Jax

If you want to know and "practice" original Dzogchen as it was meant to be presented, please purchase all of Chris's books as displayed on his Amazon page. These are all new first time translations of Dzogchen's most profound and earliest teachings. What you will read is quite shocking and revelatory as the Dzogchen view is brought into clear focus. It cuts to shreds any notion of a "gradual path" or need for practice and effort. Chris has captured the essence in his translations of what Dzogchen was intended to convey; immediate enlightenment and release! May all beings prosper! http://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Wilkinson/e/B00KINMI22

You are Just a Passing "Me" Thought and "Me" Sensation If you sit in a comfortable meditation posture, back straight; on a sitting cushion or chair, place your eyes a few feet or a meter in front, on a point or object on the floor. At first just notice your natural breathing pattern for several minutes. Next take the mental position of simply watching your passing thoughts, passing images, passing emotions, passing feelings, passing sensations and passing perceptions. Don't engage or develop any of them. Don't daydream. Stay attentive to the five senses. Just observe like a disinterested video camera. Do just this for several days over several sessions of at least one half hour at a sitting session. When you are able to just sit like a mirror without getting lost in the thoughts, daydreaming and emotions for at least fifteen minutes, then go to the next step: Now do the same meditation practice but now also focus occasionally on noticing the passing sensation of being a localized "me" as the observer of the passing mental traffic as described above. Do this for a week. What is being observed in body and mind are the passing "objects". What is observing the objects is the passing subjective sense of "me" as an observer or there could also sometimes arise a naked, impersonal observingness without a centralized "me" as an observer. The subjective sense of "I am observing my thoughts and feelings" is also a passing thought object. When that thought ceases for a moment, then observing is occurring but without a "you" there. This would be like a newborn baby observing its perceptual field with no self-consciousness acting as a middle man or defined "observer". Practice like this for several weeks gradually increasing the sitting time, but also read this entire instruction daily, immediately during short 10 minute breaks between practice sessions. Eventually an impersonal, non-dual observingness will be the locus of experience. The "me" will arise from time to time, but no longer as "who you are", but rather as a mere passing thought and feeling that can be observed. This heralds the breaking of the mind's identification with an imaginary "me" or self. Besides this dis--identification there is no further liberation possible or necessary. That personal "me" is the karmic self that arises as a mere hallucination until seen directly to be such.

Experiencesare not the issue. They are only distractions. Wisdom insights regarding the empty nature of all phenomena including the seeker, is what the Buddha taught.

Ramalinga was a sun gazer. He achieved the light body according to thogal snd Taoist practice principles. . Sun gazing transforms the the body into a quantum coherent state.

There are no personal self entities either as a "you" or as a some deity to worship. QFT is easy to explain for laymen. There are only fields with no particles or independent entities. It's one unified field. David Bohm's writings on the Implicate and Explicate order offer the math and quantum physics.

Light is the light of physics, not the Clear Light of Rigpa or Dharmakaya. The mathmatic model is already good enough as in QFT; quantum field theory. No entities or ontological status can be found at any level. This coincides perfectly with Madhyamaka.

Shamatha vipassana is used as a laboratory to investigate the principles of twofold emptiness.

Divine is what the Buddha Nature is. The universal Amida Buddha of Light is the Totality, Kunje Gyalpo, Samantabhadra.

Exactly so! It's how this is correctly transmitted!

