B. Alan Wallace, 16 May 2016

Tonight we return again to the theme of the path and to the four applications of mindfulness discussed yesterday. This time, Alan gives a presentation of the four application of mindfulness in the context of Mahamudra. First, however, he points out that contrary to some views which present Buddhism as “selfish” - centred only on “me” and “mine”, as in “my body”, “my mind” - in the four applications of mindfulness the Buddha actually gave instructions to attend to the body, feelings, mind and phenomena internally and externally, and then both internally and externally. Thus, for example, one examines one’s mind subjected to mental afflictions and develops kindness towards oneself, and then attends to others and discovers similar mental afflictions and therefore is able to display empathy and kindness towards others as well. It has nothing to do with “selfishness” and self-centredness. Alan then explains why he chose the Buddha’s instructions from the Satipatthana Sutta, and specifically the close application of mindfulness to the mind, as the basis for our meditation yesterday. First, he notes that according to those teachings, to achieve nirvana it is sufficient to gain insight into one of those four applications of mindfulness (body, feelings, mind and phenomena) by realising the three marks of existence, i.e. impermanence, dukkha and non-self. With a few exceptions (see the story of king Milinda, Nagasena and the chariot), in the Pali canon there is no reference to the emptiness of phenomena. However, we are here to follow the Mahayana path. Therefore Alan presents the four applications of mindfulness in a different light, namely from the perspective of Madhyamika view. In the close application of mindfulness to the mind, this entails the assertion of the lack of inherent existence of the mind. To “front load” the meditation, Alan reads a passage from his translation of chapter 13 of Shantideva’s “Compendium of Practices on the Four Applications of Mindfulness” (this text was used at the Fall 2012 Retreat on Shamatha, Vipashyana and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, and will be made available to us via Retreat Notes).

The meditation is on the close application of mindfulness to the mind.

After the meditation, Alan returns to the theme of mapping the four yogas onto the five Mahayana paths - a topic he discussed briefly yesterday based on Panchen Lama’s text. For today’s teaching Alan chose a number of relevant passages from Karma Chagme’s “Naked Awareness”, chapter 10 on the four yogas. These excerpts, too, will be available in the Retreat Notes. In conclusion, Alan stresses the importance of having a clear vision of the path, a strong motivation to get to the very end of the path to enlightenment. This will propel us through future lifetimes and ensure the suitable conditions to finish what we started. Alan also contrasts the “slow” approach in which getting from the path of accumulation to the path of seeing takes one countless eon with the fast Mahamudra and Dzogchen way in which this may be shortened to just a number of years, i.e. one lifetime. What makes it possible is, of course, cutting through to rigpa. Rigpa is the Warp drive - concludes Alan.

The meditation starts at 35:00


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Transcript

83 - Spring 2016 - Rigpa is Your Warp Drive to Enlightenment

Olaso.

[00:06] So this afternoon I’ll return once again to the theme of path. Marga, which just by the way circumstances unfolded beginning with Geshe Ngawang Dhargey who taught these five paths from the Abhisamayalankara, the classic texts, THE definitive text which I received from him back in 1973, I guess, a long time ago, and looking at the the first of the five paths because that’s after all if one is serious about reaching the path and progressing along them, then the obvious one to really focus on is the first one, and within the first one, the obvious thing would to do would be to look, if it has three stages, look at the first stage. If you actually achieve that one, then you might take a lot more interest in the second stage and the path of application and so forth, and so this is really what captivated my heart and mind early on and why, why I left the monastery, which we were going to be for six years equally focusing on all the five paths and the 10 bhumis, right, and you know if you’re way up there, if you’re like an arya bodhisattva, that would make really good sense I think, you know. For me it made no … just didn’t make any sense. So a brief summary of yesterday just because the excerpt from the Buddha’s great discourse on the four paths and close applications of mindfulness is so eminently practical, really, for ethics as I highlighted yesterday, it’s not that difficult, it’s really practical. The interface with therapy must be… it could be fantastic, you know. Clinical psychological therapy. If you have a psychological problem, examine when is it present, whether it’s a bipolar disorder, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, whatever it is, to help people cultivate the awareness, when is it present? It’s not homogeneously present. It’s not every single moment of the day, right? It comes in surges, waves. It lingers but then it fades to some extent. So to be examining it, you know, it starts, you to start to empower yourself in the most wholesome sense of the term, empowers yourself when the symptoms … when does the mental affliction arise, when is it more absent, when is the mind more focused, when is the mind more dull, when is the mind more agitated, when is the mind more lofty, noble, wholesome, sublime, when is it not so much, and those … so be really taking a keen interest in this, you know. And then as one does so, and kind of gets one’s bearings.

[02:44] And well how does this, you know, it’s like having a … like you’re a biologist, I’ve got this species in front of me. I wanted to be a wildlife biologist throughout my teens. I wanted to go out and into nature and just observe wolves. I wanted to be a wolf man and observe wolves, you know, and their behavior and photograph them and so forth, and make sure that we can preserve them. It’s quite an interesting species. But then you take the … examine them to see, you know, how do they work, how do they work and now we come back the natural history of the mind, the … you know, the empirical study of the mind, and then as we see, as we kind of take stock, we get a clear sense to what extent are unwholesome factors arising, what extent do they subside, to what extent are, you know, very helpful factors arising. Then that other element so immensely rich in such a short period of, short, short presentation, now examine when the mind does become either afflicted or unafflicted or wholesome, concentrated and so forth, what are the factors that gave rise to that, you know. How did it happen? That’s a really good question. And then after some time maybe the mind’s really wholesome and then it’s not, or the mind was very composed and then it’s not, you know. Then it’s fallen into laxity or excitation. How did that happen? What are the factors of its dissolution, you know. There is already I think just a tremendous amount of material, but then buddhist … buddhist meditation, buddhist in kind of modern buddhism, you know, buddhism in modernity, Buddhist … Buddhism is very often presented as a kind of a religious, spiritual tradition where fundamentally it’s all about me. I know one very good scholar, I’ll leave out his name but he is an outstanding scholarship, buddhist scholar, he [has done] outstanding scholarship, really some very fine work by any criterion, and he was following Tibetan buddhism and then he just basically snapped, and he rejected it entirely, so as his professional skills, he has nothing else he can do.

So professionally as a scholar, he continues to teach buddhism and teachings and so forth and so on, but it just snapped for him and he reverted to christianity which I have no problems with, roman catholicism but a really hardcore conservative kind of roman catholicism. No mystical aspect at all, just kind of like you know inquisition style, and that’s where he continues. Maybe it’s a little bit of an overstatement, no … not much very conservative roman catholicism, and why did he snap? Is it … I’ve never met him, but very … you know … obviously very intelligent man and as I said done very good scholarship, and his conclusion was why he just kind of rejected buddhism altogether, and now … and scoffs at it. He goes back and you know kicks dirt in its face, because it’s just all about me, is all about my mind and I am going to meditate and I’m going to purify my mind and I’m going to get my liberation, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine and then he compared .. and then he looked at christianity and he said but no, this is about the divine, this is the sacred, this is transcendence, this is Jesus’s life, his teachings, his sacrifice, salvation. I, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine and then hoooo …you know, screw that, you know. So the man’s not crazy. I don’t agree with him of course. But we see where he might draw that conclusion, and also I know some of the teachers that he encountered, it was very intellectual, very analytical, very dry, and not much juice and very little meditation, so then he just threw it all out. Lock, stock and barrel. But he doesn’t have any skills apart from teaching buddhism, so then he continues to teach buddhism, what can you do, you know. It’s called golden … golden handcuffs. When people are trapped in the job they don’t really want but they have no other … no other skills. So that of course that was when I saw that, I was sad, not that he became a christian but that he so profoundly missed the point. For all of his knowledge and he had pretty … has really quite extraordinary degree of scholarly knowledge, but none of the juice. Always …we don’t even have to go to Mahayana. It’s not like, oh well that’s because he saw Theravada, and it’s all selfish. That’s not true.

