The Sword of Wisdom 141


"No mind" is equal to wisdom; "one mind" is not. Similarly, the lower levels of samadhi are not equivalent to wisdom. A person experiencing samadhi may feel he does not discriminate, but in fact he is unaware of a steady stream of subtle discriminations. At the shallowest level of samadhi ─ the first dhyana level ─ one can experience a dozen or so discriminations in one ksana. A ksana is the length of time it takes for one wandering thought to arise, and is equivalent to one sixtieth the time it takes to snap your fingers. In the same span of time, roughly sixty discriminations pass through the ordinary mind.

Only a person in deep samadhi can tell if another person is in samadhi; he can also determine the depth of that person's samadhi. Samadhi practice is gradual. A practitioner must enter the shallowest level and then slowly deepen his samadhi through practice. As samadhi deepens, the person is able to discern the number and frequency of discriminations that occured at the previous levels. A practitioner in shallow samadhi cannot discern his own state. He may think he has attained "no mind, " but he is wrong.

In this stanza, the mind is compared to a mirror. When there is nothing in the mind, the mind functions like a mirror. If there is something in the mind, then it cannot function purely, just as a mirror with impurities in it cannot reflect clearly. The pure mind simply reflects. Whether or not things exist outside is irrelevant. When things pass in front of the mirror, they are reflected. That is all.