The Problems of Life : Who is man?

The Problems of Life

• Who is man? is our first question.
• Let us proceed with what is self-evident and perceptible to all. Man possesses a body which is seen either by our senses or by means of apparatus. This material body consists of forces and qualities which are in a state of constant flux.
• Scientists find it difficult to define what matter is. Certain philosophers define “matter as that in which proceed the changes called motion, and motion as those changes which proceed in matter.”
  The Pāli term for matter is Rūpa. It is explained as that which changes or disintegrates. That which manifests itself is also another explanation.
• According to Buddhism there are four fundamental material elements. They are Pathavi, Āpo, Tejo, and Vāyo Pathavi means the element of extension, the substratum of matter. Without it objects cannot occupy space. The qualities of hardness and softness which are purely relative are two conditions of this element.
• This element of extension is present in earth, water, fire and air. For instance, the water above is supported by water below. It is this element of extension in conjunction with the element of motion (Vāyo) that produces the upward pressure. Heat or cold is the Tejo element, while fluidity is the Āpo element.
• Āpo is the element of cohesion. Unlike Pathavi it is intangible.
• It is this element which enables the scattered atoms of matter to cohere and thus gives us the idea of body.
• Tejo is the element of heat. Cold is also a form of Tejo. Both heat and cold are included in Tejo because they possess the power of maturing bodies, or, in other words, the vitalizing energy. Preservation and decay are due to this element.
• Vāyo is the element of motion. The movements are caused by this element. Motion is regarded as the force or the generator of heat. Both motion and heat in the material realm correspond respectively to consciousness and Kamma in the mental.
• These four powerful forces are inseparable and interrelated, but one element may preponderate over another, as, for instance, the element of extension preponderates in earth; cohesion,
  in water; heat, in fire; and motion, in air.
• Thus, matter consists of forces and qualities which constantly change not remaining the same even for two consecutive moments. 
• According to Buddhism matter endures only for 17 thought-moments.
• At the moment of birth, according to biology, man inherits from his parents an infinitesimally minute cell 30 millionth part of an inch across. “In the course of nine months this speck grows to a living bulk 15,000 million times greater than it was at outset. This tiny chemico-physical cell is the physical foundation of man.
• According to Buddhism sex is also determined at the moment of conception.
• Combined with matter there is another important factor in this complex machinery of man.
• It is the mind. As such it pleases some learned writers to say that man is not Mind plus
  Body, but is a Mind-Body. 
• Scientists declare that life emerges from matter and mind from life. But they do not give us a satisfactory
  explanation with regard to the development of the mind Unlike the material body immaterial mind is invisible, butit could be sensed directly.
•  An old couplet runs:—
  “What is mind? No matter.
  What is matter? Never mind.”
• We are aware of our thoughts and feelings and so forth by direct sensation, and we infer their existence in others by analogy.
• There are several Pāli terms for mind. Mana, Citta, Viññāna are the most noteworthy of them. Compare the Pāli root man, to think, with the English word man and the Pāli word Manussa which means he who has a developed consciousness.
• In Buddhism no distinction is made between mind and consciousness. Both are used as synonymous terms. Mind may be defined as simply the awareness of an object since there is no agent or a soul that directs all activities. It consists of fleeting mental states which constantly arise and perish with lightning rapidity. “With birth for its source and death for its mouth it persistently flows on like a river receiving from the tributary streams of sense constant accretions to its flood.”
• Each momentary consciousness of this ever-changing life-stream, on passing away, transmits its whole energy, all the indelibly recorded impressions, to its successor. Every fresh consciousness therefore consists of the potentialities of its predecessors and something more. 
• As all impressions are indelibly recorded in this ever-changing palimpsest-like mind, and as all potentialities are transmitted from life to life, irrespective of temporary physical disintegrations, reminiscence of past births or past incidents becomes a possibility. 
• If memory depends solely on brain cells, it becomes an impossibility.
• Like electricity mind is both a constructive and destructive powerful force. It is like a double-edged weapon that can equally be used either for good or evil. 
• One single thought that arises in this invisible mind can even save or destroy the world. One such thought can either populate or depopulate a whole country. It is mind that creates one’s heaven. It is mind
  that creates one’s hell.
• Ouspensky writes:— “Concerning the latent energy contained in the phenomena of consciousness, i.e. in thoughts, feelings, desires, we discover that its potentiality is even more immeasurable, more boundless. From personal experience, from observation, from history, we know that ideas, feelings, desires, manifesting themselves, can liberate enormous quantities of energy, and create infinite series of phenomena. An idea can act for centuries and milleniums and only grow and deepen, evoking ever new series of phenomena, liberating ever fresh energy. We know that thoughts continue to live and act when even the very name of the man who created them has been converted into a myth, like the names of the founders of ancient religions, the creators of the immortal poetical works of antiquity, heroes, leaders, and prophets. Their words are repeated by innumerable lips, their ideas are studied and commented upon.
• “Undoubtedly each thought of a poet contains enormous potential force, like the power confined in a piece of coal or in a living cell, but infinitely more subtle, imponderable and potent.”
• Observe, for instance, the potential force that lies in the following significant words of the Buddha:
  – Mano-pubbañgamā dhammā mano -setthā-manomayā. Mind fore-runs deeds; mind is chief, and mind-made are they. Mind or consciousness, according to Buddhism, arises at the very moment of conception, together with matter. Consciousness is therefore present in the foetus. This initial consciousness,
  technically known as rebirth-consciousness or relinkingconsciousness (Patisandhi viññāna), is conditioned by past kamma of the person concerned. The subtle mental, intellectual, and moral differences that exist amongst mankind are due to this Kamma conditioned consciousness, the second factor of man.
• To complete the trio that constitutes man there is a third factor, the phenomenon of life that vitalizes both mind and matter. Due to the presence of life reproduction becomes possible.
• Life manifests itself both in physical and mental phenomena. In Pāli the two forms of life are termed Nāma jivitindriya and Rūpa jivitindriya – psychic and physical life.
• Matter, mind, and life are therefore the three distinct factors that constitute man. With their combination a powerful force known as man with inconceivable possibilities comes into being. He becomes his own creator and destroyer. In him are found a rubbish-heap of evil and a storehouse of virtue. In him are found the worm, the brute, the man, the superman, the deva, the Brahma. Both criminal tendencies and saintly characteristics
  are dormant in him. He may either be a blessing or a curse to himself and others.
•  In fact man is a world by himself.