The skandhic model is an excelleng
model to guide and help us see and appreciate the various teachings
of Buddha. When I was travelling down the river from Mandalan
to Bagan in Myanmar I meditated most of the time throughout the
journey. It was a wondrous experience to travel along the vast
expanse of the river. Some where along the river I had an
insight. An insight into the 4 noble truth and 5 skandha. At that
time I had very little knowledge or understanding of
Buddhism. After the holiday I did some background reading and
research and found that the insight was validated by what Buddha
taught except for one aspect. I mentioned this to two or 3
people and they thought I was crazy. One fellow even said that how
could so many monks, highly accomplished monks could be wrong. I
must be an arrogant fool to think I knew more than them. I
was silent for quite a few years now.
What insight was validated and what insight wasn't?
Then a few days back you posted a scripture,
I can't remember the name now. It started with a P. And the final
piece of the insight now have scriptural support. It was the
key to liberation. I never had any doubt but to convince
others I needed authority. And our believe in authority is so
ingrained that we are often fooled by personalities and the stuff
they write and yet in the kalama sutta and in other suttas the
order of value are :
a. experiences
b. knowledge
c. scripture.
Notice how far down scripture was according to Buddha
sakyamuni.
You mean Phagguna Sutta: To Phagguna? http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.012.nypo.html
And sensate reality is one of those clever phrases to
mask the contradictions in all that you had written and talked
about. Sensate reality is an oxymoron. Does that mean that if
anything that is not sense-based does not exist or if exist is not
real ?
I have already said many times that there is no other reality than sensate reality, and that Awareness is a manifestation, but because you haven't experienced it you are having doubts.
So now let Buddha answer you:
"Monks, I will teach you the All. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."
"As you say, lord," the monks responded.
The Blessed One said, "What is the All? Simply the eye & forms,
ear & sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body &
tactile sensations, intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the
All. 1 Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,'
if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for his statement,
would be unable to explain, and furthermore, would be put to grief.
Why? Because it lies beyond range."
In the sutra you quoted(the one starting with P ;-)) what
actually will be reborned ? Read that part and you will have
an idea of the part of the consciousness that transmigrate and it
is that "observer" which is not permanent but dynamic and ever
changing. That "observer" had stopped and had no need or desire in
engaging with the world and just remain. If it wanted to it can
reach out. Remember the Bhg A ? Instead of connecting with
his own 6 sense organ such a being could direct it within another
person's 6 sense organ. This is basically your mind
reading. This is not explained in any of the sutras ;-)
so you don't have to believe me.
The sutta which I believe you are refering to, Phagguna Sutta: To Phaggun, clearly states that there is no agent or self that is transmigrating.
The question 'who feels?' or 'who transmigrates' is false since it implies a self or observer that transmigrates, whereas the Buddha said one should be asking 'with what condition does birth arise'? 'With what condition does feeling arise?'
Feelings arise without a feeler or observer, birth arise without a transmigratory self. It just happens when condition is.
As Dhammanando Bhikkhu puts it,
---------------------------
QUOTE(Darkknight @ Jan 8 2007, 06:17 AM)
Q. So there is no self (Atman). so what exactly is it that
is reborn, and how does what is reborn pass from one body to
another?
Thanks in advance for any answers received. 
-----------------------------
The question is wrongly put and the Buddha's reponse when
asked such a question was to reject it as an improper question.
Having rejected the question he would then inform the questioner of
what he ought to have asked: "With what as condition is there
birth?"
The reason that it is an improper question is that rebirth is
taught as the continuation of a process, and not as the passing on
of any sort of entity. For a more complete exposition of the
subject see Mahasi Sayadaw's Discourse on Paticcasamuppada.
Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu
Lastly, mind reading is taught in Buddhism.
To get an idea of what Buddha meant by a non-self
and impermanence it would be instructive to read what Buddha said
to ananda when they were walking along the river. Buddha saw a lot
of soap bubbles forming and breaking apart. And this he equated
with our mental self where he said doesn't really exist because it
is not permanent but is always changing sometimes quickly and other
times slowly.
Does an observer exist ? No because this
observer is always changing, moment to moment. Does being exist ?
Yes. Does a permanent being exist ? No. Why ? Because it is
ever changing.
No, your views are not clear yet. Being and non-being are false views according to Buddha.
The Buddha said:
6. "Bhikkhus, there are these
two views: the view of being and the view of non-being. Any
recluses or brahmans who rely on the view of being, adopt the view
of being, accept the view of being, are opposed to the view of
non-being. Any recluses or brahmans who rely on the view of
non-being, adopt the view of non-being, accept the view of
non-being, are opposed to the view of being.[5]
7. "Any recluses or brahmans who do not understand as they
actually are the origin, the disappearance, the gratification, the
danger and the escape[6] in the case of these two views are affected
by lust, affected by hate, affected by delusion, affected by
craving, affected by clinging, without vision, given to favoring
and opposing, and they delight in and enjoy proliferation. They are
not freed from birth, aging and death, from sorrow, lamentation,
pain, grief and despair; they are not freed from suffering, I
say.
In Buddhism there is no being, there is only Becoming. And this is the meaning of Rebirth. Rebirth happens without a 'soul' that is transmigrating -- there is only re-becoming, one moment of consciousness arise, subside, and then another.
It may not be easy to convince you now. What is needed for you is to first experience non-duality. Then your understanding of observer will turn into one observation, dissolving the observer and observed dichotomy. From there, move on to Buddhism idea of action and karma.
