einstein questions, buddha answers (new edition)

7/24/2019 Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers (New Edition)

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Dedication

For humanity of the past, the present and the future.


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Acknowledgement

My gratitude goes to Ian and Sally Timm as well as Liz and

Mike Leahy who spent a great deal of time editing this book forme.


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Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers (The New Edition)

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Contents

Introduction

Chapter one Einstein questions, Buddha answers

Chapter two Einsteine mc2

Chapter three The constituents of human life

Chapter four Finding the true self

Chapter five Do you know what a normal mind is?

Chapter six The final frontier

Chapter seven The tube of intellect

Chapter eight Here and now, truth and reality,and the innocent perception

Chapter nine The perfect harmony between the absolute element

and the law of change

Chapter ten Final perspective

Glossary


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Introduction

This new book was written to update and merge two earlier books titled: Do you know what a

normal mind is? andEinstein Questions, Buddha Answers. I have decided to rewrite the contents

of each chapter but still maintain the titles of most of the chapters.

Those who are familiar with my work know that I continue to emphasize the existence of theultimate truth and the means to it. In this book, I use Einsteins interest in wanting to find the

absolute ruling point in nature and his quest for the theory of everything as the basis to connect

with the Buddhas wisdom regarding the existence of the ultimate truth, which he called

Nirvana. My prime duty is to help you to understand that this ultimate element has everythingto do with each of us, intimately and significantly. This is reflected in the contents of this book:

finding our true self, the state of a normal mind, the final frontier and so on. Finally, I reveal the

nature of the ultimate truth by connecting it with neutral terms such as here and now, truth andreality and the innocent perception.

We are now living in an extremely complex global society where it seems to many that ourwhole way of life is governed by a very small handful of people in a banking cartel, or

plutocracy, who have created the epic scale of deception in which we are trapped.

Consequently, we are living in an absolutely distorted culture which aims to breed stress,

worries, anxiety, depression, breakdown and suicide due to the series of problems thrust upon uson a daily basis. I cant help but thinking how can the Buddha's prescription for self knowledge

and inner peace ever work under such unwholesome predicament? We all have to walk into our

work place from where we make something, either knowledge, goods or services, which in oneway or another contribute towards an increasingly unethical situation predominantly based upon

the deceptive financial system! Illnesses, wars, drugs, criminality and even human (labour and

sex) have been turned into industries making more money for the wealthiest. No wonder whywe are so messed up. Researching into these ugly facts almost discouraged me from carrying on

with my work, which is about helping people to get rid of their daily stress and all kinds of

mental turmoil. How can I encourage my students to maintain their morality, integrity, kindnessand compassion while the financial activities and unlimited greed inherent in developed

societies are clearly wrong, twisted beyond imagination and utterly amoral in the first place? I

did feel like making myself disappear into thin air and shutting down everything I do, thinking

that my work in dispensing the Buddhas teachings might have no impact whatsoever in thiscrazy world!

Although being saddened and shocked by the appalling global situation, I am still lucky to have

enough wisdom to see and confirm that this human realm is truly a prison of life. So, helpingeven just one person to realise this predicament, and to lead him/her to be free from this

imprisonment, should be enough reason for me to carry on working. So, while admittedly themoral advice in my entire works, including this book, may seem naive, irrelevant and even

impossible to practice in this deeply distorted world, this advice must continue as far as

rationality goes, I am afraid. To attain the ultimate truth and eternal inner peace, one must think,

speak and act wholesomely. There is no other way round. You just have to do your very best to


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maintain your moral integrity, which I know is very difficult. You can only achieve this when the

ultimate goal of life finding the ultimate truth is clearly underlined.

In this cutting edge global society of the 21st

century, religions have been viewed by some as

outdated dogmas that not only offer false hope but also are being used as a means for personal

financial gain by religious, political and economic elites. Critics argue that there is no realtangible basis for the religious ideologies, i.e. believers make their own images of God, The Tree

of Life, The Kingdom of God, Heaven and Hell. Even the non-God based ideologies like Tao

and Nirvana are no different and are criticized as being far-fetched ideologies that seem to have

no connection whatsoever to our daily lives. Some of the Buddhist establishments, a culture Igrew up with, are crumbling very fast due to the lack of practice and wisdom among many

religious officers. Having put all these weaknesses into consideration, the contents of this book

may help bridge the gap between science and religion as well as pacify the cruel realities that weface in our daily life. To be more precise, it is my coinage, the innocent perception (one of the

28 terminologies representing all believers) that can offer us the ground to work on and work

with as we engage in this spiritual path to attain the ultimate truth. Perceptions are real and

scientifically based; they are not some abstract philosophical ideology that offers false hope. Inchapter seven, I have emphasised that human thought, (Jerry), is the very characteristic that

paints us the wrong image about the nature of the final element. Therefore the innocent

perception, in my view, is the most substantial, accessible and understandable platform we canstep on to pursue our common spiritual goal the ultimate truth!

This can also help us to bypass all the conspiracy theories inundated the Internet, some of whichare shocking and there is no way to get to the bottom of the truth. Without knowing the ultimate

truth, it will be extremely difficult to find inner peace in this troublesome world.

Once the ultimate truth becomes clear as a goal, you can then appreciate it and be motivated to

engage in the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness or bringing your mental self back

home, which once again, is immediately available and understandable. This practice is nothingmore than having more awareness of our breathing, movements and physical sensations, which

are tangible and very real. This is the direct method to attain the real truth and subsequently to

gain the benefits of inner peace, harmony and balance.

If this book can make a life-changing experience for just one person, it will then fulfil my duty as

an author and a teacher.

Supawan Green

6 April 2012


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Chapter one

Einstein Questions, Buddha Answers

Albert Einsteins historic success happened over 100 years ago. In 1905, he published

five papers, one of which was the Theory of Relativity. As part of the centennial

celebration, there were regular documentaries about Albert Einstein, some of which I

watched while writing the original version of this challenging book. This viewing has

given me some insight and helped me tremendously to piece together all the following

information and thoughts, which enable me to find the connection between Einsteins

notions and the Buddhas.

The run-up to the Theory of Relativity

I feel most grateful to Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize winning physicist, who asked

the most vital question on behalf of humanity. He asked, what is the absolute rulingpoint in nature?

I am no scientist and dont have much of a clue about what Einsteins General Theory

of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are all about. I am only interested in why he

needed to find the absolute ruling point in nature in the first place. From what I can

gather, this absolute ruling point could be used as the fixed standard to measure

everything against so that the results would be universally precise and accurate.

Einstein, however, failed to find such a definite ruling point because he found out that

there is absolutely nothing standing still and the universe is constantly moving,

therefore everything is moving relatively. Consequently, we can only measure

everything in a relative manner by nominating an assumed point.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a

pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity, said

Einstein.

Lets elaborate further for clearer understanding. Take our body weight as an

example. Our weight is closely related to gravity; whatever our body weight is on

earth, it will be six times less should we weigh ourselves on the moon. Say... if you

weigh 60 kilos on earth, you will weigh only 10 kilos on the moon. So, when we talk

about our body weight, we naturally assume that we use the weight on earth as the

standard of measuring, not that on the moon! Water is liquid and translucent when

you touch it gently but when you bang the surface of water with force and high speed,

the water become more solid until it hurts your hand, and if a plane drops onto water

at 800 miles per hour, the surface of the water is as solid as cement. London is near

when you live in Brighton but it is farther when you live in Edinburgh; it is even

farther when you live in New York. Compared to Jane, Lucy is pretty but compared to

Sally (the beauty queen), Lucy is very plain. Experiences like these have given birth

to our familiar phrase, relatively speaking, which actually governs everything in the

universe, not just physics.


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Such an initial notion is, nonetheless, the run-up to the Theory of Relativity which is

totally out of my range from then on!

