We cannot enter the immediate path of Dzogchen until we have intuited the complete futility in the striving on a graduated path. Only then can the graduated path be integrated into the immediate path so that the immediate path can be realized. That is another way of saying that the unitary pathless path is achieved by initiatory experience into the nature of mind.
Evidence of realization is the experience of every moment of the 24-hours as of equal worth. That experience provides the rationale for calling radical Dzogchen meditation ‘nonmeditation’. It is only with the understanding that simply sitting is nonmeditation that we can properly engage in formal meditation. Once we have that understanding, free of any impulse towards enlightenment or at least disabused of the folly that we can actually prepare the ground for buddha, only then can we simply sit.
Such a ritual consumes everyone who has had full experience of mind’s nature and whose only purpose in life is to retain identity with the essence of being. That implies enjoyment of the ritual of embodiment. To put it another way, we are identified with nondual awareness to enjoy the illusory duality of karmic propensity.
There are no degrees or levels of karmic purity: ‘karma’ is karma of the human soul, every manifestation of human life uniformly rooted in the nature of mind. The wheel of life constantly spins, taking us through both upper and lower realms, and all states of mind, surely, are equally illusory and equally sticky.
(Realization as the equanimity of all moments and karmic states)
Freed from the need to produce any result from meditation, the elements of practice become a source and expression of pleasure. The buddhas, wrathful or peaceful, are always inherent in the unitary here and now, never to be confronted in a ‘me’-and-‘it’ dualization. The wrathful deities in the mandala are integrated as compassionate clowns with terrific faces and costumes. The yab-yum pairs are locked into a basic understanding of mutual awareness. The imps and goblins at the mandala’s periphery are sympathetic figures of fun. We play life as a dance of either peace or war, tragedy or comedy, sexual harmony or belligerent conflict, but always as illusionary show intrinsic within the complete and perfect unitary Dzogchen moment.
We play life as a dance of either peace or war, tragedy or comedy, sexual harmony or belligerent conflict, but always as illusionary show intrinsic within the complete and perfect unitary Dzogchen moment.
Thus simply sitting is a product of initiatory experience, rather than a cause of it. To simply sit with the express purpose of relieving the pain of existence is counter-productive — there are other better ways of reducing anxiety. Simply sitting is performed without any purpose at all. Initiatory experience has convinced us that the nature of mind is perfect as it stands and that whatever arises out of it, likewise, is as perfect as can be, and that nothing whatsoever can be done to improve it. Meditation guilds the lily; nonmeditation appreciates the natural flower.
(Simply sitting as purposeless nonmeditation rooted in initiatory certainty)
So long as there is a suggestion — even a hint — of anticipation or hope, a prospect of improvement, ‘a better rebirth’, ‘enlightenment’ in the future, daily practice and simply sitting are undercut and may prove counterproductive.
end. The beginning consists of the Nine Breaths, the Refuge and Celebration (of the Bodhisattva Vow). The rituals of Refuge and Bodhisattva Vow appear at the commencement of all Mahayoga and Anuyoga practices, and are of no less importance in Dzogchen Atiyoga. Insofar as they appear at the start of the ritual they are of primary importance and should not be overlooked as vocal impediments.
We were part of it before birth and we are a part of it after death and, in this life, we are rooted in it. We have never left it and the Refuge is a ritual recognition of that fact.
(Refuge as recognition that we have never left the nature of mind)
In radical Dzogchen Refuge is expressed not in discursive vocal form but in the symbolic sound HUNG. HUNG is the seed-syllable of the heart-center. When we require further confirmation that our refuge is indeed present as the here and now, we can add sotto voce the discursive formula, ‘We abide in the nature of mind that is our refuge.’ We use the first-person-plural to include all sentient beings because whether we recognize it or not everyone is identified with the nature of mind and cannot leave it, and it is useful to recall that often.
