4) Reproduction
Spirituality can be reproduced when certain circumstances are replicated. The circumstances are the initial encounter and the subsequent reinforcement of certain responses. When the responses in those circumstances are similar, then a similar consciousness / spirituality will develop subsequently. That development is the reproduction of a similar spirituality.
The first part of the circumstances is the initial encounter to suffering. It occurs naturally to all people. Sooner or later each person will experience some trauma in life. The specifics of each incident may vary. It is some kind of a critical change - physically, financially, or socially. But the effects are similar in that they produce a shocking and lasting impression on the person, prompting the person to seek spiritual or material solutions/answers to that traumatic experience.
The second part of the circumstances is the reinforcement of some of the efforts in the person's search for a solution. Among the efforts in the search, some will get reinforced while others will not. Those that get reinforced will be reproduced more often because they have the advantage of being an effective treatment to psychological pains, or being persuasive to do so, or both.
The effective responses may become a spiritual teaching when they are communicated. These teachings can be transmitted from person to person via language or guided experiences. When someone learns and practices a teaching, he is reinforcing those responses similarly to that of the teacher's. This repetition makes a reproduction of a similar spirituality in the practitioner. However, a person's spiritual development is likely a combination of different teachings from different sources, because he will encounter different kinds of suffering in varied happenstances.
Language is a direct way of transmitting spiritual teachings and practices. While various teachings have different contents and methods, they share a common principle and goal. And that is to solve the problem of sufferings in life.
One of the Buddhism methods to treat sufferings is to recite the sutras and mantras. In Christianity it is to say a prayer or confession or repentance. In Islam it is also saying prayers, along with devotional rituals of kneeling and prostrating. There are many other methods in these religions, including teaching their beliefs to non-believers. The act of spreading beliefs is also a way of treating suffering.
These different methods share a common principle, which is to focus the mind on something other than the thoughts and feelings of suffering. When the followers practice those methods, their mind is focused on the practice. That focus will shift their thoughts and feelings of mental anguish. This is a way of mental substitution, substituting one psychological state with another. It works when the substitute can override the agonizing thoughts and feelings.
A VIEW OF BUDDHISM AND ITS METHOD OF SUBSTITUTION
Buddhism talks much about the mind and has many methods of mental substitution. It analyzes the mind closely as the basis for its methods. However, its knowledge and description about the mind was based on what people experienced or imagined around 500 BCE. That description is old fashioned. From the 19th century onward, advances in neurology and systems theory and artificial intelligence and computer technology have changed very much what we know about the mind. And a review of the Buddha's teachings in light of the modern sciences can add much clarity to the solution of sufferings.
The Buddha used the language of his time to express his teachings. That language could represent concrete objects, visible events, or imaginative ideas like dragons and kalpas. But a topic like the mind was different. It was not easy for a language to describe it accurately. This difficulty led the Buddha and other spiritual teachers to rely on metaphoric words, or parables and analogies, to present some parallels from the unfamiliar to the familiar.
Some of the metaphoric words used were sunyata (emptiness), dhyana (zen, meditation), buddha (enlightened person), nirvana (blowing out), and skandha (mental aggregate). The meanings of these words, as descriptions about the mind, are vague to most readers. It is the same with other languages. Words like soul or spirit or ego or consciousness in English are also mysterious if we examine their meanings closely. One consequence of such ambiguity is that confusions about spiritual teachings are reproduced from generation to generation.
To clarify their meanings, let's start with the word "emptiness" (sunyata). What does this word mean in the Heart Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, in the texts "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" and "the emptiness of all things"? Firstly, the literal meaning of the word "emptiness" is an improper description for forms and things. Emptiness points to no forms. So it is clear that the meaning of "emptiness" is not to be taken literally in those texts.
What then can that word "emptiness" mean in those sutras? One possible meaning is that the texts are not referring to "forms" and "things" directly, but to our perceptions of forms and things. "Emptiness" is a somewhat suitable description for our perceptions of forms. Because perceptions, like the mind, are not physical. They have no physical dimensions, and cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelt. In other words, a perception itself has no location or weights or size, unlike a physical thing. Since all forms and things can only be known to us through our mind, our perceptions of forms and things can be said to be non-physical, or "empty". Let's see if this interpretation fit with the rest of the sutra's text.
(picture) meditation
Before examining the text in detail, first some context. The text of the Heart Sutra is about the mind and the treatment of sufferings. By knowing the mind better, we can see better the context and meaning for the word "emptiness". To know the mind better, we can start with an examination of our consciousness, which is still not physical.