Einsteins quest for the Theory of Everything

After the Theory of Relativity and his landmark discovery about the close linkbetween energy and mass, e= mc

2 the equation was later applied to the invention of

the nuclear bomb1. Einstein developed Quantum Mechanics based on finding out that

everything in the universe works in the same way as throwing a dice. The result is

based on probability, which is the very nature that Einstein could not surrender to.

Basically he could not bear standing on loose ground (probability, changing nature);

what he needed was a solid base, which he thought only mathematics could offer. As

a result, Einstein was downright hostile towards his own Quantum Mechanics and its

performance despite its huge importance and success. Einsteins Quantum Mechanics

was the early stepping-stone leading to the advent of cutting edge science and

technology of the 21st

century.

What held Einstein back was his religious nature, his belief in God. Together with his

overwhelming passion in wanting to know the sheer precision of everything through

mathematics, these two ingredients combined and triggered a chain reaction in the

thinking of this genius once again. Einstein embarked upon a quest that constantly fed

his mental hunger until the last moment of his life. He relentlessly tried to find a

unified theory which, in his belief, would be able to explain all phenomena in the

universe and give the answer to everything. This caused his quest for The Theory of

Everything the persistent task that continued until his death.

God would not play dice

Einstein believed that the precision of mathematics was the answer to everything and

this too must be able to explain how God built the universe. As he said:

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that

phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His

thoughts; the rest are details.

The Theory of Everything was his wanting to find an equation that could reflect the

mind of God and his artwork in creating the universe. Although the nurse tending his

death bed tried to tell him: Maybe God didnt want us to know his mind, Einstein

1

Einstein was a pacifist; he never thought that e= mc2

would be developed into a nuclear bomb some 40years later. Following his landmark discovery that a tiny amount of mass could be turned into immense

energy should that mass be travelling at the speed of light squared Einstein gave an interview to the mediasaying that making that theory work should be compared to shooting a bird in the dark in a country where

there were not many birds around. He never thought that there would be any technology that could make

this theory work. However, one of his physicist friends worked out how to do it by using protons to split

the nucleus of the atom. Its chain reactions would cause the immense energy that was later developed into anuclear bomb. This friend came to see Einstein in the US and asked him to write a letter to President

Roosevelt because they were afraid that the Nazis would develop this nuclear technology and use it against

the Allies in the war. What was supposed to be a warning letter to the President gave the United States the

know-how technology of a nuclear bomb. The first ever nuclear bomb was finally made, deployed and

dropped over Hiroshima in 1945, followed by the second one over Nagasaki. Albert Einstein was devastated.


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wouldnt have it. God would not play dice, nurse! said Einstein stubbornly. His

quest was fruitless; he left the world without finding the answer.

Had he found it, those who survived the holocaust and the Asian tsunami victims

along with the rest of humanity, might be able to answer their challenging questions

beginning with the really big WHY? Why did the almighty God not help his

children at the most critical and most desperate moments of their lives?

Einsteins admission to Buddhism

Although Einstein left the world without finding the answer he had been looking for

all his life, he, however, left a most valuable speech for mankind, for which I am

immensely grateful. The following speech can still urge us to ask the fundamental

questions he posed on behalf of humanity. Towards the end of his life while he was

struggling to find the unified theory, he began to suspect that Buddhism might have

the answer he was looking for. In his book titled The Human Side published in

1954, Einstein said:

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend apersonal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and

spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience

of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers

this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific

needs, it would be Buddhism.2

The great man was spot on. The unified theory for everything that Einstein was

looking for, had been described by the Buddha over two thousand five hundred years

earlier.

Einstein questions, Buddha answers

As far as I am concerned, Einsteins initial notion of wanting to find the absolute

ruling point and his quest for the unified theory referred to the same wish.

Fundamentally, he wanted to find something that was absolute, solid, definite,

everlasting and unchanging so that he could eternally and unconditionally rely on this

very final certainty. These definite descriptions sound very much like the ultimate

element, in other word, the absolute truth. If this is the case, Buddhism has the answer

for it because the enlightenment of the Buddha is all about his uncovering the ultimate

element in nature called: Nirvana. It seems to me that the final ruling point and the

unfound unified theory cannot be anything else but the absolute truth or Nirvana in

Buddhist terminology.

Humankind must know that this ultimate/absolute element in nature does exist. The

Buddha found it on the night of his enlightenment nearly 2600 years ago. Indeed, all

through the history of Buddhism, there have always been some enlightened followers

who came forward and confirmed the ultimate truth or Nirvana. This is one of the

main factors which have kept Buddhism and its culture alive to this day. The ultimate

2Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh

Hoffman, Princeton University Press


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truth will certainly fulfil the same characteristic and give the same result at absolutely

every time and place in the entire universe. This definite and reliable nature is exactly

what Albert Einstein had been looking for all along.

28 terminologies for the ultimate element

Being the ultimate element or the absolute ruling point in nature, it therefore haseverything to do with each and everyone of us in our daily life. Hence I come up with

these 28 terminologies to facilitate people of all beliefs religious, spiritual and

scientific so that everyone can connect with the ultimate element from their own

psychological comfort zone. I think they may help all of us to relate with the ultimate

truth one way or another. I shall explain a few of these terms in this book so that you

can understand your status in relation to the universe including finding your true

self. Here are the 28 terminologies referring to the ultimate truth:

1. The ultimate enlightenment

2. Nirvana

3. The Kingdom of God

4. The Tree of Life5. Godhood

6. Tao

7. Eternity

8. Immortality

9. The ultimate (absolute) truth

10. The ultimate reality

11. The grand ultimate (the meaning of Tai chi)

12. The absolute ruling point in nature (Einsteins concept)

13. The absolute simplicity

14. The absolute ordinariness

15. The absolute normality

16. The ultimate certainty

17. The true self

18. The real self

19. The non-self

20. The eternal peace

21. The absolute harmony

22. The ultimate freedom

23. The end of suffering

24. The true (real) happiness

25. Here and Now

26. The final frontier

27. Life out of prison28. The innocent perception (my coinage).

The truth is right in front of our nose!

My invented term the innocent perception is the result following my Eureka

experience in the autumn afternoon of 1997. That extraordinary experience gave me

the courage and confidence to confirm that the answer to the absolute ruling point in

nature and the unified theory has been, all along, hidden in the very simple experience


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called the innocent perception existing right under our nose! I will explain how you

can achieve this ultimate element in chapter nine by using the analogy of the two

trains running at the same speed.

The ultimate truth cannot be found by the power of human brain (thinking, imagining

and conceptualising); it must be initially pointed out by those who themselves have

been through the ultimate enlightenment. Tackling the ultimate truth is based on theprinciple of sheer common sense and simplicity, which makes it extremely difficult

for us to understand, especially for intellectual geniuses, who are keen to delve into

their tubes of intellect (exercising the thinking faculty) the nature of digging endless

rabbit holes! I will delve into this issue in chapter seven.

Here and Now

I will also cover the issue of here and now, which is a very neutral and familiar

phrase and has the scientific connotation. Here and now is the exact answer the great

man would have wanted to locate but failed; the ultimate nature can clearly be

explained by using the allegory of the two trains running at the same speed. Here and

now, in my view, is the absolute ruling point in nature. In chapter eight and nine, Iwill explain the preliminary concept of here and now as the nature of the truth:

simplicity and normality.

However, trying to have access to here and now is indeed another matter. It involves

practising certain mental skills called the four foundations of mindfulness very

much like learning how to ride a bicycle!

Asking the right question

All professional writers know that they could face a mental block when they begin

their piece of work with a wrong sentence or wrong paragraph. Although it may

sound beautiful and seem perfect, writers cant move on unless they try another

sentence, maybe with a different approach. The change of the sentence and approach

may sound a bit dowdy and not attractive, but it works wonders as it takes away the

obstacle and allows the brain (the mind) to work flowing like tap water!

