B. Alan Wallace, 27 Apr 2016
Alan says he is starting with a bang this morning and explains that an Arhat is a foe destroyer of mental afflictions (klesha) in that they have completely annihilated all mental afflictions and all their progeny – the vasana, or mental imprints or seeds. A Jina is beyond that of an Arhat in the next step towards becoming a Buddha because a Jina, (a conqueror or victorious one), has extinguished both mental and cognitive obscurations. The cognitive obscurations stand between an eighth stage Bodhisattva and a Buddha, so eliminating them is the final step. Alan says that in his various condemnations of materialism, misrepresentation of Buddhism, or of fundamentalism and dogmatism, it is important to take a clean shot and target the delusion of what is asserted, rather than target the person making the assertion, to ensure there is no collateral damage as people have Buddha nature and can change their view.
In this holy war, Alan says there is a tendency to first bring out the elite troops of vipashyana or other advanced practice methods (Zen, Vajrayana, Dzogchen, Mahamudra, etc.). However, this is bad strategy as the machine gunners of coarse conceptualisation just mow down these methods. In order to wipe out our obsessive, compulsive ideation it is necessary to cultivate shamatha as it is the military analogy of grunt troops using machine guns to wipe out the obsessive, compulsive ideation associated with mental affliction.
Panchen Rinpoche suggests the strategy of cutting the obsessive thoughts off as soon as they arise. For the meditation of this session, Alan offers an extremely useful insight coming from the Dzogchen tradition. We start with mindfulness of breathing, and then we invert awareness right in upon itself, which is like the mouth from which all thoughts, desires, etc. emerge. If we observe the manifest nature of the mental affliction of attachment-craving for example, we will find that we get entangled in the story - it has a referent (we are craving something). While if we observe its essential nature, the hypothesis is that we may find pleasure, enjoyment (bliss). When actual anger arises, if we observe its essential nature we may find that it is bright, sharp (it is luminosity). When delusion, confusion, dullness, ignorance, stupor, bewilderment come up, if we cut through it we may find non conceptuality. These are the three qualities of the substrate consciousness, and in doing this coarse cutting-through, we de-toxify the mental afflictions. Note that unlike our everyday modes of knowing which are always embedded in concepts, non-conceptuality has to be imbued with cognizance, otherwise we fall back to misapprehension and delusion.
The Dharma taught by the Buddha - the Conqueror of all obscurations – provides a strategy that begins with ethics and then continues with cultivating samadhi. Once the five obscurations have been calmed thanks to shamatha practice, then we bring in the troops aimed at eradicating the reification of oneself and of all phenomena, thus realizing the identitylessness of both self and phenomena (the wisdom practices). Finally, thanks to the Dzogchen practices of cutting-through and direct crossing-over we rest in rigpa until we become fully-enlightened Buddhas.
Meditation is silent and not recorded.
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Good morning! Are we live streaming yet? Or is that yet to happen? (Yes…. IT person).
We are live streaming, oh ho… is today the first day? (The official day will be tomorrow!). Official tomorrow, unofficial today? (Yes). Ok, [laughter] Hello world!
How unfair though, because I can’t see them, they can see me. So I am blind and you can see, so this is the blind leading the see-ers, There is something very odd about that. [00:38]
Ok, I want to start off with a bang this morning.
The word Arhat, referring to the culmination of one who has followed the Sravaka path or pratyeka, but Sravaka: the word literally means a foe destroyer, one who’s conquered his enemies, that’s what it means. Arhat [? 00:59 dha jompa Tibetan] and what of the enemies? Mental afflictions, klesha, and everything that flows from them, the karma that flows from mental afflictions, the misery that flows from karma. [01:12].
And so an Arhat is one who has identified his true enemies, his or her (gender neutral), who has identified his own enemies, his true enemies, and completely annihilated them and all their progeny. Pretty harsh (laughs) really. I mean it’s kill them all and so that they will never crop up, it’s like wiping out a whole species. The Passenger Pigeons will never come back right? They were wiped out completely, no eggs, no nothing, I don’t think we even have DNA, never come back, that’s a tragedy.
It’s no tragedy though, when all the mental afflictions are wiped out, with no progeny, no eggs, no Vasanas no mental imprints, no seeds.
