Realizing pure Mind

I've decided to do some Q&As based upon my general understanding of what is on the mind of beginners, confused veterans, and the ideal student.  The Q&A genre seems very suitable for a blog.  At least for me, it allows me to get into the 'high esoteric' which I hope helps the reader to see where Zen Buddhism is really coming from and for that matter Buddhism, itself.

Q:  I really have a difficult time with understanding Mind as you use it.  I know it's transcendent.  But how can I see it?  We all would like to see it, but when I try, I just can't.

A:   I understand.  When I really got serious about Zen, still nothing made any sense to me.  No matter how many books on Zen I read; no matter how many hours I sat—zilch!  I knew, at some point I was missing something in the recipe.  Like why didn't my bread rise?  My former Zen teacher didn't help me in that direction.  It was later when I went to a lecture at San Jose State given by Bishop Nippo Shaku that I began to understand what I was missing (One-pointedness of the comic book sky).  What I learned from his lecture was almost like a satori.  The message became clear to me.  I had to look for the Buddha's pure Mind in my confused jungle-like mind.  I had to look for it in all the internal chatter, the mental images, the emotions, the physical pains—you name it.  Where was it in vision, in hearing, in everything I did?  It was a daunting task to search through my turbid, confused mind for the pure Mind.  But search I did both day and night.  But such a search is not an ordinary search.  What you're doing that hinders the search is looking for the bird of pure Mind holding an iron cage of presuppositions; trying to get the little bird to fly in through the tiny door.  As strange as it sounds, you have to put down the cage—abandon it!  Only then will you see that little bird.  But even putting down this heavy cage is a task like no other.  Eventually, the search weakens you to such an extent that you drop the cage.  And then one night it happens.  In what seems like a nano second, the mind you're searching in disappears then reappears.  Yet, in that one moment of disappearance you see something incredible.  Then something strange begins to happen afterwards, clear light—a mysterious radiancy—begins to engulf you gradually.  For me it grew and grew all through the night.  I had never, in my whole life, experienced anything like this.  Whoa!  It is as if I saw a little hole in the fabric of the universe and in that hole was pure light.!   Yes, pure Mind.  And that was my first encounter with pure Mind.  Much later, another encounter happened which made the first one seem like kindergarten stuff.  But more on that later.

Q:  How do you know that you weren't deluding yourself?

A:  It is like seeing a great illusion with cities and people all around, and you know exactly what this illusion is composed of.  Not even Mara the Evil One could find this pure Mind.  He can look into my thoughts right now and never see it.  But I can see it.  Even if somebody thinks I am full of crap, so what?  Nothing they say changes the pure Mind.  It goes beyond the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, habitual tendencies, and even consciousness, all of which belong to Mara the Evil One. 

Q:  But couldn't this clear light be what I have heard called, makyo?

A:  First, what is makyo?  The term refers to Mara the Evil One's realm.  You're entire psycho-physical body consisting of form, feeling, perception, habitual tendencies, and consciousness belongs to Mara—but not clear light Mind.  It is not easy to talk about it.  It is better to experience this Mind.  This is when Buddhism really begins.  You're ready for the first grade!

Q:  It sounds like there is no easy road to awakening.  But what about chanting the name of the Buddha or sitting in zazen?  Don't they help? 

A:  Mechanically chanting and sitting on a zafu, just performing the physical act is still to be in Mara's realm.  Chanting is makyo—zazen is makyo.  Until you see the luminous or pure Mind in chanting and zazen you're doing Mara's chanting and zazen.

More later ~

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