Luminous Mind

The Way of the Buddha

Kalu

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780861717019
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Buddismo

Luminous Mind is a remarkable compilation of the oral and written teachings of the late Kalu Rinpoche - who was called "a beacon of inspiration" by the Dalai Lama. A master of meditation and leader of the Shangpu Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, Kalu Rinpoche taught with an inviting, playful and lucid style that was just one natural manifestation of his own profound realization. The teachings presented in Luminous Mind are immediate and timeless.As the Dalai Lama notes in his foreword, Luminous Mind covers "the full range of Buddhist practice from the basic analysis of the nature of the mind up to its ultimate refinement in the teachings of Mahamudra." This anthology of Kalu Rinpoche's writings and oral teachings resonates with his wisdom and compassion.Comparing Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche with Milarepa, the greatest mediation master Tibet has ever known, His Holiness the Dalai Lama extols the author of Luminous Mind as a "beacon of inspiration" for spiritual practitioners of all traditions. Noting that "there have been few like him before or since, " His Holiness urges us to delve into this remarkable anthology of the late Kalu Rinpoche's essential instructions so that we may encounter "the full range of Buddhist practice from the basic analysis of the nature of the mind up to its ultimate refinement in the teachings of Mahamudra." Drawn from both his lucid writings and his eloquent oral presentations, this unprecedented book lays bare the full grandeur of Kalu Rinpoche's legacy. At the same time, the gentle words and playful stories of this master of meditation are filled with a depth of clarity and warmth that could only arise from a profound realization of both wisdom and compassion.

PART ONE

MIND AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS

Calling the Lama from Afar

Namo Gurubya

Your guidance, because of the profound connections of my aspirations,

Disturbs to its depths the ocean of samsara’s suffering

And directs me on the path of liberation and lasting bliss.

You, whose kindness could never be returned,

Please, Lama, listen to me!

Interrupting the ceaseless passions and illusions of karma,

By the discipline of the three vows,

You turn me away from samsaric ways

And join my mind to Dharma by your instructions, which ripen and liberate.

Sublime king of guides,

Please, Lama, listen to me!

The blaze of your transcendent wisdom consumes the thicket of my confusion

And directly shows me the face of the self-knowing dharmakāya;

You, who raise me in this very life to the realm of nondual union,

Omnipresent master of all buddha families,

Please, Lama, listen to me!

Lord Lama, master of the sea of maṇḍalas,

Lord Lama, who confers on me all attainments,

Lord Lama, source of all that is useful and desired,

From the depths of my heart, I pray:

Bless me and all mother sentient beings of the six realms

To be delivered as soon as possible from the mire of samsara’s suffering,

And then bless us that in the cessation and realization of the myriad Kagyu adepts,

Our minds may indissolubly mingle with yours.

This prayer, calling from afar the loving lama who guides us on the path to liberation, was composed extemporaneously by Karma Rangjung Kunkhyab at the monastery of Chang Chub Chö Ling, or Dar Ling, in Bhutan, upon the repeated requests of a group of thirteen devoted practitioners.

PART ONE

Section One

Mind, Reality, and Illusion

1

What Is Mind?

Just realizing the meaning of mind
Encompasses all understanding;
Whereas knowing everything
Without realizing the meaning of mind
is the worst (ignorance).

—Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, The Outline of Essential Points

Although we all have the sense of having a mind and of existing, our understanding of our mind and how we exist is generally vague and confused. We rightly say, “I have a mind or consciousness,” “I am,” “I exist”; we identify ourselves with a “me,” an “I” to which we attribute qualities. But we do not know the nature of this mind, nor of this “me.” We do not know what they consist of, how they function, or who or what we really are.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PARADOX

In seeking out mind, initially the most important thing is to recognize mind’s nature by questioning, at the deepest level, what we really are. Those who really examine their mind and consider what it is are extremely rare, and for those who try to, the search proves difficult. As we search and observe what our mind is, often we do not actually close in on it; we do not really arrive at an understanding of it.

A scientific perspective, no doubt, can offer many answers toward a definition of mind. But that is not the kind of knowledge we’re referring to here. The basic issue is that it is not possible for the mind to know itself, because the one who searches, the subject, is the mind itself, and the object it wants to examine is also mind. There is a paradox here: I can look for myself everywhere, search the world over, without ever finding myself, because I am what I search for.

The problem is the same as trying to see our own face: our eyes are very close to it, but they cannot see it any more than they can see themselves. We do not come to know our own mind simply because it is too close. One Dharma proverb says, “The eye cannot see its own pupil.” Likewise, our own mind does not have the capacity to see itself; it is so close, so intimate, that we cannot discern it.

We need to know how to shift perspectives. In order to see our face, we use a mirror. In order to study our own mind, we need a method that functions like a mirror, to allow us to recognize mind. This method is the Dharma as it is transmitted to us by a spiritual guide.

It is in relation to the teaching and this spiritual friend or guide that the mind will gradually be able to awaken to its true nature and finally go beyond the initial paradox by realizing another mode of knowledge. This discovery is effected by various practices known as meditation.

IN SEARCH OF MIND

Mind is a strange thing. Asians traditionally situate it at the center of the body, at the level of the heart. Westerners understand mind to be located in the head or brain. Although different viewpoints are justified, these designations are inadequate. Basically, mind is no more in the heart than it is in the brain. Mind inhabits the body, but it is only an illusion that mind can be localized in this or that place. Essentially, we cannot say that mind is found at a particular place in the person or any place at all.

