The Mind and the Way by Sumedho

Author:Sumedho
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781614290728
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Reflecting External Images

It is through the senses that you experience the things that are going on around you, and this is reflected in your mind. If you go to a big city, there are all kinds of advertisements to allure you and stimulate your senses. Our societies are based on the greed principle, so we can’t help having a lot of greed and lust because these are the images that are constantly being put in front of the mirror. Human creations are, for the most part, monuments to the ego; most of them aren’t calming or pleasing to the senses. They can be stimulating, exciting, boring, or depressing, but very little that we create is beautiful, bringing calm or harmony.

But in the countryside, the mountains, grass, meadows, flowers, sky, streams, and waterfalls don’t arouse lust; they tend to calm the mind and soothe the senses. Staying in the country after living for months in a big city is a tremendous relief, because all the senses are able to rest on what is natural rather than on egotistical human creations. So in your own life recognize what your senses are in contact with. Don’t blame yourself for everything, and don’t make complex personality problems over the way the world is.

The conditions in the mind can be anything, but whether they are subjective or objective doesn’t make any difference—they are all impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not self. When you are frightened, that’s real for you. If you meet a superman from outer space or the spirit of your dead mother, those perceptions, too, are as real as something we can all experience, like flowers or a Buddha image. But whatever it is, no matter how fantastic or coarse or mundane the condition might be, it is still only a condition in the mind.

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