Chapter Six

Uncle, why does everything have a name ?

The title of this chapter was a question posed by a six year old boy to my spiritual teacher, Ajarn Khemananda, when they were living in a remote island in the south of Thailand many years ago.

Adults might think that it is a silly childish question which does not mean anything. Of course, everything has a name. What kind of question is that ? This is how we would like to answer the boy. But are we sure that our answer is right ? It will be interesting to investigate further and find out exactly what the little boy meant by asking that intriguing question.

For a better and quicker understanding, I would like to urge readers to read the chapter called The host mind and its visitors. As far as I am concerned, that simple and innocent question has all the answers to life in it but in trying to understand the meaning, we need to use many more words. Reader must realise as well that we are about to delve into the most fundamental faculty of our life; they are thoughts and feelings.

In the afore-mentioned chapter, I have talked in detail about the host mind and its visitors - thoughts and feelings. I also encouraged people to learn to view everything from their hearts and not from their heads but I haven't yet talked in great detail. I will take this opportunity to do so.

Trying to view things from the heart in a deeper sense is not as simple as it sounds. It is definitely not thinking that all right, from now on, I will try to see everything from my heart. First of all, people must have the knowledge about the host mind and its visitors. This initial enlightenment will lead the learner to develop a very important skill which is about how to balance the mind on the sane and sound level. This skill is a different technique of meditation and is called vipassana-bhavana. Without learning and developing this skill, there is no way people can truly practice viewing everything from the heart.

Maybe it is easier if I try to explain what it means to view things from the head first so that we can eliminate what is not the case. The head is the area where our precious brain is situated. With the influence of modern education, we all think that our thoughts come from our brain. The faculty of thought stretches from the thinking manner itself to individual thought or flashing thoughts; group of thoughts as concepts, ideas; vision of thoughts as imagination, images. The faculty of thought can be classed as our mental organ, part of our life form just like arms and legs, which basically is a tool and this tool has its purpose. That purpose is for us (the owner) to communicate, plan, explore our natural world and so on. This tool has become essential and indispensable as far as acquiring intellectual knowledge is concerned. Intellectuals have found ways to arrange and discipline their random thoughts into a system. The systematic and methodical way of thinking has resulted in a very important tool to all intellectuals, allowing reasoning, logic and mathematics. These tools have been used very effectively for many centuries in finding out more facts about ourselves, our natural environment, our world and the universe. The faculty of thoughts made humans leap far beyond animals.

Trying to bring us a bit closer to the boy's question, I am going to talk about names. In trying to communicate with someone, initially we must think of something in our heads; the fact is that we are not all telepathic, therefore we need to use some form of language to represent that thought. The use of language is indeed the result of having thoughts and want to utter those thoughts.

To make communication possible, it is also necessary to name things so that we know exactly what we are talking about and that we are talking about the same thing. The process of naming things happened very naturally and even instinctively since day one of human's lives. It doesn't matter which theory of human origin you believe, there is always a point when humans found the need to communicate and began the process of naming things. As a result, learning the names of different objects, sounds, tastes, smells and textures is very much part of our lives. From the moment we can utter the first sensible sound, our parents begin to introduce us to different names from mummy, daddy, teddy, dummy, birdy and so on. By our first birthday, we all have a sizeable vocabulary which allows us to communicate with our family. The process of learning new names never stops. Experts, in different fields of knowledge, constantly name everything which they can lay their hands on. We even have terms for space and emptiness. The experts in the plant kingdom give not just common names but fancy ones to every single organism they find. Consequencely, we feel the need to constantly bombard ourselves with new names and not until we are either brain dead or buried do we stop. We perpetually expand the capacity of our memory box by adding new names and new concepts. The higher in education we go, the more complex the names and concepts become. The faster the technology goes, the more new names and concepts spring out and the more we have to take in. Of course, only if we want to.

Different language is the way which we utter different sounds but represent the same thing. When we decide to learn a new language, we have to go through the whole process of memorising all the names once again but in different sounds.

