Another traditional analogy for the Mind of Zazen is the Mirror, in equanimity.
Soto Zen Teacher Kokyo Henkel explains the "basics" of Mirror Awareness very nicely …
The true nature of mind is mirror-like awareness, always just reflecting what’s happening ... A mirror just receives whatever object is placed before it, neutrally and naturally. It has no opinions about the object. The mirror doesn’t prefer red over blue, it doesn’t discriminate among these things, and yet it doesn’t block them out, reject them, or alter them in any way. It is just open receptivity, without adding any commentary. … All these qualities of the mirror are also qualities of the nature of mind, the naturally present open awareness of Buddha-Nature.
… During zazen we can open to this receptive mirror awareness. If we try to look directly at it, try to grasp the mirror, we won’t be able to; we will only get to see our ideas of it reflected in it. Therefore the practice is, rather than trying to see the mirror, simply to be the mirror. If we try to be the mirror and also try to figure out what the mirror is, then such figuring is simply reflections on the mirror. It seems quite challenging to just reflect like a mirror, since we are so accustomed to discriminating, preferring, assessing, and getting caught up in the objects placed before us. Though it is challenging, it is also very simple, almost too simple for us to accept.
One of the wonderful things about this mirror is that it isn’t just functioning during zazen while we are on our cushion. We take the mirror wherever we go, we can’t leave home without it. It’s always available, even in the busiest, most chaotic situ*ations. We always have the opportunity to step back, turn around and recognize the mirror in the background.
http://sweepingzen.com/mirror-awareness-the-true-host/
… During zazen we can open to this receptive mirror awareness. If we try to look directly at it, try to grasp the mirror, we won’t be able to; we will only get to see our ideas of it reflected in it. Therefore the practice is, rather than trying to see the mirror, simply to be the mirror. If we try to be the mirror and also try to figure out what the mirror is, then such figuring is simply reflections on the mirror. It seems quite challenging to just reflect like a mirror, since we are so accustomed to discriminating, preferring, assessing, and getting caught up in the objects placed before us. Though it is challenging, it is also very simple, almost too simple for us to accept.
One of the wonderful things about this mirror is that it isn’t just functioning during zazen while we are on our cushion. We take the mirror wherever we go, we can’t leave home without it. It’s always available, even in the busiest, most chaotic situ*ations. We always have the opportunity to step back, turn around and recognize the mirror in the background.
http://sweepingzen.com/mirror-awareness-the-true-host/
Many old Zen stories and sayings on Mirrormind. For example, this famous Koan:
Great Master Seppō Shinkaku on one occasion preaches to the assembly, “If you want to understand this matter,
my concrete state is like one face of the eternal mirror. [When] a foreigner comes, a foreigner appears. [When] a Chinese person comes, a Chinese person appears.”
Then Gensha steps out and asks, “If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, what then?”
The master says, “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible.”
Gensha says, “I am not like that.”
Seppō says, “How is it in your case? … If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, how will it be then?”
Gensha says, “Smashed into hundreds of bits and pieces!”
my concrete state is like one face of the eternal mirror. [When] a foreigner comes, a foreigner appears. [When] a Chinese person comes, a Chinese person appears.”
Then Gensha steps out and asks, “If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, what then?”
The master says, “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible.”
Gensha says, “I am not like that.”
Seppō says, “How is it in your case? … If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, how will it be then?”
Gensha says, “Smashed into hundreds of bits and pieces!”
Master Dogen once commented:
Just this moment is miscellaneous bits of utter delusion, in hundred thousand myriads of shining mirror reflections.
Can you come to see the events of your own life and of this world as just a hundred thousand endless reflections in the clear mirror?
Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.
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