Scientia Causarum Sufficientium

Everything perceived in the physical and mental universes exist because there is, or was, an adequate cause for it. This cause may or may not be apparent to any particular observer. But it exists all the same.

Scientia means "knowing" from the Latin scio: I know.

The Science of Adequate Causes is a process which starts with the Effect which is perceptible and investigates it in order to know the adequate Cause which makes (or made) it possible. In this way one comes to understand things. One sees how things are. One may not approve of what one sees. One often doesn't. There is an adequate cause for that too.

Everything is understandable but it takes an honest and detached mind, a longer or shorter period of time and perseverance to realise it.

The mind is naturally curious unless it has been interfered with by others (parents, society, educationists, dictators etc.) who try to make it work in directions which they consider desirable. When its curiosity is aroused, it is not normally satisfied until it comes up with a satisfactory answer. In this sense it doesn't mean that the answer is one that one approves of; simply that it makes sense. Why is there a dead blackbird on the lawn? Investigation reveals that the cat killed it. The mind is satisfied that this an adequate explanation. It may also decide to put a bell round the animal's neck to make sure that another similar effect is not produced in the future.

NEW PROJECT: The Science of Adequate Results.


SCIENTIA CAUSARUM SUFFICIENTIUM

When we were very young
we dug up the ground
to find Australia.
Australia was out.
A few old toys were all we found.

Because we were here
we wanted to be there.
Because we were dark
we wanted to be fair.
Because we were thin
we wanted to be fat.
Because we were this
we wanted to be that.

We longed for the country
for we lived in the town.
We wished we could have fair skin
because our skin was brown.
We had black hair
but we prayed for gold.
Because we were very young
we wanted to be old.

When we were very young
we dug up the ground
to find Australia.


THE SCIENCE OF ADEQUATE CAUSES

Trace it all back as far as you can
from where it is now to where it began.
From knife to hand
from hand to eye;
from footprints on sand
to sun in the sky.

Trace it back further to where it begins
to the gateways and windows where all things get in.
The scent is not the rose
but the hairs that line the nose.
The seascape is the roving eye,
the tongue is the taste not the apple pie.
Mozart is what you hear
and his place is in the ear.

And all the subtle sensations that impinge upon the skin
flare their little on/off switches
in the mind that shines within.

WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO WHAT?

In the pursuit of Pleasure
and the avoidance of Pain,
we come back for ever
again and again.

And though we remembered,
we also forgot.

Why is it that you don't want to what?


New Project: Scientia Causarum Sufficientium

Māra

Māra is the deity ruling over the highest heaven in the sensuous sphere (kāmāvacara). This is the heaven of the paranimmitavasavatti-devas, "deities wielding power over the creations of others." Māra followed the Buddha, looking for a weakness in him, for six years before his Enlightenment and one year after it. He also tried to persuade the Buddha not to teach others the method of putting an end to suffering. He reappeared again before the Buddha's Parinibbāna and urged him on, not wanting him to continue teaching the way out from suffering.

Māra is seen as the Tempter who encourages beings to believe that the satisfaction of sensual desires is the highest form of existence ("eat, drink and be merry"). There are many people who agree wholeheartedly with this and they live their lives accordingly.

The Buddha, on the other hand, says, "eat, drink and be merry" is all very well, but "tomorrow we die". That is, in order to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, we have to have senses. In order to get senses we have to be born. When we are born, we don't only enjoy sense pleasures, we also get sickness, old age and death. The only way to avoid the suffering which is experienced between birth and death is not to be born again.

If we take the view that death is the end of it all, then we could say, " Since we only live once, we might as well make the most of it and satisfy the pleasures of our senses as much as we can while we still have them."

If "we only live once", this is not unreasonable. But the Buddha says that we don't only live once but many times. Every death is followed by a new birth until we put an end to the desire for birth. And each new birth depends on how we have behaved in our previous birth i.e. our karma. We can go up or down. We can even be reborn as animals.

The word "Māra" has as its root an Indo-European syllable that means "Death". The significance of this is that if we go along with Māra's "eat, drink and be merry" and get ourselves senses by being born, we are trapped under Māra's Net and "we die". Over and over again.

