Perception and Reality

Thich Nhat Hanh — Winter Retreat 2013–2014 Stillwater Meditation Hall, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village · 19 January 2014 · talk 19 of 24

Illuminates: mindfulness — dwelling in the present and recollection (comparing past suffering to present joy) · the four elements (mindfulness · concentration · insight · letting go) for joy and the art of suffering · mindfulness of the body (the 3rd–4th breathing exercises; the mindfulness bell; “time is life”) · the subject/object unity in science (the salt-doll and the ocean; observer → participant; Spinoza’s God) · the three objects and three modes of perception — ālaya’s direct perception of things-in-themselves vs. manas’s erroneous representation (the camera; consciousness as a 5th dimension) · mind consciousness reaching things-in-themselves for “the first millisecond,” then discrimination (the orange that is “only an orange”) · mind consciousness in dispersion swept by manas — the gardener who must sow mindfulness and keep the mud moderate · the three natures (parikalpita · paratantra · pariniṣpanna) · memory as impressions on neuro-pathways · mere images with and without substance · the limits of the five aggregates (the oyster, the bat).

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[Opening chant — French invocation to breathe and chant as one body, freeing us from the three complexes; then the chant to Avalokiteśvara and the verse “May the day be well and the night be well.”]

Dear Sangha, today is the 19th of January, 2014. We are in the Stillwater Meditation Hall, in the winter retreat. Some of us can stay only seven days, some a month, some three months, some three years. Whether a week is long depends on how we use it: if we know how, we can learn a great deal in a week — we learn the basics and practice them, so that when we return to our city we can continue.

Mindfulness — dwelling, and remembering

The practice of mindfulness helps us generate peace, joy, and happiness — and this can be realized in every step, every breath, if we use the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight. We already have some of these in us; in a week of practice they can grow twofold or threefold. Mindfulness is the capacity to dwell in the present moment — to know what is happening here and now, in the body, the feelings, the perceptions. When we lift our two arms and know we are lifting them, that is mindfulness; when we breathe in and know it, that is mindfulness and concentration; mindfulness is always mindfulness of something happening now.

Mindfulness has a second meaning: to remember, to recall. What do we remember? Our experiences — of suffering and of joy in the past — so as to recognize what is happening now. In the past I had a lung infection and coughed blood for a couple of months and could not breathe well; now, with mindfulness, I remember that time and compare it to now, when my lungs are better and I breathe freely — and it increases my joy. In April or May the pollen makes some of us unable to breathe; now in January the nose is clear — and remembering the difficulty, we treasure the ease. So if in the past we sat as if in hell, in a furnace, and luckily came out of that state, we can bring that past experience back, compare it with now, and say, “How lucky I am” — and instead of happiness onefold, have happiness ninefold or tenfold. That is the art of generating happiness.

And every one of us has insight — we know a certain object is not worthy of our pursuit, that it brings anxiety and fear — yet we do not make use of our insight; we let ourselves be carried away and then suffer from attachment. Insight lets us see clearly that being stuck in this thing wastes our time and energy, and that letting go is liberation. Concentration is focusing on something; with it we are not carried away by the past or by fear of the future — we dwell stably in the present, and generate joy and happiness.

The first practice — generate joy

So the first part of the practice of mindfulness is to generate joy, happiness, and peace — realizable here today through mindfulness, concentration, and insight; every step, every breath can bring them. An experienced practitioner generates joy in every step and breath, freeing us from the suffering of the past and the worry of the future, so that with enough freedom we touch the wonders of the present and generate joy. It is comfortable, nourishing — no need to struggle hard. Here in Plum Village we enjoy the collective energy, for everyone is breathing and walking in mindfulness; in the city the environment is less supportive, so we learn it here and carry it home — from the parking lot to the office, every step with ease, every step generating joy and peace. Each morning, mindfulness shows us we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live — a great gift — and we smile, determined to use them well.

The second practice — managing suffering

Mindfulness, concentration, and insight also help us manage our suffering. When painful feelings and emotions surface we are overwhelmed, and create suffering for others. But if we know how to walk and breathe, the energy of mindfulness can recognize the suffering and embrace it gently, like a mother embracing a suffering child. If we know how to suffer, we suffer much less — while another, not knowing, is overwhelmed: she may suffer ninety percent, we only two — because we know how to use the mud to make the lotus. Embracing and looking into our suffering, understanding is born, and from understanding, love — “love and understanding are like lotuses blooming from the mud of suffering.” Understanding our own suffering first, we can understand the other person’s, accept them, and help them suffer less. So we no longer look at the other with anger or blame; our mind is light, and we feel love.

