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Interview with idealist physicist and inventor of the microprocessor, Federico Faggin
Soh

Nice video 

 
 
👍
 
Listen to the whole interview
 
Coming from a physicist and inventor of microprocessor that has direct experience of consciousness is precious."
 
 
 
....
 
 
    Mr CS
    Soh I’ve wanted to ask you for a while but never has, does idealism conflict with Buddhism? I ask because it seems that on the surface idealism seems to be more in line with Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism seems to be more materialist?
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    Soh Wei Yu
    Mr CS, Buddhism is not materialism, and consciousness continues after death.
    Excerpt by Greg Goode, who has deep realizations and wrote on both Advaita Vedanta and Madhyamaka / Buddhism:
    Taken from Krodha (Kyle Dixon)'s Dharmawheel posts compilation: https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../table-of-contents...
    Author: krodha Date: Tue May 28, 2013 6:35 pm Title: Re: Question about "location of mind" Content:
    Greg Goode had some good insight on this too:
    Greg wrote:
    Matt, when you say 'can someone show me how it's [awareness] not an eternal, non-separate essence?' and 'as soon as you point to a phenomenon upon which awareness would be dependent, awareness was already there,' are you assuming that awareness is one, single unified thing that is already there before objects are? That awareness is present whether objects are present or not? That is a particular model. It sounds very similar to Advaita. But there are other models.
    The emptiness teachings have a different model. Instead of one big awareness they posit many mind- moments or separate awarenesses. Each one is individuated by its own object. There is no awareness between or before or beyond objects. No awareness that is inherent. In this emptiness model, awareness is dependent upon its object. And as you point out, the object is dependent upon the awareness that apprehends it. But there is no underlying awareness that illuminates the entire show. That's how these teachings account for experience while keeping awareness from being inherently existent.
    This isn't the philosophy that denies awareness. That was materialism. We had a few materialists in the fb emptiness group, but they left when they found out that emptiness doesn't utterly deny awareness. So you see, there are people who do deny it... In the emptiness teachings, things depend on awareness, cognitiion, conceptualization, yes. But it is the other way around as well. Awareness depends on objects too.
    Greg wrote: Speaking of after studying the emptiness teachings.... After beginning to study the emptiness teachings, the most dramatic and earth-shattering thing I realized the emptiness of was awareness, consciousness. It came as an upside-down, inside-out BOOM, since I had been inquiring into this very point for a whole year. It happened while I was meditating on Nagarjuna's Treatise. Specifically verse IX:4, from “Examination of the Prior Entity.” If it can abide Without the seen, etc., Then, without a doubt, They can abide without it. I saw that a certain parity and bilateral symmetry is involved. If awareness can exist without its objects, then without a doubt, they can exist without awareness. True enough. Then there is a hidden line or two: BUT - the objects CAN'T exist without awareness. Therefore, awareness can't exist without them. This was big for me.
    .........
    Another excerpt by Greg Goode from https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../greg-goode-on... :
    Dr. Greg Goode wrote in Emptything:

    It looks your Bahiya Sutta experience helped you see awareness in a different way, more .... empty. You had a background in a view that saw awareness as more inherent or essential or substantive?

    I had an experience like this too. I was reading a sloka in Nagarjuna's treatise about the "prior entity," and I had been meditating on "emptiness is form" intensely for a year. These two threads came together in a big flash. In a flash, I grokked the emptiness of awareness as per Madhyamika. This realization is quite different from the Advaitic oneness-style realization. It carries one out to the "ten-thousand things" in a wonderful, light and free and kaleidoscopic, playful insubstantial clarity and immediacy. No veils, no holding back. No substance or essence anywhere, but love and directness and intimacy everywhere...
    …....
    Another excerpt by a different author from https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../reincarnation...
    Rizenfenix wrote:
    Continuing consciousness after death is, in most religions, a matter of revealed truth. In Buddhism, the evidence comes from the contemplative experience of people who are certainly not ordinary but who are sufficiently numerous that what they say about it is worth taking seriously into account. Indeed, such testimonies begin with those of the Buddha himself.
    Nevertheless, it’s important to understand that what’s called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some ‘entity’ or other. It’s not a process of metempsychosis because there is no ‘soul’. As long as one thinks in terms of entities rather than function and continuity, it’s impossible to understand the Buddhist concept of rebirth. As it’s said, ‘There is no thread passing through the beads of the necklace of rebirths.’ Over successive rebirths, what is maintained is not the identity of a ‘person’, but the conditioning of a stream of consciousness.
    Additionally, Buddhism speaks of successive states of existence; in other words, everything isn’t limited to just one lifetime. We’ve experienced other states of existence before our birth in this lifetime, and we’ll experience others after death. This, of course, leads to a fundamental question: is there a nonmaterial consciousness distinct from the body? It would be virtually impossible to talk about reincarnation without first examining the relationship between body and mind. Moreover, since Buddhism denies the existence of any self that could be seen as a separate entity capable of transmigrating from one existence to another by passing from one body to another, one might well wonder what it could be that links those successive states of existence together.
    One could possibly understand it better by considering it as a continuum, a stream of consciousness that continues to flow without there being any fixed or autonomous entity running through it… Rather it could be likened to a river without a boat, or to a lamp flame that lights a second lamp, which in-turn lights a third lamp, and so on and so forth; the flame at the end of the process is neither the same flame as at the outset, nor a completely different one…
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    Soh Wei Yu
    The myriad forms of the entire universe are the seal of the single Dharma. Whatever forms are seen are but the perception of mind. But mind is not independently existent. It is co-dependent with form.
    - Zen Master Mazu
    ….
    “But how could one [even] gain the ability to know that it is no-mind [that sees, hears, feels, and knows]?"
    "Just try to find out in every detail: What appearance does mind have? And if it can be apprehended: is [what is apprehended] mind or not? Is [mind] inside or outside, or somewhere in between? As long as one looks for mind in these three locations, one's search will end in failure. Indeed, searching it anywhere will end in failure. That's exactly why it is known as no-mind."”
    “At this, the disciple all at once greatly awakened and realized for the first time that there is no thing apart from mind, and no mind apart from things. All of his actions became utterly free. Having broken through the net of all doubt, he was freed of all obstruction.”
    “Dissolving the Mind
    enso.jpg
    Though purifying mind is the essence of practicing the Way, it is not done by clinging at the mind as a glorified and absolute entity. It is not that one simply goes inward by rejecting the external world. It is not that the mind is pure and the world is impure. When mind is clear, the world is a pure-field. When mind is deluded, the world is Samsara. Bodhidharma said,
    Seeing with insight, form is not simply form, because form depends on mind. And, mind is not simply mind, because mind depends on form. Mind and form create and negate each other. … Mind and the world are opposites, appearances arise where they meet. When your mind does not stir inside, the world does not arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is the true insight.” (from the Wakeup Discourse)
    Just like the masters of Madhyamaka, Bodhidharma too pointed out that mind and form are interdependently arising. Mind and form create each other. Yet, when you cling to form, you negate mind. And, when you cling to mind, you negate form. Only when such dualistic notions are dissolved, and only when both mind and the world are transparent (not turning to obstructing concepts) the true insight arises.
    In this regard, Bodhidharma said,
    Using the mind to look for reality is delusion.
    Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness.
    (from the Wakeup Discourse)
