During today's Dharma class, Chang Hwa Fashi had explored the psychology of Buddhism, with a specific focus on the eight consciousness. This class was quite important to me, because I have to admit that I haven't gone into any sufficient depth to explore the meaning of these terminologies. Though I have heard of them before and read about them, I have often glossed over the terms, as though not sure how they all can fit together into a single framework. Fashi's talk encouraged me to learn to appreciate the terminology and framework, even if I am not sure where to go with it at the moment. I'd like to clarify some of my confusions.
I have often wondered, why does Buddhism break down perception into ''objects", "faculties" and "consciousnesses"? In my naivity, I do wonder why these are categorized separately, when they are often experienced as a totality? Chang Hwa Fashi noted that the six senses don't arise in meditative samadhi, which entails that senses are not 'pre-given' in experience but are conditioned by an interconnected process. In Orthodox Chinese Buddhism, Master Sheng Yen remarks, "The six faculties represent the entire physiological field...Thus, Buddhists analyse the human being from three perspectives: psychological, physiological, and physical" (p.108). There is already much to say in this statement, because according to it, Buddhism is neither entirely 'realist', nor 'idealist', nor a combination of both. While six sense objects (sound, sights, smells, taste, touch, thoughts) are said to be 'physical' in nature, the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, intellect) are said to be physiological, and the six consciousnesses are psychological (ibid). Conditioned arising pervades the acts of perception, according to this view.
An interesting consequence of this systematic view is that it does not privilege one process (object, faculty, consciousness) over another. Sheng Yen remarks, "These three divisions of the eighteen elements are like the three legs of a tripod; if one leg is lacking, the other two will be unable to carry out their functions." (ibid). I cannot say that what I see is just a product of thinking, since this would mean I am capable of creating the world just from imagination. At the same time, the sense objects don't determine what I think either. Chang Hwa Fashi showed us two examples of optical illusions today. One of them showed a series of straight lines which actually appear to the mind as crooked, mainly due to the configuration of squares. Another showed a dancer who appeared to be moving in different directions (clockwise, counterclockwise, alternating directions) depending on the observer's way of looking at the image. Both examples are meant to show that distortion can easily occur after sensing an object, because the mind has a way of constructing and interpreting appearances based on frameworks of seeing that are often embedded in the subconscious or in past thinking.
Another example that Fashi gave was that of a young child who tastes pop for the first time. Initially, the baby doesn't know what she is tasting, and later starts to register sensations as either desirable (eg. sweet) or undesirable (e.g the intensity of the carbonated bubbles). Sensation is thus conditioned by a person's judgment or the social assessment of how desirable/undesirable something is.
Much of the psychology that Chang Hwa Fashi presented to us today is based on the interdependence of faculty, object and consciousness. The states of mind I encounter in everyday life all seem to stem from how faculties, objects and consciousnesses interact with each other. For this reason, the faculties are said to be 'impure'. As Master Sheng Yen remarks, "the eyes crave for forms, the ears long for sounds, the tongue desires flavors, the body years fro tender and smooth sensations, and the intellect hungers for happy states of mind." (p.110) Only by 'guarding' the faculties through meditation, precepts and concentration can the faculties become purified (ibid). It's not that the six faculties are inherently 'bad', however. Master Sheng Yen remarks that the six faculties are "tools of the six consciousnesses" (p.109), merely carrying out the behaviors directed by the six consciousnesses. \
In another instance, Master Sheng Yen suggests that the six faculties were never meant to be limited to grasping objects, even though this is exactly how the faculties are used in daily life. It's precisely when the six faculties are no longer governed by a craving mind that "they will be emancipated from sense objects." (p.111) It has even been said that advanced practitioners can see with their ears, or hear with their eyes, because at that stage their faculties are no longer tied to a grasping to particular forms. Rather than being seduced by forms, purified faculties can freely interact with forms. This, I believe, is where the practice of the Buddhist path becomes most valuable as a tool to go beyond clinging to objects out of habitual craving or aversion.
Master Sheng Yen (2006), Orthodox Chinese Buddhism: A Contemporary Chan Masters' Answers to Common Questions. Elmhurst, Ne York: Dharma Drum Publications
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