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"Buddhism Meets Western Science" Gay Wilson
Some may find this of interest
" Buddhism has always been concerned with feelings, emotions, sensations, and cognition. The Buddha points both to cognitive and emotional causes of suffering. The emotional cause is desire and its negative opposite, aversion. The cognitive cause is ignorance of the way things truly occur, or of three marks of existence: that all things are unsatisfactory, impermanent, and without essential self.
The noble eightfold path is, from this psychological viewpoint, an attempt to change patterns of thought and behavior. It is for this reason that the first element of the path is right understanding (sammā-diṭṭhi), which is how one's mind views the world. Under the wisdom (paññā) subdivision of the noble eightfold path, this worldview is intimately connected with the second element, right thought (sammā-saṅkappa), which concerns the patterns of thought and intention that controls one's actions. These elements can be seen at work, for example, in the opening verses of the Dhammapada: The noble eightfold path is also the fourth noble truth.
"All experience is preceded by mind/perception,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a corrupted mind,
And suffering follows
As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox!
All experience is preceded by mind/perception,
Led by mind,
Made by mind.
Speak or act with a peaceful mind,
And happiness follows
Like a never-departing shadow!"Thus, by altering one's distorted worldview, bringing out "tranquil perception" in the place of "perception polluted", one is able to ease suffering. Watson points this out from a psychological standpoint:
Research has shown that repeated action, learning, and memory can actually change the nervous system physically, altering both synaptic strength and connections. Such changes may be brought about by cultivated change in emotion and action; they will, in turn, change subsequent experience !"
Shoshin1
Re: Not being the mind
Interesting that we are action and inaction, we are thought and non-thought, we are being and non-being, we are the "I am" separated and we are inexorably interconnected. It is this reality of being the all and the nothing.
To picture this, we are each a wave upon the ocean. Each wave is separate, distinct. Yet each is an inseparable part of the ocean from which we rise and to which we return.We could not be without the ocean which in turn is composed of each and all of us.
Another view is that we are each an integral part of our environment which is an integral part of each of us.
From the view if the "I", we are each the center of existance of the now. From the view of the "We", we are a miniscule part of an inexplicably greater whole. We are each all and wach nothing. We are thought and we are that which preceeds and followa thought. We are action and we are stillness. We are the smoke in the winf and we are the wind.
Weare all that and none of that at once.
Welcome to this mystery we celebrate an call "Life".
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"You await something wondrous in the enchanted forest, but when you look for something, you stop noticing the world around you ~ and the forest is shrouded in expectation."
~ Glass Masquerade II
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“Men of the world who value the Way all turn to books. But books are nothing more than words. Words have value; what is of value in words is meaning. Meaning has something it is pursuing, but the thing that it is pursuing cannot be put into words and handed down. The world values words and hands down books but, though the world values them, I do not think them worth valuing. What the world takes to be values is not real value.”
― Chuang Tzu
Jeroen
Re: Not being the mind
@Jeroen said:
It occurred to me today, that if we are not body or mind, then we are not our thoughts, and if we are not our thoughts, can we be said to actually do anything? An action is usually preceded by a thought.
To say that we are not the body or the mind is to imply there is something we are that does not include the body or mind. To say we are nothing at all makes no sense as it negates that which would identify with nothing. If I identify with nothing in particular, then, inclusivity reigns.
This body and/or mind is not all that I am.
I had always considered that thought comes first, then a discernment whether this thought was worthy of action, then the decision to act. But I am kind of wondering whether that whole process is also thinking, also of the mind. When dreaming things happen much more automatically, I’m much less aware of any kind of mental process.
“The thought of ‘I am the doer’ is the bite of the poisonous snake. To know ‘I do nothing’ is the wisdom of faith. Be happy.”
– Ashtavakra Gita 1.8Perhaps the Ashtavakra Gita has it right…
Could be. But then again, maybe not. To think "I do nothing" is a good way to get out of owning our actions but that goes against knowing that my actions are my only true possessions which is the fifth of the Five Remembrances.
Or Jean Klein, when he said that people continually act out of reaction, is closer to the truth.
Until the subconscious is made conscious we are slaves to past conditioning. Jung said we call that fate.
