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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3848, Sunday, March 28, 2010, Editor: Mark
Since the beginningless state of existence, external reality has
been perceived as such. But all things are the manifestations of
the mind, because everything is the projection of the mind.
- Buddha - from Vajrapanjara Sutra, posted to DailyDharma
Freedom is freedom from worry. Having realized that you cannot
influence the results, pay no attention to your desires and
fears. Let them come and go. Don't give them the nourishment of
interest and attention.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
External reality appears as such to human beings from whose minds
originate diverse dualities, due to an interaction between their
discriminating thoughts and psychic imprints. External reality is
the product of the mind; all appearances are, therefore,
completely unreal, for they are all the manifestations of the
mind!
- Buddha - from Lankavatara Sutra, posted to DailyDharma
There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking
reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is
something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before
reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will
laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be the day you
laugh is also here and now.
- Ramana Maharshi
The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete
carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and
relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into
ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases
tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of
maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process
by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by
welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut
through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should
develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the
entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute
simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and
ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception
and field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching
a mouse. We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not
to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the
world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained
by introspection and concentration.
Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of
being - the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of
awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward
enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is
known as pure or original mind is the source from which all
phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of
potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural
self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The
whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually
interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations,
there is nothing to attain or realise. The nature of phenomena
appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending
awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All
phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually
changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and
significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to
attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present
themselves.
This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a
symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a
symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice
whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.
The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself.
Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to
behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and
beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of
striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced
state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us
and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also
avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are
naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically
enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as
natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become
a specialised or formal event, bloated with seriousness and
solemnity. We should realise that meditation transcends effort,
practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and
non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to
correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play
of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no
need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in
your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious
feelings, we do not have to think "I am meditating."
Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without
attempts to control or force and without trying to become
"peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways,
we stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we
resume our meditation. If we have "interesting
experiences" either during or after meditation, we should
avoid making anything special of them. To spend time thinking
about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to
become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice
and should be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt
to re-experience them because to do so only serves to distort the
natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and
entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They
are experienced in timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration
which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity.
We should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous
fringes of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty
nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala are the
day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or
play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals
the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we
should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from
everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of
events that usually irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present
and future - our experience becomes the continuity of nowness.
The past is only an unreliable memory held in the present. The
future is only a projection of our present conceptions. The
present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why
bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and
preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is
completely unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we
will be incapable of judging our meditation in terms of past
experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with
our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is
enlightenment.
- HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche