Refuge Amidst Oscillation

Currently, society is at a point where it is heavily influenced by propaganda ... We are, perhaps at a period of great change.

However, we can see there is a great deal of 'conformity' at large. Conformity, is usually a sign that something unwholesome may be happening.

Why should this be so ... ? Humans, when ascribing to a 'herd mentality' are unlikely to be whole, happy or healthy ... The reason for this is that evolution, 'real' evolution, is a metaphysical evolution, that is ... it is a matter of growth ... of the individual ...

We can see, currently, it seems ... large swathes, large areas of human population ascribing to some 'idea' or another ... However, none of these, really, are what it is about , to be human ...

To be human ... is to 'grow' ... is to be able to grow. Conformity does not present itself as a set of conditions in which growth is likely. Rather, it presents itself as a form of 'contraction' ... perhaps of 'regression'.

So what truths can we rely on, in such times ... ?

The Buddhist path can offer us a great many truths ... we might well benefit from having a look at some of them ...

The Buddhist path tells us, that underlying all of reality ... all of the phenomenological world ... there are three 'Marks' ... These three marks are ... Impermanence, Insubstantiality and 'Incompleteness' (this latter, usually translated as 'Unsatisfactoriness').

One way of regarding this statement, is to see, that it is an expression of the truth of reality, beyond, our 'subjective interpretations'. It is saying, that ... beyond the subjective ... actually, reality is a real thing ... and it is described by all things in it being impermanent, all things lacking any real substance or solidity and all things providing a sense of incompleteness, or unsatisfactoriness as the translation usually runs.

Let us have a closer look at what this may mean for us ...

If we are usually 'caught-up' in subjective stories of how life is ... 'My life is good' ... 'My life is bad' ... 'People are unkind' ... 'I have bad luck' ... 'Nothing goes my way' ... 'Things are just unfair ...', Buddhism is here to tell us that ... this just isn't the way things are ... this is subjective interpretation. In the language of the Dharma, we would say ... this is Ignorance ... or Delusion*.

Buddhism, or, as it is described in countries of its origin or those which have practiced it for many hundreds of years ... the Dhamma ... is telling us that reality really has a structure ... a nature ... and it is best described by these three marks.

So, how does this help us ... Well, it helps us in many ways ...

To understand the Three Marks of Existence we might bring up the subject of 'conditionality'. What does this mean ... conditionality ... ? It means that ... all things which happen, in the phenomenological world ... that is ... in the world we live in ... which is made up by ... movement ... by events constantly happening ... These, we can describe as ... conditions.

This notion of conditions exists, according to the Dhamma, on all levels of reality, at all times ... everywhere ... So long, that is ... as we exist in conditioned reality. Buddhism does tell us of a realm of existence known as the Unconditioned, sometimes called the Arupa Loka. The Unconditioned, may, depending on our level of practice and mastering of the Dhamma be experienced as refined and sublime states of consciousness. The Unconditioned, is, the highest reality we may experience. It is said that it may take many, many life times until this is possible.

The Three Marks of Existence tell us this reality we live in, this one, here on earth ... is defined by these characteristics ... Impermanence, Insubstantiality and Incompleteness (Unsatisfactoriness).

In these Three Marks, are implied so much ... It is as if ... all things can be understood from penetration of their meaning ... Again, we will bring up the juxtaposition of 'subjective view' and 'reality'.

Let's have a go at explaining it from a 'subjective' perspective, that is, from a psycho-somatic view point ...

Mostly, we assume ourselves to be a 'discrete, isolated' entity ... a 'self' ... an 'ego'. We view things ... from this perspective ... this is natural ... Yet, at the same time ... the results we often come up with, skew reality. We could say, that is our 'being out of touch with reality' which can be directly linked to our states of woe or 'un-well-being'. Certainly it would be thus posited in the Buddhist tradition ... Said another way ... Our subjective assumptions and views may not be in accord with reality ... As a result ...we may suffer. The great news is though ... reality can be found and the nature of reality is ... as we have described ... the Three Marks of Existence.

