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The World Created or the Mind
In the Western tradition, the earth is the center of the universe and history has a beginning and an end predetermined by God; in contrast, in Asian religions, space and time are boundless, without a point of beginning or ending. The stage of history is not only the earth but extends throughout the three thousand great thousand worlds: each grain of sand in the Ganges is a world, each speck of dust from the crushed earth is a world, so that even mathematics cannot count them all. On that stage, not only humans but also devas, Asuras, Gandharvas, Garudas, Kinnaras, and Mahoragas play their roles.
The driving force that creates the universe and history in Western theology is the volonté de Dieu, the will of God, whereas in Buddhism it is karma—the energy of action and intention. Consciousness includes the six sense bases (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and, at a deeper level, the store consciousness which contains seeds, giving rise to the world and all species. All phenomena are “mind-made,” and begin with perception through the five universal mental formations:
- contact
- attention
- feeling
- perception
- volition
Right View (seeing clearly the nature of impermanence, dependent co-arising, and non-self) is the first step of the Noble Eightfold Path, helping us to recognize and transform the seeds of ignorance, fear, and hatred into wisdom, love, and fearlessness.