Bill!,<br/><br/>I have no stake in this topic at all because I don't see the
problem with thoughts as being whether they are illusory or not, but rather
that the following of them leads to craving/aversion and thus suffering. The 20
year old Edgar is a falsehood and he clearly isn't real, but the the thought
itself - however delusional and empty - still exists. It arises from previous
conditions and is itself a condition for further effects. Tests in neuroscience
show that thoughts need energy and create vibrations. The body can suffer major
pathology from a thought. In Australia Aborigines die from having a bone
pointed at them and being cursed. The demon might be a falsehood and not exist,
but the thought does and has dire consequences.<br/><br/>I found this on wiki
regarding 'maya':<br/><br/>Nāgārjuna, of the Mahāyāna Mādhyamika (i.e., "Middle
Way") school, discusses nirmita, or illusion closely related to māyā. In this
example, the illusion is
a self-awareness that is, like the magical illusion, mistaken. For Nagarjuna,
the self is not the organizing command center of experience, as we might think.
Actually, it is just one element combined with other factors and strung
together in a sequence of causally connected moments in time. [[[As such, the
self is not substantially real, but neither can it be shown to be unreal]]].
The continuum of moments, which we mistakenly understand to be a solid,
unchanging self, still performs actions and undergoes their results. "As a
magician creates a magical illusion by the force of magic, and the illusion
produces another illusion, in the same way the agent is a magical illusion and
the action done is the illusion created by another illusion."[16] What we
experience may be an illusion, but we are living inside the illusion and bear
the fruits of our actions there. We undergo the experiences of the illusion.
What we do affects what we experience, so it
matters.[17] In this example, Nagarjuna uses the magician's illusion to show
that the self is not as real as it thinks, yet, to the extent it is inside the
illusion, real enough to warrant respecting the ways of the world.<br/><br/>
<br/>The Theravada interpretation of maya works better for me. Instead of
meaning 'illusion' they use the word vipallasa which translates as
'distortion'. This works better for me because it retains the meaning of
'things not being as they appear' without relegating them to
non-existence.<br/><br/>Hope that helps!<br/><br/>Mike<br/><br/><br/>Sent from
Yahoo! Mail for iPad
