Living with Awareness by Sangharakshita

Author:Sangharakshita
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Booksource
Published: 2012-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

10

Reflecting

‘And how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects? Here a bhikkhu abides contemplating mind-objects as mind objects in terms of the five hindrances. And how does a bhikkhu abide contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects in terms of the five hindrances? Here, there being sensual desire in him, a bhikkhu understands: “There is sensual desire in me”; or there being no sensual desire in him, he understands: “There is no sensual desire in me”; and he also understands how there comes to be the arising of unarisen sensual desire, and how there comes to be the abandoning of arisen sensual desire, and how there comes to be the future non-arising of abandoned sensual desire.

 ‘There being ill will in him ... There being sloth and torpor in him ... There being restlessness and remorse in him ... There being doubt in him, a bhikkhu understands: “There is doubt in me”; or there being no doubt in him, he understands: “There is no doubt in me”; and he understands how there comes to be the arising of unarisen doubt, and how there comes to be the abandoning of arisen doubt, and how there comes to be the future non-arising of abandoned doubt.’

We normally think of an object as a solid thing whose existence is objectively, verifiably real, as opposed to those ‘unreal’ things that exist only in the mind. But in Buddhism the mind too is considered to be an organ of sense. Just as the eye responds to forms and the ear to sounds, so the mind responds to ideas. Of course, the mind is a different kind of sense organ from the other five, the difference being that sight cannot see itself, taste cannot taste itself, but mind can contemplate mind. The ability to make consciousness reflexive – to become aware that we are aware, to know that we know – seems to be a specifically human characteristic. Animals, driven by instinct, graze or hunt or work things out apparently without any self-questioning – and human beings do this too, much of the time – but the human mind at least has the capacity to turn its attention back on itself and take a questioning attitude even to consciousness itself.

In other words, as we have seen, although your state of consciousness is subjective, when you think about it, you make it into an object – that is, a mental object, a dhamma, to use the Pāli word. You can turn ‘you, the subject’ into ‘you, the object’. You don’t just experience sensual desire; you know that you experience it. Your desire for sensuous enjoyment is a part of your subjectivity; but when you become aware of this desire, you make it into an object. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta these dhammas or mental objects are divided into five sets – the five hindrances, the five khandhas, the six senses and their bases, the seven factors of Enlightenment, and the Four Noble Truths – and these form the basis for the remaining chapters of this commentary.

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