Transcript
Chapter three
T h e c on stitu stitu en ts of hu m an l ife ife
Please bear bear in mind that the enlightenment enlightenment of the Buddha is about his finding of a unique element in nature which was not known to anyone previously in our recorded history. Despite being beyond the reach of human’s thoughts and language, the Buddha had no choice but to call this ultimate element ‘Nirvana’ for the sake of communicating and leading his his followers to it. This is the ultimate ultimate ‘missing link’ link’ that once it is known, known, the whole picture of life can be in perspective too. The rest is all ‘the details’ that can be easily bypassed bypassed including including all the conspiracy theories theories that have troubled so many people in the world. This wisdom is the very essence that Einstein wanted to achieve; he had no time for ‘details’. So, if we want to know what Nirvana or the innocent perception is, we must understand how our life form, body and mind, works. It is this life form after all which will experience the innocent perception/Nirvana. This chapter will be the main 1 reference as I delve into the different topics in this book. The five aggregates (groups)
Mind experts view the human life form as a body to which the brain belongs and the mind as being part of the brain, but the Buddha viewed it very differently.
A cartoon view of human life as a physical body in which the mind is within the brain. 1
Although I begin to use the term ‘ultimate element’ to represent Nirvana, one of the 28 terminologies mentioned in chapter one, please bear in mind that it doesn’t have any material form like those in the periodic table of elements. Nevertheless, this ultimate element is still classed as a natural element just like others, the difference is that it has a definite, ultimate and absolute quality, and also beyond human thoughts and language. That’s why it is extremely difficult to talk about it. I, however, want to use the term ‘ultimate element’ for Nirvana to depict the notion of being scientific and not some kind of religious dogmatic concoction for the purpose of building up faith for the public. All these will be elaborated in chapter nine of this book.
According to the Buddha, Buddha, the human life form form consists of five different different groupings – one group is material or mass and the other four parts are of a formless nature which I would like to describe with the word ‘energy’ for now. They are shown in the illustration below.
The Buddha Buddha separates the human human life form into five groupings: groupings: body (physical (physical self) and thoughts, memories, feelings and consciousness (mental self). According to the Buddha’s approach, approach, these five aggregates aggregates are his way to explain explain how the four natural natural mental mental elem elements ents work together together.. This nature nature of group grouping ing is, of cours course, e, unfamiliar to the non-Buddhists especially those with scientific minds but they can clearly and splendidly explain how human mind work. Each group of element has its own quality and function. Let’s have a look. 1. The body body (mass, rupa in Pali) Pali) is made made up of earth, water, fire and wind which are the familiar basic common elements. Each element has its own quality and function: earth element is hard, water element flows, wind element blows and the fire element is hot. 2. The memo memory ry elemen elementt (sanya, (sanya, in Pali) Pali) is a form formless less eleme element nt whose whose functio function n is to accumulate accumulate data which come as ‘experience’ ‘experience’ in the form of sights, sounds, sounds, smells, tastes, textures including mental events. This element appears in the head or the skull area. 3. The thought/ thought/thin thinking king element element (sankara (sankara,, in Pali) Pali) is anothe anotherr forml formless ess elem element ent whose main function is to reason, elaborate, elaborate, proliferate, expand, delude, including including to simplify or complicate matters. This thinking element works hand in hand with the memory element. element. The former provides provides the data/information data/information whereas the latter expands, creates, concocts and shuffles into ‘mental events/activities’. The thinking element is similar to a master chef who is capable of throwing a series of ingredients ingredients into a massive bowl of salad. This This element is well known to Buddhists Buddhists
as sank sankara ara – a very very sign signifi ifica cant nt char charact acteri eristi stic! c! It can can be be both both creat creativ ivee and and destru destructi ctive ve – causin causing g greatn greatness ess and and mayhe mayhem! m! This This thin thinkin king g elem element ent can turn turn a man into a saint or a world class murderer depending on whether he has the right or wrong view towards the ultimate goal of life. Whether a society has war or peace entirely depends on this element. It can transform a molehill into a gigantic mountain just as energy can expand itself faster than viruses. Concocting, deluding deluding and expan expanding ding are what this parti particula cularr elemen elementt is very good good at. Once Once concocted into mental events, thoughts appear as our ‘mental monologues’ some of which will be subsequently materialised into speeches and actions, good and bad alike. alike. This group of element element also appears appears in in the head or or the skull area. area. 4. The feeli feeling ng eleme element nt (vedana, (vedana, in Pali) Pali) is yet yet anoth another er formle formless ss natura naturall elemen elementt whose main function is to feel or produce mental feelings and emotions. This element is a direct direct result