[07:03] That’s just not true. The four immeasurables. What’s the … what’s the … where’s the selfish part of that, you know but also even here in this continuum of the four applications of mindfulness, the excerpt that I drew for you yesterday from the Satipathana Sutta was … okay you’re looking at this, you, but you’re just being sensible, it’s like developing good psychological hygiene, recognizing when your mind is wholesome and not and so forth, how it becomes so, how it gets over it, and so forth and so on. But then something that’s virtually never taught and then I’m wondering why can’t … don’t you people read, don’t you understand, it’s right there and it’s not difficult. You attend internally, makes really good sense, right? Know thyself, know your own mind, know your own feelings, your desires, know that in a benevolent way, a loving way, direct loving kindness to yourself. Don’t be bashful. But he doesn’t stop. This is the Buddha himself. He doesn’t stop. Where does he go from there Mary Kay?. Attend to the mind internally, and then? Externally. Suddenly everything this scholar said is wrong because we’re attending to the minds, not dee dee dee dee, you know with clairvoyance and voodoo and whatever. No we’re attending to people I can know … I can know Amy’s emotion a little bit right now ‘cos she’s emoting, it shows up in her face and … and I can see her teeth, and it’s not because she’s hungry. [Laughter]. You know. And you know we hear laughter we know that that’s not a cry for help. It’s not an expression of boredom, and we know a lot of about, other people’s minds without being clairvoyant. If you’re clairvoyant, all the better, you know, If you’re benevolently motivated. But by attending closely to body language, to voice, what people say, facial expressions and all of that, attend to the minds of others externally and if you’ve really gotten to know your own, then you will know a lot about others because human mind human mind. Yeah, different in the details, core pretty much the same. Want to be happy, want to be free of suffering. I have mental afflictions, obscurations, don’t like them, same, same, same. And then if I can develop the benevolence, kindness, patience, compassion towards myself, not towards my mental afflictions, screw’em, nuke’em, torpedo them, stab them I don’t care. Be ruthless, merciless. Kill’em all. [Laughter].

[09:28] The mental afflictions, sure, become an arhat, kill them all, but towards yourself, the one who is burdened with mental afflictions, if one can actually … this is such, so deep and it’s so simple, but it’s so deep. If you can develop a real kindness towards yourself even when your mind is all bent out of shape, Klista [Sanskrit meaning: to distort unwrap], warped, bent with frustration, anger, irritation, pomposity, jealousy, contempt, disgust and so forth, all disfigured like a lovely face that somebody goes [makes a facial expression with sound] and just twists it all out, you know, take the most beautiful face in the world. And then just [makes a facial expression] like that. [Laughter]. Very quickly, it’s not, it’s not attractive anymore. Want me to do it again? [Laughter]. And I don’t even have a beautiful face, but I can make mine uglier, I’m good at that. I mean, we all are. If that’s for the face, so it’s it for the mind, a person can have a lovely mind. It gets twisted, it’s ugly, it’s ugly. But if we don’t respond with self disgust, self contempt, self loathing, and so forth and so on, when we see, we ourselves, you know, fall into, or succumb to mental afflictions, if we feel you know, draw the battle lines towards them but be sympathetic towards ourselves, then when we see other people fall into, fall into mental afflictions, there’s nobody who wakes up and adopts subconsciously, whether people are foolish, whether they’re delusional, they’re bigoted, they’re obnoxious, they’re arrogant, megalomaniac, manipulative, exploitative, and so forth. They didn’t choose their mental afflictions. And that’s where all that’s coming from, you know. It’s all derivative of mental afflictions.

And so if we can genuinely be sympathetic, empathetic, kind, encouraging towards ourselves with all of our mental afflictions, all our burdens, and be patient, that they’re not going to go away overnight. They’re not going to go over away with a decade probably. In my case, not going … [laughs] it’s taking a long time. But not get discouraged because after well, as my old friend who [told me], there’s nothing else you can do. You know, really, you want to give up on your mental afflictions? Okay, you win. And you’re gonna have a nice time now, you’re going to enjoy yourself, you’re going to let all the mental afflictions kind of just settle in, let’s go. We won. The mental afflictions say we’ve just beat the crap out of you, you’ve given up. Exactly what is your strategy now? What’s your path for happiness? As you carry all the burden of your mental afflictions with you? As you go to Tahiti, you go downhill skiing, you ride a fast car, you drink a lot, watch a lot of movies. Exactly what’s your strategy? What’s your path? I see that with such confidence because you’re totally screwed. [Laughs].

[12:17] There’s just, it’s just, it’s like, playing chess, you know, and saying, it’s checkmate, checkmate in two moves. But what .. do what you like, it’s fine by me? Because you’re screwed. And if you haven’t yet seen, but you’ll see it soon. Internally, externally. And then, oh, boy, internally, ex- and externally, and seeing all this whole dynamic, how we are always in interface in interrelationship, mutually co-arising, you know. You’re seeing one face of me right now, this isn’t the face of me that my wife always sees. Or my father has seen me, he’s known me for 66 years, and so on. This is a face, it’s arising here. There’s nothing contrived. I can say this sincerely. I’m not trying to make an impression on anybody. I’m not trying to put on a show. There’s no advantage in that. And so just is what is coming up, right, but it’s what’s coming up in this situation, right? Where I’m meditating nine hours a day and practicing Dharma, you’re getting the very best that I can offer. And I’m very glad for that. But the very best that I offer is that you don’t really want to see the very worst I have to offer. And so they don’t want to have to pay for it. [Laughs]. So the interrelationship between, you know, seeing the mind internally and externally, seeing how our own behavior influences the minds of others, and the minds of others by way of their expressions, influence our own minds. Now, everything that was a concern of that, that, that Buddhist scholar is now evaporated, everything you just said is not true. Everything he said is not true. And this is transcendent and it is a sacred path. And it is leading to a transcendent and it is divine. It’s all of those things you thought were there just because you couldn’t see it, which is a shame. I hope he’s found a good path that really serves him well. Because it doesn’t concern me he became Christian, but it’s unfortunate that he abandoned Buddhism for this way. Yeah, it’d be like abandoning the Roman Catholic Church, because some, some priests have really screwed up with children. That’s true. It’s terrible. Is that sufficient reason for abandoning the entire church? Well, for some people, I guess it is. But I don’t think that is … is a sound evaluation for 2000 years of a church. So there we are.

[14:30] But now moving on. We’re gonna ask what was the point of that, though? What was the point of that, that passage from the four applications of mindfulness and I will add this point, it’s straight from the Pali Canon. And that is in order to achieve nirvana to come to the culmination of the path as an arhat and following the path of the four applications of mindfulness. In fact, you don’t have to have profound insight into all four of them. If you wish to, fine. There they are, each one laid out in its own matrix, you know. And some common themes running throughout but in fact it’s sufficient to gain profound insight into any one of them and that will be sufficient to take you all the way to liberation. Quite interesting because the other ones will all come in its wake, right, and so each of these is simply an entrance to realizing the impermanent is impermanent, dukkha as dukkha, non-self as non-self, mind gets purified, and it breaks through to the unconditioned, realizes nirvana, you fuse your experience of nirvana, your realization of nirvana with shamatha, and then you totally purify your mind irreversibly and you’re done. That’s it, and you have four doors. Four doors you can do that by way of the body by feelings, mind or … or phenomena. Any one of the four. So I picked out the close application of mindfulness to the mind just because that’s, you know, we’re so much focused on the mind for this retreat. So there’s that, but now once again what’s the point of that, that matrix within the Pali Canon to realize the three marks of existence. All phenomena, all conditioned phenomena are impermanent. All tainted phenomena, that is, conditioned by mental afflictions, are unsatisfying, and all phenomena are empty of self are not self and are empty of self. And there’s the strategy by which to realize nirvana, right. There’s no reference there to realizing the emptiness of any other phenomenon. Only self. There’s just no reference to it. It’s not there. You’re simply attending to the skandhas as skandhas, but you’re not exploring whether the skandhas are inherently existent or not, it’s not there. We find just that kind of like yin yang dot from the Nagasena. The analogy of the chariot. It’s a dot but you don’t find that much in the Pali .. it’s a dot and so it’s there and then that dot goes into full blossom in the perfection of wisdom sutras, the diamond cutter sutra, the heart sutra and so forth and so on.