Meditation is a traditional way of looking into one's own consciousness, or a way to train the mind. It is a big part of the buddhist practice. There are two major schools of meditation: the quiescence/concentration (samatha) school and the insight (vipassana) school. The latter provides a better clue to the meaning of "emptiness" in the Heart Sutra.
The quiescence school teaches that meditation is done by focusing on breathing or some objects. It uses this concentration to silence or calm other thoughts and voices in the mind as much as possible. This is the school of Zen, practicing a strict disciplining of the mind in order to reach nirvana or the state of no thoughts. When the mind has reached such a state of quiescence, it is promised that the practitioner will have an enlightened consciousness. That consciousness is supposedly the awakening, an actualization that frees the practitioner from all sufferings.
It's not clear how effective this state of no-thought is against sufferings. There is no established study of stress-testing those who have supposedly reached the state of Zen. A stress test can be a physical illness or some uncomfortable human interactions. It is not uncommon to find a practitioner with 30 years of meditation experience to comment that he still experiences vexations like a novice under certain circumstances. For example, when he is being ridiculed by others for his knowledge or beliefs.
On the other hand, instead of trying to achieve the nirvana state of no-thought, the insight school teaches the practice of observing whatever thoughts and perceptions that arise in the mind. Enlightenment is reached through those observations instead of from stopping all thoughts. There is a well known bodhisattva named Avalokitesvara that exemplifies this. The name Avalokitesvara means "observing voices". The literal Chinese translation of this bodhisattva's name is 觀音 Guanyin. The Japanese version of the Chinese translation is Kanon.
Some people take this name Guanyin or Kanon to mean "observing the voices of the outside world", or 觀世音. That is, this bodhisattva hears the sounds of sufferings in the world and helps those who cry out for help. Guanyin is famously known as the bodhisattva of compassion. However, if "voices" is taken as a simile word for "thoughts", then the name is meant as "observing the sounds/thoughts from within oneself", then that will be another translation of this Avalokitesvara's name - 觀自在菩薩, or 觀自音菩薩. It is this translation that gives clues to the practice of insight meditation, and to the meaning of the word "emptiness/sunyata".
The name 觀自在菩薩 (bodhisattva observing his/her own existence/perceptions/thoughts) is chosen in the mainstream Chinese version of the Heart Sutra. This sutra is where that obscure word "emptiness/sunyata" appears. In many other sutras that bodhisattva's name is translated as 觀世音菩薩 (bodhisattva observing the sounds of the outside world). But not so in the Heart Sutra.
The Heart Sutra shows that the mind (rather than the heart) can overcome mental sufferings. This sutra starts with five attributes called "skandhas". "Skandha" is translated as 蘊, an aggregate that clings. It is also written sometimes as 陰, something that is hidden or invisible. These five hidden skandhas are said to be "empty" or sunyata.
The text identifies the five skandhas as: 色 appearances/forms of things, 受 reception/sensing of appearances, 想 imagining/composing of appearances, 行 movement/transmission of appearances, and 識 recognition/consciousness of appearances. These five skandhas are all aspects of a mind, or mental activities.
The sequence of the five skandhas is perhaps more orderly if 行 (transmission/movement) is placed before 想 (imagination), as in 色受行想識. That way the flow of information in these skandhas is moving linearly from some objects to some sense organs, and then to the main nervous system of the receiver. There the composition of information takes place in the brain, and perceptions are formed and recognized. However, the flow of information in mental circuits has many feedback loops and resonance crossovers. It is not always sequential or linear.
The skandhas are introduced as aspects of a mind (or more appropriately, of mental activities). They lead to the thesis of the Heart Sutra, which is the removal of sufferings in the mind by the mind itself. The overcoming of suffering is done by changing some information in the imagination and recognition skandhas, by practicing a mental substitution method. This is introduced at the beginning and amplified at the end of the Sutra.
The beginning of the Sutra says: 觀自在菩薩 行深般若波羅蜜多時 照見五蘊皆空 度一切苦厄 - THE BODHISATTVA AVALOKITESVARA (observer of his/her own voices/perceptions), WHEN WALKING DEEPLY IN PRAJNAPARAMITA (prajnaparamita is a mantra. "Walking deeply" is an expression for practicing attentively - reciting or meditating on that mantra continuously. If not this practice, how else can one "walk deeply" in a mantra?), SEES THAT THE FIVE SKANDHAS (hidden aspects or aggregates of mental activities) ARE EMPTY (virtual/informational, not physical). (Thus) CROSSES OVER (to the other shore and leave behind) ALL SUFFERINGS.