Now, we take refuge in the nature of mind where buddha is clear light, dharma is the spectrum of color, and sangha sensory experience. Following the Refuge, Celebration of the Bodhisattva Vow is expressed as the syllable HO! Consciousness of the celebratory aspect of being accompanies the Refuge and suffuses the entire ritual procedure. Implicit in the elation and felicity of recognition of the nature of mind is the open-heartedness that includes all sentient beings, and thus expresses existentially the bodhisattva vow that is expressed as ‘We recognize the spontaneous expression of mind’s nature as fulfilment of the bodhisattva vow.’ In this way we celebrate the enlightened mind and its implicit intent to do whatsoever is necessary for the sake of all sentient beings. Thereby we express discursively the universal presence of bodhichitta, enlightened mind, and our understanding that it is implicit in whatever we do.
Supportive Elements The Dzogchen ngondro practices are best conceived as a lubricant that allows the smooth and automatic functioning of spontaneous nondual perception. It is like playing musical scales before the concert; like a kick-about warm-up before the ball game; like foreplay before sex. If we are totally in sync with the action then we don’t need foreplay, but we can nevertheless indulge in it as ritual pleasure of a different kind.
(Ngondro as lubricant for spontaneous nondual perception, not prerequisite)
Dzogchen abandons the idea of ngondro as preliminary grounding. It lets go of the ngondro as an exercise in removing gross obstacles from the path, lets go the idea of the path as a linear progression from start to finish, from samsara to nirvana, darkness into light.
Clarification of Body: Vajra Standing Posture The vajra-standing-posture is a salutary reminder to the Dzogchen yogi that the physical body is the vessel and the home of the more subtle energetic and mental dimensions and if only for that reason it should be practiced assiduously. The body is the ground and as such can be included totally in the spaciousness of mind. That is an intelligent approach for the yogin who spends his life in the unitary space of the nondual mind. The posture itself is physically difficult, energetically taxing and mentally demanding for anyone who is not in the peak of health, but it should be practiced by all. After rigorous practice that has made it second nature it can be included in the daily ritual. The vajra is the tantric vehicle to buddha — the Vajrayana. In poor translation it is ‘indestructible’ or ‘adamantine’, but it is the one adjective that adequately describes the nature of mind, which, of course, has no substance or attribute.
(Body clarification: vajra posture grounds the physical in spaciousness of mind)
What distinguishes Dzogchen breathing is the potentiation of the awareness inherent in ordinary breathing and the psychological shift that occurs from mental thought-preoccupation to heightened perceptual and energetic cognition. To go straight to the optimal result of the exercise: the visual field becomes a mandala of heightened perception of illusory rainbow-colored phenomena, and insofar as that mandala is free of mentally-projected definition in name and form, it is a very happy picture.
The syllable HUNG is ‘charged’ in the Vajrayana practice of mantra recitation and as a potent seed-syllable in Mahayana visualization, but in Dzogchen realization it is identified with the nature of mind. Thus, when we visualize a cloud of HUNGs carried on the breath, we are investing the energetic phenomena of the breath with mind’s nature and in the process liberating the senses from karmic corruption or interference. The color here is of crucial importance: sky blue evokes the spaciousness that dissolves boundaries while red inspires the heat and flames of demolition that destroy all sense of the material and substantial. Dissolution of the sense of both macro and micro, external and internal substantiality are required before the unitary field of illusory phenomena arises.
The color here is of crucial importance: sky blue evokes the spaciousness that dissolves boundaries while red inspires the heat and flames of demolition that destroy all sense of the material and substantial. Dissolution of the sense of both macro and micro, external and internal substantiality are required before the unitary field of illusory phenomena arises.
Clarification of Mind In this present Dzogchen context ‘mind’ is to be defined as consciousness of the processes of thought and emotion (leaving out its various super-psychological functions). The clarification of mind is then to be achieved by looking for the mind, at the mind and into the mind. First, define the mind as thought and emotion and attempt to pin it down. In the second stage, by identifying specific thoughts and feelings we are in the process of identifying with them even as we gain cognizance of them. Finally, we look into the nature of the thought and/or emotion, or to put it another way, we look at the nature of mind.
II Dzogchen Meditation Sessions The Short Essential Session Homage to Samantabhadra! Nine Breaths Nine deep breaths, emptying the lungs, fully filling the lungs, three exhalations from the left nostril, three from the right nostril, three from both nostrils. And rest easy.
