Are all aggregates created equal?

The Watercooler
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I’ve read some interesting ideas on not self. One of which took the stance that consciousness should be looked upon differently from the other 4 aggregates… it argues that we find the “you” that is liberated after the aggregates have been abandoned, its the one aggregate that is liberated, released from the entanglment of the other 4. Maybe thats what “you” are after letting go of the idea of self.

Thoughts and opinions???

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I don’t think there is any EBT basis for that view.

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@Badscooter Co-incidentally, I was sitting in on an ‘introduction to buddhism’ talk at the local tibetan temple a couple weeks ago. This was very much the tenor of what they presented. They went even further; saying that this consciousness was the part of ‘you’ that chose to come back and be re-born as a bodhisattva.

With further discussion this brought up a fundamental difference between the theravadin and tibetan traditions. As it was presented to me Tibetan beliefs are that the 5 consciousnesses cease, but that the 6th mind consciousness does not cease.
Theravada believe that all (6) consciousnesses cease upon Nibbana > nothing left to ‘choose’ to be reborn, for which there is evidence in the EBT’s (sorry I can’t provide these off hand).

I personally found it a bit challenging that the 2 views had such a fundamental difference. But rather than focus on trying to ascertain the ‘absolute truth’ I’ve found it more useful to accept the unknowable and to move away from a dualistic view of right and wrong, and try to abandon binary thinking… not easy lol.

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Wow… that is very interesting! I believe there a few discourses in which the Buddha talks about consciousness and liberation that could be construed in this manner if looked at in a certain way… I’ll have to look into it and find them…

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Good old JK, love him … :slight_smile:

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

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There is also the complication of additional levels of consciousness in some schools:

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I suppose it’s the last type store-house consciousness (ālāyavijñāna) which isn’t in line,