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Basic Buddhist Teachings 10 - Five Mental Formations - Perception

Thich Nhat Hanh · March 31, 1994 · Plum Village, France
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Perception (samjñā) is the fourth mental formation, meaning the notion that arises when the mind grasps an appearance—external or internal signs of an object. There are two kinds of appearances:

  1. Universal appearance – the general sign such as “house,” “green”…
  2. Particular appearance – the specific sign such as pillar, beam, wood, stone, lime, foundation…
    Wherever there is an appearance, there is illusion (“Whatever has form is illusory”), and these appearances easily lead us astray into the past, the future, or samsāra (for example, the scent of perfumes like Samsara, Poison, Je reviens can carry us away).

According to the Diamond Sutra, there are four main notions created by perception that we need to break through in order to see the inter-being nature of reality:

  • The notion of self
  • The notion of person (human being)
  • The notion of living being (sentient being)
  • The notion of life span (life entity)

Each appearance is a fragment of the wondrous reality, only a trace of a deeper reality. The practice is to maintain mindfulness in order to directly face and contemplate the appearance, to penetrate through that layer of manifestation and discover the unborn, undying ontological ground (like H₂O in the forms of water, cloud, snow, or ice).

In daily activities—prostrating, walking meditation, sweeping the house, cooking rice—these are opportunities to break through appearances and return to our ultimate dimension. When we look deeply into each appearance without being deceived by it, we will live peacefully in the present moment, free and whole, no longer afraid of birth and death, being and non-being, coming and going.

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Bourg le Roy

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Basic Buddhist Teachings 11 - The Five Mental Formations - Perception