B. Alan Wallace, 01 May 2016
Alan begins by recalling Padmasambhava’s pointing out instructions presented earlier, stating that if one is extremely gifted, ripe, that could be sufficient to cut all the way through to rigpa, primordial consciousness. We are now going deep into vipashyana territory. Alan then comments on the practice we did earlier, which engages in the search of the mind with questions.
For the meditation Alan reads Padmasambhava’s Pointing Out instructions from Natural Liberation to identify awareness (rigpa).
After meditation, Alan gives a brief recap of Panchen Rinpoche’s text. We are now about to venture in the vipashyana methods as taught by the Gelug tradition, after having presented the insight practices found in Mahamudra. In the second part of his talk, Alan quotes a text he translated recently with the encouragement of HH the Dalai Lama, showing the interface between Mahamudra, Dzogchen and Madhyamaka which will be posted on the Retreat notes for today - the anthology will be published in the near future by Wisdom Publications.
Meditation starts at 33:08
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Olaso. So, recalling Padmasambhava’s pointing out instructions that were read earlier they seem actually very simple. They are in fact very simple. And you remember there are two phases to. One, was just coming back to the refrain, observe your mind, observe you mind. And it is possible if one is very gifted, if there are very few obscurations, that one may simply peer right into the very nature of awareness, peer right into the very nature of one’s experience of being the agent or the observer and cut through. Cut right through your mind, cut right through the substrate consciousness, cut right on through to what is called the original purity of pristine awareness. It’s possible, without need for analysis, there are such individuals, you know. But the second phase, he said if that wasn’t sufficient, then he goes into phase two and he poses a question or a hypothesis or an insight that has been gleaned by many contemplatives in the past. But we haven’t, we haven’t gained that insight yet. And so he poses it and said is it that way or not? And then, observe your mind. Well, as soon as it’s there, as soon as it’s a question and then you have to check whether or not it’s true, then we’re definitely into the into the vipashyana territory, you know. So again the parallel with astronomy is very very strong.
(01:34) And that is Galileo may be pointing his which of course he did, point his telescope at Jupiter and those little white dots around it, which he initially thought were fixed stars behind. And he might just have bring in somebody else and said look what I see. Look at Jupiter and the little dots. Observe he said, and yep you’re right, there’s Jupiter and there are little dots, you’re right. Right. No question, but you know, you checked. So basically shamatha on Jupiter. And the little dots whatever they may be clustering around or seemingly cluster around, maybe they’re not clustered around at all, maybe they’re, just happen to be in the vicinity. But you know far far behind, in deep space. But of course he wasn’t just a stargazer, he was a first rate astronomer who made very sophisticated observations with his telescope of celestial events. And he did it with a question, and that was you know the question, those little dots, are they in fact background stars in which case you would hope from night to night you’d expect to see to see Jupiter which moves across the background stars, to be moving away from them. No, they’re going to stay right where they were within that large, you know, framework of the stars and what we now know to be galaxies. Jupiter would just move on and leave them behind. Is it so, or is it not? Examine jupiter. You know. And I was at a planetarium just a few months ago. And I learned there something fresh, it took him only a week. He had the question, he made repeated observations, in one week he’d see, hey, they’re moving along with Jupiter. They’re not background stars, process of elimination they have to be moons. And that was a big discovery, the likes of which have never been made since Aristotle. Because Aristotle and others said all celestial events go in perfect circles around the planet, around us, you know.
(03:32) So, there were those questions, those questions. Now as we just observe the mind resting in awareness of awareness, observing maybe observing the observer, observing the agent just what comes up. It’s as we get familiar with it, we learn how to do it and we feel okay I’m doing it, I got the hang of it now. And you do it repeatedly, again it’s possible that like that glowing ember placed upon let’s say a cone of snow with the pointy top on the top. The pointy part on the top. You might in fact, it’s possible, melt all the way down right through your mind, through the substrate consciousness right down to the ground pristine awareness. It’s possible. You know. (? 4:15 Tibetan name) when he taught me this practice oh nineteen, well twenty eight years ago, 1988, he said you know when you first start with the awareness of awareness, it’s not all that clear, the nature of awareness, it’s phenomenal characteristics, let alone its actual nature of existence. Not so clear. But if you just persist, you just hang in there, and put in the ten hours and the hundred hours and maybe thousands of hours, this gets clearer and clearer and clearer. Or does it? Or does it? Because we all know vipassana meditators, I’m going to take this as one of several examples. There are people who have been practicing vipassana for years and years and years, decades and decades without much shamatha basis, which is the normal, the standard. And what happens and in the case of some, I have no idea what the percentage is, is not my business. But I know it happens to some, that there they are practicing vipassana and they just it’s kind of like they hit a ceiling. Just hit a ceiling. And they’re just not going anywhere. You know their just kind of plateaued out. I’m sure that happens in Zen also, just sitting, just sitting, just sitting, sitting after a while yeah I’ve been sitting a lot and it’s kind of more of the same. And it can plateau out. It doesn’t necessarily go deeper and deeper and deeper. The same is true for the shamatha practice of awareness of awareness. The same is true in other practices as well.
(05:37) That we can hit a plateau where there just doesn’t seem to be any deepening, any opening, any purification, any growing of insight and so what we have encountered there is a layer of obscuration that we’re not penetrating, you know. So I mention multiple layers, I mention the connotative, did that, I mentioned the intentional, did that. I mentioned acquired or speculative ignorance that can be a big obstacle, an obscuration, did that. This morning we looked into the connate, the connate obscuration of reifying oneself, one’s own mind, reifying objects, reifying the bifurcation or duality of subject and object. That’s a big obscuration, right. And there are more obscurations after that which we won’t go into right now but we’ll going to linger there because we’re going to return to pointing out instructions from Padmasambhava in this session just coming up. But what he did on the last one, it’s definitely worth doing more than once. It’s in Natural Liberation, now you have it on the website for these podcasts for this retreat. It’s called Engaging the Search for the Mind. It’s the more you go into it I think the more brilliant you will find it to be. It’s simple there’s no question but simple? E=MC Squared is simple, the three, the three laws of Newton are simple, they’re simple, they’re really but that doesn’t mean the’re trivial. I mean they’re quite simple and so profound.
