There are ordinary and extra-ordinary ways of knowing and using your mind.
Ordinary thinking gets you into trouble, extra-ordinary thinking get you out of it.
Notice what you notice. It is never too late to change your mind.
- Evil springs from the mind and by the mind is evil overcome. (Sutra of the Names of the Buddha)
- Those desiring to attain the Pure Land must first purify their own minds. (Vimalakirti Sutra)
- Just by mind control all things become possible to us. (Sutra of the Bequeathed Doctrine)
- When mental processes arise then all phenomena spring forth; and when mental processes cease then all phenomena cease also. (Lankavatara Sutra)
- Sages seek from mind not from the Buddha; fools seek from the Buddha instead of seeking from mind. Wise men regulate their minds rather than their persons; fools regulate their persons rather than their minds.
Perceptions are thoughts and feelings that arrive as whims out of the blue and often disappear again just as quickly. You are what you think. Think about what and how you think. If you want to be different then train yourself to think different.
- For as long as you direct your search to the forms around you, you will not attain your goal even after aeon upon aeon; whereas by contemplating your inner awareness, you can achieve Buddhahood in a single flash of thought. (Dhyanaparamita Sutra)
- Perceptions employed as a base for building up positive concepts are the origin of all ignorance; perception that there is nothing to perceive - that is deliverance. (Surangama Sutra)
"Being able to behold men, women and all the various sorts of appearances while remaining as free from love or aversion as if they were actually not seen at all - that is what is meant by 'nothing to perceive'". (p22)
"It means beholding all sorts of forms but without being stained by them as no thoughts of love or aversion arise in the mind. Reaching this state is called obtaining the Buddha-Eye ... Whereas, if the spectacle of various forms produces love or aversion in you, that is called perceiving them as though they had objective existence, which implies having the eye of an ordinary person (p25)
"When we attain to purity of mind that is something that can be said to exist. When this happens, our remaining free from any thought of achievement is called not perceiving anything as existent; while reaching the state in which no thoughts arise or persist, yet without being conscious of their absence, is called not perceiving anything as non-existent." (p21)
"Being intangible it cannot be thought about and it is just this not thinking about it which is called rightly thinking of enlightenment as something not to be thought about - for this implies that your mind dwells on nothing whatever."(p24)