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Coming from the "Early Buddhism and the Heart Sutta" thread, Kris quoted a very interesting sutta that maybe offers a good material for a new discussion:

The Mahayana literature seems to be more about a worldview, a religion and a philosophical edifice than the guidelines to understand Dukkha and its origin and to set the practical means to cease it, found in the Pali Canon.

From the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta Kris quoted:

"Vaccha, the position that 'the cosmos is eternal' is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering, distress, despair, & fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation; to calm, direct knowledge, full Awakening, Unbinding.

and then he tells about it:

Anyone (Buddhist or not) thinking along these lines is left in limbo by Buddha. He's not saying that things exist, but he's also not saying they don't. This is a highly uncomfortable state of affairs but to judge Buddha's response in this context is to completely misunderstand the reply he gave - more of which later.

Not answering the question to the satisfaction of logicians didn't make it go away and Buddhists in certain places and at certain times must have faced derision for their lack of "views". An inadequate response to a developing and increasingly sophisticated theistic Hinduism.

As I read the sutta I could not avoid the sensation of reading a great Zen treatise guiding into silent learning. I never felt a mental limbo but a beautiful way to tell Vacchagotta to stop clinging into worldviews, useless philosophical Gordian knots and religious believes that what makes us is to give substance [mental formations?] to dukkha so to originate it.

So, haven't we had, at least for short moments, when experiencing mindfulness, that feeling where there is no need or reason to get into such entanglements, where the mind is still and we are completely present and aware?

Any comments?