Nothing hidden, Totally manifest

An Eternal Now SG

Mind, awareness, experience, sensations are synonymous. It is not “mind is aware of experience”. For what is mind? Seeing sight, hearing sound, all is mind. So, experience is mind is awareness. This is the truth of non-duality. The non-conceptual sense of beingness or am-ness is mind, the non-conceptual presence of seeing, hearing, etc too is mind, thoughts too is mind. To apply effort to sustain a particular state of mind as being “nature of mind” is thus irrelevant, since every state and manifestation is in fact not other than the nature of mind. There is no nature of mind apart from mind, and no mind apart from experience. But until this is experientially realized, there is no benefit.

There is nothing concrete, substantial or unchanging about mind, thus allowing for infinite potential of appearances. Emptiness, luminosity and energy co-emerge. Inseparable from the interconnectedness of causes and conditions, vividly present but empty, being a ceaseless flow, appearing as various shapes and forms and bubbles like an endless river flowing according to various conditions. Mind is not some pure potential behind manifestation, rather lacking an independent self-substance, mind points to this very manifestation itself, whatever it is for “you” at this moment (probably the sight of these words).

What about analogies that the nature of mind is like space? It does not mean there is a space behind phenomenon, but rather the mind is empty of a concrete identity, and being so is free from limitations, center or boundaries just like space, manifest as this very appearance. There is no noumenon behind phenomenon. At this point, “who is aware?” no longer applies. Nothing hiding, totally manifest! This is what Padmasambhava meant by “Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer; Only a naked manifest awareness is present.”, and what a cook told Zen Master Dogen, “Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.” This is what Thusness calls, “total transparency”.

Another point to “Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.” is that this manifestation is the activity of the entire universe, so this very manifestation is in fact not different from and not the same as the entire universe. The apple is the sun-apple, the farmer-apple, the air-apple, the universe-apple, the biting is the apple-biting-apple and the mouth-biting-apple, the universe biting apple. Nothing in the universe is hidden for the universe is totally manifest As this very activity. This activity is the manifestation of the whole universe of interdependency in a perfect and complete expression, just like this. The ever evolving process of an interdependent universe universing universe. All causes and conditions are incorporated in seamless interdependence in a single activity. (E.g. Hand, shaking, cup, water, ripples) What we call “universe” is simply this evolving process of interactivity made manifest in each unfolding moment, an interconnected process rolling on and on without an agent, nothing hidden whatsoever.

So in summary: when we talk about “intrinsic awareness” or “intrinsic mind”, we may also call it “intrinsic luminosity of experience”, for what is mind? Nothing whatsoever and yet nothing is not (totally manifest, nothing hidden), the words experience/mind/awareness all point to this very luminous-experience-mind. It points to the dynamic flow of mind-activities. Thus luminosity is not an attribute of a fixed unchanging entity hidden somewhere, but the essence of the manifesting mind/experience itself, unfabricated and unconditioned (not created by something, by effort or by contrivance). And yet manifesting as whatsoever due to an interconnected flow of activities, nothing independent and nothing lasting more than moment.

Experience can really be summed up this way:

Vividly present dependent on conditions
Utterly gone upon the cessation of conditions.

Thus come, thus gone!

One who sees the suchness of dependent origination sees the Dharma, one who sees the Dharma sees the Tathagata (Thus Come One).

An Eternal Now SG

i was reading david loy's articles and though what he wrote was very good, i think the "because there is no self, you/mind can become anything" is not so good

because there is no self or mind to become anything.

whatever arise is simply what dependently originates in a complete instaneous moment, next moment gone. what dependently originates is empty of a self-substance. there is no mind, mind merely collates dependently originated, lightning-like, bubble-like mental activities.

what dependently originates is empty, non-arising, non-ceasing, no coming and no going

Dharmadhatu SG

Like this article, thanks for sharing!

Dharmadhatu SG

Can you share the link for the full quote of:

This is what Padmasambhava meant by “Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer; Only a naked manifest awareness is present.”

An Eternal Now SG

Thanks... Thusness also thinks its well written :P lol

Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness

An Eternal Now SG

Today I nodded off... a loud BOOM! and the entire universe exerts itself as this jolting up.

The universe exerts itself as this BOOM, this jolting up, this whole process of activities.

One moment it was a blank, next moment the entire universe is exerted, yet nothing lasts for more than a moment.

An Eternal Now SG

3rd Ch'an (Chinese Zen) Patriarch Sengtsan said in his opening verse,

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind.

This does not simply mean 'cut off all emotions'. What it really means is not choosing, and having no choice, every single manifestation is itself The Great Way. If you make the slighest distinction, then Buddha-nature and the phenomenal world becomes set infinitely apart.

As Thusness puts it,

http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/mistaken-reality-of-amness.html

But what exactly is this “witness” we are talking about? It is the manifestation itself! It is the appearance itself! There is no Source to fall back, the Appearance is the Source! Including the moment to moment of thoughts. The problem is we choose, but all is really it. There is nothing to choose.

An Eternal Now SG

Wow, Ted Biringer wrote the same thing as me 4 days ago. hahaha (though not that surprising)

http://dogenandtheshobogenzo.blogspot.com/2012/03/zen-is-not-obscure-incommunicable-or.html

Monday, March 26, 2012
Zen is not Obscure, Incommunicable, or Esoteric
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Nothing in the whole universe is hidden or obscure...

Nothing is hidden or obscure. The teachings of authentic Zen masters is straightforward and easy to understand; Buddha is our body-mind, and this body-mind is the mountain, the wall, or whatever things, beings, and events (i.e. dharmas) constitute our experience here and now.

The mind that is sun, moon, and stars is simply sun, moon, and stars: there is no fog nor is there any mist to obscure its clarity.
~Shobogenzo, Soku Shin Ze Butsu, Hubert Nearman

Is it really that simple? The eyes are horizontal, the nose is vertical.

Now you know clearly: what is called ‘mind’ is the great earth with its mountains and rivers; it is the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Shobogenzo, Soku Shin Ze Butsu, Hubert Nearman
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There is nothing hazy or obscure, much less "incommunicable" or "unknowable" concerning the true nature of the self and the world. Look, look! Listen, listen!
Peace,
Ted