Yogi Prabodha Jnana on Samsara and Nirvana being the Result of the mind’s Impurity or Purity

”The Way does not exist apart from the mind. If the mind is pure, everything is as pure as Buddha-realms.”
- Bodhidharma (from the Breakthrough Discourse)

The world with its beings appears pure or impure, supportive or harmful, etc., only in dependence upon the state of one’s own mind. When your mind is pure, nothing can harm and everything is pleasant to behold. And, so everything is pure. When your mind is impure, it can be harmed by many things in the world and there are irritants all around. Thus, when the mind is impure, one goes through the cycles of dualistic states such as good and bad, supportive and harmful situations, pleasurable and painful experiences, etc. depending upon many causes and conditions.

Thus, when the mind is impure, there is the suffering of Samsara. When the mind is purified, there is the bliss of Nirvana. The pure mind is the Buddha-mind. That is our nature. The impurity that conceals it is ignorance and its products. When there is ignorance, we take the outside appearances to pure and impure from their own sides. Then, it leads to attachment and aversion. Through such divisions, we exhaust ourselves with emotional reactions such as craving, aversion, irritation, anxiety, etc. Thus we cultivate an impure mind.

The Way, the Dharma, is the means to purify the mind and reverse this condition. It involves understanding the true nature of one’s own mind and that of the diverse appearances of the world. Whatever Dharma practice one does externally does not become an effective Dharma practice if it does not relate back to one’s own mind and transform it.

When the mind is purified free from the delusions that create dualistic perceptions, all appearances are experienced as pure beyond the division of pure and impure. That means, they appear as they are, without leading to emotional reactions. Likewise, all appearances turn benevolent, beyond the division of benevolence and malevolence. There is nothing that can harm, and there is a great sense of evenness. The entire world, with its beings, turn into a pure display, as pure as any other Buddha-field (the field of enjoyment of the Awakened Ones). This very Samsara is realized as the supreme Nirvana.

Thus, Dharma, the Way, can be cultivated only as the transformation of one’s own mind. There is no Dharma that can be cultivated devoid of mind.

When the mind is pure, the world is pure. That is Nirvana. When the mind is impure, the world is impure. That is Samsara.

• Prabodha

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