Review of Session 1 & 2 - The Essential Nature Mind
“Not all sentient beings are called awakened. This is explained as beginningless ignorance because thought-moment after thought-moment have always followed one another in a continuous flow (念念相續 the ‘mindstream’ / citta-santāna) and sentient beings have never been free from conceiving (念).
The Innately Awakened Mind
Four Mirror analogies for
- Like a mirror with nothing being reflected by it - totally without images
- Like a mirror in that it reflects all images equally, and the images do not ‘arise’ or ‘cease’
- Like a mirror, being undefiled by any image
- Like a mirror as the condition for habituation, images appearing in accord with one’s desire
The Mind Not Awakened
- “Due to not truly realizing oneness with Suchness, there emerges an unenlightened mind and, consequently, its thoughts (念).
- “It is like someone who has lost their way. They are confused because of their wrong sense of direction. If they are freed from the notion of direction altogether, then there will be no such thing as going astray.”
- Due to the unenlightened state, there are three characteristics:
- Ignorant karmic action (無明業)
- A (perceived) subject (能見)
- A realm of objects (’perceptual field’) (境界) - which give rise to…
- Cognition, which discriminates likes and dislikes (智)
- ‘Continuity’ [of consciousness], citta-santāna a.k.a. the ’mindstream’(相續)
- Attachment/clinging (執取)
- Coming up with names (計名字, vikalpa)
- Emerging karma (起業)
- Suffering the bondage of karma (業繫苦)
Awakened vs. Not Awakened
- They are both the same, and different.