B. Alan Wallace, 02 May 2016
Before the meditation, Alan comments on the uniqueness of the contemplative practice. He refers again to Kurt Danziger’s article (link available in Retreat Notes), explaining why introspection was largely abandoned by 20th century psychology. According to Alan, eliminating introspection is comparable to astronomers no longer wanting to look at the sky. One of the reasons introspection was considered a failure was the so called “leading the witness” bias. It was due to the fact that researchers did not perform introspection themselves but left it to untrained subjects who were prone to be influenced in their reports by what the researchers wanted to hear. Alan points out that in vipashyana meditation we often know what the “right” answer is. We are given the object of negation and then seek to see if it really exists. It may be considered “leading the witness”. However, just knowing the answer does not liberate the mind. Contemplative practice does. Here Alan speaks of his mission to promote contemplative inquiry and his hope to see the first revolution of the mind sciences. Also: a revival of contemplative inquiry in other traditions, in Christianity, Taoism etc. Next, Alan remarks that there is no parallel to this kind of investigation in the West. He shows that contemplative inquiry is neither like religion nor like science. It does not fit into either category, although contains elements of both. In Christianity faith is crucial. One is given a set of truths to believe in and it is only in the afterlife that one may expect to ascertain them. In education (science) one is also presented with right answers. If students perform tests it is just to confirm what is already known. Only in cutting-edge research scientists look for hitherto unknown evidence. They have working hypotheses but their investigation needs to be objective and unbiased. But does this knowledge transform the knower? Does it liberate and purify the mind? - asks Alan. In this, contemplative inquiry is unique. It shifts the nature of the observer. All this information, all this transmission that we receive here is like a finger pointing to the moon, aiming at transforming the observer, leading him or her well beyond that finger. These teachings may be seen as “leading the witness” because they are helping us to see what others have seen in the past but their aim is to transform us, purify, awaken and liberate us. For this, faith is needed, but it should be faith balanced with intelligence. Next, Alan gives us a “sneak preview” of the meditation. It is a guided meditation in which instructions are given by Samanthabhadra manifesting as Lake Born Vajra Padmasambhava (based on “The Enlightened View of Samanthabhadra” by Dudjom Lingpa). First, Padmasambhava invites us to identify the agent. We all carry a conate false sense of identity. This is why the place to start is to examine “how do I exist?”. Who is the person I conceive of as “me”? Who fell asleep last night and who woke up this morning? Was it the same person? That being - where did it come from, where is it now and where will it cease? Such investigation, such knowing transforms, awakens and liberates the knower - says Alan.
The meditation is on the emptiness of the mind.
After the meditation Alan comments briefly on the custom of greeting one another with folded hands and a bow. It comes from the Zen tradition and is very meaningful, because it signifies acknowledging the buddha nature of the other person or any sentient being. In the Indo-Tibetan tradition there is pure vision in which, similarly, one sees through the outer appearances to the inner purity of another being. Alan remarks that this is the way His Holiness the Dalai Lama views everybody and in this way is able to draw the best out of them. Next, Alan continues reading the essay from the collection he translated recently (to be published in the near future by Wisdom Publications) in which the author seeks to make the practice methods from Nyingma Dzogchen and Kagyu Mahamudra compatible with and accessible to the Gelug school. One of the main points to which Alan draws our particular attention is the strategy to realise emptiness of all phenomena through realising the emptiness of the mind. First one needs to establish the mind as primary (the all-creating monarch), then see it as immaterial, and then realise it has no origin, no location and no destination. For a person of sharp faculties this may be enough to realise the emptiness of all phenomena. It is like the vulnerable spot of the Death Star - says Alan (who, as we may have guessed by now, is a Star Wars fan) - it may be enough to hit it with a dart… In conclusion of today’s session, Alan reflects on the often encountered phrase “person with superior faculties”. He recalls how he has always waited for the instructions for “persons with dull faculties”. But we may often feel we do not possess even the “dullest” faculties. So what shall we do? To encourage us, Alan quotes Dudjom Lingpa’s “Vajra Essence” where it is said that only those who have accumulated sufficient merit will encounter the sublime teachings of Dzogchen. So if you are listening to these teachings and they resonate with you and you feel drawn to them, it is not by accident. It means that you already have a lot of momentum. Dudjom Lingpa lists six prerequisites for the practice: belief in Dharma and your guru, trust in the path, awareness of death & renunciation, contentment, insatiability for Dharma and integration of life and Dharma, without complaining. If you have these and you have strong faith and belief - you can realise rigpa in this lifetime. Enough with the afflictive uncertainty - says Alan - it is time to practice!
The meditation starts at 25:15
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Olaso. So for our meditative session this afternoon we’ll return to a practice of vipassana within the Dzogchen tradition which is completely common ground with the vipassana within the Mahamudra. But I think it would be helpful to step back just for a moment to try to assess what is it that’s really going on here? I’ve mentioned that in the late 19th century and up until about 1910 there was something called the introspectionist movement within western psychology which collapsed and it really was never revitalized, it died and it’s never been revitalized. They buried it and they just refer to it in the past tense. In which introspection was playing a pretty significant role but of course it was the subjects doing the introspecting and not the scientists. Which is a little bit, to my mind, a bit odd. But it, one of the reasons I put on the web, on the website for this retreat a very fine article by Kurt Danziger which gives some, I think quite a fine detailed and sophisticated analysis of why it collapsed. Why the first person perspective was marginalized or simply deleted. I mean it sounds just incredible to even say it but why the first person perspective was deleted from the scientific study of the mind? In a way it defies the imagination. It’s like there was a point at which astronomers just refused to look at the sky anymore. It’s kind of like, what? What? Why would they do that? [laughter] Are they no longer curious about the stars? Why are they not looking? Well they weren’t. But one of the reasons was, and I mentioned it before, is because of leading the witness. That is the head of a laboratory would have the pet hypothesis and then lead the subjects, who were pretty much untrained subjects and lo and behold in different laboratories the subjects would wind up more often than not, confirming what the laboratory, you know the head of the lab wanted them to see.
(02:02) In which case it’s not really good science. It’s leading the witness which is just as invalid in science as it is in a court of law. Leading the witness right? Bad, bad law, right. Good. So there we are. So that shouldn’t be done. Well, gosh aren’t we leading the witness an awful lot here? And I’m holding up my little external hard drive for my brain, of these teachings. Because what I’m going to,n this next meditation be just giving one more guided meditation from Padmasambhava. This time from a text that I’ve never taught in its entirety, I’ve only taught the beginning of it and that is the Enlightened View of Samantabhadra. It’s kind of the condensed version, it really is, a condensed version of the Vajra Essence. Instead of being 400 pages it’s collapsed down into about 80. Very dense, and it covers only those short four practices - shamatha, vipassana, trekcho, togal. That’s it, and that’s complete. So I’m going to be citing from that. I’ve received the oral transmission on that from one very fine monk and lama who lives in Santa Barbara, Tulku-la,Tulku Orgen Phunsok P), a very fine person, teacher, monk, really wonderful. So I received it from him. But the point here being that there’s just no question about it. Generally speaking in vipassana we’re given a pretty clear idea what the right answer is. Whether you’re going into the Satipatthana, The Four Applications of Mindfulness, read the discourse. And the Buddha tells you the right answers. Right. And if you’re studying Madhyamika, Prasangika Madhyamaka you’re told exactly like in the Gelugpa tradition, here’s the object of negation. This is what doesn’t exist. Now investigate it, to see that it doesn’t exist. Well one idea is to cut out the middleman? I believe, you know. I believe. I admire Tsongkhapa so much, and I respect my teacher, my teacher is omniscient, and therefore - sure, count me in, I’m in.