    So, to effectively enter the Way, one has to go beyond the dualities (conceptual constructs) of mind and form. As far as one looks for reality as an object of mind, one is still trapped in the net of delusion (of seeing mind and form as independent realities), never breaking free from it. In that way, one holds reality as something other than oneself, and even worse, one holds oneself as a spectator to a separate reality!
    When the mind does not stir anymore and settles into its pristine clarity, the world does not stir outside. The reality is revealed beyond the divisions of Self and others, and mind and form. Thus, as you learn not to use the mind to look for reality and simply rests in the natural state of mind as it is, there is the dawn of pristine awareness – knowing reality as it is, non-dually and non-conceptually.
    When the mind does not dissolve in this way to its original clarity, whatever one sees is merely the stirring of conceptuality. Even if we try to construct a Buddha’s mind, it only stirs and does not see reality. Because, the Buddha’s mind is simply the uncompounded clarity of Bodhi (awakening), free from stirring and constructions. So, Bodhidharma said,
    That which ordinary knowledge understands is also said to be within the boundaries of the norms. When you do not produce the mind of a common man, or the mind of a sravaka or a bodhisattva, and when you do not even produce a Buddha-mind or any mind at all, then for the first time you can be said to have gone outside the boundaries of the norms. If no mind at all arises, and if you do not produce understanding nor give rise to delusion, then, for the first time, you can be said to have gone outside of everything. (From the Record #1, of the Collection of Bodhidharma’s Works3 retrieved from Dunhuang Caves)
    “
    …..
    Some Zen Masters’ Quotations on Anatman
    AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
    Some Zen Masters’ Quotations on Anatman
    Some Zen Masters’ Quotations on Anatman
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    Soh Wei Yu
    Also as John Tan said below, "if you can't totally see that pristineness, that non-dual, that luminosity and see only emptiness, you are mistaken."
    2009 conversation with John Tan:
    “(12:20 PM) Thusness: what you see is DO, emptiness and non-dual, your mind is therefore trapped. This is how our mind is trapped and prevents the seeing. when we are trapped in non-dual, we can't see emptiness. Even when it is clearly mentioned, it can't be seen.
    (12:22 PM) AEN: so what does that mean? 😛
    (12:23 PM) Thusness: reality is like an illusion. but not an illusion. it is like a dream but not a dream. Everything is a magical display.And everything is mind. 🙂 What does that mean? The mind is always wrongly understood. from "I AM" to non-dual experience. We cannot understand the truth of this mind therefore we can't see mind. just like you can't see the essence of the article. we have a preconception.
    Everything is mind. And Everything is like a magical display. that is why i said there is no mirror, there is only reflection. the key is to know the nature of mind. to see that everything is reflection, transience Everything is Mind is what that must be derived from anatta and emptiness. but we do not know what "everything" is and what mind is. therefore we cannot 'see' and cannot experience.
    we cannot see the essence of it. so anatta and emptiness are taught.
    what is Everything? it is like magical display, like an illusion. but it is not an illusion. like a dream but not a dream which many misunderstood. therefore when we experience sounds, thoughts, see colors, forms, dimension and shapes...all is empty like an illusion. like dreams like the 'redness' of a flower. like the 'selfness'. like the 'hereness'. like the 'nowness', yet empty, nothing real.
    if you can't totally see that pristineness, that non-dual, that luminosity and see only emptiness, you are mistaken. the 'redness', the 'nowness', the 'hardness', the coldness, all are as luminous, as clear, as vivid. we must fully experience it. yet they are not real, nothing concrete, no solidity, nothing substantial, nothing graspable, no findable.
    Empty, thus non-dual luminosity and emptiness. we see this union, in all transience,
    passing phenomena, in emotions, in feelings, in thoughts, in sounds, in sight, in color, in dimension, in shapes, in taste, in hardness, coldness, in sweetness, in sky, in the sound of chirping bird, all experience are like that. empty yet luminous, then we realise that it is the same as mind, it is mind. if we din see these 2 nature of mind thoroughly, we can't see. we distant, we seek, we find. because of its emptiness nature, the manifold, we cannot know what mind is. therefore the ground is taught, the view is taught. empty yet non-dual luminosity, so that you can see and experience directly that the transience are mind, yet there is no self nature, get it?
    (12:38 PM) AEN: think so
    (12:38 PM) Thusness: then you experience what is one taste. Because we do not know what mind is, we cannot experience mind. we do not know, that is why insight is important. however if you do not know what is non-dual luminosity and emptiness, how is a practitioner going to experience mind everywhere and know that whatever arises is mind? therefore first anatta (non-dual luminosity), then emptiness, then spontaneous arising. do you understand what i mean? read the article ( On Anatta (No-Self), Emptiness, Maha and Ordinariness, and Spontaneous Perfection )”
    Emptiness/Chariot as Vivid Appearing Presence
    AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
    Emptiness/Chariot as Vivid Appearing Presence
    Emptiness/Chariot as Vivid Appearing Presence
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    Soh:

