As I was going on my daily walk to the beach, I came upon this magnificent display in the heavens. Most of the year, the sky in this area is always clear blue. Now in the winter months, the weather is changing and it has been raining. This changed the nature of the sky which was one full of thick clouds which shrouded.
I took a photograph and I sat down at my regular meditation spot. I thought to myself, many students often express their discouragement, thinking that they themselves are deeply deluded, with minds pervaded by negativity. But, no matter how thick the cover of delusion, the clear nature of your awareness or Buddha nature is infinitely clear like the sky, no matter how many clouds, storms, rain, etc., may obscure it.
As I wrote in my blog ‘A Brief Explanation of the Four Dharmas of Gampopa’:
The delusions are only temporary and fleeting, not truly existent. Like clouds in the sky, they appear briefly but are not really part of the sky. The reason delusions can be cleared away is that the delusions are only temporary and transitory. They never enter the actual nature of your mind. For example, clouds in the sky are only passing and temporary. No matter how thick they are, they do not transform into blue sky.
Similarly, no matter how bad the delusions are, such as attachment in our minds, they only remain temporarily; they cannot turn into the clear cognitive nature of consciousness. If clear, empty transcendent wisdom awareness itself could be polluted by delusion, all of our Dharma practice would be made completely meaningless.
It is not like that. The more we practice Dharma, the more our mind will become accustomed to the side of pure timeless wisdom, while the power of the negative side of deception and delusion will become weaker and weaker.
For example, on the third day of a month of Tibetan calendars you see a sliver of the new moon, and from that time up to the full moon, the white portion of the moon becomes larger and larger, while the dark part becomes smaller and smaller. Finally, at the full moon, the dark part disappears completely and everyone enjoys seeing only the round, white moon.
Therefore, do not be discouraged; continue to practice Dharma with perseverance realizing that you too have innate Buddha nature.
Written by Khenpo Karten Rinpoche, originally posted to the MDC Facebook page on 12/26/2021.
