Seeing through the bias of life.

A few days ago I wrote a post called, “The lens through which we see the world.” 

In that post, I said that we are all looking through the filter of biases I labeled rose-colored glasses. Like any lenses we see though, we remain unaware. The lenses are like a pair of glasses sitting on our noses, coloring our perceptions of life. The world just appears shaded rose-colored, and we assume thas it is. 

Perception depends on the ability to discriminate one thing from another based on differences. That quality defines our ability to perceive the conditional world. Seeing differences is not the problem. The problem is the overlay on top of perception that tells us, the differences we see are either good or bad (the faculty that emerges from bias, which we call judgments).

When Jesus taught, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you,” he was speaking in karmic terms: what goes around comes around. This teaching is not different from that taught by The Buddha: “You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.” 

Perception is unavoidable. Judgment is not, and the essential key that unlocks this capacity is understanding our own mind. The Yogācārians refined this understanding with a model: a roadmap to see through these illusions. The map above is an image that illustrates the dimensions of mind, ranging from the unconditional to the conditional. 

According to the model, at the base of mind sits the unmoving aspect of mind I wrote about when discussing Akshobhya, the immovable one who reflects whatever is perceived, as if in a mirror. That aspect, (because it is beneath conscious awareness), remains unseen, yet it is the seer in us all.

Moving upwards in consciousness toward the perceptible/conditional world, we move through several channels that color (bias) what we perceive. First, there is a channel associated with our senses, including cognition that combines into a gestalt that results in what was called the third subjective bias. 

On the other axis lies the deep mind, still beneath conscious awareness, that divides into the storehouse (Alaya-vijnana: Sanskrit-storehouse consciousness) and what is known as ahamkara or “I-maker” (ego). The Alaya-vijnana contains karmic seeds: the residue from prior lives. When the body dies, we retain the unresolved effects of how we lead our previous lives. Having done right, the seeds start our new life on a sound footing. Bad experience before, bad seeds continue—either good or bad results in the first subjective level of bias.

The ahamkara/“I-maker” (ego) has a special kind of bias that is governed by the qualities of greed, anger, and ignorance. The ego is not aware of the true nature of mind, since that nature is buried deep, but instead believes it is the true nature and, in the sense of fear, survival, and possessiveness, operates to ensure competitive well-being. The ego defines itself by attaching to the ephemeral nature of things (attachment: raga), and when these things are lost, the ego reacts with anger following the loss (dvesha), and this error causes the second subjective bias. 

All three levels of subjective bias then combine to shape the color of an individual’s filters through which they perceive the world and cause judgments (which are understood to be justified, but in truth are misplaced self-righteousness). While Bodhidharma was right: “The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.” The bottom line is it isn’t necessary to allow this model to govern our lives since there is only one thing we can do to ensure spiritual growth: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” When we do that, all of the levels of bias are transcended, and we move forward toward realizing our own united perfection (τέλειος: spiritual maturity/completion).