Tag: One Mind

Inherently sharing the same life and body

Chong Go Sunim2 Comments

    Towards the opening of Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s translation of the Heart Sutra it says:

Inherently all beings
are sharing the same life,
the same mind,
the same body,
working together as one
and free giving
and receiving
whatever is needed.
They are endlessly
manifesting and
changing every instant,
but because they are unaware
of this,
they walk the path of suffering.

     I’m always amazed at how the implications of this continue to unfold. It explains the idea of “one mind” as well as “interbeing,” and has so many practical implications:


If I want to save myself, I can’t exclude or hate anyone else, for they’re also part of me.

Everything’s constantly changing, yet it’s denying this that causes one to suffer.

Everything I need is there, if I just stop building walls of self and other…

mending the seam

Ox Herder5 Comments

Mending the seam between self and others has been an extraordinary challenge. The teachings have given me the conceptual realization that I am but a thread in the cloth that makes up our existence, now I must do the work to experience that concept within.

I found “No River To Cross” momentous in the ongoing development of such a realization; Look within, trust your inherent nature, let the fundamental mind take care of things, are the mottoes that one is left to consider. At first, I had to ask myself, “How will I experience non-duality by focusing on myself?” I think it’s by looking past all the things that are usually associated with self; What’s my favorite color? What song do I feel like hearing? What do I want to eat? Beneath these are very universal functions. Actually, we spend every moment in non-duality, it’s just covered over by the daily concerns of self.

As I clear away enough mental debris to poke a finger-hole through, like in the paper windows of a temple door, my thoughts echo those of Dae Haeng Kun Sunim:

Your fundamental mind, your true self is invisibly connected to all things in the world and through it all things communicate with each other and work together as one. In this way, the whole universe is functioning together as one through fundamental mind, so this working together is called One Mind (Hanmaum).

The big difference is, she’s sitting peacefully on the inside, and I’m standing here fiddling with the latch!