IMPRESSIONS
Perception of
form derives from impressions stored at our mind consciousness level through
past sense experiences. These impressions are constantly tied to external
objects seen, heard, smelt and so on and therefore when we think of a sense
experience we think of the impression in relation to an external object.
Similarly when an object comes in front of our eye we tend to know it through a
mental impression we have gathered through a past visual experience. This is a process
of cause an effect. The external object causes the formation of a mental
impression and that impression in turn rules how we perceive and experience the
external object through our senses. Our ignorance that this is a process of
cause and effect makes us to believe that the things that we think of really
exists out there and accordingly our likes and dislikes to external things
continue to prevail & grow.
An artist
primarily work with forms perceived with impressions gathered through past sense
experiences. An Architect for instance gathers certain type of impressions and
a film maker gathers a different type of impressions, both drawing from their
respective training - a musician uses a different set of impressions.
As much as a
language is nurtured with vocabulary, architectural language entail a vocabulary
of its own. Languages are diverse, so are architectural languages often enriched
with culture, period, Geography etc. Furthermore, use of a language differs
from person to person and so is the use of an architectural language as it employs
a vast range of vocabulary in form of elements, material, texture & colour
etc.
Architecture fundamentally
is defining and creating spaces. Architectural design or creations originates
in the mind of an Architect and evolves, shaped with his inbuilt knowledge
& skills. He conceives and constructs mental formations which are expressed
through drawings to be reconstructed physically; an architect in essence
creates a mental Form for a physical Form.
Expressions
of Mental Formations
These
formations are entirely founded upon impressions he has accumulated through
training & experiencing. His consciousness is equipped with a language of architecture,
like that of a novelist or a writer whose consciousness is equipped with a language
with words. His language consists of spatial concepts that are stored in a
manner that they can be extracted at any time when his mind attempts to create
form. The order in which he arranges space (Design & composition) dictates
the form and use of material, texture & colour, for e.g., further enhances it,
similar to a work of a writer who composes with a range of words and phrases.
FORM
Three factors
should be present or come together to trigger a sense experience, for e.g. when
the eye, the visible object and eye consciousness come together it causes eye contact leading to a visual
experience. Therefore, what we experience is a compounded product (conditioned by
three factors) or an image of the external object and not exactly what is out
there. This image is unknown and we cannot say that we saw the object, until
the mind perceives it in terms of an impression gained through a past
experience.
Buddhist
teachings define form as four great elements and those forms that associate
four great elements. The
four great elements are grouped in different ways in space and what we see is a
shape with colour, for e.g. round, rectangular, spherical or cylindrical in
colours of red, yellow or blue as formed by the eye. What is seen by the eye is
described in the script as ‘Upadaya Rupa’
meaning, a form that associates the Four Great elements.
We can’t touch visible
form or feel it to experience any sensation for e.g. as pleasant or unpleasant
or as cold or hot, since it does not exist externally. When we touch we feel
the element of solidness in aggregates in form of a tactile sensation, which is
unrelated to the visible form. It is to be noted that the eye consciousness
that arises when the eye meets the object (visual stimuli) is different to body
consciousness resulting from touch (i.e. tactile stimuli).
We can relate
the state of perceiving visible form to a wall painting (mural). We may see
people, buildings, trees and flowers in it with real surroundings though it is merely
a series of paint brush strokes on the wall, if we attempt to feel a flower for
instance, we will touch the wall. The reality identified in the mural is framed
entirely in our mind. We perceive the audible form in the same way for
e.g. when we listen to music we listen to a melody formed by a series of
audible notes relating to musical impressions we have already experienced and
enjoyed. A Musician composes a melody in such a way that we can recompose the
notes received by the ear and replay it in our mind, connecting with an
impression we already know. When we can relate a new melody to an impression we
already like we say we like that music.
FORMATIONS ARE
In terms of
physical construction, say to construct a house, the external aggregates are
arranged in a manner an architect has conceived the form, a Form (physical)
from Form (mental). An external object composed of aggregates is neutral but is
masked and given ‘life’ with a dressing of mental fabrications that we project
on to it making it a house (or a building), an object of pleasure to be
experienced.
Form
from Form
When the
Architect sees the finished product he quickly recalls the mental formation and
experiences it as he originally conceived. The user or the onlooker is able to
experience the building in a similar way but according to each one’s individual
level of perception.
Regardless whether
the person is an architect, a writer, a film maker or a musician this is what
our mind does in experiencing & interpreting external form. According to
Buddhist teachings our mind works like an artist in attempting to interpret the
images received though sense doors. It uses impressions that are retained from
previous sense experiences to identify external objects. This process is called
formation (Sanskara) also
known as mental constructions or fabrications in teachings, impressions are called
products of formation (Sanskara Nimithi), which are instrumental in further formation. The truth is that we do not interact with what seem to exist
out there with our likes and
dislikes but with our own conceptions, the Buddha has revealed. Buddha’s words to explain this phenomenon were , Rupan
Rupattaya sankathan abhisankarothithi sankaran, i.e. we create form to experience form (Khajjaneeya Sutta: Samyutta Nikaaya).Understanding impermanence as disclosed by the
Buddha is not merely observing impermanence of a thing that exists. We need to
comprehend with insight that what we perceive do not exist out there and that
things just arise due to conditions and cease immediately after.
Sabbe sankhara anicca'ti;
yada pannaya passati,
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
yada pannaya passati,
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
- Dhammapada -
277.
