Mind and Wisdom

by Patrick Quanten MD

Life is increasingly pressurised by the outside influences attacking our senses. We are bombarded with more and more extreme sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures that confuse the system. These are expressions of the problems we are facing and not knowing how to solve them we will always be subject to suffering and distress. That which solves the problems is wisdom and to have wisdom we must develop and train the mind because that is where the mental impressions relating to the outside influences arise.

The mind, like rainwater, is pure in its natural state. If we were to drop green colouring into clear rainwater, however, it would turn green. If yellow colouring, it would turn yellow. The mind reacts similarly. When a comfortable mental impression ‘drops’ into the mind, the mind is comfortable. When the mental impression is uncomfortable, the mind is uncomfortable. The mind becomes ‘tinted’, just like the coloured water. The natural state of the mind, as with the rainwater, is clean and pure and unconfused. It becomes confused only because it pursues mental impressions; it gets lost in its moods.

In the forest, if there is no wind, a leaf remains still. When a wind blows it flaps and flutters. The mind is similar to that leaf. When it contacts a mental impression, it too ‘flaps and flutters’ according to the nature of that mental impression. Feeling happy, it succumbs to happiness. Feeling suffering, it succumbs to suffering. It’s constant confusion! In the end people become neurotic because they don’t know how to look after their own minds. They just follow their moods. If the mind is not looked after, if there is no training or maturation of character with right understanding, things get really troublesome. So we must learn.

Our being is composed of two parts: one is the body, the other the mind. What is called the body is that which can be seen with our physical eyes. The mind, on the other hand, has no physical aspect. These two things, body and mind, are in constant state of turmoil.

What is the mind? The mind isn’t really any ‘thing’. Conventionally speaking, it’s that which sees or senses. That which senses, receives and experiences all mental impressions is called ‘mind’. Sounds enter through the ear and you know what is being said. That which experiences this is called ‘mind’. This mind doesn’t have any self or substance. It doesn’t have any form. It just experiences mental activities. That’s all. If we teach the mind to have right view, this mind won’t have any problems. It will be at ease.

The mind is mind. Mental objects are mental objects. Mental objects are not the mind; the mind is not mental objects. In order to clearly understand our minds and the mental objects in our minds, we say that the mind is that which receives the mental objects which pop into it. When these two things, mind and its objects, come into contact with each other, they give rise to feelings. Some are good, some bad, some cool, some hot, all kinds. Without wisdom to deal with these feelings, however, the mind will be troubled.

Mental objects arise within the mind. They are born out of desire; desire for valuable possessions, desire to be rich and just restless seeking after things in general. This type of greed isn’t all that deep or strong; it isn’t enough to make us faint or lose control. However, when sexual desire arises, we are thrown off balance and lose control. Desire is gratified by the senses. Sight. There isn’t any sight that’s quite the same as that of a woman. Isn’t that so? How about sounds? There’s no sound that grips you more than that of a woman. It pierces your heart! Smell is the same: a woman’s fragrance is the most alluring of all. There is no other smell that’s quite the same. Taste. Even the taste of the most delicious food cannot compare with that of a woman. Touch is similar: when you caress a woman you are stunned, intoxicated and sent spinning all around! The sexes of man and woman: women cause problems for men; men cause problems for women.

The trap of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch and mind objects is the same. They catch us and bind us fast. If you attach to the senses, you’re the same as a fish caught on a hook. Actually, you are more caught like a frog, as a frog gulps down the whole hook and is caught right in the gut. Anyone attached to the senses is caught and later suffers illness and pain. But in order to be able to detach we need to understand the way life truly is.

The whole body is composed of four elements: earth, water, wind and fire. The hard and solid parts of the body make up the earth element; the liquid and flowing parts, the water element. Winds that pass up and down the body constitute the air element, and the heat in the body, the fire element. Taken together they compose what we call a ‘human being’. However, when the body is broken down into its component parts, only these four elements remain. We assume that there is a person or a being but, in reality, there isn’t anything of the sort.