Refuge HUNG! (thrice) Optional: We abide in the nature of mind that is our refuge. And rest easy. Celebration: Bodhisattva Vow HO! (thrice) Optional: We recognize the spontaneous expression of mind’s nature as fulfilment of the bodhisattva vow. And rest easy. Simply Sitting Trekcho nonmeditation: the following indications are not necessarily progressive in development and all are essentially synonymous:
Watching the nature of mind relaxing into the natural state of being bringing the mind back home resting in the nature of mind resting, relaxing, doing nothing sustaining the 360-degree perspective abiding in the nature of mind being the awareness — (‘I am the awareness’) being without fabrication of ‘body’, ‘speech’ or ‘mind’ without accepting or rejecting, without cultivating or demolishing without approval or denial being in nondiscrimination without intention and without goal letting it be, just as it is hanging loosely in nonaction, doing nothing.
The Syllable PHAT! Loudly voice the syllable PHAT to evoke the nature of mind whenever appropriate. Dedication We dedicate the virtue of this practice to the realization of the great perfection in all sentient beings.
(The short essential session: breath, refuge, vow, sitting, PHAT, dedication)
Guru-yoga In the sky in front, just above the line of sight, visualize a bubble of light, and sitting in that sphere is Samantabhadra (Kuntuzangpo) the naked, translucent blue, primordial All-Good Buddha. A ray of blue light streams from his heart-center to our own heart center, saturating, clarifying, illuminating, empowering our entire being. Samantabhadra then dissolves into blue light that streams into your heart-center and dissolves into yourself. Clarification Practices ‘Preferably at dawn and dusk, at the time of changing light, perhaps on a prominence in nature, or inside a room before an altar or shrine, take your seat on a cushion, in vajra-posture.’ Clarification of Body The Three-Pointed Vajra Standing Posture To mimic the symbolic vajra (dorje) stand on your toes with the heals supporting each other, bend the knees to imitate the vajra’s lower forks, pull the chin into the neck, and raise the arms above the head with palms together to imitate the vajra’s upper forks. Breathe deeply filling the body with energy (prana). Visualize the body first as sky-blue in color and then as bright red, haloed in flame. Murmur the syllable HUNG under the breath. Clarification of Speech: Purification of Energy and the Energy Field. The HUNG breathing takes two forms blue and red:
The Blue HUNGs Sitting in vajra-posture, visualize in the torso a large sky-blue HUNG, and emanating from that HUNG a cloud of sky-blue HUNGs of all sizes mixed with the breath and powerfully exhaled in a lengthened outbreath. Of the cloud of HUNGs, separate HUNGs vanish into the structures, the bodies, the objects in the immediate visual field, mellowing, gentling, and dissolving their substantiality and perceived form. Eventually we will be looking at a realm of pure color and shape, the visual field suffused with light. In an open field, the blue HUNGs may enter into both the nano-realm and macro-realm. Then, on the inbreath mix the breath with the mind and retract the HUNGs into the large blue HUNG in the torso. From the HUNG in the torso a myriad of small s HUNGs vanish into the internal parts of the body: into the organs — heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, brain and glands and so on — and the vascular and nervous systems. Every cell in the body contains a tiny blue HUNG, and the HUNGs populating the body dissolve its substantiality so that each inbreath transforms the body into a body of blue light. The Red HUNGs Then changing the color of the large HUNG in the torso to bright red, visualize the cloud of HUNGs emanating from it on the outbreath burning like coals. When projected into the visual field they burn but do not consume the structure, bodies, objects of the macrocosm and microcosm that they enter. Burning away the fabric of existence, they dissolve all materiality, substantiality, leaving only empty, colorful, radiance. Retracting the red HUNG S on the inbreath into the source HUNG in the torso, visualize tiny red HUNGs dispersed by the source HUNG entering into the internal constituents of the body and burning but not consuming its organs and subtle physical systems until the entire inner-body is burning, its materiality dissolved. Continue this HUNG breathing for some minutes then let the visualization fade away. In an extension of this visualization, project the outbreath beyond your proximate space into the outside environment, into the surrounding dwellings, or into the natural environment. A further extension allows projection of the HUNGs beyond the immediate environment into the county.
