With agency in mind - on the road to easy peace

An SRDS compilation document

George G Clark May 2011 http://www.srds.co.uk

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Preface
The articles in this compilation first appeared on the website Let it begin with me - a rough guide to meditation and mind training.1 The website is now an archive of sixty eight articles that are listed in four sections - Classic Eastern, Recent Eastern, Western, and Home grown. This compilation is of seventeen home-grown articles that were written between 2001 and 2003. In the website they are listed chronologically; in this 2011 version they have been rearranged in a more logical and developmental sequence. See the introduction and the two contents pages for details. The articles presented here follow the Words of Faith2 collection of articles prepared by the author for a local newspaper in Lesotho in the late 1990s. The articles also predate his Existential Soft Rock blog3 The articles are offered as they first appeared around 2002 and are thus more technical in terms of concepts and vocabulary than more recent plain language materials. At the turn of the centuries the author was also writing about change agents and social development under the auspices of the Caledonia Centre for Social Development4. In more recent times his interests have been in exploring ways of rooting development planning in a more spiritual framework. George G Clark B.Sc (Hons), Cert.Ed., MSc, MA Email Twitter Facebook May 2011 clark@srds.co.uk http://twitter.com/dodclark http://www.facebook.com/dodclark

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http://www.srds.co.uk/begin http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/whispers/ 3 http://dodclark.blogspot.com/ (Begun on 17 Nov 2002 and still alive) 4 http://www.caledonia.org.uk

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Contents
Preface............................................................................................................................2 Contents..........................................................................................................................3 Introduction....................................................................................................................4 Contents Annotated........................................................................................................5 01 Cloud cuckoo land.....................................................................................................7 02 Heave yourself from the quicksand of treacle...........................................................9 03 Attending to Imaginations.......................................................................................10 04 With Peace in Mind.................................................................................................12 05 Subjectless Contentment a thought on waking....................................................13 06 EXIJEL - putting the salve back in salvation..........................................................16 07 Renunciant Frugality so easy, so difficult............................................................17 08 Productive Agents...................................................................................................18 09 Accentuate the positive...........................................................................................21 10 Scratching the existential itch.................................................................................22 11 Steps on the road to bliss.........................................................................................24 12 On the Primrose Path to Peace................................................................................26 13 The roller coaster ride to peace of mind .................................................................28 14 A drop in the ocean.................................................................................................31 15 Five Skandhas are Empty........................................................................................33 16 Anguising angst.......................................................................................................35 17 Changed Mind.........................................................................................................36

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Introduction
The articles in this compilation reflect the authors ongoing interest in (a) the psychology of perception as it appears in its various western and eastern forms and (b) in the parallels that appear to exist between the two. The main argument is that it is (a) always possible and (b) never too late, for minds to become more peaceful. But this raises the question of agency - what are the causes and conditions for change? Why do I want to change this way rather than that, and what is the nature of the I who wants when the mind has a mind of its own? A taster of each article is presented in the annotated content list on pages 5-6. The overall story line is presented here: We begin by recognising (a) the possibility of minds changing and (b) the need for effort and discipline on the part of the agency of change (Me?). We then indicate the possibility of experiencing easy peace as a result of mindfulness meditation and of how this leads to an effortless embrace of renunciant frugality. Some more attention is then given to the nature of agency and this leads to thoughts about the roller coaster ride experienced by those who seek the way and tread the path. The compilation moves on to three rather erudite articles concerning the bliss body, rationality, and angst. We can think of them as appendices to help with digging deeper. The last article is something of a poem that pulls together a few of the authors thoughts dealing with the possibility of changed minds.

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Contents Annotated
01 Cloud Cuckoo Land A cloud cuckoo is not a bird. It is a cloud formation that looks like a bird. Its existence is in your mind rather than in the cloud formation. How can this be? 02 Heave yourself from the quicksand of treacle There is the part option of choosing todays circumstances so as to influence those of tomorrow. It is a part option because old habits die hard. Clean breaks on the road to Damascus are not the norm. The task is to heave yourself from the quicksand of treacle, and he who hesitates is sucked back. 03 Attending to imaginations Recuperating from a hernia operation involved just sitting. While doing so attention was captured by present externalities by feelings from the wound, by the sound of traffic in the street, by the sight of blue sky through the window. What else might capture attention? There appear at first to be six possibilities 04 With Peace in Mind It is possible through prayer and meditation to discipline your mind. It is possible to be rid of negative and wasteful thoughts and to limit necessary thoughts to their appropriate time and place. A well disciplined mind is thus occupied by positive (Godly) thoughts. This is how the world can become a better place. 05 Subjectless Contentment While there is unease with having nothing to do in the evening there is none in the morning as the mind flits lightly like dappled sunlight on a forest floor. Eventually the I will reassert in up-front consciousness but, while absent, there is subjectless contentment -5ie I am content because there is no I to be discontent. 06 EXIJEL - putting the salve back in salvation Fearless joy is the ocean into which those who know it merge without remainder. It is always and everywhere like the air we breathe although, throughout human history, most poor souls have not accepted that even the concept makes sense. The crippled realists of flat earth. But now ... 07 Renunciant Frugality Renunciant frugality is at once the easiest and most difficult lifestyle. Easy because you already have everything you need the toolbox lies within. Difficult because you do not know you have everything to hand; you know yourself to be both the prisoner and the keeper without realising that the prison is only in your mind. 08 Productive Agents The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra encouraged me to be more aware of thought processes. I realised that many thoughts and moods were due to blind habit and previous conditioning and that 'I' was not in control of what happens inside my head. This has given rise to a greater confidence and trust in 'the muse' who/which was responsible for the content (if not the layout) of this article. 09 Accentuate the positive So what is this 'thing' called boredom? It is a frame of mind. Mindfulness can be brought to bear on it. Its dimensions can be brought into attention and its features can be recognised. Know the enemy. Then firmly but compassionately deal with it.