They’re all wiped out. It’s a monumental victory, that of an Arhat. But then we have this term ‘Jhina’ it’s a synonym of Buddha. [02:11]
The Jhina is a conqueror, one who is victorious and this is beyond that of an Arhat. An Arhat has annihilated, conquered, vanquished all the afflictive obscurations which are simply mental afflictions, whereas a Jhina, a conqueror, a victorious one, has overcome, annihilated, extinguished without any possibility of ever returning, not only all of the afflictive obscurations but also the cognitive obscurations. And these, the cognitive obscurations are the obscurations that stand between an Arhat and a Buddha, stand between an eighth stage Arya Bodhisattva and a Buddha. It’s the final line of defence that prevents us from realising, fully realising, manifesting our own Buddha nature, rigpa, primordial consciousness. Cognitive obscurations. And a Jhina has entirely eliminated all of them so they can never come back. [03:22]
So this is a path to such total victory. And although this word gives, I think, all of us, the creeps, I’m going to use it anyway ‘cause this is the real meaning ‘holy war’. ‘Holy War’. How many times has that word been used in history, going back to the old testament, or the Jewish bible, going back to religions in the east and the west, it’s all over the place. But of course it’s not only religious people who are waging war, people wage war for the same old, same old, power, money, wealth, ego and so forth and very, very often throughout history it’s often justified as ‘God is on our side’. And the enemy of course is externalised as other people, right. [04:19]
That’s not a holy war, that’s a sham, whether you call it a jihad, you call it a crusade, you call it a holy war, you call it - god on our side, it’s all just expression of miserable, miserable, miserable delusion. This is a holy war. This is a holy war - our only enemies are mental afflictions, our only enemies are the obscurations from our mind. So I’ve been very harsh on occasion of condemning materialism, and condemning absurd misrepresentations of Buddhism, condemning closed mindedness and so forth. [05:00]
I try to take a clean shot though, ‘cause I bring out bazookas, but I try to take a clean shot. And that is target the delusion, what is said, what is asserted, and not the asserter. Because people change their beliefs, people say one thing and then they say another. So, no collateral damage, go attend to the bullshit, whatever you like, but no collateral damage, don’t harm anybody because they can always be freed, they have Buddha nature. Delusion, silly statements like, you know, not having any desire for anything to change, that’s simply a delusion, but the person who affirmed that, he could have another view tomorrow. He can say oh what a silly thing I said, gosh, I wish I hadn’t said it! So if you blow that person away then he has no chance to change his mind. Right. [05:49]
And that goes for the materialists, and atheists and so forth. Fundamentalists and dogged minded belligerent people all over the place. So this is a holy war, there’s no collateral damage, there’s no downside, no one suffers. Isn’t that wonderful? The holy war in which no one suffers. Only upside, it’s only upside, right, that’s a very rare war. But these words, these are the words Buddha used, this isn’t some militant, you know, right winger, coming out and trying to militarise Buddhism. The Buddha called them Arhats, the Buddha called them Jhinas, you know, it’s already there, and if you look at Shantideva, the great Bodhisattva, military analogies run all through this text, of the Guide to the Bodhisattva way of life. It’s really there, it’s really core, let alone going into, you know, Vajrayana. If you look at Yamantaka recently he doesn’t look like he’s very peaceful (laughter) he doesn’t look like he would take your mental afflictions out for tea and have a cordial conversation. Why don’t we work this out, I’m sure we can work out a deal where you feel comfortable with me and I feel comfortable with you, and don’t mind my 32 arms in sets, okay. (laughter) and all the weapons in every single one. I’m really quite nice. Oh you would not want to meet, your mental afflictions would not want to meet Yamantaka in the dark alley. [07:12]
So when we hear this, and we’ve been hearing this for 2500 years, this is old terminology, it’s very easy, there’s an enormous temptation as far as I can tell, many many many many Buddhists fall, succumb to this temptation, say ok Liberation, ok Enlightenment, let’s go for it, let’s bring out the elite troops, let’s bring out our best! [07:34]
