87 A Parable with Pointing Out Instructions to Cut-Through to Rigpa

87 - Spring 2016 - A Parable with Pointing Out Instructions to Cut-Through to Rigpa

Olaso

[00:02] So I promised to read you a parable each day. And I got so carried away this morning and whatever was said I can’t quite remember. I forgot the parable. So let’s have a short parable. It’s quite a nice one. I remember this one. Rinpoche taught it more than 20 years ago, I still remember. We remember stories. At least I remember stories, and it’s a good story. So this is on page 89, The Parable of an Old Man Losing His Cord. Oh, wait a minute. No, no, something before that. We have two, one before that. One before that. Yeah. Okay. So page 88, 88. ‘The old man losing his cord’ is good. We’ll get to that. But here’s another one, a short one on page 88. So, “Once in the land of India there was a great king who passed away, leaving behind an orphaned son. A minister abducted the child and abandoned him to a band of idiots. The orphan became utterly destitute in terms of his clothing, food, and lodging, and he became indistinguishable from the idiots’ children. Eventually, a Brahmin examined his features and recognized that he was endowed with the fine characteristics of the royal class of royalty. He bathed the child with scented water, burned fine incense, clothed him with fine garments, adorned him with fine ornaments, placed him on a high throne and appointed him as the sovereign of the kingdom. Thus, in an instant he arose in the royal family of the entire region, and all his subjects experienced joy and happiness.” That’s very straightforward. So here’s a brief commentary.

[01:50] “Likewise, the ultimate reality of your own mind has been primordially present, as the spontaneous or spontaneously actualized dharmakaya. [It’s [Tibetan??] spontaneous. Nowadays I translate it as spontaneously actualized. It’s more literal, a bit more accurate too.] The ultimate reality of your own mind has been primordially present, always present, as the spontaneously actualized dharmakaya, but it has been obscured by adventitious contaminations and without recognizing it, you have wandered in the cycle of existence. Upon receiving the blessings of a holy guru, you’re introduced to it, and upon identifying your mind as primordially present as the dharmakaya, you are liberated from the sufferings of wandering in samsara.” So this is actually a very simple story. And I think I’ll read actually one more. It’s a very simple story, but it actually points to something really quite crucial. And that this is a parable of receiving so called pointing out instructions. And if the lama is very accomplished, has the ability to do … give this kind of … they call it sometimes a mind to mind transmission. If the lama is capable, and the students are ripe, they’re receptive, they’re open, they’re well prepared, then the pointing out instructions may be given and right there, the disciple may have some .. again, like a break in the clouds, probably won’t become a vidyadhara at this time, but might have some genuine insight. Veiled. Okay, so but still veiled, but still an insight into rigpa, into realizing one’s own mind, the deepest dimension of one’s own mind, that’s the chitta-ta as dharmakaya. And so you have that possibility in an instant, like the child who was kidnapped and then was retrieved. In an instant of .... to use a kind of cliche term … dropping down, and it is kind of a descent, the coarse mind descends into the substrate, and when the substrate shatters, when you cut through it, then the locus of your awareness descends to the ground pristine awareness, which is nothing other than dharmakaya.

[04:11] And so, then, you know, for yourself, that your buddha nature is not simply potential. Potential for something good to happen in the future. But it is an actual reality. So it exists in the realm of actuality, and not only the realm of possibility. So this is a distinction, especially between the Dzogchen and the new translation schools, Tsongkapa’s writings, Gelugpa tradition as a whole, and in vajrayana practice in the Gelugpa tradition, and that’s what I was trained for the first 20 years, so I think I’m somewhat familiar with it. When you, for example, practice vajrasattva, it was the first vajrayana practice I was ever introduced to, you, you develop your … take refuge, you take bodhicitta, you cultivate bodhicitta, and then to the best of your ability, you imagine dissolving all phenomena, of course, including the environment, your body, your mind, and yourself, dissolving all into emptiness. So you must have some awareness of the constructed, conceptually constructed nature of the whole of reality, and very much in the center of the mandala, your own identity, to dissolve that emptiness, but it’s not just emptiness. It’s not just flat emptiness, like there’s the … here’s a piece of paper. The paper is empty of inherent nature. Okay? So, you could realize emptiness by realizing the emptiness of the piece of paper. You could, right? But that’s all there is to it. It’s just emptiness. It is a sheer absence of inherent nature of the paper. Go into your mind. I’m speaking now of, as somebody with a little familiarization with the Dzogchen tradition. Go into your mind. Realize the empty nature, emptiness, of inherent nature of your own mind. Now what’s left? Is there anything more than a sheer absence of inherent nature of your own mind? Is there anything more? Kirsty? What would that be?

[06:15] If you get a wrong answer, it doesn’t make a difference. [Kirsty replies: ‘It’s still awareness.’]

[06:23] What kind of awareness? [Kirsty replies: ‘Clear, luminous awareness.’]

[06:31] Yeah, more specifically. Jen? [Jen replies: ‘Knowing.’]

[06:36] Yeah, more specifically. Alan? [Alan replies: ‘Clarity.’]

[06:44] More specifically. Sebastian? [Sebastian replies, inaudible]. Say again. [Sebastian replies: ‘Rigpa, emptiness.’]

[06:53] Rigpa, yah, buddha nature, you’re all right. But everything you said is equally true of the conventional consciousness on the surface level. It’s luminous, it’s clear and all of that. When you realize the emptiness of your own awareness in emptiness, shunya nature, the emptiness of the inherent nature of your own mind, there’s not only the emptiness, but there’s a mode of awareness there. That is rigpa. It does not mean that if you realize emptiness, that you’ve necessarily realized rigpa. But it does mean there’s something more to the emptiness of your mind, beyond the emptiness of a piece of paper. Because a piece of paper does not have buddha nature. And your mind does, your mind is. Buddha nature is the ground state. And so if you should fathom this paper all the way to the ground, the nature of the piece of paper is not dharmakaya. It’s dharmadhatu. But it’s not dharmakaya. Right. Realize the nature of your own mind right down to the ground and that’s chitta-ta. That’s, that’s the in-dwelling mind of clear light, in-dwelling mind of clear light. That’s rigpa. That’s dharmakaya. That’s buddha nature. Right. And so in the Gelugpa tradition, since you know we’ve now finished with the Panchen text, here’s a footnote to Panchen Rinpoche’s text. In the whole Gelugpa tradition you say, OM Svabhava Shuddha Sarva Dharma Svabhava Shuddho Ham. Om. The nature of all phenomena is emptiness and that emptiness ‘am I’. Or that purity, ‘am I’. But it’s not just ‘I am emptiness’, it’s not just ‘I am the absence of inherent nature’. That is dharmadhatu, that’s shunya. But it’s indivisible from dharmakaya. That’s the primordial indivisibility of dharmakaya, dharmadhatu. And that ‘am I’ Shuddho Ham. ‘I am that purity.’

