Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

mind), have mind as their best, are mind-made".= In isolation, this
sentence might be construed as positing an idealistic ontology, that the
phenomena which comprise the world as we know it, dhammi, are nothing
but the mind: the external world is magically created by the mind and
consists of mind. There is an alternative way of interpreting this line,
however, which is, in my opinion, the accurate one. To understand this, we
must look at the rest of the two verses in question. In full, the Pali is:
Manopubbarigama- dhummii manosethi manomayi,
manasi ce padut.hna bhati vii karoti vi
tato nam duwdulm anveti cakkarp va vahato padam.
Manopubbarigami dhummii rnanoset.h- manomayii,
manasi ce pasannena bhiisati vii karoti vZ
tato nam suhm anveti c&yi va anap@inE
Excluding the first lines of these verses, a translation of the rest of them
If a man speaks or acts with a wicked mind, sorrow follows him as a wheel
follows the foot of a draught [animal]. . . if a man speaks or acts with a pure
mind, happiness follows him as a shadow always follows Fim].
The point of these sentences is that one reaps the consequences of one's
actions: just as a wheel which is set in motion by a footed beast follows the
actions of the foot, and just as a shadow always follows the actions of a
man, in just such a way one's future experience is determined by one's
speech and actions now. And one's speech and actions are qualitatively
conditioned by whether one's mind is wicked or good. This corresponds to
the Buddha's definition of karma to which I have already referred: "Karma
is volition: having willed, one acts by means of body, speech and thought".
The whole of the first chapter of the Dhammapada is concerned with this
teaching: that one reaps as one sows, and that sowing is qualitatively
determined by intention.
I mentioned in chapter IV that when used in a non-technical sense
'mind' (whatever term is being used) indicates general mental activity. So
the first lines of the first two verses in fact have the following meaning:
dhamma' are an individual's experiences - everything, in fact, that is a part of
the individual's life. And qualitatively those experiences follow from one's
mental activity: rnanopubbarigami; it is mental activity which principally
governs the nature of the life: manosetfiii; and it is in mental activity that
what follows originates: manomaya. To interpret this sentence ontologically
is co'mpletely to ignore the context in which it is found and to divorce it
from the subject matter of the entire chapter. To convey the meaning of
manas in this context accurately, it is better to translate it as a verbal noun,
denoting the activity or process of the mind: 'thinking'.6 In English this