The human mind is a funny old thing and full of mysteries. You must know how to

handle the mind skilfully to make it work well for you. If not, you get nowhere. It

works the same as piecing jigsaw puzzles together. Unskilful people will begin the

puzzle without grouping the pieces first, which makes them progress very slowly.

Whereas skilful players will group the different colours pieces together first and will

certainly begin from the straight edges; with this strategy, they will progress much

quicker.

Likewise, when questions and approaches are wrong, we get nowhere in finding the

answer. Einstein trusted mathematics so much that he walked deeper into his tube of

intellect, but sadly a dead end was all he found. As far as finding the ultimate ruling

point/absolute truth is concerned, it is important to take advice from the enlightened

people such as the Buddha and his enlightened followers. These people can help us to

ask the right question and endeavour on the right path so that the ultimate truth can be

easily located. This book is my attempt to help you asking the right question about life


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so that you can find inner peace and harmony which I think it is most urgent for our

mental well-being. The innocent perception that I will talk extensively in this book is

the very nature the ultimate truth or the absolute ruling point in nature.

The relative nature is the same as suffering

Relativity certainly extends to our mental state too. It can be described as our mentalnature standing on loose shaky ground. This unstable predicament is the nature of

suffering or impermanence in the Buddhas terms. This relatively changing nature

(suffering) had urged the young prince Siddhartha to search for the end of suffering

and Einstein to pursue his quest for the Theory of Everything: the mind of God.

Indeed, the Buddha found it but, unfortunately, not Albert Einstein. Following the

ultimate enlightenment of the Buddha, the Eastern wisdom perpetually echoes this

maxim: if the truth is not right here in front of us, where do we think we can find

it? This profound saying confirms further that the innocent perception is the very

ultimate truth.

One ultimate truth

Logic suggests that if there was any ultimate truth at all, it had to be one, not two or

three, and it cannot conveniently belong to any religion. The ultimate truth has to be

totally and absolutely universal, beyond any religious belief as well as human

language too. Nirvana, here and now or the innocent perception covers all those

credentials. I shall elaborate this as the contents are progressing.

In the mean time, it is important to know that the ultimate truth is waiting right here

for everyone to uncover. It is not reserved only for monks, priests and spiritual

people. It is absolutely for all of us regardless of our age, gender, race, nationality or

belief. Should we have the right tool for the right job, we can uncover the ultimate

truth all the same. This is a guarantee.

Vipassana

What is so special about the Buddha is that following his discovery of the ultimate

knowledge, he also taught us the means to the end, which is as important as the

ultimate truth itself, if not more. There is no point to listen to someone praising how

beautiful Rome is if the guide cannot lead us to witness Rome with our own eyes. The

clear means to inner peace and full control of the mind is very much lacking in our

academia. The Buddha is the greatest teacher because he shows us the very lucid path

so that enthusiastic people can reach this ultimate wisdom just like he did.

The renowned Buddhist practice of the four foundations of mindfulness or vipassanais the exact tool leading us to the ultimate truth. This practice can be easily adapted

and performed within any religious environment as well as used as a neutral exercise

like what I do in my Tai chi class. Vipassana is nothing more than the mental skill of

raising higher level of self-awareness by learning to observe our breathing,

movements and physical sensations including our inner phenomena created by our

thoughts, memories and feelings. It is a very scientific means suitable for people of all

beliefs, religious or non-religious.


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Vipassana is the path to world peace

It is a shame that Albert Einstein didnt have a chance to bump into a vipassana

teacher during his time, otherwise the world might be much different from what it is

now. With the zeal from a great man like Einstein, it could well mean that vipassana

might have been globally recognised as a valid scientific means to restore mental

stability, normality and full control of human mind. This first class recognition wouldsubsequently have guided the scientific research about human mind in the right

direction and subsequently shape the global culture towards less greed, economic

equality, no class distinction and the eventual peace among humankind.

With the green light from a Nobel prize winning physicist like Einstein, vipassana

could have well become a main component of our mainstream education across the

globe. Vipassana is the first domino that will collapse all nature of problems surfacing

from the heart of an individual human being all the way to the whole of humankind.

This is the only formula for world peace and it is indeed what Einstein would have

wanted to see, as he was very much a peace lover.

Einstein wrote this formula without knowing vipassana:

If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work, Y is play,

and Z is keep your mouth shut.

Had Einstein known vipassana, he might have said this instead:

If A equals world peace, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z.

X is inner peace in all men results from practising vipassana

Y is inner peace in all women results from practising vipassana

Z is wise speech and action results from practising vipassana

Moral relativism

Due to the lack of true wisdom towards the ultimate truth, The Theory of Relativity

has influenced our contemporary way of thinking leading to moral relativism. Having

no absolute ruling point in nature, it also means there is no moral absolute. We

therefore judge our actions whether good or bad, moral or immoral, in a relative

manner. Consequently, common thieves are allowed to think of themselves as better

persons than first time murderers, who feel they are better persons than serial killers.

This relative way of thinking can go on forever in both directions: good and bad alike.

Moral relativism, consequently, is responsible for the dramatic decline of morality

throughout the world community because we can always find someone morally worseto compare with, which makes us feel a bit better about ourselves. With the tendency

to use corrupt people as the assumed standard, immoral conduct flourishes and

becomes more acceptable. Infidelity, which used to be morally wrong, has become

more common because it has been practised among the rich and the famous: e.g. some

government ministers, some prime ministers, some presidents, teachers, even monks

and clerics! The breaking up of family units and poor parenting causes fewer people

to become qualified to be role models for our young generation. This results in a


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massive moral vacuum. Consequently, morality is brought down to its knees, resulting

in more chaos and increasing entangled social problems.

The ultimate ruling point can eliminate moral relativism

To eliminate our confusing social and moral climate, we must stop moral relativism.

To do that, we must know the reason behind classical moral guidelines; society mustknow why every saint in the past gave us the same message telling us to be morally

good. The ultimate ruling point or the ultimate truth is the only entity that can

straighten out all the moral and social confusions humanity is facing. There are, in

fact, very good reasons behind moral conduct. Honest, truthful and law-abiding

people can be relaxed and at peace no matter where they are whereas deceitful and

corrupt people are perpetually stressed and worried fearing that they will be caught

somewhere and somehow. Inner peace is a good enough reason for people to be

morally sound.

This brings us back to Einsteins initial notion again and why we need to know the

absolute ruling point in nature. Should we find the ultimate ruling point, society will

have a chance to restore order and bring back true normality. Although such a chanceseems remote due to the distorted global society caused by the injustice and the

corrupted cartel banking system, which are the root cause for the majority of human

suffering, we should at least try our very best first. The difference between having and

not having the ultimate ruling point is extremely dramatic and irreplaceable. Without

the fixed point to measure against, everything is freely shifting, moving and

subjective, which ultimately results in the problematic moral relativism. In the

contrary, with the definite ruling point, the result will be absolute and no longer

subject to individual interpretation. We would consequently know exactly why we

have to be morally good. I have talked about this issue quite extensively inA Handful

of Leaves and The User Guide to Life: The Moral Diet and The Law of Karma.3

Why geniuses prefer simple jobs

Some years ago, I watched a documentary following up on the lives of a few adults

whose IQs were exceedingly high from a very young age and were labelled children

prodigies. While the world expected to see these whiz kids holding prominent

academic careers in their adulthoods, they, instead, turned out to be a plumber, a

carpenter, a farmer or a chef.

