[Damithu]

Hello,

I am writing this to share an event that happened last week during one of my final exams. I was writing the exam, and the last thing to complete was to write an essay that defended or refuted the claim that we are what we imagine. I was initially stuck on this prompt for 10 minutes, and I was completely clueless. Suddenly, I remebered reading some of the late Ven. Waharaka Thero’s teachings on mental states. The thero stated that when we become angry, we have an angry mental state and thus cease to have the mental state of human and we temporarily cultivate the mental state of a hell being. Similarly, when we have a light and happy mental state, we have the mental state of a Deva. 

I used this to my advantage by stating that when we imagine something good (such as helping an elderly person), our mind becomes light and happy, and it has the mental frequency that matches the heavenly realms; I stated that this proves that we literally become what we imagine, at least from a mental point of view. I was very confident with my essay, and I am certain I scored well.

This was one out of 4 of my final exams. These exams in particular are very important to my future because the universities I am applying to check my scores on these exams, and they may determine whether I get admitted or not. Thanks to reading about the Ven. Waharaka’s teachings, I was able to write a good essay. 

I also wrote this post to clarify something; I have finished my exams and I will resume studying the Dhamma on this website again. My plan is to reading the section concering the Buddha’s Worldview first, then read the posts on Key Dhamma concepts. Is this plan alright, or is there a better way I can do this in order to fulfill my goal of becoming a Sotapanna?

Thank you for your time and consideration Lal sir, 

Namo Buddhaya!

[Lal]

I am glad to hear about your experience. Yes. You were on the track thanks to the concepts you learned from Waharaka Thero.

• Your thought process illustrates an important point about the working of the mind described by Paticca Samuppada.
• You may want to think (or you may have already thought about) the steps in Paticca Samuppada that describe how a person can be ‘born’ in the mindset of an animal by pursuing such thoughts.  If he carries out an attack per the plan, he would be temporarily acting like a vicious animal. Such actions also generate potent kammic energies that can lead to a future rebirth as an animal of such vicious gati.

Your plan sounds good. Don’t hesitate to ask questions if anything is unclear.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Damithu

[Author]

Posts