PSYCHOLOGY OF BUDDHISM: A practical guide to self-knowledge.

clarity, which underlies all cognitive acts. This is… the basic nature of the mind, clear light."

      Imagine a pure, transparent crystal. It has clarity – you can see through it, as if through an unclouded spring. And at the same time, he is able to reflect light and images like a mirror – he has the ability to know. Our mind is like this crystal. It is clear in nature, which allows us to be aware of and perceive the world around us, like a window open to reality. And he has the ability to know – to see, to hear, to feel, to think, like a sensitive instrument that registers all impressions.

      The Dalai Lama, like a poet, calls this basic nature of the mind "clear light." This is a very beautiful metaphor. Imagine a cloudless night sky strewn with stars. The sky itself is clear, and the stars are the objects of our cognition. The light emanating from the stars becomes visible through this clarity.

      In the Buddhist tradition, different terms are used to refer to the mind, like different facets of the same gem. In Sanskrit, the word is citta, and in Tibetan, it is sems. These words encompass a wide range of mental activities, from the simplest sensations to the most complex intellectual processes.

      In order to better understand how our minds work, Buddhist psychology, like a skilled cartographer, offers different classifications of mental activities. One of the main ones is the sevenfold division of types of perception, which is as if we divide all the ways in which our minds interact with the world into seven main categories.

      Imagine how we perceive the world through our five senses: sight, like a window through which we see the colors of the world; hearing is like an instrument that catches the sounds of life; the sense of smell, like an invisible thread that connects us with aromas; Taste, like the palette of sensations on the tongue; and touch, like touching reality. These are five of the seven parts. The sixth part is our mental perception, like the inner voice that generates thoughts and ideas. The seventh part is our consciousness, like the conductor of an orchestra, combining all these types of perceptions into a single stream of experience.

      This division, like the anatomy of the mind, helps us understand that our mind is not just a homogeneous mass, but a complex system consisting of various aspects, each of which plays a different role in our perception of reality.

      Remember how you look at the picture. Your eyes (vision) perceive colors and shapes like a painter capturing details. At the same time, you can hear sounds around you (hearing), like a melody accompanying a visual image. Thoughts and associations associated with this picture (mental perception) arise in your mind, like an internal dialogue interpreting what you see. And all these sensations and thoughts come together in your mind, like threads weaving into a tapestry, creating your holistic experience of this moment.

      Exploring these different aspects of the mind, like diving into the depths of the ocean, allows us to better understand how our thoughts and emotions arise, how we form our view of the world, and how we react to different situations. This is the first step on the way to learning to control your mind like a rider bridling a wild steed, and to live more consciously and happily.

      The Sevenfold Division of Types of Perception (Tib. blo rigs bdun)

      Now let's dive deeper into these seven facets of our perception, as if in the seven rooms of our minds, each of which reveals its own way of knowing the world.

      Direct perception (Skt. pratyakṣa; Tib. mngon sum):

      It's like a first look at the world, pure and unclouded by thoughts. Imagine looking at a bright red flower. At that moment, there are no judgments, no comparisons, just a pure visual sensation of the red color and shape of the flower. This is direct perception – pure sensory experience, free from conceptual layers.

      Example: Imagine that you are drinking hot tea. The moment the liquid touches your tongue, you feel warmth and taste. This is pure, immediate perception – a feeling of warmth and sweetness without the admixture of thoughts about whether this tea is good, how much it costs or who made it.

      Parable: Once a man who was blind from birth asked a sighted man: "What is white?" The sighted man tried to explain, comparing white with snow, with clouds, with swan down. But the blind man did not understand. Then the sighted man took a shell in his hands and gave it to the blind man to touch, saying: "White is like this smooth, hard surface." What is the color white. But he knew only the sensation of touch, and not the visual experience of whiteness itself. This parable, like a mirror, reflects how difficult it is to convey direct sensory experience through concepts.

      Inference (Skt. anumāna; Tib. rjes dpag):

      This kind of cognition, like a wise detective, is based on logic and reasoning. Imagine that you see smoke rising from behind a hill. You do not see the fire itself, but from your experience and knowledge that smoke usually accompanies a fire, you conclude that there is a fire burning behind the hill. Inference is the ability of our mind to draw conclusions based on available facts and logical connections.

      Example: You wake up in the morning and see that the asphalt in the yard is wet, and there are drops of water hanging on the trees. You did not see how it rained, but based on these signs, you conclude that it rained at night.

      Parable: Once the sage saw the tracks of large hooves on the bank of the river. He carefully examined them and said to his disciples: "These tracks belong to a huge elephant, which is lame on one leg, hungry and carries a lot of luggage." The disciples were surprised: "How can you know this without seeing the elephant?" The sage explained: "The footprints are deep, which means that the elephant is very heavy. One leg leaves a less deep mark, which means it is lame. There is no grass around the tracks, which means that he is hungry. And the uneven depth of the tracks indicates that he is carrying a heavy load." This parable, like a magnifying glass, shows the power of inference based on careful observation and logical thinking.

      Subsequent knowledge (Skt. paricchinna-jñāna; Tib. bcad shoes):

      It's like meeting an old friend – recognizing something that we've already perceived. When you meet someone you know on the street, you immediately recognize their face, voice, or behavior. This is subsequent cognition – our mind compares the current perception with the information stored in the memory and identifies the object.

      Example: You hear a familiar tune on the radio. After a few seconds, you recognize the song and remember its name and artist. This is the subsequent cognition – your mind compares what you heard with the information stored in your memory.

      Parable: A monk who had spent many years in seclusion in the mountains came down to the city. He saw many unfamiliar things and people. But when he heard the sound of a bell coming from the temple, he immediately recognized it.

      Correct assumption (Skt. manaḥ-parīkṣā; Tib. yid dpyod):

      It's like an intuitive insight, a correct guess based on limited information. Imagine that you hear a meow outside the door. If you don't see a cat, you're still very likely to assume that there's a cat there.

      Example: Your friend is usually late for meetings. You agreed to meet at a café at 7 p.m. At 7:15 a.m. he's still gone. You assume that he's likely to stay another 10-15 minutes, and this assumption turns out to be correct.

      Parable: Once a traveler got lost in the forest. He saw two roads diverging in different directions. On one road there were fresh tracks leading deep into the forest, and the other was overgrown with grass. The traveler assumed that no one had walked along the overgrown road for a long time, and decided to follow the road with footprints. This parable shows how, even with a lack of information, we can make the right assumption based on common sense and intuition.

      Direct perception without definition (Skt. aniyata-pratibhāsa; Tib. snang la ma nges pa):

      It's like a fleeting vision, a first impression, but it's even more fleeting and indefinite.