[16:59] But now we come back. It’s all about path, I’m not, not really actually meandering. This is all about path. So there’s the path to becoming an arhat but of course we didn’t come here to follow Sravakayana path. This is about Mahamudra, which is totally embedded in the Mahayana. And so we come back to the theme … same five paths but instead of it being the five Sravakayana paths, it’s the five bodhisattva paths or Mahayana paths, right. Now they both the small stage of the … now the Mahayana path of accumulation, right, it’s still all about the four applications of mindfulness, and now instead of simply being shamatha and renunciation, which is what you need for the Sravaka path, it’s shamatha and bodhichitta. Spontaneous, uncontrived, spontaneously flowing bodhichitta, uncontrived bodhichitta, you’re a bodhisattva. You’ve just entered, now you’ve entered the path, right, but now how do you progress along that path by the four applications of mindfulness.

That’s a small stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation, but now we know from that comment made by Panchen Rinpoche yesterday, let’s just imagine he’s here, why not, because he’s the teacher that when you … when you remember what he said, I can’t quote it, but you have it right there on the text, that when while having investigated and identified Mahamudra you mount it on the steed of shamatha, and you experience the pliancy, the suppleness and the bliss of body and mind, then you achieve the warmth stage of the next path. Path, I say, for 40 years I was always calling it path of preparation. Is that what you heard, Kathy? I kind of like it better, I’m just so used to it, because you are .. it’s a path of preparation, it’s preparing you for the path of seeing, but that point there is really critical, is you enter that second path, it’s very clearly stated. Anybody who really knows shamatha you know knows the background information here, when he says your vipashyana is mounted on shamatha and there arises then on that basis with that fusion of shamatha and vipashyana, there arises the pliancy and the bliss of body and mind, then you know what he’s talking about. Don’t you agree Kathy? … can’t be interpreted any other way. This is the exceptional pliancy and bliss that comes from the union of shamatha and vipashyana into emptiness. There was a lower level which is quite marvelous in and of itself, the pliancy and the bliss of just flat shamatha, you could be focusing on earth element or the sensations of the breath but this is another whole order of magnitude. It’s just another whole dimension, another whole operating system if you like. So you’ve achieved that if the entry point of the Mahayana path of preparation I’m going to call that, 45 years of habit is pretty strong and I like it actually, my .. and that was Shartse [Khenzur] Rinpoche translated that way 45 years ago. I translated with Geshe Ngawang Dharghyey. So there we are. Path of preparation.

[20:06] Well, if the entry there, the achievement of warmth, the first four stages of the Mahayana path of preparation, if that’s how you enter it, then you know, by absolutely incontrovertible logic, you must be meditating on that a lot before. Just like you don’t achieve shamatha the first day you start watching your breath. It may take you a good deal of time. Well, likewise, you don’t achieve the shamatha, you don’t achieve the fusion of shamatha and vipashyana on emptiness the first time you try it. So this is what’s being cultivated all the way along on the Mahayana path of accumulation, while you’re enhancing your bodhichitta, you’re developing your ethics and so forth, really, overwhelmingly, you’re focusing not only on the impermanence, the dukkha, the non-self of your aggregates, they are devoid of an inherent person. But you, that’s your foundation, it’s really good and it interfaces with psychology. But you’re going beyond that, where kind of psychology doesn’t follow. That’s not a question asked or really needed to be asked in psychology. If a person comes … comes to you with a psychological problem, you probably won’t say, well, you should probably meditate on the lack of inherent existence of your mother. It might work but I wouldn’t bet on it. [Laughter].

Why don’t you just meditate on the emptiness of your own awareness? That’ll do it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Probably not. But the application … but the type of teachings the Buddha gave yesterday, oh, absolutely, yes, enormously relevant. And don’t get all caught up in yourself, attend internally, externally and in internally and externally. Gosh, just maybe your mental problems are related to the way you engage with other people. Stranger things have happened, you know. And so, but here, as we’re on the Mahayana path, then we have that as our foundation, it’s really an enormous key to psychological health and balance, enormously helpful, ethics, enormously helpful for your shamatha practice. But if the entry to the Mahayana path of preparation is there when you’ve achieved shamatha on emptiness, with a total fusion or unification of shamatha and vipashyana, then this casts the four applications of mindfulness in a new light. And it’s one that hardly anybody teaches. And that’s amazing, because it’s so magnificent. And it’s the four applications of mindfulness embedded within the Madhyamika view, within the Mahayana, but the Madhyamika view, not simply, you know, all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, so forth. But looking at the lack of inherent nature of the body, the lack of inherent nature of feelings, of the mind, of phenomena, and really gaining profound insight there. Almost nobody teaches it. And yet, God, there it is. That’s your .. that’s the first thing you do when you’ve entered the Mahayana path of accumulation. Right. So I’m so glad I left the monastery when I did. I came back, I got more training and that later when in Switzerland, but I got out when that getting was good.

[23:18] And so, I’ve translated something. And I taught it, as I recall, in the second eight week retreat in 2012. We had an eight week retreat that was all about the four applications of mindfulness. I think that was the time. We spent the first month on the Theravada approach and the second month on the Mahayana approach. And for that retreat, I translated a magnificent chapter from Shantideva, which the earlier translation done like 60 years ago is not very revealing. I mean, it’s really hard to make any sense of it, unless you already know what it means. And this is from chapter 13 of Siksasamuccaya, the companion and practices by Shantideva, his other great text, which really desperately needs to be retranslated. And I think somebody told me it is being translated by somebody who’s good. Who knows how long it will take. But I translated just the 13th chapter. And it’s Shantideva’s presentation based on one sutra citation after another, that’s as definitive as it gets of the four applications of mindfulness within the Mahayana context, focusing on emptiness. And I’ve just shared that with all of you, the translation. I think it’s really quite good and I work with my wife who’s an outstanding Sanskritist. We’ve worked again from the Sanskrit and the Tibetan.

And so there it is, it’s one chapter, I think, it’s really to my mind, maybe the most splendid chapter in the whole book. And so out of that, as I did with the Satipatthana sutta. I didn’t read all of it yesterday, I excerpted here on the .. on the notes here and on the notes for today, just the section on the close application of mindfulness of the mind, okay. But the whole chapter, body, feelings, mind and phenomena, I’ve already sent it off to Claudio and Sangay. So then you can download the whole thing if you like and see the larger context. So here it is. So what I’d like you to do now, I’d invite you to do is just sit quietly because this is going to be the front loading of the next meditation that we’ll do in silence, as we did yesterday, with the foundation approach from the Pali Canon. And now we go to the first floor based on that from the Mahayana sutras. And one does find discussions of this by Asanga, by Shantideva, of course, you find it in the sutras, but you really need to know where to look. And the Tibetans just haven’t worked with this material. I think this is one really splendid example of the wisdom of His Holiness’ Council. The US westerners, don’t just get your Buddhism from Tibetan sources because those were by and large created by Tibetan for Tibetans. And there’ll be a lot of common ground, but go back to the sources we drew from. And that’s what I’ve done here. So what I invite you to do now is just listen contemplatively and you’ll find a lot that is familiar. But this is Shantideva’s pith instructions, on the close application of mindfulness to the mind. I’ll read it. I don’t … there may be a bit of commentary, maybe not, we’ll see. It’s pretty straightforward.

[26:32] So here’s what Shantideva has to say about this one out of four of the applications of mindfulness. He writes: “The close application of mindfulness to the mind is discussed in the Ratnacuda Sutra. Consider this, while thoroughly experiencing the mind, what are those minds that become attached or hateful or deluded?” So far, familiar, yeah. But now watch the twist. “Do they arise in the past, future or present?” He immediately goes ontological. “Any mind that is past has vanished. Whatever in the future … whatever is in the future, has not come. Whatever arises in the present does not last.” This is the Buddha speaking. “Kashyapa,” he’s addressing one of his major disciples, “Kashyapa, the mind is not found … not found to be present inside,” inside the body, inside the head, “is not found to be present inside or outside, or both inside and outside.” Now we’re looking for the mind where is it located, where, where?

[27:51] “Kashyapa, the mind is formless, undemonstrable” – you can’t point to it – “intangible, devoid of a basis, invisible, unknowable as an object, existing in and of itself and without any location.” And now this very famous statement: “Kashyapa, the mind has never been seen, is not seen and will not be seen by any of the Buddhas.” So now we know what he’s talking about. Really seeing the self existent mind. “Apart from phenomena that arise from mistaken identification, how can one know the kind of process of anything that has never been seen, is not seen and will never be seen by any of the buddhas? Kashyapa, the mind is like an illusion or apprehends many kinds of events, by way of unreal conceptual projections. Kashyapa, the mind is like the current of a stream for it does not remain, but arises, passes away … passes away and vanishes. Kashyapa, the mind is like the wind. For it goes on for a long time, moves without being able to hold it. Kashyapa, the mind is like the radiant light of a lamp for it arises independent upon causes and conditions. Kashyapa, the mind is like the sky for it is totally obscured by mental afflictions and derivative mental afflictions. Kashyapa, the mind is like lightning for it instantly vanishes and does not linger. Kashyapa, because the mind produces all suffering, it is like an enemy. Because, Kashyapa, because the mind destroys all the roots of virtue it is like a sandcastle. Kashyapa, because the mind mistakes suffering for happiness, it is like a fishhook. Kashyapa, because the mind mistakes the identityless for an identity, it’s like a dream. Kashyapa, because the mind mistakes the impure for the pure. It’s like a blue bottle fly. Kashyapa, because the mind inflicts many kinds of injuries, it’s like an adversary. Kashyapa, because the mind always looks for faults, it’s like a predatory goblin. Kashyapa, because the mind always looks for its chance, it’s like an enemy. Kashyapa, because the mind is imbued with attachment and hostility, it always vacillates. Kashyapa, because the mind robs all the roots of virtue, it is like a thief.”

[30:44] “Kashyapa, because the mind is attracted to forms, it’s like the eye of a fly. Kashyapa, because the mind is attracted to sounds, there’s like a battle drum. Kashyapa, the mind is attracted to smells like a pig that likes disgusting odors. Kashyapa, the mind is attracted to tastes like a maid who eats leftovers. Kashyapa, the mind is attracted to tactile sensations like a fly stuck in a dish of oil. Kashyapa, even though one looks for the mind everywhere, it is not to be found. Whatever is unfindable is unobservable. Whatever is unobservable does not arise in the past or in the present or the future. Whatever does not arise in the past or in the future or in the present really transcends the three times. Whatever really transcends three times is neither existent nor non-existent. The Arya Ratnacuda Sutra also states “by looking everywhere for the mind, one does not really see it, inside or outside, nor does one really see it both inside and outside. It is really not seen among the psychophysical aggregates or among the elements or the sense spaces. Since the mind is not really seen, asking from what does the mind arise, one looks everywhere for the continuum of the mind and one considers perhaps the mind arises from the presence of an object.

Further, one ponders whatever … whatever object that might be. Is it other than the mind? Or is it that very object of the mind? If the mind were different from the mind, if the object were different from the mind, then the mind would be bifurcated. On the other hand, if that very object is the mind, then how could the mind see itself? It is implausible that the mind sees the mind, just as the blade of a sword cannot cut itself and a fingertip cannot touch itself, I think the mind is incapable of seeing itself.” There’s a little bit more. “Son of the family furthermore that which moves swiftly, ever so swiftly without remaining still, like a monkey, like the wind, like a waterfall and like the flame of an oil lamp, travels far away. It is incorporeal, craves objects, experiences the six sense bases and is conscious of one thing after another, a stable mind is said to be one that is still, single pointed, not agitated, not scattered, single pointedly quiescent and free of distraction.” Finally I think, the Arya Aksayamati Sutra states: “One resolves I shall strive to achieve this, and I shall not lose sight of this ultimate reality of the mind. What is the ultimate reality of the mind? And what is achievement? The mind is like an illusion. Devoting everything to that is called the ultimate reality of the mind. Renouncing all one’s possessions and totally dedicating oneself to the purification of all the buddha fields is called achievement.” So I will give just a little bit of guidance but that was a big surge of guidance and inspiration so let’s please find a comfortable, comfortable posture.

[34:54] Bell rings.

[35:46] Taking refuge in one’s own Buddha nature and with the motivation to fully manifest this pristine awareness for the sake of all sentient beings, settle your body speech and mind in their natural states.

[36;02] Silence.

[37:23] With your eyes soft and relaxed, all the muscles around the eyes relaxed, the forehead spacious, open, with a face and an expression of repose, like that of a sleeping baby, utterly carefree, loose, relaxed. With your eyes gently open, your awareness resting evenly in the space in front of you, coming out of the head, but not with some piercing laser-like attention, but just a soft, diffuse, pervasiveness, with your awareness extending out into space with no object. [Pause]. Closely apply mindfulness to the mind. But now, what we mean by that in this context is not simply observing a thought or an image as a basis of designation of the mind, which it certainly can be. But let’s go to the core, go to the essence, probe ontologically into that which is witnessing, and that which is active. The mind produces thoughts and the mind … emerge, memories, desires and so on. The mind is cognizant but the mind is also luminous in the sense of being creative. Doing all manner of things. So what is the nature of this mind? What is it that is observing, that is aware. The entity in here that is aware, the subject in here that’s aware, and and does things including this meditation. Search for this mind. If it exists, you should be able to find it. Identify it and see its characteristics, observe that which is observing. Examine that which is performing the examination.

[40 25] Silence.

[43:39] We are in effect engaging in a variation of the practice taught by Padmasambhava of engaging in the search for the mind. Is it one entity searching for itself? One entity observing itself? Or are there two minds, a mind that is using the mind, a mind that is cultivating the mind. [Pause]. Let alone all the talk about the object of negation. Simply can you identify the mind that is observing anything, and if you conclude no such mind is to be found, if you conclude it’s unfindable, ask what is it that just made that observation and drew that conclusion, something that exists or something that doesn’t exist. If it exists, it should be observable, it should have characteristics. You should be able to know it. And can you observe it? Does it exist? [Pause]. When you seek to observe the observer, does anything come to mind of any, any appearances at all come to mind. Was it a sheer vacuity, as your absence of appearances, examine closely what comes to mind when you seek to observe the observer.

[46:17] Silence.

[46:44] If some appearance does occur, ask yourself: Is that appearance? Is that the mind? Is it a representation of the mind? Or is it simply an appearance to the mind? [Pause]. When you seek to observe, to identify, to find that which is observing, if you come up with nothing, there’s no appearance, there’s nothing at all. Is that nothing the mind? Is that absence of appearances, is that the mind? [Pause] Is the mind just emptiness? [Pause]. If that were the case, how can the mind be so powerful? Create so much misery, so much distress? Be so creative. Come up with so many ideas? How could something that doesn’t exist that’s a mere nothing be so powerfully creative? Must be something. If it is, what is it? [Pause]. This which is creative conceives the whole of samsara and nirvana. What is this all creating sovereign, the mind, that conceives of everything that we know and does everything that we do.

[49:26] Silence.

[50:55] Within the parameters of existence and non-existence, where can you place the mind? If it exists, it must be identifiable, it must be knowable. Otherwise what’s the point of saying it exists. Is it identifiable? Is it knowable? [Pause]. But if you conclude it doesn’t exist, then what is it that drew that conclusion? How could nothing conclude anything at all? How can nothing arrive at certainty? So which is it? Does it exist or not exist? Examine closely till you come to certainty.

