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Bax44, from your original post it sounds to me like you've opened your higher centers and are feeling ungrounded. I experienced similar symptoms. Depersonalisation/derealisation, over-emotionalism, feeling like I'm in a dream, loss of libido, loss of self, feeling like nothing matters etc. All these symptoms have deep meanings but are also symptoms of being ungrounded and loosing touch with your lower body/self. Squats using heavy weights helps. As does "the horse stance", putting your awareness into your dantian, testicular breathing and sinking chi. I use these techniques and it sorts me right out.

I was interested to read the original text so I made a translation which I will post below for anyone that might be interested. (If you wish to discuss the translation, please post here. Thank you.). 吕洞宾 百字碑 Lu Dong Bin, 100 Character Tablet 1養氣忘言守 Nourish Chi, forget words. Guard (this state. [nourishing and guarding correspond in meaning]). 降心為不為 Lower the heart-mind’s activity to no activity. 11動靜知宗祖 In the stirrings of clarity and calm, know the ancestral originator 無事更尋誰 Without busying oneself further by searching for anyone. 21真常須應物 The true unchanging principle has to respond and adapt to things. 應物要不迷 In adapting to things, it is necessary not to become confused. [*1] 31不迷性自住 Not being confused, Xing (life-heart) naturally resides. 性住氣自回 Xing (life-heart) remaining, chi naturally returns. 41氣回丹自結 Chi returning, medicine is naturally formed 夢中配坎離 In a dream, the marriage of kan (water) and li (fire) 51陰陽生返復 Yin and yang arise and return, repeatedly 普化一聲雷 All things transform in one clap of thunder 61白雲朝頂上, White clouds of the morning above the summit [*2] 甘露灑須彌。 Sweet dew trickles down mount Sumeru 71自飲長生酒 Naturally drinking the long-life elixir 逍遙誰得知 Roaming freely. Who knows of this? 81坐聽無弦曲 Sitting and listening to the stringless tune 明通造化機 Clarity passes through unhindered to create the mechanism of change 91都來二十句, These twenty verses 端的上天梯 Begin the ascent on the ladder to Heaven *1. alt. translation: The true principle always responds to things. This responsiveness must not be lost. *2. 頂 ding, also means “crown of the head.”

Tantric Ngondro: The Essential Practice to gain stability in the View and Experience of Sunyata Dzogchen View of Tantric Ngöndro A Teaching by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche Transcribed by Ngak'chang Rinpoche from oral teachings given by His Holiness Jigdral Yeshé Dorje Dudjom Rinpoche, first Supreme Head of the Nyingma School in exile from Tibet; augmented by replies to questions asked by Ngak'chang Rinpoche in private audiences, relating to the short Dudjom gTérsar ngöndro, Bodhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1979. Whatever the practice in which we engage, relative truth and absolute truth are co-existent. Method and wisdom are co-existent. Experiences and emptiness are co-existent. Because this is the nature of the reality we experience, the practice of tantric ngöndro exists as a method for realizing the beginningless enlightened state. The final phase of Tantric ngöndro, Lama'i Naljor, is the quintessence of this method. In the practice of Lama'i Naljor you reach this level of wisdom when the Lama dissolves and becomes one with you. At this point you remain in the absolute nature of things, which is the actual state of meditation as it is [as it is transmitted in the Dzogchen teachings]. At the beginning of the tantric ngöndro we invoke the presence of the Lama. Since the Lama is the one who exemplifies both the qualities of path and goal, we acknowledge the Lama as the beginning and end of all practice. After having begun by acknowledging the Lama, we consider the difficulty of gaining human form [in terms of having the conducive circumstances to practice]. This form is the basis of the spiritual path of liberation and is therefore precious and worthy of great respect. If you do not value the situation in which you have found yourself, then you will not make use of your precious circumstances and a great opportunity will be squandered. Then we consider impermanence and death. Everything that exists is subject to change and dissolution. Even though you die you don't find freedom simply by losing your physical form. You just go on circling in samsaric vision, taking countless other forms according to your patterned perception. The nature of samsara is the experience of suffering which arises through the attempt to maintain the illusion of duality. We contemplate upon that. Then we reflect upon our conditioning and the pattern of our karmic vision. We recognize the manner in which our perception and responses are all governed by dualistic conditioning that is so difficult to undermine. These are called the Lo-tog nam-zhi -- the Four Thoughts which turn the mind to practice. Their purpose is to encourage the attention away from compulsive patterning and re-patterning. It is important to dwell on these Lo-tog nam-zhi at the beginning of the practice in order to generate the appropriate motivation for practice. Practicing in this way is like smoothing out a ploughed field to make it even and ready for sowing. Then we need to sow the seed itself. To sow the seed is to receive Refuge; to generate bodhicitta; to offer kyil-khor [for the accumulation of causes conducive to the fulfillment of method and wisdom] and purification through Dorje Sempa recitation. These practices are like seeds sown in the ground [made ready by the contemplation of the Lo-tog nam-zhi]. From the perspective of the relative condition [in which we find ourselves] it is not possible to realize the absolute nature of reality without relating with what is relative. Without using the relative situation as a basis you cannot realize the true nature of the Mind. In the same way, without this relative practice, you cannot directly apprehend the nature of emptiness. The relative and absolute co-exist -- they go hand in hand; it is really very important indeed to realize this. Let us now look at Refuge. At the external level there are what are called the Kön-chog Sum : sang-gyé, chö and gendün [buddha, dharma and sangha]. Sang-gyé is the source of chö. Those whose minds are turned towards chö are gendün. Because we exist in duality we experience delusory dissatisfaction. Because of this, we take Refuge in order to be freed from the experience of self-generated dissatisfaction. Due to misapprehending our true nature [because of the delusory appearances that arise when the various elements coalesce in accordance with patterns of dualistic confusion] this human body becomes the container of endless dualistic projections. It becomes a source of attachment, in terms of supplying delusory definitions of existence. This attachment remains very strong until you see the true nature of existence. Until you are completely freed from the delusion that your body validates your existence, dissatisfaction will continually color your experience. Because of this, Kön-chog Sum exist as a focus of Refuge. So, externally speaking, one should take Refuge in sang-gyé, chö and gendün with devotion. But internally, sang-gyé, chö and gendün are symbolic. They are a profound and skilful way to lead us out of this self-created illusory samsara. From the Dzogchen point of view, sang-gyé, chö and gendün are within us. On the absolute level, this mind of ours, which is empty of all referential co-ordinates, is in itself sang-gyé [rigpa -- radiant self-luminosity]. Externally, chö manifests as sound and meaning: you hear it and you practice it. But from an internal point of view, chö is empty. In essence, it is the unceasing, unobstructed, self-luminous display of rigpa -- primordial Mind. Externally, gendün comprises those whose minds turn towards the chö. But internally, gendün is the all-pervading, all-encompassing aspect of Mind. They are all fully accomplished within us. However, since we do not recognize this, we need to take Refuge in the external sang-gyé, chö and gendün. When you really practice tantric ngöndro properly you visualize Padmasambhava with fervent devotion; you perform prostrations in humility with your body; and you recite the Refuge formula with your speech. Then, when you sit silently at the end of your practice [and dissolve the visualization into yourself] you realize that all these three things -- subject, object and activity -- are none other than rigpa! The meditation is oneself; Padmasambhava is one's own creation. Just remain in the nature of rigpa. Other than rigpa, there is nothing to find! Shakyamuni Buddha said in the Do-de Kalpa Zangpo, 'I manifested in a dreamlike way to dreamlike beings and gave a dreamlike chö, but in reality I never taught and never actually came'. From the viewpoint of Shakyamuni Buddha never having come and the chö never having been given, all is mere perception, existing only in the apparent sphere of suchness. As regards the practice of Refuge, the relative aspect is the object of Refuge to which you offer devotion and prostrations and so on. The absolute aspect is without effort. When you dissolve the visualization and remain in the natural effortless state of mind, the concept of Refuge no longer exists. The generation of chang-chub-sem [bodhicitta] or enlightened thought means that if we just act for ourselves alone we are not following the path of chö and our enlightenment is blocked. It is of the utmost importance that we generate enlightened thought in order to free all beings from samsara. Beings are as limitless as the sky. They have all been our fathers and mothers. They have all suffered in this samsara that we all fabricate from the ground of being. So the thought of freeing them from this suffering really is very powerful. Without this, we have the deluded concept that we are separate from all sentient beings. The enlightened thought [in the words of the chang-chub-sem vow] is: 'From now until samsara is empty I shall work for the benefit of all beings who have been my fathers and mothers'. So from the relative point of view, there are sentient beings to be liberated, there is compassion to be generated, and there is the 'I', the generator of compassion. The way of generating and showing compassion is actually explained by Shakyamuni Buddha himself. Such is the relative chang-chub-sem. So in this relative practice of chang-chub-sem, you visualize all beings and generate the enlightened thought. You try to free them from all suffering until enlightenment is reached. You recite the generation of chang-chub-sem as many times as your practice requires. The instruction [according to the teachings on the development of chang-chub-sem] is that you must exchange your own happiness for the pain of others. As you breathe out you give all your happiness and joy [and even their causes] to all sentient beings. As you breathe in you take on all their pain and suffering so that they can be free of it. This practice is also very important. Without the development of chang-chub-sem and without freeing ourselves from our attachment [to the form display of emptiness] we cannot attain enlightenment. It is because of our inability to show compassion to others and because of being attached to the concept of ourselves that we are not free of dualism. All these things are the relative aspects of the practice of chang-chub-sem. As regards the absolute aspect of chang-chub-sem, Shakyamuni Buddha said to his disciple Rabjor, "All phenomena are like an illusion and a dream". The reason why the Buddha said this is that whatever manifests is subject to change and dissolution; nothing is inherently solid, permanent, separate, continuous, or defined. If you see the world as solid, you tie yourself up with a rope of entanglement and are constrained and pulled [like a dog] by compulsion as your lead. You get drawn into activities that can never be finished, which is why samsara is apparently endless. You might think that because samsara is like a dream, perhaps enlightenment is solid and permanent. But Shakyamuni Buddha said that nirvana itself is like a dream -- an illusion. There is nothing that can be named which is nirvana; nothing called nirvana which is tangible. Shakyamuni Buddha said this directly: "Form is emptiness". For instance, the moon is reflected in water, but there is no moon in the water; there never has been! There is no form there that can be grasped! It is empty! Then Shakyamuni Buddha went on to say: "Emptiness itself is form". Emptiness itself has appeared in the manner of form. You cannot find emptiness apart from form. You cannot separate the two. You cannot grasp them as separate entities. The moon is reflected in the water, but the water is not the moon. The moon is not the water, yet you cannot separate water and moon. Once you have understood this at the level of experience, there is no samsara. In the realm of realization there is no samsara or nirvana! When speaking of the teaching of Dzogchen, samsara and nirvana are just another dualistic concept. But when looking at this moon in the water, you may say: "But it is there, I can see it!" But when you reach for it and try to touch it -- it's not there! It is the same with the thoughts that arise in Mind. So if you ask: "How has this actually come about?" you need to consider that everything comes from interdependent origination. So what is this interdependent origination? It is simply that the moon and water do not exist separately. The clear water is the primary cause, and the moon is the secondary or contributory cause. When these two causes meet, then this interdependent origination manifests. It is the coincidental appearance of the primary cause and the contributory cause. To put it directly, the primary cause or basis of samsara is duality -- the artificial separation of emptiness and form. From this all manifestations become contributory causes within the framework of karmic vision. They meet together and bring about the manifestation of samsara [as long as we attach to the form display of emptiness as a definition of being]. Everything that we experience as samsara exists only within this interdependent pattern. You must be quite sure of this! When you go further [and examine the nature of interdependent origination] you find that it is none other than emptiness. Therefore, apart from emptiness, there is no chö. The ultimate view of Thegchen [Mahayana] is emptiness, but this viewpoint does not exist in the lower teachings. If you really look into your experience of existence with the eye of meditation, you begin to see everything as the play of emptiness. Phenomena [as referential co-ordinates] become exhausted and you finally arrive at their essential nature, which is emptiness. But, having said this, you might be led to say: 'In that case we should not need anything'. But whether you need anything or not is up to you. It simply depends on your mind! Just dryly talking of emptiness is not enough! You must actualize it and then see for yourself. If your mind is really empty of referential manipulation, then there is no hope, no fear, no negativity -- your mind is free of that! It is like waving your hand in the sky! Whatever arises is completely unobstructed. The purpose of meditation is to remain in this natural state. In that state all phenomena are directly realized in their essential emptiness. That is why we practice meditation. Meditation purifies everything into its empty nature. First we must realize that the absolute, natural state of things is empty. Then, whatever manifests is the play of the dharmakaya. Out of the empty nature of existence arise all the relative manifestations from which we fabricate samsara. You need to understand quite clearly how things are in reality and how they appear in terms of duality. It is very important to have this View, because without View your meditation becomes dull. Just simply sitting and saying: 'It's all empty' is like putting a little cup upside-down! That little empty space in the cup remains a very narrow, limited emptiness. You cannot even drink tea from it! It is essential to actually know the heart of the matter as it is. In the absolute sense there are no sentient beings who experience dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction is as empty as the clear sky, but because of attachment to the form display of emptiness, [interdependent origination] the relative sphere of things becomes an illusory trap in which there are sentient beings who experience dissatisfaction. This is the meaning of samsara. In expressing the essential quality of the Great Mother, emptiness, it is said: 'Though you think of expressing the nature of the Heart Sutra you cannot put it into words'. It is totally beyond utterance, beyond thought, beyond concept. It was never born. It has never died. If you ask what it is like, it is like the sky. You can never find the limit of the sky. You can never find the center of the sky. So this sky-like nature is symbolic of emptiness: it is spacious, limitless, and free, with infinite depth and infinite expanse. But having said this, you might say: 'So my own rigpa, the nature of my own mind, is like the sky, free from all limitations'. But this is not it either! It is not just empty. If you look into it there is something to see. 'See' is just a word we have to use in order to communicate. But you can see that. You can meditate on that. You can rest in that, and whatever arises in that spacious condition. If you see the true nature of emptiness and form as non-dual -- as it really is -- this is the mother of all the Buddhas. All this chatter has been an elaboration of the absolute chang-chub-sem. Next is the purification through Dorje Sempa. In the absolute sense there is nothing to purify, no one who could purify you, and no purification. But since beings are apparently unable to leave it at that, matters become a little bit more complicated. Obscurations and dualistic confusions arise as the consequence of clinging to the form display of emptiness. In the illusory perception of this grasping at the form display of emptiness, we subject ourselves to endless dissatisfaction. Because of this, purification becomes a relative skilful means. In order to purify our delusions, Dorje Sempa yab-yum arises from your own true state of rigpa and the flow of nectar from the secret kyil-khor of their union completely purifies your obscurations. You enter into the envisionment and recite the hundred-syllable mantra; and this is the means of purification. In the natural state of things [in the state of what is] everything is pure from the very beginning -- like the sky. This is the absolute purification of Dorje Sempa. Now we come to the offering of the khyil-khor [cosmogramme or mandala]. The khyil-khor is offered for the accumulation of auspicious causes. Why do we need to accumulate auspicious causes? It is because of grasping at the form display of emptiness that illusory samsara has come about; so we need to practice giving everything up. Because there is the illusion that there is a way of purifying illusion, we can utilize this as a relative skilful means. Because you can purify there is also a way of accumulating auspicious causes. When you offer 'my body, my possessions and my glories', this is the relative, symbolic offering of the khyil-khor. From the absolute point of view, these things are empty, like the clear empty sky. So if you remain in the state of primordial awareness, that is the absolute khyil-khor offering and the absolute accumulation of auspicious causes. Then there is the practice of Lama'i Naljor. Due to clinging to the form display of emptiness, the Lama appears as the one who inspires purity of mind. He or she is the object towards whom one feels purely. Because clinging obscures the mind [and because you feel purity of perception toward the Lama] both you and the Lama appear to exist in the sphere of dualism [as if the fundamental nature of your Minds, within the sphere of dharmakaya, were different]. Therefore, externally, you visualize the Lama with great devotion. Then you receive the empowerment of his or her non-dual condition. These are all the external, relative practices of Lama'i Naljor in which you have invoked the wisdom presence of the symbolic apparent Lama. Then you recite the vajra words: "The Lama dissolves into light and unites with my very being . . . See! The one taste of rigpa and emptiness [rig-tong] is the actual face of the Lama!" If you ask where the absolute Lama is, he or she is nowhere else but there -- in the absolute nature of the Mind! The absolute state of rigpa is where the Lama is fully accomplished as primordial wisdom and clear space. Simply continuing in the awareness of how it is, is the Dzogchen practice of Lama'i Naljor. This is how the outer tantric ngöndro relates to the inner ngöndro in terms of the teaching of ati-yoga.

