60 Acquiring a Telescope and Merging the Mind with Space

Olaso. So, I mentioned yesterday, something that’s kind of always on my mind and that is the importance of revitalizing or shining a fresh light on the role of contemplative inquiry. That it really is inquiry, we’re not simply learning a creed, we’re not simply getting the right answers, adopting the correct belief system or performing rituals and devotion and faith and so forth. All of those have their place, but actual contemplative inquiry with the idea that you can actually make discoveries. Not just come up with subjective impressions, but actually make discoveries as much as mathematicians make discoveries, physicists, neuroscientists, and so on. And moreover that these discoveries can be corroborated, that there can be peer review. In fact there has been peer review, and that there can be a very large body of intersubjectively corroborated consensual knowledge, which is what we have in mathematics. That is they have it, I don’t have it because I’m not a good enough mathematician. But there’s an enormous body of knowledge in mathematics, that any knowledgeable mathematician knows, we know this stuff. And here’s the cutting edge, and here’s where there’s debate, and here’s where there’s uncertainty. But this and it’s a massive amount. You know big mathematics has been going on a long time. And of course for physics, so much consensual knowledge, and then out on the cutting edge then it’s string theory, is that valid? Or is it quantum cosmology? Or what’s you know there are other theories out there as well. But so much consensual knowledge. You know. And there is in Buddhism too. And there is as I am persuaded there’s actually an enormous body of consensual knowledge even among diverse traditions, the Taoists, the Theravada Buddhists, the Zen, the Christian and so forth.

(01:55) But one needs to know how to identify it. But even if you find common ground, you find commonality, that doesn’t necessarily mean they actually know what they’re talking about, it’s just that they’ve drawn similar conclusions. You know. So then then kind of like, so what? If they all just drew a conclusion, they’re all just speculating in the same way, then it’s not interesting. Whereas in mathematics you know they’re not just speculating in the same way. Enormous, enormous mind power went into that you know. Brilliant minds and they can demonstrate to each other, you know, the really brilliant ones. They can demonstrate to each other that they have found this knowledge, this you know I’m sure it’s brilliant, this 150 page proof of Fermat’s last theorem. It must be breathtaking. I can’t even begin, I couldn’t even read the first line. But I find that awesome, you know. And it’s so subjective. Because there’s no way you can just kind of you know show a photo or show a graph or show some empirical evidence that anybody who’s not had very very advanced training in mathematics could make any clue of it. No way. And yet there it is consensual knowledge in consensual knowledge and it’s intersubjective knowledge among those who have sufficient training. So, when I look at philosophy and I mean there’s been so much philosophy in the west and a lot of it’s brilliant. I mean really profound ideas. I often say, they don’t agree, they don’t agree, well they don’t. That doesn’t mean there are not just, that the stream of western philosophy is not filled with golden nuggets all over the place. It is, tremendous insights. And just to cite one, Hilary Putnam, he passed away just a couple of months ago. But what he did by putting together insights from Kant, Wittgenstein, and William James I find it just breathtaking. Now he’s passed away, and his volumes of his life’s work are there in the vast libraries of, you know, the universities and so on. The theories from quantum cosmology, I find absolutely breathtaking. From John Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, and so forth, Antoine Zeillinger and so forth. But of course they’re not accepted by everybody.

