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Too Simple and Too Obvious: excerpt of R. Shikpo
Jeffrey
Veteran
Rigdizin Shikpo explains:
Too Simple and Too Obvious
Many students find this meditation even more difficult than meditation on the three times. When you ask yourself "Where do thoughts come from?" you may instantly reply, "Thoughts come from my mind." This is not helpful, because "my mind" is just words, and we are not looking for words. We are looking for a direct experience. We habitually say that thoughts come from teh mind, even though we have no idea what we mean by it. We talk about "my mind" all the time, without having the faintest idea what it is! So it means nothing to say that thoughts are in my mind. And to say, as people often do these days, that thoughts come from the subconscious or unconscious is just as unclear and meaningless. Mind is just a word. We need to look for the place where thoughts arise as an actual experience.
The problem is that what we are being asked to do is too simple. One of the main difficulties of Buddhist practice is that it is too simple and too obvious. We human beings are very complicated, and we like theories and structures. We don't want to look at things in a simple, straightforward way and ask ourselves such direct questions.
If you hold a glass of orange juice in your hand and ask yourself, "Where did this glass come from?" it would make sense to say that it was created by a glassmaker or some kind of machine. You could then consider the elaborate conditions that produce the glass. But it's quite a different matter when you are talking about your own mind.
Too Simple and Too Obvious
Many students find this meditation even more difficult than meditation on the three times. When you ask yourself "Where do thoughts come from?" you may instantly reply, "Thoughts come from my mind." This is not helpful, because "my mind" is just words, and we are not looking for words. We are looking for a direct experience. We habitually say that thoughts come from teh mind, even though we have no idea what we mean by it. We talk about "my mind" all the time, without having the faintest idea what it is! So it means nothing to say that thoughts are in my mind. And to say, as people often do these days, that thoughts come from the subconscious or unconscious is just as unclear and meaningless. Mind is just a word. We need to look for the place where thoughts arise as an actual experience.
The problem is that what we are being asked to do is too simple. One of the main difficulties of Buddhist practice is that it is too simple and too obvious. We human beings are very complicated, and we like theories and structures. We don't want to look at things in a simple, straightforward way and ask ourselves such direct questions.
If you hold a glass of orange juice in your hand and ask yourself, "Where did this glass come from?" it would make sense to say that it was created by a glassmaker or some kind of machine. You could then consider the elaborate conditions that produce the glass. But it's quite a different matter when you are talking about your own mind.
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