2.3: Mindfulness (c): The Contemplation of Mind (Mental States)

[Full title: 2.3—The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (c): The Contemplation of Mind (Mental States)]

The third is the contemplation of mind or consciousness. It is usually translated as mind, but writer think consciousness is a better translation. The Pāli word is “citta.” This means consciousness. In Buddhist psychology, mind is composed of four things. So what we call “mind” is a group of or combination of four things. Sometimes there may be confusion regarding these terms: mind and consciousness. Let us say mind is composed of two things first, consciousness and mental factors. Consciousness is defined as the awareness of an object. Here awareness is not like awareness in the practice of meditation. It is just mere awareness. It is like I am aware of someone there although I am looking this way. That kind of awareness is called consciousness. At least, it is called consciousness in Abhidhamma. The English word may mean more or less than that, I am not sure.

Please note that although we use the word consciousness for the word “citta,” it is not an exact translation of the word. Consciousness is defined as a mental state which is the awareness of the object. Only when there is awareness of the object can there be contact with the object, feeling of the object, liking of the object, disliking of the object and so on. So, these mental states are subordinate to consciousness, but they are also components of the mind. So, mind is first divided into two–consciousness and mental factors. Contact, feeling, perception, attention, like, dislike and so on are all called mental factors. According to Abhidhamma there are fifty-two of them, and these fifty-two are grouped into three–feeling, perception and mental formations. So when we add consciousness to these three we get four kinds of mental states. It’s amazing that the Buddha could define and differentiate each of these mental states that arise simultaneously taking the same object.

When we practice meditation and say “sorrow, sorrow,” that means we have a consciousness accompanied by sorrow or something like that. It could be contemplation on consciousness. When I say, “angry, angry,” I am doing contemplation of consciousness.

Lord Buddha showed:

And how does a monk remain focused on the mind in and of itself? There is the case where a monk, when the mind has passion, discerns that the mind has passion. When the mind is without passion, he discerns that the mind is without passion. When the mind has aversion, he discerns that the mind has aversion. When the mind is without aversion, he discerns that the mind is without aversion. When the mind has delusion, he discerns that the mind has delusion. When the mind is without delusion, he discerns that the mind is without delusion.

He continued:

When the mind is restricted, he discerns that the mind is restricted.

When the mind is scattered, he discerns that the mind is scattered.

When the mind is enlarged, he discerns that the mind is enlarged. When the mind is not enlarged, he discerns that the mind is not enlarged. When the mind is surpassed, he discerns that the mind is surpassed. When the mind is unsurpassed, he discerns that the mind is unsurpassed. When the mind is concentrated, he discerns that the mind is concentrated. When the mind is not concentrated, he discerns that the mind is not concentrated. When the mind is released, he discerns that the mind is released. When the mind is not released, he discerns that the mind is not released.^[1]

The above quotation shows that you should be fully aware of the fact whenever your mind is passionate or detached, whenever it is overpowered by hatred, ill-will, jealousy, or is full of love, compassion, whenever it is deluded or has a clear and right understanding, and so on and so forth. We must admit that very often we are afraid or ashamed to look at one’s own mind as one looks at one’s face in a mirror.^[2]

Here is no attitude of criticising or judging, or discriminating between right and wrong, or good and bad. It is simply observing, watching, examining. You are not a judge, but a scientist. When you observe your mind, and see its true nature clearly, you become dispassionate with regard to its emotions, sentiments and states. Thus you become detached and free, so that you may see things as they are.

Let us take one example. Say you are really angry, overpowered by anger, ill-will, and hatred. It is curious, and paradoxical, that the man who is in anger is not really aware, not mindful that he is angry. The moment he becomes aware and mindful of that state of his mind, the moment he sees his anger, it becomes, as if it were, shy and ashamed, and begins to subside. You should examine its nature, how it arises, how it disappears. Here again it should be remembered that you should not think ‘I am angry,’ or of ‘my anger,’ You should only be aware and mindful of the state of an angry mind. You are only observing and examining an angry mind objectively. This should be the attitude with regard to all sentiments, emotions, and states of mind.

Again it is said in the commentary: “Consciousness has the manifestation of continuity.” As you meditate rising, falling , etc., the mind sometimes wanders away. You note it and it disappears. Then another consciousness comes up. You note it and it disappears. Again another consciousness appears. Again you note it and again it disappears. Again another comes up. You have to note lots of such comings up and goings away of consciousness. The meditator comes to realize: “Consciousness is a succession of events that come up and go away one after another. When one disappears, another appears.” Thus you realize the continuous manifestation of consciousness. The meditator who realizes this also realizes death and birth. “Death is nothing strange after all. It is just like the passing away of the consciousness I have been noting. To be born again is like the coming up of the consciousness I am now noting that has risen in continuation of the one preceding it.”

To show that one can understand the characteristic, function and manifestation of things even though one has not learnt about them, we have taken the air-element out of the material qualities and the unpleasant feeling and consciousness out of the mental qualities. You just have to meditate on them as they arise. The same applies to all the other mental and material qualities. If you meditate on them as they arise, you will understand their characteristics, function and manifestation. The beginner in meditation can meditate on and understand the mental-material aggregates of grasping only by way of these characteristics, function and manifestation. At the initial stage with the analytical knowledge of mind and matter and the knowledge by discerning conditionality, which are elemental in insight meditation, understanding that much is enough. When you come to real insight knowledges like the knowledge of investigation, you know the characteristics, impermanence, suffering, and not self as well.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Majjihima-Nikāya I. p. 76-7.

[2]:

Majjihima-Nikāya I. p. 100.