Meet the magician in your life

The mind is the magician

Very funnily, it appears and disappears all the time. But the sequence is so bloody fast, you feel it’s there permanently, as part of yourself, all your life.

When you contact a sound with the ears, the mind arises as ear-consciousness

When you contact light or color with the eyes, the mind arises as eye-consciousness

When you contact a smell with the nose , the mind arises as smell-consciousness

When you contact a touch with the body, the mind arises as touch-consciousness

When you contact a flavor with the tongue, the mind arises as taste-consciousness

When a consciousness arises, the mind arises as a pleasant/unpleasant/neutral sensation in the body

When a sensation arises, the mind arises as a perception of the world (mostly based on memory)

When a perception arises, the mind arises as concepts/reasoning/intellect/logic

When your thoughts are filled with desire, the desirous mind arises

When your thoughts are filled with hate, the hateful mind arises

When your thoughts are filled with delusion, the delusional mind arises

When a hateful/desirous/delusional mind arises, the mind arises as the will to act

When the mind arises as the will to act, the body acts

When the body acts in the world, sense organs come into contact with their sense objects again

 

What is so magical about that?

All the above never happen together, even once, in the same place, at the same time.

The mind continuously comes into being and passes away, as each of these aspects. (sounds familiar?)

Yet, you feel like a single person, all your life

That’s why the mind is a magician.

 

Hang on! How can it appear and disappear in me in so many ways?

But….why are you surprised?

You can be a husband/wife, father/mother, son/daughter, gardener, manager, friend, party animal, Yankees fan, lover, angry boss, stressed employee ….all during the course of a single day.

How do you think you pull it off, without your mind helping you?

 

Are you just one of these persons? Or are you none of these?

If you are really just one of these, how can you become another?

If you are none of these, how can you become what you are not?

 

So what is the nature of the magician?

Since we saw the activities of the mind, we will try to describe it with a few words. Even here, language can be confusing, but we’ll give it a go

The mind is continuous change/modification/movement, like waves in the sea

The mind is knowledge and impressions, based on incorrect perception, concepts and imagination

The mind is will that impels the body to act in a certain way

 

But modification of what? Knowledge of what? Whose will are we talking about?

 

To answer that, we need to find the red apple. Damn! Where is it anyway?