Thoughts on thoughts and their manifestation

Was considering some of the words used in Buddhism and their meanings. Don’t know if I ought to call the first part ideal or ideology or ideation but maybe just thoughts is close enough. When one looks at the concepts of prajna (wisdom) and paramita (skillfulness) a whole lot of things in Buddhist teaching seem to line up behind those terms. Wisdom and skillfulness (insufficient words in English to encompass the entire concepts) come down to thought and action and the 8 fold path divides nicely between them. Here’s what I mean by way of a chart

Prajna	Paramita
Wisdom	Skillfulness
Thought	Action
View, Intention, Mindfulness, Concentration	Action, Livelihood, Speech, Effort

The teachings of Buddhism tend to be so straightforward that often we miss the most obvious lessons by struggling to make them much more exotic, mysterious, difficult and esoteric. There is a view in western psychology that “the more obscure and convoluted the subject, the more profound it must be” (FESTINGER L (1957) A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance)

What’s on the inside of a person manifests on the outside in the world. And the world responds accordingly. The world contributed throughout a person’s life to what’s on the inside. This is basic karma which is only cause and effect continuously interacting. Its a chicken and egg situation.

There is no good or bad to karma. The philosopher Montaigne said “People decide what is good and bad more by habit than by reason” Good/bad is an ideational overlay which varies all over the world depending on culture, personality, circumstances, biology, history, education, upbringing and many other factors.

The point is, that Buddhism is, in part, a method to bring that which is within into accord with that which is without and to then go beyond that. It brings the realization that its all one big thing not a lot of independent parts each going their own way. The method is meditation.

~ by NellaLou on July 4, 2008.