Looking For Trouble
by Roshi Hogen Berman
I perceive that the major problems of thinking beings are related to
conscience; fear, grief, love (of the clinging type), desire (for things to be
the way we want them to be rather than as they really are), the search for
truth, and God or Gods (i.e. religious philosophy or way of life).
Then too, their ignorance or lack of understanding of the reasons for their
existence in this life cycle and their wind-mill-(a la Don Quixote)-like chase
for the original cause of a problem, whose answer may be painted on his
forehead; but man generally does not have the mental capacity to grasp it. I
am not simply calling all other men fools for their searches and their
emotions and feelings, I have expended a large part of my adult life
meditating and contemplating these factors. I think that I, like all other
living beings, have been greatly troubled by them in the past. I use the term
"in the past" since all of these aspects of man's mind, including this life
and that which we call death are all in the past and transient conditions. I
like to believe that I have transcended the transient.
This is not such a big deal really, many men have in essence shouted, "God,
Lord of the universe, heap worldly gifts at the feet of fools, while on my
head, pour the sweet waters of an untroubled mind." It seems strange to me
that one of the major causes of suffering and woe in this life is each
individual's own personal conscience. The fact of the matter is, the
conscience is a no-thing. It is a formation of our mind. It is a name we use
for communicative purposes when we want to refer to feelings of guilt or shame
when it is experienced by our conscious mind when we think or carry out
actions that are in conflict with what we know as wholesome, ethical, and
moral. Such acts (even though only on a mental plane if not manifested as
physical actions), are usually in opposition to the dictates of our character
and personality and the mores of our social and family community. Even when we
act and think, "my conscience does not bother me," this is not indicative that
the action was wholesome or unwholesome, good or evil, it only means that such
acts violated or did not violate our characters perception of right and wrong.
Ironically much of what we perceive as "right" and "wrong" is based upon how
we have been programmed by the society in which we have been raised. Thus in
one social setting one may gain glory as a "thug" and in another, one would be
sent to prison for such actions. There doesn't seem to be universal agreement
as to what is right and wrong.
The dictionary defines "conscience" as
1) A knowledge or sense of right and wrong, with a compulsion to do right;
moral judgment that opposed the violation of a previously recognized "ethical"
principle and that leads to feelings of guilt if one violates such principles.
2) Consciousness, inner thoughts or feelings.
We can certainly agree with the first definition if one's concepts of right
and wrong can be thought of "in relationship to a specific social community".
I keep trying to make this point of "right" and "wrong" being related to
communities and I think that is a truth. As an example, in most civilized
western communities adultery is considered a "wrong" or "unwholesome" action.
In the Christian commandments it states adultery is wrong and in the Buddhist
precepts it recommends one avoid sexual misconduct if they want to eliminate
suffering from their life. Yet, in some western and Asian communities, among
certain social classes, adultery is not frowned upon unless it is flaunted and
brings public embarrassment to another party. It is not considered a serious
violation of social ethics. At the other end of the spectrum is the viewpoint
of adultery in the Arab countries where even today, adulterers and
adulteresses are stoned to death. In the United States people are no longer
prosecuted for adultery, it is considered a minor offence possibly not even
a misdemeanor.
Conscience is, in my mind, a very peculiar "thing" if we can call it a
"thing". The other day at lunch I was timing an extremely slow waitress using
my calendar, rather than my stopwatch (the waitress was that slow), and I
thought this about the conscience and our consciousness: One of the things
that strikes me as very unusual about both of them is that they rise up out of
something that can be called matter and energy, our human body and its parts.
I would guess that we could safely call the human body parts matter, which
automatically makes them energy and from this mass rises the mind, conscience
and a rather complex mess called consciousness. All three of the items must be
thought of as no-things because they do not consist of any apparent material
matter, but yet it would appear they are loaded with energy. And the three of
them certainly are a major source of trouble and joy, and admittedly life
itself, for the human being. The reality is that it is not particularly
unusual for a mixture of matter and various chemicals to produce a different
by-product. For example we only need to look at the recipe for a cake to see
this happening before our eyes. Often too, the item created as a result of a
certain mixture may not have a form of matter or material body of any kind. It
may be what we consider a no-thing such as the rising of the consciousness,
the conscience and the mind. Team spirit, loyalty, espirit de corps are
examples of this phenomena. Even further we can simply mention all of our
"feelings" are no-things which rise out of another no-thing, the mind.
Buddhist Psychology
In Buddhist psychology there is no denial that man's circumstances and
environment largely condition him. However, such conditioning cannot be
thought of as absolute. Greater importance must be given to the "Citta" (Pali
for "thought moment") of choice. That is, that moment of thought that arises
in one's consciousness in response to a situation in which we are free to act
in any number of different ways. It is well known that in such circumstances
our character traits, that, in fact, are our propensities from the past, impel
us, almost with irresistible force, toward one particular course of action.
The consciousness during that Citta (thought moment) may simply follow the
urging of our character or by exercising our volition, it may react as
suggested by the intellectual mind or consciousness on the basis of recently
learned, but not yet tried and proven responses. Keeping in mind that
regardless of the depth of our past experiences, which are the basis for many
of our character traits and propensities, the current situation and the past
are never the same.
All existence in this universe is in a constant state of flux and fluidity.
Thus we should look to the process of character development and systematically
cultivate the wholesome urges and eradicate the unwholesomeness. By this
practice we would lay the foundation for the reaching a point where eventually
we live out life by simply following our propensities and taking what might be
called "non-thinking action."
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