Playmind
Fish play in the water.
Birds play in the sky.
Ordinary beings play on the earth.
Sublime beings play in display.
ONE PERSON’S PLAY is another person’s seriousness, and one person’s seriousness is another person’s play. To adults, adolescents seem playful, but to adolescents, their own phenomena are serious. To adolescents, children seem playful, but to children, their own phenomena are serious. This is because, for countless previous lives, all deluded beings with divided mind have separated phenomena into gross and subtle elements, thinking their play is serious because they believe it is true.
When children are immature and cannot connect their subtle element minds with their gross element toys, they become serious. If they are unable to understand how things work, they develop a frustrated anger habit which they carry into their adult life, changing the object of their frustration from a toy to a person. If from birth they would recognize that play is playful and not serious, and that gross and subtle are inseparable, children and adults would never have frustration or anger.
Separation is always the cause of frustration. Whether between parents and child, friend and friend, husband and wife, or teacher and disciple, when we cannot connect with each other because of our previous habit of dividing subject from object and gross from subtle, frustration and anger result. When we feel this frustration and anger, we must try to dispel it, not by further dividing the object of our frustrated anger, but by practicing Dharma and by meditating.
Even without meditating or using any Dharma conceptions, spiritual qualities exist from the beginning. Spiritual energy is like a young natural forest, which can be burned away through frustrated anger. Like fire, when frustrated anger becomes heavier and heavier, light spiritual energy diminishes like smoke. After the fire, both gross element energy and subtle element energy are exhausted and only the gray ashes of empty sadness remain. Then, lacking support from worldly gross elements and from inner subtle elements, our mind becomes weak and sorrowful.
But through play, spiritual energy can be sustained, so we must not think that play is always bad. Whether or not our rigid mature minds reject play, everything is still the display of the natural secret essence of the elements. If we are serious and rigid, our subtle elements become congested and cannot reflect this wisdom display. If our mind is calm and vast and playful, we can always recognize this essence display. In open space, there is never turbulence between the gross and subtle elements.
When we study, if we have an open playmind, we can absorb what we study. Flexibility comes from playmind, so when our mind is open we can accept what we are taught. We cannot learn with a rigid and serious mind because it is tight and unbalanced. Our serious mind is always tired, while our playmind is always rested. When there is no space and no rest, whatever we learn will be limited
When we work, if we have open playmind, we will not have fear of losing anything, so we can work continuously until we attain our goal. With the confidence that comes from playmind, we never hesitate and do not make mistakes. Doubts and hesitations come from a mind that is too rigidly serious. When we have fears or hesitations, our interest in our work diminishes and we become lazy and weak, losing our confidence. If we do not have confidence, whatever we do, whatever we say, misses the target. Because our mind is scattered and frightened and hesitant, our concentration becomes lost. If we do not have concentration, we cannot penetrate to the target because our mind is always stuck before it reaches its aim. When we realize that we have missed the target, we become frustrated. Our mind becomes even more narrow, unstable, and fragile from this frustration and everything is lost in our life situation.
Without playmind, even if we see beautiful things, we cannot make contact with them because we have fear and miss the target through our lack of confidence. Even if we write, everything is a mistake because we have fear and miss the target through our lack of confidence. Even if we read, we cannot absorb the meaning because we have fear and miss the target through our lack of confidence. Even though we are entertained by friends, the taste does not linger because we have fear and miss the target through our lack of confidence. Even though we seek the company of vast-minded people, they cannot trust us or talk to us since our rigid minds are too small because we have fear and miss the target through our lack of confidence.
If we want to fight someone, we cannot win when our mind is too serious and narrow. Even if we scream and kick and yell, if our mind is rigid we have no power. Our mind becomes scattered and nervous from tension, unable to penetrate its object. In a debate, logic becomes disordered in a rigid, crowded mind since thoughts are scattered and there is no open space in which the mind can play. So if we are too serious and tense, we will always be defeated by an adversary who has a more relaxed mind and who understands that confidence is always lost through nervousness.
If we have playmind, we can see through meditation that all phenomena are like magic. Then, wherever we go, we are comfortable. If we come from a high standard class, we can do low standard work very easily without self-righteousness or discomfort. If we come from a low standard class, we can communicate easily with high standard people since our mind is vast and playful. Whatever class we come from, there is no contradiction between high and low standards because our mind is open and relaxed and we see all phenomena as the display of unobstructed Wisdom Mind.
