Understanding the Nature of the Mind

I especially loved this reading, Clarifying the Natural State. It was beautiful to read and also, being someone who attends yoga classes weekly and tries to meditate in multiple situations, I found this read especially useful as instruction to a more correct and accurate meditation. When I personally use meditation, it is as a means to calm down my mind if I am ever stressed, busy or just want to relax. It was interesting to learn more about the natural of the mind as understood in this reading. I tend to get frustrated when my mind wanders during meditation because I have been told to stop that from happening. I have always believed in shaping the mind through experience, education, etc., but one quote specifically stuck out to me here. 

“At the beginning, this mind was not produced from any causes or conditions, and did not arise from any basis, not in any way whatsoever; rather it is rootless since the be- ginning. Presently, it does not remain as any shape or form at all, but is unidentifiable. In the end, without being stopped by anyone, it is self-dissolving, self-clearing and self-liberated.”

I have never thought of the mind in this way. It reminded me of in class when we talked about Buddhist meditation as a means of searching for some sense of self and ideally not finding it. Our hand is not the self, our heartbeat is not the self and now it is reinforced that the mind is not the self either.

“…a self-knowing emptiness that from the very first cannot be pinpointed as arising, dwelling or ceasing.”

In this way, the mind is what it is. There is no reason for us to be upset with how it is and try to change things about it because it will not change.

“…cannot be improved by anything good or worsened by anything bad.”

Understanding that the mind is self-clearing, self-knowing and self-liberating is a comforting thought. Because of this nature of the mind, we must accept how we are and not expect change. Acceptance is a challenging idea for many people, especially when it comes to acceptance of oneself but the “clarification” of this “natural state” gives much comfort to me.

“…resolve that it is a self-clearing, self-knowing, self-liberated state that does not need to be fine-tuned or corrected.”