Assembly 2022: Sky Mind

This weekend, I took part in the Assembly 2022 party. 

Sky Mind

I made this image using vvvv and Gimp. The halo is made using a faceted crystal ball. Here's the link to prints. I entered it into the Graphics Competition, but it did not qualify to be shown.

There is the comparison that the mind is like the sky (and, of course, it's a big sky!), and the thoughts like clouds.
While searching for the term used as the title of this image, I found this song. The lyrics are quite close to what I had in mind with this image.

The real sky is (knowing) that samsara and nirvana are merely an illusory display.

            — Mipham Rinpoche, Quintessential Instructions of Mind, p. 117

the mind of the past has ceased and perished. The mind of the future is unborn and unarisen. The mind of the present is very difficult to examine because it is colourless and shapeless like the sky
        - Atisha 

Meditating on the perfection of wisdom awareness is like meditating on the sky. The sky is without conceptual thought; the perfection of wisdom awareness is without conceptual thought.

        - 8000 Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra  

Thus, the self-nature is like the sky. I have obtained the self-nature which is permanently free.

        - Arisal of the View of Supreme Happiness

Now, this last one should come with the warning that as it talks of "self-nature", it could bring about association or identification with the mind - and, as the Assutavā Sutta states:

It would be better for the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person to hold to the body composed of the four great elements, rather than the mind, as the self. Why is that? Because this body composed of the four great elements is seen standing for a year, two years, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred years or more. But what’s called ‘mind,’ ‘intellect,’ or ‘consciousness’ by day and by night arises as one thing and ceases as another. Just as a monkey, swinging through a forest wilderness, grabs a branch. Letting go of that, it grabs another branch. Letting go of that, it grabs another one. Letting go of that, it grabs another one. In the same way, what’s called ‘mind,’ ‘intellect,’ or ‘consciousness’ by day and by night arises as one thing and ceases as another.

 As for the nature of the mind:

Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements.

                  - Pabhassara Sutta: Luminous

The mind can also be described as spacious, of the nature of space, nowhere to be found (there was a text that said "Wherever you are looking for the mind, that is the wrong place"!), unsupported, unestablished. The mind is not internal to the body; nor is it to be found existing externally. For the first of these points, the Shurangama Sutta makes it like this:

If you cannot perceive your internal organs, how could you perceive what is external to you?
"Therefore you should know that declaring that the aware and knowing mind is inside the body is an impossible statement."

A typical division is between the ignorant and the enlightened mind. Vatthupama Sutta describes the mind of a monk who is virtuous, developed in concentration and wise as "grown great, lofty, boundless and free from enmity and ill will". 

The biggest thing in the world is the sky. Whatever has form cannot be called great. The sky alone has no form, thus is it called great. All natures have their limits and cannot be called great. Our buddha nature alone has no limits, thus is it called great. The sky has no quarters. If you see its quarters, you are focusing on a perception. By the same token, our buddha nature is free of the four perceptions of self, being, life, and soul.

                - Hui Neng 

The unenlightened mind is merely a sky-mind covered in clouds of ignorance, but its nature of spaciousness and unobstruction does not change even when it clears and becomes "enlightened":

when a cloud covers the sun, the sky’s spaciousness is not affected by the cloud, nor by whether the sun is visible or not. Chan methods and teachings point to the realization
that who we truly are can never be covered by the clouds of vexations and afflictions. The point is that we should not get bogged down by the clouds, but instead we should see the big picture—the sky

        - Guo Gu: The Essence of Chan