The search for mind is not easy because, in addition to the paradox whereby the knower cannot know itself, mind’s essential nature is indescribable. It has no form, no color, nor any other characteristic that could allow us to conclude: That’s what it is.

Yet each of us can develop an experience of the nature of our mind by asking ourselves about what is doing the observing: the observer, the knower, the subject that experiences thoughts and different sensations. Where exactly can it be found? What is it? It is a question of observing our own mind: Where is it? Who am I? What am I? Are body and mind the same or different? Do my experiences unfold inside or outside my mind? Are mind and its thoughts distinct, or are they one and the same? If yes, how? If no, how? This search is carried out in meditation, in close connection with a qualified guide who can tell us what is correct and what is mistaken. The process can take several months or even several years.

As this quest deepens, the spiritual guide progressively directs us toward the experience of the actual nature of mind. It is difficult to understand and realize because it is not something that can be apprehended through concepts or representations. The main study of mind cannot be done through theory; we need the practical experience of meditation, observing the mind again and again, in order to penetrate its true nature.

In meditation practice, there is a twofold approach: we can say that one is analytical and the other contemplative. The first is made up of questions like those we asked earlier. If we carry out this type of search persistently, while being competently guided, a definite understanding develops.

In the second approach, mind simply remains at rest in its own lucidity, without forcing or contrivance. This practice goes beyond all preceding forms of analysis, by making us leave the sphere of concepts and opening us to an immediate experience.⁴ At the end of these meditations, we discover the mind’s essential emptiness. That is, it is devoid of determinations and characteristics such as form, color, or aspect, and its nature is beyond representations, concepts, names, and forms. In order to try to evoke recognition of emptiness, we could compare it to the indeterminateness of space: mind is empty like space. But this is just an image, and, as we will see, mind is not only empty.

For the time being, I would like to stress how important knowledge of mind is, as well as the fruits of such knowledge. Mind is what we are. It is what experiences happiness and suffering. Mind is what experiences different thoughts and sensations; it is what is subject to pleasant and unpleasant emotions, what experiences desire, aversion, and so forth. A real understanding of the nature of mind is liberating because it disengages us from all illusions and consequently from the source of the suffering, fears, and difficulties that make up our daily life.

Let’s take an example. If we have the illusion that a harmful person is a helper, he can trick us, abuse us, and cause us harm. But as soon as we recognize him as harmful, we will not be duped; in unmasking him, we can avoid falling prey to his evil deeds. The harmful person here is the ignorance of what we really are, or, more precisely, the illusion of the ego, of a self. The knowledge that unmasks this is awareness of the nature of mind; it liberates us from illusions and painful conditioning. This understanding of mind is the foundation of Buddhadharma and all its teachings.

2

One Mind, Two States

As long as [mind] is not recognized,
the wheel of existence turns.
When this is understood, the state of Buddha
is nothing other than that.
There is nothing that can be described
as either existing or not existing.
May the nature of reality,
the true nature of the Buddha mind, be recognized.

—The Third Karmapa, Mahāmudrā: Boundless Joy and Freedom

ENLIGHTENMENT AND ILLUSION

Mind has two faces, two facets, which are two aspects of one reality. These are enlightenment and illusion.

Enlightenment is the state of pure mind. It is nondualistic knowing and is called primordial wisdom. Its experiences are authentic; that is, they are without illusion. Pure mind is free and endowed with numerous qualities.

Illusion is the state of impure mind. Its mode of knowledge is dichotomous or dualistic; it is the “conditioned consciousness.” Its experiences are tainted by illusions. Impure mind is conditioned and endowed with much suffering.

Ordinary beings experience this state of impure, deluded mind as their habitual state. Pure, enlightened mind is a state in which mind realizes its own nature as free of habitual conditions and the suffering associated with them. This is the enlightened state of a buddha.

When our mind is in its impure, deluded state, we are ordinary beings who move through different realms of conditioned consciousness. The transmigrations of the mind within these realms make up their indefinite rounds in conditioned, cyclic existence, or the cycle of lives—saṃsāra in Sanskrit.

When it is purified of all samsaric illusion, the mind no longer transmigrates. This is the enlightened state of a buddha, which is experience of the essential purity of our own mind, of our buddha nature. All beings, whatever they happen to be, have buddha nature. This is the reason we can all realize buddha nature. It is because we each possess buddha nature that it is possible to attain enlightenment. If we did not already have buddha nature, we would never be able to realize it.

So, the ordinary state and the enlightened state are distinguished only by the impurity or purity of mind, by the presence or absence of illusions. Our present mind already has the qualities of buddhahood; those qualities abide in mind; they are mind’s pure nature. Unfortunately, our enlightened qualities are invisible to us because they are masked by different shrouds, veils, and other kinds of stains.

Buddha Śākyamuni taught:

Buddha nature is present in all beings,
But shrouded by adventitious illusions.
Purified, they are truly Buddha.

The distance between the ordinary state and the “enlightened” state is what separates ignorance from knowledge of this pure nature of mind. In the ordinary state, it is unknown. In the enlightened state, it is fully realized. The situation in which mind is ignorant of its actual nature is what we call fundamental ignorance. In realizing its profound nature, mind is liberated from this ignorance, f...