All Phenomena
are just Mental States:
Question:
What is a phenomenon?
Answer:
A phenomenon is an
experienced state manifesting as an appearance,
a mentally
observed event,
a
conscious occasion! Whether experienced as a mental object: Examples:
An experienced thought,
idea, feeling, mood,
or experienced as a physical object: Examples:
An experienced
sight, sound, smell,
taste, or touch: This experience remains just
a mental 'state',
which is what in early Buddhism is
called a discrete 'Dhammā' . This event
is just a passing
moment
of consciousness in time!
As such:
Everything worldly is a mental state!
Nothing whatsoever exists
as
an
independent of
mind 'physical' object 'out there',
until it is observed as a mind experience...
Before and after this direct observation, this 'thing',
remains just an
'idea',
or a mere potential
possibility
of quantum-mechanical likelihood for observation!
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 he 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 and experienced representation...
SN IV 15
Insisting on Direct Experience
as Reality:
This ultra-realistic insistence on direct experience is
also called
Radical Empiricism,
a pragmatic conception of reality, which philosophically was coined by
William James.
Further resources on this Dhamma 'Atom' of
Experienced Existence:
The Theory of
Discrete States (Dhammā) for the
Beginner:
The Dhamma Theory: The Philosophical Cornerstone of
the Abhidhamma
Y. Karunadasa. Wheel 412/413 Buddhist
Publication Society
https://www.bps.lk/
For further study on Phenomena as mere mental states:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Phenomena_is_Mental_States.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Causes_of_Emergence.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/b_f/dhamma.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_ALL.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Out_in.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Empiricism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenon
The
Phenomenon 'Match' Occurring
only momentarily by
mentally experienced observation! Not 'out there' as an
observer-independent 'substance',
but 'in here' in our observer-mind, as just
yet another experiencable passing mental state...
On participatory Observation
in Orthodox Contemporary Quantum-Mechanics:
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.