This is because people with genius minds know it as a fact that one door is merely

opened to yet another door and another endlessly; there is no exit (solution) as far as

the use of the brain is concerned. Once intellectual geniuses have reached the brick

wall of the 10

th

inch mark in the tube of intellect (chapter seven), it is a naturalprocess that they would make a U-turn and find their way back to experience Y (the

innocent perception). Through experience, they will soon find out that the simplicity

and ordinariness surrounding every avenue of their lives have a much better taste than

exercising the power of their brains. This is the reason why those whiz kids ended up

doing simple jobs instead of seeking a blaze of glory in the intellectual world.

3

These three books are available in Kindle-format via Amazon. As for the paperbacks, please contact

[email protected]


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Making a U-turn

Albert Einstein was one among those geniuses who was in the process of making a U-

turn and heading towards experience Y (the ultimate truth/the innocent perception)

as his speeches contained a high level of simplicity, humility, normality and

ordinariness, which are significant qualities of the truth or the innocent perception.These quotes below by Einstein are the clear signs of his enthusiasm supporting the

fact that he was engaging in his outward-bound journey towards the 1st

inch mark in

the tube of intellect. They are:

1. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need

to be happy.

2. Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.

3. Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

4. We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course,

powerful muscles, but no personality.

5. The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday

thinking.6. Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created

them.

7. The only source of knowledge is experience.

8. If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber.

9. All our lauded technological progress - our very civilization - is like the

axe in the hand of the pathological criminal.

Although Einstein left the world without knowing the ultimate truth, his legacy

continues, especially the fundamental questions he asked on behalf of humanity and

his pointing towards Buddhism. His notions can certainly raise awareness about the

wisdom of the Buddha and bridge the gap between science and religion, leading the

believers and non-believers to meet at the central stage of the truth, honesty and

humility.


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Chapter two

Einsteine mc2

When Heisenberg announced his uncertainty principle in 1927, it caused a nightmare for all

physicists in the world.1

This was because certainty, definite reliability and the absolute are the

known qualities that all scientists, especially physicists, wanted to rely on and therefore have

great aversion to the opposite. No theory is, however, carved in stone. Science is ruthless when

it comes to testing all theories over and over.

Einstein declared there was nothing in the universe that could travel faster than the speed of

light. This axiom, resulting from his theory of relativity, has been the bedrock of modern physics

since 1905. At least, the physicists could count on this very factor (the speed of light) to have

stability. Most of the modern high-tech inventions depend religiously on this stable fact.

Then again, life moves on with time, and so do learning, experimenting and creating. In 1905,

there wasnt any CERN or a gigantic particle accelerator, which is a huge particle physics

laboratory.2

With the employment of 3000 full time scientists and 7931 visiting scientists and

engineers from 608 universities and 113 nationalities at CERN constantly doing high-energy

physics experiments, Einsteins iconic formula of e = mc2 is now being challenged. In just a bit

over 100 years of faithful belief in the constant speed of light and that no particle (mass) can

possibly move faster than the speed of light, this reliable fact has now become the past, and the

familiar iconic equation may be transformed into e mc2.

Then again, this is hardly a surprise. The universe is filled with intrigues. One minute we

(scientists) think this is what it is, next minute she (the universe) drops us a bombshell and

proves us wrong just like many other facts that later were proved wrong when better tools

became available. In pre-scientific society, it was widely believed that the earth was flat or a

round flat disc or a log floating in an ocean. Throughout most of recorded history, everyone

1

Published by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the uncertainty principle was a key discovery in the early development

of quantum theory. It implies that it is impossible to simultaneously measure the present position while also

determining the future motion of a particle, or of any system small enough to require quantum mechanical

treatment. In other words, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can becontrolled, determined, or known. Consequently, Heisenberg concluded that there is no final certainty.

2 CERN refers to The European Organization for Nuclear Research whose purpose is to operate the world's largest

particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the FrancoSwiss border.

CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics

research. Numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN by international collaborations to make use of

them.


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believed that the earth is the centre of the entire universe, which made a lot of sense, because

everyone could plainly see it with their own eyes. Everything you see in the sky obviously

revolves around the earth, and you don't have to be a great philosopher or scientist to see it.

Following his observation of the ways maggots would seemingly generate out of animal

carcasses, Aristotle (384-322 BC) put out the hypothesis about life spontaneously coming into

being from inanimate matter like slime, mud, and earth when exposed to sunlight, a theory

proved wrong as recently as the 1700s by Louis Pasteur and later Charles Darwin. Before the late

20th

century, scientists strongly believed that the earth is constantly expanding or increasing in

volume, which later was replaced by the much more sophisticated theory of tectonic plate

movements. With modern high quality telescopes and greater imaging technology, the once

Martian Canals (a network of gullies and ravines on Mars) turned out to be optical illusions

caused by streaks of dust blown across the Martian surface by heavy winds.

Of course, there will be many more facts and theories that will be challenged as time moves on.

It isnt a matter of if but a definite when. Just like everyone else whose theories are subjected

to challenge, so are Einsteins. He had no way to know that the sub-atomic particles called

neutrinos would be the very element that disproved his Nobel Prize winning theory 106 years

later.

A neutrino is a subatomic particle with a small but non-zero mass (meaning having some mass).

It is similar to the more familiar electron but does not carry an electric charge, which enables it

to penetrate even the densest matter such as the earths crust with no interaction with other

particles, just like light goes through fog. Recently scientists at CERN have launched a beam of

neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso, a laboratory in Italy, over a distance of 732 km. Much to

their amazement, they found that the beam of neutrinos arrived at the destination faster than they

had expected. That is 60 billionths of a second (60 nanoseconds) faster which means the

neutrinos run faster than the speed of light! How can this be possible? Light has no material

particle; it is therefore moving fast at a definite speed of 186,000 miles/second to earth

anyway. For that reason, there should not be any mass that can possibly move faster than the

speed of light, not until CERNs recently-measured neutrinos, which still have some mass, came

along! Of course, scientists do not make any definite conclusion from the first few experiments.

But, after 15,000 times of repeatedly firing the beam of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso in

Italy through the earth crust 11.4 km below the earths surface, the results remain the same

every time. Not only that, when scientists at CERN asked the scientists based in a laboratory in

Illinois to go through the experiment and verify the finding, the result was still the same. In abillionth of a second, a beam of light travels about one foot. So a difference of 60 feet a beam of

neutrinos make in a second was something they cannot just ignore, not even for Einstein and his

e = mc2.

Recently, the scientists at CERN had no choice but to announce this astonishing scientific

finding to the world. When this historic piece of scientific news was then released to the world

media on the 23rd

September, 2011, it had an effect similar to a 10 Richter scale earthquake,


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especially among those physicists who hate uncertainty! Some are pleased in the sense that this

will open a new gateway to modern physics (a post-relativity era) which also means more Nobel

Prizes for those who can explain why. But, to the majority of the physicists, this finding is yet

another nightmare because it means that the entire foundation of modern physics might have to

be revised. Every textbook would have to be rewritten, every experiment recalibrated.

Michio Kaku, a currently renowned physicist, has said the following:

Cosmology, the very way we think of space, would be forever altered. The

distance to the stars and galaxies and the age of the universe (13.7 billion years)

would be thrown in doubt. Even the expanding universe theory, the Big Bang

theory, and black holes would have to be re-examined. Moreover, everything we

think we understand about nuclear physics would need to be reassessed.

Every school kid knows Einstein's famous equation E=MC2, where a small

amount of mass (M) can create a vast amount of energy (E), because the speed oflight (C) squared is such a huge number. But if (C) is off (unreliable), it means that

all nuclear physics has to be recalibrated. Nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and

radioactive dating would be affected because all nuclear reactions are based on

Einstein's relation between matter and energy.

Reputations may rise and fall. But in the end, this is a victory for science. No

theory is carved in stone. Science is merciless when it comes to testing all theories

over and over, at any time, in any place. Unlike religion or politics, science is

ultimately decided by experiments, done repeatedly in every form. There are nosacred cows. In science, 100 authorities count for nothing. Replicable experiments

count for everything.