Whether taken separately as earth, water, air and fire, or taken together, labelled as a ‘human being’, they are all impermanent, subject to suffering. They are all unstable, uncertain and in a state of constant change, not stable for a single moment. The body is unstable, altering and changing constantly. The mind, too, is always changing. It isn’t a self or substance. It isn’t really ‘us’, not really ‘them’, although it may think so. Maybe it will think of killing itself. Maybe it will think of happiness or of suffering. It is unstable. If we don’t have wisdom and we believe this mind of ours, it’ll lie to us constantly. And we will alternately suffer and be happy.

The mind is uncertain. The body is uncertain. Together they are impermanent. Together they are a source of suffering. Together they are devoid of self. They are merely elements: earth, water, air and fire. When the mind sees this, it will rid itself of attachment which holds that ‘I’ am beautiful, ‘I’ am good, ‘I’ am evil, ‘I’ am suffering, ‘I’ have, ‘I’ this and ‘I’ that. You will experience a state of unity, for you’ll have seen that all of mankind is basically the same; only four elements.

When you contemplate and see impermanence, suffering and non-self, there will no longer be clinging to a self, a being, I or he or she. The mind, which sees this, will give rise to disenchantment and dispassion. It will see all things only as impermanent, unsatisfactory and non-self. The mind then stops. Greed, hatred and delusion will then diminish and recede little by little until finally there is only mind, pure mind.

Meditation is the way of developing the mind so that it may be a base for the arising of wisdom. Here the breath is a physical foundation. Here we make breathing our mental object.

When a good occasion arises to do sitting meditation, sit comfortably, either cross-legged on the floor with the right leg on top of the left, or on a chair with both feet placed firmly on the floor. Put your right hand on top of the left hand. Keep your back straight and erect. Let go of all concerns for the time being.

Now fix your attention on the breath. Then breathe in and breathe out. In developing awareness of the breathing don’t intentionally make the breath long or short. Neither make it strong or weak. Just let it flow naturally and normally. Be at ease. Don’t think about anything. The only thing you have to do is fix your attention on the breathing in and breathing out. You have nothing else to do but that! Keep your mindfulness fixed on the in- and out-breaths as they occur. Be aware of the beginning, middle and end of each breath. On inhalation, the beginning of the breath is at the nose tip, the middle at the heart and the end in the abdomen. On exhalation, it’s just the reverse: the beginning of the breath is in the abdomen, the middle at the heart and the end at the nose tip. Develop the awareness of the breath. Move with the breath as it enters and leaves the body.

Focussing the mind on these three points will relieve all worries. Just don’t think of anything else. Keep your attention on the breath. Perhaps other thoughts will enter the mind. It will take up other themes and distract you. Don’t be concerned. Just take up the breathing again as your object of attention. The mind may get caught up in judging and investigating your moods, but continue to practise, being constantly aware of the beginning, middle and the end of each breath.

Eventually, the mind will be aware of the breath at these three points all the time. When you do this practice for some time, the mind and body will get accustomed to the work. Fatigue will disappear. The body will feel lighter and the breath will become more and more refined. We practise like this until the mind is peaceful and calm, until it is one. One means that the mind will be completely absorbed in the breathing, that it doesn’t separate from the breath. The mind will be unconfused and at ease. It will know the beginning, middle and end of the breath and remain steadily fixed on it.

This is the beginning, the foundation of our practice. This is called mental training and should be practised in all the four postures; not just sitting, but standing, walking and lying down as well. The point is that we should know what the state of mind is at each moment, and to be able to do this, we must be constantly mindful and aware. Is the mind happy or suffering? Is it confused? Is it peaceful? Getting to know the mind in this manner allows it to become tranquil and when it does become tranquil, wisdom can arise.

This is the first step on the ladder towards awareness and wisdom, towards knowing the way of nature. Knowing how life is will end the confusion in your mind. You will know what to focus on and what to let go off. You will finally become a free person, free from the constraints of your mental objects, thoughts and feelings. Free as you were meant to be.

April 2009