Buddhists Vision of the World of Existence and Beyond

“Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction!”

~ The Butterfly Dream of Zhuangzi (Translation by Burton Watson taken from Wikipedia)

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts...”

 ~ William Shakespeare

Is our life as we are experiencing it real? Or is it just a dream? Are we all, as Shakespeare put it, actors and actresses playing different roles in a stage performance called life? Are our dreams a real world to which we return to once the show is over? Is life an illusion we must eventually wake up from?

Such questions concerning the nature of our existence have occupied the thoughts of man through the ages. They have both intrigued and confounded him at the same time. Mystics, meditators, philosophers, thinkers, even scientists, in their quest to make sense of the world, have attempted various answers. And we have all been fascinated or turned off by their answers.

The Buddha's teaching is one among many teachings in the world that have arisen out of a need to address man's problem of existential suffering. But to solve this problem necessitate first of all an understanding of the nature of our existence. Therefore, since the Buddha did claim to have found a solution to this problem, we would expect that the Buddha's teaching also provides some answers to these questions about the nature of our existence. But what are it's answers if any? What do the Buddha and his enlightened disciples see when they look at this world of our existence and how do they describe it?

Mindfulness, Clarity, Perception, and Memory

Among the twenty five sobhaṇa-cetasikas or beautiful-mental-factors listed in Abhidhamma, sati or mindfulness is probably the one most often mentioned and highlighted by Buddhists. This is because of the central role that mindfulness plays in Buddhists' practices.

“But mindfulness, bhikkhus, is needed at all times.”

~ Saṃyutta-Nikāya, Bojjhaṅgasaṃyutta, Sutta 53

In many suttas one who has mindfulness is described thus:

“...a bhikkhu is mindful, one who possess the highest mindfulness and discrimination, who remembers and recalls what was done and said long ago.”

~ e.g. Dīgha-Nikāya, Saṅgīti Sutta

This description of mindfulness in the Suttas brings out its aspect of memory. In the commentary also mindfulness is explained in relation to memory:

“It is mindfulness (sati) because by means of it they remember (saranti); or it itself remembers; or it is just mere-remembering.”

~ Dhammasaṅgaṇi-Aṭṭhakathā

However, mindfulness is categorized in Abhidhamma as a beautiful-mental-factor, which means that while it is always found associated with wholesome consciousness (kusala-citta), it can never be found in association with unwholesome consciousness (akusala-citta). This means that mindfulness is absent when a person performs an unwholesome action like killing, stealing, etc.

But if mindfulness is related to memory how could it be absent when a person performs an unwholesome action? Does this mean that a person who is killing or stealing has no recollection of things he had said or done? This would be absurd since memory is such a fundamental function of our mind that it should be common to all kinds of consciousness regardless of whether they are wholesome or unwholesome. A mental factor (cetasika) that is to perform the function of memory should by right fall into the category of those that are common to all consciousness, i.e. the universals (sabbacittasādhāraṇa). Assuming that the Suttas is correct then either mindfulness had been wrongly classified in the Abhidhamma, or there is something more to memory than just mindfulness.

The Dhamma Rebellion

Coming to a vipassanā retreat is like staging a rebellion against the government inside our mind. So our teacher told us. And indeed it does seem so.

The mind that has been left untrained for innumerable lifetimes has been strongly ingrained in the many defiled habits that has kept us bound to saṃsāra (the rounds of birth and death) and the suffering that accompany it. These habits such as covetousness, clinging, obsession, conceit, hatred, jealousy, avariciousness, restless searching, mistaken-views, etc., are habits that are so strongly influenced by Māra (the Buddhist personification of evil) who delights in keeping beings trapped in saṃsāra and unable to break free from his clutches.

Over the long period of our journey through saṃsāra, through having fallen repeatedly under the enticing and deluding spells and charms of Māra, we have all grown fond of him, drawn near him, opened ourselves up to him, delighted in and adopted his ways, even worshipped him. Unwittingly we have invited and welcomed Māra into our minds and he has surreptitiously annexed our mind and added it to his domain. And in doing so he has set up his government within our minds to dominate over us.