(Note: Since the skandhas are not physical, they can be altered virtually. This alteration can be likened to a change from one pattern of thoughts to another. For example, when one is daydreaming, one's perception of the world is replaced by the perception of the dream or fantasy. This alteration of non-physical skandhas is THE treatment to suffering. A supporting evidence for this is that the Buddha often refers to himself as Tathagata: "one who has thus come or thus gone" 如來. That is, his body is here physically, but his mind can suddenly come to this world of sufferings or suddenly gone from this suffering world, by just substituting his mental state from one to another.)
The end of the Sutra says: 故知般若波羅蜜多 是大神呪 是大明咒 是無上呪 是無等等呪 能除一切苦 真實不虛 故説般若波羅蜜多咒 即説呪曰 揭諦揭諦 般羅揭諦 般羅僧揭諦 菩提莎婆呵. THEREFORE (we) KNOW THAT THE PRAJNAPARAMITA IS A GREAT DEITY MANTRA, IS A GREAT ENLIGHTENING MANTRA, IS AN UNSURPASSED MANTRA, IS AN UNEQUALLED MANTRA. (Reciting it) CAN REMOVE ALL SUFFERINGS. (This solution to suffering is) TRULY REAL AND NOT FALSE. THEREFORE (we) SPEAK OF THE PRAJNAPARAMITA MANTRA. NOW (we) RECITE THIS MATRA - "GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASANGATE BODHI SVAHA".
One literal translation of the prajnaparamita mantra "gate gate paragate parasaṃgate bodhi svaha" is "gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond, Enlightenment hail!" The Heart Sutra prescribes that the recitation of this mantra, when repeated attentively and often enough (walking/meditating deeply, 行深), will reveal to you that thoughts or information are not physical. And that the act of recitation can replace whatever thoughts that are otherwise dominating and causing suffering in your mind.
The name of the Heart Sutra should be more suitably translated as the Mind Sutra. The reason it is called the Heart Sutra in Chinese is because the word "heart" has always been used to represent the concept of "mind". "Heart" is a metaphoric word just like many other Buddhist terms. There was and still is no direct word for "mind" in Chinese, even though they have known a good deal about the mind long ago. This can be seen in hundreds of Chinese characters that have a "heart" radical in them. For example, the word for consideration is 思. It is composed of the radical heart/mind 心 + field 田. A field grows something that one sows and cultivates. Likewise, consideration is a mental activity where certain thoughts get cultivated in the mental field. The word for imagination is 想. It is made up of the radical heart/mind 心 + appearance 相. Imagination is an activity where the mind makes up an appearance of something that corresponds to the thing of that appearance.
After the beginning introduction, the word "emptiness" appears in the Sutra as "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" (色即是空，空即是色). This ties emptiness to the first skandha 色 (Sanskrit: rupa), which is what the eyes see, or the forms of things. Things in this world are physical, but our sight of them is not. That "emptiness" is meant to express the idea that our sight of a thing is non-physical. The second half of the phrase is saying that that non-physical sight (or information of appearance) corresponds directly to the physical formation of that thing. This is true for all living creatures that see the world with their eyes and brains. Their sights are all "empty" in that sights are not physical and so void of size or weight or location.
What happens if it is not interpreted this way? Then there is a great deal of confusion. The word emptiness/sunyata/空, in Chinese or Sanskrit or other languages, has perplexed and fascinated readers since the existence of the sutra. No explanation has ever been given satisfactorily on why the word "emptiness" was chosen in the first place, since form and emptiness are incompatible in meanings. But what other words could the original writer or translator use to describe the non-physicalness of our perceptions of forms? Probably none, since other available words at the time also would twist the intended meaning somewhat. At least emptiness/sunyata hints at the idea that the mental skandhas do not have physical attributes.
Most buddhists do not interpret that "emptiness" as non-physical information. They have created meanings for this word from personal understanding and imagination. Such a tendency towards personal interpretations or guesses has made this word a ding-an-sich, a meaning independent of the original context. For example, Thich Nhat Hanh (釋一行) describes this "emptiness" as "empty of a separate self". He tends to think in terms of the interconnectedness of things. And D.T. Suzuki says "When the sutra says that the five Skandhas have the character of emptiness [...], the sense is: no limiting qualities are to be attributed to the Absolute; while it is immanent in all concrete and particular objects, it is not in itself definable."