[08:49] Now, if you’re approaching this, and when I say this, I mean that this has been proven effective so many times. If anybody disparages it, they just don’t know what they’re talking about. When you do this, from the Gelugpa perspective, you’re approaching the practice, from the perspective of being a sentient being which is certainly a true perspective. And then you dissolve your sense of identity into emptiness. You imagine, and if you can realize emptiness, great, but then you imagine that emptiness being indivisible from dharmakaya, and out of that non duality of dharmakaya, dharmadhatu. Then you arise as the deity and you think I am Vajrasattva. Or let’s say I am Avalokiteshvara. Let’s go there. That’s a public, public dharma right? You think I am Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara is a Buddha, manifesting as a 10th stage bodhisattva, but he’s a Buddha, right? The very embodiment of the compassion of all the buddhas, right. From the Gelugpa perspective, you kind of take a step, a step back and say, Is this true? The answer is no, you’re not a buddha. You’re a sentient being, but you’re not inherently a sentient being, and you do have the potential of perfect enlightenment. So even though you’re not a buddha, as skilful means, because this is very useful. This is a very useful technique. It’s a skilful means. Imagine that you are buddha. And imagine that you’re buddha, now proceed in the practice. In the back of your mind, are you a buddha? You know, Mary Kay, me, Jodi, are you a buddha? Is there any … is there kind of some percentage of you that’s actually buddha and the answer is 0%. I can’t speak for Jodi or Mary Kay, but I can speak for myself. Alan Wallace, this guy here, is there some percentage of me that’s a buddha, the answer from Gelugpa perspective is, no. Zero, I have zero buddha qualities. I have 100% qualities of a sentient being. I’m like a made to order, like fully bonafide, absolutely qualified, sentient being. I have all the characteristics, 84,000 kleshas, I got all of them, I got the full set. A body that stinks and is defiled and unclean. So that’s mine. You know, I’m just 100% sentient being, of course, from that perspective, but at least empty of inherent nature.

[11:18] And then I imagine knowing that I’m not inherently a sentient being, then I imagine taking on the identity and the appearance of Vajrasattva. Even though in the back of my mind I know it’s not true, but it’ll be true one day, and after all, if time is not absolutely real, then maybe it should be okay. In this Gelugpa approach, the Gelugpa is … my knowledge is very, very limited, you know, in terms of comparing Sakya, Kagyu, Nyingma, and so forth, but the Gelugpa … my goodness when they … the great ones like Khedrup Je for example, when he goes into stage of generation, like in Kalachakra and the stage in the mandala on the different layers of body, speech and mind mandala and so forth, man, it’s like a person develop into… designing a new, a new Mercedes Benz, I mean, it’s just, it’s so, so high tech, so precise. So like, awesome, you know, the precision of it? And then how do you develop each of these aspects. And what is the culmination of developing, practising stage of generation Kalachakra. Khedrup Je. My goodness, he’s a master, volume after volume. And Tsongkapa, the whole tradition says if you’re practicing Kalachakra, if that’s your vehicle, then you have to master it. Completely master it.

[12:34] So for example, when you really mastered in Kalachakra, you should be able to visualize the entire mandala, body, speech, mind mandala with 720 deities inside an orb of light in your heart. All the inside, like the universe in a single grain, you should be able to do that simultaneously, inside the orb of light, and hold it for four hours. So they really mean it. This is heavy duty. But then if you do that, your whole energy system is so perfectly tuned for stage of completion. Go into stage of completion, you finish pretty quickly, and then you’re a buddha. Right? Well, and that’s always operating out of that perspective of being a sentient being. Right? And frankly, pretending as if you’re buddha by skillful means, right? That’s what Tsongkapa says, I’ve not seen him deviate from that anywhere. In contrast to that in Dzogchen, you are the abducted child, you are a buddha. You are a buddha. It’s not potential. This is Longchenpa’s buddha perspective versus Tsongkhapa’s sentient being perspective. So says the Dalai Lama and neither one is superior to … superior, better to, better than the other one. For some people, Tsongkhapa’s approach will be more suitable, more effective. Other people, Longchenpa’s approach will be more suitable, more effective and they’re complimentary. And Tsongkhapa himself basically said that when he said that Dzogchen is complete, nothing excess, nothing deficient. And it’s complete, and there’s no higher praise than that. And then he just said, that’s all I got to say. And then he did what he needed to do, you know. So as we’ll see stage of generation, stage of completion in the Dzogchen context. It’s really simple. As we’ll see, it’s really simple, none of that incredible sophistication and complexity that you find in the Gelugpa approach to stage of generation.

[14:31] And why? Cos you don’t need it, because you’re actually dropping in as soon as possible, as early on the path as possible, dropping into the perspective of being buddha. Not pretending as if, as a skilful ploy, as like a sublime placebo, but actually melting your perspective right down to rigpa, and practising stage of generation from that perspective. So you want to get to the pointing out instructions as soon as you can. But of course, to hold them, you need shamatha. Otherwise, you get it and you drop it. So one more parable on this notion, but he just gave … that was a very short story all about pointing out instructions. In an instant, “Thus, in an instant he arose in the royal family of the entire region and all his subjects experienced joy and happiness." You get the pointing out instructions and in that instant, your perspective … it does, is not in an instant you’ve now achieved all the qualities of buddhahood. In an instant, you’ve melted right through your perspective of being a sentient being, substrate consciousness and right down to the ground. That’s in an instant. In an instant, you identify your own nature, your own identity as being buddha. Because it was already true. And I just cut through to it, okay. Just read one parable, then we’ll go to the meditation. This is the one I was looking forward. The parable that was more than … more than a story than just a kid being kidnapped and then he was found. ‘The Parable of the Old Man Losing His Cord’, this one’s memorable. "In one region there once lived an old man and woman. At the bottom of a valley a great spectacle was taking place, and the old woman encouraged her husband to go see it.” Now you know, it’s coming. “I might mistake myself for someone else, he replied, so I’m not going.” He’s a little bit, you know, mind’s a bit wobbly. He’s an old man, you know, not so clear. So I don’t know I might, I might get confused. Mama, I might get confused. And then, she’s … but his wife is kind of like, she’s hard ass, "You won’t make that mistake if you fasten an identification sign on yourself.” Like ‘Hello, my name is Tenzin.’ [Laughter].

[16:38] If I seem lost, [laughs], my home is over there, except for it’s not a five year old, it’s an eighty five year old. Hello. [Laughs]. ‘So just wear the sign!’ It’s quite cute. Okay, so, “She retorted. Tying a purple cord on his leg” At least around his neck would be nice, but okay, she put it on his leg. My name is Tenzin. And, “she sent him on his way.” She wanted him to have a good time, you know, let the old geezer have some fun. “Getting carried away by the spectacle, he let the cord on his leg be cut off. Then, mistaking himself for someone else, he went around asking other people, 'Hey, who am I? Who am I?” [laughs].

[17:25] I can really, you know, I might be doing this one day. So help me out. This may be me in a few years I don’t know. “These others replied, you … the other people replied; ‘You moron! You’re yourself.’ But he didn’t recognize himself. Eventually he ran into his wife and he complained to her. ‘This morning I told you I would go and mistake myself for someone else, but you didn’t listen. It’s your fault that I didn’t recognize myself.’ And he was on the verge of beating the old woman.” [Laughter].

