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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3921, Saturday, June 12, 2010, Editor: Mark
If you look for the truth outside yourself,
it gets farther and farther away.
Today, walking alone,
I meet him everywhere I step.
He is the same as me,
yet I am not him.
Only if you understand it in this way
will you merge with the way things are.
- Tung-shan, posted to The_Now2
Just keep in mind the feeling "I am," merge in it,
until your mind and feeling become one. By repeated attempts you
will stumble on the right balance of attention and affection, and
your mind will be firmly established in the thought feeling
"I am." Whatever you think, say, or do, this sense of
immutable and affectionate being remains as the ever-present
background of the mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, posted to ANetofJewels
Unless we have the determination to increase our mindfulness from
moment to moment, we will easily forget to practice it.
- Ayya Kemas, posted to The_Now2
Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche
On Dzogchen Meditation
Courtesy of Shechen Gompa, Boudhanath, Kathmandu
BUDDHA-NATURE
Is my meditation correct? When shall I ever make progress? Never
shall I attain the level of my spiritual Master? Juggled between
hope and doubt, our mind is never at peace.
According to our mood, one day we will practise intensely, and
the next day, not at all. We are attached to the agreeable
experiences which emerge from the state of mental calm, and we
wish to abandon meditation when we fail to slow down the flow of
thoughts. That is not the right way to practise.
Whatever the state of our thoughts may be, we must apply
ourselves steadfastly to regular practice, day after day;
observing the movement of our thoughts and tracing them back to
their source. We should not count on being immediately capable of
maintaining the flow of our concentration day and night.
When we begin to meditate on the nature of mind, it is preferable
to make short sessions of meditation, several times per day. With
perseverance, we will progressively realise the nature of our
mind, and that realisation will become more stable. At this
stage, thoughts will have lost their power to disturb and subdue
us.
Emptiness, the ultimate nature of Dharmakaya, the Absolute Body,
is not a simple nothingness. It possesses intrinsically the
faculty of knowing all phenomena. This faculty is the luminous or
cognitive aspect of the Dharmakaya, whose expression is
spontaneous. The Dharmakaya is not the product of causes and
conditions; it is the original nature of mind.
Recognition of this primordial nature resembles the rising of the
sun of wisdom in the night of ignorance: the darkness is
instantly dispelled. The clarity of the Dharmakaya does not wax
and wane like the moon; it is like the immutable light which
shines at the centre of the sun.
Whenever clouds gather, the nature of the sky is not corrupted,
and when they disperse, it is not ameliorated. The sky does not
become less or more vast. It does not change. It is the same with
the nature of mind: it is not spoiled by the arrival of thoughts;
nor improved by their disappearance. The nature of the mind is
emptiness; its expression is clarity. These two aspects are
essentially one's simple images designed to indicate the diverse
modalities of the mind. It would be useless to attach oneself in
turn to the notion of emptiness, and then to that of clarity, as
if they were independent entities. The ultimate nature of mind is
beyond all concepts, all definition and all fragmentation.
"I could walk on the clouds!" says a child. But if he
reached the clouds, he would find nowhere to place his foot.
Likewise, if one does not examine thoughts, they present a solid
appearance; but if one examines them, there is nothing there.
That is what is called being at the same time empty and apparent.
Emptiness of mind is not a nothingness, nor a state of torpor,
for it possesses by its very nature a luminous faculty of
knowledge which is called Awareness. These two aspects, emptiness
and Awareness, cannot be separated. They are essentially one,
like the surface of the mirror and the image which is reflected
in it.
Thoughts manifest themselves within emptiness and are reabsorbed
into it like a face appears and disappears in a mirror; the face
has never been in the mirror, and when it ceases to be reflected
in it, it has not really ceased to exist. The mirror itself has
never changed. So, before departing on the spiritual path, we
remain in the so-called "impure" state of samsara,
which is, in appearance, governed by ignorance. When we commit
ourselves to that path, we cross a state where ignorance and
wisdom are mixed. At the end, at the moment of Enlightenment,
only pure wisdom exists. But all the way along this spiritual
journey, although there is an appearance of transformation, the
nature of the mind has never changed: it was not corrupted on
entry onto the path, and it was not improved at the time of
realisation.
The infinite and inexpressible qualities of primordial wisdom
"the true nirvana" are inherent in our mind. It is not
necessary to create them, to fabricate something new. Spiritual
realisation only serves to reveal them through purification,
which is the path. Finally, if one considers them from an
ultimate point of view, these qualities are themselves only
emptiness.
Thus samsara is emptiness, nirvana is emptiness - and so
consequently, one is not "bad" nor the other
"good." The person who has realised the nature of mind
is freed from the compulsion to reject samsara and obtain
nirvana. He is like a young child, who contemplates the world
with an innocent simplicity, without concepts of beauty or
ugliness, good or evil. He is no longer the prey of conflicting
tendencies, the source of desires or aversions.
It serves no purpose to worry about the disruptions of daily
life, like another child, who rejoices on building a sand castle,
and cries when it collapses. See how puerile beings rush into
difficulties, like a butterfly which plunges into the flame of a
lamp, so as to appropriate what they covet, and get rid of what
they hate. It is better to put down the burden which all these
imaginary attachments bring to bear down upon one.
The state of Buddha contains in itself five "bodies" or
aspects of Buddhahood: the Manifested Body, the Body of Perfect
Enjoyment, the Absolute Body, the Essential Body and the
Immutable Diamond Body. These are not to be sought outside us:
they are inseparable from our being, from our mind. As soon as we
have recognised this presence, there is an end to confusion. We
have no further need to seek Enlightenment outside. The navigator
who lands on an island made entirely of fine gold will not find a
trace of anything else, no matter how hard he searches. We must
understand that all the qualities of Buddha have always existed
inherently in our being.
- thanks to satsangnews@yahoo.com.au