If we have playmind, even if we speak with powerful leaders, we can speak just as powerfully as they do because our mind is free and fearless and we see all phenomena as the display of unobstructed Wisdom Mind.
If we have playmind, there is no contradiction between pure and impure, so whether or not we take religious vows, we automatically have pure morality, which depends on pure mind, free from negative conceptions. The purpose of vows is to transmute the impure to the pure. With playmind which is totally pure, we have no serious thought about breaking or keeping vows because we see all phenomena as the display of unobstructed Wisdom Mind.
If we have playmind, even if we leave our homeland, we can easily adapt to any custom because we are not serious about our own country’s custom. With playmind we can adapt everywhere because we see all phenomena as the display of unobstructed Wisdom Mind.
When we practice, we need rested playmind. All spiritual qualities are invisible and substanceless and are inherent within all substance. If we are too serious, the aim of our meditation becomes more and more distant, because our mind is divided and obscured, but if we have playmind, our minds will always be clear, like the pond which becomes clear when left alone, free from disturbances.
Many teachers and texts say that we must be serious and diligent in our practice. But serious diligence does not mean only strict and narrow discipline. If we separate diligence from open space, it is the cause of ignorance. Real diligence is always the continuous energy of open playmind. Whenever we meditate, if we can leave our natural mind alone in playmind, our serious grasping mind cannot disturb us. We need a balanced mind between grasping too tightly and relaxing too loosely. When there is no more serious grasping mind, enlightenment is effortlessly close.
Once there was a discipline of Buddha Shakyamuni who could never rest his mind for even one moment between concentration that was too tight and concentration that was too loose. The Buddha asked him, “Before you became my disciple, did you ever play music?” The disciple answered, “Yes, I was an expert at playing the sitar.” The Buddha asked, “Did a smooth sound come when the strings were tightly tuned?” and he said, “No.” Again the Buddha asked, “Did a smooth sound come when the strings were loosely tuned?” And again he answered, “No.” Then the Buddha said, “How did you get a smooth sound?” And he answered, “A smooth sound came when the sitar was tuned neither too tightly nor too loosely.” The Buddha said, “Can you meditate the same way, with concentration that is neither too tight nor too loose?” When the disciple meditated with a balanced mind as the Buddha taught through the example of the sitar, he saw the nature of his Wisdom Mind.
If we are practicing visualization and have no expectation, then whatever kind of deity we visualize, we will spontaneously see Wisdom Deity. Too much serious concentration is the cause of grasping neurotic mind. If we try to visualize Wisdom Deity with serious squinting eyes and a grasping neurotic mind, our visualization becomes a demon since its source is dualistic mind. Where there is dualism, there is rejection and acceptance. Where there is rejection and acceptance, there is the cause of aversion and attachment. Where there is aversion and attachment, there is the cause of samsara.
So whatever our practice is, we need playmind, which is always unexpecting and vast. Playmind has no fear because it has no object. Because it is completely natural and open, it always gives bliss and blessing. If we have playmind, we can increase our natural wisdom energy. This light indestructible energy is very subtle and powerful, always a benefit to others since it is harmless and impenetrable by the gross element substance of others’ energy. Because seriousness is an expression of the gross elements, the more serious something is the heavier it is and the more likely to become stuck in the heavy and divided from the light. The Buddha is totally light so we cannot say that he is serious. The Buddha is vast, pervading everywhere, and never divided.
In general, the students of the Hinayana system are taught to try to subdue the mind and abandon desirable qualities through discipline. But as Dharma practitioners, we usually grab only one word of the Buddha’s teaching through this discipline. Really, the Buddha’s teaching is to benefit all sentient beings, and sentient beings always depend on desirable qualities. That is why the Buddha says you must offer all desirable qualities to the Triple Gems. This does not mean that the Buddha has five senses like we do to accept desirable qualities. The Buddha is only adapting to us so that we can play with desirable qualities and, through play, our mind can be released into its pure light energy.
The Buddha says that whoever understands magic compassion and whoever practices magic enlightenment is the best practitioner. Through magic, we can play using the secret potential of our elements. When we concentrate too seriously, then all elements gather together in serious conception, inner space becomes very congested and narrow, and where space is absent, there is darkness. In dark crowded space, there is no room for unobstructed mirror mind whose natural luminosity had been suppressed by serious mind. If there is no playmind luminosity, there can be no clear, discerning Wisdom Mind, which is the support and source of all qualities and phenomena.
From Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis by Thinley Norbu
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