Some thoughts on personal identity: Its interesting to compare our dream state subjective identity with our waking state subjective identity. In our dreams at night we may have some task or goal we are trying accomplish. In the dream it feels and seems like our identity has some latitude of autonomy and free will to act. Yet we know that each thought, intention, sensation, perception and characteristic of identity, is programmed 100% by the subconscious. There is no pre-existing entity there at all. It's all creative fiction, including the characters and scenery. Let's say we see a church bell swing and then hear the dong sound in our dream. We now know the "bell" never made the sound we heard. No sound entered our ears. The mind just created the dong sound from no mechanical cause that generated the sound. All the thoughts, intentions and sense of identity are created in the same way because there is no self-entity there besides the one the mind generated. This completely fictional nature of this dream self is recognized upon awakening. The strong feeling-sense of "me-ness" as an autonomous person or entity was part of the subconscious projection. It was just subjective scenery like the church and swinging bell were objective scenery. No church, no bell, no "me" ever actually existed outside of the mind's projection. Sometimes we notice in the dream that we are "dreaming" and then we wake up. We sense our waking self suddenly appeared in the dream and realized "Oh, this is a dream!" and we then wake up. But instead consider the subconscious created a "me" self that "noticed it was dreaming" as its creative content. It's not that the "real" waking self appeared in the dream. But yet there seems to be a lingering sense of the continuity of this self when afterwards we reflect upon this dream in which the dream character realized it was dreaming. It's like my "real self" was the real one in the dream all along and somehow managed to notice its dreaming situation and woke up. What is not noticed is something really profound: the "waking real self" is also just another subconscious projection. All of its personality characteristics, sense of personal identity, thoughts and intentions are programmed into and as the "me" self-entity by the subconscious, and that there is no "real me" self there at all! The self-identity as a "me" is simply a subconscious projection created out of previous conditioning, memories and imagination. Especially confusing is the particular subconscious element or content that gives the convincing certainty of being a valid and "real" me. That "self-certainty" is just part of the subconscious content. Its a necessary ingredient to making the self illusion so enduring. The sense of "autonomy" is also a projected mental characteristic. So a "seeker" is not an autonomous identity or person that is choosing to seek, but is actually a projection of subconscious "seeking" characteristics. Likewise there is not a real "me" or self that experiences suffering, but rather the subconscious is projecting a "suffering me" character. The "me" and the suffering are one piece. This is like when in our night dream when we experience fear. It's not that there is a "me" that has a separate emotion of fear occur to it, but rather at that moment the subconscious is projecting a "fearful me" as one piece. The greatest and most important illusion is that there is an actual continuing "me" self that exists over time having various experiences occurring to "it". That "me" self is 100% subconscious fabrication with no real "me" self there at all. When we were born there was no "me" sense at all. It takes almost two years before the subconscious really gets the "me" fabrication up and running in consciousness. What's really interesting is that the subconscious can suddenly cease creating a "me" identity in consciousness. Then we have conscious awareness without a self-identity story being fabricated. This moment is described as "liberation". Its a funny kind of liberation because in this liberation no one, no self and no "me" was liberated. It just ceased to occur. Where did "I" go in such a case?"one might ask. I would suggest "To the same place a whirl pool goes when its ceases whirling... and that's not to say that the location and substance of the whirlpool; the ocean, ceased as well. In this case the "ocean" is the unestablished, unfabricated awake state of nirvana.

From Sri Lankan Master Niyananda: "If, for instance, a vortex in the ocean comes to cease, can one ask where the vortex has gone? It will be like asking where the extinguished fire has gone. One might say that the vortex has 'joined' the ocean. But that, too, would not be a proper statement to make. From the very outset what in fact was there was the great ocean, so one cannot say that the vortex has gone somewhere, nor can one say that it is not gone. It is also incorrect to say that it has joined the ocean. A cessation of a vortex gives rise to such a problematic situation. So is this state called kevalī. What, in short, does it amount to? The vortex has now become the great ocean itself. That is the significance of the comparison of the emancipated one to the great ocean. The commentators do not seem to have paid sufficient attention to the implications of this simile. But when one thinks of the relation between the vortex and the ocean, it is as if the arahant has become one with the ocean. But this is only a turn of speech. In reality, the vortex is merely a certain pervert state of the ocean itself. That perversion is now no more. It has ceased. It is because of that perversion that there was a manifestation of suffering. The cessation of suffering could therefore be compared to the cessation of the vortex, leaving only the great ocean as it is. Only so long as there is a whirling vortex can we point out a 'here' and a 'there'. In the vast ocean, boundless as it is, where there is a vortex, or an eddy, we can point it out with a 'here' or a 'there'. Even so, in the case of the saṃsāric individual, as long as the whirling round is going on in the form of the vortex, there is a possibility of designation or appellation as 'so-and-so'. But once the vortex has ceased, there is actually nothing to identify with, for purposes of designation. The most one can say about it, is to refer to it as the place where a vortex has ceased. Such is the case with the Tathāgata too. Freedom from the duality is for him release from the vortex itself. We have explained on a previous occasion how a vortex comes to be.[710] A current of water, trying to go against the mainstream, when its attempt is foiled, in clashing with the mainstream, gets thrown off and pushed back, but turns round to go whirling and whirling as a whirlpool. This is not the norm. This is something abnormal. Here is a perversion resulting from an attempt to do the impossible. This is how a thing called 'a vortex' comes to be." "Yā c' eva kho pana ajjhattikā paṭhavidhātu, yā ca bāhirā paṭhavidhātu, paṭhavidhātur ev' esā. Taṃ n' etaṃ mama, n' eso 'haṃ asmi, na meso attā 'ti evam etaṃ yathābhūtaṃ sammappaññāya daṭṭhabbaṃ.[716] "Now whatever earth element that is internal, and whatever earth element that is external, both are simply earth element. That should be seen as it is with right wisdom thus: 'this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.'" The implication is that this so-called individual, or person, is in fact a vortex, formed out of the same kind of primary elements that obtain outside of it. So then, the whole idea of an individual or a person is a mere perversion. The notion of individuality in saṃsāric beings is comparable to the apparent individuality of a vortex. It is only a pretence. That is why it is called asmimāna, the "conceit 'am'". In truth and fact, it is only a conceit."

