All notions of subject and object, self and selves, phenomena and characteristics are mere transformations of consciousness.

i.   What does this mean to me?

When I was in high school we went on a field trip to Manhattan, to Broadway in particular. We went to see a matinee magic show. I was thrilled with the performance. At some points I found myself asking, “How’d he do that?”

Now that I look back on it, it was a strange experience to participate in the show. I say ‘participate’ on purpose because magic shows really need audience participation. Even if only for a few seconds at a time, the audience has to believe what they’re seeing is ‘true’. So, while watching the show I experienced two realities almost simultaneously. “Oh no! There’s a lady on stage being sawed in half.” And at nearly the same second I’d be thinking, “That’s impossible. He’d be in big trouble for murder.” And other thoughts like, “where’s the blood”? Why isn’t she screaming?” And so on. The point is I believed what my eyes told me was happening but at the same time I knew it couldn’t be true.

This line of today’s prayer is very much telling us that samsara is like a magic show. The big difference is that it’s as though most of us live our lives on the magician’s stage, and never question the ‘magic’.

This line of the prayer begins with “All notions of subject and object . . . are mere transformations of consciousness.” What could this mean? Is it saying that there’s no reality out there? Is it saying that we live on the magician’s stage and there is no theater beyond, just an empty void? Far from it. After all, how do we perceive the world? Our eyes see light bouncing off an object of a certain size and configuration, and instantly the image of a table arises in the mind. Could you fit a whole table inside your head? Of course not. But an image fits in the mind just fine.

Let’s take a look at consciousness. Our local friendly AI tells us that, among other things, consciousness is, “…the state of being aware of yourself and the world around you…”. Notice that nothing is said about perception. The definition says “…being aware of. . . “. This means that consciousness demands at least two things: a seer and that which is being seen. But oddly our prayer says this isn’t so. According to our prayer, any idea that the seer and that which is seen are two separate things is an incorrect understanding. Rather, both are “mere transformations of consciousness only.” And if we look more closely at transformation, it means, “a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.”

When I first learned this prayer, I was like – what do you mean ‘mere transformation of consciousness’? Are we dreaming the world into life? No. Nothing like that. Let’s go back to the magic show. When we watch, we are witnessing two kinds of ‘truth’. The first and easiest truth is that the magician is doing magic. The underlying truth is years and years of practice that allow the magician to trick the eye and the mind.

Even still, we could question if the magic show is even there. The answer is yes. There is some underlying truth there but with our limited senses, we can’t know what it is.

ii. How would I explain this to someone else?

As long as we are conscious, we are aware of what’s around us. The mind builds meticulous images for us even if it’s based on just a sound. When we hear a police siren, we immediately have an image of a car speeding along with flashing lights. But where did that car come from? It comes from our own experiences. In other words, it comes from our own consciousness arising in the mind as a transformation of our already existing consciousness that is there every second of everyday. So we can see that there are not two “things”. There is a sound (also inside the mind), and there’s your image of the police car. Both exist within your consciousness. There is only one consciousness at work here: yours. The ‘experiences’ we believe we have are all transformations of that consciousness.

You know how when you wake up from a bad dream, you’re really relieved to find yourself safe in bed? When we talk about the dream, we don’t say things like, “Last night I went to visit this strange place where everyone has three eyes and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, and one of them kept saying my name and I was running.” No. We say something like, “I had a really weird dream last night.” What does this actually mean? It means that our whole experience of the dream was merely a transformation of our own consciousness. The underlying truth in this case is the so-called ‘reality’ that we wake up to. But even this reality is a transformation of consciousness at every turn.

This does not mean that everything is a dream. What it does mean is that our way of experiencing the world works much the same way as a dream. Which is to say, we experience transformations of our own consciousness in our day to day lives.

iii. How do I bring this into my life?

When I first learned this, it was a difficult teaching for me. I couldn’t escape the nihilistic idea that the teaching was saying there is no reality. This is all a dream.

It was only gradually that I began to see the usefulness and liberating quality of this teaching. For me it began with negative emotions. I found that if I could just take a step back, I could recognize that the anger or frustration or whatever, was nothing new. That same energy is always there. It’s my own thoughts that are causing me to experience that particular transformation of consciousness as negative or hurtful. And guess what? Our thoughts are also transformations of consciousness.

As I live with this teaching, I find myself coming back to how to know when something is ‘real’ in samsara. Is it substantial? Is it permanent? Is it dependent on various causes and conditions? When I combine this with the teaching that all we experience is mere transformation of consciousness, it feels very liberating.

It makes me realize that all in samsara (including me) is subject to aging, disease and death. With this in mind, I can navigate my life and walk the path with deliberation. It doesn’t mean that I can call up utility providers and let them know I won’t be paying anymore because all of this is just a transformation of consciousness. If I did that, I would experience a transformation to homelessness. No. I can’t do that. But this prayer offers liberation from samsara. I trust that the Dharma is that which holds. I trust that Buddha Nature is whole, complete and not subject to birth, aging, disease and death.

Knowing and understanding this, I am free to operate as though I’m watching that magic show. “Yes,” I say to myself, “this is what I see – a magic trick. And in conventional reality I will participate in the show.” The blessing of this teaching is that it allows the freedom of choosing which parts of the magic show I’m going to participate in. I don’t have to rush through life addicted to rocket fuel strength coffee just to reach some goal that I absolutely believe will satisfy me. In samsara, nothing satisfies.

Am I going to be compassionate and have a loving heart for all sentient beings? Yes. Despite the dream-like quality of samsara, I have a duty to ease the suffering of sentient beings caught up in the nightmare of samsara. This teaching allows me to participate in conventional reality while at the same time acknowledging that all that I experience is a transformation of my own consciousness. There is no one being cut in half. I can choose to understand that and live my life in accordance with the Dharma and my own Buddha Nature.