(07:06) This Engaging in the Search for the Mind, and with questions, you recall them, I’m not going to review them now. It’s there you can always go back to it. You can always do the meditation over again. Listen to the guided meditation on the podcast. But that simple question when you’re observing the mind, are there two? You are observing the mind, that’s true. It’s not impossible. But then what is it that’s observing the mind? And are these two? Or is one thing observing itself? So is the mind really one, in which case somehow that one is observing itself. Or is it, is it in fact really two? There’s the mind that’s still and silent, observing, the mind that’s in motion and so forth. Are there two? Is the mind really one or is it really two? And does it, and here we know this is not simply a phenomenological survey. It’s not simply for example looking at Amy’s face and say do I see Amy, yes I do. How? I just, I see her, I recognize her face. Is Amy’s face, Amy? No, but it’s sufficient. So we did that you know. And that’s sufficient I don’t need to see anything more. I don’t need to see her shoulder or knee cap or anything else, that face is quite distinctive. But her face is not Amy. Nevertheless that’s sufficient to phenomenologically say have you seen Amy, is she here? The answer is yeah, I’m sure she’s right there. End of discussion I know it with certainty. Right? We’re going beyond that. When we’re settling the mind in its natural state, that’s sufficient. If any, if any distinctive characteristic, a thought, an emotion, the space of the mind and so forth. Observe any of them, that counts. That’s good enough to say, are you observing the mind? Are you taking the mind onto the path? The answer is yes you’re doing it. Good. But we’re going beyond that now. And we know where we’re going, whether the real, the thrust of this inquiry is in engaging for the search for the mind. You don’t have to search for thoughts, they bombard you. You don’t have to search for emotions, or desires, memories, they’re all in your face you know. No search, they’re going to find you, if you can’t find them, right.
(9:17) But that which is observing, that which is observing all these mental events, that which is observing all these appearances to the mind. That which is observing all the objects of the mind. Well, that’s got to be the mind. Now what’s that? What’s that? What’s that mind that is both, it has a dual role, it’s very interesting. And it gets more interesting the deeper you go. The mind is an observer for sure, but the more than that, the mind is also an agent that does things. Right? We know that. The mind is creative, sometimes obnoxiously so. As it spews out the ever churning churning churning flow of obsessive compulsive ideation. Well it, it’s creative, it’s like you know like a crazy person in an insane asylum just going painting, painting, painting, you know, just anything that comes to mind just you know smearing, spraying, splattering, paint all over one canvas after another. Who knows you might find an art dealer that will find a market, you never can tell. But anybody else looking at it will say this is just just a just an obsessive compulsive painting, right, (light laugher chuckling) tying to the trash heap, right? But on the same time, the creativity of a Michelangelo, a da Vinci, of an Einstein, of a Picasso, of a Mozart, of a Bach, Frank Lloyd Wright, yeah and so forth and so on. I mean awesome, absolutely awesome, you know and great scientists of history and so on. The great poets, the great artists, the great novelists, playwrights and so forth. It’s just stunning when one really lingers there and then goes back to Darwinian evolution, you’d have to be out of your mind. To think that we biologically adapted to write Shakespeare’s plays. That this enabled him to have more kids. That he survived and propagated better because he wrote good plays and the chicks liked it. (laughter) Come on.
(11:31) Einstein, how many people really understood his general relativity when it came out? Did it really help him have more babies and survive? Come on, it’s just absurd. We’ve mesmerized with that brilliant theory that explains so well our animal nature and has nothing to say about our eudaimonia, our search for truth, our search for transcendence. Our search for knowing reality as it is. Has nothing to say, because it’s irrelevant to survival and procreation. So there we are. Now let’s just weave this together. It’s so much fun.
(12:07) What are the defining characteristics of consciousness? It’s luminous, you know what that means. It’s cognizant. The cognizance is the observer, the one who knows, the one who’s watching. Right. Quiet, knowing. That’s the observer, that’s what we probed into this morning, our experience of being the one who knows. The knower. How do you appear to yourself as the knower? But there is more going on with consciousness than simply knowing or observing or witnessing. It’s the luminous aspect. The luminous and the luminosity is not confined to making manifest thoughts, memories, visual impressions, sounds, that luminosity is the source of all the creativity of the mind. Not just knowing. Knowing we know what’s already there. Right. We’re observing, witnessing. That’s not creative it’s passive, it’s yin. But the luminosity that’s doing something, it’s illuminating the visual, the auditory, the mental. It’s constructing and illuminating dreams, and some of the dreams are quite ingenious. I mean the whole vision of the double helix, Francis Crick, wasn’t it? Came up in a dream. And how many other brilliant ideas over history in art, literature, science and so forth have come up in dreams? You know and that’s the source of inspiration. Or daydreaming or musing you know. And then bwah out comes something and it turns out like a gold nugget in a stream, where there is mostly dirt and gravel. And there’s a nugget of pure gold, you know. That’s an expression of the luminosity.
(13:47) The stage of generation practice, you’re not observing anything there. But as you observe what you’ve created, but if you don’t create anything, there is nothing to observe except for emptiness, right. And so there that magisterial creative display of the mind with pure vision, with the mandala, the deities, and so forth and so on. All of that is the display of the sheer luminosity of awareness right. And so the mind is, that which knows what is already there and creates what isn’t already there. The appearances weren’t already there. The photons, yeah, atoms, molecules sure, appearances, no way. The mind creates those from scratch, you know. So we engage in the search for the mind. That observer the one who, the one who is observing but also the one who is thinking, the one who is doing the meditation, the one, the one, who is both witnessing but also doing. Meditating, thinking, does it exist? Yeah? Does it exist? If it exists, you should be able to strip away all of the context, everything around it. And then just identify it. If it exists, it should be knowable. If you can know, if you can know it, you should be able to identify it. If you can identify it, you should be able to describe it. So go for it. Describe the observer. Describe that which creates thoughts and images and everything else the mind comes up with.
(15:31) Describe that which does it. Good luck. (laughter) And then if you can’t, if you say but I looked and I couldn’t find, I couldn’t find, yow what is it you couldn’t find? I don’t know. (laughter) Not good enough answer. Do you not exist? Or do you exist? You, the mind, the agent, the observer. And so in this very uncomfortable, vipassana was never designed to make us uncomfortable. Modern vipassana, can you imagine how many vipassana centers there would be in the world? And how many people would come? (Alan chuckles) If they taught in the vipassana centers what I taught yesterday, two days ago? Oh yeah! Oh at least, oh dozens, you know (laughs) in at least two or three centers worldwide of people maybe a bit masochistic. Who just like to beat themselves up, you know. (laughter continues) No way. No, there these wonderful vipassana teachers, many of them are very fine people. They’ve made it accessible, made it practical, make it helpful for people who are very busy lives, who are spiritual and not spiritual, buddhist, not buddhist, materialistic and theistic and so forth. Something that is helpful, something that will relieve stress, will give greater peace of mind, greater clarity, has other health benefits, psychological benefits. They’ve done a great service. But the relationship between that vipassana and the vipassana as taught by the Buddha in the satipatthana sutta, very very distant. Let alone Madhyamaka vipassana, extremely distant. Let alone Mahamudra, Dzogchen vipassana extremely distant. So, there it is.
