A Buddhist Story

2600 years ago, a seasoned spiritual seeker carried a burning question in his heart and was prepared to walk for hundreds of miles to seek a holy man who could possibly give him an answer. Day and night he walked, yearning for an answer that would satisfy his thirst for the truth.

Still hot from wandering through the heat of Northern India, the wanderer Bahiya of the Bark Garment came upon the object of his long sought desire. The peaceful figure with the shaved head and yellow robes was walking serenely, holding his begging bowl. It was Shakyamuni Buddha going about his daily alms round, begging for food.

Straight away, Bahiya rushed towards him and almost rudely interrupted the Buddha’s alms round. Traditionally, the alms round was always done in silence and, for his efforts, Bahiya was turned away twice. When he requested the Teaching for the third time, the Buddha gazed at him with his famous ‘elephant look’ that communicated his total enlightened presence and full attention. He then uttered the following words:

“Well then Bahiya, you should train yourself like this: whenever you see a form, simply see; whenever you hear a sound, simply hear; whenever you smell an aroma, simply smell; whenever you taste a flavor, simply taste; whenever you feel a sensation, simply feel; whenever a thought arises, let it be just a thought. Then ‘you’ will not exist; whenever you do not exist, you will not be found in this world, another world, or in between. That is the end of suffering.”( ...in the seen only the seen...)

Bahiya understood these words and, by “not clinging, thenceforth released his mind from the cankers,” gaining realization instantly. Bahiya, due to having previously followed a spiritual path and being spiritually receptive, was ready to be introduced to the nature of mind and its universal truth. He discontinued the illusory sense of self and objectifying perceptions, recognizing the main point: simply ‘to leave experience as it is’.

In the Dzogchen instructions also, which embody the highest teachings of the Nyingmapa tradition in Tibetan Buddhism, one is encouraged not to change or manipulate mental events or perceptions deliberately and simply to leave them as they are, so that one’s intrinsic pure nature of mind (Rigpa) is laid bare. The great Tibetan Master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche clarifies this in the following statement: "if you are in an unaltered state, it is Rigpa." If we force or contrive in relation to our experience then this state is not Rigpa. According to the Dzogchen tradition, as meditation deepens, there are the four chokshyak or profound ways of leaving things in their natural simplicity:

View, like a mountain: leave it as it is

Meditation, like the ocean: leave it as it is

Action, appearances: leave them as they are

Fruition, Rigpa: leave it as it is

The instruction on how to work with the mind and its risings is simply to ‘leave it as it is', without grasping or pushing away experience, but at the same time to be completely open, as Dudjom Rinpoche says, to "whatever perceptions arise; you should be like a little child going into beautifully decorated temple: he looks, but grasping does not enter into his perception at all. So you leave everything fresh, natural, vivid and unspoiled. … Whatever appears is unstained by any grasping, so then all that you perceive arises as the naked wisdom of Rigpa, which is the indivisibility of luminosity and emptiness."

If we could remember this, we would be free from suffering. Unfortunately most of us don’t and thus we suffer. Some people approach Buddhism directly seeking release from suffering, while others take a different route.