B. Alan Wallace, 25 Apr 2016
Alan introduces the afternoon meditation by making a few comments about space. Our most primal space is the substrate. In dreamless non-lucid sleep, in anaesthesia and at the point of dying the substrate consciousness dissolves into the substrate. Even at this point, however, a sentient being still has consciousness, as opposed to e.g. a glass of water. The essential nature of the substrate is ‘avidya’ - ‘not knowing’. The substrate is obscuring the deeper reality, i.e. dharmadhatu. It does not mean that dharmadhatu is somewhere else than the substrate. Right where the substrate is there is dharmadhatu - explains Alan. As if hidden in plain sight. When the karmic seeds stir the substrate, consciousness emerges from it. And from the substrate consciousness there arises mentation. First the subtle ‘manas’, subtle mentation is catalysed. The sense of ‘me here’ as opposed to ‘object there’. Then coarse mentation arises. Alan explains that in a manner of speaking the mentation “refracts” the primal space of substrate into six spaces: the mental space and the five domains of physical senses. Similarly, the substrate consciousness gets “refracted” into six consciousnesses: the mental one and the five physical ones. In the process of falling asleep the same is happening in reverse order. After this introduction, Alan “front-loads” the meditation. He instructs us to focus for the first half of the session on the space of the body by directing the mental consciousness onto the somatic field. In this way the two spaces - relative dharmadhatu (mental space) and the field of tactile sensations operate together, are superimposed. Let the dharmadhatu merge with the space of the body - advises Alan. Let the space of the mind be filled with non-conceptual sensations of the somatic field in order to empty the mind of conceptual thinking, of chatter. Then, in the second part of the session, direct your attention to the space of the mind. In this way you have better chances not to get caught up in the “waterfall” of thoughts, images, memories etc. Alan calls this meditation “Balancing Earth and Wind”.
The meditation is on observing first the space of the body and then the space of the mind, and it is silent.
After the meditation, we return to the text of Panchen Lama, starting from verse 15 of the root text. It describes the preliminary practices one should undertake before launching into the main practice. Alan notes that the shamatha practice itself (e.g. awareness of awareness) is ethically neutral and may even be used for negative, unwholesome purposes. That’s why we need to precede the practice by taking refuge and generating the motivation of bodhicitta. When practicing shamatha one ventures into unknown territory. Contemplatives are often surprised by what comes up. Sometimes there are demons in there. So go there with a sense of security - advises Alan. That’s what refuge is for. Refuge and bodhicitta make the mind spacious. Further in the same verse there is mention of making hundreds of supplications to one’s guru. Why hundreds of supplications? - asks Alan. Surely not because the Buddha or Guru Rinpoche or our own guru cannot hear us. It is actually for us. Because we have many desires coming up. So, if the desire to practice shamatha is only one of many, it may easily get lost. Therefore hundreds of supplications are made in order to crowd out the other desires. As we know, one of the prerequisites of practicing shamatha is having few desires. Next, Alan comments on the line “Your guru dissolves into you”, explaining that in order for this practice to be effective one needs to release reification of oneself and of the guru. The mindstream of every sentient being is already saturated with dharmakaya. So where you are there is your guru. Your identity is not replaced by the guru but you are indivisible from your guru. Alan also explains how helpful it is to adopt the perspective of the guru when your mind seems very small, when you are overwhelmed by what comes up in the practice. Try to view it from the perspective of the guru, of the Buddha. How would these thoughts be viewed by the guru, by the Buddha? Commenting on verse 16, Alan reminds us that the practice of settling the mind in its natural state does not entail modification of anything. One does not take the developmental approach adopted in many other practices but instead releases whatever appearances arise and lets the mind heal itself. Verse 17 of the root text gives a very succinct Mahamudra description of the practice of awareness of awareness. The object of the practice is consciousness itself, identified by its two defining characteristics: luminosity and cognisance. Alan notes that many of us have doubts about doing this practice correctly. He suggests to ask the following questions: Do you still know? Are you continually aware that you are conscious? Are you continually aware of consciousness? Next, Alan presents Tsongkhapa’s descriptions of this practice - one found in “Medium Lam-rim” (the quote is available in Alan’s translation in his book “Balancing the Mind”) and another one in the “Great Exposition”. Alan notes that most of us, while doing the practice, in the background have the sense of ego, of “I” meditating: “I’m watching my awareness”. Hence there is a clear sense of a subject and an object (even though the practice of awareness of awareness is considered shamatha without an object). Alan mentions that Tsoknyi Rinpoche, when asked about the difference between this shamatha practice and the Dzogchen meditation, answered that the difference was in grasping. The grasping to the sense of “I”, the bifurcation of subject and object. We cannot simply turn it off - says Alan. But this shamatha practice is an important step on the path. So that when we cut through to rigpa we will be able to sustain it. For those who are supremely gifted it may be possible to go from shamatha straight to rigpa and from the perspective of rigpa realise the emptiness of the mind. But for those who are not so gifted the path is shamatha and then vipashyana on the nature of the mind. Only when one has realised the purely nominal status of “I am a sentient being” can one realise rigpa. But if you are convinced that you are a sentient being, rigpa remains only a potential and it will take three countless eons before your realisation - warns Alan. The last passage from Panchen Lama’s root text read today is verse 18 on taking mind as the path. Very briefly two methods are described here: one is simply observing thoughts and the other is cutting them off as soon as they arise. Again, Alan presents a possible early source of this presentation in a quote from Karma Chagme’s text in the “Spacious Path to Freedom” where a description of the same two methods comes from mahasiddha Maitripa.
Meditation is silent and not recorded.
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Olaso. So before we go into the first session, just a few comments about space. Within this samsaric domain, within our conditioned existence, the most primal type of space, at least in the Dzogchen tradition, is the substrate. So you know about this. When your mind is dissolved into this continuum. And in fact the substrate consciousness itself in deep dreamless sleep, innon lucid dreamless sleep, or when you’re under general anesthesia, or when you’ve fainted, or when you’re at the, you’re at the dead point in the dying process, you’ve become dead. On those occasions then the, when it’s non lucid, the substrate consciousness actually in a manner of speaking, dissolves into the substrate. So you’re not explicitly aware of anything at all, if you’re under general anesthesia you don’t know anything at all. So, you have more consciousness than a glass of water which doesn’t have a pilot light if we go back to that metaphor, it doesn’t have a pilot light. There’s nothing you can do to it, to make it wake up. Whereas if you hopefully do come out of anesthesia and so on.
[01:22] So, when you’re there the nature of the substrate, its essential nature is of unknowing or avidya. Because you just don’t know anything. But I wouldn’t say that the glass of water doesn’t know anything, I would say it’s a categorical error to talk about it not knowing anything because the words don’t even apply. There’s nothing it can ever do to become knowing. Whereas when you’re resting in the substrate, you’re resting in a state of unknowing and it’s said that it obscures, the substrate of course is a relative truth, which means it fully obscures something, kun zok, or samvriti, it totally obscures, that’s the nature of conventional reality or relative reality altogether but specifically, the substrate is obscuring a deeper reality. All right. Any guesses what that deeper reality might be? Amy?
Amy: [unintelligible]
Alan: Good guess not quite on but good guess. Any other guesses.
Retreatant: Dharmadhatu.
Alan: Yeah, Dharmadhatu, exactly.
