Date: 11/29/2025 11/30/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Sitting Meditation
The True Meaning of a Pure Mind
The term “pure mind” is often misunderstood as a state with no thoughts, no emotions, or perfect stillness.In Buddhist practice, purity does not mean suppression or cold detachment.A pure mind is one that remains unpolluted—not because experiences disappear, but because they no longer bind or disturb the heart.
1.Purity Is Not Cleanliness but Non-Contamination
1.Contamination comes from clinging, not experience
Emotions, thoughts, and sensations do not dirty the mind;grasping does.
2.A pure mind remains open
Pleasure and pain are both allowed to arise.
3.Purity is the mind’s original nature
Not created through effort, but revealed when obscurations fall away.
2.Purity Is Not the Absence of Thought
1.Thoughts naturally arise
Purity does not require silence.
2.When you see a thought, it loses power
Awareness itself is purification.
3.No chasing, no resisting, no judging
Thoughts move freely without leaving traces.
3.Purity Is Not Emotionlessness
1.Emotions are natural
They do not inherently stain the mind.
2.A pure mind notices emotions without drowning in them
Emotion appears, but does not dominate.
3.Emotions dissolve naturally
When neither clung to nor suppressed.
4.A Pure Mind Is a Non-Abiding Mind
1.Not residing in thoughts
They arise and pass without residue.
2.Not residing in emotions
They flow without accumulation.
3.Not residing in the story of “me”
Identity loses rigidity.
4.Not residing in meditative states
Purity is independent of phenomena.
5.Three Qualities of a Pure Mind
1.Transparency
Experience moves through like wind through space.
2.Openness
No rejection, no attachment.
3.Freedom
Unshaken by outer change.
6.How to Cultivate a Pure Mind
1.Practice awareness
See the moment clearly.
2.Loosen clinging
Less grasping, more clarity.
3.Welcome emotions
Let them teach rather than trap you.
4.Return to the body and breath
The simplest doorway to purity.
5.Practice non-abiding in daily life
Let each moment rise and fall on its own.
Conclusion
A pure mind is not empty but transparent;not thoughtless but unstained;not emotionless but free.When clinging falls away, purity naturally shines.
