An Empty Mind Need Not Be The Devils Workshop, Speaking Tree, 25/01/'10

MIND IT, AN EMPTY MIND IS THE BUDDHA’S PLAYFIELD:

It is strange how we have been made to believe since growing years, of a devil working in an empty mind! It is quite to the contrary. Allow me to explain, giving a Buddhist viewpoint.

To make it simpler to understand, as a ‘do it yourself’ experiment, try this in solitude. It will take only a few minutes.

Sit in any comfortable position (lotus position or just cross legged) in a quiet place, a garden or room, with the spine erect, hands folded across your lap, with the bottom of your right palm resting on the left palm and the two thumbs touching each other. Eyes angled at the slant of the nose, shoulders thrown back, chin slightly tucked in and the tongue tip touching the palate of the slightly open mouth. The 7-point Vairacona posture.

Steady the mind with slow & regular breaths. Focus on the breath till you sense reasonable steadiness of the mind. Observe the mind carefully of what is happening within it. Quite likely there will be thoughts within the mind, because such is the nature of mind. As we know, of all the forms, sounds, thoughts & perceptions there is nothing that does not arise in the mind. Now observe mindfully what is happening to these thoughts. Some come & go on their own, few others linger on and retreat while yet others are persistent. This too is a normal experience.

Here begins the interesting part.

While in this state of observance, where you are aware of what is going on around you but not engaging the goings on in any way, you will ‘see’ that unless there is an engagement of any arisen thought or feeling by the intervention of any one of the 6 senses, 5 sensory and the conceptualized mind, there is no response that will be forthcoming in the form of body or speech actions. This means that only when we engage, consciously or sub-consciously, our arising thoughts & feelings, do they have the capacity to manifest further. In corollary it means, if we do not engage arising thoughts or feelings, they will die or fade out on their own. This is the root nature of our mind. Awareness undivided from Emptiness. This is known as the View.

Slowly come out of this state and return to the ordinary state.

Here is how this experiment can be made to work for our benefit in routine life to increase happiness in us & those around us. As soon as an external negative stimulus of any kind is given to the mind, be it an angry word, an unpleasant smell, a loud sound, a painful feeling, a sorrowful sight, a negative thought arising out of jealousy, greed, desire or any such with a capacity to bring suffering upon us or others, observe for a moment how this stimulus is being treated by the mind before reacting to the stimulus. If we can effectively change this ‘immediately reactive’ treatment into a ‘delayed responsive’ kind of treatment from within the state of emptiness as explained above, the resultant offering will be pleasant & virtuous one.

How do we do this? Simple, if we train ourselves in mindfulness. At all times be vigilant of the manner in which the mind is processing every external stimulus. Remember, to an ordinary mind, stimuli can be sensational, arousing, disturbing & seductive. The mind is gullible and thoughts can deceive easily. But if we are observant of our mind at every moment, we will be able to easily grasp the ‘slipping’ mind and instead respond from the View state of awareness-emptiness.

To keep this realization of the View in mind at all times, un-distracted, would be Meditation, which can be made a continuous living experience. And to relentlessly practice the accumulations of the View & Meditation at all times, is our Action. Perfecting this state is Dzogchen practice, central to the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism.

Remember to humbly dedicate all pleasant sights - all pure actions of body, speech & mind, pure in intention & motivation - for the liberation of all beings. Actions themselves have no capacity to bring benefit unless dedicated. Such dedication, detached from pride, ambition & conceptualization alone will bring us happiness thru liberation from sufference.

The above practice is of great benefit, since it places us in a state of perpetual happiness, which is the purpose of every life. The devil will soon checkout of the empty mind. Therein will reside the Buddha!


Girish Deshpande
(The author is a practicing Nyingma Buddhist)