Finding Freedom of Mind in the Tumult of Mental Activity

An Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Teachings, Winter 2022

This mind of ours is active all of the time. And it is in that activity of mind, the thoughts, emotions, memories and sense perceptions, where we lose ourself. So the idea is to look at the activity of your consciousness, your mind, because this is where you exit, this is where you lose the point. And this is where we've been continuing to lose the point throughout all of human history. The teachings show that through all of this craziness of mind, we have a chance to go back to the source, to the mother, to the base, and to rest in that infinite space, that infinite awareness or infinite light. The teachings show us how, with practice, we can go back to that place.

We have a lot of opportunity in our everyday life for self-reflecting and contemplating. In the winter and particularly during the holidays, there is a lot of loneliness and sadness. I can imagine. This is due in part to certain social patterns that in the end are not helping us to become more full or to suffer less. Looking at these thoughts and memories, we reflect and investigate where they are coming from. Okay it's winter, not much sun, it's cold, not much light, I'm feeling down. Plus things are not exactly going my way, which make these feelings worse. So therefore, I'm feeling bad.

Now I observe and search inside, looking for where these feelings and memories are coming from, and then where they go and what they look like. Why do these teachings encourage us to do that? Because we think that our current state is serious. I'm feeling down! There's something fundamentally wrong with me. What's wrong with me? Maybe it's the lack of sun, maybe it's my neighbors are not good, the stock markets are not going the right way, my family is not nice to me! Whatever. You are using all of your mind against yourself and your experience in that moment. And that leads you to feel that this is serious.

However, the teachings are pointing out that it is really not serious. When you search for where this feeling down is coming from, then what do you find? Well, you find that it's not really coming from any particular place. We do know that there is a strong relationship between the body and mind. And when the mind is guiding the body, that's the better relationship to have, rather than when the body is dictating the mind, because the mind can empower! The mind can break the rules! No matter what the body is feeling, mind can break those rules, change the body and go beyond it. Mind can do that, and mind does that, because mind has that power.

Through searching, the answer that we find directly as to where this feeling is coming from, where it is staying and where it is going is nowhere. You can realize that. Or at least you can come to see that feeling down is not that serious. I don't have to worry 24 hours a day about this feeling. This worrying is actually worse than just feeling a little bit down. The teachings say nothing is there. There is only the base.

When you dissolve these memories, these thoughts, what is there? There is this unbounded sacred space. The mother is there. This teaching is not just trying to make you a little happier or trying to convince your conceptual pain identity of anything. It is trying to introduce you to that mother, which is boundless space. That's the mother. There is a deep sense of awareness that knows it, and which recognizes it and connects with it. The awareness that knows it is the child. When mother and child come together, there is a joy, there is a love, there is a peace, there is a completeness, there is a familiarity, there is a fullness. Everything you have ever been seeking in your life is there. That is called perfection.

On the other hand, fear and conflict arise out of a lack of confidence in oneself, a lack of peace in oneself, a lack of connection to that base, a lack of knowing oneself. It all comes out of that, and when it does, then you take the fear and conflict too seriously. It is not serious. It is the pain identity who thinks it is serious, and I have compassion for the pain identity. But if any other listener is there behind the pain identity, then that is the one I'm speaking to when I say it's not serious. One's thoughts, memories, emotions, conceptualizations may appear to be obstacles, but in fact they can actually be the means to introduce you to the thoughtless wisdom, which is the base. So look at your thought. I am not happy and I have very good reason not to be happy. You have all these reasons, and you lay out those reasons. There are people who will agree with you. But there are also those who would question your reasoning. And then there are others who would totally disagree with you. Generally, you prefer to talk only with the people who agree with you, isn't that true?

Shifting our view we say, okay, I am suffering and I have a good reason to suffer. But where is this coming from within? And then look. It's coming from the base. The thoughts are coming from the thoughtless wisdom that is the base. Usually, though, where the thoughts are coming from is not important to you. Rather, the particular forms they take become more important for you; the story becomes more important for you; your struggle with the suffering becomes more important for you. The source of the thoughts doesn't become important for you. You don't even ask questions about that. You see, your story and your suffering which is related to your life, to your family, your country, your religion, all those things are formed with your mind, conceptual mind, emotional mind. But they all go back to this thoughtless wisdom which is the base. So do you have any connection to that? For a moment can you truly go back to that?

Why do human beings go into these stories again and again? Because it is very difficult to get rid of the stories. There are many kinds of stories in everyone's head. In my life I have witnessed the resolving of difficult relationships many times, and I truly believe that a conflict does not have to stay a conflict. A conflict can actually be a great source for becoming a friend, or beginning a partnership or a collaboration. It happens at the individual level in relationships and in the family, or with neighbors or strangers, or with the world. Whenever we give less importance to our own pain stories, then we have a chance to turn it around. But that has to be touched directly by not running away. This is an opportunity. How do you do that? Again, it's the same thing. It's always about going back to the source. So thoughtless wisdom is the base. All these memories and thoughts are a manifestation. Following them, following their pain identity and its related stories, is delusion. That's what is happening. And you can see when it happens, so that when it's happening to you, you know it.

However, when you observe that your pain is manifesting there, your story is manifesting there, and you judge it as this is wrong, this is an error, I'm not supposed to feel like this, the teachings clearly point out that that is mistaken. Do not look at the pain and the story as something wrong. Rather, leave it as it is, these thoughts and these feelings. Leave it as it is. Let it breathe. Let it take time. The teachings say that is the method. In this way, when the thoughts, memories or emotions or senses dissolve back into the source, then you feel a reconnection with the base. Just like after a big thunderstorm with windy, bad weather, and suddenly the sun shines and it's fresh and beautiful. It's like that. You see the clear sky. In these teachings the sky is always the sacred metaphor for the base, for the mother. The sun is always a good metaphor for the awareness. And the thoughts, memories and emotions are like the clouds. When those clouds are all clear, then you see the sky very, very clear. And you see the sun very clear. And you feel the warmth very clear. So you are closer to your source, closer to yourself.