Where is this Mind?
If we look for it or even try to intuit where it is, it cannot be found. Yet it seems that Memory serves it and Cognition plays its part with expedient means. Consciousness is merely a screen where little actually takes place. Nonetheless in Dharma practice and teachings we say that there is nothing outside this Mind.
The first verse of the Dhammapada states:
Yet, when we try to find the mind with the mind, we are placed in the position of opening Pandora's Box by declaring that the Mind invented itself.
It is easy to see why an ordinary person might begin to think that those following Buddha Dharma and the like are crazy and ask, "Are you out of your mind?" To which the obvious Chan reply would be, "What Mind?"
But it would be kinder to address the problem and talk about the illusory impressions of the state of mind. We can declare with assurance that the human mind in all unwakened people is Confused, Acquisitive and Aversive in varying degrees. Making that much more simple we can say that these three factors, when they are in operation as a result of Identity activity, are constantly in conflict and this Mind is agitated.
You may ask, can there be agitation of Mind without there being a Mind?
Yes, if we declare that Mind the Illusion generates the agitation. But that doesn't get us off the hook.
THE ILLUSORY MIND
Perhaps it would make more sense if we declared that it is the Agitation that generates the presence of an illusory mind and that same Mind looks for reasons and reverses the concept, declaring that it is Mind that generates agitation.
It is much easier then to imagine that there exists within each human creature agitation which we place in a container which we call "the mind."
Now when you look at a jungle postcard it is charming and beautiful and if you are in such a spot knowing that within twenty yards is your swimming pool and your baggage and friends are in that five-star hotel, then all is well.
But if you are wet, tired and hungry, don't know where you are, are without a map, guide or a compass and it is beginning to pour with rain-forest intensity, bringing out the snakes and other creatures, and you are without answers to the question "Where do I go from here?" and "What do I do now?," then you may have an idea what the Jungle of the Mind is like under those circumstances.
MIND WITHOUT AGITATION
The question then which arises is, "If there is no agitation does the Mind disappear?"
No, it does not. That is because this mind has been linked to the Awareness of Being Alive for thousands of years and the cognitive knowledge then of being alive automatically triggers the presence of Mind.
But the moment a single word or concept is triggered then the Mind is brought into the Jungle.
You may be quiet and silent, but that Jungle is there waiting for your cognition to send an S.O.S. to Consciousness at any moment when a word or concept appears.
The best solution is to clear up all this confusion, acquisitiveness and aversion and when you open that jungle book you see that this mind is potentially full of words, concepts and connected cognitive experiences.
If you let go of all those words, concepts and experiences then the Mind ceases to exist as far as being conscious of it is concerned.
It is still there. It is not Empty, but it is doing what it is supposed to do -whatever that is.
THE NON-EXISTENT MIND
Now, for those who really want to know what is going on in that non-existent Mind, I will try to explain.
Nothing Exists there, not even that Jungle Vegetation. And yet at the same time it operates perfectly for Human Survival. It operates correctly and in accord with Nature Dharma, because the human system uses for its operation the language of Non-Cognitive Experiences. Furthermore, all experiences converge on just four experiences.
They are True Compassion, True Benevolent Affect, True Gladness and True Equanimity and these four are not four, but One. So we could say that the Mind is really just one Undefinable Experience. No wonder you can't find it by looking for it.
But since we know that the Mind does not exist then we can declare that the non-agitated mind is generated by "The One Undefinable Experience," consisting of the four Experiences of True Compassion, True Benevolent Affect, True Gladness and True Equanimity.
But we must then ask, what is the function of these four states which in Chan Dharma we call Sublime?
It is Human Survival.
Each one of these Four Sublime States, which are Feminine Principles, generates a corresponding Masculine Expression which becomes Acting for the Survival of SELF, completely balanced with the other three, which are Survival of the Appropriate TRIBE, all OFFSPRING of all Creatures and the ENVIRONMENT which supports all these.
For most who are not students of the Seminary this will be a strange idea.
But what a marvelous development of Natural evolution: Natural Virtue is Natural Survival.
Now let us look at two equations.
The True Mind is produced by Natural Virtue.
The Stained Mind is produced by the Agitation of Identity Craving and Clinging.
TOUCHING THE UNCARVED WOOD
THE TRUE MIND
The only thing you can do to come close is to touch the inner experiences of Compassion, Benevolent Affect, Gladness and Equanimity, experiencing by Direct Experiences these four elements.
That is rather like going to an employer who insists that you must have experience in a given profession before you can work there, but whose company is the only one where you can gain that experience.
THE SOLUTION
So the question is, what can one do?
You cannot use Mundane compassion, benevolent love, gladness nor equanimity, for they are only made up of words and phrases that have been put in place by religion, the State, custom and Education to maintain the status quo of Stained Samsara.
You can't even use the Cognitive Experiences of Compassion and the rest that you have accumulated in life, for they are tainted by the words and concepts.
The only thing you can do is by way of Correct Contemplation with a stillness encounter the Last Conceptualizations individually of Compassion, Benevolent Affect, Gladness and Equanimity and then within the Contemplative Becoming of Consciousness just rest there, dwell there, until you pass over to the subliminal non-cognitive experiences of the True Mind of Compassion and the rest.
THE GREAT IMPEDIMENTS
Now the great problem arises if your Identity is present or if there exists the objective "to reach beyond the Cognitive Experiences."
There is only one way to beat this problem and that is to start with the Last Conceptualization of Equanimity.
That means that the results of your search, that is no-search, must be completely free of expectation of the results or the consequences of your no-search, even for Equanimity itself.
This seems like we are in the same bind as we were with the Mind. You can't reach Equanimity without having Equanimity. But fortunately that is not the case.
COGNITIVE GENEROSITY
You must begin with Cognitive Generosity. After a while you will begin to capture the idea that Generosity is not the same as Benevolence.
"All things are preceded by the mind, led by the mind, created by the mind."