Greetings,
Call this sharing :-) or call it a method to latch, but here is Albahari's
definition of co-dependent:
"... Nibbana is depicted as being unconditioned -- a notion that will
make little sense unless we first understand what it means, in Buddhism, for
something to be conditioned. That is the purpose of this section. Note that
the exercise here is not to defend, but to elaborate Buddhist thought on this
matter --- although much of it should come across as fairly uncontentious.
"In Buddhist cosmology, the world of objects - as I have specified the
term ‘object’ --- amounts to what is known as 'conditioned existence'. Each
object within conditioned existence is characterised by a co-dependence upon
other conditioned objects in a manner that is both synchronic and diachronic.
Synchronic co-dependence means that a given object cannot, at a given time,
exist without a concurrently supporting network of other conditioned objects.
'Other conditioned objects' can include the internal structure and
functionality of an object, in other words, objects that make up a more complex
object. Our living bodies, for instance, depend upon the mutual function of
innumerable internal objects such as organs, DNA, cells and atoms. Supporting
objects also occur outside of the conditioned object, our living bodies
depending upon such factors as breathable air, temperature, gravity and
sustenance. In Buddhist cosmology, there is no conditioned object --- mental
or physical --- whose existence does not synchronically depend upon other
specifiable conditions, such that the withdrawing of those conditions
(themselves objects) would not bring about the destruction of that object.
There is, in other words, no such thing as an indestructible object, whether
this be an atomic particle or a depressed mood. At any moment in time, the
synchronic existence of a conditioned object is made actual by the mutual
manifesting of other favourable conditions. And each of these favourable
conditions is itself dependent upon other conditions, suggesting a vast network
of interconnected objects. That is partly what it means for an object to be
'conditioned'.
"Along with synchronic co-dependency, Buddhism alludes to a diachronic
co-dependency (or conditionality) of objects. This means that whether on a
microscopic level (indirectly accessible to a human subject's perspective) or a
psychological level (directly accessible to a human's perspective) each object
over time, due to other conditioned objects, undergoing creation, change or
destruction in a non-random, law-like fashion. One micro-moment of objects
will condition or influence the next micro-moment according to laws of nature
that Buddhism says operate at a number of different levels (mechanical,
biological, psychological and so forth). while some of these laws (e.g.,
mechanical) apply more often to objects of the external physical world,
Buddhism places particular emphasis on the train of objects that appear
directly (even if inattentively) to a subject's perspective, and which,
relative to this perspective, pass in and out of that subject's field of
witnessing, or more colloquially, awareness. It is the set of objects as
occurrently (not just dispositionally) viewed by a subject, whether attentively
or inattentively. I shall for convenience refer to these objects as 'objects
of awareness' or simply 'awareness-objects'.
"Objects of awareness can include many items from the general set of objects
such as the surrounding world, one's physical body, sensations, perceptions,
thoughts, volitions and emotions.
(Albahari, Miri, 'Analytical Buddhism: The Two-tiered Illusion of Self ',
pp.12-13)
---
p.s. Ms. Albahari's "Buddhist" perspective is informed by Theravada Buddhism
and based on her own philosophical inferences drawn from the Pali Canon.
Also I can easily translate the reference to "non-random, law-like
fashion" and "laws of nature" to static patterns of value.
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