Reflections on Longchenpa - The Middle Path

Since things neither exist nor don't exist,
are neither real nor unreal,
are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting -
one might as well burst out laughing.

Longchenpa Rabjampa

Tenzin Chodron's post to the Kagyu Online Study Group reminded me of this wonderful quote from the 14th Century Nyingma master, Longchenpa Rabjampa.

So often recently I've felt this urge to laugh in the face of the way things are. Life is such a wonderful and wondrous thing, in all it's seeming diversity of appearances, however pleasant or unpleasant we seem to find them.

When we look deeply at what seems to arise in our minds, we cannot find anything there whatsoever. Like mist in the morning, the appearances evaporate before the sunlight of our awareness. Yet it cannot be said that nothing is there .. as appearances seem to arise, and play before our mind's eye.

Does that which which we usually say we experience exist or not? Hehehehehheheeh Yes and No or maybe something else. They certainly seem to appear, and yet nothing can truly be found. They seem to arise, but looking deeply, does anything arise? They seem to fade away, but did they go? They seem to be impermanent, but was there anything there to be 'impermanent'? Does permanent or impermanent make any sense for these mirages, these magical shows?

As we start to see how things really are, such labels as 'exist' and 'not exist' start to drop away a little, and a smile and laughter often arise.

As we see clearly, we loosen our grip a little on this magical play of the mind, and then, what need is there to 'adopt' or 'reject' anything? Meditating, all Dharmas are self-liberating, so what need is there to want or not want any of it, or to seek to transform it.

Mind in it's nature is beyond words, you might as well burst out laughing.

Life is beyond words, you might as well burst out laughing.

Seeing our previous behaviour, caught in the net of views, caught up in accepting and rejecting, we can't help but burst out laughing.

Knowing we've only just begun, we can't help bursting out laughing.

Knowing there's nowhere truly to go, we burst out laughing.

Never left, never returned.