The Nature of the Mind

A story tells that Siddharta the Buddha was once walking across Nature with his close disciple Govinda, and then he asked:

–Would you please take this bowl and fill it with water from the stream we left behind a while ago.

–Of course, master. I´ll bring the water for you.

Govinda then goes to the stream and just when he's kneeling down to pick  up the water, a man crosses the stream with his oxen and the water gets mudded. 
The disciple, disappointed, goes back to the Buddha.

–Sorry, but the water is now mudded.

–I see –said the Buddha thoughtful, and knowing the stream was connected to a large lake behind the mountains, he adds, with an insistent tone:

–But Govinda, I´m very thirsty. So, please, go back to the stream and try to get clean water.

Govinda obeyed willingly, although confused about his master's insistence. 

When he arrived, the water of the stream was still dark. So, he just sat on the shore and waited wondering about a possible solution. Then, as he was observing the stream attentively, he started noticing how the water became clearer and clearer, since all the sediments and leaves sank back again to the bottom.

This realization generated an "illumination" in Govinda's heart, who understood the lesson of the Buddha, and remembered what the master once had said:

"The Nature of the Mind is always present, pure and crystalline, but its surface gets mudded with thoughts and emotions from time to time, until these dissipate again".

Contemplation in Art

 It's not difficult to tell the difference between a music performance or composition that came out of the silent heart and one which is the result of a calculative mind enmeshed with "external products" such as notes in a paper, fashion ideas, the desire to please others... 

Not many artists and composers have the courage to recognize that the greatest art works are not "created" by them, but rather woven from another level of reality which is beyond the "ordinary self". The artist is a mere vessel, whereas the Deep creates by using whatever is available, which can be the attitude and technique of the person.  But it seems one has to become "actively receptive" to pick up higher influences.

We don't do anything, but without us, nothing can be done (Jeanne De Salzmann)

It's worth mentioning a remark by Mozart, who said his music turned up "fully made" in his head before it was actualized on instruments or written on a paper. 

Where do the receptivity and creative action take place?

There is a "flowing and spacious silence" that cannot be expressed, only experienced within. In it and from it, all seems to fit, and we feel effortlessly at ease, perhaps being what we're meant to be.

At the same time, because of our unbalanced condition, finding this silence within is both a higher demand and a challenge. Hence the importance of finding openeness. 

Let's listen now to an inspired and free interpretation of the 2nd movement of Mozart's 12th Sonata (KV 332), performed by Friedrich Gulda.  His words at the end are good to ponder. 

Times change, Reality remains

The Universe is brimming with activity. Life is a universal phenomenon. All things and beings long for the Absolute in some way or another. Yet, only those who become fully self-aware and manage to trasform their fear, vanity and selfishness can apire to return to that Unknown Source consciously. Arduous task, as Arjuna once discovered. 

One cannot just jump to the Absolute; one must evolve towards it...

Nameless Spirit

Of all the sublime poems, there´s one which gathers everything that can be said about the flavour of Reality, and in this case, the vessel was the Spanish poet, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. 

Let´s translate it as follows:

Nameless spirit,

indefinable essence,

I live with the formless

life of the idea.

I swim in the void,

I tremble in the sun´s bonfire

I palpitate among the shadows

and float with the mists.

I am the gold fringes

of the distant star;

I am the lukewarm and seren light

of the high moon.

I am the burning cloud 

that in the west undulates,

I am the shinning wake

of the wandering star.

I am snow on the peaks,

fire on the sands, 

blue wave on the seas,

and foam on the shores.

I am the note in the lute,

perfume in the violet,

fleeting flame in the tombs,

and ivy in the ruins.

I thunder in the torrent, 

and whistle in the flash,

and blind in the lightning,

and roar in the storm.

I laugh in the hills, 

whisper in the tall grass,

sigh in the pure wave,

and weep in the dead leaf.

I undulate with the atoms

of the smoke that flows

and slowly ascends to the sky

as immense spiral.

I, on the golden threads

the insects hang,

mingle among the trees

in the fiery nap.

I run after the nymphs

who in the cool stream

of the crystalline brook

frolic naked.

I, in forests of corals 

carpeted by white pearl,

pursue in the ocean

the light naiads.

I, in the hollow caverns

where the sun never penetrates,

mingle with the gnomes, 

and observe their riches.

I look for the already 

dissolved traces of the centuries,

and know of those empires

of which not even the name is left.

I follow in rapid giddiness

the worlds that revolve,

and my pupil embraces

the whole of creation.

I know of those regions

where no noise reaches,

and where formless stars

wait for the breah of life.

I am the bridge that crosses

over the abyss,

,I am the unknown ladder

that joins Heaven & Earth.

I am the invisible ring that

ties the world of the form

to the world of the idea.

In short, I am the Spirit, 

unknown essence, 

mysterious perfume,

of which the poet is vessel.