Flying Vajras: Blue and Red Visualize a sky-blue colored vajra the size of a thumb-joint standing in the heart-center. Let it move within a spatial extension of the heart-center so that it flies freely around the body passing through…
Then visualize the blue vajra moving out of the space of the heart-center and out of the body to move around the internal space of the room and the objects and beings within it until it has passed through the entire volume of the room, before returning to the heart-center. Allow it to take whatever course it automatically takes in its passage throughout the room. Visualizing a flaming bright-red vajra in the heart-center, as before let it explore the body moving throughout its organs and cellular structure, incinerating the substantiality before returning to the heart-center. Likewise, as before, visualize the bright-red flaming vajra…
Blue-black HUNGs Visualize a finger-joint sized blue-black HUNG in the heart-center and a white stick thirty centimeters (12”) long standing in the space in the front at a distance of half a meter (20”). Emanating from the HUNG in the heart-center visualize an endless train of small blue-black HUNGs marching to the bottom of the stick and then climbing the stick in a spiral movement to the top and then spiraling down the stick and back to the heart-center, endlessly. Maintain this entire visualization in a single frame without focusing on any part of the train. Clarification of Mind 1. Cognitively search for the mind: where is it? what is its shape? what is its color? Continue in this search until you come to a definitive pragmatic/experiential (rather than discursive-intellectual) conclusion. 2. Watch your thoughts: what is their source? what is their nature? where do they dissolve? Watch your emotions: from where do they arise? what are their nature? what is their color? into what do they dissolve? 3. Look into thought as it arises; look at the nature of the thought when it is fully arisen; look at its state of dissolution as it vanishes. 4. Determine existentially what comes first, body, speech or mind. Do external circumstances…
Clarification of Mind 1. Cognitively search for the mind: where is it? what is its shape? what is its color? Continue in this search until you come to a definitive pragmatic/experiential (rather than discursive-intellectual) conclusion. 2. Watch your thoughts: what is their source? what is their nature? where do they dissolve? Watch your emotions: from where do they arise? what are their nature? what is their color? into what do they dissolve? 3. Look into thought as it arises; look at the nature of the thought when it is fully arisen; look at its state of dissolution as it vanishes. 4. Determine existentially what comes first, body, speech or mind. Do external circumstances form a synergy that generates a mental response? Do mental constructs or preconceptions produce an energetic response that generates activity? Is it energetic demand that generates both thought and action? Who is the leader, the physical, energetic, or mental department? Solve this koan and rest in its solution.
In pure presence, in the here and now, do not try to change anything, or to add or subtract anything; but without elaborating or concentrating, just let it be. Neither existence nor nonexistence nor space-time is discoverable. Appearances and emptiness are indistinguishable, so that neither eternity nor the void are anywhere perceptible. In this indefinable space no conceptual view or directed meditation is applicable.
The Syllable PHAT! Loudly voice the syllable PHAT to evoke the nature of mind; to decimate an intractable sensory or mental object; to cut short a thought train; or to dissolve an emotional block.
The Semdzin of Emotion Turning the Five Poisons into the Path Whatever colors you have in your mind, identify their emotional character and gaze into their empty nature: Turning the five poisons into the path is a function of primal awareness. The manner of engagement is not to reject desire, anger, sloth, pride, jealousy and so on, but rather to nurture the five poisons as reflexively-released pure presence. When you recall and relive the harm that an enemy has previously inflicted upon you, such as stealing from you, injuring you or embarrassing and shaming you, hatred rises intensely. As that hatred arises, you look deeply into it to see where — not why but where — it comes from, where it resides (in the upper or lower part of the body, for example), and, finally, where it goes. You look for the color and shape of the hatred, and what that color or shape may be. Failing to find anything substantial you see it, however, as primordially empty, self-less envisionment, and you do not seek to abandon it, because it is mirror-like awareness.
As the desire arises, you are gazing at it nakedly, looking at the place in the body it comes from, where it resides, and, finally, where it goes to. Looking at it, you see its color and shape, but finally, you see it with detachment as primordially empty envisionment, and you do not abandon it because it is discriminating awareness.
