A Yogacara View of Existence
Buddhism does not deny an "external world", but points to the fact that we cannot know what, ultimately, it is, because our "knowledge" of it is mediated by the senses, impulses from which are (mis)-interpreted by the mind as really existing, independently of ourselves, outside ourselves. These are questions of 'depth psychology', addressed by the Yogachara, and also those of duality and non-duality that become particularly prominent in inter-personal relationships.
Knowing all this, the mind at first attempts to "solve" existential problems, problems of being, by means of thought, which results in endless prapanca, or speculation. Until there is a breakthrough. Well, there is a breakthrough if we persist determinedly with regular, daily meditation over many years.
Here I quote from Urgyen Sangharakshita: "Now the ancient Indian Yogacarins meditated. That is to say, they attained, or they realised or they experienced higher states or stages of consciousness above and beyond the states, the stages, the functions of the ordinary conscious mind. They experienced states and stages that are very much nearer to reality than those which we usually or normally experience. Not only attained to them, not only, as it were, touched them, but as it were dwelt in them, abode in them, even lived and moved and had their being in those higher levels, higher planes, and not on this lower plane where we have our life, where we live and move and have our being."
"Yogacara 'philosophy'", says Urgyen Sangharakshita, "then attempts to formulate what is in essence a spiritual experience. But the moment you attempt to reason about it, you fall into error". This is why, in my long relationship with and service to Sangharakshita spanning nearly fifty years, he said very few words indeed to me personally. He was continuously and directly pointing, in effect, to the reality, or rather, with very few exceptions I believe, constantly dwelling in that reality himself, which is why, so often, there seemed to be an unbridgeable gap between him and me. It was a very, very hard lesson to take. Very occasionally, I had the experience of uniting with his mind, or rather, immersing myself in it. It was like a deep, vibrant, utterly blissful and satisfying ocean or space without limit whatsoever, totally secure and completely devoid of thought.
So ultimately, for ordinary folk and people like you and me who do not dwell continuously in the enlightened state, there is nothing but a flow of mental phenomena, phenomena that we erroneously attribute to a world "out there". But in truth there is no necessary correspondence between perceptions and world, a realisation attested to or confirmed both by dreams and by the occurrence of images and visions in meditation, which may not be located or have their origin in what we think of as external or Newtonian space at all. And what we think of as reality is just like that, a dream, a lightning flash etc.
As my friend Lokabandhu points out, there is nothing wrong with the senses. The problem arises because we take them for granted in the sense of assuming unreflectively that they are "bouncing off" something ultimately real; we draw erroneous conclusions from them - until we stop doing so.
Do you see what I mean?
Knowing all this, the mind at first attempts to "solve" existential problems, problems of being, by means of thought, which results in endless prapanca, or speculation. Until there is a breakthrough. Well, there is a breakthrough if we persist determinedly with regular, daily meditation over many years.
Here I quote from Urgyen Sangharakshita: "Now the ancient Indian Yogacarins meditated. That is to say, they attained, or they realised or they experienced higher states or stages of consciousness above and beyond the states, the stages, the functions of the ordinary conscious mind. They experienced states and stages that are very much nearer to reality than those which we usually or normally experience. Not only attained to them, not only, as it were, touched them, but as it were dwelt in them, abode in them, even lived and moved and had their being in those higher levels, higher planes, and not on this lower plane where we have our life, where we live and move and have our being."
"Yogacara 'philosophy'", says Urgyen Sangharakshita, "then attempts to formulate what is in essence a spiritual experience. But the moment you attempt to reason about it, you fall into error". This is why, in my long relationship with and service to Sangharakshita spanning nearly fifty years, he said very few words indeed to me personally. He was continuously and directly pointing, in effect, to the reality, or rather, with very few exceptions I believe, constantly dwelling in that reality himself, which is why, so often, there seemed to be an unbridgeable gap between him and me. It was a very, very hard lesson to take. Very occasionally, I had the experience of uniting with his mind, or rather, immersing myself in it. It was like a deep, vibrant, utterly blissful and satisfying ocean or space without limit whatsoever, totally secure and completely devoid of thought.
So ultimately, for ordinary folk and people like you and me who do not dwell continuously in the enlightened state, there is nothing but a flow of mental phenomena, phenomena that we erroneously attribute to a world "out there". But in truth there is no necessary correspondence between perceptions and world, a realisation attested to or confirmed both by dreams and by the occurrence of images and visions in meditation, which may not be located or have their origin in what we think of as external or Newtonian space at all. And what we think of as reality is just like that, a dream, a lightning flash etc.
As my friend Lokabandhu points out, there is nothing wrong with the senses. The problem arises because we take them for granted in the sense of assuming unreflectively that they are "bouncing off" something ultimately real; we draw erroneous conclusions from them - until we stop doing so.
Do you see what I mean?