A Commentary Literature on ‘Faith in Mind’
Chapter 30 No Likes and Dislikes
By Wong Weng Hon
The erring mind begets
tranquility and confusion
In enlightenment
there are no likes or dislikes.
A worldling with the false mind perceives a calm state as Nirvāṇa and chaotic state as saṃsāra. A quiet and peaceful environment is welcome. A noisy environment is rejected. Therefore, the rich and the powerful choose to dwell by the quiet and tranquil seaside. The poor and the weak are compelled to dwell in the noisy and dirty slum areas of the cities. But the Buddha preaches that the jungle is neutral.
Everything is mind-made. If the mind is peaceful and calm, one is peaceful and calm. If the mind is agitated, one is perturbed. The peace of mind does not depend on the nature of environment. Neither adverse nor favorable conditions of the environment affect the Appeased One.
When it is said that in enlightenment, there are neither likes nor dislikes, it connotes one is not attached to likes and averse towards dislikes. It does mean that the likes and dislikes are both abandoned. What are wholesome and righteous are acquired and possessed without attachment. What are unwholesome and unjust are not rejected without aversion. Both the likes and dislikes are treated equanimously. If the likes are not treated equanimously, greed is arisen. If the dislikes are not treated equanimously, hatred is arisen. Non-attachment annihilates greed; non-aversion annihilates hatred. Equanimous attitude towards likes and dislikes have always been misinterpreted and mispresented by the Buddhists and the non-Buddhists as dispassion. Dispassion has been misinterpreted as alienation from secular society and staying aloof from others. Religion emphasizes both wisdom and compassion or love.
Permit me to elaborate further. If the likes are received with self-centric ego, this defiles the mind. The likes are to be received without self-centric ego or grasping. This purifies the mind. This is true equanimity of right mindfulness and clear awareness. Likewise, the dislikes are to be rejected without self-centric ego. They must be rejected with right mindfulness and clear awareness of a pure mind. In other words, both the likes and dislikes are managed with perfection of wisdom or Zen wisdom. The skill of four establishments of mindfulness are executed to treat all phenomena, either favourable or adverse. Zen wisdom generates right efforts and right mindfulness with clear awareness and non-clinging. All discriminations are treated with non-discriminative wisdom. Non-discriminative wisdom is the wisdom of Non-duality. Non-duality is the wisdom of discerning the unity between the perceiver and the perceived in all human perceptive experiences.
Conventional likes and dislikes or discriminations are still experienced by the Gnostic. The distinction between a Gnostic and a worldling is that Gnostic is not defiled by likes and dislikes but an ordinary worldling is defiled by them. Equanimity is not cold, impassive emotion. Buddhist equanimous emotions are that warm, active emotions of lovingkindness, compassion and appreciative joy fully supported by the wisdom of equanimity. Equanimity combines wisdom and selfless love of great compassion together. In modern psychological ethics, the wise is pro-active but not reactive.
Monotheistically put, a saved believer loves the God (God=Truth) as well as well as he loves his neigbour as he loves himself. The love of God must be accompanied by the non-discriminative love of others. In religion, wisdom and love go together. Gnosis produces two types of fruits simultaneously, wisdom and love. In Buddhism, love is usually expressed as great compassion (mahākaruṇā). Love unsupported by divine wisdom or perfection of wisdom is selfish love that is directed and supported by self-centric ego. All religions reject selfish love conditioned by individual likes and dislikes . |