We are, of course, free to choose between Māra's view and the Buddha's. Those who enjoy a life of sensual pleasure, find Māra's view very tempting. Those aware of a larger picture see the suffering inherent in birth, sickness, old age and death. To these, the Buddha's view offers a lasting prospect of happiness and peace.

Postscript:

There is the Great Māra.

There are māras (you meet them everyday).

There are the māras in the mind; these appear as thoughts and mental images.

And sometimes as voices.

New Project: WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO WHAT?

NEGATIVITY

Negativity is a poisonous cloud of dust blown about the universe by the winds of space.

It is also like the game of "Pass the parcel".  Someone unexpectedly passes you his parcel of poison. You instinctively pass it back to him or pass it on to the next unsuspecting person. With each passing on one adds one's own pennyworth.

(Which is where the cloud comes from!)

New Project: Māra

SEEING AND KNOWING

Avijja is everywhere translated as “Ignorance”, especially "Ignorance of the Four Noble Truths". Ignorance means not knowing. Knowledge (κ+νουσ) refers to data which is retained in the mind. It can be factually correct, "I know your aunt: I know the French for 'thank you'." It can be incorrect, "I know 2+2 = 5". In this case you do know something; it just happens to be wrong. Ignorance is simply not knowing. "I don't know your aunt. I don't know any French. I don't know 2+2 = anything."

Vijja is usually translated as “Knowledge”; for example in the Three Vijjas where it refers to attainments certain types of Arahats attain. But Vijja is different from Knowledge. It is not just data retained in the mind. It means actually seeing something in the present and, therefore, having immediate understanding of it.

Most Buddhists know the Four Noble Truths. They can recite them in the way a young child can repeat its nine times table. They are certainly not ignorant of them. But this knowledge is not sufficient to remove Avijja as the first step in the Dependent Origination. It cannot thereby bring about the psychological process which the Buddha experienced under the Bodhi tree and by which he achieved Enlightenment. On the contrary, most Buddhists, who are fluent in their knowledge of the First Noble Truth, cannot even see that the food on their plates got there as the result of being bred in captivity and killed, usually painfully. They cannot see Suffering.

So Vijja is not Knowledge and Avijja is not Ignorance.

Consider this example. I know there are cobras in Thailand. I have been told this by the people here and I believe them. I have seen pictures of them. I have seen them in the zoo. I even know that they get into houses and there could, in theory, be one in my house. Compare this collection of knowledge with actually going into my bedroom now and seeing, on the bed, a cobra, with its hood raised, watching me as I come through the door. True seeing and understanding of this event and its relevance to me would be immediate and effective. I would not speculate on which of the several species of cobras, which can be distinguished by variations in their markings, this one might be. Nor would I attempt to measure it with a tape in order to assist identification (by relating this datum with other data in my mind.) On the contrary, I should leave the room quickly and close the door behind me.

So it is with Vijja. Seeing the First Noble Truth, means seeing suffering wherever it appears, immediately and with direct, decisive understanding; the corpse on the plate, the screaming child, the widow at the funeral, the old man crying silently as he dies. Avijja means not seeing these things with immediate understanding in the present, wherever they appear.

Knowledge means just knowing these things as data, stored mentally in the memory banks together with "the sun rises in the east", "a jellyfish sting can be unpleasant", "Christmas Day celebrates the birth of Jesus, although it is believed he was born on an altogether different day." Ignorance means not even knowing the facts (i.e. not having these data in the mind).

New Project: Negativity

(See The Dependent Origination an explanation of the Buddha's Paticcasamuppada)

THE TENTH SANYOJANA

avijja: "Not seeing things as they actually are." The tenth fetter.

Vijjā means "seeing" (cognate with "vision") and also understanding what you see. In this case, it means seeing the world and everything in it as it actually is, without projecting viewpoints upon what you are looking at, which make it appear otherwise. This means "correct seeing" or "right view". Seeing correctly means seeing unsatisfactory things as unsatisfactory and satisfactory things as satisfactory.

Avijjā (a + vijjā) means not seeing things as they actually are. Not seeing unsatisfactory things as unsatisfactory.