10 Scratching the Existential Itch The mood has changed several times since I woke this morning. The change drivers were partly internal and partly external. Neither will ever go away but I can choose to respond to them differently. This involves reconditioning my mind. 11 Steps on the road to bliss If you notice what you notice and think about what you think, you will unshackle yourself from thoughts and emotions. You will then inevitably detach from the illusion of having a self and the stage will be set for the state of no thought to well up and merge into oneness and the peace that passes all understanding. 12 On the primrose path to peace The reality which can be described is not the real reality. There is only spin from human minds. And all human minds are erratically conditioned by time, place and parents and so are chaotic, jumbled and trippling with inconsistencies. Pose value and spin, even when perpetrated with integrity, is all there is. Or is it? 13 The roller coaster ride to peace of mind Joy, sorrow and emotional flatness are created by your attitude towards

things. Things appear in your mind either as inputs from your sense organs (eyes and ear etc) or as imaginations from memory or in dreams. First the thing, then the reaction to the thing: and you choose how to react. But you have developed a lifetime of bad mental habits; can these be broken? 14 A drop in the ocean When an individual mind rises above its conditioning and habitual illusions it returns like a raindrop to the ocean which is the one mind. This is the peace that passes all understanding. This is the bliss body from which we came and to which we will return. 15 Five skandhas are empty This article offers a rational schema to blow away rational schemas. This might assist compulsive rationalists who have difficulty going beyond. 16 Anguishing Angst In the spirit of existential jujitsu the anguish of angst is to be welcomed. It drives you to the spiritual path more effectively than most other frames of mind. 17 Changed Mind Then: thing, thought and worry. Now: no-thing, no-thought, no-worry

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01 Cloud cuckoo land

It would be easy to drift through life on a cloud of sex, drugs and rock and roll with all gaps in distraction plugged from a quality collection of up to date consumer products. If you are lucky enough to be hidden from the worst excesses of disease, pollution, poverty, violence, old-age and death then why not eat lotuses in your cloud cuckoo land? A cloud cuckoo is not a bird. It is a cloud formation that looks like a bird. Its existence is in your mind rather than in the cloud formation. How can this be? Light from the sky enters your eye. Your mind interprets the signal as fluffy white things on a blue background and, if English speaking, labels them as clouds. Then a pattern recognition centre associates the shape of the cloud with a bird. The cloud cuckoo is thus created and is immediately linked with other thoughts and feelings from your subconscious (desire, aversion or neutrality) and a dynamic chain of illusion is set in motion. So it is with all other things/illusions which the mind decides to isolate from the Flux. People, palaces and planets perish. There is only the Flux. Impermanence. No thing exists or lasts. All things (which are not things as ordinarily understood) are intimately connected with all other not-things. It becomes apparent that there is only one thing which is everything. And there is no self conscious subject to whom this is apparent the Oneness does not know its Self. No knower, no knowing and no known. Language evolved to deal with the world of phenomena and cannot easily deal with the end point of mind training - the numinous experience of the filled emptiness. There are options of remembering a cloud cuckoo that you once saw and of imagining one that has never existed and the remembered and imagined ones have as much real reality as the seen one. Mundane people are condemned by rationality, language and cultural conditioning to grasp at a meagre world of common sense phenomena and the latest round of fashions and gadgets. Poets and mystics pull back the mind blinkers and know their non-selves to be one with the oceanic Mind which is everywhere and always in a state of fearless and blissful tranquillity.

An experienced meditator sees the world of things (including her individuated self) as no more substantial than passing clouds.

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"As the senses never and in no single instance enable us to know things in themselves, but only their appearances, and as these are mere representations all bodies, together with the space in which they are, must be held to be nothing but mere representations in us, and exist nowhere else than merely in our thought." Emmanuel Kant is his "Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics":

People, palaces and planets perish The reality which can be described is not the real reality. Whose reality counts?

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02 Heave yourself from the quicksand of treacle

I am as I am. Circumstances dictate. There is, however, the part option of choosing todays circumstances so as to influence those of tomorrow. It is a part option because old habits die hard. Clean breaks on the road to Damascus are not the norm. The task is to heave yourself from the quicksand of treacle, and he who hesitates is sucked back. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think The origin of a thought train is the life force that totally unknowable and thus unspeakable something-or-other. It obviously exists as the source but it is impossible to describe in other than vague generalisations. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. Remaining forever in your village you do not know the source of the river that runs though it. You are aware of water flowing. Why concern yourself with where it comes from and why? When thirsty, drink. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. So long as I live there will be thought trains and each will have an object as its engine. But neither the thought nor its object has substance. Both appear spontaneously and briefly in my mind. OK there may be some concrete referent upon which the object is based: but I cannot know the concrete referent as it is in itself, only as an object in my mind. As rain seeps through an ill-thatched hut, passion will seep through an untrained mind. The map (object) is not the territory (concrete referent). I live in a world of home made maps. I am free to draw and redraw those maps at will. I am also free to ignore them. So much freedom when you think about thinking! Those who recite many scriptures but fail to practice their teaching are like the cowherd counting anothers cows. They do not share in the joys of the spiritual life.

Source of quotes: Easwaran, Eknath (1986) The Dhammapada; Arkana; ISBN 0 14 019014 7 [Chapter One]

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03 Attending to Imaginations
Recuperating from a hernia operation involved just sitting. While doing so attention was captured by present externalities by feelings from the wound, by the sound of traffic in the street, by the sight of blue sky through the window. What else might capture attention? There appear at first to be six possibilities: Past Present Future Internalities 1 2 3 Externalities 4 5 6 imaginations) that may be stored in, and retrieved from, memories. This suggests that memory is a storehouse of those imaginations upon which the spotlight of attention does not presently shine. This in turn suggests the idea of attending to imaginations. And this begs two linked and very tough questions, "Does an imagination exist if attention is not being given to it? And, if it does, where, and what form does it take?"