The next thing we should observe is the link between thoughts and language. Some language is simple because it represents simple thoughts. Some language is complex because it represents complicated thoughts. Children's minds are simple and less complicated than adults', so their language is simple and direct while adults can communicate with depth and complexity. Highly intellectual people in different fields of knowledge communicate in language that ordinary people find difficult or even impossible to understand. Generally speaking, modern English language is extremely complicated because it represents the whole of western civilisation, part of which is the advancing technology. This is in extreme contrast to any tribal language spoken by people who are aloof from any civilisation. As a result, we can learn a lot about the state of people's mind, whether it is complex or simple, troubled or tranquil by simply observing their use of language.

Now, we are coming back to the point of viewing things from the head. Because we have been trained since day one of our life to know the names of different things, sounds and so on, we automatically and instinctively view everything from our heads. That is because language is the representation of our thought which spring out from our heads. We get so used to uttering a word which represents the object we perceive. It looks like there is nothing wrong with it because the process happens very naturally and instinctively. This is the point which makes it very difficult to talk about because we have just missed the skill of how to view things from the heart. The complexity develops when we grow up and enter higher education when we are taught not only to learn new names and new concepts, we also learn to analyse everything in the scientific way. When intellectual people encounter any phenomenon, their minds probably remain silent for a few seconds. This brief silence is soon followed by flashes of thoughts entering their minds naming the word which represents the phenomenon and then followed by chains of thoughts which analyse the phenomenon. The more they learn, the more ability they have to analyse things.

The point is that every time we experience something, our heads go through the process of thinking about that phenomenon and no matter how correct the analysis is, the experience is always secondary and not primary. For example, when a weather forecaster looks at the sky, his experience will be very different from others who don't know much about how weather works. The weather expert will look at the sky through a lot of thoughts in his head. Those thoughts revolve around the preconception, the analysis and the prediction about what the weather will be like. This is exactly what it means to view things from the head. Although the conception, the analysis, the conclusion and even the prediction are absolutely correct, those experiences are still secondary. As for ordinary people, we might not go into great detail and depth about what every patch of cloud will turn into as the experts do but we are still more or less influenced by the weather forecast. When we look at the sky, it isn't just a vast empty space with patches of clouds we look at but we already have a preconception or idea of the weather which has been forecasted and what it will be like in the near future. If that was not the case, we would look at the sky and make some general remarks about whether it is a nice, wet, cold, horrible or miserable day. When we look at a flower, our brain cannot keep still more than seconds before the name of the flower is called out.

The point is that it is very rare that anyone looks at the sky or a flower and his or her brain does not utter a sound and remains totally silent. I have created this situation by showing a few items to the students in my Tai chi class. The students instinctively call out the names of the objects. This natural instinct confirms how difficult it is to walk back to the point before the thought begins. It is very unlikely that we can simply look at the sky or the flower as it is. As a matter of fact, we are rather afraid if our brain does not quickly produce some thoughts when we experience something because we consider that kind of mental manner to be slow, stupid, retarded or even brain dead ! We like the idea of being able to talk about the experiences we come across. We also admire people who are knowledgeable and able to delve into the depths of particular subjects, because that is the sign of being intelligent. These people are normally popular among their peers and can always draw attention from others. This high value given to being intellectual contributes to creating a more complicated mind and takes away our innocent perception which is our basic natural instinct.

What do I mean by looking at things as they are or an innocent perception or a primary experience ? In Buddhism, we have many sayings which imply such meanings, eg : look at things as they are, look at things in their reality, everything is as it is. Tao has no name and the concept of voidness in Taoism also refers to this meaning. The essence of the Buddhist practice is the ability to view things as they are or innocent perception and so are other religious practice too.

As a matter of fact, innocent perception has already been bestowed on us but we have lost it almost completely through the process of learning. Very young children have the most ability to view things as they are or from the heart. That is because they don’t have many thoughts. Their minds are not complex and they don't have a big memory box yet. The quieter their minds are, the better they can view things as they are. Children's language is very simple because they don’t have many thoughts. I have mentioned in my previous book about how my three year old son viewed the five toothbrushes. While the grown up or even older children would say five toothbrushes, Andrew then said toothbrush, toothbrush, toothbrush, toothbrush, toothbrush while he pointed with his little index finger. To use the word five or number 5 is more complex and abstract because it represents the quantity. To repeat toothbrush five times is the innocent perception or viewing things from heart; this was how he viewed the experience. When children see the moon, a rainbow, the twinkle stars, worms, flowers and so on, their experiences are direct and simple. They can also spend hours on end playing with water, bubbles or sand castles. Those moments are being experienced from their innocent hearts and not from their heads. As a result, the moments are wholesome and fulfilled, enjoyable and exciting. This is the reason why children are much happier than adults. This is also the reason why we must try to understand the innocent perception and bring back our long lost instinct so that we can lead a happier life. Of course, I don't mean that we are going to jump up and down with joy every time we see a rainbow. As a matter of fact, when adults can really understand innocent perception, the reaction will be quite an opposite from children's. Adults who can view their experiences from their hearts will remain very calm, peaceful and patient. They will also have unlimited wisdom when they have to deal with situations and problems.

