Deceiving by the Active Mind


revised on 2019-12-02


Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; no date noted

There are two classes of undesirable objects or things. Undesirable objects arise by one’s own thinking and thoughts. And undesirable things which already exist (The Pali word for undesirable object is anittharom / aniṭṭhārammaṇa).

The young brahmin woman Māgandiyā had anger to the Buddha and with her thinking; she created an undesirable object of him. (At last it was leading to her destruction and had the heavy consequences) This was the mind deceiving her. The mind is creating the world (including the God).

Living beings are following the desire of the mind. For example, dogs have different colors and forms are in accordingly with their minds. In their past lives the minds deceived them and appeared in those forms. With the house owner mind of desire the carpenter of volition (cetanā) constructs the form. With the strangeness of volition (cetanā) and the resultants are also strange.

(Sayadaw continued to mention the different strange forms of some animals in the animal kingdom.) The minds control living beings and making arrangements for them. Without the cessation of the minds and different forms of animals will appear by the minds. But all their five khandhas are the same. Therefore the Buddha had to teach the contemplation of the mind (cittānupassanā). If you understand the mind very well and will gain liberation.

At the place of seeing consciousness arises is conditioning by kamma and the physical object (eye sensitivity/pasāda cakkhu is the cause of kamma and physical object is form). When the active mind arises and inversion (vipallāsa) comes in (To understand this point have to know the cognitive process of the mind / cittavithi).

With the undesirable object and becomes unwholesome eye consciousness. With the desirable object and becomes wholesome eye consciousness. These are resultant consciousnesses (vipāka cittas). A person who doesn’t know these things has inversions.

These minds are impermanent and already have ceased. The vultures like the dead body of a putrid dog by seeing the undesirable object, (For the vultures are desirable.) and becoming greedy. They are deceiving by their active minds.

All these are happening because of still not abandoning the inversions yet. All just seeing consciousness are neutral feelings (upekkhā vedanā) and without good or bad. And only becoming the active mind and inversion comes in. Deceiving by the active mind is becoming abnormal until without the insightful active mind or ñāṇa mind and will deceive by them.

People in the long saṁsāra were deceiving by the active mind. Seeing the truth only becomes right. If not, we’re always deceiving by them. A person caught up with deceiving and got into the prison. In the same way, we’re falling into the prisons of hell, animal, ghost, etc. Whenever deceiving by them our destinations will be unstable.

The sense objects are right. They’ll only show anicca, dukkha, anatta and asubha (impermanent, suffering, not self and loathsome). Only at the active mind state we become abnormal. If path factors mind (maggan) not come in and can’t become right. And then saṁsāra will never end.


revised on 2019-12-02; cited from https://oba.org.tw/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4362&p=36305#p36305 (posted on 2019-04-12)


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