Sky Nature of Mind ( Speaking Tree , 5th May 2010)

CLOUDS AND THE SKY – Mind v/s The Mind

In every sentient being the buddha mind is omnipresent. We don’t have to go looking for it. We don’t have to do strive to perfect it. It has been with us ever since birth and it is always perfect! Just as the sky. This is the nature of our mind. Who would want to strive to perfect a cloudless sky?

It is a foregone conclusion that all beings want happiness and not suffering. Besides the four natural sufferings of birth, sickness, old age & death, right from the smallest insect to human beings all of us want to be happy at all other times. So why do our actions of body, speech & mind work often in contradiction to what we really want and end up bringing suffering to us? The reason is simple. Because we allow them to. Is there a way we can correct this way of working of the mind? Yes, there certainly is, only if we attempt to clear the clouds that cover the beautiful sky.

Now, if we already have the problem identified - that of exploring the spontaneously present, perfect, sky-like brilliance of the mind - what holds us back from finding solutions to it? The teachings in Buddhism speak of them as the Four Faults. Lets explore them briefly.

1. Being too Close: Have you ever tried to see your face without the help of a reflection? It’s not possible. In the same manner, masters say that the nature of the mind is so close to our mind that it finds it difficult to see it.

2. Being too Profound: How often have you waded into unknown waters? You take a few steps and the fear of the unknown stops you. In a similar manner, we have no idea how deep the nature of mind would be. We cannot fathom its depth. So we don’t make an attempt. If we knew how deep or profound it is, we would have made atleast some attempt to gauge it.

3. Being too Easy: It is often that we have not attempted something simply because it was too easy. So it is with the nature of mind. Something that has always been with us, always perfect, gets a priority that is low amongst other worldly distractions & attractions.

4. Being too Wonderous: How many times we have left something untried because we see the immensity of the task? So it is with our conceptualized, narrow, small & contrived minds. We just don’t believe that we can actually attain enlightenment which is the base or root nature of our minds.

These faults were contemplated hundreds of years ago in Tibet. A nation then, and perhaps even now, dedicated in pursuit of enlightenment. If this was relevant to a civilization of that kind, imagine how relevant it is in the modern world of sheer materialism and confusion.

The sadness is that there are not too many things expressed about this naked, virgin state of our mind. Scientific pursuits & discoveries that drive global thinking don’t even believe something like the base mind exists. They speak of the mind as the intellectual mind of thoughts, skills & emotions. The fact is that intellectual mind cannot understand the primordial mind as it exists in the relative plane while the other on an absolute plane. Yet, there are occasions when unknowingly we have experienced a fleeting glimpse of the presence of such perfect state of mind. Say, while watching a scintillating ballet performance or whilst listening to a perfect rendition of a raga, or when amidst nature in total silence and other similar pristine moments.

So if this state actually exists, what can we do to observe and experience it more often, if not stay in such a state at all times? Look inward.

During the course of my training, i was astonished to learn that the Tibetan word for ‘Buddhist’ is nangpa, which means “inside-er”! To seek the lessons of living & dying not from the sources outside but by peeping into the nature of our own mind. Alas, in today’s times we have been driven to habituating ourselves to seek answers outside, thereby enslaving ourselves further. All this, under the false garb we foolishly call freedom. How contradictory! People fear to look within themselves, not knowing what they will find. Whether they will be able to face what they will find. They are afraid that they will be treated like social outcasts amongst friends, like mad people, left alone to live life in solitude. And this conceptualized, misplaced approach plays perfectly into the ploy of the wily ego, who could have asked for nothing more!

The truth is that the answers you genuinely seek will come to you only from within the nature of your mind and not the nurtured mind. Even if you get the most accomplished teacher, his/her only responsibility will be to guide you through the unknown pathways with the help of teachings and practices, cutting thru the obscurations of the contrived mind and make you discover the true nature of your mind. And in doing so, help you dispel the fears of sickness, old age & death and understand better the prospect of life, death and after life.

Endeavour on, dear friends! Let the winds of awakening blow away the clouds from the sky nature of your mind. Introduce yourself to the perfect sky that is your very own and has always been with you. This is the only happy way out from here! Buddhahood to you.

Girish Deshpande
(The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner)