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#1965 - Saturday, October 30, 2004 - Editor: Gloria
Ben Hassine ~ Awakened Awareness
YOU ARE THE EYES OF
THE WORLD
by Longchenpa. Translated by Kennard Lipman and Merrill
Peterson under the inspiration of Namkhai Norbu
The real subject matter, the
way the teaching is set forth, has four parts: (1) becoming
certain through the perspective of the teaching; (2) transcending
limitations through accustoming yourself to this perspective; (3)
overcoming obstacles through the way you conduct your life; (4)
abandoning hope and fear- the result.
Becoming Certain
through the Perspective
Becoming certain has two parts: (1) certainty that what
appears is the play of experience itself, (2) determining that
experience itself is open.
The Play of Experience
All experiences and life forms cannot be proven to exist
independently of their being a presence before your mind, just
like a lucid dream.
All that is has me- universal
creativity, pure and total presence- as its root.
How things appear is my being.
How things arise is my
manifestation.
Sounds and words heard are my
messages expressed in sounds and words.
All the capacities, forms, and
pristine awarenesses of the buddhas;
The bodies of sentient beings,
their habituations, and so forth,
All environments and their
inhabitants, life forms, and experiences;
Are the primordial state of
pure and total presence.
Not realizing that everything
is nothing other than the manifestation of one's mind is called
samsara.
Without understanding me, the
creativity of the universe,
But investigating the phenomena
that I manifest,
You perceive everything
dualistically due to your attachment and longing.
Impermanent, apparitional
things will fade away.
They are aimless, like a blind
man.
Accustom yourself to this
nondual reality where the duality of mind and that which appears
before mind are like a dream.
All that is experienced and
Your own mind are the unique
primary reality.
They cannot be conceptualized
according to the cause and effect systems of thought.
Investigate your mind's real
nature
So that your pure and total
presence will actually shine forth.
The concrete states of
mattersolids, liquids, and so forth should be examined in this
way. Remaining for ten days where no otherness can be found, you
will realize that not even an atom's worth of anything exists
that is separate from pure and total presence. Realizing that,
you will certainly be free from all fabricated obsession with the
otherness of objects. Moreover, the very being of what is
experienced externally, in being an essenceless, open dimension,
is shown to be the state of pure and total presence. In being the
variety of unceasing experience, it is shown to be the play of
pure and total presence. This is not the same as claiming that
whatever you experience is mental because what you experience is
not a mental event but arises as the play of the state of pure
and total presence. That claim does not distinguish between mind
and the state of pure and total presence. The state of pure and
total presence is the clear light, the pure fact of awareness,
nonconceptual ever-fresh awareness, whereas mind is the
motivating factor of samsara: pervasive conceptualization. AsThe
Two Truths says:
Mind and mental events are
concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara.
Whenever the state of pure and
total presence is recognized, mind and mental events cease. Mind
is objectification; pure and total presence does not objectify.
Therefore, even the subject which is held to be mental is also
seen to be the originally pure state of being.
Experience is Open
Dimensional
Because we are unagitated
within, there is no object to seek within.
Since there is no attachment to
an object, there is no object to seek as a support.
With the compassion which does
not arise, does not cease, and is selfless,
Being-for-others is always
available. It does not need to be brought about.
Therefore, examine this present
mindful awareness internally, externally, and in between. First,
where does it come from? Where does it rest now? Finally, where
does it go? Can you determine its color or shape? Wherever this
awareness is present, is it an object which appears externally?
Is it one of the psychological constituents of a person? Does it
exist somewhere in between? Since you have not found this
awareness by examining and analyzing what appears externally or
internally, you ought to conclude that even the ten essential
aspects of tantra are also not found upon inquiry. When you
investigate whether perspective, meditation, commitment,
charismatic activity, mandala, empowerment, stages of
cultivation, paths to traverse, obstacles to purify, pristine
awarenesses, or buddha activity exist in their own right or are
founded on something else and do not find any of these to exist
in reality, this is known as "The great transcendent
nonmeditation, the real significance of the ten primordially pure
aspects of tantra."
[Because my creativity is
beyond all affirmation and negation,]
I determine all events and
meanings.
Because no objects exist which
are not me,
You are beyond perspective or
meditation.
Because there does not exist
any protection other than me,
You are beyond charismatic
activity to be sought.
Because there is no state other
than me,
You are beyond stages to
cultivate.
Because in me there are, from
the beginning, no obstacles,
You are beyond all obstacles;
self-arising pristine awareness just is.
Because I am unborn reality
itself,
You are beyond concepts of
reality; subtle reality just is.
Because there is nowhere to go
apart from me,
One is beyond paths to
traverse.
[Because all buddhas, sentient
beings, appearances,
Existences, environments, and
inhabitants]
Arise from the quintessential
state of pure and total presence,
One is beyond duality.
Because self-arising pristine
awareness is already established,
One is beyond justifying it;
the transmission of this great teaching provides a direct entry
into understanding.
Because all phenomena do not
exist apart from me,
One is beyond duality. I
fashion everything.
According to the capacities of
the individual, this will be recognized in three, five, or eleven
days.
Accustoming Yourself
to the Perspective
After having become certain by means of this perspective,
which is based on the absence of any partiality in the pure fact
of awareness, begin by relaxing your body and mind in a solitary
place. Abandon fear and haste. Seated in the sevenpoint
meditation posture of Vairocana, having been instructed by the
master, relax in the ongoing state of complete self-settledness
without hope, fear, contrivance, or addition. This is majestic
utter sameness- that pure fact of being where mind and what
appears are primordially pure. This itself is the deep experience
of the inconceivable, fundamental dimension of reality.
Listen, great being, understand
in this way:
The way things appear are one
in their pure fact of being.
Do not make any corrections
here.
This king, uncontrived
sameness,
Is the conceptless deep
experience of the fundamental dimension of reality.
Simply stay with that.
Thus you should let the mind,
which is present right now, be in this total sameness of
primordial purity that is like the sky and is free of any effort
of body, speech, or mind. Relax the mind in that naked state of
presence which exists when you are not caught up in whatever
objects may appear. Then there arises, without any intellectual
elaboration, an ongoing lucidity which is not caught up in any
appearances or concepts. This is the deep experience of
creativity, the primordial freedom of mind itself.
Listen, vajra being, now
practice correctly.
When meditating on pure, unborn
reality
What appears is neither
concretized nor latched onto.
Because what appears never
becomes what it seems to be and is intrinsically free,
By realizing how things are you
are freed without having to meditate on emptiness.
This is the deep experience of
"self-originating clear light."
In this bliss which, in its
very being, is free from concepts
There is nothing to objectify,
seek, or contrive with body, speech, or mind.
There is nothing to focus on or
characterize.
just relax in the reality of
this blissful self-generating pristine awareness.
This is the deep experience of
self-originating clear light.
This is the activity, in its
deepest sense, of the majestic creativity which fashions
everything.
Settle into this uncontrived,
stainless intrinsic clarity for as long as possible. Whatever
thought arises in this dimension should be looked at nakedly.
Rest there. By being right there, that thought, without having to
be eliminated, is released. Remaining with that state of
contemplation, the thoughts release themselves right away like a
drawing on water.
In the uncontrived state of the
victorious ones,
Whatever mental states and
thought processes arise never become what they seem to be.
If you know that this is the
situation
You are free from all notions
about striving.
And,
All the movements of mental
activity whatsoever
Do not distract you from the
unborn dimension.
Know that whatever thoughts
arise are meditation,
Even when not meditating, you
will not be distracted.
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