(04:00) And so the problem is just believing it, does not liberate the mind. It’s a good belief. It’s better than believing the contrary. But it doesn’t liberate the mind. So, I’m banking a lot, I’m,whether I’m giving actually a great passionate support to highlighting contemplative inquiry rooted in shamatha and vipassana within the Buddhist tradition, Theravada and so forth. I mean it’s really my mission, it’s something I’ve chosen for myself with a lot of encouragement from my lamas. But it’s something really that I tremendously value. You know. And I would love to see this help to trigger the first revolution in the mind sciences, because I think they’re bogged down in dogma and limitation of method, by refusing to really refine and take seriously the first person perspective. I would love also to see a renaissance of contemplative inquiry in Christianity, and in the Hindu tradition, and the Taoist tradition. All of these have tremendously rich heritages which to my mind and maybe I’m just not seeing something but it looks to me like they’re largely being overlooked. And even in our Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist tradition. I mean how much real enquiry is there? I mean when we’re meditating on Lamrim where, is that really enquiry? Are you really enquiring into the nature of the six realms? I don’t really think so. And are you enquiring into the precious human rebirth? Are you enquiring into? So, no, what we’re doing here I think is we don’t have a parallel in the modern west. And that is we have in the modern west, Christianity is the tradition I was born in, in which faith is paramount. And the apostles creed. Having your beliefs correct, not being a heretic. Don’t get your beliefs wrong you know, conform. There are truths here and you should know what they are, you should believe in them, accept them, live a virtuous life, follow the teachings of Jesus and then by the power of grace you will be redeemed, but having correct beliefs is pretty important.
(06:07) And you’re not expected to confirm them in this lifetime. As St Augustine himself said you, the contemplative life begins in this life, but is completed only in the after life. Only then does everything become clear. Okay, and if you have faith, fair enough. And if you don’t have faith, you don’t have much to work with. In fact, I don’t think you have anything to work with. And so there’s that, get all the right answers, you don’t know that they’re true but you will one day and it will serve you very well and faith has proven to be, I mean Christian faith for example has proven to be a tremendous blessing to many many people. That’s just an empirical fact. It doesn’t matter whether you believe their faith is true or false but the Christian faith has been of tremendous benefit to many many millions of people. You know. Believing that, transforming, inspiring them, encouraging, helping them get through terrible adversity and so forth, that’s a fact. Okay so we’re familiar with that. We’re familiar with that right? And then, and then we have exams, as we go through our education, history exams, mathematics exams, physics exams and so forth and there are right answers that the teacher knows, the whole system knows, and you take the exam to see whether you get the right answers that they already know are true. You don’t, when I was studying mathematics for example studying physics at Amherst I didn’t say well, I didn’t go to the professor and say professor you know, your way of teaching calculus I think is an interesting hypothesis, I will test to see whether it’s true. [laughter] I think he might say, who the hell do you think, who do you think you are? (laughing) We’ve been working on this for quite a long time, you little punk. (laughing) We have the right answers and if you don’t get my right answers you’re not going to get a good grade. So working hypothesis, whatever, we know, you don’t know, see if you can catch up. Right. And likewise when I was studying physics. As an undergraduate, I didn’t go very far, I didn’t go into post doc or anything like that. But through your undergraduate work, just for starters, and through a good deal of your graduate training as well, you are running experiments for which the answer is already known.
(08:22) And you’ve run a good experiment if you confirm what people have known for some time now. And that goes for the theoretical part, if you’re working on the, let’s say special relativity, they already know, can you get the right answer? They already know it and you’re tested. Now not by faith in some afterlife, but the answer is known. So for theologically, say God knows the answer, he already gave you the answer, conform and you find out in the afterlife that he was right. In science for much of science’s education, it’s getting the right answers that somebody else already knows. And then if you’re really, really good, and not, a small percentage of you know people who study science do this, you might be out there on the cutting edge doing research where they don’t know the answer, and then you need to be very open, you can have a hypothesis, but you really have to be open. But that’s, but the cutting edge research, like looking for the Higgs Boson, they didn’t know whether it existed or not, you know and many others. Gravitational waves, I think they just came up with some empirical evidence supporting that. They didn’t know but just recently they found some clear evidence, highly suggestive of that. But they didn’t know, right. So that’s how science, and that’s what keeps science fresh and keeps scientists kind of like having a sense of adventure. We are going where no one has gone before. We will discover, we need to keep our minds open, and so there’s that. So that we know about. That’s really good science and that’s where you must not, how do you say, bias, bias your mode of observation. Don’t lead the witness, you have to be objective, go ahead and have a working hypothesis but don’t, you know, don’t tilt your observations to confirm your pet theory. It does happen, but it’s not good science. This is neither the one nor the other although, having said that, most Buddhists are accepting Buddhist truth as most Christians accept Christian’s truth. And as most students of science or the general population, that has faith in science, they accept it because somebody else says. It’s not really much different than scientific, that is religious belief.
(10:20) Because most of the general public, they’re in no way in a position to put those theories to the test. Like I’m capable of really testing to see whether exoplanets really exist or not. It’ll probably take me five or ten years just to get, to be able to, you know, to be able to make, you know, to be, to have a voice that matters. This is something unique. This is something unique. In religion, faith transforms. That’s true. In science the knowledge you acquire doesn’t really change the one who knows that much. I mean I ran physics experiments, we all had to, and I would learn things in classical mechanics, electromagnetism and so forth. We ran the experiments but then when I got it or when I was studying advanced calculus and I got the right answer, it didn’t change my mind. It didn’t purify, it didn’t elevate, it didn’t shift my perspective on reality, I simply acquired some more data points. More information, more knowledge, more understanding. But it didn’t shift the nature of the observer. I wasn’t transformed, right Any more than if I had been learning accounting or banking or gardening, the knower is not really transformed deeply by gaining that knowledge. All of this here, and I’m pointing to this because there is just so much information on this, on my little computer here, all l of this information is precisely designed, its insight, its knowledge, all of which are fingers pointing to the moon. All of the teachings I’m giving, all of the transmissions, all of this, all the texts, the root texts, commentaries and so forth, these are all fingers pointing to the moon. To lead you to a realization that will radically transform you as the knower and will lead you beyond the tip of the finger. Beyond the scope of conceptual knowledge. Beyond what you can articulate. Beyond what you can present in a paper or get the right answer for. You know. This is not like anything we have in the modern west. It’s not religion. It’s certainly not just philosophy. It can look like philosophy. This isn’t philosophy, in the western sense of the term. And it’s not science in the western sense of the term of looking for answers that nobody’s ever found.
