Podcast

The True Nature of Mind (part 1) -
by Lama Tsering Everest

The Seven Line Prayer is calling the blessing of one's teacher. There are two ways we receive blessings: one is blessings by information, where we learn, where we understand what to adhere to and what to reject in life -and generally in that learning process we begin to understand how we complicate our own lives, what we do that hurt us and hurts others. So we can begin by that education to reduce our harmful influences and to increase our helpfulness.

We learn a lot about ourselves through the blessings of the teacher, we have to be able to listen, which is challenging even to begin with. It's quite difficult to listen because we are already so full with so many assumptions that hearing the teachings can be quite a confrontation to what we already assume to be true. So listening to the teachings requires a certain level of receptivity and openness. And we can understand a lot by learning and listening.

We also understand by watching the example of the teacher, we see how they do it, not just what they say -which is very fascinating-, but how they live it. It's very important and we can learn in a way that we are accustomed to by our human development, because we learn by watching.

But the other way in which we receive blessings is beyond words, not confined by words, it's really more primary than words, more fundamental, more natural.

I read a small children's story about a wild boy. He lived in the woods, he didn't know that hot was hot or cold was cold. He didn't know language and he was OK, he got along, not necessarily the way of relating with other human beings but he was OK all along. We have learned many ways to interact and ways to live in our world that require a lot of intellectual development, language, words, communication -not that there is anything wrong with this, but we are very dependent upon this and we are very involved in it to the exclusion of understanding that we have mind without that, we have mind more primary than that.

We whorl around with ideas and concepts and we think that if we think well enough, hard enough, long enough, we will actually figure out the solution. But thinking can only serve us to a certain degree. Not that you should be silly, or thoughtless, but that we have to understand the greater context of mind, that nature of mind which a thought arises in, that nature of mind that actually sustains the thought while you have it, that nature of mind where a thought dissolves when it's finished, that ground of mind, that essence of mind, that nature of mind is not confinable by the thoughts of the mind and it is a great blessing to experience that nature of mind.

The teacher, or the lama , or the master has to be one capable of both, capable of explaining and being a good example, capable of meeting you really one on one, with your own powers of intellect but also a holder of this greater wisdom that is the nature of the mind -that's unborn, undying, uninprovable, unreducible, unperturbable nature of our being that is the nature of all things.

We call such a person a wisdom being. They come from a different platform than we do. Not that we don't have that nature, it's just that we generally use the platform of our intellect, our intellect is assessing, observing, perceiving, our intellect is planning, revealing, our intellect is hoping and fearing, our intellect is designing and assessing everything, judging everything and acting very quickly in response to what it perceives. Our intellect is very busy, we have cultivated a lot of attention towards it.

And what Lord Buddha presented was that there is something a little bit problematic in being one sided, it is problematic that we rely solely upon intellect, that we think that that is who we are , “I am, I think, therefore I am”.

We identify with the reference point of the thinker instead of realizing the nature of the mind that is supportive to that reference point, that is the ground of that reference point, the nature of that reference point. This ground or nature is what we call Buddha, and it is natural to every being, human being and otherwise. There could be nothing actually separate from that ground, that is the ground of emptiness awareness that permeates all phenomena.

The nature of things is the same ground as the nature of your mind. The only problem is we don't experience the nature of our mind because we use this incidental platform of our temporary reference point that we call “I” and, in that assumption of “I”, we experience everything that is “not I”, there is me and what is not me, it could be my environment, or it could be my friends or family, enemies, whatever is “not me ”, we interact with.

That wouldn't be so bad, I mean, it is oblivious to the nature that permeates both sides of the equation, that is really not divided, the ground of the sameness that permeates all phenomena is missed in the functioning of division between me and what's not me. And there in that division which isn't absolutely true, but our experience, we have preferences; the things that are not me that I want, the things that are not me that I don't want, the things that I think is the absolute truth needs -nd really, “I” is very busy needing all the time.

I need, I want, I try to get, and it is OK at first if I can get what I want, but that's quite difficult actually. We have to work very hard to do that and even should I get what I want, which is rare, it is impossible to keep because whatever is experienced by “I” is impermanent. Everything is impermanent, only the ground of the mind, the nature of things is not impermanent.

There is a problem, the problem is that we use the division of mind, because I want to be happy, everyone wants to be happy, any “I” anywhere wants to be happy. Your “I” is not the only one, everyone, and just the way that you want to be happy and it is not possible for you to produce lasting happiness, it is not possible for them either.

“I” cannot produce lasting happiness, “I” is not lasting, it's impermanent, and just the way that we don't want to suffer, none of us wants to suffer. We don't like it, we are sick, or we are afraid, or we are cold or hungry, we don't like it, so painful to be overlooked, no one, no being wants to suffer.

The “I”-confined-ones are always searching for happiness and trying to avoid unhappiness and happiness is not findable in a lasting way. Sometimes happiness can last a while. Actually that is a little problematic because we become accustomed to it, and most of the time we don't really notice when we are happy, just when it is finished: “I was so happy then! And now where am I going to find it again?" And you look in very face : “You? Are you going to make me happy? I am sure it's you.” Then we hunt and cultivate impermanent phenomena, which cannot produce lasting happiness. There is a problem here and this is what Buddha is saying, this is a problem.

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