As the pure original source of all being, it is unborn and indestructible. It neither comes nor goes; it is ever-present, still and pure, and outside of space and time.
Our original divine nature is, however, covered up at all times by a multitude of passions and imaginings. The uninterrrupted flow of concepts continuously fabricated by our intellects and deep-rooted habits of thinking casts a dark shadow over our true self. Fascinated by this spectacle taking place on the surface of our consciousness, we are incapable of freeing ourselves from it and thus find ourselves in a state of confusion and clouding of the mind. We are held captive by our own projections and believe them to be a reality that exists separately from us.
Blinded by this misperception, we are no longer able to perceive the spiritual magnificence of our divine being and thus wander lost in samsara, the cycle of life and death. Trapped in the dream of an imaginary, multitudinous world, we have lost ourselves and no longer know who we are. Since our dream-wandering is only a vision, we are unable to confirm the actuality of any occurrence. We indeed believe that we live in a three-dimensional, multitudinous world of space and time; yet in reality only the mind moves. Mind is the foundation of everything; samsara takes place in the mind only. The entire universe in its endless diversity and all forms of life are none other than mind.
In Ashvaghosha's Shraddhotpada-shastra (Awakening of Faith), a Buddhist work of the 2nd century, it says:
All things in the world are unreal and illusory; they are only projections of the mind. Apart from the mind there are no objects (of sensory perception). What does this mean? This means that—since all phenomena are projected by the mind and its deluded thoughts—all distinctions are in fact acts of distinguishing one's own mind. But the (ordinary, individual intellect) mind cannot see the (universal, cosmic) mind. Therefore, one should know that all objects and experiences of this world are sustained only by men's ignorant and deluded minds. Just like the images reflected from a mirror, all things are devoid of a true entity; they are false, illusory, and of "mind-only," because only when mind arises do all things arise; when the mind stops its functioning, all things also cease to exist.1
Everything that we perceive in the world, including the apparent solidity of matter, is subsequently no more than the illusory imagining of the mind. The mind is the creator of all things. And since our body is also a part of this world, we must consequently conclude that it, as well, is no more than an idea. Our body is simply the visible manifestation of a prior consciousness, formed by the particular inclinations of a former life. Its apparent materiality and solidity is an illusion based on the incredibly quick movement of its atomic components, which should naturally be viewed as purely mental as well. The illusion of the stability of material is similar to the illusion of an impenetrable disc created by the movement of a rapidly turning propeller.
The dynamic nature of the universe extends itself from the atom to the vast dimensions of the galaxies. Everything is in continuous motion, which ultimately takes place in the mind only. Its nature is to manifest itself in myriad arising and subsiding forms. These are in a constant state of fluctuation, endlessly taking on different forms. The objects of our perception may appear passive and lifeless to the naked eye; yet if I were, for example, to examine under a microscope the pencil that I hold in my hand, its dynamic nature would be revealed. In truth, I cannot even say that it is a solid object; it is much more a series of fluctuating occurrences—occurrences that take place in the mind. Mind is the foundation of everything; all things exist in it, and nothing at all exists outside of mind.
In the Lankavatara Sutra, one of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism, it is thus stated:
What appears to be external does not exist in reality; it is indeed mind that is seen in in multiplicity; the body, property and the world—all these, I say, are nothing but mind.
That which can take something and that which is taken—all these, I say, are nothing but mind. . . . Apart from mind, nothing whatsoever exists!2
What we generally define as the reality of our external world actually has no more substance than an image in a dream.
Asanga's compendium of Mahayana doctrine (Mahayana-samparigraha-shastra) explains:
With what metaphors can we illustrate the principle of the teaching of mind-only? With the dream and the dreamer. This is to say that all dream-visions do not truly exist; they are but manifestations of the mind. Although various forms, sounds, smells, touches, houses, woods, mountains . . . are projected therein, they are not truly existent. With this metaphor one can understand that in all times and places, all things are but the mind. . ..
When one reaches enlightenment, or when true wisdom is awakened, he will then come to this realization. This is just the same as when one does not realize the nature of a dream while he is dreaming. By the same token, when one has not yet awakened from the dream of samsara, a full realization of the truth of mind-only will not come to him.3
The only world we can speak of at all is the world of our experience. And if we think we can establish the actual existence of the external world through sensual perception, we are mistaken. The only thing we can actually prove is the functional ability of our senses. Everything we label as matter is simply a dimension of the mind we define by resistance, form, visibility, and the like. In reality it is impossible for us to come in contact with the objects of our perception. We can only describe touch sensations, feel resistance, see forms, etc., all of which have nothing at all to do with matter itself, but result rather from a number of sense perceptions we have identified with the concept of matter.
What this ultimately means is that since we perceive the world only by means of our senses and consciousness, we are forced to acknowledge that we can only speak of our subjectively experienced world as a concept. In other words: "The world is no more than our own conception."
THE ILLUSION OF MULTIPLICITY
Everything we perceive in the manifold world is an idea, a conception of our mind, which yet is not created by our individual mind. The individual mind is better understood as a participant, that is, the ideas of material objects are given to it. Since there are really no different kinds of minds, we must concede that the many individual minds are a fictitious and therefore illusory part of an indivisible mind. For if the mind present in each individual were a unique mind, it would be impossible for two people to perceive the same world in the same way. Each individual mind would have its own different perception of the world, distinct from that of all other individual minds. But since all multitudinous perceptions are illusions caused by our spiritual blindness, we must conclude that there can only be a sole being, a single self that is the sole reality of the one mind, instead of unique, separate, independent, individual selves. Let us illustrate this point.
Imagine that we are iridescent soap bubbles floating in infinite space. The inner and outer domain of each soap bubble is the boundless, endless expanse of space. Even if a hundred, thousand, or a hundred thousand soap bubbles were to occupy this endless expanse, we would still be unable to confirm the existence of a multitude of individual spaces. Each differentiation of space would only be an apparent one. In reality there is only the one endless expanse of the universe. Yet each soap bubble within this expanse, out of ignorance resulting from the clouding of the mind, believes itself to possess its own unique inner space and sees itself as one of many separate, individual soap bubbles. But if suddenly all the bubbles were to burst, nothing would remain but the one boundless reality of the universe.
This metaphor illustrates that the perception arising from our senses and intellect of a multitudinous world is an illusion and therefore a misperception. The world as seen by the average person is thus a perception of the indivisible being limited by ego-consciousness and misinterpreted as multiplicity. Ego-consciousness acts like a magician, permitting us to experience a world that actually does not exist. Blinded by the illusion of a supposed multitudinous world, we
