The Buddha said, "When you saw my fist emit light, what did you see it with?"
Ananda said, "All of us in the great assembly saw it with our eyes." The Buddha said to Ananda, "You have answered that the Thus-Come One bent his fingers into a fist that sent forth light, dazzling your mind and eyes. Your eyes can see my fist, but what do you take to be your mind that was dazzled by it?" Ananda said, "The Thus-Come one has just now been asking me about my mind's location, and my mind is what I have been using to determine where it might be. My mind is that which has the capability of making such determinations." The Buddha exclaimed, "Ananda! That is not your mind!" Startled, Ananda stood up, placed his palms together, and said to the Buddha,"If that is not my mind, what is it?" The Buddha said to Ananda, "It is merely your mental processes that assign false and illusory attributes to the world of perceived objects. These processes delude you about your true nature and have caused you, since time without beginning and in your present life, to mistake a burglar for your own child - to lose touch with your original, everlasting mind - and thus you are bound to the cycle of death and rebirth." |
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