Our Mind & Mental Formations | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

And now we pass into the real
of the mental formation.

The mind, our mind, is made of particles.

Now in modern physics

they speak about matter,
reality has been made of particle,

subatomic particles.

But in Buddhist psychology,
we speak about consciousness

mind in terms of mental formation.

It's a very tiny particle

that make up our mind.

formation is translated
from the word "Saṃskāra".

The Chinese is "Hang" (行).

and it translated with saṃskāra
into formation

anything that is...

formed, like a flower

is a formation.

Many conditions have come together

in order for a flower
to manifest as a flower.

We see the sunshine, we see the rain,

we see the cloud, we see the soil.

We see many things that come together

and give, and support,

a flower to manifest
in the form of flower.

So anything that is any compounded thing

made up of different elements
is called a formation.

So this is a formation,
this is a physical formation

And this cushion is also a formation

it is made of several elements.

The bell is a formation,

the marker is a formation,
a physical formation.

And my hand is a formation
it is a physiological formation

and my anger, my fear,
is a mental formation

so mind is made of mental formations

like a river is made of drops of water.

And in the Buddhist tradition

we speak of 51 categories
of mental formations.

There are good ones like compassion,

love, non-violence,

loving kindness, insight, mindfulness.

Many good mental formations.

There are negative mental formations like
fear, anger, despair, discrimination,

and so on.

There are those who are,
who can be either positive or negative

Like thinking.

Thinking might be good
in the case of right thinking.

But thinking might be negative,

thinking may lead to suicide.

Thinking may lead to
understanding and compassion

So there are mental formations

that can be either
positive or negative.

And when I was a student

of the Buddhist Institute
I had to memorize all the 51.

And when one of them manifest, I had to...

to be able to name it,

to recognize it,
and call it by its true name.

So the ninth exercise is that whenever

there is a mental formation manifesting,

you have to be able to recognize it

and call it by its true name.

Suppose anger manifests, you say
"Hello anger, I know you."

"You are a mental formation called anger"

"I will take good care of you"

In Buddhist psychology,
we speak of consciousness...

in terms of store...

and mind,

mind consciousness
and store consciousness.

Store consciousness
is the kind of consciousness

that has the power to receive information,

to process information.

and to store them.

It is always there with the body.

And in store consciousness there are...

seeds.

So seed is a technical term
in Buddhist psychology.

Seeds.

The Sanskrit word is bīja

種子 in Chinese.

Semence in French.

Seeds.

And these are particles

that make up consciousness.

They are down there
in form of particle, of seed.

Like anger, when we are not angry

the seed of anger has not manifested,

but it is always there.

When we are having a good time
we are not angry at all.

That does not mean that
the seed of anger is not in us

If someone come and touch it,

someone come and say something
or does something

and waters the seed of anger in us

and then that seed
will manifest up here

on the level of mind consciousness
as a mental formation.

This is "citta saṃskāra".

Citta saṃskāra.

So anger is a mental formation,

a citta saṃskāra

And that energy of anger,

that mental formation can stay long...

up here or not
it depends on our practice.

As a good practitioner
we know that if you allow

the mental formation of anger
to stay too long here

at the base it will grow.

So a good practitioner

is not trying to suppress

the energy of anger
and try to push it down.

Because if you try to suppress
to push it down

and then,
it doesn't work

It comes up again, and stronger.

So trying to push it down

is to set up a kind of barrier here

preventing it to come up

and that's the way
many of us do

Like fear, anger, loneliness
when they manifest up here

we feel the landscape of
mind consciousness is not beautiful,

not pleasant.

Therefore we try to suppress,

and the usual way is to consume

there are those of us who just go
and open the refrigerator

and take something to eat.

we are not hungry at all,

we are eating in order to forget.

To get busy in order
to, not to...

have to confront, to touch

the mental formation
that is anger, or fear, or loneliness.

Or we might turn on
the television to watch

that is to cover up, that is to suppress

and many of us
do that in our daily life

or you take our car and go somewhere,

or take the phone
and talk to someone.

We try to ignore that.

And the supermarket provides us
many kinds of means in order to help us...

(laughter)

suppress these mental formations
that are ready to come up

Because in our daily life
we are kind of feeding them

and they become
stronger and stronger there

and if they are strong
they naturally want to push their way up

and if you suppress them during the day

they'll come up during the night

in our dreams

and many of us in society we don't know

the practice that is why we try

to suppress by the way of

consumption and like that we create

a situation of bad circulation

in the mind

and when the mind the mental formation

does not circulate do not circulate well

symptoms of mental illness can

appear

and that that is why it's not good to

set up a barrier here

It's good to allow them

to come up if you are a good practitioner

and you will invite the seed of

mindfulness down here

to come up

we all have the seed of mindfulness,

concentration,

insight, compassion, loving kindness

and joy we have to make good

use of them you have to give them a lot

of chance to come up

and that is what
a good practitioner will do

when you come to a retreat like this we

give them a lot of chances

When we listen to a dharma talk the rain

the dharma rain

will water this
and they pop up very easily

and they give us joy,
happiness, and so on

so a good practitioner while

noticing that the seed of anger or

despair come up

she would not try to suppress
but she begin

to breathe mindfully or to walk mindfully

generating the energy of mindfulness

to manifest

because mindfulness is also

a mental formation

a good one

so with... the energy
of the mental formation

of mindfulness we can recognize

and embrace this tenderly

we do not fight mindfulness isn't going

to fight or suppress anger.

Mindfulness is taking good care of anger

embracing anger tenderly
like a mother holding her baby

and any good practitioners
should be able to do that

we have to learn
to train ourselves to do that

"Hello, my little pain"

"I know you are there,
I will take good care of you"

and doing walking meditation,

sitting meditation, mindful breathing

a kind of lullaby, lullabying

the mental formation of pain

and after having been embraced
by the energy of mindfulness

the mental formation
will lose some of its strength

It's like the wailing baby

being embraced by a loving mother

suffer less and the baby might stop crying

so the mental formation after having

been embraced
by the energy of mindfulness

will go down again

to its original place here and losing a

little bit of it's energy
and that is why

anytime a negative mental formation

manifests you have to do something and

that something is not to suppress

to fight but to invite

the energy of mindfulness, concentration,

and insight to come up

and to take care
it's like this mental formation

taking a bath of mindfulness
taking the bath of concentration

before going down here and if we know

how to do this we will restore

the state of good circulation

in our psyche and the mental illness

mental symptoms of illness will

disappear after a few weeks

restoring

the circulation of the mind

so the exercise number nine

is to become aware of

of any mental formation that manifests

from down there to appear

including the negative ones.

(Half bell)

(Bell)