You feel sleepy, in decline, in a state of dullness, gloom or depression — in short, the mind is not clear. It is imperceptive and bewildered; it is like a frozen computer. Let the sloth arise! As it arises, you gaze at it carefully: who’s sloth is it? where is it coming from? in which part of the body is it to be found? and, finally where is it going to? Does it have color and shape? or any attributes at all? Now, you are looking at it with detachment and it is primordially empty envisionment. Never abandon it — essentially it is awareness of vast spaciousness! Then thinking of your race, remembering your social status, recalling your bank account and cash-in-hand, musing upon your fine bone structure, the power of your voice, dwelling upon your virtues and positive qualities, pride is arising. In the full flourish of pride gazing at the naked proud one, where does the pride come from? in which part of the body does it exist? and, finally, where does it go to? Does it have color, shape, or any other attribute. You see that ultimately it is primordially empty self-envisionment, and preferring not to abandon it, it becomes awareness of sameness. Thinking of someone with…
Realizing the nature of any of the emotions, it becomes one of the various modes of awareness. On the flip-side of the errant thoughts that arise with emotion you discover empty awareness — and what a joy that is! If you search for it, however, you cannot find it, and you become pathetically hopeless. You understand primarily that all of the five emotional poisons are baseless and rootless and empty and therefore cannot be pinned. Later, knowing this, when you are engaged on the temporal path, during the gaps between sessions of meditation, whatever thoughts and emotions arise you remain at ease with them, without any need to examine their nature, their origin, their place of…
(Five poisons turned into modes of awareness through naked gazing)
Essential Pith Precepts: Semdzins Before incorporating any of these semdzins into the daily ritual they should have been practiced deeply and extensively. To integrate them into the practice session they should be brought to the point where no discursive, manipulative thought is required for their application. The brief description of the various supportive practices is included here to serve as reminders. (For extensive commentary and explanation see Dzogchen Training Series 2: Dzogchen Semdzins.) The Semdzin of the Syllable PHAT When you get tired exclaim the syllable PHAT: sometimes let consciousness run free and then forcefully enunciate the syllable PHAT. A state of thoughtless amazement will arise and until another intractable thought arises the mind is known as pure presence (rigpa). Whenever a thought does not automatically dissolve enunciate the syllable PHAT. Experiencing this night and day the meditation of empty luminous mind in its natural condition arises. The Semdzin of the Heruka’s Joyful Laughter Joyfully laugh the exclamation HA, short and forcefully (start with one and increase to five), and as with the exclamation PHAT the mind is secured and the experience of thoughtfree clarity arises. The Semdzin of the Long and Short HUNGs or the Thought-Pursuing HUNGs Identify long resonant vocalized HUNGs with the outbreath and when intractable thoughts or thought-trains arise use the short exclamation HUNG to disperse them. Unmoving from your original condition, clarity of the nature of thought arises.
The Semdzin of the Deity’s Body Visualize oneself as Vajrasattva; visualize Vajrasattva on the tip of the nose, mix him with the outbreath and inbreath; visualize an infinite number of Vajrasattvas in the pores of the skin and the nine bodily orifices emanated on the inbreath and absorbed on the outbreath. With an attentive mind the experience of the consciousness of magnificent pure luminosity arises.
The Semdzin of the Rainbow Body Visualize a small white ‘A’ in the heart-center and focus unwaveringly on a net of five-color rainbow light — translucent, clear, insubstantial — emanating from it in all directions, bounded by the sphere in which you sit. You experience the pure clear light.
The Semdzin of Union At the arising of dualistic appearances (subject/object, inside/outside) gaze intently at the crux (totality) of that polarity and the experience of the serene intrinsic purity of nonduality will arise. By taking the bliss of male and female buddha-union as the path the experience of nondual bliss and emptiness arises.
