Buddha Nature: Empty Cognizant Capacity

The following is condensed from Tulke Urgyen Rinpoche's "As It Is," vol. II, chap. 1 ("The Inheritance"):

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Tulke Urgyen Rinpoche
1920-1996

"We think, we remember, we plan - and the attention thus exerted moves towards an object and sticks to it. This mental movement is called thinking or conceptual mind . . . extroverted consciousness unaware of its own nature. This ignorant mind grabs  hold of objects, forms concepts about them, and gets involved and caught up in the concepts it has created about them. This is the nature of samsara, and it has been continuing through beginningless lifetimes up to the present moment. 

This dualistic structure, together with the disturbing emotions and the karma that is produced through them, are the forces that drive us from one samsaric experience to another. 

(O)ur natural state is the indivisible unity of emptiness and cognizance. We miss the recognition because our mind is always searching somewhere else. . . . Shantideva said:"Unless you know the secret key point, whatever you do will miss the mark." The secret key point of mind is that its nature is a self-existing, original wakefulness. To identify the key point we need to receive the pointing-out instruction, which tells and shows us that: "The nature of your mind is the buddha mind itself."

Even though our nature is primordially enlightened, we are oblivious to that fact. Therefore we need to become re-enlightened. First, we need to recognize; next, train in that recognition; and finally, attain stability. Once we are re-enlightened, we no longer need to wander in samsara."

. . .

"The buddha nature is the very identity within which the body, speech, mind, qualities and activities of all buddhas are complete. . . . Our speech became wrapped within the movement of breath to become voice and words. It appears and disappears. Consciousness began to hold a perceiver as separate from the perceived. In other words, it became a fixation on duality, a stop-and-start process that arises and ceases each moment. Thoughts come continuously, one after the other, like an endless string. This endless string of thought has continued from beginningless time and just goes on and on. . . . While we are governed by this involvement in thought, we are truly helpless.

. . . If we truly recognize buddha nature, in that very same moment, any thought will vanish by itself, leaving no trace. This is what brings an end to samsara. . . . Once you recognize your own natural face, you have already transcended the six realms of samsara. . . . Receiving teachings on how to recognize the essence of mind and correctly apply them is called 'the Buddha placed in the palm of your own hand.' That analogy means that at the moment of being introduced and recognizing, you don't have to search for the enlightened state anywhere else.

. . . 

. . . Our buddha nature . . . is like a wish-fulfilling jewel. If we don't use this wish-fulfilling jewel, endless samsara lies before us. Isn't it just incredibly stupid to throw away our fortune - and troublesome too?

 . . . 

 However, like Jamgon Kongtrul said:

Although my mind is the Buddha, I don't recognize it.
Although my thinking is dharmakaya, I don't realize it.
Although nonfabrication is the innate, I fail to sustain it.
Although naturalness is the basic state, I am not convinced. 

We need to understand what mind essentially is. . . . (I)n this world, mind is the most important, for the simple reason that it is the mind that understands and experiences. . . . In truth, there is nothing other than mind that experiences. . . . A sentient being is basically made out of nothing other than mind. Apart from the mind, no thing in this world experiences anything at all.

The mind essence of sentient beings and the awakened mind of the buddhas is the same. Buddhahood means to be totally stable in the state before dualistic thought occus. A sentient being like ourselves, not realizing our essence, gets caught up in our own thinking and becomes bewildered. Still, the essence of our mind and the very essence of all awakened buddhas is primordially the same. Sentient beings and buddhas have an identical source, the buddha nature.

Buddhas become enlightened because of realizing their essence. Sentient beings become confused because of not realizing their essence. Thus there is one basis or ground, and two different paths.  

 (Emphasis added.)

A buddha is someone who recognizes the essence itself, and is awakened through that. A sentient being is someone who doesn't, and who is confused by his or her own thinking. . . . Thinking takes place because of not seeing the essence of this mind itself. It thinks of something, makes thoughts and emotions about it - the process goes on and on . . . like  beads on an endless string. This is called samsara.

It is the thinking that perpetuates samsara. Samsara will go on endlessly unless the thinking stops.

. . .

(I)f in this life we don't attain realization by recognizing our own nature, we will continue again in some other state within samsara. If we recognize and realize our buddha nature, we can go upwards to enlightenment. If we are careless and ignore it, we don't have to try to go deeper into samsara - it happens automatically. Negative karma doesn't require much effort. the normal mind thinks mainly in terms of being against something, being attached to something and not caring about anything. This automatically creates negative karma, further perpetuating samsara.

True virtue, real goodness, is created through recognizing our buddha nature, our natural state. Recognizing our own nature is itself the path of enlightenment. Not recognizing buddha nature is itself the path of samsara. . . . The basis for these two is the same: it is buddha nature. There are two choices, two paths. One is the path of knowing, the wakefulness that knows its own nature. One is the path of unknowing, of not recognizing our own nature, and being caught up in what is being thought of, through the consciousness connecting with sense objects via the senses. This process continuously puts the wheel of samsara in motion. That is why the famous statement goes:

To recognize is the path of nirvana;
Not to recognize is the path of samsara.

 There is knowing. The mind of any sentient being is both empty and cognizant, and it is the cognizance that can recognize its own nature. In the very moment of recognizing, you see the empty essence.

. . . 

Recognize your mind, and in the absence of any concrete thing, rest loosely. After a while we again get caught up in thoughts. But, by recognizing again and again, we grow more and more used to the natural state. . . . Through this process, our thought involvement grows weaker and weaker. The gap between thoughts begin to last longer and longer. At a certain point . . . there will be a stretch of no conceptual thought whatsoever, without having to suppress the thinking.

We need to train in slowly growing more and more used to the recognition of mind essence. This will dissolve our negative karma and disturbing emotions. In this recognition it is impossible to be tainted by karma and emotions, just like you cannot paint in mid-air.

All sentient beings are buddhas,
But they are covered by temporary obscurations.

 This temporary obscuration is our thinking. If we didn't already have the buddha nature, meaining a nature that is identical to that of all awakened ones, no matter how much we try we would never become enlightened.