Modified Religion by Maitreya

By letting you in to this little secret, you will find that you will have a new and better outlook of life. It is as if you were running in the rain while wearing your glasses, it can accumulate moisture in a surpringly short time. Once the downpour has stopped, you wipe your glasses, then you take a look at your surroundings. They are clearer and brighter. Of course, this is only the start of things but once the mind is open, other possibilities can happen.

All philosophies regarding the mind and the processes of thinking would be clearer too if they were examined under the light of the truth of the existence of the spirit. Immanuel Kant's a priori is a concept toward grasping this truth, but I could not understand why he still had to create a term for it. In some Buddhist texts, this is referred to as the essence of mind, as being that pure, incorruptible part of the human mind.

The essence of mind might have been referred to as such for purposes of discussion, meaning, there is consciousness of something pure while freely describing it. Since traditional Buddhism did not really incorporate the existence of the spirit in its philosophy, this essence of mind is, I believe, as close as it could get. It could also mean that the Buddha, while discussing this essence of mind with his disciples was explaining the lower end of the link between the spirit and the body or that which could be grasped through reason and logic to enlighten Ananda, his favorite disciple, and the others in the assembly. The truth of the spirit is beyond reason and logic, though both may show the way toward it. The Buddha might have been aware of the existence of the spirit when he referred to it as a part as the essence of mind.

Going further into Buddhist thought, he said that when we think, our mind discriminates, or compares or contrasts concepts and ideas which it wants to know about. When comparing, for example, apples and oranges, the apples are first seen against the pure essence of mind; they are not immediately contrasted against the oranges. After one bit of knowledge or result regarding the apple has been sounded-off from the pure essence of mind, this bit goes into the nearer edges of memory. The oranges are next seen against the essence of mind and the resulting bit of knowledge from the process of disriminating can remain in the consciousness ready to be vocalized or it can be placed in memory so that the other first bit of knowledge can be consciously chosen to be vocalized instead.

A computer has many kinds of memories in which data can be stored depending on the necessesity and use--RAM, extended, virtual, and hard disk. The human mind however has only the consciousness and the subconscious. There is no RAM in which a bit of information is temporarily designated while it is being thought about or needed. It looks as if there were a RAM while the thinking process is going on; actually, the bit is in memory but because the line to the consciousness is open, the bit appears as if it were in RAM. We can call this state as RAM or some other term, but why? The bit is still in memory (only it is being acted upon) and memory has always been part of the subconscious so it is still memory. To be a little more precise, memory would be those bits of information at the edges of the subsconcious which are being acted upon. Memory is not a place in the subconscious; it is a process whereby the bit of information is being discriminated upon by the mind or intellect.

From hereon, there is only the mind and the subconscious; the mind goes into the nearer portions of the subsconscious which we know as memory to get a bit of information which then it will disrciminate or think or reflect upon. This will create consciousness. It is very unlikely that the mind can get into the depths of the subsconscious; if it could, this may cause problems, hence as nature's protection, it can only process information which are linked. How data is transferred from the subconscious and become linked is another matter; if this were easily done, then man would have a perfect memory.

Understanding this does not prove that there is a God or a spirit, it does not even make one religious or spiritual. It does remove some clutter in the mind when one begins to understand that 1) the mind can think of only one item at a time and 2) such thinking process, particularly the bit of information, is done against the pure essence of mind.

The term nirvana, which can be found both in the Hindu and Buddhist religions may be explained at this point. It is not nothingness as those with no intellect say because as we have seen previously, whether the mind is discriminating or thinking or reflecting or whatever it is doing, the essence of mind remains pure and unaffected. Now when the discriminating stops, there is still the essence of mind, naturally. It does not arise because there are bits of information to be analyzed; whether it is being active or not, it exists. When focus is on the essence of mind, and there are no thoughts of discrimination, memory and the subconscious, there is nirvana.

Sounds very philosophical. A simpler and practical way of understanding nirvana is when there is negation of vices, the road to achieving nirvana is already being traversed. It is not abruptly stopping the thinking or discriminating processes that nirvana maybe understood; it takes an open mind, without being biased on the bits of information, to be able to see the essence of mind.

In Buddhist thought, the absolute acceptance of the existence and reality of the Overlord does not form Buddhist dogma. This is understandable because including it as part of Buddhist dogma would only raise questions and complicate matters, it might even turn the attention of the practitioner away from the middle path. The middle path is supposed to be a way of living to achieve the highest purpose which can be reached while alive--which is nirvana. If nirvana were achieved while in the physical life, the rest being spiritual would come by themselves. Buddha knew that people during his time, like we do now, wanted results asap, immediately, pronto. It would have been of little use if he preached about the rewards of the next life. Like today, most people cannot wait until the next life to experience heaven and bliss. They want to experience heaven on earth without putting the effort. They want to have happiness without giving up something in return. They mistake material happiness as the ultimate reward. There is nothing wrong in desiring these, however, there is no 3-minute instant access to things spiritual.

We know that the existence of the spirit it not completely ignored in Buddhism because there are references to reincarnation: the past lives of the Buddha. Nevertheless, he said that the ultimate goal of all his teachings was to achieve nirvana; something that can be reached and understood without having to wait until the next life.

I remember chatting once to a Catholic Filipino lady who was in Malaysia. We got talking about life and religion and she seemed unhappy while living in another country. She told me her guiding philosophy in life were "Stay focused" and "Be contented". I told her mine was "Keep an open mind" and "Strive". There was a stalemate in our dialogue. It was the end of what might have been a happy relationship.

MODIFIED RELIGION
by Maitreya

The Mind

MODIFIED RELIGION by Maitreya

The Mind

MODIFIED RELIGION
by Maitreya