Subject: What_Buddha_Said 2839: What is Solidity?
From: "Bhikkhu Samahita" <[email-masked]>
To: "'1. 1A'" <[email-masked]>, "'1. 2A'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 07:32:19 +0530
List-Id: <what_buddha_said.googlegroups.com>

Friends:

What is the Solidity Quality in any Cluster of Form?

The Blessed Buddha <http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/b/buddha.htm>
once explained:
What is this cluster of Form (rūpa-khandha)= [literally 'group that can
break up']?

It is the 4 primary elements, and all the forms derived from them...
What are these 4 Primary Elements (mahā-bhūta) = [literally 'great
processes']? 

The 4 Primary Elements (=~ Quality =~ Qualia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia> ) are:
1: The Qualia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia>  of Solidity
<http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What%20_is_Solidity.htm> ...
(pathavī-dhātu) = [literally 'earth-like' property]
2: The Qualia <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/>  of Fluidity
<http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What%20_is_Fluidity.htm> ...
(āpo-dhātu) = [literally 'water-like' property]
3: The Qualia <http://www.iep.utm.edu/qualia/>  of Heat
<http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What%20_is_Heat.htm> ... (tejo-dhātu)
= [literally 'fire-like' property]
4:The Qualia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia>  of Motion
<http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What%20_is_Motion.htm> ...
(vāyo-dhātu) = [literally 'wind-like' property]

What, now, is this Quality of Solidity? The quality of solidity may be
defined as one's 
'own' or internal, or it may be external, and not a part of one's 'own'
individuality..
And what is one's own quality of Solidity? Whatever there is inside one's
own body of 
kammically caused hardness, firmness, and becoming into a solid state, such
as the hairs of 
the head, hairs of body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow,
kidneys, heart, liver, 
diaphragm, spleen, lungs, stomach, bowels, mesentery, and excrement: This is
called own 
quality of Solidity. Now, whether it appears as one's own quality of
Solidity, or whether it be 
the like external quality of Solidity (e.g. of mountains of stone, hammers
of iron etc.), they are 
both merely this Qualia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia>  of Solidity.
One should understand, according to this absolute reality: 
This is not 'me'. This does not belong to me! This I am not! This is neither
a self, nor a substance!

One may add:
This mind-like conceptual experience of solidity is not a 'matter-like
compact thing out there...' 
This quality is not lasting but transient, this is not a real substance,
this is thus not stable or safe...
This ephemeral is therefore not pleasure, this solidity is not happiness,
this quality is also suffering...  
Seeing this analytic break-up of solidity induces releasing disillusion with
even very attractive forms 
of form... Whether own or other, internal or external, whether alive or
dead, whether present or not...

Comment: The crucial and essential 'take-home-message' here is:
The 4 'Primary Elements' in early Buddhism are thus not 'real substances out
there', but more 
realistically: Experienced qualities or properties appearing as
representations inside the mind...    
They are manifestations of form, and not 'substantial entities, or
constituents of matter'...
The assertion of their 'material' appearance depend on the subjective level
of observation:
Macroscopic solidity is merely a manifested appearance of extension  on the
microscopic level!

On these 4 Primary Elements (mahā-bhūta):
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What_is_Solidity.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What_is_Fluidity.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What _is_Heat.htm
<http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What_is_Heat.htm> 

http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/What_is_Motion.htm

Source (edited extract: 
The Middle Length Sayings of the Buddha. Majjhima Nikāya. MN 28. 
Mahā-hatthipadopama Sutta: The Great Elephant Footprint Simile:
Splendid Book: http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=25072X
Text: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.028.than.html

What is Solidity: Neither Matter, nor a Substance!

Have a nice & noble day!

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Friendship is the Greatest! 
 <http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Bhikkhu_Samahita> Bhikkhu
Samāhita _/\_ ]
 <http://what-buddha-said.net/> http://What-Buddha-Said.net

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Bhikkhu Samahita

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