May/June 2011 Community Spotlight
Radiant Mind: Ending Struggle
by Peter Fenner
Radiant mind is Buddha mind or awakened mind. When we live in radiant mind, life is dynamic and always changing, yet it’s completely still and unchanging at the same time. We’re living in time but also connected with a reality that’s timeless and invisible.
We’re experts in creating that “something is missing.” That’s why Buddhists say that samsara is so intractable. But it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s possible to be immersed in the world of sensations, feelings and relationships without needing things to be different, or wanting the good things to last for ever.
So how do we escape the grip of samsara? We need some keys to walk through the gateless gate, as they say in Zen.
The best key is to see that the gate is gateless. It’s never anywhere else and we don’t have to walk through it. If the gate is somewhere else we can’t walk through it. The gate is wherever we are. In fact, there is no gate. We’re already through it.
Another key is to see that there’s no one to walk through the gate, no one who’s trapped or becomes liberated. This is the key of “self-inquiry.” We look for the “I,” the being who experiences everything that’s experienced. When we look for ourselves in this way, we can’t find ourselves as the experiencer, as the thinker or the seer. Suddenly there’s no me, and so there’s no boundary between ourselves and the world. We become no one and everything at the same time.
Then you’ve touched the radiant mind.
Dr. Peter Fenner presents a Radiant Mind workshop in Portland on June 4-5. Visit www.radiantmind.net.
— Peter Fenner