Yes, i thought so too. Thank you for commenting. Next one... On Realization of the Nature of Mind by Dezhung Rinpoche Kunga Tanpa'i Nyima When you come to approach the Dharma you should do so with the attitude that it is for the benefit of others; the concern should be for all sentient beings who have been your mother and father since beginingless time. Out of a concern to help them you are listening to the Dharma in order to become a buddha, for this is the one way in which you can truly help others. But when you listen to the Dharma you should be free from inattention, free from ill feeling or emotional disturbance and you should listen as one who is hoping for some kind of cure for an ailment which is with us intrinsically, all the time. When we listen to the Dharma we should be free from any sense of ordinariness; that is, we think no longer of this world of mundane cares, this world in which we live, but imagine that we are listening to the Dharma in the presence of a buddha whose resplendent form sits shining before us, that the place we are in is a beautiful meadow filled with light, with flowers, with fragrance in the air, that we ourselves are not in our corporeal forms, but that we are all in the form of enlightenment, the bodhisattva, that nothing is weighted down by tangibility, by substantiality, that everything appears, magic, fresh and breathtaking, like a clear dream. If with these ideas in mind we listen to the Dharma, we will understand it and apply it. What I'm going to say now doesn't at all come from me; it's no product of my imagination, but has been taught to me by very great teachers, very wonderful people, who represent a living tradition of study and realization that extends back in time for about 2500 years. I would like to share some of this tradition with you, because I think that its teachings are very valuable, very important, and for this reason I hope that you'll listen very carefully. There are about three and one-half billion people living in the world at this time, if I have the figure right, and most of them have little real concern for any form of religion. Most people are concerned with just looking- after their own needs and those of their families, or escaping from enemies or problems, just struggling for survival in the world, one way or another. Most people are quite involved with just living from day to day, and the few people who do manage to begin to think about the end of life, of death, or about their actions in this life and their consequences, or maybe of special ways in which they can make their lives more satisfactory, less painful, the people that we call 'religious' can be divided for our purposes now into two groups. Most 'religious' people basically see themselves as existing in a relationship of God and man; and this relationship, I think, is commonly felt to be one of, you might say, master and servant, or even of owner and slave. Out there, there is something, someone, who is much stronger, more powerful, wiser, more intelligent, than I am, and if I do what he wants me to do; if I live as he tells me to live, then I will have done what he wants me to do, and he, in turn, will give me what I want. It might sound like a business relationship in some religions, or in some other religions one's own position might be much less strong; I am poor, weak, miserable, I will throw myself on the mercy of him out there and he, out of his kindness, will help me; in some religions this almost has the sound of a begging relationship. The way of the buddhas, the Dharma, although we call it a 'religion,' in comparison with the situation described before, might not even be called religious'; because it is basically concerned with man himself, and with the most important part of man's personality, his mind. We can describe the buddhas Dharma as mind training. As a person I have certain abilities, there are things that I can do, and if there are certain things that I want, my mind, as the controller of my body and speech, needs training to be able to provide what I want. Now, anybody can understand that if I want to be an accountant I can take an accountant's course; if I want to learn French I can study it, but buddhists claim that the most useful thing that I can learn is what the real nature of the world really is; and that the course I can take, the mind training that will provide direct awareness, through insight, of the true nature of reality, is meditation. Everything in buddhas teaching is concerned with the training of mind, and it's a difficult and complex teaching to explain. The source of the teachings that we know today as Dharma, which means the 'law', or the 'way', is the buddha named Gautama, the sage of the Shakya clan, who was called Shakyamuni, a buddha, or enlightened person, who reached full enlightenment in India some 2500 years ago, after a career which began with his determination to reach enlightenment in order to help all sentient beings. On the basis of that determination he practiced mind training, and cultivated the positive qualities which resulted in his full enlightenment as a buddha. During his lifetime he taught the Dharma throughout India. If we consider how to approach his teaching, it can be summarized in one concise verse, "Through connection one is bound, through disengagement freedom becomes complete." These two lines may be expanded into the four truths; "There is suffering, suffering arises from emotionality, the cause of suffering that is emotionality can be removed, there is a way that this removal can take place." To elaborate, 'connection' and 'suffering' refer to the ignorance, emotionality and the actions and their results that we are all caught up in, and that as long as we have ignorance and emotionality, or act out of emotional motivation, then this action binds us to the sort of existence that is called daily human life. Yet, when we are free from ignorance, have come to a full realization of the nature of reality, so that there is no longer any basis for emotionality, then there is only freedom; freedom from any kind of compulsion or constraint, and one has attained the goal of enlightenment, of buddhahood. What does it mean for an individual to practice or follow the teachings of the buddhas Dharma. First, it means that he has a certain orientation; second, it means that he ]earns, or begins to appreciate, a certain approach to the understanding of life. The orientation is called 'going for refuge' and it focuses upon the possibility of enlightenment as expressed in the concept of buddha; that is, that it is possible to become a buddha; that the way to such enlightenment is through the practice of the buddhas teaching, the Dharma, and that help and support in such an undertaking will come from the congregation, those who are engaged in the practise and teaching of the Dharma. A buddha is the direct realization of reality; he is that realization expressed as communication; he is the form which a buddha can take in order to help sentient beings. The Dharma is both experience and learning; it is the learning which is training in morality, training in meditative ability, training in wisdom and understanding, and it is the direct experience of the realization of reality. The congregation are people who can lend guidance and support to one who undertakes to become a buddha, and a person who is practising buddhism takes these references as the basis for his way of coming to an understanding, for his practice and, in a way, for his life, A buddhist, then, is oriented toward, takes refuge in, the buddha, the Dharma and the congregation; now, the way he begins to approach the world can be laid out in four statements: All composite phenomena are impermanent, all emotionality is suffering, all phenomena lack, or are empty of, a self-nature, and the transcendence of suffering is peace. How can we explain the possibility of, the process of enlightenment! There is the potential for enlightenment called buddha nature, there is the framework for the achievement of enlightenment which is the human existence, there is the contributing factor of contact with a spiritual teacher, the means which are the instructions of that teacher, there is the result which is buddhahood, and there is the continuous activity which is the manifestation of enlightenment which works for the welfare of others. This classification of the six elements of enlightenment shows the real possibility that one can become a buddha, and the fundamental concept is found right at the beginning; the concept of buddha nature, the seed of buddhahood. We have to recognize that there must be some potential within us if it is going to be possible for us to become a buddha. Not only must there be some potential within us, but it must also be the case that we are not already buddhas, otherwise it would be difficult to become a buddha. If there were no buddha nature, we would be caught in the cycle of suffering with absolutely no possibility of freedom; we would continue to suffer the pains and frustrations of existence that we do now, and this process would have no possibility of ending; there would be nothing that we could do about it. But this is not the case, for many people have become enlightened, have become buddhas. On the other hand, it is not the case that we are enlightened now, because we do experience pain and frustration, and a buddha is totally free from pain or frustration. So how are we to understand this potential! Buddha nature in essence is mind itself. Once it's recognized as such -- then you are a buddha. And as long as it's not recognized, there is suffering. A scriptural reference says, "The mind of a sentient being is buddha itself; it just happens to be clouded and bewildered. When this bewilderment and misunderstanding are removed, buddha is present." This is to say that, in a sense, we are each a buddha and yet don't realize it; only our blindness, our emotionality and ignorance prevent us from realizing this. To understand more clearly, it would perhaps be helpful to investigate what we mean by the word 'mind'. There are various words which denote mind; mind as a complex of attitudes, mind as a complex of emotions, and mind as a function of consciousness. When we consider the scope of mental activity, we have to consider six things. First, we are conscious of what we see, of what we hear, of what we touch, taste and smell, and we are conscious of our own thoughts. So there are six aspects to consciousness. Now to these six aspects we may add two further ones--mind as emotionality; that is, regarding the essential ignorance which is present in mind, and then, mind as just a basic cognition, something which is conscious of, or cognises events. It is this which actually becomes, which we actually designate the potential for buddhahood, buddha nature; the fact that mind is simply aware of things. I think that we can recognize that there is a distinction between the way consciousness of the objects that we perceive functions, and the way consciousness of thought functions. By this I mean to say, that consciousness of objects does not discriminate. We just see an object, and in the actual being conscious of the seeing there is no thought of good or evil, or of "that's a nice form, I don't like this one," it is simply awareness that seeing is taking place. In the same way, when we hear a sound, there is simply consciousness of the sound, without any discrimination or ascription to the nature of the sound, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, The same is true of taste, touch and smell. So, these forms of consciousness can be free from discrimination; yet, these are not buddha nature. Discrimination, discursive thought, is the province of emotional thought. These are all the thoughts that we think; for example, "Oh it's too hot out, It's cold today, I like this, I don't like that, I'm attracted to that, I don't want that, I don't understand this, What's happening over there!" All of these thoughts, and there is an endless infinity of them, are the province or domain of mental consciousness; we are aware of these thoughts, that we can observe the thing that we are thinking about, the thoughts that we think about the objects that we perceive. But this tremendously active aspect of consciousness is not buddha nature either. And then, if we can still our mind so there is no perception taking place, so that there is no discursive thought taking place, there is still a definite sense of 'I' --I am, I exist, and we regard ourselves as being some-thing. And it is that sense of'' which is the cause of emotionality; the cause of our self-interest. Even though, when we are put to it, we cannot find out what this 'I' is, we still feel that it is very, very present. And this habitual, or instinctive, grasping at the sense of an 'I', this pseudo-consciousness of an 'I', is what may be called the emotional aspect of consciousness. And suppose. that the mind were to become so still that even the sense of 'I' were gone. Then, there is nothing that is apprehended. No colour, no form, no shape of any kind, yet there is a clarity; there is no grasping after 'I' and 'mine', but just a brilliant clarity, and there is a total freedom, a total lack of any obstacle, a total lack of any dualistic impediment of any kind. And this, which is clear, empty, unimpeded; this is basic cognition. If one recognizes basic cognition for what it is--if there is a direct realization of that, ignorance is banished and one understands; but as long as that is not recognized for what it is, there is bewilderment, and so all that happens, for good, for evil, has free play, because there is no understanding present to perceive what is, in fact, taking place. So in a sense this basic cognition, when it is realized, becomes buddhahood; when it is not realized it becomes the cause of everyday existence. It is like a jewel in a mud puddle. A jewel covered with mud doesn't shine, no fire burns inside it, but when we take it out of the puddle and wash the mud off it and hold it up to the light, it burns with its inner fire. Basic cognition is also a bit like gold in the ground. Gold ore is not visible and we don't see the gold in the ore right away, but if we take gold ore and smelt it, refine it, then the gold becomes very evident and glistens in its pure state. We might review what has been discussed by distinguishing between three aspects of mind: there is mind itself, which would correspond to basic cognition, the simple act of cognizing. This is mind as clear, empty, and unimpeded. Then there is mind as an emotional attitude, which would be this attitude or feeling that 'I am some-thing'. And there are all those aspects of consciousness; consciousness as thought, sound, touch, sight, etc., which are properly termed just 'consciousness'. And a distinction should be made between being conscious of things, the habitual grasping of the sense of'', and mind as it is in itself. Now our concern here is to recognize basic cognition; but even here we have to distinguish, because there is within basic cognition something which is basically composite, which leads to ordinary courses of action; it is consciousness functioning in its ordinary way, and this is the cause of everyday life, our existence as we know it. And there is also what we might call an uncomposed, non-dualistic aspect of basic cognition, and this is what we really need to realize. When we try to determine what it is, we are led to view it as simply nothing, as being empty; there is simply nothing which can be grasped there. Yet, if it is only regarded as empty, then a serious error has been made. Because, if it were in fact simply empty; that is, there were nothing, then where would any possibility of action come from? From what could anything emerge? What would be the concept of action if there were nothing for a foundation? It would be like trying to expect the sky to do some work; there is simply nothing in space, so space is totally impotent; there is just nothing there to act. So this basic cognition, in its uncomposite aspect, is not simply nothingness, is not simply empty, there is a clarity which could almost be called an immediacy; this emptiness and clarity are, in fact, identical. Yet, there is simply nothing that can be grasped conceptually. And this is why we say that this essence of phenomena, which is a synonym of mind-in-itself, is divorced totally from any concept, any process of conceptualization. The very great Indian Buddhist teacher Taranatha has said, "One must distinguish between mind, and mind-in-itself. Mind is simply consciousness; it is the basis of life as suffering, but mind-in-itself is the essence of what really is. Most people simply realize mind, and they feel they've come to some realization; they have experienced emptiness and clarity, but this is simply the impotency of basic cognition which is of no value. It is only when you meditate, and continue, and deepen that realization over a long period of time that you begin even to get a glimpse of what mind-in-itself is really like." Another statement comes from one of the greatest teachers of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, "All that we do in Dharma practice, right from the very beginning of going for refuge, is concerned with coming to this total realization; everything that we do is a means by which we clear away the various levels of distracting thought, emotionality and habitual grasping, until we come to see mind-in-itself " I have tried to explain, then, something about this basis, this seed of buddhahood, this buddha nature, which makes it possible for us to become -- for each of us to become -- a buddha. The framework in which we can become such a buddha is the human existence, the human existence which we have now. This is the framework because it is the only form of existence in which we have the opportunity to hear, and we are able to comprehend, such teachings as these. This is the true uniqueness of the human situation, the ability of communication, and the inclination to pursue religious practice. What makes it possible for us to do this is contact with a spiritual teacher; it is through contact with a teacher that you come to understand, to learn that there is something to be understood. The means by which we can come to such an understanding are the instructions of the teacher; we must apply them if we are to benefit from them. And this is a very broad area; the means start with various kinds of contemplation and various ways of acting. We can begin by thinking about how fortunate we are to be human, to have contact with the buddhas teaching, how very precious such an opportunity is; we think about the effects that our actions will have on us in the future, what experiences such actions will develop into, and we think about the presence, the continual presence, of suffering in any form of existence that is based on ego-clinging. These kinds of contemplations will lead us to a firm determination to become free of everyday existence, to remove all ignorance and lack of understanding. Then, we continue to develop compassion and love so that we can undertake to reach enlightenment for the benefit of others, and on such bases we need to develop meditative ability, the ability to still the mind, so that we can understand what the nature of phenomena is. If we are going to realize buddha nature, this emptiness, clarity and unimpededness, we have to understand much about the nature of phenomena, the nature of the world that we perceive, how it operates. And the key to this understanding is to gradually eliminate the sense of tangibility, of reality and concreteness with which we work in the world now; to learn to understand that the appearances that we perceive are not really as real as we would like to suppose them to be; they are not non-existing, but they are not existing either. This point of view is called the 'great middle way', and it is understanding of it which leads directly to the realization of buddha nature. Now, there was a man named Atisha, a very great Indian master, a great scholar, a great teacher, one who came to a very great realization. He was invited to Tibet to teach the Dharma there --this was about a thousand years ago-- and when he first arrived, he met with a number of Tibetans who were interested in learning more about the Dharma; most of these people had already had some contact with it, so Atisha started to instruct them in the great middle way. He said, "All appearances, all phenomena, all things that happen, are like magic; they do not have any absolute reality, there is no essence to any of these phenomena." And he looked around and saw that his listeners looked a little bit puzzled . So he said, "Let me explain--in India there are many magicians, sorcerers, who can create the experience of a whole life." And he told the story of a young family, the husband of which had a friend who was a sorcerer, and the husband thought it would be beneficial to himself if he could learn something about sorcery. So he asked his friend to come to dinner one day, and explained what he wanted; the sorcerer said, "Well, perhaps, we'll see," and as they sat down and were eating a meal of soup together, the husband noticed a strange-looking man coming down the road in front of the house; he was leading an absolutely magnificent horse, a beautiful animal, quite large, well formed, and as the stranger approached he called out, "How would you like to buy this horse!" The husband replied, "Oh, I would never have enough money to be able to purchase an animal like that." The stranger said, "Well, maybe I don't want so much, maybe just a few needles or something." The husband was taken aback in surprise, but before he could say anything, the stranger said, "Don't decide too quickly, why don't you ride the horse; after all, you want to make sure you like it." The husband agreed, and mounted the horse and rode off. The horse was indeed a magnificent animal; it galloped with the speed of the wind over rivers and through forests, across meadows, over mountains; the husband had never ridden such a magnificent animal before; he galloped along for hours and hours. It was such a thrilling experience that he lost track of time completely; he lost track of where he was, lost the road, and after many hours he noticed the sun was setting; he drew up and dismounted and looked around him, and he thought that he'd never been in a country like that before. Nothing around him looked at all familiar; he wasn't at all sure what to do, and after such a long ride he was tired, hungry, and thirsty, and he wasn't even sure where he was going to stay the night. But in the distance he saw a light, a lamp burning, so he walked towards it, and he found that the lamp was burning in the window of a house. Out of the house stepped a woman, and he asked her where he was; she replied, but he didn't recognize the name of the place; he told her his own country; she'd never heard of it. I guess he looked a bit distressed and she asked what the matter was. He said, "I've ridden a long way, I'm hungry and tired, and I don't even know where I am." She said, "Well, do come in" And she served him supper, he stayed the night there, and since he didn't know how to get back to his own country, he stayed there. He lived with this woman and they had a family together, and once, after many, many years, when their sons and daughters were beginning to get older they all went to a favourite lake of theirs for a picnic, and as they stood beside the lake, looking over it--it was a very beautiful place -- the oldest of the sons jumped into the lake and disappeared. Then, one by one each of the children jumped into the lake; then his wife, whom he had loved all this time, and lastly his horse. And there he was, an old man with white hair, completely alone; and completely overcome with grief he broke down in tears. And as he cried, he felt someone shake his shoulder; he turned around, looked up, and there was his wife of many years before, saying, "What are you crying for, what's the matter with you!" And he said, "If you only knew what has happened to me!" "But nothing's happened to you;" she said, "It hasn't been half an hour since we had our dinner. See, the soup pot is still hot." And the husband began to realize that everything that he had experienced had had no reality at all. Now, when Atisha had finished telling the Tibetans this story, he said, "And this is what all the world is like. It has no reality; it is simply an experience without any absoluteness to it at all. Oh, by the way," he said, "Do you have any magicians as good here in Tibet" And the Tibetans said, "No, no, we don't have any sorcerers who can create illusions like that." And Atisha sat very thoughtful for a minute and then said, "Well, it's going to be very difficult to explain the great Middle Way here, then, but, tell me, do any of you dream?" And the Tibetans answered, "Yes, yes, we dream, we're human, after all, of course we dream." "Well then," said Atisha, "Life in a sense, is like a dream; we have a dream, and it seems very real while we are dreaming it. When it's over, when we wake up, we realize that it was nothing more than a dream." So Atisha used this way to explain the great middle view. Everything that we experience is simply appearance; it has no intrinsic reality, and when we come to understand this, then we understand buddha nature, and we have become free from suffering. [Translated by Ken McLeod, edited by Thomas Quinn. (©Tom Quinn, New Sun Books, 1979]

