http://buddhaspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/reflections-on-bankeis-song-of-mind.html
Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was a wonderful exponent of our true
nature. He called it the Unborn Buddha Mind, and talked of it in
the everyday language of ordinary people, rather than in the
convoluted language of philosophy and mysticism. For this reason,
his teachings are as valuable today as they were in Seventeenth
Century Japan where he gave them to the world, in the hope of
helping suffering beings out of their self-created hells. For this
reason, it is felt that the present exploration of the 'Song of the
Mind’ will benefit anyone seeking clarification in the search for
awakening to our Unborn Buddha Mind.
When Bankei speaks of “the Original Mind,” he is talking of our
true nature, the bottomless ground of our being. Moreover, he is
using language common to the Zen masters of old, among whom the
famous Huang Bo (died c.850) said that the One Mind is the Buddha,
which is unborn in its nature. This Original Mind is unborn in that
it is not created, that is to say it is not dependent upon
anything, and is indeed not a ‘thing’ itself. Bankei says that it
is imperishable - it cannot be destroyed. Now, since thoughts,
emotions, memories, and sense-consciousness are all conditioned and
ephemeral, they cannot be anything to do with the Unborn Original
Mind. Therefore, it is not mind in any conventional (or current
scientific) understanding of the word.
In traditional Buddhist parlance, as in other ancient philosophical
systems, “earth, wind, fire and wind” represent the primal four
elements of the natural world, and as such, also account for the
human body. Bankei states that this form is no more than “a
temporary lodging for the night.” A temporary lodging for what,
however? If the mind is accepted as being temporary as stated
above, then this is not the ‘what’ that is being referred to by the
Master. Indeed, when its transient nature is accepted, the mind as
much as the body can be considered a temporary lodging, too. Both
are impermanent phenomena playing host to what Bankei calls the
Unborn.
“This ephemeral burning house” is another term for the body, and by
extension the mind that is interwoven with it. And, as the Buddha
taught in the famous Fire Sermon, the body and mind are “burning
with the fires of passion, hatred, and delusion; burning with
birth, ageing, and death, with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief,
and despair.” Furthermore, we cannot blame others for our
self-created suffering; nor can nature be blamed, for it is simply
the way it is, and it is our own egotistical minds that create
suffering around it. We “kindle the flames” by attaching to what we
like and resisting what we dislike, rather than accepting life as
it is. This ego-perpetuated misery ends up consuming the mind, born
of our constant thirst for life to be the way we want it to be, and
not the way it actually is.
Bankei encourages us to think back to when we were born, or as
close to that time as we can because as newborns we do not have
these cynical minds making tall demands of life, but rather
innocent ‘blank sheets’ upon which life writes its poetry, both
beautiful and grotesque. Sure enough, as babes we quickly decide on
what we like and what we don’t like, crying when we don’t get our
own way; but even toddlers still have moments when the clear and
indiscriminating mind of innocence remains, illuminating their
world. Indeed, even adults can sometimes spontaneously experience
the Unborn, for it is our natural underlying state, and out of it
comes the struggling egos that we mistake ourselves to
be.
Here Bankei encourages us to “keep your mind as it was when you
came into the world” because he knows that this pure state of
innocent knowing is the very Unborn Buddha Mind that is without the
sufferings of the limited human minds that we normally identify
with. On top of this, he states that “this very self is a living
‘thus come’ one.” A ‘thus come’ one is a title of a Buddha, and
Bankei is saying that if we recognize and retain the pure Mind that
precedes and sits behind the conditioned mind, we will rest in the
unconditioned and unborn Buddha Mind. This is not, as Bankei makes
clear, not something to be believed, but rather an experience to be
known. And here, we come to a crucial point in all of this: how do
we realize the Unborn? It is not through thinking, for
enlightenment precedes all thought; it is not through feeling, for
enlightenment precedes emotions. We must regain the vision of an
innocent babe. And we can do this by looking at ourselves with the
pure Eye of an infant. To do this, please conduct the following
reflection, remembering that it is not our thoughts or emotions
that are important, but the essential experience itself.
If Bankei is correct in that the Unborn is ever-present amidst the
born, and that it is in fact our natural state, it shouldn’t be too
difficult to locate. And, as it turns out, if we turn around and
accept what is present instead of what we think or believe should
be present, the Unborn is revealed. As it was never born, it can
never die, and is always awaiting us if we pay enough attention to
the way things are right now. Retaining this vision, we will
spontaneously produce all the wisdom and compassion we need,
straight out of nowhere. Doing thus, we are each a “living thus
come one” awake to our true nature, as well as the relative nature
true that appears in it. Why not look and see whether or not Bankei
is correct – what have you to lose?