Tuesday, May 24, 2016

(3) The Contemplation of the Objects of Mind in the Objects of Mind

Watch the following Thay's video on "The Contemplation of the Objects of Mind in the Objects of Mind" from 1:39:15 to 1:47:20.


The followings are excerpts.

Quote:
Socrates did not accept the theory of atoms because he could not accept that intelligence, being like a man is made of a dead matter. But now we see better that atoms, subatomic particles, they are very intelligent. In Princeton, the school of philosophy in Princeton, they say they are thinking in the blue sky. They are thinking in the blue sky. Consciousness is everywhere. And that is why one of the obstacles is the discrimination between dead matter and consciousness. 

And we know that mother earth. We should learn why doing walking meditation to look at mother earth not as an environment. We have mother earth in ourselves. We have the father sun in ourselves. And mother earth has produced many Buddhas, many Bodhisattvas. Shakyamuni is a son of mother earth. Jesus Christ, Muhammad, they are sons of mother earth. How death matter can produce Bodhisattvas and Saints and the Buddha like that? So, we should try to throw away that kind of discrimination, that kind of dualism between matter and mind. And that practice is called in Buddhism the Path, the Middle Path. Middle Path is the path, transcending all pairs of opposites, including birth and death, being and non-being, matter and mind, subject and object.

Suppose you speak about birth and death. Birth and death is like left and right. Without one, the other can not be. Many of us believe that now is only life and death will be only later. That's not true. Because where there is life, there is death at the same time. When a biologist looks into his body, he knows that at this very moment many cells in his body are dying. That is happening in the here and the now. I don't wait until I get 100 years old in order to die. I'm dying in the here and the now. And because I'm able to die in the here and the now, life is possible in the here and the now also. There are many thousands of cells dying in this very moment but we are so busy. We don't have enough time to organize the funerals for them. And there are many new cells that are being born in this moment but we have no time to organize birthday parties for them. So, wherever there is life, there is death. There is (these?) of life in order to be. Life is there on death already. Why are we afraid of death? Because that is the foundation of life, it's like the left and the right.

The left and the right are there in the here and the now and they're based on each other in order to manifest. If you take away the left, the right is away also. So, when God said, "May the light be there", should the light be there. He ordered the light to come. And you can hear that the light say, "But I have to wait." And God said, "What are you waiting for?". And the light said, "I'm waiting for darkness to come. And we manifest together because I alone, I can't manifest.". And God said, "But darkness is already there." And the light said, "In that case, I'm already there.". So, the Middle Way is the way to transcend all pairs of opposites. This is the method recommended by the Buddha. 

"grahaka, grahya". Grasping. This (grahaka) is the subject of grasping. And this (grahya) is the object of grasping. And we are caught by both. We believe that there is the subject that can exist independently from the object. And we believe that the object is something that can exist separately from the subject. And that is why if you are still caught in that idea, you are caught by what Buddhism calls the "double grasping". And that is to remember us only what we call "nature". First of all, we have to recognize it as the object of our mind. There is no way to prove that nature can exist independently from the mind. But some philosophers say, "We have to believe, to take it like 'nature can exist outside of mind'. ". But there is no proof whatsoever to prove that there is something that can exist outside of mind.

And that is why, in Buddhism, a practitioner should know that there is mind and there is object of mind. The ultimate reality is also object of mind. When the mind is deluded, and the object of it is the false image of reality. When the mind is clear and free, and the ultimate reality reveals itself. So, our understanding of reality depends on the mind, and what kind of mind you are using. And the question is, how the scientists prepare their mind. But in Buddhism, preparing the mind, purifying the mind, freeing the mind, is the main job. Because when the mind is clear, it is free and the reality can manifest itself. You don't have to go and look for it.
:Unquote

(My commentary)
David Bohm said, "In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the "explicate" or "unfolded" order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders." He also said, "Now, the implicate order would help us to see that, to see everything enfolds, everybody, not merely depends on everybody, but actually everybody is everybody in a deeper sense. See, we are the earth because all our substance comes from the earth and goes back."

Freeman John Dyson said, "Atoms in the laboratory are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom." He also said, "So I am thinking that atoms and humans and God may have minds that differ in degree but not in kind. We stand, in a manner of speaking, midway between the unpredictability of atoms and the unpredictability of God. Atoms are small pieces of our mental apparatus, and we are small pieces of God's mental apparatus. Our minds may receive inputs equally from atoms and from God. This view of our place in the cosmos may not be true, but it is compatible with the active nature of atoms as revealed in the experiments of modern physics. I don't say that this personal theology is supported or proved by scientific evidence. I only say that it is consistent with scientific evidence."

I understand that body (matter) enfolds into consciousness (mind), and consciousness (mind) unfolds into body (matter). So, body (matter) and consciousness (mind) are interdependent co-arising and are two sides of the same coin. I also understand that every elementary particle (matter) has consciousness (mind) because we (humans, animals, plants, minerals) are made of the whole cosmos (water, air, earth, sunshine).

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/implicate-order-explicate-order
http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/09/atoms-may-have-minds.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NYEP04
http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/04/16-exercises-on-mindful-breathing-whole.html

Implicate order & Explicate order