Where is and What is the Mind?

The mind is agitated or confused most of the time. The mind is the initiator. The mind (in Pali: Citta), is like a tree. The tree grows into maturity. Then it will begin to bear fruits. Before the fruit appears, there will be the bud, then the flower and eventually the fruit. Are the bud, flower and fruit the same thing? Are they different? Where was the fruit before the tree matures? This mind is not permanent as claimed by other religions. Nibbana is the ultimate reality, the absolute. It cannot be described. It can only be realized. We should be busy purifying our mind every day instead of minding other people’s business. Cleaning the mind from defilement is like the grain going against the wind. After a session of meditation your mind will be calm and peaceful. During meditation, the mind is the one doing the practice. A mind without a body is the spirit. The Buddha uses 40 meditation objects to calm the mind of the practitioners. However, each practitioner will have to work on it by himself. The teacher only shows the way. Buddhism doesn’t have to be very ritualistic. You don’t have to pray, light incense and candles if you don’t want to. Phenomena rise, subsist, and finally cease. The body, the khandhas, and the citta are all distinct and separate realities. The citta does not arise or pass away. It is never born and it never dies. Pain, body and citta exist separately. When the eyes see the form, ears hear the sound or nose smells the odour, the mind arises. When the Citta is fully concentrated the mindfulness which guards the Citta which is conscious of sense object, will join into one. It will remain by itself. At the moment we can neither speak nor utter a word of explanation. Even after we have come out of that state, we will not be able to explain it clearly. Practise hard on mindfulness, wisdom, and vipassana will arise on its own accord. When Jhana takes place, it will concentrate on the pleasurable and attach itself to calm and happiness. Which are its objects. This is not the way to purge defilements. It only pacifies the five hindrances. When mindfulness and concentration become strong the truth will automatically arise. The more attachment you purge, the stronger the mindfulness and concentration . If the Citta is fully withdrawn and perfectly charged with confidence and faith, being contented in that peaceful and happy sense-objects, it means the Citta drops completely into Bhavanga. When we die the Citta leaves the physical body with its total aggregates and is responsible for rebirth. If the heart becomes attached to beauty, shake it off immediately before it leads to suffering. When the fruit is green, it is sour. When it is yellow, it is sweet. Are they the same? Are they different? Volition gives rise to consciousness, and consciousness in turn gives rise to mind and body. The mind is not the self. The body is not the self? Where is the self? Nibbana ( eternal happiness) is the realm of the noble ones. It is the state beyond birth, aging, sickness and death. It is the ultimate goal of the Buddhists. It was described as pariveka in Pali, meaning absolute freedom, when the mind gradually become apt and fit, with no more mental taints or defilement. When a person practises up to a certain level, his citta can float up out of his body and go off to look at the heavenly realms and the different levels of the brahma world. Samadhi means having a mind (consciousness) that is firmly concentrated. As Samadhi reaches higher level, your body will be light or even disappear. You are not sure your body is there. You will be able to stay like this for any length of time, without any pain or discomfort. Once you have attained this joy, you should work harder so that you can progress further. If you stop there and stick to this happiness, one day this happiness will be depleted. Old age will arrive, we just shrive up and fall away. If a system leads to relinquishment, to not-clinging, then it is correct practice. The thought is part of the mind; it is not the mind. You can bring the mind into Jana. Buddha never confirmed there was a self or there was no self. Even the pleasure of jhana is inconstant. Your control here is not absolute. When the body and mind are relatively healthy and strong, you have sufficient control to use them as a path to end the suffering. Mind is a natural state that thinks of objects and can perceive the emotion for a long time like a tape recorder. Develop the mind through meditation. Ultimately the path will bring will bring the mind to a level of strength where it no longer needs to feed on solid food, but at the moment we need solid food to bring us to that level. With a serene and contended mind, the mind will be tranquil and healthy. Bring body and mind back to normal by doing meditation. The ten fetters which bind the mind to the round of rebirths are identity views, uncertainty, grasping at habits and practices, sensual passion, irritation, passion for form, passion for formlessness, conceit, restlessness and ignorance. When mindfulness and concentration become strong the truth will automatically arise. The more attachment you purge, the stronger the mindfulness and concentration . If the Citta is fully withdrawn and perfectly charged with confidence and faith, being contented in that peaceful and happy sense-objects, it means the Citta drops completely into Bhavanga . When we die the Citta leaves the physical body with its total aggregates and is responsible for rebirth. The Buddha says: “If you say a being lives in Nibbana, it is wrong. But if you say a being ceases to live in Nibbana, it is also wrong.” Nibbanic experience is not communicable. A person has to experience it personally. Just like the taste of curry. How do we describe it to a person who has not yet tasted it? Obviously the Buddha says Nibbana does not mean eternal life, and it also does not mean annihilation. Space and time do not exist in Nibbana. A person has to transcend the worldly condition in order to attain the supramundane plane, which is free from hellfire, scourging, torture, bondage, subjection and thralldom. Nibbana is immediately visible in this life, and is comprehensible to the wise. It is our ignorance that prevents us from