Miri Albahari: "A Buddhist friend remarked recently: "Perhaps one to two _arahants_ exist in the world'. 'Arahant' (or _arhat_) is a Buddhist term for someone who has attained the _summum bonum_ of Buddhist practice. Such a state is known as 'enlightenment' or _nirvana_. While Buddhist traditions will differ in their exact depictions of nirvana, most would agree that a sense of the self, with its attendant feelings of 'me' and 'mine, is extinguished. With it is extinguished the capacity to suffer mentally. There is a radical shift in motivational structure; no longer do such persons seek gratification from any state of affairs. Losing family or suffering illness fails to dent their equanimity. The arahant operates from a different basis: no more identifying with the 'I' of such situations than most of us would identify with burning leaves on a fire. Yet they still act fluently in the world --- with great joy and spontaneity and compassion.
"The 'perhaps' of my Buddhist friend was meant to indicate the extreme rarity of such people. Buddhist traditions hold the pull of craving and attachment, needed to sustain the illusion of self, to be so strong that it would take lifetimes of dedicated practice to vanquish. As a philosopher, I am interested in taking the 'perhaps' another way: not as an indication of rarity, but of _modality_. Is it really psychologically possible for an arahant to exist, human brains and minds being what they are? Can people really become so free from the sense of self that they no longer identify with their bodies or minds , and yet still act fluently and without suffering in the world? ..." (Mark Siderits, Evan Thompson & Dan Zahavi, editors, 'Self, No Self?: Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions', pp.79-80) ___ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
