In moods of extreme desire, be undisturbed.

This socalled universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so.

Oh beloved, put attention neither on pleasure nor on pain, but between these.

Objects and desires exist in me as in others. So accepting, let them be transformed.

The original mind is like a mirror: it is pure, and it remains pure, but dust can gather upon it. The purity is not lost, the dust cannot destroy the purity – but the purity can be covered up. This is the condition of the ordinary mind – covered with dust. Hidden behind the dust, the original mind remains pure. It cannot become impure; that is impossible. And if it was possible for it to become impure, then there would be no way to regain the purity again. In itself it remains pure, just covered by dust.

Our mind is the original mind plus dust, the buddha-mind plus dust, the divine mind plus dust. Once you know how to uncover it, how to reclaim it from the dust, you have known all that is worth knowing and you have attained all that is worth attaining. All these techniques are concerned with how to free your mind from the day-to-day dust that is bound to gather upon it. Dust is but natural. Just like with a traveler passing from many, many roads, dust is gathered – and for many, many lives you have been a traveler. You have traveled long distances, and much dust has gathered.

Many points have to be understood before we enter the techniques. One, the East is basically different from the West in its attitude towards inner transformation. Christianity thinks that something has happened to man’s being itself – the sin. The East thinks that nothing has happened to the being itself; nothing can happen. The being remains in its absolute purity; there has been no sin. So man is not condemned in the East, he is not something degraded. On the contrary, he remains the divine that he is, that he has always been, and it is natural that dust will gather. Dust is bound to gather.

So there is no sin, just a false identification.

We become identified with the mind, with the dust. Our experience, our knowledge, our memories, all are dust. Whatsoever you have known, whatsoever you have experienced, whatsoever has been your past, is all dust. Regaining the original mind means regaining the purity – without experiences, without knowledge, without memories, without the past.