Bei-Da-Wu Mountain
(http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/wind-daughter/article?mid=124&prev=1046&l=f&fid=12)
For
the ones who are interested in digging deeper to find out more about the ins
and outs of our existence – the searching path is rather plain though, without
sensation or excitement. It is because the Buddhist teachings are to uncover
what we already have by getting rid of the hindrance-vexations, not to gain
something more from the outside world. However, we all prefer to watch the
shooting off fireworks, since it is far more fascinating than to understand the
Truth of life. And the constant inclination to cling to some objects is the
root cause for our cyclic births and deaths.
In
the desire-realm, an individual’s existence consists of name-and-form (five
aggregates); the form-aggregate 色法refers to the
physical body (tangible), and our mental status refers to the four aggregates
(sensation, perception, formation, and vijnana), which belong to the intangible
mind dharma心法 .
The
physical body serves as a channel to transmit the outer sense-objects to our
brain to be received by the six vijnanas (six sense-consciousnesses六識).
So the transmitted internal images of sense-objects are displayed on the
corresponding area of the brain, just like the function of a monitor screen. We
enjoy (the conscious mind意識) the
sensations and excitements that derived from the displays of our brains, while
in fact, our minds stay inside our physical bodies all the time, and have never
been out and truly contacting the sense-objects in any way; we are merely
seeing the transmitted reflections on the brains.
It
is the same way as the captain of a submarine, he steers underwater via his
monitor screen, and he does not actually touch the outside world. In other
words, whole our life experiences are limited within the transmitted internal
images of sense-objects on our brains. Moreover, every individual perceives
his/her internal images of sense-objects differently in accordance with his/her
own karmic seeds stored within the Alayavijnana (teachings of the third round
of dharma transmission).
That
is also why everyone could react so differently to one single matter in daily
life. For example, like my posts on the threads, the readers’ reactions vary
from extreme minus to real plus. The reactions purely reflect a person's own
minds. (part 4 of 5)
Thanks to our healthy physical bodies that we are able to receive all sorts of images and messages, and throughout our lifetimes, we rely so much on our conscious minds that we consider the conscious minds to be the eternity. But the conscious mind is an impermanent mind, which will cease to exist every night during sleep and cease to exist as well after we have passed away.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Buddhism, the worldly phenomena are called emptiness-appearance 空相, because all of these will eventually cease to exist, but within each and every mortal living being, the eighth vijnana, Alayavijnana, coexists with every temporary physical body, and it is immortal. This is the target for the Mahayana practitioners to dig out the origin of life utilizing this unceasing temporary existence (periodic births-and-deaths 分段生死).
The overall manifestation of emptiness-appearance does have its worldly function and mission, if one grasps the correct concept of true Buddhism, he/she will is able to make the best of them for Buddhist cultivation to attain liberation or Buddhahood, or the other way around, keep submerging endlessly in cyclic births-and-deaths by karmic force. Logically, your fate and life is in your own hands, mind you, not only this some dozens of years, but can be all eternity! (part 5/end)