The mind allows for the possibility of perception. From the mind arises perceptions of form and emptiness. The idea that I am hung up on is that there is no difference between form and emptiness - they are equivalent. The fact that we are able to perceive them makes them exist in a certain sense, but not a real sense, since we ourselves are not self-existent and impermanent. The assertion that keeps being made by Buddhist scripture, if I'm understanding it right, is that everything is empty and that the nature of the universe is true emptiness. Everything that exists, however temporarily, exists due to a cause. My mind is somehow affected by something which appears external, and then becomes internal because of my perception of it. By perceiving it, I objectify it and internalize it. An object I perceive may appear separate from my physical body, but this clearly does not mean that it, or my body, exists independently.
In a sense, my mind is a mirror, and I only have access to the images that appear in it. The source of these images is the mystery. However, because I only have said access, I cannot be convinced of the reality of anything. I have only my mind's interpretation of what it perceives. So, to comprehend, or maybe, apprehend, the true nature of things, I cannot rely merely on my mind. This is sort of what I've been hammering at in the past... the communication between one being capable of perception and another. I think at one point I assumed that the true nature of reality was an unknowable summation of the perceptions of all individuals, but this assigns value, however minute, to each individual perception. These perceptions truly do not represent reality. The mind is able to synthesize them to reflect reality. Seeing things from every living being's point of view at once, if possible, would bring one no closer to the apprehension of what is real than one's own mind already does.
I wonder whether all things that exist only exist temporarily. This is the impression that I am getting but it is really hard to accept. If so, it certainly doesn't make sense to get too attached, or even attached at all, to anything. Yet, we are all already attached to everything else, as we are all part of the one "fabric" of which everything consists. I exist, but I do not self-exist. My existence is not at all apart from your existence, from the existence of my ideas or your ideas or from any other thing that can be said to exist. We "see" differences between our bodies, our forms, and those of others, so we discriminate. We discriminate to very minute details and make very wide-affecting decisions based on these tiny discriminations which are, really, delusions.
Somebody told me once that Buddhism is about what's in your mind, not about what you, as a person, do. That is nihilism. The mind produces karma. Karma leads to the creation of our bodies. Depending on what type of karma your mind creates, your next body, or form, may be one thing or another. Hating the world and escaping into emptiness is not practicing. Since we are all the same, in order for one of us to escape suffering, we must all escape. We must help one another in whatever ways we can, without being discouraged from doing so by knowledge of our delusions. We must help ourselves. To use the fantastic human mind only for one's own benefit is actually self-destructive, because the idea of self-existence is a delusion.
Thanks for reading, if you did. I feel better now.
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