From Frames of Reference

In using the mind as a frame of reference, there are three aspects to deal with:

A. The mind inside.
B. The mind outside.
C. The mind in and of itself.

’The mind inside’ refers to a state exclusively in the heart when it isn’t involved with any outer preoccupations. ’The mind outside’ refers to its interaction with such outer preoccupations as sights, sounds, etc. ’The mind in and of itself’ refers to the act of singling out any aspect of the mind as it appears, whether inside or out.

As for the modes of the mind inside, there are three —

1. Raga-citta: a mental state infused with desire or passion.

2. Dosa-citta: a sense of inner irritation and displeasure.

3. Moha-citta: a cloudy, murky or confused state of mind, in which it is unable to consider anything; in short, delusion.

The mind outside is divided into the same three aspects — states of passion, irritation and delusion — but these are said to be ’outside’ because once any of these aspects arises, it tends to go out and latch onto an outer preoccupation that simply serves to further aggravate the original state of passion, irritation or delusion. The mind then doesn’t clearly or truly understand its objects. Its knowledge goes off in various directions, away from the truth: seeing beauty, for instance, in things that aren’t beautiful, constancy in things that are inconstant, pleasure in things that are painful, and self in things that are not-self.

All of these things are aspects of the mind outside.

’The mind in and of itself’ refers to the act of singling out any one of these aspects of the mind. For example, sometimes passion arises, sometimes anger, sometimes delusion: Whichever aspect may be arising in the present, single it out. With your alertness firmly in place, be mindful of that aspect of the mind, without making reference to any other objects — and without letting any hopes or wants arise in that particular mental moment at all. Then focus unwaveringly on investigating that state of mind until you know its truth. The truth of these states is that sometimes, once they’ve arisen, they flare up and spread; sometimes they die away. Their nature is to arise for a moment and then dissolve away with nothing of any substance or worth. When you are intent on examining things in this way — with your mindfulness, alertness, and powers of focused investigation firmly in place — then none of these defilements, even though they may be appearing, will have the chance to grow or spread. This is like the baskets or jars used to cover new lettuce plants: If no one removes the baskets, the plants will never have a chance to grow, and will simply wither away and die. Thus you have to keep your alertness right with each mental state as it arises. Keep mindfulness constantly referring to its object, and use your powers of focused investigation to burn into those defilements so as to keep them away from the heart at all times.

To put this another way, all of the mental states mentioned above are like lettuce or green-gram seeds. Mindfulness is like a basket. Alertness is the person who scatters the seeds, while the power of focused investigation is the heat of the sun that burns them up.

So far, we have mentioned only bad mental states. Their opposites are good mental states: viraga-citta — the mind free from the grip of passion; adosa-citta — the mind free from the annoyance or anger that can lead to loss and ruin; amoha-citta — the mind free from delusion, intoxication and misunderstandings. These are skillful states of mind (kusala-citta), which form the root of all that is good. When they arise, maintain them and observe them so that you can come to know the level of your mind.

There are four levels of good mental states —

1. Kamavacara-bhumi: the level of sensuality.

2. Rupavacara-bhumi: the level of form.

3. Arupavacara-bhumi: the level of formlessness.

4. Lokuttara-bhumi: the transcendent level.

1. The level of sensuality: A mental state arises and connects with a wholesome object — any sight, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation or idea that can form the basis for skillful mental states. When it meets with its object, it becomes happy, joyful, and glad. (Here we’re referring only to those sensory objects that are good for the mind.) If you were to refer to the Heavens of Sensual Bliss as they appear within each of us, the list would run as follows: Sights that can form the basis for skillful mental states are one level, sounds are another, and same with smells, tastes, tactile sensations and ideas. Together they form the six levels of heaven on the sensual level.

2. The level of form: A mental state arises from thinking about (vitakka) a physical object that serves as the theme of one’s meditation; and then analyzing (vicara) the object into its various aspects, at the same time making sure that the mind doesn’t slip away from the object (ekaggatarammana). When the mind and its object are one in this way, the object becomes light. The mind is unburdened and can relax its sense of concern. Rapture (piti) and ease (sukha) arise as a result. When these five factors appear in the mind, it has entered the first jhana — the beginning stage in the level of form.

3. The level of formlessness: The mind lets go of its physical object on the level of form, but is still attached to a very subtle mental notion — the jhana of unbounded space, for instance, in which you are focused on a sense of emptiness and awareness with no physical object or image passing into your field of attention, so that you are unable to know its full range. What has actually happened is that you have curled up and are hiding inside. This isn’t the kind of ’going in to know’ that comes from finishing your work. It’s the ’going in to know’ that comes from wanting to run away. You’ve seen the faults of what arises outside you, but haven’t seen that they really lie buried within you — so you’ve hidden inside by limiting the field of your attention.

Some people, when they reach this point, believe that they have done away with defilement, because they mistake the emptiness for nibbana. Actually, it’s only the first stage in the level of formlessness, and so is still on the mundane level.