(17:24) But as we investigate the mind, we search for the mind, we search for it, seek to observe it, seek to identify it. What’s being challenged here is our fundamental way of apprehending everything. And that is first of all, whenever I apprehend anything, first of all, I’m reifying myself. Okay I’m over here, I’ve got my act together. Now what do you want me to look at? And then I look at whatever I’m going to look at and I reify that. (sharp inhalation) Right, and then of course having reified the object and having already prior to that reified the subject of course I reify the separation, the distinction, the duality between subject and object. And that is a heavy cloud layer. As you try to rest in awareness of awareness. If that cloud layer has not been penetrated, you can sit there practicing awareness of awareness, or vipassana, or zen, or dzogchen, or mahamudra till the cows come home as they say. And you’re going to be basically, you could be treading water, you really could. Because you’re just sitting under a cloudbank of dualistic grasping and you’re just sitting there waiting for it to go away. And maybe it won’t, maybe that’s gosh, maybe that’s why vipassana is needed by most people. Because it’s just, you just don’t cut through, you’ve kind of leadened a leaden sky and you’re under it and you’re not getting through it. And you call that whatever you like, but what you are is sitting under a leaden sky of obscuration. So this is why we exert ourselves to really seek to penetrate through that, in exactly the kind of practice that he taught engaging for the search of the mind. To break up that reified way of grasping onto the mind and its objects, this internal duality of subject and object even within the context of mind. Break that up, soften that up, shatter that like a coke bottle, you just keep on dropping it and dropping it and dropping it. Until finally it shatters. And you’ve shattered the reification of your own mind.
(19:34) And so what do you come up with if you did that practice more than once? And you’re searching for the mind and you’re searching for the mind that is really there. You’re searching for the mind that’s really doing the searching. You’re searching for the mind that is being sought. And you’re searching to see whether it’s truly one or it’s truly more than one, like two. And searching whether it really exists or whether it really doesn’t exist. And you keep on coming up with this not finding. Not finding that it’s really one. It does not compute, the whole system goes into meltdown. And then is it really two? Do I really have two minds? Maybe one of them is Buddha mind the other one is my samsaric mind. That goes into meltdown. Does not find. Do not find the mind as being truly one or it’s truly more than one. Do not find. And you may even go beyond that to see that it’s not to be found. Your mind, as something that is truly one or truly multiple. And you move on. Well within our familiar categories, to be or not to be. To exist or not to exist. That mind that is observing, does it really exist? And if you scrutinize that, examine that, probe into that, and this is, bear in mind this is radically empirical. You can go into very very detailed incredibly sophisticated conceptual analysis following Nagarjuna, Santakirti and so forth and so on. That’s not really so much this approach. This one is just radically empirical. And does this mind, the mind that is observing, the mind that is pursuing this meditation, does it really exist. And then finding you can’t find it as something that really exists. But then immediately you draw that conclusion, but if it doesn’t exist, if the mind doesn’t really exist, then what is it that just came to that conclusion?
(21:30) And how could something that doesn’t exist, that really doesn’t exist, come to any conclusion at all. It’s absurd. But then it must exist but if it exists it must be identifiable. And then you don’t find and you don’t find. And through that process of not just not finding, but finding that it’s not to be found, the sheer absence of the mind is something that’s really one or many. That is really existent or really non existent. In that not finding and that finding that it is not. You’ve really broken the coke bottle. You’ve really shattered that layer of obscuration. You’ve broken it up. It’s it’s crumbling. It’s disintegrating. And in the absence of finding your mind, you may look and see, what’s left? In the discovery that there’s no mind to be found in such a way, beyond the merely phenomenon, beyond the merely phenomenological. Yeah I see Amy she’s right there. Beyond that okay we nailed that one. That’s easy. But then look for Amy but okay well sure yeah that’s how we talk. But Amy has a face, she’s not a face. And she has a body, but she’s not a body. She has a mind, she’s not a mind. She has a body and a mind but she’s not both. Is Amy to be found there in her body? No, I just did a scan, I didn’t find her. In fact I’m sure she’s not there. You know. I’m sure she’s not. Not in the hair, not in the brain cells, right down to the toenails. I’m sure. She’s not there. There’s no Amy in there. Somebody would have found her by now. At least her husband would have found her, you know. (light laughter) And then all that wide array of mental events, processes, thoughts, memories, sense of personal identity, states of consciousness, is it Amy a person to be found in that whole array of mental events and processes? The answer is no.
(23:33) Nowhere to be found in the mind. Nowhere to be found in the body. Nowhere to be found in the interrelationship between the two. It’s kind of like total absence of Amy all the way through and then okay she’s not there, she must be someplace else. And I look over at Michelle, Michelle has she possessed you? Is Amy to be found in Michelle? And Michelle says, I don’t think so, you know. The notion of Amy being outside her skin, in some other kind of ethereal Amy realm, aimlessly wandering around looking for Amy. (laughter) Not likely. Nobody has ever seen it. And so one could easily conclude then well then Amy isn’t there. But if the person who just engaged in that analysis was Amy, because of course that is where we really start, then Amy just came to the conclusion she doesn’t exist. But that’s not possible. Because something that doesn’t exist, can’t draw any conclusions at all, either false or true. So you come up with a sheer absence of an Amy that’s really there. And the sheer absence of an Amy that’s not really there and that whole concept of Amy breaks apart. It’s like, it’s like a rainbow that’s kind of fading away, or a mirage. It’s just disappearing, fading out, fading out. And in the absence of that, when the mind with which you have been doing the investigation, the mind with which you have been engaging in the search for the mind. When that itself, it’s like a submarine that sends a torpedo out, but unfortunately the poorly programed and the torpedo just turns around and does a U-turn. Whoops. You send out the torpedo of vipassana it just circles around and pow, blows your mind. And what lingers after your mind is blown? What’s left? And you examine that. And now maybe if you just rest in awareness of awareness maybe you’ll see something beyond the obscuration of dualistic grasping. And that’s what the search for the mind is for, okay.
