Chapter Three

The host mind and its visitors.

As far as this chapter is concerned, first of all, we must agree about the definition of the word mind before we can move on to talk about something else. To the western way of thinking, the word mind means purely the brain which produces the thoughts. Feelings and emotions are not included. This concept is very different from the Buddhist way of thinking and is also a great barrier especially for intellectuals who want to explore deeper into Buddhism. Therefore, before I can delve in to talk about the function of the mind, a clear definition has to be established.

When I talk about the mind, initially, I simply mean the abstract nature in our life form which knows the thoughts and the feelings. (Please also refer to the chapter called Fighting in the right battle field.) In Buddhist terms, we have to leave the brain as grey matter behind and focus only on the abstract parts. Therefore, we can all imagine that the vicinity of the mind is between the head and the heart. That is because the thoughts appear in the head and the feelings and emotions appear mostly in the heart or somewhere behind the chest. In some situations, the feelings and emotions can land in the stomach area or elsewhere. The faculty of thoughts begins with the thinking manner itself to the actual thoughts, images, mind visions, memory, concepts, ideas, etc. The faculty of feelings covers physical and mental feelings, emotions such as worry, anxiety, fear, embarrassment, anger, jealousy, hatred, joy, happiness, etc. All these mental faculties of thoughts and feelings can be sensed through the mind only. In other words, thoughts and feelings along with their faculties fall on the surface of the abstract nature in our life form. That abstract nature is called mind or Citta in Pali.

In Buddhist terms, the mind is in fact the sixth sense in addition to eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. Again, by the western definition, sixth sense means the ability to sense paranormal phenomena or being telepathic. In Buddhist terms, the sixth sense is simply another normal sense organ which appears to be abstract so that it can sense the abstract nature of our life form which consists of thoughts and feelings.

As we all know we have five sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body which correspond to their sense objects of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Each sense organ can only perceive its particular field of object, for example: eyes can only know sights, the body can only know touch, etc. Even if we had ten noses, it wouldn't mean that they could help us to perceive more sounds or more tastes; a hundred pairs of ears will not help us to have better sight or know more smells. Likewise, we cannot use our five sense organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body to perceive thoughts and feelings. Therefore, the Buddha classed the mind as the last faculty for sensing or in other words, the sixth sense and it corresponds to its sense objects of thoughts and feelings. The difference is that both the mind as the sixth sense and its sense objects are part of the abstract nature in our life form. Indeed, we can also say that the mind is the mental sense organ while the other five are the physical sense organs.

Once we have agreed about the mind as the sixth sense, we have to agree as well that the mind filters the experience of the five perceptions. Without the mind, the experiences we perceive through our five sense organs will remain unprocessed, therefore, they have no meaning and value whatsoever. In other words, the validation of the experiences we perceive through our five sense organs has to be processed or verified by the sixth sense or the mind. When the mind is awake, our five senses can function normally but when the mind is asleep, the five senses cease to perform their functions. When people go into a deep sleep, the mind as the sixth sense shuts down completely and therefore there is no filter for the rest of the perceptions. Though the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body are still there along with their corresponding sense objects, we cannot sense any of them because the mind as a processor does not work. We can shout into the ears of a deep sleeper but he cannot hear anything. We can cook bacon and eggs or shake a bottle of perfume by a deep sleeper but he cannot smell anything. We can stroke or tickle the body of a deep sleeper but he cannot feel anything. Without the sixth sense or the mind, the experiences of the five perceptions have no meaning. As a matter of fact, the world ceases to exist when we go into a deep sleep. Once we awake or the mind is awake, the world is alive again.

It is very important that readers do not get confused between the mind as the mental sense organ and the ability to sense paranormal phenomena. At this level, I do not talk about any paranormal experience or telepathy at all. I will talk about this in another chapter.

I must stress as well that when I talk about the mind, I do not mean the soul or spirit, the unseen nature which some people believe will survive after our physical death. This idea is purely based on individual belief which I do not want to get involved in just yet.

I have clarified the definition as well as the function of the mind. The reader can see that the mind as the sixth sense is a totally new concept to the western way of thinking and learning. Maybe this new approach can lead us to know more about our lives in relation to the rest of the universe. It is impossible for me to talk about the origin of the mind without clarifying its definition and its function. Therefore, I would like to urge the readers to read very carefully up to this point before we begin to explore the depths of this powerful abstract nature of our life form, our minds, thoughts and feelings.

Once we have a clear definition of the mind as the mental sense organ and its corresponding sense objects as thoughts and feelings, some readers may begin to understand why we have to ask about the origin of the mind.