If the explanations of Thich Nhat Hanh and D.T. Suzuki are good, then that should fit well in the original text. Is that the case? Incorporating these masters' explanations, the original text will become something like "The appearance of forms has/is some absolute quality, or is something that is empty of a separate self. The Absolute quality, or the emptiness of a separate self, is/makes the appearance of forms". Such explanation makes the text, especially the second part, as nonsensical as without the explanation.
If the original writer did mean that emptiness/sunyata was an unattributable absolute quality or non-separateness, then he could have easily chosen a better suited word for that, like holiness/wholeness (全, 整) or connectness (通, 連). In that case, the text would become something like "Form/appearance is holiness/connectedness. Wholly connectedness is form/appearance." That still makes no sense, because connectedness indicates that forms are not separate. But forms are separate.
The Book of Genesis in the Bible describes the creation of the world as a sequenced steps of separations. Appearances and forms, the boundaries and outlines of forms, come by separations. The light is separated from darkness, the earth from seas, the fish from fowls. Whether that separation is done by God or through evolution, the resulting differentiations we can all see. If things are all connected and absolute like the buddhists say, then why are there boundaries and outlines of forms? Why do them appear separate? They should all just remain "void and formless" like the Bible said of the beginning of the world.
More relevantly, the buddhist masters' explanations do not tie into the thesis of the Heart Sutra, which is the removal of suffering in the mind. The absolute or all-connectedness does not explain how sufferings can be removed. But the observation that the skandhas and the mind are virtual can explain it: sufferings can be removed virtually by substitution of information. This is described at the end of the sutra. It tells us to recite the prajnaparamita mantra earnestly so as to change our mental state and remove the sufferings there.
The removal of mental sufferings is not limited to the recitation of prajnaparamita mantra only. The phrase "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" itself can act like a mantra. Repeatedly saying it will have a similar effect as saying the prajnaparamita mantra. It can lift the mind from thoughts of suffering. It is also simpler and more catchy to say "form is emptiness" than saying "the sight of forms is non-physical; the non-physical sight is equivalent to physical forms".
It does not even have to be limited to the recitation of a mantra. For example, some buddhists believe in ideas like "all things are interconnected and interdependent", or "realizing the law of impermanence and non-attachment will free you from sufferings", or "good karma brings good rewards and bad karma brings bad outcomes". Repeatedly saying or thinking about these ideas can also have a similar effect as the recitation of prajnaparamita mantra. The mind becomes occupied by the thoughts of these sayings, and so less conscious of thoughts and feelings of suffering.
Instead of being known for the substitution method or the prajnaparamita mantra, the Heart Sutra is renowned for the word "emptiness". Some of the difficulties and fascination of Zen buddhism are tied to this concept of "emptiness". Taking literally this word or another word "nirvana" (a candle flame blown out), Zen meditation aims at quieting down the mind to the point of no thoughts at all, in all circumstances and for long periods of time. Theoretically, mental sufferings are gone from the mind in that state of quiescence. But that state of mind is simply against the functions of the mind, which are to always sense and respond to information. When a mind ceases to respond to information, the brain is dead. Being alive is directly related to having an active mind.
Before becoming the Buddha, the young prince Siddhartha Gautama left his home and went through years of ascetic practice. He did so to master his body and desires, probably thinking that that was the way to conquer sufferings. But it did not work. Ascetism could not solve the problem of mental sufferings for him. So he changed course, and practiced deep meditation instead. After his enlightenment through meditation, the Buddha advocated avoiding extremes and following "the Middle Way". The Middle Way was described as: "If a string is too slack, it won't play; if it's too tight, it will snap!" It is a way away from extremes, but without showing exactly where that is. Probably it is where some "music" is playing sustainably. In this context, the Zen practice of mastering the mind to the point of no-thoughts at all seems like an extreme from the Middle Way.
Middle way or not, sunyata/emptiness is certainly not about simply being empty. Modern ideas like cybernetics and ecology and computer science have provided new contexts for this word about mental activities. Sunyata/emptiness can be meant as "information" in the scientific sense. Information is not physical. It is mental and so can be described as "empty" of physical attributes. The skandhas are non-physical "aggregates" where non-physical information move and flow. They are aspects of a mind that senses and composes perceptions. And some of the perceptions are the feelings of sufferings that all people may experience.