But the past exists only in memory and the future only in imagination: so past and future externalities are obviously sub sets of their relevant internalities. The only difference between past and future internalities (like justice) and externalities (like the Millennium Dome) is the extent of their rather loose (see below) relationship to a concrete referent. Thus if past and future referents exist they do so only in memory and imagination. How are concrete referents like the Millennium Dome known? Do we know them as they are in themselves? No! Our sense organs receive inputs (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) and send electrical impulses which are processed in the brain to generate imaginations which link to preexisting imaginations including feelings (magnificent monument celebrating a thousand years of human progress v disgraceful waste of taxpayers money). So where does the present externality which is the Millennium Dome exist? Surely, from the standpoint of human knowledge, it exists as a widely dispersed set of diverse present internalities (ie as

A gentler question would be, "What are the characteristics of an imagination to which attention is being given?" Dodging answers can approach from two directions. The question assumes an imaginer imagining an imagination a subject, a verb and an object. But to assume = to imagine. So the imaginer imagines an imaginer imagining an imagination. And there would logically be an imaginer imagining the imaginer imagining an imaginer imagining and so on in infinite regress to First Cause. Another approach suggests that the answer is impossible to capture in words. It involves a type of knowing which predates the recent linguistic incapacities of the naked ape. It is intuitive rather than rational, poetic rather than pragmatic, spiritual rather than scientific, and holistic rather than reductionist. It is famously said that those who know do not speak. Annoying isnt it.

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More people should have to recuperate from hernias. They might thereby come to appreciate that their lives are the creation of their minds. You are what you think, and it is never too late to change your mind. Reality is present internality.

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. (Dhammapada)

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04 With Peace in Mind

"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4. There are four types of thought: Negative thought Wasteful thought Necessary thought Positive thought anger, fear, sadness, regret, unease about things that might not happen or that are beyond your control "I must not forget to pay the rent". "I must remember to milk the cow" encourages peace, harmony, creativity, love and happiness

Most of the thoughts in most peoples minds most of the time are of the first three types. This is because their senses rush about like a badly raised child or an untrained horse. It is possible through prayer and meditation to discipline your mind. It is possible to be rid of negative and wasteful thoughts and to limit necessary thoughts to their appropriate time and place. A well disciplined mind is thus occupied by positive (Godly) thoughts. This is how the world can become a better place.

"First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others." Thomas a Kempis "It is in the (undisciplined) minds of men that war is created; it is thus in the (disciplined) minds of men that peace can be won". UNESCO Charter The Devil finds thoughts (and emotions) to fill undisciplined minds

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05 Subjectless Contentment a thought on waking

While there is unease with having nothing to do in the evening there is none in the morning as the mind flits lightly like dappled sunlight on a forest floor. Eventually the I will reassert in upfront consciousness but, while absent, there is subjectless contentment ie I am content because there is no I to be discontent. Last night I thought to wake with the dawn and did. It is now but slightly light. No traffic, and bird song just beginning. But a concern for the work programme emerges "What will I do today?" The I solidifies. Social routines are recapturing consciousness with duties and responsibilities which devour spare time. Spare Time? The devil finds work for idle hands to do! This culture is fiercely material and mundane. Minds are shackled to a work ethic. First in the home and community with hardworking role models and then through long years of habituation to the forty minute bells of school. What chance does a poor soul have? Every chance! The system is laughably corrupt. It strangles itself. It breeds dis-ease, forces the search for solace and then provides media distractions and mind bending chemicals. But these shallow joys wear quickly thin. And then? Despair! And then? Breakdown and suicide versus renunciation and rebirth! angst, anomie,

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alienation, disaffection from the polity Rebirth? A change of mind. You are what you think. Think different. It is never too late to change your mind. It may not be easy to break old habits of thought but it is not impossible where there is a will. And Will is ever-present. Will is the fabric of the true Self. The sun shines behind the clouds of ego illusion. Blow the clouds away. The 9 to 5 routine is dust on the mirror. Blow the dust away.

Beneath the thin veneer of the culturally conditioned self lies the true Self which moves the air and makes the grass grow. The dynamic Oneness flows like self motivated putty. Endless rounds of creation and destruction. Permanent impermanence. Waves on the ocean of cosmic mind. That art thou.

From Hinduism Tat Tvam Asi the Absolute is in essence one with yourself

Be still and know

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06 EXIJEL - putting the salve back in salvation

Today I sense the fearless joy of Taoist simpletons. Fearless joy is the ocean into which those who know it merge without remainder. It is always and everywhere like the air we breathe although, throughout human history, most poor souls have not accepted that even the concept makes sense. The crippled realists of flat earth. But now ... EXIJEL. The existential jelly. The fluid that facilitates transcendence. No mere worldly elixir like overproof rum or mushroom tea - this is the metaphorical salve. Salvation's salve. EXIJEL Lubricating the spiritual path Putting the salve back in salvation.

GOOD NEWS You have an in-built store of EXIJEL Keys are everywhere It is never too late to unlock your mind BUT BUT BUT

BAD NEWS it is locked in the deep recesses of your mind you see the keys as trinkets for new-age hippies and weirdos you cling desperately to your materialist conditioning

Wise up! EXIJEL is awareness. Make space for quiet times in your day. That's all. Just sit, shut up and be aware of what goes on in your head. All else follows as day follows night. Unplug from the poisonous drip feed of media distraction. Be still and know.

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07 Renunciant Frugality so easy, so difficult

Notice what you are noticing and the effect it is having on you. Mindful awareness leads inevitably to renunciant frugality. The highest language art is in expressing the inexpressible. Thus are road signs erected for the spiritual travellers wishing to change their mind. Homage then to those who have gone before and left these signs. Renunciant frugality is at once the easiest and most difficult lifestyle. Easy because you already have everything you need the toolbox lies within. Difficult because you do not know you have everything to hand; you know yourself to be both the prisoner and the keeper without realising that the prison is only in your mind.

