MindYourBuddha

The doctrine of The Three Thousand Realms In One Mind forms the essence of the Makashikan, a twenty-section work in which Tien-tai Chin-i of China systematized various teachings included in the Lotus Sutra developed.  Nichiren, regarded Chin-i's doctrine of The Three Thousand Realms In One Mind as the essence of the Buddha's teachings.




In class we discussed this very important doctrine and I will attempt to explain it here.  Please leave comments correcting what I have misunderstood or omitted.

Our mind continuously cycles between different mental states.  This is easy to see.  We attend the christening of a newborn and you feel love for the child and the family.  Following the service you drop you car keys and bending over bang your head on the car - now your in pain and irritated at yourself; you pull out of the parking lot and get side-swiped by a stranger swerving all over the place - now your mad; the other driver grins at you, flips you off and speeds away - now your incensed and want revenge; you recklessly chase after him and hit a pedestrian - now your in your own private hell.  This example is a bit extreme but points out how we move continuously without notice through these various mental states.

The the six mental states and four spiritual states taught in Buddhism are:

• Hell - as defined by a mind consumed by anger.
• Hungry Spirits - as defined by a mind dominated by greed associated with the uncontrolled and unsatisfied desire for things.
• Animal - as defined by a mind that acts on instinct alone without wisdom, precaution or reservation and unconcerned by the consequences of its actions.
• Demons - as defined by a mind that is self-centered in everything.
• Human Beings - as defined by a mind that is aware of and operates above the four lower mental states.
• Heaven - as defined by a mind filled with the temporary joy to be found though the senses in experiencing the things in the world.  This joy is opposed to the unchanging joy gained through the Buddha's enlightenment.
• Shravakas - one who has learned by way of the Dharma
• Pratyekabuddhas - one who follows the way.
• Bodhisattvas - one who practices the way for the sake of others.
• Buddhas - one who has become awakened.

Buddhism teaches that we each have a great cause, which is to become enlightened.  Because we are born with a Buddha nature, ie., we are, 1. unawakened, 2. capable of mercy, 3. capable of compassion and 4. capable of joy, and we are human so we are pre-wired to find the meaning in our lives, and so we are endowed with both the characteristics and curiosity to advance spiritually.  The great cause is never played out in a single lifetime, instead it is subject to our interaction with our karma.  I have spoke earlier of karma as a force controlled by the accumulation of all our deeds in all our lifetimes.  The purpose of karma is to help you to become enlightened.  If you are an angry person, karma will present situations that exercise your anger so that you can understand your anger and move beyond it.  Having mastered your anger it no longer has control over you, freeing you to advance (be reborn) into a higher state.

Regardless of which state we are 'born into', there exists the potential for us to experience the other states of mind.  I say 'born into' because most of us live predominately (ie., consistently) in a single state of mind.  If you are a murderer, you were likely born into the state of Hell, and although you are still capable of experiencing any of the other nine states of mind, you mental state is dominated by anger.

We can envision our current existence as bounded within ring with 10 spheres attached to it, each sphere representing a state of mind.  Lets say if you were born into a state Hell, the sphere representing Hell is much bigger than the other nine spheres.  Assume the sizes of the spheres are proportional to the amount of time spent in the corresponding mental state, but for the sake of this example one sphere within the ring will always be the largest.

Buddhism teaches that life is permeated by a mechanism of cause-action-reaction that is directly influenced by our mental state - our attitude.  The doctrine of the Ten Suchnesses, states that all things (subjects) can be defined by its: (1) Scope (including appearance), (2) Nature, and (3) Essence. Its (4) Power and (5) Function define the subject’s potency and purpose in conducting Life’s activities. The next four characteristics define the causes and effects that connects the subjects past, present and future: (6) Latent Causes, (7) External Causes, (8) Potential Effects and (9) Manifest Effects.  The last characteristic, (10) Order, keeps everything working with one another in a consistent manner — assuring the continuity of existence.

Lets assume that your karma influences the causes, conditions and effects you experience.  Also, if your are murderer, your karma in this lifetime will share similarities with all the other murderers, so lets put all the murderers in your ring.

Now lets stack nine rings on top of yours, each with a different dominant sphere, with the top five rings starting with the ring for Human Beings, then Shravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas and lastly Buddhas, and divide all sentient beings into their respective rings.

In the doctrine of "Nothing has and Ego", Buddhism teaches that nothing exists in and of itself.  Humans are actually a frail species and can't exist without food and air.  Similarly vegetation needs water and sunlight to exist.  And so on and so on, we see that everything has a dependent nature.  The notion of being an individual  is a mental construct of the 'Self' which make us feel independent from the rest.   Some natural conclusions from this concept is that hurting or destroying other people or things in turn hurts or destroys you because we are all interdependent.  Additionally we are all interconnected because we all are made from the same stuff of life - atoms.  For these reasons, Buddhism teaches that the ego you experience is false, and that the true reality is that all of life is a unified shared experience and there is no ego.

In our tower of ten rings we see all people interconnected and affecting each other, working out their own karmic hindrances and moving through the various mental state of existence, and through rebirth moving amongst the rings.  For most of the time, with the exception of those spiritually mature beings, we carry out our life with ourselves as the center of focus.  Every action is calculated to derive either a benefit, or minimum harm to us, only in selected cases do we act as a collective. 

In the doctrine of "The Three Thousand Realms In One Mind", it states three perspectives where we think and act as a collective, putting aside our individual goals; the environment, the nation, and the world.  Now given that this work was developed a very long time ago, these three categories may seem reasonable, but they do not translate well to modern day.  Nevertheless we finally arrive at the source for the rather mystic title of the doctrine.  The number three thousand comes from ten mental states times ten suchnesses times ten human/spiritual realms times three worldly perspectives.  If we consider that in each moment of time this complex drama plays out and that because we are all interconnected it can be said that we share a common consciousness or one mind.

After I wrote this post I was looking on the net for a picture of Nichiren and coincidentally came across this video.  Enjoy, and no the singer is not me.

QUANTUM PHYSICS BACKS UP BUDDHISM’S 3,000 realms in a single moment of life
One particle has 3,000 different waves of potentality. This has now been scientificaly proven. Three Thousand Realms In a Single Moment of Life is fact. This means that Buddahood (as well as the other nine worlds) all exist within our lives and all ten worlds exist within each other!