[17:55] “The deity will show you your nature. Make homage to the deity, she said, and she made him bow many times to the deity. After a while he became exhausted and fell asleep,” because he still didn’t know who he is, “and while he was sound asleep she fastened another purple cord on his leg and left it there. He woke up and said, ‘Now here I am!’ and so he recognized himself. Even when the old man did not recognize himself after the cord was cut off, there was no reason for his confusion. While he was present in his own identity, he became confused about something about which there was no reason to be confused.” That’s the parable. “To explain the parable:” Very briefly, and we’ll go to meditation. “To explain the parable: just as the old man initially became confused about something about which there was no reason to be confused, while the ultimate reality of your mind is primordially present as the dharmakaya, you wander in samsara due to not recognizing it. Just as the old man recognized himself once a cord was tied to his leg, so you see your own face of the dharmakaya due to being introduced to it by means of the oral instructions of a guru; and this eradicates the basis for wandering in samsara." So I could, I could really linger here, it’s so rich, but very briefly, this whole thing is rather mysterious. I mean, that has to be a reason. So it’s no longer mysterious. Why, on this Dzogchen path, really know it’s Dzogchen, on this Dzogchen path, we have the first stage of the Vidyadhara is way up there in the path of seeing, the first arya bodhisattva level, right.? And if we just look at the Dudjom Lingpa, the approach there, it’s shamatha, vipashyana, and then trekchö. That’s it. You can augment it if you wish with stage of generation, stage of completion. You don’t have to, and still you’re able to move through those, and they don’t say oh, by the way, if you don’t do stage of generation and completion it will take you one countless eon. They don’t say that at all. No, 13 of his disciples, 1000 of his disciples became vidyadharas. I mean, it’s astonishing. And so how is it that his disciples were able to move right through path of accumulation, path of preparation so quickly?

[20:26] Clearly, very early on, they had the pointing out instructions. And so there they are on the path of accumulation. Now it’s not an unmediated realization of rigpa, but, but they are to the best of their ability proceeding in the practice, from the perspective of rigpa, from meditating on emptiness, from the perspective of rigpa, they’re gaining insight into emptiness from the perspective of rigpa. And so it’s that very subtle mind realizing emptiness all the way through, and that is slipping into the wormhole, that is slipping into the warp drive and moves you right through it in a matter of maybe quite years, just years, you know. It’s because you’re not still dropping your anchor in the sentient being’s mind and pretending as if you were a buddha. Even if you realize the emptiness of your own inherent nature as a sentient being. No, you know that but you’ve dropped your anchor down to the ground. And that’s your platform, right through the paths of accumulation, of preparation. And that’s why you can get through so quickly. And the culmination, of course, is when as a fully matured vidyadhara, you have an unmediated conceptually unveiled, non dual realization, of rigpa, excuse me of emptiness. And the awareness that is ascertaining emptiness is rigpa. And that too, is realized without mediation, then you’re a vidyadhara. So having achieved the first of the 10 arya bodhisattva levels, now you’re really ready, so many people are doing leap over, you know, when they don’t have any shamatha, hardly any understanding of emptiness. And but they find some lama who’ll teach them leap over or the direct crossing over. That’s fine. I have no criticism.

[22:03] But according to Yangthang Rinpoche and all the teachings I’ve received, the people really suitable for leap over, for the direct crossing over, are the ones who can dwell in rigpa. And clearly, if this is and it is, it’s the direct crossing over from one bhumi to another. If you’ve not achieved any bhumis, if you’re way down there, even before the path of accumulation, then where are you leaping into … into a chasm, I don’t know what you’re leaping. But if you’ve achieved the first arya bodhisattva level, then with this very simple practice and Yangthang Rinpoche said, what 20 to …20, 30 years. Wasn’t it? 20 to 30 years. If you’re fully qualified, you really are capable of dwelling in rigpa, I’m going to give a gold standard. You can always, you know, bring it down. The gold standard, you’re a vidyadhara, you know, your dwelling in rigpa but without mediation, and he said 20 to 30 years. What would otherwise be two countless eons from the first bhumi to the eighth, one countless, from the eighth to Buddhahood, one countless eon. We can’t even imagine that number of lifetimes. But if you’ve become vidyadhara, baby vidyadhara, first level vidyadhara, and then at 20 … according to Yangthang Rinpoche, who speaks from profound realization, 20, 30 years, you’re finished. Practice tögal, the direct crossing over. 20, 30 years. You’re buddha. Okay. So different path, different path. Okay. So now I’ve told my story. I’ve fulfilled my vow. Please find a comfortable position, we will proceed into meditation.

[23:52] [Bell rings]. [Meditation in session]

[24:11] Taking ultimate refuge in your own pristine awareness and arousing from that ultimate bodhichitta, relative bodhichitta. With this motivation settle your body, speech, and mind in the natural states.

[24:49] And to enrich the motivation, Karma Chagme suggests having established the posture, consider in the following way. “Alas! Everything is of the nature of impermanence. Today I must engage in truly satisfying spiritual practice. What does tomorrow hold in store? Cultivate a fine motivation, thinking ‘For the sake of all sentient beings I shall attain perfect spiritual awakening. In order to do so, I shall practice the profound stages of generation and completion.”

[25:40] Let your awareness rest in its own nature, invert your awareness in upon that which is aware. [Pause]. To the best of your ability, note the emptiness of your own awareness.

[26:14] And let the locus of your awareness descend to the ground, pristine awareness. Directly apprehending the emptiness of all phenomena and rest there. I am the purity of all phenomena. Om Svabhava Shuddha Sarva Dharma Svabhava Shuddho Ham.

[26:57] “With that motivation” and from this perspective, returning to Karma Chagme, “clearly visualize your body in the form of the Great Compassionate One.” Avalokiteshvara. Out of emptiness let your form as Avalokiteshvara be spontaneously actualized, appearing like a rainbow in the sky, appearing yet devoid of any substantiality. “The color of your body is white like an autumnal moon. Your one face is calm and smiling. You’re adorned with a precious crown of jewels and your guru Amitabha is present on the top of your head. [Pause]. You have four hands, the first two pressed together at your heart, your lower right hand holding a rosary of white crystal, and your lower left hand holding an eight petaled, white lotus blossom.”

[28:19] “You wear a shawl, lower garment, a skirt of various silks and the hide of a krsnasara antelope is draped over your left shoulder.”

[28:40] “Imagine that you’re seated upon a moon disc in the center of a variegated lotus,” That is a multicolored lotus. “with your legs in the vajra asana, the full lotus posture.”

[29:00] “A white syllable Hrih stands upright in the center of a full moon disk at your heart inside your body, which is inwardly hollow and immaculate.” If you don’t know the shape of the Tibetan syllable, you can visualize it in Roman letters, Hrih, the seed syllable of Avalokiteshvara. “On the periphery of that disk the white six syllable circle about in a clockwise direction.” So with the syllable, Hirh, facing forward, clockwise in the periphery of the moon disk, standing upright and facing inwards are the six syllables, Om Mani Padme Hung.

[29:48] “From them rays of light of various colors are emanated out in the 10 directions like rays of a rainbow.”

[30:00] “All the gurus, the chosen deities or yidams, the buddhas, and bodhisattvas dwelling in the 10 directions in the three times come floating in like snowflakes in a blizzard.”

[30:22] “All your primary and lineage gurus dissolve into the Lord of the family Amitabha” on the crown of your head, “thereby synthesizing all your gurus. [Pause]. All the yidams, the chosen deities, buddhas and bodhisattvas, dissolve into yourself as the Great Compassionate One, thereby synthesizing all the yidams. Their root mantras, essential syllables, and secondary syllables all dissolve into the six syllables at your heart, thereby synthesizing all mantras, vidyamantras, and dharanis, all the sacred mantras. Meditate on this not just once, but with great earnestness.”

