It is widely accepted that Buddhism is not for prayer but for meditation. Whether a theist or an atheist, they all agree on this because they consider Buddhism to be an applied science of psychology for well-being. The teachings of Buddha are primarily focused on human suffering, for which the human mind and livelihood are responsible. Buddha’s teaching does not make room for acceptance of divine intervention and or supernormal phenomena to overcome suffering because suffering has arisen due to us, so we must put in the effort to prevail. Buddhas always emphasise the “Kamma (Pali language)/ karma (Sanskrit)” which means “action” but is an intentional action. However, they must always reflect appropriately before taking any action. In the Pali language, we call it “yoniso-manasikara” — it is a key concept of Buddhism. Without it, you will often find yourself in remorse for your actions and relationships in life.
Yoniso-manasikara is mental activity or consideration, which means adverting the mind to the particular action or thought to investigate, reflect and think over. For instance, we all buy many things for daily use, like food, clothes, utensils etc, but before purchasing or while buying it do we ponder regarding its purpose or use? Am I buying it for use or just because of desire? Is it that compulsory or vital? And such many questions that could create a worth of that thing and will automatically make sense for you.
Once we start pondering like this, we will find that most of the things that we have in our home are worthless for bringing well-being, we have invested in the wrong equipment, or most of this is just a waste of money. We all know that health is wealth, but we all consider that buying new stuff or being in a trending fashion means you have wealth. This kind of extremist materialist thinking could lead you to much mental suffering, such as anxiety and social mental complexity of self, that is why there is a need for Yoniso-manasikara, it is the root of, source of and cause of wisdom, intelligence and virtues livelihood.
There are four types of Yoniso-manasikara mentioned in Buddhism that are — Upaya-manasikara, Patha-manasikara, Karaa-manasikara, Uppadaka-manasikara.
First, Upaya-manasikara means thinking in available means and methods, like a person wanting to purchase a particular thing. Still, he lacks in means, so he adverts his mind to his available means and tries to figure out the way in available means what he could do it, the same as a farmer thinks about his land and what kind of seed he could sow in his land about suitable weather, available irrigation and fertile land.
The second is Patha-manasikara, which means thinking about the path. In this way, where could it lead, thinking about the outcomes of its path. Most of the time, we glorify the outcomes without thinking about a path, like a foolish investor who only fantasises about the profit without considering the route.
One of the simplest phrases of karma describing every Indian philosophy of karma is ‘what you sow will rip’. If you sow the seed of a sour mango, then do not expect that sweet grape to rip.
If you are going through the wrong route, do not expect that you will gate the right destination. So, before taking any path, always reconsider it because the path and its outcome will affect you. Most of the time, the journey does not show us how bad the route is until we get to the destination.
So, it is not only that we have to think about the route or only about the destination, but collectively, we have to reference one another’s path and its destination.
Third is Karaa-manasikara, it is an inquiry into the cause and its relationship, the sequence of causes and conditions. For example, if any child repeats any mistake again and again, a mother directly shouts or scolds his child without considering the reason behind it, neither to the child’s action nor her anger’s legitimacy.
If any mother understands the reason behind her child’s mistake, she will become angry. What she will do is rectify the error with proper conversation and training. It is the same with most situations in relationships.
That is why Karaa-manasikara is so important while dealing with relationships. Even in most psychotherapy, relationship counselling and trauma, it is vital to think in this way. The fourth and last one is Uppadaka-manasikara, which is practical to yield the desired result. We waste our most of time complaining about things that we do not have and that, to accomplish our task. But at that moment of grievance have we ever pondered that, some painters’ do not have hands but still they draw beautiful paintings, a man who was disabled from both legs but still climbed Mount Everest there are a lot of examples who attained their desired goals even having a lot of psychical, mental and environments adversities.
It is our grievous feeling that makes us ignorant regarding our potential and our intelligence.
We must keep in mind that as humans, we are thinking beings, we can take time to ponder and we can do it with mindfulness. Buddhas and many aesthetes and scientists are examples of how we can overcome any hurdle with proper and systemic thinking. We must not depend on any supernormal being or phenomena for our problem but on our abilities that is our skilful thinking.
(The writer is a Buddhist scholar and a spiritual teacher. Views expressed are personal)