Renunciant Frugality is easy because ... difficult because it appears that ... regarding perception the sun shines behind the curtain of there are no curtains and even if there ignorance were they are pulled tight shut once beyond the gate, the gate is known the road leading to the gate is much too to be illusory long, winding and arduous all blockages (phenomena) are creations the blockages are out there and real of imagination and can safely be ignored regarding Will the pleasures of the senses and the flesh the pleasures of the senses and the flesh are fleeting and easily foregone for the are the only things that make life worth bliss of fearless equanimity living the mind has a mind of its own which the mind has a mind of its own which chooses equanimity craves distraction if you are still you will know you cannot sit still for more than a few minutes at a time The only sin is mindlessness. The only rule is to be aware ie notice what you are noticing and the effect it is having on you. Mindful awareness leads inevitably to renunciant frugality.

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08 Productive Agents
The following train of thought arrived while reading the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra. The sutra encouraged me to be more aware of thought processes. I realised that many thoughts and moods were due to blind habit and previous conditioning and that 'I' was not in control of what happens inside my head. This has given rise to a greater confidence and trust in 'the muse' who/which was responsible for the content (if not the layout) of this article. Sometimes I feel that I should be more focused and productive. Is it a good or bad feeling? This is a subtle point but Vimalakirti was quite clear about it: Language requires a subject for every sentence, an 'I'. But the conscious 'I' is an illusion and is the source of the problem and cannot be part of its cure. There is thus another concept of agent - wu-wei. This means something along the lines of non-action where this implies that things get done without a conscious 'I' being involved. Everyday examples include automatically snatching up a baby that is about to fall into a well (innate reflex (instinct) - nature) and riding a bicycle once you have learned how (conditioned reflex (learned behaviour) - nurture). So what does it mean to say that, "'I' should be more focused and productive"? Two levels of agency can be seen to be at work : Conventional agent When 'I' is the conventional 'I' then it is involved with formulation and verbalisation and with production and destruction. This is obviously missing the grander Buddhist point. Liberated agent The second level of agency involves non-egoic-action. There is focus, and productive work is done, but the actor is not self-aware of the action. Ego consciousness is not involved. The liberated agent is more active than most people realise. A name can be on the tip of your tongue but will not appear until 'you' stop trying to remember - so who remembers?

The Dharma is ultimately without formulation and without verbalisation. Who verbalises: "Suffering should be recognised, origination should be eliminated, cessation should be realised, the path should be practiced," is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in verbalisation. the Dharma is calm and peaceful. Those who are engaged in production and destruction are not interested in the Dharma, are not interested in solitude, but are interested in production and destruction. if you are interested in the Dharma you should take no interest in anything. The subtlety has to do with the idea of 'agent'.

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Most poets and writers appreciate that they are but instruments for their muse. "The words and ideas appear already formed and all that 'I' do is write them down." It is as if the subconscious part of your brain was another 'you'. The familiar conscious part knows little about it. The subconscious part is the source of your dreams and nightmares when you are asleep and of daydreams and moods when you are awake. Most people, when they bother to think about it, realise that the content of their consciousness is a very small part of what goes on inside their head. And, more significantly, 'they' are not in control. The subconscious has a mind of its own and dictates what ideas and emotions get tossed into consciousness. The 'I' of consciousness is a tiny cork on the vast swelling ocean of unconsciousness. So can the unconscious mind be trained and brought under control? Can it be more focussed and productive? Yes. This is the purpose of Buddhism. It sees the conventional agent as the root of spiritual sickness. 'I' have difficulty getting my head round the solution but wu-wei goes with the flow. Vimalakirti is an eloquent spokesman for the Buddhist cure when he notes that sickness arises from total involvement in the process of misunderstanding from beginningless time.

It arises from the passions that result from unreal mental constructions, and hence ultimately nothing is perceived which can be said to be sick. Why? ... There is no self in this body, and, except for arbitrary insistence on self, ultimately no 'I' which can be said to be sick can be apprehended. Therefore, thinking, "'I' should not adhere to any self, and 'I' should rest in the knowledge of the root of illness," you should abandon the conception of yourself as a personality and produce the conception of yourself as a thing, thinking, "This body is an aggregate of many things; when it is born only things are born; when it ceases only things cease" The table on the next page sets out the logic of the argument. Vimalakirtis counter intuitive conclusion is that "When you achieve this equality you are free from all illnesses but there remains the concept of voidness which also is an illusion and should be wiped out as well." So there can/should be focus, and a productive move towards liberation; but it will be successful only if 'I' do not focus and try to move productively towards liberation.

The productive and liberated agency that is wu-wei

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What is the elimination of this sickness?

It is the elimination of egoism and possessiveness. It is the freedom from dualism.

What is the elimination of egoism and possessiveness? What is the freedom from dualism?

It is the absence of involvement with either the external or the internal. It is non deviation, non fluctuation, and non distraction from equanimity. It is the equality of everything from self to liberation. Because both self and liberation are void. Because they exist only by names which have no independent nature of their own

What is the absence of involvement with either the external or the internal? What is equanimity?

Why? How can both be void?