The 100 Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra Recite the 100-syllable mantra multiple times, beginning the recitation slowly and ending quickly, and completing each session with Vajrasattva’s root mantra. Recite according to the Tibetan phonetics transcribed from Dudjom Rinpoche’s copy that was written in his own hand for his followers: om benza sa tto sa ma ya ma nu pa la ya ben za sa tto te no pa ti sthta dri dho me bha wa su to syo me bha wa su po syo me bha wa a nu ra kto me bha wa sa rwa si ddhi me pra ya chha sa rwa ka rma su cha me chi ttam sre yah ku ru hung ha ha ha ha hoh bha ga wan sa rwa ta tha ga ta ben ze ma me mun cha ben ze bha wa ma ha sa ma ya sa tto ah om ben za sa tto ah
The Vajra Song Chant the Vajra Song of Chogyel Namkhai Norbu:
IV Inspiration and Direction These extracts, taken primarily from Tulku Pema Rigdzin’s magisterial work, The Great Secret of Mind (Snow Lion), are intended to guide the meditating yogin/yogini in the trekcho sitting practice.
(Root masters on the semdzins: PHAT, laughter, HUNG, Vajrasattva, rainbow body)
The Disposition of the Body First, you take a comfortable seat, cross-legged, hands in meditation posture, spine straight like an arrow, shoulders held back like a vulture’s wings, neck slightly hooked, tongue held against the palate and with the eyes lowered. When you can apply these seven instructions of Vairochana in your meditation, then with a straight spine your energy channels are straightened. If the energy channels are straight, then the movements of energy within the body are quietened, and with energy pacified the mind is luminescent.
Then the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyel requested her master Padmasambhava to give her simple instructions that condense the teaching into easy practice. The Guru replied, ‘Listen, you attractive, devoted, and joyful being! There are many instructions on posture, but just sit relaxed and at ease — that’s the essential point. There are many precepts concerning speech and energy, like binding the breath and reciting mantras, but just be silent like a mute — that’s the main thing. There are many key points of mind to follow, like fixating the mind, relaxation, radiating and absorbing light, concentration and many others, but just stay free and easy without trying to change anything, just resting naturally — that’s the crucial instruction. Let the body rest like a corpse, without movement; keep silent like a mute; let the mind be, don’t change a thing. Let pure presence shine, unmodified, just as it is. Relax, at ease, hang loosely in the natural state.
(Padmasambhava’s pith: posture, silence, and natural resting as the essence)
Sustaining the Awareness of Intrinsic Presence In his Wish-Fulfilling Treasury Longchenpa says, You sit cross-legged upon a comfortable cushion, take refuge, and recall the bodhisattva vow. Then, the mind focuses loosely on an object of perception, without any idea in mind, without any thought, distraction-free, radiant and shining, and you stay there without concentration or dispersion for an instant. The object of perception is not externalized, you are free of thought, and material objects and the immaterial grasping mind are not dualized. The mind that meditates neither affirms nor negates; what is in front of the mind is said to be absent, for there is nothing there established. Each separate non-referential perception is equal in the immaculate primal awareness of intrinsic presence. During informal contemplation between sessions of meditation, you recognize appearances as apparent yet nonexistent, like magical illusion, and perform dedication and aspiration prayers for the sake of the six classes of sentient beings, all of whom have been our parents. During informal contemplation between sessions, without even a tit of desire, attachment or clinging to the illusory appearances of this life, you may perform prostration and circumambulation, read texts, make tsatsas, water offering and so on. Maintaining Pure Presence The pure presence that was introduced in the view is itself the meditation. Wherever a single perception falls, you let it hang loosely but firmly, without modifying it in any way, and it rests in naked empty…
With neither affirmation nor rejection, whatever arises in the objective field as a thought form does not crystallize, is not pursued, left unmodified. It is naked pure presence, shining and vivid, with neither projection nor absorption; thus, slowly, pure presence recognizes itself, and you rest in the stillness of the stream of it. Again, when thought arises, you see its very essence as before and it rests in its natural state, free of acceptance and rejection as good or bad, and free of desire and aversion and so forth. You do not follow thought or suppress it like ordinary worldly people, or like lower approach monks who account thought as sin, denying particular thoughts or transforming them somehow. You do nothing whatsoever, abiding in the natural state. When you sustain that practice for days, months or years, pure presence is the automatic constant.
You have no need of other people’s input because meditation is the natural state of things, and you know instinctively with total assurance that no buddha other than the nature of mind exists.
