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In Buddhism, its
often said that humans’ Original Mind, that Mind we have at birth, is like
a clear mirror, pure and uncluttered, with nothing in it whatsoever.
Without shape, form or color. If something comes before it, the mirror
only reflects it, but the mirror itself gives birth to nothing. If what
has been reflected leaves, its image disappears, but the mirror itself
loses nothing. Within the mirror there is no birth, no death. No matter
how dirty a thing is which is reflected, the mirror doesn’t get dirty, nor
does it become beautiful because something beautiful is reflected in it.
The mirror doesn’t get dirty, clean or beautiful. Just because something
is reflected doesn’t mean anything increases in it either, nor does
anything ever decrease. A mirror is without increase or decrease.
Humans’
pure Original Nature is just this. Without shape, form or color, without
birth and death, not clean or dirty, no increasing, no decreasing not male
or female; not young, not old; not intelligent, not stupid; not rich, not
poor. There are no words, no explanation possible, no description that
will apply here, only a pure mirror-like base. This is humans’ true
quality, this is an actual experience. From our zazen (sitting
meditation), cut all nen (mind-instant), did down completely to the source
of those nen—dig, dig, dig until we reach the place where the human
character has been totally cleared. When the source point is reached, this
state of Mind can be touched.
This clear human character, which is like a mirror, can accept
and receive everything, but nothing which is reflected can get stuck to
this mirror. It reflects everything exactly as it is, but the mirror
itself stays untouched. This mirror-like Mind has no sense of "that’s me"
or "that’s him, not me." It has no dualism; it makes no distinctions like
that. At that true base, there actually is no differentiation between self
and others. The world which is reflected in-- reflected by--that mirror is
not one of self and other; it has no such separation, it accepts
everything as one unified whole. It was originally one world, no division
into "my" world and "his" world. There are no such two worlds; from the
origin there is only one, unified world. To understand this as an actual
fact with your own experience, is the wisdom of the Buddha. From there
arises the functioning, the activity of the human Mind which naturally
feels another’s pain as one’s own pain, feels another’s joy as one’s own
joy. A warm, encompassing Mind naturally arises and comes from this wisdom
and experience. That is what is called the compassion of the
Buddha.
If we can realize the source point of our human character, then
naturally all of the world becomes One. Not divided, it is encountered as
one unified Whole; a great, expansive and huge world of One. Wisdom works
here and humans’ joy, suffering and sadness become our own joy, suffering
and sadness. It is not somebody else’s joy; it is one’s very own joy as
well. This is how a warm, all-encompassing Mind becomes naturally revealed
and serves as the source of our action. Simply put, this is what the
Buddha meant when he said, "Seek the light within yourself."
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