This is really what Buddhist practice is, creating the right conditions for awakening. Our minds, because of the things we have done and wanted in the past, creates all these mental pictures and inner conversations and ideas and whatever, but we can reign it and choose to think, or not think, whatever we want when we want and the point is not to not want or to keep the mind blank or to not have states and feelings. Throughout the Buddhist teaching there is the concept of ‘right’ this and ‘right’ that, and ‘wholesome’ this and ‘wholesome’ that, meaning we can create the contents of our mind, constantly, moment-to-moment, in ways that both create happiness and the conditions needed to awaken — to the fact that we are not separate from what we perceive, when that insight is ready to arrive.
The fact that this is what we’re supposed to be doing is confirmed by what is known as The Four Efforts, which are:
1 – To abandon negative thoughts that are already existing
2 – To prevent negative thoughts arising in the future
3 – To continue good thoughts already existing
4 – To commence good thoughts not yet existing.
Simply: avoid, abandon, cultivate and maintain.
Yes, we can solve this situation of life we are in and be happy. There is no difference between what we perceive and think, and we can choose the entire contents of our consciousness when we… CHOOSE TO CHOOSE, and that last one means that, as we can disavow the senses (until full awakening beyond inner and outer) then we can essentially create the reality we desire. What exactly should we do with the mind? Yes, The Four Efforts, but if it was as simple as this then that would be the entirety of the teaching, but of course, there is more than one list taught. There are many lists in Buddhism, mainly because it was originally an oral tradition, and so they are kind of memory points for masters to hand down the teachings.
We can choose the entire contents of the mind, but not just for the odd five minutes here and there, but constantly. Though when we try that, there are problems, which brings up the first list: The Five Hindrances, which are:
Sensory desire
Notice the first word here, it is very important. Desire isn’t the problem, it’s wanting it to be fulfilled via the senses. You can imagine something and it makes you happy and it’s all well and good, maybe it’s a possibility, something you could then experience in the future via the senses, but right now are not physically experiencing it, and so this sets off a whole chain of distracting thoughts, of plans and schemes to get it or how awful it is that you don’t sense it now. Remember, this hindrance, problem, issue that stops you being successful, is SENSORY desire. It’s wanting the SENSES to experience something outside of your skull, your eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin to be registering impressions that, as yet, they are not in the present moment ON THE OUTSIDE, your inner-spiritual senses already have anything they want, the inner-experience is under your dominion, it’s the need for this to be physically experienced that causes the pain and disturbs the focus of consciousness.
Ill will
Ill will, means harbouring resentment, in any way. We could say it all leads back to the first dependent link of ignorance, that there is anything outside that is not us, any kind of self or separation. The issue is that this illusion is so strong, that we live life building up various preferences, and also a few battle scars, events and experiences are stored in memory (or our energy) where we felt slighted, or perhaps envious or there were things that made us averse. This is the essence of it really, it’s aversion, not wanting certain sensory experience. In a way it’s the flip side of desire, and in another way it is the same. With sensory desire, you want to experience various things via the senses that you do not now experience. With aversion/ill will then you either want to stop a sensory experience you are already having (something to stop) or you want to change experience in a way that is negative (harming someone (anger) or taking away another’s happiness (jealousy). You can break it down into all sorts of permutations, but in its purest essence, it’s desiring to change sensory experience, so it’s the same as the first.
This is recognised in the teaching of the twelve dependent links when it is represented pictorially (as art), then it is a wheel with twelve parts showing the twelve images, and there are six realms according to Buddhism, so these are shown around the wheel. But the very centre of the wheel is the axis, which is divided into three sections, representing greed, aversion and delusion. Delusion could be seen as ignorance. Thus the core is ignorance, the illusion that you are separate and not what you sense, and this leads to aversion (not wanting to experience something) and greed (wanting to experience something) as opposed to wisdom (you are the experience). The three defilements are also known as the three poisons, and in the art work are represented by three animals, a rooster (greed) a snake (aversion) and a pig (ignorance).
Sloth
This one is quite simple, as it just means being tired, not having the energy to focus, concentrate or choose the contents of the mind. Energy is free, on an ultimate level, and you can take whatever you want, in the same way the mind is infinite and you can simply think or imagine whatever you want. It feels limited sometimes because the physical energy of the body is limited, it exists within physical laws, can be spent up and need rest or sustenance. But the mental energy required to focus is always available, as it is the energy of the mental body (on an etheric level) but it takes WILL to direct it. That’s why, I think, the word ‘sloth’ is used rather than tiredness, as the latter is physical, and the word sloth, in this context (to my understanding) means a lack of will (to direct the mind).