[31:26] “This is practical advice for accomplishing everything with one guru, one deity and one mantra. [Pause]. Then the seed syllables,” six syllables around the Hrih at your heart, “emit rays of light while they are circling about, transforming the entire external universe into the realm of Sukhavati, and transforming all sentient beings who dwell in the six states of existence into forms of the Great Compassionate One.”

[32:20] “Gloriously visualize everyone you see as being in the form of the Great Compassionate One. Even if you cannot maintain that clearly, imagine that they are the Great Compassionate One.”

[33:16] And while holding this visualization, “recite the six syllables, Om Mani Padme Hung.” Karme Chagme continues: “Recite them clearly and purely with the humming sound of a bee. Imagine that while you are chanting your song on your own” chanting the mantra, “all sentient beings of the six states of existence are reciting together with you. Imagine that all sounds of fire, of wind, of movement, and all voices are sounds of the six syllables. That is the transformation of sounds into the divine speech.”

[33:59] So let’s recite quietly for a little while. Om Mani Padme Hung. Clearly and purely with the humming sound of a bee. [Recites Om Mani Padme Hung].

[35:47] Continue to hold the visualization a bit longer. [Pause]. Karme Chagme continues, “You may get a little tired of those visualizations. The stillness of the mind with respect to the visualization is shamatha.”

[36:24] “By mentally, vividly observing the mind of the meditator, you will have a special vision of emptiness that is ungrounded in anything, and that is vipashyana. [Pause]. Evenly settle your mind as stably as possible in that state.”

[37:13] “If thoughts flow out again, observe their essential nature and let them release themselves. That is the technique for experiential novices or beginners.”

[37:46] “Once you are accustomed to that, there is no need to watch the flow of the essential nature of thoughts. Just as you might enjoy gazing at a sparkling clear lake in the springtime, restfully observe the essential nature of the mind, simply and without distraction.”

[38:27] “Just as the waves emerge from the water and merge back into the lake, without harming the lake, even if a little movement emerges from the state of stillness, it does not harm the stillness; and it merges back into the state of stillness.”

[39:20] “Once you are accustomed to that, however many thoughts occur, they do not impair the stillness; but like snowflakes drifting down upon a lake, they merge into the experience of stillness.”

[40:29] “By acquainting yourself with that, thoughts will appear as meditation. When ideation or thoughts do arise as meditation … that is the union of the stages of generation and completion, for the stage of generation is ideation.”

[42:09] “If the mind still has something to observe, it is not seeing its essential nature. Then unify the person who is observing and that which is being observed. [Pause]. You will then gain certain knowledge of a brilliant, serenely joyful, homogenous emptiness, and there will no longer be anything unto which to grasp. [Pause]. There is nothing of which you can say, ‘This is it,’ and there’s nothing of which you can say, ‘This is the meditation.’”

[44:25] “This will be unlike anything you’ve experienced before, and doubts may arise. Be quiet, stop trying, and simply be undistracted without having anything to do. When that happens, the essential nature of ordinary consciousness will be seen.”

[45:31] “If the sentinel of mindfulness is lost, you will wander off into confusion as usual. Simply do not lose the sentinel of undistracted mindfulness. That is the meaning of Tilopa’s statement: ‘If the mind has no intentional object, that is Mahamudra. If you become accustomed and well acquainted with that, supreme awakening will be attained.’”

[46:16] “If you meditate without losing the sentinel of mindfulness, that is meditative equipoise. If the sentinel of mindfulness is lost, that is the post meditative state.”

[46:52] Then dedicate the merit of the practice for the benefit of all sentient beings, that you may ever so swiftly, realize the perfect awakening of a buddha.

[47:50] [Bell rings].

[48:24] Olaso. So we just followed the pith instructions of Atisha, the speech emanation of Padmasambhava, the Lake-Born Vajra. He said in one session on one cushion practise five fold, we just did it. There was every aspect of it in one 24 minute session. I was just reading so I had nothing to contribute there. But it just struck me like that was like a five part symphony, just all woven together, but all integrated in 24 minutes, you might want to do that again. So there it is. So wonderful to be following in the footsteps of such masters as Atisha, Padmasambhava and Karma Chagme.

[49:10] So now, we go back to page 264. And he’ll now give a point by point explanation of the fivefold practice, as taught by Phagmo Drupa and Jigten Sumgon, two of the greatest Mahamudra masters in all of Tibetan history. So here’s the summary of it. And by the way, at your leisure, absolutely read Gyatrul Rinpoche’s oral commentaries. Very, very helpful.

[49:38] So we begin. We begin with the practice of deity, deity yoga, which as we see here includes both stage of generation and completion. The stage of generation was that first part of generating the mandala, not even the mandala, just the deity and the various visualizations we did reciting the mantra. As the bodily aspect to the visualization, the appearance aspect to it, but then meditating on the empty nature, the empty nature, that is the empty nature of yourself as the deity, of the form of the deity, and so forth. The empty nature is then in the Dzogchen context, that’s a state of completion. You don’t need to do a lot of tsa lung and very arduous breathing techniques, visualization techniques. In the context of Dzogchen, that suffices, right? So we go to deity yoga. “If you do not meditate on a deity,” If you don’t engage in deity yoga. “there will be obstacles.” Well if that was true in the 17th century in Tibet, I think we can count on that being all the more true now. “Mistaking your own identity,” When we got the parable we just had, you know the old man who forgot who he was, the child who was abducted didn’t know who he was. “Mistaking your own identity,” Taking very seriously that you really are a sentient being and then reifying that. “Mistaking your own identity,” Using that as a platform for your practice. Oh, how can I become, how can I achieve this? How can I achieve that? “Mistaking own identity, even if you practise for your whole life, your practice is said to be lacking in gratitude and it will go astray.” Such an interesting word, ‘lacking in gratitude’. It’s like … it’s the one parable often used, and we’ve already seen it, is that stone that was, you know, kind of crusty, dirty and beneath, beneath the layers of under a pillow. That in fact, was the inheritance of the family, the father died, and he left them an inheritance. Right? They didn’t bother to look.

[51:39] They’re dying of poverty. They didn’t bother to look. It’s kind of like ungrateful. Like I left you that, I left, I left it for you right there, right under your pillow, will you be sure to see it? And you didn’t think to bother to look. Isn’t that kind of ungrateful? Ungrateful to your own buddha nature. So, if you just continue insisting that you’re a sentientl being, you will go astray. “Without a chosen deity,” So I’ll just stick with that, it’s personal deity, chosen deity. Nobody, there’s no homogeneity of translation of ishta devata, which literally means chosen deity. Yidam in Tibetan. “Without a chosen deity,” Tara, Manjushri, whoever it may be. “Without a chosen deity, you remain an ordinary person; and without meditating on a deity you will not attain spiritual awakening no matter what practice you do.” In this context. He’s not dismissing Theravada and so forth and saying, in this you picked up a book on Mahamudra and Dzogchen, if you are continuing to sustain your platform as an ordinary sentient being and you’re trying to practice Mahamudra Dzogchen, you’ll not achieve the awakening no matter what you do. “This is the sutra tradition, and it requires three countless aeons to reach awakening.” That’s it. Your platform is being a sentient being, that’s how long it takes. “By meditating on a deity, pisacis and you can check that out the … in the Tibetan tradition going back to India, they have so many subdivisions of different types of spirits that I ran out of words in English really quickly. We have spirit and ghost and demon and … [audience member says, fairy]. Can’t hear. [audience member repeats]. Sorry, fairy, they’re not demons. What fairy tales were you reading? They’re nice. No, these are the nasty ones. If she didn’t look like English, I’d say she’s Irish. [Laughter]. Leprechauns, leprechauns. Do I hear any leprechauns. [Laughs]. They just have so many classes. You know, like we have words for elementary particles. Most people don’t see them. But you know, if you know how to see them. In any case, this particular class and you can see a footnote describes them. A particular class of these kinds of malevolent entities; “are pacified,” by meditating on a deity. They calm down.

