4. Keeping the Mind Unsullied Like Empty Space

[나우]

무시선법 (4)

"사람이 만일 참다운 선을 닦고자 할진대 먼저 마땅히 진공(眞空)으로 체를 삼고 묘유(妙有)로 용을 삼아, 밖으로 천만 경계를 대하되 부동함은 태산과 같이 하고, 안으로 마음을 지키되 청정함은 허공과 같이 하여"

‘안으로 마음을 지키되 청정함은 허공과 같이 한다’는 것은, 마음에 아무런 분별 주착을 두지 않고 그야말로 완전한 허공, 즉 진공(眞空)에 머문다는 뜻이다.

이것은 마음이 텅 비어있을 뿐 아니라 또한 활짝 깨어있는, 적적성성(寂寂惺惺)한 상태를 뜻하는 것으로, 만약 깨어있지 못하고 텅 비어있기만 하면 이른바 무기공(無記空)이라고 한다.

그리고 ‘허공과 같은 마음’은 ‘경계를 대하여 태산과 같이 부동한 마음’과 서로 둘이 아니며, 안팎에서 동시에 이루어지는 것으로써, 만약 어느 한쪽이 무너지면 저절로 다른 한쪽도 무너진다. 예를 들자면,

돈을 주웠을 때 바로 돌려주는 마음은 주착함이 없이 마음이 텅 비어있기 때문이다. 만약 분별 주착이 일어나서 허공심이 무너지면 곧 탐욕이 일어난다.

혼자일 때는 스스로에게 주착할 일이 없다. 그런데 단상으로 올라가면 마음이 쉽게 흔들린다. 마음에 분별심이 일어나서 자신에게 주착하기 때문이다.

우리는 처음 보는 얼굴에 대해서는 미추(美醜)나 호오(好惡)에 민감하지만, 부모의 얼굴에 대해서는 그렇지 않다. 거의 분별 주착 없이 보기 때문이다.

마음이라고 하는 이 물건은 안팎이 없어서 

안으로 허공 같음이 밖으로 동하지 않음일세.

경계에 끌리지 않으려고 철석같은 의지를 세운들

고작 빈 마음으로 대하는 것만 같으리.

The Dharma of Musisun (4)

"If people intend to practice genuine Zen, they first should take true emptiness as the substance and marvelous existence as the function and, externally, be unmoving like Mount Tai when in contact with myriad sensory conditions, and, internally, keep the mind unsullied, like empty space."

‘Internally, keep the mind unsullied like empty space’ means ‘Let there be no discrimination or attachment in your mind’, that is, ‘Let it remain in perfect emptiness - the True Emptiness.’

This stands for The Calm and Awakened State of Mind, where the mind is not only empty, but also fully-awakened. However, if the mind is empty but unawakened, it is called The Blank Mind.

And ‘the mind like empty space’ is not different from ‘the mind unmoving like Mount Tai in contact with myriad of sensory conditions’. They are dual and existent at the same time, and if either of them gets incomplete, so does the other. For example,

If you found someone’s lost money and immediately got it back to its owner, your act owed much to your mind, empty and free from attachment. If discrimination and attachment had arisen, your empty space-like mind would have collapsed, and greed would have appeared in no time.

When you are alone, you will not cling to yourself. However, going up the platform, you may easily get nervous. It is because the discrimination arisen in your mind make you cling to yourself.

We are sensitive to new faces, and easily feel beauty and ugliness, or likes and dislikes toward them. However, to parents’ faces we hardly feel that way. It is because we usually see them without discrimination or attachment.

As this object, so called ‘Mind’, has neither inside nor outside,

Being like an empty space internally is unmoving externally.

Even if you have an iron will to keep unattached to sensory conditions,

Could it be as firm as behaving with the empty mind?