(03:58) And Hilary Putnam well as I said, philosophers don’t agree, so he was widely regarded as a very fine distinguished philosopher, but then many of those who regarded him as distinguished disagreed with him. They don’t have that consensual knowledge. They didn’t come up with a vast body of intersubjectively validated consensual knowledge. And then likewise these, in my book Mind in the Balance, I’vel cited in some detail about shamatha, vipassana and dzogchen, and then finding I think significant parallels between Dzogchen and the Kabbalah, quantum cosmology, the neo platonic tradition of Christianity, advaita vedanta, said look, it looks like they’re really pointing in the same direction here. But then my book is just one more book, you know, hidden in the library. So, there’s one common denominator and that is, the even at the time of Galileo, Copernicus had already come out decades before with his theory, that the sun is in the center and the planets go around it. But there was no intersubjective consensual knowledge. There were a lot of theologians, Christians, astronomers, and so forth who agreed with him. And others disagreed with him. And that was it. That was it. They just disagreed and agreed, it wasn’t outlawed by the church, there were theologians that would agree with it. But they it was like, he said, she said but back then it was all he said, he said, because the women were in the kitchen you know, cooking. Women had no voice unfortunately. And then Galileo, and then Galileo, the telescope, made observations and within a matter of years, he proved that the geocentric view was wrong.

(06:58) And any knowledgeable person that saw what he had discovered and maybe made it themselves, it’s not that difficult, that’s primitive astronomy. If they can see the implications then from that point on, I mean knowledgeable people shortly after Galileo they saw well, the Ptolemaic version of the earth in the center and all the cycles and eccentric in the sun and everything going around the, well it’s false, it’s not an opinion now. If you have that opinion you’re ignorant. Because you’re wrong and this is right because Galileo showed the empirical evidence for that. You know. And it was the faces of Venus that really nailed it, right? And we have so much like that. That it was the telescope, Galileo just had one more opinion like everybody else. He already believed that Copernicus was right before he found the proof. Koepler already believed that Copernicus was right before Galileo came up with the proof. Right. The telescope, Shamatha. What philosophers lack including the most brilliant ones, Hilary Putnam takes my breath away. Wittgenstein, many profound insights and the list goes on. There are many many brilliant, so amazing their insights, and yet they didn’t find that method, to intersubjectively validate or invalidate, each other’s theories. So you just have this great big mine of all kinds of ideas for 2000 years or 25 - 3000 years of ideas, but they didn’t have the method for to put Hilary Putnam’s theories to the test of experience, and see whether he is correct. Or, of course, there are very brilliant materialists, they’re not unintelligent. So are they correct? Well, they can’t prove their theories either. They can’t, they never have, they just have, it’s like a very large church where everybody in the church, they all believe because they’re in that denomination. And then they just like to ignore everybody outside their denomination, and then assume they’re either ignorant or stupid.

(08:05) Like Jon Searle said, you know, if you don’t, if you’re not aware that the mind is simply a function of the brain, then you’re ignorant or stupid. Well, he’s a good church member. Apparently he just doesn’t get out of his church. And he only talks with people in his church. His church is called UC Berkeley by the way. Where there are in fact a lot of widely divergent views, it’s a marvelous university but it would seem by his statement that he just doesn’t talk to people who, he doesn’t talk to people. I mean he and I debated. I don’t think he heard a word I said, except for try to refute it. Unsuccessfully!

(08:36) So, shamatha, it’s the telescope. Brilliant theories in Buddhism, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, (? Tibetan), kalachakra, these are brilliant theories, you know, they’re really truly breathtaking. But are we really demonstrating their validity? If we don’t have the technology, if we’re not applying, utilizing the technology of shamatha and the rigorous, very demanding, sometimes exhausting modes of investigation of vipassana. If it’s not backed by the shamatha, vipassana and we’re simply doing stage of generation, completion, and then talking, debating, clapping our hands about vipassana, we’re in the same soup. We’re in the same soup. We’re not demonstrating. So the Nyingmapas believe in Dzogchen, most Gelupas think ehh not so, not so great. They don’t like it that much. And you know, Prasangika, versus yogacara and so forth. (inhales deeply) So, this retreat the way I’m teaching, obviously is not for everybody. Most people who read science don’t want to become scientists. They like being observers. You know reading what the scientists come up with. There’s not enough space for that many scientists. This course here is really for people who would like to become contemplatives. The intention was, my aspiration, my motivation what keeps me so teaching, I teach in different ways, not only one. But this type of retreat really the intended people are for those who are really seeking the path. Really seeking the path, really seeking to know. And no, it’s not going to be easy. This is not designed to be popular. Or to be fun. Hopefully it is fun on occasion. But there is no way it’s going to be fun everyday, because nyam come up, life happens.

