Month: December 2004 Page 4 of 5

Reflections on Longchenpa – The Middle Path

On 07/12/2004

Since things neither exist nor don’t exist,

are neither real nor unreal,

are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting –

one might as well burst out laughing.
Longchenpa Rabjampa

Tenzin Chodron’s post to the Kagyu Online Study Group reminded me of this wonderful quote from the 14th Century Nyingma master, Longchenpa Rabjampa.

So often recently I’ve felt this urge to laugh in the face of the way things are. Life is such a wonderful and wondrous thing, in all it’s seeming diversity of appearances, however pleasant or unpleasant we seem to find them.

When we look deeply at what seems to arise in our minds, we cannot find anything there whatsoever. Like mist in the morning, the appearances evaporate before the sunlight of our awareness. Yet it cannot be said that nothing is there .. as appearances seem to arise, and play before our mind’s eye.

Does the magic show truly exist?

Does that which we usually say we experience exist or not? Hehehehehheheeh Yes and No or maybe something else. They certainly seem to appear, and yet nothing can truly be found. They seem to arise, but looking deeply, does anything arise? They seem to fade away, but did they go? They seem to be impermanent, but was there anything there to be ‘impermanent’? Does permanent or impermanent make any sense for these mirages, these magical shows?

As we start to see how things really are, such labels as ‘exist’ and ‘not exist’ start to drop away a little, and a smile and laughter often arise.

As we see clearly, we loosen our grip a little on this magical play of the mind, and then, what need is there to ‘adopt’ or ‘reject’ anything? Meditating, all Dharmas are self-liberating, so what need is there to want or not want any of it, or to seek to transform it.

We might as well burst out laughing

Mind in it’s nature is beyond words, you might as well burst out laughing.

Life is beyond words, you might as well burst out laughing.

Seeing our previous behaviour, caught in the net of views, caught up in accepting and rejecting, we can’t help but burst out laughing.

Knowing we’ve only just begun, we can’t help bursting out laughing.

Knowing there’s nowhere truly to go, we burst out laughing.

Never left, never returned.

Subject Object Projections

By Chodpa

On 05/12/2004

In Mahamudra

Understanding the teachings on the illusory nature of the Subject Object distinction used to be rather theoretical for me. Yes, I heard the words, I understood the theory, and it made sense. But, when the chips were down, when suffering arrived, this understanding was nowhere to be seen.

In recent years with the blessing of my teacher, Shangpa Rinpoche, and the precious Mahamudra teachings, the nature of things has moved just a touch out of the realms of theoretical understanding, and a little into just seeing what is.

Shangpa Rinpoche in front of Manjushri Thangka

The twist in the rubber band

I remember that the teaching which had made the most impression on me in years gone by was that experience was a continuity, rather like a rubber band, and that due to delusion, we put a twist in the rubber band, and that therefore one side of the twist is viewed as subject, and the other viewed as object. It made perfect sense of what this delusory way of seeing was, but it wasn’t a directly known reality.

It’s interesting reflecting on this metaphor now, a number of years later. When I look at experience, what do I see? I see all manner of arisings, seemingly there … appearances of different flavours – thoughts, sights, feelings, concepts etc etc. And looking at those appearances, I see nothing substantial there at all. Whichever the appearance, whether of a thought, a feeling, a moment of peacefulness or mindfulness, whatever it is, it evaporates in awareness.

Endless arisings, endless emptiness. Whatever appearance …. emptiness.

No subject or objects, just emptiness-appearances

Are there objects in experience? No. No objects, just appearances of the perception of objects, arising in mind. Is there a ‘me’, a subject, who perceives these appearances? No, just empty appearances themselves. Sometimes a ‘me’ seems to arise, especially when a particularly beguiling appearance seems to arise. This sense or feeling of ‘I’ seems to arise, but like all other appearances, it’s empty, yet seemingly there.

The object was never there, only the empty arisings of the perception of the supposed object.

And the ‘me’ was only there in the misguided arising of a thought of ‘me’, also empty yet seemingly appearing.

Not so much a rubber band with a twist in it, as ‘one taste’, of empty luminosity … a shadowplay …. there, and yet not there.

Decisions

By Chodpa

On 03/12/2004

In General Buddhism

Sometimes you are faced with decisions which seem to have massive consequences, whichever choice you take. Sometimes that choice seems to lead to very mixed results, whichever choice you take.

How can you see which choice to take? Life is so surprising in how it plays out. It’s so hard to ‘guess’ the future, to truly have any sense of what will lead on from this very moment. It’s so tempting to think we know how the future will be …. the story plays out in our mind so easily, so temptingly.

But really, the interconnectedness of things is such that the twists and turns of eventualities are so hard to predict.

What can you truly rely on?

So what can we rely on? Reaching deep into the heart/mind …. where lies the bases for taking life-shaping decisions? How do you ever truly know what is right, or best, or even least-bad? How do you judge? From where, with what?

What do you place your trust in … as the basis, the root?

Decisions ….