Our innocent perception instinct has gradually lost through the process of learning while we grow up. In the end it becomes alien to us. Ajarn Khemananda told us a very interesting parable about our lost instinct. This is the story.

Once there was a heavily pregnant lion who gave birth to a lion cub while she was trying to catch a sheep. She died after the cub was born. The lion cub grew up among the flock of sheep. He soon learnt how to walk, eat, sleep and talk like a sheep. Some time later, there was another lion coming past this flock of sheep; he spotted an animal which looked exactly like him. He was very surprised to see a young lion, who was supposed to be a king of the jungle, leading a sheep way of life. He couldn't get over how on earth the young lion could say "ba...ba...ba..." like a sheep. He intended to find out the reason. One day, he caught the young lion by his paws and dragged him away for a little talk.

"You are a lion like me but why do you say 'ba..ba..ba...' " said the lion.

"Well, everyone does the same thing in my group. Why shouldn't I ? Why did you say I was a lion like you ? I am not a lion, am I ?" asked the young lion reluctantly.

The lion king took the young lion to a nearby stream. They both looked at their reflections in the still water. The lion confirmed to the young one that he was definitely a lion and taught him how to roar like a lion. The young lion was very impressed by the thundering voice of the elder and took lessons from him. He then learnt how to use his powerful voice, jaws and paws. After a few practices, his long lost natural skill was brought back.

We have lost our natural skill of innocent perception through the process of learning. The core of Buddhist and Christian practice is about how to bring back this instinctive nature, in other words, how to experience the world from the heart. This kind of viewing is very simple and direct. Indeed, it is so simple that we overlook its significance. We cannot possibly think that such a simple and ordinary instinct can relate to any important issues about our lives. That's why initially we need to have this pointed out by someone who knows about this piece of good news. The births of those holy people in the past, such as the one who wrote the book of Genesis, the Buddha, Lao Tzu and Christ, were purely for this reason. They came to confirm this simple truth to us all. Our reluctance about this innocent nature and the need for someone to confirm for us can be explained by the following parable.

Two women went shopping together. One had a strong character and one was always unsure about everything she did. The indecisive woman saw a dress which made her stop and take a second look. She liked the dress but was unsure whether it suited her.

The first woman made a suggestion. She said: "Why don't you try it on ?"

The reluctant friend tried the dress on. She looked at herself in the mirror and she liked the dress on her. Again, she was still unsure whether she should have it.

The friend had to confirm to her once and for all that the dress looked absolutely perfect on her and that she should buy it.

The wise guide is the one who comes to take away our reluctance about something which we already know and have but are not very sure about. That is the reluctance towards our host mind which causes our innocent perception and inner peace. These moments have happened to every one of us when we walk in a park, on a mountain, in a forest, by the seaside and so on. We all know that we feel good, unwound and relaxed but we are not sure whether this is the kind of peace that we should pursue any further. We cannot make a big issue out of it for our lives.

Through our own ignorance, we have gradually lost our innocent nature which we already had. After so many years of losing this natural skill, it becomes extremely difficult to bring back except for those who lead very simple lives and in a supportive culture. Those ,who are affected most are the ones who are heavy in their heads (too much thoughts). A simple law of physics will tell us that an oblong object that is too heavy on the top will topple. It doesn’t have a good balance. Our lives is the same. If we have too much in our heads, we will fall as in having turmoil. Our heartache and mental problems initially come with the thoughts. From thoughts, then arise feelings and the chain of mental suffering.