(12:32) No, we’re looking for answers that Padmasambhava already knew a long time ago and Jigme Lingpa and Dudjom Lingpa and Longchen Rabjampa and the list goes on and on and on. This is very well chartered territory. So it’s something that we don’t have. It’s something outside. Now just a final point because I’m eager to get back to the meditation which will be familiar and not. And that is in the mix, in the mix of all of this, long before the 1950’s, I was thinking about 55 or so, the term placebo effect was coined, there was a seminal paper about it. That this is something real, that changes do take place in the body because people believe, they have faith, conviction, expectation and so forth. And then of course they erroneously called it the Placebo Effect. But before then it was common practice, so I’m reading a little bit of the history of medicine, in the United States, which, you know, my homeland, that doctors when they, really good doctors, I mean compassionate doctors, wise doctors, when they saw that they had no effective treatment for someone, it just wasn’t available, they would sometimes then prescribe something they knew would be like a vitamin, but they wouldn’t say. They’d prescribe something that they knew would be totally harmless. But they knew, because they’re job is to help people feel better, and if they can’t heal them, maybe they can at least make them feel better, or who knows. And so they prescribe something, a vitamin supplement or something and then instill faith in their patient that this may be really, really really helpful. And they knew what they were doing. And I have no criticism of this at all. They were utilizing the power of their patients minds to help them heal or at least feel better, or have some hope, inspire and so forth. This is compassionate, it’s good. That is massively leading the witness. They were not running a clinical trial - you may be getting a placebo, you may be getting a medicine, think whatever you like. No they were leading the witness with the sole motivation that this will help the witness. They weren’t trying to sell drugs.
(14:38) There was no economic advantage to them to do this, right. So the Placebo Effect, well let’s not even call it that because it’s so false. The mental effect, the faith, trust, confidence, expectation, desire effect. It’s powerful. It’s really powerful. And it’s all about leading the witness. Right. Leading the witness, exactly that. And so these teachings here, it’s not just placebo, it’s certainly not that. Like you know we could just be doing any old thing but you know believe and you’ll realize rigpa. I think you all have some sense of the sophistication, the I mean really, this is really smart, these teachings from Padmasambhava, from Panchen Rinpoche, I mean these are brilliant people. So the methods are not just rigamarole, you know believe it, it will help you. At the same time they are leading the witness. They are encouraging us to see what they already see, not just so that we get a right answer, we can get an A on the exam. Or this will turn out well for us in a future life. But here in this life, this can purify, transform the mind, it can alleviate mental afflictions, it can cut mental afflictions, it can tap into the inner resources of the mind and for that faith is needed, confidence is needed, confidence, faith, balance with intelligence, you remember that? So this is something the likes of which we don’t really have. But I think it would be an enormous contribution to modern scientific study of the mind, and it would revitalize the freshness and the empiricism of the contemplative traditions of the whole world, very much including Tibetan Buddhism. Which I think sometimes this element just gets overlooked. And which is quite a shame because it’s taught in all the traditions. Tsongkhapa taught it, they all taught it, all four schools. Theravada, it’s there in the Pali Canon, and yet vipassana is often watered down just to be mindful with no real, you know, none of the rigor that the Buddha himself or Buddhaghosa present. So that’s that. So contemplative enquiry it’s, it doesn’t fit into any of our neat categories any more than Buddhadharma fits into, neatly into any of our categories of religion, science, or philosophy. It doesn’t fit into any one of them and yet it certainly has common ground with all three and more. So that’s a little preamble.
(16:58) I’m going to give a little sneak preview to this one. It’s very short, this is as I said from, it’s going to be our next meditation, it’s going to be familiar but it’s going to be a tiny bit different format. And, so this is called the Enlightened View of Samantabhadra. This is right towards the beginning of the text and Dudjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava, the Lake Born Vajra begins on this note again and again and again. And so he’s first inviting us, the teacher who is Samantabhadra manifesting as Padmasambhava, and then relaying this information to this teaching to Dudjom Lingpa. He first invites us to identify the agent who roams within the three realms of samsara. So this is going to segue very nicely, very neatly with the teachings we’ll start tomorrow and that’s going back to Panchen Rinpoche, classic Gelugpa, Prasangika Madhyamaka, vipassana, okay. It’s going to be segued very nicely with that because for those of you who have studied this for a while, some of you in quite some detail, you know the first great challenge is, first of all direct inwards, we’re going to start inwards, we’re not going to start with space or matter or plants or animals and so forth. We’re going to start at the nucleus, because if I’m delusional about myself, if I missap, not only ignorant of, but if I’m misapprehending my own nature, getting it wrong, I mean it’s self delusion, being deluded about myself, if that’s the case, well I’m the common denominator in everything I do, and everywhere I go. No matter who I meet, friendly people, unfriendly, pleasant circumstances, unpleasant, I’m old or young what have you, I’m the common denominator in, you know, in my mandala. And if I’m deluded about myself this means I’m going to be deluded about everything I do and in my relationship with everyone and everything I ever encounter.
(18:54) So, if I’m deluded about Lynn, well that’s going to be a problem only when I’m engaging with Lynn. But when I’m not, well then I’m free of that delusion. But if I’m deluded about myself, that has ramifications all the time, everywhere. So, Tsongkhapa, the great teachers, they said - this is the place to start, most important. And now it’s not an issue of, do I exist or not? That’s a silly question, because somebody just asked that. Therefore we already have the answer. But how do I exist? That’s the ontological question. Right? Phenomenological question is - am I old or young, am I American or Brazilian, blah blah blah. I can write a big account, phenomenological me. Nobody would read it, I wouldn’t read it, but it could give an awful lot of details about the distinctive characteristics of this particular individual. Not interested. How do I exist? Right. And we’re leading the witness here because generations upon generations of contemplatives have found this is a very effective strategy for cutting the root of delusion. Of cutting the root of reification right where it most counts, our very sense of our own identity. Cut that and then watch what ensues from that. And so identifying, technically now, identifying the object of negation. And the assumption here is, the working assumption from the whole tradition is that on an ongoing habitual way, a connate way, we’re born with it, we are carrying a sense of identity, the sense of our own identity that is false. And out of that flow all mental afflictions, and we perpetuate our samsara indefinitely. So what is that false way of apprehending ourselves? And what is the self that is so falsely conceived? I just shifted from subject to object.
(20:55) I’m deluded about the nature of my own identity. That’s - I am deluded, that’s a subjective process. Right. But then when I deludedly conceive of myself, I’m conceiving of a self that doesn’t exist, because it’s conceived out of delusion. Okay. So that’s where Samantabhadra goes. Right. And then holding that, then examining - alright, this, this me, the one that goes through the three realms, desire, form and formless, well I can’t remember being in the form realm, I can’t remember being in the formless realm. It’s there someplace in my deep archives. You know, in the substrate conscious but I can’t remember it. But I can remember when I was five, and when I was fifteen, and when I was 25. I can remember when I was 35 and 40 and so forth. And I can remember dreams I’ve had, I can remember many so called incarnations in this life, hell realms, preta realms, deva realms, I’ve been there. You know. And so who was it? Now it gets interesting, right. Because I don’t look like I did when I was five or 15 or 20 or 30 and so forth, different manifestations. My mind is very different now than it was. I mean that’s true for anybody. If you’re practicing dharma then hopefully it’s all the more true in a positive way. But my outlook, my perspective, my way of thinking and so forth, is not that of a teenager anymore. I certainly don’t look like a teenager and so what is that agent? Who is that person that used to be a teenager? Used to be a college student? Used to be, used to be a monk? Used to be, used to be, used to be. And used to live there and used to be doing this, used to be teaching Tibetan language. Used to, used to, used to. That was me, me, me, me, me, good, oh good of course it’s true. What’s the common denominator? What is that agent? That person who was in this situation and that and that.
