Beyond Appearances

Buddhism asserts that all beings have the fundamental wish for greater happiness and also a natural aspiration to avoid any suffering, be it great or small. Every living being has the equal right to be happy and to create the causes for their future happiness. In this not a selfish aspiration but, unfortunately many tend to misunderstand the causes of real happiness and by this engage in negative actions.Buddhists don’t assert a single, all-powerful creator of the world and the beings within it.
The basic premise is that the mind is the primary source of all happiness, problems and the natural world – the environment. There is a well know discourse given by the Buddha where he says, All phenomena are preceded by mind.
When you comprehend mind, you comprehend all phenomena. The goal of Buddhism is to remove all dysfunctional states of mind, replace them with functional minds in order to be of benefit to all living beings, which includes oneself!
Therefore consciousness itself is the primary object of investigation for Buddhists and the principal tool used for this investigation is meditation.Buddhism has developed many techniques for stabilizing and refining consciousness. Just as the great scientists of the past such as Kepler and Galileo used the telescope to investigate the physical universe. Buddhists use meditation to investigate the inner world of the mind, the nature of reality, and to develop healthier, constructive and balanced states on mind which in turn enhance the ability of the mind to investigate mind itself.

What is mind?
Some people think that the mind is the brain or some other part or function of the body. Buddhism disagrees with this view. Buddhism says that the mind is not a physical object. It cannot be seen with the eyes, nor can it be photographed or repaired by surgery. The brain is not the mind but simply part of the body. In fact, there is nothing within the body that can be identified as being our mind because our body and mind are different entities.
In Buddhist scriptures, our body is compared to a hotel and our mind to a guest. When we die, our mind leaves our body and goes to the next life, just like a guest leaving a hotel and going somewhere else.Many people believe that when the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind ceases and the mind becomes non-existent, like a candle flame going out. There are even people who may contemplate suicide in the hope that if they die their problems will come to an end. Buddhism asserts these ideas are incorrect. So even though the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind remains unbroken. Instead of ceasing, the mind simply leaves the present body and goes to the next life. Therefore, rather than releasing us from suffering, suicide only brings more problems. If the mind is not the brain, nor any other part of the body, what is it? It is a formless continuum that functions to perceive and understand objects. Because the mind is formless, or non-physical, by nature, it is not obstructed by physical objects. Also it is very important to be able to distinguish dysfunctional states of mind from peaceful states. The states of mind that disturb our inner peace, such as anger, jealousy, and desirous attachment, are called ‘delusions’; and these are the principal causes of all the problems in our lives. We may think that our problems are caused by other people, by poor material conditions, or by society, but in reality it all comes from our own states of mind. The essence of spiritual practice is to reduce and eventually to eradicate altogether these dysfunctional states of mind, and to replace them with the actual causes of happiness such as compassion and wisdom. From a Buddhist point of view this endeavor makes our lives very meaningful. This is the real meaning of our human life.The essential point of understanding the mind is that happiness cannot be found outside the mind. Real happiness can be found only by purifying the mind from its dysfunctional aspects. Therefore, if we want to become free from problems and attain lasting happiness we need to increase our understanding of the mind.Getting back to the original quotation from the Buddha…
All phenomena are preceded by mind.
When you comprehend mind, you comprehend all phenomena.
So, there is nothing that exists independent of mind. This doesn’t mean that everything is just imagined like in a dream. Things do exist, but they don’t exist the way we innately or naturally conceive of them to exist.So if that is the case how do phenomena exist then, you may ask.

All phenomena exist as an aggregation of causes and conditions; parts; and imputation – the process of consciousness naming or labeling things.Example of a cup…In fact the Buddha and many Buddhist saints throughout the history of Buddhism have written 1000’s of books on the different states of mind, nature of reality and what constitutes destructive minds and constructive minds like compassion.