    another partial excerpt from https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2019/02/the-transient-universe-has-heart.html

    "The purpose of anatta is to have full blown experience of the heart -- boundlessly, completely, non-dually and non-locally. Re-read what I wrote to Jax.

    In every situations, in all conditions, in all events. It is to eliminate unnecessary contrivity so that our essence can be expressed without obscuration.

    Jax wants to point to the heart but is unable to express in a non-dual way... for in duality, the essence cannot be realized. All dualistic interpretation are mind made. You know the smile of Mahākāśyapa? Can you touch the heart of that smile even 2500 yrs later?

    One must lose all mind and body by feeling with entire mind and body this essence which is 心 (Mind). Yet 心 (Mind) too is 不可得 (ungraspable/unobtainable).. The purpose is not to deny 心 (Mind) but rather not to place any limitations or duality so that 心 (Mind) can fully manifest.

    Therefore without understanding 缘 (conditions)，is to limit 心 (Mind). without understanding 缘 (conditions)，is to place limitation in its manifestations. You must fully experience 心 (Mind) by realizing 无心 (No-Mind) and fully embrace the wisdom of 不可得 (ungraspable/unobtainable)." - John Tan/Thusness, 2014

 

 

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Mr CG asked, "What stage you reckon Federico is at Soh Wei Yu?"

 

Soh replied, "Thusness Stage 1 and 2 https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html *

Having a direct realization of Consciousness with physicist background is rare and precious.

* https://besharamagazine.org/science-technology/consciousness-as-the-ground-of-being/

Federico: Well, in this theory, the quantum fields are the conscious entities. But the particles are not conscious because they don’t really exist as separate things; they are just states of those fields. They cannot be conscious because they do not have a unique identity.

Similarly, we think of ourselves as conscious bodies. But we are only conscious because our bodies are connected with conscious entities that exist in a vaster reality of which space–time reality is just a projection. So what I am – the real ‘me’ – lives in this vaster reality and it controls my body top-down. Our body is not conscious; it is made of electrons, protons, and so on, and it exists as information, as quantum-classical information. The simplest structure in the physical world that can host consciousness is a cell. Nothing less than a living cell can have its own consciousness in the sense that the physical structure can be controlled by a conscious entity.

Jane: So if we do not really exist in space time, but at the level of this vaster reality, physical death should not fundamentally disrupt our consciousness?

Federico: Yes, absolutely. We think that when the body dies, it is the end of our consciousness because we have been told that consciousness is produced by the brain. But as I said earlier, it is the other way around. It is the brain that is produced by consciousness. So consciousness uses the body as a tool to know itself.

Clearly our body is temporary, but we are not temporary because we exist outside space–time and we want to know ourselves. And we will continue to seek to know ourselves ever more, for, as I said earlier, the process will never end. Our identity may transform itself, but we never die. We are quantum entities, and a consequence of this model is the idea that we exist in what we might call ‘eternity’. When our body dies, we don’t go anywhere because, in a way, we never were ‘here’.

Richard: Could this idea not lead to a kind of fatalism. If I am not my body, and you are not your body, why should I look after you or care about you?

Federico: Well, if we are all part of a holistic One, how can we be separate from each other? If you experience yourself as the world that observes itself, you will directly know that you are me and I am you. So, it could never happen that I would not care about what happens to you because what happens to you also happens to me. But the only way to understand this is not intellectually. It can only occur through an experience of union, because until I had that experience of love, I could have said exactly what you just asked.

Richard: You had that extraordinary experience at Lake Tahoe and in the space of less than a minute, you knew things that you hadn’t known before. But does this mean that unless someone has a similar experience, they cannot understand fully what you are talking about?

Federico: In a way, yes. As embodied conscious entities we forget our true nature as soon as we identify with our bodies. Yet, when we experience our true nature again, we recognise ourselves in that experience. If you want to find out, open yourself up to finding out, and you will be given the experience by yourself and no one else. I believe it was the vaster ‘me’ who gave me the Lake Tahoe experience because I wanted to find out for no other reason than knowing – not because I wanted to make a computer out of it, or make money, or whatever. If you want to just know for knowing’s sake, you will come to know. Period." 

