Buthaisam!!!!!🪷

An analysis of a “If this

Then that” analysis of the

Human experience, before

And after the conceptualization

Of the Buthas.

 Holiness The Dalai Lama

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 has two books that are favorites of mine “How to see yourself as you really are” and “The Four Noble Truths”.  His Holiness uses the word “analysis" or similar words throughout the books.  He calls what we normally see as insight meditation as analysis meditation, and he discusses the four principles of Buddhist analysis, and a “if this then that” logical approach is taught as part of how to perform an analysis.  Since the senses are so central to Buddhist teaching, I began to wonder what an analysis of the human condition would be like before and after the senses have been understood.

Conditionality is a law discovered by the Buddha that states everything that is real becomes real through a set of conditions.  In simple terms if something is real then it is what it is because a group of parts have combined to make it so, even the parts themselves are made up of other parts.  If as we experience our lives during meditation and find ourselves in hindered states, such as sloth and torpor, then these states come to be real through a set of conditions and if we change these conditions, then we can change our lives thus giving us some control over our life’s reality.  This could be similar to a math equation.  On one side of the equation, we have the solution represented by the hindered life. On the other side we have the formula, signs of operation, and the numbers that got plugged into the formula, and once executed produce the results, all which represents the conditions that combined together to create our life's experience in the now.  The formula side would be the five aggregates manifesting over three lives as per dependent origination as these are primary conditions, and the numbers would be derived by thinking and feeling with any wisdom or ignorance present.  We try to balance the equations to the end of dukkha and the realization of cessations, and we can manipulate the formula via the practice of the eightfold path, mainly by meditation and sense restraint.

Life on this planet can be very hard.  One reason why is that life has hidden part of our own lives' equation from us. Some of the parts are inside us and the chain of causation is separated by time. It's like you see a number on a computer screen but you know little of math or computers.  You don’t know what the number means, how it compares to other numbers, or how and why it keeps showing up on the screen and if it needed to be a different number the specific input needed might not occur to you. Since we cannot directly see the equation behind the results, we need to apply some if this than that analysis to reveal the operations behind the screen.  We need to begin the analysis by using what we are aware of, the numbers on the screen or our awareness of our lives’ states.  Since we are aware as a condition of the internal and external senses meeting then an analysis of our awareness will lead us to insight into our senses.

Insight into the nature of our senses can occur by observing changes in our states that happen in tandem with other aspects of our awareness.  One moment is calm and cool, the next moments are lustful or angry.  This change coincides with the arrival of some other object impinging on the senses.  If this becomes recognized as a pattern, then insight into the underlying processes can be discovered.  Logic being if this thing becoming a part of life's awareness is often followed by a specific pattern of behavior, then the object of awareness is in some way playing a part of the new state of awareness.  If this thing linked to the change in the life state is external and of some distance, then this can lead to the understanding that there is this something, the sensory information, that's then being received by something, the mind, then this receiving part is what would be responsible for that change in life's state.  Then we can proceed with altering the response.  If thinking or feeling a certain way in the moment is most of what we can do, then thoughts and feelings must be what is turned to for change.  If sophistication shows in other people, then it must be what they learned to think and feel that lead to this sophistication.  If this behavior is happening in a sophisticated way without any prompting of thought, then thought of the past must be affecting that which is receiving the information and shaping the life state.

If you have never been to school and come across ten plus ten, then the answer might not occur, but we know we can learn.  Just so as we follow our breath and investigate the states of our life our past lessons will impact our observations.  If we have never considered the nature of our senses, then the analysis of our states will be impacted, and we will never get the discernment needed to begin the right effort of the eightfold path.  If we are fortunate enough to find the Buddha’s teaching, then once we have reasoned out how the senses define our lives, then we can compare how the analysis of our life states took shape before and after the conceptualization of the senses, gaining even more insight into how to impact the equation of our life, the twelve links of dependent origination.