Why mental proliferation? (Sakka's Quest)

Susan Elbaum Jootla, Teacher of the Devas; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What can instantly tame discursive thinking and mental proliferation? Mindfulness? Binaural beats?

Space is the place...to best see earth.

From a vantage point in space (the Tavatimsa deva loka), Sakka is a keen observer of the behavior of humans and other types of beings on earth and elsewhere. After all, Sakka was once human himself.

He once saw that while beings would like to live with each other peacefully, they rarely succeed. Therefore, his opening question to the Buddha attempted to unravel this contradiction:

"Sir, by what fetters are beings bound -- shining ones (extraterrestrials), humans (manussa), titans (asuras), reptilians (nagas), spirits (gandhabba), and whatever other kinds of beings there may be -- whereby, although they wish to live free of hate, harming, hostility, or malignity, and in peace, they yet live in hate, harming one another, hostile, and malign?"

The Buddha explained that two mental factors -- jealousy and avarice -- cause the trouble. From these two mental characteristics almost all of the aggression in the world arises.

Practical Buddhist psychology

In this way the Buddha began a step-by-step lesson in Buddhist psychology: causes and supportive-conditions govern everything that happens in our [dependently originated] universe.

Sakka next asked the Buddha about the origin/arising of jealousy and avarice. Behind jealousy and avarice, the Buddha explained, lie liking and disliking [preference and aversion], and the source of both liking and disliking is desire (craving).

As this is such a basic problem, Sakka wanted to understand even more deeply the causes of craving. The Buddha told him that desire is triggered by thinking.

Although he did not specify what sort of thinking, he must have been referring to unsystematic mental activity ("discursive thinking"), the random thoughts in which our untrained minds indulge.

When Sakka asked about the cause of thinking, the Buddha said it is the "tendency to MENTAL PROLIFERATION." This is what brings about random thinking, which leads to craving, which in turn culminates in like and dislike.

These in turn condition [act as decisive supports for] jealousy and avarice, from which arise the daily conflicts in the world. Sakka next shifted to a more directly practical issue... More