ED, I have comments on the attached but will offer them later. But wanted to share this now.. Does this line-up with the teachers you had? k >You mentioned "when you are simply present to the here and now" & Longchenpa >wrote " Spontaneously present meditative stability".......This idea needs to >be accentuated......for without this settled base, distraction is a continuing >swirl that never recognizes.
Jax: Yes, you are quite right. So let's explore what this "settled base" called "spontaneously present meditative stability" actually is. This base is the result of the absence of belief in an inherently existent "I" or self. When the mind is no longer generating a belief in an inherently existent self, like when we were under two years old, there is no one to become "distracted" nor one that needs to "recognize" in order to become free of a continuing swirl of distraction. Dzogchen makes sense only within the context of there being no one who needs to recognize nor who could be distracted, as is pointed out by Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti. There is no need for practice as there is no one to practice. The idea of a path makes no sense if there is no traveler. Enlightenment makes no sense if there is no one to become enlightened. Purification of obscurations makes no sense if there is no one who has ever been obscured. Saving all sentient beings makes no sense if there are no sentient beings to save. There is no self to realize anything nor to attain anything. Dzogchen starts with this. What we are is this vast field of Emptiness/Being/Awareness/Luminosity. When embodied, its essential Beingness as Dharmakaya, known as the Mother Light resides in the heart chakra. From this Mother Light arises its luminous aspect of Clear Light Intelligence, the Sambhogakaya. This perfect Clear Light Intelligence is called the Son Light. It is a thigle, a crystal clear sphere of pure and perfect Awareness that resides in the brain. The Mother Light and Son Light are inseparable within the central channel, more precisely connected through a Light channel called the Kati. The Light of the Son Light shines out through the eyes. The Son Light can exit the body during life in an out of body experience or in phowa practice. The luminous dynamic energy aspect of the Son has the potential for elaboration into thought etc. and consciousness. This level of consciousness, as pranic energy has a quasi-consciousness and its energies circulate through the various channels of the subtle body, but not in the central channel. It is this quasi-conscious mind that observes the body, emotions, perceptions etc. and generates or imputes a "self" definition, identifying itself with the body and/or personality. This is the origin of the sense of self in the mind. This mind has mistaken the body, personality etc as an actual identity. It is due to the belief in this fantasized self that the mind suffers. When the mind comes to know with total conviction that the personal self is not real, the sense of self is no longer generated. Just like when a child learns there is no real Santa Claus. Although the child may now know it, it still may take a little time to give up the idea altogether. All of this drama is taking place within the Son Light, as clouds of thought energy pervade the crystal sphere of Awareness in the skull. That is why the "I" seems so intimate, it appears within our sphere of Awareness at the subject pole of experience. When the "I" belief vanishes, the Son Light is now called Rigpa or Self-Knowing. But remember, our nature as the Mother Light has never been subject to change, it is the Space in which all things appear. Dzogchen from the beginning takes the position of the Son Light being as it is, without the sense of "I". Hopefully this could be the result of the insights established at the Direct Introduction or during the Trekcho phase. But the philosophical position of Dzogchen is that there is no "self" that needs liberating or needs to recognize something... and that's correct. If we say we do "practice" initially, who is doing the practice? Not the Son Light or Awareness, as it doesn't do practice. Who is the one that becomes distracted? The Son Light doesn't become distracted. The mind is projecting a distracted "self", like a character in our dreams at night, but this is projected while we are awake, due to the minds mistaken sense of identity. How does the mind become free of its mistaken sense of self? There are two ways that I know work. gTumo yoga or Kundalini yoga is for many the easiest and most powerful in the depth of revelation. When the kundalini is activated in the crown chakra, the mind is transformed into its true nature as Clear Light, and ceases creating the "I" or self. All that remains is Rigpa in oneness with its field, and it does notice itself like looking in a mirror during that experience. Later the mind state reappears and may give up the notion of a self as a result, or may continue to generate the mistaken belief until it has more conviction. Or the mind just remains as Clear Light, as the Presence of Awareness. The other way is to do the Madhyamaka investigations into the nature of subjective self and apparently inherently existent objects. It is also possible through Mahamudra or Dzogchen that one's mind may recognize its own nature just through the pointing out instructions or direct introduction, but that's not so easy or successful for most. Of course this may happen in Zen as well, but its very unpredictable unless one has a very experienced teacher. Just "resting" in awareness is usually just resting in a quiet and clear state of mind, with the "I" doing the resting. Milarepa and all branches of Tibetan Buddhism recommend kundalini yoga as the central pillar of practice. Even in Dzogchen, the major teaching manual used today, theYeshe Lama, recommends daily kundalini yoga practice when doing a thogal retreat. If you don't relax and open the subtle-body channels and chakras completely through kundalini yoga, it is more difficult to get the most subtle channels of Light, such as the Kati channel to open thereby revealing directly the all pervasive non-dual Clear Light Mind of Awareness. --- On Wed, 3/16/11, ED <[email protected]> wrote: From: ED <[email protected]> Subject: [Zen] First Master of Dzogchen To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:23 AM Garab Dorje, the first master of Dzogchen, manifested as a human being in the third century B.C.E.. His final teaching before he entered the Body of Light was to summarise the teachings in Three Principles, sometimes known as "The Three Last Statements of Garab Dorje." He left behind this testament for all the Dzogchen practitioners of the future. The Three Statements of Garab Dorje are: "Introduce in the state directly" refers to the transmission by the master, who, in various ways, introduces and brings the disciple to understand the condition of "what is", the individual's primordial state. This is the Base. "Do not remain in doubt" means that one must have a precise knowledge of this state, finding the state of the presence of contemplation which is one and the same in all the thousands of possible experiences. This is the Path "Continue in the profound knowledge of self-liberation" is the Fruit. That means, the complete and unchangeable knowledge of self-liberation is totally integrated with one's daily life and in all circumstances one continues in that state. All the hundreds and hundreds of original texts of Dzogchen can be considered to be an explanation of these three verses of Garab Dorje." from "The Crystal and the Way of Light" and "Dzogchen, the Self-Perfected State" - by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu top