To be honest, I have no interest in the current debate among the physicists about Einstein being

right or wrong. The way I view his relativity theory, Einstein has already confirmed that there is

no real certainty (no absolute ruling point in nature) and therefore we must measure things in a

relative manner. Had Einstein been alive, he might greet this electrifying news with a chuckle

instead of despair. Just like all scientific facts of today, it is just a matter of time before better

tools are available, and the current theories will be proved wrong. This is the very reason why

Einstein turned his back on his own quantum mechanics the very content of uncertainty(probability), which turned out to be essential for modern technology; instead he was determined

to pursue the doomed unified theory of which he wished to read the mind of God who created

this universe. Why? He had hoped that he could find something that was utterly final, certain and

absolute lets call it the ultimate truth for easy understanding that he could entirely and

wholeheartedly rest upon. This precise goal is the very part that makes me bow respectfully to

the great man. There havent been any scientists since Einstein who have posed such challenging


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questions, such as; What is the ultimate truth? Fundamentally, the great man wanted to know

the big picture, the whole structure of life in relation to the universe; he had moved on from the

small details such as relativity, quantum mechanics and so forth. Although Einstein left this

planet without finding the answer to his Theory of Everything (the unified theory), his questions

about the existence of the absolute in nature still stands firmly in my heart, which is the

inspiration for this book.

Once again, regardless of what Einstein and Heisenberg said, I want to confirm that there is

indeed a state of the final certainty, a perfect knowledge that has total security from error. I am

convinced because I myself have had the experience of such wonderful knowledge and feel

compelled to share this piece of good news with my fellow humankind so that individuals can

find clarity of wisdom and eternal peace.

A complete lack of doubt is often viewed as undesirable by intellectuals, but in fact, having

doubts, lack of understanding and confusion are mentally unhealthy and entail enormous mental

suffering especially the doubt about our true self and human consciousness. This unhealthy stateis the backdrop that drives scientists to perpetually search for something solidly reliable and

certain with an underlying hope to be restful, content and happy. The hunger for reliable

knowledge is now so great and so diverse that many have completely lost their primary intention

and goal being peaceful and happy. Scientists and intellectuals have been characterized as

creatures akin to rabbits, who are constantly digging their rabbit holes for the sake of digging

without the clear purpose of true happiness.

Never before in the history of humankind have so many people had so much wealth, knowledge,

information and so many tools at their disposal, yet at the same time, many people from all walks

of life have been forced to go through mental turmoil and suffering in one way or another. Ourgigantic pile of intellectual knowledge including scientific knowledge merely pacifies our greed

for more material wealth but is in no way helping us to gain inner peace. Peace on earth is still

far away. Thats why we should have respect for Einstein and his quest for the final certainty.

Although his iconic theory might be written off due to this current finding, at least the great man

didnt lose his goal of searching for the ultimate truth the same nature as reading the mind of

God in Einsteins term and the subsequent eternal peace. Without locating the ultimate truth

(the final certainty), scientists will be constantly challenged by new findings always have been

and always will be!

This is where I am standing: pointing out to humankind that there is indeed a state of a finalcertainty or the ultimate truth, upon which all people can truly depend. This ultimate nature is

beyond the boundary of change and guarantees long lasting inner peace. The Buddha found this

final certainty on the night of his ultimate enlightenment. This is the very element/state/nature

(whatever one wishes to call it) that Albert Einstein hoped to locate but failed.


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The image below depicts the structure of knowledge between the details that Einstein disliked

and the entirety of life in relation to the universe. All the intellectual knowledge including all

scientific findings are merely examples of the diverse small details fitting within the boundary

of change, which I coin as the prison of life, whereas the ultimate truth is a unique

element/state/nature which is totally beyond change and therefore absolute. The Buddha is the

only teacher who has set a clear guideline as how to attain the ultimate truth which he called:

Nirvana. To accommodate people of all interests and beliefs, I have given 28 terminologies to

represent this final certainty, including my own coinage: the innocent perception. The clear

means to the definite goal that the Buddha has given to humankind is the practice of the four

foundations of mindfulness or vipassana, which I call bringing your mental self back home.

Through this simple practice for humankind, one will be able to locate ones own tiny standing

point amidst this gigantic cosmos filled with infinite phenomena to be understood and

knowledge awaiting to be learnt. Only then can we appreciate the genius the Buddha really was

being able to give us just a small handful of knowledge; enough for us to find long lasting inner

peace and clear wisdom.

My entire work, as a follower of the Buddhas teaching, is based on systematically and non-

religiously guiding people out of the prison of life by means of Bringing the Mental Self BackHome (BMSBH).


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Chapter three

The constituents of human life

Please bear in mind that the enlightenment of the Buddha is about his finding of a unique

element in nature which was not known to anyone previously in our recorded history.Despite being beyond the reach of humans thoughts and language, the Buddha had no

choice but to call this ultimate element Nirvana for the sake of communicating and

leading his followers to it. This is the ultimate missing link that once it is known, thewhole picture of life can be in perspective too. The rest is all the details that can be

easily bypassed including all the conspiracy theories that have troubled so many people

in the world. This wisdom is the very essence that Einstein wanted to achieve; he had no

time for details. So, if we want to know what Nirvana or the innocent perception is, wemust understand how our life form, body and mind, works. It is this life form after all

which will experience the innocent perception/Nirvana. This chapter will be the main

reference as I delve into the different topics in this book.1

The five aggregates (groups)

Mind experts view the human life form as a body to which the brain belongs and the

mind as being part of the brain, but the Buddha viewed it very differently.

A cartoon view of human life as a physical body in which the mind is within the

brain.

1

Although I begin to use the term ultimate element to represent Nirvana, one of the 28 terminologies mentioned in

chapter one, please bear in mind that it doesnt have any material form like those in the periodic table of elements.Nevertheless, this ultimate element is still classed as a natural element just like others, the difference is that it has adefinite, ultimate and absolute quality, and also beyond human thoughts and language. Thats why it is extremelydifficult to talk about it. I, however, want to use the term ultimate element for Nirvana to depict the notion of being

scientific and not some kind of religious dogmatic concoction for the purpose of building up faith for the public. Allthese will be elaborated in chapter nine of this book.


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According to the Buddha, the human life form consists of five different groupings one

group is material or mass and the other four parts are of a formless nature which I would

like to describe with the word energy for now. They are shown in the illustration below.

The Buddha separates the human life form into five groupings: body (physicalself) and thoughts, memories, feelings and consciousness (mental self).

According to the Buddhas approach, these five aggregates are his way to explain howthe four natural mental elements work together. This nature of grouping is, of course,

unfamiliar to the non-Buddhists especially those with scientific minds but they can

clearly and splendidly explain how human mind work. Each group of element has itsown quality and function. Lets have a look.

1. The body (mass, rupa in Pali) is made up of earth, water, fire and wind which are

the familiar basic common elements. Each element has its own quality andfunction: earth element is hard, water element flows, wind element blows and the

fire element is hot.

2. The memory element (sanya, in Pali) is a formless element whose function is toaccumulate data which come as experience in the form of sights, sounds, smells,

tastes, textures including mental events. This element appears in the head or the

skull area.3. The thought/thinking element (sankara, in Pali) is another formless element

whose main function is to reason, elaborate, proliferate, expand, delude, including

to simplify or complicate matters. This thinking element works hand in hand with

the memory element. The former provides the data/information whereas the latterexpands, creates, concocts and shuffles into mental events/activities. The

thinking element is similar to a master chef who is capable of throwing a series of

ingredients into a massive bowl of salad. This element is well known to Buddhists


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as sankara a very significant characteristic! It can be both creative and

destructive causing greatness and mayhem! This thinking element can turn a

man into a saint or a world class murderer depending on whether he has the rightor wrong view towards the ultimate goal of life. Whether a society has war or

peace entirely depends on this element. It can transform a molehill into a gigantic

mountain just as energy can expand itself faster than viruses. Concocting,deluding and expanding are what this particular element is very good at. Once

concocted into mental events, thoughts appear as our mental monologues some

of which will be subsequently materialised into speeches and actions, good and

bad alike. This group of element also appears in the head or the skull area.4. The feeling element (vedana, in Pali) is yet another formless natural element

whose main function is to feel or produce mental feelings and emotions. This

element is a direct result of the other two groups, memories and thoughts. Thisgroup of element appears in the chest area in both positive and negative feelings.

