by Sridhar Pingali

Sridhar Pingali was a graduate student in computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst when he posted this careful account of Buddhist practice and psychology to soc.religion.eastern in May 1991. He was a consistent and knowledgeable voice on the group, grounding discussions in Pali-text Buddhism and his own meditation experience.

This post arose from a broader group conversation about conditioning — a topic the group had been exploring for weeks through various lenses, including Krishnamurti's psychological framework, Trungpa Rinpoche's Madhyamika, and the competing claims of Vedanta and Buddhism. Pingali here offers a clear, practical account of Buddhist psychology: what conditioning means in terms of the five aggregates (skandhas), how mindfulness functions as a deconditioning force, and why effort remains central to the path.

The final image — Ramana Maharshi literally rooted to the ground in meditation — arrives as a quiet punchline to his gentle conclusion that "mindfulness sure helps us relax and enjoy the ride."

The Buddha spoke of conditioning. Buddhist psychology has a great deal to say about the conditions that give rise to various mental states — their proximate causes etc. The Buddha made a clear distinction between skillful and unskillful mind states — he didn't say that "everything is the same". If that were so, there would be no reason to "do this instead of that" and there would be no holy life to be lived. The main question that is repeatedly posited in the Pali texts is "What leads to suffering and what leads to the end of suffering?" As dependent co-arising has it, "this arises because of that, and that arises because of this". (Of course, there is a great deal more to dependent co-arising than this. This is in fact taught as the Middle Way — the path that avoids the extremes of eternalism and nihilism.)

Conditioning shows up in the repetitive nature of our mind states. As we observe our minds, it becomes quite clear that there are certain patterns in our thought process. Every moment of anger conditions the possibility of anger arising again. The mind can become very still in meditation — but suddenly, for no obvious reason, a thought could appear. The content of the thought is a product of our conditioning. As we develop the capacity to be mindful, we begin to see thinking more and more as an impersonal process — and stop getting lost in the actual content of the thought. Initially it might seem that all our thoughts are interesting — but actually they are just the same old tired tunes, over and over again. Mindfulness acts as the deconditioning factor because we are no longer lost in the story and there is the space from which to see the impermanent, unsatisfactory and impersonal nature of the thinking process. This is not to say that thinking cannot be used in a skillful way — it can be and is used to create the skillful mind states of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.

It is helpful to clarify things a bit — for "thinking" can seem like an imprecise term. There are five skandhas (aggregates) that are spoken of — body, perception, feelings, mental formations and consciousness. For example, in listening to a sound there is the physical event of the sound waves striking the ear. This corresponds to the aggregate of the body. Hearing consciousness arises almost concurrently and is the knowing of the sound, and perception is the naming of the sound (just noting "sound"). The aggregate of feeling (also translated as "volition") has a precise meaning and is used to denote the response of the mind — the mind sees this as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Mental formations are the stuff that follow this — "that is a robin", or the image of a bird, or (based on the aggregate of feeling) "I wish that stops (or continues)" etc. Consciousness is simply the being conscious of something. All this is involved with the idea of karma — i.e. Krishnamurti's "conditioning" — I have a pleasurable experience, there is remembering and based on this memory I want more. This "I" that craves for sexual experiences, metaphysical certainty, etc. is the "stream" of the aggregates that "continues" if we do not understand the process of memory, volition, craving.

Mindfulness itself arises from two factors. The first of these is perception — hence the emphasis on noting in some schools of vipassana. Perception is the naming of things — so if we are following the breath, we note "rising", "falling" or "in" and "out". The second factor that gives rise to mindfulness is mindfulness itself. Each moment of mindfulness improves the chance of there being another moment of mindfulness. Hence the emphasis in the Theravada tradition on disciplined practice. Meditation, as Trungpa Rinpoche says, is hard work. But it does get more and more effortless with practice and the benefits and delight it brings are more than worth the effort.

The word that the Buddha uses the most often in the Pali texts is "effort". He repeatedly exhorted his disciples to effort, continuously urging them to bear in mind the transitory nature of all things and to not waste any opportunity to practice. It is not true that the enlightened sages did not sit in meditation. The Buddha himself spent six years in the forest before his Enlightenment. This was in addition to the countless lifetimes that he is said to have spent developing the paramis. Ramana Maharshi sat immobile in meditation in the Shiva temple of Thiruannamalai until his thighs became affixed (literally) to the ground. He did not even speak for several years after he left home. But we need not carry this burden of trying to "become enlightened". Meditation is its own reward in the here and now. However long the journey may be, mindfulness sure helps us relax and enjoy the ride!

Colophon

Written by Sridhar Pingali ([address removed]) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and posted to soc.religion.eastern on 10 May 1991. Pingali was a computer science graduate student and experienced meditator working in the Theravada tradition.

Preserved from the UTZOO Usenet Archive (University of Toronto, shiftleft.com mirror) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

🌲