Impermanent are all compounded
things.(conditionings)
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
FORMATIONS BRING UNSATISFACTORINESS
Bundles of
aggregate arranged to create a form seen externally are subject to nature and
thus deteriorate, decay and get destroyed, however, mental formations persist
in the mind of the creator, user or the onlooker. This make them to lament about the loss or decay of the
house (discussed above) and similarly another object such as a piece of
furniture or a sculpture on which in fact are concepts originated in
one’s mind and are truly independent of the external aggregates.
If the house gets
destroyed by a natural disaster such as an earthquake it could get reduced to a
pile of material or aggregates. Now one cannot perceive the house (form) that
existed but a pile of aggregates. The outcome
brings pain to the owner and those who had connections to the house, as they
can no longer relate the mental image to what is remaining externally. They may
still identify and hold onto the left over material as parts from the original
house and not as remains of general building material that could be used to
build another building. They ignore the fact that the pile of aggregates are
common construction material that were put together according to the way the
Architect designed, to create the formation that they perceived as house they owned & liked.
Think of an object made out of clay, say a doll,
the clay is moulded into a shape of a doll as conceived in the artist’s mind,
it is a formation. We perceive the object the way the artist wanted it to look
like it, as a doll. If someone drops it
accidently, the clay object will break into pieces but there is no change to
the clay content that was there in the doll before and in the pieces that are now
on ground. However, we say the doll is broken as the object has got deformed
due to disintegration of clay particles. This can make a little child to cry, not
because the clay object is broken but as her doll is damaged. It is the
deformation that brings about unsatisfactoriness or sorrow. One can say that things are impermanent and
subject to change and destruction therefore we shouldn’t worry. The point is
that although the object is destroyed the mental image of the desired object
remains which brings sorrow to the child in this instance and to all of us at different situations in
life.
Attachments to
external form cause unsatisfactoriness.
Sabbe sankhara dukkha'ti;
yada pannaya passati,
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
yada pannaya passati,
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
- Dhammapada - 278.
All compounded things (conditionings)
are suffering.
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
FORMATIONS ARE WITHOUT SELF
When we project
our notions of person on to a group of external aggregates we perceive a person.
Where body parts are grouped in a particular order we call it a person.
For example
what we see in the first picture below are few pieces of wood stacked on ground
but when the same pieces of wood are assembled to a particular shape as seen in
the second picture we perceive as a form which we call a ‘table’. Similarly, a
form that is created when hair, flesh and bones etc. are grouped in a
particular manner is perceived as a ‘person’.
According to
teachings when the form is not known as it is due to the wrong view,
defilements arise and due to defilements our view gets further obscured
concealing the reality.
The
four pieces of timber in the first picture are usually identified as two, 2”x 2”
timber pieces, however, when they form part of the completed table they are
known as table legs assuming the oneness of the table. Hence, if a component of
the table (e.g. leg) breaks it will make the user unhappy as his table is
damaged. Similarly, parts of a body seen individually will often be associated
with a human body, noting as woman’s hair and man’s teeth for e.g.
As we do not see the reality as it is, due to ignorance (or delusion), not only we misinterpret what we encounter externally and create our own world with people & things, we feed our mind with those erroneous conceptions (impressions). These in turn influence our perception & further mental formations which make us to recreate the external as projected by our mind. In other words we create and live within our own world.
The Buddha has preached “It is in this very fathom-long physical frame with its perceptions and mind that, I declare, lies the world, and the arising of the world, and the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world.” (Rohitassa Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya)
3D Holographic Projection
It’s essential to recognise the internal nonself nature as well as the nonself nature of the external (world). The realisation, that all sense experiences, arise to the occasion and cease soon after, will establish the reality that there is neither a sense experience (object seen , heard, tasted and so on) nor an experiencer.
Sabbe dhamma anatta'ti;
yada pannaya passati,
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
atha nibbindati dukkhe,
esa maggo vissuddhiya.
- Dhammapada - 279.
All phenomena are without self.
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
When one perceives this with true insight,
one becomes detached from suffering; this is the path
of purification.
PATH TO LIBERATION
Senses are not
permanent and they arise to cause a sense experience when necessary factors
come together and cease immediately after. This occurrence is similar to taking
a snapshot which is captured by the mind perceiving through past impressions to
make or update formations and determine as a thing that exists out there. Our
life in essence comprises of sense experiences moving from one sense to another
interacting with an illusory world.
Our present
existence with six sense bases is a result of past Kamma. If we continue to be
deluded and indulge in sensations, interacting with external form & the
illusory world we have created, the repetition of the cycle of rebirth (samsara)
will continue. Nirvana is defined as cessation of the six sense bases.
The key is to
recognise our ignorance which causes erroneous judgement of the external world which
in fact in modern terms is a ‘virtual reality’. Realisation of this reality
that we principally live in a world created on our own for us to experience
with our likes and dislikes, helps us to free ourselves from bondages we have developed
to things and people that seemingly exist externally and the burdens we attract
through such bondages. Comprehending the state of formation discussed above
opens up room to correct our view and discard delusion whereby we can reach the
path to liberation and the ultimate bliss.
The teachings direct us to correct our view and discard
delusion by comprehending form (visible, audible & so on) as they
really are; their nature of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and no self, The Three Marks of Buddhism. The
path proclaimed by the Buddha takes one to the three doorways to liberation
known as impressionless (Animitta), desireless (Appanihita ) and emptiness
(Sunnata).
