Mind and Dependent Origination

What we identify as thoughts is not a live, present-moment experience directly touching the mind. Rather, thoughts arrive first at a kind of sense-related working memory (a memory of thought), and only afterward does the mind present, as "dhamma," whichever of those thoughts attention happens to settle on. That output is what we actually come to know. It is not the thought itself — it is dhamma the mind constructs out of thoughts. We could also call these dhamma "discursive thought" (vitakka-vicara).

A Working Memory, Not Raw Experience

But today, many people mistake these constructed dhamma for the thoughts themselves. A thought is something that arises and vanishes in an instant. It does not, in that instant, become part of conscious awareness. Only once it enters that temporary sense-related memory does the mind construct it into conscious awareness. And even then, only the dhamma-matters that attention has settled on move into that conscious awareness — everything else fades away within that memory.

When the mind is powerful, thoughts may pour in without ever being felt. Only with an open, balanced mind can one actually see the dhamma-matters constructed, through dependent origination, out of these thoughts. Once the mind has developed considerably, this discursive thought becomes invisible, and so clinging (upadana) becomes impossible to see.

Data arriving from the other senses likewise reaches us only through a temporary sense-memory. Perception occurs based on the data temporarily held in that sense-memory. This is how dhamma-matters get manufactured. Those dhamma-matters are what become our conscious awareness. For someone in whom the view of a fixed self (sakkaya) has not yet dissolved, the sense of self also becomes bound up with these dhamma-matters — because the sense of self has taken hold of the mind's process. Likewise, dependent origination proceeds through karma. Dependent origination, in turn, contributes further to the construction of dhamma-matters in the mind. Some of these may go on to feed mano-viññana (mental consciousness); and what becomes fed into mano-viññana contributes, in turn, to nourishing the consciousness of samsara.

Clinging Persists Even Unseen

Not sensing the five aggregates of clinging, due to mental refinement, does not mean one has attained an arahant's nature. The five aggregates of clinging are still present — they simply aren't seen. This is exactly why a balanced mind is needed to remove them. Even someone who cultivates jhana, upon reaching higher jhanic levels, loses the ability to see clinging. It's important to know this, because the mind's nature shifts during meditation.

How does the sense of self connect here? The sense of self is what causes the dhamma-matters, frameworks, and views arising in the mind to be firmly believed as true. Someone free of the view of a fixed self holds no belief or disbelief regarding these dhamma-matters, frameworks, or views — they remain simply connected with the natural law of the universe. It is the sense of self that grips, firmly, whatever dhamma-matters are constructed from data arriving through the senses. Because of this, mind or sense-bases are not felt as such by us. What the mind constructs and offers is identified as "my thoughts and ideas." What we feel as the sense of self is felt as a sensation. If you observe an occasion of arising sorrow or joy, you can see this sensory manner in which the sense of self manifests.

Once the sense of self has taken hold, it overrides the entire mental process and takes the lead. Mind or sense-bases are not felt. Even the mind itself is now caught in the grip of the sense of self, having become just another sense-base.

Imagine, for example, that you've grasped some teaching as a fixed concept and gotten drawn into an argument with someone over it. Your mind knows the points raised in that argument and the points that were challenged. Now suppose you begin listening to a Dhamma talk. That talk happens to include material close to the very topic you'd argued about. In that case, your sense of self won't let you actually listen to that talk. It only wants to gather points that will confirm its own position. It is your sense of self doing this. The sense of self is looking for an answer that justifies itself. But for someone free of the view of a fixed self, none of this ever becomes "a world" at all. There's nothing unusual there.

Because the sense of self has taken over the mind, someone whose view of a fixed self has not dissolved cannot understand how the mind actually operates. That's exactly why we call it "heart." That's why people say things like "my heart is racing," "my heart aches," "my heart feels so happy." But once the view of a fixed self dissolves, the mind appears as something quite separate. Only then does it become clear just how complex, and how powerful, the mind's operations actually are. Until then, what one senses is simply the trouble caused by the sense of self.

The Arahant's Thoughts

For someone who has become an arahant, thoughts arise through the order of citta, but dependent origination is not operating. Because of this, no "thought" arises in the sense we normally mean.

An intention (cetana) arises primarily through the mind. There, the sense of self takes hold of the mind. The dhamma constructed by the mind, combined and shaped further under the influence of the sense of self — the joint result of all of this — is what gives rise to an intention.

Someone who develops the mind through philosophical systems and the like also has a mind that shifts and changes — much like someone who cultivates jhana. That developed mental state, too, can reach a point where it transforms thoughts to its own liking as they arise.

When this exists, that comes to be. When this does not exist, that does not come to be. When this arises, that arises. When this does not arise, that does not arise.

This describes a natural law. If a thing exists, that thing exists; if a thing is absent, that thing is absent. This law applies to the heart.

Seeing "existence" and seeing "non-existence" both happen due to ignorance (avijja). Dependent origination arises based on that ignorance. Existence and non-existence are simply two states. If dependent origination is seen within existence, and dependent origination is seen within non-existence too, then in both cases the cause itself is brought to cessation. Existence and non-existence are like two sides of the same coin. Neither is one natural law within existence and another within non-existence — it is one and the same. Non-existence arises relative to existence, and existence arises relative to non-existence — but this appears as a duality only because of ignorance. If dependent origination is truly seen, the cause giving rise to both existence and non-existence ceases. What, then, is that cause? "Avijja paccaya" refers to the relationship between ignorance and existence. It is by the addition of a condition (paccaya) to ignorance that mental formations (sankhara) arise.

"Avijja paccaya sankhara" — with ignorance as condition, mental formations arise.

This "paccaya" is exactly what is meant by "when this exists, that comes to be."