In the ancient Buddhist tradition, the mirror is used as a metaphor for the mind. The mirror is a symbol for clarity, wholesome or complete perception, and ‘primordial purity’ of the mind. The mirror may be understood as a quality of the mind that denotes perceiving experience as it is without obscuration formed by mental states (e.g. anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, desire, depression, etc.).
The nature of the mind
According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the mind can be defined “as an entity that has the nature of mere experience, that is, ‘clarity and knowing’. It is the knowing nature, or agency, that is called mind, and this is non-material.” [source: What is the Mind?]
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The dual nature of the mind
The simultaneously dual nature of mind is as follows:
- Clarity – The mental activity which produces cognitive phenomena.
- Knowing – The mental activity of perceiving cognitive phenomena.
To understand how the dual nature of the mind is experienced as duality, it is important to understand that the mind consists of three layers: gross mind, the subtle mind, and the very subtle mind.
The gross mind depends on the body and includes the five senses. The subtle mind includes intuitive ego and beliefs and provides information to the very subtle mind. Only the very subtle mind transitions from past to present, present to future, carrying information from life to life, that is the part that reincarnates.
The gross mind is extremely busy processing the information perceived by the five senses and encompasses all strong delusions such as anger, jealousy, attachment, and ignorance (Ego with a capital E). It is so busy and deluded that it obscures the subtle mind. This is why we experience duality: it is the gap between the deluded perception of the gross mind and the clear cognition of the subtle mind.
Traditionally, using meditation or mindfulness, the aim is to quieten the gross mind, giving space to the subtle mind to function.
Seeing the mind like a mirror
Like a pool of clear water that, when still and undisturbed, clearly reflects the nature that surrounds it, thus is our subtle mind clear and reflecting clearly our environment when it is not obscured by mental states. However, when disturbed or dirty, the water will give a distorted or incomplete reflection of its surroundings. Similarly, when our gross mind obscures our subtle mind, our environment will be reflected in an obscured way.
Seeing the mind like the surface of a pool of water or a mirror, is an excellent way to distinguish between the the pure nature of the mind and the delusions that dirty and obscure it. Our mental states like anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, desire, depression, etcetera, as well as all the labeling done by ourselves and others (good – bad, beautiful – ugly, smart – dumb, etc.) can be identified as not our true selves, not the pure mind. And thus we can let them be and let them go.
Practical application of seeing the mind like a mirror
Traditionally, the mind is tamed or quietened by means of meditation or mindfulness. We might sit ourselves down and ask ourselves questions similar to the questions in The Work of Byron Katie to get clarity on who and what we truly are, our true nature of being. Or we might just sit with our thoughts and feelings and observe, using mindfulness to become more aware and learn to be in the now, free of our delusions, letting them be and letting them go.
A more experiential and energetic way of dealing with this is to use a powerful visualization. This can be done by practicing a traditional Vajrasattva meditation, a powerful Tibetan Buddhist practice for purifying karma. I have created a more contemporary meditation, in which I adapted the traditional meditation and included common practices from various energy healing modalities, in order to make this meditation more comprehensive and accessible for a broader public.
Stay tuned for the contemporary meditation to become available on YouTube.
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