IN this page we will introduce the power of our mind.
FROM the experiences of Yogacara’s practitioners, we know that “Everything we can see, we can hear, we can think of in this world, are all created from our mind, the developments and activities of our mind.” Through the hard practice of deep meditation, we might have a chance to get the whole picture of this “Power of Our Mind”.
OUR mind contains all kinds of different consciousness, the perceptual and cognitive consciousness, the awareness consciousness, the ego individuality consciousness, the database consciousness … . All the consciousnesses have their own function and efficacy, but most of the time the ego consciousness try to defile other consciousnesses.
ALL the things(External appearance such as trees, houses, rivers, clouds, beings, movies, stories … etc.), we can see, can hear, can think of no matter beautiful or ugly, good or bad, right or wrong are the products of notions. And all the notions are created by our mind, from this point of view, we can say that all the things in this world are the projections of our mind.
WHEN the things are changed, such as friends become enemies, these do not mean that the “external appearance” or “something we have seen” are changed, in reality that our mind are changed or our point of view are changed.
WHEN someone who can deeply examine and understand the religious practice, he or she will definitely experience that both their body and mind and the outside world(External appearance) become THE WHOLE ONE completely .
WHEN someone who does more cultivation in religious self-discipline or attending to spiritual things, one will feel more that one’s mind is limitless and infinite in depth, length and breadth. And one will really feel that the external appearance is part of one’s mind, the external appearance belongs to one’s internal world.
WHEN Yogacara’s practitioners are in deep meditation, they always experience naturally(Come very naturally) that their mind are all over, their mind can include all things. They even experience that all things in the universe are the projections of their mind.
LIKE we mentioned above, the mind contains all kinds of consciousness. To purify consciousnesses in our mind is one of the most important purpose of practicing medication.
THE function of the awareness consciousness is just to experience at the time of things presenting. This consciousness can not think, can not distinguish, can not decide, is the most straightforward original reaction.
THE perceptual and cognitive consciousness might be the most important consciousness in our mind, usually we call this consciousness “Mind”, this consciousness can think, can distinguish, can feel, can create, can decide, can do almost everything. This consciousness has the Will or Intention of mercy, joys, obtaining, giving, … etc. This consciousness starts, pushes, and completes our thinking, talking, and acting. And most of all this consciousness has feeling(Emotion or passion), this is the only consciousness has feeling in our mind.
THE ego consciousness is a consciousness that always persists in self. All the prejudice, deviation, stubbornness, monomania, conceit, rude, pride, haughty, impudent, and the entanglements of love and desire are all created by this consciousness.
THE ego consciousness is located in deep area of our mind, and very hard to observe, notice, and find out, therefore, to get rid of this consciousness is a doubly difficult thing.
BEFORE we talk about the Database consciousness (Storehouse consciousness), we should understand some ideas first, if we understand the meaning of “The burden of sin, Chain of cause and effect, Retribution”, and think it deeper, maybe we could understand the meaning of “The total accumulation of thoughts and actions which determines or influences person’s future”. Let’s call it “The Accumulation”.
THE principal part of consciousnesses is the Database Consciousness, from this consciousness arise all of our ideas of self and the whole external world.
THE Database consciousness contains seeds or causes, these seeds all created by previous “The Accumulation” activities (The seeds of all habit energies and impressions from beginningless time) or transmitted to it by the ego consciousness. The Database consciousness is vast and unfathomable.
THE universe of many universes arise from the projection of “The Accumulation” activities of the individual Database consciousness and other hundreds of millions Database consciousness ever since from the beginningless time.
“THE Accumulation” and our mind are cannot be separated in some way, it because that “The Accumulation” is the force or power and the result of the activity of our mind. Beings produce automatically “The Accumulation” because of their mind, and the surroundings are arising automatically because of the projection of “The Accumulation” activities.
MORE ABOUT the Database Consciousness – Store Consciousness
THE Database Consciousness, we can call it “Unconscious” or “Collective Unconscious”, is like database, which contains all kinds of seeds of “Free”, “Not Free” and good habitual temperament, bad habitual temperament.
THIS store consciousness keeps all the “The Accumulation”, make “The Accumulation” forever alive, “The Accumulation” may die in this life but will rebirth in another life in different time and space.
THE function of the Database Consciousness is automatic and involuntary functioning, that is why sometimes we call it “Unconsciousness”.
THE Database Consciousnesses are like a vast warehouse and share everything with universes. These store consciousnesses hoard all kinds of impressions, habitual temperaments, and seeds of “The Accumulation” of the past and present lifes. Image how huge are these store consciousnesses.
