Level 8: Science of Mind

We can understand abhidharma as the original Buddhist psychology, the body of Buddhist teachings on the science of mind. In brief, the abhidharma describes how the mind works, and why we don’t actually perceive reality as it is. Rather, our perception is clouded by past personal experience, habit and other causes and conditions. By understanding how the mind works, we can liberate ourselves from the habitual patterns that cloud our vision, coming into closer contact not only with how the world really is, but with who we really are.

In Buddhism, the middle way is an expression that refers to taking the path between two extremes. The Buddha himself found that indulging in the sensual pleasures of royal life was not a solution to suffering, but nor was the extreme ascetic lifestyle of abandoning society to meditate alone in the forest. We can apply the middle way philosophy to nearly all Buddhist teachings, the most profound of which may be the teachings on no-self. When we take the middle way, we recognize there is indeed a self, although it does not exist the way we typically think it does.

The five aggregates in Buddhism are important because together, they shape our experience of the self and the world around us. The five are form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. In a nutshell, they color what arises in our mind, based on what we’ve cultivated through past actions, thoughts, and emotions. Mapping the aggregates helps us understand how our perception is clouded by past causes and conditions. It also shows a way out of such habits, so that we may see ourselves and our world, as we really are.