This talk was given at Nottingham Buddhist Centre, Sangha Night, Nov 2019
The word 'mind' is a noun, a countable noun. Now that is a problem. Language is often a problem when it comes to trying to express Buddhist ideas. Because we have a word, 'mind', which is a noun, we can naturally enough think that the mind is a thing. And if it is a thing then it is something that can be possessed or owned. We have the concepts of 'my mind' or 'your mind' or 'the mind'. But what are we really talking about when we use the word 'mind'. Is it a thing? Can we possess it? Who would do the possessing? I will leave these questions hanging there and perhaps the rest of the talk will go some way to answering them.
In this talk I am going to look at the nature of mind as it is described in the Dhammapada, chapter 3. The word in Buddhist texts that is translated as mind is often chitta and that is the word used in the Dhammapada in the chapter on Mind. According to the Pali–English dictionary, 'chitta' means 'heart'. It says chitta is “the centre and focus of our emotional nature as well as that intellectual element which inheres in and accompanies it's manifestation.” In other words chitta means emotions and intellect. The Pali dictionary goes on to say that chitta is best understood by referring to familiar phrases like 'with all my heart' or 'I have no heart to do it' or 'blessed are the pure in heart'. It is not primarily concerned with intellectual thought or reasoning. It is much broader than that. Chitta means both emotion and thought. This is what the word 'mind' indicates in the Dhammapada.
The Dhammapada is very practical. It is not interested in sophisticated analysis of mind and mental states. Basically the Dhammapada says; you're in a mess, get yourself out of it. And the method is repeated over and over in different ways. But it all comes back to what we think and feel and the actions and speech we engage in as a result of what we think and feel. The Dhammapada is concerned to get us to look into our minds and take steps to improve them. The very first verse of the Dhammapada says : “All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind.” (trans. Fronsdal)
This emphasis on improving how we think and feel – becoming more positive and skilful and undermining our tendencies to negativity and unskilfulness – this emphasis is also found in other parts of the Pali Canon. In particular there is a discourse (Dvedhavitakha Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 19) where the Buddha talks about his own practice before he gained Enlightenment. He says he observed his own mind closely and noted when he had unskilful thoughts and when he had skilful thoughts. He was always paying attention to his own inner process and with that awareness he gradually transformed himself. That's the Buddhist method in a nutshell!
This is what the Dhammapada is recommending too. It is recommending that we pay attention to our inner life, our thoughts and emotions. And not just pay attention but make a judgement and acknowledge honestly to ourselves whether what is going on is skilfull or unskilful, positive or negative, beneficial or not beneficial. Often these days we may hear people say that it is a bad thing to be judgemental. What they mean is that it is a bad thing to condemn either oneself or others and that is very true. But we must exercise judgement, we need to make distinctions, we need to be able to make a judgement about whether a particular course of action is helpful or a whether a particular conversation is going to be useful. And we need to make a judgement between what is skilful, ethical and what is not ethical. This is the basis for practice and this is the purpose of bringing awareness or mindfulness to our inner world. Mindfulness that is divorced from ethics is like a sense of taste that cannot distinguish between what is edible and what is poisonous. It is just as likely to be harmful as beneficial. Buddhist mindfulness is never divorced from ethics.
Coming to the chapter of the Dhammapada entitled The Mind we find the Buddha recommending awareness of the thoughts and emotions and introducing the idea of controlling or taming the mind. Some of this needs to be teased out to avoid misunderstanding. I'll read a few verses and then comment on them. There are only eleven verses in total in this chapter.
The restless, agitated mind,
Hard to protect, hard to control,
the sage makes straight.
As a fletcher the shaft of an arrow.
Like a fish out of water,
Thrown on dry ground,
This mind thrashes about,
Trying to escape Mara's command.
The mind, hard to control,
Flighty – alighting where it wishes-
One does well to tame.
The disciplined mind brings happiness.
Here we have a few different images and metaphors giving a vivid picture of our minds as restless, agitated, unsteady, thrashing about, flighty or frivolous. The first image is of a mind that is not straight like an arrow. This means that thoughts can't be directed towards anything in particular, like a crooked arrow that can never reach its target. This is the agitated, restless mind, not able to stay with anything, always jumping to something else, reacting to every stimulus indiscriminately. I think we are probably all familiar with this kind of mind. And the Buddha says that a wise person will straighten this out, make it capable of being properly directed. That is why we do practices like the Mindfulness of Breathing.
Then there is the mind that is like a fish out of water. This is a bit further on. This when we are practising and trying to be more skilful and trying to focus our minds. We could see this as being like a meditation practice where we are trying focus or concentrate and our mind keeps on thrashing about. But at least we are making an effort and with practice it will quieten down.
