Zen story: The ungraspable mind is the enlightened mind
By emptychair
@innertalks (23741)
Australia
January 12, 2022 8:00pm CST
The mind of the past is ungraspable;
the mind of the future is ungraspable;
the mind of the present is ungraspable.
from the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text.
The old, and great, Zen master, Doshan Doganthy, had given the above stanza, from the Diamond Sutra, to his students to ponder over.
After ten minutes had passed, he asked them how would they rephrase this stanza to apply to the heart, and not to the mind.
One student said:
The heart of the mind of the past is graspable;
The heart of the mind of the future is graspable;
The heart of the mind of the present is ungraspable.
"Good, good,"
said the master,
"but the truth is that nothing is graspable, by our minds, as it can never live anywhere except where you take it to."
"Our hearts do not live either in the past, nor in the future, but only live in the now, but it has a grasp on all things, because its grasp is infinite, whereas the mind's grasp is only ever fleeting, and finite."
"Letting your mind be ungraspable, opens you to enlightenment."
"You then live in your heart, free of the grasp of your mind."
"Now, in regards to love, love is both graspable and ungraspable."
"When you do try to grasp love, it will not grasp you, but simply slip away from you, as you must allow love to be itself within you, ungraspable, but always grasping you, when you allow it to do so, without your mind wanting to grasp love for itself."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
Do not bury your Zen in your mind, let it root itself in your heart too.
4 people like this
4 responses
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
13 Jan 22
dig dig dig
within us deep
find the where
find the when
find the how
and then become
2 people like this
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
13 Jan 22
Yes, that seems to be God's plan for our lives in a nutshell.
When we dig deep enough, we will then get past our shell, and enjoy some of the actual nut inside ourselves, rather than our just thinking that the nut is our mind alone.
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
13 Jan 22
@DocAndersen I am stuck on that step too, I think, and with the how is my question of why too, why become, who become, what become, me become?
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
13 Jan 22
@innertalks i am stuck on the find the how step, have been for a while now.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
13 Jan 22
We can try to grasp and to feel love with our minds, but we can only really ever really feel it for real in our hearts, and we need to keep our hearts open to do that.
A closed mind sometimes acts to close us off from our hearts too, at times.
@askme123 (6223)
•
13 Jan 22
@innertalks Well I need to find the right key to open my heart
2 people like this
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
13 Jan 22
@askme123 Yes, that is what life is all about.
We need to all find our own right key to open our own hearts with.
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
13 Jan 22
Yes, love first, and then let all else follow love's lead, is a formula for living a loving life for God.
@innertalks (23741)
• Australia
15 Jan 22
@Shiva49 Yes, love loves the villain too, always trying to show them why their villainous ways only work against them in the end.
@Shiva49 (28389)
• Singapore
14 Jan 22
@innertalks Everyone has a purpose and an agenda within the ambit of creation and God. So we need to embrace all with love.
Some may play villains but they need to be loved too than loathed and excluded.
1 person likes this
