"Without A Name..."
Knowledge without wisdom is habit without substance.
Not questioning appearances results in misperception.
A confused mind sees separate identity where none exists.
Identity believing it knows something, knows less than nothing.
There is nothing to know,
And no one to know it.
There is knowing,
But knowing there is knowing, is not knowing.
All concepts are only empty representations,
Easily mistaken for what they represent.
Without light confusion multiplies,
Traveling from generation to generation.
Misapprehending the illusory nature of appearances,
New forms of self and other arise.
A new season's coat for the mind,
Passing new adornments for imagination's grand facade.
Obscured by deep conditioning,
Tossed by the turbulent waters of discursive mental churning,
The only path to freedom is negation of all conceptual distinctions, Most importantly, that of a separate "me" and "you".
Although incomprehensible,
Mind is reality itself without division.
From division, the mind sees itself moving,
Wisdom, however, reveals only the shining of the sun.
Before shining,
Clouds appear as "me" and "you."
When shining,
The sun's rays reveal the open sky.
Standing next to reality,
Separate identity is like the earth standing next to the sun,
The earth must exist in order to know the sun,
And the sun only exists because it is known by the earth.
The earth does not know that it is the sun,
Even though it is completely immersed in the sun's radiation.
And even though it is only because of this that the earth lives.
And even though within its outer mantle is the fiery heart of a sun.
Without separation there is no joy in re-union.
So do not despair when in the darkness of the moon's shadow.
This is the time to look within,
To find the sun shining on the other side of the moon within your very own heart as well.
The sun is always shining, inseparable though not always seen,
In fact, it is the sunlight shining in your eyes right now,
Which is the very seeing of your mind and the beating of your heart.
As clouds begin to settle, blue skies emerge without effort.
Resting in the open meadow,
The mind is the sky and wind, clouds passing by,
The sun is the heart and warm blood coursing through veins,
Spring flowers fill the air with the sweet fragrance of peace rising as the morning sun.
Blue eyes awake on the edge of a brand new day,
To wipe the tears of a long night's sleep.
Breath returns again, now lighter and fresh,
Rising gently to the sound of morning birds.
In the Madhyantavibhaga:
False imagination (consists of)
The minds and mental factors of the three realms,
Here, consciousness is the seeing of a referent,
While mental factors (refer to seeing) its distinctive features.
One is the conditioning consciousness,The Bodhicitta-vivarana reads:
And the second (kind) is what consumes.
What consumes, discriminates,
And sets the (mind) in motion are the mental factors. [2]
The imaginary, the other-dependent,
And the perfect, their nature being
The character of emptiness alone,
Are labels for the mind.
For those whose character is delight in the Mahayana,The Madhyantavibhaga goes on to say:
The Buddha's teaching is in brief:
Phenomena are identityless and equality,
And mind is primordially unborn.
Consciousness arises as the appearance of referents,The Acintyastava says:
Sentient beings, a self, and cognizance,
But it does not have an external referent.
Since that does not exist, it does not exist either.
The imaginary, the other-dependent,
And also the perfect,
Are explained through referent, false imagination,
And the non-existence of duality.
What is dependent origination
Is precisely what you maintain as emptiness.
Also the genuine dharma is like that,
And even the Tathagata is the same.
It is also held to be true reality, the ultimate,
Suchness, and the basic substance.
This is the undeceiving reality.
Through realizing it, one is called a Buddha.[3]
Notes:
[1]- Since the seeming is false, impermanent, deceiving and illusion-like, what appear as the abodes, objects, and bodies of sentient beings in the three realms, consisting of the eight consciousnesses are merely false imagination. In Praise of Dharmadhatu, by Nagarjuna, commentary by the Karmapa III.
[2]-Since these consciousnesses arise in dependence on false imagination, they are not real. But since they originate dependently and appear, they are not non-existent either. Hence, they are called "other-dependent."
The meanings as they are designated in dependence on these other-dependent appearances, their discriminations, their latent tendencies, and their appearing as if they were (actual) referents (all) come about like a mirage and (thus) are called "the imaginary nature," because what is non-existent is imagined as existent.
The root of such mistaken-ness is just that the stainless dharmadhatu itself is not aware of itself, while there is not the slightest thing that is really established.[3]-Therefore, due to the stained dharmadhatu as the cause of samsara having become pure, there is not contradiction in referring to it with the term "nirvana."