This question has to be asked due to the fact that we all have tears and laughter. While the laughter is the source of all constructive, creative and charitable works attributed to mankind, tears can become the driving force of all destructive, ugly and atrocious activities inflicted upon mankind. Unfortunately, the negative side of human nature has outweighed the positive side and the world is in turmoil. Nevertheless, all experts in different fields have been trying their best to solve the various problems we are facing right now from social problems to the economy, politics, the environment, etc.

We all realise that human beings are the variable factor in all problems we are facing right now. That's why we talk a lot about investing in people by means of education. It is a very simple equation, good people create a good society and a good world, bad people create a bad community and a bad world. The trouble is that our education does not really focus on creating good people, we merely prepare people to be employed in the work force. This is very different. Some people might want to ask what I mean by good people anyway. Obviously, we can easily start an endless debate by just trying to define the term good people. However, for the moment, my idea of creating good people has to go hand in hand with creating happy people. I am sure it is easier to define happy people than good people. Let's understand just for now that happy people means people who are not miserable, discontented and unhappy. Then, I can move on to the next question of how to create happy people.

The question of how to create happy people has nothing to do with the physical body but with the state of their minds. Some people's tears can easily spark off anger, jealousy, hatred, vengeance and retribution. When people are taken by those destructive emotions, reason goes out of the window. One person's anger and hatred can mean crime against another person. Lots of people's anger put together means social problems in the community. The whole nation's anger put together due to some false ideas and misconceptions, means wars and endless suffering for mankind. All these tangled up problems can all be traced back to this invariable factor which is individual human-beings or more precisely, his or her state of mind. How can we turn their tears into laughs ? Happy people do not take drugs and commit crimes; they don't go out with machine guns and machetes and kill people randomly. So, how can we create good and happy people ? This is the question we should seriously ask and really make a big issue out of if we genuinely want peace among mankind.

Now, we are reaching the point when we want to delve into the core of the problem. If the problem lies in the different states of people's minds, we have to go right to that very point. We have to fight enemies in the right battle field. If we really care for the generations to come, we cannot beat around the bush as we have been doing all along since time is running out. That's why we need to talk about the mind as the mental sense organ which corresponds to its sense objects of thoughts, feelings and emotions. This is the exact area where the root of all problems lies. This is the very place where tears and laughter come from. This is also the point where we cannot rely on our precious intellect anymore but must listen very humbly to the wisdom of the past.

The Buddha was the one who first proclaimed that originally the mind is bright and shiny; thoughts and feelings are only visitors. This revelation about the true nature of the mind, had obviously been seen by someone else too. The person who wrote The Book of Genesis calls the bright and shiny mind The Tree of Life and its guests The Tree of Knowledge; Christ described the state of the host mind and the visitors as God is behind the closed door. He said that one must knock on the door for God and he would open the door for us. This teaching also corresponds to the famous saying that God will help those who help themselves. Christ also told people to think of God with their whole heart all the time. In the first two sentences in Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu said Tao cannot be named and that has name is not Tao.

As far as I am concerned, it is very obvious that those people, who came from different parts of the world in different cultures and different periods of time, all shared a very similar experience about the state of their true minds. This mental experience must have contained such a significant meaning to our lives that they all had to come forward and proclaim it to others. The only barrier is that we don't have the right key to uncover the hidden meaning. It is also very apparent that what they tried to tell us wasn't at all easy. There were not adequate words to represent that unique experience and communicate it. What is it exactly that they all desperately wanted to tell us ? Among those people, The Buddha has laid out the most distinctive path for his followers. Then again, people who do not have a Buddhist background, cannot possibly find it easy to understand Buddhist concepts. For a number of years I have been practising and teaching Tai chi at the University of Birmingham where I have been trying to find different rational ways to explain the almost unexplainable to students. This is how I explain to my students about the host mind and its visitors, about the Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge, about the door which hindered God and about Tao which cannot be penetrated by words.

First of all, I grabbed the sheet of paper nearest to me and asked the students to answer some very simple questions. I urged them not to think too deeply and to tell me what they could see on the sheet of paper. Obviously, the students found the question far too simple for them and were reluctant to answer. I normally had to point to someone to answer this question. Of course, they would answer that they could see words, letters, print, pictures, creases and whatever appeared on the sheet of paper.