[02:26] The substrate consciousness being [? samvriti], a type of reality that totally obscures another one, that would be the one that would be kind of a perfect match, the substrate consciousness. As long as you’re embedded in that. As long as you’re enmeshed in that. As long as you’re identifying with that, that’s obscuring the deeper reality which is right there. Again it’s not one floor down or some place else, then there’s a wall in between, it’s right where the substrate consciousness is. It’s no where else. And likewise right where the substrate is, that’s where the dharmadhatu, ultimate reality, dharmata, that’s where it is but it obscures that which is in a manner of speaking, hidden in plain sight. But then those karmic energies stir. Or vasanas, vasanas, kind of these imprints of the mind, they stir and substrate consciousness emerges from the substrate. And then I think I went through this sequence before, it’s straight from the Vajra Essence. And from the substrate consciousness, if this waking up process continues, coming from deep dreamless sleep, to the waking state, from the substrate, emerges the substrate consciousness. From the substrate consciousness this catalyzes the klishtamanas, this primal sense of I Am, this prearticulate, preconceptual, kind of coagulation of a sense of me over here and space over there. It’s a really raw, primitive bifurcation of experience into subject and object.
[03:57] But then the next, but that catalyzes a subtle mentation or manas. And this is where we start to distinguish but in a preconceptual way, not yet caught up in thought. But starting just to be able to distinguish like hot and cold, or color from sound. Really raw, very primitive. And so but now with that and then the coarse mentation that occurs which then is embedded in conceptualization. Here’s what seems to happen, it’s I think it’s a very close interpretation to what Padmasambhava says in the Vajra Essence and elsewhere.
[04:35] And then it’s, in a manner of speaking I’ll use a little bit of an analogy here. But this primal space of the substrate when it, when mentation arises, mentation is that which discerns, distinguishes, separates. So it’s as if this kind of primal raw foundational samsaric space gets refracted, refracted and just like light passing through a prism it gets refracted. Then this primal space of the substrate gets refracted into six spaces. The space of the mind, which the substrate already is but now it’s the space of the mind in which thought’s arising, and images, and memories, and so forth and so on. And then of course five other types of space, the visual, the auditory, and so forth. So, it’s mentation rooted in, preceded by, a sense of I Am, that refracts space itself into subspaces and then refracts the substrate consciousness into the flow of mental consciousness, of which we’re very well aware right now. As well as the five sensory modes. So the substrate seems to be refracted into five types of domains. Six I should say. And the substrate consciousness into six corresponding modes of consciousness.
[05:54] And so now we bring this right to experience. Oh, and then after coarse mentation, then comes in the whole field of memory, thought, personal identity, and so forth. And then it’s just normal consciousness. But in the falling asleep process, it just follows the same reverse route. And then the formation of an embryo follows that route from the substrate right through to having a human mind, and when you die there’s a symmetry again going from the human mind dissolving right back into the substrate. Ok. The variability there is whether you are lucid or not. You might come into this world, if you’re a highly realized trained tulku, you might come in lucid and just be through the whole process, lucid. And if you’re lucid you know, if you’ve accomplished something then as you’re dying you may go right through lucid in that way as well. Which would be a great boon.
[06:41] But we’re coming close to the meditation now. And so when we are attending to the space of the body, number one, tactile perception. Tactile consciousness, one of the six, has the sensory, the somatic field, tactile field and its domain. It kind of, it owns it, right? It owns it. So, with our tactile perception we experience hot, cold, emotion, and so forth, the four elements. Also the different types of feelings, pleasure, pain, indifference within the somatic field. Right. But now as we’ll do for roughly the first half of this session which will be silent. So I’m going to frontload this session. What I would suggest for the first half is that we take the space of the body and whatever arises within it, as the object. So, we’re familiar with this by now. But this means we’re directing mental consciousness. It jumps out of its field, it’s not of course, it’s the one that’s, it’s the one that gets loose. Tactile never goes into visual, visual never goes into auditory. They’re stuck.
[07:43] Mental has a kind of a Eurail pass, you know, it can just go anywhere. Anywhere. I look over at Dianna, there she is. So my mental consciousness is then going into my visual, visual field. if I should tap her on the shoulder and be aware of doing so, be attending. Hi Dianna, and I touch her on the shoulder, then mental is going to the tactile sensation and so on. Right. So, when we are, as we will for the first half of this session, we’ll bring the full force, as well as we can, single pointedly focus mental consciousness on the somatic field and whatever arises in it. Then there are two types of consciousness operating there, but this means there are two types of space as well. There’s the tactile space. There’s also the relative dharmadhatu. Remember out of eighteen dhatus, 18 domains, the relative dharmadhatu is simply the domain of experience that is, that is apprehended by mental consciousness. Ok. So, the limited mental space is what’s left over when you’re dreaming. Right. And those are just mental events. Or when you’re single pointedly focusing on settling the mind in its natural state, you’re focusing on this subset of mental space which is, which is populated by simply mental events. Right. So that’s single pointed.
[08:58] But now, when the mental consciousness moves over to the tactile field, then the tactile field, that domain is now coextensive with the mental, the dharmadhatu. Because mental consciousness is aware of everything that is happening in the tactile. So you have two spaces kind of superimposed upon each other. Right. Now this can be a skillful means. It’s a bit of theory there. But here in this retreat, theory is always for the sake of practice. It’s, I mean, that’s my motivation. I don’t talk about just stuff [to] give us intellectual entertainment. So, as we spend the first half of this session focusing on the space of the body and whatever arises within it, what I’m inviting you to do is to let your, the, your dharmadhatu, the domain of literally of phenomena, but here dharma or phenomena refers specifically to phenomena apprehended by mental consciousness. Right. Well, that’s actually everything. Emptiness, elementary particles, feelings, thoughts, the fragrance of roses and so forth. All of these can be objects of mental consciousness. Right.
[10:05] So, they’re all dharmas which means they’re phenomena and the domain of mental consciousness is the dharmadhatu. Where your dharmadhatu is now melting into or merging with the space of the body. Right. And what I’m inviting you to do as a preparation for settling the mind in its natural state is let the space of your mind which is now coextensive with space of the body, I mean pretty much apart from wandering thoughts and noise, but single pointedly focusing on that that you’re letting the space of your mind, your dharmadhatu, which is the focus of your attention be filled with this, and this is the critical point, this nonconceptual space because thoughts don’t arise in the somatic field. Tactile sensations do, feelings, pleasure, pain, indifference, yes, but do thoughts occur in the knee cap? Or in the region of your belly? Or your heart? And the answer is no.
[11:01] Tactile sensations? Yes. And so by letting your, the space of your mind which is now focused and selective, you could have gone to auditory, you could have gone to the uniquely mental domain where thoughts are, but we’ve chosen as a preliminary exercise, to focus mental consciousness which means it brings with it its mental domain, merge that with the somatic, the somatic is nonconceptual, the idea here is to fill your mental domain with nonconceptual sensations. Which is kind of a relief. So it fills it. It fills it. And you nonconceptually are aware of nonconceptual sensations arising in this space. It’s again filling the glass full of water, putting a cap on it, and then sucking all the water out to create a vacuum. We’re filling the space of your mind with just the space of the body and nonconceptual sensations. Give it some space. Get it to quiet down. Get it to empty out of all the noise that my space of the mind is normally filled with. And fill it instead with nonconceptual, non-chatty, tactile sensations, solidity, moisture, heat, motility.
[12:14] Then when you’ve gotten some peace and quiet, a little bit, then ok ready to launch and then you direct your attention to the space of the mind. And now you have a better chance of not being sucked in to every thought and image and memory and so forth that comes up. Because you’ve kind of rested. And so it’s less density, less overwhelming, rather than being in a waterfall and being thrown over a cliff with the water, it’s rather like standing on the edge, on the, on the ground right next to a mountain brook. And watching the water flow by, rather than being a leaf carried downstream. Okay that’s kind of the idea. It’s a strategy. It’s skillful means. Ok.
