Aspects Of Mind

The aim of human life is happiness or peace and mankind has always hunted for it. People believe that happiness can be gained from externals, so they seek it with greed or craving, but some believe that they can find happiness in themselves, such people as ascetics and philosophers have been seeking this kind of happiness.

The Buddha is one of those who found happiness and gained an insight into his mind. When he became enlightened, he proclaimed this in his Dhamma, now known as Abhidhamma. He said that mind (Citta) and matter (Rupa) were related and mind influenced matter and taught the world. Here are the aspects of mind: the general aspects of mind were taught by the Buddha that 1) “mind travels afar” which means receiving the far sense objects surrounding us at the present, such as visible objects, audible objects, smell, taste, and tangible objects, also we recognize things which we have seen in the past, a short time or a long time ago, those are stored in the memory (perception, Bhavangha-citta), we may think of the future sense objects such as visible objects, audible objects, smell, taste, and tangible objects which have not yet arisen. All sense objects mentioned above can be received by mind or consciousness. 2) “mind wanders alone” means that a single mind arises, remains, and vanishes all the time, even if sometimes many things (thoughts) seem to arise in this mind, but in fact only a single one arises at any given time. It seems that many thoughts arise because of the quickness of mind, so that they can not be noticed. 3) “There is no form” means mind is formless, non-self but it can travel and wander around. Form leaves traces but mind doesn’t because it is formless. 4) “It stays in the cave” means that even if mind is formless, it has somewhere to stay called the “body or heart” (in general=body, specifically=heart, in Pali, Hadayavatthu means the heart-base or mind-base and some translate it as the brain). This aspect is related to Nama (mind) and Rupa (form) in daily life. It is understood that if there is no mind, form can not perform any action nor move. In the same way if there is no form, mind can not have a base from which to perform action or behavior as the Buddhagatha says, “Form without mind is like a log on earth, useless, and this form of mind consists of 4 elements, being born of parents, grown by food, it is where mind stays and it is impermanent”

The specific aspects of mind are; 1) “unrest” which means going out to receive sense objects coming to sense doors as fish, cast on earth, strive to go into water, 2) “moving” means non-calm, sometimes it may be calm, but when it is attacked by sense objects, it is distracted by those, 3) “hard observation” means it is very hard to keep it calm (purified), 4) “hard protection” means it is very hard to protect it from forming an opinion, especially a bad (or selfish) opinion, 5) “hard compulsion” means it is very hard to force it not to fall under the five hindrances (it is likened to a drug addict, it is very hard for him to stop taking drugs) because it always falls under the five hindrances, it is hard to realize it, it is very smooth, and it arises and vanishes very rapidly.

This shows that the mind of human beings is restless, always falling down into the valley of unwholesome deeds. This leads human beings into big trouble. In the Buddha’s time, there was a monk named Talaputa. After he had become a monk, he practiced meditation in the forest. He spent a long time doing meditation, but he could not attain enlightenment, as he wished. Then he searched for the cause and he found that it was because of his own mind. He complained to his mind, saying, “Citta (mind), you begged me for many years to leave lay life, now I am a monk as you wish, why now are you lazy and want me to abandon meditation? You always say to me, the forest is beautiful and peaceful and it is a proper place for meditation, then I leave lay life and all my relatives and have lived here for some time, I have tried to please you for ages but now you still hurt me, and want me to go back to where you used to tell me off. From now on I am going to train you, taking you into the cave, observing you like an elephant or horse trainer, I’m going to chain you with meditation (mindfulness), I know that if anyone is influenced by you, he or she will suffer.”

All the complaints of the monk above show that the human mind is made distraught by distractions or attachments, all of which we have derived from mind, and the cycle of life, also, is from mind. As a result the Buddha said, “The world is led by mind, all things are controlled by mind.”