Month: May 2005

Because of the unobstructed nature of the mind, there is a continuous arising of appearances.
Like the waves and the waters of the ocean, which are not two (different things),
Whatever arises is liberated into the natural state of the mind.
However many different names are applied to it in this unceasing process of naming things,
With respect to its real meaning, the mind (of the individual) does not exist other than as one.
And, moreover, this singularity is without any foundation and devoid of any root.
But, even though it is one, you cannot look for it in any particular direction.
It cannot be seen as an entity located somewhere, because it is not created or made by anything.
Nor can it be seen as just being empty, because there exists the transparent radiance of its own luminous clarity and awareness.
Nor can it be seen as diversified, because emptiness and clarity are inseparable.
Immediate self-awareness is clear and present.
Even though activities exist, there is no awareness of an agent who is the actor.
Even though they are without any inherent nature, experiences are actually experienced.
If you practice in this way, then everything will be liberated.
With respect to your own sense faculties, everything will be understood immediately without any intervening operations of the intellect.
Just as is the case with the sesame seed being the cause of the oil and the milk being the cause of butter,
But where the oil is not obtained without pressing and the butter is not obtained without churning,
So all sentient beings, even though they possess the actual essence of Buddhahood,
Will not realize Buddhahood without engaging in practice.
If he practices, then even a cowherd can realize liberation.
Even though he does not know the explanation, he can systematically establish himself in the experience of it.
(For example) when one has had the experience of actually tasting sugar in one’s own mouth,
One does not need to have that taste explained by someone else.
Not understanding this (intrinsic awareness), even Panditas can fall into error.
Even though they are exceedingly learned and knowledgeable in explaining the nine vehicles,
It will only be like spreading rumors of places which they have not seen personally.
And with respect to Buddhahood, they will not even approach it for a moment.
If you understand (intrinsic awareness), all of your merits and sins will be liberated into their own condition.
But if you do not understand it, any virtuous or vicious deeds that you commit
Will accumulate as karma leading to transmigration in heavenly rebirth or to rebirth in the evil destinies respectively.
But if you understand this empty primal awareness which is your own mind,
The consequences of merit and of sin will never come to be realized,
Just as a spring cannot originate in the empty sky.
In the state of emptiness itself, the object of merit or of sin is not even created.
Therefore, your own manifest self-awareness comes to see everything nakedly.
This self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness is of such great profundity,
And, this being so, you should become intimately acquainted with self-awareness.
Profoundly sealed!
Verse 27
Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness
Terma by Karma Lingpa
From Padmasambhava

Effort and Letting Go

By Chodpa

On 10/05/2005

In Taoism

There is this profound play between application of effort, and letting go.

Sometimes, and in some ways, one has to galvanise ones energy, enlist ones desire, focus aspiration, and strive for the goal. Whether that is in terms of life overall, or a particular moment within it, there is the need to make an effort.

And then, there is letting go. Opening profoundly to what is, and allowing it to be, just as it is. How hard is it to see something, and not ‘touch’ it with the mind in a way that changes and transforms it?

I feel the Yin-Yang diagram models very acutely the ideal nature of awareness and effort.

The Yin and Yang of effort

Within the Yang of effort, lies a small circle of Yin, or letting go. And within the Yin of letting go lies the small circle of Yang, effort. So each contains something of the other within.

Is it truly possible to make the right sort of effort to transform ones mind, or just to be aware, without seemingly ‘within’ that an element or sense of letting go, of opening, of allowing to be?

And is it possible to let be, without somehow ‘engaging’ that (well not for me, who hasn’t reached a level where such ‘letting be into minds own nature’ is a totally natural and continuous process).

Gently holding a bird in the palm of your hand

Like gently holding a bird in ones hand, one holds dharmas in ones awareness. Moment by moment, one raises the effort of awareness, and allows that awareness to just be, with whatever it ‘sees’.

Generation stage practice involves putting forth effort, yet there is letting be within that, like the Yin in the Yang.

Completion stage practice rests in what is, yet that lies poised on the wave of what has gone.

There’s the spirit of inquiry which seeks to penetrate how things are, and the resting in ‘not-knowing’, which allows for non-holding, non-judging, and non-appraising. How do we penetrate the mysteries of how things are, without a profound effort to ‘see’ and ‘know’? Yet all effort is ‘fabrication’, and alters that which is seen, so letting go allows for the natural unfolding of ‘how it is as it is’.

Putting forth and letting go

This dynamic seems to be seen in many aspects of the spiritual life … putting forth, and letting go, at one and the same time.

The question is not which is better, but how to you encompass both, and know which to emphasize when?

And that is answered in experience, through trial and error, through reflection and experience …. through the blind man groping along the path

🙂

Clarity and Emptiness

By Chodpa

On 05/05/2005

In Mahamudra

How dreamlike is this life ….

Bringing experiences to mind from the past – they are like shimmering dreams, with a life of their own, never quite the same, and seemingly not like the experience in the present which seemed to inspire them.

And that experience in the present, which had previously seemed so solid and real – the more I come back to awareness, the less that which seems to appear in awareness has any solidity at all.

It’s funny – you’d think that the more aware you were, the more crystal clear things would get, wouldn’t you?

Vividness and clarity

And yet it doesn’t seem to be like that. Yes, there’s a vividness to phenomena as the mind settles and things are more ‘clearly’ seen amongst the spaciousness of a still mind. Yet as you look, things melt away in that awareness, and shimmer and slide before the mind’s eye. Like mirages, thoughts, sights and sounds seem more brightly there, yet present nothing more solid to awareness than dreamlike illusions.

It’s a strange conundrum, that things appear more bright and clear as mind settles, yet simultaneously they lose their assumed solidity. Simultaneously more there, and yet less there.

And all the criteria used to describe this, and analyse this … also the same way … the sharpness of the intellect, and vision, which brings things into focus, and the melting away of things once in that gaze ….

hmmm …..

a Dzogchen / Mahamudra blog