This rests on mindfulness of the body. In the body there is pain and tension; left alone, it grows and blocks our happiness — we can’t sleep or eat well. So breathing in, aware of the in-breath, we bring the mind back to the body — the first fruit of practice, reconciling the two. Sitting two hours at the computer, we forget we have a body and let tension overwhelm us; so we set a mindfulness bell on the computer to chime every fifteen minutes, calling us to breathe and release the tension. In the Sutra on Mindful Breathing the Buddha teaches: breathing in, I am aware of my body (the third exercise); breathing out, I release the tension in my body and calm it (the fourth) — taught for over 2,600 years. When the body is relaxed, joy comes easily; with tension, it is hard.

After calming the body, we calm the feelings. We can generate a joyful feeling very easily: breathing in, I am aware of my two eyes; breathing out, I know my eyes are still bright — having two bright eyes is like having two jewels with which to see the beauties of the world. Breathing in, I know my back is still upright, not slouching like my grandmother’s; breathing out, I am happy to sit with a straight back. Breathing in, I am aware of my two good lungs, not infected; breathing out, I am happy to breathe. So we generate joy in every moment — and anyone can do it. When we walk, we end the thinking (it takes us from the here and now) and stop the talking (it breaks concentration), so that every step generates joy — and together we make the collective energy of mindfulness, which others can feel and contribute to. When everyone breathes and walks together, this is synchronization, a powerful energy that heals and nourishes. These practices are simple enough for anyone — it takes only determination: to brush the teeth, even to urinate or defecate, in a way that dwells in the present and generates joy. (If it helps, recall a past urinary infection when it was painful — and the ease of now brings immediate joy.)

The three objects of perception

The other day we began the three objects of consciousness, and did not finish. The first is direct perception of things in themselves — reality as it is, suchness — a direct, correct, right perception (pratyakṣa in Sanskrit), whose object is reality as it is; and the subject and object of perception always go together. Science is starting to see this: going into the subatomic world, they find that the reality observed is not something objective outside consciousness. Most of us think consciousness is something subjective “in here” that goes out to understand a world that exists out there whether or not anyone is conscious of it — that subject and object are two separate things. This is wrong view in Buddhism. Scientists now agree that to understand objective reality we cannot stand outside to observe it — we have to become one with it; we cannot be an observer, we must be a participant. A grain of salt on the shore wants only to observe the saltiness of the ocean; but it is told, “You will never understand the ocean’s saltiness as an observer — you must jump in and become one with the water.” So subject and object are not separate; as with matter and energy, we erase the boundary and see their unity. The same with creator and creature: people think a creator makes the creatures and the two can be separated — but you cannot take the creator out of the creature. In Holland there was a man, [Spinoza], who saw that you cannot take the creator out of the creature — a view Einstein approved, for Einstein did not accept a God sitting up in the clouds making the objects below.

So we transcend the dualism of creator and creature, of matter and energy, of earth and sky. A few centuries ago people thought sky and earth were utterly different — until the law of gravity showed that the universe is made of laws the earth and the stars alike must follow, erasing the boundary: we are part of the sky, and the sky part of us; if there is a God, God is not only up there but here as well. The earth is the sky, the sky is the earth. The same with consciousness: subject and object inter-are, and we cannot take one out of the other — so looking at the night sky, the sky is consciousness, consciousness is the sky. Science finds that everything has its intelligence — even a subatomic particle has its wisdom; to call matter “inanimate” is incorrect: even a grain of seed has consciousness, indeed is consciousness — first of all, the object of our consciousness. Learning Manifestation-Only, we transcend the double grasping — the belief in a subjective consciousness “in here” and an object “out there.” Science struggles to break through the same notion: heat is created by the motion of molecules (a microwave moves the water’s particles and generates heat — heat and water inter-are); sound is space vibrating (sound is space, space is sound). Our practice is to break through ideas — the boundaries of birth and death, being and non-being — and the more we break through, the happier we are.

Store consciousness vs. manas — direct perception vs. representation

So store consciousness has true, direct perception, and its object is things in themselves. But manas does not: manas is first of all the energy of wanting to survive, the mechanism for survival, born from store consciousness — and when it manifests, it has a subject and an object; its object is the body, which it takes as itself, not knowing that this self is made of non-self elements. Manas is covered, obstructed; store consciousness is uncovered. So the perception of manas is a representation — reality as it is on one side, and a representation of it on the other, “not reality itself,” like a photo: the picture is not the person, only a representation. The scene has many dimensions — in Buddhism, beyond Einstein’s four (space-time), there is a fifth dimension: consciousness (Einstein did not see that the cosmos is consciousness) — and when a five-dimensional reality becomes a two-dimensional photo, it is only a representation. So the object of manas is a representation, and its perception is erroneous direct perception.

