Fifty Verses on the Nature of Consciousness Part VI

Verses Forty-One through Fifty describe the way to practice. Meditation on the nature of interdependence can transform delusion into illumination. With the daily training of looking deeply, of using our mindfulness to shed light on the interdependent nature of things, we can get rid of our tendency to perceive things as permanent and having a separate self. With this illumination, we see that the world of birth and death, the world of samsara, has the same ground as the realm of suchness, nirvana. Samsara and suchness are not separate from each other. They are two dimensions of one reality. If we are able to look deeply into even a single formation belonging to the world of samsara, we can break through and touch the ground of suchness.

The purpose of meditation is to touch the ground of no birth and no death, the realm of suchness. A Zen parable tells of an eleventh-century disciple who asked his master, “Where can I touch the reality of no birth and no death?” The master replied, “Right in the world of birth and death.” By touching deeply the wave, you touch the water. By touching the world of samsara, you touch the world of suchness. We have been given the tools we need to touch the realm of suchness right here in samsara

Forty-One
Meditating on the nature of interdependence 
can transform delusion into enlightenment. 
Samsara and suchness are not two. 
They are one and the same.

Forty-Two
Even while blooming, the flower is already in the compost, 
and the compost is already in the flower. 
Flower and compost are not two. 
Delusion and enlightenment inter-are.

Forty-Three
Don’t run away from birth and death. 
Just look deeply into your mental formations. 
When the true nature of interdependence is seen, 
the truth of interbeing is realized.

Forty-Four
Practice conscious breathing 
to water the seeds of awakening. 
Right View is a flower 
blooming in the field of mind consciousness.

Forty-Five
When sunlight shines, 
it helps all vegetation grow. 
When mindfulness shines, 
it transforms all mental formations.

Forty-Six
We recognize internal knots and latent tendencies 
so we can transform them. 
When our habit energies dissipate, 
transformation at the base is there.

Forty-Seven
The present moment 
contains past and future. 
The secret of transformation 
is in the way we handle this very moment.

Forty-Eight
Transformation takes place 
in our daily life. 
To make the work of transformation easy, 
practice with a Sangha.

Forty-Nine|
Nothing is born, nothing dies. 
Nothing to hold on to, nothing to release. 
Samsara is nirvana. 
There is nothing to attain.

Fifty
When we realize that afflictions are no other than enlightenment, 
we can ride the waves of birth and death in peace, 
traveling in the boat of compassion on the ocean of delusion, 
smiling the smile of non-fear.