Why is compassion a constructive state of mind – Virtuous Mind?
In Buddhism we have this term called Karma. An often misunderstood and misused term.
Karma is a Sanskrit word that means ‘action’, and refers to the actions of our body, speech, and mind. Every action we perform leaves an imprint, or potentiality, on our very subtle mind, and each imprint eventually gives rise to its own effect. Actions done with compassion will ripen in the future as effects similar in type to the initial action. So from this you can see that the real causes for happiness are in fact these constructive states of mind such as compassion and so forth!
Our mind is like a field, and performing actions is like sowing seeds in that field. Virtuous actions such as generosity, patience and compassion sow seeds of future happiness, and non-virtuous actions such as killing, lying and stealing sow seeds of future problems – future suffering. The seeds we have sown in the past remain dormant until the conditions necessary for their germination come together. In some cases this can be many lifetimes after the original action was performed.The sources of life’s problems are our own dysfunctional states of mind such as anger, attachment, and self-grasping ignorance. Once we have purified our mind of self-grasping and other dysfunctional states of mind, all our actions are naturally pure. As a result of our pure actions or pure karma, everything we experience will be in the nature of pure happiness. This is how to find true happiness – that is from within our mind.When we speak of spirituality the original Sanskrit term that is being translated as spirituality or religion is Dharma and in Tibetan it is cho. The Tibetan term cho has the connotation of transforming and this I think is very inspiring because what is being implied in the very notion of spirituality is the idea that the individual is capable of being transformed at the level of one’s thoughts and emotions – from the factors and conditions that give rise to dysfunctional states to a functional states. So this notion of transformation is built into the very meaning of the word cho or Dharma.

While the Tibetan word for meditation is gom which has the connotation of habituation. So the meaning behind this is to become familiar with constructive states of mind and the nature of reality.In Buddhism the nature of reality is often spoken of in terms of two levels, which we call the Two Truths.
The two truths are conventional truth and ultimate truth or appearances and dependant-arising.Example of a dependant-arising…like the cup or the Prime minister or a Head Master/Principal.The reason why understanding the two truths is so important is because we are lead into and fall victim to conventional appearances. We believe these false appearances to exist the way they appear, and through this all destructive states of mind such as anger, attachment, jealousy and arrogance are generated. These minds distort our view – the way we perceive things and events. Shantideva a 7^th century Buddhist sage said…
Although they wish to be free from problems they run to problems.
And although they long for happiness, through ignorance they crush it like an enemy.What he is saying is that, although we innately want happiness and to avoid even the slightest form of suffering. Through not understanding reality and the true causes of happiness, whatever happiness we experience is fleeting at best.
Now some will say “this is just life! This is the human condition!” Buddhism asserts that the human condition is transformable, changeable and ultimately transcendable. How is this so?
By going beyond mere appearances – conventional truths – to see the reality of phenomena, that is their dependant-arising nature. How does this happen? Well by seeing the dependant nature of things and events we are sucked in by these appearances.So someone could object by raise the question, then so far as the fulfill of this basic aspiration to seek happiness and overcome suffering is concerned, why do we need spirituality?
Why can’t we just through money, friends and physical stimulus solve all our problems and fulfill all our aspirations. This is a serious question that shouldn’t just be put to one side!So the question is. Are friends, fame and money alone adequate for human beings to fulfill their aspirations and overcome their suffering? If happiness came only from external stimulus, then those individuals, who have excellent material facilities as a result of their wealth, would not experience problems. But we can see these people who are materially well provided for can sometimes be extremely unhappy, anxious and restless. This shows that there is a level of experience which is beyond physical sensations of pain and pleasure. So clearly the answer has to be no! Why, because in addition to having a physical body, we also have the mental world – the world of the mind. We all possess consciousness so therefore when we speak of our experiences of happiness and suffering or pain and pleasure we do so both at the level of our physical body and at the level of consciousness – the level of thoughts and emotions. Many of our experiences tend to be at the physical level, dominated mainly be our sensory experiences. For example, as a result of hearing pleasant music, or seeing an attractive form, we have physical sensations relating to those experiences. Also taste by eating some delicious food, we have sensory experiences that respond to these external stimulus. All of these different sensory stimuli are contingent on our physical existence. However all of these perceptions and sensations arise on the basis of subjective consciousness – that is mind.It is the subjective experience of consciousness that allows us to have these kinds of perceptions and sensations in response to external physical stimulus. Also no matter how powerful these sensory experiences are, if you compare them to the experiences of happiness at the level of thoughts and emotions, the experiences at the level of consciousness are far more powerful.Since happiness and unhappiness is not so much due to some external stimuli but, rather as an internal process of our mind. The solution has to come not from external conditions but from internal processes themselves. It is in this domain that the role of Dharma (spirituality) comes into play.

So the point is friends, fame and money alone cannot solve all your problems or fulfill all of your aspirations.There is a need for some form of spirituality in every person’s life, be it Buddhism or not.
By understanding your mind you will greatly enhance your life. Whether you want to be a great sports person, a doctor, lawyer, farmer, homemaker or whatever, by understanding the inner world of your mind you will be more successful than if you don’t understand your mind!Having said that, if someone is suffering from hunger religion is not going to fill their stomach!
There is nothing wrong with having a lot of friends or money or fame! In fact one could bring a lot of happiness and do a lot of good in the world if one had it!

What do you think?