This is first step in the Dependent Origination. It is also the primary fetter . If we see unsatisfactory things as in some way satisfactory, then we cling to them and make of them a fetter. This fetter binds us to the level of unsatisfactory things; the level on which beings experience birth, sickness, old age and death. That is, it keeps us in the sangsara. Forever.

If we have succeeded in releasing ourselves from all these fetters during this sequence of projects, we are Arahats. If we haven't, we can use them as a tool to see and identify those things which arise in the mind and keep us trapped in a world of suffering. We can patiently weaken them and, ultimately, free ourselves from them forever.

New Project: Seeing and Knowing

(See Sanyojana The Buddha's Doctrine of the TEN FETTERS)

THE NINTH SANYOJANA

uddhacca: restlessness, mental agitation, the ninth fetter.

This is a state of mind which is agitated and scattered. The image is of a layer of dust which has been stirred up or a bowl of still water into which more water is poured so that ripples go out in all directions.

Whenever the mind is working, it is moving.  This in itself is not a problem.  What creates the fetter is when it is out of control.  As one discovers when one tries to stop it.  Since "mind comes first" and everything which is to be done starts with the mind, one cannot overestimate the seriousness of this.  

When one says it is "out of control", one usually means it is out of one's control.  The dust doesn't stir itself up.  Nor does the water agitate itself.  So what does control it?  Associative thoughts (one thing leading to another); feelings, memories, desires, sense objects appearing at the sense doors (one hears something or sees something or smells something or one's body itches or hurts) - the list is endless.

This is why one so rarely moves smoothly towards an intended goal.  It is as though one sets off to drive somewhere but other people keep trying to grab the steering wheel and steer off in different directions.

Uddhacca is also listed as a hindrance to meditation.  One can't progress in meditation if one can't control the mind and keep it on the meditation object.

So, whether one is a meditator or just someone who wants to bring his mind under control in ordinary everyday life, it is essential to deal with this problem.

There are two ways of doing this; both equally difficult.  One forces the mind to focus on a single, chosen object.  With the other, one patiently undertakes the task of observing the mind and its workings in order to thoroughly understand how it operates.  One then uses one's growing understanding to gradually bring it under control.  Both methods require patience and perseverance.  But the rewards of success are enormous.  

One can see that some people find this easier than others. This is because the more one has neglected one's mind, the harder it is to put it to rights.  If a gardener goes off for a couple of years, what he finds when he comes back will appear daunting.  "Nature" has taken over.  Neglect of one's mind may have lasted much longer than a couple of years!  Karma is perfect.

New Project: The Tenth Sanyojana

(See Sanyojana The Budha's Doctrine of the TEN FETTERS)

THE EIGHTH SANYOJANA

mana: conceit, pride, the eighth fetter

This is generally translated as "conceit" or "pride". "Conceit" means "an exalted conception of self worth".  Mana is both gross and subtle.  It appears as asmi-mana, the conceit of "I am": i.e. "I exist as a separate physical or mental entity".  It is an underlying tendency (anusaya) to compare oneself with others in ways where one is identifying oneself with own mind or own body.  Comparison is in itself not the fetter.  I can say "I am bigger than he is or older or speak more French" but these may be simple conventional matters of fact, similar to "He has red hair, I have brown" or even "His hair is redder than mine".  It is when I identify with something which may or may not be a fact, but which I grasp after as belonging in some way to me personally, that the fetter arises.

It arises in three forms: I am better than him, I am equal to him; I am not as good as him.  Each of these may be matters of fact.  One needs to be aware of the mental state that accompanies them to see if there is any trace of self-exaltation or self-satisfaction.  One often meets people who are insistent that they are not as good as someone (Jesus perhaps.  Or Joe DiMaggio.).  This may well be true but, if they take undue satisfaction in their humility, it will, on examination, be found to be not humility at all but inverted pride.

It is clear that mana depends upon duality.  Using the Universal Octopus, one can see that a tentacle is comparing itself to another tentacle.

"There being really no duality, pluralism is untrue." The fetter consists in being bound to (holding on to) a secondary level of being, the level of duality.

New Project: The Ninth Sanyojana

(See Sanyojana The Buddha's Doctrine of the THE FETTERS)