Wisdom Roads

Author(s): Lorrence G Muller
Publisher: Continumm New York

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Bon Dzogchen
to the brain; it's a materialistic, mechanistic approach. Bon says the mind is a much more embracing reality.
T.W.: Mind is much more full. We don't think about the brain. We think about the heart. Some of our thoughts may come from the brain, perhaps. But mind—and the nature of mind is also different. Mind is, you know, constantly moving. The nature of mind is at the base of those movements.
L.M.: But the practice will get one to see beyond all the moving?
T.W.: If you are connected to yourself, you will be less driven by your thoughts; but, if you are not connected to yourself, you will be easily driven by your thoughts. Your thoughts are part of your mind.
L.M.: You also employ a mantra?
T.W.: Yes.
L.M.: Is that a preliminary practice, a part of concentration?
T.W.: Yes.
L.M.: Is that similar to yogic concentration, the constant repetition of a mantra—and is it done audibly?
T.W.: Either way.
L.M.: Depending on what the student needs to do.
T.W.: It depends on what you are reciting in your mantra. Usually your mantras are more sounded aloud, most of them. But there are some cases where they are activated by vibrations inside.
L.M.: Inside—and then, what about the good death?
T.W.: Death is--the good death is—where, when you are dying, it is being able to die free. Again, it is the same way: able to live free, able to die free.
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