‘Mind and Mental Factors’
As taught by Ven. Geshe Sangey Thinley at Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling on Sunday 8th August 2004.
When we engage in Buddhist practice we should have a stable foundation. This refers to
having a positive motivation, which means recognising this precious life that we have, and
making the determination to use it properly for the sake of other living beings.
The aim of practicing Buddhism is to subdue our mind and discipline our mental attitude. If
we practice properly we will gain the result of practicing. We can become fully enlightened
and omniscient, or liberated from cyclic existence. At the very least we will be fearless at
death and can die peacefully without any regret. The main result of practicing and using
our lives meaningfully will be experienced in future lives; we will gain long term happiness in
future lives.
The proper practice of Dharma is to utilise the antidotes to minimise or eliminate disturbing
emotions. If we understand about impermanence and death we will be able to generate
antidotes like kindness, love, compassion and other good qualities of mind. Without any
understanding of impermanence and death our practice will not be as strong or genuine.
With it we will automatically engage in spiritual practice. Also, we will complete our practice
because we have conviction about the nature of life. Not thinking about impermanence and
death sufficiently, we may practice for a short time, then let it lapse or stop. So it's crucial to
understand thoroughly about impermanence and death.
Anyone who makes an effort can change.
I mean change our mental attitude. This isn't something that will happen immediately, it
takes a long time and a lot of hard work. In order to change and deal with emotions, it's
crucial to analyse and establish which thoughts are useful and of benefit to us. If we are
able to generate love, compassion and other positive qualities of mind, we become more
peaceful and experience more happiness. But, if we are more familiar with negative
emotions like anger and hatred we will experience unhappiness and frustration.
Regarding thoughts and emotion, there are many different kinds, and we need to examine
ourselves and try to adopt and cultivate the useful and positive ones, and deal with the
negative ones. When we engage in mundane activities we usually examine the situation
and do the things which are good for ourselves and others. For example, a gardener
should know the good plants from the bad ones; they nourish the good ones and uproot the
weeds or bad ones. Gardeners don't plant bad or poisonous plants, and when they see
them they uproot them. In the same way, we should analyse our mental states, cultivate
and nourish the good, beneficial ones and uproot and eliminate the negative emotions and
thoughts.
In general we speak about body and mind at the coarse level, but we can go much deeper.
Our bodies have many parts, and on a more subtle level are made up of many particles and
atoms. Similarly if we analyse our mind and mental factors, we can go deeply and find
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many levels. It's really worthwhile to examine our minds and think about our mental
attitudes, and to nourish and cultivate the constructive or positive ones and abandon the
harmful or negative ones. If we can become experts of our own minds we will be really
wise. To recognise and understand the constructive mental factors, then cultivate and
nourish them is really beneficial.
Do you think it is useful to do this for oneself?
According to Buddhism it is necessary to cultivate the beneficial and negative aspect of our
minds.
In Varanasi in India Buddha Shakyamuni taught the principles of The Four Noble Truths.
These are the foundation of the Buddha Dharma. To see that they are the foundation we
need to analyse and penetrate into them. Among the four, the third is known as The Truth
of Cessation. This refers to the state of mind that through practice and effort sees all the
negative emotions, and has been able to free itself completely from the effect of all negative
thoughts and emotions. According to Buddhism, such a state of true cessation is genuine
dharma, and is therefore the refuge that all practicing Buddhists seek. When we talk about
taking refuge, the ultimate refuge is the true cessation of all negative thoughts and
emotions. Someone who reaches this state is also an ultimate object of refuge. This
makes Buddha a true refuge because he has truly gained cessation of negative thoughts
and emotions. Similarly, the spiritual community or Sangha can be taken as an object of
refuge because they are on the path leading to that state of cessation. In general when we
speak of the spiritual community or Sangha these days, it refers to ordained people.
Actually it can mean anyone who practices Buddhism or has reached the state of true
cessation.
The true state of cessation can only be understood in terms of a state of mind that has been
purified of all negative thoughts and emotion, due to the application of antidotes. In order to
gain it ourselves we need to cultivate the antidotes to negative thoughts and emotions.
True cessation is a state of mind, and the factors that lead to this are also functions of the
mind. Also, the basis of which the purification takes place is the mental continuum.
Therefore an understanding of the nature of the mind is crucial for Buddhist practice. By
saying this I do not mean that everything that exists is simply a projection of the mind and
that apart from the mind nothing exists. However, because of the importance of
understanding the nature of the mind in Buddhism it is very important to examine and look
inwardly, and to distinguish between the different types of mind and mental factors - which
are beneficial and which are harmful. Disturbing emotions are the main obstacle to our
practice, and have to be dealt with. If we think carefully we can see that all our unpleasant
feelings, unhappiness and frustrations come from the disturbing emotions and delusions.
For example, when we get angry we feel unhappy.
But where did the anger come from?
It arises as a result of desire, clinging attachment or aversion, and from conceptual thought.
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Mind itself is not negative or destructive; its true nature is pure and clear. If it’s true nature
was non-virtuous or negative we would not be able to change it, but it becomes temporarily
clouded by disturbing emotions and other delusions. Negative thoughts and feelings are
not part of the mind, so if we use the right antidotes we can remove them. It's also
important to distinguish between body and mind in order to understand how we exist. On
examining our minds we can see two different types of feelings and thoughts - negative
ones and beneficial ones. We should try to cultivate and nourish the positive ones and
eliminate the negative ones. As a result we will experience more happiness and peace in
this life and, according to Buddhist belief we will experience more in future lives. We do
experience happiness and unhappiness in this life but, if we think logically we can see that
the mind is the main creator of this. So, if we think positively we will be able to experience
short and long term happiness.
In Buddhism we talk a lot about mind generation. This means expanding our minds, trying
to look at things from a wider perspective and thinking about other beings' happiness and
welfare. If we have a self-centred attitude we will experience unhappiness and find it
difficult to deal with other people.
If we can reduce our self-cherishing attitude and cherish others,
we will experience true happiness in this and future lives.
Speaking to people who are public spirited and have altruistic intentions makes us feel
better ourselves, but speaking to self-centred people can make us unhappy. So training
our minds, promoting the good qualities and eliminating the negative ones, is very
beneficial and it is very worthwhile putting the effort into doing it. Buddha Shakyamuni
became fully enlightened by training his mind. He achieved it by his own effort; he was not
such a being from the beginning. This indicates that if we make the effort and train in this
way we can achieve enlightenment too. So it is purposeful and meaningful to examine our
body and mind, and if we do this we can develop our good qualities. If we neglect it we will
remain the same.
We do some meditation on Sundays, and if you can meditate on love and compassion for
about five minutes it will be very useful for yourselves and others.
(Translated by Tsering Samdup: Transcribed by Ven. Ani Jampa Tseky: Typed out by Yvette Phillips: Lightly
edited for Dharma News by Ven. Ani Jampa Tsekyi.)
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