Sources of quotations: Thurman R A F (1976,1991) The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti - a Mahayana scripture; Motilal Banarsidass Publishers; ISBN 8120808746 Luk, Charles (1972) Ordinary Enlightenment - a translation of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra; Shambala; ISBN 1570629714

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09 Accentuate the positive

I am at a loose end. No distractions in the post or in the email. I am on the morning's second cup of tea. There is an urge 'to fill the void'. I am programmed for 'doing' and am bewildered by the lack of 'projects'. Boredom threatens. So what is this 'thing' called boredom? It is a frame of mind. Mindfulness can be brought to bear on it. Its dimensions can be brought into attention and its features can be recognised. Know the enemy. Then firmly but compassionately deal with it. But this is one of those issues that torture common sense. When boredom arrives the task is not to 'push it away' but rather to 'let it go'. This is more than two ways of saying the same thing. The former is an active process with an assertive ego. The latter is a passive process born of mindfulness. There is talk of watering seeds5. The subconscious is full of seeds. Those that are watered get bigger those that are not watered remain small. There is also talk of good seeds and not so good seeds. The good seeds (kindness, compassion, generosity etc) should be given space in attention while the not so good ones (anger, greed, boredom etc) should be passed over. The task is to accentuate the positive. Language begs for an agent of this process. Using the passive voice skirts the issue. The process includes discrimination (this is not that) and judgement (this is good and that is not so good). Language thus demands a discriminator and a judge. He is commonly thought of as 'I'. But the 'I'
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is illusory. So who or what is the agent? The agent (or is it the agency?) is rooted in the subconscious. It is one seed amongst many while, at the same time, being the source of all seeds. There is talk of the host and the guests (where the guests are offspring of the host). When the guests have been watered by culture and worldly experience they are loud and brash and the host rarely appears in up front consciousness. Note, however, that the host is still there; he is the foundation of all the guests; he is the root from which all else springs; he occupies the basement. There are, however, occasions when circumstances (with multiple and subtle causes) conspire to briefly quieten the guests with numinous experiences eg death of a loved one, the brilliance of a sunset etc. The host then emerges to suffuse up front consciousness. There is at-one-ment. This is a 'good' experience. Those who notice it want more. Some want more urgently than others. The most eager become shamans and mystics. Through the centuries they have charted roadmaps for the host to rise above the clamour of the noisy guests. The various cultural corridors lead to a single peak pathway. This is the royal road to the bliss of reunion. The essence is to be still and know. Know what? Know 'reality' as it is in itself (an interpenetrating oneness) and thus know the peace that passes all (common sense) understanding.

This article was written after listening to a talk by Thich Nhat Hahn

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10 Scratching the existential itch

The mood has changed several times since I woke this morning. The change drivers were partly internal and partly external. Neither will ever go away but I can choose to respond to them differently. This involves reconditioning my mind. Two phrases capture the method 'notice what you are noticing' and 'think about thinking'. Action verbs - 'to notice' and 'to think'. They involve using my mind in an extra-ordinary way. I have to break old habits - I must stop seeking distractions and responding to them automatically and without thinking. notice what you're noticing think about thinking
Sit quiet doing nothing and the green grass grows Lilies born to bloom and die unseen Sit quiet doing nothing and the tree leaves fall Theres nothing moving but my mind

Simplify, simplify, simplify

Cut out distractions that don't satisfy you. Enter your secular monastery. Early to bed and early to rise, withdraw from the media, keep to a plain diet, and use 'leisure' time for 'just sitting' and reading wisdom books.

If you must give it a name, call it 'renunciant frugality'. With a simple life you begin to notice what 'really' happens in your head. It comes as a shock to many people and is more than most can handle. T S Elliot said that, "Mankind cannot stand too much reality" and most adolescents rush to switch the telly back on because, "This is boring". BUT those who are genuinely 'dissatisfied' will initially stay with simplicity because it is 'different'. Then the wisdom literature begins to make sense. The crazy words begin to describe what happens in your head. You realise that there is a wellestablished, alternative road through life. Large parts are still lost in the clouds of earlier conditioning but now you know: there is another way; it is the royal way; it is the only road worth travelling. You might at this point give up the day job and re-arrange your life; or you might go on living in what looks like the same old way but, from inside, it will be a world transformed.

SO the BIG questions Why should somebody want to change their mind and, how can they do it?

Let's begin with 'dissatisfaction'. Not enough of what you want and too much of what you don't want. This drives the urge for change. How can we use it?

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Illusory blues are a thief in the night Who steals away what you thought was right Cmon, wise up, get real, notice what you feel

So why bother? What's in it for me?

It depends on where you stand. A long and winding road leads to freedom's gate. When you pass through and look back, however, there is no gate. The sun shines behind the clouds. Your burdens are illusions. See them for what they are. Let them go. That is all. Words cannot do it justice. Be still and know that 'you' do not exist and that the answer lies within. If you have the existential itch - scratch it.

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11 Steps on the road to bliss

If you are like most people you will have no control over the thoughts and emotions that appear in your mind. You will be tossed like a withered leaf in a squalling gale by whatever happens to come along. However, if you notice what you notice and think about what you think, you will unshackle yourself from thoughts and emotions. You will then inevitably detach from the illusion of having a self and the stage will be set for the state of no thought to well up and merge into oneness and the peace that passes all understanding. The following table charts seven states of mind. If you arrange your life with quiet times to just sit, you will come to know them all.

with emotion 1. unobserved thought 2. observed thought 3. observer with no thought 4. no thought 1a unobserved thought with emotion. This is the common, human condition of a mind out of conscious control and swayed in excitement (love or hate) by whatever happens to enter consciousness. Life is full of uncontrollable ups and downs. 1b unobserved thought without emotion. This is another, common, human condition where life has lost its flavours. Reality seems dull and grey rather than depressing. There is still a constant flow of thoughts entering consciousness but they lack colour. Life is boring and flat 1a 2a 3a 4

without emotion 1b 2b 3b

2a observed thought with emotion. That makes me so angry. You are aware that your heart strings are being plucked by particular thoughts but there is nothing you can do about it.

2b observed thought without emotion. In this state you are aware of your string being pulled and the awareness dampens the effect. You learn to smile at the simple ways you normally react. With practice this method makes it increasingly easy to lower your highs and heighten your lows.

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3a observer with no thought but with emotion. Here you are aware of being in an emotional state (a mood) but you do not know why. You still have some awareness of self, but other thoughts are flimsy and short lived; they channel hop in an emotionally tinged mist.