So what’s for the Shravakayana, what’s the elite troops? The elite troops, right? Vipassana! Vipassana. That’s your cutting edge, that’s the best you’ve got. Vipassana, right, bring out the vipassana, never mind ethics, yeah, yeah, great, but follow the five precepts, you know, and shamatha, I think we can probably do with momentary that’ll be enough, bring out the elite troops: vipassana, vipassana, vipassana. And so you bring out the elite troops, you know what happens? I can tell you what happens, it’s like 2nd World War, you bring out your elite troops and there the mental afflictions they got machine guns and they just blow you down, they cut you down like grass with coarse conceptualisation. The, the coarse conceptualisation, bring out your vipassana…. (imitation gunfire noise!!).... you have dead corpses of vipassana all over the place, and you’ve just used up your elite troops, too bad!! You didn’t think that maybe you should wipe out the machine gunners before you brought in your elite troops? [08:36]
Go to Mahayana, oh… bring in meditation and emptiness, that’s really deep, go to Vajrayana, bring in Zen, bring in Zen, bring in Dogen,the Master, this majestic great master Dogen. Bring in just sitting [purring noise]…. down go the same meditators. [08:55]
Go to Vajrayana, bring in The Six Dharmas of Naropa, that is, that’s the elite troops. Bring in Dzogchen, bring in Mahamudra, bring in Guyasamajha, bring in Kalachakra, bring in Vajrayogini, bring in the elite troops (imitation gunfire noise). Bring in the three year retreat, [imitation gunfire noise] you get corpses all over the place, as soon as the retreats over then [imitation gunfire] all these dead corpses, you know. And it’s the same old stupid machine gunner that’s wiping out all your elite troops, and it just the same old obsessive compulsive delusional disorder. Like you hadn’t thought maybe you should wipe out the machine gun before you bring your elite troops in? This is bad strategy, you’ll make these little spikes, you’ll cut through the barbed wire, you’ll cut through, and then you just get more machine gunners and they just wipe you out again. You have your satori, you have your this, you have your that, you have your spike, you have your breakthrough, you have your gun and [imitation firing noise]… more corpses all over the place. So I think it’s time to wipe out the machine gunners before you bring in the elite troops, bring in the grunts. The grunt is shamatha, grunt, grunt, grunt [laughter] grunt. [10:06]
It’s poor old shamatha, shamatha are the pawns on the board, you know, they’re just, it’s just shamatha. But shamatha wipes out the machine gunners of ideation, of obsessive, compulsive, delusional, ideation. Shamatha wipes them out. Then bring in the elite. They don’t get mowed down! How’s that for a start? [laughter] [10:35]
I’m really nice. [laughter] Take my word for it. Kill them all, that’s my motto, wipe them all out with no survivors, all mental afflictions but no collateral damage. Never harm another sentient being. No sentient beings. They’re all saveable, every single one. [10:59]
So in terms of military analogy, the first major phase, central phase of Dzogchen practice, Trekcho , look at the terminology. ‘Trek’ is something gnarly, hard, gritty, hard to get through, impermeable and ‘cho’ means (cutting? noise 11:24), it’s William Wallace’s big sword cutting through. It’s not one of those little wimpy ‘ne ne ne’ [laughter] would you like some snails with your death? Would you like some escargot [noise, laughter 11:42], you know. [laughter] I love the straightforwardness of the Scots, we’re not playing around here, I’m just going to cut off your head! And you’ll get no escargot because you won’t have a head. [11.51]
Trekcho, you’re cutting through, you’re cutting through something that is hard and gnarly and that is reification. Reification of you own mind, of your own identity, you’re cutting through conventional reality, cutting through to a primordial reality that utterly transcends all conceptual frameworks. You’re cutting through to primordial freedom, freedom that was already there. You’re cutting through to your heritage, your birthright. You are [Sangye ?12:20] of the family of the Buddhas, so take your own birth right. It’s not something you may have one day, you already have it, you haven’t found it yet. [12:29]
So we come back to our practice, bearing in mind this notion of cutting through, cutting through, that’s the translation, good translation of ‘Trekcho’. Cutting through to the original purity of your own pristine awareness, which is nothing other than Dharmakaya. But let’s not bring in the elite troops just yet, right, let’s go back to the grunts to make sure that we wipe out those machine gun nests of vitarka, of vikalpa, vikalpa - obsessive ideation. ‘Cause whether you are a tummo practitioner, stage of completion, dzogchen, mahamudra, vipassana and so forth, if you haven’t wiped out the machine gun nest of ‘vikalpa’, they will wipe you out, there will be a war of attrition. [13:15]
You do your 3 year retreat, your 6 (year) retreat, you go off to Burma for 10 years, and if you have not wiped out that, they’re going to mow you down, they’re so persistent, they will wear you out, you know. And so we have to cut through, cut through simple ideation, let alone the big one, let alone finally taking the king in the centre of the castle. We have to cut through. And so we come back to this simple grunt practice, shamatha, but really the cutting edge of that is this practice right here which Maitripa calls the pinnacle, the ultimate, the final. This is kind of like bringing in the heavies within the domain of shamatha, and that is the shamatha of non conceptualisation, where we’re not simply allowing the ideation to die away a natural death as you gradually settle your mind in its natural state, just watching the dull die of old age basically or die of malnutrition, better. [14:15]