Then I would try not to confuse them by saying a leading sentence before asking the next question. I would say: "I want to test how acute your hearing is. So, please tell me what you can hear right now." This time the students were not too reluctant, they tried to find every possible noise and sound they could detect. I was quite satisfied with their answers. Then I would tell them to look around the room and tell me what they could see. Again, they would tell me all the different objects in the room from the walls to themselves.

After the students had answered all these questions, I would make myself look a bit more serious and say: " Now, look at this piece of paper very carefully; there is something else that you miss seeing. What is it ?" This question was more compatible to their intelligence. They would try very hard to stare into that piece of paper and desperately try to find the thing they had missed seeing. It wasn't every class that had students who could answer this question and normally, there was just one student in each class who reluctantly answered that it was the white space that they missed seeing. Then, I would say again: "Please listen very carefully, what is it that you miss hearing." Though it was the same clue, I sometimes struggled to find someone who could give me the answer. Once in a while, I would have a student who could answer straight away that it was the sound of silence that they missed hearing. Then, I asked them to look around again and tell me what they missed seeing in the room. Again, I didn't always have someone who could answer me straight away that it was the empty space that they missed seeing.

From the two sets of questions I posed to the students, I wanted them to see the difference of the things they normally notice and the thing that they can easily overlook. Despise its significance, people cannot see it because of its total simplicity and ordinariness. Without the white space, we cannot possibly put down any mark. Without silence, we cannot possibly hear any other sounds and without the empty space in the room, we cannot possibly be here or put anything in.

The next thing I wanted the students to see is to know which is the host and which is the guest. I would say that the white space of the paper is the host and the print is the guest. The silence is the host and the other noises are the guests. The empty space in the room is the host and the objects in the room are the guests. I made the point that the host will always stay behind but the guests will leave. The visitors come and go but the host is always there. The significant part is the host. Without the host, there will never be any guests. The reason that we overlook the host is because of its simplicity and ordinariness. Furthermore, we all have the habit of noticing something that is colourful, exciting, compelling and noticeable such as different objects and different sounds.

I have no intention to devise those questions just to lead into some endless and pointless philosophical debate. Those questions are meant to be parables for what I want to explain about the nature of the mind. We can easily see how difficult it is just simply trying to spot the significant part of the paper, the sound and the room. It is difficult enough with tangible matters, so what chance do we have with the state of our mind which is abstract, intangible, trapped in our physical body ? We are actually talking about something that we cannot possibly perceive by our five sense organs. What makes it even more difficult is that we cannot solve this problem by thinking or using our intellect either. This mental finding is indeed beyond the ability of man simply because we cannot use our five sense organs nor our thoughts which are our fundamental tools used to explore the world. What can we do then ? The answer is, first of all, we must be less stubborn and listen to the guided wisdom. The common approach used by the wise people in the past in learning about the sixth sense organ and its sense objects is by using parables, metaphors and similes. We can begin to understand why parables had been used widely in the Bible, Why The Tree of Life, The Tree of Knowledge, Why God is behind the closed door. Only the Buddha and Lao Tzu tried their best to approach the truth about the mind in the most direct way and to not rely on the concept of God.

It was the Buddha who proclaimed that originally, the mind is bright and shiny and the mind's clutter is only a guest who passes through once in a while. This is the explanation which is nearest to being true as far as the true nature of the mind is concerned. The host mind is just like the white space of the sheet of paper, the silence and the empty space of the room. Thoughts and feelings are the visitors who pay visits once in a while. We can also compare the mind in its original state to the full moon, bright and shiny; thoughts and feelings are like a dark cloud passing by and hiding the shiny moon away.

Once we are aware that there is indeed a state of host mind, we have to know further that the host mind is the state of real sanity. The passing visitors are the mind's chatter, the voice in our heads which keeps on telling us to do this and that, feel this and that. At times, the mind's chatter can drive people up the wall or over the edge. While the host mind keeps us sound, sane, calm and peaceful, the visitors are responsible for us going up and down the scale of emotions.

When we have guests who are supposed to drop in for a visit but in the end decide to stay a bit longer and refuse to leave, we all know that we have problems. Guests are guests; the nature of guests is that they come and they go, they don't stay for good. But if they do, the host will have a big problem and will find a way to get rid of the unwanted guests.

Our host mind and its visitors work in exactly the same manner. As far as our mental state is concerned, we have lots and lots of guests who literally queue up to come into our empty house or host mind. As a matter of fact, our host mind can host only one guest at a time but because each thought comes in and out at such a staggering speed we cannot possible detect its arrival and departure. Therefore, we stand no chance of knowing the real nature of the host mind which, in fact, is separated from its guest. As a result, we (our host minds) have been bullied and abused by our own visitors (thoughts and feelings). This is the actual cause of our mental turmoil. We must realise as well that the majority of those passing thoughts and feeling are likely to be trivial and have very little significance to our lives. We can easily live without them. In fact, we can live far better without them.

