My husband was in Victoria, British Columbia for a few days early June. During his visit he got to step inside a naval simulator. Basically, to step inside a concrete hall which looks like the inside of a control deck of a ship. It has a 360 degree glass window. Outside of the window, in the front you can see the front of the ship. A few meters away surrounding the entire hall is a white wall on which the scenarios unfold. For example, in one scenario you can see the horizon and in another some other ships, or in another you can only see the rough water for miles on end, or you can see the harbour or land or whatever the scenario the officers choose.
My husband said the most interesting phenomena of all was how he, including the rest of the people, was reacting to the movements as if it were really happening. He said despite him knowing very well, that he was standing on a concrete floor, in a simulation room, going through a simulation, he had no control over his reactions. He said he was grabbing for balance and that he was loosing his footing when the sea was getting rough. He was both amazed and amused by the experiences. While I did not have the good fortune to experience this, when I was told about it, I was happy to let my imagination run wild.
It was then that I realised how deceptive our sense really are. Yet, we depend on our senses to get by in this world from moment to moment, literally. Then if that is the case, how easily can we be fooled by our senses? Think about it! All the world and its experiences that we see, hear, taste, touch, smell are based on our senses seeing (eyes), hearing (ears), smelling(noes), touching (skin) and taste (tongue). Now, we readily take the input we receive from these sense to be correct, accurate and to be true, don't we?! Isn't that why my husband,was swaying and trying to grab hold on to whatever he could thinking he might take a fall, despite the fact that he was standing on unmoving concrete?! His senses, that he live by, get by on a day to day basis, tricked him. How else do his senses trick him?
Putting these two things together made me question, how sure should we be of our sensory inputs? Well the real question was how wary should I be of my sensory inputs? It also reminded me of something the Buddha taught a disciple of his, just before the disciple died.
During the time of the Buddha, there was a young boy (details really escape my mind) who ran behind the Buddha asking for some teachings. The Buddha was on his alms rounds. Now the Buddha usually does not want to be disturbed during this time. But the Buddha was able to see, using his super-normal powers, that this young boy was going to die soon but that he also had the karmic causes strong enough to understand the Dhamma. So the Buddha stopped to teach. Apparently the Buddha gave the shortest teaching possible. The Buddha said to this young boy, "Take what you see as just the seen; take what you hear as just the heard" and the Buddha went on his way. Apparently, this was enough to awaken the mind of this young boy to the Dhamma.
I believe what the Buddha said can be found in what my husband experienced in that simulation room.
Think about it this way. We live our lives, we do things because we react to our sensory inputs. When someone smiles, we smile back. If someone scold us, we cry, we get depressed or scold back. When we feel hot, we take a shower or switch on the AC. Whatever it maybe, all of our actions are determined by our sensory inputs. After all a dead person doesn't react or respond do they? Why because their senses have stopped taking inputs. But for us because our sense are alive and because they take inputs, we are forever reacting to them. We are being swept away by our senses on a moment to moment basis. We are wired and we are brought up to react this way.
When the Buddha said, "Know what you see as only the seen", he said to be aware of this phenomena. He said this in regards to all of the senses. He said that we should be aware that it's only the senses taking inputs and that there is no need for us to react. For example, the eye is doing the seeing and that is it! There is no other story to be told. Isn't that amazing! I mean how truly liberating is that. Usually what we do is, when the eye sees, we think "Oh I am seeing", then we say more stories, "Oh I am seeing that woman making this horrible face at me, how dare she?".....and the saga continues. Along with that the length of Samsara lengthens as well.
The Buddha told us not to be fooled by our senses. For when we are fooled by our senses, like most of us are most of the time, we tend to REACT instead of RESPOND. The beauty in what the Buddha taught lies in realising that there is no need to REACT but there is all the need to RESPOND because that is all the choice each one of us have. In how each one of us RESPOND lies the liberation of each one of us. For example, in my responding or reacting lies my liberation or suffering not yours or someone elses and vice versa.
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