Traditional Quotes and Symbols
As the clouds arise, pass, become transformed and dissolve in the open sky, so also is it with the passions in the mind of the wise man.
Contemplation of the mind:
The term vedana can mean not only feeling, but also emotion or sentiment, and we can pass naturally from the sphere of the second contemplation to that of the third, which aims at awakening "knowledge" in the presence of all states and changes of one's mind. The canonical formula is: "An ascetic knows the craving mind as craving and the non-craving mind as non-craving; the hateful mind as hateful and the non-hateful mind as non-hateful: the deluded mind as deluded and the undeluded mind as undeluded; the concentrated mind as concentrated and the distracted mind as distracted ; the upward-tending mind as upward tending and the mind of low feeling as of low feeling ; the noble mind as noble and the common mind as common; the tranquil mind as tranquil and the anxious mind as anxious — he knows the liberated mind as liberated and the bound mind as bound.”
This means that, in the first place, one must cultivate an attitude of absolute, inflexible sincerity and objectivity with regard to one’s interior, psychological and emotive life. In the second place, we are again concerned with the energy that is aroused by the disidentifying “insight”. The sign that progress has been achieved on this road is one’s ability to regard one’s own emotions, feelings, states of mind and passions as if they were another’s — as though, naturally, they were taking place in someone about whom one were quite indifferent and who served merely as an object of observation.
Once again, the aim is an active form of de-personalisation. A text reads:
"As the clouds arise, pass, become transformed and dissolve in the open sky, so also is it with the passions in the mind of the wise man.” In its liberty and intangibility, the mind of the wise man is thus likened to the sky. As its clarity is unaltered by the changing vicissitudes of the clouds, so his mind is unchanged by the passions and emotions which form, transform and pass away there according to their laws. As the Bhagavadgitá speaks of one who "does not desire desire, into whom, instead, all desires flow as the waters flow into the sea which, [continually] refilled, [yet] remains unchanged”, so in Buddhism the ideal state is likened to the “depths of the ocean, where no waves arise, but where calm reigns”. We shall find other cosmic and elemental images of liberty and intangibility when we discuss the „irradiant contemplations”. Here, this serves but as a signpost to point out the way of contemplation.
As the clouds arise, pass, become transformed and dissolve in the open sky, so also is it with the passions in the mind of the wise man.
Contemplation of the mind:
The term vedana can mean not only feeling, but also emotion or sentiment, and we can pass naturally from the sphere of the second contemplation to that of the third, which aims at awakening "knowledge" in the presence of all states and changes of one's mind. The canonical formula is: "An ascetic knows the craving mind as craving and the non-craving mind as non-craving; the hateful mind as hateful and the non-hateful mind as non-hateful: the deluded mind as deluded and the undeluded mind as undeluded; the concentrated mind as concentrated and the distracted mind as distracted ; the upward-tending mind as upward tending and the mind of low feeling as of low feeling ; the noble mind as noble and the common mind as common; the tranquil mind as tranquil and the anxious mind as anxious — he knows the liberated mind as liberated and the bound mind as bound.”
This means that, in the first place, one must cultivate an attitude of absolute, inflexible sincerity and objectivity with regard to one’s interior, psychological and emotive life. In the second place, we are again concerned with the energy that is aroused by the disidentifying “insight”. The sign that progress has been achieved on this road is one’s ability to regard one’s own emotions, feelings, states of mind and passions as if they were another’s — as though, naturally, they were taking place in someone about whom one were quite indifferent and who served merely as an object of observation.
Once again, the aim is an active form of de-personalisation. A text reads:
"As the clouds arise, pass, become transformed and dissolve in the open sky, so also is it with the passions in the mind of the wise man.” In its liberty and intangibility, the mind of the wise man is thus likened to the sky. As its clarity is unaltered by the changing vicissitudes of the clouds, so his mind is unchanged by the passions and emotions which form, transform and pass away there according to their laws. As the Bhagavadgitá speaks of one who "does not desire desire, into whom, instead, all desires flow as the waters flow into the sea which, [continually] refilled, [yet] remains unchanged”, so in Buddhism the ideal state is likened to the “depths of the ocean, where no waves arise, but where calm reigns”. We shall find other cosmic and elemental images of liberty and intangibility when we discuss the „irradiant contemplations”. Here, this serves but as a signpost to point out the way of contemplation.