(10:36) So, I do believe that if shamatha could be introduced into theoretical physics they might, shamatha and then vipassana, they might actually be able to put to test these theories by Thomas Hertog, that I’ve cited before, and John Wheeler, Stephen Hawking and so forth. They could put those to the test, they really could actually. Hilary Putnam’s incredibly brilliant internal realism, or pragmatic realism which looks awfully close to Madhyamaka, that could be put to the test. You could actually know, you know, and the teachings on Dzogchen, I mean they sound marvelous, clearly, but you can actually put them to the test, if they’re supported with muscle of shamatha and vipassana which Padmasambhava himself makes so abundantly clear. And Panchen Rinpoche himself makes so abundantly clear, that without shamatha you don’t have any of the paths. Right. It’s indispensable for sravakayana, pradyekabuddhayana, bodhisattvayana, and for that matter vajrayana, indispensable. So, if this fades out, fades out, then Buddhism will continue on as an array of philosophies which will be debated extensively in the monastic universities and in academia, yogacara, prasangika, madhyamaka, and so forth, and mahamudra and dzogchen views and so forth. It will be debated, it will be discussed and taught. So, philosophically it’s robust, it will be continuing as a philosophical tradition and as a religious tradition I think it has, I think the prospects are good. There are a lot of people who are being deeply nourished by the religious elements of Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism for example, with the rituals, the worship, the devotion, the visualizations, the vajrasattva practice, stage of generation, and so forth. That will continue. That will continue. And it’s good thing. I have only reverence for all of these aspects, for the philosophical and the religious. But His Holiness Dalai Lama, keeps on emphasizing but in Buddhism there’s a science of mind, science of mind. And he’s not alone. I am his disciple in this one absolutely. It’s a science of mind. Which means there are scientific assertions within Buddhism that can be tested, have been tested, and can be intersubjectively validated by people with sufficient training. But without shamatha it ain’t going to happen. You know.

(13:04) So, we return to shamatha here and now this is kind of the, we’re coming to the end of the first five weeks. We’ll have three weeks left. We’ll come to this is the end. This is the end. The end of the line of shamatha. Right. We’re almost at the end of the line. Now we’re getting out of the train. We came to the end of the line yesterday. Yesterday morning when I was reading the concluding passage by Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation of shamatha without a sign. After directing the awareness up to the right, to the left, down to the heart and then releasing into space. Then he says okay now just continue until you’ve settled your mind in its natural state. And don’t be introduced to rigpa too soon. Right. For that matter don’t be introduced to Madhyamaka too soon, because it just turns into a head trip. I know it, I’ve done it. That’s what happens if you’re a smart cookie. I’m a smart cookie and by the way, I’m a smart cookie, (laughter) you know. There are many many smarter cookies but you know orangutans, chimpanzees and so forth, I’m a smart cookie. So I know how that, it goes to your head. You get really clever here. You know how to debate and beat people in debate, to show what a sharp cookie you are. Gyatrul Rinpoche called me smart alec, he wasn’t kidding, (laughing) it goes to your head. It just goes to your head, right. But you want it to go to your heart! And for your heart, your heart has to have peace. It’s that simple actually. If there’s peace in your heart, if there’s serenity, if there’s calm, if your own heart you know is your wellspring of your own well being, it brings you a sense of ease, a sense of peace, a sense of inward well being. And actually brings up, at least on occasion a sense of joy. And you know where that’s coming from.

