Using Perceptions

Perception—the Pali word is saññā—the Buddha compared to mirages. They have an appearance of reality, and in some cases they do reflect things that are further away. But they can be distorted, and if you go to where you think the object is, it’s not there.

They talk about Fata Morgana up in the far north. There are lots of what they call “lenses” in the atmosphere—lenses of cold and warm air—which will create images of islands and mountains that are simply not there. The people who live there have to have a very accurate inner map of where the real islands and mountains are, so that they don’t get deceived.

However, it’s these perceptions, which have the potential to be deceptive, that we have to use. As the Buddha said, these are the things that shape our minds. Even concentration is a perception attainment all the way up through the dimension of nothingness.

So we have to learn how to use our perceptions, and not get deceived by them—remembering that every perception is just a sketch.

Think about your body here right now. Could you have a perception that would encompass all of the atoms, all of the chemicals, all of the chemical interactions, the firing of the synapses? No single perception could contain all those detao;s.

So the question is, what perception would be useful right now? We use the perception of the breath, and the Buddha’s perception of the breath may not be what our original perception is. But it’s good to learn how to use his vocabulary, because he provides us with sketches that are useful.

Like the sketch of the body, breathing in, breathing out, and being permeable, that there’s the breath energy that runs through all of the organs of the body: We can make use of that perception because it allows us to create comfortable sensations in the body.

As you breathe in, think of the whole body breathing in, think of the whole body breathing out. Then ask yourself, what sensations do you have that would correspond to those perceptions?

I’ve known people who say this is very unscientific. There’s no breath in your nerves, there’s no breath in your blood vessels. That’s what they say, but they’re thinking of breath as the movement of air, whereas for the Buddha, it’s the movement of energy.

You want to take advantage of that: that you can sense the movement of energy. In some parts of the body, the movement is clearer than in other parts, but take advantage of the fact that you can sense it in some places, because then you want to adjust your breath so that those sensations are comfortable.

That’s the other mental fabrication that shapes your mind: feelings.

Adjust your breath so that there’s a sense of ease. Then you can think of that easeful breath connecting with the other comfortable breath energies in the body. That allows you to settle in. That’s one perception you can use.

I knew someone in Thailand who had the ability to get very quickly into concentration. She said she did it by imagining that there was one spot in her brain and one spot in her tailbone, and there was a line connecting the two of them. She focused on the two spots at once. That pulled all of her thoughts into that line so that she could be anchored in the body and have a sense of feeling solidly here.

As she said, if she imagined only one spot, it was hard not to think around that spot. It was as if she had one hand full, but the other hand was free to grasp whatever came by. But if both hands were full, having to keep two spots in mind at once made it hard to think and much easier just to stay still.

Now, there may not be an actual line connecting the brain to the tailbone, but of course there are nerves going down the spine. Either way, you can use perceptions like this to help the mind settle in. So even though it’s a sketch, it’s a useful sketch.

What this means, of course, is that whatever we experience is going to be colored by the perceptions we bring to it, and it is possible to change your perceptions. So change them well.

One of the most unhelpful teachings I heard was a couple years back: someone saying she’d been told by her teacher that “You can’t change your perceptions at all. Whatever you’re born with, you’re stuck with those perceptions.”

If that were the case, we’d never be able to learn anything new. The Buddha wouldn’t have taught us the perceptions of inconstancy, stress, not-self. He wouldn’t have taught us the perceptions of concentration, because we wouldn’t be able to learn them. But we can learn them. We can change our perceptions.

But that means we have to have a somewhat detached attitude to all our perceptions, first to get detached from our old perceptions—the ones that have been tying us down.

This is one of the reasons why we shouldn’t be in any hurry to change the Dhamma to fit in with our perceptions of the world. After all, our perceptions of the world are the ones that accompany our lack of skill in approaching the issue of suffering.

So we have to learn how to step back from them a bit. This is why it’s helpful to think of coming to the Dhamma as going to a new country, where the customs are different, the language is different. Their way of viewing things and describing them may be just as legitimate, or if not more legitimate, than the customs you came from. Be willing to try on those new perceptions, new customs, for size.

Ultimately, of course, even the perceptions that the Buddha recommends are things you have to let go, but you first have to use them along the path. Perceptions of concentration to help the mind to settle down; the three perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self: Use those to get into concentration and to see the drawbacks of things that would pull you out of concentration.

We use the word inconstancy here for* aniccā*. Sometimes it’s translated as impermanent, but that doesn’t get to the meaning of the word in the Pali language. It also doesn’t get to the simple fact that if you say something is impermanent, then the Buddha tries to draw from that the conclusion that it’s stressful. Yet not all impermanent things are stressful. If you have a disease that’s impermanent, that’s good, because it’s going to end. But if you think about the health of your body as being inconstant—and that’s what the aniccā means; *nicca *means constant, anicca means inconstant—then you realize it’s unreliable.

When something’s unreliable, yes, it is stressful. That’s the second perception: If you try to find happiness in things that are unreliable, you’re going to suffer.

So the conclusion the Buddha has you draw is, “Is this worth regarding as yourself, as belonging to you or as being you?” And the answer is No.

