Falling Prey to Mental Views

What does a being's existence rest on? What do a being's thinking, speaking, and acting rest on? On what is heard, seen, felt and spoken — on the mind. Even the fact that a being exists at all is determined mainly by the mind. Even listening to a Dhamma talk is done primarily through the mind. But if one arrives at the middle way, one can listen without the mind taking the lead.

The Mind's Search for a View

A being whose foundation is the mind goes looking for something — that something is a "view." It searches for that view as food for the mind. What consciousness is really searching for is food. Form, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental objects — a being exists based on these forms of consciousness. Buddha's vision and this kind of view are two different things. Buddha's vision reaches the mind as a form of wisdom, but it is something that goes beyond the nature of the mind itself. It is wisdom. For some, confirming it as an actual lived experience may take time. The heart, the mental faculty, consciousness, the sense of self — all of these too are founded mainly on the mind. But there is a vast field of activity within these things that the mind cannot fully grasp. The mind can only analyse them relative to the information already available within it. Going beyond the mind, through the reality called Buddha, one can perceive them in an entirely separate way. That is something lying beyond the mind. When something lying beyond the mind connects with the mind, several separate dimensions open up, forms of wisdom become active, and — through the mind — these things begin to be felt. Once felt through the mind, they begin operating through wisdom. Capacities hidden within the mind begin to awaken through these forms of wisdom. The mind is something like a screen on a computer or television. It may have many channels. When Buddha-nature connects, the corresponding matters get communicated through the screen we call "mind." If desire connects, those matters get communicated instead.

A Mind-Made Dhamma

Beings became orphaned from the Dhamma because they went looking for a Dhamma that would fit the mind. The mind grows weary; the mind has problems. Its very functioning is itself a problem for the mind. Even while getting drawn toward sense-pleasures, it also tries to find a way out of them. Those thoughts themselves exhaust the mind. It is fond of defilements — yet those defilements bring it fatigue too. The mind is also reluctant to see this as a problem. Caught between clinging and resisting, struggling to free itself from defilements, it searches, amid all this, for a solution — for a Dhamma that fits the mind.

That is not Buddha's teaching. This is a Dhamma founded on the mind, operating at a primary level. What does it do in searching for a mind-fitting Dhamma? It brings the mind to concentration (samadhi). It brings it to calm (samatha). It brings it to solitude. It silences it. It brings it to emptiness. It brings it to a sky-like quality. Or it brings it to the nature of the four great elements. When this happens, a new view appears to the mind. That view is quite beautiful. Views on cessation, on the freed and undefiled nature, on attachment and aversion, on love and hatred, on relationships, on the nature of the world, on Buddha-nature, on wisdom — a fine view arises about all of these. This view is not wrong. Largely, it is correct. But within this approach, no one gains real insight (vidya). The opening of the wisdom-eye does not occur. Wisdom does not arise either. Because of this, deeper understanding (panna) does not arise. Because of this, there is no true cessation.

Because the mind is well-developed, freeing people from this is not easy either. There can be people holding such deep, mind-based views who have not even reached the stream-entry path or fruit. This is the nature of mental phenomena (mano-dhamma) — extraordinarily profound views can be constructed. What the whole of humanity is caught up in is mental debate, argument, knowledge built through the mind, and reasoning built upon that knowledge, about the details of some particular teaching or truth grasped by the mind. They have fallen prey to the mind.

The Middle Way and Its Own Trap

Considered from the perspective of the path to liberation, each of us has our own personal middle way suited to us. As one cultivates the path further, it is within that path that one's capacity to exist, one's very footing, gets established. Everyone must come to the middle way. As we keep travelling further along this path, a point comes where we cannot tell exactly where we actually stand. Truth is located precisely where the mind cannot see it. The domain of Buddha, the domain of citta, the domain of karma — all of these are inconceivable. Even the Dhamma itself is inconceivable. Within this inconceivable range, there is no criterion by which one can confirm to oneself whether one's own journey is now finished.

The only place to resolve this difficulty is by obtaining the help of wisdom concerning it. That wisdom does not belong to any one person. Yet the help is received, conventionally speaking, through a person. But this wisdom is a shared thing, not something private. So that wisdom can see the entirety of that person's field of defilements, and reveal it to them. Then it becomes clear to that very person that this revealing is being done by themselves. What actually happens is an investigative discussion — of one's own understanding, one's alignment with wisdom, and one's understanding of the path. For someone whose understanding has been completed, who has been freed from samsara, there is no longer any further use in cultivating the path. It is like a fully grown tree still putting out new shoots at its tips — that tree has already reached its peak, its cause for arising has already been exhausted. This can be resolved once and for all, precisely at that point — and then that fact gets proven to the person themselves, through that very wisdom. Recognising that, and bringing the journey to a stop right there — that is where bodhi (awakening) arises. Buddhas, too, share this same account. A Buddha, too, could go on without ever reaching an end — but stops at a point where further cultivation still bears fruit. They stop at the root of bodhi. Or, put honestly, within this inconceivable range, one could keep cultivating indefinitely.

So "giving bodhi" means fully clarifying one's entire path and confirming that the journey is complete. That is where one stops — that stopping point is bodhi. Through the knowledge of the exhaustion of the taints (asavakkhaya nana), it becomes clear, with reasons, that the journey is complete and that all that needed to be done has been done. There is no true finishing within the mere act of walking the path. If you have crossed the river, you must let go of the raft. That is bodhi. Even for an arahant, the search continues in some sense — new things keep arising to be sought. But within that very activity, a new karma-path arises for one who has passed into final peace. That, too, is bodhi.