The Great Secret of Mind

dharmakaya. Right from the start, free of attachment, whatever appears is released
in the matrix of pure presence. Yogins and yoginis do not try to alter the
complexion of present suffering, nor do they try to change its color. The suffering
dissolves by itself in its own place and vanishes.
Suppose travelers arrive on an island of gold. Even if they search for common
earth and stone, they will not be able to find it. Likewise, even if the Dzogchen
yogins and yoginis look for suffering, they will not find it. This does not mean that
they never experience the external sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death,
because suffering still arises, but such yogins and yoginis are free of the dense
specific unalleviated suffering that habitually invades the mind.
For example, in a book by Dr. Sadhed Kumar Pahadi on painkilling medicines,
in the chapter on benefits and detriments, before listing the various painkilling
medicines, he explains how pain arises. The part of the body associated with pain
sends a message to the brain, and it is in the brain that the pain is suffered, not in
the body part that sent the message. No matter where the pain arises, the brain is
where it is experienced: this is asserted by modern science. This is highly relevant
to our topic. Analogously, no matter what the cause of joy or sorrow, it is all felt in
the mind. If we can abide only in the nature—the essence—of mind, therefore, not
only will internal suffering be eliminated, but external suffering also.
These days the disease of lost memory (which may, perhaps, be identified with
Alzheimer’s disease) is increasing. In the past such disease affected mostly people
who were more than sixty years of age. As the saying goes, “A person of sixty
forgets even his own name,” and it was normal for people over sixty to start losing
their memory. Sometimes they would talk without meaning or react with either
excessive joy or sadness to minor issues. These days not only people over sixty but
forty-year-olds also suffer from such memory loss. The main causes of the disease
are severe pain, too much useless thinking, and so much input that the brain
cannot rest. Too much time spent on the computer is one reason that the mind
fails to rest. Further, people who party a lot, attend large gatherings, or work day
and night in business or politics without eating or sleeping do not rest enough.
They spend too much time thinking about concerns, large and small, and their
minds cannot relax. Due to this, the blood cannot flow properly through the brain,
and the “all-pervading wind” inhibits the subtle movements of mind, allowing
fever and headache to develop. Sometimes we may feel that “wind” gets into the
heart and makes us uneasy. These are all symptoms of the disease of memory loss.
When we leave these symptoms without treatment for too long, we may lose our
memory completely. Sometimes these symptoms will become more recognizable
between the ages of sixty and seventy, when even the way to perform routine
actions like eating and sleeping are forgotten and help is needed just to survive.
Experts may advise physical exercise and strict dietary discipline, but there is no
special medicine for memory loss. When we type on a computer faster than its
capacity to process, it slows down and sometimes freezes, although it returns to
normal if we delete some already programmed functions. If we could throw out
some of the unwanted thoughts from our minds and give it a good rest, then, just
like the computer, it might slowly return to normal. The best method of resting the