All differentiation is imagination. [1]
All imagination is mind only.
Differentiation appears as self-existence where no self-existence exists.
Differentiation appears as self-arising where no self-arising arises.
All appearance is mental fabrication.
All fabrication is unconscious habit. [2]
Mental fabrication creates the reflection of the moon on water.
Seeing only the reflection, mind believes a moon to exist where no moon exists.
Just the same, fixating on appearances as if they are truly
self-existent, independent and separate objects as they appear, [3]
The mind cannot see its own mirror-like nature. [4]
Beyond all appearances being reflected within it, the mirror-like
quality of mind exists beyond existence and non-existence. [5]
The moon's reflection as a mental fabrication of mind exists only as
mental fabrication. [6]
Mistaking mental fabrication for what truly exists is the root of all
delusion and suffering.
Before, during and after differentiation there is only the reflective,
mirror-like quality of mind.
In between there is only the appearance of a separate mind, like the
moon's reflection on water, where no such mind truly exists. [7]
Mistaking our "selves" as the image within the mirror, rather than
the mirror itself is the fundamental misperception.
A hurried mind obscures what the slow mind reveals. [8]
Emptiness is emptiness of that which obscures the true nature of
mind.
Conventional thinking is not other than mind's mirror-like essence.
And mind's mirror-like essence is not other than conventional
thinking. [9]
Relaxing differentiation is abiding in one-pointed wakefulness,
Ineffable clear light radiating beyond comprehension. [10]
Preceding differentiation is abiding in meditative equipose,
Buddha practicing without seeking to become a buddha. [11]
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Footnotes
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[1] - "Anything perceived should be understood to be neither more nor less than a self-manifestation of the mentality internal to a specific observer." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.
[2] - "Given 'what appear to be outer' and 'perceivable in common', such as mountains and so on, as the postulated subject, these are not outer referents discrete from the inner consciousness and existing with a material essence, because they are the inner 'perceiving awareness' itself appearing as the image of this and that outer referent for those whose operative habitual tendencies correspond, just like forms in a dream." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance. Automatic, unconscious mental fabrication is also known as conventional or conditioned mind.
[3] - As if the moon's reflection were the moon itself.
[4] - The still and empty surface of the water upon which the moon's image is reflected. "..these phenomena which do not exist and yet appear, prevent what does exist from the outset -- namely, the abiding nature, the freedom from the two forms of self - from appearing to ordinary beings." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.
[5] - Its essence merely obscured by the various mental fabrications appearing within it; beyond reach of intellectual understanding through language, ideas and concepts.
[6] - Being mind only its essence is insubstantial, even though it appears to be substantial to conventional (or conditioned) mind.
[7] - There is no separately existing "self" that exists as it appears to our conventional mind. That which is reflected within the mirror-like essence of mind is appearance only which is fleeting, and insubstantial. Like a mirage it is ungraspable, and holds nothing that can satisfy our desires that continually chase after it, ultimately hoping to hold on to it - not understanding its true nature of emptiness and ungraspability.
[8] - "The two, known as phenomena and pure being, are not the same in essence nor do they differ in essence. They are not the same conventionally because a distinction exists between phenomena and pure being. Pure being, naturally pure nirvana, is 'that which exists' from the beginning as the abiding nature. The phenomenal world, with its dualistic appearances that make it samsara, is 'that which does not' exist in reality as it appears.
And yet it should be understood that they are not separate for the following reasons:
a. If the one did not exist, its counterpart would not either.
b. Strictly speaking, pure being, other than being distinguishable from the phenomenal world as its mere lack of verifiable existence, does not exist separately.
c. The distinction between the existent (pure being) and the non-existent (the phenomenal world) is relative, being a differentiation merely with respect to what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected; other than that, there is not even the slightest existence of an actual essence constituting these as separate entities." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.[9] - See note "re: manifestation of delusion" below.
[10] - "The awareness not involving an object/observer relation in being free of all aspects of perceived / perceiver duality is by nature ineffable clear light itself." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.
[11] - "It is not differentiable from 'suchness,' the actually present aspect empty of the two forms of self-entity. It cannot be conceived or formulated in terms of "outer," "inner," or any other phenomena associated with perceived and perceiver, and is therefore asserted to be free of conceptual elaborations." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.
Note Re: Manifestation of Delusion
"One might consider it untenable for non-dual pure being to actually be present (i.e. to exist) from the outset yet not appear, while dualistic appearances (which are delusion) manifest. But this is not untenable because, throughout the course of time 'without beginning,' the habitual tendency toward appearance involving perceived / perceiver dualism coexists with the clear light nature of mind in a manner which obscures that very nature, such that a volatile state, that is, an excitable condition or state of ferement, prevails, thus providing the cause through which delusion originates hand in hand with samsara.
On the other hand, one might suppose that as a consequence of their coexisting in a beginningless fashion, dualistic appearance would be impossible to relinquish, but this is not the case either, because 'the duality of perceived and perceiver's not existing at all is what really exists. When one meditates with such an understanding, this will be seen directly." Mipham, Distinguishing Wisdom and Appearance.