The negative feelings can be weighty as if carrying a mountain on our chest

whereas some of the positive feelings can make one symbolically being on cloud

nine.5. The consciousness element (vinnana, in Pali, mental self) according to the

Buddha, is also another natural element whose distinctive function is to know, to

be aware or to be conscious. This element doesnt produce any monologue inour heads.

Apart from the earth, water, fire and wind elements which make up our physical body,the other four (formless) natural elements lets regard them as energy are unknown to

physical scientists and therefore they do not appear on the periodic table of elements.

Because of their intangible formless nature and being trapped in our life form, I shall usethe universal cartoon characters of Tom and Jerry as a tool to demonstrate their functions.

Therefore, from now on our mental self or consciousness element will be known as Tom,

the cat and memories, thoughts and feelings will be rounded up and replaced as Jerry. Byusing the comparison as Tom and Jerry, I will have more flexibility to explain how

human mind work, which also makes it easier for you to grasp the concept with better

comprehension.

Different groupings

The intellectual world may place consciousness within the body to which the brainbelongs. Mind experts tend to believe that consciousness has a direct connection with the

brain, which connects with our nervous system and the functioning of the body. As a

matter of fact, after two centuries of debating, mind experts havent really come up withany satisfying conclusions to the question of what consciousness and the mind really

are. In contrast, the Buddha places the brain with the body grouping while

consciousness is another separate independent entity, as are the other three formless

elements.

We must also admit that these five elements work very closely together in a mysterious

manner. It is very true that the brain has something to do with human consciousness.


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There are certainly some connections between the brain and consciousness. When

something is wrong with the brain a blood clot for instance we can become

unconscious. Once the blood clot is removed, consciousness can return. The use ofanaesthetics that can block the whole of our nervous system, allowing surgeons to

perform surgery, also strongly supports the fact that the brain has something to do with

human consciousness. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with the brain at allduring a deep sleep, yet our consciousness becomes absent. People can faint and become

unconscious without anything wrong with their brains. Similarly, those who are in a

coma for a length of time can regain consciousness without having to rectify the brain.

Not all dying people have problems with the brain; their brains can still be in goodworking order, so why does their consciousnesses still disappear? For those reasons, lets

admit first that there are a great number of mysteries about these fundamental elements

which make up our body and mind. Let them be a secret of Heaven for now.

My goal here is to merely present the Buddhas teachings regarding this important topic

of the human life form so that we can make connections with other relevant subjects I

shall bring up in this book, i.e. the nature of our true self, the state of a normal mind, thefinal frontier, the tube of intellect and above all the ultimate truth as the absolute ruling

point that Einstein wanted to locate. Without the existence of our life form, nothing

would matter. For this reason, it is very important to see how the Buddha views this lifeform. Through his perspective, all the loose jigsaw puzzle pieces and the final missing

link will easily and amazingly click into place. Only then will we be able to know our

position in this gigantic cosmos, the subject with which I shall deal in chapter nine.

Metaphoric language

It is very difficult to explain our mental states due to their energy form. The only way I

can communicate with you is by using metaphoric language and personifying their

characteristics so that we can make better sense of all these natural elements, four ofwhich are trapped in the physical body. I shall personify the term consciousness

element as a mental self so that it can correspond to our body or physical self. But

when this consciousness element interacts with our thinking and feeling faculties, I shall

refer to it as Tom as opposed to Jerry. This will enable me to offer easy comparisons andallegorical examples, to give you a clearer perspective.

The core of life

Now, lets look at the 1st

and the 5th

grouping first. A complete life form must have both

the physical self and the mental self. There is a Thai saying that comes from theBuddhist influence: mind is the boss, body is the servant. For a clear image, I shall depict

them by using these toy characters, which I have been using in my lectures.


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A complete life form is made up of both a physical self and a mental self.

To support the fact that the mental self is the true self, you have to see the difference

between a birth of a predictably crying baby and a stillbirth. A crying baby has both a

physical self and a mental self, whereas the stillbirth is similar to a glove/shell without ahand. Imagine the physical self as a glove and the mental self as a hand; you will see

right away who the real captain of this ship is. The glove cannot function without the

hand as without a captain, a ship is like an empty vessel.

A crying baby hand in a glove is a successful birth with both a physical self

and a mental self, and a stillbirth is a physical self (shell) without a mental self.

The following four incidents further support the notion that the mental self is the real self.They are:

When one falls into a deep sleep, is unconscious, either with or without

anaesthetics, is in a coma, or when one dies.


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When any of the four events happen, the mental self is not with the physical self justlike the hand is not with the glove. You may ask where the mental self goes during those

events? I am afraid your guess is as good as mine. Knowing too much can complicate

matters at this stage. As long as this approach can lead us to an effective cure forreducing mental turmoil and restoring inner peace, that is all that matters for now. We

can bypass this question, and leave it in the mystery list for the time being. Lets focus

first on the more urgent matter by piecing together the loose jigsaw puzzles to form a

perfect understanding of life in relation to the universe. We can do this without having toanswer that out-of-range question yet.

The important point you must know is that the physical self cannot function without thepresence of your mental self or consciousness element. Although all the sense organs are

there, they cannot perform their usual tasks of perceiving or sensing. When one falls into

a deep sleep, one might not be conscious even if a marching band is trooping through the

bedroom. When that happens, it would be like eyes that cant see, ears that cant hear, anose that cant smell, a tongue that cant taste and a body that cant feel texture. But as

soon as the mental self (consciousness element) returns to the body, the awakening

happens, only then can all sensory organs function normally again.

When a person is in a deep sleep, unconscious or in a coma, the sensory organs: eyes,

ears, nose, tongue and skin cease to work as usual.

To confirm the existence of your mental self/consciousness element as the true/real self,

here is another example. Suppose a husband had an accident and he suffered a period ofamnesia having no memory of his wife! Under such circumstances, although they both

are physically together, there is no difference from being with a total stranger. To the

wife, it is the husbands true self (Tom) with his memory (Jerry) whom she misses most.

In other words, it is the mind(Tom and Jerry) of her husband that she want it to return.So, when she cuddles his physical body, she would feel like she is cuddling a shell. Her

feelings are incomplete due to the absence of her husbands true self (mind). But when

the husbands memory returns, she is very happy because she can now relate to his


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true/inner self. The details of losing and retrieving memories is also another secret to add

to the mystery list.

From these examples, we can then draw a conclusion that the mental self is the true/real

self or the core of life. Therefore, I shall also substitute the consciousness element with

true/real self depending on the context.

Understanding Rupa

Now, lets explore the first group/aggregate the body or the mass. The Buddha used thePali term: rupa. Many Buddhists tend to think that rupa means only the physical body,

but in fact, rupa covers significantly much more than just the physical body.

According to the Buddha, rupa not only refers to the physical body but also includes

everything in the universe as one single entity or singularity! It is because the physical

body has sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin) which act like bridges

corresponding to perceived sense objects of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures.Therefore, without the existence of the physical body means the perceptions are absent

and consequently the entire external universe is accordingly absent too. Thats why the

Buddha swept the entire universe under just one word rupa. Please take your time todigest this profound concept.

