Sun, 24 Feb 2013
A Mind Like Space
Tonight's stanza describes the final stage of enlightenment. The phrase "free of elaboration" is a technical term which means free from the additions we make to what is really present in reality. It's like staring at a pattern on the wall and seeing a face in it. The face is not there, it was superimposed by your mind. Disciples are ordinary, that is, not enlightened, because they take the elaborations to be real. So we come full circle. Buddha nature is everywhere and in everything. But to be unenlightened is not to experience it.
spros bral nam kha'i mtshan nyid can/
thams cad de dang dbyer med kyis/
da dung slob ma'i gang zag la/
yum rdzogs sangs rgyas kyis bskyab tu gsol/Space is by nature free of elaboration
Everything is just the same as that
Yet disciples are still ordinary persons
Perfect Buddha Mother, please defend them
"Spros bral" is the Tibetan word translated as elaboration. "Slob ma" in the third verse is usually translated as student, but I translated as disciple. "Gang zag" is translated as ordinary person, meaning someone who has no realization or recognition of the nature of mind.
