To discover what consciousness/mind is.. one only has to look
within through the practice of meditation and self-inquiry.. and
discover something that will change our perspective and
understanding of consciousness, reality and identity.
A partial quotation from
http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/B%20-%20Theravada/Teachers/Ajahn%20Brahmavamso/Meditation%20The%20Heart%20of%20Buddhism/Meditation%20The%20Heart%20of%20Buddhism-%20Ajahn%20Brahm.htm
Remember "con
men," "con women" as well. These con men can sell you anything!
There's one living in your mind right now, and you believe every
word he says! His name is Thinking. When you let go of that inner
talk and get silent, you get happy. Then when you let go of the
movement of the mind and stay with the breath, you experience even
more delight. Then when you let go of the body ,all these five
senses disappear and you're really blissing out. This is original
Buddhism. Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch completely vanish.
This is like being in a sensory deprivation chamber but much
better. But it's not just silence, you just don't hear anything.
It's not just blackness, you just don't see anything. It's not just
a feeling of comfort in the body, there is no body at all.
When the body
disappears that really starts to feel great. You know of
all those people who have out of the body experiences? When the
body dies, every person has that experience, they float out of the
body. And one of the things they always say is it's so peaceful, so
beautiful, so blissful. It's the same in meditation when the body
disappears, it's so peaceful, so beautiful, so blissful when you
are free from this body. What's left? Here there's no sight, sound,
smell, taste, touch. This is what the Buddha called the mind in
deep meditation. When the body disappears what is left is the
mind.
I gave a simile
to a monk the other night. Imagine an Emperor who is wearing a long
pair of trousers and a big tunic. He's got shoes on his feet, a
scarf around the bottom half of his head and a hat on the top half
of his head. You can't see him at all because he's completely
covered in five garments. It's the same with the mind. It's
completely covered with sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. So
people don't know it. They just know the garments. When they see
the Emperor, they just see the robes and the garments. They don't
know who lives inside them. And so it is no wonder they're confused
about what is life, what is mind, who is this inside of here, were
did I come from? Why? What am I supposed to be doing with this
life? When the
five senses disappear, it's like unclothing the Emperor and seeing
what is actually in here, what's actually running the show, who's
listening to these words, who's seeing, who's feeling life, who
this is. When the five senses disappear, you're coming close to the
answer to those questions.
What you're
seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call "mind," (in
Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful
simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though
it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds
are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know
there is something there. This is like the meditation just before
you've entered into these profound states. You know there is
something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still
some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the
body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the
Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and
there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of
the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The
moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of
side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when
you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side
effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the
mind. The Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is
brilliant, is radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences,
they're meaningful experiences as well.
How many people
may have heard about rebirth but still don't really believe it? How
can rebirth happen? Certainly the body doesn't get reborn. That's
why when people ask me where do you go when you die, "one of two
places" I say "Fremantle or Karrakatta" that's where the body goes!
[3] But
is that where the mind goes? Sometimes people are so stupid in this
world, they think the body is all there is, that there is no mind.
So when you get cremated or buried that's it, that's done with, all
has ended. The only way you can argue with this view is by
developing the meditation that the Buddha achieved under the Bodhi
tree. Then you can see the mind for yourself in clear awareness -
not in some hypnotic trance, not in dullness - but in the clear
awareness. This is knowing the mind
When you know that mind, when
you see it for yourself, one of the results will be an insight that
the mind is independent of this body. Independence means that when
this body breaks up and dies, when it's cremated or when it's
buried, or however it's destroyed after death, it will not affect
the mind. You know this because you see
the nature of the mind. That mind which you see will transcend
bodily death. The first thing which you will see for
yourself, the insight which is as clear as the nose on your face,
is that there is something more to life than this physical body
that we take to be me. Secondly you can recognise that that mind,
essentially, is no different than that process of consciousness
which is in all beings. Whether it's human beings or animals
or even insects, of any gender, age or race, you see that that
which is in common to all life is this mind, this consciousness,
the source of doing.
Once you see
that, you have much more respect for your fellow beings. Not just
respect for your own race, your own tribe or your own religion, not
just for human beings, but for all beings. It's a wonderfully
high-minded idea. "May all beings be happy and well and may we
respect all nations, all peoples, even all beings." However this is
how you achieve that! You truly get compassion only when we see
that others are fundamentally just as ourselves. If you think that
a cow is completely different from you, that cows don't think like
human beings, then it's easy to eat one. But can you eat your
grandmother? She's too much like you. Can you eat an ant? Maybe
you'd kill an ant because you think that ants aren't like you. But
if you look carefully at ants, they are no different. In a forest
monastery living out in the bush, close to nature, one of the
things you become so convinced of is that animals have emotions and
, especially, feel pain. You begin to recognise the personality of
the animals, of the Kookaburras,(Australian bird) of the
mice, the ants, and the spiders. Each one of those spiders has a
mind just like you have. Once you see that you can understand
the Buddha's compassion for all beings. You can also
understand how rebirth can occur between all species - not just
human beings to human beings, but animals to humans, humans to
animals. You can understand also how the mind is the source of all
this.
