Reading Carla Hayden’s fascinating book, “The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures” I came across some information about how Thomas Jefferson categorized his library and was struck by the similarity to how a Buddhist practitioner might categorize the mind. She wrote, “Jefferson adapted his cataloging scheme from Sir Francis Bacon’s classification system that started with three main categories: Memory, Reason, and Imagination . . .” Later this system was changed to History, Philosophy and Fine Arts but the original system is reminiscent of the activities of the mind.

Memory is the history of our experiences, some that were built on truth while others are built on delusion. Memories are potent forces in your conscious and unconscious mind, forces that we can harness to improve how you see yourself and the world around you, or forces that can hamper your becoming how you imagine you can be.

Episodic memory arranges the separate sensory inputs the brain receives during an experience so that the incident later replays like a video in the mind. There must always be the acceptance that the video in the mind is not always an accurate one as it is causally conditioned by context and time. Semantic memory allows the recall of general information that can be engaged when needed. Repeated engagement of information that is experienced to have value in dealing with situations is what transforms to wisdom in a mature Buddhist practice. Emotional memory arises as the intense personal memories that can cause unwholesome reactions to phenomena without deep mindfulness of the danger of allowing the emotional context to dominate the mind.

Reason is the mind transforming knowledge and experience into worldview and into how you interact with the world around you. For a Buddhist reason arises from the dharma. The Three Refuges are the first step on the path to that reason. The Buddha, the teacher, the example of what a human being can do to transform themselves into beings capable of bringing compassion and liberation into existence. The Dharma, the Four Ennobling Truths that guide you on the path of appropriate view, intent, speech, action, livelihood, mindfulness, effort and concentration; these are the first guides to reason. Wholesome intent arises from reason that fully realizes the power of ceasing to do harm, doing only good, and doing good for others, the Pure Precepts; the power to transform the mind into one where the unwholesome cannot root, where the unwholesome growing there withers and falls away, where the unwholesome becomes only a memory.

Imagination is the mind constructing possibilities. The Sangha is a reservoir of like-minded individuals who imagine as you do. Imagination is the mind realizing the potential of human existence to not only walking the noble path of morality, generosity and acceptance but to achieving a mind of compassion, loving-kindness and finally of liberation. The appropriate view that you can be a better human being. Not a better human being than the person next to you. Imagination can open the heart and mind to the better human being you can be in the moment following the present moment.

The dharma is the realities of life. The ideals of the dharma are not only found in the words of the Buddha, the words of the many legacy teachers that followed him, or in the words of the dharma teachers from the many Buddhist traditions. It is also found in the wisdom of all those who came before you, and those among you right now. Listen deeply and allow a mind of memory, reason and imagination to flourish.

I bow with respect,

Wayne Ren-Cheng

The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures, Carla Hayden, Chronicle Books, 2017, ISBN  1452145407