I mean that’s kind of a siege mentality, siege approach, you know, surround the castle and just let them all starve to death [?14:21] Isn’t this nice terminology?[laughter] I really …cutting off heads, starving to death, wiping them out, you know, ok here we are, this is real Buddhism, this is not the namby pamby Buddhism, making friends with your mental afflictions, [laughter] uh uh, this is not psychotherapy, this is war [laughter continuing]. Ok? just want to make a clear distinction, right. [14:47]
So we’re coming to this practice, that Panchen Rinpoche, Panchen Rinpoche says - whatever thought comes up, cut it off immediately. It’s violent terminology, but again, never against any sentient being that’s absolutely a crucial point, the first point is never direct it to a sentient being. No, we just direct it to these obsessive thoughts coming up, coming up, coming up. Cut them off, cut them off. Well let’s bring some insight to this, it’s always good to enrich one’s shamatha with insights when they are available and they’re relevant. So, I would suggest now’s the time to attend very closely, this is really useful, it goes right from the Dzogchen tradition. [15:24]
We’re going to go into the practice. It will be a non guided practice so I’m going to front load it. Spend a bit of time, as much time as you need, settling body, speech and mind, calming discursive so at least the landscape is less cluttered, less cluttered by obsessive ideation; right, a bit of, a little bit of peace and quiet. You thin them out a little bit with mindfulness of breathing. And then, as you simply rest there in awareness, inverting awareness right in upon itself, which is kind of like the mouth from which all the thoughts and desires and mental afflictions and so forth emerge. It can happen, that is you’re very attentive there, right there at the aperture of the mind, it’s possible that some expression of a mental affliction of attachment, craving will arise. [16:18]
The mental affliction, where there’s a reification by definition when this mental affliction arises it entails a reification of the object of desire and if it’s something I don’t have yet, I crave it, thinking that will make me happy, whatever that is, an abstraction, a person, a thing, place, whatever. That will make me happy, so that’s the source of my wellbeing and I have reified it and I’m saying that will make me happy, I want it, I’m craving for it. [16:43]
Or I’ve already got it and now I’ve got to hold onto this ‘cause this is the source of my happiness. I’m reifying it and saying this is my source of my happiness, with a lot of refractory period involved where I’m filtering out the negative and enhancing, accentuating, exaggerating the positive, ok? And so such thoughts might arise, it can happen, right? Thoughts of attachment, impulses of this mental affliction of attachment can arise. If you observe the manifest nature of the mental affliction of attachment as it comes up, you’ll find that you’re entangled, you’ll get caught up in the storyline, what is it you crave? Oh I wish I had a new car, I wish I had, I had and then you know, you have a story, it has a referent. So the manifest nature of your mental affliction of craving is you’re craving something and then you tell her what you’re craving, ‘cause that’s the whole story, right, but the essential nature is cutting through the story, cutting to the bare bones, the nucleus of the mental affliction of craving or if you have it already, attachment. So these two are hyphenated. You’re cutting through the nucleus of it, cutting through the story, cutting through the specific manifestation, the details, to its core. [17.56]
And now here’s a very interesting hypothesis. If you see this mental affliction arising, you’re right there, and you’re seeing the mental affliction of craving – attachment arising, look to its core and see if you observe the following: pleasure, or call it bliss, it’s the same word Priti, Priti, Priti - Sanskrit, pleasure, enjoyment. And that is if I want something, let’s say, okay just ‘cause I like to be tangible, okay flower, this is not my flower, it’s just there so, but boy if I could have that flower. So, I just want it simple right? So here’s my object of craving that, it doesn’t belong to me but maybe it could, right, and I’m thinking - that gorgeous flower there, if I could own that flower, if I could hold it to my heart, if it could be mine, that would make me so happy. I’d have the flower of my life, you know, and there’s some pleasure in that. Right, just fill in the empty space, whatever you like, I am just using these as a symbol, but that would make me so happy. [19:03]
If I could have that I could be more famous, I could be wealthier, I could have more people love me, respect me, I could be handsome, I could be younger, I could be blah blah blah. No, this is a flower. There’s some happiness in it… oh.. I could be happy, I want it, or I get the flower, the reputation, whatever, the flower, this is my symbol. Oh, now I’m ok, I’m happy,…[whispers] take it away…oh I’m happy [19:31].... the attachment has happiness in it, okay. [19:36]
Now imagine that somebody has just taken my flower, Lin, you can have the flower. Oh, I hate you for taking my flower [laughter]. So now she’s got my flower, you saw how just she ripped it right from my hand [laughter] and so now I’m so upset, anger, resentment, hostility, hatred, malevolence and so forth. Oh, I can’t stand that awful woman Lin that just ripped it from my hand. She took the flower of my life, and imagine this, you know I’m making this very silly, because no collateral damage, right. But imagine it’s real. That was silly, this is silly, that she’s my enemy of course not, but actual anger is arising. I’ve got to get back, I hate this, it’s awful, terrible, intolerable, can’t stand it. There’s something very sharp about that. The quality of awareness when you cut through, I’m upset with her, I’m upset she took my flower, and so forth. [20:39]
When you cut through the manifest nature, cut to the essential nature, when anger’s blazing, I’m engulfed, I’m inflamed with anger, hatred, malevolence, malice. So it’s bright, it’s sharp, it burns, it’s acute, it’s luminosity. [21:05] Look into attachment and its essential nature and you’re going to find bliss. Look into anger and its essential nature and you’re going to find it’s like a blowtorch, very bright, luminous, intense. You don’t have anything, such thing as, kind of, mellow, soft, gentle anger. Right? [laughter] It’s intense.
And then we go to delusion, delusional thoughts coming up. Just confusion, dull, we all know what that is, right? And we can be deluded, we get confused, bewildered, ignorant, dopey, idiotic, etc. We have that family there. And that can arise, it can happen as the result of jet lag, it can happen as a result of, you know, various things, brain damage and so forth but it just happens in daily life of course where we just slip into a state where for a while one’s stupid. [22.08]
I notice that, on occasion I’ve noticed, like after, if I have very little sleep and I’ve been working hard, maybe too much, then I’ll notice sometimes, oh, my mind now is relatively stupid. I’ll recognize it, oh I can see myself, I tried to do something and my mind wasn’t up to it. Like I tried to lift 25 pounds and my mind couldn’t do it. If I thought, oh ho, 25 pounds, wor hor, like that. So with very clear discerning intelligence I can see oh my mind’s stupid right now, I won’t, better not try to use it. It won’t serve me well, right now my mind’s stupid, right, my mind’s dull, don’t try to use it, better to just give it some milk and go to bed. [22:47]
So that’s the manifest, we’re deluded about this we’re, so forth, manifest, how does it feel and so forth, but when you cut right to its nucleus, the essential nature of stupor, delusion, confusion, bewilderment, cut right through to it, and since in our ordinary normal day to day mode, modes, of knowing, when we know something clearly, sharply, whether it’s a poet, it’s a philosopher, a gardener, a scientist, and so forth, whatever our field is, where we really know something, we understand something, where we say ‘I’ve got it’, ‘I’ve got it’ or ‘now I get it’, it’s always embedded in concepts. Scientific, philosophical, and so forth and so on, It’s embedded in concepts. We know things by way of concepts. I know you, I recognise you, now I get it. We find it very easy to articulate ‘cause we’ve already conceptualised it and our knowing is embedded in concept. Right? But when we slip into stupor, into this whole [‘moha’Tib? 23:54] ‘moha’, mode, and you cut right through to its nucleus, you’ll find there in the very essence of delusion, bewilderment, stupor, and so forth - non conceptuality. Non conceptuality. [24:14]
So I found when I first encountered that, I thought, that is just brilliant. That these three mental afflictions, when you cut right, you through their manifest nature with all the ideation and what they’re about, and what they’re reifying, you cut through that, this is coarse level of cutting through, this is kindergarten level of ‘cutting through’, not cutting through to rigpa yet, but we’re cutting through to the three qualities of the substrate consciousness when it’s clearly manifest; bliss, luminosity and non conceptuality. Right? And in so doing, we’ve detoxified them. That is if I’m attached to, ok, a glass of water, I’ve reified it and so forth and so on, there’s again, now it’s a simple, ‘my flower’s gone’. If I go to the glass of water, then if I’m craving this or attached to this “my glass of water”, “this is the best glass of water” and so forth, then this is afflictive, this is toxic. It’s just ready to burst into anger if somebody takes it from me, and it makes me anxious that I’m going to lose it, ‘cause I will, and so forth. [25:16]
So it’s all bound up in affliction, in anxiety, in potential suffering, and it feels good ‘cause I’ve got my water but it’s a very tentative, it’s a very trembling type of feeling good, ‘cause how long can I hold onto it? When will it be gone, will somebody foul it, will somebody take it away, will it become boring, will I, maybe I won’t love it anymore, you know, ‘cause I found it’s just water and I’ll be so disappointed. That the water didn’t live up to my expectations, I thought this was my soul mate but it’s just a glass of water, you know. [25:45]
We look at it’s manifest nature it’s toxic, and that’s why it’s called one of the three poisons, it poisons the mind. Whereas when we cut through it and as the attachment is arising we look right through to its nucleus and we identify the enjoyment, the bliss, the joy. That’s not toxic, joy is not toxic, right, joy is not toxic. It’s one of the qualities of the substrate consciousness, no problem. And likewise anger, I’m angry at anything, anyone, any place, any thing, any idea, angry at materialism, what have you, and when the anger is there we see if one is angry at reifying whether an ideology, a person, an institution, place and so forth and so on, that’s afflictive. It disturbs the mind, it disrupts the mind, right, and we cut through it to that brightness, that sharp, that sharpness, that intensity. We detoxify. [26:42]
We detoxify, ‘cause intensity, luminosity, is not toxic, it’s not a poison, it does not afflict. It does not afflict. Right? And of course in cutting through then the reification is vanished ‘cause it’s not angry at this, or craving for that, we’ve just gone right into its nature, so it’s not explicitly reifying anything it’s just sheer luminosity, intensity. [27:05]
And likewise there’s nothing toxic about non-conceptuality, otherwise the Buddha’s mind would be infinitely toxic, ‘cause the Buddha’s mind is non conceptual, right. The direct realisation of emptiness is non conceptual, the direct realisation of rigpa is non conceptual, so if non conceptual were a problem, then all of those would be big problems, but of course they are the liberation. But here’s the critical point and then I’ll stop, and that is that the non-conceptuality, the non conceptual awareness has to be imbued with cognisance. If it’s not then it’s simply unknowing, we’re back to ‘avidya’, ‘avidya’ and when the ‘avidya’ is shrouded in non conceptuality then it very easily turns into delusion. In the first moment of not knowing the dream, in the second moment you misapprehend the dream as something that it’s not, namely objective reality. So here’s the strategy, in that is a strategy, this is what I find so brilliant about the Buddha dharma in general, it’s not just saying suffering is bad, evil is bad, let’s overcome it, bring in the elite troops, but is saying yeah, suffering is bad, the sources of suffering are bad, but we have to be smart here. We need to have a strategy [28:19].
Don’t bring in the elite troops at the beginning, they’re too ‘click… sound’ cut the king’s head off. They’re there to do the final work of total victory. But bring in your first troops, second troops, the first wave, the second wave. Bring in strategy. Bring in military strategy and this is what the great conqueror taught, that it’s ethics, samadhi and wisdom. It’s The Six Perfections starting with generosity, it’s shamatha, vipassana, ‘trekcko’ and ‘thogyal’, Padmasambhava, that’s strategy. And you win one, you win one battle, you win the battle of shamatha overcoming vikalpa - overcoming obsessive ideation. Good! [29:01]
It’s going to be easier from now because you won’t be wiped out by them anymore, because you actually conquered, you know, and then you’ll move into vipashyana territory and you conquer the delusion of reification including the reification of yourself as a sentient being, the reification of your mind as being intrinsically delusional. Conquer that, eradicate it, annihilate it, when those two are down, oh it’s a cake walk, we say in American English, then have a, enjoy your day ‘cause now just receive the pointing out instructions, be introduced to the view of Dzogchen. [29:34]
Then you cut through, cut through, the conventional mind, cut through the substrate to rigpa. And you’ll be able to remain there, that’s the whole point, once you’ve cut through to rigpa you’ve got a really easy job. Don’t do anything, right, rest in rigpa and then you may augment that, and many people, most people do, with the thogyal. But the Thogyal’s, it’s watching a cinema, it’s watching a movie of the spontaneously arising appearances, images, archetypal forms arising from your Buddha nature. Strategy, everything’s strategy. Ok [Ten Hut ]][Laughter] Let’s have a session. [30:28]
Transcribed by Sally Dudgeon
Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final edition by Cheri Langston
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