Instructions for Disassembly

[cherydactyl]

If we take a motor car, we feel quite sure about what we have . . . until we start taking it apart. But once we have . . . taken out the gearbox and transmission, removed the wheels and so on--what's left? We don't have a car any more, just a set of spare parts.

It is the same with a person. That too can be stripped down to its basic components . . . the so-called skandhas or "groups." There is 1. the category of the physical, which includes the body and its five senses; 2. that of feeling; 3. perception; 4. mental formations (impulses and emotions); and 5. consciousness or mind. When these groups of components come together in proper working order, the right conditions exist for the illusion of a self and a person to arise. But once they break down and go their separate ways--as at physical death, for instance--then that self or person cannot be found.

--John Snelling, in Elements of Buddhism, from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith
Tricycle's Daily Dharma for August 17, 2008

Comments

[jixel.livejournal.com]

did you know atomically we are far more full of vast space than actually matter?

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Totally. And it kind of makes the point, doesn't it? :)

Buddhists and lists

[presterjon.livejournal.com]

Why is it that buddhists make lists out of everything? I think there is a sinister purpose meant to trick the sort of person who must codify and pigeonhole everything into enlightenment.

Re: Buddhists and lists

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

ROFL!!!

And, I totally see what you mean. lol!

[bitter-lily.livejournal.com]

The really interesting thing to me is that while we can "take out" the car motor and computer and any other crucial part, we CANNOT "take out" a person's consciousness or mind. Sure, the brain is pretty necessary -- but not sufficient. I'm probably using this word wrong, but it's transcendental.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Actually, Buddhists intellectual types would agree about what you're saying, I think. The list above recognizes that mind/consciousness is a layering on of factors. The physical brain is considered part of the body in this model, and therefore part of the first skandha. Without the basis of the first skandha, without the physical brain and nervous system, the second skandha of feelings couldn't function or arise. We have to have a working brain and senses, before we have feelings, and those precede perception, and that precedes emotion and impulse, and all the foregoing must be in place before you can build consciousness. It's just a different way of categorizing the phenomena than you generally get in the West.