Five composites, this is my conviction.
Hi Pete,
I am not sukha and I try to keep the 5 precepts.
Not killing, not stealing, no sexual misconduct, no intoxicant are very easy to keep for me (I hardly have to think about them really).
Not lying in its most basic form is not too hard, albeit from time to time I catch myself distorting the truthâŠ
I sure am no ariya (yet, but the potential is there, in all of us), but I try to live a simple life, because I donât need so much anymore.
So my office (I work from home and have been for the last 13 years) is now quite roomy. Exit the big bookshelf, the desk is now against against the wall, and a small cabinet on top of which stand the printer is at a corner of the room. And there are 3 plants (2 standing on there own and a dwarf ficus on my desk).
Thus I have quite a large floor space from which I can sit and spend time with the triple gem, or with my daughters reading stories, helping with school work or whatever else they need or do (karaoke lately for the 10 year old one).
I start quite early in the morning but as discussed here on discourse itâs mainly to get ahead of others and enjoy the peace when everyone else is still asleep.
Most days I go buy some bread so I take a 30 to 90 minute stroll, depending on events.
This morning for example I stopped by a natural water pool and ended up saving a bee from drowning, and the bee recovered on my hand for a good 20 minutes, to recover from the nearly fatal experience it just went thru.
The evening has its routine as well as its adventures, making sure the kids donât jump straight on the TV when they get back home, sorting out the bathing, preparing the table, doing the dishes, putting everyone to bed and eventually myself not long after .
Thatâs about as much I would think is worth sharing right now. For everything else, itâs really about being a peaceful living organism in samsara, and thatâs it (but thatâs plenty enough already).
Very very good, please carry on.
I just wanted to thank you for saving a BEE. Their numbers may be dwindling. I am sure the Bee appreciated it too! Namaste
Dirt moving in right direction.
A scallywag
The (spiritual) self is certainly not the five impermanent khandhas (SN 22.33). Nor is he the six impermanent grounds/fields of sensory experience (internal ayatanani) (SN 35.102 & 138).
Form is not (spiritual) self, feeling is not (spiritual) self ⊠Consciousness is not (spiritual) self. (MN 148).
The (personal pronoun) self (as âbodyâ/ Ka-iya), is just made to be felt (SN 12.37).
Yet, there is an element of initiating, an element of exertion, an element of effort, an element of steadfastness, an element of persistence, an element of endeavoring.
SN 6.38/SA 459
Note: I have alredy covered what a dhatu (element) is all about.
If there was not this element of initiating, what would be the purpose to be made to âbe feltâ.
The kamma of the self (as personal pronoun) [what we do], made of these khandhas and ayatanani, is what decides of the future kamma [what we will be], and have us finally liberated or not.
Now, infer whatâs so evident!
Now, if you canât, why not move in your anscestral domain (SN 47.6), and liberate that citta. You might get to know what your self is in the process.
A thought, believed inâŠmaybe.
conditioned by ignorance.
Could you please link again to your treatment of dhatu?
a training exercise
What is it that gives rise to the sense of self?
What is this so-called âIâ that appears to be asking a question?
Something else may be going on here that we are incapable of seeing clearly because we are making assumptions based on the views and perceptions of worldlings (deluded beings)?
Ignorance.