The mind is a sense organ in Buddhism.
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What of the imaginary object?
I don’t follow you, I’m afraid.
(‘Mind-objects’ can be conditioned too. Sometimes a sip of tea or a bite of cake can trigger a whole stream of memories. )
Mind precedes all knowables,
mind’s their chief, mind-made are they.
If with a corrupted mind
one should either speak or act
dukkha follows caused by that,
as does the wheel the ox’s hoof.
Verse 1 of the Dhammapadda.
Maybe that will shed some light on it. Are you asking how imagined objects or thought comes to arise? How they are conditioned to be and become? The effects that holding on to particular thoughts can have?
That verse refers to wholesome or unwholesome states of mind.
Indeed, an attachment to certain mind born views, opinions, memories, habits and so forth can give rise to either of those states. I am trying to get a gauge for what Anderson means by his question.
Because they are not this:
And what is right view? Katamā ca, bhikkhave, sammādiṭṭhi? Knowing about suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Yaṁ kho, bhikkhave, dukkhe ñāṇaṁ, dukkhasamudaye ñāṇaṁ, dukkhanirodhe ñāṇaṁ, dukkhanirodhagāminiyā paṭipadāya ñāṇaṁ— This is called right view. ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, sammādiṭṭhi. (SN 45.8)
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Neither of them because the teachings are “transcendent”…… the middle-way.
Not between the two but right through them.
…… hence…… conditioned and the unconditioned.
I’m only on day 9 of Ajahn Brahmali’s course on DN1 Brahmajalasutta, so my understanding is embryonic, but this is as I currently understand…
In addition to the ‘self’ discussions upstream in this thread, the other problem with ‘eternalism’ and ‘annihilationism’ (and the other 60 views in DN1) is that they all have feeling as a condition. There’s at least two problems with that: [1] feelings are annica therefore unstable and unsatisfactory. When we’re happy-happy-joy-joy, we want to believe in eternalist views. When we’re all dukkha’ed up, we want to believe in annihilationist views. (If ‘I’ am Eternal, then so is my suffering) Problem [2] is that feeling → grasping → misery and grief → around we go again.
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This is my most recent development.
Mindfulness is something that is cultivated over a period of time. Have you heard someone describe another as lacking conscience, described as mindless or even soulless?
This points to the phenomenon I speak of.
This is why views of eternalism and annihilationsim are faultt views and not the way it is. Life presents itself as the natural middle way or solution to a dilemma.
The reality is that the strong endure,
And that the weak are blown away,
Only to pop up again when they are strong enough to endure.
Hence the mention of the Tathagata as being beyond coming and going.
This is why it makes no sense to reference eternity or annihilationism. One only endures when they are strong enough. One only partakes in the everlasting consciously when they have developed the strength to everlast.
Mindfulness is the path to the Deathless and the mindless are as if already dead.
The present flow of nowness is the deliverance that one seeks, but during the bodhi process, one can become disassociated from that flow by becoming stuck in the conceptual abstraction faculty of mind which can lead to disassociation or even intense states of stress, fear, terror and panic which overwhelm and overtake oneself.
Life, the middle way, is what clothes you and grows you.
Verse 21: Mindfulness is the way to the Deathless (Nibbana); mindlessness is the way to Death. Those who are mindful do not die; those who are not mindful are as if already dead.
Verse 22: Fully comprehending this, the wise, who are mindful, rejoice in being mindful and find delight in the domain of the Noble Ones (Ariyas).
Verse 23: The wise, constantly cultivating Tranquillity and Insight Development Practice, being ever mindful and steadfastly striving, realize Nibbana: Nibbana, which is free from the bonds of yoga; Nibbana, the Incomparable!
Nibanna as: peace, security, release, understanding, unbounded freedom born of comprehending the noble way.
Additional musings: If you aren’t strong enough, one perishes, and that shows that one’s existence is conditional and not necessarily eternal or guaranteed to endure. Only when one arrives at the present moment which stands free of time does one come to true total rest.
All that I can conceive of is what arrives through the senses. In deep rest, I am unable to receive what is occuring to other people as I am not aware - there is gaps in wakefulness.
This is why I find the focus on infinity, finity, eternalism and annihilation to not be a fruitful focus. One cannot get their head around it. One can only be as they are in the present and that isn’t an idea or a view. Life and the flow of life itself is not a view. The mind becomes fixed and attached & hung up on views. This is natural though and is apart of the awakening process.
The great body of truth is that of the numerous elements. One’s physical body is an amalgamation of that greater body. From one’s physical body comes the mind, and from mind comes the sense of self which may or may not cause difficulties dependent on whether or not one understands or sees what it is in actuality. One’s conscious awareness is thus conditional.