The original writer of the Sutra didn't have words like "information" in his time. The Chinese characters did not have a word for "information" directly either. Back then people might not even have the concept that a non-physical mind is like some virtual circuits where information flow and transform. The absence of such words and concepts left the original writer with little choice but to use metaphoric words like emptiness or sunyata.
To test the validity of this new interpretation of "emptiness/sunyata", we can substitute the word "information" for "emptiness" in the sutra. If it fits sensibly in the text, then it is a fitting interpretation.
The replacement makes the phrase "form is emptiness, emptiness is form 色即是空，空即是色" to become "form/sight is information; information is form/sight". This is sensible in regards to our sight of appearances and forms. The text before that is "sight/form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from sight/form. 色不異空，空不異色." That can be translated as "the sight of forms is not different from information, information is not different from the sight of forms".
The sutra further states that the other 4 skandhas - sensing/receiving (受), imagining (想), walking/practicing/meditating (行), and recognizing (識) - are also as such 亦復如是. Indeed, those can be sensibly restated as information aggregates as well. 1) 受即是空，空即是受. The sensing/receiving of objects/forms (as sight, sound, smell, taste, touch/feeling, and idea) is information in action; information is the act of sensing (objects or forms). 2) 想即是空，空即是想. Imagination (of form) is information in action; information is an imagination (of form). 3) 行即是空，空即是行. Transmitting/meditating/practicing (of information) is information in action; information is the meditating/transmission (of information). 4) 識即是空，空即是識. Cognition/consciousness (of form and information) is information in action, information is cognition/consciousness (of form and information).
Gregory Bateson (1904 - 1980) gave a superb definition for information, which is that information is a difference that makes a difference. It fits well with the description of the skandhas. A "difference" between physical things exists only in the mental circuits of ideas, which are informational or virtual and not physical. The first skandha "appearance/form" is the differences (contrasts) between a form and its surroundings. That differences can trigger the optical nerve endings of the eyes to fire visual signals differently than before. That makes the second skandha - the sensing of some appearance information, or what the eyes detect. This sensing skandha, as a difference in the sensory nerves' impulse firings triggered by a difference between a form and its surrounding, applies also in the sensing of sound, smell, taste, and touch.
The skandha of transmission or movement of sensory signals is also information in action. The differences in the firings of optical nerve endings will trigger differences in the firings of the optic nerve. In the case of sight, these differences propagate visual signals from the eyes to some regions of the brain, and from there to other parts of the body.
The imagination and cognition skandhas continue such a transmission and transformation of differences. In the brain, the transmission of differences takes place in the connected neuron cells and interactive neurochemicals. These neurons and neurochemicals form a complex network of structured pathways for the transmission of information. And the transmission of information there gives rise to the phenomena of imagination and cognition skandhas.
How? The pathway structures can be neurons connected in stratified layers and feedback loops and resonant circuits. These structures are reconfigurable known as neuroplasticity. Through feedbacks and resonances, the transmission of information can produce associative and sequential memories. A memory is where a sequence of some transmission of differences information gets replayed. Some of the memories can be cross-referenced with other information from the senses, making them recognizable. This then is the conscious and subconscious cognition/recognition of a perception. Whether it is consciousness or subconsciousness depends on the quantity and the coherence of interplays of crisscrossing information (or mental circuits).
Memories and perceptions, or the transmissions of recognized differences, can be transformed into imaginations. Stratified layers of neurons can transform information by selectively emphasizing/deemphasizing and combining some of the information, as the information passing through the hierarchical arrangement of layers. That is what imagination is: some recognized information being fragmented and/or combined while still being recognizable. For example, a bird and a horse can be imaginatively combined into a Pegasus - the bird's wings being selectively attached to the horse and enabling it to fly.
The skandhas can be described as information-in-action. What else does the Sutra say about "emptiness"? After the introduction, the Heart (Mind) Sutra says this: 是諸法空相 不生不滅 不垢不淨 不增不減 是故空中無色 無受想行識 無眼耳鼻舌身意 無色聲香味觸法 無眼界 乃至無意識界 無無明 亦無無明盡 乃至無老死 亦無老死盡 無苦集滅道 無智亦無得 That can be translated like this: The various Dharmas are different appearances of information/emptiness. They are not created or destroyed, not dirty or clean, not increased or decreased. Therefore in information/sunyata there are no five skandhas, no sense organs, no sense perceptions, no realm of the eyes, no realm of consciousness, no ignorance, no end of ignorance, no old age and death, no end of old age and death, no four noble truths, no wisdom and no attainment.