Then we have the image of a flighty mind, alighting wherever it wishes. The image that comes to my mind is a butterfly fluttering about. This is a bit more subtle and less violent than the image of the fish out of water. This is a quieter mind, but still not calm. Mara is a symbol for all the negative states such as greed, illwill, anxiety and so on. The opposite to these states is talked about in terms of protecting, controlling, taming and disciplining, which don't immediately bring to mind very attractive images. But let's look at them a bit more closely.
First of all protecting; the verse says the restless agitated mind is hard to protect. Something that is not protected is exposed to all sorts of influences. If your hands are not protected with gloves when cleaning you may suffer from the cleaning chemicals. If you are not protected by an overcoat when it's cold and wet you will be very uncomfortable and may catch a cold. If your mind is exposed to all sorts of unhelpful input you will be agitated and restless. Unhelpful input is anything that gives rise to craving, grasping, ill-will, hatred, fear and so on. If we can protect our minds from these things then it is sensible to do so, especially if we want to have a calm and tranquil mind.
Then there is the image of controlling the mind. The verse says the the mind is hard to control. Control sounds a bit harsh, like imprisonment or an authoritarian government dictating what people can and cannot do. But there is a more positive image of control. For instance if you are driving a car it is good to be in control; in control of the car and of you're own body and mind. If we are travelling by train or air we trust that someone is in control. We consider this kind of control a very positive thing. If we apply this to the mind we are talking about the kind of control that keeps us out of danger, out of harms way. We want to foster a mind that is not harmful to ourselves or others. The kind of control that is needed is something that allows us to have thoughts and emotions without having to launch missiles or hide ourselves in a dark room. We become familiar with the broad expanse of the mind and by maintaining awareness we can look steadily at what is going on and have the ability to intervene and change our minds as needed, change ourselves.
Then we come to the image of taming. I think we probably need to go back in imagination to ancient India to appreciate what a positive thing a tame animal might be. In a world without machinery a tame elephant could cope with huge weights and a tame horse is a very effective mode of transport. A tame buffalo can do the fieldwork of many men. A more contemporary image might be a guide dog. Taming means usefulness, taming means friendly as opposed to savage or dangerous. A tame mind is one that is useful or helpful and not wild and dangerous. A tame mind is friendly to self and others, this suggests metta, loving-kindness.
Then we come to the image of discipline. The verse says a disciplined mind is a happy mind. Do we associate happiness with discipline. Or do we think of discipline as being like being in the military. I think the kind of discipline the verse is talking about is much more like the discipline of a sports person; daily training and eating well. Or for any of us, if we want to be healthy, we need to be disciplined in taking exercise and eating well. And that leads to our physical well-being which is a basis for mental well-being. It is easy to see why a disciplined mind is a happy mind. It is a mind that is in training and is taking in or consuming whatever nourishes it and avoiding whatever poisons it. Just as we can feed our body well or badly, we can also feed our mind well or badly.
The next three verses are very similar to the first three.The mind, hard to see,
Subtle- alighting where it wishes-
The sage protects.
The watched mind brings happiness.
Far-ranging, solitary,
incorporeal and hidden,
Is the mind.
Those who restrain it
will be freed from Mara's bonds.
For those who are unsteady of mind,
Who do not know true Dhamma,
And whose serenity wavers,
Wisdom does not mature.
We are introduced to a few more images here: We have the watched mind or in another translation it is referred to as the well-guarded mind. Then we have some characteristics of the mind; far-ranging, solitary, (sounds like Clint Eastwood in a Western!) and incorporeal and hidden. There is the image of restraining. And we have the image of something unsteady and wavering.
The image of guarding the mind is a common one in Buddhist texts. Again it conjures up images of being safe from danger and of protecting something valuable. It is often spoken of in terms of guarding the gates of the senses. In other words being careful or discriminating about what you expose your mind to. The image of restraining the mind is about seeing the mind as being like a infant that doesn't know what is harmful and what is pleasant. Restraint is applied for it's own good and for the sake of others. Again it is like discipline or protection or guarding. All of these images are getting at the same thing. Our mind is not a thing it is an ongoing process and that process is dealing with memories, current input and imaginings and fantasies.
We can have some influence on memories because as we grow in awareness we may come to see the past differently. We may revise our story. This happened to me. I made up an aphorism – we can be optimistic about the past. The present is much more under our influence and all of these metaphors are encouraging us to pay attention to what we allow into our minds; what we read, what movies we see, what people we hang out with. Because our mind is largely what we feed it and how we respond to that.
In a talk given to Triratna Order Members in 1993 Bhante Sangharakshita encouraged us to reduce input and be discriminating about what we introduced into our minds. Among other things he said: “We are a sort of receiving station all the time, but we don't have to allow all of these different outside factors and influences to play on us constantly without any sort of control or restriction. So reduce input. Be more selective and try to make sure that the influences that are impinging on you are positive rather than negative.” (Fifteen Points for Order Members,p.2 www.padmaloka.org.uk/shop/booklets) He went on to recommend solitary retreats and meditation as ways of getting an experience of reduced input. Nowadays when many of us have the internet in our pocket all the time it is much more difficult to reduce input or be selective about it and that means it is much more important now that we make strenuous efforts to reduce input and be selective about what we allow to influence us.
