Citta · චිත්ත
The Search for Truth and Mental Consciousness
Why the aim you actually hold, not the words you say, shapes what you receive back
4 min read
Citta · චිත්ත
Why the aim you actually hold, not the words you say, shapes what you receive back
4 min read
Picture a young man standing on something like a stage. A crowd some distance away is throwing fruit toward him, believing that if they manage to hit him with the fruit, they will receive something in return. The young man leaps in different directions, ducking and dodging, trying to avoid being hit. Throughout this, both the crowd and the young man are shifting, moment by moment.
If we look at any two people in this world talking to one another, that exchange itself shifts, moment to moment. Yet there is something at work here.
Suppose one person, A, speaks sincerely, trying earnestly to discover truth. The other, B, speaks sincerely too, trying earnestly to share the truth they know.
The reaction that comes back to A from B's sincere effort arises out of that same sincerity. Through this exchange, both A's sincere effort to know the truth and B's sincere effort to convey it move in a shared direction.
But suppose instead that A speaks with B while remaining within doubt. Then the reaction A receives back is also received on the foundation of that doubt. If this exchange continues to be conducted on the foundation of doubt, a mind-state (citta) rooted in operating from doubt keeps developing further within A.
In truth, there is no such thing in the world as "doubt." It is something constructed by the mind. That is the actual truth — it is something that does not really exist.
If A is operating on the foundation of gathering information, then the dependent origination building up within A is built specifically around this matter of gathering information. If mano-viññana's influence becomes strongly established around gathering information, the actual search for truth gets lost along the way.
If what A actually wants is to defeat the other person through argument, then the dependent origination operating within A is shaped accordingly.
An important thing to notice here is that within this process of dependent origination, the influence of mano-viññana begins to build up. Once that influence becomes strong, there's a real chance the mind will try to keep operating in that very direction. At that point, someone can arise whose real drive is operating purely on doubt itself, purely on the desire to gather information, or purely on the pleasure of argument and reasoning. In this way, as mano-viññana grows powerful, the opportunity to actually know the truth can close off for a person.
If someone genuinely holds the sincere aim of coming to know the truth, that aim operates deeply within them from the very moment they open themselves to that discussion. No other aim rises to the surface apart from that. In that moment, that person is living for the aim of discovering truth. Then B's reaction, too, operates within the dependent origination shaped around the search for truth. Because of this, A's overall direction becomes set toward truth.
Everyone in this world has a particular talent written into who they uniquely are. But apart from a rare few, almost everyone, instead of recognising the ability that has been given to them uniquely by the universe, looks at what others are doing and lets the mind drift toward whatever it happens to like.
Someone with artistic talent goes off to become an engineer. Someone who plays cricket goes off wanting to become like some world-famous cricketer. Someone who gives Dhamma talks goes off wanting to become like Gautama Buddha, thinking themselves already similar. A person's true gift might be thinking in fresh, original ways. It might be creating something new. That gift needs to be correctly recognised, and then developed and cultivated.
The form our eye perceives, or the sound our ear hears, is seen or interpreted by the mind according to whatever it has already become accustomed to. But that is not truth. There's no fault in calling it conventional truth (sammuti sacca). We can act accordingly, corresponding to it. But living without knowing this fact, we miss out on seeing the truth actually written into the universe.
For an arahant, or for a Buddha, there is no such thing as "truth" at all. Dependent origination is not operating. No new existences form.
Adapted from “සත්ය සෙවීම හා මනෝ විඥානය” — read the original Sinhala article.
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