The Luminous Mind
I gave a simile to a monk the other night. Imagine an Emperor
who is wearing a long pair of trousers and a big tunic. He's got
shoes on his feet, a scarf around the bottom half of his head and a
hat on the top half of his head. You can't see him at all because
he's completely covered in five garments. It's the same with the
mind. It's completely covered with sight, sound, smell, taste and
touch. So people don't know it. They just know the garments. When
they see the Emperor, they just see the robes and the garments.
They don't know who lives inside them. And so it is no wonder
they're confused about what is life, what is mind, who is this
inside of here, were did I come from? Why? What am I supposed to be
doing with this life? When the five senses disappear, it's like
unclothing the Emperor and seeing what is actually in here, what's
actually running the show, who's listening to these words, who's
seeing, who's feeling life, who this is. When the five senses
disappear, you're coming close to the answer to those
questions.
What you're seeing in such deep meditation is that which we call
"mind," (in Pali it's called Citta). The Buddha used this beautiful
simile. When there is a full moon on a cloudy night, even though
it's a full moon, you can hardly see it. Sometimes when the clouds
are thin, you can see this hazy shape shining though. You know
there is something there. This is like the meditation just before
you've entered into these profound states. You know there is
something there, but you can't quite make it out. There's still
some "clothes" left. You're still thinking and doing, feeling the
body or hearing sounds. But there does come a time, and this is the
Buddha's simile, when the moon is released from the clouds and
there in the clear night sky you can see the beautiful full disc of
the moon shining brilliantly, and you know that's the moon. The
moon is there; the moon is real, and it's not just some sort of
side effect of the clouds. This is what happens in meditation when
you see the mind. You see clearly that the mind is not some side
effect of the brain. You see the mind, and you know the mind. The
Buddha said that the mind released is beautiful, is brilliant, is
radiant. So not only are these blissful experiences, they're
meaningful experiences as well.
How many people may have heard about rebirth but still don't really
believe it? How can rebirth happen? Certainly the body doesn't get
reborn. That's why when people ask me where do you go when you die,
"one of two places" I say "Fremantle or Karrakatta" that's where
the body goes! [3] But is that where the mind goes? Sometimes
people are so stupid in this world, they think the body is all
there is, that there is no mind. So when you get cremated or buried
that's it, that's done with, all has ended. The only way you can
argue with this view is by developing the meditation that the
Buddha achieved under the Bodhi tree. Then you can see the mind for
yourself in clear awareness - not in some hypnotic trance, not in
dullness - but in the clear awareness. This is knowing the
mind.
When you know that mind, when you see it for yourself, one of
the results will be an insight that the mind is independent of this
body. Independence means that when this body breaks up and dies,
when it's cremated or when it's buried, or however it's destroyed
after death, it will not affect the mind. You know this because you
see the nature of the mind. That mind which you see will transcend
bodily death. The first thing which you will see for yourself, the
insight which is as clear as the nose on your face, is that there
is something more to life than this physical body that we take to
be me. Secondly you can recognise that that mind, essentially, is
no different than that process of consciousness which is in all
beings. Whether it's human beings or animals or even insects, of
any gender, age or race, you see that that which is in common to
all life is this mind, this consciousness, the source of doing.
~ Ajahn Brahmavamso
notes: pls note that "mind" here does not refer to "thinking", but
certain luminous aspect of our buddha nature.. but relating more to
the thought level, not necessarily non dual
