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Within Stillness, Looking, Scrutinizing, Identifying Awareness/ Emptiness

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Continuing from where we left off yesterday, we are still in the section of insight instruction called “looking at the mind within stillness.” Within this section there are three sections: looking, scrutinizing, and pointing out or identifying awareness/emptiness. Yesterday we finished the first two of these sections. Today we are going to begin with the third section, identifying awareness/emptiness.


First of all, it needs to be kept in mind that all things, as individual things or phenomena, possess individual characteristics. For example, the characteristic of earth is solidity, the characteristic of water is wetness, the characteristic of fire is heat, and so forth. In the same way, the defining characteristic of mind or of cognition is cognitive lucidity or awareness. So when definitions of things are given, it is said that the definition of mind or cognition is cognitive lucidity. However, in another respect, mind, which has this defining characteristic, is quite different from most other things. External things such as earth and water and fire and so on, have the appearance to us of solidity and external existence, but when you consider your mind, while it does have its obvious characteristic of cognitive lucidity, its nature is fairly obviously emptiness. For this reason, in the tradition of the mahasiddhas, the mind rather than external phenomena is taken as the basis of meditation.


In order to establish or determine the emptiness of external phenomena, because we do not experience them as empty but rather as being solid, logical analysis is needed. And even when, through rigorous logical analysis, you have proven to yourself that external phenomena are empty, that emptiness is still not a direct experience. Even after you have proven to yourself that they lack solidity or solid substantial existence, external phenomena appear to have solidity; you still perceive them in that way. Therefore, although, through the reasonings of the middle way school, you can develop an inferential certainty that all things without exception are empty, it is very hard to apply that in the

practice of meditation. For that reason, the path of the sutras33 is said to take three periods of innumerable eons, during which the accumulations of merit and wisdom have to be accumulated gradually, and that buddhahood can only be attained through that path in that way, because it is only through the force of such a massive accumulation of merit that inferential understanding can be used as a basis for the gradual development of true experience. For this reason it has been recommended by all mahasiddhas not to take external objects, external phenomena, as the basis of meditation, but to take cognition itself as the basis of meditation. The reason for this is simply that, when you look at your mind, you can directly experience its nature. It is not concealed from you in the way the emptiness of other phenomena is. The problem is that we have never looked at the mind, and that is what has kept us from seeing its nature; but if you look at your mind, you can and will recognize that its nature is emptiness.

Now the term emptiness or shunyata in any language gives rise to the connotation or image of nothingness. But the emptiness of nothingness is very different from the emptiness of all things or the emptiness of the mind. Nothingness is completely dead, a complete vacuum. The emptiness of all things, however, is not nothingness; it is interdependence. It is the unity or sameness of the appearance of something and its emptiness, the unity or sameness of the lucidity or vividness of something and its emptiness. When you look at your mind, you do not find anything, and the reason you do not find anything is that the mind’s nature is emptiness. But the mind is not just empty; while being empty, its characteristic, its defining characteristic, is awareness. Therefore, when the mind is described, terminology like the unity of cognitive lucidity and emptiness or the unity of awareness and emptiness is used. Unity here is meant very strongly. The nature of awareness is emptiness, and the nature of the mind’s emptiness is awareness. This can be revealed to you in your own experience through looking at the mind.

Though it is true that the path of the sutras requires three periods of innumerable kalpas, it is also taught that through the vajrayana path you can achieve the state of great unity, the state of Vajradhara, in one life and in one body. Now, when you think of the path of the sutras and how long it takes, it sounds utterly impossible that you could achieve the same thing in one lifetime, because if that were true, then clearly the path of the sutras would be unnecessary. However, both are correct; both are true, and the difference is the difference between the absence and the presence, respectively, of the practical instruction of the mahasiddhas to take direct experience, direct valid cognition of the mind, as the path. When you take looking directly at your mind as the path, you can achieve

Within Stillness, Looking…


the state of Vajradhara in one lifetime, and this has been accomplished by the mahasiddhas from whom these instructions have come. It is also true that the great bodhisattvas have gathered the accumulations over three periods of innumerable eons.34 And it is also true that the result of these two approaches is exactly the same. Therefore, we employ the practical instruction of the mahasiddhas, which in essence is to look at one’s mind to recognize in direct experience the mind’s nature, its emptiness; to recognize in direct experience its lucidity; and to recognize the unity of these two. Now, when you are meditating by looking at the nature of your mind, you are not attempting to create or alter that nature in any way. This nature is not something that you can create through the practice of meditation. It is not something that is bestowed upon you by the Buddha. It is something that has always been there, has always been your nature, but because we normally never look at it, we have never seen it. If you look at it, you will see it and you will recognize it.

Therefore, in The Ocean of Definitive Meaning it says, “Rest the mind naturally and in a relaxed way. Within that state of relaxation look nakedly and vividly at the mind.” Now nakedly here means without any kind of barrier between that which is looking and the mind that is being looked at, without any kind of filtration such as a skin or packaging. You are not packaging the mind with ideas about it; it is naked or unwrapped. And looking vividly means that you are looking at it right now with the awareness of right now as a vivid direct experience, something that is clear and present to you right now, rather than considering the mind and thinking about the mind that was or the mind that will be. Further the text says, “And look in this way, nakedly and vividly, without distraction.” This means that while remaining relaxed, you remain undistracted from direct observation of your mind.