Impermanence describes the conditional aspect of reality by noting that things never stay the same ... We will have noted the difficulties this may cause us. Let's take just one, small example ... Let's say someone is betting on a horse ... The horse wins three times .. confidence grows that the horse is unbeatable! The person then decides to put a larger sum of money on the horse. The horse wins again(!). The person decides ... this is 'fate' ... it is 'meant to be' ... and promptly puts all the money they can muster up, borrowing from friends in order to get even more money so he/she can win even more ... The horse loses. Oh dear. This is a very real situation. It also highlights very well the nature of impermanence ... We come to make faulty decisions based on a small event window ... We can see through this ... that it is not 'fate' ... Impermanence, is a better way to describe reality than the subjective view imposed by the person who was betting.

Impermanence can, however, also be good ... the universe needs change in order to grow, develop, evolve. Things must change. Though it may be painful, it is necessary.

Insubstantiality, the second Mark of Existence, is sometimes also called 'Non-self'. Non-self states that nothing exists independently and nothing really exists when we look at it ... Sound confusing ... ? Let us take the example of a particle. We used to think that a particle was the smallest 'thing' in existence. Then we discovered quarks ... we realised that there is no end to what we think are 'finite things' ... They just go on and on. Neither are they whole ... we look ... and we see ... there is always more ... . So it is also, with our own self ... We think, we have a 'solid, discrete, isolated' existence ... We are ... a Sally, an Arthur, a Vikram ... However, is this really true ... ? Where is this Sally ... ? If we look we will see that the body is not constant ... at all ... the body is constantly changing ... it is an ongoing process that stops only at the end of the physical experience of life ... Once every month or so ... a new eye is generated .. once every three months ... a new liver ... our bones are regenerated over the period of a year ... nothing stays the same ... and also ... nothing, actually ... is substantial in any way. Everything, is connected to everything else.

Let's take the example of the human body ... As stated above, we often think of ourselves as ... the body. This is, however, simply a gross misrepresentation of what we are. If we look at the breathing process, for example ... We can see that all day long, our psycho-soma is interacting with the universe around it ... in particular ... with air ... with oxygen in particular. At deeper levels of our nervous systems, we are programmed to breath. We don't have conscious control over this (though we can learn to influence these processes in meditation) ... It is, as we say ... autonomic. That is, it is embedded to such a deep level of our psyche or our nervous system ... that it mostly evades our attention, our awareness ... yet, should we choose to become aware of it ... we can see that this gaseous exchange is, of course, constant ... This oxygen is as much part of us, as we assume that our arms are part of us ... More, in some ways. If we spend some time in meditation, we will see that we are part of the universe ... This is the essence of the Tao. Everything is in flux, air comes in, processes take place ... cells die, cells grow, the body grows, the body changes and ultimately, the body dies. At the same time, we can see how it is our senses, often sight which deludes us in this way. Because we see a 'discrete, isolated entity' ... we assume it is really the case. We assume that the world is that which our senses present to us. However, it does not take much to realise that ... though our senses are amazing ... they are indeed, relatively limited ... i.e. they see, hear, taste, touch, smell ... only within a relatively 'narrow' bandwidth. Were we able to see as it may be possible to see ... we would no doubt see a world very different to the one our sense-bases most graciously and wonderfully offer to us. For example, it is likely, we would see great swirling masses of energy, perhaps in a similar way to Kirlian photography. Senses ... though wonderful ... do not represent the full metaphysical reality to us.

Buddhists are not alone in coming to this conclusion. Immanuel Kant, for example, also concluded that Reality is not 'apprehendable' by the senses. Thus, in this way perhaps, mans/woman's quest for metaphysical ... or ... spiritual meaning, begins .

Another way of understanding the term, non-self, is through a psycho-emotional or psycho-somatic approach ... This we can begin by asking the question ... "What are we as humans ... ?" ... The Buddhist tradition states we are made up of Five Aggregates ... Form, feeling, Perception, Volition and Consciousness(es).

Form (Rupa) relates to the body. We are, undeniably ... in a body ... Or, said another way ... a body is, undeniably, part of our experience currently. Form, also relates to the existence of any form that might exist. These may be ideas as well as physical form.

Feeling. Well, we are sentient beings, are we not ? This term 'sentient' may be spoken of rote, perhaps without looking at its meaning ... it refers, of course ... to our having senses ... to our being able to sense. This is often taken to mean our ability to feel pain ... and this is indeed true ... all sentient beings, including animals, of course ... feel pain ... We might widen the description in two ways ... Firstly ... yes, it means we feel pain ... It also means we feel pleasure ... It also means, actually, we can experience an absence of both ... which we may call neutrality. This space of neutrality can be a very important space in terms of spiritual or metaphysical practice. So, we might conclude that ... we feel. We have feelings.

