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Basic (early) Buddhism (1st phase)
The Buddha’s basic insight
(i.e. his samma-sambodhi): “All things that are produced by conditions,are destroyed by conditions.”
“Yan kiñci samudaya dhamman sabban tan nirodha
dhammanti.”
The Tathagata (later renamed ‘Buddha’)
stated that the ever changing and inconstant, hence unpleasantness producing
wave effect, i.e. the appearance (or life) cycle of an emerged (i.e. arisen
due to conditions) phenomenon, was not the phenomenon’s atta (generally assumed to be a permanent, own, unchanging essence,
usually translated wrongly – but profitably (Pali: kusala) - as ‘self’).
Unfortunately, in his 40+ years of wandering the Tathagata never produced a
positive definition of his notion of atta, merely a string of
negative references for the attainment of the deathless = nibbana (and which, possibly
means the recovery of atta), so that no one
(neophyte samaneras and elderly Sri Lankan bhikkhus excluded) knows with
certainty what he actually meant when he used the term. Understanding an’atta Basic (early) Buddhism 2nd phase The meaning of the name ‘Tathagata’ |
