Seeing With The Eye of Dhamma
TO CULTIVATE MIND IS TO DEVELOP LIFE

By Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

Part 1 of 10

Having considered the natural conditions of human life, this chapter will consider what we ought to do with our humanity. We will examine life’s development (pattana) through the cultivation of mind (citta-bhavana).

Cultivating mind means making mind progress and thrive, which is the same as making life progress. Developing life means making it better and healthier. When the progress or increase isn’t for the better, that really shouldn’t be called “development” at all. Progress can be right or wrong; when wrong, it progresses without wisedirection. There is, for instance, worldly progress that brings problems in its wake—trouble, strife, oppression, and dukkha. There is progress in the field of education, but of the kind that doesn’t bring truly beneficial results, so that we still have delinquents and criminals throughout society, and more of them than ever. Among the educated classes, too, we have well-educated criminals. Clever people make clever crooks, creating long-lasting troubles for society. Such things happen when progress is wrong. If there is to be the right kind of progress, it must alwaysmove in the direction of well-being and fulfillment.

Cultivating (bhavana), much the same as developing (pattana), means to advance progress. Cultivating is used in the temples, and still has its ancient meaning, which has hardly changed at all, while developing is used outside of the temples and concerns the whole world, where its meaning has changed in accord with worldly trends, such as the emphasis on economics. Here, the term mental cultivation will be used when mind develops and makes progress wisely. Mental cultivation will necessarily develop life too, causing life to progress. Why is this so? Well, in reality, everything is connected with mind, everything arises with mind as captured in this Pali verse:

Jivitam attabhavo ca sukhadukkha ca kevala
Everything, including life, self-image, well-being, and pain,
Ekacittasamayutta
Occurs together with this single mind.
Lahuso vattate khano
Moments of time pass rapidly.


The whole experience of being alive is put together by mind, as if everything is created by mind. Suppose that people didn’t have minds, would they be able to do anything? We would be rather like logs of wood or chunks of rock, unable to do anything at all. Because there is mind, all sorts of things happen. Mind thinks, thus things happen.

Everything Happens Because There Is Mind

Mind is a wonder. If the body were without mind, there would be no life. Only because there is mind can the body operate at all. Mind functions by way of the senses, themedia between the inner and outer worlds. These sense media are the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, which are paired with forms, sounds, odors, flavors, tangibles, and mental objects. The inner and outer worlds are connected through them, with mind becoming active in the moment of sense contact. Mind wouldn’t have any means to operate if we lacked eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. It couldn’t function without them, as if there wasn’t any mind at all. Hence, comprehend the importance of the senses in making it possible for mind to function normally. It’s able to make contact with the outer world, with forms entering through the eyes, with sounds entering through the ears, with odors through the nose, with flavors through the tongue, with touches by way of body surfaces, and with mental objects and sensations occurring in mind itself.
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