Original Mind and No Mind

You have been taught to fill your minds with laws and arguments, seeking righteousness by piling knowledge upon knowledge. 

But I say to you, the kingdom of the Father is found not in adding, but in letting go.

Remember the mind you had before it learned to divide the world into 'good' and 'bad,' 'holy' and 'profane'—a mind like a clear mountain lake, reflecting the sky without judgment. 

This is the Original Mind; it is the mind of the pure in heart, who shall see God.

Do not try to empty your mind, for the striving itself creates agitation. 

Instead, let thoughts arise and pass like clouds in the sky. 

Neither cling to them nor push them away. 

When the mind is no longer bound by its own thinking, it is free. 

This is No Mind—not an empty mind, but a mind that holds onto nothing.

Therefore, be as the lilies of the field, which neither grasp nor reject, but simply are. 

In such stillness, the Original Mind is found. 

In such freedom, there is No Mind. 

This is the Way that is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

Reflection - The Mind Before the Add Button

Peace be with you.

You have been taught to fill your minds. You are, in fact, professional 'fillers.'

You come here today, and your minds are full. (A slight, knowing smile.) My goodness, are they full.

You have been taught by your teachers and your scribes and your Pharisees to add. Add knowledge. Add laws. Add arguments. Add righteousness, as if it were a stack of coins. You’ve been taught that the person with the most knowledge, the most correct opinions, is closest to God.

And now, you have new teachers. You have little black mirrors in your pockets. And they also teach you to add. Add followers. Add 'likes.' Add your opinion to this debate, your anger to this outrage, your 'like' or 'dislike' to... well, to everything.

You are all walking around, so full. Full of thoughts, full of worries, full of 'what-ifs' and 'if-onlys.' Full of who is 'good' and who is 'bad.' Who is 'in' and who is 'out.'

You are full to bursting. And you are starving.

You’ve added so much scaffolding, you’ve forgotten the building. You’ve added so many arguments about the Way, you've forgotten the Way itself.

So I say to you what I have always said: The kingdom of the Father is found not in adding, but in letting go.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Not the rich in opinions. Theirs is the kingdom.

The text for today is about this subtraction. It’s about this holy 'letting go.' It’s about remembering the mind you had before you learned to divide the world. Before you hit the 'add' button.

It's about your Original Mind.

What is this Original Mind? The text says it’s "like a clear mountain lake, reflecting the sky without judgment."

Can you remember that? A time, perhaps when you were a small child, lying in the grass, watching clouds. You weren't trying to do anything. You weren't 'optimizing your leisure time.' You weren't 'building your personal brand.' You weren't even a 'good' child or a 'bad' child. You were just... breathing. Watching. Being.

The lake doesn't try to reflect the sky. It doesn't judge the clouds. It doesn't say, "Oh, I prefer those fluffy cirrus clouds, but these stratus clouds are 'profane' and 'wrong.'" It just... reflects. Perfectly. Without effort.

That clarity, that stillness, that is the Original Mind. It is still right here, underneath the 10,000 layers of 'shoulds' and 'musts' you have added on top.

This, my friends, is what I meant when I said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Purity of heart is not a moral achievement. It's not a badge you get for successfully repressing all 'bad' thoughts. Oh, you try so hard to do that, don't you? It's exhausting.

No, purity of heart is a perceptual state. It is a heart that is undivided. A mind that is no longer at war with itself. A mind that has stopped splitting reality into 'me' (good) and 'that' (bad).

When your mind is that clear lake, what does it see? It sees the sky. It sees what is. It sees God.

This is the great secret. This is why the wise have always pointed to this, in every land, in every age.

In the mountains of India, the great sages, the rishis, sat in silence and realized this Original Mind. They called it Atman, the Self. And they declared the great truth: Tat Tvam Asi. "You are That." You are not the small, anxious, chattering 'you' that you think you are. You are the That—the one, undivided, silent, blissful reality that is dreaming this entire universe. You are Brahman. Their path is to rest as this great Self, to ask, "Who am I?" until all the "I am this," "I am that" answers fall away, and only the "I Am" remains. It is a path of affirming the ultimate, unified One.

In other parts of Asia, the wise Siddhartha, the Buddha, pointed to the same truth from a different angle. He watched his mind, and he noticed that all the things we think are 'me'—our thoughts, our feelings, our body, our opinions—are not stable. They are like clouds, just arising and passing. He taught Anatta, 'no-self.' In the great Heart Sutra, it is said, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." This isn't nihilism. It's not saying nothing exists. It's saying nothing exists separately. The cloud is not separate from the sky. The wave is not separate from the ocean. The path here is to see through the illusion of a solid, separate self. To let go of clinging to the wave, and in that letting go, to realize you are the ocean.

