All external events count as objects, first of the 5 sense‐bases, than of the mind, therefore without mastering the environment first (for a bhikkhu, the bhikkhus training and way of life, etc.), self‐knowledge can never become complete (yet, perception of the environment, depends in turn again on the perceiving faculty)

¹ Mind-element

² Mind-consciousness-element

…being either rooted in greed, hatred and delusion, or in non‐greed, non‐hatred, non‐delusion (i.e. consciousness of renunciation, compassion and goodwill and wisdom)

There are some who assert, that neither mind nor consciousness arises in the brain, …that only experiences related to touch are connected with the brain…(one may be reminded on the expression ‘meat‐head’ (a designation given usually to a profoundly coarse/unspiritual person))

To them we would like to give a quotation, from the words of the Buddha : “‘Winds do not blow, rivers do not flow, pregnant woman do not give birth, sun and moon do not rise or set, but stand as firmly as a pillar’….it is when clinging to form, that a person makes an assertion as this, it is when clinging to feelings ,…consciousness, …that a person makes an assertion as this”

(SN, Ditthisamyutta)

³ Avijja — ignorance

Sankhara — mental formations

Tanha — craving

Upadana — clinging

¹ …with delusion, without delusion, scattered, collected, free, unfree…

¹ that is why children are usually more honest and upright than many ‘grown‐ups’….only they lack both content and structure in their thinking….

² Not so much the content of ones mind (at that stage) will be important, but the uprightness of the thinking faculty (/the thinking instrument)

If a person is bypassing this condition of uprightness etc..to get to the mind…by “relaxing” in more vulgar ways…this will in very definite ways influence his character and way of thinking…such type of person may be very clever, but in a crafty and crooked manner

³ At the level of the mind, not only the content is important, but equally the structure and coordinatedness of that content…the emphasis of which is almost completely lacking in most educational systems…That why in the scriptures it is said….not only ‘knowledge’, but always ‘knowledge and vision’…the latter term implying, one could say a direct realization through the body (perhaps mental body) of that knowledge