part of the fourth skandha, as are attention, faith, conscientiousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness, and many other mental states both virtuous and not virtuous. The causes and effects of karma are especially important to the fourth skandha. The fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but without conceptualization. Once there is awareness, the third skandha might recognize the object and assign a concept-value to it, and the fourth skandha might react with desire or revulsion or some other mental formation. The fifth skandha is explained in some schools as base that ties the experience of life together. The Self Is No-SelfWhat's most important to understand about the skandhas is that they are empty. They are not qualities that an individual possesses, because there is no-self possessing them. This doctrine of no-self is called anatman or anatta. Very basically, the Buddha taught that "you" are not an integral, autonomous entity. The individual self, or what we might call the ego, is more correctly thought of as a by-product of the skandhas. On the surface, this appears to be a nihilistic teaching. But the Buddha taught that if we can see through the delusion of the small, individual self, we experience that which is not subject to birth and death. Two ViewsBeyond this point, Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism differ on how anatman is understood. In fact, more than anything else it is the different understanding of self that defines and separates the two schools. Very basically, Theravada considers anatman to mean that an individual's ego or personality is a fetter and delusion. Once freed of this delusion, the individual may enjoy the bliss of Nirvana. Mahayana, on the other hand, considers all physical forms to be void of intrinsic self (a teaching called shunyata, which means "emptiness"). The ideal in Mahayana is to enable all beings to be enlightened together, not only out of a sense of compassion, but because we are not really separate, autonomous beings. |
2010.08.05 06:50
2010.08.05 11:26
The following is a poem that I wrote some 15 years ago which I included
in my first, and only poetry book, " My Poems, Moments of Fullness,"
published in 2004.
Meditation on "Self"
"Self"
A space,
A universe, where
The past, the present and the future become now and here,
The timelessness, the eternity,
Well beyond life and death.
Yet it exists in my being, my consciousness.
"Self"
A spiritual space,
May be a tiny black hole,
May be a seed smaller than the sesame,
May be a microscopic cell carrying my DNAs.
Yet it is big enough to accommodate easily
All the galaxies and the outer space of this universe.
My body,
The most efficient, amazing, little machine in the universe,
The compact carrier of the "Self"
Now worn out and often tired after years of service.
Yet my mind, the mirror of the "Self"
Finally has cleared up after years of struggle,
Can now see everything through and through, through its eye.
It does not need the light.
It sees the light and the darkness are just illusions.
It sees timelessly along the circle of time and space,
where the light cannot reach.
"Self"
A holy space
Let it be.
Let it be.
All is quiet and peaceful there.
All is free and eternal there.
And all is beautiful, true and happy there.
It is the kingdom, the holy grail, the heaven
All the wise men have been looking for
for thousands of years.
"Self"
You ar IT.
You are the stuff, the substance, which
The Almighty, the infinitely wise, is made of, which
creates the world, the universe, small or large.
.....
I might add that through my imagination, I put myself
in the position of Buddha at the time of his enlightenment
when i wrote this poem.
When I read the text by Barbra O'Brien,
I was not far off in my imagination, I thought.
2010.08.05 11:53
1. Mahāyāna (Sanskrit: महायान, mahāyāna), literally
the "Great Vehicle", 대승불교, Northern Buddhism
Originated in India and practiced in China, Tibet, Korea, Japan, Mongolia.
This is the Buddhism we, Koreans, are familiar with.
It is more spiritual, religious, and supernatural. Possibly because of those nature,
it is less well received in the western world.
2. Theravada (Pāli: थेरवाद theravāda, Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally,
"the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching, 소승불교, Southern Buddhism
Originated in India and practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia.
Being more philosophical and logical, this is the one that rapidly took root in the western world.
It is relatively conservative and closest to the original teachings of Buddha.
No. | Subject | Date | Author | Last Update | Views |
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Notice | How to write your comments onto a webpage [2] | 2016.07.06 | 운영자 | 2016.11.20 | 18179 |
Notice | How to Upload Pictures in webpages | 2016.07.06 | 운영자 | 2018.10.19 | 32327 |
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Notice | How to Write a Webpage | 2016.06.28 | 운영자 | 2020.12.23 | 43822 |
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1061 | [re] 이란 페르시아 여행: The Glory of Persia [3] | 2010.08.18 | 운영자 | 2010.08.18 | 7792 |
1060 | 도올(김용옥) 강의중 박정희 대통령 부분... [5] | 2010.08.17 | 계기식*72 | 2010.08.17 | 9972 |
1059 | SNUCMAA Greater NY Golf 대회를 마치고 [3] | 2010.08.16 | 서인석*73 | 2010.08.16 | 9432 |
1058 | ♥ 심박동수는 독립적 위험인자이다 | 2010.08.16 | 이종구*57 | 2010.08.16 | 7616 |
1057 | [re] Asia stops to remember end of World War II [3] | 2010.08.15 | 운영자 | 2010.08.15 | 7184 |
1056 | [re] [화보] 광복 65년, 대한민국이 걸어온 길 [4] | 2010.08.15 | 황규정*65 | 2010.08.15 | 7868 |
1055 | Climb of Mount Democrat [8] | 2010.08.14 | 운영자 | 2010.08.14 | 7416 |
1054 | 815 광복절 65 주년을 맞이하면서 [2] | 2010.08.14 | Sungja#65 | 2010.08.14 | 6570 |
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1052 | 1949년 美국무부 지도 '독도는 한국영토' 명시 [7] | 2010.08.13 | 황규정*65 | 2010.08.13 | 9144 |
1051 | 2010-2011 동창회 Class 대표 명단 [2] | 2010.08.11 | 운영자 | 2010.08.11 | 8942 |
1050 | 90세 홍 할머니의 이야기 [3] | 2010.08.11 | Rover | 2010.08.11 | 7887 |
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1048 | 한 상렬의 추가 행적 (유교수의 글을 옮긴 것) [8] | 2010.08.09 | 계기식*72 | 2010.08.09 | 7690 |
1047 | Sound of Music (flash mob) [4] | 2010.08.08 | 계기식*72 | 2010.08.08 | 9690 |
1046 | 영혼을 위한 치료 (퍼옴) [2] | 2010.08.08 | Chomee#65 | 2010.08.08 | 9026 |
1045 | KOREA: The Untold story of the War. 1982 [9] | 2010.08.08 | 한원민*65 | 2010.08.08 | 7661 |
1044 | What's Old Age For ? [3] | 2010.08.07 | Rover | 2010.08.07 | 6544 |
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This is from part of my efort trying to learn about the world of religions
and the spiritual life of humans on Earth.
You can google any subject of your interest as all of us know.
What a great century we live in ! when you realize that
you have an easy access to most of the accumulated human civilization,
including the human spiritual life by googling your topics.
Maybe, finally, we human race may see the day when
all human beings are enlightened and paradise would come
as Buddha dreamed or
"Thy kingdome come on Earth," as Jesus instructed us to pray.
"We humans are all connected to one another biologically,
to the earth chemically, and
to the universe atomically."
.... a quote from an astophysicist.