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..:: The Mental
Field I ::..
“Buddhism, Yoga,
and the Mind”
By
Alan Schneider
The next few essays will explore the
many ramifications of the Mental Field phenomenon – the experiential
mode represented as our personal perception of experience. Many
people feel that they are practicing this mode of perception during
normal waking consciousness, but are, in reality, simply participating
in the ego’s endless analytical chatter and classification schema –
thoughts about events, as opposed to the experience of those
events. A Zen Master was once asked by one of his students “Master, what
did you do before attaining Enlightenment?” The Master replied “Chop
wood and carry water.” The student then inquired “And Master, what did
you do after attaining Enlightenment?” The master again replied “Chop
wood and carry water.” The puzzled student observed “Master, surely
these are the same activities!” The Master responded “Prior to attaining
Enlightenment, I did not simply chop wood and carry water. I was
involved in a continuous inner dialog about both actions – planning the
fire and fire building activities that I would carry out with the wood,
and the drinking activities and cooking activities that I would perform
with the water. And I was judging my competency at both activities as
well – this day the water carrying went well, but the wood cutting was
done poorly, and on another day the reverse was true, and I felt very
satisfied on days when both went well, but discouraged on days when they
both went poorly. All of the conditions just mentioned have nothing to
do with the literal chopping of wood or the literal carrying of water –
they are mental distractions that cut us off from the pure experience of
both activities, and the satisfaction of simply being present in the
ongoing consciousness of our lives. As I became Enlightened, I learned
to fully appreciate and participate in my experience of living hear and
now, with neither advance planning nor subsequent regrets, caused by my
judgments of my actions. This is the difference in the two responses I
gave you!”
Buddhism has traditionally
dealt with the quality of life and human experience as it is,
not as we feel it should be, or wish it was. Both of the
last two mental conditions reflect the underlying state of desire
for an outcome to be manifest, not acceptance and appreciation of the
condition that is. The instant at which Gautama attained this
realization when seated in meditation under the Bodhi – or Wisdom
– Tree is considered to be the moment of his full Enlightenment in
Buddhist theory – Gautama had realized that all suffering was the result
of desire for gratification, rather than learning to appreciate the
inherent perfection of the present moment in consciousness. All of the
Buddhist austerities are geared toward the control and eventual removal
of the inner disturbance of consciousness that invariably accompanies
desire, whether or not we attain fulfillment – the state of fulfillment
is always transitory by its very nature, and reinforces the illusion of
personal attainment. Why is personal attainment an illusion? Because
all attainment manifest anywhere in any way in life is the result of
Karma, and because the personal edifice, at least as expressed by the
ego, is transitory and ultimately lost at death.
We live continuously in a
Mental Field of perception. This field is the sum total of our
consciousness, and tends to be inherently agitated by its nature.
There are many sources of this agitation – the ongoing fear of injury
and death (even if it these are not consciously realized), the blur of
many states of desire for many types of gratification (gustatory,
sexual, achievement of status, achievement of comfort and security,
avoidance of unpleasant realizations that disturb the ego, etc.), the
background chaos that presupposes conscious perception, the unperceived
influence of physical processes that nonetheless effect perception on
the conscious or unconscious levels (hormonal fluctuations, brain
neurology, nervous enervation, etc.), misconceptions about the meaning
and nature of life and perception itself, and so on. Even though we are
certainly aware (in most cases) of the fact that we apparently have a
physical body that is the seat of our consciousness, the reality is that
the body and the physical environment have us (and
our consciousness) in an iron grip of oppression on the Physical Plane
on manifestation.
This is a most negative and
uncomfortable circumstance for consciousness, and the first task
of Enlightenment is to begin establishing a distinction between the
perception of the physical body and the assumed reality of
that body, whether or not this assumption of physical reality is
literally correct. Although I may certainly be aware of my physical
presence and its effect on my perception and behavior, I am more
than that presence and those effects. I am my Field of Consciousness and
extended Perception. I am the moral consequences of my actions. I am all
that I love and esteem in life. I am my feelings and beliefs about the
world and other people. I am the interaction of my personal and social
selves. These are all occurring well beyond the basic experiences of the
physical senses and central nervous system, even if sustained by them.
The ego, the experience of
my personal self and manifestation, is the primary arbiter
of experience on the Physical Plane of Manifestation. The ego decides
on the basis of acculturation what to accept and what to reject from the
great flood of impressions continually occurring in consciousness. Since
it is the result of social acculturation processes, the ego is primarily
a social fiction imposed upon consciousness from the external
environment for the sake of efficiency – it makes life more convenient
for the living by streamlining interaction through the use of perceptual
stereotypes. These stereotypes become substitutes for real experience
and involvement in living. We do not “chop wood and carry water” – we
“think about chopping wood, and the outcome of the football game, as we
carry in the groceries!” So it is that our culture insulates us
from our experience through the ongoing interpretations of the ego.
