This is a Meditation from the Flight of the Garuda..

[Guest guest]

This is a Meditation from the Flight of the Garuda..

 

The Flight of the Garuda is a major Tibetan buddhist book

 

---------------

 

Instruction in the Essential Meditation

 

EHMAHO! Now listen further, all my best beloved sons and daughters!

No matter

what system of mind-training you practice, unless you realize the

nature of

your mind, severing its root, you miss the point of Dzokchen.

[Dzogchen]

 

The errant aspirant blind to this imperative is like the archer who

places his

[a] target to the front only to shoot off his [the] arrow in another

direction.

He is like the householder who searches outside for a thief who is

still in

the house; like the exorcist who sets his [a] spirit-trap at the west

door

when the demon lives in the east; like the poor man [person] who

begs, blind to

his [their] hearth-stone of gold.

 

Therefore, my beloved children, you who wish to resolve life's

frustrations and

anxieties by the direct method of discovering the nature of mind,

examine your

minds in the following way:

 

What we call "mind", is an insistent chatterer, hopping, skipping and

jumping

about. Try to catch it and it slips away, changing shape or vanishing;

attempt to focus it and it will not be still, proliferating and

scattering;

try to pin it with a label and it resolves into unutterable

emptiness. But, it

is tis same mind that experiences the gamut of human feeling, and

this is the

mind that must be scrutinized.

 

First, what is the origin of this mind? Is it a function of external

phenomena--mountains, rocks, water, trees and celestial breezes--or

is it

independent of them? Asking yourself where the mind comes from,

investigate

this possibility thoroughly.

 

Alternatively, consider whether or not the mind originates from the

reproductive fluids of our parents. If so, enquire into the process

by which

it emerges. Continue this enquiry until it is exhausted and you admit

the mind

has no origin.

 

Then secondly, answer the question, "Where is the mind now?" Is it in

the upper

or lower part of your body, in your sense organs, in your lungs or

your heart?

If it lodges in your heart, in what part of the heart? What is it's

color and

shape? Thoroughly investigate the present location of the mind and

it's

characteristics until you are certain that they are not to be found.

 

Finally, examine the movement of the mind. When it moves, does it

pass through

the organs of the senses? In its momentary embrace of external

objects, is

there physical contact? Is it only a mental function, or are both

body and

mind involved together? Investigate the process of perception.

 

Further, when a thought arises with it's attendant emotion, firstly,

investigate its source. Secondly, find its present location, its

color and

shape and any other attributes. Look long and hard for the answers to

these

questions. Lastly, when thought has subsided into itself and

vanished, where

has it gone? Examine your mind closely for the answers.

 

At the time of death, what occurs to the mind? How does it leave the

body?

Where does it exit? Consider these questions and all their

ramifications in

detail.

 

Persevere in your careful enquiry, examining the mind until you reach

a

positive conclusion that it is empty, pure and utterly inexpressible,

that it

is a non-entity and free of birth and death, coming and going.

 

The arid assertions and metaphors of others--statements such as "Mind

is

emptiness!"--are worse than useless. Until you know the answer

yourself such

statements tend to bring doubt and hesitation to the mind.

 

It is like a dogmatic assertion that tigers do in fact live in a

country where it is

generally supposed that tigers are extinct. It leaves doubt and

uncertainty on

the subject. After tentatively examining your mind and having

established its

nature, it is as if you had explored the valleys and hills where the

tigers are

said to exist and, having seen for yourself whether tigers live

there, are

fully informed. Thereafter, if the question of tigers' existence in

that place

arises, you will have no doubt as to the truth of the matter.

 

 

Initiation into the Nature of Mind

 

EHMAHO! Again, my beloved sons and daughters, gather round and

listen! During

the analysis and examination of your minds in the manner described

above, when

you failed to find a "mind" that you could point to and say "This is

it!"

and when you failed to find so much as an atom that you could call

concrete,

then your failure was a supreme success.

 

Firstly, "mind" has no origin; since it is originally emptiness its

essence is

insubstantial. Secondly, it has no location, no color and no shape.

Finally,

it does not move: without moving, it disappears without a trace; its

activity

is empty activity, its emptiness empty appearances.

 

Mind's nature is not created by a cause in the first place, and it is

not

destroyed by an agent or condition at the end. It is a constant

quantity:

nothing can be added to or taken from it, it is incapable of increase

or

decrease, and it cannot be filled or emptied.

 

Since mind's nature is all-pervasive, the ground of both samsara and

nirvana,

it is without bias or partiality. No form demonstrates its actuality

more

clearly than another, and it manifests all and every-thing equally

without

obstruction.

 

Mind cannot be established or defined as anything at all specific,

since it

goes beyond the limits of existence and non-existence. Without coming

and

going it is without birth and death, without clarity and obstruction.

 

The nature of mind in its purity is like a stainless crystal ball:

its essence

is emptiness, its nature is clarity, and its responsiveness is a

continuum.

 

In no way whatever is the nature of mind affected by samsara's

negativity.

>From the first it is Buddha. Trust in this!

 

Such is my introduction initiating recognition of the original nature

of mind,

the ground of our being, our true existential condition.