The Two Arrows of Suffering

[doc benway]

On 8/12/2024 at 6:59 AM, old3bob said:

Buddhism uses the term "mind"  as if it were Spirit but to me it is a thing

 

One of the really interesting exercises I've encountered is the practice of searching for this thing called "mind."

Where is it? What does it look like? Can you hold it? Can you show it to me? What are its characteristics and so forth...?

Talking about the exercise, its value or veracity, doesn't amount to much but actually spending some time with it is very interesting and potentially transformative. 

 

In the Bön tradition searching for the mind is often taught in stages. 

The first stage involves allowing the mind to settle enough to be able to look at it, without getting wrapped up in its activity and machinations. This is called zhiné and is often done by gazing at an object such as the Tibetan letter A for long periods of time.

 

 

Once the mind has settled and stabilized enough that we're able to observe it more clearly without being overly identified with it or wrapped up in its activity, we look at it and observe its characteristics. At this point the practice begins to reveal some powerful insights. I was recently chatting with a friend who is studying Talmud and discovered a similar practice. Of course, most wisdom traditions (all?) have practices of examining the mind and discovering its nature, each I suspect doing so in its own unique and beautiful way as informed by its view, its culture, its heart.

 

There is a wonderful teaching in Bön I've spoken of many times here called the 21 Nails, referred to as "nails" in the sense that once we have truly understood the teaching, we have nailed down the meaning in such a way that it becomes stable and decisive.

 

From the first Nail:

 

As for recognizing the mind and the nature of mind:

Free of thoughts,

Becoming the base-of-all,

Neutral,

Possessing the potential to arise as anything without ceasing ---

These four. The base-of-all is the nature of mind.

 

Recollected and aware,

Able to arise as anything whatsoever,

Liberated when released,

If allowed to settle, it mixes [with the base-of-all] ---

These four. The intellect is the mind. 

 

Of course, these descriptions do not attempt to define the mind and its nature, they are simply meant to serve as an aid to distinguishing between the two in our practice.

 

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