Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Mind is the matter.


It is because beings have lost touch with our own true mind that we are bound to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

We take the ordinary thinking mind, the sixth consciousness, to be the true mind. Or we think the subconscious mind, the seventh consciousness, where the polarizations of consciousness arise, such as self and other, observer and observed, to be the true mind.

Great Master Huineng said "no thought" is the nondual thought of true suchness. Ordinary thinking mind is itself the true mind, but is thinking in terms of outflows and not realizing the seat, basis, or source of those outflowing thoughts. To turn the light of awareness around to the very seat of awareness is the practice of zen-samadhi.

To purify our minds doesn't mean to turn something that is impure into something pure, but to remind that which has always been pure that the confusion of "impurity and purity" is an illusion. What is it that has always been pure but does not know it? You. But then, thinking about yourself is illusion, Knowing your true self beyond self and other is insight. Thinking relies on the bifurcation or polarization of consciousness; knowing relies on the inherent underlying unity of mind. 

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