(25:36) Now that is a lot. I know it’s difficult, I’ve done it myself. I’ve tried it once in a while. I know it’s difficult. But Karma Chagmé said in that marvelous chapter of his on shamatha, the stronger your shamatha, the stronger your vipassana. If you have really weak shamatha, your mind is basically subject to a lot of excitation and dullness. Authentic vipassana is going to be just difficult and it’s going to stay difficult. It will always be difficult. Because the mind with which you are trying to do it is so cruddy, so flaky, so dysfunctional. And something about which we can have a lot of confidence is, the more you tune, you hone, you balance, you refine, you purify that mind through shamatha, then that vipassana practice, engaging in the search for the mind, which he teaches immediately after telling his audience, his students, now here we come to awareness of awareness continue doing this practice until your mind is settled in its natural state. Don’t go to the next chapter until you’re finished, you know. If you’ve actually done that then you may cut through the next part like a hot knife through butter. One of my favorite metaphors. It’s just, your mind is so suitable, so capable, and the mind you’re attending to is so simple, because you’ve cut through all the layers, all the convolutions, all the configurations of your mind, my mind, this person’s mind, that person’s mind all that fluff. All the, all the noise you know that makes my mind different from your mind, all that stuff. Which is kind of like neither here nor there when it comes to really doing the ontological probe. Whether it’s a man’s mind a woman’s mind who cares? Who cares whether you’re highly intelligent or not so intelligent. Whether you speak this language, that language, you’ve studied this philosophy that, who cares? That’s all secondary.
(27:41) It’s kind of like neither nor there. If you strip it right down to its nucleus as in settling the mind in its natural state and then you engage in the search for the mind which is still there. It’s called subtle mind. Right? And it’s still cognizant and it’s still luminous, but it’s stripped down to its nucleus to the essential nature of the mind,right? Stripped down to that stem mind, that stem consciousness you could make quite quick work of vipassana. The mind your examining is naked. The mind with which your examining it is just finely tuned like a scalpel ready to just cut right to the core. You could finish quite quickly. Without shamatha you could just be frustrated for decades. So we have the engaging in the search for the mind and now we move on to the next meditation. As if we’ve finished that one. Of course because you’ve finished with shamatha several days ago. And now you’ve finished with the engaging mind. And so and this is quite suitable. This is exactly what Gyatrul Rinpoche taught us when he was teaching this text. Don’t get stuck. Don’t, you know, find that middle way of recognizing there is a path here. And yes your vipassana will go much better if you fully achieve shamatha. And right on through. Yes it will go much better if you really accomplish the earlier stages. Yes that’s true. Yes there is a path. Yes there is a sequence of practices and no don’t get stuck, get rigid and say I’m not moving until you know, I’ve achieved fully achieved shamatha. As one of my teachers said if you take that approach you could be stuck just on taking refuge forever. Because well, I’ve not really fathomed the full meaning of taking refuge so I won’t even go beyond it. Maybe that will work out well. But then maybe it will just kind of keep you stuck in kindergarten forever.
(29:26) So, there’s that balance. Recognize the sequence but also go ahead and seed your mind with forays into these more advanced practices. And then come back to your main core practices that really serve you where you live right now. But continue seeding with these more advanced practices. And that really, that’s what I’ve been told by multiple teachers, Geshe Rabten, Gyatrul Rinpoche and so on. That’s really the way that the great adepts of the past have done. Olaso. So now, we can imagine for fun that we’ve engaged in the search for the mind and we’ve not only not found because not finding is easy. You know. It’s just like I looked, I didn’t find it. Next. Anything else you want me to not find? I can probably do it quite quickly. Pretty much anything. Are there tigers in Tuscany? I don’t know I looked, I haven’t’ seen any. (chuckling) Are there any zoos in Tuscany? I don’t know I haven’t checked. But I looked, no I didn’t see any zoos in Tuscany. Well that was easy, but totally uninformative. And so same thing here, but let’s imagine and maybe you’ve had some taste in engaging in the search for the mind. That that real mind is not really there at all either as one or many, as existent or non existent. It starts to break up, break up. And then the question is, what’s still there? What’s untouched by your analysis? Because all we are really probing, seeking to pierce, was the mind as it is apprehended by a dualistic delusional mind. If that’s broken up then of course you don’t go unconscious. Something lingers, what’s’ that? And the next phase is identifying awareness. Find a comfortable position, you’ll want it. (sounds of retreatants shuffling to find a comfortable position)
(32:08) So, extremely briefly, and now this is again excerpted from the book Natural Liberation, Padmasambhava’s teachings on the six bardos. And this is the section called identifying awareness and the word awareness of course is rigpa. And identifying is pointing out. So these are Padmasambhava’s pointing out instructions for identifying rigpa. Okay, that should be good. Olaso.
(32:35) Meditation bell rings three times
(32:58) With the aspiration to see that which is already evident hidden in plain sight, which is who we are, the essential nature of our own minds. With the aspiration to realize our own minds as dharmakaya and thereby achieve full awakening for the sake of all beings. With such a motivation, settle your body, speech and mind in their natural state, and for a short time calm the mind with mindfulness of breathing.
(34:55) So Padmasambhava begins by giving instructions to the instructor. He writes, Have all your pupils sit in front of you in the posture bearing the seven attributes of Vairochana.
(35:16) And here are the instructions to your students, Now place your awareness right in the space in front of you, steadily without modification, fixedly without wavering and clearly without a meditative object. And let’s do that now.
(36:20) And he comments by While so doing, given the differences in intellect, in some a non conceptual, unmediated, conceptually unstructured reality will arise in their mindstreams. So, he’s going to give variations here to see whether any of these shoes fit or correspond to your own experience. So, for some once again, there arises a non conceptual, unmediated, conceptually unstructured reality that arises in the mindstream. In some there will be a steady natural lustre of emptiness that is not an emptiness that is nothing. And there will arise a realization that this is awareness itself. It is the nature of the mind.
(38:14) In some there will arise a sense of steady clarity or luminosity, and in others a sense of straightforward emptiness. Again see which if any of these descriptions correspond to your experience.
(39:05) In some, appearances and the mind will merge. Appearances will not be left outside and awareness will not be left inside. And there will arise a sense that they’ve become inseparably equalized. It is impossible that some such kind of experience will fail to occur.
(40:55) And now for his direct pointing out instructions. Consciousness is just as clear, steady, consciousness that is ordinarily naturally present right now.
(41:40) It is not grounded in the nature of any shape or color, so it is free of the extreme of substantialism. Of really being there as some kind of a thing.
(42:25) While it is non existent, That is to say not existent as some real entity. it is a steady clear natural luminosity that is not created by anyone. So, it is free of the extreme of nihilism. It’s not utterly non existent.
(43:49) It That is awareness. did not originate from a certain time, nor did it arise from certain causes and conditions, so it is free of the extreme of birth.
(44:39) The mind does not die or cease at a certain time, so it is free of the extreme of cessation.
(45:20) While it is not existent In the sense of fitting into the category, the conceptual category of existence. While it is not existent it’s unimpeded creative power appears in all manner of ways, so it is free of the extreme of singularity, of being one thing, one entity.
(46:09) Although it appears in various ways it is liberated without having any inherent nature. So it is free of the extreme of multiplicity, of being more than one.