of the other two groups, memories memories and thoughts. thoughts. This group of element element appears in the chest chest area in both positive positive and negative negative feelings. feelings. The negative feelings can be weighty as if carrying a mountain on our chest whereas some some of the positive feelings feelings can make one symbolically symbolically being being on cloud nine. 5. The The cons consci ciou ousn snes esss elem elemen entt (vin (vinna nana na,, in Pal Pali, i, ment mental al self self)) acco accord rdin ing g to the the Buddha, is also another natural element whose distinctive function is to know, to be aware or to be conscious. This element doesn’t produce any ‘monologue’ in our heads. Apart from the earth, water, fire and wind elements which make up our physical body, the other other four four (formle (formless) ss) natural natural eleme elements nts – let’s let’s regard regard them them as energy energy – are unknown unknown to physical scientists and therefore they do not appear on the periodic table of elements. Because of their intangible intangible formless nature and and being trapped in our life form, form, I shall use the universal cartoon cartoon characters characters of Tom and Jerry as a tool to demonstrate their functions. functions. Therefo Therefore, re, from now on our mental mental self self or or consciou consciousnes snesss element element will be be known known as as Tom, Tom, the cat cat and memorie memories, s, thoughts thoughts and feeling feelingss will be rounded rounded up up and replaced replaced as Jerry. Jerry. By using the comparison comparison as as Tom and Jerry, Jerry, I will have more flexibility to explain how human mind work, which also makes it easier for you to grasp the concept with better comprehension. Different groupings
The intellectual world may place consciousness within the body to which the brain belongs. Mind experts tend to believe that consciousness has a direct connection with the brain, which connects connects with our nervous nervous system and the the functioning functioning of the body. As a matter of fact, after two centuries of debating, mind experts haven’t really come up with any satisfying conclusions to the question of “what consciousness and the mind really are.” In contrast, the Buddha places the brain with the body grouping while consciousness is another separate independent entity, as are the other three formless elements. We must also admit that these five elements work very closely together in a mysterious manner. It is very true that the brain has something to do with human consciousness.
There are certainly some connections between the brain and consciousness. When somethi something ng is wrong wrong with with the brain brain – a blood blood clot clot for for instanc instancee – we can can become become unconscious. Once the blood clot is removed, consciousness can return. The use of anaesthetics that can block the whole of our nervous system, allowing surgeons to perform surgery, also strongly supports the fact that the brain has something to do with human consciousness. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with the brain at all during a deep sleep, yet our consciousness becomes absent. People can faint and become unconscious without anything wrong with their brains. Similarly, those who are in a coma for a length of time can regain regain consciousness consciousness without having to rectify rectify the brain. Not all dying people have problems with the brain; their brains can still be in good working order, so why does their consciousnesses still disappear? For those reasons, let’s admit first that there are a great number of mysteries about these fundamental elements which make up our body and mind. Let them be a secret of Heaven for now. My goal here is to merely present the Buddha’s teachings regarding this important topic of the human life form form so that we can make make connections connections with other relevant relevant subjects I shall bring up in this book, i.e. the nature of our true self, the state of a normal mind, the final frontier, the tube of intellect and above all the ultimate truth as the absolute ruling point that Einstein wanted to locate. Without the existence of our life form, nothing would matter. For this reason, it is very important to see how the Buddha views this life form. Through his perspective, all the loose jigsaw puzzle pieces and the final missing link will easily and amazingly click into place. Only then will we be able to know our position in this gigantic cosmos, the subject with which I shall deal in chapter nine. Metaphoric language
It is very difficult to explain our mental states due to their energy form. The only way I can communicate with you is by using metaphoric language and personifying their characteristics so that we can make better sense of all these natural elements, four of which are trapped in the physical body. I shall personify the term ‘consciousness element’ as a ‘mental self’ so that it can correspond to our body or physical self. But when this consciousness element interacts with our thinking and feeling faculties, I shall refer to it as Tom as opposed to Jerry. This will enable me to offer easy comparisons and allegorical allegorical examples, examples, to give you you a clearer perspective. perspective. The core of life st
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Now, let’s look at the 1 and the 5 grouping first. A complete life form must have both the physical self and the mental self. There is a Thai saying that comes from the Buddhist influence: influence: mind is the boss, body is the servant. For a clear image, I shall depict them by using these toy characters, which I have been using in my lectures.