Those who are heavy on their heads will find it extremely difficult to bring back their childhood skill of innocent perception because initially it involves the process of slowing down the movement of thoughts. The process of slowing down our thoughts is called meditation or samadha-bhavana in Buddhist term. Those who have patience and perseverance, will manage to get over the initial tough practice. Consequently, their minds will certainly be calmer because the movement of thoughts slows right down. At this stage, practitioners can begin to distinguish between the host mind or the quiet mind and its visitors or thoughts and feelings. It is very important that the practitioner can clearly see the state of their host mind as well as its guests. When the host mind (quiet mind) is present, practitioner can have the primary experience or the innocent perception or have the ability to view things from the heart. This can only happen when there is no echo of words or names in the head anymore. The abstract nature in our heads (thoughts) has to be totally silent. The habit of mental chatter has to stop for a certain period of time. It has to be long enough for the person to confirm for themselves that there is indeed a state of quiet mind (host mind) and this mind can result in the innocent perception.

Now, we can begin to understand the question of the six year old boy in Thailand. "Uncle, uncle, why does everything have a name ?" What happened was that the boy's head was void from any trace of thoughts which are the representation of names. His experience was innocent and primary. He could see everything as it was. That means there is no name attached to the objects he saw. That’s why he could not understand why people kept on uttering names to everything. That innocent experience resulted in his question to his uncle.

I am sure a lot of readers are still quite puzzled and cannot truly understand the real meaning. The trouble is that there are not many ways at all which can be used successfully to explain this crucial experience. This is the time when the followers have to have a certain level of faith in their meditation teachers and let them guide their way through. (Please also read How to judge your meditation master) At this point, whether the students can experience the crucial moment of having innocent perception or not does not depend on the teaching skill of the Buddha or Christ or Lao Tzu any more but strictly depends on the relationship and the passing down of knowledge between the immediate teachers and their students. Only the immediate teachers would know what technique is most suitable to their students and what is the shortcut which enables the students to experience the breakthrough (innocent perception). Maybe this is the reason that the traditional way of religious teaching doesn't work with younger generations anymore. Young people keep on hearing the same old thing without knowing the real meaning. Having faith in God and in Christ can no longer be a suitable approach for new generations to come. If we really want young people to go back to church, the teaching approach has to change drastically as far as Christianity is concerned. The essence is already there, we need only the right key to open the hidden meaning behind all the metaphors and parables in the Bible. The real question is how many Christian priests from the Vatican city to some remote island in the South Pacific really have access to that key. How many Christian priests are there in the world who can reveal the hidden meaning about The Tree of Life , The Tree of Knowledge and about God is behind a closed door ? I am quite certain that if the real meaning was revealed, church officers from the Pope to humble priests would not have time to argue about trivial issues as is happening now. The split among different churches and the wrong judgement in social, economic and political issues are the direct result of lacking the knowledge of how to eat the apple from the Tree of Life or innocent perception. We are all too busy eating the apples from The Tree of Knowledge, in other words, viewing the world from the head and that results in us trying to be good Christians, good Buddhists and so on, instead of concentrating on being a peaceful, happy, simple and ordinary human being. What we cannot grasp is that when people are happy and at peace, they don't feel the need to hurt others and cause social problems. People who can hurt others all have different levels of mental sickness. They all badly need help but our society cannot offer them help. The whole structure of the problem has reached its vicious circle. The only way to break through this vicious circle is to listen carefully to the guiding wisdom.

As far as the essential practice is concerned, a good teacher can only prepare his or her students to have all the right factors and supportive skills. They can only put the students on the right junction and tell them to carry on walking the right path. The real experience is individual and cannot be shared as if we are looking at the same picture together.

It is as if the teacher is a guide and the students are tourists. A good guide knows how spectacular the view of the sunrise is on top of a hill. He also knows that it is impossible to explain how beautiful and special the view is. There are not adequate words to do so and whatever he says can never represent the real thing. Therefore, a good guide will not try to explain about the view but will tell the tourists to have faith in him and follow him. They have to trek along some very winding and extremely difficult paths. Only the guide knows that it will be worth all the hardship and effort when they reach the destination. Some tourists find the path too difficult and choose to stop and wait there until they come back for them. Only those who have faith in the guide will keep on following him to wherever he goes. When they reach the top and can actually experience the view of the sunrise, they too realise that there are indeed no words in the world that can possibly describe the breathtaking beauty of nature. Those who have made it to the top can only feel pity for those who chose to wait along the path.

