The manifestation of the external world is the result of various internal and external conditions coming together. The source of these conditions is the accumulation of various forces within the continuum of mind. To change the external world and cognitive abilities, both internal and external conditions must change, and excessive focus should not be placed on aspects such as technology and mathematical logic.
Yogacara views the external world as merely a manifestation of consciousness, with the brain as its tool. Why does the external world appear differently? Because the seeds are different. When seeds mature and sprout, they manifest as various internal and external forces, a power of the mind. This mental power can manifest internally as feelings, thoughts, mental formations, and consciousness, and externally as form. Feelings, thoughts, mental formations, and consciousness are various feelings and emotions. Our internal feelings and emotions influence our views and judgments of the external world. For instance, our perception and judgment of the same person can be drastically different depending on our emotional state. Gender differences and past experiences can also lead to vastly different views and judgments of the same person.
I once made a mistake. I enthusiastically took a friend to see a bamboo grove at Chongqing University, thinking it was beautiful. Unexpectedly, he stood there silently because it was where he had broken up with his first girlfriend - it was a place of heartbreak for him. Our perceptions of the same bamboo grove were vastly different: I saw my youth, while he saw his lost love! Internal feelings and emotions influence our perception of the external world, and similarly, the external world can bring about significant changes in our mental states.
In terms of consciousness-based cognition, to fundamentally change the external world and cognitive abilities, both internal and external conditions need to change. Although Buddhism emphasizes internal observation and mind training, this doesn't mean completely abandoning changes to external conditions. Only sages can entirely forgo changing external conditions; for ordinary people, it's impossible. When you're hungry, you need to eat. Eating is changing the external environment.
To some extent, we need to change external conditions, but that's not where the focus should be, because the point of effort is the mind. That's why it's said not to overly focus on appearances or excessively develop technology and use mathematical logic. People often ask, "Why didn't the Buddha teach us to develop technology and mathematics? Did the Buddha not understand these?" This is nonsense. The Buddha was omniscient, but he knew that ultimately, this knowledge isn't very useful for discovering the ultimate truth. We need to focus on changing our internal state.
If we lived in Maitreya's era, Buddha could indeed teach us these things. Why? People in Maitreya's era live for 80,000 years, marrying at 50,000 years old, with plenty of time to learn everything. But we're in the Saha world, living only 100 years, marrying in our twenties, with starting and raising a family taking up much of our time and energy. How can we spend time learning technology and mathematics? Sometimes, even if we learn these and develop rockets to fly to Venus, the sad reality is that we might die before the rocket reaches Venus! So it's useless, and the Buddha didn't teach these ultimately useless things.
The main changes should be made to internal conditions: on one hand, accumulating merit and purifying obscurations through the brain and senses, and on the other hand, halting brain and sensory activity to shift the direction of cognition.
We need to quickly change both internal and external conditions, primarily focusing on training the mind. However, we can't immediately operate at the level of using the mind to carry out the task directly. We must first rely on the brain and senses to make gradual inward changes:
Firstly, we accumulate merit and purify obscurations through the brain and senses. This can be done through practices like Vajrasattva meditation or mandala offerings. When making mandala offerings, we might use items like pearls, but don't mistakenly think that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas actually need these inexpensive pearls. Not at all. Mandala practice utilizes the senses and thought processes - it's your mind that's accepting and accumulating the power of the offerings.
Therefore, the more vividly you visualize, the more faith you have, and the more you generate bodhicitta (the enlightened attitude), the greater the power that accumulates. When this reaches a certain level, you'll be able to halt cognition based on the brain and senses, fundamentally changing the direction of your cognition.
Excerpted from: Cognition and Expression Part Three