Sometimes the Buddha replaced the word rupa with the words: ocean or universe. Hesays that the ocean does not just mean water and the universe does not mean just stars in

the sky. Water in the ocean is just one sight and stars in the sky are yet another sight. The

genuine ocean here is profoundly abstract and staggeringly colossal. It is the ocean ofsights, ocean of sounds, smells and so forth. The real universe is also the universe of

sights, sounds, odours and so on.

No matter how much we know about this cosmos, our solar system and earth, including

everything that is happening on the surface of this blue planet from domestic to global

affairs yes, plus our precious intellectual knowledge this colossal entirety is referred

to as a singular noun and is swept into the first group, rupa!


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Rupa, the first aggregate, covers the ocean of sights, the ocean of sounds, theocean of smells, the ocean of tastes and the ocean of textures.

Rupa includes absolutely everything from our physical body to the edge ofthe universe. It covers the universe of sights, the universe of sounds, the

universe of odours, the universe of tastes and the universe of textures.

After describing the diversity in the external world as rupa, the Buddha then breaks all

this external data/rupa into the categories of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures.

Therefore, every piece of collective knowledge about our solar system all the way to theedge of the universe is narrowed down to mere sense perceptions in the Buddhas terms.

These sensual data of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures next make their journey

through the sensory organs (bridges) of eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. You must try todigest this piece of knowledge very carefully so that you can realise how insightful and

ingenious the Buddhas description is.

Rupa = sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures = external Jerry (data)


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Rupa represents the five external Jerrys: sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures

plus the physical self which has eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.

Einstein two, Buddha one!

If you understand the term rupa correctly, you will know that Einsteins energy and mass

equivalence is within the rupa grouping because it involves light, movements, electrical

waves, electro-magnetic fields and so on, which are all parts of the material (external)world. It means that while Einstein uses two words to represent the material world mass

(m) and energy (e), the Buddha uses only one word rupa.

E

Rupa =

M

Therefore, it isnt wrong to say that the Buddha knew about the mass and energy

equivalence nearly 2500 years before Einstein!

Who is the centre of the universe?

By using the Buddhas approach of the five aggregates, it isnt wrong to place yourself asthe centre of the universe because without your senses, the cosmos does not exist for you.

When you are sleeping, being unconscious or in a coma, your senses cease to function as

usual due to the absence of your mental self/consciousness element. At that moment,your very own private universe disappears too, although it very much exists for others

who are fully conscious. This makes each and every one of us become the centre of our

own universe.

The co-existence of the two selves


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The two selves (mental and physical) have to rely on each other to make a perfect life-

form. One cannot function without the other. The mental self (real self) can access the

outside (material) world only through the five bodily senses. If you are blind or deaf,which means these bridges of perception are broken, the result is your mental self will not

have access to the ocean of sights or sounds (data). Your real self will have no experience

of sight, shapes, colour and sounds. For those reasons, the mental self can fullyexperience the external universe only when the five bridges of perception (eyes, ears)

are in good working order.

External Jerry becomes internal Jerry

Once these vast diversities of sense objects travel over the bridges of perception and enter

your inner world, the five sense objects (external Jerry or rupa) have no choice but toabandon their material forms and turn into the non-material entities (energy): memories,

thoughts and feelings (internal Jerry). Therefore, external Jerry dematerialises into

internal Jerry both of which carry exactly the same information (data) and details.

However, please note that the energy form of the three internal Jerry has nothing to do

with Einsteins mass and energy equivalence (e=m) because Einstein did not analyze the

human mind.

The external Jerry travel through the sensory organs of eyes, ears, nose, tongueand skin, and turn into the internal Jerry of memories, thoughts and feelings.

When you are watching a football match, no matter how diverse those exciting events on

the football field are, those awesome happenings of the match begin their journey into

your inner world as sights, sounds, odours, tastes and touch. The five mice would then

sprint through the five bridges (eyes, ears, ), and instantaneously transform into theformless energetic Jerry (memories, thoughts and feelings), which are perceived by your

mental self. As a result, your mental self (the big boss) receives the facts and information

about the match and knows directly whats going on. Only then, will the whole


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experience of the football match be completed. This whole network of sending data from

the external world to the inside world happens at a staggering speed from start to finish.

This explanation breaks up the sequence in slow motion for clear understanding.

Should a completely blind man sit in the match, he would know everything but the facts

about sights. Should a completely deaf man sit in the match, he would know everythingbut the facts about sounds.

Domestic problems

Likewise, the various problems that you have with your partners, your children, your

colleagues and your pet or even with the environment, no matter how diverse they are,

are reduced to the five metaphoric mice (sights, sounds...) who always have to runthrough the five bridges and turn into three internal Jerry for the acknowledgement by

your true self.

To break it down in slow motion, the memory Jerry will record the event/data in hismemory box, which is its function. The thinking Jerry (sankara/the master chef) will then

process the data by spicing and adding more ingredients into the salad bowl

proliferation! As for how many more ingredients this master chef will add into our mentalsalad bowl is subject to the situations and the moral quality of that person, i.e.

empathetic, forgiving, loving, compassionate, reciprocate and so forth. The adding of the

mental ingredients varies in different events and situations, influenced by how close alink the perceiver has towards the people they perceive, or how much financially gain and

loss and the status quo will be affected. If the events involve your loved ones, more

ingredients will surely be added. These are all good examples for relativity.

For example, you find a loving text message on your husbands mobile phone (sight).

You call the number and hear a womans voice (sound). You smell perfume on yourhusbands jacket that you know doesnt belong to you (smell). Your assessment of these

objects as clues, of your husbands affair, absorbs into your inner world and turns into

internal Jerry, with whom your mental self (Tom) will deal.


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From the moment that you find the text message, your master chef/thinking Jerry has

already begun his ingenious work in elaborating, crafting and expanding the perceived

data. Finally, the feeling Jerry will complete the mental proliferation by scratching andpunching your mental self causing an excruciating pain in your heart. This full cycle from

finding the text to the pain happens at a staggering speed; it is so fast that no material tool

can measure its speed. Just at the snap of our fingers, the cycle has already repeated itselfcountless times....so the Buddha said. All you can experience is that you have already felt

the pain in your heart at the moment you found the text message. If you feel that the pain

doesnt change at all, it means that the cycle keeps on repeating itself over and over just

like the way a film is made. That is, the individual frame of picture keeps on runningthrough the projector and subsequently turns into a film (in our head). The master chef

has been very busy in concocting this huge bowl of salad. This makes Jerrys proliferate

themselves so rapidly that your mind turns into a huge mental jungle with your mentalself trapped in it.

The thinking element/Jerrys can proliferate itself so rapidly!


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With the functioning of the thinking element (sankara), the three inner Jerrys weave a

dense mental jungle in which our mental self is trapped.

There is no way to stop this excessive thinking element from working in our heads, not

without the help of the Buddha. Due to this natural thinking element (sankara/master

chef) in our head, the Buddha at one time compared the human being to a crumb of dustbeing trapped in a carts wheels and thrown back and forth, unable to set itself free.

Thats why our thinking has become our own inner enemy causing humanity endless pain

and subsequent havoc.

A blessing in disguise!

If you are blind and/or deaf, you will have fewer matters to worry about than those withgood eyes and good ears because you cant read the newspaper or hear news ranging

from terrorism, diseases, stock market crashes and wars, to the alarming climate disasters.

As long as the information about the outside world cannot reach your true self, you have

no mental reaction to it whatsoever despite living in the middle of mayhem.

