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The mind of Attachment

JamithicusJamithicus
edited February 2010 in Buddhism Basics
I was thinking about the way people tend to develop this mind based around their ego-personality, and how it is affected by outside influences, unlike an enlightened mind, which reacts to the world around it, but doesn't become wrapped up in it.

I was thinking that the 'mind of attachment' or 'discriminating mind' or whatever it is, is totally a result of cause and effect. It struck me that all suffering (dukkha) things are also the result of cause and effect. Does this mean that the 'mind of attachment' is dukkha also?

And is it right that an enlightened mind would be totally free from unpleasant changes in mood, and would just stay at a relatively even state of happiness.

I get the impression that I didn't explain that very well, but hey-ho. So is the discriminating mind a suffering thing? And is that why you're supposed to wean yourself off it (not really the right way of saying it, but you know what I mean).

Oh and Hi to everybody... :wavey:

Comments

  • skydancerskydancer Veteran
    edited February 2010
    I don't think an enlightened mind would necessarily be free of unpleasant changes in mood. What it may be free of is wanting 'what is' to be other.

    Can a bad mood be experienced in an enlightened way?
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2010
    I'm not sure what you mean by the discriminating mind. But I think a buddha has a descriminating mind. However most of the thoughts that come up that we have as what is 'good' or 'bad' we take as voices of lordly judgement rather than just seeing they are thoughts.

    But in order to become enlightened we need to have confidence in our power of discrimination. To discriminate what is helpful from harmful. If we didn't have that power we would continue to create negative karma, act unskillfully, and so forth.

    Even if a sutra tells you what to do you still need your own discrimination to determine that the sutras are reliable.
  • Now-Is-realityNow-Is-reality
    edited February 2010
    Hello there,
    Well I will take a stab at this one, and attempt to answer what you're really asking. The discriminating mind, or thinking mind, is what we normally use. This state of mind is one in which, as I am sure you know, grasps, thinks, categorizes, judges as well becomes attatched to things. All of these lead to suffering, right? So all of these things then, as part of the discriminating mind, are our cause to suffering. The five aggregates are what encourages our discriminating mind, or are rather part of it, and from this we come up with an ego.
    For instance: You see an apple, and your eyes tell you it is red. You bite into the apple, and your taste tells you it is delicious. You see apples growing from a tree, and you figure apples only grow from trees. Our five senses, help us categorize things, and then, we start thinking about the apple, and attatchment to it grows, and we come up with the conclusion the apples are good. And of course there are different ways we can suffer from this, for instance if someone says apples are disgusting, our opinion is threatned and we tend to argue our belief. Or maybe we cannot have apples any more, or whatever it may be...

    SO in conclusion our discriminating mind leads to suffering. Where as an elightened mind sees what leads to suffering and does not fall victim to these things (as easily?).
    We "wean" ourself off of this, or more so become aware of it's behavior and nature in order to halt it and reach peace and happiness.

    I hope that helps a bit...?

    Namaste,
    Ashley
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2010
    Yes we kind of need to go in a different direction. But we need the discriminating mind to show us the right way. Even if the right way is equanimity we still need the confidence in our discriminating that equanimity is better for us.
  • Now-Is-realityNow-Is-reality
    edited February 2010
    Right. That is why one must understand and develop an ego in order to understand what an ego is, and the suffering that stems from it.
    Similarly by understanding and following the 4 noble truths as well as the eight fold path, a person can better understand the nature of suffering, and through observation and awareness of our own suffering as it arises from the idea of self, amongst other things (as a product of the five aggregates), we can see what does and does not lead to suffering for us, and eventually will have the means to alleviate this suffering. From this we can touch onto equanimity :)
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