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**amimabremiBit** · 12-16-2011, 02:57 AM

'We have said that time is the sine qua non of the succession of mental states. To every separate state of consciousness [citta]…there are three phases - genesis (uppada), development (thiti), and dissolution (bhanga). Each of these three phases occupies an infinitesimal division of time - an instant (khana)… and together form one mental moment (cittakkhana)…There are more than one billion of such thought moments in the time that would be occupied by the shortest flash of lightning…Seventeen thought moments are held to be requisite for a complete process of consciousness…Buddhists speak of matter as lasting seventeen thought moments.' (Shwe Zan Aung, Compendium of Buddhist Philosophy, p 25)

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It is this momentariness that is not found in the Suttas, yet many in Theravadan circles (especially the modern vipassana meditation movement) build their meditation method partly on this foundation. This speculative momentariness-view becomes what they expect to see, but it is a phantasm.

hi Dave

sure, the above too tiny to observe moments are not found in the suttas

but the moment of an arising, existing & ceasing of consciousness with the arising, existing & ceasing of a sense object is found in the suttas

just because the Abhidhamma proposes an undiscernable 1/billionth of a second mind moment, this does not negate the experience of momentariness

take care with negating the view of momentariness in order to support a view of a stream of consciousness (bhavanga; whatever)

all the best

12-16-2011, 02:57 AM	#26
amimabremiBit Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 447 Senior Member	'We have said that time is the sine qua non of the succession of mental states. To every separate state of consciousness [citta]…there are three phases - genesis (uppada), development (thiti), and dissolution (bhanga). Each of these three phases occupies an infinitesimal division of time - an instant (khana)… and together form one mental moment (cittakkhana)…There are more than one billion of such thought moments in the time that would be occupied by the shortest flash of lightning…Seventeen thought moments are held to be requisite for a complete process of consciousness…Buddhists speak of matter as lasting seventeen thought moments.' (Shwe Zan Aung, Compendium of Buddhist Philosophy, p 25) --- It is this momentariness that is not found in the Suttas, yet many in Theravadan circles (especially the modern vipassana meditation movement) build their meditation method partly on this foundation. This speculative momentariness-view becomes what they expect to see, but it is a phantasm. hi Dave sure, the above too tiny to observe moments are not found in the suttas but the moment of an arising, existing & ceasing of consciousness with the arising, existing & ceasing of a sense object is found in the suttas just because the Abhidhamma proposes an undiscernable 1/billionth of a second mind moment, this does not negate the experience of momentariness take care with negating the view of momentariness in order to support a view of a stream of consciousness (bhavanga; whatever) all the best
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