Greg/dependent arising

[Guest guest]

Greg:

Thanks for pointing out these mutually dependent arisings. They spin

around and around. They do reinforce and perpetuate themselves, and when

they drop, both sides drop. As you say, we think we are a being in time

because we think we have experiences, and we think we have experiences

because we think we are a being in time. Also, we think there is a stream

of experiences because we believe that memory points to the past. We think

memory points to the past because we think there is a stream of

experiences. We think we are a subject of these expereinces because we

think there are objects, and we think there are objects because we think we

are the subject. It helps to see such pairs as symetrical, each notionally

dependent on the other, rather than all floating around some immovable

central point.

 

Dan: Yes - you point directly to the mutual arising of these perceptual

phenomena, each depending on the other to define itself. How fascinating

it is to observe. The one refers to the other

to validate itself, while the other refers to the first to validate itself.

A deep questioning arises here! It's like Escher's print of the two hands,

each drawing the other. The assumed support falls away :-)