[53:56] And then among the five poisons, “all lusty people …”, strong craving and attachment “… are brought under your influence, appearances are mastered.” Meditating on a deity you’re generating pure perception, pure perception. “… appearances are mastered,” So you’re not sucked into just ordinary appearances generated by karma and then reifying everything. So, “… appearances are mastered and the primordial consciousness of discernment …”, one of the five facets of primordial consciousness “… arises.” That of course, we have lusty people, strong attachment and craving. There’s one of the five poisons, when you see its essential nature right down to the ground, it is nothing other than, where it is an expression of the primordial consciousness of discernment. “Passions are sublimated.” Especially all of those related to desire and craving. “You attract followers of others, and you do not mistake your own identity.” So he’s loaded an awful lot into that one paragraph. But among the five practices, there is a very, very dense quintessential account of the indispensability of deity yoga on this path where the fivefold practice is needed to complement the Mahamudra. Then there’s Mahamudra and the Mahamudra, remember that’s, that non conceptual, you remember earlier non … that non conceptual meditation. It’s the view of non conceptuality, the fourth one, okay. The view of non-conceptuality. That’s Mahamudra.

[55:26] “Without Mahamudra, there is no liberation from samsara; even though you strive in dharma and spiritual practice, you achieve nothing more than the mere pleasures of gods and humans. That is practising the yana or the vehicle of gods and humans, and by so doing you’re unable to be a blessing to others.” So this Mahamudra of course includes meditation on emptiness. That includes the awakening or the identification of rigpa. And if you’re Vajrayana practice, all the visualizations, the deity yoga, all of that, if it’s not imbued with a lot more than lip service, but simply with … if it’s not imbued with some genuine insight into emptiness, then all the visualization, all the mantras, all of that, without insight into emptiness, it’s good karma. Enjoy being a deva, because that’s where it’s going to propel you. It is … you know, beautiful human being, maybe a gorgeous, famous, powerful human being, you know, but that’s where it will led you. Without … it doesn’t lead beyond samsara. This way, the indispensability of Mahamudra. By meditating on Mahamudra,” among the five poisons, “delusion is sublimated; nagas are pacified;” Apparently according to Dhargey Rinpoche we have nagas up on the land there. So bring your naga repellent when you come up. [laughter] We’ll need to do eventually some puja to make, not subdue them, kind of like make peace with naga. So nagas are pacified, which makes a nice word, to pacify, like if they were kind of upset. Oh, okay, these people are cool. “you’re liberated from samsara;” This is the key insight into emptiness, is the key of course. “and the primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena is realized” Dharmadhatu. “you become a master of samsara and nirvana and the dharmakaya and svabhavakaya are attained.”

[57:23] “Thus, the meditations on the bodily stage of generation of your chosen deity”. We just did that right. “and the mental stage of completion concerning the meaning of emptiness are to be practiced by a novice during the earlier and later phases of the meditation session.” That’s what we just did. Right. So it’s really quite so simple, but it’s so elegant. “Once you are accustomed to that, meditate on them in union,” So appearances and emptiness, appearance and luminosity and emptiness, luminosity, luminosity, manifesting as yourself as the deity, the flowing of light, and so forth. And all of that suffused with the insight into emptiness, do them simultaneously. So first, you do them sequentially as we did, you do them sequentially. First, the visualization, your identity, your identity as Avalokiteshvara, and so forth. And then you slip away, get a little bit tired of visualization, then release that, go on to the emptiness of your mind. And now you’re doing stage of completion, and then unite the two. This is a central theme of the understanding of stage of generation and completion in the Dzogchen tradition. Nyingma generally. Is that the whole point then is finally you’re practising simultaneously and indivisibly. So it’s a different approach. It’s a different approach than the … this very classic, majestic approach that you find in the Gelugpa tradition, where there’s so much to deal with, one heck of a lot of hard work to be done. So once, “Once you are accustomed to that, meditate on them in union, for that is the main practice taught in the Secret Mantra of Vajrayana. Thus it is said: Equally establishing the two stages of the state of generation and the stage of completion is the teaching of the Buddha.” So we’ve covered two. We’ve covered the deity yoga and the Mahamudra. Now we move on.

[59:27] “The best way to dispel interferences” All those obstacles, all those hassles, all those problems that arise on the path, well; “The best way to dispel interferences and enhance the main practices” juice them, empower them, “of the stages of generation and completion is guru yoga.” So this is crucial. I’ve never seen any text in Dzogchen that does anything more than say this is absolutely indispensable, it’s the core of the practice. Emphasize this as the centrality of your practice of Dzogchen - guru yoga. “If you do not meditate on this, you will not realize the mind state of your guru; you will not receive blessings; you will not have experiential realizations; and even your own followers will have no reverence or devotion.” If you set the lead standard of not really having guru yoga for your own gurus, and eventually have some disciples of your own, well, they’ll have the same lack of reverence for you as you have for your own teacher.

[1:00:24] Karma ripens quickly. “By meditating on your guru, pride is sublimated; devaputras …”, another class of these spirits, “are pacified.” Now we have another of the five poisons. “Jealous people …” Jealousy or envy. “Jealous people are brought under your influence; awareness is apprehended …” You recognize your own mind as dharmakaya. “… and you are blessed. The primordial consciousness of equality arises.” There again in terms of pride. The root of pride stems from the primordial consciousness of equality when you see its essential nature right down to the ground. “You’re honored by everyone, and you attain the state of your guru.” So interesting, this the complete symmetry between inside and outside, and that is your own jealousy is sublimated, dissolves into the primordial consciousness of equality, but as inside so outside, then people around you that you perceive as jealous, they’re brought under your influence. So it makes it very clear that they’re not other than you. So now we’ve covered three, right? We have two more. Bodhicitta. “The cultivation of bodhichitta is initially important for the attainment of enlightenment, so it is like a seed. In the interim it is like water and fertilizer, and finally, it is like a bountiful harvest. If this is not cultivated, even if you devote your whole life to Dharma, you veer off to the Hinayana states of the sravakas and pratyekabuddhas; and you do not attain the fruition of spiritual awakening;” of buddhahood. “you do not attract a monastic following; and even if you do attract followers, they get involved in quarrels, strife, and bickering.”