(47:29) Thus it is called the view that is free of extremes. It is a mode of awareness that transcends all of the conceptual elaborations of existence and non existence, of birth and cessation, of one and many, of coming and going. Nowhere to be found, within any of these conceptual constructs. What is left when we free the awareness, when we transcend all of the conceptual elaborations of the dualistic mind? What remains?
(48:34) It is said to be free of bias and partiality. This alone is called the mind of the Buddha.
(49:09) The mind of a sentient being, that which becomes a Buddha, that which wanders in samsara, and that which experiences joy and sorrow, are all this alone. And that is your mind, your samsaric mind, does not exist apart from rigpa, the mind of the Buddha. If this did not exist, if this Buddha mind did not exist, there would be no one to experience samsara or nirvana, or any joy and sorrow, which would imply a comatose extreme of nihilism.
(50:34) This alone has been created by no one, but is self arisen, primordial, and spontaneous. So, it is called primordial consciousness. Such awareness as this does not originate from the profound instructions of a spiritual mentor, nor does it originate from your sharp intelligence. Primordially and originally, the natural character of the mind itself, it just exists just like that; but previously it has been obscured by connate ignorance, so you do not recognize it or ascertain it, you’re not satisfied and you do not believe.
(52:24) But now grant it to the master of wealth. Know your own nature. Know your own flaws. That is called identifying the mind.
(52:54) All these instructions were fingers pointing to the moon of our own awareness. Look at what these instructions were pointing to and rest there so that your awareness may know its own nature, see its own face, and know itself to be the Buddha mind.
(56:35) Meditation bell rings three times.
(56:58) Olaso. So we’ve come to kind of a break, or discontinuity at least from my perspective in Panchen Rinpoche’s text on Mahamudra. You’ll recall that he laid out the general framework in the introduction, preliminaries, and then went through I think a very very clear presentation of shamatha, highlighting two methods. Particularly drawing very heavily on the Mahamudra tradition. So that, those particular methods and explication of them I’m not sure you’ll find that anywhere in Gelugpa literature prior to him. So he’s clearly drawing on the Kagyu, the Mahamudra literature on shamatha that it’s designed precisely to prepare you for venturing into the Mahamudra vipassana on the nature of the mind designed to prepare you for realizing rigpa, Mahamudra. And that was finished. And then he returns to the Mahamudra in the vipassana section and then again he’s citing one classic source after another in the Kagyu tradition, the Mahamudra tradition very very classic brief citations from Saraha and so forth. Which are very representative he’s a great scholar, it goes without saying, very representative of the kind of approach examining origin, location and destination and so forth that is very characteristic of Mahamudra vipassana practice prior to identifying rigpa itself, right, prior to that. Didn’t comment a whole lot on it. Didn’t really lay out, I didn’t see much in the way of integration of Gelugpa approaches to vipassana but rather simply set forth here is a very good sampling, authentic sampling of vipassana avenues within the Mahamudra tradition.
(58:57) He did that. He did it very clearly, authoritatively, and now he’s finished with that. And now he’s going to start something in another section of his presentation and for those of you who have studied Gelugpa, have specifically studied vipassana, studied Madhyamaka, in the Gelugpa tradition, I can assure you it’s smooth sailing from here on. But it will be very familiar, very very familiar. I mean it will you’ll find little if anything in the following presentation that you won’t find in Tsongkhapa’s own presentations of vipassana, in his medium lamrim, his great lamrim and so on, I mean his great commentaires to the Madhyamaka classics from Santakirti and so on and Nagarjuna. So it’s like he laid these side by side but they are very definitely different. They’re not just rephrasing of the same methods, they’re actually different methods. And you can review what we’ve already covered in those last several pages. The vipassana, the focusing on the nature of the mind, the ontological probe in the nature of the mind in this Mahamudra tradition and you’ll not find any reference to identify the object of negation, subject that to ontological analysis to see whether that mind does in fact exist or not. That inherently existent mind it’s not there. I’ve never seen it anywhere. I’m not very learned really. It’s quite narrow but Gyatrul Rinpoche has guided me through some spectacular and very representative meditation guides in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions so the sample that he’s given me, I’m very confident are representative of the ocean. He gave me a cup, the cup really is very indicative of what you find in the rest of the ocean. And there’s that, that approach. And then there’s the approach that Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey introduced us to back in 1970 two classic classic vipassana you know based on Shantideva and Santakirti and Nagarjuna and Aryadeva and so on. Really classic Madhyamaka. But they’re different, they’re different. It’s good to bear in mind that the whole point of the vipassana within the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions is not just to realize the emptiness of the mind, but to realize rigpa, primordial consciousness, pristine awareness to cut through to the very subtle mind or the primordial mind of clear light, which in the vajrayana context is generally found by way of stage of completion practice. And that’s true in the Kagyu tradition as much as the Gelugpa as much as the Nyingmapa or Sakyapa. It’s in stage of completion with the various practices of visualization, possible breathing, postures and so forth all designed rather strenuously frankly to draw those energies into the central channel. The pranas that are generally flowing through the left and right channels.
(1:01:55) Draw them into the central channel, into the heart, and into the indestructible bindu at the heart and thereby manifest, make evident the primordial mind of clear light and that is rigpa. And it’s with that mind that you realize emptiness and this is really bonafied deep deep seated vajrayana practice. Right. Now that’s what Mahamudra and Dzogchen are for. In the Kagyu tradition the Mahamudra as he clearly laid out, and is clearly laid elsewhere I think it’s widely assumed and with very good reason if you’re a Kagyupa and you’re following this Mahamudra teaching that you are complimenting your Mahamudra practice this straight Mahamudra practice the samatha, vipassana, the pointing out, you’re complimenting that very very likely almost certainly with some stage of generation practice very often the chakrasamhava or vajrayogini and definitely if you’re really serious, if you’re professional you’re definitely going to be spending a lot of time practicing the six yogas of naropa or the six yogas of Niguma, Naropa’s consort. Complimentary, but you’ll be doing that and of course within those six yogas the kind of the mountain peak that rises and casts light on the other side is tummo or chanali in sanskrit, tummo. And it’s not just of course about generating even internal heat, if you’re really, if what you really want is internal heat, there’s a much faster way, it’s called a hot water bottle. (laughter) Place it right on your tummy, you’re going to feel real warm. It’s nice, it’s really cozy, ooohhh. If that’s what it’s for they could have found an easier way to get warm than practicing tummo. Just look at the movie Yogis of Tibet and see how easy that is. All those exercises being done, hot water bottle is a lot easier.
