Karma For Today's Traveler 11: Process Of The Mind

The memory of a Buddha.

On a full moon night in May,

More than 2,

500 years ago,

Sitting under a bow tree,

A man,

A former prince named Gotama Sakya attained enlightenment.

His enlightenment was the fruit of countless lives of striving to know the truth of existence.

These lifetimes of personal effort had built up in him a truly massive reserve of power.

So much so that on that night when his mundane human vision unclouded,

He saw before him all his past lives.

He saw how the laws of nature had acted through the eons of his own lifestream and he came to truly know and understand the workings of karma.

But where did these ancient memories come from?

They came from the data bank of his own mind.

From our entrance into this physical cycle of existence eons ago,

Up to this very moment,

Our minds have been recording.

All events in all the processes of our life are stored.

Yet accessing this information is problematic.

If I ask you where you were last Saturday at 3 in the afternoon,

You may not be able to answer confidently.

This is because in the minds of ordinary people,

Newer events come and overlay on top of the older events,

Covering them,

Causing them to be forgotten.

Furthermore,

In the minds of most of us,

Our data is somewhat jumbled and disorganized.

Some data encourage one action,

While other data discourage it or encourage the opposite.

The mind of a Buddha is much more organized.

The Buddha's long training involved aligning all the data of his mind towards one single consistent goal.

The proper understanding of reality as it is.

Enlightenment.

This involved lifetime after lifetime focused on that single goal.

Finally,

Once critical mass of properly aligned knowledge was reached,

The Buddha attained enlightenment.

All bodhisattvas,

Those who strive to become Buddhas,

Find the truth of nature by their own power and bring this truth to the world.

They must prepare this critical mass of aligned knowledge,

All of it directed towards their goal of enlightenment.

And so,

As a bodhisattva,

The Buddha's training was so immense that the power of his mind was great enough to access his full mental database.

He could look back on all of his past lives,

Seeing how intention,

Action,

And karma had acted.

Normal people who haven't practiced lifetime after lifetime don't have that kind of ability.

Not by a long shot,

But we can benefit from the insight that he gained from seeing how karma had acted throughout his chain of lifetimes.

He saw the cause of suffering in intricate detail and he saw the end of suffering,

An attainable goal for all.

After his enlightenment,

The Buddha spent more than 40 years teaching others so that they could understand enough to permanently free themselves from suffering.

The teaching is self-consistent,

Logical,

And does not require a leap of faith.

Untold thousands have followed his teachings and reached total freedom and there are enlightened people on the planet right now.

The process of mind.

A closer look.

Let's take a closer look at the process of perception.

Let's imagine an ordinary situation when we are in a normal state of awareness in our everyday reality and we see some normal object.

Let's use the diagram on the previous page to follow the steps.

The first steps.

Step 1.

My internal sense organ,

My eye in this case and an external object make contact.

There is seeing.

This is an instantaneous contact prior to any thinking.

Light,

Photons,

Reflection,

Retina,

Optic nerve.

Buddhism refers to this as a kind of consciousness,

An awareness of an object.

Step 2.

Next,

The object is compared to my memory database and identified.

The object is named.

It is a car,

A bird,

A person.

With this identification comes a quality also retrieved from my memory databanks which is attached to the object.

Good,

Delightful,

Fashionable,

Ugly,

Boring or beautiful.

Step 3.

Quick bursts of mental activities then arise around the object and its quality.

Mental cooking.

Buddhist teaching calls this another kind of consciousness.

The mental formations that occur using our old data,

The new image and our present intention.

Our intention may be wholesome or unwholesome or a mix of both.

Here in this flash of mental activity,

We are creating our karma.

Step 4.

A mental feeling arises as a result of the previous mental activities concerning the object.

My intention or cooking which is the cause creates a mental feeling which is the result,

Cause and effect.

From this point forward in the flowchart,

I am experiencing the results of my own intention.

The mental feeling may be agreeable,

Disagreeable or neutral.

The positive branch.

Steps number 5 to 8.

Step 5.

If the mental feeling is agreeable,

It will cause a desire to have or be near the object.

Step 6.

The desire to acquire or be near the object creates another desire.

The desire to be in a position to obtain access to the object.

For example,

I see a luxury car.

It is agreeable to me.

I desire to have it.

I desire to be rich enough to get it.

The Buddhists call this second desire the desire to be.

