CREATING 'FORM FOR FORM'

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.Classical (raghadharee) Indian music for e.g., provides evidence for the use of musical impressions. 

FORMATIONS ARE IMPERMANENT

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.

- 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.

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.

- 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.

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)

The external world that we have conceived in reality is suspended on our sense bases. This can be related to a 3D holographic projection. If one of the projectors that create the 3D hologram is turned off the illusory object suspended in the air falls apart. Similarly, if one can comprehend one sense base, say the eye, the world that we live in built upon perceptions, falls apart and therefore our leniency to the external along with our desires. Detachment from the external by comprehending its illusory and no-self nature is crucial to be free from the sensual world. 

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.

- 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.

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).