[1:02:29] Of course, what the bodhicitta is fundamentally counteracting, eradicating, is self-centeredness, a sense of prioritization, the priority of one’s own well being over that of others and it should be absolutely clear, this sense of ‘me first’, my well-being be more important can come into business. It’s kind of standard business. It’s absolutely standard in politics, it’s standard in competitive activities of all kinds. I want to win. I want to win, right? It’s just everywhere in the mundane world. But that same attitude cleaned up a little bit, then can be the motivation for spiritual practice. Me first, me first, me first. You know, we see it on a very crude level. It’s almost comic when the great lama like … when His Holiness Dalai Lama is giving initiation to 200,000 people and then they pass out the sacred, you know, the strings for example. And you see the Tibetan piling off each other. Like the mob, like it’s a rugby tournament, you know. They’re jumping as it’s over. It’s really kind of gross, frankly. You know, me, me, me, I look at it, you know, elbows and so forth. At least there’s no gunfire, that’s always a good sign. But, you know, it’s just, it’s just human beings. I’m not criticizing Tibetan, it’s just what people do if they’ve not really developed bodhichitta, but they’re not having bodhicitta and going for a Kalachakra empowerment is kind of like, okay, odd. So, if you’ve not overcome this self-centered prioritization of your own well-being, and then if you have followers, they’re going to get engaged with each other corresponding to your own self-centeredness. People engage in quarrels because they’re self-centered. They have strife with each other because they’re self-centered. They bicker because they’re self-centered.

[1:04:22] “Due to cultivating bodhichitta, hatred is sublimated;” another of the five poisons, of course. And now, more technical classes of these spirits, “parthivas and grahas are pacified; and all hateful people are brought under your influence; the needs of the world are fulfilled; mirrorlike primordial consciousness arises; your followers come together in harmony and you accomplish the result of various nirmanakayas.”

[1:05:00] So, when he was speaking about this, it’s really classic Mahayana teachings that bodhichitta is indispensable in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. When I was receiving Geshe Rabten’s biography, he’s coming to the end, he told me his whole life story. Born as a child on a ranch, his mother passed away, so it’s really reminded me for people, Mary Kay, you’ll get this. What’s called Ponderosa. What was that was the movie. Bonanza? Bonanza. [Makes tune from the TV series]. It’s Pa and Hoss and Little Joe and Adam, you know. It was amazing. I was hearing his life stories like, this is Ponderosa. It’s Dad and his boys. There were no girls around. And it was a ranch. I mean, these were Khampas. Well, if there’s ever a cowboy’s cowboy, American cowboys could learn something from the Khampas. You know what, American cowboys are a little bit wimpy. If they wanted to learn real machismo, then go to Kham. For those guys were tough. So Geshe Rabten was born as a cowboy. And then real renunciation, fantastic story. Such a wonderful story. I could spend the rest of the afternoon on that one. But he told me his whole story, how he left home at nineteen and went through tremendous hardships, unbelievable hardships, and then earning his Geshe degree and then having to flee and coming down to India and so forth. And then he’s coming towards the end of his story, where he’s wound up, you know, at the culmination of his career, living in a little cowshed, you know, and meditating on emptiness. But then he came to bodhichitta.

[1:06:42] Some of you … I’ve told this story before. You’ll remember it. It’s very memorable. And he said, 'Well, after these years and years of study and practice and debating and all of it, I’ve come to a very firm conclusion that all of dharma practice within the context of buddhadharma, all the teachings, they fall into one of three categories. Everything, every aspect of the teachings, with no exceptions, all of the teachings are either preparation for cultivating bodhichitta, they are the cultivation of bodhichitta, or they’re the fruition of cultivating bodhichitta. And he said, if any of you disagree, come and debate with me. [Slaps his hand in Tibetan debating style. Laughs]. It was always fun. So he was saying the same thing as Karma Chagme is saying here. And he chuckled. He chuckled. Like, nobody’s gonna come, but if they did, I’d win. So, “Spiritual practice is like a fine horse in which you place a saddle and bridle,” And now we have dedication. Here we are the fifth one. Right, then we’re finished.

[1:07:54] “Spiritual practice is like a fine horse in which you place a saddle and bridle, and the dedication is like directing the horse with the reins, so that it goes wherever you wish. So this is important. Without the dedication, you do not attain the results that you desire. Even if you briefly attract a following, they fall under someone else’s influence.” They stray, they wander off. “If you practise the dedication, jealousy is sublimated; nagas and tsan are pacified; jealous people,” That’s interesting I think we already covered that one. I wonder if it’s a typo on his part. Jealous people, what’s left over? Ego. Pride. We didn’t cover …did we have pride already. So jealous people are brought into cover or can’t get their body under control. “the roots of your virtual are not misdirected;” Here it’s this …this is jealousy because of “the primordial consciousness of accomplishment”. And that’s, that’s the root for jealousy, yah. Envy, envy. “and your followers do not fall under the influence of others.” Now, those are the five. He just gave it, you know, paragraph by paragraph account of why each one is so important, the significance of each one, but then he’s going to add on to that if you’re practicing Dzogchen, then add a fifth, a sixth element. And of course, according to Yangthang Rinpoche, add this of course if you really are able to rest in rigpa, otherwise you’re just looking at little floaters in your field of vision.

[1:09:16] “If you do not meditate on the clear light leap-over,” or nowadays they say crossing over, “… the practice of the nine yanas is not complete and the practical instructions on liberation through observation are not received; you’re left with a view entailing the grasping of mental analysis; and when delusive appearances of the intermediate state arise, it will be difficult to recognize them.” This is the intermediate state of the bardo of dharmata. The bardo of dharmata just before the bardo of becoming begins. “If the clear light Leap-over is constantly observed, your view is not left in mental analysis; the five facets of primordial consciousness are directly perceived; in the best of cases you directly encounter the assembly of the peaceful and wrathful deities;” That’s in the bardo of dharmata, ultimate reality. “even if you do not meet them, when you encounter them in the intermediate state,” You may encounter them while you’re still alive. Even if not, “when you encounter them in the intermediate state,” specifically, the bardo of the dharmata, “you will identify them and certainly be liberated,” and that’s said to be liberated by way of sambhogakaya by the way, “… the practice of the nine yanas is thoroughly complete, planetary spirits are pacified, the dakinis and Dharma protectors take care of you as if you were their own child; and finally you attain the rainbow body, specifically the great transference rainbow body of the dharmakaya. You soon see extraordinary radiant, lustrous bindus of rainbow light; and when you see them, that is the vision of the direct perception of ultimate reality.” And that’s the first of the four visions and that corresponds to a fully matured vidyadhara. Okay.

[1:10:55] “The benefits are taught in The Secret Tantra of the Sun of the Blazing Clear Expanse of the Dakinis. ‘All the buddhas of the three times, the families of the sugatas, [the three families] the five families of sugatas, the three families of protectors and peaceful and wrathful dakinis and viras are seen by means of direct perception. Karmic …”, and this is a result of the leap-over practice, “… Karmic obscurations and habitual propensities are extinguished. A contemplative who sees this no longer has the names of the three realms of samsara, and the three worlds below on the surface and above the surface of the earth are ascertained. For you who see this place of liberation just once, as soon as the transitional process of becoming arises, you will undoubtedly take miraculous rebirth in a natural nirmanakaya realm.” No longer has the names of the three realms of samsara, you’ve utterly transcended the three realms, desire, form, and formless realm, so not even the names of them remain. Totally transcended. “Thus, it is crucial to engage in constant practice of these six: your chosen deity, Mahamudra, your guru, bodhichitta, clear light, …” clear light here refers to the direct crossing over, “… and the dedication. Whether you remain in retreat for 13 years, six years, a three year and three fortnight’s cycle, a month, three weeks, two weeks or even one week, this is the practice.” So some of you have been asking me about what should we do? What should we do after this retreat’s over? I think he just told you. “In terms of your regular schedule, whether you have each day, four sessions, three sessions, two sessions in the morning and evening, or even one session per day, you should meditate on this.” So I think Karma Chagme Rinpoche is your guru here. He’s giving you very explicit advice, guidance. What do you do from here?