[13:00] So, more or less, first half focusing on the space of the body whatever sensations but with a special emphasis, a bit of selectivity on those nice rhythmic, soothing, soothing, predictable sensations of the in and out breath of the respiration. Do that for a while. Big emphasis, relaxation and stillness. That’s what mindfulness of, mindfulness of breathing is really good for. So soothing, it’s almost like getting a massage like something very regular just kind of like a nice regular rhythmic massage, of breathing out, relaxing, breathing out, relaxing right. First half. Relaxation and stability. And then at your leisure you don’t need to count the minutes; when you feel like it. Then direct your attention to the space of the mind and whatever arises. Same quality of awareness in both. The still unwavering mindfulness observing the movements within the body. The still unwavering mindfulness observing the movements in the mind. So in that way very similar. And so I call that balancing earth and wind. Earth as in the body. The somatic,he tactile and where earth element is pretty prominent. It’s kind of grounded, it’s soothing, it’s calming. And then facing into the wind, of the thoughts, memories, emotions, and so forth. And if you do have that sense of ease, that sense of relaxation then you have a better chance of not being blown away, being carried away by every thought, memory, and so forth that comes up. Okay? Okay, that’s our strategy. So, please find a comfortable position. We’ll have one silent session.
[14:38] [Retreatants heard finding a comfortable position. Meditation is silent and not recorded.]
[14:52] Olaso. So, we continue now with Panchen Rinpoche’s root text and commentary. So we’ve just finished the first verse pertaining to the preparation for the shamatha. And then we continue with the root verse. “With a mind that is perfectly virtuous, give yourself over to going for refuge and arousing the awakening mind. Then meditate on the profound path of guru yoga. After hundreds of fervent appeals [or I usually use the word supplication they’re both fine.] your guru dissolves into you.” So, one could spend a lot of time on that verse but I’ll try to be very concise. it is extremely important. And that is whether, when you’re going into this practice whether settling, you’re going to see he’s going to be kind of pairing settling the mind in its natural state with awareness of awareness. He’s going to give you choices there. But if you ask, is that, is that practice, is it virtuous? What would you say Daniel? Just the sheer fact okay now I’m going to now observe thoughts, I’m going to rest awareness in awareness. What would you say Daniel? Is that by nature virtuous?
Daniel: Neutral
Alan: Neutral, yeah. And could it be unwholesome? Could it be unwholesome?
Daniel: Neutral
Alan: No, but it couldn’t possibly be unwholesome? You’re right, just observing thoughts, what is it? Ethically neutral. But could it be something negative?
Daniel: If grasping sets in?
Alan: Not just grasping probably would be there. But what I’m saying negative, something really negative, karma, afflictive really going into a bad direction. Kathy what do you say?
Kathy: Yes.
Alan: Yeah, one could, this could be in preparation for you know, using a silly example, robbing a bank. I want to be really calm, cool as a cucumber. I heard from Alan this is the best way to rob a bank. [laughter] you know. Mind still like an unflickering candle flame, ladies and gentlemen this is a stick up, remain calm. I’m calm, you remain calm, just give me all your money. I can imagine that. And so then it’s just a preparation, you know, for doing something unwholesome. And so whether or not this is even virtuous, depends on the motivation. That’s why we’re starting with refuge and Bodhicitta. Make it not only virtuous, but fabulously virtuous.
[17:08] But also, here’s a very important point and some of you have already encountered this. When you go into this practice either one of them, settling the mind or awareness of awareness, you’re going into unexplored territory. Some of you are already finding this is the difference in my perspective, maybe, I know I’m jaded. Maybe the part of my jadedness, but when engaging in philosophical investigation, I’ve done that. I’ve written a number of books on philosophy, you don’t really find surprises because you’re going chop chop chop you know, with logical analysis and so forth. But scientists are often surprised by what they find. Galileo was surprised to find that there were moons around Jupiter. He just thought they were stars, but then he took a second look, and lo and behold. So, scientists are often surprised because it’s not just a result of logical analysis. Contemplatives are surprised by what comes up because it’s empirical. In this type of practice it’s not a philosophical exercise, it’s much more in the vein of contemplative science than it is contemplative philosophy. And so we’re going into uncharted territory.
[18:08] And sometimes you know there are demons in there. There are, there are very threatening things in there, unpleasant things, unwholesome things. And so to go in with a sense of security, you know, go in with a sense of security. In the early settlers in America that’s the continent I know best. When they’re heading out there getting to the west coast, the Oregon trail, the wagon trains and all of that, you know, the earliest ones they’re going into uncharted territory. And so if you’re in a wagon train, you’re bringing your children, your family, and so forth you would like to know that, okay this can be dangerous. There will probably be times that are dangerous, do you have a good guide? Can you count on your fellow wagoneers? Your guru and your sangha? And do you have good dharma? And that is a good map? And does your guide know the map? And has he, probably it’s a he back then, they were all he, but does your guide know the way? And if you have that security, we’ve come well prepared, where we need weapons, we have weapons. Where we need… ok and this is a good guide we can rely on.
[19:10] Then you have the boldness, you have the courage and a sense of ease that this is just not a terror stricken adventure, but in fact it’s a great adventure. But there has to be some sense of security, some sense of ease, some sense of you’re ok. That’s what refuge is for. Because this is the path. This is an ancient path, you know. It’s a very ancient path, right, followed not only by the Buddha Shakyamuni who has explored the depths of his mind all the way down to the ground. But this specifically this great lineage of Mahamudra and Dzogchen which is you know if we and there’s a whole book. Somebody wrote a whole book on the mahasiddhas, the 84 mahasiddhas I think it is. Or 80 mahasiddhas, there’s a lot of literature out there and just how did they turn out you know? Saraha, Maitrepa, and Verupa and these great Indian mahasiddhas And then the great mahasiddhas of Tibet. How did they do this? They did this. They did this much more than we’ve done this, you know. They’d you can you and they’ll tell you what they did, you know. How did they turn out? You know. And that gives some confidence. That yes the path will be bumpy, it’ll be challenging sometimes, be very difficult, sometimes quite miserable but that’s how they turn out. And then if you get to meet them in person, people like Yangthang Rinpoche and Penor Rinpoche and Gen Lamrimpa, Lama Zopa and so forth. Boy if that’s how they turn out, you know. Then it must be worth, it must be worth the uh the difficulties. This is the tremendous value of having a living tradition that we’re not just reading old biographies but this is still there.
[20:44] So, that gives the confidence a sense of ease because after all relaxation, relaxation we’re going to see from Panchen Rinpoche himself, this great Gelugpa master, he also in exactly in the vein of Mahamudra, you’re going to see he’s emphasizing again and again and again, relax, relax. How can you relax if you’re feeling anxious? If you’re fearful? You know. Or if you just don’t like it? You know. So this is where the refuge and then the bodhichitta just makes your mind your heart so spacious that it really does in a way; Bodhichitta is a great method for setting your mind at ease, you know. “Then” meditate on the path, the profound path or “meditate on the profound path of guru yoga. After hundreds of fervent appeals, heartfelt supplications” and it’s giving this a little bit of thought. I mean it’s kind of obvious really, but why hundreds? Why? If, if Michelle wants, Michelle has some request to put to me she doesn’t have to send 100 emails. [Laughter] I can really prefer you don’t. [Laughter] One well-placed email, succinctly put, from a person who’s willing to help and it’s an area yes I think I can help there, one should be sufficient. And I’m just an ordinary ordinary dude right. I’m not a Padmasambhava or you know one of these great beings not even remotely like. But if it’s, if one is enough for me then that must be certainly enough for Guru Rinpoche, right, or Avalokiteshvara, whoever. So why hundreds?