(Longchenpa and Patrul Rinpoche on sustaining pure presence through all arising)
Longchenpa’s Precise Instruction First, in formal meditation, you hang loosely, relaxed, with open natural clarity. You do not label or describe our sensory perception; in that way no attachment to the primal awareness of naked empty presence can arise. With open cognition of the form in the eye, the sound in the ear, the taste on the tongue, the sensation in the body, and the plethora of positive and negative thoughts in the mind, the six varieties of sensory phenomena are neither concretized nor substantiated in any way, and you know pure presence. You do not follow or run after any object, but abiding in translucent perceptivity, experiencing all forms without hope or fear, never modifying or adulterating perception, never rejecting any appearance, whatever arises is released by itself. The mind that apprehends apparent objects in this way is reflexively released in a nonduality of subject and object. Whatever appears in informal contemplation the gap between meditation sessions should be understood to be like one of the eight metaphors of magical illusion; and thus you are released from desire, hatred, and all emotional affliction. When positive or negative mental display arises, convinced that it is without root or base, neither fixate upon it nor reject it.
an aeon you will not eradicate them all. Whatever thoughts arise you let them arise; and when they have arisen you do not cling to them but let them disappear just as a line drawn in water vanishes the moment after it is inscribed. Letting thoughts disappear immediately into their own pure presence is the Dzogchen mode. Gaze at the Freshness If you put all of this concisely, no matter what the quality of the view, whether you are happy or sad, whether appearances are fearful or pleasant, whether mind is active or passive, you do not tilt our mind towards any antidote. Whatever appears, you look nakedly at the essence of the appearance as it arises, and, without modifying it in any way, you just let it be. Then pure presence in all its clarity arises from within. In his Life-blood of the Mountain Retreat Dudjom Rinpoche says, Whatever the sensory field, whatever the object, you gaze at it like a child enrapt before an altar in a temple. You don’t clutch the sensory specifics — you hold to the freshness. Let it be…
When you gain a strong familiarity by staying in that space for a long time, whatever thoughts arise, whether gross or subtle, they will dislodge us; upon recognition of the first thought, whatever thought it may be, in that very moment it is realized to be the play of the spontaneous creativity of dharmakaya. Like a wave falling back into the ocean, the thought vanishes into the dharmakaya. In that space of naked empty pure presence that is the view, always cherishing thoughts of the five poisonous emotions and all the movements of body, speech and mind, and the acts of eating, sleeping, moving and sitting, you are known as the yogis and yoginis who stand guard over the shifting dharmakaya display. This is the supreme method of sustaining the essence of meditation. According to the teachings of the Great Perfection, this is unadulterated by any kind of focus; it is called ‘the great meditation which is nonmeditation’. The River Flow Training In short, abandoning yourself completely to whatever arises, no antidotal practice of any kind is necessary. Totally relaxed, gazing into the arising, clear and pure presence naturally arises. External confirmation is redundant because confidence wells up from within. This view, meditation and conduct rolled into one is called the River Flow Training of the Great Perfection. [Patrul Rinpoche] A Lesson in ‘Meditation’ The method of maintaining the view is called ‘meditation’. When you know experientially [in the view] that all experience of phenomena is apparent yet nonexistent, like magical illusion, then as each separate emotion arises it is free of the need of a separate dose of emptiness as an antidote, because neither the affliction nor the antidote have ever truly existed. Whatever appears, however, should remain loosely in perception just as it is: sustaining that disposition is called meditation.
Some may say that this is a mind-constructed meditation because it does not go beyond mental experience. But the temporal mind of the ordinary being who is the meditator is not the meditating mind — the meditator is self-arising primal awareness free of all conceptual elaboration. When you hear a sound, although it is the ear that hears it, it is the unmodified sound that is heard; likewise even though it is the mind that meditates, the meditation is free of all elaboration.
Hanging Loosely in Pure Presence When you lose our identity in pure presence you can simply sit for short periods. If you cannot stay relaxed in pure presence for any length of time, you should do it for short periods. In a single period, sitting in the sevenfold Vairochana posture, you let the mind hang loosely. As stormy thoughts arise and obscure the meditation, you recall the original view of pure presence that is free of conceptual elaboration.