EXPERIENCE OF SUNYATA THE DILIGENT PRACTITIONER OF DHARMA is always mindful of the transience of life, for we have no idea what is going to happen in the future or when we will die. By contemplating how or when death will come, we learn to appreciate the impermanence of life, and to develop a sense of renunciation. In this way, we become less involved in mundane attachments. It is like planning a move from one geographical location to another. A wise person cultivates an attitude that accepts the idea, then plans the change skillfully, doing important chores ahead of time, so that at his new house everything will be ready and waiting. Once he arrives, he will be less concerned about the home he has left and more able to concentrate on settling down. In the same way, realizing how short and temporary this life is allows us to devote more energy to practicing the Dharma. This is a more fruitful undertaking than being obsessed with material pleasures, for a time is going to come when none of these possessions can be claimed. Indeed, a time will come when we cannot take along even one strand of hair. Our friends may be willing to help us now, but in the future, not they, or any possessions or wealth will have a chance to help us. Our position as Dharma practitioners is very rare, for even famous and rich people may not have the opportunity that we have. Because our lives are limited, we should regard the Dharma and the spiritual master as very, very precious. The connection between the spiritual master and the disciple cannot be stressed enough. The Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past related to the Dharma first as ordinary sentient beings, and only through proper guidance did they integrate the teachings and achieve enlightenment. From this point, they went on to indestructible omniscience and eternal bliss. Such a state of mind, and the ability to benefit others, comes only from a proper relationship with the master. It is essential to relate to the master in a sincere and genuine way, for he guides us to the proper understanding of the experiences that come with practice. This practice takes a long time to perfect, and we cannot expect fruition to come about in a day or two, or even a few years. The nature of the mind can be explained in three points: how we perceive, how we relate to these perceptions, and the nature of phenomena. Perceptions, projections, and phenomena are all inseparable elements of the mind. Without the mind we have nothing to perceive and no way to relate to what is happening. All shapes, even nightmarish forms, are there because of the mind. If there was no mind, there would be no form. Because a blind man cannot see, for him, there is no color. We perceive colors when our eye consciousness is working, and with this consciousness we distinguish and label the different colors. In terms of ultimate reality, there is no difference between color and mind, or between the labels we give a color and the mind. In the same way, sound is not an entity separate from the mind that hears it, and the ear consciousness reflects the inseparable quality of sound and mind. Likewise, the quality of each sense perception is embodied as a sense consciousness--sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Although sense experiences and their labels are not separate in terms of ultimate reality, we fail to take this perspective, placing what we sense and that which is sensing into different categories. If we acknowledge that there are no perceptions without the mind, we can understand that phenomena, too, are dependent on mind. Perceived objects do not exist independently and do not have a permanent quality of their own, and labels are just reference points that we devise to support the existence of our thoughts or perceptions. Labels such as good/bad, happy/sad, long/short, and hot/cold are created by the mind, and do not in themselves hold any inherent truth. Because everything is a function of the mind, phenomena are not things in themselves, but are what the mind is and how the mind relates to them. Acknowledging that phenomena are mental projections, we can achieve greater renunciation for there really is no point in getting attached to a situation that is not what it seems to be. Going further, we can actually look into our own mind and examine it. This is a fluid situation. We have identified the quality of knowing, but we cannot locate or label that quality. We cannot give our consciousness a fixed shape or color, for the nature of mind itself is insubstantial. That which identifies, relates to, and labels other things does not itself possess a fixed identity. This step-by-step method--examining the perceiver in relation to the perceived--can help us to realize the unborn and insubstantial quality of all things. We are working toward unfolding the nature of everything, which is sunyata or emptiness. Sunyata is not a vacuum or a state of nothingness. Indeed, an enlightened yogi sees the same things we do. At the same time, he or she appreciates the insubstantial and changing quality of everything, and understands that projections and perceptions can cause no harm or trouble. We, on the other hand, regard our projections as something substantial, and we believe that they support and sustain us. We think they are real; indeed, for us this is total reality. We fixate on our perceived reality and become attached to it. That is how we become trapped in our own projections. To go beyond intellectual understanding to a spontaneous experience of sunyata is to experience the nature of the mind as dharmakaya. This state manifests as an all-pervading quality of space. When a practitioner merges his mind with the dharmakaya, he or she continues to experience everything as before, but also sees the transience of all things. He knows at that point that his mind is insubstantial and non-compounded. The state of mind in which we see phenomena, yet perceive it without grasping, is called "the mind of great bliss." Although we do not categorize or focus attention on any fixed thing, we see everything that dawns in the consciousness distinctly, without mistaking one for the other. Such is clarity, and if we see clearly, we can sustain a blissful state without effort. In our lineage this is called "giving birth to the experience of mahamudra." As this awareness dawns, the quality of mind itself manifests as unborn and uncompounded. We construct our own confusion if we hold on to a fixed reality and label phenomena as entities separate from ourselves. In doing this, we inevitably crave some things and reject others, and this is bewildering. Thus, the boundary between enlightened beings and sentient beings lies not in what is seen (because enlightened beings see things too), but in the way they are seen. From the perspective of enlightened mind, everything is Buddhanature, everything is sunyata, and everything is insubstantial. To realize this involves a letting go, the letting go that is enlightenment. Those of us caught up in confusion, imprison ourselves by holding onto a fixed system of dualities. For example, when adults see a rainbow in the sky, they know what it is and understand that it is insubstantial. When a child sees a rainbow for the first time, he wants to catch it and make it his own. This is like the difference between enlightened beings and ordinary sentient beings. Realized beings, when they see anything, understand it as a reflection of the mind, and they get neither bored with it nor excited about it. Ordinary beings, thinking that what they see is real and permanent, run off with their perceptions and compulsively try to possess this and reject that. This is how confusion piles up. One of the highest experiences is to understand that reality is not fixed. It is also like this with dreams. Enlightened beings have dreams much like ours. Within our framework of habitual patterns, some dreams frighten us, and others please us. For a yogi, however, the dream experience is different. He recognizes that a dream is occurring, and he knows that it is insubstantial. He can catch the dream and play with it, doing whatever he wants to do with it. Unlike us, he recognizes that a dream does not have a fixed quality, and he can experience its fluid openness and space without becoming frightened or excited. Day-to-day life is like a dream, for we react to waking experiences as we do to dreams, with the same patterns or habits. Everything seems complete and real; some experiences make us sad and some make us happy. An enlightened being, however, has let go of everything, and regards all phenomena as insubstantial. Therefore, no one is hurt, nothing triggers excitement, and there is no cause for fear. The bardo experience can be encountered in the same way. Usually, we cannot see clearly at the time of the bardo because we have built such heavy habitual patterns, and our projections seem so concrete. We play a game of duality, including conflicts between ourselves and others, so we fight the bardo experience, and everything frightens and bewilders us. Yet, for an enlightened being who realizes the sunyata nature of all things, even in the bardo, whatever appearances may come, there is space, openness, and movement. The experience of sunyata is the essence of enlightenment. It is also the basis for bodhicitta, the motivation to benefit all sentient beings. This is because realizing insubstantiality--the sunyata nature of all things--makes the difference between sanity and insanity. A sane person sympathizes with the suffering of an insane person. He or she thinks, "I wish something better could happen to him," and in this way her bodhicitta grows. Likewise, a realized person sees that those who have not recognized sunyata clutch and hold onto fixed ideas, and knowing that this will lead the other person to further suffering, he or she wants to do all they can to help. Because a person with the experience of sunyata knows what the sunyata experience means to them, they know how much it would mean to others. Just having had the experience of sunyata brings benefit to others because now spaciousness is always present. We are no longer limited to doing only this much or that much, and because there are no limitations, there is also great ability and willingness. When there is no substantial blockage to our true nature, the experience of sunyata is immaculate. Without at least a beginning experience of sunyata, true compassion is not even possible. We will only be able to care genuinely when things go wrong for our own loved ones. This becomes a sort of possessive compassion. It is limited and discriminatory, and it is not the compassion of the bodhisattvas. The bodhicitta generated by bodhisattvas is directed toward all beings equally. Only with such non-discriminating motivation can there be the ability to benefit others. Great ability, or skillful means, extends everywhere because we have transcended a fixed state of reality and overcome all barriers. Regardless of the situation and regardless of which people are involved, we will have the ability to help. Learning about compassion is important, but it is the actual doing of practice that enables us to realize the profundity of the teachings and to integrate them into daily life. We are not talking about practicing for a couple of months or a few years, but doing it constantly and continually until we have great experiences. This is important because the greater our experience of sunyata, the greater and more spontaneous will be our ability to benefit all beings. At the point where we experience sunyata, practice becomes easy. When the sky is cloudy, the sun is obscured, but as the clouds evaporate, the sun's rays appear and become more and more radiant. Likewise, the more we let go of ego, the greater is the space created in the environment. Some people believe that persons who have realized sunyata become detached and aloof. This is not at all true. Indeed, with the experience of sunyata we become even more affectionate, respectful, and helpful toward others. We feel closer to everyone because the wish for them to attain enlightenment is also growing. Thus the greater our experience of sunyata, the greater our concern for all beings. The transcendental qualities of the great yogis are beyond belief. Once in Tibet, a great yogi was doing an intensive ritual practice and a robber crept up behind him with a knife. As the yogi played his drums and ritual objects, the robber cut off his head, which dropped to the ground. Nonchalantly, the yogi picked up his head, put it back on, and continued the ritual. The robber stared speechless until the yogi had finished, and then said: "Oh, I wanted to kill you so much! I really wanted to get rid of you." The yogi replied, "Well, will my death make you happy? If it will, I'll die right here. My prayer for you is that there may come a time when I will cut the neck of your ego." With that, he fell dead. This is an example of a total letting go. Of course, we do not actually want to drop dead, but the point is that the yogi acted effortlessly and spontaneously, and created for the future a connection between himself and the robber. In a later life, this robber became his disciple, and through this connection and his own prayers, he was helped toward liberation. Most of us have had dreams of effortless action. As you dream of a fire, for example, you jump into it, then realize that it is only a dream, and you are not burned. Or perhaps a huge beast lunges at you, yet nothing happens. It is like that for enlightened ones: being attacked is like being in a dream. Similarly, you may dream of finding a precious object, and your first instinct is: "Oh, wow! I've got a precious jewel!" But on second thought, you realize that this is just your dream, so you just play with the jewel and then let it go. This is what seems to happen to diligent practitioners. It is important to learn how to recognize sunyata so that we can realize that every perception is relative to our mind, and that the nature of labels, of phenomena--in reality the nature of all things--is insubstantial. We never reach a point where we can say that the mind is going in this direction, is located here, or comes from there--or for that matter that it has any particular color or shape at all. Understanding this, we can let go of our confusion, letting go of our ego and conflicting emotions as well. We can transcend our bewilderment and reach Buddhahood. A Buddha works so that others, too, may recognize sunyata, and may themselves become Buddhas. The main point is that someone who understands sunyata acts with naturally arising compassion for the liberation of all those who are suffering. When we build a house, we start by clearing away dirt, not by placing the completed building on bare ground. Digging the foundation is a part of the building process. In the same way, purification of defilements is part of the process of enlightenment, and it is necessary for our ultimate realization of sunyata. In helping you recognize the true nature of your mind, the teacher does not place a new mind in you, but just helps you to recognize how things really are. This is the profound instruction of the Kagyu lineage. It is a path of unbroken teaching because it is the same path that the great masters have followed. The teachings are not presented to you in a neat package ostentatiously wrapped, and just hearing about the Dharma is not enough. Methods such as visualizing deities, reciting mantras, and so forth provide the skill to purify all accumulated neuroses, and they engender the virtues that cut through obscurations. Dharma practices are the tools that we need to break through to the experience of sunyata. This teaching was given by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra. It was translated by Chojor Radha and edited by Sally Clay. It originally appeared in Densal, Vol. 11, Number 2.

The criminals decided to leave the city, out of fear for it being bewitched or cursed. They took what they could and left as fast as possible. The camp was terrifyingly empty. The mists haunted their senses. They took the stuff and left their camp, to go settle down South. Away from it all. Down there, the farmers never heard of a city, not had they had any visitors. They decided to do a honest man's work in exchange for their presence. They turned into good men! And die for this peaceful life they would. Die for it! If only they would never have to see a reincarnation in their lifetime EVER AGAIN! Everyone fitted in nicely. Some picked up the musical instruments, others picked up the women and proclaimed to plant them instead of the vegtables. However, one of the ex-criminals stood out most of all. He was never to be found anywhere, except on dinner time. Always asleep at day, awake at night. As if standing watch, he contemplated the skies. He never got enough of its view and its many stars. On one specific night, this man decided to leave home and never return. He walked up high on the mountains on the warm summer night and lay there. Would never move again, neither return to their settlement. Not untill he got an answer. The answer to the question he would keep asking till his last breath untill, somehow, someway, he would receive the answer. So he asked: "In all the stars I see greatness beyond my understanding. In all the life on earth I see miracles beyond my understanding. But you, who have created all of this, surely must know me and hear me. Then hear what I have to say. In eternity we are, and have been and shall allways be. When I have experienced pain and suffering, you have tainted all of eternity with that foul presence. I ask my self, would I agree to eternally exist in an existance where such a deviation from comfort is possible? No, I would never. For ones you do, there is no turning back. What is your plan, now that eternity is lost to the presence of my suffering? The dream of eternal goodness of every angelic entity is spoiled by the very presence of my displeasure. What would you have me do, besides lay here and slowly vanish from your sight?" And he lay there, waiting for an answer. But it did not come. The sun burned his skin, the air dried his nose. The life picked on his comfort, but his breath did not stop. Tormented by nightmares, he lay there, waiting for answer. But silence is all he received.

Hymn to Proserpine (After the Proclamation in Rome of the Christian Faith) By Algernon Charles Swinburne Vicisti, Galilæe. I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, that love hath an end; Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend. Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh or that weep; For these give joy and sorrow; but thou, Proserpina, sleep. Sweet is the treading of wine, and sweet the feet of the dove; But a goodlier gift is thine than foam of the grapes or love. Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold, A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold? I am sick of singing; the bays burn deep and chafe: I am fain To rest a little from praise and grievous pleasure and pain. For the Gods we know not of, who give us our daily breath, We know they are cruel as love or life, and lovely as death. O Gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day! From your wrath is the world released, redeemed from your chains, men say. New Gods are crowned in the city; their flowers have broken your rods; They are merciful, clothed with pity, the young compassionate Gods. But for me their new device is barren, the days are bare; Things long past over suffice, and men forgotten that were. Time and the Gods are at strife; ye dwell in the midst thereof, Draining a little life from the barren breasts of love. I say to you, cease, take rest; yea, I say to you all, be at peace, Till the bitter milk of her breast and the barren bosom shall cease. Wilt thou yet take all, Galilean? but these thou shalt not take, The laurel, the palms and the pæan, the breasts of the nymphs in the brake; Breasts more soft than a dove's, that tremble with tenderer breath; And all the wings of the Loves, and all the joy before death; All the feet of the hours that sound as a single lyre, Dropped and deep in the flowers, with strings that flicker like fire. More than these wilt thou give, things fairer than all these things? Nay, for a little we live, and life hath mutable wings. A little while and we die; shall life not thrive as it may? For no man under the sky lives twice, outliving his day. And grief is a grievous thing, and a man hath enough of his tears: Why should he labour, and bring fresh grief to blacken his years? Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath; We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death. Laurel is green for a season, and love is sweet for a day; But love grows bitter with treason, and laurel outlives not May. Sleep, shall we sleep after all? for the world is not sweet in the end; For the old faiths loosen and fall, the new years ruin and rend. Fate is a sea without shore, and the soul is a rock that abides; But her ears are vexed with the roar and her face with the foam of the tides. O lips that the live blood faints in, the leavings of racks and rods! O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted Gods! Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend, I kneel not neither adore you, but standing, look to the end. All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrows are cast Far out with the foam of the present that sweeps to the surf of the past: Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates, Waste water washes, and tall ships founder, and deep death waits: Where, mighty with deepening sides, clad about with the seas as with wings, And impelled of invisible tides, and fulfilled of unspeakable things, White-eyed and poisonous-finned, shark-toothed and serpentine-curled, Rolls, under the whitening wind of the future, the wave of the world. The depths stand naked in sunder behind it, the storms flee away; In the hollow before it the thunder is taken and snared as a prey; In its sides is the north-wind bound; and its salt is of all men's tears; With light of ruin, and sound of changes, and pulse of years: With travail of day after day, and with trouble of hour upon hour; And bitter as blood is the spray; and the crests are as fangs that devour: And its vapour and storm of its steam as the sighing of spirits to be; And its noise as the noise in a dream; and its depth as the roots of the sea: And the height of its heads as the height of the utmost stars of the air: And the ends of the earth at the might thereof tremble, and time is made bare. Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods? Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods? All ye as a wind shall go by, as a fire shall ye pass and be past; Ye are Gods, and behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon you at last. In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the changes of things, Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget you for kings. Though the feet of thine high priests tread where thy lords and our forefathers trod, Though these that were Gods are dead, and thou being dead art a God, Though before thee the throned Cytherean be fallen, and hidden her head, Yet thy kingdom shall pass, Galilean, thy dead shall go down to thee dead. Of the maiden thy mother men sing as a goddess with grace clad around; Thou art throned where another was king; where another was queen she is crowned. Yea, once we had sight of another: but now she is queen, say these. Not as thine, not as thine was our mother, a blossom of flowering seas, Clothed round with the world's desire as with raiment, and fair as the foam, And fleeter than kindled fire, and a goddess, and mother of Rome. For thine came pale and a maiden, and sister to sorrow; but ours, Her deep hair heavily laden with odour and colour of flowers, White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a flame, Bent down unto us that besought her, and earth grew sweet with her name. For thine came weeping, a slave among slaves, and rejected; but she Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her foot on the sea. And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways, And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of the bays. Ye are fallen, our lords, by what token? we wise that ye should not fall. Ye were all so fair that are broken; and one more fair than ye all. But I turn to her still, having seen she shall surely abide in the end; Goddess and maiden and queen, be near me now and befriend. O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth, I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth. In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night where thou art, Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from the heart, Where the poppies are sweet as the rose in our world, and the red rose is white, And the wind falls faint as it blows with the fume of the flowers of the night, And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of Gods from afar Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star, In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun, Let my soul with their souls find place, and forget what is done and undone. Thou art more than the Gods who number the days of our temporal breath; Let these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death. Therefore now at thy feet I abide for a season in silence. I know I shall die as my fathers died, and sleep as they sleep; even so. For the glass of the years is brittle wherein we gaze for a span; A little soul for a little bears up this corpse which is man. So long I endure, no longer; and laugh not again, neither weep. For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep.

These are excerpts of meditation instructions, from "Shenpen Osel" an online magazine; these excerpts are a condensed version, of what's presented in my prior posts, by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. These instructions then delve into the meaning of the more advanced stages of meditation called spontaneous presence and self-liberation in Mahamudra. http://www.shenpen-osel.org/issue11.pdf Viewing the Mind to See If Stillness and Occurrence Are the Same or Different ...Following this section in the text there are four additional introductions. The first of these is pointing-out that appearances are mind, and this is connected to some extent with the previous practice, the third practice, which involves determining the sameness or difference of appearances of mind. Through doing that practice, in the beginning, you will come to a resolution that the internal appearances, mental experiences, are nothing other than mind, and eventually you will come to the recognition that even external appearances are nothing other than mind. In any case, the recognition that no appearances whatsoever exists beyond the mind is the identification of appearances as mind. Having recognized that all that appears is the display of the mind, then it is necessary to recognize the nature of mind. In order to do this you use the first two techniques: looking at the mind within stillness and looking at the mind within occurrence. Through looking at the mind in these two situations, you discover that the mind has no origin, has no location, and has no destination. You experience states of stillness and occurrence, but nothing in these states has any origin, location, or destination, and you discover that there is nothing that is still in stillness and nothing that is moving in the state of occurrence. This recognition that these states which are distinct - or lucid or vivid in their appearances - are nevertheless utterly empty is the second recognition, the recognition that mind is emptiness. Having recognized that appearances are mind and that mind is emptiness, does this recognition that mind is emptiness mean that mind ceases? Upon this recognition does mind cease to exist, like a candle being snuffed out? Of course it does not. Because while mind is emptiness, the display of this emptiness that is mind's nature is unceasing and unlimited in its variety. The emptiness that is the nature of the mind is not an absolute nothingness, not a dead, blank, static, emptiness. It is an emptiness that is at the same time an unimpeded or unceasing and unlimited display of cognitive lucidity. In short, the emptiness of the mind itself is a the same time its capacity to arise in experience, its capacity to exhibit its display. So the third recognition is the recognition that emptiness is spontaneous presence. Now here in the texts this is referred to as the recognition that the gleam or light or display of that emptiness that is the mind's nature is of an unceasing and unlimited variety, of which the nature is great bliss or mahasukha. The reason why this statement is made is that through recognizing that appearances are mind and that mind is emptiness, you become free of fixation upon the reality of substantial things and upon the fixation upon the identification of the imputed self with some part of these substantial things. As long as you have this fixation on substantial reality and a fixation on a self, of course you suffer, because these fixations are the cause of suffering. So in the absence of these fixations, when in contrast to those fixations you experience the display of emptiness as it is, as a spontaneous presence that is not substantial entities is not a self, then rather than this causing suffering, this produces great bliss. Therefore this is the third recognition, the recognition of emptiness as spontaneous presence. The recognition of emptiness as spontaneous presence is very important, because normally when we think of emptiness, or even use the word emptiness, we have an idea of nothingness, of nothing whatsoever. Of course, our meditation on emptiness is by no means a meditation on nothingness, a meditation on nothing whatsoever. If we attempted to cultivate this state of nothingness, that would be the cultivation of a nihilistic view. Mind of course is empty, but the emptiness of mind is a capacity for display, a capacity for an infinite variety of unlimited and unceasing display. Therefore this emptiness of mind is spontaneous presence; it is not an incapacity for display.... http://www.shenpen-osel.org/issue14.pdf Pointing Out That Emptiness Is Spontaneous Presence ...Talking about appearances, it was said by the Buddha, "Form is emptiness." One of the implications of this is that all of the things that we see - mountains, walls, buildings, and so forth - lack true, substantial existence, and that they lack true, substantial existence even on the level of truly existent subtle particles. But when it says that they are empty, aside from meaning that they are empty of existence, it is not saying that they are nothingness, nothing whatsoever, absolutely nothing. Therefore, in the Heart Sutra it continues, "Emptiness is form. Form is no other than emptiness. Emptiness is no other than form." Now, normally, if we were to think about this from an ordinary point of view, we would regard emptiness and form as contradictory. If something is empty it is not there, and, therefore, is not a form. If something possesses form or is a form, it is something, and, therefore, is not empty. But this is not how things are. It is said, "There is no single thing anywhere that is not interdependent; therefore, there is no single thing anywhere that is not empty." What is meant by emptiness is interdependence, and interdependence is also the appearance of things. Therefore, since emptiness and appearance are interdependent, emptiness and appearance are not contradictory in the way we normally regard them to be. For example, when you are asleep and dreaming, all of the things that you dream of - the houses and people and so on - do not exist. You are not actually in those houses; you are asleep at home in bed. Nevertheless, they do appear to you; there is a mere appearance of those things to the dreamer. Like that, the appearance of something, and its nonexistence, are not contradictory... Pointing Out That Spontaneous Presence Is Self-Liberation ...In the context of the mind itself, the mind's emptiness is the unity of cognitive lucidity and emptiness, the unity of awareness and emptiness, and the unity of great bliss and emptiness. The nature of emptiness is at the same time great bliss and, therefore, when it is fully realized, great bliss is achieved. In order to point all of this out, emptiness is pointed out as spontaneous presence. Therefore, spontaneous presence itself is the basis for liberation. Liberation here is liberation from suffering, then end of suffering, which is brought about through liberation from the cause of suffering, the kleshas. It is also liberation from the most subtle obscurations, the cognitive obscurations. What is pointed out here is that this liberation is not produced by effort. Those things that are to be abandoned in order to attain liberation have no existence. Therefore, liberation happens of its own nature, and is therefore called self-liberation. The reason why spontaneous presence is self-liberated starts with the following: In samsara we experience a great variety of different kinds of suffering, and there are many different kleshas that are present in the minds of beings as causes and conditions for this suffering. But all of these things are empty....Simply in having seen that, we are very fortunate. If kleshas really existed, if they had true and solid existence, it would require effort to abandon them. But once you see their emptiness, once you see that they are empty, they will gradually disappear...