(1:03:38) But the outer display, the manifestation of this heat is just the, just the outer veneer, just the outer veneer you know they had easier ways to keep warm during those long winter nights in Tibet than doing this practice. That’s the outer veneer, but what’s that indicative of? Of course is, all of the energies of the course mind and the subtle mind, dissolving into the very subtle energy. Coarse mind subtle mind dissolving into the very subtle mind manifesting the primordial mind of clear light and realizing emptiness from that perspective. And so that’s your kind of your muscle is the six yogas of Naropa and within that especially the tummo practice of which Milarepa, Marpa, that whole lineage they are masters and they are still mastering it. There are still very great tummo adepts living today. And then the Mahamudra is the grace note. You know it’s just that flourish to realize what you’ve been set up to realize with the six yogas, the six dharmas of Naropa. So, it’s assumed you’re going to be complimenting that. And that’s often done in the Dzogchen tradition as well. They’ll do salung retreats very very commonly. When I visited (1:04:50 Tibetan name) Rinpoche’s monastery up in Bhutan a couple of years back. Right then they have a tent up for about thirty monks who are going through really intensive salung practice. Practices involving the energies, the nadis, the bindus, and so forth. Very very demanding. You want to be young to do that. I doubt that there were any 60 year olds in there, they were probably in their 20’s and 30’s, maybe even teenagers. It’s very physically demanding and so they were right in the mid, we never saw them. They were cloistered. They were really going full out doing those kinds of practices you can see done that were demonstrated in the movie Yogis of Tibet. Awesome. That’s straight Nyingmapa. He’s an accomplished Dzogchen practitioner, teacher, adept and so forth. So it’s very much part of the Nyingma as well.
(1:05:35) When we come to the next section in Panchen Rinpoche’s text, there’s no tummo. As he said, hey I’m teaching Mahamudra in a sutrayana context. He’s not teaching tummo, he’s not teaching stage of completion, he’s not teaching any of that. He’s going right to classic vipassana meditation on the nature of emptiness. Which you realize with the subtle mind, if you’ve achieved shamatha. You realize with the subtle mind. But I think you’ll see for the rest of the text which I’ve now edited all the way through, so I’m polished from my perspective. I’ve polished the entire translation now. So, nice to have that finished. There’s no reference, there’s no reference to the you know to going beyond the mere realization of emptiness of the mind. To realizing the primordial mind of clear light. There’s no reference to it. It’s Sutrayana, he already said sutrayana, sutrayana. But what about the interface between these two? And especially if we look at Dzogchen by Dudjom Lingpa or by way of Dudjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava says the stage of generation and completion, not absolutely indispensable. To be very helpful to be sure, indispensable? No. Shamatha is indispensable just like Panchen Rinpoche said. Vipassana indispensable, you must realize the emptiness and then trekcho, yeah of course of course that’s the essence of it. Tögal, for most people tögal won’t be necessary. Some, the very gifted can practice just trekcho cutting though to pristine awareness and that will be enough to achieve rainbow body. That will be enough. Most though will want to engage in the direct crossing over which is a visionary practice. So what’s the relationship between these two? This different approach that he’s already now summarized and he’s not going to say much more about it. Of the kind of vipassana teachings the pointing out teachings from the Mahamudra tradition compared to the straight Gelugpa take on simply realizing emptiness of the mind, of the self, and of all phenomena because he’s going to cover all of it. It’s going to be a very condensed presentation here.
(1:07:41) What’s the relationship there? Well I can draw a parallel briefly. And that is in the Vajra Essence, which is my mainstay, I keep on referring to it, and I will again. He refers to the preliminaries, he goes through shamatha. He says achieve it, settle the mind in its natural state in the substrate consciousness. And then he goes right into vipassana, a rather lengthy presentation, something like 30 pages or so. And he’s analyzing and he’s investigating it and I will say with utter confidence completely in accordance with prasangika madhyamaka as is taught widely in Tibet and it’s clearly, emphatically taught by Tsongkhapa. I just to my mind there’s no doubt, that the emptiness he’s teaching, that he’s guiding people to realize, Padmasambhava by way of Dudjom Lingpa, is exactly in accordance with prasangika madhyamaka but he doesn’t speak about identifying the object of refutation and then applying you know logical analysis to it. He does spend a lot of time really unpacking how phenomena exist as dependently related events. (? 1:08:45 Tibetan phrase) He does that a lot, and he doesn’t stop, he doesn’t stop in the Vajra Essence with the investigation of emptiness until he’s covered everything. And that is your self, he does it. Mind of course. But all other phenomena as well. And so you, you come to the conclusion of great emptiness that nothing in the entire universe exists by its own inherent nature. And then he moves on. Right. So it’s no way overlooked, no way overlooked. So but again the juxtaposition. How do you okay you can do one, you can do another but that doesn’t necessarily elucidate how do they fit? How do they, how do you understand the the Kagyu approach, the Mahamudra approach from the perspective of Gelugpa?
(1:09:32) And how can you understand the Gelugpa from the perspective of the Mahamudra? And I’m not sure that he does that so much. I think he lays them out kind of side by side. But then a couple of years back about two two and a half years ago, His Holiness, I sent an email to him with a query about translating some other materials, Dzogchen material. And he instead, instead of affirming yeah go for that he said well why don’t you, he suggested that I translate another text I never even heard of. And it turned out to be an anthology of essays about 8 maybe, something like that. By two formidable scholar adepts they were both yogis and they were also as I saw it for myself really quite formidable scholars. They knew their stuff, they really knew their stuff well. By two scholars from the 19th or early 20th century they were both close disciples of Lerab Lingpa. And Lerab Lingpa was a contemporary of Dudjom Lingpa. He died a couple of decades later, 1920 something (19)26 or so. Incredible lama, I’ve referred to him in the past and I strongly recommend a wonderful biography of him called, Fearless in Tibet. It’s a marvelous book, so inspiring. Very well written by a western scholar, he’s done a first rate job. It just kind of reads like a thriller. Very good scholarship, but very readable because he’s not just translating some Tibetan text which sometimes can be a little bit hard to penetrate. Lerab Lingpa, so he was again a yogis, yogi. Very accomplished Dzogchen meditator, accomplished adept with siddha, he was clearly a siddha. There just really can’t be any reasonable doubt about that. But it turned out he was also a very close ally, friend, and guru for the XIII Dalai Lama.