Is Slowing Down Natural? and the Benefits of Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation

Satipaṭṭhāna Vipassanā meditation involves a very deep and thorough investigation of dhammas or natural phenomena in order to uncover their true nature of impermanence, suffering, and non-self. To aid this investigation one very helpful attitude to have is what the Buddha called appamāda. This word appamāda has been variously translated as vigilance, diligence, heedfulness, earnestness, and even mindfulness. In truth this single quality of appamāda denotes all these qualities and others as well. One who possesses appamāda is a person who carries out the practise of the Dhamma respectfully, carefully, diligently, vigilantly, meticulously, earnestly, and, as with all wholesome practises, with mindfulness and proper-attention (yoniso manasikāra).

And so we find that in the practise of Satipaṭṭhāna Vipassanā meditation, meditators who possess this quality of appamāda are those who very respectfully, carefully, diligently, vigilantly, meticulously, earnestly, and with proper-attention, apply mindfulness and clarity of mind to the investigation of the dhammas moment after moment, continuously, and relentlessly. And in the Vipassanā meditation technique as taught by the late Ven. Mahāsi Sayādaw of Burma, in order to step up this quality of appamāda during the time of intensive meditation retreat, meditators are even encouraged to slow down all their physical movements so that they may be able to observe and investigate the dhammas or phenomena involved in the movements more carefully and meticulously.

However, this very sound instruction of the late Ven. Mahāsi Sayādaw has sometimes been met with criticism from some quarters, the criticism being that such deliberate slowing down of physical activities is not natural because this is not the way we normally go about our usual daily life outside of a meditation retreat.

Metta and the Transformative Power of Meditation

Mettā or loving-kindness is a positive mental state that appears as the genuine wish for the welfare of other beings. At its best its scope is universal, it's kind thoughts reach out to all beings, and is unbounded by any consideration of race, gender, religion, country, or any other artificial categories, including even the category that discriminate between human and non-human, which self-serving men have come up with to discriminate against their fellow beings.

Mettā as taught by the Buddha is expressed through mental thoughts as well as verbal and physical actions. It involves not only passive expression of friendliness to other beings but also active work of kindness, within one own means, to alleviate the suffering of one's fellow beings. In the case of the latter mettā works hand in hand with another positive mental quality, karuṇā or compassion, which is a close aide of mettā. Compassion is the movement (or quivering) in the mind at the sight of others' suffering. It is that which moves the heart to take action to alleviate that suffering.

But when it comes to the practice of mettā, Theravāda Buddhists have sometimes been criticized for being armchair (or meditation seat) practitioners.

Be Yourself

Just be yourself – Don't we often get this advice from others? It is perhaps one of the most popular self-help catchphrases of all times. And it is not a bad idea actually. It is better than betraying ourselves by changing ourselves into somebody we are not, and probably not comfortable with, just to please others, to win their approval, admiration, or favor, or simply to fit in. We should all have more self-respect than that.

But while being oneself is all good and nice we certainly need to exercise some discretion as to which part of ourselves we want to be. There are some who take the idea of being oneself as a license to set loose all their defilements. “Aren't they (i.e. the defilements) part of me?” they might justify. It does not take much to figure out that this isn't exactly what being oneself really means. It is in fact an abuse of a very wonderful idea, and moreover, for Buddhist, it is not in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma.

Dhamma Work and Politics

Politics, and by that we mean that social affair that takes place when people in an organization vie for authority and control even to the extent of employing crafty machination and maneuvering to achieve their aims, exists everywhere in our human society. It exists at the office (the infamous office politics), in social clubs, association, and cliques, in schools (among students and educators alike), even at home. Wherever there is a group of humans present, right there is a possibility for dirty politics to surface. Politics finds its way even into spiritual organizations like temples, monasteries, ashrams, churches, mosques, etc. As uninspiring as this may sound, we all know too well that it happens.

Yes, not even the sacred sanctity of our spiritual institutions, Buddhist ones not exempted, is spared from this poison of politics. While it may be true that all Buddhist organizations (we hope) started off with the noblest of intention, many soon find themselves, to a larger or lesser extent, embroiled in some kind of politics.