[22:19] And there’s a very good reason why. It’s not like if this is Avalokiteshvara these, no this Panchen Rinpoche, okay, Manjushri, Manjushri, um very major figure for the Gelugpa tradition. It’s not like Manjushri, you know if the prayers of supplication are to Manjushri and Manjushri they say as your yidam indivisible from your guru. Let’s imagine that’s very, very common in the Gelugpa tradition. It’s not as if you’re offering your prayers of supplication or your fervent appeals to your guru indivisible from Manjushri. It’s not as if their, you know their their telephone is is completely blocked with other calls. You know they’re just getting so many calls, you, every time you phone him you get a busy signal, like oh. [laughter] Try a hundred times hopefully you know you’ll get through once, oh guru, I fine, I finally got you on the phone, don’t don’t hang up don’t hang up you know. I have a re it’s not like that right. It’s not like that. Okay. So, then why hundreds of calls? It gets worse. You wait, Mary Kay, it’s going to get much worse, very fast, it’s going to get much worse. Why? It’s for us. If I can say, it’s for us, stupid, you know, I’m talking to myself. But we have many desires. Some little bit of desire for reputation, oh I wish I’m more famous,, oh I wish I had more money oh I wish, oh, oh I wish. We have many desires coming up right and they’ll diffuse us in all different directions. Oh I wish I had a softer cushion, oh I wish I had a bit more of this, Oh I, blah, blah, blah and said oh, and I wish to achieve shamatha but i’d really like more, rice milk. You know. It’s a crowded room, the room of our minds with desires. There’s all kinds of desires. And so if, oh I’d like you know I don’t want to say anything you might start giving it to me but you know you’re so I have a very generous group here, everybody listening by podcast very generous. So I’m not going to say anything at all [Laughter] I’d like more air. [continued laughter]
[24:20] We have many desires you know. And if the desire to practice and achieve shamatha is just one of a hundred, then when you sit down on the cushion, the other 99 will come flooding in as well. You know. And that, and one of the prerequisites you’ll recall, inner prerequisites of actually achieving shamatha is having few desires. So, having a hundred is to crowd out all the rest, especially if there’s sincere appeal, heartfelt appeal, you know, fervent appeal. It’s that this is my desire, this is my desire, yeah I’d like some more rice milk, in fact I would not actually, just to make sure you know, you know. I’m fine. I like black tea. It’s quite nice and I have plenty of black tea. [laughter] But if that’s the one that keeps on impinging upon your consciousness because you’re arousing it again and again then when you go into the practice, remember you’re arousing enthusiasm with refuge, bodhicitta, guru yoga, appeals, appeals reflecting on the great adepts of the past and so forth. You arouse enthusiasm and then what? Samadhi. And samadhi now you just go in and you leave all that stuff in the background right. And you’re just there right. The chances are then you’ll have far fewer desires, other desires arising because you’ve aroused this passionate yearning, the supplication, call for blessing so many times that that’s just filling your mind. It’s filling your mind. Okay like that. So, “and then after hundreds of fervent appeals, your guru dissolves into you.”
[26:00] Okay Mary Kay you ready? So imagine that you’re, you’re still reifying yourself, you know. And you’re reifying the guru and then you say, and now guru please dissolve into myself. And oh man it’s crowded. It’s like having two people in the telephone booth. You know my skin, I got me, and then, hello Rinpoche, can you move over a little bit? I can hardly move, we’re both in the same place. Two inherently existent beings in the same skin, that’s really tight. So it’d be a really good idea before this, this is vajrayana practice, of course, that you really, as much as you want, as much as you can, dissolve any kind of reification of self, of your body, your mind, your speech, your self. Release it all. Release. And so you’re still there, it’s not like you blotted yourself out, but light, empty, a mere presence, having merely a nominal existence. And then you’re calling in the guru, the guru indivisible from the yidam. The guru’s mind being nothing other than dharmakaya. Guru speech being the speech of the buddha’s. Guru’s body being the body the nirmanakaya. And you’re imagining these dissolving into yourself and they don’t say that the guru comes in and bumps you out and takes over like you’ve had a, a uh a guru-ic possession, you know. [laughter] Like you got bumped out and now the guru’s, thank goodness Alan’s gone, here I am, you know. Not like, you know,, billiard balls when you put some english on the, on the first ball and knock the other one and then takes over the space, not like that, okay. It’s not like guru-ic possession. It’s actually tapping into a theme that is very prominent in Uttaratantra [Shastra], one of the five works of Maitreya. And that is that the mindstream of every sentient being is totally saturated by Dharmakaya. Every sentient being, doesn’t matter who they are, they’re virtuous non-virtuous but your own mind stream is already saturated, permeated by, dharmakaya. Where your mind stream is, there is the mind of the Buddha. That’s sutrayana. Sutrayana, right.
[28:18] And so, there are in a manner of speaking and that’s exactly what this is. In a manner of speaking, where you are, there’s the perspective of Elizabeth, for example, gazing out from a certain perspective. But right there from that same perspective and gazing out is also the mind of the guru, right? And so, that’s already true. But it’s one of those truths that we’re often not very explicitly aware of. And so here’s a symbolic act of having generally the idea that the guru, the buddhas are somewhere out there and we’re taking refuge, calling the guru from afar, that kind of terminology. Taking refuge as we sit in front of the altar and we look upon the Buddha or a symbol of the Buddha and taking refuge. It’s very natural, and it’s not crazy that we when we you know we think of his Holiness Dalai Lama he’s an extraordinary being, a mahasattva and then relying upon him, calling him, calling him from afar makes really good sense. It’s not silly. But it’s very natural that you know in some sense we do regard the guru, the Buddha and so forth as being outside ourselves. That’s all very well but for this practice we’re seeking to go deeper and to release the outsidedness, the externality of the guru. And then this whole sense it’s like pouring one glass of water into another glass of water that there as the guru comes and melts indivisibly with you with yourself so that your identity is not bumped out or displaced by the guru, but your identity is still there, but totally inseparable from, indivisible from, that of the guru. Yeah. And your mind it’s not like you don’t have a mind, somebody else you know possessed your mind, took over, kicked yours out but your mind is indivisible, your thoughts are permeated by Dharmakaya. They’re still your thoughts, your memories, your emotions, desires, and so forth, they’re not somebody else’s but they’re permeated by Dharmakaya.
[30:15] If you speak, you’re speaking in your language, you’re drawing from your knowledge, your, your personal history and so forth and so on, but your speech is permeated by the speech, let’s say of Padmasambhava. And your body is your body, it’s not anybody else’s body. It doesn’t disappear, but it’s permeated by the physical presence of Nirmanakaya. What this does, it’s very practical, this isn’t just a religious, religious exercise or ritual. But you all know now, I think every single one of you, probably everyone listening by podcast as well you know very well that when you are settling the mind in its natural state and you’re seeing all this stuff come up and the deeper you go, the deeper you dredge, old memories will come up, emotions, desires, and then something sparks, it can be especially when you’re in retreat. I know this very well. You know when you’re [on re]treat where you’re getting very little input from the surrounding world but then you maybe make a call to a loved one or you or you say I’ll check this email. And then [makes cracking sound effect], the cascade effect doesn’t even have to be if it’s high voltage if it’s something, some big drama, like a loved one has been found to have a serious disease or something like that. But even apart from that, little stuff can just set up such, like an echo chamber,ba,ba,ba,ba,ba,ba [sound effect], after, after and get caught up in the ones, that the dramas of people close to one in one’s own life. It’s very very natural. But that takes up a lot of time because the mind has become very small, this, the mind is operating only out of our personal focus of this individual in space, in time, unique, but very very limited right. And that means all this stuff becomes a big deal. Whereas from the perspective of the Buddha who gazes through your eyes, well it’s a much bigger perspective, yeah. And so if you can be viewing it from that, even with just the power of your imagination, whatever is coming up. As if, in my case my root guru of course is His Holiness. How would His Holiness see the stuff that comes up in my life? Don’t need to give any specific examples just one more life, but this comes, this comes up. How is His Holiness looking right through as if he was cohabiting you know in a very loose spacious non-inherent way, cohabiting my perspective. How would he view this? Very differently than Alan Wallace in ordinary mode, very differently. And much more spaciously, right?