At first you apply these perceptions to anything that would pull you out of concentration, to see their drawbacks. This is part of that five-step program that the Buddha recommends for getting past anything that’s an obstacle. First you look to see its origination—in other words, you see what causes it, and you’re looking for the cause inside the mind.

Then, as a second step, you look to see it pass away, to realize that it’s not constant.

A lot of our defilements threaten us that way. They say, “I may be weak right now, but if you don’t give in to me, I’m going to get stronger and stronger until you explode.” That’s just an empty threat. If you really look at these things, you see that they come and then they go. They come again and they go again.

We can build up some pressure around them by the way we breathe if we subconsciously want to go along with them. But if you learn to see the thought as one thing, and perceive the breathing energy in the body as something else, you realize you don’t have to conflate those two things, and you don’t have to build up pressure around them as they come and go.

That helps you step back from them. When you step back from them, then you can ask, “What’s the allure?” That’s the third step. Here again, you have perceptions: the perceptions that tell you that greed is good, anger is good—or maybe this case of greed is good, this case of anger is good or justified. The same for jealousy, fear, envy: There’s part of the mind that likes these things. It feeds on them. What’s the perception that makes them glamorous? What’s the perception that makes them attractive? How much truth is there to that perception? And what good does it do?

That’s the important thing. There may be some truth to the things that you find attractive, but is that truth useful? Remember the Buddha’s instructions for speech that you would speak out loud: Is it true? Is it beneficial? And is this the right time and place? Say only the things that would pass all three tests.

Well, that questionnaire should apply to your perceptions as well. And as you know, every perception is somewhat of a distortion—it’s just a sketch. But sometimes you can think of perceptions as being like maps. If you had a map that totally provided information for the territory it covers, it would have so many details that it would be useless.

If you want a map of roads, you look for a map of roads. If you want a map of elevation contours, you get a different map. If you want a map of vegetation, a map of minerals, there are maps that provide these things. They show you only one or two aspects of the area you’re covering, and you want to make sure that those particular aspects are accurately portrayed. Then you ask yourself, “Even if it’s accurate, is this beneficial for me, for what I want?”

If you’re looking for the road to go to Mount Palomar, but you get a map that shows you the mineral deposits around here, it wouldn’t be helpful. It’d be true, but it wouldn’t be beneficial. So you look for a map—an inner map, a mental map—that’s true and beneficial.

The same principle applies here: You’ve got the allure, and it may be true. Maybe it is true that this state of mind does have those attractive features. But is it really helpful for you? Is it really good for you? If it’s not, you want to look for other maps, other perceptions ,that emphasize the drawbacks of that mental state. That’s the fourth step.

This is where the Buddha brings in the perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. In fact, there are eleven perceptions in one of his suttas of the drawbacks of things: “alien,” “empty,” “a cancer,” “an arrow.”

So look at the perceptions you’re holding in mind and see where they have their drawbacks. Make that your map: the map of their drawbacks. Then, using that map, you can free yourself from your attachment to a lot of unskillful things. Then, of course, you have to put the map aside. That’s the fifth and final step.

As the Buddha said, “All fabrications are inconstant; all fabrications are stressful.” But when you’re working on concentration, you don’t apply that map quite yet to the concentration itself. It’s not yet the right time or place. Otherwise you’d say, “Oh, concentration comes and it goes. I learned that. Check that box.” But you haven’t really gained the benefits that you could from concentration. So use the map that says, “Concentration is worth doing” until you’ve mastered it. Then you start looking for its drawbacks.

At that point, you apply the perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self to the concentration itself, and even to right view, so as to be freed from all fabrications. Then you have to put those perceptions down, because after all, they, too, are aggregates. They’re fabrications.

When the Buddha says, “sabbe dhammā anattā,” all phenomena are not-self, that phrase itself is a phenomenon, which means that it, too, should be let go when it’s done its work.

This is why these three perceptions are especially useful, because they teach you to let go all around. But you don’t start out with them.

Ajaan Lee talks a lot about this. As he says, all too many people come to the Dhamma and want to go straight to the three perceptions. But then they don’t have anything. They’ve let go of everything. They’ve let go of the path before the path has even been developed, so it can’t take them anywhere. They let go like paupers, and not like rich people. They have nothing of value at all.

So it all comes down to the issue of what perceptions are true and beneficial, and when those perceptions have their time and place. That’s what you want to learn: what perceptions are true and beneficial and timely right now. Learn how to use those right now, and leave the others for some other time.

Which means, again, that you have to have some distance from your perceptions. Step back and look at them as activities, so that you can judge which kinds of perceptions are useful for you right now, and which ones are causing you trouble if you latch on to them at the wrong time.

As Buddha says, the idea that “This is the truth, this is the only truth, and everything else is worthless” ties you down, if you can’t step back and gain some freedom and insight into this process of perception. You have to learn how to change your perceptions when the time comes that they need to be changed.

So see them as tools. See them as part of your inner speech, and remember the rules of inner speech: true, beneficial, timely. View them as maps or sketches.

When you’ve arrived at where you need to go, then you can put the maps and the sketches down, and enjoy the freedom at which you’ve arrived.