Tag: intention

Five Mental Factors

We talked about three types of mind last session. In today’s session, I want to continue discussion our mind in a bit detail. When it comes to function, mind can be divided into primary mind and mental factors. The primary mind is the same as what we call soul or consciousness. Mental factors are the ones that identify the attributes of an object. It is important to note that primary mind and mental factors are not two separate entities. You can think of primary mind as a flame and the mental factors are the rays of the flame—they are not separate from each other.

There are five mental factors and if one of them is missing our primary mind cannot cognize the object. These factors are: feeling, discrimination, intention, contact, and attention.

Feeling experiences an object as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Discrimination allows us to identify the object by distinguishing one object from another. Intention enables the mind towards the object and get involved with it. Contact perceives an object as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral and becomes the basis for our feelings. Attention focuses our mind on the object.

Let’s look at each one in a little depth starting with feeling. Feeling can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. One side note: enlightened beings only experience pleasant feelings. Beings in God realm and formless realm experience pleasant and neutral feelings. We in the human realm, experience all three types of feelings. Also of the note, when we are sleeping, we only experience neutral feelings. Except when we are dreaming then we can experience pleasant and unpleasant feelings as well.

General function of feeling is to experience the effects of previous actions or karma. Buddha said that fully ripened effects of karma can only be experienced on consciousness. Virtuous actions result in pleasant feelings, non-virtuous actions result in unpleasant feelings, and neutral actions result in neutral feelings. We tend to think that pleasant feelings come from pleasant objects and so on. But that is not the case, it completely depends on our karma. Take medicine for example. Same medicine that cures one person can have deadly reaction for another person.

Function of contaminated feeling is to induce three poisons in the form of attachment, hatred, and ignorance. For example, when we develop contaminated pleasant feeling, we develop craving or attachment. This is because of delusions that we carry with us from our past karma. If we have mastered our delusions, even when we get pleasant feelings, we would not create cravings or attachment. So it is important for us to become free from self-grasping. Once our self-grasping is gone, the feelings are pure and we can be free from attachment, anger, or ignorance.  Uncontaminated feelings on the other side are directly based on wisdom or true nature of phenomenon.

Next, let’s talk about discrimination. Every object has features that distinguishes itself from other objects. Function of discrimination is to apprehend one object from another. When our eye consciousness sees a tree, it recognizes the tree based on its characteristics. A newborn on the other hand, is unable to recognize a tree. I know discrimination has become a dirty word in our society but all discrimination means is “this” and not “that” nothing more, nothing less. Discrimination can be associated with six types: eye, ear, tongue, nose, body, and mental. If one of them is missing discrimination, it cannot identify an object. For example, if we have faulty eyesight, our eyes may not be able to discriminate objects clearly. This goes for all other types of discrimination.

Discrimination can be mistaken or unmistaken. We act destructively because of our delusions. All delusions are mistaken discrimination. For example, anger has mistaken discrimination that identifies an object as an inherently unpleasant and attachment has mistaken discrimination that identifies an object as an inherently pleasant. In reality, both of these are mistaken discrimination because an object is never pleasant or unpleasant from its own side, it is the mind that perceives it as such.

There are many causes of wrong discrimination such as previous karmic imprints, familiarity, listening to wrong advice, contemplating wrong reasons, etc. We all have seeds of mistaken discrimination but whether or not they ripen depends upon lifestyle choices we make. If we lead a non-virtuous life, we will tend to develop wrong thoughts as a way to justify our choices. Clear and correct discrimination helps us make positive choices when it comes to creating our karma.

Next is intention. Primary function of intention is to put a focus on the object. You will notice that sometimes you are seating in a room and your mind wanders off to a totally different place. This is because our intention associated with inner winds is carrying our mind to the object. Principal function of intention is to create karma. We talk about this when we study karma. Definition of karma is a body, speech, or mental actions initiated by mental intention. If there is no intention, there is no karma. We discussed this at length in our karma sessions.

Next is contact. Function of contact is to perceive the object as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Once it perceives the object as such, it then creates the appropriate feeling for that object. For example, if our tongue tastes sugar and finds it pleasant, it then develops a pleasant feeling. Contact is associated with six types: eye, ear, tongue, nose, body, and mental.

The final mental factor is attention. Attention has four functions: 1)to focus the mind on a particular object; 2) to fix the mind on that object; 3) to prevent the mind from moving from that object; and 4) to serve as a basis for mindfulness and concentration.

To develop mindfulness and concentration, we must develop strong and stable attention.

Karma is a B**ch

Let’s discuss Karma today. All of you have heard the phrase what goes around comes around. Or you reap what you sow. These are just reminders of how Karma works. Actually, Karma works in mysterious ways. But in general, virtuous Karma creates pleasant experiences and non-virtuous Karma creates unpleasant experiences. Let’s look at what is Karma. Karma is a body or speech action initiated by mental action. One cannot create Karma with just bodily action without a mental intention. For example, if I accidentally slap you when trying to get a bee out of your face, I do not create negative Karma since I did not have intention to slap you. So every time we create a mental action, it leaves what is known as a Karmic imprint on our mind. These karmic imprints ripen at different times based on its potentialities. Each one of us has a different individual Karma that explains why each one of us has a unique set of experiences. The laws of Karma are why every individual has a unique mental disposition, unique physical appearance, and unique experience. You may notice that some people are prone to accidents or illness while others enjoy pleasant experiences. Some people are difficult to please and others are happy no matter the circumstances. Our acquaintances and relationships are also based on Karma. You may have noticed that you have a very close relationship with someone and after some time they almost disappear from your life. Your friendships end sometimes abruptly and you never talk again to that person. This is because of your karmic relationship with that person and once Karma is used up, there is no more bond. One thing to understand is that Karma can ripen anytime. It is not necessary for one lifetime’s Karma to ripen in the same lifetime. In fact, often they don’t. This means Karma we have created may ripen if the appropriate circumstances and potentialities arise. That may explain why seemingly nice people sometimes end up suffering immense pain. There is also something called collective Karma. A group of people and their collective Karma ripen that creates external circumstances. For example, some places are always going through wars and atrocities that go along with it. Some places are prone to natural disasters and so on.  This is why we need to make sure that we avoid negative or non-virtuous actions. We must be mindful throughout the day to make sure that we are not creating negative Karma. When we are having a conversation, we must be careful as to what we say. Someone put it beautifully; before you say something or write something on a social media post, ask yourself, Is it True? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? If the answer to anyone of these questions is No, don’t do it.