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Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Religions & Faiths > Buddhism

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  #41  
Old 16-06-2019, 06:33 AM
Ariaecheflame Ariaecheflame is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sentient
Not exactly sure how to approach this subject.
So I’ll narrate a story of two sisters – both ½ Papua New Guinean ½ British.

The one sister I see as having a PNG soul. When she goes to PNG she just plonks herself down on the ground with the other village women – an instant relief, instant contentment. She has ‘arrived’ – she is whole – she is in her real-reality element. She has a collective/tribal self id.

The other sister whom I see as having a British soul cannot really enter the circle, she cannot quite figure out what the women silently share or have in common and why she is on the outside of it – looking in ... as if there was an invisible barrier. So she communicates with concepts and whatnot but feels quite alienated – she only feels in her real-reality element, when she is with her Western white friends. She has a separate-self-id.

*

My primary caregiver till I was about 5–6 was my grandmother, who had a collective/tribal self id. She didn’t have a-separate-self ego, she only lived in connection to ‘things’. So that became my id.

When I moved to live with my (now passed away) partner’s Aboriginal ‘mob’ – I was instantly ‘at home’ – I had ‘arrived’. I was in my real-reality element, despite the racial and cultural difference (though similar really).
This is something my Western white friends could/cannot get in a million years and wondered why I would choose to pretend to be ‘aboriginal’, when obviously (to the eye) I am not.
But without my aboriginal friends I would have felt like a ‘lost soul’ in Oz.

So I am familiar with the difficulties living in and juggling both worlds. I have never fully ‘achieved’ this separate-self-id myself, plus my inner ‘value system’ goes against it. So perhaps the best thing one can do is to carve a path for one’s self in-no-man’s-land …. in-between-the-2-worlds.

*

That was a beautiful post, thank you so much for sharing.

It struck something in me. A cord of recognition.

I know what you mean by the two worlds comment but it is a difficult thing for me to explain...
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  #42  
Old 24-06-2019, 06:46 AM
Ariaecheflame Ariaecheflame is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
Anatta literally means 'an' or 'ana' (no) and 'atta' (self), but 'self' is used to mean a fundamental identity, and 'no self' merely means there is no such thing, but rather, all phenomena arise interdependently, sans a fundamental substance. Most of the rhetoric says something about 'non-self' in this context.


There is a more practical application of the idea which affirms how the things we experience are 'not-self'. This is related to Buddhism's core tenet of impermanence with is directly derived from the substanceless nature of phenomena. Simply, because experience comes and goes in a continuous flux of change, no phenomena in the world can be regarded as 'me, mine, my or I'.

I think the two Buddhist philosophies that provide a rich context to the idea of anatta are 'dependent origins' and the '5 skandas' (5 aggregates). These two are closely related but whereas the former explains the continued rising of subjective phenomena, the latter more directly addresses a person. Please do your own googling on those two subjects.

The key to this is not to take any of it personally because none of this is supposed to pertain to your existence. It really only pertains to the insubstantial, temporal nature of things.

Thanks Gem.

The core tenant of impermanence is something I am quite comfortable with and speaks to a sense which I was brought up with. Framing it in terms of personal ownership is not a connection I have made prior to reading your response though, so thanks for that perspective.

The rest of your post I will have to consider some more at this particular time.
Though I do think I somewhat grasp what your saying about the lack of person- ablity in regards to temporal nature of... well life and nature... stuff just happens in response to other stuff lol.
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