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Studies in Indian Philosophy
his visual sensum as the appearence of a physical object and acts as if there is a causal connection between the colour red and danger. At a later stage he may even make reflective judgments about these 'meanings'.
It is one thing how to pinpoint the objective constituent of inspective situations, it is another what to learn from them. It is here that the difference between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna becomes most marked :
"The follower of the Hinayāna deals with the 'body' as impure, with 'feeling' as unpleasant, with 'mind' as impermanent and with meanings' as having no ontological status; the follower of the Mahāyāna deals with these four topics, when in a state of composure, as if they were like the sky beyond all propositions about them and, in a post-composure state, as if they were an apparition or a dream,”. 2
The traditional axioms of the impermanence, unpleasantness (frustration), and essencelessness of all that we normally encounter are readily recognizable and need no further elabora. tion. Impurity, however, presents a problem as it may easily lead to a dissociation of the personality by everevaluating one aspect of man's Being and denigrating another; above all it creates an opposition between ideas or postulates and experiences. To see the body as impure may consolidate into a rejection of the body, and since its 'impure' image is an abstraction that becomes superimposed on the living body, a person cannot but feel frustrated and will attempt to escape into a 'purer' realm which is no less an abstraction. This, of course, is an extreme case, but it also reveals the intellectualistic and basically egocentred approach to Being. When the body is pictured as a rotting corpse it becomes an object of disgust and easily engenders a host of negative emotions which eventually will blot out the value of being, even of being human. The same holds good for feelings, as well as for the other topics of inspection.
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