(22:57) Here he was very non virtuous. Here he was very virtuous. Here he was very stupid, unintelligent. Here quite bright. What’s the common denominator? Who’s that? This one wandering around on planet Earth? What’s that? You know. And then identifying that. This is now not something we just, it’s not something we just imagine or we’re getting brain washed, indoctrinated. It’s really identifying, who is that. Who was that you yesterday, that fell asleep and you here, like a jack in the box. You went down and then - dun ta dun da dun it dun, pop goes the Ursel. (laughter) You know, there she is again. We knocked her out last night and then poof, there she is again. You know. And that’s true for all of us of course. Keep on popping up. And it’s the same person, right? Oh yeah? (laughter) Yeah, I mean you’re not somebody else. There was no, you know, possession thing here. I mean possessed by some other entity as far as I know. (laughter) So, and then that being, where did you come from? Where are you? Where are you going? Okay. That’s vipassana. Asking deep questions. Okay, for which the knowing will transform the one who is known. That’s unusual. But that’s what it’s all about. All about, the knowing itself, transform and liberates and awakens the one who knows. Okay. Now we’ll just have this very short instruction from Samantabhadra manifesting as the Lake Born Vajra all of this appearing like the Vajra Essence, appearing in a vision to Dudjom Lingpa, in a text that’s really something like the Reader’s Digest version, or an abbreviated version, of the Vajra Essence. But it doesn’t refer to stage of generation or completion, which is interesting. So please find a comfortable position and we’ll have our session.
(25:11) Meditation bell rings three times.
(26:02) With the faith that it is the truth that shall make us free, it is wisdom that liberates, that awakens for the sake of all sentient beings, let us enter into the practice, first by settling body, speech, and mind in their natural states. Striking that balance in each case of body, speech, and mind.
(28:16) Coming to the culmination of this preliminary practice, simply let your awareness come to rest as you’ve done before. Your eyes can be gently open, effortlessly resting in the present moment, without desire, without modifying the mind, without doing anything.
(29:42) I’m very well aware that it’s tempting just to stay here. To be content with shamatha alone, this quiet, clear space of awareness. Withdrawn from all the turmoil, the activities, of the world around us. Our own separate peace. I know how tempting that is. But consider the very real possibility that if we simply continued in this, we’d be sitting under a layer of clouds, of obscuration that stands between us and the sun of our own pristine awareness. And it will just get dark after a while, and we will die, without ever penetrating through the veils that stand between our own conscious awareness and our own buddha nature. So we rouse ourselves, recognizing there’s a place too here for vipassana. Which is not easy, but this is a step towards penetrating through those veils of reification. So following these teachings from the Lake Born Vajra, transmitted through Dudjom Lingpa who is so spectacularly successful in leading others to realizing their own Buddha nature. It is said a thousand of his disciples became vidyadharas. Almost inconceivable, so effective was he in transmitting these very teachings that we’re attending to now. Here in this dialogue, this conversation, in this pure vision that he had. Samantabhadra the teacher says, Without seeking causes or effects elsewhere, That is without looking for context, contributing circumstances. identify the agent who roams within the three realms of samsara, and hold fast to the instructions for liberating this being. This is not a philosophical exercise of trying to think, who am I? It’s rather carefully, experientially examining what is your own sense of being a person, an agent who is here and then there? Who is doing this and doing that? When you think of yourself, and the many years you’ve been alive, many activities, different environments you’ve been in, who do you think you are? What comes to mind? When you think of yourself as the agent, person, who’s roved around on this planet, engaging in a myriad of tasks, who are you? How do you conceive of yourself? What is your sense of your own identity?
(34:09) Let’s put it another way. When someone calls out your name or you think of yourself by name, you introduce yourself. You say Hello, my name is… what’s the referent of your name?
(35:15) In this pure vision of Dudjom Lingpa, Samantabhadra appears as the teacher surrounded by bodhisattva disciples, each one being archetypal, having a name suggesting this. One of them was called The Faculty of Mentation. The Faculty of Mental Activity. So, when he, Samantabhadra, when he spoke those words, Seek out the agent who roams within the three realms of samsara… The all-accomplishing Faculty of Mentation the name of one of the bodhisattvas, in this pure vision. The all accomplishing Faculty of Mentation replied. That agent is I. The body and speech that depend on me are mutable. They come and go, they change, but they depend on me. That agent as I. Does this correspond to your experience?
(37:00) So, when you think I, I am the agent, and I have a body. I’m not a body, I have a body. And I have speech, I have the faculty of speech. But they depend on me. See what comes to mind. The referent of me.
(37:34) The Teacher, Samantabhadra replied, O, Faculty of Mentation, tell me about your form, shape, and color. Of you the agent, tell me, describe. It’s a serious question. When you think of yourself does some form, an image, an appearance come to mind? If so, does it have shape? Does it have color? Or is your sense of your own identity formless? You must examine for yourself.
(38:53) Faculty of Mentation answered, I am formless emptiness. I definitely transcend shape and color. That is shape and color have nothing to do with me, I am beyond that. I am formless emptiness. I am emptiness, devoid of form. Does that correspond to your experience?
(40:03) We’re seeking to exercise something called working memory. We’re bringing something to mind, identifying it. Our own sense of who we are, each of us individually. Our sense of self identity. Holding that in mind, we work with it. In this case we’re posing questions about it. It’s a very powerful faculty, the human mind, this working memory. It is strongly related to intelligence, increase your working memory, it’s been found this increases your intelligence. So, The Bhagavan, the Buddha asked, O Faculty of Mentation what is the origin from which you first arose? So hold in mind the sense of your own identity, the person that is the referent of I, or your name. And then examine closely. This is vipassana. Investigate, analyze, examine closely. What is the origin from which you first arose?
(42:24) You were born this morning each of us. From a state in which you were nowhere to be found when you were in deep dreamless sleep. When you were unaware of your body and your mind had gone dormant and then there was the first moment. When you were, so to speak, reborn into this day. And that sense of identity was there. You woke up, you didn’t think you were someone else, you had a clear sense of continuity of the person you were last night and of five years ago, ten years ago, and so on. So this is not so long ago, when you woke up this morning. You as the agent, where did you emerge from? You weren’t there earlier, not in deep sleep, not from your perspective. There was no sense of I in non lucid deep dreamless sleep. And then there was, when you’re awake. There was when you started dreaming. We hope and fear, we experience joy and sorrow in a dream. There’s an agent, it was you that was dreaming. Right? Where did you come from? Each time you’re reborn into a dream, each time you wake up from deep dreamless sleep, what is your origin? Did you come out of nothing? Did you emerge from your body? Or from something else?
(44:53) The Bhagavan asked, O Faculty of Mentation, what is the origin from which your first arose, the location in which you dwell in the interim? So let’s take this, today. Only a matter of hours ago, you were nowhere to be found. You were in deep dreamless sleep. Some hours from now, presumably you will once again be in deep dreamless sleep, you’ll be nowhere to be found, no sense of a personal identity. But here we are in the interim, after having arisen and before disappearing. So as you hold in mind the referent of the word I, where are you? Where are you located? You seem to be located in your head, but you really think that’s true? Are you in the frontal cortex? In the interior? On the scalp? Do you pervade your whole head? Or are you just a single point inside your head? Or is this all just a misleading appearance? Are you in there at all? And if not, if you’re not inside your head, and you do exist, where are you?
(46:50) What is the origin from which you first arose? What is the location in which you dwell in the interim? And the destination to which you will finally go, whether when you fall asleep, when you die, when you are no more? And the Faculty of Mentation replied, I am unarisen emptiness, so there is no origin from which I arose. I am non local emptiness, so there is no place where I am located. I am unestablished emptiness, so there is no destination to which I will go. Is that true of your experience or not? Observe yourself.