[51:58] Silence.

[52:39] And if you come to some clarity, some insight, that the mind is not really existent, it’s empty of existence and it’s not really non-existent, it’s empty of non-existence, when your view of your own mind is free of those two conceptual extremes, conceptual elaborations of existence and non existence, seeing that the mind is empty of both, then rest in that stream of knowing, the emptiness of your own mind, the ultimate reality of your own mind, beyond the parameters of existence and non existence.

[53:39] Silence.

[55:43] Release the very concept of mind. If the mind is something conceptually constructed, imputed, deconstruct and dis-impute and rest in the awareness that remains, when the mind is dissolved away, and disappeared into space. [Pause]. So we come to understand the meaning of the statement of the sutras. The mind is not the mind. The nature of the mind is clear light.

[58:55] Bell rings.

[59:21] So we’re about to come to the conclusion of the text where Panchen Rinpoche simply making his final prayer of dedication of merit, but I thought before departing from it since he has made these references to but very very brief and concise references to the four yogas and, and very, very briefly tangentially kind of, how these four yogas map onto the five paths, since we’re obviously gonna have very little time for Naked Awareness in these remaining few days, what I’ve done is I’ve just taken some excerpts from the chapters well into the book on the four yogas, just the synopsis. There’s a lot there, and it’s very detailed. And we could’ve spent the whole eight weeks just trying to unpack those two or three chapters on the four yogas. But I think that would not have been the best way, way to spend this time.

[1:00:16] And so I’ll just share with you some excerpts, which I think, to my best of my ability, capture, capture the essence of these. Again, it’s coming back to the same theme of path. Is there a path here, this Mahamudra path? Is that a path? If so, what’s it comprised of, what’s the strategy, and it’s very clear, the strategy is four types, four yogas. So let’s look at these one by one. And I’m going to give the major emphasis, I’m going to give more detail to the first not nearly as much detail as is there. And the text when he really unpacks in great detail, the small, medium and great stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation. And the four stages of the Mahayana path of preparation, there’s a lot of detail there. I’m not going to go into that. But I will focus now just now on the first of the four yogas, which Panchen Rinpoche has already cited good [??] saying that that first of the four yogas maps onto the first two of the five Mahayana paths, leading to enlightenment of the path of accumulation, the path of preparation. Okay, so here are some excerpts. Direct quotes from Naked Awareness.

And all of this, again, I’ll send you, it will be on the, on the website for this retreat very soon. So let’s look closely at this, because this is your entry, if you don’t achieve the first yoga, you’re not gonna achieve any of the rest. And if you don’t achieve the small stage of the first yoga, then you won’t achieve any of the rest. So that’s very important. “Single pointedness occurs when a contemplative focuses his experience without scattering away from the immaculate, vivid clarity and non-conceptuality of the mind. And remain single pointedly in the stream of unified shamatha and vipashyana.” There’s a start. Bear in mind, there’s, there’s mundane and supermundane vipashyana. There’s vipashyana of of the first jhana, vipashyana of second jhana, third jhana. Mundane. And one can say that to gain direct insight into the immaculate, that is to say the pure, vivid clarity and non-conceptuality of the mind, that is certainly an insight. Therefore, one can say you access that by way of vipashyana and here you remain single pointed in the stream of unified shamatha and vipashyana. That’s when single pointedness occurs, the first of the four yogas.

[1:02:47] So it’s unavoidable that, then, if you’re going to achieve the first of the first of the four yogas, and the small stage of the first of the four yogas, that’s three stages, then you have to achieve shamatha. Because otherwise you don’t have any unification of shamatha and vishyapana. Therefore, don’t skip shamatha. There it is, by one of the greatest authorities. And yet nowadays, Mahamudra is taught ever so frequently, with no reference to shamatha, or do a little bit and now we get on to the fun stuff. Too bad then you don’t get the path. Path is inaccessible. That’s what Karma Chagme is saying here, not my interpretation. But now something very interesting because here, once again, he’s talking about achieving the Mahayana path of accumulation, the first stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation, and it should come as no surprise, he says, at the stage of small single pointedness, there’s small, medium and great, at the stage of small single pointedness, this first yoga, there are four applications of mindfulness. But now with a twist. Now with a twist. So, the first the application of mindfulness of non- compositeness, non-composite in … the non composite, the unborn, non-composite means unborn, the unborn-ness of the body, free of any of … any … free of any thought of the body as being either clean or unclean.

So, if you go back to the foundational, it’s always good to know that because you then you see this is in dialogue with that. It’s acknowledging that, using that, and then transcending that, right. So years ago, I went … after I left the monastery, then I hiked up to Geshe Rabten and asked him: would you please teach me the four applications of mindfulness? He started right in on … his going fundamental level, right in on close application of mindfulness of the body and focusing on, monk to monk, they were … I think Gavin K(??) was with me. I think he wasn’t a monk but a very dedicated dharma practitioner, but he joined me. Geshe Rabten the monk’s monk was given .. then teaching full close application of mindfulness of the body, and he said now closely attend to your body, look at the snot and the blood and the bone and the marrow and the pus and the earwax and the spittle and the feces and the intestines and the liver and the spleen and the gallbladder and the hair.

To get a really clear sense this is not something you’d really want to be attached to, to see the unclean as the clean. I mean I could spend the rest of the 20 minutes, oh geez, [laughter], on this but just very briefly imagine you’ve got a plate of really yummy food right in front of you and any part of your body falls into it. A bit of skin, you dribble a bit of snot into it. Some eye goo falls into it. One of your hairs falls into it, some dandruff falls into it. You piss into it, [laughter], no don’t do that. Anybody part from the surface or the interior that should fall onto the plate, let’s imagine it’s your companion’s plate, they’ll say take it away, I got some hair in my soup, thanks. I got some of your eye goop in my soup, you spat into my soup, you snotted, you sneezed into my soup. If anything comes from your body and lands in my soup, I don’t like it because anything coming from the body is impure but I really want to have oral sex with you later. [Laughter]. Hello? Did anybody see the logic there? Dinner and date, right? So that’s where it is on the … the baseline, it’s really to help the monks get over the hump of any kind of attraction to their own. It’s not misogyny. It’s not like oh, women’s bodies are disgusting. They are, but no less than the men’s body, so we can be infatuated with our own bodies, and monks can do that too. There’s some pretty handsome monks out there. And so this getting over that, I linger.

But here on this level, he’s going beyond that, he said you’ve done that, right? You’ve overcome your coarse infatuation with the body, you’re seeing the impure as impure, that’s basic level, right? So you’re kind of … you’ve gotten over yourself, the infatuation with the body, other people’s body, your own body, good. Now let’s go deeper and now what is it? You’re seeing the body as free of any thought of being either clean or unclean. The body is not inherently unclean and of course not inherently clean, right? Then you go into feelings. The application of mindfulness, now feelings, what, which feelings? The application of mindfulness of taintless bliss, without thinking of feelings as by … being either suffering or joy, either sukkha or dukkha.

[1:08:01] Because again one of the four marks of existence, three or four depending on the list, is all tainted phenomena, stained phenomena, that is stained by mental afflictions, are dukkha. You say no, not really, not inherently dukkha, but not inherently sukkha either, right. And it’s the mindfulness of taintless bliss that is genuine well being and not simply hedonic as the second. Third, the application, the application of mindfulness of the mind, we had body, feelings, now mind, the application of mindfulness of the mind free of conceptual elaborations concerning the mind being either permanent or impermanent. Okay, baseline, you’re struggling to overcome the tendency, the delusional tendency to see that which is impermanent as permanent, your body, your appearance, your identity, your relationships, your possessions and so forth, we have this habitual delusional tendency to view things as being more stable, more enduring, more unchanging than they are. Gets us into all kinds of misery. He’s going beyond that. When you come to the mind, you’re cutting all concepts concerning the mind being either it’s not inherently permanent nor is it inherently impermanent. You see you’re transcending the conceptual boxes here. Neither this nor that. That’s the third, and then fourth, the application of mindfulness of phenomenon, cutting off superimpositions concerning the reality of nirvana, so now you’re not going to reify nirvana without thinking of phenomena as either having or not having an identity. You’re going beyond the conceptual constructs of phenomena, all types of phenomena being either really there or really non-existent, different strategy. There’s no reference here to identify the object of negation and then beat it to death, you know.

