Realization Will Remove Faults
- Just as the ocean’s salty water
Taken into the clouds turns sweet,
The stable mind works to benefit others;
The poison of objects turns into healing nectar.
If we realize the true nature of the mind, this realization itself will remove all defects and problems. These could be of various types—disturbing thoughts or emotions, experiences of intense sadness or regret. They can all be removed through the recognition of mind’s nature in mahamudra practice. How this is possible is explained in this verse through an analogy of ocean water. We cannot drink seawater because it is too salty. Nevertheless, after the ocean’s water evaporates, gathers into clouds, and returns to the earth as rain, it has become pure. No longer salty, it is fit to drink.
The meaning of this analogy is as follows. We continually give rise to various forms of disturbing emotions. For example, when we encounter an external object that makes us angry, this experience of anger causes us to be unhappy. If we act on this anger, others can suffer as well. To give another example: When we are frustrated by the failure of our endeavors, we can become highly anxious and miserable, and this may last for our whole life.
In each of these situations, it seems to us that the disturbing emotion or suffering that arises in our mind is very solid and powerful. Since it is so intense, it appears to be more powerful than we feel we are. However, if we actually look and meditate on the mind’s nature, we discover that all the things arising in our mind—thoughts, disturbing emotions, sadness, and misery—are mere appearances. If we scrutinize them, looking to see what they really are and where they really are, we will discover they are empty of substance and location. When we look directly at the thoughts, disturbing emotions, and misery that arise in our mind, we cannot find where they are located, or where they came from, or whether they have a shape or color. We never find any of these qualities that all the objects seem to have.
Examining here means looking at the thought within the mind, not examining the object that inspired the thought or the condition that led to the disturbing emotion. It is scrutiny of the thought itself; we directly observe the emptiness of the thought. Whether we do this in the context of benefiting others—as the verse states, “the stable mind works to benefit others”—or simply in the context of benefiting ourselves, what happens when we see the nature of thoughts is that the previously poisonous quality of the thought, the disturbing emotion, or the suffering is transformed into a situation of great benefit. And so as the verse states, “the poison of objects turns into healing nectar.” We believe that disturbing emotions are terrible, that thoughts are bad, and that sadness is a shame. But the nature of these conditions that arise in our mind is actually flawless bliss. Since we do not recognize their nature, we are afflicted by them. Actually, in and of themselves, thoughts and emotions are not bad, because their nature is peace. Nevertheless, as long as disturbing emotions arise as afflictions, they are, of course, a problem. When we recognize the nature of thoughts, disturbing emotions, or sadness, it is like experiencing a healing nectar. The poison of thoughts and disturbing emotions is transformed into medicine.
In the context of the gradual instruction of mahamudra, this process of scrutinizing thoughts is called looking at the mind within occurrence, or looking at the moving mind. It is normally preceded by the practice of looking at the mind within stillness. This latter practice means that when we are in a stable state of meditation, we look directly at our own mind. Specifically, we look to see where and what the mind is. Through this investigation we eventually discover that there is no location and no substance of mind to be found. In this way, we resolve experientially that the mind is empty.
This verse presents looking at the mind in motion. Occurrence, or movement, means that a thought occurs within the mind. The thought could be any kind of thought—an angry thought, a jealous thought, an arrogant thought, a desirous thought, a sad thought, a happy thought, or a compassionate thought. Whatever the content of the thought may be, when we recognize that a thought has arisen, we look directly at it. In looking at the thought, we see its nature and discover that it is like the nature of the mind itself: it has no location and no substance. It is empty. So through the practice of looking at the mind within the occurrence of thought, we transform the mind’s apparent poison into healing nectar, which is its true nature.
Despite Fear, Realization Turns Into Bliss
- When you realize the ineffable, it is neither suffering nor bliss.
When there is nothing to meditate upon, wisdom itself is bliss.
Likewise, though thunder may evoke fear,
The falling of rain makes harvests ripen.