(48:10) And if there arises some sense of the emptiness of your own identity, rest there, sustaining the flow of cognizance, of the emptiness of your own identity.
(49:13) Meditation ends, bell rings three times.
(49:55) Olaso. I’m going to briefly diverge from the text. I’m eager to get back to it too, but a brief divergence. We’ve been doing this for five weeks now. Palms pressed together, yeah. This is done all over Asia. It’s done in the Buddhist tradition of course, but the little, it’s a ritual, some rituals can be meaningful if we make them such. But the ritual of greeting in this way, not just when meeting a great lamas but simply all of us together, anyone. I picked it up from the Zen tradition, where there’s a lot of this, yeah, a lot of this. And I just found, I really resonated with it because I knew what it meant. At least here’s my understanding. And that is, it’s not, it’s not going, oh I respect you so much you’re very intelligent, highly educated and so here’s to you. And you’re a great athlete and you’re a very fine painter, here’s to you. It’s not that. It’s not some people are better artists some people are poor, some smarter, some less smart. It’s not that. It’s bowing to, it’s acknowledging and focusing on the Buddha nature of each sentient being. So you can do this to birds and ants and crickets and any sentient being that has buddha nature. Because the cricket buddha nature and yours are on the same plateau, same level, no higher, no lower. I think it’s very meaningful. I found it really, that’s why I do it. That’s why I do it. It’s acknowledging that and that’s straight from the Zen tradition. Do I have that right Beata? Yeah. Good I’m glad, otherwise I would’ve been mistaken for so long. But you know in the Indo-Tibetan tradition specifically in vajrayana there’s this whole notion of pure vision. Pure vision. Seeing through the masquerade of sentient beings, of beings appearing to be sentient beings. Sometimes quite nasty, petty, irritating, and so forth and so on. You know. And sometimes nice but frequently not. You know, and then reifying them and then of course ourselves, sometimes nice, sometimes not and reifying that. I was told years ago just some pith instructions from Sakya Dagchen Rinpoche and he’s not one of my lamas. His wife is one of my core principle lamas, for me she’s Tara. She’s been my lama for 35 years.
(52:04) But my relationship was really with her, she’s like my dharma mother. But her husband is the alternate head of the Sakya order and highly respected. And I translated for him I think just once when he went to give some teachings in a prison. And somewhere along the line he turned to me and just gave me some pith instructions. And that is he said, If you would like to be free of suffering, adopt pure vision of yourself and others. If you maintain impure vision, you’ll perpetuate samsara forever. That’s pretty good. So, it’s never too, as if, as it’s never too early to start practicing, cultivating bodhichitta, never too early to begin vipassana. We can start and it’s good to start. Don’t postpone until after shamatha, silly. Likewise pure vision, acknowledging, it’s not putting on rose tinted glasses you know and kind of saying I’m trying to distort to see everything nice. It’s not that, it’s not stupidity at all. It’s seeing evil as evil, virtue as virtue, but seeing through that veneer, that kundzop that relative truth that veils a deeper truth, right. Totally veils a deeper truth. Yeah, oneself as we observe our own behavior, sometimes we can be quite disgusted. I have been innumerable times. And looking at other people’s behavior sometimes I’m disgusted with other people’s behavior too, and it’s disgusting behavior. So, it’s nothing wrong with that, seeing disgusting behavior, bigotry, racism, contempt, exploitation, etc, etc - it’s disgusting behavior, it’s true. But seeing through that, not closing your eyes, but seeing through that. And seeing - if I go to the essence there’s someone, a being of utter purity and that’s what I’m going to attend to. I sense this so vividly with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, that he really, I think just, my impression is, just my impression, but I just see, my my sense is, that he’s just looking and attending to and seeing the purity of everyone around him. You know. I’ve seen him refer to some people that I have some strong judgements about their behavior, and I still do, about their behavior. right. And then I see how he relates to them, and he’s just drawing out the best. He’s not focusing, he may or may not have the same view of their behavior as I do, quite possibly not. Maybe I’m wrong, but he’s seeing through that. And he’s just drawing out the best. And of course they light up. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. They light up, when he draws out the best from them. They light up. And it brings forth their best. That’s a tremendous gift. And you don’t have to be the Dalai Lama to do it. That’s pure vision. There it is.
(55:08) Okay. So, I’m not going to read the last section I don’t even have it on my cell phone, it’s already been sent off. But this is from that, this excerpt from the essay by Je Tsultrim Zangpo and I’m going to continue right where we left off, the very next paragraph reads. This is dense, it’s very very meaningful otherwise I wouldn’t bother I would just go back to the text. But as I said yesterday, extremely briefly now, here I think is a very useful segue between these classic vipassana methods of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen tradition, which he covered briefly. And then these methods from the Gelugpa tradition which he’s going to cover in a lot more detail. Because my sense is he’s writing this text primarily for Gelugpas. Kagyupas they’ve got their own text, they don’t need to study, they don’t need to go to a Gelugpa to hear about their own tradition of Mahamudra, they own it , you know So, that’s my sense. He’s trying to make Mahamudra accessible to intelligible to, inviting to, especially Gelugpas so that they too can avail themselves of this profound tradition, but see how completely compatible it is with the tradition they’re already very very familiar with and feel at home with and it’s their refuge. So he continues, here Je Tsultrim Zangpo, I think in a very wonderfully complementary to the writings of Panchen Rinpoche. He says, Moreover, when following the instructions on purifying the mind within the context of purifying the body, speech, and mind, So now he’s isolated purifying the mind. you must realize the homogenous emptiness of true existence of all phenomena included in the outer physical worlds, the inner sentient inhabitants, and of samsara and nirvana. So, when you’re purifying your mind of what obscurations, that which is standing between you, your conscious awareness and realizing your buddha nature. It’s that level of obscurations that needs to be purified, cleared out. Right. In order to do that, to purify your mind, to yeah to purify your mind of its obscurations. He said you must realize homogenous emptiness of all phenomena samsara and nirvana, all three realms, sentient beings, inanimate environment, physical universe. You have to realize the emptiness of all of it. See it’s all equally empty of inherent nature. This is imperative. Otherwise the obscurations will still be there. At least in spots and blotches and so forth.
(57:31) In that regard, first of all, Here’s strategy, remember, this is classic strategy in the Dudjom Lingpa writings. In that regard, first of all, the creator of the whole of samsara and nirvana is this very mind of yours. So, as much as you’d like to blame it on somebody, (light laughter) god or nature or DNA or laws of physics, but who did this? You know. And then he says, it’s your mind, you created the whole of samsara and nirvana. The all creating sovereign künjé gyalpo, the all creating sovereign, the all creating monarch, is another nice translation, is your mind, of your samsara. Your mind. So if you don’t like it, well, then stop doing it. (laughs) Okay so everything now, all of the ontological weight, all the gravity, everything comes and the whole of samsara and nirvana all phenomena, it now all hinges on your mind, not somebody else’s mind. Your mind. So it makes the mind like super cosmically, galactically macho. [laughter]Like, your mind did everything. So, wow, if anything is anything inherently absolutely truly existent, it’s gotta be the mind that did everything. So we’ve put all the weight on your mind. Right. And then he says This point is made in numerous sutras and commentaries. That’s a lot of back up here. So if you ascertain this mind of yours And now the next step. So if you ascertain this mind of yours as being empty of true existence, So all the weight goes there and then it’s empty. All the weight goes there and you’ve just become Chittamatrin, Mind Only, because everything else is just a display of the mind. You bring all the weight of reality onto your mind and then peyw. The mind that is, because he’s not backtracking, he’s not saying oops I made a mistake by the way I’m going to correct that. The mind that is the creator of the whole of samsara and nirvana is empty of inherent nature. That’s a strategy. It crops up again and again. All the way through Dudjom Lingpa, it’s always a strategy. It’s right at the beginning too. if you ascertain this mind of yours as being empty of true existence, simply by extending that reasoning the dominoes start falling, you will ascertain all phenomena to be empty of true existence. If you blow out the core, you blow out the center of the mandala, as being truly existent. If you see that’s empty, and then you look in any direction your vantage point is empty, and before long it’s just the dominoes fall. Everything perceived by an empty mind can only be empty.