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Zen Master Bassui's One-Mind Sermon
Soh

 

    Soh Wei Yu

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     Jantt0uSair77y0 3n7s iatu7 4i:12o e1PiM 
    Someone shared this on buddhism group. Nice self enquiry pointers.
    拔隊得勝 Bassui Tokushō (1327–1387)
    One-Mind Sermon
    If you would free yourself of the sufferings of Samsara, you must learn the direct way to become a Buddha. This way is no other than the realization of your own Mind. Now what is this Mind? It is the true nature of all sentient beings, that which existed before our parents were born and hence before our own birth, and which presently exists, unchangeable and eternal. So it is called one's Face before one's parents were born. This Mind is intrinsically pure. When we are born it is not newly created, and when we die it does not perish. It has no distinction of male or female, nor has it any coloration of good or bad. It cannot be compared with anything, so it is called Buddha-nature. Yet countless thoughts issue from this Self-nature as waves arise in the ocean or as images are reflected in a mirror.
    If you want to realize your own Mind, you must first of all look into the source from which thoughts flow. Sleeping and working, standing and sitting, profoundly ask yourself, "What is my own Mind?“ with an intense yearning to resolve this question. This is called "training" or "practice" or "desire for truth" or "thirst for realization."
    Imagine a child sleeping next to its parents and dreaming it is being beaten or is painfully sick. The parents cannot help the child no matter how much it suffers, for no one can enter the dreaming mind of another. If the child could awaken itself, it could be freed of this suffering automatically. In the same way, one who realizes that his own Mind is Buddha frees himself instantly from the sufferings arising from (ignorance of the law of) ceaseless change of birth-and-death. If a Buddha could prevent it, do you think he would allow even one sentient being to fall into hell? Without Self-realization one cannot understand such things as these.
    What kind of master is it that this very moment sees colors with the eyes and hears voices with the ears, that now rises the hands and moves the feet? We know these are functions of our own mind, but no one knows precisely how they are performed, It may be asserted that behind these actions there is no entity, yet it is obvious they are being performed spontaneously. Conversely, it may be maintained that these are the acts of some entity; still the entity is invisible. If one regards this question as unfathornable, all attempts to reason (out an answer) will cease and one will be at a loss to know what to do. In this propitious state deepen and deepen the yearning, tirelessly, to the extreme. When the profound questioning penetrates to the very bottom, and that bottom is broken open, not the slightest doubt will remain that your own Mind is itself Buddha, the Void-universe. There will then be no anxiety about life or death, no truth to search for.
    Upon such realization question yourself even more intensely in this way: "My body is like a phantom, like bubbles on a stream. My mind, looking into itself, is as formless as empty-space, yet somewhere within sounds are perceived. Who is hearing?" Should you question yourself in this way with profound absorption, never slackening the intensity of your effort, your rational mind eventually will exhaust itself and only questioning at the deepest level will remain. Finally you will lose awareness of your own body. Your long-held conceptions and notions will perish, after absolute questioning, in the way that every drop of water vanishes from a tub broken open at the bottom, and perfect enlightenment will follow like flowers suddenly blooming on withered trees.
    While you are doing zazen neither despise nor cherish the thoughts that arise; only search your own mind, the very source of these thoughts. You must understand that anything appearing in your consciousness or seen by your eyes is an illusion, of no enduring reality. Hence you should neither fear nor be fascinated by such phenomena. If you keep your mind at empty as space, unstained by extraneous matters, no evil spirits can disturb you even on your deathbed. While engaged in zazen, however, keep none of this counsel in mind. You must only become the question "What is this Mind?" or "'What is it that hears these sounds?" When you realize this Mind you will know that it is the very source of all Buddhas and sentient beings. The Bodhisattva Kannon is so called because he attained enlightenment by perceiving (i.e., grasping the source of) the sounds of the world about him.
    At work, at rest, never stop trying to realize who it is that hears. Even though your questioning becomes almost unconscious, you won't find the one who hears, and all your efforts will come to naught. Yet sounds can be heard, so question yourself to an even profounder level. At last every vestige of self-awareness will disappear and you will feel like a cloudless sky. Within yourself you will find no "I," nor will you discover anyone who hears. This Mind is like the void, yet it hasn't a single spot that can be called empty. This state is often mistaken for Self-realization. But continue to ask yourself even more intensely, "Now who is it that hears?" If you bore and bore into this question, oblivious to anything else, even this feeling of voidness will vanish and you will be unaware of anything - total darkness will prevail. (Don't stop here, but) keep asking with all your strength, "What is it that hears?" Only when you have completely exhausted the questioning will the question burst; now you will feel like a man come back from the dead. This is true realization. You will see the Buddhas of all the universes face to face and the Patriarchs past and present. Test yourself with this koan: "A monk asked Joshu: 'What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming to China?' Joshu replied: 'The oak tree in the garden.´" Should this koan leave you with the slightest doubt, you need to resume questioning, "What is it that hears?"
    If you don't come to realization in this present life, when will you? Once you have died you won't be able to avoid a long period of suffering in the Three Evil Paths. What is obstructing realization? Nothing but your own half-hearted desire for truth. Think of this and exert yourself to the utmost.

