Five Skhandas are Empty


FIVE SKANDHAS ARE EMPTY
[ Home ]	Based on: Mu Soeng Sunim (1991) Heart Sutra: Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the light of Quantum Reality; Primary Point Press

"These four words (five skandhas are empty) are the essence of the earliest Buddhist teachings" . There follows a rational schema to blow away rational schemas. This might assist compulsive rationalists who have difficulty going beyond.	A Picture The illusory nature of the Newtonian permanent Objective mental entities Unenlightened subjectivity - the five skandhas Unenlightened subjectivity - the five skandhas are empty Gone beyond
The five skandhas are empty
A PICTURE First a branching diagram which you might care to draw on a piece of paper. Begin at the middle of the top of a page. Write the word 'entities'. Make two branches. Label the left branch 'physical' and the right branch 'mental'. Make two branches down from the physical branch. Label the left branch 'quantum impermanent' and the right branch 'newtonian permanent'. Make two branches down from the mental branch. Label the left one 'subjective' and the right one 'objective ? but impermanent'. Make two branches down from the subjective branch. Label the left one 'psychological newtons (five skandhas)' and the left one 'enlightened quantum mystical (five skandhas are empty)'

	THE ILLUSORY NATURE OF THE NEWTONIAN PERMANENT Newton's laws are pragmatically useful. They work as long as you do not look too closely. If you look in quantum close up you realise that solidity and substance are illusions; there are no 'things' at the subatomic level, only energy fields. So, despite common sense appearance, no ‘thing’ exists. There is only energy.

OBJECTIVE MENTAL ENTITIES Not yet! The task would be to write a chemical formula for a thought pattern or a wave equation for an emotion - but this cannot be done. The only thing that can be safely said at present is that, from the objective point of view, mental entities are likely to be fuzzy edged and ever changing.

	UNENLIGHTENED SUBJECTIVITY - THE FIVE SKANDHAS Any reasonably intelligent person, by taking thought, will be able to go along with the Buddha's concept of the five skandhas. The first two could be said to 'exist' as newtonian permanent entities and the last three could be said to 'exist' in the mentally subjective category which is labelled as psychological newtons. NAMA-RUPA (Corporeal Form). Compound things are made up of elemental things eg molecules are made from atoms. VIJNANA (Sensation). When light from an object reaches the eye a sight 'sensation' results. The same pattern applies for the other sense organs. SAMJNA (Perception). When a physical sensation has been located within the fields of impulse and feeling (see below) then a 'perception' can be said to have been created. SAMSKARA (Impulse). Impulses are subjective mental entities which dictate in broad terms the manner in which sensations become perceptions. The impulses derive from the culturally given world-view-with-pigeon-holes into which sensations are routinely and conveniently slotted. VEDANA (Feelings). Feelings are subjective mental entities which have been created as a result of personal (rather than broad cultural) experience. They serve to label sensations on their way to becoming perceptions as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

ENLIGHTENED SUBJECTIVITY - THE FIVE SKANDHAS ARE EMPTY Solving the quantum koan means arrival on the other shore where no words are spoken and action is taken without the awareness that, "I am acting". Imagine yourself as a quantum physicist looking inside your own brain. The microscope is on full power and there is nothing to be seen but minute swirls of substanceless energy. OK, now look back up through the microscope - what is the quantum physicist made of? Who is looking at what? Aargh!	Aargh!

What to do?	GONE BEYOND The Shamans figured it out pretty soon after language came into being. The guys who wrote the Upanishads had it twigged more the 2500 years ago. Everybody goes there at least once a day - where do 'you' go to during deep, dreamless sleep? What difference is there between the self concept when dreaming and the self concept when awake? Did Chaung Tzu dream he was a butterfly or was it the butterfly's dream? I drift into the deep-dreamless-sleep-while-awake state now and again and I know the selfless peace of it. But I cannot enter it at will. What to do?

[ Home ]