The slogan “Rest in the nature of alaya, the
essence” goes along with this. Usually it is consid-
ered a slogan for when you’re sitting on the cushion
meditating; you can then rest your mind in its natu-
ral, unbiased state. But the truth is that when the rug
is pulled out the same thing happens: without any ef-
fort on our part, our mind finds itself resting in the
nature of alaya.
I was being driven in a car one day, when a horn
honked loudly from behind. A car comes up by my
window and the driver’s face is purple and he’s shak-
ing his fist at me—my window is rolled down and so
is his—and he yells, “Get a job!” That one still stops
my mind.
The instruction is that when something stops your
mind, catch that moment of gap, that moment of big
space, that moment of bewilderment, that moment
of total astonishment, and let yourself rest in it a lit-
tle longer than you ordinarily might.
Interestingly enough, this is also the instruction
on how to die. The moment of death is apparently
a major surprise. Perhaps you’ve heard this word
samadhi (meditative absorption), that we remain in
samadhi at the moment we die. What that means is
that we can rest our minds in the nature of alaya.
We can stay open and connect with the fresh, unbi-
ased quality of our minds, which is given to us at the
moment of our death. But it’s also given to us
110 Empty Boat