(1:11:29) And he spent, he devoted a great deal of time and effort doing everything he could to working for the sake of the Tibetan people. And to do all he could to extend the longevity of the XIII Dalai Lama, so very close relationship. And the XIII Dalai Lama plays an enormous I have enormous regard for him as his Dzogchen guru. So remarkable relationship. He passed away in 1926 or so, I can’t remember the exact date. And then his, when his tulku turned out to be 2, at least 2, and one was Khenpo Jikme Phuntsok who died just a few years ago. And there’s a whole story there, I’m not going to go into it. But he came to be quite widely regarded as the greatest yogi living in Tibet during the closing decades of the 20th century. Formidable, he was the one that started this community from scratch in 1980 right in the area where Dudjom Lingpa had been teaching and where 13 of his disciples achieved rainbow body. A little region called Sertar. He started teaching there in 1980 with probably no students and oh 20 years later there were 10,000, 30 years later there were 40,000, all grown around the seed that he sowed there. Formidable, incredible impact and the community there is absolutely awesome. I’ve met one of the two principal abbots and I’ve corresponded indirectly with the other one. Incredible what they’re doing there. And then the other of his two tulkus was somebody you may have heard of at least I think you’ve heard of him at least, called Sogyal Rinpoche. Sogyal Rinpoche, so one had tremendous impact, great tremendous service to Buddhism within Tibet. And the other one has performed tremendous service outside of Tibet, Sogyal Rinpoche with his wonderful book, Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and so on. And brought so many superb teachers, world class teachers, to his centers in Lerab Ling, and other centers that he has created around the world. And so those are his two, his two principal tulkus. And so I would like to read a little bit. So, this anthology of essays by two of the disciples of Lerab Lingpa. Right. These were both very well versed in Gelugpa and Madhyamaka, Prasangika, Tsongkhapa’s writing and they were steeped in the Dzogchen tradition by a great great master Lerab Lingpa.
(1:13:46) And they wrote a number of essays just independently I presume on the interface between the Madhyamaka, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen. And then they were compiled, put into one volume and His Holiness suggested I translate it. Which of course I didn’t say, no I’m too busy. So of course I did, of course I did. And it’s being polished now. So, I thought this could be a nice segway to kind of weave together from two individuals and I have excerpts from two essays, both of them, they’re really quite impressive. So, I’m going to read a little bit, we have just ten minutes but I’m going to read a little bit. I think you will find this worth your time. Okay. so the first one his name is Lozang Do-ngak Chokyi Gyatso Chok that’s simply his name one of the two one of these two principal disciples of lerab Lingpa. And he wrote an essay called in English translation Oral Instructions of the Wise, Questions and Answers Regarding the Views of Mahamudra, Mahasandhi, which is Sanskrit for Dzogchen, and Madhyamaka. So that could be interesting. Now this is an excerpt because the essay goes on like 20-30 pages. But here I think pertains exactly to what we’ve been looking into and we’re right now at that that border between the straight Mahamudra approach and then the Gelugpa approach, between Mahamudra and Madhyamaka.
(1:15:07) So here is what he says. When engaging in such Mahamudra meditation, shamatha is achieved by focusing on the mind, such that one seeks the view on the basis of meditation. Isn’t that nice to see you know the kind of ring bell, I’ve heard that before, I’m sure of it. I can’t remember where but I’m sure it was someplace. You know. So, we really see it’s in the current there, right. We know exactly what he’s talking about. Then he kind of slips us into a comfort zone. In dependence upon this shamatha, the shamatha focused on the mind which you’ve now had very clearly explicated. In dependence upon this shamatha, the mind is settled with the aspect of correctly, is settled with the aspect of correctly determining the origin, location and destination of the mind as being identityless, identityless, empty of inherent nature. So first you settle in the mind, and then you turn that mind in upon itself doing the ontological probe to its origin, location and destination until you see the mind is empty of identity, empty of inherent nature in terms of its origin, origination, location and its moving on. So there’s your vipassana. He just summed it up in one sentence. But he tells you the strategy that is really really clear, you achieve shamatha first, and then you make quick work of this. You don’t just agonize over it for decades. With the reinforcement of vipassana So you gain that insight and then you empower it with your vipassana and you reinforce, you probe you probe. You just, it’s like being in a lucid dream and getting more and more and more lucid. You get lucid and still not be able to walk through walls. Right. Understand that more deeply, more thoroughly, more incisively. So this is how you fortify the clarity, lucidity of a dream and this is how you fortify your vipassana. With the reinforcement of vipassana there are two stages in general. So now okay we are Specifically in the tradition of Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa, there’s a method of identifying the essential nature of the mind in dependence upon chandali the essential nature of the mind. Now we’re talking about its ultimate nature not just its relative nature. Primordial mind of clear light in dependence upon chandali upon tummo.
(1:17:28) Okay there classic. So, That is called, that is called the Mahamudra. That realization of the essential nature, the primordial, the unborn nature of the mind. Combining the methods of Mahamudra and tummo. That’s called the Mahamudra. In the Gelug, in the Gelug tradition, Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen wrote a root text and auto commentary on the unique form of Mahamudra according to the oral lineage of the mahasiddha Dharmavajra and his spiritual son, who is Sange Yeshe. And Sange Yeshe was a root guru of Panchen Rinpoche. So he’s of course alluding to the text the root text and commentary we’re studying right now. Right. So we have these two approaches. Okay. So there was just a nice overview. Let’s go a little bit more. The other was a very brief excerpt from a very long and detailed essay. It will get published. Wisdom has agreed to publish it. [Wisdom Publication did publish the book February 6, 2018 under the title OPEN MIND: View and Meditation in the Lineage of Lerab Lingpa] So it will come out, even if I die somebody is going to polish it, it will be fine. So then the other author of the essays within this anthology is Je Tsultrim Zangpo again a disciple of Lerab Lingpa. And one of his essays is called An Ornament of the Enlightened View of Samantabhadra, Secret Guidance Nakedly Granted to Dispel All Misconceptions regarding the View of the Clear Light Great Perfection. So he’s going to write from a perspective very well informed by Gelugpa, by Madhyamaka, but now he’s going to write from that perspective to dispel misconceptions, there are a lot of misconceptions among Gelugpas about Dzogchen. They haven’t studied, they don’t understand it and therefore they very easily dismiss it. Well he’s going to help them, maybe that’s why His Holiness suggested I translate this. I don’t think the Tibetan has been very widely read, I think it was a print of maybe 500 texts. Maybe it will be, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s read more widely in English than it was in Tibetan. So here it is. So again an excerpt. An excerpt.
(1:19:32) The practice of differentiating The practice and we’ll get to this. The practice of differentiating is called guidance to the ultimate reality of the mind. Ultimate reality of the mind, cittata, which is, self emergent primordial consciousness. Okay differentiating this, this is the pointing out instructions and Dudjom Lingpa does this with incredible majesty and precision. And I’ve mentioned this before so I’ll be very brief now. Here’s mind, here’s primordial consciousness, here’s substrate consciousness, here’s dharmakaya and just here’s conditioned consciousness, here’s primordial consciousness differentiating. So you recognize the one you’re familiar with which you can identify, you can understand within the context of a conceptual framework. Does it exist? Yes. Is it born? Yes. And so forth. The intellect says I’m feeling comfortable here, I’ve got it, I understand it, I understand it and he said okay now apart from that here is rigpa, here is primordial consciousness, here is dharmakaya and you have to leave your intellect at the door. It’s not to say it’s going to insult your intellect, it just transcends your intellect. And once you’ve set your intellect behind and you’re looking at the, at the moon at which the pointing out instruction is pointing. What’s left over when you’ve set aside your intellect and all the constructs of the intellect? What’s left over? What’s still there? And that’s pointing out rigpa. It’s in a way a process of elimination, right. And so that’s this differentiation. And just as I said Dudjom Lingpa in multiple texts most elaborately in the Vajra Essence, does it with, I just have to say, breathtaking clarity.