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    • Mr./Ms. LS
    I like everything except the last part of 3 evil paths in the after life ? Why evil? Are not these astral realms not also empty? And is no wisdom gained in this incarnation carried over ?

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    Soh Wei Yu
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    The actual Pali word is this:
    apaya-bhumi [apaaya-bhuumi]: State of deprivation; the four lower levels of existence into which one might be reborn as a result of past unskillful actions (see kamma): rebirth in hell, as a hungry ghost (see peta), as an angry demon (see Asura), or as a common animal. None of these states is permanent.

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    Mr./Ms. LS A being in the lower realm faces a lot of suffering and is cut off from the chances of awakening, because there is just too much suffering to really practice and awaken.

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    Mr./Ms. LS Likewise the celestial realms are very blissful, more blissful than human realm, but they are also not so good from the dharma perspective because one gets distracted by pleasure and generally do not want to practice. But there are exceptions, there are devas who practice and awaken, they are just more rare and more hindered by their pleasant environment than we are. Less impetus to practice.
    1

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    Daniel M. Ingram wrote about his past lives:
    “
    As to world-cycles or the like, my past life experiences line up along the following lines, if you believe in such experiences having validity:
    1) This life human.
    2) Last life some sort of moderately powerful, clearly somewhat debauched male jealous god/sorcerer of some kind that was stabbed in the back with a dagger by a woman who he had wronged in some way, I think.
    3) Some sort of mother skunk-like animal that was eaten by a large black dog or wolf.
    4) Some sort of mother bat that was killed when the rock it was clinging to at the top of the cave fell to the floor.
    5) Some sort of grim, gigantic, armored skeletal titan-like thing that ran tirelessly through space swinging a gigantic sword and doing battle nearly continuously without sleep for hundreds of thousands of years that was killed by something like a dragon.
    6) Some gigantic, gelatinous, multi-tentacled, very alien being living in a very dark place for a very long time, probably under water, I think.
    Other than some sense that the skunk-thing and the bat-thing were virtuous mothers, I have no sense that there was any profound previous dharmic development at least back that far, and, in fact, have the distinct sense that the previous one was a bit of a cad and not very ethical. Take that all for what you will.”
    Daniel
    4

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    Mr./Ms. JHg
    Ridiculous
    But
    Entertaining....!!!!

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    • Mr./Ms. LS
    These are issues of (Buddhist) cosmology. My theology prof. (now at BU, Robert Neville) said that the essence of (mystical) religions like Buddhism is ontological. All the cosmological stuff are stories for the masses. The essence of Buddhism is ontological......the discovery of pure Being (in which the self like phenomenal reality itself is empty). Cosmology may be interesting but isn't "true."

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    Soh Wei Yu
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    There are evidence of other realms
    Will be good to keep an open mind at least
    Evidence for the Afterlife
    On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives
    AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
    On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives
    On "Supernatural Powers" or Siddhis, and Past Lives