The part about information/sunyata being not created/destroyed and not increased/decreased is different from modern ideas about information. Information can increase or decrease by mental associations. The rest of the description matches well. It reinforces and expands on the idea that information is virtual and not physical. Being virtual, information/sunyata cannot physically contain anything - not objects nor skandhas nor information. Only a physical object can contain something. A living brain and nervous system and sense organs are physical media that can contain cells and chemicals, the interactions of which correspond to information-in-action. But information is not a physical medium. So it cannot "contain" anything physical like a brain or nose or eyes, or even other virtual information or dharma.
METHOD OF SUBSTITUTION
At the end, the Heart Sutra prescribes the means to remove sufferings in the mind. It is done by applying a substitution method on information / skandhas.
Some information can make a mind suffer - a sad or angry face, some mean or threatening words or actions, a lack of necessity or money, a loss of someone or something dear. These sufferings may be called sorrow, depression, worry, guilt, loneliness, helplessness, hopelessness, hatred, fear, rejection, jealousy, or anxiety. The solution to such sufferings that the awakened Buddha and the Heart Sutra revealed to us was to substitute those hurtful information with the prajnaparamita mantra information, and substitute them in the mind and by the mind.
The method of information substitution as the treatment to suffering is found in other sutras also. In the Amida (Amitaba Buddha) Sutra (阿彌陀經), the substitute is to recite the name of the Amida (Amita, Amitaba) Buddha unceasingly. In the Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra (地藏菩薩本願經), it is to read the whole sutra out loud. In the Lotus Sutra (妙法蓮華經), the method is to teach the Lotus Sutra itself to laypersons and monks/nuns and even to bodhisattvas.
Other religions have their methods of substitution as well. They may read the Bible or Koran to find consolation and understanding. Thich Nhat Hanh has still another substitution method called mindfulness, which is based on the Satipatthana Sutta. The way that mindfulness method works is to pay attention to the body's breathing or the situation at hand. It substitutes the consciousness of psychological pains with the awareness of breathing or tensions in the body.
However, the information substitution method is meant for mental sufferings. If a suffering is physiological rather than psychological, like pains from physical injury or disease, then the information substitution method is not effective. At least it is not as effective as physical treatment by a proper doctor or medicine. The psychological anguish associated with physical injury or sickness, however, can still be relieved by recitation of a mantra or by mindfulness or by prayers. Faith in those spiritual substitutes can bring hope. And hope has a significant positive effect on the healing of the psyche. But faith healing, of praying to God or a higher power to relieve physical pains, is usually inferior to medicines. A toothache is much better treated by a Tylenol pill than by praying.
The effects of some medicines are somewhat like a substitution method. Take for example the antidepressant medicine that treats depression. What the antidepressant medicine does is to change the nervous system's neural firing patterns in a certain way. The changes in the activities of the nerves correspond to a change in the information sensing and transmitting skandhas (受,行). The effect of replacing painful information is similar to the mantra recitation method, which is working on the imagination and cognition skandhas (想,識).
A common anti-depressant pill belongs to a class of drugs called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Such inhibitors block the re-absorption rate of serotonin (a neurotransmitter biochemical) at the synapses of neurons. This blocking increases the amount of serotonin outside the neurons, which then affects the neural firing patterns in such a way that reduces the awful feelings of depression and anxiety.
Pain medicines like Tylenols work in a similar way. The active ingredients in Tylenol are chemical compounds that are shaped to bind easily with certain nerve receptors. This binding can then block or impede the transmission of certain pain signals in the neural pathways. The neural signaling patterns of "pain" are then substituted by a "non-pain" neural signaling patterns.
The secular world also has solutions to suffering that are substitution in principle. Here the substitutes can be alcohol, drugs, money, games, fame, power, work, hobby, sex, food, collectibles, gurus, etc. These substitutes work while the effects of the substitutes last. But the effects of physical substitutes can wear off. Then another round of substitutes must be obtained in order to cope with returning thoughts of troubles. That is different from the spiritual substitutes, which can be renewed internally, from memory or by will.
