OUR OWN REALM
We come into contact with the external world through our five senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. It is like being inside a house and looking out through five windows. The mind, however, is not a specific sense organ like the other five. Yet, since we know that thoughts arise from the brain, we can say the brain is the physical base of the mind. The Buddhist scriptures often say that the mind is “the reflection of mental objects” arising within. The five senses each have their respective objects: form, sound, scent, taste, and touch. The object of the mind is dhamma, the totality of phenomena that also include all five sensory objects and thus the entire world. Therefore, this too is the “mind”, the consciousness itself and called the clear knowing awareness.
We can say the knowing-awareness is a synthesis of the result of mental processes such as thinking, reasoning, judging, and inferring that eventually manifest as speech and action. The Buddha taught in the Dhammapada: “Mind is the forerunner; mind is the creator.”
Here, “thoughts” refer to the mind, the clear consciousness, the knowing-awareness before they’re expressed as words or deeds.
Returning to the earlier analogy: from inside the house, we perceive the world outside through five windows. The five elements of the outer world — form, sound, scent, taste, and touch — enter through these openings and combine into mental phenomena (dhamma-objects). The “house” thus becomes the mind, the clear knowing, the knowing-awareness or the consciousness because they’ve not turned into speech or action yet.
“This awareness functions through the sense faculties and is therefore dependent upon them. In fact, it does not make direct contact with external objects but merely perceives the internal signals that arise within the brain.”
The senses and the brain can be regarded as material components like the hardware of a computer. They are not perfect and differ from person to person. Their functions can also change, crash, work at different levels like the software. Because each person’s sensory organs and brain are different in structure and quality and vary all the time, the consciousness or integrated awareness they produce are also unalike. The final product, the mind, or consciousness is no longer the “original” of the external objects.
Therefore, each person’s mind or consciousness is unique. Moreover, the formation of consciousness passes through one’s own thinking, reasoning, and judging. The signals from outside are filtered through many subjective lenses before reaching the brain. By the time the mind perceives them, the object has already been changed or transformed.
In brief, we truly don’t know the real nature or true color of external phenomena. For example, the flowers of the flamboyant tree at the monastery are called the purple flamboyant flowers. Yet others might say it is blue, deep indigo or sky-blue. Thus, language is extremely limited in describing reality. Even if we do not speak, our inner knowing still differs from others.
Let’s expand this view. The entire life! Life itself is immensely complex. Countless events, people, scenes, and innumerable mental states. Each of us experiences only a small portion within the limited range of our six faculties: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. It is impossible for us to perceive all scenes, all kinds of living beings, and all inanimate objects. Whatever we cannot perceive simply does not exist for us.
Hence, each of us truly lives in a private world of our own. No two worlds are alike. It’s the personal Knowing realm. What we perceive becomes our world. We feel joy, sorrow, love, and hate within that personal realm.
If we are wise and can choose to keep what is beautiful and wholesome in memory, our life will also appear kind, good and beautiful to us. When we see a friend and notice only his goodness, that friend will indeed be a good one in our eyes. When we see a teacher and recognize only his virtue and wisdom, we will naturally learn those two from that teacher.
Thus, people, objects, and circumstances constantly change within our perception; and they differ across individuals. Animals, with different sensory organs, no one could know how they perceive the world differently from humans. Each of species of animal has a different body and sense organs; therefore, each perceives the external world in a different way. Scriptures say: “Humans see water as something to drink, bathe, or wash with; dragons see it as their palace.
Therefore, we always live within our own subjective realms. So do animals. In reality, never can we completely and accurately know what exists beyond our brain. What about the “objective world” in its absolute truth? We can never know, bound as we are, by our six limited faculties of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking either.
Perhaps that is why the most important meditation principle is Yathābhūta, “as it really is.”. “Yathā” means “as” or “like.” “Bhūta” means “true,” “real.” So Yathābhūta means “as if real.” Why “as if real” but not simply “real”?
Therefore, even when we perceive the world with super sincerity, without interpretation, love and hate or aversion, with the quiet and still mind, we perceive it only through the subjective prism of our own six sense faculties.
The insight called As-Illusion (Như Huyễn) is similar. Although the world is illusory, like a dream, completely unreal, to the wise everything arises through the cause-alligned conditions. Common people still perceive it as real, and thus they truly think joy and sorrow real. When we accept the world as illusory and rises above its mundane joys and sorrows, that understanding is called the As-Illusion Wisdom (Như Huyễn Trí), and that state of mind is called the As-Illusion Concentration (Như Huyễn Định).
Both the As-Real (Như Thực) and the As-Illusion (Như Huyễn) are the insights of the Middle Way.
The As-Real leads from phenomena toward ultimate nature: the Thusness or the Utmost Truth.
The As-Illusion also leads from phenomena toward the same ultimate truth: the Thusness or the Utmost Truth
The As-Real is the Middle Way insight (because the word “As” avoids asserting either “exists” or “does not exist.”). So is the As-Illusion for the same reason.
Both of them, the As-Real and the As-Illusion cooperate to become the Middle Path.
Because it is the As-Real, it avoids nihilism (non-existence).
Because it is the As-Illusion, it avoids externalism (existence).
In conclusion, the awakening vision is the one of the Middle Way. In other words, it’s the very practice of the Non-Duality (Bất Nhị) valued and spotlighted in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.
Our path of cultivation is the transformation our own mind and insight. It’s the process of how our mind and insight can abide within the Middle Way, the realm of Nirvāṇa. Each of us lives in our own realm. Even as realms changed, bodies transformed, frequencies of vibration become heavier or purer, and the mind becomes defiled or purified, wisdom expands or ignorance returns, we always exist in the realm of our own making. Thus, each person must choose their own path, taking full responsibility for their own life-stream.
The Buddha taught the last wholehearted words before leaving this world,
“Do not depend upon anyone or anything else.”
“ Because ‘Everything in this world is impermanent’. ”
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Sunyata Monastery, Oct 01, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2786/triet-nhu-snhp029-canh-gioi-rieng-minh
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