Basically the 7 senses form in your consciousness the formation of all thought so obviously it can only be you that determines how you truely feel reading the book The Way of The Peaceful Warrior is a small equation that sums up the benifit of true mind Happiness = satisfaction/desire simple desires and satisfaction out of life and being able to gain an affinity with the world around you.
The four cognitions form around the principle that the seven forms of basic human consciousness exist in and form 6 fields of basic sense data in which we gather our impulses from these are hearing, body, sensation, perception, action and consciousness.
Now these fields of data differ from the view of the shere sense for example hearing as a sense field data you make judgement on hearing as a basic sense is sound without consciousness to process it at the center of all the 6 fields of datas and the seven basic sensory devices lies consciousness which without realisation serves as our greatest source of illusion for example if someone is rude to you and you are instantly angered yor immediate impulse and conscious perception as such is to think they made you feel that anger this is wrong as your own conscioussness you processed the data and created anger as a feeling and have affected yourself
The four cognitions offer one of many paths in Buddhism to combat this, remove the illusion of self and attain enlightenment. The cognitions exist within the Zen side of Buddhism and thus are a practical guide in which I have some but no mastery knowlege of the total zen application for I in my own application have looked elsewhere.
The 1st of the four cognitions is the universal mirror The universal mirror cognition occurs when the practitioner realises that the six fields of data are what define our presence in the world and our concepts they are how we feel and interact and also the source of illusion when I underwent my transformative glimpse I astral traveled through a meditation (soon to be posted) but I urge you to find your own way in yourself as I did before a series of smaller meditation simply focusing on breathe and nothing else another friend of mine did it with thought but both achieved the same result with the realisation that the six fields of data is all they are data now
In order to by pass this I started every morning in a balanced mindset before even getting breakfast if my emotic state changed to anger or to feel more happy i asked what am I seeing, what am I hearing and what am I thinking divided my thoughts to realise those of which are happiness because of attatchments and rebanlanced my temperment if it was negative I would cease to worry after doing this consciously for a while one begins to the second cognition which will lead to the cultivation of your newly found enlightenment
The 2nd of the 4 cognitions is True Equanimity that is the ability to shine through the constraints of emotional and conceptual barriers whereby it becomes second nature thus making balanced temperment and true mind a more normal state of being without having to make a consciouss effort many think this is the same as the universal mirror but is not none but making conscious effort to maintain the 1st cogintion will allow access to the second in which the 1st cognition and our own being becomes more balanced being
The 3rd of the 4 cognitions is Observance this will give you true insight into the nature of enlightenment and will help you cultivate it further to perform this cognition properly is merely to gain a true insight into all things the feeling and description of it is in many proverbs I will quote one as all mean the same thing in essence
"Buddah passed a ground whereby he said this is the perfect spot for a sancturary when shakra king of the angels put forth a single blade of grass and Shakra announces the building of the sancturary is done and the Buddah smiles"
This metaphor serves to state that the newly found insight, with balance and true mind state is enlightenment HOWEVER do not mistake this for true enlightenment I have reached this point and am now working towards the state of enlightenment which exists in the 4th cognition
The 4th and final cognition of the 4 is application this is the final step the application of true mind, equanimity and observance from the first 3 cognitions at all times this state is hard to attain and best not to dwell on thus I will not attatch to many concepts to its description accept it to be the ultimate balance of all three states acting as one a famous Zen master paralleled it to the ultimate sword in which to cleave through the conceptual barriers of reality and this verse
"Buddah passed a ground whereby he said this is the perfect spot for a sancturary when shakra king of the angels put forth a single blade of grass and Shakra announces the building of the sancturary is done and the Buddah smiles"
In which one can feel for a long time in the third state but is not true enlightenment as it does not have the continuinity of the 4th and final cognition