Tom Ellis
Jan 6, 2024

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Thank you, Stephen. Until I read your article, Hume was just a name for me that I would lump under the category of “Scottish Enlightenment.” But he’s a lot more interesting than I thought! His thinking bears certain parallels to Buddhist epistemology, which deconstructs the imagined separate “self” into five interrelated “skandhas” ( which translate ironically into “heaps” or “bundles”): form, feeling, perceptions, mental formations (ideas), and consciousness. The latter ties them all together and is claimed to be unborn and undying…that is, the Great Mystery. (But I’m not sure if I believe this.)

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Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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