If you seriously want to know whether your mind is on the mundane or the transcendent level, then observe it when you turn your awareness inward and make it still — when you feel a sense of peace and ease that seems to have no defilements adulterating it at all. Let go of that mental state, to see how it behaves on its own. If defilements can reappear, you’re still on the mundane level. Sometimes that mental state remains unchanged through the power of your own efforts, but after a while you become unsure of your knowledge. Your mind has to keep fondling, i.e., making a running commentary on it. When this is the case, don’t go believing that your knowledge is in any way true.

There are many, many kinds of knowledge: The intellect knows, the heart knows, the mind knows, consciousness knows, discernment knows, alertness knows, awareness knows, unawareness knows. All these modes are based on knowledge; they differ simply in how they know. If you aren’t able to distinguish clearly among the different modes of knowing, knowing can become confused — and so you might take wrong knowing to be right knowing, or unawareness to be awareness, or knowledge attached to suppositions (sammuti) to be freedom from suppositions (vimutti). Thus you should experiment and examine things carefully from all angles so that you can come to see for yourself which kind of knowledge is genuine, and which is counterfeit. Counterfeit knowledge, merely knows, but can’t let go. Genuine knowledge, when it goes about knowing anything, is bound to let go.

All three levels of the mind discussed so far are on the mundane level.

4. The transcendent level: This begins with the path and fruition of entry into the stream to nibbana. Those who reach this level have begun by following the threefold training of virtue, concentration and discernment on the mundane level, but then have gone on to gain their first true insight into the four Noble Truths, enabling them to free themselves from the first three Fetters (sanyojana). Their minds are thus released into the stream to nibbana. The three Fetters are —

a. Self-identification (sakkaya-ditthi): the view that leads us to believe that the body is our own.

b. Doubt (vicikiccha): the uncertainty that leads us to be unsure of the good we believe in — i.e., of how much truth there is to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

c. Attachment to precepts and practices (silabbata-paramasa): fondling the good that we practice; being attached to those forms of goodness that are merely external — for instance, observing precepts or practices by clinging simply to the level of bodily action or speech. Examples of this attitude include such things as developing virtue by adhering simply to the precepts; practicing concentration by simply sitting like a post; not being able to free yourself from these actions, always holding onto the goodness that comes from them, happy when you have the chance to perform them in a particular way, upset when you don’t; thinking, for instance, that virtue is something you get from monks when they give you the precepts; that the eight precepts are to be observed only on certain days and nights, months and years; that you gain or lose merit simply as a result of external actions associated with your accustomed beliefs. None of these attitudes reaches the essence of virtue. They go no further than simply clinging to beliefs, customs, and conventions; clutching onto these forms of goodness, always fondling them, unable to let them go. Thus this is called ’attachment to precepts and practices.’

Such attitudes are an obstacle to what is truly good. Take, for example, the long-held belief that goodness means to practice charity, virtue and meditation on the sabbath days: stream-winners have completely let go of such beliefs. Their hearts are no longer caught up in beliefs and customs. Their virtues no longer have precepts. In other words, they have reached the essence of virtue. Their virtue is free from the limits of time. In this they differ from ordinary, run-of-the-mill people. Ordinary people have to hand goodness over to external criteria — believing, for instance, that virtue lies on this day or that, during Rains Retreat, during this or that month or year — and then holding fast to that belief, maintaining that anyone who doesn’t follow the custom can’t be virtuous. In the end, such people have a hard time finding the opportunity really to do good. Thus we can say that they don’t know the true criteria for goodness. As for stream-winners, all the qualities of virtue have come in and filled their hearts. They are able to unshackle themselves from the conventional values of the world that say that this or that is good. What is truly good they have seen appear in their hearts. Good lies right here. Evil lies right here. Neither depends on external actions. This is in line with the Buddha’s saying,

mano-pubbangama dhamma
mano-settha mano-maya

All matters are preceded by the heart,
Excelled by the heart,
Achieved through the heart.

This is what is meant by ’stream-winner’.

Stream-winners are like people who have rowed their boats into the main current of the Chao Phraya River, and so are destined to float down to the river’s mouth and into the sea of amata — deathless — nibbana. There are three ways they can reach the sea:

(1) The lowest level of stream-winner is like a boatsman who leans back with his hand simply placed on the rudder. This level of stream-winner reaches the goal slowly.

(2) The second level is like a boatsman who has his foot on the rudder, his hands on the oars, and rows along.

(3) The third level: The boat is equipped with a motor and the boatsman is at the steering wheel, and so he reaches the goal in practically no time at all.

This — reaching the stream to nibbana — is the beginning stage of the transcendent level. If you were to simplify the three Fetters, you could do so as follows: To be attached to the body as being one’s own is self-identification. To be attached to the actions of the body is attachment to precepts and practices. Not knowing how to separate the mind from the body or from one’s actions makes one unable to see clearly and know truly: This leads to uncertainty and doubt.