A great teaching by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso on Guru Rinpoche's "Supplication That All Thoughts Be Self-Liberated". which I originally found here http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/search/label/Mahamudra, the link to the article doesn't work, so here's a working link to the offical website of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/. Tashi Delek! I hope that for you everything is filled with auspiciousness, happiness, and excellence. To meet you all here makes me very happy. Gyatrul Rinpoche is a great friend of mine and I have heard a lot about his monastery here. Today, to actually come and be able to see it, to see what a secluded and beautiful place it is, makes me very happy. I would like to explain to you a supplication that was composed by Guru Rinpoche, a supplication that all thoughts be self-liberated. Guru Rinpoche composed seven chapters of supplications for students to recite to him, and this one comes from a chapter that he taught to the monk whose name was Namkha'i Nyingpo. Before listening to this teaching, please give rise to the supreme motivation of bodhichitta. When we give rise to bodhichitta, it means that for the benefit of all sentient beings, limitless in number as the sky is vast in its extent, we aim to bring our love and compassion to their ultimate perfection, and to bring our wisdom realizing emptiness to its ultimate perfection. We know that in order to do this we must listen to, reflect upon and meditate on the teachings of the genuine Dharma with all the enthusiasm we can muster in our hearts. The first verse of the supplication1 is: All these forms that appear to eyes that see, All things on the outside and the inside, The environment and its inhabitants Appear, but let them rest where no self's found; Perceiver and perceived when purified Are the body of the deity, clear emptiness— To the guru for whom desire frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. What appears to the eyes are forms, which are made up of shapes and colors. Everything that is a shape and color is included in the source of consciousness (Sanskrit: ayatana) that is called form. The shapes and colors that appear to the eyes are found in all of the aspects of the environment in which we live, as well as in all of the sentient beings who inhabit this environment. What is the true nature of the appearances of shapes and colors of the environment and sentient beings? It is that they are dependently arisen mere appearances, which do not exist in essence. The forms that appear do not truly exist. In the abiding nature of reality, their nature is emptiness. They appear while being empty; while empty, they appear. They are appearance-emptiness like rainbows, water-moons, and reflections. All of the objects that appear to the eyes are appearance-emptiness undifferentiable. As the protector Nagarjuna writes in his Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way2: Like a dream, like an illusion Like a city of gandharvas, That's how birth, and that's how living, That's how dying are taught to be. The meaning of this verse and the one from Guru Rinpoche's supplication are exactly the same. This is the actual way forms are. They are appearance-emptiness undifferentiable, but sentient beings do not see this because they think things truly exist, and their thoughts that cling to the true existence of appearances obscure the appearance-emptiness that is their true nature. That is why we practice the Dharma—to cleanse ourselves of this clinging to appearances as truly existent so that we can realize appearances' true nature is appearance-emptiness undifferentiable. It is like when you dream and you do not know that you are dreaming. The appearances in the dream are appearance-emptiness, but your thought that they truly exist prevents you from seeing that. Even though the dream appearances are appearance-emptiness and have no inherent nature, they seem to be real when you do not know that you are dreaming. You think that they are real and you have experiences that seem to confirm your belief that they are real. But however much you cling to the appearances in a dream, that does not change what the appearances are from their own side. The essential nature of these appearances is unchanging appearance-emptiness. It never moves from being just that. When you dream and you know you are dreaming, you are free of the thoughts that fixate on the appearances as being truly existent. You are free from that obscuration so you can experience the appearances just as they are: as appearance-emptiness. That enables you to do wonderful things like fly in the sky, move unobstructedly through rock mountains, and travel to pure realms. All that is possible when you recognize a dream for what it is, and in that way, not be blocked by thinking that the appearances truly exist. In our waking life, even though the environment and sentient beings appear to us, the supplication says "let them rest where no self's found." The environment and sentient beings appear, but let them rest without clinging to them as truly existent. Let them rest in their natural state of appearance-emptiness without fixating on them as being real. When we let the appearances rest without fixating on them as being real, all of the thoughts of there being an actual object out there to perceive and an actual distinct subject perceiving it just dissolve. The thoughts that take the duality of perceived object and perceiving subject to be real dissolve. They are purified. When that happens, everything shines as luminous emptiness, clarity-emptiness. At this point, you are ready to meditate on the deity, because the deity's enlightened body is also appearance-emptiness. It appears while it is empty; it is empty while it appears—it is like a rainbow. When you meditate on the deity, everything appears as the body of the deity—appearance-emptiness. When all of the appearances of the physical environment shine as the appearance-emptiness immeasurable palace of the deity, and all the sentient beings in the environment shine as the appearance-emptiness enlightened bodies of the deities themselves, then all desire is free in its own place. It is self-liberated. Thoughts of desire do not come from anywhere and they do not go anywhere. They do not arise, so they do not cease. Since they are free from coming and going, and free from arising and ceasing, thoughts of desire are self-liberated. For this reason the verse says, "To the guru for whom desire frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay, I supplicate." The second verse of the supplication is: All these sounds that appear for ears that hear, Taken as agreeable or not, Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness Past all thought, beyond imagination; Sounds are empty, unarisen and unceasing, These are what make up the Victor's teaching— To the teachings of the Victor, sound and emptiness, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. What appear to the ears are sounds. What is the nature of this source of consciousness that is sound? In fact, the sounds we hear are like sounds in a dream. Their basic nature is that they are always appearance-emptiness—they appear while being empty, and while being empty they appear. The two main kinds of sounds we hear are those that we find pleasing and those we do not. Both kinds of sounds, however, are equally appearance-emptiness, sound-emptiness, just as the sounds in a dream are sound-emptiness. If we know this and meditate on the mandala of the deities, then all sounds manifest as the natural sounds of the deity's mantra: sound and emptiness. From among the eight worldly dharmas,3 four of them are related to sound—sounds that are pleasing, sounds that are displeasing, sounds of praise, and sounds of criticism. We need to give up attachment to the eight worldly dharmas—the four that we like and the four that we do not. To do that, we can see that we need to realize that sounds are sound-emptiness. Then we will not be attached to sounds that are pleasant and sounds of praise, and we will not be averse to sounds of criticism and unpleasant sounds. In a dream, all sounds of praise and all sounds of criticism, all sounds we like and all sounds we do not, are equally sound-emptiness. They have no inherent nature at all. But when we do not know that we are dreaming, we think these sounds truly exist, and we have experiences of happiness and suffering based on sounds of praise and blame, sounds that we like, and sounds that we do not; all because we do not recognize sounds' basic nature is sound-emptiness. Guru Rinpoche instructs: "Let them rest in the realm of sound and emptiness/Past all thought, beyond imagination." This is an instruction to rest free of clinging to sounds as being truly existent, free of clinging to them as being real. In their basic nature that is sound and emptiness, just let go and relax. Settle into your own basic nature within the nature of sound that is sound and emptiness. Since the enlightened body of the Buddha is appearance-emptiness, then the sound of the Buddha's speech is also emptiness. It is sound-emptiness undifferentiable. When you know that all sound lacks inherent nature in the same way, then all sound is like the sound of the Buddha's teachings and all sound manifests as the resonance-emptiness sound of the Buddha's speech. The last line of the supplication reads, "To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate." Here Orgyen Pema Jungnay represents the Buddha's speech that is the sound-emptiness abiding reality of all the sound there is. To this Orgyen Pema Jungnay, we supplicate. At the beginning of this twenty-first century, everywhere we go there are radios playing, tape recorders playing, the sound of movies and televisions—the world is filled with sound. At this time, then, it is quite important to know that all sounds have no inherent nature. They are sound-emptiness. These days, moment by moment, sounds can be carried across the globe and change so many people's feelings all at once—from happiness to suffering, from suffering to happiness. Just on the basis of hearing a few sounds, millions of people's feelings can change. Also these days it is easy to realize that sounds are sound-emptiness, because if you pick up the phone in America at noon and you call somebody in another country, then for some people it will be midnight, and for some people in other countries it will be morning. So at what time is this sound really being made? In this way, we can easily recognize sound-emptiness. If somebody in America calls someone in India and talks to them on the phone, in America it is noon, in India it is midnight. A daytime mouth is talking to a nighttime ear—at the same time! If sounds were truly existent, that would be impossible. It would be a contradiction for sound made during the day to be heard simultaneously at night. But it is not a contradiction when we know that it is just sound-emptiness. Thinking about things in this way, during these times it is much easier to understand how sound is sound-emptiness. Also, these days a famous person can give a speech that is broadcast all over the world. The people who like that person will hear that speech as something very pleasant and beautiful. The people who do not like that person will find it repulsive to listen to. The people who have no opinion do not have any reaction to that sound one way or the other. If we ask, "What is that sound, really? Is it good or bad?" again we see that the true nature of sound is inexpressible. These days, sounds beam down from empty space. They come from empty buildings and even empty cars. It is important for us to be able to examine these sounds and their sources to see that they are sound-emptiness, because most of the suffering we experience comes from hearing sounds. We need to train in the understanding of sound as it is taught in the Middle Way, which is that in genuine reality, sounds are empty of any essence. In apparent reality, they are dependently arisen mere appearances. As the glorious Chandrakirti wrote, Things do not arise causelessly, nor from Ishvara, Nor from self, nor other, nor both; Therefore, it is clear that things arise Perfectly in dependence upon their causes and conditions. Things do not arise from any of the four possible extremes: from self, other, both or without cause, and there's no fifth possibility. Therefore, things do not truly arise—they do not come into existence; they do not actually happen. Then what is the appearance of them happening? It is just like the appearance of things happening in a dream; like the appearance of a moon shining on a pool of water; and like the appearance of an illusion. It is dependently arisen mere appearance. In this way, since sounds do not exist in genuine reality, and since in relative reality they are just dependently arisen mere appearances, all sounds are simply sound-emptiness. When you recite mantras, then mantras are also sound-emptiness. We supplicate Guru Rinpoche at the end of the verse, because even though we know that sounds are sound and emptiness, we are obscured from realizing that directly by our thoughts that cling to sounds as being truly existent. We supplicate for Guru Rinpoche's blessing so that these thoughts that sounds truly exist may dissolve, and when they dissolve, that we will recognize the true nature of sound is sound-emptiness. The third verse of the supplication is: All these movements of mind towards its objects, These thoughts that make five poisons and afflictions, Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances, Do not review the past nor guess the future; If you let such movement rest in its own place, It liberates into the dharmakaya— To the guru for whom awareness frees itself, To Orgyen Pema Jungnay I supplicate. For ordinary beings, mind is discursive. It moves. It moves towards objects. It moves towards the three times. It is constantly thinking about one thing or another. Mind is moved by thoughts of the five poisons. When mind encounters an object it likes, it moves towards that object with thoughts of attachment. When mind encounters an object it does not like, it moves towards that object with thoughts of aversion, thoughts of anger. When mind judges something incorrectly, it moves towards that object with bewilderment. When one's mind believes that one has qualities that one does not have, it moves towards oneself with thoughts of arrogance. When mind looks at somebody else and sees things that it does not have, it moves towards that person with thoughts of jealously. In this way, thoughts of the five poisons constantly move the mind. "Leave thinking mind to rest without contrivances." When thoughts of the five poisons are moving the mind, just let mind rest without trying to fix anything, without trying to change anything, without reviewing the past kleshas (disturbing mental states) or wondering what happened to them; and without anticipating what types of disturbing states of mind one might experience in the future. Do not review the past, do not guess the future. Just let mind relax as it is right now. We do not need to try to prevent thoughts of desire from arising. We do not need to try to stop thoughts of anger or jealously once they have arisen. Do not try to prevent anything; do not try to stop or change anything; just simply do not take any of those movements of mind to be truly existent. That is the instruction because we could not stop the thoughts of the five poisons from arising, even if we wanted to! We could not do that, but we do not have to. All we have to do is recognize that these thoughts lack any essence. How do we do this? Whatever thought arises, look straight at it with your eye of wisdom and settle into its basic nature. When you do that, all thoughts and all disturbing states of mind are liberated within the dharmakaya. They are self-liberated. The whole collection of thoughts is free just as it is. This is awareness, and this awareness is awareness-emptiness. Since this awareness-emptiness is pure in nature, whatever obscurations there may be have no essence. Awareness itself is self-liberated. It is free just as it is. Then we supplicate the guru whose awareness is self-liberated. This is Guru Rinpoche. For Guru Rinpoche, awareness frees itself. We supplicate you Orgyen Pema Jungnay for your blessings so that we may realize, as you do, the self-liberation of awareness. The Lord of Yogis Milarepa sang in his vajra song of realization called "The Three Nails"4: To describe the nails of meditation, the three All thoughts in being dharmakaya are free Awareness is luminous, in its depths is bliss And resting without contrivance is equipoise All thoughts are dharmakaya in their nature. Thoughts are free all by themselves, without having to do anything to them, stop them, or change them in any way. They are naturally dharmakaya. What is dharmakaya like? It is luminous. It is awareness. It is bliss. How do we experience this dharmakaya in meditation? Rest without contrivance. Rest without artifice. This is equipoise. This is the experience of dharmakaya. The verses of Milarepa and Guru Rinpoche have the same meaning. What is awareness-emptiness like? Milarepa described it in the following way in the song "The Ten Things it is Like"5: When you know the true nature of everything to be known The wisdom that's aware of the true nature's like a cloud-free sky With these two lines, Milarepa tells us the emptiness aspect of awareness is like the sky completely free of clouds. Then he sings: When the mud settles down and mind's river is crystal clear Self-arisen awareness is like a polished mirror's shine Milarepa illustrates the luminous, bright, vivid aspect of awareness with the example of a perfectly polished mirror's sparkling shine. In this way, we see what emptiness is like, we see what awareness is like, and then we can understand that the two are undifferentiable. The great pandit Shakya Chokden described the noble Asanga's explanation of genuine reality as follows: Clarity-emptiness, mere awareness, empty of the duality of perceived and perceiver is all phenomena's abiding reality. Knowing this and combining it with a limitless accumulation of merit, the spontaneously present three kayas will manifest. This is Asanga's tradition. In this way, Asanga presents the true nature of reality of all phenomena as nondual luminous emptiness, nondual awareness-emptiness. The explanation that the true nature of reality is emptiness beyond all concept of what it might be is the presentation of the Middle Way Consequence School (Prasangika Madhyamaka). The presentation of the true nature of reality as awareness-emptiness, luminous clarity, is the presentation of the Shentong Madhyamaka, the Empty of Other Middle Way School, and also the presentation of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions. What does the term "empty of other" or shentong mean? This is described in the text called the Gyu Lama, the Treatise on Buddha Nature: The element is empty of that which is separable from it, all fleeting stains. But it is not empty of that which is inseparable from it, its own unsurpassable qualities. "Empty of other" means that the buddha nature, the true nature of mind, luminous clarity, awareness, is empty of that which is different from it: stains and flaws. It is empty of those. But it is not empty of the spontaneously present qualities, the naturally present qualities of enlightenment. These unsurpassable qualities are totally inseparable from the true nature of mind. In short, this supplication is a supplication that we will manifest our own basic nature. We supplicate the guru to bless us so that we can manifest the awareness-emptiness that is the true nature of mind. It is a supplication that all appearances will be self-liberated as the enlightened body of the deity, all sounds will be self-liberated as the enlightened speech of the deity, and all thoughts will be self-liberated as essential reality itself. The last verse of the supplication sums it all up: Grant your blessing that purifies appearance Of objects perceived as being outside; Grant your blessing that liberates perceiving mind, The mental operation seeming inside; Grant your blessing that between the two of these Clear light will come to recognize its own face; In your compassion, sugatas of all three times, Please bless me that a mind like mine be freed. Grant your blessings that all clinging to objects on the outside as truly existent will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that all thoughts on the inside will be self-liberated. Grant your blessings that in between, luminous clarity, Dzogchen, will recognize its own face. In your compassion, realized buddhas of all three times, grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from clinging to characteristics. Grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from the bondage of samsara. Grant your blessings that I and all sentient beings may be freed from the bondage of believing that duality truly exists. Grant your blessing that all of our concepts of duality will be self-liberated. My departing prayer is that Gyatrul Rinpoche be healthy, that he live a long life, and that his activity for the benefit of all sentient beings flourish. And I pray that all of you, his students, bring your activities of listening to, reflecting on and meditating on the teachings of the genuine Dharma to their perfection and that, through this, you are of great benefit to all of the limitless number of sentient beings. And especially here at Tashi Chöling may the teachings of the practice and explanation lineages flourish and bring great benefit to all of the beings of this land. Translated by Ari Goldfield. 1 The Guru Rinpoche Prayer is translated by Jim Scott. 2 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield. 3 The eight worldly dharmas are what worldly beings strive to attain or avoid. The four not explicitly mentioned in this paragraph are happiness, pain, gain, and loss. 4 Translated by Jim Scott. 5 Translated by Jim Scott and Ari Goldfield.

Excerpts from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso's Stars of Wisdom: Analytical Meditation, Songs of Yogic Joy, And Prayers of Aspiration. http://books.google.com/books?id=vJVDCUcwirgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Outside the three realms are shining in freedom Inside the wisdom, self-arisen, shines And in between is the confidence of realizing basic being I’ve got no fear of the true meaning—that’s all I’ve got! In this verse Milarepa sings about his realization of the true nature of reality. To realize the true nature of reality, the necessary outer condition is for the “three realms” to be “shining in freedom.” The three realms refer to the universe and all of the sentient beings within it. Sentient beings inhabit the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm, so these three realms include all the experiences that one could possibly have, and they are shining in freedom—they are self-liberated.* “Self-liberation” in one sense means that appearances of the three realms do not require an outside liberator to come and set them free, because freedom and purity are their very nature. This is because appearances of the three realms are not real. They are like appearances in dreams. They are the mere coming together of interdependent causes and conditions; they have no essence of their own, no inherent nature. This means that the appearances of the three realms are appearance-emptiness inseparable, and therefore, the three realms are free right where they are. Freedom is their basic reality. However, whether our experience of life in the three realms is one of freedom or bondage depends upon whether we realize their self-liberated true nature or not. It is like dreaming of being imprisoned: If you do not know you are dreaming, you will believe that your captivity is truly existent, and you will long to be liberated from it. But if you know you are dreaming, you will recognize that your captivity is a mere appearance, and that there is really no captivity at all—the captivity is self-liberated. Realizing that feels very good. The term “self-liberation” is also used in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings, which describe appearances as “self-arisen and self-liberated.” This means that phenomena have no truly existent causes. For example, with a car that appears in a dream, you cannot say in which factory that car was made. Or with the person who appears in the mirror when you stand in front of it, you cannot say where that person was born. Since the dream car and the person in the mirror have no real causes for arising, all we can say about them is that they are self-arisen, and therefore they are also self-liberated. When we apply this to an experience of suffering, we find that since our suffering has no real causes, it does not truly arise, like suffering in a dream. So it is self-arisen, and therefore it is self-liberated. Since the suffering is not really there in the first place, it is pure and free all by itself. And apart from knowing self-liberation is suffering’s essential nature and resting within that, we do not need to do anything to alleviate it. Thus, Milarepa sings that what one needs on the inside is to realize self-arisen original wisdom. This wisdom is the basic nature of mind, the basic nature of reality, and all outer appearances are this wisdom’s own energy and play. Original wisdom is self-arisen in the sense that it is not something created; it does not come from causes and conditions; it does not arise anew, because it has been present since beginningless time as the basic nature of what we are. We just have to realize it. The realization of original wisdom, however, transcends there being anything to realize and anyone who realizes something, because original wisdom transcends duality. How can we gain certainty about and cultivate our experience of this wisdom? Since wisdom is the true nature of mind, begin by looking at your mind. When you look at your mind, you do not see anything. You do not see any shape or color, or anything that you could identify as a “thing.” When you try to locate where your mind is, you cannot find it inside your body, outside your body, nor anywhere in between. So mind is unidentifiable and unfindable. If you then rest in this unfindability, you experience mind’s natural luminous clarity. That is the beginning of the experience of original wisdom. For Milarepa, original wisdom is shining. It is manifesting brightly through his realization of the nature of the three realms and of his own mind. In the third line, Milarepa sings of his confidence of realizing the true nature of reality, the true meaning. There are the expressions and words that we use to describe things, and the meaning that these words refer to—here Milarepa is singing about the latter. He is certain about the basic nature of reality, and as he sings in the fourth line, he has no fear of it, no doubts about what it is. He is also not afraid of the truth and reality of emptiness. When he sings: “that’s all I’ve got,” he is saying: “I am not somebody great. I do not have a high realization. All I have got is this much.” This is Milarepa’s way of being humble. One can easily be frightened by teachings on emptiness. It is easy to think: “Everything is empty, so I am all alone in an infinite vacuum of empty space.” If you have that thought, it is a sign that you need to meditate more on the selflessness of the individual. If you think of yourself as something while everything else is nothing, it is easy to get a feeling of being alone in empty space. However, if you remember that all phenomena, including you yourself, are equally of the nature of emptiness, beyond the concepts of “something” and “nothing,” then you will not be lonely; you will be open, spacious, and relaxed. In the context of this verse, it is helpful to consider a stanza from the Song of Mahamudra by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye: From mind itself, so difficult to describe, Samsara and nirvana’s magical variety shines. Knowing it is self-liberated is view supreme. “Mind itself,” the true nature of mind, original wisdom, is difficult to describe—it is inexpressible. And from this inexpressible true nature of mind come all the appearances of samsara and nirvana. Appearances do not exist separately from the mind. What appears has no nature of its own. Appearances are merely mind’s own energy; mind’s own radiance; mind’s own light. And so appearances are a magical display. To describe the appearances of samsara and nirvana as a magical variety means that they are not real—they are magic, like a magician’s illusions. Appearances are the magical display of the energy of the inexpressible true nature of mind. When we know this, we know that appearances are self-arisen and self-liberated, and that is the supreme view we can have. * Most sentient beings, including animals and humans, inhabit the desire realm, so named because desire for physical and mental pleasure and happiness is the overriding mental experience of beings in this realm. The form realm and the formless realm are populated by gods in various meditative states who are very attached to meditative experiences of clarity and the total absence of thoughts, respectively.

