Theft and violence are initiated by mind. The body and speech are physical
things and possess no will of their own. Possession of wealth, for example, does not
make the body happy. It may be argued that the body and speech also love money,
as evinced by rich people dancing and singing. But it is the mind that commands
the body to dance and the voice to sing. The body itself is not affected by wealth.
Body and speech are pathetic slaves of mind.
When someone performs a service for us, we are obliged to thank the giver and
offer him or her a gift. But the mind does not thank the body for any service
performed, and if the mind makes an error, it punishes body and speech. These
days there is much talk about human rights—actually it is the mind that abuses
our rights!!
1.25 DELUSION DISSOLVES WHEN WE LOOK AT THE ESSENCE OF MIND
Now what if we simply depend upon Dzogchen alone? Do not pay any attention to
thoughts or to whatever arises in the mind, but instead examine where the
thought or the image comes from, where it abides, and where it goes. If we do this
for long enough, we will discover that all thought forms are empty and that there
is nothing substantial in the mind. Keep the mind in its own place, unmodified
and without distraction, at ease in its state of clear naked emptiness. Do not
attempt to stop the mind and do not follow it. In this way, we are freed of all the
suffering of emotional affliction, and we go in peace. The happiness engendered is
a deep calm, and we call it “serenity.” This is not the same as a pleasurable feeling
that accompanies a materialist’s mental event, which, through a slight change of
conditions, may become sadness. This happiness is derived from a connection to
the space of great bliss that is thought-free primal awareness. “Great bliss” is the
primal awareness of the nonduality of bliss and emptiness, and just as a weapon
cannot damage the sky, so too that bliss cannot be affected negatively by
circumstance, whereas pleasurable feelings of happiness that are based on mental
events will, through changing circumstances, always turn into suffering.
Here is a real-life story that I want to relate to you. In a village in Bihar, India,
there was boy called “Prakash” and a girl called “Babita.” These two went to school
together and then to college, and they were in love. After graduation they were
happily married. They lived in felicity, never even using bad words to one another.
Their love drew them closer, and they vowed to remain together even in death. In
due course, they had a daughter. One day Prakash’s friend Rabin, handsome and
smart, came to visit them, and Babita welcomed him and gave him good
hospitality; thereafter he came to visit frequently. One day when Prakash returned
from work, he found cigarette ends in the house, and, asking her where they came
from, he was told of Rabin’s visits.
When their daughter was about three years old, Prakash’s suspicions about his
wife deepened, and he decided to test her. He told her that he was leaving for
Delhi on some business and would not be back for ten days. Babita thought that
this was a good opportunity to go to Rabin’s house and ask him to paint their
marriage photo—Rabin was a painter by profession. So she went to Rabin’s and