Two-fold Reification: the solidifying of the self belief and the solidifying of our impermanent world. These are the instructions for entering the state of samsara and suffering: First, even though your nature is like all-pervading, transparent, changeless, Aware Space; imagine yourself to be an object in space and time. Imagine you are the body. Feel the solidity of your new identity. Isn't it nice to have something you can really grasp? Next imagine a story about who you are as an imaginary personal self that owns that body. Aren't you proud of your self and your new solid body? How grand to "exist"! You now can even start to collect memories to prove you really existed! Its important at this early stage to make lots of labels and judgments about your new self so you don't lose track of all your unique and special characteristics that help you differentiate your self from all the others "out there". To know that you completed this stage with adequate proficiency, notice if you feel somewhat separate, independent, isolated and alone. If so, that's a good start! Suffering should start occurring anytime soon; sooner rather than later. Now to add some icing to the cake: think of your self as the "captain of the ship"; the controller of the universe! You are the boss! You pull all the strings! You are in total control of all aspects of your life! You know better than anyone else what's real and what's not, and what's best for everyone else too! It's your completely free will that rules the day! Now you know who "you" are! Next, take a look through the body's five senses. What do you see? The eyes only see colors. The ears notice vibrations. The tongue notices flavor sensations and temperature. The nose notices scents in the air. Through contact with your skin you also sense temperature, pressure, texture and pain. This is how a new born baby experiences the world of experience. To make sense of this sensory input, you need to start sorting out the different colored shapes, sounds, tastes, odors and tactile sensations. A good way to do this is to imagine names along with concepts that encapsulate what these stimulations mean to you. What's nice is that people will share their ready-made labels and meanings with you for free! Just accept their labels as-is like everyone else does. That's how to be a respectful citizen of samsara! Now let's make clear what's yours and what's not. Label what's yours as "mine". Even though nothing is really yours, it's all just the unowned universe; its fun to pretend! Now let's label yourself as a separate "me" and label outside of your skin "others" and other things. Now you have the labels "inner" and "outer" with no effort at all. If we look carefully, we will see only processes occurring all around and within us, but no fixed things. That won't do at all! So let's make up nouns to describe these impermanent changes that make up our world. Now "things" seem more solid and predictable, and therefore controllable. That just feels better, doesn't it? But we have to forget that these labels don't really represent the changing flux of experience, so dumbing-down is a great way to do this! Just ignore the temporary nature of everything! Pretend its all forever going to be just like you would love it to be. Noticing that changing things, people and circumstances don't live up to their static labels, gives an overall sense of existential angst. The more we resist the intrinsic tendency of the labels to not hold true, the more frustration we feel. Now we are really beginning to "feel" the effects of our hard won efforts at artificial labeling; as suffering is now authentically arising. See? It's not so hard to develop suffering and delusion when we simply believe in our made-up labels and concepts. Now when you are tired of the suffering produced through the two-fold reification of names, labels and concepts: just remember that you made them all from 100% imagination! If you really notice that fact clearly, all suffering will instantly cease. That reversal is called realizing "two-fold emptiness"; the clear seeing that ALL of our suffering is caused by our beliefs and convictions that we so tirelessly developed with great alacrity in our effort to reify our self and our world.