experiencing Nibbana. How may the kids in the kindergarten understand nuclear physics? Yet, with proper training and learning, these kids may one day become professors of nuclear physics. Saying of the Buddha: “There is, O Bhikkhus, an unborn, unoriginated, unmade and non-conditioned state. If, O Bhikkhus, there were not this unborn, unoriginated, unmade and unconditioned, an escape for the born, originated, made and conditioned, would not be possible here. As there is an unborn, unoriginated, unmade and non-conditioned state, an escape for the born, originated, made, and conditioned is possible.” The human being is an ever-changing flux of energy, and so are the deva, ghost or animal. We must let go of our body and mind to realize that which is permanent, and stable by nature, Nibbana, which the Buddha described as uncreated, unconditioned, and unborn, cannot be described completely. It is to be realized personally by each person. The spiritual aspirant reduces contact with the world as the first step in his quest to end suffering, or for realizing Nibbana. That which receives impressions, both good and bad, is call mind. It hasn’t any form. During meditation, you bring your mind to a halt or rest. Your body and mind are in a state of deep rest. Your blood pressure will be lower. The mind is tranquilized and a sense of calm pervades the whole body. If the mind wanders after thoughts and feelings, it becomes tired and weak. Wisdom will not arise if the mind has no energy. Our mind is transient, imperfect and ownerless. The “one who knows” is a level above or beyond the mind. We don’t know where the mind is, not in the body or in the brain. Perhaps it is correct to say that the mind, brain, body and the rest of the world are in the mind. According to Buddhism, mind is the sixth sense. How big is the mind? At the moment, you are made up of the physical body and mind. This mind exists because of the body. A body without a mind is a corpse. The body sleeps but not the mind. Mind is not the spirit as claimed by other religions. In Buddhism mind is considered as a sense organ like the ear or eye. When the physical body is dead, this mind will appear in a new body. It is the volition (faculty of conscious decision) that thinks, perceives, and records every sense-object. Volition directs the mind in the sphere of good, bad or neutral activities. Volitional actions like attention, will, determination, confidence, concentration, wisdom, energy, desire, repugnance or hate, ignorance, conceit, idea of self etc will definitely produce kammic effects. It is the most powerful computer on this planet as it can store each idea, thought, or impression we received from our birth, and all the previous births. We can revive any one of those recorded when require. Whatever we have forgotten has sunk into the sub-conscious. These forgotten things are always active and are struggling to surface and occupy the conscious, when they have an opportunity. Dying is merely a process in which an individual exchanges one body form for another. For you to attain Nibbana, the mind too must be left behind, completely liberated. The Buddha said: Radiant is the mind Pure energy is its essence It is polluted only by defilements. We don’t know where the fruit is. But when the tree matures, it bears the fruit. Likewise, when the mind matures, it bears that “something” that attains Nibbana. In Pali Citta, means consciousness in English language, and surely you are this Citta. This Citta, in association with a physical body is referred to as mind or heart. It does not arise or pass away. It is never born and it will never die. Citta, where the Dharma and defilements dwell, is the one that thinks and ponders and therefore it controls the body. It forms and cooks up this or that. It may be called the behavior of the heart, regardless of whether they are on the good side or bad side. It can totally separate itself from the physical body and it is beyond the conditions of time and space. At the moment your Citta and my Citta are surrounded by defilements. Since time immemorial, our Cittas were on the ceaseless journey of wandering from birth and rebirth. Assume that the citta is a very small diamond which you cannot see with your naked eye. When the defilements surround this diamond have been removed, layer after layer, the core has been reached. Yet you cannot see that diamond. Does it matter? You cannot see electricity. But when the conditions are right, the electricity will emit light. Likewise, the diamond will sparkle when it is ready. You will never again experience birth and death. Do you want to go through perpetual death and rebirth? Your mind needs a refuge and therefore you need to be always vigilant and not becoming negligent. According to the Arahants who were present during the Parinibbana of the Buddha, after the dead of His physical body, there was the spiritual body. That spiritual body was severed, resulting another body that could be seen appearing from the spiritual body. Where do you think that third body is now? Human beings possess three bodies, the physical body, the astral body and the formless body. The mind (consciousness) needs the body to exist. It exists to the extent necessary just for knowledge, and mindfulness. Those with psychic powers can access the astral body and use it to travel to various places. When the mind is still, i.e. there is no more greed, hatred and delusion, then it attains great power and is able to achieve whatever it intends. It can project itself anywhere and at all times. The following is one example: The Buddha, with all His disciples of Bhikkhus, all Arahants, started from Rajagaha for Kapilavatthu. When He reached the Palace at Kapilavatthu, King Suddhodanana bowed down at His feet, with tears in his eyes. To remove the suspicion and disbelief in the mind of His relatives and the heretics, the Buddha levitated into thin air from the ground and produced jets of water and fire from all over His body. He also created multiple representations of Himself, seated or standing on lotuses. Only after this performance did the uncles, aunties, and other relatives believe He was indeed a Buddha, because this act was unseen of before and only a Buddha had the capability to do it.