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    Buddhism goes beyond “pure being” which is the I AM realization of the thusness 7 stages
    Among Buddha’s discoveries:
    The Section of the Threes
    99. The Threefold Knowledge
    This was said by the Lord…
    “Bhikkhus, I declare that it is through the Dhamma that one becomes a brahmin possessing the threefold knowledge: (I do not say this) of another merely because he can talk persuasively and recite. And how do I declare that it is through the Dhamma that one becomes a brahmin possessing the threefold knowledge?
    “Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu recollects a variety of former lives, that is, one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births; many aeons of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of both world-contraction and expansion. He recollects in a particular life being such a one by name, of such a clan, of such an appearance, having this kind of nutriment, experiencing these kinds of pleasure and pain, having this lifespan; and deceasing from there he arose here. Thus with all their details and particulars he recollects a variety of former lives. This is the first knowledge attained by him. Ignorance is dispelled, knowledge has arisen; darkness is dispelled, light has arisen, as happens in one who lives diligent, ardent, and resolute.
    “Then again, bhikkhus, with the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, a bhikkhu sees beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and he understands how beings pass on according to their deeds thus: ‘Those worthy beings practising misconduct by body, speech, and mind, insulters of the noble ones, of wrong view and undertaking deeds in consequence of wrong view, when the body perishes have been reborn after death in a state of misery, a bad bourn, a state of ruin, hell. But those worthy beings practising good conduct by body, speech, and mind, not insulters of the noble ones, of right view and undertaking deeds in consequence of right view, when the body perishes, have been reborn after death in a good bourn, a heavenly world.’ Thus he sees this with the divine eye and he understands how beings pass on according to their deeds. This is the second knowledge attained by him. Ignorance is dispelled, knowledge has arisen; darkness is dispelled, light has arisen, as happens in one who lives diligent, ardent, and resolute.
    “Then again, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu, through realization by his own direct knowledge, here and now enters and abides in the mind-release and wisdom-release that is taintless by the destruction of the taints. This is the third knowledge attained by him. Ignorance is dispelled, knowledge has arisen; darkness is dispelled, light has arisen, as happens in one who lives diligent, ardent, and resolute.
    “Thus, bhikkhus, do I declare that it is through the Dhamma that one becomes a brahmin possessing the threefold knowledge; (I do not say this) of another merely because he can talk persuasively and recite.”
    He who knows his former lives,
    Who sees heaven and states of woe,
    Who reaches the end of birth,
    A sage and master of direct knowledge—
    By these three ways of knowing one becomes
    A brahmin having the threefold knowledge.
    That is what I call the threefold knowledge,
    Not another’s babbling and reciting.
    This too is the meaning of what was said by the Lord, so I heard.

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    • SuttaCentral
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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    And it is not only Buddha. Countless practitioners since him have recalled their past lives. About 5 people in the AtR group had vivid recollections of their past lives in addition to anatta realisation. It is possible to recall through deep samadhi and the Buddha taught how.

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    • Mr./Ms. LS
    Soh Wei Yu but whose past life is it? Especially if the notion of an enduring soul is heretical to Buddhism?

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    "Continuing consciousness after death is, in most religions, a matter of revealed truth. In Buddhism, the evidence comes from the contemplative experience of people who are certainly not ordinary but who are sufficiently numerous that what they say about it is worth taking seriously into account. Indeed, such testimonies begin with those of the Buddha himself.
    Nevertheless, it’s important to understand that what’s called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some ‘entity’ or other. It’s not a process of metempsychosis because there is no ‘soul’. As long as one thinks in terms of entities rather than function and continuity, it’s impossible to understand the Buddhist concept of rebirth. As it’s said, ‘There is no thread passing through the beads of the necklace of rebirths.’ Over successive rebirths, what is maintained is not the identity of a ‘person’, but the conditioning of a stream of consciousness.
    Additionally, Buddhism speaks of successive states of existence; in other words, everything isn’t limited to just one lifetime. We’ve experienced other states of existence before our birth in this lifetime, and we’ll experience others after death. This, of course, leads to a fundamental question: is there a nonmaterial consciousness distinct from the body? It would be virtually impossible to talk about reincarnation without first examining the relationship between body and mind. Moreover, since Buddhism denies the existence of any self that could be seen as a separate entity capable of transmigrating from one existence to another by passing from one body to another, one might well wonder what it could be that links those successive states of existence together.
    One could possibly understand it better by considering it as a continuum, a stream of consciousness that continues to flow without there being any fixed or autonomous entity running through it… Rather it could be likened to a river without a boat, or to a lamp flame that lights a second lamp, which in-turn lights a third lamp, and so on and so forth; the flame at the end of the process is neither the same flame as at the outset, nor a completely different one…" - Rizenfenix
    Rebirth Without Soul
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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    "
    In verse 6, he says,
    "Then, as for extremely subtle entities,
    Those who regard them with nihilism,
    Lacking precise and thorough knowledge,
    Will not see the actuality of conditioned arising."
    Can anyone explain this a bit? What is being referred to as extremely subtle entities that may be regarded with nihilism, lacking precise and thorough knowledge?
    Thank you for input.
    Malcolm wrote:
    The extremely subtle existents are particles, paramanus.
    A more precise translation would be:
    Although the aggregates are serially connected,
    the wise are to comprehend nothing transfers.
    Someone, having conceived of annihilation,
    even in extremely subtle existents,
    is not wise,
    and will never see the meaning of ‘arisen from conditions’.
    The auto commentary states with respect to this:
    Therein, the aggregates are the aggregates of matter, sensation, perception, formations and consciousness. Those, called ‘serially joined’, not having ceased, produce another produced from that cause; although not even the subtle particle of an existent has transmigrated from this world to the next.
    The purpose of this is to point out that even though nothing transfers from this life to the next, the assertion that even a subtle particle is annihilated is false. Why? Because in Madhyamaka causes and effects are neither the same nor different."