[1:09:58] Here we have all these, these, these categories: pure, impure, sukkha and dukkha, permanent, impermanent, exist, not exist. And he’s, he’s torching them all. He’s breaking down all these conceptual categories. So that you can see the ultimate reality of your mind as transcending all conceptual elaborations. This is Shantideva, sounds like Mahamudra. This is Shantideva. Classic Mahamudra. [Alan snaps fingers to correct himself in a characteristc gesture]. Classic Mahayana. So without thinking phenomena is either having or not having an identity, not really having, not really not having, the meaning is that abiding in the space-like reality of emptiness, the meaning of that is the meaning. The meaning is that … okay I got it … the meaning is that abiding in the space-like reality of emptiness and luminosity is single pointedness.

This is the first yoga, the other ones might be fantastic. Up until single pointedness, primordial consciousness that realizes the path has not arisen. That’s very interesting. That this is mahamudra. This is couched within the context of Vajrayana, with the six, six dharmas of Naropa. And so with what, what is the subjective awareness by which you’re seeking to understand, to fathom, to realize the empty nature of your mind, you’re seeking to realize that from the perspective of primordial consciousness. This is Mahamudra. This is Dzogchen. This has been in the context of Vajrayana. In other words, you’re not from the get go, from the very beginning, you’re seeking to realize this from the perspective of very subtle mind. Not just shamatha. Right. And he says, to read that, again, it’s very powerful and enormously important for anybody who’s concerned with the path. That abiding in the space-like reality of, okay, up until single pointedness, primordial consciousness that realizes the path has not arisen, so that is not genuine meditative equipoise.

So single-pointedness is the demarcation. This is when you enter the path. Thus, as subsequent appearances do not arise as illusions, that is, if you’ve not really dwelt in genuine meditative equipoise, realizing, realizing this, from the perspective of primordial consciousness, then you don’t have genuine meditative equipoise. And if you don’t have that, then you cannot speak of genuine post-meditative experience. Thus, as subsequent appearances do not arise as illusions, there is no genuine post-meditative state. So you rest in the space-like meditative equipoise, you come out and you experience the illusion-like post-meditative state. By cultivating that meditation for a long while, your mind will turn away from the eight mundane concerns. You’ll get rid of outer and inner parasites. It’s commonly stated that when you’re really purifying your body and mind, parasites leave, parasites leave.

And on a very miniature level, don’t, do not think this is some high realization, but on a very miniature level, I’ve told it many times, when I finished my first set of 100,000 prostrations and now of the Vajrasattva coming through was odd, because I was coming right up to 100,000, I said it’s a magic number, worms were coming out of my skin, you know, literally, multiple ones. It was weird. And I’m not a very pure being but at least I’m pure of those worms. Don’t ask me what’s still in there. A lot of purification work to be done. But yogis speak of this very commonly. When I moved into Geshe Gendür Zangpo meditation’s hut in 1980. This was years after I’d my worms come out. That was back in' 76, in Switzerland, but then I went back to India and I moved again into Geshe Gendür Zanpo’s meditation hut. He is an incredible yogi. Lived on meditation pills for months and months with no food, really. And I’ve heard Lama Zopa say of him that he achieved shamatha. Wouldn’t be at all surprised. He, Lama Zopa had tremendous respect for him. He was really a yogi’s yogi. And so he moved down to Geshe Rabten’s.

[1:13:58] Geshe Rabten went off to Switzerland. Geshe Rabten let Geshe Gendür Zangpo move into his, his cabin, Geshe Rabten’s cabin, which was really quite nice. And so again, Gendür Zangpo moved out to his little cabin way up in the mountains, and he let me move into, it was kind of like musical chairs. He moved down to Geshe Rabten’s , he let me move into his. I was so happy. I was moving into the hut where a yogi has been meditating like 20 years, and it was idyllic. It had a Rhododendron tree right above it and it looked up in this vast view out of Kanga Valley. It was just idyllic. Take a photo of it, everybody think, ooh I wish I could meditate there. Until I tried to get to sleep. And in the first night, I was sleeping in a sleeping bag, and in the middle of the night I was just like … my body was on fire with itching. And I looked with my flashlight, and there’re 30 bedbugs. 30! One bedbug will keep you awake. 30 bedbugs really catch your attention. And I know 30 because I picked them out one by one and put them in a cup. Suddenly, this wasn’t so much fun anymore. And there’s a whole story there. I’ll just be wasting your time. But that went on for about two months, every night pulling out 30 bedbugs out of my bed. So it’s kind of challenging. That’s not mentioning the rats, the fleas, and there were some mosquitoes. So I had lots of company, I had lots of sentient beings around, mother sentient beings. But then I saw him some time later after being there for a few months. And he said, Gen la, how did you handle all those bed bugs? How could you ever sleep? He turned to me with this very happy smile, said: what bed bugs? [Laughs]. So, he was a pure one, I was lunch.

[1:15:39] That was … makes really good stories, though. Pretty fun stories. So ”you will get rid of outer and inner parasites and you’ll be able to display supernormal powers, such as meditative manipulation and domination of the elements and so forth. When that happens, happens, when that happens, the qualities of single pointedness have arisen.” I find that very significant. Because this is, after or in the same book, as Karma Chagme Rinpoche is saying, that when you achieve these high stages, you know, don’t get your expectations up. Because you’ll be the garuda inside the, inside the egg right? And then we might ask, well, okay, then tell us what really happens, you know, that does become manifest. That’s what he’s doing right now. This is the Mahamudra present … presentation of the five paths of what actually does come up, with no, no reference here to garudas and eggs and you got them but you can’t show them. If you achieve this Mahayana path of accumulation by way of Mahamudra, and you’re meditating on emptiness, there’s no reference here to mastering the nimittas in the form realm. You can master physical phenomena, the six elements and so forth, just by the sheer power of your samadhi and the fusion of samadhi with insight into emptiness. That’s enough, you can manipulate them as if you were in a lucid dream. You don’t need it all, that nimittas in a lucid dream, to start changing the so called physical reality inside the dream it’s like that, you found a very direct route to gaining mastery over your physical environment. That’s what he says. And this is the Mahayana path of accumulation.

So that’s up there on the hill. That’s what we should be achieving. This is, this is to be done, right? Achieve shamatha, meditating your mind, realized emptiness of mind, dwell in there, achieve the yoga of single pointedness, and then see what comes up. And His Holiness commented years ago, hey, maybe it’s time for us Buddhists to start showing our stuff. He said, you know, we should have more people achieving shamatha and being … demonstrating these abilities. Because we have all these scientists attending the mind and life conferences, and many other conferences, and quite rightly, with no fault whatsoever, they’re strutting their stuff. They’re showing here’s our fantastic technology. Anton Zeilinger and I have only admiration for him. Here’s our technology by means of which we showed, you know, these quantum effects, and Richie Davidson, and here’s our technology by which we know the EEG and this and this, and this, and so forth. I mean, they got this great technology, and they’re showing their stuff, let alone cell phones. This is showing the stuff. This is, this is a manifestation of the siddhis of quantum mechanics, right? And they show everything. And then we Buddhists show up at the table. And we talk. And we show we have unusual brainwaves. Woohoo, wow, you got a lot of gamma. Wow, your left prefrontal cortex, you’re sure activated, never seen that before. Woo hoo. Man, that’s small potatoes. I don’t care. I don’t care how much gamma you’ve got, I don’t care what your front left frontal cortex or your reptile brain is activated. Who gives a darn? Unless you’re a neuroscientist, because that’s your living. But why should anybody else care?

