Author: Fafu
Translator : Lotus
Dear Dharma friends！
Hello everyone. Welcome to this episode of the podcast contributed by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated of Australia.
Today, we continue to study the Buddha’s teaching on the “Wonderful Enlightened True Mind” in the second volume, which is a crucially important doctrine.
1. The Delusion of Sentient Beings
The Buddha, with compassion, first pities Ananda and the assembly, pointing out that since beginningless eons, they have overlooked their “Wonderfully Perfect Enlightened Mind,” which is the subtle, radiant, perfectly complete, and unchanging true mind. Instead, they take the external six objects of perception (form, sound, smell, etc.) and the internal delusions (greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt) as real, mistakenly identifying these illusory phenomena as their true self. This is what is meant by “mistaking external objects for oneself.”
This process of delusion is like a person fixating on the images and text displayed on a computer screen while forgetting the screen itself. They mistake the deluded mind for the true mind, even believing that the mind is confined within the physical body. The Buddha uses a vivid metaphor to describe this error: it is like abandoning the vast, boundless ocean and mistakenly taking a tiny bubble for the entire sea. This attachment to “taking delusion as the mind and firmly believing the mind is confined within the physical body” causes sentient beings to become “doubly deluded,” even more confused than ordinary deluded beings, as they stubbornly cling to the belief that the physical body is their true self.
2. The Wonderful Enlightened True Mind
The Buddha then expounds on the true nature of the mind, emphasizing that “your body and your mind are both manifestations within the Wonderful Enlightened True Mind.” This Wonderful Enlightened True Mind is subtle, pure, radiantly clear, neither arising nor ceasing, and is the source of all phenomena.
All phenomena arise from the mind: Our physical body, the delusions of the mind, and even the external mountains, rivers, earth, and vast universe are all illusory manifestations of the Wonderful Enlightened True Mind. Just as a computer screen can display text, images, and videos while remaining unchanged itself, but can present countless scenes.
All-Encompassing and Boundless: The true mind is vast and boundless, pervading the entire Dharma realm, unrestricted by space or time. The Buddha said: ” The physical body as well as the mountains, the rivers, empty space, and the great earth are all within the wonderful enlightened true mind.” revealing the omnipresence of the true mind.
3. Ananda’s Confusion
Upon hearing the Buddha’s teachings, Ananda gained some understanding and recognized that the Wonderful Enlightened True Mind is originally perfect, and it is the everlasting ground of my mind.” However, he still relied on the “conditioned mind”—the deluded mind that clings to external objects—to receive the teachings, and thus “did not dare to recognize it as the original essence of the mind.” He mistakenly took the mind that discriminates the Dharma as the true mind, like someone looking at a finger pointing to the moon and mistaking the finger for the moon itself.
The Buddha compassionately corrects: “You still use the conditioned mind to listen to the Dharma; this Dharma is also conditioned and does not attain the true nature of the Dharma.” He uses the metaphor of “pointing at the moon”: when someone points a finger at the moon, one should look at the moon itself. If one mistakenly takes the finger for the moon, not only is the moon unseen, but the purpose of the finger’s pointing is also lost. Similarly, if one takes the “conditioned mind” that discriminates the sound of the Dharma as the true mind, one has misunderstood entirely.
4. Characteristics of the True Mind
The Buddha further elucidates the characteristics of the Wonderful Enlightened True Mind:
Apart from the sound which is distinguished, should have a nature which makes distinctions: The true mind does not depend on external sounds or phenomena to exist. Even when detached from the discriminative clinging to sounds, the inherent “capacity to discriminate” remains—this is the Wonderful Enlightened True Mind. Just as a computer screen’s ability to display remains unchanged regardless of the content shown.
Nowhere to Go, Ever-Abiding and Unchanging: The true mind does not arise or cease with external conditions, nor does it vanish due to discrimination. The Buddha said: “If it is truly your mind, it has nowhere to go.” The true mind is inherently complete, neither coming nor going, neither increasing nor decreasing.
Neither Arising nor Ceasing Due to Conditions: The “capacity to discriminate” of the true mind does not arise dependent on external conditions, nor does it cease with them; thus, it doesn’t depend on anything else. Unlike the deluded mind, which depends on conditions for its arising and ceasing, the true mind is independent of such conditions.
5. The Process of Delusion
The Buddha thoroughly analyzes the process by which sentient beings overlook the true mind:
From Ignorance to the Physical Body: Due to ignorance, sentient beings give rise to deluded activity, mistakenly perceiving ” Mental dimness turns into emptiness.” This leads to the formation of this emptiness, in the dimness, ” (the phenomenon of taking birth), ultimately resulting in the creation of the “physical body” (the initial form of life).
Deepening Delusion: Due to the continuous growth of deluded thoughts stemming from ignorance, the physical body forms a state of “form entangled with false thinking, where the appearance of thought becomes the body.”
Chasing External Conditions: Due to afflictions such as greed, hatred, and ignorance, sentient beings, in conjunction with external conditions, pursue fame and profit, creating negative karma. This gives rise to a “state of confusion and disturbance,” where they disturb themselves and others, becoming entangled in chaos.
They mistake all these illusory phenomena for the true nature of the mind, clinging to the deluded mind within the physical body while ignoring the vast and boundless Wonderful Enlightened True Mind. This delusion is like abandoning the vast ocean of a hundred thousand seas and mistakenly recognizing a single fleeting bubble as the entire tide, an extremely narrow and limited view.
6. Conclusion
The Buddha emphasizes: The true mind is the ever-abiding nature that is “free from all conditioned phenomena and without discriminative characteristics,” not the deluded mind that arises and ceases based on conditions. Thank you, everyone!
