The Mean­ing of Mind

“Do You See What I See?â€

I don’t know why it’s taken me this long, but I’m presently read­ing The Three Pil­lars of Zen, by Philip Kapleau. I sup­pose I wouldn’t have got­ten much out of it a few years ago, but now I’m really enjoy­ing the book.

Back in the 13^th cen­tury, there was a Zen mas­ter named Bas­sui. The fol­low­ing quote is from a lec­ture or dharma talk that he gave.

Bas­sui goes on to sug­gest that a com­bi­na­tion of zazen and koan work is the only way to under­stand the work­ings of Mind.

Mind=Buddha-nature=Tao

Another way of say­ing Mind (cap­i­tal M) is to say Buddha-nature. I sup­pose, since Mind is every­where and every­thing, one could also call Mind the Tao. The Tao is described as being both form­less and name­less, in exis­tence every­where, and the Source of everything.

Enlight­en­ment, or real­iza­tion, is com­ing into a full-bodied awak­en­ing to the nature of the Tao — of the Mind.

Now I gotta tell you, I really don’t get how all of this plays out. I sort of get the idea, and am able to write some stuff about it, but that “full bod­ied awak­en­ing†part? Well…

Here’s a lit­tle story for you. My super­vi­sor, Glo­ria, was talk­ing about one of her clients. It seems this guy had pur­chased a copy of my book, This End­less Moment, and even car­ried it with him every­where. It became the basis for their dis­cus­sions. One day the guy said, “So, do you know the author?†Glo­ria replied, with a smirk, “Yes, I know him well.†The client asked, “I have to ask—is he a an enlight­ened being?†After she picked your­self up from the floor, Glo­ria replied, “Not even close.†That’s me, in a nutshell.

That being said, I do put a fair amount of effort into

zazen and explor­ing Mind.

Koans (i.e. “What is the sound of one hand?â€, or “What was your Face before your par­ents were born?â€) are designed to be deeply inves­ti­gated yet never solved through expla­na­tion or the use of the mind (small m).

When all expla­na­tions are exhausted, all that’s left is a sense of bod­ily real­iza­tion or acknowl­edg­ment. It’s as if the arti­fi­cial con­struct of the ego and the self fall way and all that’s left is the “is-ness†of the present moment.

One way of doing this is to relent­lessly ques­tion your­self. “Who is it that hears?†If you are tempted to reply “me,†see if you can find the “me†that hears, some­where inside of your­self. There is no hear-er in there; there is just “hearing.â€

This all seems coun­ter­in­tu­itive, but actu­ally closely fits with what brain sci­en­tists think (inter­est­ing choice of word…) is the way our minds actu­ally work. Hear­ing, in this exam­ple, is noth­ing more than the elec­tri­cal stim­u­la­tion of the brain’s neu­rons — the ones, in this case, designed to trans­port and inter­pret sound. No one knows how the inter­pre­ta­tion part hap­pens — only that it does.

There is no hearer — there is just elec­tric­ity mov­ing —
or in Zen par­lance, “hearing.â€

Ulti­mately, as you explore your mind in order to dis­cover Mind, you see that you have been trained since birth to dif­fer­en­ti­ate, to judge, to dis­crim­i­nate.

For exam­ple, the expres­sion “Sugar is sweet,†is redun­dant and unnec­es­sary. Of coarse sugar is sweet; what else could it be? Sugar is sugar. Sugar!

Our dif­fer­en­ti­a­tions are arti­fi­cial mind games.

We seem to think that it is essen­tial to make these judg­ments and dif­fer­en­ti­a­tions, and then to pre­tend that all of it is real. Aspects are just aspects. It’s how you choose to see it.

I got an e-mail the other day from a friend, ask­ing about some of this. She was com­ing to some aware­ness of her intrin­sic nature ver­sus how peo­ple see her, or judge her.

I enjoyed what she wrote, and sent a reply, which I’ve expanded for this week’s article:

This is one of those ideas that we can just barely
get our heads around, with effort.

And get­ting our heads around it is hardly the point, as all that does is pro­vide a new the­ory to play with. In a sense, zazen helps us to see just how busy our minds are, cre­at­ing drama, com­ing up with judg­ments, blam­ing, caus­ing trouble.

Another men­tal the­ory is sim­ply not the point.

What is the point is liv­ing in the moment, sim­ply see­ing what there is to see, hear­ing what there is to hear, feel­ing what there is to feel, with­out judg­ment or com­ment, and then let­ting go and mov­ing on. Into the next expe­ri­ence, into the next moment.

Sure, it’s fun to ana­lyze and to pre­tend to be smart, to yap on and on inter­nally and exter­nally, and at the end of the day be no closer to being awake. Remem­ber the ini­tial quo­ta­tion, about the require­ment to come out of the dream? When you’re caught in dream­land there’s no escape — stu­pid­ity hap­pens, and you’re right in the mid­dle of it.

When you wake up you see it for the illu­sion it was, and you feel noth­ing but relief. Wak­ing up is wak­ing up.

Take the time to notice how much time you spend telling your­self sto­ries and mak­ing judg­ments. Ask your­self, “Who is it that judges, who is it that is telling the story?†See if you can find the judge, the sto­ry­teller. Look deeply.

There’s no one there. Never has been, never will be. Breathe, be present, move on.