3b observer without thought or emotion. In this case there is still some awareness of self but there are no noticeable moods or emotions and such thoughts as appear are unsubstantial quick channel hops in a thick and distant mist. 4 no thought. The essence of this state is no sense of self. There is no one to think or feel so there are no thoughts or feelings. Significantly, when there is no self there is no other. There is thus the Oneness, the not two. Because the illusion of self has been transcended there is Bliss, and Consciousness is suffused with the peace that passes all understanding.

Only when we have removed the harm in ourselves can we become truly useful to others.

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12 On the Primrose Path to Peace

The reality which can be described is not the real reality. There is only spin from human minds. And all human minds are erratically conditioned by time, place and parents and so are chaotic, jumbled and trippling with inconsistencies. Pose value and spin, even when perpetrated with integrity, is all there is. Or is it? What about the absolute and the eternal? Some matters cannot be rationally and mechanically known but can be sensed by the spiritually mature. Those who insist on only one way of knowing are blinded by knowing in only one way. Those who only know are merely rational. Those who sense that which lies beyond mere knowing are supra-rational. Question: When is it rational to be merely rational? Answer: On most occasions when engaged with the detailed working of real machines ie on those happy occasions when responses to stimuli are totally predictable Question: When is it rational to be suprarational? Answer: On all occasions when living things (including people) are involved ie on any occasion when the second response to a given stimulus is likely to be different from the first. For most of the 20th century the conventional wisdom of the dominant group (cowdung) was rational reductionism analogous to a clockwork machine. In the 21st century the brilliant, universally legitimate, standardized, ICT enhanced, truth (bullshit) seems set to be supra-rational, holism analogous to a self regulating, complex ecosystem. Underlying the past cowdung and future bullshit is the popular reality intuitively mirroring reactions to sensory experience (primrose). But, at all times, the so-called intuitive aspects of the primroses will be radically conditioned by the cowdung and bullshit from which they emerge. Why should this be? The planet congealed 5 billion years ago. Hominids appeared 3 million years ago but did not engage in conversation till about 75,000 years ago. Language is as yet a speechless babe. Informed opinion has yet to gel as to its significance. It is clear, however, that language makes reality rather than the reverse. We each live in a world created by the vocabulary and dialect which we learn. Eskimos have 18 words for snow and who but a Doric speaker could point to the localitys feel gype? So spin is the only option? Yes and No. Yes amongst the cowdung and primroses of yesteryear.

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No, at least potentially, amongst the bullshit and primroses of tomorrow. The latter depends on the growth and diffusion of mind sets attuned to perfectly emancipated and carefree existence (peace). You are not what you have been programmed to believe you are. You are/are not what you think. Veils of language prevent you appreciating that you are everything and everything is you. You have the freedom to think (sense) that the linguistic illusion of an individuated ego rests mirage-like on the dynamic flux of interpenetrating oneness. Such sensing brings the peace which passes all understanding; the peace known throughout history to that virile

minority of existential entrepreneurs known as mystics the fools for God, the Taoist simpletons, the real people. How can the mind be changed? Take time to avoid external distractions. For five minutes each day just sit. Notice what you notice when there is no thing to notice. Be still and know the fearless equanimity of being. Peace will appear like second teeth. So difficult and yet so easy. The answer lies within. Be still and know. Five minutes a day is all it takes to tread the primrose path to peace.

Glossary Cowdung Bullshit Primrose Peace conventional wisdom of the dominant group brilliant, universally legitimate, standardized, ICT enhanced, truth popular reality intuitively mirroring reactions to sensory experience perfectly emancipated and carefree existence

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13 The roller coaster ride to peace of mind

Joy, sorrow and emotional flatness are created by your attitude towards things. Things appear in your mind either as inputs from your sense organs (eyes and ear etc) or as imaginations from memory or in dreams. First the thing, then the reaction to the thing: and you choose how to react. But you have developed a lifetime of bad mental habits; can these be broken? Some external events can be influenced, others not. Attempts to influence may succeed or fail. Those are the stark realities. To worry about them does not add value or increase efficiency; neither do feelings of desire, indifference or aversion. Is it possible to be free of such useless and debilitating habits of mind? When there are no thoughts of an I and when attention thus rests securely in the here and now there is peace of mind. You may have known fleeting moments of such peace6 you may have been lost in a book or a movie or stunned by the beauty of a sunset. Precious moments when you didnt know who or where you were but you were inspired. Peaceful minds are free from illusions such as I exist, time exists, or indeed
6

that any thing exists in any permanent and unchanging way. A deep appreciation that the only constant thing is change frees the mind from its ordinary pattern of thinking. Then the life force, from which natural and spontaneous action springs7, is free to make a difference in the world. The self-less forces of nature will be unleashed. Can the minds of ordinary people become like this? Good news - you already have peace of mind and it cannot be taken from you. Your task is simply to remove the impediments to your knowing it - like blowing dust from a mirror. You must stop your mind from wandering; you must learn to centre your attention.

Reality is the jagged zig zag of attention hopping from one thought train to another

In the western tradition these moments of peace have been variously called cosmic consciousness (Richard Bucke), oceanic feelings (Sigmund Freud) or peak experiences (Abraham Maslow)

this involves what from ancient times the Chinese call Wu-wei (non contrived action). St Augustine was referring to it when he said, "If you only love God enough you may do as you please."

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The following diagram illustrates three phases in the process of bringing attention to the still centre.

The flat line is the ever-present and unwavering equanimity that is the bedrock of mind. The curved line represents the hobo mind riding thought trains loaded with emotional baggage. The fleeting moments of peace are glimpsed when the lines cross. second. Thoughts and moods transform instantly in a mind swayed by externalities. Media and advertising engineers are expert at flicking the conditioned switches of desire/aversion in we capitalist consumers. So with politicians, false prophets and the psyche police. Without rigorous mind training we are as brain dead puppets on their tinselled cords of steel.