(1:00:35) If you’re in a dream and you realize that you’re dreaming, that the persona of you in the dream is just an empty appearance, how likely are you to reify everybody else in the dream? It’s an incredibly powerful parallel. So,
The guru will enable the disciple to discover how all phenomena depend on the mind, and consequently, how the mind takes a primary role within the context of the body, speech, and mind. Moreover, a person with sharp faculties who can determine that this mind, which plays such a dominant role, cannot be established as truly existing from its own side, as something that really, substantially, as something that is really, substantially existent, such a person is someone who can determine the absence of true existence with even subtle reasoning, simply by being shown partial reasons for establishing that.
(1:01:40) That’s a long complex sentence. But the meaning is not that difficult. If you’ve really gotten this one, call it the emptiness of yourself, call it the emptiness of your mind because that’s the really crucial point. The mind is the all creating sovereign and then you identify the mind as being empty of inherent nature. That first of all, seeing the mind as primary. Okay. And then secondly seeing that it cannot be established as truly existing from its own side, as something substantially existent. If you can do that, and you’re a person of sharp faculties, then with just partial reasons, reasons that would be totally inconclusive to other people, you will nail it. It’s like saying all phenomena are empty of inherent nature because they are impermanent. For some people that’s, it’s a done deal. That was enough. And most people would say I didn’t follow that at all, what are you talking about.
(1:02:39) That didn’t prove anything. Of course things are really there, they’re impermanent. But this is his point, this is strategy. That just with partial reasoning for example, just here’s partial reasoning, does your mind have form? Do you have form? Does your mind have form, shape, color? No, it doesn’t. Well that’s partial reasoning, because the mind could be inherently existent as something that is formless. Could be. But if you have that insight, that’s enough. Already since it’s immaterial bump bump bump and the dominoes keep continuing to fall.and then you see it’s empty, it’s entirely empty of inherent nature. It’s not merely immaterial, it’s entirely empty. For such a person, This person of sharp faculties. by the power of realizing the mere absence of any shape, color, or shape of the mind, Which is kind of like small potatoes. Right. So big deal. But, by the power of revealing the mere absence of any color or shape of the mind and by demonstrating just the reasons why the mind is devoid of any true origin, location, and destination, Just that, no more reasoning. Just knowing number one, it’s empty of materiality. Number two, it doesn’t truly originate from anywhere, isn’t really located anywhere, doesn’t really go anywhere, that’s enough. that person will proceed to establish the absence of true existence of the mind by way of subtle reasoning that refutes the subtle object of negation. That’s classic Prasangika talk. Okay.
(1:04:19) So, without having identified you know this very strenuous difficult task of identifying what is the subtle object of negation. What he’s referring to here is not something we learn. We can compound our ignorance in all kinds of ways. Learned ignorance, speculative ignorance, and delusion but when he speaks of the subtle object of negation, he’s speaking of a way of, missap, he’s referring to a subtle way of misapprehending ourselves, that we’re born with. Not only human beings, all sentient beings, reptiles, fish, insects and so forth, this is the Buddha’s premise, they’re in samsara too. They don’t have much in the way of frontal cortex, or language skills probably, and so forth and so on, but all sentient beings, all animals down to the most primitive, let alone hell beings, pretas, and so forth and so on, all have this connate ignorance which means they’re identifying, grasping onto a self, that doesn’t exist. And that’s the subtle object of negation. It’s not negating, it’s not seeing the absence of something you’ve learned, because you learned some philosophy or some science or some religion or what have you. No, it’s something you’re born with. It’s very subtle. Right. And that’s what you see the absence of. So, it’s very subtle, but for the mind that is so honed, just identifying the primacy of the mind and then its immateriality, and then its absence of true origin, location, and destination, and you’re finished. Right. This is what Karme Chagmé Rinpoche said, this is the way of cutting the tree and getting firewood by just cutting its tap root. And the whole tree dries up. Rather than going through years, and years, and years of training and debating and studying and studying and studying to investigate the emptiness of all phenomena and having to lop them off one by one, like lopping off the branches of a tree. Cut the root of your mind. The reification of your mind and the whole tree dries up. Very powerful strategy. For us getting on in years this is something we should really look at very carefully. [laughter] We don’t have years. I don’t have years. I’m not going to put in time to go off and spend four years studying Madhyamaka. It’s not going to happen. That ship has sailed.
(1:06:38) Thus, by the power of relying on such reasoning, Just origin, location, and destination, puh finished. people with superior faculties are able to realize the emptiness of all phenomena. Exactly what Karma Chagmé Rinpoche said. Realize this and the dominoes fall. Just implication, implication and the whole, whole thing goes. Again me for the silly metaphors, I really love crocodile than …(? 1:07:01 unclear). I’m probably going to use that one again. But here’s one I’ve also used a lot. I just, I like it a lot. And that’s the death star, you know, in the third of the Star Wars. The death star and Luke follow the force and finding that one vulnerable spot in that massive titanic, adamantine, vajra like sphere that would go around and destroy worlds. And there was just one spot, right, that was vulnerable to throwing in the dart. And then you watch what happened. Hit, with the force being with him, he threw the dart right there, (laughter) he threw the dart right there and it goes, kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, POW! Wasn’t that fun? (laughter continues) It’s like that. You go boof - emptiness of mind, and then bha, bha, bha, bha, bha. It not only blows your mind, it blows the world. (laughing) Leaving not even one inherently existent elementary particle, not even the Higgs Boson as a survivor. All Blown. (inhales sharply)
(1:08:21) However, Before you get carried away. However, it is very important for people like us to hear and reflect upon the Madhyamaka treatises, Like Guide to the Middle Way by Chandrakirti and so forth. to comprehend all the reasons that establish the absence of true existence, and to establish the nature of emptiness just as it is taught in the Madhyamaka. What he’s saying here is, we’re not all of superior faculties. So you want to have some back up here. You may not be a person of superior faculties in which case you may realize the lack of form, shape, color of your mind and have some kind of intimation or some realization no to origin, location, and destination and the veil of clouds may still be there. Maybe it’s thinned out, but maybe it’s still there. In which case all these treatises, The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Cutter Sutra, the Madhyamaka treatises of Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti, Shantideva, Tsongkhapa, and Longchenpa and so forth. Those are not just for stupid people. These people were incredible geniuses. Tsongkhapa, Longchenpa, Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Chandrakirti these are the Einsteins, the Newtons, the, you know, the most brilliant of the brilliant you know of the whole civilization for hundreds of hundreds of years that we should not overlook their work lightly, as if - oh I’m of superior faculties. I don’t need Nagarjuna I’ll just, oh yeah, my mind has no origin - check, location - nope, destination - nope, okay I’m finished. (laughter) Maybe you are but, maybe not.