A complete life form is made up of both a physical self and a mental self. To support the fact that the mental self is the true self, you have to see the difference between a birth of a predictably crying baby and a stillbirth. A crying baby has both a physical self and a mental mental self, whereas whereas the stillbirth stillbirth is similar to a glove/shell glove/shell without a hand. Imagine Imagine the physical physical self as a glove and the mental mental self as a hand; you will see right away who the real captain of this ship is. The glove cannot function without the hand as without a captain, a ship is like an empty vessel.
A crying baby – hand in a glove – is a successful successful birth with both a physical self and a mental self, and a stillbirth is a physical self (shell) without a mental self. The following four incidents incidents further support support the notion that the mental self is the real self. They are:
When one falls into a deep sleep, is unconscious, either with or without anaesthetics, is in a coma, or when one dies.
When any of the four events events happen, the mental mental self is not with the physical physical self – just like the hand is not with the glove. You may ask where the mental self goes during during those events? I am afraid your guess is as good as mine. Knowing too much can complicate matters at this stage. As long as this approach can lead us to an effective cure for reducing mental mental turmoil turmoil and restoring inner inner peace, that is all that matters matters for now. We can bypass this question, and leave it in the mystery list for the time being. Let’s focus first first on the the more more urge urgent nt matte matterr by piecin piecing g toget together her the the loose loose jigsaw jigsaw puzz puzzles les to form form a perfect understanding understanding of life in relation to the universe. We can do this without having to answer that out-of-range question yet. The important point you must know is that the physical self cannot function without the presence of your mental self or consciousness element. Although all the sense organs are there, they cannot perform their usual tasks of perceiving or sensing. When one falls into a deep sleep, one might not be conscious even if a marching band is trooping through the bedroom. bedroom. When that happens, happens, it would be like eyes that can’t can’t see, ears that can’t hear, hear, a nose that can’t smell, a tongue that can’t taste and a body that can’t feel texture. But as soon as the the menta mentall self (conscio (consciousne usness ss eleme element) nt) returns returns to the the body body,, the awakenin awakening g happens, only then can all sensory organs function normally again.
