Post #874

"Fundamentally, everyone has a pure clean mind, but it is usually covered by the defilement and dust of worldly desires which have arisen from one’s circumstances. This defiled mind is not of the essence of one’s nature: something has been added, like an intruder or even a guest in a home, but not its host. The moon is often hidden by clouds, but it is not moved by them and its purity remains untarnished. Therefore, people must not be deluded into thinking that this defiled mind is their own true mind. They must continually remind themselves of this fact by striving to awaken within themselves the pure and unchanging fundamental mind of Enlightenment. Being caught by a changing, defiled mind and being deluded by their own perverted ideas, they wander about in a world of delusion. The disturbances and defilements of the human mind are aroused by greed as well as by its reactions to the changing circumstances. The mind that is not disturbed by things as they occur, that remains pure and tranquil under all circumstances, is the true mind and should be the master. We cannot say that an inn disappears just because the guest is out of sight; neither can we say that the true self has disappeared when the defiled mind which has been aroused by the changing circumstances of life has disappeared. That which changes with changing conditions is not the true nature of mind." Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai