[Buddha-l] there he goes again (sam harris)

[Michel Clasquin]

On 30 Oct 2006, at 2:46 AM, Vicente Gonzalez wrote:

> Richard wrote:
>
> RH> I would be happy to refer you to a gaggle of Buddhist  
> epistemologists who
> RH> would be glad to explain to you that absence can never be  
> experienced. I
> RH> think they are probably right. My intellect is convinced that  
> there are
> RH> several billion absences dancing around on my desktop, but I  
> can't seem to
> RH> experience any of them.
>
> we cannot experience any absent thing. However, we can experience
> his absence. If we would be unable to experience his absence, then we
> would be unable to say "my dog is absent".

Fascinating. Let me see if I get this ...

We cannot experience an x that is absent. But we can experience the  
absence
of an x that was once present. OK, I  think I've got that. Your dog  
was present,
now he is not. You experience his absence.

Now let substitute something else for x. I am currently experiencing the
absence of a bandersnatch. But there is a difference. The  
bandersnatch was
never present. Mostly because bandersnatches don't exist. My  
"experience" of
missing the bandersnatch is not really an experience; it is a mental
construct born of my feverishly overactive imagination. Now, I can
certainly experience the construct, but can I claim to be  
experiencing the
absence itself? Is it a real absence, or am I just making it up?

Which raises the question: are you actually experiencing the absence  
of your dog
or are you experiencing the mental activity that is deciding that  
there is no dog
in the immediate surroundings? Hey, I have nothing against experiencing
mental constructs - in fact, it is a hobby of mine. But It is not on  
the same
level as the raw experience of an x "out there". It is a heavily  
mediated,
interpreted, linguistically influenced sort of experience. I won't  
say "higher-order"
because I have nothing much on which to build a hierarchy. But it  
certainly
is different. "My dog is absent" or even "my dog is present" is one  
kind of
experience: suddenly feeling a wet nose pushing up against you  is  
quite another.

The  question, then, is whether the experience of the absence of  
suffering is an
experience of an x (absently) "out there" or whether it is an  
experience of a mental
construct. And the experience of the absence of a self? My money is  
on the
mental construct.

But then, I am just mentally constructifying . . .

Sincerely,
Michel the absent-minded constructivist