Sources: The first part on the difference between the mind and thoughts is based on the following passages: “The Buddha exclaimed, ‘Ananda! That is not your mind!’ Startled, Ananda stood up, placed his palms together, and said to the Buddha, ‘If that is not my mind, what is it?’ The Buddha said to Ananda, ‘it is merely your mental processes that assign false and illusory attributes to the world of perceived objects. These processes delude you about your true nature and have caused you, since time without beginning and in your present life, to mistake a burglar for your own child - to lose touch with your own, original, everlasting mind - and thus you are bound to the cycle of death and rebirth.” -The Surangama Sutra With Excerpts from the Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, Buddhist Text Translation Society, p. 33. “[You] should shine the light of your understanding on the phenomena of the material world. Since all phenomena are subject to change and decay, how could any of them serve as a basis for the practice of Dharma? Contemplate the phenomena of the world, Ananda: which one of them does not decay? But you will never hear of space decaying. Why? Space is unconditioned, and so it has never been and can never be subject to dissolution.” -ibid, p. 171. "Good and Wise Friends, the emptiness of the physical universe can embrace the shapes and forms of the myriad things: the sun, moon, and stars; the mountains, rivers, and the whole earth; the fountains, springs, streams, and torrents; the grasses, trees, thick- ets, and woods; good and bad people, good and bad dharmas, the heavens and the hells, all the great seas, and the entirety of Mount Sumeru and all mountains-empty space contains them all. The emptiness of people’s nature is the same." -The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra - A New Translation, Buddhist Text Translation Society, p. 24. *** The section about being present with things as they are here & now can be traced to discussions around mindfulness (sati). See for example www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.nysa.html *** For the section on investigating non-self, I am indebted to the lucid and liberating work of Ilona Ciunaite. For a wonderful practical, direct and non-academic discussion on the topic, see liberationunleashed.com In Buddhism, the concept of non-self (anatto) is pervasive and discussed extensively. See for example, in the Vajirasutta: “Why do you believe there’s such a thing as a ‘sentient being’? Māra, is this your theory? This is just a pile of conditions, you won’t find a sentient being here. When the parts are assembled we use the word ‘chariot’. So too, when the aggregates are present ‘sentient being’ is the convention we use. But it’s only suffering that comes to be, lasts a while, then disappears. Naught but suffering comes to be, naught but suffering ceases.”,
So well done!!! ❤
Sources:
The first part on the difference between the mind and thoughts is based on the following passages:
“The Buddha exclaimed, ‘Ananda! That is not your mind!’
Startled, Ananda stood up, placed his palms together, and said to the Buddha, ‘If that is not my mind, what is it?’
The Buddha said to Ananda, ‘it is merely your mental processes that assign false and illusory attributes to the world of perceived objects. These processes delude you about your true nature and have caused you, since time without beginning and in your present life, to mistake a burglar for your own child - to lose touch with your own, original, everlasting mind - and thus you are bound to the cycle of death and rebirth.”
-The Surangama Sutra With Excerpts from the Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, Buddhist Text Translation Society, p. 33.
“[You] should shine the light of your understanding on the phenomena of the material world. Since all phenomena are subject to change and decay, how could any of them serve as a basis for the practice of Dharma? Contemplate the phenomena of the world, Ananda: which one of them does not decay? But you will never hear of space decaying. Why? Space is unconditioned, and so it has never been and can never be subject to dissolution.”
-ibid, p. 171.
"Good and Wise Friends, the emptiness of the physical universe can embrace the shapes and forms of the myriad things: the sun, moon, and stars; the mountains, rivers, and the whole earth; the fountains, springs, streams, and torrents; the grasses, trees, thick- ets, and woods; good and bad people, good and bad dharmas, the heavens and the hells, all the great seas, and the entirety of Mount Sumeru and all mountains-empty space contains them all. The emptiness of people’s nature is the same."
-The Sixth Patriarch's Sutra - A New Translation, Buddhist Text Translation Society, p. 24.
***
The section about being present with things as they are here & now can be traced to discussions around mindfulness (sati). See for example www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.nysa.html
***
For the section on investigating non-self, I am indebted to the lucid and liberating work of Ilona Ciunaite. For a wonderful practical, direct and non-academic discussion on the topic, see liberationunleashed.com
In Buddhism, the concept of non-self (anatto) is pervasive and discussed extensively. See for example, in the Vajirasutta: “Why do you believe there’s such a thing as a ‘sentient being’? Māra, is this your theory? This is just a pile of conditions, you won’t find a sentient being here. When the parts are assembled we use the word ‘chariot’. So too, when the aggregates are present ‘sentient being’ is the convention we use. But it’s only suffering that comes to be, lasts a while, then disappears. Naught but suffering comes to be, naught but suffering ceases.”,