When a person is in a deep sleep, unconscious unconscious or in a coma, the sensory organs: eyes, eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin cease to work as usual. To confirm the existence of your mental self/consciousness element as the true/real self, here is another example. Suppose a husband had an accident and he suffered a period of amnesia – having no memory of his wife! Under such circumsta circumstances, nces, although although they both are physically physically together, there is no difference difference from being being with a total stranger. To the wife, it is the husband’s husband’s true true self (Tom) (Tom) with his memory memory (Jerry) (Jerry) whom she she misses most. In other words, it is ‘the mind’(Tom and Jerry) of her husband that she want it to return. So, when she cuddles cuddles his physical body, body, she would feel like she is is cuddling a shell. Her feelings feelings are are incomple incomplete te due to the absenc absencee of her husband husband’s ’s true self self (mind). (mind). But when when the husband’s memory returns, she is very happy because she can now relate to his
true/inner self. The details of losing and retrieving memories is also another secret to add to the mystery list. From these examples, we can then draw a conclusion that the mental self is the true/real self or the core of life. Therefore, I shall also substitute the consciousness element with true/real self depending on the context. Understanding Rupa
Now, let’s explore the first group/aggregate group/aggregate – the body or the mass. The Buddha used the Pali term: rupa. Many Buddhists tend to think that rupa means only the physical body, but in fact, rupa covers significantly much more than just the physical body. According to the Buddha, rupa not only refers to the physical body but also includes everything in the universe as one single entity or singularity! It is because the physical body has sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) which act like bridges corresponding to perceived sense objects of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Therefore, without the existence of the physical body means the perceptions are absent and consequently consequently the entire external external universe is accordingly accordingly absent absent too. That’s why the Buddha swept the entire universe under just one word ‘rupa’. Please take your time to digest this profound concept. Sometimes the Buddha replaced the word rupa with the words: ocean or universe. He says that the ocean does not just mean water and the universe does not mean just stars in the sky. Water in the ocean is just one sight and stars in the sky are yet another sight. The genuine ocean here is profoundly abstract and staggeringly colossal. It is the ocean of sights, ocean of sounds, smells and so forth. The real universe is also the universe of sights, sounds, odours and so on. No matter how much we know about this cosmos, our solar system and earth, including everything everything that is happening on the surface of this blue planet from domestic domestic to global affairs – yes, plus our precious precious intellectual intellectual knowledge knowledge – this colossal entirety is referred referred to as a singular noun and is swept into the first group, rupa!
Rupa, the first aggregate, covers the ocean of sights, the ocean of sounds, the ocean of smells, the ocean of tastes and the ocean of textures.
Rupa includes absolutely everything from our physical body to the edge of the universe. It covers the universe of sights, the universe of sounds, the universe of odours, the universe of tastes and the universe of textures.
After describing the diversity in the external world as rupa, the Buddha then breaks all this external data/rupa into the categories of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Therefore, every piece of collective knowledge about our solar system all the way to the edge of the universe is narrowed narrowed down to mere sense perceptions perceptions in the Buddha’s terms. terms. These sensual data of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures next make their journey through the sensory organs (bridges) of eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. You must try to digest this piece of knowledge very carefully so that you can realise how insightful and ingenious the Buddha’s description is.
Rupa = sights, sounds, smells, smells, tastes and textures textures = external Jerry (data)
Rupa represents the five external Jerrys: sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures plus the physical self which has eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Einstein two, Buddha one!
If you understand the term rupa correctly, you will know that Einstein’s energy and mass equivalence is within the rupa grouping because it involves light, movements, electrical waves, electro-magne electro-magnetic tic fields and so on, which are are all parts of the material (external) (external) world. It means that while Einstein Einstein uses two words to represent the material world – mass (m) and energy energy (e), the Buddha Buddha uses only one word – rupa. E Rupa = M Therefore, it isn’t wrong to say that the Buddha knew about the mass and energy equivalence nearly 2500 years before Einstein! Who is the centre centre of the the universe? universe?
By using the Buddha’s approach of the five aggregates, it isn’t wrong to place yourself as the centre of the universe because without your senses, the cosmos does not exist for you. When you are sleeping, being unconscious or in a coma, your senses cease to function as usual due to the absence of your mental self/consciousness element. At that moment, your very own private universe disappears too, although it very much exists for others who are fully conscious. This makes each and every one of us become the centre of our own universe. The co-existence of the two selves
The two selves (mental and physical) have to rely on each other to make a perfect lifeform. One cannot function without the other. The mental self (real self) can access the outside (material) world only through the five bodily senses. If you are blind or deaf, which means these bridges of perception are broken, the result is your mental self will not have access to the ocean of sights or sounds (data). (data). Your real self will have no experience of sight, shapes, colour and sounds. For those reasons, the mental self can fully experience the external universe only when the five bridges of perception (eyes, ears…) are in good working order. External Jerry becomes internal Jerry
Once these vast diversities of sense objects travel over the bridges of perception and enter your inner world, the five sense objects (external Jerry or rupa) have no choice but to abandon their material forms and turn into the non-material entities (energy): memories, thoughts and feelings feelings (internal (internal Jerry). Therefore, Therefore, external Jerry Jerry dematerialises dematerialises into into internal Jerry both of which carry exactly the same information (data) and details. However, please note that the energy form of the three internal Jerry has nothing to do with Einstein’s mass and energy equivalence (e=m) because Einstein did not analyze the human mind.
The external Jerry travel through the sensory organs of eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, and turn into the internal Jerry of memories, thoughts and feelings.
When you are watching a football match, no matter how diverse those exciting events on the football field are, those awesome happenings of the match begin their journey into your inner world as sights, sounds, odours, tastes and touch. The five mice would then sprint through the five bridges (eyes, ears, …), and instantaneously transform into the formless energetic Jerry (memories, thoughts and feelings), which are perceived by your mental self. As a result, your mental self (the big boss) receives the facts and information about the match and knows directly what’s going on. Only then, will the whole
experience of the football match be completed. This whole network of sending data from the external world to the inside world happens at a staggering speed from start to finish. This explanation breaks up the sequence in slow motion for clear understanding. Should a completely completely blind man sit sit in the match, he would know everything everything but the facts about sights. Should a completely deaf man sit in the match, he would know everything but the facts about sounds. Domestic problems
Likewise, the various problems that you have with your partners, your children, your colleagues and your pet or even with the environment, no matter how diverse they are, are reduc reduced ed to the five five metaphor metaphoric ic mice (sights, (sights, sounds. sounds...) ..) who always always have have to run through the five bridges and turn into three internal Jerry for the acknowledgement by your true self. To break it down in slow motion, the memory memory Jerry will will record the event/data event/data in his memory box, which is its function. The thinking Jerry (sankara/the master chef) will then process the data by spicing and adding more ingredients into the salad bowl – proliferation! As for how many more ingredients this master chef will add into our mental salad bowl is subject to the situations and the moral quality of that person, i.e. empathetic, empathetic, forgiving, loving, compassionate, compassionate, reciprocate reciprocate and so forth. The adding of the mental ingredients varies in different events and situations, influenced by how close a link the perceiver has towards the people they perceive, or how much financially gain and loss and the the status status quo will be affected. If the events involve your loved ones, ones, more more ingredients ingredients will surely be added. These are all good examples examples for relativity.
For example, you find a loving text message on your husband’s mobile phone (sight). You call the number and hear a woman’s voice (sound). You smell perfume on your husband’s jacket that you know doesn’t belong to you (smell). Your assessment of these objects as clues, of your husband’s affair, absorbs into your inner world and turns into internal Jerry, with whom your mental self (Tom) will deal.
From the moment that you find the text message, your master chef/thinking Jerry has already begun his ingenious work in elaborating, crafting and expanding the perceived data. Finally, the feeling Jerry will complete the mental proliferation by scratching and punching your mental self causing an excruciating pain in your heart. This full cycle from finding the text to the pain happens at a staggering speed; it is so fast that no material tool can measure its speed. Just at the snap of our fingers, the cycle has already repeated itself countless times....so the Buddha said. All you can experience is that you have already felt the pain in your heart at the moment you found the text message. If you feel that the pain doesn’t change at all, it means that the cycle keeps on repeating itself over and over just like the way a film is made. That is, the individual frame of picture keeps on running through the projector and subsequently turns into a film (in our head). The master chef has been very busy in concocting this huge bowl of salad. This makes Jerrys proliferate themselves so rapidly that your mind turns into a huge mental jungle with your mental self trapped in it.
The thinking element/Jerrys can proliferate itself so rapidly!
With the functioning of the thinking element (sankara), the three inner Jerrys weave a dense mental mental jungle in which our our mental self is trapped. There is no way to stop this excessive thinking element from working in our heads, not without the help of the Buddha. Due to this natural thinking element (sankara/master chef) in our head, the Buddha at one time compared the human being to a crumb of dust being trapped in a cart’s wheels and thrown back and forth, unable to set itself free. That’s why our thinking has become our own inner enemy causing humanity endless pain and subsequent havoc. A blessing in disguise!