Phase 1 Riding the Roller Coaster Phase 1 illustrates the ego-besotted and uncontrolled mind in which attention is easily led to the imagined past or future on thought trains as endless as waves upon the shore. The diagram is a deliberate oversimplification. Reality is the jagged zig zag of attention hopping from one thought train to another; and resting on each for varying times and degrees of joy or sorrow. The briefest thought moment is but a fraction of a - 29 -

Phase 2 Observing the Roller Coaster In Phase 2 attention is split and the mood swings are less severe. If Phase 1 involved noticing then Phase 2 involves noticing what you notice. There is a Hindu image of two birds sitting on a branch. The first eats fruit and the second watches. In Phase 1 the thought was "I am happy" in Phase 2 the thought is I seem to be happy because This process of splitting gradually removes the sorrows and joys of living. A rider on the roller coaster might see this as a puritanical and spoilsport technique leading to a flat and soulless existence. However, those who no longer ride the roller coaster know that mindfulness and self watching are the only way to control your mind and thus manage more than a fleeting glimpse of its true nature. Again the diagram is oversimple. In the early stages of Phase 2 it is difficult to remember to split attention and you drop back to Phase 1. To encourage mindfulness you may sprinkle your dwelling with objects which, when you see them, remind you to notice what you are thinking and feeling at that moment. The human mind slips easily into ruts and routines and it needs patience and determination to re-programme it. Good news the process is self perpetuating having tasted a little you will want more and the further you go the easier it gets the closer to home (your true nature) the more familiar the territory.

Phase 3 being off the Roller Coaster Phase 3 is ineffable there is nothing that can be meaningfully said about it. There is a Zen concept of the gateless gate. Only when through the gate is it obvious that the gate does not exist. Words deal with things like the gate of Phases 1 and 2. In Phase 3 there is only the interpenetrating oneness which is everything all in one. In the diagram the gateless gate is/is not8 at the point where the roller coaster ends and the smooth ride begins. In Phase 3 there is a kind of knowing that involves more than a mere rational understanding of the hard facts. There is an awareness that people and things come and go in much the same way as thoughts; and that everything connects to everything and is constantly changing. There is an ongoing steady state of bliss rather than the wild excesses of joy and sorrow. There is the fearless freedom and compassion of a prodigal son home again to his true nature. There is the peace that passes all understanding. Centre your attention and unleash the selfless force of nature

delete as appropriate to your present level of understanding

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14 A drop in the ocean

It is useful to think of an enlightened person having three bodies although it is really only one body seen in three different ways. (see Box 1) Box 1 three bodies Body 1 Bliss body. Having turned the mind around there is only the Oneness. No more particular things; nor feelings of love, hate or indifference. There is the peace that passes all understanding, but also compassion for those still living in the messy world. Body 2 Particular body. This is the body seen from its own point of view - as if it existed in the ordinary sense. As the vehicle which carries us through the ordinary world we must attend to its physical and psychological needs. Body 3 Social body. To see ourselves as others see us. Those who are skilful in helping others to see the light present themselves differently to different people. Different strokes for different folks An enlightened person is no longer a person as ordinarily understood. When an individual mind rises above its conditioning and habitual illusions it returns like a raindrop to the ocean which is the one mind. This is the peace that passes all understanding. This is the bliss body from which we came and to which we will return. (see Box 2) Box 2 everlasting bliss We speak of coming and returning but, given the Oneness, these are illusory notions. Particular and social bodies are different ways of viewing the bliss body there is only the oneness which is everything and always. Clouds may hide the sun but it is still there. Illusions may prevent people from knowing their bliss body but it is still there. When there are no clouds the sun can be seen. When there are no illusions the bliss body is apparent. The one-mind of the bliss-body is compassionate. It also lives happily with the paradoxes created by language (see Box 3). Although it appreciates that there is only one thing which is everything it also appreciates that the one thing gave rise to the many things and that there is much suffering amongst the many things. Box 3 enlightenment is like jazz People have been in the world for more than six million years but language has been around for only about 25,000 years. Language is useful for dealing with the practicalities of day to day living but it has not yet evolved to deal with the insights of shamans, mystics and other existential champions. Enlightenment is like Jazz youll know it when you find it. Talking about it is a waste of time. Be cool. Be still, and know!

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People suffer because of how they think. Think different and end suffering. The UNESCO Charter reckons that, It is in the minds of men that war is created and it is in the minds of men that peace must be won.

How to win the peace? Just sit. Be still and know. Unhook yourself from the constant drip feed of media messages and come to know your mind as it is in itself. You will become more open to the numinous. The one-mind of the bliss-body will then lead you home. It will teach you to see infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour.

This article is based very loosely on ideas expressed in Suzuki's argument that the beginnings of the Mahayana concept of the Triple Body is to be found in the Lankavatara Sutra. Suzuki D T (1930,1999) Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra; Motilal Banarsidass; ISBN 8120816560

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15 Five Skandhas are Empty

"These four words (five skandhas are empty) are the essence of the earliest Buddhist teachings". There follows a rational schema to blow away rational schemas. This might assist compulsive rationalists who have difficulty going beyond. A Picture First a branching diagram which you might care to draw on a piece of paper. Begin at the middle of the top of a page. 'subjective' and the right one 'objective ? but impermanent'. Make two branches down from the subjective branch. Label the left one 'psychological newtons (five skandhas)' and the left one 'enlightened quantum mystical (five skandhas are empty)'

The Illusory Nature of the Newtonian Permanent Newton's laws are pragmatically useful. They work as long as you do not look too closely. If you look in quantum close up you realise that solidity and substance are illusions; there are no 'things' at the subatomic level, only energy fields. So, despite common sense appearance, no thing exists. There is only energy. Objective Mental Entities Not yet! The task would be to write a chemical formula for a thought pattern or a wave equation for an emotion - but this cannot be done. The only thing that can be safely said at present is that, from the objective point of view, mental entities are likely to be fuzzy edged and ever changing. Unenlightened Subjectivity - The Five Skandhas Any reasonably intelligent person, by taking thought, will be able to go along with the Buddha's concept of the five skandhas. The first two could be said to 'exist' as newtonian permanent entities and the last three could be said to 'exist' in the mentally subjective category which is labelled as psychological newtons.

