Source Text
1– The Fundamental Certainties & The Path of Alignment
jalu (’ja ’lus) – rainbow body Earth is the nondual quality of solidity and intangibility. Water is the nondual quality of permanence and impermanence. Fire is the nondual quality of separateness and inseparability. Air is the nondual quality of continuity and discontinuity. Space is the nondual quality of definition and lack of definition. As soon as we attempt to split the qualities and to adhere only to the form qualities of
the elements, we create samsara. The form qualities of emptiness cannot be split from the emptiness qualities of form.
If we try to obtain the experiential qualities of tangibility, permanence, separateness, continuity, and definition; and reject obtaining the experiential qualities of intangibility, impermanence, inseperability, discontinuity, and non-definition or continuous re-definition – this is what is known as duality. In terms of duality we perpetually struggle to maintain the illusion that we exist as solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined beings – and our constant failure to establish this illusion, creates the fabric of the experience of unsatisfactoriness. It’s as if I were trying to prevent myself from drowning by adding more and more weights to my body – and I just cannot bring myself to believe that it is these very weights that are my problem.
I have the ingrained notion that if I let go of reference points for a moment, I would disappear without a trace. There is some truth in that however. This fear isn’t totally groundless. If I let go of my reference points ’I’ would disappear. That is to say, what I think I am would disappear and the nature of being14 would shine through.
Ego is the way in which we perceive. It is a process not a product. It is a style of being which evaporates into emptiness, as soon as we drop the use of that style.
I am therefore not going to use the word ’ego’ again in our discussion. Too many bizarre philosophies have grown up around the word for it to be of any use to us. I am therefore going to use the term distracted-being. In terms of liberation from that state of unsatisfactoriness – I’m going to use the term liberated-being.
Our awareness is unrestricted by the considerations of self-defensiveness. We cease maintaining reference points, or investing in securing territory. Our attention is naked and direct, and we become free in a relaxed manner. This totality of commitment without attachment is known as whole-hearted presence.
2 – Transcending causality
This is why some people think that Lamas can absorb their negative karma or take it on or whatever. This is impossible. If it were possible for you to take on the negative karma of a killer, you would become a killer. You would become a killer because the karma of a killer is the wish to kill.
AI Summary
Rays of the Sun by Ngakpa Chögyam presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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