[32:46] And especially if you think of your guru as not only an extraordinary being like His Holiness, but if you really have very deep guru yoga, with, imbued with deep wisdom, insight that you’ve not just, you know, given yourself slogans. And when you think of the guru, you actually really are thinking of Buddha. Then, if you were a buddha looking through your eyes, what would be your perspective on the stuff that comes up in your life? Very spacious, utterly unperturbed and yet loving, caring, totally attentive but unperturbed. So this really creates a sacred space before you go into the main practice. So they, they can never overemphasize these simple, I took one verse and I spent so much time on it. But, uh this, this can be the, the deal maker or the deal breaker. Because a lot of people when they get into settling the mind in its natural state they just get overwhelmed by all this stuff coming up. They say I can’t deal with this anymore, it’s too much, you know. This can be very helpful. So Panchen Rinpoche, I’m going really slowly here, sorry. Panchen Rinpoche gives a little bit of commentary on his own text. I love it. He says, “The” quote, “The mind that is purely virtuous is the awakening mind, bodhichitta and the profound path of guru yoga is a guru yoga that completes the port, a portion of the path” it’s an integral feature of the path, “this is the summary, the rest is straightforwardly understandable.” So, he figures,, well this text is not for people who’ve never heard anything about buddhadharma this is not an initial introductory text, this is for people, at the very least, who are very familiar with lam rim. Lam rim within the Gelugpa tradition, the four thoughts that turn the mind and so forth. I mean basically are there in all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, so, he’s assuming that.
[34:30] Now the main practice. “Therefore having begun with the preliminary stages I will explain the method for practicing mental, practicing mental abiding.” Okay practicing shamatha. And I’ve modified these verses quite a bit so I don’t know whether for better or worse but I’m more comfortable with them. So with, so I’ll read it slowly. “Without engaging in any modifications due to obsessive thoughts of hopes and fears and so forth, concerning evanescent appearances, settle for a while in unwavering meditative equipoise.” Okay, now this, this is a root text. So it’s very dense, that’s, that’s what root texts are supposed to be. And they’re in verse, not in English but in Tibet this; is metered verse. So without engaging in any I’m going to kind of give a brief commentary now although he’s going to have his own commentary but just so we, you know, know what the words mean. “Without engaging in any modifications due to obsessive thoughts.” So, for other practices if anger comes up you do something about it, apply an antidote. Shantideva has a big chapter on patience. What do you do? How do you modify your mind when it’s toxic with anger, hatred, belligerence, resentment, hostility, and so on. He’ll tell you how to fix it. How to, how to heal your mind. You modify it, it’s toxic, detoxify it. Very very good. In this practice, of course, as you well know, rather than being so much a developmental model of trying to transform and develop your mind, you’re rather releasing, and allowing the mind to heal, to unravel, to unknot itself. So therefore you don’t, in this practice, this specific practice, and this is a great Gelugpa lama, so there’s no way he’s refuting Shantideva and lam rim and all of that. He’s just saying this is complementary to all of these other classic teachings for which the Gelug tradition is extremely well known.
[36:20] So, “without engaging in any modification”, not trying to change your mind and you know, make it more wholesome. And why would you do, why would you want to? Because of “obsessive thoughts, of hopes and fears, and so forth”. So these come up. Instead of trying to antidote them, remedy them, blot them out and so forth, “concerning” and what are these thoughts about? “Concerning evanescent appearances” memories, desires, images of all kinds, and so forth. They just come up and go. But then their nature is just to come up; if they’re orphaned, if they’re not, how do you say, captured by grasping as you, many of you have discovered. If you’re just resting there in the simplicity, the ease of your own awareness, and a memory comes up, a desire, an emotion comes up, it comes up and it fades. It just, just slips away. It just dissolves away. You don’t need to hammer it with anything. It will, it will just dissolve of itself right. And so, so they’re evanescent, that is, these appearances don’t last, emotions don’t last, desires don’t last, memories don’t last. They just come up, they fade away,, but when we lock onto them when we grasp onto them, when there’s cognitive fusion, oh, then they can stay for a long time. And they can have a lot of repeat performances. And so, evanescent appearances. He’s again, this is a very dense, it’s classic root text, he’s packed a lot into very few words. So, “In this way without engaging in such modifications settle for a while in unwavering meditative equipoise.” He just simply said equipoise finally just I just wanted to make very clear it’s meditative equipoise and this just comes back to the theme from your friendly “balance walla”. Equipoise is balance. It’s exactly that. It’s balance all the way through and unwavering unflickering, the unflickering candle flame. So that’s how we start.
[38:14] So, the practice we did this morning, which really as I recall, culminated just in settling, that is, body, speech and mind, and then just resting there for a while. You know,just without venturing into some practice I’m now going to start settling the mind in its natural state or I’m now going to even, now I’m going to practice awareness of awareness. It’s just lingering there, lingering there, having settled body, speech, and mind and lingering there just poised, without doing anything. It’s a shallow facsimile of Dzogchen meditation. Shallow because it’s not imbued with a view. But methodologically, oh, this is very, very close right? You’re not, you’re not bifurcating experience into I’m the subject here, there’s the object over there, I’m attending to it. Just resting there, open, present, clear, discerning, unmoving, not cogitating. And if you can linger there for a while, then, when you take the step to then settling the mind in its natural state, you have a firm basis, a platform, of that stillness, which then you will sustain through the whole session as you are aware of thoughts, images and so forth arising in the mind, you have a real chance of clearly distinguishing between stillness and movement. If you’ve drenched yourself, bathed for a while in the stillness, then when you direct that light of your awareness to movement you won’t be so easily immediately swept away. So this is kind of like the moment just before starting the main shamatha practice, the culmination of that initial sequence of settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state. That’s my interpretation of this first one.
[40:06] But now we go to the actual practice. “Do not cease mental activity.” Do not terminate mental activity. Do not try to shut the mind down. Don’t just go blank even subjectively, don’t just go blank as you know so well now. Absolutely crucial to any shamatha practice is to maintain that clear flow of cognizance, discerning cognizance. That’s a type of mental activity, don’t let that fade away. As in swoon, as if you’ve fallen asleep, fallen unconscious, fainted or sleep. This is not a trance. It’s not anything like just falling into, into non-lucid sleep or falling into a swoon. “Post the sentry of undistracted mindfulness.” So, the sentry is your undistracted mindfulness “and maintain introspection of movement and awareness.” So your mindfulness here, well we’ll just let him say. So, under but this the sentry is often relating to introspection, here he’s saying “the sentry of undistracted mindfulness, without distraction, without forgetfulness and maintain introspection of movement and awareness.” So, introspectively monitoring the stillness of your awareness and the movement of thoughts, the movements of the mind. “While your mindfulness remains undistracted, unwaveringly present,” but now you’ll see what he’s doing here. “Focus closely on the nature of cognizance and luminosity, observing it nakedly.” So right here, he’s not going into settling the mind in its natural state. There’s no reference here in this verse to observing thoughts. Oh watch this thought. Watch that thought. He didn’t say that. This undistracted mindfulness is mindfulness of focusing closely on the nature of cognizance and luminosity. Well you remember those are the two defining characteristics of consciousness.
