This verse, Mind is non-created is so deep with so many aspects that I divided it up into several sections. But this is just a matter of speaking. In reality mind is not made up of many aspects. Rather it is one homogeneous whole. If you can put aside your concept of what the mind is, and look afresh, you will be in for a surprise.
You will find that your experience of your mind is a lot different than it’s supposed to be. With a direct look into the nature of mind you can do nothing but stand in awe. It defies all the words and conceptual frameworks that can possibly define it. But if you insist on a definition for your mind, Padma’s next verse is as close as you can get:
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Mind in its true nature being non-created and self-radiant, how can one, without knowing the mind, assert that mind is created?
There being in this yoga nothing objective upon which to meditate, how can one, without having ascertained the true nature of mind by meditation, assert that mind is created?
Mind in its true state being Reality, how can one, without having discovered one’s own mind, assert that mind is created?
Mind in its true state being undoubtedly ever-existing, how can one, without having seen the mind face to face, assert that mind is created?
The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation
By Padma-Sambhava
Translated by Evans-Wentz
Oxford University Press
Up until now you may have thought that your mind is just a series of thoughts. Are you sure? Are thoughts the things that you see and experience when you look for your mind? When you look again you might find that your mind is nothing. That’s because when you look for it you find that nothing is there. But is that true?
After all it is because of your mind that you have the sense of the mind being here, or not here. The astounding thing about the nature of mind is that it doesn’t fit into any of the categories that you can create. And yet it shines with its own glory. When you find this shining you will have seen your mind face to face. This glow has no discernible quality, yet it lights up everything and makes it shine.
You can’t stand apart from it
It is not an object that you see, and you can’t stand apart from it to look at it as if it were an object; so you have to know your mind in a different way. We call this knowing direct experience which means you know it by being it, not by standing separate.
One of the things this shining doesn’t have is a sense of time like before or after. This shinning is just present; it is always here and was not created. That’s why when you see the nature of this shinning, you step beyond birth and death and you become that which which you see, The Buddha Mind.
What is mind anyway?
If you have trouble grasping this, it means that you have to find a different way of waking up to the nature of your mind. Meditation on the nature of mind means: look afresh and to be ready for some surprises, because your mind is different than you would think.
But you should know that this meditation is not beyond your ability. Just look where Padma’s words in The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation point to, and the way will open up for you. So, best wishes, in your meditation on the nature of your mind.
Feel free to ask questions
Please
feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your
reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path
of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows
you to abide in your natural freedom.
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Best Wishes,
Michael Gluckman