If you are blind and/or deaf, you will have fewer matters to worry about than those with good eyes and good ears because you can’t read the newspaper or hear news ranging from terrorism, diseases, stock market crashes and wars, to the alarming climate disasters. As long as the information about the outside world cannot reach your true self, you have no mental reaction to it whatsoever despite living in the middle of mayhem. 2
In one of my books , I told the story of Yee Gow who was deaf. She was forgotten and left alone in a temple in Shanghai while there was a fierce war going on. The shooting and bomb-shelling went on right outside her temple, but she wasn’t aware of the frightful political upheaval outside her temple wall. Sticking with her daily routine in her quiet quarter, Yee Gow had escaped a potential nervous breakdown only because she was utterly deaf! deaf! Consequently, Consequently, the turmoil turmoil of the outside outside world – mainly sound sound in Yee Gow’s case – could not travel through through her broken bridge (deafness) (deafness) and reach her her true self, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise!
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The User Guide Guide to Life – The Law of Karma Karma, in the appendix.
So pensioners, please feel blessed in having poor eye-sight and weak hearing. These conditions offer the benefit of providing the opportunity for less grief and to live in peace! th
Knowing the 6 sense
By using the five groups (aggregates) approach, outlined at the beginning of this chapter, the Buddha has placed the consciousness element (mental self/Tom) as an additional th sense, the 6 sense. The Buddha always described humans as a life form with six senses, th whereas intellectuals view it with five senses only. The 6 sense is the mental eye th belonging to the mental self. If this is true, what then are the sense objects of the 6 sense? The answer is: internal Jerry (memories, thoughts and feelings). Every sense must correspond to its own sense object. They cannot cross perceive. You cannot use eyes to perceive odours; neither can you use ears to perceive thoughts, memories and feelings. Internal Jerry must be perceived by Tom only. They must work together in pairs: Eyes perceive sights Ears perceive sounds Nose perceives odours Tongue perceives tastes Skin perceives physical textures, sensations th nd rd th Mental eye (5 group) perceives thoughts, memories and feelings (2 , 3 , 4 groups) or Tom perceives Jerry
th
Unlike the five pairs of sense organs, both the 6 sense (Tom) and its sense objects (Jerry) are in non-material forms or energy. The Buddha calls these non-material forms nama, and the term ‘energy’, in my opinion, is a good translation for it, because it sounds modern, is definitely more familiar to the ears and, to say the least, is a nonreligious term.
This metaphoric Tom and Jerry are the pair that mind-experts have great difficulty understanding due to the lack of Buddhist wisdom. The Buddha is, so far, the only great th teacher who talks seriously about the 6 sense and its sense objects in a scientific 3 manner. To understand understand mental activities activities or the working of the mind mind – the interactions interactions between memories, memories, thoughts and feelings feelings – you must first have have a basic tool: sense! sense! Without the eyes, you cannot possibly learn anything about the visible world in front of you. Likewise, without your mental eye (Tom), you cannot possibly know how your inner world works – it is as simple simple as this! By calling calling both Tom (the (the sense) and Jerry (the (the sense object) object) with just one word: word: ‘mind’, scientists subsequently categorise the mind under the bodily grouping ( rupa) by associating it with the brain so that the mind can be perceived scientifically by our five senses. By doing this, scientists have to leave ‘consciousness’ dangling in limbo, not knowing where to place this curious but most significant piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It is then difficult for them to form a clear picture of life in relation to the universe. Associating the mind with the brain is taking a wrong turn, as far as the Buddha’s wisdom is concerned. That’s why, after two centuries of research and debate, mind experts are still divided and unable to come up with a definite conclusion about what the mind and the consciousness really are. The ambiguity regarding the human mind and consciousness is so muddy that it has become harmful. By squeezing both the metaphoric Tom and Jerry into the skull, mind experts think they have no choice but to use medication to cure mental imbalances stretching from stress and depression to breakdowns and potential suicide. This mental illness has made prescribed drugs become a huge industry. It may look good for the economy, boosting the GDP, but certainly a disaster for humanity. While many individuals believe the anti-depression drugs work for them, researchers from Hull University, University, UK, claim that this could could be just a placebo effect – people feel better better by assuming a medication would help them! Alternatively, Alternatively, the Buddha simply uses meditation meditation and and vipassana vipassana (BMSBH) to keep the mischievous, wandering Jerry at bay. Simply engaging in the BMSBH practice, th practitioners will be equipped with the right tool (the 6 sense); they will subsequently understand understand their mental weakness weakness and the strength by just watching the coming coming and going of Jerry Jerry – a real scienti scientific fic observ observatio ation n on mental mental level. level. With some some guided guided wisdom wisdom – i.e. the subject like the host mind and mental guests, the illusive Jerry and the nature of the
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The scientific manner will be revealed once you engage in the practice of “bringing the mental self back home” a meditation practice described in part II of my book, Bringing Your Mental Self Back Home currently near the printing stage.
