The true nature of your mind
Your conscious nature is already a perfect Buddha
You cannot “become” the unchanging mirror as “pure consciousness”. Whatever is done in terms of practice, meditation and inner inquiry; will never cause a reflection to become a mirror.
The thought of being ‘someone’ is a reflection. The feeling of being a ‘seeker’ is a reflection. Whatever practices or efforts the ‘someone’ as ‘seeker’ undertakes, they can never transform the ‘seeker’ as reflection into a mirror.
What does happen is a sudden flash and that flash of insight belongs to the wisdom of the mirror, not to the reflection.
The Buddha mind is originally perfect and never deviates from its perfect nature.
You are just the mirror. Nothing can affect your nature.
“No matter what circumstances or what world we find ourselves in, we have no expectations or changes. We are exactly what we are: the natural state that is like a mirror. It is bright and empty, and yet it reflects everything, all possible existences and all possible lives. But it never changes and it doesn’t depend on anything else.” ~ Bon Lopon Tenzin Namdak
Anyone who has ever realized the true nature of their own mind has discovered that the true nature of mind is ’emptiness’. This means that the conscious mind as such has no fundamental material or substantial essence. Most describe it as an empty space. But the empty space is not just a dead void, but is imbued with a cognitive presence or a vivid consciousness.
It is the ” empty conscious presence
‘ that defines the true nature of the mind. It is not one thing, but all the things that appear in it such as thoughts, emotions, images, dreams, shapes, perceptual colors, sounds, tastes, smells, sensations and experiences of all kinds.
The 16th century Zen master Han-shan says, “I took a walk. Suddenly I stood still, filled with the realization that I had no body or mind. All I could see was one big illuminating Whole: omnipresent, perfect, clear and serene. It was like an all-encompassing mirror from which the mountains and rivers of the earth were projected… I felt clear and transparent.’
Enlightenment is the direct realization of the nature of mind
The moment the mind realizes its own true nature, it experiences itself as a vast and boundless void that pervades all phenomena; for it is the true nature of all phenomena.
One moment ‘you’ were a reflection looking for the empty, clear mirror in which you appeared, and the next moment you are suddenly the clear, conscious void in which all appearances appear. Rest there.
“So ugly or beautiful, positive or negative conditions, heavens or hells or transmigration do not in any way affect the underlying nature of consciousness that is the state of the mirror itself.” ~ Namkhai Norbu
You are always a limitless, motionless and timeless Buddha spirit without form or material substance. Your state is the natural bliss of being when you are not creating alternative experiences.
From a Dzogchen Tantra on the nature of the mind
“If you try to understand me through concepts, you will find nothing to ‘see’ at all. So do not make me the object of your gaze, but leave me in the natural state!
Since in the unspeakable unborn state no separation ever occurred, there is no need to fulfill vows and obligations.
Since the fundamental essence is spontaneously perfect from the beginning, there is no point in striving for it in practice.
Since self-originating wisdom can never be hindered, there is no point in trying to make the wisdom of pure presence clearer.
Since everything is already at my level, there are no levels of realization to cultivate and enter.
Since I pervade all existence in its entirety, there is no path that can lead to Me.
Since I always transcend the dualism of subject and object, there is nothing to be defined as ‘subtle substance’.
Because my form is present in everything, duality has never existed.
Because I am the original, self-arising wisdom, there is no one else who can affirm me.
Since I am the essence of universal enlightenment, there is no other secret instruction.”
“On the contrary, you simply settle in the natural state, without forming any concept about appearance and emptiness, certain things to be eliminated, the remedies that eliminate them, or anything else. ‘Natural state’ here means artless, while ‘resting’ simply means letting it be in this state, hence the term ‘resting in the natural state’.