[1:18:56] Really, where’s the benefit of knowing this was the neural correlate of this and this neural correlate of that, I’m waiting for any useful information from the neuroscientist that actually helps somebody meditate more effectively. And I’m waiting happily but I’m still waiting. You know. So they’re showing their stuff. That’s good, no criticism. But if, if all the buddhists have to do is, oh, you should have been there. Back in the 19th century, Dudjom Lingpa had 13 disciples achieve rainbow body, believe me, you know, and oh, back in Tibet and oh, and Bhutan. But, but none of us westerners, of course. None of us moderners, Western, Eastern, I don’t care where’re you from? Then we look like patsies. Like, we’ve got nothing to show, nothing we can really demonstrate that we actually have more than a good talk. So His Holiness said, hey, maybe it’s time to really start showing, not to show off, but just have some parity here. Because we saw, as we saw from that article, there’s no parity right now. By and large, there’s no parity. In the dialogue between Buddhism and science, the scientists totally dominating the show, it’s their agenda.

They set up every, set up everything, and it’s all within their paradigm by and large. And they pick from Buddhism, like, you know, scavengers, they pick whatever they like. And the Buddhists are just hanging out hearing, oh, give us another seminar about how brilliant you people are. It’s kind of lame. And it’s not their fault. They’re showing their strengths. So where are our strengths? You know, so here it is, it’s called single pointedness, the first of the four yogas. Let’s carry on. If you … so now we got, we finished with them. That’s all he had to say, he has a lot more to say. That’s all I’m gonna say about the first of the four yogas, but that was really clear, right? Then we go to the second, and that covers the stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation and preparation. He gives a lot of details about the four stages of preparation and so forth. So I’m not going there. You can read it, but then we go to the second of the four yogas, and that is freedom from, from elaboration, conceptual elaboration. So we covered that, but he says and now much more briefly, if you relate to emptiness without intellectual fabrication, that is your realization of emptiness is totally non-conceptual. That is the experiential freedom from conceptual elaboration. That’s the second yoga. From the very nature of the arising of the clear, immaculate, unborn, ultimate reality of the mind.

[1:21:25] Perfect samadhi manifestly realizes the essential nature of your own mind, which is like space, free of the conceptual elaborations. So this is it. That’s why this corresponds to the Mahayana path of seeing, corresponds to becoming an arya bodhisattva, corresponds in Dzogchen to a fully matured vidhyadara, corresponds to the how do you say direct perception of ultimate reality, that’s it, this is, it’s all converging in on this, the direct unmediated realization of emptiness, but from … if this is Mahamudra, from the perspective of rigpa, right. Not the … simply the subtle mind, then we go to one taste. The homogenous taste of your conduct. During the post, during the post-meditative state, the homogenous taste of your conduct during the post-meditative state without interruption due to conditions is the one taste of experience. This is now you might recall, this is the second to the seventh of the bumis, you have 10 bumis.

First one already got that, freedom from conceptual elaboration, this is the third yoga, one taste from the second to the seventh, all the impure bhumis up to the seventh. And this is where the kind of difference, the qualitative difference between being in meditative, meditative equipoise and post-meditative state dissolves away. So it’s one taste. One taste, right. That’s what he said right here. The homogenous taste, the one taste of your conduct during the post-meditative state without interruption due to conditions is the one taste of experience. Although a variety of phenomena appear, this is another spin on one taste, although a variety of phenomena appear, they are of the one taste of the ultimate reality of your own mind. And all dualities such as oneself and others, and samsara and nirvana are one taste. You read that and you know this is viewing reality from the perspective of rigpa, because that’s not what it looks like. From the coarse or the subtle mind. samsara is samsara, it’s empty of inherent nature, but it’s still samsara. And nirvana is nirvana, empty, but it’s nirvana.

And they’re not the same at all. From the perspective of rigpa, you see all these appearances, as he says, whatever appearances arise, they’re one taste of the ultimate reality of your mind. You see them from the perspective of rigpa, as all being equally pure, equally, the spontaneous outflow effulgences of your own pristine awareness, whatever they are, big picture from the hell realms to the pure lands, all of one taste equally manifesting, equally pure, displays for your own pristine awareness. This is one taste, this is big time, one taste, and only possible from that perspective. And of course, it’s the, it’s the one taste of oneself and others. So we spoke about equanimity. Here’s transcendent equanimity, right. And the one taste of samsara and nirvana. So, this is definitely deep into Mahamudra territory, with the final one and we’ll break right on time.

The attainment of the state of spiritual awakening is free. This is now the non-meditation, the fourth yoga, the attainment of the state of spiritual awakening is free of the previous mental formations of taintless karma in the mind, free of the malady of subtle latent predispositions, in other words, the final obscurations are evaporating away, free of karma that is of the nature of mind. And in an inconceivable transition, it is free of the appearance of transference into death. Moving beyond the whole scope of birth and cessation, arising and cessation, beyond beyond, that is non-meditation for it is the culmination.

This corresponds to now the pure bumis into perfect enlightenment itself, the pure bumis are eight, nine and 10, pure of all mental afflictions. Only the subtle cognitive obscurations are to be dispelled. And then there’s perfect enlightenment itself, the culmination of the path and on these pure bumis into the culmination, wherever you look in terms of is and is not, the ultimate reality of your mind perpetually, perpetually arises as the clear light, ungrounded in anything, such as an agent, such as an object or agent of meditation. I’m going to read that sentence again, “wherever you look in terms of is and is not conceptual categories. The ultimate reality of your own mind perpetually arises as the clear light as nothing other than primordial consciousness ungrounded in anything, such as an object or agent of meditation. All bifurcation of experience is now totally transcended. That is the contemplation of non-meditation.” That’s the final yoga. So that’s the path I’ve been telling you all along, the path, path, path. Here’s the path that he just described it, that was quintessential, elaborate version there it is, you got about 40-50 pages of it in the text.

[1:26:50] And so final point at six and I’m not gonna hold you much, much longer today. But a single point and that is on the Mahayana path, with no reference to Vajrayana, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, we’ve just saw [should be said seen] Shantideva’s account, and that was really spectacularly clear of realizing the emptiness of your own mind. And so if that’s your practice, if you practise, if you’ve achieved shamatha, you’re unifying your shamatha with that type of investigation, realizing empty nature of your mind, you’re cultivating bodhicitta, you’re enacting the deeds, the way of life of a bodhisattva. You’re working on that level, bodhisattvayana, which means you’re operating under your coarse mind, on occasion the subtle mind, shamatha, right. If that’s your platform, that’s your modus operandi, that’s your strategy, then according to the classic Mahayana account, it will take you one countless eon to get through the path, the path of accumulation and preparation. One countless eon from the, from the beginning of the small stage of the path of accumulation up to the path of seeing: one countless eon. That’s an awful, awful, awful, awful lot of lifetimes. Right.

Now, here in Mahamudra, Vajrayana in general, and Mahamudra and Dzogchen in particular, they speak of moving through those two, those first two paths in many years. Compared to one incalculable eon, I mean, there’s just like, wild difference, almost inconceivable difference. So what is it? I’m not going to go into stage regeneration completion for right now. I’m just going to say for the Mahamudra, the straight Mahamudra Dzogchen approach, that which super propels you, I mean, like, it’s like warp drive, really is not a bad analogy. Here we are, I think our, our satellites with rockets out there, about 35,000 miles an hour, isn’t it? I think it’s, I think it’s about 35,000 miles an hour. That’s about as good as that, gives you escape velocity, gets you out, and then you can head off to Mars, head off to some distant planet, I think it’s 35,000 miles an hour, would be very fast for a race car.