Fredrick Perls once described
perception as follows: “The psychotic says ‘I am Abraham Lincoln’, the
neurotic says ‘I wish I was Abraham Lincoln’, and the mentally healthy
person says ‘I am I and you are you. If we find each other, it’s
beautiful – if we don’t, it can’t be helped’”. In order to find each
other, or at least establish the optimal conditions for finding each
other, we must first find our true selves, meaning that the ego
must, at the very least, be placed in its correct perspective to the
balance of the Mental Field. The social self is not the true self – it
conceals the true self behind a thick, complicated mass of
neuroses or (in extreme cases) psychoses. The Mental Field is the true
self, our true nature as sentient perceptual beings.
Gautama realized many things
in the wake of his Enlightenment. He realized that there were
essentially four conditions that remained fundamental in human
experience, which he called the Four Nobel Truths – all life is
suffering, the cause of suffering is desire, suffering is ended by
ending desire, and the way to end desire is by following the Eight Fold
Path. This Path is: Strive always to understand the Four Noble Truths,
esteem positive intention, practice kindness in words, practice kindness
in deeds, practice kindness in one’s occupation, maintain positive
thoughts, become intensely aware of all mental states, and practice deep
meditation and worldly detachment. The area of kindness in deeds
was given additional attention with the Five Precepts: do not kill,
steal, lie, fornicate, or intoxicate oneself. All life is suffering
because we are traumatized at and by the birth process, we contract
illnesses, we become old and infirm, we are plagued by fear, and we are
inherently capable of only transitory contact with all sources of love
and pleasure. This means that our natural condition is really our
root problem in consciousness. All that is required to fall in life is
to blindly follow our natural inclinations! The ego is the absolute
servant of those inclinations, regardless of how much structure of
inhibition it incorporates. The ego exists to serve the body and its
appetites through social specialization.
As I have progressed through
this existence, I have come to have great respect for the Buddhist
philosophy. Essentially, Buddhism says we are inherently broken as a
species, and describes the needed prosthetic measures to medicate our
flawed condition. The term medicate is very important here, because it
implies that we are naturally sick and crippled, and so we are.
In our youth, some of us, the more fortunate ones, can enjoy this
illness, but this too fades with age, leaving us empty and frustrated in
the absence of spiritual consciousness.
So the first step in
affirming the Mental Field is to initiate a progressive acceptance of
the fundamental condition of humanity – perceptually chained to a very
flawed physical vehicle – flawed by mortality, weakness, imperfection,
transitory sensory perception, transitory desires and gratification, and
random emotional drives. The Eight Fold Path of Buddhism is actually a
very effective response to this most challenged condition – a
particularly effective medication regimen, if you will. I advocate the
practice of the Buddhist lifestyle as soon and as much as the individual
can accept in the full knowledge that this is completely contrary to our
natural state.
In conjunction with the
Buddhist approach to lifestyle, a description of the evolution of
conscious states of perception is needed as a map upon which to
determine progress along the Eight Fold Path. The best overall
description of these states of which I am aware remains the Hindu
Seven-Chakra System. If a person at least does enough personal work to
understand that the world of the senses is really taking place on what
amounts to the Physical Plane of Manifestation, and that this is
analogous to the First Chakra Muladhara, then the doors of consciousness
are opened to all that follows. On the other hand, even attaining this
basic realization can be very challenging on a Physical Plane
characterized by television, junk food, and the internal combustion
engine. It is a credit to our species and a sign of great hope for
humanity that so many millions around the world have done and are doing
this spiritual work, and much more beyond that!
Something which is not
emphasized enough in Buddhist theory, and which I personally believe
cannot be emphasized enough, is the practice of meditation as
the single most effective medication to the human condition. We are
inherently incomplete as consciousness, and it is through meditation
that we can become whole and experience integration with the Mental
Field. If this practice is not instituted in the individual’s life, all
else will be for naught. Even the successful practice of the first seven
steps of the Eight Fold Path will leave a spiritual void within the
consciousness that will generate an appetite for more external
gratification. The practice of meditation will reveal this longing for
what it is – the legitimate need for deep spiritual contact with the
higher planes of consciousness. This need can never be satisfied by
external means – it can only be fulfilled by inner exploration and
spiritual development.
I am my field of
consciousness. This field emerges from the Cosmic Vibration of the
Primal OM at conception, and returns to it at death. Not ashes to ashes
and dust to dust, but Light to Light and Love to Love. As we deemphasize
the Physical Plane and material gratification through the Ascension
techniques available in the world’s spiritual systems, including Yoga,
meditation, The Eight Fold Path, and many others, we become empowered to
live in the Spirit, and act in spiritual Grace. In the next weeks, I
will expand upon the theory of the Mental Field introduced here in
additional articles. Please return to these pages for this most relevant
and stimulating discussion!
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2008, Alan Schneider)
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