It is the desire to be in the position to get the thing you want.

Step 7.

This will lead to the formation of a link or bond between me and the object.

That object is seen as a way to obtain happiness.

I think that if I can have that object,

Then I will be happy.

Buddhists call this step attachment.

Step 8.

At this point,

A mere fraction of a second after seeing the object,

I now believe that this object can help me obtain happiness.

Buddhist teachings explain clearly that no object can bring any kind of lasting happiness.

Objects come and go.

If I seek happiness in objects,

Be they cars,

Birds,

Or even people,

Then I misunderstand the nature of objects.

I have what Buddhists call the wrong view.

The negative branch.

Steps 9 to 12.

Step 9.

If instead the mental feeling is disagreeable,

It will cause a desire to get away from the object,

A desire to get rid of it.

Step 10.

This desire to be rid of the object creates an unsatisfactory feeling,

A feeling of anger or hatred toward that object.

That object is an obstacle,

A fly in my ointment.

However slight it may be,

Buddhist teaching says that the desire to be rid of something always contains a portion of hatred.

Always.

For example,

I see a car blocking my way in a traffic jam.

I desire to be rid of this traffic jam and free to move on towards my home.

I have an aversion and hatred for traffic jams,

Anger towards the bumper in front of me.

Step 11.

This aversion leads to the formation of a link or bond between me and the object.

That object is seen as an obstruction to my happiness.

I think that if that thing is there,

I cannot be happy.

Buddhists call this step attachment.

Step 12.

At this point,

A mere fraction of a second after seeing the object,

I now believe that this object can prevent me from obtaining happiness.

Buddhist teaching clearly explains that objects cannot block happiness.

Objects come and go.

If I think that happiness is not possible in the presence of some objects,

Then I misunderstand the nature of objects.

I have what Buddhists call the wrong view.

The neutral branch.

Steps 13 to 15.

If the mental feeling is neutral,

There is no desire associated with the object.

This is the proper mental disposition according to Buddhism.

However,

This neutrality could have two causes.

Step 14.

One cause is that the thing has no significance for me.

I'm not interested in it,

So I don't generate positive or negative mental feelings.

But my lack of interest is not due to wisdom.

Step 15.

My wrong view concerning the object remains,

But there is no desire associated with the object,

So I let it go.

I create no karma,

Yet I remain in my ignorance.

Should this object later obtain significance or importance,

I will choose to desire or be rid of it.

But for now,

I just don't care.

Data saved.

Step 16.

All of this data,

Positive,

Negative,

Insignificant,

Is saved.

Yet all is flawed.

The glass is still dark.

I remain in ignorance and do not see objects for what they are.

My mind is not seeing reality as it really is.

I am not seeing the truth of nature.

Instead,

I am seeing an artificial value that I have added myself.

I falsely see external sense objects as able to bring or prevent happiness.

This means that my next conscious moment arises from a base of wrong view,

A base of ignorance.

The middle way.

Steps 17 to 19.

There is another pathway on the neutral branch.

The only path that avoids the wrong view.

The middle way.

Steps 17 to 19.

There is another pathway on the neutral branch.

The only path that avoids the wrong view.

The branch of understanding and wisdom.

On this path,

Objects I once strongly desired appear to me now as mere eye candy.

Objects that once made me angry are like spilled milk.

I have come to understand these objects for what they truly are.

They no longer cause me to desire or to hate.

Step 18.

I see the true nature of these objects.

Objects come and go.

They have no connection to my happiness or sorrow,

So they have no power over me.

This is called the right view.

This is the path of wisdom.

This is the path of Buddhism.

Step 19.

This data is recorded and saved.

Thus we begin our next conscious moment from a base of right view.

What this book and the Buddhist teaching is trying to do is to help us follow the path of right understanding.

Seeing nature as it is.

So to summarize,

Nature is constantly changing.

Objects come and go.

So we should train our minds to see and acknowledge that fact.

It's foolish and unskillful to cling to something which will change,

Break down and cease to be.

We should understand that our attachment leads to unsatisfactory feelings and then strive to rid ourselves of our attachments.

And what is the source of our attachment?

It comes from the false value that we added to the object.

And where does the false value come from?

From our wrong view of nature,

Our ignorance,

Our failure to see reality as it is.

Ignorance is the first link in the chain leading to our suffering.