GENfLY WffiSPERED ~
8
of emptiness, clarity, and awareness. This is the mind that experiences pleasure; this is the mind that experiences pain. It is the mind that gives rise to thought and notices thought. It is the mind that experiences all phenomenal existence. There is nothing other than that. The Lord Buddha taught that, from beginningless time, sentient beings have taken innumerable, uncountable rebirths, and it is this emptiness, clarity, and awareness that has taken these rebirths, time after time. This is undoubtedly true. Until the realization of enlightenment, in which the mind's true nature is recognized, this emptiness, clarity, and awareness will continue to take rebirth. There is no need to have any doubt that the mind is insubstantial in its empty, clear awareness. This truth can clearly be illustrated. Consider, for instance, when a child is conceived, nobody actually sees this emptiness, clarity, and unimpededness enter the womb. There is no way that the mother or father can say that a mind of such-and-such a shape or size or substance just entered the womb and has now come into being. There is no form to be seen or measured to demonstrate that a mind has entered the womb at that time. Right now we all have mind, but we cann<¥ find it. We cannot say that our mind has a particular shape or any particular size or some particular location. The reason we cannot find it and/or define it in this manner is because it simply does not have any characteristics of shape or size, etc. Likewise, when an individual dies, no one actually sees the mind leave the dead person's body. No matter how many people, whether in the hundreds, thousands, or millions, examine a dying or dead person with microscopes, telescopes, or whatever instruments, they are unable to see anything leaving the body. They cannot say that the corpse's mind has gone in any specific direction, neither "up there" nor "out here." This is because the mind is devoid of any form. The fact that nobody can see what another person is thinking is evidence, in and of itself, that the mind is empty. This evening we have a large gathering of people. The lights are on and everybody present can see very clearly. In this room everybody is thinking a great deal and, although there is a vast array of mental discursiveness, nobody can see anybody else's discursive thought.