In one of my books2, I told the story of Yee Gow who was deaf. She was forgotten and

left alone in a temple in Shanghai while there was a fierce war going on. The shootingand bomb-shelling went on right outside her temple, but she wasnt aware of the frightful

political upheaval outside her temple wall. Sticking with her daily routine in her quiet

quarter, Yee Gow had escaped a potential nervous breakdown only because she wasutterly deaf! Consequently, the turmoil of the outside world mainly sound in Yee

Gows case could not travel through her broken bridge (deafness) and reach her true

self, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

2The User Guide to Life The Law of Karma, in the appendix.


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So pensioners, please feel blessed in having poor eye-sight and weak hearing. These

conditions offer the benefit of providing the opportunity for less grief and to live in

peace!

Knowing the 6th

sense

By using the five groups (aggregates) approach, outlined at the beginning of this chapter,

the Buddha has placed the consciousness element (mental self/Tom) as an additional

sense, the 6th

sense. The Buddha always described humans as a life form with six senses,

whereas intellectuals view it with five senses only. The 6th

sense is the mental eyebelonging to the mental self. If this is true, what then are the sense objects of the 6

th

sense? The answer is: internal Jerry (memories, thoughts and feelings).

Every sense must correspond to its own sense object. They cannot cross perceive. You

cannot use eyes to perceive odours; neither can you use ears to perceive thoughts,

memories and feelings. Internal Jerry must be perceived by Tom only. They must work

together in pairs: Eyes perceive sights

Ears perceive sounds

Nose perceives odours

Tongue perceives tastes

Skin perceives physical textures, sensations

Mental eye (5th

group) perceives thoughts, memories and feelings (2nd

, 3rd

, 4th

groups) or Tom perceives Jerry

Unlike the five pairs of sense organs, both the 6th

sense (Tom) and its sense objects

(Jerry) are in non-material forms or energy. The Buddha calls these non-material formsnama, and the term energy, in my opinion, is a good translation for it, because it

sounds modern, is definitely more familiar to the ears and, to say the least, is a non-

religious term.


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This metaphoric Tom and Jerry are the pair that mind-experts have great difficulty

understanding due to the lack of Buddhist wisdom. The Buddha is, so far, the only greatteacher who talks seriously about the 6

thsense and its sense objects in a scientific

manner.3

To understand mental activities or the working of the mind the interactions between

memories, thoughts and feelings you must first have a basic tool: sense! Without the

eyes, you cannot possibly learn anything about the visible world in front of you.

Likewise, without your mental eye (Tom), you cannot possibly know how your innerworld works it is as simple as this!

By calling both Tom (the sense) and Jerry (the sense object) with just one word: mind,scientists subsequently categorise the mind under the bodily grouping (rupa) by

associating it with the brain so that the mind can be perceived scientifically by our five

senses. By doing this, scientists have to leave consciousness dangling in limbo, not

knowing where to place this curious but most significant piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It isthen difficult for them to form a clear picture of life in relation to the universe.

Associating the mind with the brain is taking a wrong turn, as far as the Buddhaswisdom is concerned. Thats why, after two centuries of research and debate, mind

experts are still divided and unable to come up with a definite conclusion about what the

mind and the consciousness really are.

The ambiguity regarding the human mind and consciousness is so muddy that it has

become harmful. By squeezing both the metaphoric Tom and Jerry into the skull, mindexperts think they have no choice but to use medication to cure mental imbalances

stretching from stress and depression to breakdowns and potential suicide. This mental

illness has made prescribed drugs become a huge industry. It may look good for theeconomy, boosting the GDP, but certainly a disaster for humanity. While many

individuals believe the anti-depression drugs work for them, researchers from Hull

University, UK, claim that this could be just a placebo effect people feel better by

assuming a medication would help them!

Alternatively, the Buddha simply uses meditation and vipassana (BMSBH) to keep the

mischievous, wandering Jerry at bay. Simply engaging in the BMSBH practice,practitioners will be equipped with the right tool (the 6

thsense); they will subsequently

understand their mental weakness and the strength by just watching the coming and going

of Jerry a real scientific observation on mental level. With some guided wisdom i.e.the subject like the host mind and mental guests, the illusive Jerry and the nature of the

3The scientific manner will be revealed once you engage in the practice of bringing the

mental self back home a meditation practice described in part II of my book, Bringing

Your Mental Self Back Home currently near the printing stage.


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ultimate truth BMSBH practitioners will be able to be one step ahead of illusive Jerry

and will finally defeat their inner enemy.4

The illustration below clearly shows the contrast difference between the cause and effect

of mental illnesses and the cure, which can make a huge difference to ones life too.

Without a scientific means for observing the mind or having the right tool for the right

job the 6th

sense mind-experts cannot possibly find out how Jerry works in humanminds. One has no way of knowing that Jerry is the real culprit who carries all the

problems in the material world into the inner world and subsequently uses the mental self

as a punching bag all the time. Jerry is the root cause for our social, economic, politicaland environmental imbalance, which results in the global injustice, inequality and endless

suffering among humankind. Comparatively speaking, Jerry has bullied Tom ever since

the beginning of humankind, yet we have not realized this not even now!

4My book titled: Bringing Your Mental Self Back Home, which consists of two volumes:

theory and practice, cover all the significant subjects, the guided wisdom, that you need

to know.


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On the physical level (external world), the 1% wealthiest known as the plutonomy

(banking cartel) is the real ruling class of the world doing nothing but robbing from the

poor through the greedy and distorted banking system but on the mental level, Jerry isthe one and only ruler who governs the entire humanity all along, always has and always

will. All crime scenes initially happen in the mind before being materialised into actions.

That small handful wealthiest (the plutonomy) still have to use their Jerry to plan theirstrategy to steal from the rest, which causes corruptions on every level from the top to

the bottom of the society. Consequently a great number of humanity struggle to make

ends meet on a daily basis and live in perpetual misery, not to mention the one billion

people on this planet starve to death every day. This is how powerful Jerry really is.

Nothing left dangling!

I hope you now have a clearer picture about your life form in relation to the universe we

live in. You can easily distinguish between the two equal worlds this way:

Physical self (five senses) relates to the external world of sights, sounds,smells, tastes and touch (the world of mass, rupa).

Mental self (with mental eye, the 6th

sense or Tom) relates to the inner worldof thoughts, memories and feelings (Jerry).


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These two worlds are actually equal but in different forms.

Summary

By using the five aggregates approach, the Buddha covers every aspect of life. There is

absolutely nothing about life that is left dangling without any classification or grouping.

This will subsequently give us a much better understanding about life in relation to thecosmos as well as help us find long lasting solutions for international harmony.

One can easily imagine a huge loss when a person is blind. Not recognising the existenceof the 6

thsense in global education, means the entire human race is sharing a profound

mental/spiritual blindness. The catastrophe is inconceivable. Hence, the ignorance

towards the existence and the function of the 6th

sense is the fundamental causality ofevery problem on earth. Empathy and evil happen in the mind first!

Without the perspective of this real wisdom, I cannot see how humanity can change forthe better. We simply recycle our lives and problems. One of the greatest scientists

mankind ever produced, Albert Einstein, had a glimpse of the wisdom in Buddhism; its

high time we took his advice and listened to the wise the Buddha!


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Chapter four

Finding the True SelfFew days ago, as I was doing my yoga, I thought I would put on the news just to find out what

madness had happened in the world in the past 48 hours. I didnt get round to news channel butstopped at a program when the suave presenter Kilroy Silk was leading the audience talking

about Too scared to grow old.

Although such a talk-show wasnt my choice, I was stunned by the expression of a woman of my

age, probably very late 40s (at the time), very well dressed and quite elegant. She was saying:

Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I find it hard to admit that the wrinkled face in themirror is me because I dont feel like that person. That is not my real self. In my heart I feel like

another person who is not like that face in the mirror.

As she was revealing her true feelings in front of the world, I could share the agonizing pain she

was going through in her heart. Her make

einstein questions, buddha answers (new edition)

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