These are simply my opinions on the matter, so you who read this should consider things carefully on your own.

This ends the discussion of the transcendent and mundane skillful states of mind.

When you know the characteristics of the various mental states, you should use the three qualities mentioned above as your tools: Keep your mindfulness, alertness, and powers of focused investigation firmly in place at the mind. To be able to gain knowledge, you have to use the power of focused investigation, which is an aspect of discernment, to know how mental states arise and fall: pulling out, taking a stance, and then returning into stillness. You must keep your attention fixed on investigating these things constantly in order to be able to know the arising and falling away of mental states — and you will come to know the nature of the mind that doesn’t arise and doesn’t fall away.

To know the arising and falling away of mental states of the past is one level of cognitive skill (vijja), and deserves to be called ’knowledge of previous births.’ To know the states of the mind as they change in the present deserves to be called ’knowledge of death and rebirth.’ To know how to separate mental states from their objects, knowing the primal nature of the mind, knowing the current or force of the mind that flows to its objects; separating the objects, the current of mind that flows, and the primal nature of the mind: To be able to know in this way deserves to be called ’knowledge of the ending of mental effluents.’ The objects or preoccupations of the mind are the effluent of sensuality. The current that flows is the effluent of becoming. Not knowing the primal nature of the mind is the effluent of unawareness.

If we were to express this in terms of the four Noble Truths, we would have to do so as follows: The objects or preoccupations of the mind are the truth of stress (dukkha-sacca). The current of the mind that flows into and falls for its objects is the truth of the cause of stress (samudaya-sacca). The mental state that penetrates in to see clearly the truth of all objects, the current of the mind, and the primal nature of the mind, is called the mental moment that forms the Path (magga-citta). To let go of the objects, the mental current, and the primal nature of the mind, without any sense of attachment, is the truth of the disbanding of stress (nirodha-sacca).

When the three qualities that assist the mind — alertness, mindfulness, and focused investigation — are vigorous and strong, alertness becomes the awareness of release (vijja-vimutti), mindfulness becomes intuitive understanding (ñana), and focused investigation becomes liberating insight (vipassana-ñana), the discernment that can stay fixed on knowing the truth of stress without permitting any sense of pleasure or displeasure for its object to arise. Intuitive understanding fathoms the cause of stress, and the awareness of release knows the heart clearly all the way through. When you can know in this way, you can say that you know rightly.

* * *

Here I’d like to back up and discuss the question of the mind in a little more detail. The word ’mind’ covers three aspects:

(1) The primal nature of the mind.
(2) Mental states.
(3) Mental states in interaction with their objects.

All of these aspects, taken together, make up the mind. If you don’t know the mind in this way, you can’t say that you really know it. All you can do is say that the mind arises and falls away, the mind doesn’t rise or fall away; the mind is good, the mind is evil; the mind becomes annihilated, the mind doesn’t become annihilated; the mind is a dhamma, the mind isn’t a dhamma; the mind gains release, the mind doesn’t gain release; the mind is nibbana, the mind isn’t nibbana; the mind is sensory consciousness, the mind isn’t sensory consciousness; the mind is the heart, the mind isn’t the heart...

As the Buddha taught, there are only two paths to practice — the body, speech, and heart; and the body, speech, and mind — and in the end both paths reach the same point: Their true goal is release. So if you want to know the truth concerning any of the above issues, you have to follow the path and reach the truth on your own. Otherwise, you’ll have to argue endlessly. These issues — for people who haven’t practiced all the way to clear insight — have been termed by people of wisdom as sedamocana-katha: issues that can only make you break out in a sweat.

So I would like to make a short explanation: The primal nature of the mind is a nature that simply knows. The current that thinks and streams out from knowing to various objects is a mental state. When this current connects with its objects and falls for them, it becomes a defilement, darkening the mind: This is a mental state in interaction. Mental states, by themselves and in interaction, whether good or evil, have to arise, have to disband, have to dissolve away by their very nature. The source of both these sorts of mental states is the primal nature of the mind, which neither arises nor disbands. It is a fixed phenomenon (thiti-dhamma), always in place. By the primal nature of the mind — which is termed ’pabhassara,’ or radiant — I mean the ordinary, elementary state of knowing in the present. But whoever isn’t able to penetrate in to know it can’t gain any good from it, like the proverbial monkey with the diamond.

Thus the name given by the Buddha for this state of affairs is really fitting: avijja — dark knowledge, counterfeit knowledge. This is in line with the terms ’pubbante aññanam’ — not knowing the beginning, i.e., the primal nature of the mind; ’parante aññanam’ — not knowing the end, i.e., mental states in interaction with their objects; ’majjhantika aññanam’ — not knowing the middle, i.e., the current that streams from the primal nature of knowing. When this is the case, the mind becomes a sankhara: a concoctor, a magician, fabricating prolifically in its myriad ways.

This ends the discussion of the mind as a frame of reference.