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Basic Buddhist Teachings 09 - The Five Universal Mental Formations - Perception
Contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition are the five universal mental formations:
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Contact (xúc) → 2. Attention (tác ý) → 3. Feeling (thọ) → 4. Perception (tưởng) → 5. Volition (tư).
Volition is the energy that pushes us to begin to act, and at the same time it connects back to contact, creating the cycle of samsāra and suffering. Without practice, we become victims of the chain of contact–attention–feeling–perception–volition, dominated by mistakes and toxins.
The path of liberation is mindfulness—the energy that illuminates and soothes:
• When there is contact, mindfulness shines its light on contact so we know what we are in contact with (for example, the morning sunlight) and can discern whether that contact is toxic or nourishing.
• It shines on attention so we can recognize whether our actions are beneficial or harmful to our practice.
• It shines on feeling so we can distinguish pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings, and look deeply into the nature of these feelings.
• It soothes internal formations (pain) by calming the mind: “Breathing in, I calm my body and mind…”, embracing, cradling, and then shining light on the roots in order to transform.
Today, we focus on perception—tưởng—the concept of the object, which is often a deluded perception. For example, “Mount Fuji,” “Paris,” death, happiness, loved ones… are all illusions that can give rise to suffering. In the five kinds of wrong views:
• view of self
• view of extremes
• view of attachment to views
• view of attachment to rites and rituals
• wrong view
We must use the light of mindfulness to contemplate these pairs of basic notions (being/non-being, birth/death, coming/going, many/one, impure/pure, permanent/annihilation…) in order to break through deluded perceptions, let go of attachments to views, and be liberated.