(1:09:51) So, he continues, Therefore you should loosely rest pristine awareness Oh whew, back to loosely resting, I always like that. you should loosely rest pristine awareness in the nature of the empty space of cognizance Okay, the day is all of one piece, right. Three types, four types - luminosity, emptiness, luminosity, emptiness. Yeah. Cognizance, emptiness. loosely rest pristine awareness in the nature of the empty space of cognizance and remain there without modification. So, after you’ve done that checking through which is, this is all of a piece. After you’ve checked origin, location, destination then, loosely rest pristine awareness in the nature of the empty space of cognizance and remain there without modification. Don’t do anything. Don’t activate your intellect. Don’t fix it. Don’t improve it. Just rest. There must be a stabilizing. That must be a stabilizing meditation alone, Which means it’s of the shamatha style. That is you’re stabilizing, means you’re just placing your awareness, you’re not investigating, okay. There’s this analytical and there’s stabilizing meditation. This is not analytical. It’s not cogitating. Just resting. That must be a stabilizing meditation alone, without analyzing the object of negation. This must lead to the ascertainment of emptiness by way of stabilizing meditation, without reliance upon rational analysis regarding the absence of unity and multiplicity, And we’ve done that. Right? The mind, as you’re observing your mind, analyzing it, do you have two minds, you have one mind, that whole business. You remember? That’s what he’s referring to. This is, but now when you’re just resting there in pristine awareness this is without reliance on rational analysis regarding the absence of unity and multiplicity and so on, of the object of negation.
(1:11:51) So, it’s not whether you have one mind or many minds, it’s the object of negation, the inherently existent mind. And that doesn’t exist as one, and it doesn’t exist as many. It doesn’t truly exist, it doesn’t absolutely not exist. Right. For that to happen, you must first ascertain how connate self-grasping That’s the one I was referring to. connate self-grasping attends to the subtle object of refutation, Same plateau. You’re born with them. So connate self-grasping, you’re born with it, reptiles are born with it, birds are born with it and the object that is apprehended or held to be true by connate self-grasping is the subtle object of negation. A self that doesn’t exist at all. you must first ascertain how connate self-grasping holds to the very subtle object of negation, as taught in the Madhyamika Prasangika tradition. The omniscient Longchenpa So now he goes to the great Dzogchen master. The omniscient Longchenpa states that all the reasons that refute that, must lead That refute that subtle object of negation. all the reasons that refute that, must lead to the ascertainment of emptiness that is determined by the authentic logic presented in the Madhyamika treatises. So he’s saying this all converge, whether you’re following a Dzogchen route, Mahamudra, you’re following straight Madhyamika route, Gelugpa route, Nyingmapa route, it’s all converging in upon the same emptiness. Moreover, the emptiness presented in many treatises of the Great Perfection scriptures and revealed treasures The terma, the karma and the terma, the emptiness, that emptiness is similar to the emptiness asserted according to the Prasangika tenets. So he’s really showing the fundamental compatibility between this much more analytical philosophical approach that the Gelugpas are very well known for and this approach which is much simpler origin, location, destination now rest in pristine awareness. These are all pointing at the same thing.
(1:14:01) Thus the reasons that determine the absence of an origin, location, and destination, in the pith instructions, that establish the emptiness of true existence of the mind, when granting experiential instructions, Again it’s a long sentence, sorry, but they are long sentences. Those reasons that determine this, those reasons, determine the emptiness of all phenomena. So again it’s that vulnerable spot in the death star. Get that one, everything follows. In short, with the unification of appearances and emptiness (seltong 1:14:38 Tibetan) appearances are the luminous aspect, emptiness is emptiness. In short, with the unification of appearances and emptiness Form is empty, empty is form and so forth. with the unification of appearances and emptiness - the emptiness of all, the emptiness of existence of all phenomena from their own side They’re not really there from there own side. and they’re conceptually designated, or merely nominal, purely apparent nature So they don’t exist from their own side. But they do exist as something conceptually designated, nominally designated or merely in a mode of appearance. That you must gain pristine ascertainment of the meaning of emptiness arising as dependent origination without refuting its empty aspect. So you must understand the aspect of dependent origination without refuting its empty aspect and the meaning of dependent origination arising as emptiness. That was one very very complicated sentence.
(1:15:48) Maybe I can make it simpler later, but it’s really complicated. Rather than lingering there as time passes I’ll just lead you to read that again. But that was one loaded, but certainly complex sentence. So, As explained previously after you have been given teachings on differentiating the mind and pristine awareness, You remember I referred to that multiple times. Yeah. The pointing out instructions, here’s mind, here’s pristine awareness. Right. Here’s dharmakaya, here’s substrate consciousness. Here’s samsara, here’s nirvana. And again and again. After receiving such teachings on differentiating the mind and pristine awareness, and you are attending to the essential nature of cognizance and have achieved stability there, All clear? So you’ve distinguished between mind and pristine awareness, you’re focusing right on cognizance itself which is rigpa in Tibetan. And you’ve achieved, and you’re resting there, you’ve achieved stability or continuity there then, now that you’ve really ascertaining cognizance you must analyze and determine cognizance, too, as being unreal and empty, without it’s being apprehended as truly existent or substantial.
(1:17:08) So, it’s not enough to ascertain awareness, you have to ascertain the emptiness of awareness. Awareness is emptiness, emptiness is awareness. Apart from awareness there is no emptiness, apart from emptiness there is no awareness. The non duality of luminosity and cognizance. The luminosity and (snaps fingers) emptiness. So he’s emphasizing here, you must realize the emptiness of awareness itself, it too is empty of inherent nature. That is the analysis of such pristine awareness itself being emptiness, and it is the meditation that unifies pristine awareness and emptiness. So that your realization of emptiness and your realization of pristine awareness are non dual. Now that’s the realization of a vidhaydara. Even a bodhisattva doesn’t have that. An arya bodhisattva who is following the bodhisattva path is realizing emptiness with a subtle mind, but not with pristine awareness. That’s in the domain of the vidyadharas. But since that is meditation on emptiness of the nature of existence of pristine awareness, it is the emptiness in the union of pristine awareness and emptiness. So it all comes to this. The primordial unity of emptiness and luminosity, of pristine awareness and dharmadhatu. Phew! Here is The Way To Practice Meditative Equipoise upon Uniting Pristine Awareness and Emptiness. As explained previously, without needing to analyze the empty space of the nature of the existence of pristine awareness, you should merge cognizance with the nature of the empty space of cognizance, and without modification attend to the nature of undifferentiated emptiness and cognizance. I know the term here, because I’ve translated this fairly recently when saying cognizance it’s ( Rigpa-cha? 1:19:15 tibetan) the aspect of rigpa, the aspect of awareness, that is cognizance. That’s exactly what cognizance is, that aspect of awareness that aspect of knowing and so you should merge the aspect of knowing, the aspect of awareness with the empty nature, with the nature of the empty space of, that aspect of awareness and without modification attend to the undifferentiated emptiness, the nature of undifferentiated emptiness and cognizance. Undifferentiated emptiness and aspect of awareness, nondual.