Do these two great paths contradict each other? (A small laugh.) Oh, only when their followers start 'adding' laws and building walls.

One says, "You are the great, singular Self." The other says, "You have no separate self."

One says, "You are the Ocean." The other says, "You are not the wave."

Is there a difference?

The Original Mind is the Father, the Ocean, the Atman. The path to it is to see that the "you" you cling to is just a cloud, just a wave.

And this brings us to No Mind.

The text says, "Do not try to empty your mind, for the striving itself creates agitation."

This is the central mistake of so much religion. You sit down, you close your eyes, and you fight your thoughts. "Go away, bad thought! I'm supposed to be spiritual!" You are like a person trying to flatten the waves in a lake with a stick. You just make more waves.

I say to you, "Let thoughts arise and pass like clouds in the sky. Neither cling to them nor push them away."

This is No Mind. Wuxin.

No Mind is not an empty mind. It is a free mind. It is a mind that is no longer Velcro for every passing thought.

A thought arrives: "You are not good enough." The mind of clinging (the 'Pharisee' mind) grabs it: "Oh no! I'm not! I must try harder! I must add more righteous deeds!" The mind of aversion (the 'angry' mind) grabs it: "Who said that? How dare they! I'll show them!" The mind of No Mind (the 'lily' mind) just... watches it. "Ah. A 'not good enough' cloud. Interesting." And it floats on by.

A thought arrives: "That person is wrong and 'bad.'" No Mind watches. "Ah. A 'judging' cloud." And it floats on by.

When the mind is no longer bound by its own thinking, it is free. It is "No Mind."

This, my friends, is the "Way of Non-Preference" from the Hsin Hsin Ming. "Like and dislike are the diseases of the mind."

That is the disease that is killing you. It is the engine of your anxiety. It is the engine of your social media. It is the engine of your politics. The entire world you've built is a machine designed to make you 'like' and 'dislike' faster and harder.

But the Great Way, the kingdom, is not difficult. It is for those who have no preferences.

This is what I meant when I said, "Love your enemies." This is what I meant when I said, "Turn the other cheek."

Turning the other cheek is not a command to be a doormat. It is a description of No Mind. When someone 'slaps' you with an insult, they are trying to hit something. They are trying to hit your ego, your idea of 'me.'

But if you are living from No Mind, what is there to hit? The sky? You remain free. The slap passes right through you. You don't create an "enemy" in your mind by 'disliking' them. You don't create a 'victim' in your mind by 'clinging' to your own hurt. You are simply... free. This is the radical forgiveness that is not an act, but a state of being.

So, how do we live this?

"Therefore, be as the lilies of the field, which neither grasp nor reject, but simply are."

The lily doesn't worry about tomorrow. The lily doesn't compare itself to the rose. The lily doesn't try to be a 'good' lily. It is just... a lily. It is perfectly, magnificently, effortlessly itself. It is rooted in the earth (Original Mind) and open to the sky (No Mind), and the Father clothes it in glory.

This is your work.

You see the news this week. You see the 'great' men and women, perhaps at a global summit, arguing. You see the anger, the 'right' and 'wrong,' the 'us' and 'them.'

You see that they are all full. Full of their laws, full of their judgments, full of their nation's preferences.' They are all just agitated clouds, bumping into other agitated clouds, trying to 'win' the sky. They have forgotten the Original Mind. They are as far from the Way as heaven is from earth.

And you watch this... and you get angry, too. You get frightened. You pick a cloud to cheer for.

There. Right there. You just lost it. You just made the smallest distinction, and the disease has taken hold.

Here is the practical application. Your job is not to fix the angry clouds. Your job is to be the sky.

When you read that news, when you talk to your neighbour who holds the 'wrong' opinion, watch your own mind.

Where does it get tight? Where do you feel the pull of 'like' and 'dislike'? Where do you create an 'enemy' in your heart?

That... that right there... that is the "plank in your own eye."

Don't do anything. Don't add another thought ("Oh, I'm 'bad' for judging"). Just see it. See the 'judging' cloud. And let it pass. Don't cling to it. Don't push it away.

In that moment of seeing without preference, you are free. In that moment, you are the clear lake. In that moment, you are the lily.

In such stillness, the Original Mind is found. In such freedom, there is No Mind. This is the Way. And it is right here.

Go in peace.