Mediation only from: The Dukkha (Suffering) Nature of All of Samsara

18.1 - 2020 - Transforming the Reality of Suffering: Mediation only from: The Dukkha (Suffering) Nature of All of Samsara

Again I’ll recite the verse just once of refuge and bodhichitta in Tibetan, and in Tibetan the seven-line verse, the prayer to Padmasambhava.

SANG GYE CHÖ DANG TSOK KI CHOK NAM LA JANG CHUB BAR DU DAK NI KYAB SU CHI DAK KI JIN SOK GYI PAY SÖ NAM KYI DRO LA PEN CHIR SANG GYE DRUP PAR SHOK

HŪNG OR GYEN YÜL GYI NUP JANG TSAM PE MA GÉ SAR DONG PO LA YAN TSEN CHOK GI NGÖ DRUP NYÉ PE MA JUNG NÉ ZHÉ SU DRAK KHOR DU KHA DRO MANG PÖ KOR KHYÉ KYI JÉ SU DAK DRUP KYI JIN GYI LAP CHIR SHEK SU SÖL GURU PEMA SIDDHI HŪNG

And settle your body, your speech and mind in their natural states. And let your awareness rest with a sense of ease, stillness and clarity, resting in its own place. Aware of but not identifying with the movements of the mind. Let alone arising and passing of sensations and feelings in the body. We view them as if from afar, not in the sense of dissociation but in the sense of not identifying to, with them, or clinging close to them. In Tibetan [Tibetan 23:03] holding them close. We release the grasping.

From this perspective, our closest approximation to resting in pristine awareness and viewing reality from that perspective, indeed do look out, upon your body and mind, the world around you, the many beings, who populate it. And right now in this world today, just in the human realm, let alone the animal and all the other realms of existence. The reality of blatant suffering, the suffering that hurts, physical and mental, is certainly everywhere to be seen. These are difficult times. When the mind is disturbed by mental afflictions, burdened with distress, anxiety, fear, unhappiness, then we know the reality of blatant suffering, this suffering of suffering. We know how difficult it is to bear. But when such adversities as pandemics pass, they become a memory. Economies rebound, health is restored, felicity shines upon us and our minds are wholesome, our minds are virtuous, and we feel life is good. It is good, but it’s constantly in a state of flux. And insofar as we grasp to the felicity, identify with the mind, we know it won’t last. And the happiness we experience will fade. And we will retrospectively find it to be unsatisfying. The suffering of change. And so much of this out of our control, just oscillating between the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change. Variations on the same theme, no satisfaction inside.

But if we draw within, we actually achieve shamatha, rest in that blissful flow, luminous and non-conceptual, that you can return to anytime and remain as long as you like. You may feel “Ah, security at last, something sustainable at last.” But the roots of suffering have not been expunged, nothing irreversible. The root of suffering is still there. We are not free. And this is true for all of us. Throughout all the realms of conditioned existence, all of us seeking a lasting state of well-being, total freedom from suffering yet wandering around in the dark. Seeking a path, but mistaking that which is not a path, for a path. So I invite you now to open your heart, open your awareness, the field of caring to all sentient beings — human, animal, and all other types of sentient beings — and attend to them closely. Attend to them as if from their own perspective. Use your imagination. For those of us following the media we are well, well aware how much suffering this particular phase has brought with the illness itself but far, far larger in its impact. How many people now are suffering because they’ve lost their jobs? All financial security gone, and looking to the future just not knowing how long will this last. Afraid. View those who are suffering not as if from afar. Use your imagination. Imagine being them. Imagine being the different types of sentient beings throughout the various realms of existence and experiencing their reality from their perspective. Because they are us and we have been them in our countless past lifetimes. Rest in your awareness. Again, your closest approximation to pristine awareness, or as one great scholar and contemplative said: as you rest in the awareness in which you can rest right now. The simplicity, the stillness, the clarity, the purity of your awareness right now. This is not other than pristine awareness. It is a ray of pristine awareness an effulgence of pristine awareness, here and now. And as you view the world of sentient beings from this perspective, if you will visualize symbolically this pure awareness resting in its own place as a radiant orb of light at your heart as we’ve done before, inexhaustible light of purity, of loving kindness and of joy.

And with each inbreath starting from the center of the mandala where you dwell, where this person that is you dwells, with each inbreath arouse the yearning: “May this person be free of all suffering and its causes forever.” And whatever sufferings and its causes to which you are still vulnerable, imagine them in the form of dark light, a darkness, a cloud, and with each inbreath, draw that in, all that darkness that shrouds you, that sometimes seems to envelop you and hinders your vision. Imagine drawing it all in to this point, this point of light and extinguish it there without trace with each inbreath. Free yourself, in your mind’s eye, from all suffering and its causes. All the demons that beset you, invite them in and extinguish them. All the afflictions, all the obscurations, invite them in and consume them. And experience the peace of freedom.

And now, breath by breath, expand this field, this sphere of awareness, this sphere of caring, to those immediately around you. Embrace each one. Attend to, experience, feel empathetically the struggles they’re facing, the anxieties, the sadness, the pain. Face it, attend to it. And then as you breathe in, draw it in, all of it. “May you, like myself, be utterly free!” Draw it in and extinguish it without trace. And with each breath, as the Buddha himself counseled, expand this sphere above and below, and to all the sides, to all sentient beings wherever they may be, in whatever realm of existence. We all have this in common: we want to be free of suffering, we want to find happiness. We want it to be enduring. Attend to their suffering and their causes. Take this burden upon yourself, experience it as if it were your own and then extinguish it in the light.

And imagine each one awakening to their true nature, that primordial purity, that primordial enlightenment that has always been their birthright while they were looking in other directions for happiness. Imagine each one finally turning inwards to the true causes of suffering and the true causes of genuine well-being and waking up to their true nature. Always free. If you are truly dwelling in your own pristine awareness, you can in fact take upon yourself the suffering of the world. You can take upon yourself the evil, the mental afflictions that lie at the root of evil, above all, ignorance. You can, you can view it as if it’s your own. And you can triumph, overcome all the forces of darkness. You simply need to know who you are.

Following in the footsteps of this great master, the vidyadhara Dudjom Lingpa who sought to become the guru of the world, let each of us aspire to be the guru of the world, each of us in the center of our mandala. That each of us become the light of the world, banishing all darkness and imagine it to be so. With extraordinary resolve, we take on this commitment, this pledge, “I shall do so. I shall free all of the world. I shall bring each one to their own perfection. May all the awakened ones bless me to enable me to do so.” With each inbreath now, draw in the light of blessings of all the awakened ones of the past, present and future, all converging in upon yourself, so that you blaze with light incandescently like a billion suns. And breath out the light of loving kindness and compassion to all the world. Arouse the resolve, the pledge of bodhichitta: “I shall achieve perfect awakening for the benefit of all beings.” And then rest free of activity in the stillness of your awareness, the ground bodhichitta.

Transcribed by Ana Carolina Boero

Revised by Kriss Sprinkle

Final edition by Rafael Carlos Giusti

Discussion

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