http://buddhaspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/reflections-on-bankeis-song-of-mind.html
Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was a wonderful exponent of our true nature.
He called it the Unborn Buddha Mind, and talked of it in the everyday
language of ordinary people, rather than in the convoluted language of
philosophy and mysticism. For this reason, his teachings are as valuable
today as they were in Seventeenth Century Japan where he gave them to
the world, in the hope of helping suffering beings out of their
self-created hells. For this reason, it is felt that the present
exploration of the 'Song of the Mind’ will benefit anyone seeking
clarification in the search for awakening to our Unborn Buddha Mind.
When Bankei speaks of “the Original Mind,” he is talking of our true
nature, the bottomless ground of our being. Moreover, he is using
language common to the Zen masters of old, among whom the famous Huang
Bo (died c.850) said that the One Mind is the Buddha, which is unborn in
its nature. This Original Mind is unborn in that it is not created,
that is to say it is not dependent upon anything, and is indeed not a
‘thing’ itself. Bankei says that it is imperishable - it cannot be
destroyed. Now, since thoughts, emotions, memories, and
sense-consciousness are all conditioned and ephemeral, they cannot be
anything to do with the Unborn Original Mind. Therefore, it is not mind
in any conventional (or current scientific) understanding of the word.
In traditional Buddhist parlance, as in other ancient philosophical
systems, “earth, wind, fire and wind” represent the primal four elements
of the natural world, and as such, also account for the human body.
Bankei states that this form is no more than “a temporary lodging for
the night.” A temporary lodging for what, however? If the mind is
accepted as being temporary as stated above, then this is not the ‘what’
that is being referred to by the Master. Indeed, when its transient
nature is accepted, the mind as much as the body can be considered a
temporary lodging, too. Both are impermanent phenomena playing host to
what Bankei calls the Unborn.
“This ephemeral burning house” is another term for the body, and by
extension the mind that is interwoven with it. And, as the Buddha taught
in the famous Fire Sermon, the body and mind are “burning with the
fires of passion, hatred, and delusion; burning with birth, ageing, and
death, with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.” Furthermore,
we cannot blame others for our self-created suffering; nor can nature
be blamed, for it is simply the way it is, and it is our own egotistical
minds that create suffering around it. We “kindle the flames” by
attaching to what we like and resisting what we dislike, rather than
accepting life as it is. This ego-perpetuated misery ends up consuming
the mind, born of our constant thirst for life to be the way we want it
to be, and not the way it actually is.
Bankei encourages us to think back to when we were born, or as close to
that time as we can because as newborns we do not have these cynical
minds making tall demands of life, but rather innocent ‘blank sheets’
upon which life writes its poetry, both beautiful and grotesque. Sure
enough, as babes we quickly decide on what we like and what we don’t
like, crying when we don’t get our own way; but even toddlers still have
moments when the clear and indiscriminating mind of innocence remains,
illuminating their world. Indeed, even adults can sometimes
spontaneously experience the Unborn, for it is our natural underlying
state, and out of it comes the struggling egos that we mistake ourselves
to be.
Here Bankei encourages us to “keep your mind as it was when you came
into the world” because he knows that this pure state of innocent
knowing is the very Unborn Buddha Mind that is without the sufferings of
the limited human minds that we normally identify with. On top of this,
he states that “this very self is a living ‘thus come’ one.” A ‘thus
come’ one is a title of a Buddha, and Bankei is saying that if we
recognize and retain the pure Mind that precedes and sits behind the
conditioned mind, we will rest in the unconditioned and unborn Buddha
Mind. This is not, as Bankei makes clear, not something to be believed,
but rather an experience to be known. And here, we come to a crucial
point in all of this: how do we realize the Unborn? It is not through
thinking, for enlightenment precedes all thought; it is not through
feeling, for enlightenment precedes emotions. We must regain the vision
of an innocent babe. And we can do this by looking at ourselves with the
pure Eye of an infant. To do this, please conduct the following
reflection, remembering that it is not our thoughts or emotions that are
important, but the essential experience itself.
If Bankei is correct in that the Unborn is ever-present amidst the born,
and that it is in fact our natural state, it shouldn’t be too difficult
to locate. And, as it turns out, if we turn around and accept what is
present instead of what we think or believe should be present, the
Unborn is revealed. As it was never born, it can never die, and is
always awaiting us if we pay enough attention to the way things are
right now. Retaining this vision, we will spontaneously produce all the
wisdom and compassion we need, straight out of nowhere. Doing thus, we
are each a “living thus come one” awake to our true nature, as well as
the relative nature true that appears in it. Why not look and see
whether or not Bankei is correct – what have you to lose?
On the Primordial Unborn Mind:
In the sutras this evening, Ta Hui is raising the most fundamental questions about
meditation.
A few things need to be understood before we can discuss the sutras. The first is about your thinking process, which Ta Hui calls discriminating consciousness -- in other words, your mind.
The mind is constantly involved in thinking, in judging, in evaluating. Its whole function
seems to be to keep you involved in thoughts, which are nothing but soap bubbles -- or
perhaps soap bubbles have more substance to them than your thoughts. Your thoughts are almost like writing on water ... no thought leaves any trace on your mind. Your mind is almost like the sky: the birds fly, but they don't leave any footprints in the sky. The sky remains as it was before the birds came and after the birds are gone. To become aware of this is to enter into another dimension of your consciousness, beyond the discriminating consciousness. The discriminating consciousness consists only of thoughts. Beyond it is a consciousness which consists only of watching -- not thinking but only witnessing, just seeing ... not for, not against, nor appreciating, nor condemning -- simply seeing, just the way the newborn child sees.
Look for a moment at the newborn child: he has eyes, he has consciousness. He looks all around, he sees all the colors, the flowers, the light, the people, their faces, but do you think the child recognizes the color green as green? Do you think he discriminates between a woman and a man? Or that this is beautiful and that is ugly?
He has a non-discriminating awareness. He is simply seeing everything that is there, but he has no judgment about it. He cannot have -- he has not yet been introduced to the color called green, the color called red. It will take a little time for him to learn discrimination. In fact, our whole education is nothing but creating discriminating consciousness in every person. Every person is born with a non-discriminating consciousness -- that is a witnessing consciousness. He is born with that which a sage finally achieves. It is a very mysterious phenomenon that what the sage attains ultimately, the child has from the very beginning. It is not coincidental that different sages, different mystics of different ages, have become aware of the fact that the final illumination, enlightenment, is nothing but regaining your childhood. The same consciousness that you had the first moment you were born has to be attained again. It is not something new that you achieve; it is something ancient, eternal, that you rediscover.
You get lost into the world ... there is every opportunity for you to be lost, because the world needs all kinds of discriminations, judgments, evaluations, the idea of good and bad, the idea of right and wrong -- all kinds of shoulds and should-nots. The world necessarily needs them, and it trains every child for them. The child goes on getting more and more lost into language, into words, into thoughts, and finally comes to a point from where he cannot find the way back home.
Jesus says, "Unless you are born again you will not understand the kingdom of God." What does he mean when he says, "Unless you are born again ..."? It is obvious, the meaning is clear: unless you look at the world and existence again as a child ... And that is the essential meaning of meditation: to help you to get out of the mind, to help you to get out of the discriminating consciousness and make a path so that you can enter into a witnessing consciousness.
~ Osho