(15:05) Then you don’t need to prove yourself to anybody else. You don’t need other people’s approval. You don’t need their respect. You don’t really need much at all, except for food, clothing, shelter. That’s actually quite enough. Because you need the hedonic. You don’t want to starve to death, you don’t want to be too cold and so forth. But beyond that you don’t really look to the world, you don’t look outwards for your happiness. You don’t need to. And therefore you don’t need other people’s respect, their approval, their admiration, and so forth. If it happens, it happens, good you know it’s like a day like this. Well, I couldn’t have ordered this but I certainly enjoy it, you know. But it will be cloudy again and that will be fine.

(15:47) So, Padmasambhava left us on that note of now release the mind into space. Concluding just before he enters into engaging in the search for the mind. Interested in full fledge vipassana. But now in another of the works, now that was an earth terma, discovered in what 14th century I think, by Karma Lingpa, Natural Liberation, tracing back to Padmasambhava. And now we have much more recently, mid to late 19th century, these revealed teachings in pure visions by Dudjom Lingpa, again coming from Padmasambhava, the Lake Born Vajra. And one of the least known of these five treatises that are either written by or transmitted by Dudjom Lingpa, is this text the Enlightened View of Samantabhadra, Kunzang Gongpa. It’s just breathtaking, because it takes the depth of the Vajra Essence which is very long and very detailed and quite awesome. But it’s very large you know. And then it just condenses it down from 400 pages down to 80 and it’s still a complete path. You know. And so right towards the beginning of that we read right towards the beginning I did yesterday, and that is examining which is primary, body, speech, and mind. Recognize the mind as the all creating sovereign of samsara and nirvana. And then having set up your target, like a good cittamatran, mind is primary. It all boils down to the mind. The mind is the creator of everything. Having set up your target, sounds so familiar doesn’t it, the object of negation. Having set up the target. So, like everything else it’s hushed. The whole physical world has kind of faded out. Right. Because the whole, so called physical world, has just been reduced to appearances, empty non physical appearances of the mind. So, it’s kind of like a hush falls over the crowd and all that’s left is mind.

(17:50) The source of samsara and nirvana. And having set up the target phoo, then he goes for it. Right into it, right into the nucleus and asking, hey mind are you material? Do you have physical properties? Nyet. The answer, I don’t know why it was in Russian but, (raucous laughter) it was definitely nyet. And then, do you really come from some place? Are you really present some place? Do you really go? Nyet. Nyet. Nyet. Okay we’re finished, the Russians have spoken, (continued laughter) you know. And then he goes into the next phase, the placement exam. Okay, we have a perspective now, but of course you’re probably not enlightened yet. Probably not fully awakened yet, so now going from here to perfect awakening to realize this fully okay, what’s your path? What’s your path? And he starts out with a placement exam, just like if you have a child who has been homeschooled for some time, maybe even some years. But then sooner or later you decide to introduce the child into the school system. Right? And so, how well have you home schooled the child is this child ready for fifth grade, for seventh grade, third grade? You want to make sure the child is well placed so that the class the child is introduced to isn’t challenging, challenging but not overwhelming. And not so easy that it’s underwhelming. The child just cruising along wasting time. Right. So he gives a placement exam. And that’s what we’re going to do right now. Find a comfortable position.

(19:43) Meditation bell rings three times.

(20:29) With the motivation to set out on the path of perfect awakening for the sake of all sentient beings, while taking refuge in your own pristine awareness, the ultimate refuge. With such a motivation settle your body, speech, and mind in their natural state and briefly calm the mind, with mindfulness of breathing.

(22:43) And now we turn to the Lake Born Vajra for the guidance on entering the path and knowing what avenue shall we follow, what approach shall we take. So, Lake Born Vajra gives this council, Now it is crucial for you to know your own causal characteristics. There are two kinds of paths. Individuals with supreme faculties within themselves. excuse me, Individuals with supreme faculties proceed within themselves by way of direct crossing over which is the most advanced phase of Dzogchen practice. They just go directly there. and individuals with middling or inferior faculties proceed gradually in dependence upon the grounds and paths. And that is the bodhisattva bhumis and the five paths to enlightenment. So, some go right to the top of the class to the most advanced stage of practice and they proceed right from there to enlightenment. They already have so much momentum they don’t need to take the very gradual approach step by step, shamatha, vipassana, Trekchö, they go directly to Tögal, the direct crossing over. So where are we? Where are we placed? There could be people here in Tuscany. There could be people listening by podcast who are superior, they could be middling, they could be inferior. Where are we? How do we assess this? So he tells us(24:22).