But as slow as a retarded snail on sleeping tablets, in terms of getting across the galaxy. I mean, the nearest planet they say might be inhabited … habitable 40 light years away, sounds like, that’s really close. Considering that you can look into deep space and see 13 billion light years away, 13 billion? and 40? This is like in your face. You know, it’s only 40 light years away, just reach out and pluck it. Except that would take millions of years given our current technology, so you’d really have to slip into Star Trek. Okay, whatever his name was. Warp Drive. It’s got to … otherwise you never get anywhere. You’re just kind of like inching along, you know, but you’d have to have those black holes or warp drive or something to ever make this real.

Well, this is warp drive. This is warp drive and the black hole is rigpa. The warp drive is you’re actually making your absolute top priority from the first day and all the way through in the beginning, middle and end, ascertain rigpa, ascertain rigpa, ascertain rigpa, but that’s what everything is about. All for one, one for all. Ascertain rigpa, cut through to rigpa. And then you take awareness as your path, you take awareness on to the path. So it’s first you take your ordinary mind, your impure mind as the path that gets you to substrate consciousness, then you take ultimate reality on to the path that will lead you to the realization of the empty nature of your mind. Good. But now to really progress along the path in warp drive, you then have to cut through your subtle mind, cut through your conventional mind, cut through your samsaric mind, you have to cut through that conditioned mind to rigpa and then rigpa is your path. And that’s warp drive. And that cuts down countless eon into years. I’ve never thought of that analogy. And now I do like it, I have to say. So there it is. And that’s path. That’s how the path becomes feasible. All about rigpa.

[1:31:45] If you follow me straight, Mahamudra route within the .. the Kagyu tradition, you will almost certainly augment your practice of Mahamudra with state generation such as vajrayogini, it’s a very strong practice. The vajra chakras and varada[mudra], very strong in the Kagyu tradition, others as well, but Vajrayogini is very strong. Stage of generation, stage of completion. Good enough, that would provide you with this, you know, cutting through on the stage of completion, cutting through to the in-dwelling mind of clear light, and then you apply that to Mahamudra. Right? Or you have all six dharmas of Naropa. Those are all stages of completion practices. Right?

That assumes if you’re really concerned with path and up, don’t want to just say I’m a, you know, practitioner of the dharmas of Naropa, big deal. If this is going to be part of the path, then you will have achieved robustly the stage of generation in for example of a Vajrayogini practice. And on that basis, then you would venture into the six dharmas of Naropa, and you would complement that with your Mahamudra practice. Then you can start talking about zipping along, zipping along. So on that note, I heard from a good source, I think, and Uruala was my witness when I hear something as a good source, it’s probably right. In that case, I happen to be. But I heard from a good source that not too long ago, decades ago, but not, not centuries ago, decades ago, a few, few decades ago, there was one woman, Tibetan woman living in Sikkim. And her husband was I think in the government, something like that, husband went … had an ordinary occupation. And she is a very dedicated practitioner herself. I think her husband passed away. So that freed her up didn’t need to take care of hubby and got to just devote herself full time to practice and she achieved rainbow body. Vajrayogini, vajrayogini, by way of Vajrayogini practice.

[1:33:20] So, so tomorrow, we’ll just finish off the cherry on the cake, a little dedication of merit, quickly, we’ll move right through that. But now there’s now, there’s a vision, right? You have a vision of the path, and I say this, because what happens if we die tomorrow, somebody dies tomorrow, I could, and the retreats a little bit short, you know, anybody can die anytime, so what happens if you die before you achieve shamatha? Before you’ve achieved the yoga of single pointedness? Before you achieved any of these, what happens if you [makes sound] put out you know, heart attack whatever, and you’re gone? Well, if all you’re really thinking about is achieving shamatha, then you have some leftover business. You go to the Bardo and live, live a virtuous life, let’s imagine. Then the prayers are there, the … the dedications are there, then your karma will propel you into circumstances where you can achieve shamatha. Big deal. [Laughs]. That’s it? That’s it? That’s what you wanted? That’s, that’s what it was really all about. You want to shamatha so you don’t get it in this lifetime you get snuffed out, you achieve the next lifetime, and then say I’m happy, happy, happy, bliss, luminosity, non-conceptuality, oh, yay.

Then you die, then you just wander around as before, because it didn’t take you one hair’s breadth onto the path, right. So how can you see whether you’re going to go slow or fast, which over which we have no control, … we can only do our best. How, what’s the most we can ensure in terms of really proceeding on the path here, without reference to pure lands, really just proceeding on the path focusing on the path? What would keep us on track? What would keep us coming on back whether it’s from year to year in this lifetime where we’re born and die every night or from lifetime to lifetime? What would keep us on track that we keep on coming back to unfinished business, that leto, that leftover? And if you have even that degree of understanding of the path that it culminates in perfect enlightenment of a buddha with a combination of the yoga of non-meditation and that’s how you get there, single pointed, brief elaboration, one taste, non-meditation, buddhahood, and there it is, I mean, the path in the palm of your hand, you can always add more details at your leisure.

And if you set your sights on that and said I’m not satisfied, hello universe? hello buddhas? hello me? I’m not satisfied, until I’ve proceeded along the culmination of that path. I’m not satisfied, I’m not done, that’s what I want to go all the way through to the end and that’s what my motivation is, that’s what my practice is about, and that’s what i dedicate my merit to, if that’s what you’re doing, that will be the hook, let alone the hook of compassion of the guru and refuge and all of that, that’ll be the hook, it’ll bring you back, it’ll bring you back and if the virtuous there, the merit that good ethics is there, it’ll bring you back again and again and again to those teachers you need to meet in the conducive environment, the opportunities to practice, the freedom and the opportunity to keep on bringing you back until you’re finished, so that’s why spending half an hour on these higher stages have some vision there and if one has, if one doesn’t have faith in it, then just relax and find something else to have faith in, right. Everybody has faith in something, but if you do have faith in it and you arouse the aspiration and so forth, back there, will keep you on track until you finish.

[1:36:59] But in this lifetime everything is here. All the pieces are collected, right. For all of the stages., You may very easily go beyond anything I can teach you, right. I can easily imagine that. But then we have these other magnificent teachers, a young Dudjom Rinpoche and outgrow maybe, you know, outgrow what I can offer you, no problem. But there are other teachers you know much deeper realization that I do, maybe I will teach but you know they’re there, they’re still there, they’re even young ones, the Yangthang Rinpoche I’m so happy to hear he’s really turning out well, he’s one of my teachers from past life. I translated for him teaching also the six yogas of Naropa translated for him then, he was awesome in his last life. I 've heard it turned out really well in this lifetime too. Yong Ling?? Rinpoche turned out well, the Karmapa is turning out well. One after another, so this bodes very well, you know, that at least for another generation or so there will be really great teachers Dudjom Rinpoche himself, in that lifetime, didn’t spend years and years in retreat. He came in loaded, ready to serve, and bomb! He just spent the next 88 years or so 84 years I think just serving, serving, serving, you know. Didn’t need to go off for 20 years, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, yeah, spent 17 years in retreat. Kalu Rinpoche spent 12 year, that’s common. Some of them, if they’re so ripe, they don’t necessarily have to go into long retreat but they do have to [makes blowing sound] blow the dust off the stone, the wish fulfilling jewel of their mind. I think that’s what [?? Rinpoche] was saying. He didn’t say, oh by the way you have to spend 20 years in retreat. He did say you have to go back to the basics, the preliminary practices and so forth and I would add my commentary, just if there’s any dust on your jewel, blow the dust off. So there it is.

[1:38:48] But still in this historical era on this planet in these circumstances, the teachers are there. The teachings are there. We need to create some more conducive environments as Ursula knows and a number of others know India is tough. India’s just tough to be there, long term retreat. Visa problems, health problems, water problems, parasite problems. I had a rat chewing on me when I was in retreat. [Laughter]. I didn’t like it. Well I’d hepatitis three times you know and I could really do without that, and so you know, create conducive environment. Give us half a chance here. We don’t have to struggle with the elements all the time and let’s see what we can do.

Olaso.

Edited by Shirley Soh

Revised by James French

Final Edition by Rafael C. Giusti

Discussion

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