Delusion Blooms As Wisdom

Bless my mind to turn toward the dharma.
Bless my dharma practice to follow the path.
Bless my path to be free of delusion.
Bless me that all delusion be transformed into wisdom.

The Four Dharmas of Gampopa (1079-1153) distill the entire path in four simple lines. They are guideposts in the minds of we who aspire to practice the Dharma. We are drawn to the path, we begin to practice, we aspire to liberate our delusions, and then we are able to see wisdom radiating in all experience. Our delusion/confusion dawns as clarity—a mirror to our primordial wisdom

The Heart Sutra refers to this as “self-reflected pristine cognition.”  The language of Vajrayana frames all experience as a display of wisdom. Our practice is to watch the habits of mind liberate into a radiant display of the luminous mind (Rigpa). It is quite simple—as natural as a flower blooming.

Think of it as the path a gardener takes. They learn about and amend the soil, plant the seed, tend the sprout, then watch the natural unfolding of a flower. All the information needed to bloom was in the seed from the beginning. In the same way, the seed of Dharma is complete but we need to be vigilant in tilling and tending lest the plant withers and dies.

With practice, our mind blooms, and we wonder what all the fuss was about.