If a fall into the abyss of mysticism is to be avoid, then logic and reason must be applied to any and all Buddhist explanations of mind development. This process not only replicates the manner in which the ancient Greeks assessed reality, but also the method appears to make use of as recorded in the Pali Suttas. As an interesting aside, this would mean that any apparent talk of ‘rebirth’ or ‘polytheistic’ gods must be later additions to the texts, or inheritances from the past that contemporary readers (including Buddhists) do not know how to correctly ‘interpret’. Why should this be the case? If ‘rebirth’ in numerous other realms, together with the belief in ‘gods’ and a semi-spiritualised version of ‘karma’ are upheld as being a genuine part of Early Buddhism, then logic demands an answer to the question of ‘What is the point of Buddhism if it is just another version of Brahmanical teaching?’ In this regard, there is a ‘pull’ between the Buddha’s use of a pristine ‘logic’ and ‘reason’ - and the parts of the text that subtly try to undermine this reason and replace it with mythology and theology! In this regard, ‘gods’, ‘dimensions and ‘karma’ all fall under the categories of greed, hatred and delusion – or those psycho-physical traits which are thought to bind humanity to ‘Samsara’ - the ‘cycle of suffering’, etc. A living human body is created through two adult humans engaging in sexual intercourse. Nine to ten months later the woman gives birth to a child. As the child develops in the womb, he or she is receiving stimulus from the outside world through the mother’s body. This process continues at an increased pace after the baby is born and leaves the inside of the mother’s body. At this time, the mother’s body no longer gives direct protection from the physical environment. The human brain is a physical organ that sits inside the head of a physical body. From the brain emerges what is called the human mind. The mind can sense the thoughts it creates, is aware of the past, present and future, and is able to sort-through and make sense of the sense data received through the other five senses – the nose (smell), the ear (hearing), the tongue (taste), the eye (vision) and the body (touch). Each human mind is conditioned to think in patterns that reflect the outer conditions of the individual concerned. This process is believed to adjust the individual to ‘survive’ in whatever environment is present, (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral). An individual builds an inner image of the outer world through all kinds of experiences. Cultural considerations define what particular circumstances are ‘preferred’ as to what conditions should be ‘ignored’, etc. The ‘self-awareness’ that is an implicit part of the mind is taken in the modern world as comprising the foundation of the individual. This ‘individuality’ sits ‘juxtaposed’ to the five other sense-organs of the body and generates a ‘dualism’ of perception. A foundational and all-enveloping mind-awareness sits atop the five bodily-senses that continuously ‘receive’ information about the outside world. Human culture dictates how this ‘duality’ is to be perceived, managed and expressed. An individual traverses through life building-up a reservoir of knowledge and experience, ad seeking the best ways in which life can be lived, and other people interacted with. Yes, life is not always ‘good’ or ‘pleasant’ - but the good times are often understood as emerging from the bad times – and a compromise of experience is usually a key to a balanced life. However, throughout human history, some individuals have ‘rejected’ this cycle of human existence, and actively sort-out a different way of living – the historical Buddha was one such being. The point is that much of human life is defined by terrible poverty, illness and calamity. The daily psychological, emotional and physical pain is often unbearable, and reduces an individual into a shivering mass of suffering and stupidity! Much of this suffering pre-exists in areas of poor economic, social and cultural development. In the Greek model, for instance, ancient Greece was an affluent State within which most of the work was carried-out by male and female slaves. The philosophers had plenty to eat, did not have to work, and inhabited a warm climate! This is similar to the Buddha’s upbringing of luxury and opulence in a world of utter poverty and death! What the Buddha sought was a profound ‘indifference’ to physical circumstance premised upon a permanent inner calm. In other words, such a person would remain exactly the same both inwardly and outwardly regardless of whether their circumstances were considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’! To test this idea, the Buddha shifted his everyday experience to that of abject poverty – away from the opulence he had once routinely enjoyed. Continuous sexual indulgence was replaced with an absolute celibacy, etc. Enlightenment is the experience of an all-embracing and all-expansive conscious awareness that is permanent