After discussing “How Do We Know What We Know” and the Kalama Sutta, in which Buddha deems that using word-based knowledge is not helpful in the search for an unchanging Truth, in this post, we discuss the method Buddha uses for searching and understanding the unchanging Truth. In Buddhism, the unchanging Truth is the mental nature of all reality. The core teaching of Buddhism is that mentality is the only reality in the cosmos, and why the title of this website is Nothing but Mentality.
Without question, understanding how Buddha can realize the mental nature of reality while other teachings, such as science, cannot is the most important thing to know about the uniqueness of Buddhism. Additionally, Buddha teaches that all humans have the potential to understand the world of mentality the way he did if they can practice the same method successfully. In other words, an independent enlightened party can verify Buddha’s teaching.
In Buddhism, the means of knowledge is known in Romanized Sanskrit as pramana.
Pramana (Chinese=量), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “means of knowledge.”
Buddha teaches two means of knowledge:
A) Anumana (Chinese=比量), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit and Pali, “inference.” Furthermore, “inference allows us to glean knowledge concerning objects that are not directly evident to the senses.”
Anumana is closely associated with another concept known as agamadharma (Chinese=教法), which, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “scriptural dharma.” In contrast to adhigamadharma, it refers to the mere conceptual understanding of Buddha’s teachings through studying Buddhist sutras.”
The definition of “inference” as the method that “allows us to glean knowledge concerning objects that are not directly evident to the senses” precisely corresponds to what Dr. Fisch describes when discussing “How Do We Know What We Know.”
As discussed in that post, Dr. Fisch started by saying that “we do not know by our eyes or by our ears, but by means of the words we speak.” Furthermore, human interaction with the outside world starts when “the world impacts on us in a causal manner through all our senses,” i.e., our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and bodily parts. However, as Dr. Fisch made very clear, these contents immediately become “reading in of the mind” and get conceptualized “in ways we do not govern.” In other words, by passing through the brain and getting conceptualized, the original contents are distorted. The mind then projects the distorted version of the contents the senses receive to be seen on the “screen” as “the world we experience.”
While the original contents that impact our senses are invisible, their conceptualized version becomes our visible phenomena of the world, which are the “objects that are not directly evident to the senses” mentioned in the definition of inference. “To glean knowledge concerning objects that are not directly evident to the senses,” humans created an inferentially connected word-based vocabulary to understand it. This is the meaning of Buddha’s inference.
As the post about the Kalama Sutta discussed, Buddha teaches that inferentially connected word-based knowledge is insufficient in the search for the unchanging Truth, which, in Buddhism, is the mental nature of all reality. In other words, Buddha could not have understood the mental nature of reality if he had relied on inferentially connected word-based knowledge.
However, Buddha’s second means of knowledge, known as pratyaksa in Romanized Sanskrit, can be used to understand the mental nature of reality.
B) Pratyaksa (Chinese=現量), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “direct perception.” Pratyaksa is “nonconceptual in the sense that it does not perceive its object through the medium of an image, as does thought.”
Pratyaksa is closely associated with another concept known as adhigamadharma (Chinese=證法), which, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “realized dharma;” one of the two divisions of the dharma or teaching of the Buddha,” which “leads to the direct realization (Adhigama, Chinese=証), rather than mere conceptual understanding.”
The definition of direction perception as “not perceiving its object through the medium of image, as does thought” clearly indicates that it aims to prevent the “reading in of the mind.” When “reading in of the mind” is prevented, all subsequent steps, from “conceptualization in ways we do not govern” to “the world we experience,” are also avoided. Indeed, only when conceptualization is prevented can direct perception lead to a “nonconceptual” understanding of the original raw data of nature.
Direct perception is carried out through a meditative technique known as Samathavipasyana.
Samathavipasyana (Chinese=止觀), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “In Sanskrit, “calmness (samatha) and insight (vipasyana), a term used to describe a meditative state that combines clarity and stability of samatha with the understanding of the nature of reality associated with vipasyana.” Furthermore, “The presence of vipasyana is the distinguishing feature of the wisdom that derives from meditation (Romanized Sanskrit=bhavanamayiprajna; Chinese=修慧).
The Chinese translation of Samathavipasyana is “stop and insight.” In other words, one must practice Samathavipasyana until the mind is completely still before one can have insight into reality that is “nonconceptual.”
The reason for keeping the mind still is to prevent the contents that “the world impacts on us in a causal manner through all our senses” from becoming “reading in of the mind” because “reading in of the mind” requires an active mind. As mentioned earlier, preventing the “the world impacts on us in a causal manner through all our senses” preserves the integrity of the contents “the world impacts on are preserved, thus leading to understanding the mental nature underlying “the world we experience.” The mental nature underlying the “the world we experience” is “how things stand in themselves” in nature, to use Dr. Fisch’s words.
The significance of an inactive mind is that it is how Buddha defines enlightenment.
According to the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, in the Astasahasrika-Prajnaparamita-Sutra (Chinese=道行般若波羅蜜經), Buddha defines enlightenment as the “thought of enlightenment is no thought since in its essential original nature thought is transparently luminous.”
