When fellow practitioners communicate privately, all three types of expressions may appear. How to distinguish them is open to interpretation.
Let's use an example to illustrate. The phrase "a mind free attachment reveals its true nature" can be an expression of view, practice, or state.
As a view: You understand the literal meaning but not its true implications. Or you might know a bit more: "The mind shouldn't be fixed anywhere; such a mind is an enlightened mind." This understanding is correct, but without any real experience, it's still just a view.
As practice: When we practice the "four negations," after stripping away everything that can be stripped, the mind can't find a spot to place itself. Placing it in emptiness or clarity doesn't seem to work. We struggle to find a place, sometimes feeling there's nowhere to place it, but we're not certain. This is an expression of practice. We can't confirm the nature of our mind or truly rest in it. Despite receiving many instructions like "What you're hearing is it, what you're knowing is it," we can't truly settle or clearly understand. But we keep practicing - this is an expression of practice.
Through continuous practice, you'll truly understand what "a mind free from attachment reveals its true nature" means. For instance, when the Sixth Patriarch told Huiming, "Think neither good nor evil," don't get confused by the term "good and evil" - it simply means not thinking of anything. This is the same as "not altering the mind" in Dzogchen. It sounds mysterious, but it just means "think of nothing.
When you're thinking of nothing but not sleeping, what's happening? Experienced practitioners might engage in self-reflection or experience a sense of mere emptiness. Those practiced mere emptiness might find that the influence of their body, visual perceptions, and sounds disappear. At that point, they might recognize some sensations of the mind resting in its natural state and settle into that knowing. So this phrase can be both a view and a practice.
If you truly achieve "a mind free from attachment," you'll realize there's no such thing as "a mind free from attachment." You'll know these words are just deceptions and won't listen to them any more. When you fully understand what's really happening, that's an expression of state. At that point, there's no "a mind free from attachment" - it's just a way of speaking. When you truly and completely understand, you'll know what "a mind free from attachment” really means. If you truly reach this state, you've achieved enlightenment.
“Nowhere to find” can be an expression of practice or state. This phrase mainly refers to practice and state, but when you have no practical experience with it, it's just a view. “Nowhere to find” describes the inability to find the mind during practice. Our often-mentioned "no-mind" means “Nowhere to find.” It can also be expressed as, "I can't find it, I'm certain the mind truly can't be found." When you truly understand this, it becomes an expression of state.
The phrase "Blending light with dust" can refer to all three types but is mainly a view or state, rarely used to express practice.
"Blending light with dust" describes someone who has reached a deep level of realization but shows no signs of supernatural abilities or accomplishment. At this level, claiming attainment would be scorned by spirits. It means a highly realized person appears completely ordinary. This refers to outward behavior.
Another interpretation relates to the state of realization. When bodhisattvas come to the world to help sentient beings, they don't appear with halos or lotus flowers under their feet, causing everyone to kneel. They appear as ordinary people to effectively help others.
"Blending light with dust" is also a view. When we fully realize the true nature of awareness, we find it's identical to appearances - "emptiness is form." Realizing emptiness is awareness that manifests as everything, hence "vibrant yellow flowers are wisdom itself." What you realize is actually these mundane appearances - this is called “blending light with dust”, where the essence and its manifestation are completely unified.
As a view, most people can understand "blending light with dust," but let's not discuss the state for now. If we must talk about states, we have many: always trying to appear different from non-practitioners; trying to look calm and compassionate; wearing many malas; walking without looking around and bumping into things. The differences between practitioners and non-practitioners should be internal: different cognition, worldview, and values. Externally, they can be the same. As lay practitioners, we shouldn't try to make ourselves look different.
Our view of life is different: as Buddhists, we don't believe death is the end. Our worldview is different: we don't see external matter as inherently existent, nor do we deny the existence of pure lands. Our values are different: we won't abandon our bodhisattva vows for money. We vow to benefit all sentient beings, willing to sacrifice ourselves for them if necessary. Even thinking this way is quite noble, regardless of whether we can actually do it. At least we have the view, even if we lack the state.
Excerpted from: Cognition and Expression Part Three
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