To investigate this first of all merge your mind with empty external space and remain in meditative equipoise for 20 days. By so doing individuals of the first type, those with superior faculties, will perceive the originally pure essential nature of the primordial ground with the eye of wisdom. And they will identify this within themselves.

(24:59) So, it’s an entrance exam. If within 20 days you cut right through, just with this one practice, you cut right through, to a realization of rigpa, and you are seeing or perceiving this originally pure essential nature of the primordial ground, ground pristine awareness with the eye of wisdom, of prajna, well you will identify this within yourself. So we don’t have 20 days right now or later, certainly not this morning, but we can begin. So, I’ll give a bit of guidance how to merge the mind with what he calls external space. As before let you eyes be gently open. The preparation is the same as before, evenly resting your awareness within space, while at the same time resting awareness in its own place, holding its own ground, with no object, without doing anything.

(26:34) Now, Padmasambhava does not suggest this, but just to make this as accessible as possible, this very simple practice, I’m going to teach it in stages. When you don’t need the stages, just go to the practice itself. But we’ll take it step by step. So, as you’ve done before maintain just a peripheral awareness just enough awareness of the sensations of the respiration just enough so that you’re aware of the rhythm, when the breath is flowing in, when it’s flowing out. While resting your awareness in its own nature.

(27:39) And as the breath is flowing out, it’s a very natural time to release, to let go, to relax deeply. Release your mind. And this means every aspect of your mind, your thoughts, your memories, emotions, desires, images, everything that the mind comes up with. As the breath flows out, release it outwards into external space, that has no limits. Release it into space with no remainder. Let it dissolve into space, every aspect of your mind. And at the same time release your awareness into space, don’t keep it cramped up or cramped inside your head. Don’t keep it limited on a leash somewhere in here, inside your head, over here. Release it too. Release your mind, release awareness. Let it off the leash and release it into space, this objectless open expanse with no target, no object. Merge your awareness with space. Not objectifying space. Releasing your awareness into space non dually, with every out breath.

(30:03) And with each inbreath, do not in any way withdraw, contract, or invert your awareness. Simply accentuate, heighten, the awareness of the sheer luminosity of awareness itself, without relinquishing that open release into space. Simply heighten the awareness of awareness.

(32:25) With each exhalation, experience the emptiness of this open expanse of space. With each inhalation, accentuate your awareness of the luminosity, the clarity, the brightness of your own awareness. Emptiness and luminosity, breath by breath. And as for the mind, just release it irreversibly, release it into space, let it dissolve into space. And all that remains in the absence of the mind, is the non conceptual, nonduality of emptiness and luminosity. Is that so, or not? Examine closely.

(34:52) It’s a little bit like pumping up a tire. As you breathe out, release your mind and any recurrence of the mind, any thought, image, memory that comes to mind. Release it, let it dissolve into that space. And then with each inbreath, fill that space, pump up that space, saturate that space with the luminosity of awareness. So, it’s a crude analogy, but fill the tire. With the luminosity of your awareness until it’s full. Until it can’t be any more full, sufficiently full. Very much like the accumulation of merit, you accrue it until the battery is fully charged. So fill this open expanse of space breath by breath with the luminosity, the cognizance of your own awareness, until it’s full. Until there’s no difference in your experience between the exhalation and the inhalation, the emphasis on emptiness and the emphasis on luminosity when there is no longer any difference. Your experience of emptiness is saturated by luminosity and your experience of luminosity is nondual from emptiness. Then stop pumping. Release the oscillation, and rest in that nonduality without doing anything. Utterly at ease, still, and clear. And let’s continue practicing now in silence.