Freedom, at the beginning

Soon after writing the last post one received a text that shows essentially the same truth about "liberation". Surprisingly, the source which sent it didn´t know about this blog. And since such kind of "meaningful coincidences" seem to be  inspired by a deeper reality, teaching us important lessons, here we have the text, following the thread:


I think it is important to understand that freedom is at the beginning and not at the end. We think freedom is something to be achieved, that liberation is an ideal state of mind to be gradually attained through time, through various practices; but to me, this is a totally wrong approach. Freedom is not to be achieved; liberation is not a thing to be gained. Freedom, or liberation, is that state of mind which is essential for the discovery of any truth, any reality; therefore, it cannot be an ideal; it must exist right from the beginning. Without freedom at the beginning, there can be no moments of direct understanding because all thinking is then limited, conditioned. If your mind is tethered to any conclusion, to any experience, to any form of knowledge or belief, it is not free; and such a mind cannot possibly perceive what is true.  (Jiddu Krishnamurti)


The term "freedom" is one of those concepts that has been totally misunderstood and misused. It has of course many senses; freedom can be physical, biological, psychological, social, political, moral, and even metaphysical if we consider the transition from Nothingness to a Big Bang was an act of  Supreme Will.

However, isn´t the "psychological", or let´s say "spiritual" sense of freedom, the most important for us? Is it not at the root of our actions and behaviors, and therefore, of our understanding of life? More even than the "moral sense", since our beliefs get fixed in our psyche only after something in us "decides" to make them a place, isn´t that so?

We believe we are free to think, free to live as we want, free to be what we are, especially in the so called democratic societies. But, is it true?. What are we free from? Are we free from thoughts? Are we free from emotions and sensations? How much "stuff" conditions our reactive behaviors? 

The truth is that modern humanity has been in a state of inner slavery for thousands of years, since the processes of destruction became a savage habit. And that is not a natural condition given the fact humans have access to something called Intelligence.

Now, since Intelligence help us see the chains which keep us trapped into suffering, why shouldn´t we use it?

There we have the message of Buddha, or Jesus, who is attributed the saying: The Truth shall make you free.

Paradox of Liberation

This second movement of Gorecki´s third symphony, a classic of minimalist music, radiates a strange quality of dark and bright contrasts, a stillness, timelessness and simplicity that are not easy to express, not even to notice, despite inspiring a familiar flavour. An apparently anecdotic impression that may be telling us more than what the heavy mind can grasp.


An old proverb says the spiritual path is more difficult than walking on the edge of a knife. Yet, it is also said there´s nothing more natural and simple than "being on the Way". Anything can lead to Consciousness and Liberation; but anything can also lead to a trap. 
Is this what makes the journey so complicated and treacherous?
Perhaps that is why human life is so erratic and contradictory, full of dark and bright contrasts, wonders and miseries that coexist.
Yet, which is the root of the human falls? Perhaps a distorted perception of Reality, a lack of discernment? Can inner conflicts, source of the outer ones, cease with a glimpse of that "ineffable and everpresent Something" which is the Source and Destiny of everything?

Only so long as one considers oneself bound do thoughts of bondage and Liberation continue. When one enquires who is bound, the Self is realized, eternally attained, eternally free. When thought of bondage comes to an end, can thought of Liberation survive?

If it is said that Liberation is of three kinds: with form, without form, and both together, then let me tell you that the extinction of those three forms of Liberation is the only true Liberation.

(Ramana Maharshi, verses 39 & 40, 
from Forty Verses on Reality)

Inner Requiem

The Winter afternoon is cold but very bright. The sun shines in all its glory. Meanwhile, a man walks on a park, feeling fresh air on his hands and face, immersed in some reflections. After a long stroll, he sits on a rock to rest and lets all tensions go, listening to all around, enjoying the body's  natural breath, the sunlight, the quiet presence of trees and birds...The mental fist disolves...A deep silence breaks the Maya...A realization takes place....He's not a body, not a man, but an openness that includes All; nobody is listening; everything is listening. What a relief! The bundle of the past is gone. Nothing to gain. Nothing to loose. Nothing to fear. Nothing to desire...A perfect moment, timeless...


Mind alone, delusion; emotions alone, wild horses; body alone, weakness. Isn't this inner separation the very same illusion of Time, what makes us identified with the waves in an ocean, trapped in a mind that thinks "I´m this", "I´m that", "this cannot last", "I have to do this... do that"; a mind that tries to grasp what cannot be grasped, carrying too much "me", "mine" and "I"?

Can we really be all at once, even if it's just in a few daily actions?. What a difficult task!...How complicated we make things. How many painful turns we take in life; how many distractions we cultivate in order to find the wholeness that lies everywhere and nowhere at the same time, suspended in eternity, like that sublime piece Gabriel Fauré brought more than a century ago, for a "Requiem" that really ends as a new beginning, a new Life.