Two-fold Reification: the solidifying of the self belief and the solidifying of our impermanent world. These are the instructions for entering the state of samsara and suffering: First, even though your nature is like all-pervading, transparent, changeless, Aware Space; imagine yourself to be an object in space and time. Imagine you are the body. Feel the solidity of your new identity. Isn't it nice to have something you can really grasp? Next imagine a story about who you are as an imaginary personal self that owns that body. Aren't you proud of your self and your new solid body? How grand to "exist"! You now can even start to collect memories to prove you really existed! Its important at this early stage to make lots of labels and judgments about your new self so you don't lose track of all your unique and special characteristics that help you differentiate your self from all the others "out there". To know that you completed this stage with adequate proficiency, notice if you feel somewhat separate, independent, isolated and alone. If so, that's a good start! Suffering should start occurring anytime soon; sooner rather than later. Now to add some icing to the cake: think of your self as the "captain of the ship"; the controller of the universe! You are the boss! You pull all the strings! You are in total control of all aspects of your life! You know better than anyone else what's real and what's not, and what's best for everyone else too! It's your completely free will that rules the day! Now you know who "you" are! Next, take a look through the body's five senses. What do you see? The eyes only see colors. The ears notice vibrations. The tongue notices flavor sensations and temperature. The nose notices scents in the air. Through contact with your skin you also sense temperature, pressure, texture and pain. This is how a new born baby experiences the world of experience. To make sense of this sensory input, you need to start sorting out the different colored shapes, sounds, tastes, odors and tactile sensations. A good way to do this is to imagine names along with concepts that encapsulate what these stimulations mean to you. What's nice is that people will share their ready-made labels and meanings with you for free! Just accept their labels as-is like everyone else does. That's how to be a respectful citizen of samsara! Now let's make clear what's yours and what's not. Label what's yours as "mine". Even though nothing is really yours, it's all just the unowned universe; its fun to pretend! Now let's label yourself as a separate "me" and label outside of your skin "others" and other things. Now you have the labels "inner" and "outer" with no effort at all. If we look carefully, we will see only processes occurring all around and within us, but no fixed things. That won't do at all! So let's make up nouns to describe these impermanent changes that make up our world. Now "things" seem more solid and predictable, and therefore controllable. That just feels better, doesn't it? But we have to forget that these labels don't really represent the changing flux of experience, so dumbing-down is a great way to do this! Just ignore the temporary nature of everything! Pretend its all forever going to be just like you would love it to be. Noticing that changing things, people and circumstances don't live up to their static labels, gives an overall sense of existential angst. The more we resist the intrinsic tendency of the labels to not hold true, the more frustration we feel. Now we are really beginning to "feel" the effects of our hard won efforts at artificial labeling; as suffering is now authentically arising. See? It's not so hard to develop suffering and delusion when we simply believe in our made-up labels and concepts. Now when you are tired of the suffering produced through the two-fold reification of names, labels and concepts: just remember that you made them all from 100% imagination! If you really notice that fact clearly, all suffering will instantly cease. That reversal is called realizing "two-fold emptiness"; the clear seeing that ALL of our suffering is caused by our beliefs and convictions that we so tirelessly developed with great alacrity in our effort to reify our self and our world.

First, realization of twofold emptiness is required. That is my first teaching step. It requires using shamatha as a basis for exposing this vipassana insight. I teach exactly that. Otherwise "rigpa" becomes reified into a super-self. Likewise the notions of cause and effect practices have to be seen as empty fiction. Otherwise methods will be reified as a means for a fictional self to attain something better for itself. I always teach Prasangika Madhyamaka as the first step before Dzogchen. Then we verify it through shamatha and vipassana exercises. Only then is the mind prepared for Dzogchen. Mipham Rinpoche composed a brief text called The Beacon of Certainty, in which he states: "In order to have perfect certainty in Dzogchen kadag, one must have perfect understanding of the view of the Madhyamaka Prasangika. Kadag, or original, primordial purity, is the view of Dzogchen, and in order to perfect that view, one must perfect one’s understanding of the Middle Way Prasangika view. What this implies is that the view of Dzogchen kadag and the view of the Prasangika school are the same."