[42:05] So this is shamatha on consciousness. And how do you identify consciousness? If you want to have shamatha on a banana you know, need to know, if, and you have a whole bunch of fruit in front of you, apples, pineapples, and so forth. And somebody tells you okay now focus single pointedly on bananas. I’m giving a really prosaic example because this is exactly in the same type. If you’ve got all kinds of fruit in front of you and somebody says, okay, practice five minutes of shamatha on banana. In order to do that you have to know what are the defining characteristics of a banana that set it apart from everything that’s not a banana. If you’re kind of fuzzy on that one, if you’re not quite sure, you know, then your practice is going to be fuzzy. And not everybody knows what a banana is, especially if you say it in English. And so that, it’s just that simple. If you’re going to focus on a banana you’ll need to know what are the defining characteristics of bananas. So when you see one, you know it, and you know you know it. Right? And likewise, if you’re going to be focused single pointedly on consciousness, and that’s exactly what this practice is, you focus on it by knowing what are its distinctive, unique, defining characteristics. You’re recognizing by way of that right? If I’m, if I’d like to identify Maria in the room. Well she doesn’t look like anybody else in the room. Normally, of course. But if, I but I’m, if I’m not quite sure who Maria is because there’s also Marie and I’ve known other Marias in my life but Maria in this retreat, how would I do that? Not being clairvoyant. I can’t just kind of look into her mind and see the Maria thoughts. But by noting, we, pretty much the face, that’s the most distinctive thing; we always do that. But Maria’s face doesn’t look like anybody else’s face. And so if I recognize that, it doesn’t have to have a list of characteristics. But I’ve seen it before and I recognize it, then as soon as I see Maria, oh yes, I can now practice shamatha on Maria’s face because I recognize it and there’s no doubt about it.
[44:09] That this is not kind of Maria, kind of Mary Kay, and a little bit of Birgit. It’s no, it’s just Marie. So it’s that. We, we,, by way of the characteristics of Maria’s, of Maria’s face, then we can focus on Maria right? Because that’s by way of. Her face is not her. Luminosity is not cognizance, [snaps fingers] is not consciousness. Cognizance is a feature of consciousness. Consciousness has those two qualities. By way of those two qualities we identify consciousness, okay? So that’s what he’s doing. This is awareness of awareness. That’s how he’s starting this off, okay? So your mindfulness is of consciousness itself, maintaining that in an undistracted fashion. Introspection is monitoring your mindfulness of awareness, noting movement, noise, thoughts, and so forth. But noting also your awareness of the consciousness of which you are aware. And you’re focusing on and identifying and knowing you’re identifying this, I’ve heard this many many times, when I practice awareness of awareness I have this afflictive uncertainty. Am I doing it right? Am I doing right? Am I just sitting here with a blank mind or am I really continuing to identify, to know consciousness. And I don’t have any trick for that one. It’s just come back and see are you, do you still know something? It’s just that. And if you know something as you’ve been sitting there for five minutes, 10 minutes quietly because we are cultivating another mode of knowing. Normally when we know something it is embedded in concepts, language, memory, personal history, and so forth. The whole conceptual framework. And this is again, I’ll just use the same old one, it’s just like eating chocolate. It’s just the taste and that’s it. Do you know and you take another bite, another bite. You don’t need to think about it but do you know without thinking about it chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate, yeah.
[46:14] If you know it, then that’s cognizance. Consciousness consciousness consciousness consciousness without having to say any mantra, without reciting anything are you continuing to be aware. Let’s put it really in ordinary language. Are you continually aware that you are conscious? And now we focus in, are you continually aware of being conscious? Are you continually aware of consciousness? The experience of consciousness? That’s it. I don’t have any trick but it is maintaining that knowing. And only you can tell. And so having some uncertainty is good it keeps you a little bit on edge so you don’t just fall into complacency. But that’s how he starts. So I thought it might be interesting here, quite a number of you have a significant background in the Gelugpa [Gelug]. And so here is Panchen Rinpoche, he’s just given a classic Mahamudra, I mean that’s just one verse but this is really classic Mahamudra shamatha practice, awareness of awareness, classic, called shamatha without a sign. It’s called shamatha without a support. I think it has some other names as well. Sometimes it’s called yeah, we’ll just leave with it at that. But it’s classic, it’s from the Mahamudra tradition. And yet prior to Panchen RInpoche, according to Roger Jackson, who’s a good, good scholar, he said he doesn’t know, he didn’t find any other Mahamudra literature in the Gelugpa [Gelug] tradition including from Tsongkhapa himself, right. And so is this really an infusion from something outside the Gelugpa tradition? Outside the Kadampa tradition? Is he really drawing from something entirely outside of his own lineage, this particular shamatha method of just resting in awareness of awareness? And I can answer the question.
[47:57] Tsongkhapa, so, in his medium exposition of the stages of the path the lam rim ding, medium exposition. Ah, there’s of course a large section on shamatha. I’ve translated it in its entirety with detailed commentary and a lot of footnotes so it’s a really quite thorough translation and commentary, explication of the meaning there. It’s in my book, Balancing the Mind. And in his presentation there of shamatha in the medium lam rim, here’s a quote from him. Tsongkapa straight. “One cause” and what he’s referring to is one cause of introspection because this is in a section discussing introspection. In fact the title of this little section is called “The Way to Develop Introspection that Recognizes Them, [that’s laxity and excitation], While Meditating”. How do you develop introspection? He tells you in this section. In that section he says, “One cause of introspection is to focus the attention on an apprehended aspect such as of the body of a deity.” So recall you might focus on the, the coil of hair at the buddha’s forehead or on the ushnisha, the crown protrusion, an aspect of the buddha’s body. So you’re looking at the apprehended aspect and that is an object, a quality of the face of the buddha. So that’d be classic okay. That’s one technique. “One cause is to focus the attention on an apprehended aspect such as the body of a, of a deity.” You’re maintaining that with mindfulness and as he’ll say later by triggering mindfulness that will give rise to introspection as a derivative yeah. So that’s one way, classic way, in shamatha. Focus on some object, image of a Buddha. “Or” he says, “another cause is to focus the attention to an apprehending aspect.” That is from the side of the subject, an aspect of your subjective experience. The other one is apprehended aspect, this is an apprehended, apprehending aspect. “You may focus to, focus attention to an apprehending aspect such as the sheer awareness and sheer clarity of experience.” a.k.a, also known as sheer cognizance and luminosity of experience.
[50:12] These once again are the defining characteristics of consciousness. So that’s from Tsongkhapa in his lam rim. So he’s referring to the, see, he’s he he knew all this stuff. He was trained in all four schools, in the Kagyu and he was also trained in Nyingma as you saw. So he knew this and he’s alluding to this very clearly that this is a type of shamatha where you’re instead of directing your attention to something outside of awareness, you’re directing it, inverting it right in upon itself and attending to your own consciousness by way of these two apprehending aspects. That is, we apprehend with the facet of clarity and we apprehend with the facet of cognizance or awareness and the practice is shamatha focused on consciousness itself. So Tsongkhapa ref, refers to this right here. And sheer, it’s [tsam in Tibetan] And that is, without elaboration, without coating it, without cloaking it in any analogies, language, philosophical speculation and so forth. Again, just the taste of let’s say lemonade for a change. Just, just drink it and don’t think about orchards and don’t, no association, just when it comes in just drink it you know. Just that. Stop, just, just drink. Drink the lemonade. Drink the kool-aid. It’s just that. Just that. In the seen let there be just the seen. When you’re aware of awareness let there be just that. Don’t add anything to it. Take it naked. Take it straight. That’s what the sheer means, don’t adorn it, cloak it in anything. “Then by devoting yourself to mindfulness as explained previously” because he’s already talked about mindfulness now he’s talking about introspection, “sustain the attention by continuously monitoring whether or not there is scattering elsewhere.”
