A Science of the Mind

I think that is what the Dalai Lama called it - not so much a religion as a "science of the mind."

But, what is the mind?

Well one explanation of the mind is that it is "experience", or "to experience", or better yet "experiencing of...(fill in the blank)". If you let this explanation sink in it really makes a lot of sense.

Lets put it this way, you can only experience life through your mind. Life happens as an experience, and experience happens AS your mind. Nothing can happen as an 'experience of..' without a mental process to cognize it as an experience of.

So lets go with that for now. And lets also define these terms as follows:

Mind is "to knowably experience.."

To experience is "to have a knowable experience of.."

An "appearance" (in the mind) is any knowable experience of mind - something (anything) appears in the mind, this is an experience of mentation or mind.

BTW, in Buddhism emotions are included in (or as aspects of) the mind as well.

What I'm going to talk about here is how our mind works when it experiences something. In other words, how our mind works.

A moment of mind is a moment of experience or experiencing.

There are five general factors that make up each and any moment of our experience:

1.> INTERDEPENDENT BASIS - There is the ineffable [unspeakable], interdependent basis of all appearance. One could tentatively [not absolutely] correlate this to the outside "objective" world although it equally applies to internal subjective experiences as well.

2.> APPEARANCE - There is the mere appearance itself as a perception. The mere appearance is a "valid arising" based on it's interdependent nature.

3.> ELABORATED APPEARANCE - There is the elaborated appearance as a conception.

4.> HABITUALLY CONDITIONED ELABORATED APPEARANCE - There is the habitually conditioned, elaborated appearance as a reception.

5.> PRESENT KNOWING - There is the present knowing factor of "awareness", aka "a knowing presence".

Example - a "dog"

Taking this somewhat out of the abstract, lets use the example of a person encountering a dog. Considering these five aspects of our experience by analogy, this experience (of encountering a dog) might unfold as follows:

1. INTERDEPENDENT BASIS - This would be the interdependent basis for the appearance of a dog [it's various body parts, it's mother and father, it's mind stream, and every other "thing" that goes into the making of the dog [except any independent thing that we might try to identify as being the dog itself]. Ultimately, this basis is voidness itself or inexpressible interdependence - it is ineffable.

2. APPEARANCE - This would be the mere appearance of some 'thing' appearing to us as distinct from [but validly arisen based on] the "background" interdependent basis. In this example, it would be an apparently isolatable "object" that is a distinct form appearing, but is not yet identified as a "dog". In other words, "Something is there".

3. ELABORATED APPEARANCE - This would be the appearance now as an identifiable, conceptual moment of perception - ie, a 'concept' or an idea. In this case, we would now identify the appearing form as "dog". Dog is a concept, an organized elaboration on an appearance that produces the resulting experience of..."There is a dog!"

4. HABITUALLY CONDITIONED ELABORATED APPEARANCE - This would be the conceptual appearance or "dog" now appearing as a familiar experience imbued with emotion. This factor is founded on any of our past experience with "Fluffy" as well as everything experientially connected with Fluffy. "Oh that's Fluffy! I love Fluffy the dog.."

5. PRESENT KNOWING is the non-conceptual present awareness that is the "immediate knowing of.." all other factors of experience. In this example, this [present knowing] is not the "I", nor the "love of Fluffy", nor is it "Fluffy the dog". Rather, it is the awareness that is exactly the present knowing of the experience "I love Fluffy the dog". Importantly, one must not mis-take this 'present knowing' to be a self or a soul, rather, it is simply a designation for a mental process of awareness (present knowing experience). Mostly, awareness is entangled with conceptual elaboration (thinking) and is thus "hidden" from our experience.

To understand all this it is necessary to understand the following:

Awareness [present knowing] can be directed outwardly or inwardly.

Directed outwardly [the usual case], our experience is of distinct, isolated,'object' appearances which are conceptually elaborated on and habitually conditioned to appear as though solid, inherently existing and independent from the awareness that is knowing them. This is the usual mental practice of non-meditation (also called ignorance or non-awareness).

Directed inwardly, awareness gradually deconstructs all appearances at each level of experience until 'experiencing' itself becomes the appearing object of awareness (becomes the experience).

In turn, when even this experience is deconstructed, it is found to be [it is an 'experience of..'] ineffable [unspeakable] interdependence. This is the mental practice of meditation (aka, wisdom or 'awareness').

So, when something appears in our experience [as an experience] the usual way we experience it is as a conceptually constructed, habitually conditioned real object, thought or being. This is when an experience is not analyzed or deconstructed at all by a directed awareness.

In the Yogacara-Madhymaka school of Buddhism this is called a things "imaginary nature". This school posits that any and all phenomena have 3 natures - (1) an imaginary appearance nature, (2) an interdependently conditioned nature, and (3) a true or transcendent nature.

So in this case, the "dog" appearing as a distinct (objective) individual being with an enduring familiar history and known to the observer as "Fluffy the dog" is an imaginary experience. The dog is completely imaginary!

Why is the dog imaginary?

Because it is really not a distinct and objectively self-real being - THAT is all conceptual. "Dog" is in fact a caused and conditioned phenomenon that appears on the basis of its causes and conditions. This is it's interdependently conditioned nature.

This interdependently conditioned nature becomes apparent to our experience [as an experience] only when we become aware of it. In other words, when we deconstruct or analyze the imaginary nature of "dog" we find it's interdependently conditioned nature.

Now, when we deeply analyze the experience of the interdependently conditioned nature of any thing, what we find is something ineffable, inexpressible. In other words, what we find is ultimately, voidness itself, or inexpressible interdependence. This is the dogs [or the experience of "dog"] true or transcendent nature. It is a completely non-conceptual experience.

And so, in the context of the "three natures" explanation of 'things', we have the situation of no analysis which corresponds to a HABITUALLY CONDITIONED ELABORATED APPEARANCE which is our usual (imaginary) way of experiencing.

We then have a situation of slightly analyzing (or simply, a deeper understanding) in which something validly appears - as a mere APPEARANCE - but is not real in it's own being based on the fact that it is relationally or interdependently caused and conditioned. This how a thing is experienced at the level of slight analysis.

Finally, at the level of ultimate truth, or thorough analysis a thing is experienced as it is in it's transcendent nature. It is not imaginary, and it is not a thing that is relative or relationally dependent. Rather, it is ineffable INTERDEPENDENCE or voidness itself. This is not a conceptual experience at all.

In comparison to the five factors of experience, analyzing in terms of the "three natures" then is like directing your awareness in reverse order to how an ordinary experience unfolds.

First deconstructing the HABITUALLY CONDITIONED ELABORATED APPEARANCE into it's basis of a mere APPEARANCE, then deconstructing that (with a non-conceptual awareness) into it's basis of ineffable INTERDEPENDENCE.

Through these explanations and methods then, we can get to a truer experience of reality. By having a truer experience, we deal with things in a more realistic way which helps release our bound up energy and anxiety. This brings benefit not just to you or me, but to everyone we relate with.