ultimate truth – BMSBH practitioners practitioners will be able to be one step ahead of illusive Jerry Jerry 4 and will finally defeat their inner enemy. The illustration below clearly shows the contrast difference between the cause and effect of mental illnesses and the cure, which can make a huge difference to one’s life too.
Without a scientific means for observing the mind or having the right tool for the right th job – the 6 sense – mind-experts mind-experts cannot possibly possibly find out out how Jerry works in human minds. One has no way of knowing that Jerry is the real culprit who carries all the problems in the material world into the inner world and subsequently uses the mental self as a punching bag all the time. Jerry is the root cause for our social, social, economic, political political and environm environmental ental imbalance imbalance,, which results in the global injustice, inequality and endless endless suffering among humankind. Comparatively speaking, Jerry has bullied Tom ever since the beginning beginning of humankind, yet we have not realized realized this – not even now!
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My book titled: Bringing Your Mental Self Back Home, which consists of two volumes: theory and practice, cover all the significant subjects, the guided wisdom, that you need to know.
On the physical physical level level (external world), the 1% wealthiest wealthiest known as the plutonomy plutonomy (banking cartel) is the real ruling class of the world – doing nothing nothing but but robbing from the poor poor throug through h the gree greedy dy and and disto distorte rted d bankin banking g syste system m – but on on the men mental tal lev level, el, Jer Jerry ry is the one and and only ruler who governs governs the entire humanity humanity all along, always has and always always will. All crime scenes scenes initially happen happen in the mind before being materialised materialised into actions. actions. That That small small handfu handfull wealth wealthiest iest (the plutono plutonomy) my) still still have have to use use their their ‘Jerry’ ‘Jerry’ to plan plan their their strategy to steal from from ‘the rest’, rest’, which causes causes corruptions corruptions on every level from the top to to the bottom of the society. Consequently a great number of humanity struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis basis and live in perpetual perpetual misery, not to mention mention the one billion people on this planet starve starve to death every day. This is how ‘powerful’ Jerry really is.
Nothing left dangling!
I hope you now have a clearer picture about your life form in relation to the universe we live in. You can easily distinguish between the two equal worlds this way: Physical self (five senses) relates to the external world of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch (the world of mass, rupa). th Mental self (with mental eye, the 6 sense or Tom) relates to the inner world of thoughts, memories and feelings (Jerry).
These two worlds are actually equal but in different forms. Summary
By using the five aggregates approach, the Buddha covers every aspect of life. There is absolutely absolutely nothing about life that is left dangling without without any classification classification or grouping. This will subsequently give us a much better understanding about life in relation to the cosmos as well as help us find long lasting solutions for international harmony. One can easily imagine a huge loss when a person p erson is blind. Not recognising re cognising the existence th of the 6 sense in global education, means the entire human race is sharing a profound mental/spiritual blindness. The catastrophe is inconceivable. Hence, the ignorance th towards the existence and the function of the 6 sense is the fundamental causality of every problem problem on earth. Empathy and evil happen happen in the mind first! Without the perspective of this real wisdom, I cannot see how humanity can change for the better. We simply recycle our lives and problems. One of the greatest scientists mankind ever produced, Albert Einstein, had a glimpse of the wisdom in Buddhism; it’s high time we took his his advice and listened listened to the wise – the Buddha!