Actually my view is "anti-intellectual" and "anti-conceptual" in view. Only true Yogis understand Dzogchen, Ati yogis. The "direct pointings" are not unlike Patrul's sudden "phet" teaching. A powerful pointer can collapse the dualistic mind and thereby open a glimpse of naked rigpa. But also rigpa arose here during tantric tsa lung practice of Anuyoga. Tulku Urgyen explains what one does after this authentic glimpse: Tulku Urgyen: "The bottom line of being introduced to mind essence is to recognize that it is empty, cognizant, self-existing, suffused with knowing. That is the true training in recognizing the nature of mind. The key point, after being introduced and recognizing, is to not do anything to the natural state. We do not have to try to improve upon this empty cognizance, or try to correct it in any particular way that requires effort on our part. In fact, we do not need to do anything to make our mind empty and cognizant. It does not require any job whatsoever. This nondoing itself is the training, and it is the opposite of our usual habit. Simply train in not correcting this empty cognizance, which is our natural state."

The descriptions written by people about me are from people that don't know me, haven't read my books, haven't attended my retreats and are in the cult of conservative traditional lineages and who don't understand Dzogchen. Not one word of criticism posted on Dharma Wheel against me is true. The one's who wrote those criticisms lied blatantly and knowingly. I first began studying Dzogchen in 1968, long before many of the critics were born! Lineages: Karma Kagyu empowerment with Sabchyu Rinpoche at Swayambhu, Nepal, 1978. Received all the Semde, Longde and most Mengagde transmissions including Yang Ti from Namkhai Norbu in the middle 80's. Thogal from the Yeshe Lama with a Nyingma Lama in 1986 who trained under Dudjum Rinpoche. Bon trekchod and thogal from the Menri Lopon. Nyingma and Kagyu traditions of gTumo from Kyabchab Rinpoche. Transmissions from Lama Wangdor and Dr. Trungawa, and Kalu Rinpoche. I also trained in Mahamudra in the Dalai Lama's lineage. I am a lineage holder in the Chinese Chan lineage of Hsu Yun, from when I was in China. There is much more also in the Japanese Zen Soto and Rinzai lineages. Namkhai Norbu gave me permission to teach Dzogchen Semde.

It's not non-existence because weather is happening. There is "external" weather as experienced as the five senses. There is "internal" weather as mental and emotional weather events. Neither are caused by a "weatherman". Weather occurs without an individual causing any aspect of the weather, even the sense of being a causitive agent is just more impersonal weather.

Contented Mind: The Life of Gen Lamrimpa The Venerable Jampal Tenzin, Gen Lamrimpa, teaches that a contented mind is within our grasp, no matter how difficult the conditions of our lives. Genla, as he is affectionately called by his students, is one of the small number of Tibetan monks who spend most of their time in solitary meditation. He makes his home in a forest hut in Sikkim, where he lives simply and engages in spiritual practices. Quotes from Gen Lamrimpa: "The entire universe and everything in it is conceptually designated." "We say that phenomena are established by the power of conceptual designation." "Since phenomena do not exist inherently, they must exist conventionally. And since phenomena are established by the power of convention, they exist in a dependent fashion. Phenomena are dependent upon something else; in particular, they are dependent upon conceptual designation." "There are a number of Buddhist scriptures that make this point. For example, there are sutras that say phenomena are established by conception. Also, Nagarjuna’s writings say that phenomena are established by thought, and Aryadeva makes the same point. All these Buddhist writings say that phenomena are established by convention, and what they mean here is that they are conceptually designated." "This is an assertion unique to the Prasangika Madhyamaka view. All four Buddhist philosophical systems affirm that phenomena are dependent upon the collection of their preceding causes and conditions. But apart from the Prasangika system, the other Buddhist philosophical systems do not assert that phenomena are established by conception. Advocates of those other systems are not able to comprehend this point." "Nagarjuna comments that total emptiness, or universal emptiness, remains upon the complete cessation of all appearances of conventional reality. In the absence of all conventional appearances, that emptiness can be called “the clear light of the fourth occasion.” The Buddhist scholar Sangye Yeshe states that this mind of clear light pervades all of space. This indicates the essential nature, or the mode of being, of the awareness (rigpa)." "We can ask this question in relation to the “I.” How does the “I” exist? First of all, the “I” does not exist except as a conceptual or verbal designation. Apart from that, the “I” has no other mode of existence." (Translated from Tibetan by B. Allan Wallace)

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso: There can be a nihilistic view only if there is someone to hold it, but since there is no one to have any view, then there can be no nihilism. Furthermore, since the thought of nihilism neither arises nor abides nor ceases, there can be no nihilism in genuine reality. Genuine reality transcends the conceptual fabrications of realism and nihilism. It transcends karmic actions and results, and the absence of karmic actions and results as well. If karmic actions and their results do not exist in the abiding nature of reality, then what is the quality of their appearance? Nagarjuna describes this in the chapter’s thirty-third verse: 'Mental afflictions, actions, and bodies, As well as actors and results, Are like cities of gandharvas, Like mirages, and like dreams.'