These excerpts are from Dakpo Tashi Namgyal's Clarifying the Natural State, which is a commentary to his work, Mahamudra: The Moonlight - Quintessence of Mind and Meditation; keep in mind, this is skipping stages of meditation, which precede these instructions. http://books.google.com/books?id=uoCa1aEVAzwC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=basis%20and%20expression&f=false: "Clearing Up Uncertainties About Basis and Expression This has four points: Resolving that thoughts are mind Resolving that perceptions are mind Investigating the calm and the moving mind Resolving that all experience is nonarising Resolving That Thoughts Are Mind Assume the same posture as before. Let your mind be evenly composed as aware emptiness. From within this state project a vivid thought, such as anger. Look directly into it and thoroughly investigate from what kind of substance or basis it arose. Perhaps you suppose that it arose from this state of empty and aware mind itself. If so, examine whether it is like a child born from its mother or like light shining from the sun. Or is it the mind that becomes the thought? Next, observe the way in which it remains. When it appears in the form of anger, examine whether this anger is accompanied by the fetter of intense clinging to things as being real or whether it is simply an appearance of anger, an openness in which there is no identity to take hold of. Finally, observe how a thought departs. Is the thought stopped or does it dissolve? If it is stopped, who stopped it or what circumstance made it stop? If it dissolves, examine whether it dissolves due to some circumstance or whether it dissolves by itself. In the same way, a variety of gross and subtle thoughts should be examined to gain some experience. If the meditator holds a wrong understanding, it should be eliminated with a counter-argument and a hint given. After that, the meditator should once more continue examining. You may not have found that the thought arose from a particular location in a particular way, that it dwells in a particular shape or form or that it departs to a particular place. Nevertheless, your concepts about whether thought are mind are different, whether they are related as inside and outside, or as the body and its limbs and so forth must be destroyed. You must experience that the various thoughts, in whatever form they arise, are an empty appearance and not a definable entity. You must recognize that they arise out of yourself and dissolve into yourself. Since mind is unconfined, you must become certain that it is mind that merely appears or is seen as being thoughts. You must resolve that thoughts and mind are indivisible. Take the metaphor of a wave on water. The wave is nothing other than the water, and yet it is seen as a wave. Although it appears as a wave, it has never changed from being of the nature of water. In the same way, with the various types of thoughts, from the very moment they appear, they are nothing other than the aware emptiness of unidentifiable mind. Moreover, since this mind is unconfined, it does appear as a variety of thoughts. Even though it appears as them, it has not changed from being the aware emptiness of the mind that is not a definable entity. You must settle this point decisively. You must gain the experience of certainty in the fact that the various types of thoughts are mind. Similarly, give rise to a happy or a sad thought and investigate whether there is any difference in their identity. In this way, also become certain in regard to opposing types of thoughts." Investigating the Calm and the Moving mind Maintain the same physical posture as mentioned before. Let your mind be serenely calm in the state of aware emptiness. Now, investigate by looking directly into it. While in this state of serene calm allow a thought to vividly stir. Investigate it too by looking directly into it. Next, investigate the two instances of calm and thought movement to see if there is any difference in their arrival, remaining and departure or in their definable identity. If there is a difference between remaining calmly and an abrupt movement of thought, examine to see if their difference consists in being better or worse, empty or not empty, having or not having an identity, and between being or not being identifiable. If there is no difference, investigate to see if their lack of disparity consists in being identical or in being similar while different. If identical, investigate how they are identical at the beginning, middle and end. If similar, examine how they are similar. Investigate in this way to gain some experience. In case an incorrect understanding is held, it should be stopped with a counter-argument, a hint should be given and the investigation resumed. Turning away from the belief that these two -- serene calm and abrupt thought movement -- are of entirely different substances, you must experience that they are the same mind, the mind that is identical in being rootless and intangible, and in being an aware emptiness that is self-knowing and naturally pure. This being so, whichever of the two happens, there is no need to accept or reject, repress or encourage. Rather, you should become confident that this aware emptiness is naturally free -- in the very stillness when calm and in the very arising when thoughts occur." Steps of Pointing-Out Instruction This has two parts: Pointing out innate mind-essence Pointing out innate thinking Pointing out innate perception Pointing Out Innate Mind-Essence First, when giving the pointing-out instruction, no one else should be present besides the master and disciple. If you prefer, assume the posture as before. Then the master says: "Let your mind be as it naturally is without trying to correct it. Now, isn't it true that all your thoughts, both subtle and gross, subside in themselves? Rest evenly and look to see if this mind doesn't remain calm in its own natural state." The master lets the disciple look. "That's called shamatha...." "During this state, do not become dull, absent-minded or apathetic. Is it not true that you cannot verbally formulate that the identity of this mind is such-and-such, nor can you mentally form a thought of it? Rather, isn't it a totally unidentifiable, aware, unconfined and lucid wakefulness that knows itself by itself? "Within the state of evenness, look to see whether it isn't an experience without any 'thing' experienced." The master then lets the disciple look. "That's called vipashyana." - "Here, these two are mentioned sequentially, but in actuality this kind of shamatha and vipashyana are not separate. Rather, look to see if this shamatha isn't the vipashyana that is an unidentifiable, self-knowing, natural awareness. Also look to see if this vipashyana isn't the shamatha of abiding in the natural state untainted by conceptual attributes. Rest evenly and look!" The master lets the disciple look. "That's called the unity of shamatha and vipashyana." - "Both are contained within your present mind. Experiencing and recognizing this is called the birth of meditation practice. "This is what is given many names, such as buddha-mind, mind-essence of sentient beings, nonarising dharmakaya, basic natural state, innate mind, original wakefulness, Mahamudra, and so forth. And this is what all the sutras and tantras, true treatises and instructions aim at and lead to." - Having said this, if the matser prefers, he can inspire further confidence by giving relevant quotations from the scriptures. Otherwise, it may not be necessary to say more than the following, since some people of lesser intelligence may get confused when the explanation is too long. "The meaning in a nutshell is this: allow your mind to be as it naturally is, and let thoughts dissolve in themselves. This is your innate mind, which is an unidentifiable, self-knowing, natural awareness. Remain one-pointedly in its continuity and do not get distracted. "During the daily activities between breaks as well, try to keep this kind of mindfulness undistractedly as much as you can. "It is important to continue training persistently for a couple of days. Otherwise, there may be a danger of this seeing of mind-essence, which you ahve pursued through various means, slipping away." "The meditator should therefore train in focusing on that for a couple of days. Pointing Out Innate Thinking Second, the meditator should now assume the correct posture in front of (the master, and be told the following): "Let your mind remain in its natural way. When thoughts have subsided, your mind is an intangible, aware emptiness. Be undistracted and look directly into the identity of this naked state! "At this moment, allow a feisty thought, such as delight, to take form. The very moment it vividly occurs, look directly into its identity from within the state of aware emptiness. "Now, is this thought the intangible and naked state of aware emptiness? Or is it absolutely no different from the identity of innate mind-essence itself? Look!" Let the meditator look for a short while. The meditator may say, "It is the aware emptiness. There seems to be no difference." If so, ask: "Is it an aware emptiness after the thought has dissolved? Or is it an aware emptiness by driving away the thought from meditation? Or, is the vividness of the thought itself an aware emptiness?" If the meditator says it is like one of the first two cases, he had not cleared up the former uncertainties and should therefore be set to resolve this for a few days. On the other hand, if he personally experiences it to be like the latter case, he has seen identity of thought and can therefore be given the following pointing-out instruction: "When you look into a thought's identity, without having to dissolve the thought and without having to force it out by meditation, the vividness of the thought is itself the indescribable and naked state of aware emptiness. We call this seeing the natural face of innate thought or thought dawns as dharmakaya. "Previously, when you determined the thought's identity and when you investigated the calm and the moving mind, you found that there was nothing other than this intangible single mind that is a self-knowing, natural awareness. It is just like the analogy of water and waves. "This being so, is there any difference between calm and movement? "Is there any difference between thinking and not thinking? "Is it better to be serenely calm? Do you need to be elated about it? "Is it worse when a thought abruptly arises? Do you need to be unhappy about it? "Unless you perceive this hidden deception, you will suffer the meditation famine. So, from now on, when a thought does not arise you need not deliberately make one arise so as to train in the state of its arising, and when the thought does arise you need not deliberately prevent it, so as to train in the state of its nonarising. Thus, do not be biased toward calm or movement. "The principle for this thought can be applied to all thoughts. However, the meditator should train for a while in simply making use of thoughts, so when no thoughts arise, conjure one up on purpose and sustain its essence. Otherwise, there is a danger of losing sight of the identity of thoughts. The meditator should, therefore, be instructed to continue practicing diligently for several days. If it is preferably, bring in some quotations to instill certainty. --------- Pointing Out Innate Perception Third, the physical posture and so forth should be kept just as before. Then ask: "While in the composure of the natural state, allow a visual perception, such as that of a mountain or a house, to be vividly experienced. When looking directly at the experience, is this perception itself an intangible aware emptiness? Or, is it the aware and empty nature of mind? Look for a while to see what the difference between them is." Let the meditator look. He may say, "There is no difference. It is an intangible, aware emptiness." If so, then ask: "Is it an aware emptiness after the perceived image has disappeared? Or, is the image an aware emptiness by means of cultivating the aware emptiness? Or, is the perceived image itself an aware emptiness?" If the answer comes that it is one of the first two cases, the meditator has not thoroughly investigated the above and should therefore once more be sent to meditate and resolve this. If he does experience that the vividly perceived visual image itself -- unidentifiable in any way other than as a mere presence of unconfined perception -- is an aware emptiness, the master should then give this pointing-out instruction: "When you vividly perceive a mountain or a house, no matter how this perception appears, it does not need to disappear or be stopped. Rather, while this perception is experienced, it is itself an intangible, empty awareness. This is calledseeing the identity of perception." "Previously you cleared up uncertainties when you looked into the identity of a perception and resolved that perceptions are mind. Accordingly, the perception is not outside and the mind is not inside. It is merely, and nothing other than, this empty and aware mind that appears as a perception. It is exactly like the example of a dream-object and the dreaming mind. "From the very moment a perception occurs, it is a naturally freed and intangible perceiving emptiness. This perceiving yet intangible and naked state of empty perception is called seeing the natural face of innate perception or perception dawning as dharmakaya. "This being so, 'empty' isn't something better and 'perceiving' isn't something worse, and perceiving and being empty are not separate entities. So, you can continue training in whatever is experienced. When perceiving, in order to deliberately train in perception, there is no need to arrest it. When empty, in order to deliberately train in emptiness, you do not need to produce it. "Whenever you recall the mindful presence of practice, all of appearance and existence is the Mahamudra of dharmakaya, without the need to adjust, accept or reject. And so, from now on, continue the training without being biased toward perception or emptiness by repressing or encouraging either of them. "Nevertheless, for a while allow various kinds of perceptions to take place. While perceiving it is essential to be undistracted from sustaining the unidentifiable essence." Thus, let the meditator train for several days. If it is preferred, bring in some quotations to instill certainty."

On one hand there is the belief that we would live life better if we interpreted the happenings of our life as though they were in a dream. In this way, if you'd dreampt it, where there is no science, just the subconscious at play. What would it, that dream of a broken broken jar mean to you? What symbolisms might you attach to the elements involved? Hot water, emptiness, container, glass, your actions? On the third hand, while the above is valid and useful and I'll use 'life as dream' at times to understand my reactions. Generally I prescribe to a tic toc world where we don't create our reality only our interpretations. Reality is a name given cards we're dealt, and simple physics mean boiling water cracks glass.

From the void each day you witness millions of beings coming into being, and each day you see millions of beings returning. I know personally that one day I woke up here in this world, as if waking from a dream, and that someday I will leave it. We can make certain cases for what will happen after death: 1. Eternal afterlife 2. Eternal nonexistence 3. Rebirth Seeing as each day millions come from and return to the void, I think a belief in rebirth is not unreasonable. Out of all these cases, rebirth also is the only one I would want to prevent. As to why mo pai is good at it? Well previous generation masters returning (as physical and visible spirits) to interact with their students should be a tip off there.

Well ill tell you more about my exp and then maybe you will see where im coming from. I head sifu talk about the Jinshen(golden spirit) and buddha belly(internal power generated at the ldt.(sifu always uses terms that others dont) Anywho I got an empowerment from sifu. Sifu told me to get up at 6am to do a particular med. So i got up at 6am did the med and went back to bed. During my sleep I had a dream that i was in my apt and sifu was there. He touched my forehead and all of a sudden a felt this electric energy going thru building and somehow it felt a little golden(best way i can describe it). Then suddenly everything went black and I saw the indigo glow of my third eye and threw the indigo glow I say i grassy field and then I was standing in that field. I heard the masters voice and he said "this the empowerment they would give to the monks at shaolin" and I looked behind me and I seen the shaolin temple. Then I was back in my apt sifu told me i should dress and eat better and then I woke up. I immediately called sifu told him about what happened and all he said was "How did you like it?" My jaw hit the floor. That was one exp. One time i was on the phone talking to someone and i said some good things about sifu and then he beeped in on the other line and said "I like what you just said about me." Another time I was talking to someone on the phone who belonged to another sect and during the phone at sporadic momments i kept seeing sifu's face in my head. Then I just told the person i was talking to that whatever they were doing just to stop. I told them about seeing my masters face in my head. At one point during the convo he saw it too. Later he contacted me again thanking me for warning him because the sect he was part of turned to be not such a good sect and ill leave it at that. Another exp I had happened when I was walking as I like to do. An I passed a church and when I did my shen activated. I contacted sifu who told me that anything with spiritual power will activate my shen. An that you could actually tell how developed someones spiritual power was just by saying their name. Also that there are such objects in this world that hold spiritual that will only activate around someone who's shen power is developed. So when the sun thing happened and sifu explained it and I thought back to the empowerment and what he said about the jinshen it made perfect sense to me. Now to say that I am so great that i can mix 2 powerful systems of cultivation correctly and with success seems a bit incorrect..

I need your help to solve a mystery. Tonight, when making tea, I broke my one and only one gallon glass jar. Now I know science can explain to me the symptoms as to why this happened. A weak spot in the glass that finally gave way. Someone dropped it unbeknownst to me or maybe there was some crack I didn't notice. Or maybe all glass jars break after you have poured boiling water in them for a while. Science can certainly explain the symptom of the problem, but not its cause. In other words science can explain how the jar broke, but not why. If it is true that I create my reality, then I somehow, at some level, wanted the glass jar to break. I caused it to break. I set into motion the events leading to me getting that particular jar or whatever else caused it to break. Now I did not have continuous strong thoughts that were negative towards the jar. I didn't always think, every time that I poured boiling water into it, that it would break. I didn't have strong, conscious feelings at least, towards it not breaking. I mean I cared about the jar, it's what I made tea in, and I am obviously upset it is broken. But I was not obsessed with this jar or anything. I didn't have feelings or thoughts towards it breaking. There was a small undercurrent of wondering if it would break, a little worry attached to that, but that's it. Should not have been enough to actually cause the jar to break. I am sure that I did not want the jar to break, but that I also did not harbor strong fear thoughts about it breaking. Whatever worries I had were there only because I lost my previous jar, and it was some time before I received this replacement. I did not, physically at least, break the other jar. No, this thread is not really about a frikkin' jar. The jar is actually a straw that broke the camel's back. I have failed, yet again, to manifest the books I requested. I still do not have a clear idea as to what the hell I should do with my life or where the hell I should go. I am frustrated, depressed and feeling drained. I keep somehow forgetting to do things like work on my modeling, writing or through this singing book by Silvia Nakkach. Just the other day I has jazzed up after doing some of the early exercises in her book, and feeling as well as thinking I would love to attend one of her workshops – perhaps I could manifest the resources needed to attend. I have since lost all steam. It's like some vampire that feeds on positive energy has come to me and sucked my meager reserves of it dry. To put it simply, I am screwing up somehow, to the point I am causing these issues in my life, including the physical manifestation of a breaking jar and failing miserably at producing any requested physical objects. On top of this I have to deal with a very unhealthy environment for me right now. My mom and my grandmother have been fighting all day. Up until this present moment, for reasons I can not explain, I have been unable to astral project, lucid dream, remember little exercises related to these, perform physical exercises, or pursue any of my artistic or creative channels. I want to, I have a desire to, at least consciously. But for some reason I don't. I used to think there was some kind of resistance or block there. But I have come to understand that any blocks or resistance would only be in my mind, constructed by me. That I, and everyone else, are all connected to the Source and each other, and that these channels are forever open. They only appear closed or blocked in the minds of those who have these blocks, or this resistance, in their mind. Our natural state is to be perfect, like the Source energy that gives us all life. That means our natural state is also to be perfectly creative, just as the Source is. So by feeling or thinking there is a block or some kind of resistance there I only reinforce any block or resistance I previously created in my mind, or rather in my access of mind, assuming that mind is universal for all of us. One mind, many forms. Digressing... The point is that if I don't want to have blocks or resistances then I have to stop believing, feeling and/or thinking they are there. See myself in the desired state, a fully open channel between myself and the Source, which is my True State anyway. Here is my problem... If the Source is creative and loving energy, if it is light, if there is no darkness in it, then shouldn't positive thoughts be more powerful than negative ones? Because this is not my experience. I have to fight and struggle to the point of exhaustion to keep the energy and mindset needed to manifest something in my life. I am exhausted! Having trouble coming up with the energy to try again. Not sure I even want to. But if I think the briefest negative thought towards a glass jar, for example, it will shatter! It is so much easier to think negatively, to fear, doubt, worry, criticize, judge and do all these other low vibration things. It's far easier to manifest negative stuff in my life instead of positive things. And negative things that have been established for any length of time are nearly impossible to remove and uproot! While tending to the seed of any positive thing requires an immense amount of effort to allow it to grow, develop and put down roots. And even when you have an established positive mature thing, the weakest negative thought can decimate it utterly! Why in the hell is that? It makes no sense. Isn't negative energy the opposite of the energy of the entire frikkin' universe? The opposite of the Source? What am I missing here? I mean if force in general is not the best approach to any situation, but its opposite, flow, is (which is what has proven true in my experience) then negative energy should struggle to do anything, because if the natural state of everything is positive energy, then negative energy would have to use force to do anything. Negative energy should repel positive energy, and visa-versa. So negative energy should not be able to be used to create anything, as its nature is destruction. Negative energy should not be able to draw creativity to it. So how come negative things manifest quicker and with less effort than positive things? Then there are those that say there is no negative energy. But how exactly does that work? Please help me solve the mystery of the broken jar. I need something, not sure what, some guidance, some sign – something that can explain how this can be, what I am doing wrong, how I am messing up, how to get this right. I refuse to accept or believe that negative energy and low vibration mental states are more powerful than positive energy and higher vibration mental states. I absolutely refuse to accept or believe that! It is illogical and it makes no sense! The only way it could make sense is if the Source, what others call God, is actually the opposite of what I think. That it is actually a Source of destruction and hatred. That is the only way negative things could have more power. It is the only way darkness could conquer light. Nothing else makes sense! Let me urge you, whether you agree with or understand anything in this thread or not, to listen to your heart, your intuition, and post whatever comes to you. If its personal feel free to PM me. No response is irrelevant. Every single one is important. I have to get Sherlock Holmes on this things arse, so every clue is important! Please do not leave me in the dark here, help me understand this! I know that someone out there will share the idea, or say the phrase or word, that will unlock this. Help me figure out how to manifest a requested object and how to stop inadvertently breaking jars with my mind! Thank you for reading!