Of course, when one successfully practices Samathavipasyana until their mind is inactive, they have “no thought.” Therefore, they are enlightened by Buddha’s definition.
As discussed in a previous post, Samadhi is a term used in Buddhism to indicate what happens at enlightenment.
Samadhi (Chinese=三昧/三摩地), according to The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen, is “a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing “subject” becomes one with the experienced “object” – thus is only experiential content. This state of consciousness is often referred to as “one-pointedness of mind;” this expression, however, is misleading because it calls up the image of “concentration” on one point on which the mind is “directed.” However, samadhi is neither a straining concentration on one point nor is the mind directed from here (subject) to there (object), which would be a dualistic mode of experience.”
So, samadhi is the union of the “no-thought” mentality of the “experienced object” and “experiencing subject” to form a non-dualistic “no thought” mentality.
What is the “experienced object” and “experiencing subject?”
- “Experienced Object” refers to Citta, the quiescent mentality permeating the cosmos and the Ultimate Reality. Because Citta is quiescent, it is, by Buddha’s definition, “no thought” and, therefore, enlightened. In other words, the “experience object” is the cosmic enlightened mentality.
- “Experiencing Subject” refers to the “no thought” quiescent mental state that a seeker of enlightenment must achieve to be enlightened, as defined by Buddha.
Enlightenment happens when the “no thought” mentality of the newly enlightened becomes one with the “no thought” cosmic mentality. By forming a non-dualistic enlightened mentality of the cosmos, the enlightened becomes part of the cosmic mentality, thus allowing him to have “the direct realization (Adhigama, Chinese=証), rather than mere conceptual understanding.”
Dr. Max Planck was a 1918 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics and the originator of quantum theory. He came to the following conclusions after a lifetime of investigating quantum mechanics.
Indeed, Dr. Planck was right on both counts. Not only is consciousness fundamental in the universe, but being part of the mystery is necessary to solve the mystery of mentality. Being part of the mystery is precisely what Buddha’s direct perception accomplishes. Only by becoming part of the enlightened mentality of the cosmos can the enlightened experience all the “experiential contents” nature has to offer. In Dr. Fisch’s terms, “experiential contents” that can be experienced are “empirical facts” that can be “felt.”
In a previous post discussing A Few Fundamental Concepts, we discussed that a Buddha is one who has “one who has awakened from the deep sleep of (unenlightenment) and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge.”
- “Opening one’s consciousness until one is awakened from the deep sleep of unenlightenment” is what direct perception does. To perceive the “experiential contents” of nature directly, one needs to “open his consciousness.” When one successfully perceives the “experiential contents” of nature directly, one “is awakened from the deep sleep of unenlightenment” because they are enlightened.
- “Objects of knowledge” has the same meaning as “experiential contents” or “empirical facts” that Dr. Fisch used. All three refer to information embedded in the conscious construct of all conscious beings in Buddha’s cosmos. In other words, becoming a Buddha requires encompassing all the information embedded in nature.
Encompassing all the information nature has to offer was what our historical Shakyamuni Buddha accomplished when meditating under the Bodhi Tree until his enlightenment. After his enlightenment, Buddha began teaching what he realized to his followers. His verbal teachings were collected in the sutras of Buddhism. In other words, Buddhism is Buddha’s education on the information nature offers. In the words of Dr. Fisch, all the information nature offers informs “how things stand in themselves,” while Dr. Kuhn describes it as informing “what the world really is.”
Buddha teaches that all humans have the ability to become enlightened. The inherent ability of all humans to be enlightened is known as buddhadhatu in Romanized Sanskrit.
Buddhadhatu (Chinese=佛性), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, “buddha-element,” or “buddha-nature,” the inherent potential of all sentient beings to achieve Buddhahood.”
So, what is humanity’s potential to achieve Buddhahood? It is their active mind. Known as consciousness, every person has it. When one can successfully calm one’s consciousness to awareness, they are enlightened. However, while the potential is there, enlightenment is challenging. Many have tried since Buddha, but only a few have succeeded.
Additionally, enlightenment in the Buddhist way has a stringent standard to meet. While direct perception keeps the original content integral, it also prevents all the steps following the “reading in of the mind,” including “the world we experience.” “Without “the world we experience,” Buddhist enlightenment leads to the disappearance of our physical world. The disappearance of “the world we experience” illustrates its illusional nature because it is “conceptualized” in our minds.
The Verification Category has three examples of Buddhist enlightenment: one from Adyashanti, a contemporary American, and two from ancient China. All three affirmed the disappearance of the universe upon their enlightenment. However, because he discussed his enlightenment experience in modern language, Adyashanti’s description of his enlightenment experience is the most relatable to his contemporaries. His amazing description of how the physical universe disappeared, including his physical self, upon his enlightenment is highly informative. Indeed, he is the only one using the modern word awareness to indicate enlightenment. You can find the post about his enlightenment here.
For the vast majority of unenlightened humanity, even the brilliant ones interested in consciousness, such as Elon Musk, they must understand that the scientific method, depending on inferentially connected word-based knowledge, can never be part of the world of mentality to understand it. Until enlightened, their alternative is to have faith in Buddha’s teachings. However, faith in Buddhism is not blind because it is verifiable by enlightened third parties.
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