and ever-lasting. The five bodily-senses – ‘receive' data from the environment in an indifferent manner, and this data is processed by a mind that does not waiver and which is free of greed, hatred and delusion. Painful experiences are no longer viewed as something to be ‘avoided’ just as ‘pleasant’ experiences are not something to be sort-after. Bare attention free of greed, hatred and delusion generates wisdom, compassion and loving kindness. All this is verifiable and correct. However, what interests me here is the perception of ‘three-dimensional emptiness’ by the mind, which appears to permeate the inside of the human-body, and which expands outward into the environment (in an infinite ‘roundel’ shape or ‘circle’, etc). This perception of ‘all-embracing emptiness’ unites the inner body and the outer world in a totality of integrative interaction. An interesting question from a scientific perspective is ‘is this experience ‘real’ or an illusion created by the mind?’ Why could this perception of ‘all-embracing’ emptiness be an ‘illusion’? The mind possesses the ability to ‘generate’ and ‘sense’ thought. Thought is a concept or ripple in the psychic life of the individual. Although the mind can inwardly replicate any external image found in the environment – it can also amalgamate its many experienced impressions and generate entirely ‘new’ inner images (imaginations) that have no bearing on the existing outside world. Through a difficult and disciplined path of self-cultivation, an experience that is ‘real’ in the physical sense, it could well be that the objective of all this effort is that the human mind is ‘forced’ or ‘conditioned’ into generating a single but permanent ‘thought’ that it is experiencing as ‘three-dimensional’ empty space! This type of thought is different to everyday thoughts which traverse the surface mind – as it is singular, consolidating and apparently ‘underlying’ all other sensory activity generated in the mind. This ‘thought’ of ‘unified space’ is all-encompassing and seems to include the inner body and outer environment, and is ‘limitless’ in scope. It is as large as the universe is infinite – but suppose it exists nowhere else than in the individual human-mind that experiences it? If this is the case, then it is not the underlying reality of the universe and does not truly exist either within or outside of the body. It is, in reality, just another form of hard-earned delusion very different from the norm. As a state of mind this sense of ‘unified oneness’ brings inner and outer peace, and changes the human character and behaviour for good. Such a state rejects the more brutal aspects of human instinct and instead emphasises peace, love and tranquillity. The inner and outer life is ‘transformed’ because of this realisation (which is not easy to achieve). Although probably a by-product of the evolutionary process, the Buddha suggests that true enlightenment is beyond both ‘perception’ and ‘non-perception’, in other words, reality is beyond both ‘thought’ and ‘non-thought’. Perception and non-perception is stage four in the Caodong School of Ch’an’s Five Ranks of Prince and Minister – with stage five representing ‘that’ which is beyond ‘perception’ and ‘non-perception’. Although all-embracing emptiness is a difficult stage of reality to perceive – even so it must be ‘seen through’ and understood to be ‘empty’ even of ‘emptiness’! When the human-body ‘dies’ - then all perception and non-perception will quite naturally fall away. Given that this is the case, it seems that all-embracing unity is a difficult to acquire state of being which is rarefied and ultimately ‘empty’ of any permanent reality. It is a door-way through which a spiritual aspirant must pass, but which is an illusion just like any other. It heals and it cures but is not unexplainable or truly ‘mystical’ in the divine sense. Through achieving ‘enlightenment’ - a ‘new’ perceptual base is laid - through which the individual experiences the world. This achievement raises the individual from primordial instinct to a higher level of reasoning and interacting. All perception, regardless of its shallowness and depth is ultimately a delusion because it all falls away at the point of physical death. In reality, the organ of the brain exists in a dark and lonely place, but its capacity to generate ‘mind’ and then fill that mind with all kinds of interesting data serves to transform human existence. In-short, the ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’ experience has nothing to do with the assumed presence of divine beings – and everything to do with a brain that has met the challenges of evolution in a most spectacular and meaningful way! Building an inner reflection of the outer world is an illusionary event – but which has been crucial for the evolution of humanity!
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AuthorAdrian Chan-Wyles PhD - Political Commissar and BMA (UK) Historian & Researcher. Archives
April 2024
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