Like what Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh said:
"
"..The
most universal verb is the verb 'to be'': I am, you are, the mountain
is, a river is. The verb 'to be' does not express the dynamic living
state of the universe. To express that we must say 'become.' These two
verbs can also be used as nouns: 'being", "becoming". But being what?
Becoming what? 'Becoming' means 'evolving ceaselessly', and is as
universal as the verb "to be." It is not possible to express the
"being" of a phenomenon and its "becoming" as if the two were
independent. In the case of wind, blowing is the being and the
becoming...."
"When
we say I know the wind is blowing, we don't think that there is
something blowing something else. "Wind' goes with 'blowing'. If there
is no blowing, there is no wind. It is the same with knowing. Mind is
the knower; the knower is mind. We are talking about knowing in
relation to the wind. 'To know' is to know something. Knowing is
inseparable from the wind. Wind and knowing are one. We can say,
'Wind,' and that is enough. The presence of wind indicates the presence
of knowing, and the presence of the action of blowing'."
"In
any phenomena, whether psychological, physiological, or physical, there
is dynamic movement, life. We can say that this movement, this life, is
the universal manifestation, the most commonly recognized action of
knowing. We must not regard 'knowing' as something from the outside
which comes to breathe life into the universe. It is the life of the
universe itself. The dance and the dancer are one."
-----------------------------
Excerpt from 'The Sun My Heart' by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
Sunshine and Green Leaves
Beginning
meditators usually think they must suppress all thoughts and feelings
(often called "false mind") in order to create conditions favorable to
concentration and understanding (called "true mind"). They use methods
such as focusing their attention on an object or counting their
breathes to try to block out thoughts and feelings. Concentrating on an
object and counting the breath are excellent methods, but they should
not be used for suppression or repression. We know that as soon as
there is repression, there is rebellion -- repression entails
rebellion. True mind and false mind are one. Denying one is denying the
other. Suppressing one is suppressing the other. Our mind is our self.
We cannot suppress it. We must treat it with respect, with gentleness,
and absolutely without violence. Since we do not even know what our
"self" is, how can we know if it is true or false, and whether or not
what to suppress? The only thing we can do is to let the sunlight of
awareness shine on our "self" and en-lighten it, so we can look at it
directly.
Just as flowers and leaves are only part of a plant,
and just as waves are only part of the ocean, perceptions, feelings,
and thoughts are only part of the self. Blossoms and leaves are a
natural manifestation of plants, and waves are a natural expression of
oceans. It is useless to try to repress or stifle them. It is
impossible. We can only observe them. Because they exist, we can find
their source, which is exactly the same as our own.
The sun of
awareness originates in the heart of the self. It enables the self to
illuminate the self. It lights not only all thoughts and feelings
present. It lights itself as well.
Let us return to the apple
juice, quietly "resting." The river of our perceptions continue to
flow, but now, in the sunlight of awareness, it flows peacefully, and
we are serene. The relation between the river of perceptions and the
sun of awareness is not the same as that of an actual river and the
actual sun. Whether it is midnight or noon, whether the sun is absent
or its penetrating rays are beaming down, the waters of the Mississippi
River continue to flow, more or less the same. But when the sun of
awareness shines on the river of our perceptions, the mind is
transformed. Both river and sun are of the same nature.
Let us
consider the relationship between the color of leaves and sunlight,
which also have the same nature. At midnight, the starlight and
moonlight reveal only the form of the trees and leaves. But if the sun
were suddenly to shine, the green color of the leaves would immediately
appear. The tender green of the leaves in April exists because the
sunlight exists. One day, while sitting in a forest, mimicking the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, I wrote:
Sunshine is green leaves
Green leaves are sunshine
Sunshine is not different from green leaves
Green leaves are not different from sunshine
The same is true of all forms and colors.
As
soon as the sun of awareness shines, at that very moment a great change
takes place. Meditators lets the sun of awareness rise easily, so we
can see more clearly. When we meditate, we seem to have two selves. One
is the flowing river of thoughts and feelings, and the other is the sun
of awareness that shines on them. Which is our own self? Which is true?
Which false? Which is good? Which bad? Please calm down, my friend. Lay
down your sharp sword of conceptual thinking. Don't be in such a hurry
to cut your "self" in two. Both are self. Neither is true. Neither is
false. They are both true and both false.
We know that light and
color are not separate phenomena. In the same way, the sun of self and
the river of self are not different. Sit with me, let a smile form on
your lips, let your sun shine, close your eyes, if need be, to see your
self more clearly. Your sun of awareness is only part of your river of
self, isn't it? It follows the same laws as all psychological
phenomena: it arises and vanishes away. To examine something with a
microscope, a scientist must shine light on the object being observed.
To observe the self, you must shine light on it too, the light of
awareness.
I just told you to put down your sword of
conceptualization and not cut your self into sections. Actually, you
couldn't, even if you wanted to. Do you think you can separate the
sunshine from the green color of the leaves? You can no more separate
the observing self from the self observed. When the sun of awareness
shines, the nature of thoughts and feelings is transformed. It is one
with the observing mind, but they remain different, like the green of
the leaves and the sunshine. Don't rush from the concept of "two" to
the concept of "one." This ever-present sun of awareness is at the same
time its own object. When a lamp is turned on, the lamp itself is also
brought to light. "I know that I know." "I am conscious of being
conscious." When you think, "The sun of awareness has gone out in me,"
at that moment it re-lights itself, faster than the speed of light.
