The Doorway of Mind

An Excerpt From Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Just as the body has a clear and eternal aspect and speech a perfected and ceaseless aspect, so the nature of mind is radiant and undeluded. Undeluded mind is always clear with the presence of light. Clear refers to the empty, spacious, unchanging aspect of mind; light to the mind’s unceasing quality of self-awareness. The clear light of your mind’s nature has never been minimized or obscured by thoughts or emotions. In every given moment, the doorway to this clear, luminous mind is there for you. In the most confused moment, the most annoyed moment, the most emotional moment, the door is always there. It is a question only of knowing where the doorway is and entering it.

When speaking of mind as a doorway, it is important to understand the distinction between mind and nature of mind. The mind we are most familiar with is the “pain mind,” the one busy with concepts, thoughts, judgments, fantasies, emotions, and images. The conceptual mind has a dualistic vision of our existence – it identifies as the subject versus object, me versus not me, mine versus not mine. What it wants and desires, it grasps at; what it fears or dislikes, it pushes away. It is constantly comparing good with bad, right with wrong, important with unimportant, attractive with unattractive.

Any thought can manifest in the mind. But when the mind stops thinking and instead turns inward and nakedly observes itself, observing the observer, mind liberates into its own nature like clouds dissolving into the sky or waves dissolving into the ocean.

The nature of mind is rigpa, pure nondual awareness. It is the absence of thought. It is neither virtuous nor nonvirtuous, substantial nor insubstantial. It has unlimited potential to manifest. Its essence is one with the essence of all that exists. Rigpa is sometimes likened to a mirror: just as reflections come and go without leaving the slightest trace on the mirror’s surface, so do all experiences, memories, emotions, and mental images arise and dissolve in our mind without leaving a trace in the nature of mind.

When the nature of mind is unrecognized, it manifests as the moving mind. When known directly, it leads us to liberation. It is liberation. It is undeluded and radiant like a crystal – like the nirmanakaya, the movement of energy that arises from open awareness, the inseparability of emptiness and clarity.

No matter how confused or emotional the mind is, the mind’s nature is always clear, pure, and undeluded. That is why entering the path to liberation is only a matter of our finding a doorway to what is already in us. If we have the right eye to see with, that is the doorway to wisdom. If we look with the wrong eye, we see only deluded objects and will not discover the undeluded mind.

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