No Self Reincarnation; A Deeper Inquiry Looking at reincarnation from the deepest level possible reveals that no entity or self actually transmigrates. When asleep at night, the subconscious mind projects "you", your body, your thoughts, your sense of identity, your clothes, your emotional state and your actions. It also projects the dream landscape and all the cast of characters along with what they say and do. When "you" travelled from one location to another distant location in the dream, no "you" actually travelled or moved but instead the "you" was being projected as though "traveling" or moving. The landscape didn't pre-exist to travel through nor did "you". Likewise, our world landscape, our "self", body, thoughts, identity, emotions, clothing, and actions are being projected from a deeper level or source, like energetic holograms instead of being just dreamed appearances. This also applies after the "death" of the physical body. The entity we seem to be in the after-life or bardo is also merely a projection from a deeper source. If it is possible to slow down the projection to see the individual movie frames, one would see individual bursts of cognition that contain all the details of that momentary flash of consciousness. Between the flashes of consciousness as the movie content, there exists only emptiness. Then a micro-second later the next movie frame flashes forth with no physical connection to the last movie frame. But when these movie frames speed up it seems there is an unbroken continuity of a self in a stable and pre-existing environment. Seeing this is similar to seeing the empty space between your last thought and before the next thought arises. The individual thoughts in this case are the current bursts of cognition arising from emptiness. During profound moments mental stillness, this gap can be noticed. It's a moment devoid of content. Then the next burst of consciousness arises with a sense of self and its topic. That cognition ceases and the empty gap is all that remains. Then out of that empty gap the next sense of self arises with its topic. So you see there is no self continuing during the empty gaps. Seeing this its realized that no self exists, except as the momentary sensation of one that immediately vanished to be replaced by the next version of "me". The "entity" that seems to exist in the after-life or bardo is just this momentary projection as a burst of cognition of a "me" moment. But no "me" is existing before or after the micro-burst of cognition. Because of the rapidity of the micro-bursts of cognition, it seems like a stable "self" or "me" is continuing in time. Besides this false impression of a continuing "me", there is no other continuing identity as a self. There is no personal "you" at any time. For this to be known, the mind must slow down to the point of being able to observe the individual bursts of cognition followed by an empty gap which is then followed by the next burst of cognition. The mind-movie is now being seen as individual, separate picture frames of cognition. This is like being in a dark room and to swirl a lit incense stick rapidly in a circular fashion. To someone observing it would look like one circle of light. Slow the whirling and the circle disappears and only a single point of light can be found. Likewise the sense of there being a continuous self or "me" disappears when we slow the thinking mind down. All that remains is the empty gap and that empty gap can't be defined. It's our true nature as the empty creative Source. But it's not just a blank emptiness; it always reveals its infinite potential by the arising of the next burst of cognition. Seeing this is the wisdom prajna of self emptiness. Slow down the movie frames and the illusion of a continuous self disappears. There is no self, was no self, never will be a self to become enlightened or to die or to reincarnate or to be reborn! Since the micro-burst of a "me" self has no duration in time, how can't it perform actions that result in karma? And since that self disappeared in the same micro-second, who gets the karma? So how does practice benefit this non-existent self (without any duration)that doesn't exist long enough to practice or to do anything?

No one has ever been liberated or born or reincarnated: Diamond Sutra: SECTION XXV. THE ILLUSION OF EGO "Subhuti, what do you think? Let no one say the Tathagata cherishes the idea: I must liberate all living beings. Allow no such thought, Subhuti. Wherefore? Because in reality there are no living beings to be liberated by the Tathagata. If there were living beings for the Tathagata to liberate, He would partake in the idea of selfhood, personality entity, and separate individuality."

I don't see how this Yang ti is Yang Ti like Dung Tso Repa's Dark Retreat practice.