(1:21:19) So, To proceed in the extraordinary practice of such differentiation of samsara and nirvana, you must purify the negative habitual propensities of your ordinary body, speech, and mind and then purify your body, speech, and mind by practicing the method of transforming them into the pure vajras of the body, speech, and mind of the jinas. So he’s suggesting to really prepare yourself to get full, to derive the full advantage, full benefits of the pointing out instructions the differentiation between let’s say conditioned mind and unconditioned pristine awareness. It’s going to serve you very well if prior to that you’ve done at least some stage of generation practice. Dissolving, that is first of all seeing the emptiness of inherent nature of your own body, speech, and mind, seeing that, really deconstructing that. And then out of that deconstruction out of this non duality of dharmadhatu and dharmakaya then arising in the pure mode with pure vision of your own body, speech, and mind and having that as your platform. So not just a platform of shamatha but the platform of pure vision and divine pride. Viewing, engaging in this investigation from the perspective of this stage of generation. That will serve you very well. And Dudjom Lingpa himself did it. He himself did it. He says so at the beginning of the Vajra Essence he says, and after I’ve been practicing stage of generation a little bit, and then he had a breakthrough and became a vidyadhara. Direct realization of rigpa. But he said, oh I did a little bit. (light laughter) Okay.
(1:22:56) So he says, That must come first. You must purify the negative habitual propensities of your ordinary body, speech, and mind which with we have bound up in dualistic grasping, cognitive fusion, reification, you must purify that, then purify your body, speech, and mind by practicing the method of transforming them into the three pure vajras of the body, speech and mind of the jinas. That must come first. By such outward and inward differentiation, Outward, difference between samsara and nirvana for example, inward well obvious. By such outward and inward differentiation, you engage in the discipline of pristine awareness, in the phase of practice of purifying your body, speech, and mind, the vigorous practices of the body, speech, and mind are strenuous practices. Not easy, anybody that has done some stage of generation, it’s not easy. Visualization, all of that not easy. Therefore without the practice of releasing all effort So those are strenuous, effortful stage of generation, stage of completion, effortful no question. But then you come to Dzogchen. Therefore without the practice of releasing all effort and settling your body, speech and mind in their natural states, the practice of the effortless path will be difficult. So he’s not saying it’s impossible, but if you’ve not done any of the purification of stage of generation practice and you just leap directly from your ordinary sense of body, speech, and mind probably filtered with dualistic grasping and so forth. If that’s your platform it’s going to be difficult. Just go directly from that right to pristine awareness. He doesn’t say impossible, it’s difficult.
(1:24:40) So in order to pacify all the karmic energies and conceptual fabrications, you must apply yourself to the practice of settling your physical, verbal, and mental behavior in their natural states. You know what that is. If you do that for a very long time, that is an effective method for achieving stillness, but when appearances arise as illusions, that may prevent you from cutting off thoughts of reification. And that is, he’s speaking of the pros and cons of shamatha. And that is so incredibly helpful you know cutting out so much conceptual elaboration, and you know it very well. And you come to that stillness which is like the sublime state, the ambrosial dwelling, bliss like the warmth of a fire, clarity like the breaking of dawn, non conceptuality like an ocean unmoved by waves. I boy do you not want to move. You know but if you stay there sooner or later, you have to pee. That’s just the way it is. You know. You have to pee. You can be Milarepa, I think Milarepa peed, you know. Doesn’t matter who you are. You have some biological functions they will not be ignored. When you got to pee, you got to pee. And that means you have to come off the cushion. Do not stay on your cushion it gets all wet mushy, smelly (laughter) really bad idea. You know, really bad. So get off your cushion, don’t foul your nest. But when you do, then appearances arise again and they’re arising as if they’re inherently existent. All the appearances arise. If you’re in a cave, meditation hut, your body and so forth, they all arise and they’re all shouting at you, I’m inherently existent, I exist from my own side. And if all you’ve gotten to is shamatha, that doesn’t give you much in the way of seeing through the lie. The misleading nature of appearances themselves you’ll just have a vivid stable awareness of delusive appearances. Wow. I’m a marmot with shamatha. Cool. And you’re making no headway at all. Not one hair’s breadth on the path.
(1:26:37) If you’re not challenging reification. So that may prevent you from cutting off thoughts of reification. Because you don’t know how. What do you do, just stop thinking? But as soon as you start thinking, thoughts of reification will come right back, because you’ve not challenged them. You’ve not practiced vipassana, you’ve not even gotten the bull by the horns. You’ve not even grappled with the real issue. You’ve calmed the mind, that’s it. But they were doing that before the Buddha ever came along, they were really good at it. Right? So you must strive again, you must again strive in various activities of the body, speech, and mind, as you did before, and try to cause appearances to arise as illusions. This means vipassana. You’ve got to see through the appearances. You have to probe into the way things exist and not simply observe their phenomenological nature. Right. How they appear. Thus settling your body, speech, and mind in their in their natural states is a superb method for developing stillness of the mind, and applying yourself to the practice of letting be is essential for developing the wisdom of realizing the emptiness of true existence. For a disciple who is imbued with such stillness of the mind not being disturbed by compulsive thoughts and with a special wisdom of ascertaining the absence of true existence of whatever appears, whatever it appears for such a disciple, it is easy for the guru to point out the dharmakaya, the primordial consciousness that is present in the ground of being. That was strategy, right? Crystal clear. When sustaining the recognition of pristine awareness that too is easy. If you achieve shamatha and you’ve made deep insights in vipassana and you have pointing out instructions then not difficult. If you haven’t ohhh, difficult to the point of impossible. There are many such reasons for being imbued with those qualities, so the uncommon preliminary practices are also very important.
(1:28:40) That’s where they came in, the vajrasattva practice, guru yoga, prostrations, bodhichitta and so forth. That’s all for now. (laughter) That’s enough, I gave you a full meal. Should take you at least 24 hours to digest. But there’s more. So enjoy, enjoy. Such a privilege. That His Holiness suggested I do that. It was very difficult to translate and very enriching to do so. Very good. All right. Continue practicing.
Transcribed by KrissKringle Sprinkle
Revised Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final edition Rafael Carlos Giusti
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