Mirror
Melong (Tibetan: མེ་ལོང, Wylie: me long; Sanskrit: ādarśa, darpaṇa) is a Tibetan term that means "mirror", "looking glass". The melong is a polyvalent symbol, divine attribute, and quality of the enlightened mindstream or bodhicitta.
See *The Mirror: Advice on Presence and Awareness *(1983)
Dzogchen
The mirror motif is pervasive throughout Buddhist literature[2] and is important to traditions of Dzogchen, representing the ground or base.[5] Namkhai Norbu (1938–2018) writes that the term base denotes "the fundamental ground of existence, both at the universal level and at the level of the individual, the two being essentially the same." This base is "uncreated, ever pure and, self-perfected, it is not something that has to be constructed," however it "remains hidden to the experience of every being affected by the illusion of dualism."[6] Jean Luc-Achard defines the basis as "the actual, authentic abiding mode of the Mind."[7] According to Achard, Dzogchen tantras define the basis as "Great Primordial Purity" (ka dag chen po). The Tantra of the Beautiful Auspiciousness (bKra shis mdzes ldan gyi rgyud) defines this as "the state abiding before authentic Buddhas arose and before impure sentient beings appeared."[7]
Namkhai Norbu relates that the metaphor of the mirror reflects the trifold nature of the base:
- The essence, or 'fundamental voidness' of the base, which cannot be changed, just as a mirror is not changed by the reflections it enfolds;
- The nature of the base is 'to manifest', just as a mirror must reflect whatever is before it, without judging the content;
- The energy of the base, or dang, refers to how the 'world around us' arises due to the delusion known as 'karmic vision'; just as a mirror faithfully reflects any content, dang "has the capacity to adopt any form".[5]
A number of texts use the mirror motif in their title, such as The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྙིང་གི་མེ་ལོང, Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long) which is one of the Seventeen Tantras of the Upadesha.[8]