The mind can
exist even without a body in the realms of ghosts and angels (what
we call in Buddhism Devas). It becomes very clear to you
how they exist, why they exist, what they are. These are insights
and understandings which come from deep meditation. But more than
that, when you know the nature of the mind then you know the nature
of consciousness. You know the nature of stillness. You know the
nature of life. You understand what makes this mind go round and
round and round, what makes this mind seek rebirth. You understand
the law of Kamma.
The First
Knowledge. When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi
tree, according to tradition he gained three knowledge's. The first
knowledge was the memory of past lives. When you get close to the
mind, there are certain powers that come with that experience. The
powers are no more than an ability, a dexterity with the use of the
mind. It's like the difference between a dog that has been running
wild and a dog that has been well trained. You can tell the trained
dog to go and pick up the newspaper. It wags its tail and goes and
picks up the newspaper for you. Some people have got their dogs so
well trained that they can actually pick up the telephone. Maybe
they could answer the telephone as well, then that would really
save you a lot of time!
When you get to
these deep states of meditation often, the mind becomes well
trained. One of the things which the Buddha did (and which you can
do when you get into deep meditation) is tell the mind to go back
to the past. What's your earliest memory? Go back further and
further and further. Monks who do this get early memories of their
childhood. They even get memories of the moment they were born.
Sometimes people say that when you're born, you have no
consciousness because the neuron's aren't developed yet, or
something like that. But when you re-experience your birth, you
know that that is just not true. When the memory of your own birth
appears, it is just like you are there and you experience all
feelings of that birth. Then you can ask yourself for an even
earlier memory, and then you get back into your past lives. That's
what the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree. Through meditation you
know rebirth, you know your own past lives. This is just what
happens with the mind and you know how it happens. That was the
first knowledge that the Buddha had.
The Second
Knowledge. The second knowledge was to know
how you are reborn. Why you are reborn. Where you are reborn. This
is the Law of Kamma. Someone was showing me a book today
which, unfortunately, we had for free distribution but which I
hadn't seen before. It had some really weird ideas in it about the
Law of Kamma. I think what it said was that if you read
one of the Suttas while you are lying on the ground, you
will be reborn with a bad back, or something like that. Just stupid
ideas! Kamma is much more complex than that and it depends
mostly upon the quality of your intention. The movement of the mind
itself is what determines the Kamma, not just the act,
but why and where it came from. You can see this in
meditation, but also you can see just how that mind gets fully
liberated.
The Third
Knowledge. The third knowledge was the ending
of suffering. With understanding of The Four Noble Truths, you
realise the Way and what enlightenment really means. It means
freedom! The mind is liberated, especially liberated from the body,
liberated not just from the suffering of the body but liberated
from the happiness of the body as well. That means that there
is no more inclination for sexuality, no fear of pain, no grief
over the destruction of the body, no ill will and no fear of
criticism. Why do people get worried about bad words that are said?
Only because of ego. They take something to be themselves.
Just imagine for a moment being free from all of those things. What
would that be like, no fear, no craving, no need to move from this
moment - In other words nothing missing, and nothing left to
do, nowhere to go because you’re completely happy right here no
matter what happens! This is what we mean by enlightenment.
This meditation is the source of the Buddha's enlightenment and
the source of every person’s enlightenment.
There is no
enlightenment without that meditation. This is why Buddhism is far
more than a psychotherapy. It's far more than a philosophy. It's
far more than a religion. It goes deep into the nature of being,
and it is accessible to all people. You know how to meditate.
Teachers are giving all the instructions free without any charge.
Do you want to do it? Usually the answer is, "Maybe tomorrow but
not today." Never the less because the seeds have been placed in
the mind, because the meditation has begun already, there is an
interest. Already there is a sense of this enlightenment, a
fascination for peace, and you will not be able to resist that
path. You may be able to put it off for a while, maybe for
lifetimes, but it's a strange thing that, as someone said to me
many years ago, "When you hear these teachings you can't
discard them." You just can't forget them. They aren't telling
you what to believe. They aren't giving you a theory which is
merely rational. But they are pointing you to something which you
can understand and experience for yourself, and you get intuitions
of this the deeper you go.
The Buddha was
a very remarkable person, his peacefulness, compassion and wisdom,
were legendary. There is something about enlightenment that is very
attractive. In the same way there is something about freedom that
you cannot ignore. That is why little by little, you will
understand what Buddhism is all about. You won't understand
Buddhism from the books nor will you understand Buddhism from what
I say. You'll only understand Buddhism in your own experiences
of peaceful meditation. That's where Buddhism is taught.
So have fun with your meditation and don't be afraid of
enlightenment. Get in there, enjoy it, and you will have no
regrets.
That's what
Buddhism is. That's it's heart, meditation and enlightenment.
That's it's meaning. I hope you can understand some of this. I
can say no more because the time has gone. I'll complete my talk
now.