ALL consciousnesses arise from the Database consciousness, if there is no Database consciousness, there are no other consciousnesses. The latent force and capability of this consciousness is deep, impenetrable, immense, beyond we can imagine. Sometimes we call Database consciousness “Universal Mind”.
IDEAS ABOUT MIND
TO understand our mind is the first step for those who are interested in upgrading themselves seriously. Mind is the starting point and terminal point for all things. In Buddhist practice, to comprehend factually the real nature of one’s mind is the true meaning of teaching or doctrine. We have to understand, judge, and reach this IDEAL with our MIND.
WHEN people talk about mind, as a matter of fact, is a very small part of the MIND, the great part of the MIND usually lies in the deepest part of the MIND, it is almost impossible for us to see through it.
THE word “Enlightenment” in Buddhist world means that ONE perceives one’s deepest part of MIND. This deepest part of MIND usually we call it “Unconscious”, when someone who makes the little part of unconsciousness conscious, we can say that someone comes to realize the truth of something. And when someone can perceive or comprehend the whole mind vertically and horizontally or lengthwise and crosswise, we can call someone “Enlightened”(Completely comprehend the unconditioned and unchanging reality, perceive the true nature of human being, free of delusion …).
WHEN we reach this level, we should understand that perceiving the WHOLE MIND means seeing through the real feature of the Database Consciousness. When we do not perceive the WHOLE MIND we call that Database consciousness Contaminating or Polluting Database consciousness, when we do perceive the WHOLE MIND we call that Database consciousness Immaculacy Database consciousness(Not bothered by material concerns).
THE territories of human beings always are separate, such as: affection and wisdom, life and death, body and soul, consciousness and unconsciousness, …. To teach people to understand “Becoming the whole one” (Put all the separation together) and do their best to reach that level should be the HIGHEST purpose of all religions. The level of no separation, such as: no difference and contradictory between affection and wisdom, no difference and contradictory between the smaller material self and the greater spiritual self, no difference and no stand opposite each other between life and death, being and not being, consciousness and uncsonsciousness ….
WHEN the Yogacara’s practitioners are in deep meditation experienced that our mind has four kind of status: the awakening, the dream, the sleep, and the enlightenment.
WHEN in awakening, our mind is in opposite world, our mind does not have enough power to affect surroundings, but surroundings affect our mind very huge. This level is very far away from the “Unconsciousness” or “Original Nature”, because our mind has only very little freedom.
WHEN in dream, the world our mind facing and climbing up is not the outside material surroundings but the inside world which is the projection of our mind. In this status, our mind is not affected by the outside surroundings, therefore it has more freedom and is closer to the “Unconsciousness” or “Original Nature”.
WHEN in sleep, our mind is in the status of unconsciousness, it is also the head determining factor of all consciousnesses, when in deep sleep, the mind does not separate difference and dispute, does not climb up socially with surroundings, and does not have any desire. But in this status, the Database consciousness(Unconsciousness) will develop great latent force or energy, because of that, the Database consciousness can do all kinds of marvellous things, such as:
IT will guide the body to do all kinds of renovation(Optimum Operation) for all organs(Generally the renovation will be going on between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.), and remember this renovation work cannot be done by any other consciousness. Sometimes in deep sleep the unconsciousness discover some important events will happen in the future and try to give the consciousness warnings, eventually the unconsciousness produces different ominous dreams. It is unbelievable! That is why we call the Database consciousness(Unconsciousness) the Wisdom Level.
ENLIGHTENMENT Level:
IN general condition, from dream status to awakening status, the mind has to do it through the unconscious sleep status. Same reason, from the Perceptual and Cognitive consciousness to the Enlightenment, the mind has to do it through the unconscious. The enlightenment can be reached either by deep meditation or sleep. Sound is easy, huh.
THE Enlightenment, is neither conscious nor unconscious, cannot be seen, cannot be solicited, cannot be swum across, cannot be pondered, cannot be analyzed mentally, cannot be philosophized, cannot be found, cannot be examined, cannot be communicated, cannot be described. The level of Enlightenment: there is no phenomena(materiality or not-materiality) at all, is the place(Not physical place) of great tranquility, great happiness, and the WHOLE ONE.
NOW is the question: Everyone has this kind of experiences of deep sleep(The level of unconsciousness), but why we cannot reach the level of Enlightenment.
THE answer is: when we are although in deep sleep but there is no bright awareness, think the word that we mentioned “Make unconscious conscious”.
THE Enlightenment is in the status of no separation, difference, and contradictory. This is the place(Not physical place) which we mentioned: the consciousness and unconsciousness become the “WHOLE ONE”.
