Expert: Bodhicitta - 3/24/2006

Question
My name is brandie Im from ISU. I am a psychology major. I like the question why!

i am taking 2 philosophy classes to satisfy my major. I actually get on here quite a bit when I dont quite understand the prof or I just have a question running through my head of different concepts and how they compare...

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Followup To
Question -
I have several questions.

1. What exactly is the idea called dharma held by adhidharma.

2. Is a dharma impermanent according to the adhidharma and can you explain how...

3. nyaya says that simple substances are eternal. How do they conclude this.

4. how can you explain that the abhidharma says that dharmas are impermanent but the nyaya says that there is eternality of simple substances.
Answer -
Hi Brandie
Thanks for your questions.

I usually ask people to introduce themselves. Where are they from, what is their background and why in particular are they interested in this question at this time?

I am particularly interested why you have an interest in the Nyaya school - or is this an academic study as part of your course?

Bodhicitta
<<I have several questions.

1. What exactly is the idea called dharma held by adhidharma.

2. Is a dharma impermanent according to the adhidharma and can you explain how...

3. nyaya says that simple substances are eternal. How do they conclude this.

4. how can you explain that the abhidharma says that dharmas are impermanent but the nyaya says that there is eternality of simple substances. >>

Answer
Hi Brandie
Greetings to you there in Iowa, im in Britain across the Atlantic.
<<
1. What exactly is the idea called dharma held by adhidharma. >>
Dharma is one of those strange sanskrit words. It actually has many different meanings so you have to look carefully
at the context. In the case of "all dharmas being impermanent"  - it means sort of stuff or the matter
of existence and experience. Sometimes dharma means
the way or the path or the philosophy - as in "I follow the dharma". As I say there are dozens of meanings but
I think we can safely say here that it is "stuff"

<<
2. Is a dharma impermanent according to the adhidharma and can you explain how... >>
Everything is impermanent - all stuff is impermanent all dharma are impermanent. It is fairly obvious that thats
true. Just watch your world and notice how people die, cars break down, the weather changes etc.

In Buddhism there is always several levels of knowing something to be true. To get to the deepest level of knowing you need to use meditation. You could meditate on
dharmas and actually receive a deep realisation that
everything is impermanent. But the orginary level of just looking around and seeing that it appears to be true is a good start.
<<
3. nyaya says that simple substances are eternal. How do they conclude this. >>
Im not a student of nyaya - as I understand it - it was an ancient Hindu philosophy. There use to be many debates
and testing of different philosophy in ancient india. As I understand it (and im no expert on Nyaya) the Buddhist
pandit Nagarjuna showed that the Nyaya philosophy was wrong and that in fact all things were impermanent.

<<
4. how can you explain that the abhidharma says that dharmas are impermanent but the nyaya says that there is eternality of simple substances>>Maybe one of them was
wrong?

Bodhicitta