A new orientation

From the time we are in the womb to the time of our death our orientation has been towards the external world.  We know virtually nothing about intuition and introspection—and certainly nothing about pure Mind.  We only know how to perceive external things and think about our relationship with them.  Even our thinking is limited to external reality; to objects out there which have been turned into abstract signs through language which we can ‘think about’ and mentally manipulate.

                         

 

A toddler, for example, examining a fire hydrant is doing what is natural and expected.  It is part of his normal growth and development.  His perceptual orientation is predominantly external; never internal and introspective.  The toddler will eventually grow up and become a man whose orientation will still be geared to the external world of objects many of which he has mastery over through practice and language.  Even if he becomes a Buddhist there is no guarantee that he will suddenly be blessed with the capacity to ‘look within’, that is, to look not at things but, instead, look at their underlying essence which is immaterial and certainly not a thing.

There is no possibility of comprehending our Buddha-nature, which results from an extensive intuitive/introspective process, without leaving the old orientation behind, marked as ‘useless’.  The belief that we can bring all that we have learned about the external world into intuition has to be corrected.  It will only lead us on a fool’s errand.

If much of contemporary Buddhism holds out hope that we can comprehend our Buddha-nature without first dumping our present orientation towards the external world together with its objects it will be missing much of Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism which is predicated on a specific, preliminary gnosis called Bodhicitta.  In fact, the entire Bodhisattva path only commences with the attainment of Bodhicitta which only comes through intuition—and I might add, a profound, ecstatic intuition.  If you are in the dark about this, you ain’t even close to grasping the wonders of Mahayana Buddhism or, for that matter, Buddhism itself.

Comments

[Frank]

In terms of laying the intellectual groundwork necessary to help us diminish suffering in the external world, the Greeks were superior; however, Buddhism claims another realm.

For me anyway, the whole issue is this: is this "mind" (in the Mahayana sense) something objectively "real"; that is, the "source" or is it some kind of illusion the physical brain produces during deep meditation?

Listen to the scientist at the latest EXPLORATIONS radio show (kpfa.org, I think) explain "out-of-body-experiences" in scientific terms.

If science does explain everything eventually, that would suck--and I do say "if"--but if that's the case, and there turns out to be no metaphysical, then we need to know that.

[Bodhiratna]

Great excellent post!

Reading the article with an open mind, one might be able to understand the underlying difficulty for an ordinary human to look within. However by understanding this, one can realize one has gone the wrong direction and the course to inner Wisdom has to be replotted.

Looking back at one's very own childhood through the eye of this toddler one can emphatically put himself/herself there and see how powerful phenomenon appearance was.

Furthermore, for an inverted mind, the many beliefs and convictions the child has learnt from childhood to adulthood are real to him. This is truth (to him) but it's also a distorted truth universally as we know from practicing Buddhism.

On the other hand, as the child grows up and if he is guided correctly he is taught phenomenon appearance is not the absolute and to see the absolute, one must literally has to step away from the body :). This is a task easy said than done as most of the world folks are not really interested in knowing the unseen source of life.

Thank for posting this enlightening article. BTW, is that toddler your grandson? wish he grows up to be a Buddhist just like you, and bring much light to the world! :)

Bodhiratna

[coochy-coo]

So, youre trying to say that the spirit/nous/citta/'mind' of everyone is perpetually and eternally objectively dirrected "life after life" except for those "rare few" who turn the citta in upon itself and are then deemed Uddhamsoto (up-stream-ers, at the source-waters, obtained the Absolute).

Yeah, thats more pithy.

I dont know about the "wonders of mahayana" as you say, buddhism is defunct, a rancid bovine carcus rotting in the sun. The spiritual intelligencia have turned to Greek Platonism for more specificity.

Namely all the Indian masters, Coomaraswamy, Radhakrishnan, etc., all turned, later in life, away from study of obtuse Indian metaphysica to that of the Greeks who were superior.