Mind consciousness (the sixth) relies on manas. It has the capacity to reach things in themselves — but only for the first millisecond. In the back of the brain is the occipital lobe, which receives images — the black dots, the curves, the movement — “things in themselves,” and this is direct perception. But then mind consciousness uses these to create an image: in the second moment it becomes a collective image — it recognizes “a cat,” “an orange.” At first there is just a round yellow something (the primary visual area); then the secondary visual area combines the images and tells us “it is an orange” — and once it is “an orange,” it can be only an orange; it does not see that the orange is made of non-orange elements (clouds, rain, sunshine, earth), that a child holds father, mother, ancestors. This is discrimination (vikalpa) — and through discrimination the image becomes only a representation. So in the first moment there is the thing-in-itself; in the second, a representation. Mind consciousness has direct perception — but it can be true direct perception or erroneous direct perception. Because of discrimination — “an orange is only an orange, a cat only a cat” — it acts like a sword that cuts reality into pieces (this is not that), and does not see that the orange contains the whole universe.

The gardener — and the three natures

Mind consciousness can fall into dispersion: sitting and thinking endlessly of this and that, with no concentration, it is easily swept by manas to seek pleasure and avoid suffering. Untrained, mind consciousness goes with manas down the path of sensual pleasure — without insight, creating suffering. If it does not look deeply into the four nutriments, it lets manas be fed by things like the internet with its violence, which destroys body and mind; it cannot inhibit or shine light on manas, and merely suppresses and covers suffering instead of managing it — until the suffering overwhelms and pushes us to act (some fall into psychosis). But if store consciousness is the garden, mind consciousness is the gardener: the gardener can inhibit the weeds and plant flowers and fruit. So mind consciousness must learn the trainings (the Five, Ten, or Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings — each gives happiness and freedom), and must have concentration to discern which of the four nutriments nourish and which harm. We do not eliminate the mud — without mud there are no lotuses; we keep it in moderation and use it to grow lotuses. So if we have weaknesses and shortcomings, don’t worry: used well, they become the mud that grows the lotus. With mindfulness, concentration, and the precepts, mind consciousness can keep manas in check and look deeply into interbeing, impermanence, emptiness, signlessness — concentrations that cut the habit-energy of discrimination.

In the Thirty Verses we meet the three natures. The nature of discrimination [parikalpita] is the tendency of mind consciousness to cut reality into pieces. When we practice looking into interdependent co-arising [paratantra] — seeing the non-orange elements in the orange — we reach the insight of interbeing. And the perfect, true nature of reality [pariniṣpanna] is the complete realization of reality — looking deeply into interdependent co-arising until we realize reality fully. The three modes of perception are: direct perception; perception created by comparison and mental construction (inference); and, when neither is correct, wrong perception — the third mode. Manas has (erroneous) perception; mind consciousness has direct perception, true or erroneous — and most of the time it is wrong. So the object of mind consciousness can be things in themselves, a representation, or mere images.

Memory and mere images

We go to a zoo and see an elephant, and the image is stored in memory — not in a “bag,” but as impressions left on the neuro-pathways of the central nervous system: when we see something, it leaves an impression on the neurons; among them are the synapses, which release a chemical so the neurons communicate, and a feeling leaves its impression. Repeated many times, this becomes memory. Store consciousness keeps it all — some for a long time (long-term memory, especially what is repeated), some for two or three minutes (short-term). To remember long, we repeat — as with the gathas and the Dharma talks: listen again and again, until the memory is solid enough to come quickly when called. When we recall the image, it manifests again — this is a mere image. There are two kinds: with substance (the elephant we really saw, reappearing in a dream) and without substance (a flying elephant; the artist or architect taking pieces of images and creating something new). When a seed is not yet manifested it is called an insubstantial thing-in-itself — and now scientists call the substance of the universe a field of force, or subatomic particles: things we cannot see, formless, yet thanks to which the trees and all things are. Formless is equivalent to emptiness — emptiness creates form, and in form there is emptiness, as the H₂O remains in the heart of the cloud.

So reality-as-it-is that is formless is the object store consciousness embraces and maintains; manifested into stars and moon and all phenomena, it is reality-as-it-is with form. Store consciousness is not caught in these images; but manas and mind consciousness are caught, creating a representation — a construction of the mind — so that we cannot see things as they are. And even when, practicing, we think our five aggregates can see reality, that is not quite true, for the five aggregates are very limited: there are sights and sounds we cannot perceive. We are like an oyster in the depths of the sea, with no eyes or ears, that never sees the sky or hears the waves, yet thinks it knows the whole cosmos. A bat can sense sound we cannot, seeing an obstacle three meters off in the dark. So science shows us the limitation of our five senses — that we may not be so proud, and may see reality more truly.