There is a great deal of difference between people who know the good news about the host mind and its guests and those who don't know. Let's look at the comparison of the room once again. People who never notice the empty space in the room will always be attached to the different pieces of furniture and think that the more furniture they have, the better. As a result, they spend all their lives piling up more and more furniture in the room. What happens next is that they gradually lose their freedom of moving about in their own room and eventually can be crushed by their own ignorance. As for those who are fully aware that the empty space of the room can give them freedom to move about, they will be very careful to not create too much clutter in the room. They may bring in some necessary furniture, use it and throw it away when it is not needed. They will always enjoy the freedom of moving about in their own room.

It can be much easier if we can treat our host mind and its guests like the way we do a room. Our mental nature is much more complicated than a square room. However, through the above parable, we can begin to see a clearer picture of how our mental states are being crushed and destroyed by our own unwanted thoughts and feelings. This is exactly what happens when people have a nervous breakdown and are driven over the edge. There is no way we can dump those painful thoughts and feelings like the way we throw away our unwanted furniture or dispose our rubbish. That's why a lot of people choose to depend on drugs or even kill themselves just to put an end to all the misery.

As a matter of fact, the mind in its original state or the host mind is not alien to us at all. This host mind momentarily manifests itself when we walk in a park or spend time in a natural environment like a forest, by the sea, etc. This is the time when we feel totally relaxed and unwound. Mother nature has also given us different ways to dump our mental rubbish. After a long day of work, we all feel tired and need to sleep. Being able to go into a deep sleep for three to four hours is the way nature helps us to completely switch off our thoughts and feelings. During those few hours of deep sleep, the host mind is restored and energy is being charged into our lives. That's why when we have a good night’s sleep, we always get up feeling bright and full of energy to carry on for another day. When people are very upset about something, a lot of people normally express their feeling by crying. For some reason, having a good cry can help take away some pain from our heart. Sometime after a good cry, it helps us to have a good sleep. These are different ways which mother nature helps us to restore our inner peace. This is why people who live very close to natural environments are much happier than those who live in big cities. In the warm countries where people can jump into a river, canal or waterfall for a good soak everyday or have the chance to watch big drifts of clouds move along on the horizon and so on, they will not suffer from any mental illness, for example: worrying, chronic anxiety, depression or breakdown. Mother nature has bestowed us our sanity when we can live in harmony with her. The state of sanity is simply the manifestation of the host mind. But because of the lack of this piece of crucial knowledge, we cannot possibly make a big issue out of it so that we can permanently benefit from it. Those moments (the manifestation of the host mind) become just a passing experience, yet, peaceful, pleasant and memorable. Indeed, it is this host mind which is the source of profound wisdom, strength, goodness, innocence, truth and above all the true happiness.

Unfortunately, this precious gift from mother nature was brutally taken away from us when cities were built and people became crazy about development, new technologies and civilisation. While we are climbing up this ladder of madness, we have lost track altogether with what life is all about. What is the real meaning of life, of being a person ? Is it just to go to work, struggle, put up with ill health, age and die ? Or is there something else more meaningful to our lives ? In western society, we are actually healthier, richer and more cosseted than ever but look very closely, is it true that we are still worrying ourselves to death over something all the time ? Some old people have to find something to worry about, otherwise, they are lost. We use to think that if we worked hard, saved up and had a sum of money in the bank, then we could sit back and enjoy life. The truth is far from that humble expectation. We can all identify with the awful feeling of boredom, dissatisfaction and unfulfilment. These undetected and unwanted guests have become the driving force which make people react to the first thing that comes into their minds such as: move home, give up work, have a baby, leave the wife or husband and move in with someone else and ultimately try drink and drugs.