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    On hell:
    krodha commented on Im getting a little sick of Christians trying to scare me out of buddhism and into Christianity
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    •Posted byu/manwithnoego
    krodha
    23 points ·
    1 day ago
    Party Train
    There are six lōkas, meaning realms or destinations, in samsara. The narāka or “hell” realm is one of them.
    Somewhat different than the Christian hell though. Buddhist hell is not actually a literal place, it appears like a literal place to those who experience it, but it is something like an extremely long and negative mental state which involves the projection of a hell environment.

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    (Malcolm and a famous Buddhist master, not sure is it Vasubandhu or Asangha made similar statements)

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    • Mr./Ms. LS
    Soh Wei Yu more cosmology

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    • Soh Wei Yu
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    Malcolm: " There is and only ever has been one model of rebirth in Buddhadharma. You keep conflating cosmology with the principle of punarbhāva, rebirth. The former is not necessary to the latter.
    One, in Mahāyāna it is maintained that the three realms are mind only. This includes the six lokas, features such as Mt. Meru and so on, including the perception you have of your own sense organs, body and so on. According to Mahāyāna, all of these perceptions and experiences arise from traces activated in the all-basis consciousness.
    Now that we have removed physicality and cosmology from the equation, we can understand that the apparent death of our physical body is not a death of a physical body, rather it is the cessation of the perception of a physical body we have now and in this life time. But given that we accept, as Mahāyānists, that all phenomena are only mind, the exhaustion of this life's appearances do not preclude the arising of the appearance of a new series of aggregates to our consciousness, whether or not we have any memory of a past life.
    Descarte had it wrong, there is no demon in the mix; but there are afflictions in the mix, and for as long as the traces of those afflictions contaminate our minds streams, then for us there is no end to birth and death."

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    • Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics
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      Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics
      Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics
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    • Soh Wei Yu
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      "Hellish NDE
      Overtly hellish experiences may be the least common type of distressing NDE. A man in heart failure felt himself falling into the depths of the Earth. At the bottom was a set of high, rusty gates, which he perceived as the gates of hell. Panic-stricken, he managed to scramble back up to daylight.
      A woman was being escorted through a frighteningly desolate landscape and saw a group of wandering spirits. They looked lost and in pain, but her guide indicated she was not allowed to help them.
      An atheistic university professor with an intestinal rupture experienced being maliciously pinched, then torn apart by malevolent beings.3
      A woman who hemorrhaged from a ruptured Fallopian tube reported an NDE involving “horrific beings with gray gelatinous appendages grasping and clawing at me. The sounds of their guttural moaning and the indescribable stench still remain 41 years later. There was no benign Being of Light, no life video, nothing beautiful or pleasant.”
      A woman who attempted suicide felt her body sliding downward in a cold, dark, watery environment: “When I reached the bottom, it resembled the entrance to a cave, with what looked like webs hanging…. I heard cries, wails, moans, and the gnashing of teeth. I saw these beings that resembled humans, with the shape of a head and body, but they were ugly and grotesque…. They were frightening and sounded like they were tormented, in agony.”"
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    • Soh Wei Yu
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      Those sounds like how some of the scriptures would describe these realms too.
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    • Michael Hernandez
    Is a steam the shape of the gully it cuts through or the water?
    The water is shaped by the phenomena it passes and the force by which it cuts through.
    It isn't good nor bad but flows through the habit it chanced to encounter.
    It comes from the same source and runs to it.
    This is consciousness.

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