Restlessness
Restlessness (worry and remorse). If the goal is to be focused, to always be choosing the contents and direction and attention of the mind, then spontaneous things that arise can rob us of that discipline, and the thoughts and mental pictures tend to be focused on the past (regrets and remorse) and the future (worry). Both those things take us away from the present moment, but also affect our state, our feelings, as we tend to react emotionally, rather than being present… to the present. If we are focused on the passing moment, what the physical senses are experiencing, and nothing more, there can’t really be restlessness. But there can be mental movement at the same time as we are experiencing the physical senses, we imagine things, but YOU CAN ALSO BE PRESENT ON THE INSIDE. Say, if there is something on your mind, a mistake you made. Thought of it comes up, and then there will tend to be an emotional reaction. Because of this energy, one thought will lead to another and it’s culmination is restlessness, away from the present moment, and away from a disciplined, chosen, happy contents of the mind.
Doubt
Anything that leads to the idea that discipline, choosing the minds contents and focus, isn’t important, constitutes doubt. Maybe thinking that it doesn’t make any difference, doubting that the inner creates the outer, that there is such a think as an ultimate state that will end suffering or that if it exists, then it is for masters and you wouldn’t be able to attain it. This leads to a letting go of will. You stop choosing your minds direction and it can do what it wants. The danger here is that it can work out quite well for a long time. You can live happily, with all the distractions and diversions of life before it all catches up with you and life gives you a good ‘kick in’ as they say, and you have no foundation to control your reactions and experience. The thing to remember is that spiritual practice is not optional. It’s like exercise and good nutrition. Technically, they are optional, live how you want, but if you live badly, eat badly, there will be a consequence over the long term because that is the laws of the physical world we are living in.
The Five Rememberences
The Five Remembrances are a kind of ‘things to bear in mind’ affair. They are negative things, i.e. hard truths about life. There is a parallel teaching in the West of Momento Mori, which means ‘remember you will die’. The reason you do this, keep reflecting on that fact, is to keep focus on what is important. The movement in the West involved collecting things like skulls and images of death around. It makes me think of the Buddhist corpse meditations, of meditating on your own dead corpse in various stages of decay. The goal is a deep insight of mortality, but not to be depressive or fatalistic, but to foster a sense of ‘spiritual urgency’, essentially as an antidote to doubt, sloth and all the other impediments to awakening. So The Five Remembrances are the five hard truths of life to think about if you ever give up the practice of mental discipline, that you live within this context of physical life. The recollections are that you will grow older, you will get sick, you will die, you leave the earth with nothing and you cannot escape your own karma (sorry if that ruined your day).
The Seven Factors of Awakening
Luckily, most of the other lists in Buddhism are positive and instructing. For example, the seven factors of enlightenment are qualities in the mind that will lead to awakening. They are: mindfulness, investigation, effort, joy (rapture), tranquility, focus (concentration) and equanimity.
There are some very important points to bear in mind when thinking about this list. One is that both mindfulness and concentration are present, and they also appear in The Eightfold Path (the first teaching). Mindfulness means to be (passively) aware of experience, what is going on in consciousness in each passing moment. Concentration is something else. It’s a little confusing as you need to concentrate somewhat to be mindful, so concentration means choosing to look or focus on something. So you can be concentrating on inner events within consciousness, and/or what the senses are experiencing. You can specifically look at one aspect of the inner world, like feelings, or all of it. Conversely you can choose to focus on one aspect of sensory experience and the world out there, say just hearing or only positive people and not miserable ones. So concentration can mean focus. It’s a choice to see a specific thing, and mindfulness means a basic awareness of being aware of everything.
Concerning what we can be mindful about, there is a further list, which is The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. They are: body, feeling, thoughts/states and mental phenomena (feelings, perceptions, volitions). This list covers everything consciousness can experience. The last one covers perception, meaning everything the senses experience, smells, physical touch etc. and intuitively, that feels like it should be a separate category, but really, IT’S ALL INSIDE, when you are being mindful of what the senses are reporting, you are observing mind, there is nothing ‘out there’.
To return to The Seven Factors for a moment, I wanted to point out that one of them is ‘joy’, which is also interpreted as ‘rapture’. In a way it’s an energy, which is also mentioned, but it’s a specific kind of energy, a kind of ‘upward’ focusing energy, and it is a foundation for concentration. It’s also not mentioned in relation to something. It’s not to be joyful about something or in anticipation of something. Yes, it might be that the enlightened mind is joyful because it cannot suffer, but the seven factors are not a report about Nirvanah, they are a roadmap.
You get the ingredients before the cake, not the other way around. Emotion is separate from anything and under your volition within, like everything else. With practice you can just will it the same as you will a mental picture, and when it is held exclusively, it intensifies into rapture. The word ‘rapture’ is derived from the Latin word ‘rapere,’ which means “to seize, snatch, or carry off.’ To ‘carry off’ the sense of self. By choosing and creating joy in the practice, i.e. a single emotion held for a long period, then it sustains practice and concentration, like a self-feeding cycle because the mind is always chasing joy, not understanding it is actually free and no need to chase. Later on we can investigate how choosing joy is also a magickal practice that can affect material change.