CULTIVATING SPIRITUAL SUBSTITUTES
It is easy to see that the substitution method can treat a suffering mind. But in practice, however, such a method is not so easily effective. This is because thoughts of suffering can dominate the mind and not let go. They echo and replay in the mind from different directions and by various triggers. To replace them, the substitutes must overcome that dominance. This can happen if a substitute is fascinating or comforting or distracting to the mind.
Physical substitutes and mental fantasies can be fascinating and comforting to the mind, but they do not last. To combat thoughts of suffering sustainably, the substitutes need to be spiritual. That is, the practitioner needs to cultivate spiritual information in the mind through efforts of faith and will. That is the spiritual practice.
The practice is to repeatedly recall some spiritual thoughts or information. The repetitive practice will turn those thoughts into sequential memories. Those sequential memories becomes a dominant force that can combat thoughts of suffering in the mind. This is because of the dynamics of sequential memory. In a sequential memory, a small initial trigger can bring out the full play of the memory sequence. Then some parts of the play may retrigger the initial impetus again, and cause the full sequence of the memory play to renew again. This repeating replay of a sequential memory is what may overcome the dominance of mental suffering.
When cultivating spiritual substitutes, faith and will alone may not be sufficient. Positive feedbacks are often needed in the practice. Otherwise the practitioner may loose heart in the practice, due to a lack of success in repelling thoughts of suffering.
One kind of positive feedback is the reinforced feelings of being under the grace of a higher power. This feeling will make one feel protected, that all will be alright. The need for supernatural protection is strong when one's suffering is great. The Book of Job in the Bible illustrates this. Job was totally dejected when God abandoned him and let the devil took everything from him - health, wealth, and family. No wise counsels from his friends could bring him around. But he recovered when God appeared and talked to him. So, great spiritual teachings must proclaim great powers, as that is part of the faith needed for the followers. Without it, the followers will find it hard to continue their spiritual practice under trying circumstances.
Another kind of positive feedback is taking interests and having success in avocations. Poetry, chess, painting, singing may be such pursuits. They stimulate the mind and provide mental delights over sensory pleasures. DIY (do-it-yourself) projects like building a furniture piece, cooking or gardening, writing or exercising, can similarly delight a person with the project's progress and success.
When avocational pursuits are combined with a spiritual practice, the resolve to cultivate spiritual substitutes successfully can be stronger. One learns to persevere and wait for the good outcome, and to stop and smell the roses and see silver linings in a cloud when good outcomes do not arrive. People who have successfully cultivated one interest often may cultivate other interests. These interests and spiritual substitutes will go together to help one weather setbacks.
UTOPIA AND UNIVERSAL PEACE
When a practitioner has successfully cultivated a spiritual substitute that can overcome mental sufferings, he has gained the ability to change his mental state by will. But that does not remove the source of suffering that comes from the external environment. He will still experience and need to deal with suffering. To remove the external source of suffering altogether, he needs a world where sufferings do not happen.
Since the dawn of civilization, humans had been finding ways to change the environment to make it more comfortable and convenient for themselves. They succeeded in doing so through cooperation, in many areas like acquiring food, clothing, dwelling, transportation, safety, and medicines. But it comes at a cost. Cooperation induces stress which can lead to suffering. One example is the learning and following of man-made rules. Some rules can be hard to understand or follow. Stress also can happen in uncooperative behaviors, which pit selfish views and actions of one party against another.
The ultimate better world is a heaven or utopia where stresses, conflicts, and sufferings do not exist, where people live with each others in peace and harmony. This is a natural wish for most people. Major religions all promise such a heaven or utopia. They teach that obeying a higher power and being kind to one another are practices that will lead to a better world.
This promise has given hope and comfort to many. But some people want the utopia here and now on Earth, rather than in the afterlife. And obeying religious laws and being kind to others have not made that utopia happen. Stresses due to economic and social interactions still exist. Some have tried to build self-sufficient communities and eco-villages in order to live harmoniously with nature and with each other. But the success of their pursuit of total peace is also limited. A stable and sustainable society free of conflicts and troubles proves to be too elusive.
Why is it so difficult to have an utopia? An utopia on Earth does not happen by itself or by a higher power. It can exist only by people working together and building it themselves. It is the building together part that is so difficult, because it requires a common vision and cooperative effort to reach that common goal. But in real life there are always obstacles that can block this common goal and effort.
