Page 97 - Dhamma Practice

of these phenomena—if the phenomenon is powerful, it could drive our mind to go and experience it. If the phenomenon is weak, it would dissipate and be ignored. When there are two phenomena, whichever is more powerful, it will drive our mind to experience it. That is the nature of the mind.
To contemplate whether the mind and the phenomena are one of the same or separate, this has another benefit. That is, we will know whether the phenomena that we experience, that impact our six apertures—do we experience with a sense of “self” or experience with awareness. If we experience with awareness or experience without a sense of “self”, then, could these phenomena strain our mind? Could they cause us sufferings? This is what guarantees itself. We practice vipassana in order to know how the mind is as it experiences all the phenomena that emerge. How are they related? How do they act as causes and conditions of each other? Not that everything is ours—the eyes are ours, the ears are ours, the sounds that we hear belong to others, correct? But, when we hear sound, we say: “We hear”.
The sense of “self” obscures the truth, it is a misunderstanding. Why do we think that they are “us”? This is called “ignorance”. This is called “foolishness”. Even worse, it can be called “delusion” (avijja). In reality, this is all caused by our ignorance, our lack
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