Day 64 of 365: More Parts and Wholes

After a long hiatus, we're continuing now with analysis 5 of 7 in the "seven analyses" of the Middle Way. Looking at a car, or anything else for that matter, can we say that there is a reality dependent upon the parts? If there were such a reality, it would appear as something else, singular, lasting, and independent, when the parts were assembled. This doesn't seem to happen. Adding further suspicion to this - If there were a reality that depended up on the parts, the parts couldn't change because that particular reality, say "carness", was lasting. Parts break all the time...  

Day 63 of 365: No Reality On Which to Depend

There is no reality on which the parts are dependent.

This is the fourth analysis of seven.  If there were a reality on which the parts depended, this would mean that the parts themselves were not real since they were not singular, lasting, and independent.  How could one have something real comprised of things that weren't?   From another perspective, if there were a reality on which the parts depended, we should be able to find it.  However, having gone through the exercise of looking for such a reality, we know that one does not exist.  When we disassemble the parts, there is no object (no cart or car in this case).  Thus, there is no reality inside.  It cannot be separate from the parts either, since the object is dependent on the parts--if we were to take them away, there would be no object.

Day 62 of 365: No Possession

There is no real possession of a whole by its parts, or of parts by an imagined whole, just as cartness, which does not truly exist, cannot possess parts or vice versa.

This one piggy backs off the first two analyses.  Since we have shown that there is no essential reality of a cart outside of the parts, there can be no possession by either.

This was such a throw back to the first two analyses that I went over those again.  There is no essential reality in a thing as a whole, and there is no reality distinct from the sum of the parts.  If we believe that there is an essential reality to something like a cart, then that essential reality would need to be in the thing as a whole or distinct from all the parts.  If it were in the thing as a whole, then it would have to be somewhere in the thing. Taking the object apart reveals that we cannot find the essential reality in this way--we will no longer see any cart, for example, when we take it apart.  The cart is also totally dependent on the parts, so there can be no essential reality which is distinct from them.

Day 61 of 365: Analysis 2

There is no essential reality in a thing as a whole, just as there is no reality in a cart as a whole. 

Having broken down a cart or car into constituent parts, we can see there is no essential reality in a thing.  However, there can be a tendency to think that as we reassemble something it is becoming greater than the sum of the parts.  It can seem that there is some kind of thingness present as we put that last piece in place.  However, we must look at this closely and notice that is it nothing other than our concept about something that has come into being.  There is nothing single, lasting, and independent which we can point to which is separate from the parts.

Day 60 of 365: Seven Analyses

A classical analytic approach in Madhyamaka is the seven analyses, which are traditionally introduced by analyzing a cart.  It seems to also work quite well on a car, since those are more common these days than carts.  We begin with the first analysis: There is no essential reality in a thing as a whole.  In other words, we cannot find an essential reality anywhere in the whole.  When we look at a car, we immediately think there is an essential reality to it, which must surely be somewhere in the car.  By looking at the car, we see that it is comprised of parts and sub-parts, and this process does not stop.  Eventually, we see that there really is nothing we can point to specifically and say it is the car.  So, the car does not seem to be anywhere in the parts.  In the same way, is our being anywhere in the parts of our body?

Day 59 of 365: Analogy and Evidence

Thrangu Rinpoche gives a superb example of one way we convince ourselves that the self is real (singular, lasting, independent) in his book "The Open Door to Emptiness".  We draws the analogy of walking into a potter's shop when the potter is not there.  When we look around, we see all the evidence of a potter: the wheel, the clay, the pots, and the kiln.  Thus, we think to ourselves that there must be a potter.  In the same way, we see all the evidence of a self (form, feeling, perception, decisions, etc) yet somehow we can never quite nail down who or what the self actually is.  Questions to ask ourselves: What do we take as evidence of a self?  If we had to go to court to prove the existence of a self, what would be exhibit A?  What does this evidence really prove?  If we think we have identified a self, what is the nature of the self?

Day 58 of 365: Beyond Finite and Infinite

The Middle Way teachings point us in a direction to understand reality in its essence, which is beyond duality.  In particular, it is beyond our notions of finite and infinite.  Every moment of being has ended, yet new moments unfailingly occur.  Thus, our being and our experience do not seem to be either finite or infinite.    We fear that moments of pain and anxiety will last forever and hope that moments of pleasure will never end.  In this way, we bind ourselves to a fabricated reality.

The continuum of the aggregates
Is like the continuum of a butter lamp.
Therefore, to say that the aggregates are finite is illogical
And to say that they are infinite is illogical.