(1:19:57)
When you can do that, you have found the union of pristine awareness and emptiness. So, without needing to freshly analyze the demarcation between pristine awareness and emptiness, or the emptiness of the nature of existence of pristine awareness. By the power of your previous analysis, simply by recalling the empty space of the nature of existence of pristine awareness, this will lead you to the ascertainment of that empty space. Then you should rest in that cognizance in the nature of that empty space and without modification, sustain that. This is the meaning of merging space and pristine awareness. By the power of familiarizing yourself with that, eventually the radiance of pristine awareness will dissolve into pristine awareness, [That outward glow, that outward sheen, that outward luster it’s called, will dissolve right back into its nucleus.] the radiance of pristine awareness will dissolve into pristine awareness, and the ground pristine awareness will be revealed. [the ground pristine awareness is that which is primordially always been there] Then that will arouse the exceptional wisdom that realizes emptiness of the existence of the ground pristine awareness from its own side. Even the ground pristine awareness doesn’t exist from its own side and you will realize that. In this phase of uniting pristine awareness and emptiness you are sustaining something that is the same or similar to an arya’s primordial consciousness of meditative equipoise, free of dualistic grasping to pristines awareness and emptiness as being different. [inhales sharply]
(1:21:56) You can see why this was a little bit difficult to translate. Very dense. So, it goes on, but that’s what I wanted to share with you, too. Here’s a man that is just so obviously, he knows what he’s talking about on both sides of the fence. Everything he is saying about Nyingmapa, about Dzogchen, spot on. And then you look at Gelugpa scholars, did he get it right? Did he get it right? Oh he nailed it. And yet he’s putting these together seamlessly, saying hey, we’re all in the same family here. This is just one family and enter the door as they say, use the key that opens the door, follow the path that brings you to the nucleus, to the center. Right. So, we have a few minutes left.
(1:22:45) Superior faculties, superior faculties. Whenever I see that word I always feel okay can we get past this section? And I’m not being humble, I’m not being anything except for honest, they just never seem to pertain to me. You know. I’m waiting to get through the superior part. Okay,I know there will be, I have faith there are such beings, I just know I’m not one of them. And then it goes middling and I always say, keep going. (chuckling) You know, keep going. That shoe didn’t fit either. And then it comes to the dull and I’m starting to feel okay now I think this is getting familiar. And if he says, dullest of the dull, whoa, okay now I feel comfortable. You know. Now I’ve found myself. So, if this is superior, gifted, super duper people, then you know what am I doing teaching it? And what are you doing here. (laughs) You get a whole bunch of superior people listening to a very dull facultied dim witted teacher, you know what’s wrong? There’s some major asymmetry here, you know. And so what are we supposed to make of this. I mean are we just, are we fooling ourselves? Should we be just be taking, you know just reciting Om Mani Padme Hum, and maybe trying to study Madhyamika a little bit (laughter) and mindfulness of breathing and turn lemons into lemonade, and die. (laughing) Unless you think you’re a superior faculty kind of person, you know. And here I come back to the Vajra Essence, right towards the beginning. And we’ll end on this note. He’s referring to this pith of the pith of the pith, the very essential of the essential of Dzogchen, there are different classes of Dzogchen. The pith instructions are the innermost, within that there’s the innermost of the innermost. And the Vajra Essence is talking about that most subtle, most rarefied, most profound, and therefore most secret. Okay, the Vajra Essence. Generally the Dzogchen teachings altogether of Dudjom Lingpa on this core quintessence of quintessence, the rarefied pure essence. He says this,
This dzogchen, this approach to dzogchen, this is the most sublime of all dharmas. It is the great synthesis of all the paths, the goal of all the yanas, [sravakayana, and so forth] an expansive treasury of all secret mantras of the whole of mantrayana. However, only those who have stored vast collections of merit in many ways over incalculable eons, will encounter this path. They will have aspired repeatedly and extensively to reach the state of perfect enlightenment and they will have previously sought the path through other yanas, [in past lives] establishing propensities to reach this path. No others will encounter it.
(1:25:37) And he continues. This in other words if you’ve encountered the path, you didn’t wander in by accident. If you encounter it, and if you just wander in, that was cool and wander out and it leaves no impression okay then you just dropped in. You know. As he said, you may be in the same room where the teachings are being given but your mind will be many miles away. And so it’s self secretive. It shields, it veils itself from those who are simply not ready to hear. But if you come to such teachings and you are drawn to them and you do listen to them and you do resonate with them they really do speak to your heart of your hearts. And they inspire faith, then he’s saying there’s a logical conclusion here. You’ve got a lot of momentum to get to this point. That’s what he just said.
(1:26:22) This Great Perfection is the yana of the unsurpassed fruition. That which manifests the great reality that pervades all of samsara and nirvana is called bodhichitta of the ultimate ground And that’s rigpa. you need apprehend only this. This is the only thing to realize. This is what Dzogchen is all about, especially this pith, pith, pith instruction is all about realizing one thing, realizing rigpa. This is bodhichitta of ultimate ground.
You need apprehend only this. Apart from this, intellectually fabricating so called bodhichitta with effort entails generating a mental state in which you view yourself as the meditator and other sentient beings as objects of meditation – an attitude that is as limited as a teacup. [laughter]
In the expanse of the Great Perfection - the original nature of the great equality of samsara and nirvana - the mode of existence of the ground itself is known, just as it is, by means of great, omniscient primordial consciousness. To speak of having bodhichitta greater than the vision of great, all seeing primordial consciousness would be like saying you must seek moisture elsewhere, even though you already have water.
(1:27:40) In general to enter this yana and put it into practice you must have all the following characteristics, So now the veil of mystery and uncertainty and low self esteem and confusion and what, what, what? He’s going to clear it away real quickly. Are you qualified or not? Here you are, maybe you don’t belong here. Maybe your mind is (? 1:28:02) away, who knows. But he’s going to say, here you are,
you must have the following characteristics. Belief in the Dharma and in your guru; unwavering trust in the path; earnest mindfulness of death, and the conviction that all composite phenomena are impermanent, so that you have little attraction to mundane activities; contentment with respect to food, wealth and enjoyments; insatiability for the Dharma due to great zeal and determination; integration of your life and spiritual practice without complaining. [laughter] [I’m so glad he added that.]
(1:28:47) When such people with stable minds without being boastful about the mere number of months or years they spent practicing in retreat, see this entrance and undertake the practice, they will definitely achieve the supreme state of Buddha Vajradhara in this very lifetime.
And we may still be wondering are you referring to me? And he says, In this present lifetime, if you have firm faith and belief in the Great Perfection and strong unflagging enthusiasm, the time has come to practice. So enough with the afflictive uncertainty, the self doubt, am I capable, am I not. Basta! Right. Basta! Don’t keep on worrying whether you’re superior faculties, just basta. He just said, if you have firm faith and belief in the Great Perfection and strong unflagging enthusiasm, the time has come to practice. When fortunate beings come to the gateway of the profound secret mantrayana, apart from simply having strong faith and belief, there is never anything else, such as clairvoyance, omens, or auspicious circumstances, to make them think that the time has come to practice secret mantra. You don’t need any outside sign. Give me a sign, give me a sign. The sign is do you have strong faith and belief.
(1:30:17) Once you’ve obtained a human life and encountered a guru and the secret mantra Dharma, He’s referring here of course to Dzogchen. if this is not the time to practice the Great Perfection, then there will never be a better time than this in another lifetime - this is certain. Yeah, I have nothing to add to that. Enjoy your day.
Transcribed by Kriss Kringle Sprinkle
Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final Revision by Cheri Langston
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