(43:44) Meditation ends, bell rings three times.

(44:03) So, in fact we do have 20 more days, (laughter) in this retreat and how you spend, you here in Tuscany, how you spend, what kind of meditations you focus on, when you’re in your own rooms, you’re walking about, of course that’s up to you. I’m here to help you in your practice not to try to get you to conform to any kind of expectations I might or might not have. So if you want try it of course you can. He’s suggesting of course you do it all day. All day for 20 days to really put it to the test. But just on that note briefly, I’m going to give just a short quote, a concluding quote on this topic from Padmasambhava. But also as you, as we all know this afternoon we’re going to go back to Panchen Rinpoche. We’re really going to be moving through his presentation of vipassana. It’s quite clear that this man was chosen to be tutor of the Fifth Dalai Lama because he was brilliant. Just like the late tutors of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of this incarnation, Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, they were just brilliant, just brilliant. I was just afraid of Ling RInpoche. I met him once, he debated with me, I just basically went on my back and went (?unintelligible 45:19) (laughter) I really, I wouldn’t I just kind of through down my sword. I was in the Buddhist School of Dialectics at the time, so he kind of assumed maybe I knew how to debate. And he just started and he went eh, eh and I’ve thrown down my sword. You’re right, I’m wrong. He just have intimated me utterly. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche just as brilliant, but he I could speak to and not just go into total meltdown. (light laughter) So, the Panchen Rinpoche’s of that class, you know. Truly brilliant and it’s going to be hard to follow him. Just like it’s hard to follow Einstein, it’s hard to follow really super brilliant people. It’s hard. You know.

(46:00) And so it’s going to be demanding in the afternoon. The meditations will be demanding. And if over these next three weeks all that is done is sowing seeds for the future, that’s good. That’s good. But I would encourage you please don’t be overwhelmed. You know. It’s easy to be overwhelmed. I’ve been overwhelmed many times, I know what it’s like. Please don’t be overwhelmed. Just when you come here for the evenings, engage as well as you can. And then as soon as you’re finished, as soon as 6 o’clock, you’re on your own. And if you’d like to spend you know, most of your meditative time just going back to your favorite shamatha practice, go for it. Go for it and you want to augment that with other practice, stage of generation, guru yoga, preliminary practices, just go for it. Okay. So, really emphasize the practices you really find helpful. And we’ll be sowing the seeds for the long term, you know the long term harvest with the vipassana. And in that regards too sometimes I think we can just feel kind of oppressed by our own minds. I know it’s possible, I’ve been oppressed by my mind many times. And sometimes we may link it to another person. Oh I feel so rotten because of what this person said, or that person did, or this happened. Therefore, I feel so rotten, I feel miserable, I feel depressed, I feel heavy, my self esteem is shattered and so forth. And you know because of this and that and the other. There is only one thing that’s causing you to have so low self esteem or depression or any other troubles of the mind. It’s your own mind. Because how does anybody else really trouble your mind? I mean if you want to trouble somebody else’s body, take out a rock and hit them with it. I’m not suggesting you do that (laughter) but the body is vulnerable. If you want to hurt somebody physically it’s not brain science. Just hit them and they will hurt. So please don’t do that. But hurting the body is very straightforward and you can say, my arm is bruised because because Paula punched me, you know. (chuckling)