Not knowing the truth about the host mind and how to get rid of our mental rubbish can be very sad and indeed a tragedy in a lot of cases. The sad truth is that we have people walking the streets in every corner of the world, who are utterly blind to this crucial fact about their own lives. People have no control over their own thoughts and feelings, let alone their destructive actions. How can we not expect disaster to happen ? What makes it sadder still is that we have all the experts who keep lamenting the illness of our society but it is very rare that we find someone who really knows the answer to this whole mess.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone came forward and said he or she knew the answer and the group of people who should be responsible for better change in society, paid no attention anyway. That is because through our modern education which trains people to think too excessively, the intellectuals have built themselves a mental holodeck which makes them become very stubborn and egocentric. Among those undetected guests are the thoughts which revolve around: I am better than you; I am cleverer than you; I have a higher degree than you; who are you and what do you know ?; Don't you know who I am ?; and so on. Through ignorance towards the true nature of their own minds, it is very sad that these extremely clever people have built themselves a very solid egg-shell or a very comfortable mental holodeck to live in. And they will fight to their last breath to protect that shell or their mental holodeck. How can those who lead their lives in an egg-shell or a mental holodeck, possibly know what real freedom is ?

The way that we pursue our intellectual knowledge is the way we try to perfect our way of thinking, our thoughts, ideas and concepts. The experience of our five perceptions is perceived as passing through our brain and thoughts. In comparison, we are simply messing about with the precious furniture in our rooms. We pick the furniture up, polish it, rearrange it, admire it and so on. The real knowledge about the host mind and its guests hasn't been seen yet. What we don't realise is that we cannot possibly perfect our lives in an egg-shell or in a mental holodeck. The perfection of our lives means coming out from the strong egg-shell or ending the hologram of a holodeck. The most difficult part is that some egg-shells or mental holodecks can be very cunning, tricky and compelling. And it is extremely difficult to break them up.

Due to the above reasons, our precious intellectual knowledge cannot be wholesome and fulfilling. As a matter of fact, it is scattered and fragmented; it is too remote from our hearts, our feelings and emotions. We are so proud that the laws of physics can explain all phenomena we encounter. But indeed we have overlooked the empty space in our own minds and their guests. When people are on the edge of killing themselves, do they want to know which part of their brains are responsible for their irrational behaviour ? No, they don't want to know that nor can it stop them killing themselves either. I am sure all the psychologists, psychiatrists and mind experts would not want to know either if they came home one day to find their partner of twenty years had left them for someone younger and cleared out their bank accounts and left them with nothing. No matter how much we think we can understand ourselves and our natural environment, life still has its mysteries. That mystery is not hidden in those as yet unexplained phenomena but hidden in the simplicity of life, such as birth, struggling to exist, aging, illness, death, tears and laughter, etc.. Pounding for more intellectual knowledge without noticing the significance of the host mind can be quite meaningless and dangerous at times. We have to be very careful and selective in searching for more intellectual knowledge. The destruction of this lovely green planet will not come from the hands of animals or less clever people but will come from a handful of highly intelligent people who perpetually play with the furniture in their heads and never really notice the simmering feelings in their hearts. As far as safety and peace among mankind are concerned, intellectual knowledge must go hand in hand with spiritual knowledge. The nature of the host mind and its guests must be revealed and taught in main stream education.

Unfortunately, the people who genuinely know about this truth will always be a small number in every society. Yet, they are the most lucky people in the world because they know the real freedom of life. They have managed to spot that they lived in an egg-shell and they try their best to peck the shell and come out to experience the real freedom. These people will always choose to play a low key and enjoy every moment of true spiritual freedom in their lives. Among this small number of people, there are only a few who can truly stand out to tell people about this piece of good news. To do the job successfully, these people have to be well equipped with the right characteristics such as: knowing what is what, having the right means of communication and compassion. This handful of people is extremely difficult to find nowadays. Some might start on the right track but once wealth, power and status roll in, they cannot resist the temptations. (Please also read the chapter title "How to judge your meditation master.")

Finally, the people who genuinely know the truth about the true nature of the mind will always ask their teachers the question of how to dispose of their unwanted thoughts and feelings. Shifting some unwanted furniture is rather easy to understand but trying to throw away our mental rubbish is very tricky and not at all simple. This is why the different skills of meditation practice have to be brought in and properly used and instructed by a trained teacher. This is the time when we need to delve into the finest nature of our life-form and talk about Tom and Jerry. (Please refer to the chapter titled: Fighting in the right battle field.) Basically, meditation or more precisely, vipassana-bhavana is the key practice of how to ask the unwelcome guests in our mind to go away so that we can be left at peace. And this is what this Tai chi class is all about.

Among the holy saints in the past, the Buddha was the only one who came up with a distinctive route for people to follow. The Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of morality, wisdom and meditation, contains the crucial practice of how to balance our minds on a sound level and of how to stay clear from unwanted visitors.

Only when the host mind is acknowledged, can people begin to experience the world from their hearts and not from their heads. Only then can we truly see the real beauty of life and appreciate the existence of God and of Mother Nature.