Write the word 'entities'. Make two branches. Label the left branch 'physical' and the right branch 'mental'. Make two branches down from the physical branch. Label the left branch 'quantum impermanent' and the right branch 'newtonian permanent'. Make two branches down from the mental branch. Label the left one

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NAMA-RUPA (Corporeal Form). Compound things are made up of elemental things eg molecules are made from atoms. VIJNANA (Sensation). When light from an object reaches the eye a sight 'sensation' results. The same pattern applies for the other sense organs. SAMJNA (Perception). When a physical sensation has been located within the fields of impulse and feeling (see below) then a 'perception' can be said to have been created. SAMSKARA (Impulse). Impulses are subjective mental entities which dictate in broad terms the manner in which sensations become perceptions. The impulses derive from the culturally given world-view-with-pigeon-holes into which sensations are routinely and conveniently slotted. VEDANA (Feelings). Feelings are subjective mental entities which have been created as a result of personal (rather than broad cultural) experience. They serve to label sensations on their way to becoming perceptions as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

Enlightened Subjectivity - The Five Skandhas are Empty Solving the quantum koan means arrival on the other shore where no words are spoken and action is taken without the awareness that, "I am acting". Imagine yourself as a quantum physicist looking inside your own brain. The microscope is on full power and there is nothing to be seen but minute swirls of substanceless energy. OK, now look back up through the microscope - what is the quantum physicist made of? Who is looking at what? Aargh! Gone Beyond The Shamans figured it out pretty soon after language came into being. The guys who wrote the Upanishads had it twigged more than 2500 years ago. Everybody goes there at least once a day - where do 'you' go to during deep, dreamless sleep? What difference is there between the self concept when dreaming and the self concept when awake? Did Chaung Tzu dream he was a butterfly or was it the butterfly's dream? I drift into the deep-dreamless-sleepwhile-awake state now and again and I know the selfless peace of it. But I cannot enter it at will. What to do?

Based on: Mu Soeng Sunim (1991) Heart Sutra: Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the light of Quantum Reality; Primary Point Press

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16 Anguising angst
In the spirit of existential jujitsu the anguish of angst is to be welcomed. It drives you to the spiritual path more effectively than most other frames of mind. The concept points to a feeling of anxiety, especially one about the general state of things rather than anything specific; a profound feeling of generalised anxiety or dread (origin 1920s: from Ger., fear) Angst - a term introduced into philosophy by existentialist thinkers. It denotes the state of mind produced when a person becomes aware of being finite in a world that is infinite. The source of this feeling of apprehension is ultimately the infinite nature of nothingness (or the void). (Collins Dictionary of Philosophy, ISBN 0004343700) Angst - (German for: anxiety, anguish) In existentialist philosophy, the dread occasioned by mans realization that his existence is open towards an undetermined future, the emptiness of which must be filled by his freely chosen actions. Anxiety characterises the human state, which entails constant confrontation with possibility and the need for decision, with the concomitant burden of responsibility. (see also bad faith; existentialism) (A Dictionary of Philosophy (Pan), ISBN 0330283596) (existential anguish) The horrible feeling the existentialists suppose we have when we are confronted with our own complete and irremovable freedom and responsibility. (Robert M Martin (1991) The Philosophers Dictionary, ISBN 0921149751) Angst - Variously translated as anxiety, anguish, dread. It was first - 35 used in an existential sense by Soren Kierkegaard in The Concept of Anxiety (1844), where he describes the terrifying reality of the state of splitness, indecisiveness and responsibility in front of choice Heidegger, in Being and Time (1927), freely paraphrases Kierkegaard and does not add anything significant to Kierkegaards analysis Sartre, in Being and Nothingness (1943), again follows Kierkegaard but adds an element of determinism by making anguish a state of bad faith in which the conscious subject tries to renege on his unalienable freedom to choose. (The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, ISBN 0002558718) Angst - A recurrent state of disquiet concerning ones life which Existentialists interpret as evidence that human life has a dimension which a purely naturalistic psychology cannot comprehend The term was introduced by Kierkegaard, who held that angst (usually translated here as dread) concerning the contingencies of fortune should show us that we can only gain a secure sense of our identity by taking the leap of faith and entering into a relationship with God Heidegger uses the same term (here usually translated as Anxiety) to describe a sense of unease concerning the structure of ones life which, because it does not arise from any specific threat, is to be diagnosed as a manifestation of our own responsibility for this structure Sartre uses the term angoisse (usually translated as anguish) for much the same phenomenon as Heidegger describes. (The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ISBN 019866132)

17 Changed Mind
Then: thing, thought and worry. Now: no-thing, no-thought, no-worry Between then and now: see the goal, hold it in mind, work towards it. Then, of itself, effort ceases and the journey ends. Then there was like and dislike, friend and foe. Now there is no argument or contention. The goal is: to know yourself; to know the illusory nature of common sense; to know the source of perception, thought and feeling; to know the limitation of words; to know the impermanence of created things; to know the process of creation/destruction; to know the futility of knowing The road to the goal involves: watching the creation of self; noting the origin of thought; letting thought go. Deep in the jungle is a still clearing with no earth, sky or horizon. No edges or limitations on the changed mind. Beyond the power of words; inconceivable, unspeakable. The unchanging Oneness is the source of ten thousand no-things. doubtless Doubt. unchanging Change.

It is said: "When the mind has changed you may do as you please." It is said: "The angels simply live, getting what they give, not brash enough to have an understanding." It is said: "When walking walk, when sitting sit."

Thoughts flow like a waterfall; some fly out and involve you. Notice this. Throw them back. The waterfall is background noise; ignore it.

Only when we have removed the harm in ourselves can we become truly useful to others

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