Every individual’s pursuit and interpretation of life can exhibit duality. The same scenario can be painted in a positive light, emphasising its beneficial aspects, or viewed negatively, accentuating its flaws. The key is where your mindset tends to lean. For instance, is aging good or bad? It can be argued that it’s good. The elderly often bring a wealth of experience and a knack for nurturing younger generations, among other things. But if we flip the perspective, what might be the drawbacks of aging? The elderly can face physical limitations, deal with various aches and pains, exhibit rigid thinking, and might struggle to comprehend various matters, and so on. Therefore, the same issue can be analysed from both a positive and a negative viewpoint.
The essence of Buddhism is the transformation of all negative thought processes into positive ones. Practising Buddhism involves changing your mindset to advise, console, aid others, and resolve challenges; this is referred to as right thinking. When you perceive everyone in a positive light, it’s a testament to your positive mindset. Viewing others positively is indicative of your enlightenment. Conversely, a tendency to view others negatively suggests a lack of enlightenment. An enlightened person perceives everyone as inherently good, devoid of the binary concept of good or bad. This is essentially a manifestation of the capacity for enlightenment. When this capacity instigates positive thinking within a person’s mind, it signals enlightenment.
Upon attaining enlightenment, a practitioner will experience a phenomenon known as “direct realisation”. That is, once a person achieves enlightenment, understands the truths of life, and confirms numerous concepts, their inherent energy manifests. With this grasp of truth, fear dissipates. In contrast, when one is uncertain about these truths, fear infiltrates all aspects of life.
This is similar to the fear many people feel about death when faced with life’s transience, especially before they learn about Buddhism. However, once faith in Guan Yin Bodhisattva takes root, all fears subside, including the fear of death, because they now know that life does not terminate with death. Moreover, a conviction arises that Guan Yin Bodhisattva will not allow them to perish, but will assuredly guide them towards salvation. In this moment, the mind produces a potent form of energy known as “direct realisation”.
Those who achieve direct realisation are considered enlightened or “awakened ones.” Awakening signifies the kindling of a light within one’s consciousness and mental awareness, a light that only materialises after enlightenment. Once enlightened, you will be considered awakened, a state synonymous with being wise and intellectual. Enlightened individuals understand the importance of considering others, which subsequently helps in resolving their own dilemmas. Conversely, those who are foolish focus solely on their personal interests, often causing harm to others and, by extension, to themselves. As the adage goes, “harming others is harming oneself.”
People with fewer wandering thoughts in their minds maintain a purer state and have a clearer perception of things. In contrast, those whose minds are filled with scattered thoughts find it challenging to understand and clarify things, thus extinguishing their inner light of wisdom. Only when these stray thoughts are cleared and the radiant light emerges, can one use this light to overcome obstacles and illuminate the path forward. This light lends increased clarity to one’s direction. It’s referred to as the divine light or the light of wisdom, both synonymous with the light of one’s enlightenment capacity.
From the moment of birth, a person enters into a state of “ignorance,” with no knowledge or comprehension. This state of ignorance continues through their lives until they reach old age and, ultimately, death. They depart with nothing, with much still unknown and not understood, their lives marked by a sense of fleeting passage. Within this single life, one undergoes a cycle of twelve stages, akin to passing through twelve gates, these stages persistently revolving within one’s life. These twelve cycles are conceptualised from both psychological and physiological perspectives:
1. Ignorance: It is essential for a person to conquer ignorance, a state characterised by misunderstanding and lack of knowledge. When a person gains understanding, they cease to make mistakes, whereas misunderstanding breeds errors. Ignorance further encompasses a perspective wherein there are people, despite their lack of understanding, who think themselves to be knowledgeable, assuming they understand everything.
2. Forms: The concept of forms represents the coloured and shaped objects, both physical and spiritual, that we perceive in our surroundings. This concept doesn’t solely refer to sensual attractions between individuals.
3. Sounds: This refers to sounds and voices. We are inclined to listen to pleasant sounds and avoid unpleasant ones. For instance, our preference for kind words is a part of this sound perception. When pleasing words or sounds reach your ears, they touch your heart, representing the transformation of spirit into matter. Here, spoken words are seen as the spirit, while the things that have become actions are considered matter. For example, when you hear kind words, they are intangible, but they resonate within your heart, influencing your emotions. This emotional reaction is then reflected in your expressions, transforming into something tangible or “matter.”
4. Odours: There exists a myriad of odours within the human world, with innumerable scents wafting around us. To escape these twelve cycles, one must cultivate the discipline to resist the allure of various scents. For instance, remain unaffected upon smelling a fragrance, or when seeing objects of colour and shape. Such self-discipline is foundational to discovering your inherernt emptiness.
5. Tastes: Flavours, discernible through your consciousness, can be savoured with the mind. As the saying goes: “Life has a taste of bitterness.” This bitterness of life is precisely experienced through consciousness and the mind.
6. Tactile objects and mental phenomena: This refers to tangibility, what can be physically sensed. You should understand that all material things in the human world provide momentary sensations, feelings, and thoughts. However, these are fleeting, not permanent; they all constitute part of the cycles of the twelve interconnected links.
7. Sensation: This pertains to feelings, such as the sensation that comes with suffering.
8. Perception: This is recognition and differentiation, encompassing a variety of good and bad thoughts that exist in your mind.
9. Formations: These are physical actions manifested from the mind’s impulses.
10. Consciousness: This is the awareness that discerns the various states of existence. This consciousness plants the seeds of karma in your field of the eight consciousnesses.
11. Love: A person’s life orbits around love. This love isn’t restricted to romantic love, but includes familial love, friendship, mentor-student relationships, and other types of profound love. One’s life is inseparable from love, and even at the end, it is still about love. Life commences with love and concludes with its dissolution. However, in our fleeting lives, even love becomes illusory and void.
12. Separation: Whether it’s the departure of a loved one, the exhaustion of money you’ve cherished, or the loss of a good job – these are all instances of separation. Each parting is painful and sorrowful.
In these twelve cycles, there exist six sense bases and six sense objects. The six sense bases are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The six sense objects consist of forms, sounds, odours, tastes, tactile objects, and mental phenomena. Humans continuously suffer within these twelve cycles, enduring hardships until the end of life.
The twelve cycles I’ve explained may impose a psychological burden on practitioners, making the quest for emptiness challenging. Only by eradicating all these interdependent links can your inherent nature become empty. Next time, we’ll discuss the six sense bases and six sense objects. Thank you.