The point is that everyone has to invest in his or her own journey, no one can walk for anyone else. The one who walks is the one who sees, the one who does not walk is the one who does not see. It is as simple as that. A real life journey is exactly like the above parable but it is much harder to get to the top. The spectacular view of the sunrise is the true understanding about everything relating to the existence of our lives. Spiritual age in the deeper sense begins from the point when we can truly see the host mind and its visitors or can distinguish between the perception from the head and from the heart. Once the spiritual age begins to grow, the understanding about life will unfold itself as time moves on. The older we are, the wiser we become. It is as if we climb up a ten storey building, the higher we go, the more we can understand and relate things. It is quite impossible to tell others about every patch of cloud and the different colours of the sunrise. Likewise, it is even harder to tell people about the existence of life when it is viewed from the heart. The ones who know and the ones who don't know, are literally looking at the same thing, the same people, the same world and so on, but some look from their naked eyes and can see the natural colour of everything while the others look from a pair of sunglasses and can see dark colour everywhere. The trouble is that the dark colour experience is indeed their reality. This is where the great difficulty lies. The sad truth is that how can those, who refuse to even take the first step, understand anything about life!

It is almost like a vicious circle when it comes down to trying to explain the state of empty mind to people. The use of language is the conventional way of communication. When there are no thoughts left in the mind, there is no language to use and there is no way to communicate. This is the most frustrating stage for all teachers who have reached this point. The only effective way is by using parables and metaphors as I have always done. This difficulty in communication has obviously contributed to a lot of misconceptions about the state of an empty mind. People like to think that an empty mind means a vegetable state which is quite useless. Many Christians, who do not believe in doing meditation think that once the mind is empty, the devil will take over. These are the misconceptions which are the direct result of being ignorant of the enlightened state (the host mind). An empty mind is not a vegetable state nor a state of mind which gives way to Satan and devils. It is quite to the contrary. Those who truly understand about the host mind and its visitors will know that they are dealing with a situation in which one has to be totally alert, mindful, sensitive and very quick to respond to all movements of the mind and heart. Actually, they are learning a skill of how to literally combat devils and Satan who come in the guise of greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, doubt, self delusion and so on. Those are the different faces of true evil which we all have inside us. Those who have the right skill in meditation are the ones who try to eradicate them and certainly not to invite them in.

Religions which are based on blind belief and cling tightly to some ancient sacred holy books, out of date rules and dogmas and science on the other hand which is based on excessive explanation, creating a scattered brain, losing touch with emotional feelings and knowing nothing about the direction of life, are the two extremes on each end of the scale. While the blind belief has clung tightly to the sacred holy book and has not yet started the spiritual journey, science has gone too far away and does not know how to return to the root. Any holy book is only an arrow sign which points the way to find God. They are like the finger which is used to point to the moon. The finger is not the moon, likewise the holy book is not God. We cannot treat the holy book like God.

The revelation about the host mind and its visitors allows the practitioners to make the most of both worlds, the religious and the scientific. From the host mind, practitioners learn to view things from the heart and that will allow them to experience the beauty of life, the truth, the reality, the goodness and indeed the existence of God, of Tao, of Nibbana. Knowing the nature of the visitors or thoughts, feelings and emotions will allow them to use their intellect with full control.

The use of the intellect or thoughts will always be conditioned by wisdom, insight and above all morality. While intellect is a little sister, wisdom is a big sister who always look after her little sister. When the little sister begins to wander away from home, the big sister will follow, hold on to her little sister's hand and bring her back home. Without the wisdom about the host mind and its visitors, the use of intellect can easily be scattering and get out of hand. Wisdom can bring us home meaning bring us back to know our host mind or back to our root. When wisdom and intellect can walk hand in hand, we can create endless constructive, creative and charitable works. This will allow people to use their intellectual knowledge for the right reasons and not for the purpose of massaging their ego or searching for more wealth, higher status and power. Above all, these people will not forget about the suffering among mankind, they will try every possible way to restore peace for people close to them and even for the public when they are strong enough to do so.

The innocent perception is the only way which can bring us back to our root and the only true seed for a real civilisation.