While there is no utopia in this world, members of any society must deal with sufferings in however ways they can. They may do that by cultivating spiritual substitutes that can overcome troubled thoughts and feelings, or by seeing silver lining in every dark cloud and appreciating what they already have, or by seeking comforts in this world. The last one may cause other sufferings if the comfort comes at the expense of others, or when it goes away.
PROBLEMS OF BUILDING AN UTOPIA
It is worthwhile to contemplate the obstacles of establishing a common goal for all members of a society. The story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible (Genesis 11:4-9) is a good metaphor for the obstacles. The Tower is a conduit to Heaven where there is no suffering. But the story says that God does not want that to happen, and confounds people's language so that they cannot understand each other enough to build the Tower together.
From a modern scientific perspective, that "confounding their language" part can be a metaphor for misunderstandings that can happen naturally when people communicate. It is natural because there are differences in people's viewpoints and interests, and limitations in any language to accurately represent things and feelings and ideas and events. Those differences and limitations can be the cause of misunderstanding.
The amplification of differences can happen naturally through positive feedback loops in communication. Positive feedback (amplification feedback) in communication is where a difference is amplified through the responses of two parties in a communication loop. First, party A receives some input information (feedback) from party B. Party A responds to the feedback in a way that will boost or maintain that difference. This response becomes the feedback input to party B. And party B does likewise by its response to the feedback that will also enlarge that difference. The result is an amplification of the difference. This amplification will lead to divergence and differentiation of the two communicating parties, or what Bateson called schismogenesis.
Misunderstanding and unwillingness to agree or cooperate can be amplified into arguments and acts of sabotage through positive feedback loops. When that happens in a large group of people, the goal of building anything together will not succeed, whether it is an utopia or something else, because the required cooperation from all the people at all time is not there.
Of course there are ways to work around that. People from different backgrounds and inclinations can be persuaded to cooperate and work together on big projects. History shows many ways that people have tried. It may be done through politics or economics or education or culture. They can be in the forms of inspirational stories or intelligent arguments, personal relationship / influence, material comforts or security, punishment or reward, ritual or ceremony. But the success of those means is still limited in scope. They do not spread wide or last long because they cannot have the support of all the people at all time under all circumstances.
Is it possible that there is a simple yet sustainable way, capable of making universal cooperation a reality? That is, a way to make all the people bridge their differences and indifference towards the common goal of building an utopia together? Perhaps Jesus Christ had provided the answer. Jesus said "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." That saying is amazing. If followed, it can make everybody band together and build the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth, can it not?
Ideally it can. But in reality it has not worked. When it is communicated to people, the Christ's message is received with varied responses under varied circumstances. The beauty and power of the message may be apparent to most people, but the circumstances of how it is delivered and received can make all the difference. Some may hear it with joy because it is so wonderful. Some may be disgusted because it was delivered by a hypocritical proselytizer. Some may be just in a rebellious mood. Because the reception of this message can vary, the motivation to follow and cooperate will vary as well. And so the solidarity needed for the utopia project will be weak. Then it's back to the story of the Tower of Babel. People can not unite to build the Tower together.
A single idea from someone or some small group of people is unlikely to convince all the people of the world, no matter how good the idea is. The transmission of an idea from one group to another will go through some transformations. The reception to the transformed idea can range anywhere from non-understanding to indifference, to agreement and participation, or disagreement and opposition. The reality is just that an universal agreement among all people, towards any message through any artificial means, has never happened.
There is a different approach to trying to get everyone to follow Jesus's message. For those who are receptive to the love message, they can practice it themselves without expecting others to do the same. They wait for an universal cooperation to emerge on its own, emerging from the confluence of ideas and beliefs and actions of everybody. When that happens, then everyone can agree on the utopia project because it will contain everybody's ideas. But that requires no sociopathic behaviors will ever happen, which is not realistic. So it remains to be seen if waiting patiently is a viable way or not.
The approach is basically to start small by some known means and not plan ahead into the future too much. The means can be love or something else, hate or fear for example. At time of conflict some people will band together with a common goal: to defeat the enemy. If the lack of an utopia can be viewed as a common enemy, then that view can unite some people to start incubating their own small utopian community first. If that small group of people can figure out a way to grow and multiply faster than other groups of people, then they will expand in the larger society. That will induce more people to get involved in their utopia project, and possibly make it the dominant focus of the whole society. However, this small utopia group will need a way to grow and expand. History has shown that groups like the Shakers can not find ways to grow and expand. So it too remains to be seen if starting small is the way to go.
Thus rests the pondering of spirituality and world peace.
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