Vivid, Yes — Tangible, No
Our Dharma Book KM Group is getting into some really interesting stuff now. Like Intention and Consciousness and the Nature of the Mind! Here’s a passage from the book we’re reading (Mindfulness, by Joseph Goldstein), where he quotes Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:
“Normally we operate under the deluded assumption that everything has some sort of true, substantial reality. But when we look more carefully, we find that the phenomenal world is like a rainbow–vivid and colorful, but without any tangible existence.
“When a rainbow appears, we see many beautiful colors–yet a rainbow is not something we can clothe ourselves with, or wear as an ornament; it simply appears through the conjunction of various conditions. Thoughts arise in the mind in just the same way. They have no tangible reality or intrinsic existence at all. There is therefore no logical reason why thoughts should have so much power over us, not any reason why we should be enslaved by them…
“Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no longer have the power to deceive us. But as long as we take our deluded thoughts to be real, they will continue to torment us mercilessly, as they have been doing throughout countless past lives.”