Sense Consciousnesses - Verse Thirty

They arise with the,
universal, particular, and wholesome,
the basic and secondary unwholesome,
and the indeterminate mental formations.

Mental formations are mental states. They lead to actions. They are also a result of manifestation of seeds from the store consciousness. So mental formations produce seeds as well as mental formations. For example, we may act rashly when we are angry. Contact may lead to anger.

Since our quality of life largely depends on our state of mind and the quality of seeds in the store consciousness, it is very important to study the mental formations. Buddha listed out all the mental formations so monks could identify them.

Monks practice to identify and note the mental formations arising in their minds. When we become mindful about this, we can identify the wholesome and unwholesome formations. We can then practice living in a manner that prevents unwholesome formations from arising.

This meditation also does not require us to be seated in any particular posture. We can carry on with our normal activities. We just need to cultivate the mindfulness to watch the formations arising in our mind. If, for example, you find that anger arises in your mind, you can make a mental note of it. Remind yourself not to speak when you are angry. Then when you have time in the evening, you can think why you were angry and how you can avoid such situations in future.

There are fifty-one mental formations - five universal, five particular, eleven wholesome, twenty-six unwholesome and four indeterminate.

The five universal mental formations are contact, feeling, attention, perception and volition.

The five particular mental formations are zeal, determination, mindfulness, concentration and understanding.

There are eleven wholesome mental formations - faith, remorse, humility, absence of craving, lack of aversion, absence of ignorance and misunderstanding, energy, ease, carefulness, equanimity (non discrimination) and nonviolence (non-harming).

The twenty six unwholesome mental formations are greed (craving/attachment), aversion (hatred), pride (arrogance), ignorance (delusion), wrong views, doubt (suspicion), anger (irritation), enmity (resentment), hypocrisy, maliciousness (spite), envy (jealousy), selfishness, deceitfulness, guile, intoxication with self (mischievous exuberance), desire to harm, lack of remorse, lack of humility, mental fogginess, agitation, lack of faith (lack of confidence), indolence, carelessness (negligence), forgetfulness, distractedness (preoccupation) and lack of recognition (lack of discernment of how things are).

Of these, greed (craving/attachment), aversion (hatred) and ignorance are the three primary unwholesome mental formations. The circle of life drawings have a pig (symbolizing ignorance), snake (symbolizing aversion/hatred) and a bird (symbolizing greed/attachment/craving) at the center (hub). From ignorance of the nature of reality (interbeing) arises a sense of separate self and others. This leads to aversion and attachment. The three of them lead to other unwholesome mental formations which lead to negative actions. These then lead us in a particular direction and we experience a life in accordance with our choices. If we give up samsaric desires, choose to live simply and practice the dharma, we may end up living happily at Plum Village or in the mountains. If we chase samsaric desires, we will need more money and we will end up leading a stressful life to fulfill those desires. If we are driven by hatred, we will frequently experience anger. Driven by greed we are unable to experience contentment.

Looking deeply we can see that by learning to see the interbeing nature of reality, we can free ourselves from all unwholesome mental formations. We can see clearly that a belief in separate self is necessary for all unwholesome mental formations to arise.

Four indeterminate mental formations are - regret, torpor (sleepiness), initial thought and sustained thought (investigation).

When we practice perceiving in the field of things-in-themselves, only the five universal mental formations arise.

(Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.)

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