This brings us onto our second point ... the way we sense is via feeling. Feeling is of two types ... raw sensation ... raw data experience ... for example ... if a fly is walking over our leg ... we can feel this. We can sense it. This sense of feeling can also exist on a metaphysical level ... if we, for example, perceive we are insulted by someone (or even some-thing(!)), we may feel this ... in a different way ... Both of these are examples of feeling. Both are sensed. Both are examples of sensation.

Perception is a faculty which is undeniably existent as a human. This is the third aggregate.

Volition could be described as our propensity to act ... to create behaviours ... Volition, emotion and behaviours are closely linked. We all have volition. Linked to volition is a degree of responsibility. Volition is linked to our moral growth. We are responsible for what we do.

Lastly, consciousness(es), refers to the relationship between our sense-bases or senses and the resultant mind-states that are produced ... the lasting impressions that are formed. If we think about it ... all of the impressions we have in conscious or sub-conscious mind have largely come about through interaction of our senses and their (subjective) interpretation of the world around us. Buddhism also takes the mind to be a sense, at a lower cognitive level. This is undoubtedly borne out by modern psychological theory ... Association, for example, is based on the mechanistic abilities and processes of the inter-relationship between cognition and feeling. The Pavlov's Dog experiment, highlights this ability to become conditioned in animals but later studies in Behavioural Psychology and, in particular, Cognitive Behavioural Psychology have shown just how salient the relationship between cognition and feeling is, in humans.

So ... according to Buddhism ... these Five 'Aggregates' ... these five faculties if we will, describe the full gamut of human experience ... we might say .. they describe fully ... the human being. All things, it is stated ... are one of these categories.

Now, relevant to us is the ultimate meaning of this. The Five Aggregates are stated as representing 'non-self' ... What does this mean ... ? It means, that we are none of these things , really. We are form, yes ... we are feeling, yes ... we are perception, yes ... we are volition, yes ... we are consciousnes(es), yes ... but, in reality ... these things all exist as separate from another ... Our mind likes to 'lump' these things together ... In meditation we can see .. the 'composite nature' of our own selves ... this, as stated ... is known as 'not-self' in Buddhism.

Essentially, we can say ... nothing exists as ... finite ... nothing exists as discrete or isolated. All is interconnected. There is no separation ... but our minds create this.

Our third 'Mark' is ... incompleteness, usually translated as unsatisfactoriness. Incompleteness refers to the natural state of events in reality ... they are not as we, mostly, would like them to be ... there is nothing wrong with the way they are ... this is, indeed, reality ... however, tending, as we do ... to want things to fit a subjectively imposed criterion ... we find ourselves at odds with reality. It is unlikely that reality is going to change (!) ... so usually, it will be us who has to change in order to accommodate reality ...

An example of this could be ... for example ... we want a house that is nicer, and bigger ... and just ... better ... but we have no recourse to funds in order to purchase it ... The same for a car ... Or ... we are in a job ... but find ourselves constantly wanting to be in a different job ... a better one ... if things could just ... be different somehow ... Reality can be challenging ... however, the Buddhist path, at least, states that there are ways to go past this ... ways to grow ... ways to experience truly joyful states of being ... We might say ... that it is often the experience of such challenging states ... which act as a catalyst for searching deeper within ourselves ... Searches which can be very fruitful ... certainly if we have access to teachings such as the Dhamma ... Certainly if we are able to meditate ... to develop kindness ... to develop compassion ...

So we see how events are ... If we start to see that reality ... is rather than subjective notions ... are ... we can start to experience life on better terms.

Now, we come to answer our question of how this can relate to the oscillation of current times. The point is ... there are truths to life. Reality does not change. Society might act as if reality has changed ... but truth is always the same.

Metaphysical practice can help us to find peace, calm and clarity. It is a healing balm in times of upheaval. I truly recommend joining a meditation group to anyone who is encouraged by the notion that truth, joy and wellbeing are the real markers of reality. Whether we call it God, the Unconditioned ... Truth ... it exists .. and we can contact these exulted qualities ...

*1. Note Delusion does not infer the same meaning as that which is usually understood in English. In Buddhism, delusion refers to a state of 'not-knowing' the real nature of reality, rather than the 'usual' one which is often framed as either a psychological condition based on psychoanalytic theory or as a personal sleight.