THE Database consciousness contains seeds generated by our unenlightened actions, these actions include all kinds of pollution, such as greed, hate, and ignorance. But the Database consciousness also contains seeds, these are not bothered by material concerns. Our born conscience, our born impulse of seeking after acme of perfection and true, and the religious desire are the essential functions of Original Nature seeds in Database consciousness. These original nature seeds give us super wisdom and power when we are in deep sleep or psychological status.
THE Database consciousness has its own language, and always tries to communicate with the consciousness or transmit some special information to the consciousness. The problem is that the Database consciousness cannot be its own master and is unconscious, therefore it does not have any system and regulation. The way that the Database consciousness transmits its opinions and desires to the consciousness is the dreams most of the time.
ACCORDING to the Buddhist Scripture, we know that there are four kinds of dreams:
THE first kind of dreams are from profoundly habitual temperament which are produced by all kinds of ignorant worries.
THE second kind of dreams are from special events which happened in the past lives and are stored in the Database consciousness. Such as we dream places we have never been before or people we have never seen before.
THE third kind of dreams are from vicissitudes and functions of physiological reasons. Such as the sense organs are emotional upset, these are the most popular reasons which cause the dreams.
THE fourth kind of dreams are from the Database consciousness(Unconsciousness), the Database consciousness has special functions or ability which can predict the events happen in the future, when unconsciousness wants to warn the consciousness, usually do it through dreams
MORE about the Database Consciousness
Everybody has Database consciousness, so there must be a common or collective point for these Database consciousnesses, we call this “Collective Unconsciousness”. When in deep dream or the status of trance, all races in this world had produced all kinds of collective projections of their mind, and most of them are in religious field because of the demand of protection, such as: Myths of the Child-Hero, Myths of the Androgyne(Male-Female Synthesis), Goddess Myths, Myths of the Eternal Return, Myths of Polarity(Light & Darkness, Order & Chaos), and etc.
HERE, we would like to talk little bit about Myths of the Androgyne, this is the myths of Male and Female becoming ONE. The Shiva, one of the main gods in Hindu, whose statuary is a combination of half male and half female, this is the best example of Myths of the Androgyne. In China, the Chinese ancient philosophers invented the deepest theory of Male and Female combination called YIN (Female) and YANG (Male), the title for the theory is TAI CHI, the point of this theory is that everything in this world are the combinations of Yin and Yang, think it deeper, for example: “Inside” and “Outside”, “Back” and “Front”, “Bad” and “Good”, “Hate” and “Love”, … etc. And all the statuses in our daily life we face no matter material or non-material are produced by Mutual reinforcement and neutralization(Counteraction) of the Yin and Yang. How to practice the theory of the Tai-Chi in our daily life is the basic and most important subject for the practitioners of the “I-Ching” and “Feng-Shui”, because they may benefit people’s life but also will destroy people’s life.
MIND and Surroundings:
ALL things in surroundings are the projections of our mind, mind and surroundings are just the same one, which are like water and waves with same essence. If there is no hindrance in the mind, then there should be no hindrance in all things that are the projections of the mind. Generally there are all kinds of hindrance in the material world, and most of the things have different obstacle of substance, because of this, there is no mutual entering no mutual comprising between things and things, such as stones, cars, houses.
WHEN pouring milk into water, these two things automatically become “Mutual entering and mutual comprising”, from this point of view, for MIND to reach the level of mutual entering mutual comprising is much easier and possible, because the substance of our mind is much lighter than water or milk. But the problem is that our mind are always constrained and limited by “Egocentricity” and the “Collective Accumulation”, this is the level we are in, the level of projections of hundreds of millions individual egocentricity, so there is no way for us to reach the level of “Mutual entering and mutual comprising” unless we can get rid of the problem first.
EVERYTHING we mentioned in this page are not the philosophical questions or theories but something we can prove it through the experience of practicing or acting.
THE universal drama as a matter of fact is just a huge dream that beyond we can imagine. Some people are in the dream of sorrow, distress, and misery. Some people are in the dream of pleasure, joy, and happiness. And all the things in the dreams are just the projections of our own mind.
WHEN we wake up from dreams, will find out everything in dreams are absolutely preposterous and no body will take it seriously. When we wake up from this huge universal drama dream, will discover the dream of eternal cycle of birth and death is a really laughable, ridiculous, and grievous thing also.
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Do the thoughts ever stop
Removal of the thoughts
Lankavatara Sutra
Mind Nuture
Impermenance
Idea of Samadhi
Attachment-The biggest problem on Earth
Everything comes from the Mind
The Saying of Shakyamuni Buddha