The nature that you experience when looking at your mind in that way is what we call buddha nature, which, as the Buddha taught in the final dharmachakra, is something that each and every being possesses. Buddha nature does not need to be created, it is not bestowed upon us by anyone; it is what we possess innately. About buddha nature it is said in the Uttaratantra Shastra, “There is nothing in this that needs to be removed. There is nothing that needs to be added to this. When you look at that which is genuine in a genuine way and you genuinely see it, you will be liberated.” When it says that there is nothing in this that needs to be removed, it means that there is nothing in the nature of the mind that is inherently defective in any way; therefore, there is nothing you have to try to get rid of. There is also nothing lacking in the nature of mind; there is nothing else that needs


to be introduced or added to it. All that needs to be done is to see that true or genuine nature—what your mind truly is—to see it properly by looking at it in the right way, by looking at it in a way free of concepts. So by looking in a genuine way at that genuine or true nature, there is no doubt, you will see it genuinely as it is, and that in itself will bring liberation. Therefore, the practice is to relax the mind utterly and yet to remain undistracted from the direct experience or observation of it. The method of meditation explained at this point is to be free of any kind of alteration—not to alter the mind, but to look at the nature of the mind, to allow the mind to look at its own nature. So be free of alteration and look at your own nature. Being free of alteration also means not having any particular expectation of certain types of experience and not wishing for certain types of experience. For example, you will remember the rainbow meditation, which was described earlier—not wishing for that type of experience. With respect to resting the mind within observation, it was said by Saraha, “If water is undisturbed, it is clear; if it is shaken or agitated, it is unclear. If a lamp flame is undisturbed by the wind, it is bright, but if it is blown about by the wind, it is unclear.” So here the instruction is to rest the mind completely within the act or context of the mind observing its own nature. This will engender both lucidity and stability. About meditating in that way our text says, “Do not look elsewhere.” You are not attempting to look outside that which is looking, nor is this a meditation of not knowing; it is not a meditation of ignorance or absence of recognitions. Rest in awareness in the present instant. Rest in the awareness that is there in the present instant that is awareness of the present instant. In order to do this our text says, “Sometimes tighten up; sometimes use more exertion. Sometimes loosen up; sometimes relax; but always be without distraction and maintain continuous mindfulness.” In more detail the text advises, “During even placement, during meditation, relax the mind; and during subsequent attainment, during post-meditation, tighten up the mind.” The reason why you need to put more exertion into post-meditation mindfulness is that post-meditation by its nature involves lots of potentially distracting factors, such as complex actions and activities, conversation, the need to think about things, and so forth. Therefore, it is recommended that you tighten up your mind in post-meditation and relax it in meditation. This section of our text, the identification or pointing out of awareness/emptiness, has one practice session—the practice itself is not further subdivided—but three teaching sessions. After the first teaching session and the single practice session there are two more teaching sessions, which discuss

Within Stillness, Looking…


the implications of this particular pointing out. Brought up again is the possible problem of mistaking understanding for experience, and again it is stressed that we need to gain direct experience, not conceptual understanding. In addition it is mentioned that there are three ways that genuine insight, lhaktong or vipashyana, can arise in this context. One way is called the arising of insight within stillness or nonconceptuality. This occurs when your mind is at rest and still, and within that stillness of mind you recognize the mind’s nature. For some people that does not occur; they do not recognize their mind’s nature within stillness, but they are able to do so within the occurrence or presence of a thought. So for some people, when a thought arises, they are able to recognize the nature of that thought and, thereby, the nature of the mind. What is recognized is the same, whether the insight arises within stillness or within occurrence. In either case, what is recognized is the unity of cognitive lucidity and emptiness.


Now for some people neither of those insights occurs, but insight arises in a different way, called the arising of insight within appearances. In this particular context, appearances refer specifically to the generalized abstractions that the sixth consciousness generates based upon sense experience. Based upon any one of the five sense consciousnesses, the sixth consciousness can, does, and will generate generalized abstractions that we normally take to be the external object that is perceived by that particular sense consciousness. Whether it is a generalization of form or a generalization of sound, it is the sixth consciousness’ generalized abstraction of the sense experience, and it is, therefore, in and of itself, not an external object. These generalized abstractions

that are experienced by the sixth consciousness are not true external objects; they are projections of the sixth consciousness, and therefore, in a very true sense, they are the mind arising in that shape. They are the mind arising as that apparent form or as that apparent sound, and so forth. So therefore, when looking at these generalized abstractions that arise within the sixth consciousness, if you observe their nature—that they are apparent, that they do appear, that you can experience them, but that they are utterly empty—then their nature is seen to be that same unity of cognitive lucidity and emptiness, and their nature is also seen to be mere interdependence. So if this is directly recognized, this is also a genuine insight. Therefore, there are three different ways

according to our text that insight may arise at this point, and they are all equally valid. I’m going to stop there for this morning and continue with the reading transmission. [[[Rinpoche]] continues the reading transmission.] [[[Rinpoche]] and students dedicate the merit.]



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