The Mind is the Source of Unwholesomeness

An illusory appearance is any phenomena that we mistakenly believe is not empty.

The Buddha often explained emptiness and impermanence by getting people to think about how phenomena arise, change, and decline. The process of arising, changing, and declining is a general form of the cycle of birth and death. Birth corresponds to arising while death corresponds to declining. The purpose of these explanations is to make us focus on the details of change, and thereby realize that nothing is permanent. When we completely understand that nothing is permanent and that nothing has a “stable essence,” we will understand that all appearances to the contrary are but “illusory appearances.”

The Lankavatara Sutra says, “All things arise from the mind and all things are extinguished in the mind.”

All things, both good and bad, start in the mind. Delusion is based in the workings of the mind. The sutra says realize that…the mind is the source of unwholesomeness, and the body is a gathering of wrongdoings.

The Buddha says that “the mind is the source of unwholesomeness” to make us realize that everything we have is of our own making. If we frequently engage in harmful or suspicious thoughts, our lives will become dark and unpleasant. Our minds are the turning points of our intentions and, thus, of our karma. There is no unwholesomeness “in the world.” There is only unwholesomeness “in our minds.” The Avatamsaka Sutra says, “The mind is a painter that paints many images.”

The Sutra of Teachings Bequeathed by the Buddha says, “If you can control your mind, you can do anything.”

The phrase the body is a gathering of wrongdoings echoes the point that all of illusory appearances are impermanent, changing and empty. They are described as wrongdoings because ultimately they have been created from bad intentions within our own minds. They are called a gathering because all delusion is made up of many parts.

Delusion is delusion because we cannot clearly see its causes and conditions. The body appears because there is karma to generate it. There is karma because there is intention. There is a gathering of wrongdoings because our intentions circulate in a mind that seeks to justify itself on its own deluded terms. “The mind is the source of unwholesomeness” and thus the forms it sees are a “gathering of (its own) wrongdoings.”

It was originally published in The Great Realizations, written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

Image from Pixabay.

More Featured Articles

In the practice of meditation, once you have developed meditative concentration it does not matter if you are walking, standing, sitting, lying down, carrying firewood, or bringing water—every single action can suddenly lead to enlightenment and seeing intrinsic nature. For true Chan practitioners meditation is whatever they see in their daily lives; it is everywhere. Read more
"To bear disgrace and insult" is the most important virtue a person can possibly cultivate, because the ability to forbear is enormously powerful, since a moment of anger can destroy an entire lifetime of merits. By restraining our emotions, we have a better chance of avoiding confrontation and gaining control of the situation at hand. Otherwise, our minds will be clouded and our judgment impaired. Read more
When we can practice viewing ourselves and others through a lens of oneness, we will no longer engage in meaningless mind games that prevent us from forming positive connections with all beings. Read more
What are people supposed to do when they are troubled by afflictions? Some people are troubled by very specific things, others encounter poverty, and many have poor relations with other people. Some individuals are disturbed the moment they hear even the slightest comment they do not like, or they become angry when they see someone doing something they do not approve of. This sort of Read more
In the Buddha's teachings, there are four kinds of friends: friends who treat you like a flower, friends who act like a balance, friends who are like the mountains, and friends who are like the earth.Friends who treat you like a flowerWe all enjoy flowers, especially when they are fresh. We put them in vases to decorate our homes, we give them to our loved Read more
In the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections, the Buddha asked his disciples, "How long is one's life?" One of the monks replied, "A few years." The next one answered, "A few days!" Another one said, "Less than one day!" Another responded, "Between meals!" Finally, the Buddha said, "Life lasts for the duration of one breath." Life is extraordinarily precious and yet it is based on a Read more
“True Dharma” means those teachings which are right, correct, and do not deviate from the Middle Way.The word “Dharma” has several different meanings. One meaningof “dharma” is “phenomena.” In this sense, “dharma” includes phenomena as large as the universe and as small as a mustard seed. “Dharma” also refers to the truth, the teachings of the Buddha. The Dharma the Buddha taught is what allows people Read more
Human beings are social animals; we cannot live apart from community. As Buddhists, we are told to seek the Dharma among the people, for the Dharma does not exist in some other world or far away place; the Dharma is here among us, embodied in each and every being. When we understand that human society is nothing other than a web of human relationships, we Read more
Being patient is an art, and being persistent is a kind of hope. Influenced by today’s instant culture, modern people tend to expect instant results in anything they do. Practitioners want to have attainment in this life, scholars want to become instant laureates in their fields, and entrepreneurs want to gain a huge fortune overnight. As the saying goes, “A flower picked before its time Read more
It seemed that I had to do every­thing for Buddhism. For Buddhism, I have to only set the tone and not be­come the master, hand over my physi­cal body to the temple and give my life to the Dharma protectors, heav­enly beings and nagas, and making the aspiration to head out for Buddhism, striving to move Buddhism to­ward humanity and society. It seemed then that Read more
Social harmony stems from handling relationships and communal living with skill, effort, and a spirit of cooperation. We can learn a lot about keeping peace in social living from the six points of reverent harmony that the monastic sangha observes. Sangha is a Sanskrit word, which can be interpreted on many different levels. In its widest interpretation, it refers to all those who have the Read more
The analysis of the mind in Buddhism is both multifaceted and sophisticated. As a spiritual practice, Buddhism contains numerous descriptions of the nature and function of the mind and instructions on how to search for, abide with, and refine it. In this regard, Buddhist psychology has much to offer, as does Western psychology.In the beginning, “psychology” referred almost exclusively to “a science that explains the Read more