[1:12:56] “In what way …”, and now I’m going to read through this because I took out just the pith instructions. Now this will be familiar. So just relax. “In what way do you engage in that meditation? It is best to sit upon a comfortable cushion in the posture bearing the seven attributes of Vairocana. If you cannot do so, it is enough to sit in the sixfold fastened stove posture.” Does anybody have a clue what that is? I don’t. Gyatrul Rinpoche probably explained it 20 years ago, but I don’t. No, I didn’t explain it here. So find somebody wiser than I. Throw a stone in any direction and you know, just bump into somebody in Pisa. What’s that sixfold fastened stove? Wallace didn’t know. Can you tell me? Somebody can tell you. And now for the practice itself. “Consider, ‘Alas! Everything is of the nature of impermanence. Today I must engage in truly satisfying spiritual practice. What does tomorrow hold in store?’ Cultivate a fine motivation, thinking, ‘For the sake of all sentient beings, I shall attain perfect spiritual awakening. In order to do so, I shall practice the profound stages of generation and completion.’ With that motivation, clearly visualize your body in the form of the Great Compassionate One. The color of your body is white like an autumnal moon. Your one face is calm and smiling. You’re adorned with a precious crown of jewels and your guru Amitabha is present on the top of your head. You have four hands; the first two pressed together at your heart. Your lower right hand holding a rosary of white crystal and your lower left hand holding an eight petaled white lotus blossom. You wear a shawl, lower garment, and skirt of various silks and the hide of a krsnasara antelope is draped over your left shoulder.”

[1:14:48] All of this of course is purely symbolic.

[1:14:51] “Imagine you’re seated upon a moon disc in the center of a variegated lotus with your legs in the vajra asana. A white syllable Hrih stands upright in the center of a moon disc at your heart inside your body, which is inwardly hollow and immaculate. On the periphery of that disk, the white six syllables circle about in a clockwise direction. From them rays of light of various colors are emanated out in the 10 directions like rays of a rainbow. All the guru’s chosen deities, buddhas and bodhisattvas, dwelling in the 10 directions and the three times come floating in like snowflakes in a blizzard. All your primary and lineage gurus dissolve into the Lord of the family Amitabha, thereby synthesizing all your gurus. All the chosen deities, buddhas and bodhisattvas dissolve into yourself as the Great Compassionate One, thereby synthesizing all the chosen deities. Their root mantras, essential syllables and secondary syllables all dissolve into the six syllables at your heart, thereby synthesizing all mantras, vidyamantras, and dharanis. Meditate on this not just once but with great earnestness.”

[1:16:05] “This is practical advice for accomplishing everything with one guru, one deity, and one mantra.” And again, of course, I can’t help but remember Atisha’s ironic comment towards the Tibetans. He says, we, Indians, we meditate on one deity and we realize 100. You, Tibetans, you meditate on 100 deities, you don’t even realize one. Just the sheer fact that you know, when you’re in Tibet, I lived in Tibetan culture for years, and when they speak of, you know, we all took them, pretty much all of us took empowerments back then and received commitments, commitments for life to recite various sadhanas, old timers like Kathy know what I’m talking about? We all did pretty much. And so you have a commitment, you made a promise and recite this every day for the rest of your life. And if you’re on your deathbed and you can’t speak, then you invite somebody over to recite it on your behalf. If your mouth can’t move, or your mind is just too fuzzy, invite somebody else to recite it in your hearing. So you can kind of mentally recite along with it. So it’s kind of a serious commitment. Yeah. And then, but then, you know, really earnest dharma practitioners, a lot of monks, pretty much all the tulkus and a lot of other serious practitioners, they’ll receive not one empowerment, they’ll receive two and then three, and then five, and then 10. Somebody who received all the empowerments of Dudjom Lingpa, right. I have two from a lama who came from Tibet, the son of one of the five emanations of Dudjom Lingpa.

[1:17:49] So, then if you receive multiple ones, like Guhyasamaja, Vajryogini and Yamantaka, Chakrasamvara, and so forth, then for each one of those, you have to do a sadhana. So I know one Geshe, really good, really good monk, really good teacher, His Holiness had great respect for him. And he had eight hours of recitations he had to do every day. And he was fully … he ran a dharma centre, he was teaching and so forth. And so, you know, when he’d finished everything he had to do for his dharma center teaching and so forth, then he’d go into his room, and he would practise his sadhanas for eight hours straight right through the night. And theTibetans call it [Tibetan??]. Oral recitation. Because it’s so easy. When you got all these things, you’d have to get through them. You have to get through them. Oh, my goodness. I was often … I just got off the airplane or I went to home meetings or conferences all day. And I haven’t done any of my commitments. Oh, my goodness, I gotta get through them before I pass out, before I fall asleep, so I’ll do my [Tibetan??]. Okay, here we go. Okay. [Chants quickly in Tibetan]. Get through them, you know, and it’s called [Tibetan??] Called oral recitation. Now for that Geshe by the way. I’m very happy to say his name, Geshe … If I remember it from from Long Beach. [One of the retreatants: Geshe Gyeltsen] Yeah, Gyeltsen. What’s his first name? [retreatant replies: Tsultim]. Tsultim Gyeltsen. He’s not one of my gurus. But I translated for him from once or twice. Really nice Geshe. Yeah. So he looked on the outside like just a really good Geshe, like geshe about him. He’s just a really good Geshe.

[1:19:36] And then when Tsultim Gyeltsen passed away not too many years ago, then he passed away in India, and somehow his body … they cremated his body there and cremated on the banks of the Ganges as I recall. And a big, you know, lot of wood. That’s a really hot fire, because they want to burn that body down to, you know, down to fine ash. And so they put his body and I know this from people who were there, and they burned his body down to fine ash, so that even his vajra and bell which they put into the fire melted and then when it was all finished, the fire died down. It was all cooled. Three body parts hadn’t burned. His eyes, his tongue, and his heart had not burned. So all of that melting vajra and bell. Eyes, tongue, and heart. Nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, dharmakaya did not burn. So he wasn’t such an ordinary Geshe after all. And yes, and Geshe Zopa based for decades up in Wisconsin, I think a lot of people, certainly scholars, and a lot of people I thought, Oh, he’s just a really good Geshe. He really knows a book. He really knows a book. Really lived a long life. He passed away. I think a number of people were surprised when he made seven days in the clear light of death. So hidden yogis, hidden yogis. So outwardly, they look like they’re just doing [Tibetan??]. And inwardly, they must be doing something more than that.

[1:21:07] So. Oh, yeah. So that’s so … but this is a way, focus on one yidam. You couldn’t … if you have to choose one, you probably can’t do better than Avalokiteshvara. One guru. If you have to choose one guru and you have faith, you can’t do any better than His Holiness Dalai Lama. He’s Chenresig. So that’s easy. One mantra. Om Mani Padme Hung. Problem solved. Well, olaso. “Then the seed syllables emit rays of light while they’re circling about, transforming the entire external universe into the realm of Sukhavati, and transforming all sentient beings who dwell in the six states of existence into forms of the Great Compassionate One. Gloriously visualize every one you see as being in the form of the Great Compassion One. Even if you cannot maintain that clearly, imagine that they are the Great Compassionate One. That is the transformation of appearances into the divine body, and if that is clear, it is alright even if you do not complete your retreat. With regard to seeing other people and so on while in retreat, this is practical advice for not incurring the fault of breaking your retreat.” So people … retreatants Tibetans keep really strict retreat. “But if somebody comes in, then if you simply view them as Avalokiteshvara, then you haven’t broken your retreat. If you see him as an ordinary being and respond as an ordinary being, then you just broke your retreat. “Then if you recite the six syllables in a very loud voice, this will not do, and it will take a long time to accomplish anything; and if malevolent local spirits are present, they may harm you.” Like cut the racket please. You’re a terrible neighbor. You might not like it. “If your voice is too soft, the syllables will be unclear, so their power will not emerge. Recite them clearly and purely with the humming sound of a bee.”

