In the previous chapter, we saw this excerpt from the chapter on virtuous practices in the Infinite Senses Sutra, referring to the Buddha's awakening:

"His mind is in extinction, his consciousness annihilated, his thought also is stilled; he has forever cut off erratic reasoning like dreaming and will no longer know the elements, aggregates, realms, and sense activities."

The "elements" referred to here are the four elements, i.e. earth, water, fire and wind. In reality, the word translated as "elements" is "great" (大=dai). In the Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma, Vasubandhu writes, "The qualifier 'great' comes from the fact that these are four vast elements where all the laws of forms (matter) are created and come into being."

As for the "aggregates, domains and sensory activities", grouped under the name "three categories" which classify the "set of laws" that make the world what it is, they are the five aggregates, the eighteen domains and the twelve entries, which we will see later.

We understand that the state of life in which the Buddha is immersed is thus beyond what we can imagine. "His consciousness is annihilated", he no longer perceives anything and therefore "his body is neither existent nor non-existent". When ordinary beings are in such a state, it is because they are dead. But the Buddha is alive. He has transcended life and death. He has attested to the four seals of the Law, which are :

The multiple movements are impermanent

Because they are subject to the law of birth and disappearance

Once birth and disappearance are extinguished

Peaceful extinction is joy.

Extinction is the translation of the word "Nirvana". For those of us who are not in the Nirvana state of life, this is how the process of cognition works.

According to the Benevolent King Sutra, "Form and mind are the foundation of beings.

That which has form and occupies a place in space, without having the capacity for perception, is called "matter". On the other hand, that which has no visible form but has the functions of perception is called "spirit".

All beings are thus constituted of matter and spirit. Sensitive beings are made up of body and mind.

The Japanese word for matter is "shiki" (色) which means "color". The word for spirit is "shin" (心) which means "heart".

The relationship between body and mind, matter and spirit is one of the keys to understanding the difference between Buddhism and other religions and philosophies.

Religions and philosophies other than Buddhism establish a dualism between matter and spirit.

For them, indeed, matter is objective and does not depend on Man: it can be objectified and exists independently of our consciousness. The spirit is subjective by being proper to each one: it defines a reality which is relative to the Man.

There are several kinds of dualism. Classical and Cartesian Dualism establishes a firm separation between matter and spirit since they concern respectively the physical field and the mental field. Plato affirms that there is a discontinuity between the sensible world and the world of ideas. Descartes' theory goes in the same direction as Plato's. However, he adds that Man is both matter and spirit, although these two elements are independent. Indeed, the body is a spatial substance and the soul an ideal substance: these two elements are unified and form Man.

Leibniz, on the other hand, advocates the absence of link between body and soul. Indeed, if Man functions correctly, it is only thanks to God who has established a certain harmony in the world.

Buddhism teaches just the opposite, namely the non-duality (funi=不二) of matter and spirit.

We are therefore made up of matter and mind, which Buddhism divides into five elements called aggregates, or shadows, or accumulations, as we have seen in the previous chapters.

These five elements are form, perception, conceptualization, reaction and consciousness.

The "form" element (shiki-色) is divided into "inner form" (naishiki - 内色) and "outer form" (geshiki - 外色). Our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, which Buddhism calls the "five roots" (gokon - 五根) represent the inner form. The word "root" (kon-根) was used because each of these five roots gives rise to consciousness.

The five categories of objects of perception that are shapes and colors, sounds, scents and odors, flavors, touch, represent the outer form and are called the five objects (gokyō - 五境) or, the five places (gosho - 五処).

To the five roots is added a sixth, the root of consciousness. Its counterpart, as an object of perception is the phenomena. In its broad sense, the root of consciousness covers other consciousnesses and in its narrow sense, it concerns the objects of consciousness that have no material form.

If modern medicine recognizes a non-duality between the inner form and our spirit from a psychosomatic point of view (I am sick in my head, which causes the appearance of various physical symptoms), we are still far from the recognition of a non-duality between our spirit and the external world.

And yet! Let us suppose that we are driving in a car. On the side of the road, there is a hitchhiker. If we do not see this hitchhiker, for us he does not exist. He exists only from the moment we perceive him.

Let's take an example this time using the root of hearing.

We perceive a noise (stage of perception). We understand that it is the song of a bird (conceptualization). If we are ornithophiles, we understand that it is a robin. In the next step (reaction), we appreciate or not the song. An insect will be filled with fear, while a predator will be delighted by a possible meal. In the fifth aggregate stage, we became aware of the bird's song and analyzed it.

Again, we are only aware of the bird's existence because it has entered our field of perception. If it were on the other side of the world, we would not be aware of its existence and therefore, for us, it would not exist. Contrary to other religions and philosophies, especially Western ones, Buddhism does not teach the existence of a noumenon or an essence. It only recognizes a phenomenal world limited to our perspective and sensory cognition and circumscribed both in time and space. Thus, if we think that the Tower of Pisa is still in its place and that our cousin is watching television, these are only subjective assumptions. As long as we are not in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the cousin, we are not sure of their existence.

It is the same for God. Unlike most religions, Buddhism does not pronounce on the existence of an entity that is free from space, time, change, birth or death. Such a thing is so far beyond our intellective capacities that Buddhism does not discuss it. The Buddha, moreover, declares that he prefers that his teaching be used to define the asceticism that allows awakening.

After all, if we are in a small boat in the middle of a raging ocean, rather than asking ourselves if God created the sea, if he started the storm, and how old the captain is, we are more concerned with whether we can swim or not. We are immersed in the storm of lives and deaths. Rather than begging for salvation from an external, illusory deity, let us find the strength within ourselves to transcend life and death. This is the goal of Buddhism.

The five aggregates we have just mentioned constitute the distinction in five terms of all the dharmas constituting the body and the mind (all the phenomena linked to the individual) and also of matter and mind (all the inner and outer phenomena).

Our perceptual system is continued by "the twelve inputs", called "sense activities" in the Infinite Senses Sutra quoted earlier.

The twelve inputs (jūni nyū -十二入) are a system of analysis that arises from the observation of the cognitive system related to the perception and sensation of dharmas. We will see that these twelve entries have two classes of elements:

•  Six so-called internal inputs which are the perceptual abilities of the subject (these are the six roots - 六根)
• Six so-called external inputs which are the phenomenal objects (we use the expression "Six places - 六処)

Thus, colors and shapes are the objects (or places) of the visual root, sounds are the objects (places) of the auditory root, smells are the objects (places) of the olfactory root, flavors are the objects (places) of the gustatory root, tactile sensations (hot, cold, hard, soft etc.) are the objects (places) of the bodily root, immaterial phenomena are the objects (places) of the root of consciousness.

The association of each "root" (the cause) with an "object" (condition) gives a "consciousness" (effect), which gives six consciousnesses: visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, olfactory consciousness, gustatory consciousness, tactile consciousness and mental consciousness.

These six consciousnesses added to the twelve entries yield the eighteen domains (jūhachi kai-十八界) that, as we saw at the beginning of this talk, classify the "set of laws" that make the world what it is.

What it is, but from the point of view of our subjectivity. Why do we like one color more than another, why are we more attracted to some people than others? The answer to these questions is given by the presentation of a seventh consciousness called "manas", which is the seat of our ego, which we will study in the next chapter.

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