A good
Dhamma Friend asked:
Question:
What is a phenomenon?
Answer:
A phenomenon is an
experienced state manifesting as an appearance,
an observed event,
a
conscious occasion!
Whether experienced as a mental object: Examples: An experienced thought,
idea, feeling, mood
or experienced as a physical object: Common Examples:
An experienced
sight, sound, smell,
taste or touch;
this experience is just
a mental ‘state’,
which is what in Buddhism is
called a ‘Dhammā’ .
This event
is just a passing
moment of consciousness in time!
As such:
Everything worldly is a mental state!
No thing exists as an
independent of
mind physical
object 'out there',
until it is observed by
a mental experience…
Before and after this direct observation, this ‘thing’
remains just an
‘idea’
or a mere potential possibility!
Not quite as 'real' anymore…
They once asked the Buddha:
What is the Cause of a Phenomenon?
He replied:
Attention (manasikāra) is the cause of any phenomenon!
Why so?
When Attention is present, the Phenomenon appears...
When Attention is absent, the Phenomenon disappears!
and further later added:
This World both Begins and
Ends within
this 2 fathom frame of bones...
SN I 62
The ALL is thereby actually just a
sensed & experienced representation...
SN IV 15
Insisting on Real Direct Experience:
This ultra-realistic emphasis on experience is called
Radical Empiricism,
a pragmatic concept, which philosophically was coined by
William James.
For further study on Phenomena as mere mental states:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Phenomena_is_Mental_States.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Causes_of_Emergence.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/b_f/dhamma.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_ALL.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Out_in.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Empiricism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenon
The
Phenomenon ‘Match’
Occurring
only momentarily by experienced observation!
Not ‘out there’ as a ‘substance’, but 'in here' in mind,
as just
yet another passing mental state…
On participatory Observation:
Quantum_Buddhism,
Observer Participation,
Some_Clues,
What_the_Bleep,
The_Fact_of_No-Self_Anatta,
Quantum_Buddhist_Agreements,
No_Substance_'Out_There',
Coincident_Cross-Consistency,
Ontology,
Discrete_States,
Omniscient_Quantum_Mind.