[52:07] So that’s where the introspection comes in. You know what to do. Focus just on the sheer cognizance and luminosity of your own consciousness. But then monitor that flow by seeing well when do you lose it when are you dispersed elsewhere. “Recognize this as a critical factor for sustaining introspection.” That’s how you utilize it and that’s how you refine it. So he started with this extraordinary precision which is utterly characteristic of Tsongkhapa’s writings. So that’s in the medium, the medium lamrim. I think I’m the only one that’s translated it so you can find it in Balancing the Mind. And then there’s his great exposition, the Lam rim Chen Mo. This was translated by a whole team. I was one of the two translators for the shamatha section. So here he alludes to this again but from a different angle. I found that very interesting. So here’s from the great exposition, Tsongkhapa again. “Even those who claim to stabilize their minds without an object of meditation,” so there are those who say well there’s, there’s shamatha with a support, with an object, there’s shamatha without a support with no object. Right. So there’s some, some use that kind of terminology, okay now I can practice shamatha no object. He’s going to refute that and now you’ll find out how. “Even those who claim to stabilize their mind with an, out, without an object of meditation must first think as they’re sitting down to do the practice, I will keep my attention such that it does not stray towards any object whatsoever, and then keep their attention in that way.” There has to be a resolve. You don’t just sit down and say don’t know what’s going to happen let’s see. [laughter] You’re practicing awareness of awareness. You know exactly what you’re going to focus on and you’re not going to focus on any appearances to awareness. I’m not going to be distracted elsewhere. In other words you are focusing on an object, it’s called awareness.
[54:02] “After they have focused on the mind itself as an object of meditation, they must be certain to fix on this object without straying in any way. Thus their own experience contradicts their claim that they have no object of meditation.” They do. So, some of you have already found this out. In fact it came up in a conversation today; when doing the practice, the, whether it’s focusing on thoughts and images or whether it’s resting in awareness of awareness. There’s this, this quiet sense in the background. I’m doing this. I’m doing it. I’m doing it poorly. I’m doing it well. But yeah, here I am, I’m here. I’m doing it. So the sense of ego, the sense of self of I am of an inherent, inherently existent separate internal agent here doing the job is not even being challenged yet. Right. And so from that perspective, and then if somebody whispered in your ear, what are you doing? [laughter] I’m washing my I’m watching my awareness, that’s what I’m doing. Shh. Who invited you in here? Oh it’s my guru, sorry. [Laughter] So there is a sense of an object, is a sense of a subject. Whether you’re watching thoughts of course, watching thoughts from afar we’re going to hear that repeatedly. right. Well, then who’s way over here? If the thoughts are way over there who’s way over here? Well me, right, but even in awareness of awareness there’s a sense of being the one who’s doing it.
[55:55] So, Tsoknyi Rinpoche has been asked what’s the difference between this flat out shamatha practice, this one, and resting in rigpa? And his answer, ah, I’ve heard from, cos many of my students are also trained with him, ah, if you’re doing the shamatha practice you’re doing the practice with grasping. If you’re resting in rigpa there is no grasping. So it’s grasping, no grasping. And the grasping is exactly of this kind. And that is, that bifurcation, dualistic grasping because that’s what we’re really talking about here. I’m over here, my awareness is there, and I’m watching it and doing good job, yup, I’m really there, I’m already there and you’re not saying this of course because the grasping doesn’t have to articulate itself but it is that bifurcation of subject object within the system of there being an observer and an observed. Right. That’s grasping. It’s not something we can simply turn off. Like, oh I was doing it wrong I’ll stop doing that. And they just go directly into a non-dual experience that would be very nice but it’s not one of those things you can just stop, you know. And so this is a strategy. That’s what this is. It’s a strategy. And that is this is a step on the path to move you in the direction of having a conceptually unmediated non-dual realization of rigpa. But we’re taking these preliminary steps of shamatha so that we are making the frontal attack so to speak. When we’re ready to cut through to rigpa, we’ll be able to not only cut through to rigpa, but actually sustain that awareness and not just have a fleeting experience that turns into a great memory. So the fundamental strategy and we’re going to see this in Mahamudra and Dzogchen, is first of all get your act together for heaven’s sakes. Get your, get your mind together. Free the mind of obscurations. Relaxation, stillness and clarity. Get your act together, bring a really exceptionally sane mind to the task, so you are resting there. And then bring in the heavy weight. Bring in the, bring in the very deep practice, vipashyana, to cut the root of the mind, that’s the terminology used, to cut the root of the mind and that is to cut the reification, your own reification of your own mind as the mind of a sentient being. As something separate, something individuated, something inherently existent.
[58:20] As long as that’s there, as long as that’s unchallenged, whether it’s quiet or whether it’s quite explicit, as long as that’s there then we do have kind of the joke you know. You invite the guru and then you’re two people in the telephone booth. You’re really here and you probably invited in a reified guru as well and it gets very cramped in there you know. It’s kind of silly. But most importantly if you want to realize rigpa you cannot simultaneously be reifying your mind as the mind of a sentient being. No possibility of that. So it does happen for very gifted individuals they’ll go right into awareness of awareness and they’re just like a hot knife through butter cut right through the mind right through the substrate consciousness and realize rigpa. And with a kind of a boomerang effect, it’s poorly stated but I’ll say it anyway. By realizing rigpa then the boomer,boomerang effect is then they realize the emptiness of the mind and the emptiness of all objects to the mind. It does happen. Padmasambhava refers to it in Natural Liberation. So there are people who, who are ripe enough, that go directly from shamatha right into rigpa. And then viewing reality from the perspective of rigpa. Then they see this person’s mind, Yvonne’s mind, is kind of like this, this fluff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah that doesn’t exist, not inherently, that’s an empty appearance because you’re viewing it from rigpa. And you’ll see it in fact it’s an effulgence of rigpa rather than being something inherently existent that somehow in intention with or contradictory to rigpa, you know. But for those who are not supremely gifted like that, then the strategy and this is Padmasambhava’s strategy. It’s classic, it’s Karma Chagme Rinpoche’s strategy. He made it so clear in the uh, Spacious, Spacious Path to Freedom.
[1:00:09] Shamatha for reasons that if they’re not clear now there’s nothing more I can say. And then the vipashyana on the nature of the mind above all, to cut through to see the utterly contrived conceptually created, constructed, purely nominal. How’s that? Purely nominal, like who do these glasses belong to? There’s a correct answer, and there’s only one correct answer to that. It’s true. They belong to me. Now, why? Purely nominal. Purely nominal. There’s nothing more to it than that. It’s an agreement. It’s a manner of speaking and we agree. So I still have my glasses, nobody’s stolen them thinking they were theirs, or just it was a free-for-all glasses for sale or for free. But it’s purely nominal, right. And to actually fathom that which we take right to our essence, to our heart, to our very sense of existence, I’m a sentient being, and to see that’s as nominal as these are my glasses. Oh then if you, if you’re that far, if you’re that far along the way on shamatha, vipashyana, and you have the muscle of shamatha not only to get a glimpse of that but to sustain that awareness that you as a sentient being have nothing more than a nominal status. And what does that mean? You’re not even a sentient being at all unless you’re so conceptually designated. These are not my glasses at all. There’s no truth to that at all, unless somebody says it. Somebody thinks it. If that doesn’t happen without the verbal and or conceptual designation these glasses have no owner whatsoever. It’s just a fact. And of course I can say Claudio do you want them? Do you want them? He said yeah sure. Then they’re his, purely nominal.
