True Mind Dwells On Nothing

When master Eno, the 6th zen patriarch in China, heard the following phrase from the Diamond Sutra, he gained deep insight: "When the mind dwells on nothing, the true mind appears." Too often, we ruminate on past experiences, or future anxieties. Constantly returning to the simple living reality of body posture and breath allows us to break free from past conditionings, and be open to new possibilities.

Transcript

During Zazen,

Instead of ruminating on past or future events,

Constantly bring back your attention to posture and breath.

It is returning to these essential aspects of our living,

Embodied awareness and the breath of life,

That we can become free from our mental processes.

That is why we constantly repeat,

Concentrate on posture,

Tuning to the rhythm of the breathing.

In fact,

The mind can only be doing one thing,

Either we're thinking or we are not thinking.

The not thinking we can reach it when we breathe out completely and the gravity point of the body descends into the lower belly.

At the end of the exhalation,

There is no thought left.

And we are ready,

Open to new possibility,

A new in-breath,

A new idea,

Ready to face what life offers us.

Yet,

Very often,

We kind of get stuck on past events,

On past experiences that have shaped us.

It's like an old disc that we play over and over again in our head,

Kind of throws a shadow over our existence.

A dwelling mind is an unhappy mind.

With regards to this subject,

There is the famous experience of Master Yino,

The sixth patriarch in China,

Who,

When he heard a phrase of the Diamond Sutra,

He gained deep insight.

This phrase is,

When the mind dwells on nothing,

The true mind appears.

What is that true mind that dwells on nothing?

It cannot be grasped.

It cannot be canned in concepts.

It is completely fluid,

Flexible,

And free.

It is a mind that is unattached.

It is a mind that is not afraid of the future.

A mind that doesn't regret the past.

It is neither thinking nor non-thinking,

But it is a mind that goes beyond thinking and non-thinking.

When we continue being fully absorbed in posture and breath,

And our mental processes calm down,

When we completely surrender to this simple sitting practice,

The true mind appears.

We can become fully alive,

Fully one with the present moment.

That is what is liberating.

Not getting stuck in concepts.

Not dwelling on anything.

What an amazing freedom.