Do you wish to relax?
In that case, maybe you will thoroughly appreciate this reading of the Maha-Rahulovada Sutta. :-)
Take 20 minutes, sit comfortably, close your eyes, breathe, and listen.
Afterwards we may share our experiences if you wish. I shall postpone my description until then, for I do not want to influence you already. :-)
I’ve listened to about 80% of this. I was fascinated by the way the word “element” is used. What is described are not elements as we understand the term, yet these “elements” are quite sufficient — even elegant.
Maybe that isn’t the point of the sutra — I suspect those “elements” were invented elsewhere — but that’s what I got out of it. It’s significantly affected my thinking about science and knowledge.
Thanks!
I am glad to see that you delighted in these words!
Indeed, any interpretation depends significantly on the translation from Pali to English (for instance, Thanissaro Bhikkhu uses the term “property” instead of “element” – see the link to the text version).
Thus I have found it very helpful to read various suttas in different translations. After a while the whole picture – the terms, concepts, structures, relations – becomes more and more “complete”, and an understanding beyond the verbal level slowly emerges. For such a development, “General Semantics” seems to be of great benefit as well.
Using these two (Theravada & GS) in combination, I have but seen the tip of an iceberg so far, and shall continue my efforts to eventually know the whole iceberg. I am already preparing an article on that subject. :-)
I am looking forward to the article. I am particularly interested to see how General Semantics fits in. I sometimes employ E-Prime when I have to write about something emotionally-loaded, as it helps me ensure that I am not drawing any unwarranted equivalences. (So “That is a myth” might become “I do not believe in that”, for example.)
I have identified (and had pointed out to me) various serious problems with language that make it hard to talk about the way things really are. The heterophenomenological problem — the fact we cannot experience somebody else’s experience — already make it difficult (to put it mildly). So if GS could help us a bit with the language problems, that would be great!