[1:01:56] So, to consider that that is our status as sentient beings. That it’s just nominal. If that’s it, [makes a blowing sound] realize rigpa, you know. Rigpa is so close. Whereas if you’re really quite convinced existentially, like really, I’m a sentient being. Well then you have rigpa as a potential. You have buddha nature as a potential. One day when you’re good you’ll grow up and realize buddhahood but you’re so inherently a sentient being for the time you have no chance at all. So keep on operating out of your perspective of being a sentient being and check your clock. It’s going to be three countless eons from now until enlightenment. Operating out of that perspective as a sentient being, that’s how long it takes, three countless eons. Right. Operating out of the perspective having dissolved that having seen it has only a nominal status utterly empty and then practicing with your closest approximation of practicing from the perspective of Dharmakaya. Whoa, that cuts three countless eons down to the bat of an eyelash. Boy I’m going slowly. So that is that. Let’s just read a little bit more. I have 30 seconds. Because he’s now, he’s just given the method, right,, a very clear very succinct, boy how, he can’t get much more succinct than that. That’s awareness of awareness right. But now in the very next verse he, he’s, he’s doing something else. “Whatever thoughts arise identify each one.” Okay, oh,that’s familiar. Just identify each one. That’s why we know, that that’s taking the mind as the path. And by thoughts, bear in mind this term thought, is generic. It’s not just discursive thoughts, it’s images, it’s memories, desires, emotions, it’s all that stuff. I asked Yangthang Rinpoche about that, you remember. I asked him when you say namtok namtok are you referring just to thoughts or are you referring to all this other stuff? He said, all the other stuff too. Yeah. So it’s a big generic umbrella term for the activities of the mind. So whatever comes up in that specific domain of the mind that is uniquely mental, thoughts, images, the domain that’s left over when you’re dreaming.
[1:04:09] “Whatever thoughts arise identify each one” there it is, and he’ll say, later as if from afar. And Padmasambhava says, as if you’re a herder, like a shepherd observing your flock from afar, same. But then he flips right over again to another method. “Alternatively like a swordsman, immediately cut off any thought that comes up.” And he will elaborate on that so I don’t need to right now. But there’s another method, there’s another method. So one is, observe the thoughts. The other one is, is as soon as they pop their heads up just decapitate them. Pttt, they they say hi and pfftt, they have no head you know. They said you know swordsman, yeah, whatever comes up. [Alan making cutting sounds] They don’t get a chance. They want to say something. [laughter] So where did this come from? This would be the last note for today. And that is, this comes from multiple sources but it’s really classic, classic, Mahamudra shamatha. It’s classic Dzogchen Mahamudra, Dzogchen shamatha. And I’m just drawing just as a reminder from Spacious Path to Freedom there’s just a two juicy, juicy summaries of this. This is from the Spacious Path to Freedom that we covered last year. And the, and Karma Chagme Rinpoche is referring to the essential instructions of the mahasiddha Maitripa, Maitripa. Just let me check that. Of the essential instructions of the mahasiddha Maitripa. And so Maitripa and he’s summarizing here. But here’s what but now we just had these two methods taught by Tsongkhapa but now let’s see let’s go back several hundred years. It’s the same method back to Maitripa, back to India.
[1:06:07] So here, here’s the tech and there, there are two techniques here. One of these is shamatha in which the attention is focused on conceptualization. Whatever thoughts arise identify each one. That’s what Panchen Rinpoche said. Now here in Karma Chagme, straight Kagyu tradition, going right back to Maitripa. “In relation to the excessive proliferation of conceptualization,” I’ll call that thoughts, “such as including such afflictions as the five poisons, craving, hostility, delusion, envy, and pride. Or the three poisons, you know them. Whatever kind of thoughts come up, thoughts that revolve in subject object duality. Thoughts such as those of the ten virtues,” So very nice thoughts. “the six perfections or the ten perfections, [ just two lists] whatever wholesome and unwholesome thoughts arise, steadily and non-conceptually observe their nature.” Classic, taking the mind as the path. “By so doing they are calmed in non-grasping. Clear and empty awareness vividly arises, without recognition,” You’re not, that you’re not caught up in identifying this versus that because it’s empty awareness. “and it arises in the nature of self-liberation, such as thoughts arise and they self-release, they self-liberate in which it recognizes itself,” awareness recognizes itself, that all the noise down, all the noise dies down, the screen goes blank, or the three-dimensional holodeck goes blank, and then all you’re left with is as your mind dissolves into the substrate consciousness, your awareness recognizes itself. “Again” and this occurs intermittently along the path not just at the end of the path. “Again direct the attention to whatever thoughts arise and without acceptance or rejection, let it recognize its own nature.” Rang snang they’re called for Tibetans. The thoughts are self-illuminating. “Let it recognize its own nature” let your own awareness recognize its own nature, “as thoughts come and go. Thus implement the practical instructions on transforming ideation or thoughts into the path.”
[1:08:17] So instead of thoughts being an obstruction, instead of their being noise, you’re transforming them right into the path, they are grist for the mill. So there’s one one practice he just summarized that in one paragraph. One more and we’re finished. Because he gives one more method from Maitripa and he refers to this as the ultimate shamatha of maintaining the attention upon non-conceptualization. He doesn’t say awareness of awareness, he says on non-conceptualization. Whenever thought comes up, cut them down as soon as they emerge, cut it right down. This is what you’re doing here. “With the body possessing the seven attributes of Vairochana, sit upon a soft cushion [in a dark] in a solitary darkened room. Vacantly direct the the eyes into the [intervene] intervening vacuity, [the space in front of you] see that the three conceptualizations thoughts of the past, future, and present as well as wholesome, unwholesome, and ethically neutral thoughts together with all the causes assembly and dispersal of thoughts of the three times.” All thoughts of every kind basically. Every thought of every kind without exception. “See that they are completely cut off.” Whatever thought pops its head up, cut it off right there immediately. “Bring no thoughts to mind.” So if they come up, cut them off and don’t add any yourself. Silence in this darkened room. “Let the mind like a cloudless sky be clear, empty and evenly devoid of grasping and settle in utter vacuity. By so doing there arises shamatha of bliss, luminosity, and non-conceptuality. Examine whether or not there enters into that attachment, hatred, clinging, grasping, laxity or excitation. And recognize the difference between virtues and vices.”
[1:10:12] So it’s stillness and motion. That’s the stillness resting in this utter vacuity devoid of grasping. But should motion arise, motion triggered by attachment, hatred, clinging and so on, virtues and vices, recognize them by just resting there. And to the best of your ability you’re resting in non-conceptuality. Just a beeline, like an express train going right through in a dark room, taking no real interest in any thoughts you just cut them off as soon as they go because you’re in just an express train going right from where you are to the substrate, like that. So that’s a little bit of the, uh, the background I thought interesting. Okay, enough for today. [laughter] He’s so intense. I’m really mellow myself but Panchen Rinpoche is so intense. [laughter] Everybody’s laughing here. You people, just laughing at me, I don’t know why. There’s strange people here. Enjoy your evening. See you tomorrow morning.
Transcribed by Kriss Sprinkle
Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final edition by Annette Dorfman
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