The nature of the mind

Things I am learning. All quotes taken from “The Tibetan book of living and dying”. Please note this is solely my experience and truths that are resonating with me.

1) We all die. This is inevitable. If we don’t learn to embrace this truth we live our lives disillusioned.

2) Everything is impermanent. If we don’t learn to face this truth as well we also live our lives disillusioned and very often get angry when our so called “permanent things” fade away.

“Confined in the dark, narrow cage of our own making which we take for the whole universe, very few of us can even begin to imagine another dimension of reality. Patrul Rinpoche tells the story of an old frog who had lived all his life in a dank well. One day a frog from the sea paid him a visit:

‘Where do you come from?’ asked the frog in the well.
‘From the great ocean,’ he replied.
‘How big is your ocean?’
‘It’s gigantic.’
‘You mean about a quarter of the size of my well here?’
‘Bigger.’
‘Bigger? You mean half as big?’
‘No even bigger.’
‘Is it….as big as this well?’
‘There’s no comparison.’
‘That’s impossible! I’ve got to see this for myself.’
They set off together. When the frog from the well saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces”.

What is mind?

“Past thoughts died away, the future had not yet arisen; the stream of my thoughts was cut right through. In that pure shock a gap opened, and in that gap was laid bare a sheet, immediate awareness of the present, one that was free of any clinging. It was simple, naked and fundamental. And yet that naked simplicity was also radiant with the warmth of an immense compassion”.

This happened to me last night. I tapped into something far deeper than anything I could ever even try to explain in words. The things I usually think about all seemed so trivial, so unimportant. The true nature of the mind is to connect with the sacred that is in everything and that is the pure essence of goodness and beauty, love and compassion. I would like to refer to it as the sky, wide open, full of light and purity (of course this is still a metaphor). Nothing can taint it, and nothing can move it. It is everything. Monotheists call this “God”, Buddhists call this the “Buddha nature” or “the nature of the mind”, Hindus call it “the Self, Brahman, Vishnu or Shiva”, Pagans call it the “ultimate creator or Mother Earth”, and Taoists call it the “Tao”. It is inexplicable, but it is in everyone and everyone has the potential to tap into it. Tapping into this (according to all these metanarratives) allows one to experience the freedom of letting go and finding peace. The worries of the now, of the “sem mind”* or the ego are trivial and matter not. And in turn we accept our connection to the Buddha nature (or various other names), and death seems to loose its grip and we are free to love and be open to compassion.

All my life I have been looking outwards. Looking out for answers, my mind racing with all sorts of questions, philosophies and abilities to deconstruct everything. I have been told all my life that the answer is out there in the universe somewhere and it is my job as a human to suddenly stumble upon it. I find this very misleading. So I have changed my orientation and I am now looking in. The word Buddha actually means “inside-er”. And as scary as I thought this would be, I have been finding much clarity and above all a small glimpse at my true nature, which is very beautiful.

I have a long way to go before becoming enlightened don't worry.

“In horror of death, I took to the mountains. Again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death, capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind. Now all fear of death is over and done”.

* The “sem mind” is: “‘That which possess discriminating awareness, that which possess a sense of duality- which grasp’s or rejects something external- that is mind. Fundamentally it is that which can associate with an “other” which any “something” that is perceived as different from the perceiver’. Sem is the discursive, dualistic, thinking mind, which can only function in relation to a projected and falsely perceived external reference point.” (Rinpoche, 1992, p.46).