(48:01) (laughing) She’s so serene. She smiles like a Buddha. I just told her that she punched me, I’m so serene. I have to pick on somebody else, okay. No I like Paula she can she’s so tough, she punched me and I’ve got a big bruise. That we can say, that makes really good sense. Yeah, you got a big bruise on your arm, okay Paula just came and whacked me. That makes really good sense. Because you can find my arm, you can find people’s bodies, that’s very easy to do. Except how do you punch somebody’s mind? It’s like trying to punch space. You know. You can’t really do it. The only thing that can punch your mind is your mind. The only thing that can harm your mind, is your mind. So if the mind gets obnoxious, if you really identify who’s really tormenting your mind, and you see it’s not just your mind as a whole, but elements within the mind, and especially on a day like this for those of us here looking out over these craggy peaks on the horizon in Tuscany and the magnificent sky. You know if you get tired of your mind, you know, just give it a rest, take it off the leash and just let it run. And just, mind, you’re not a very good neighbor, as that old saying I’ve quoted so many times, my mind is like a bad neighborhood, right, I try not to go there myself, by myself. (laughing) Right? When your mind is like that where it’s just kind of just beating you up, you’re unhappy and so forth, depressed, anxious, low self esteem, whatever it may be, just say mind, you know you’re not a very good neighbor, I’m sending you on vacation. Go to Tuscany. Out! Come back when you’re nicer. And just rest in awareness. I’m actually quite serious. Go for a walk and just release your mind into space. All your cares, concerns, all the thoughts, all the chit chat, all the mental afflictions, just phoo, just release it. If the mind isn’t nice, get rid of it. And just rest in awareness. Rest in what’s left over and that is the clear blue sky and the sound of the wind. And awareness. Okay. Olaso.

(50:15) So, he concludes and we will conclude, Individuals of the latter two types, if you’re a middling person or inferior faculties will be, if you do that, if you go off into solitude for 20 days and you just try to do this all day, what we just did, they will be tormented by confusion and distress and since their minds do not seem to merge with space they will pass the time in fabrications and striving while being caught up in many thoughts. Anything ring a bell? (laughter) Here is the way for them So in case you’re not such a person of superior facilities, you’re not ready to go right into graduate work in contemplative studies at, you know, at the Santa Barbara Institute, Here is the way for them to enter upon the grounds and paths. People of middling and inferior faculty.

They should practice by abiding in consciousness or resting in consciousness and recognizing the movements of thoughts as follows. Like people watching a show of optical illusions. [So now we’ve got three metaphors, watching optical illusions, watching the shepherd watching the flock, the old man watching other people’s children play, right. Very similar mood.] Like people watching a show of optical illusions, [watching the show] by meditating diligently with keen enthusiasm all the subtle and coarse assemblies of thoughts will be calmed [emphasizing this word] calmed in the ocean of the primordial ground and they will abide in a state of unwavering stillness [emphasized] and there will arise the experience of shamatha.

(51:51) Calmed. Stillness. Zhi gnas. He just gave the etymology of zhi gnas, shamatha. Calm. still. Calm presence, calm stillness.

At this time [so he’s kind of just cutting through, you know, what happens when you achieve shamatha.] At this time there will arise bliss, like the warmth of a fire, luminosity like the breaking of dawn, and non conceptuality like an ocean unmoved by waves. The vivid perception, [and now this is highlighted again] the vivid perception of a mindfulness that does not bifurcate stillness and movement, in that state is called vipassana. [vivid perception that is the etymology of lhag mthong. Lhag as in something superior, vivid, extraordinary, mthong is perception or seeing, so there is vipassana] The vivid perception of mindfulness that does not bifurcate stillness and movement, the stillness of your awareness with the movements of appearances, does not bifurcate subject and object and reify that bifurcation, that’s vipassana. [that was simple wasn’t it, right to the point.] When you’ve identified shamatha as a meditative experience and then naturally sustain it with mindfulness, free of attachment and clinging, the appearances of meditative experiences will naturally vanish [the nyam, all those nyam will subside, they will vanish] and single pointed mindfulness will manifest.

(53:18) So, he’s just given the marching orders for everybody who is of middling or inferior faculties. Enjoy your day. See you later.

Transcribed by KrissKringle Sprinkle

Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Final edition Rafael Carlos Giusti

Discussion

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