The images of the mind as far-ranging and solitary are interesting. There is virtually no limit to what we can imagine or think about. This makes it possible for us to imagine things like an expanding universe and it also makes it possible for us to contemplate Awakening or Enlightenment. The mind is solitary, according to the commentary, because it can only experience one state of consciousness at a time and also because it is not directly accesible by others.
The mind is incorporeal and hidden. Incorporeal means having no material body or form. This is a statement of the Buddhist view that consciousness is not tied to the body, not just a product of brain chemicals and electrical impulses. The mind is hidden. According to the commentary the word used here means literally 'lying in a cave' and the cave in question is the cave of the heart. The heart is seen as the seat of consciousness. This is another image emphasising that the mind is not just about thinking and reasoning.
The image of restraint is similar to control or discipline. The text says those who restrain the mind 'will be freed from Mara's bonds'. This is implying that we are already restrained or in bondage to Mara. Mara represents greed, hatred and delusion. The kind of restraint that is being recommended is to ensure our freedom. It is like saying that if we restrain ourselves from committing crimes we will be free from the need to be imprisoned. If we are restrained about about all that we put into our minds, we are free to do other things. An artist will sometimes restrict their palette in order to enhance creativity.
The image of a mind that is unsteady and wavering refers specifically to saddha or faith and confidence in the Dharma. It is saying that if there is a lot of doubt then it is much more difficult to direct the mind. Just as if you headed into town without having any idea of where you were going or maybe having two or three ideas of where you are going. It would be more difficult to decide which direction to take than if you were clear about your destination and how to get there.
Let's move on to the next three verses:For one who is Awake,
Whose mind isn't overflowing,
Whose heart isn't afflicted
and who has abandoned both merit and demerit,
Fear does not exist.
Knowing this body to be like a clay pot,
Establishing this mind like a fortress,
One should battle Mara with the sword of insight,
Protecting what has been won,
Clinging to nothing.
All too soon this body
Will lie on the ground,
Cast aside, deprived of consciousness,
Like a useless scrap of wood.
Again we have a lot of rich imagery here. The Dhammapada is really quite poetic! I won't go into so much detail here. The first of these three verses is saying in effect that fear arises because we want something or we are averse to something. If we are free from craving and hatred and don't even want merit for ourselves then we will have nothing to fear. It is saying that one of the delightful characteristics of an Enlightened mind is freedom from fear. This is depicted in later Buddhism in the figure of the Buddha Amoghasiddhi, who has the abhaya mudra, the gesture of fearlessness. Right hand held at the heart palm facing outwards.
The second verse reminds us of the fragility of the body,like a clay pot, which we can't do much about. And it then contrasts this with the image of the mind like a fortress. And it brings in the martial image of battling Mara with the sword of wisdom. The sword of Wisdom appears in later Buddhism in the iconography of Manjughosha. It is a most subtle sword that cuts through all delusions and ignorance without effort. The image of a battle suggests that we need to be alert and have our wits about us or we will be overwhelmed by Mara. In other words we need to maintain awareness of our thoughts, feelings, imaginings and so on or we will find ourselves immersed in egotistic pursuits. The verse ends with the exhortation to protect with mindfulness whatever spiritual gains we have made and to give up clinging, both in the sense of not settling down in our current spiritual life and level of attainment and in the sense of not clinging to mundane concerns.
Then the third of these verses reminds us that we will die. This is in order to give us some sense of urgency about making the best use of the opportunity we have here and now. It says “All too soon”, in other words, before you feel ready, “this body will lie on the ground.”
The last two verses are a strong statement of how important it is to have what it calls a 'well-directed mind'. This reminds us again of the image in the first verse of straightening an arrow.
Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,
Or haters, one to another,
Far worse is the harm
From one's own wrongly directed mind.
The harm is far worse because it is harm to the mind, not just to the body. In Buddhism our consciousness is hell or heaven, so a wrongly directed mind is on the road to hellish experience.
Neither mother nor father,
Nor any relative can do
one as much good
as one's own well-directed mind.
We are not dependent on others for our happiness, it is in our own gift to make for ourselves a mind that is on the road to heavenly experience of happiness and freedom.
That's what the Dhammapada has to say about the mind and I hope you find it interesting and even useful. I would just like to finish where I began and remind you that the mind is not a thing. It is all too easy to think that somehow apart from our thinking, feeling, willing, perceiving and imagining there is something else called the mind that is behind it all, activating it all. But that is just the delusion of a fixed Self under another name. It is because what we call mind is fluid and ever changing that we can direct it and transform it, until we become awakened ones - Buddhas.
