The eye-opener awaits

 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche described a curious happening when a fed up student approached his master and said, “you know, I have studied all the scripture on end, applied all the practices, but deep down inside I still don’t understand what is being said.”No problem”, said the master, “meet me at midnight down at the field and I will help you out.”

 

When student and master met at midnight, the master asked him to lie down. Both were lying on the field for a few minutes gazing at the stars. “Do you see the stars?”, the master asked. “Yes master!”, the student replied. “”Can you hear the dogs in the background.” Again the student said yes. “That’s it. That’s what the scriptures write about.”, said the master.

 

Instantly the student attained. He realized what being was all about, experiencing life as is with no interference from the conditioned mind. Now everyone could open an enlightenment school with the instruction of looking at the stars and listening to the birds but it would be of no use. Spiritual practice and the master’s presence led to the breakthrough.

 

Every path up the imaginary mountain is holy. Life as is encourages us to let go of our conditioning in a way that works for us. Being mindful of what we do, and want to do, analyzing what happened to us is all part of it, but it is the Buddha mind that we are after. Thinking about thinking, and feeling our memories will always be tainted. Still, keep going, the eye opener awaits.