[1:22:55] “Imagine that while you’re chanting your song on your own, all sentient beings of the six states of existence are reciting together with you. Imagine all sounds of fire, of wind, of movement, and all voices, are sounds of the six syllables. This is the transformation of sounds into divine speech.” You transform all appearances into the divine body. All sounds into divine speech. “If that is clear, even a single voice is multiplied many hundreds of millions of times. This is practical advice for accomplishing the state of an arya with 100 mantras. If that is clear, it is all right even if you’re not able to maintain silence. While you are in retreat, it is all right if it is mixed with talking, for all speech is the mantra. It is said that even if you’re practising with a rosary, this will make up for omissions and excesses.” Om Mani Padme Hung. It’s pretty easy to recite. The longer syllables, sometimes we screw them up, add syllables, subtract syllables, this purifies that. “If your practice is good when you meditate on those points without wavering from the essential nature of mind, that is the supreme union of the stages of generation and completion. That will happen once ideation arises as meditation. The stage of generation is ideation; ideation is the mind; and the mind is emptiness. The mind and ideation are like water and waves, so when that very movement arises as meditation, that is the union of the two stages of generation and completion. If that union is beyond the capacity of novices, you should first meditate single pointedly on the visualizations of the stage of generation.” So there’s the body part. “You may get a little tired of those visualizations. The stillness of the mind with respect to the visualization is shamatha. By mentally, vividly observing the mind of the meditator, you’ll have a special vision of emptiness that is ungrounded in anything; and that is vipashyana. Evenly settle your mind as stablely as possible in that state. If thoughts flow out again, observe their essential nature and let them release themselves. That is the technique for experienced novices”

[1:25:03] “Once you’re accustomed to that, there’s no need to watch the flow of the essential nature of thoughts. Just as you might enjoy gazing at a sparkling clear lake in the springtime, restfully observe the essential nature of the mind, simply and without distraction. Just as the waves emerge from the water and merge back into the lake, without harming the lake, even if a little movement emerges from the state of stillness, it does not harm the stillness, and it merges back into the state of stillness. Once you’re accustomed to that, however many thoughts occur, they do not impair the stillness; but like snowflakes drifting down upon a lake, they merge into the experience of stillness. By acquainting yourself with that, thoughts will appear as meditation. When ideation does arise as meditation, that is the union of the stages of generation and completion, for the stage of generation is ideation.”

[1:25:54] “If the mind still has something to observe, it is not seeing its essential nature. Then unify the person who is observing and that which is being observed. You will then gain certain knowledge of a brilliant, serenely joyful, homogenous emptiness, and there will no longer be anything onto which to grasp. There is nothing of which you can say, ‘This is it,’ and there is nothing of which you can say, ‘This is the meditation.’ This will be unlike anything you’ve experienced before, and doubts may arise. Be quiet, stop trying, and simply be undistracted without having anything to do.” So now it’s time for non meditation. “When that happens, the essential nature of ordinary consciousness will be seen.” Ordinary consciousness is manifesting as rigpa. "If the sentinel of mindfulness is lost, you’ll wander off into confusion as usual. Simply do not lose the sentinel of undistracted mindfulness. That is the meaning of Tilopa’s statement: ‘If the mind has no intentional object, that is Mahamudra. If you’ve become accustomed and well acquainted with that, supreme awakening will be attained.’ If you meditate without losing the sentinel of mindfulness, that is meditative equipoise. If the sentinel of mindfulness is lost”. You are no longer meditating. Right? Meditation is finished. “that is the post-meditative state.” So as I said earlier, I think it was yesterday afternoon, here’s a practice of non meditation, right? But if you lose it, you’re not meditating incorrectly. You know you are not meditating, you’re in the post-meditative state. So reboot, and start the practice all over again of not doing. Because there are not many ways of not doing. And if you tinge it even with a little bit of doing, you just ended the session. And then you can reboot and start another session. But when you’re in this session, there’s nothing to fix. That’s the thing. There’s nothing to fix. As soon as you even have the notion, there’s something to fix, where have you planted your sense of identity?

[1:28:11] Andre? [Andre answers]. Yep. Wanted to see whether you’re listening. Yeah. [Andrei replies]. What’s it? Listen again, if you’re practising non meditation and you have a sense that there may be something to fix, like laxity comes in, or excitation comes in or what have you, if you’re practising in that way, what is your perspective? [Andrei answers, ‘sentient being’.]. Exactly right. You knew the answer. That’s right. If you have any sense, oh I need to fix something, then you’re not resting in non meditation. You’re just sitting there like a marmot, you know, which is not even remotely Dzogchen. But it’s not anything else either. This whole notion of open presence, choiceless, awareness and open monitoring, so forth. Very profound if you’re resting in rigpa. And if you’re not resting in rigpa, it’s not anything, except for a marmot meditation. It’s not shamatha. It’s no vipashyana. It’s not Mahamudra Dzogchen. I don’t think it’s really Zen. It’s just sitting there doing nothing. So this is why it’s so crucial. Okay? So as soon as you start doing something like fixing anything, or you just lose your mindfulness, you just stop practicing. And then if you wish, you can just, you know, go for a walk, because you’re already in the post meditative state. You can continue in the post meditative state, have a cup of tea, or you can say, I think I’d like to go back to meditation and then you go back into not doing again.

[1:29:44] Olaso. That’s it. So from there we go to guru yoga. Moving right ahead. Ema Ho. Enjoy your evening.

[1:29:57] Now tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon, I need to leave here at 2.20 because the lecture starts at 3.30. So there will be no afternoon session. And with that just … wouldn’t it be nice if we just have the afternoon off and just to do your practice.So that’s what we’ll do tomorrow afternoon. And then something else was there. Interview, yeah. Thank you. So I’m leaving at 2.20, right. So those of you who have your interview scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, eat quickly. Lunch. I will. Because I’ll meet if any, if somebody is there, I’ll be having the first interview tomorrow morning … tomorrow afternoon. Morning is the same. Tomorrow afternoon at 1.15. 1.15. So Andre, Andre. Eat a quick lunch, come down. Because I’ll need to be finished by 2.15. I’ll have five minutes to change clothes. Off I go to Pisa. So that’s tomorrow. Okay. And Claudio tells me there are … our cars, our caravaners are waiting for us, all prepared, I guess, you’re already told. And the weather forecast looks really, really good. A warm spring day with lots of sun and like that, so it should be lovely. Okie dokie, enjoy your evening. See you tomorrow.

Transcribed by Shirley Soh

Revised by Kriss Sprinkle

Final edition by Rafael C. Giusti

Transcript formatted and posted on the website of the course by Rafael C. Giusti

Discussion

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