Some instructional points to bear in mind relating to actual practice: 2. The basic principles or nature of the Body. In the center of the Transformation-Wheel (Chakra) at the navel and the other main Wheels in the body is pivoted the Central Channel; the upper end and the lower end of p. 158 it, together with other points of the Wheels, are the most important centers. These centers are viewed as vital points and are emphasized in the Skill-in-Yoga-Teachings of Tantra. According to the pith-instructions of Marpa, one should put emphasis on the Heart and Throat Centers during sleeping, and should know the critical teachings on the Navel and Forehead Centers during the practice of Heat Yoga and Karma Yoga in the awakening stage. This is because during these different times the Thig-le upon which the consciousness relies concentrates at these four different centers. According to the teaching of Dus-akor (Kalachakra) the Head Center and Navel Center produce the Thig-le in the awakening stage; the Throat and the Secret Center produce the Thig-le in dreaming stage; the Heart and the Precious Center produce the Thig-le in the deep-dreaming stage. This agrees approximately with the saying that at the end of the navel and genital center, the Thig-le is produced in the four different times. At the time of falling into sleep, the pranas will gather at the Heart Center and the Precious Center. When they are heavily concentrated, one will fall into sleep; thereafter, the pranas in these two parts gradually become thinner and thinner. When (most of) the pranas come to the Secret Center and Throat Center the fleeting dreams will appear; when the pranas have gathered in these two parts for some time the actual dreams (or steady dreams) will arise. When the pranas rise up to the Center Head and Navel Centers, one will awake. From the Head Center the Thig-le drops to the end of the precious organ; as it reaches the different p. 159 centers as mentioned above it will produce the various blisses (or so-called Four Blisses). This is the meaning of the four times: Through the power of the prana the Yogi manipulates in exercise, the Downward-Bliss produces the Dim Innate when it reaches the center of the navel; when it reaches the end of the precious organ the Bright Innate is produced. That these four centers are very important in the meritorious exercises of dream and sleep by no means implies that they are not essential points upon which the exercises of mental concentration should be carried out during the daytime. Among all the centers in the body, the Navel Center is the one upon which the Yogi should begin. One should also know that to concentrate upon the different centers will produce different effects and specific advantages. * I have a detailed link to the preparatory stages and actual practice ritual for the secret yogas of Naropa. Due to the fact that its classified as a mahayoga practice, i cannot post it here, but can do so selectively via PM. Of course this is not my exclusive knowledge as it can be accessed via the net, just that i cannot post the link openly in line with vows taken. Those who know will understand. Maybe its already been posted here in the past, not sure, and i wont be searching anyways.

I am generally an advocate for this idea... because: 1. The PPF is a terrible excuse for controlled threads and very difficult to watch, search, etc. It is "Personal" and that is ok on a very limited basis but not a good idea as a general area of posting. 2. Threads should not get Pitted.... members should be And the Pit has become too PC an idea now... it is beyond debate club to being a fight club excuse. IMO, there is rarely a reason to Pit a thread but many reasons to Pit posts and members... 3. Not everything is a debate. While disagreement is a natural outcome to any thread, it changes colors very fast at times and that is the issue. Spamming, attacking, ganging up, etc. The same posters won't stop. It is the Usual Suspects. The OP should have the highest 'say' in THEIR thread.... if within reason, but there is a catch as to whether they can maintain it 4. Social Media has become a medication for the masses. TTB is no different. The amount of time people spend online is saving them from trips to the psych ward but TTB pays in different ways. People are allowed to go crazy here instead. 5. What's with the male cesspool? I recently pondered which members are the most important contributors to TTB, IMO, and the top 5 where female... So it begs the question or statement: Is the problem an alpha male issue? Dogs want to spray their scent; the mob likes to surround themselves with wiseguys; Apes beat their chest. I no longer need to go to the discovery channel to watch this, I now simply go to TTB for entertainment 6. The "my system is best" has gotten so old that it incredulously seems to continue to pick up steam... if the godfather talks the wiseguys need to come out in mass to clarify this is the only system? I have a dream... that the ego will let go of systems... 7. BS and brown-nosing... several take this to art form levels... continuing the mafia metaphors... someone comes back from a suspension and then says how bad it is to see someone else banned and how much they will be missed? Is that like Luca Brasi saying he would miss the guy he just wacked ? Does a shootout has no collateral damage? The male cesspool continues. Yes, TTB... there is a Santa Claus... and without Lao Zi there is no Tao... someone needs to publish the misinformation we see here and then distribute the proceeds to feed the hungry and poor... --- Ok, enough fun and games... what to do? More folders would not be the answer, IMO... maintaining more areas increases mod work and complicates it... if the idea is to put more responsible control of a thread in the OP, then the thread needs more controls... maybe like settings to say how "directed" this thread will be. But this often requires custom code and is a pain to admins on upgrades... So the idea may be that we ask and expect members to simply respect the OP and the thread and posts... The one reason this doesn't work has been said: The male cesspool syndrome... SO the choice narrows down to giving control to members or software...

Everyone occasionally has nightmares and some people have them quite often. Often its simply human anxiety coming up in subconscious. Saying one 'dreampt of the 2011 Tsunami in Japan years before it occurred in 1993. I had no time marker clues then, or did not interpret any ones that were there correctly.' Means nothing. I have no doubt everyone who lives in Japan has dreampt of tsunamis and has woken up in dread. That because Tsunami's happen to Japan. They happen and they kill people. I'm sure if she'd come up with lots of 2's in her 1993 dream it'd be easy to come up with a huge number of 2's for the Japanese Tsunami event, literally dozens of 2's all over the place because its an easy trick to pull off. Thousands of things happen and you can pin 2's on dozens of them. I wouldn't make to make life changing decisions based on her 'feelings' and visions. But would you? In 2022, will you be changing the way you live because of her writings? Will you or anyone stay away from all beaches in Europe at 2:00 because of her prediction and how important 2:22 is to her? Strangely we had a thread about people always noticing there clock at 1:11 here. We put values on things and once we name a coincidence they tend to pop up constantly in our life. (I find old pennies, just found a 1929 in change!) I tend to think much of that is they always did we're just noticing it now. We see what we look for and our subconscious can be more aware then our active minds. Or in the case of noticing 1:11, we have a pretty good internal clock, that we mostly ignore. Once we key into it, we have control, even subconsciously.

This journalistic piece is well worth reading. Some Folks Say It's the Beginning of the End for the Christian Right -- Dream On, They're Getting More Powerful http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/idea-christian-right-retreat-almost-dangerous-christian-right

I hear what you are saying (and, at least at my level, there IS a "brain" component) but I am trying to describe NOT having mind lead chi. A Lego castle could be built by physically picking the pieces up one by one with your fingers and putting them together, or by telekinetically picking the pieces up and assembling the castle (think of a Jedi pointing at the pieces and levitating each in turn), or by doing an "I Dream of Jeannie" blink and instantaneously materializing a fully-built castle. I'm not talking about manipulating energy (or Lego pieces) but about realizing a state of existence, if that makes sense.

Like everything in life, there's many different ways to look at a thing besides the one that comes first, or most easily to our own mind. Like yourself and everyone else, I too was an inseparable part of the generation I was immersed in throughout my formative years. Our minds absorb the qualities of the times we live in in exactly the same way as our body does the water, food and air from which our body is built. In my case, as it was in yours, that meant a lot of years of what we used to call 'mind-expanding' drugs. However, unlike yourself, I don't look back on any of this with regret. I'd like to offer you an alternative way to look at this memory that seems to be presently giving you so much unhappiness. But since I'm nobody, I can't believe anything I might splather on about in this forum would be of much help. However, you might be interested in checking this guy out. Wayne Liquorman is a Californian chap who has been my favourite writer for a number of years now, He claims to have had the experience of 'Awakening 'happen through him about twenty years ago,... yet, his drug and alcohol consumption before that event absolutely eclipsed anything you or I could ever have done ! His claim is that all of our apparent history, (which we place so much value on when we're looking at whatever dream it is that we want to achieve next),... has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not we realise that dream. Here, I'll let you read it in his own words. Maybe it will take your mind off your past misdemeanours : * * {Q} : When you look at all the millions of searchers, and how few are self-realised,… {Wayne} : Yes {Q} : So how did you earn that ? {Wayne} : Let’s see,… I was a very nice guy. (laughs) I worked very hard. I was very earnest. I was kind and loving to all. You’re not buying this are you ? (laughter) It’s Grace ! {Q} : It’s Grace ? {Wayne} : It’s pure Grace,….and the definition of that word which I like best is, “Unmerited favour from God.” I was a pig for much of my life. (laughs) “Give me more !” Period. Give me more. I want more. More is not enough. There’s not enough booze. There’s not enough drugs. There’s not enough sex. There’s not enough money. There’s not enough strokes of recognition. There’s not enough ! So I will do whatever I need to do to get more. And so I was not a nice person. I was not helping others. I was not being generous. I was not being kind. I was not being loving. I was out there for me. And that’s incredibly painful. That’s a very horrible way to live. Not one that you would choose if you had a choice. And it’s one that kills many people younger than me. But for me, for this body-mind mechanism, there was Grace. Go figure. So that’s how I did it. So, if you want to follow my ‘path’ you’d better start drinking. (laughter) You have a lot of catching up to do. You’ve got nineteen years of hard living still to go ! *

Howdy Captain, Forgive me if I appear woefully ignorant of how to properly address a person of your rank. I've never associated with military men before. As an ex-hippy, brush cuts, clean-shaven and disciplined men in uniforms were the bogey-men to me back in the Sixties. However, reassuringly, I find you're also a man of fascinating insights. (At least for me). I really appreciated your information about both Hume and Descartes. I had had no idea it was Hume who blew Descartes cover, as I've never read anything by him. Only recognised his name as one of the philosophic 'biggees' I also found your explanation of Descartes' line of reasoning behind his famous one-liner , to be equally fascinating. When you explained with such patient clarity the logic connecting each step of his reasoning it helped me to see that there was no inadvertent oversight on his part,... that his ground breaking idea still retains its pre-eminent place in our Western attempts to understand the incomprehensible. Thanks very much for supplying and fitting together all those pieces in the puzzle. You particularly hit a resounding chord of resonance for me when you ended with, " I guess its my destiny to have relationships with folk who want to discuss philosophy." I've long wondered what it is that impels me to hang around sites like this, when most 'normal people' in the world seem to be out and about engaging in this extraordinary experience of life that we're all imprisoned in,... rather than sitting around on our own in some room somewhere, trying to dream up explanations for what it's all about. This kind of activity strikes me as similar to a young lad standing off at the edge of a wondrous Barnum and Bailey circus that's just hit town, trying to figure out how the big tent is suspended, what type of fuel the roller coaster engine runs on, etc, etc. Kind of misses the point, doesn't it ? Pity the poor kid who's so afflicted. Anyway, since we seem to have a considerable overlap in either life experiences, or at least a proximity in where we find ourselves standing now,... perhaps you might be interested in this account by an author whose ideas I still find really intriguing ? Ever since I first came across Nisargadhatta's book "I Am That" and was introduced to those revolutionary-sounding ideas in Non-Duality teachings, I was on the search for Westerners who had had similar experiences. My hope was that they might be able to bring what they had experienced away from those far-off realms of the Mysterious East, and make them accessible to me, sitting here all quiet on the Western front. In the end I found two chaps who did this service for me. On the off chance that you might also find this kind of second-hand experience interesting, below I've added a short extract by the second writer, Richard Sylvester. What I've taken from one of his talks below seems to me to be his way of answering the question you raised in your post above when you asked "If we have the felt experience on the one hand, and the experiencer on the other, what is it that experiences?" * Richard Sylvester wrote : * The word ‘I’ in the sentence “I am happy” has exactly the same force as the word ‘It’ in the sentence “It is raining.” There is no ‘it’. There is no ‘I’. Rain simply falls. Happiness simply arises. Most writing that purports to be about non-duality is absolutely dualistic. As soon as a writer suggests that there is someone who can do something to bring about liberation, you are reading nonsense. (Though often this message will come dressed up as highly articulate, eloquent, complex and persuasive nonsense.) There is no such thing as a teacher of non-duality. No one can teach the mystery of being. Therefore, if someone presents themselves as a teacher, it is not non-duality that they are offering. There are many interesting and useful things that can be taught. During the last forty years, for example, I have taught meditation, self-awareness, personal development, humanistic psychology, counselling and many other things. None of this has anything to do with non-duality. All that can be offered about non-duality is an opportunity to share some thoughts and ideas and feelings, and an inadequate attempt to describe liberation where it has been seen. Nevertheless, for some of us there is a powerful magnetic pull to spend time occasionally with people who want to share in this way. Why this should be is a mystery. As for meetings on 'non-duality and therapy', or 'non-duality and improving relationships', or 'non-duality and self-development', or 'non-duality and tantra', I wouldn't pay any more attention to them than to meetings on 'non-duality and cookery', or 'non-duality and upholstery'. You cannot use non-duality in any way. It has no point or purpose and you cannot bargain with it or profit from it. It is what it is, and it simply reveals itself or it does not. *

I sense the process of awakening from the illusion of 'reality' is similar to becoming lucid in the dream state.

Hi again Aeran, I must say, it looks like, after a lot of verbal jousting, we've actually worked our way around to a point where we are in complete agreement . Amazing, eh ? I've extracted in the quote above, your re-jigged and clarified rendition of what I had missed understanding the first few times around. There's not a word of it I could disagree with. However, for me it all hinges on that one, tiny word. "if", in your opening statement, "if reincarnation is true". After that 'if', everything else hangs together perfectly. Nevertheless, perhaps it's a perversity in my nature but that word "if" holds all the juice for me. Probably since, for well over twenty years I used to believe so whole-heartedly in reincarnation during the period when I saw myself as a Buddhist. The first time I came across a set of ideas suggesting that this explanation was just another attempt by man to bring the reassurance of supposed comprehension to something which is beyond comprehension,... it felt like I was reading words of sheer blasphemy. But, I was bitten. I couldn't stop going back to the book, lifting the covers,... and thrilling myself by looking again at this outrageous example of blasphemy. Now, I've grown so used to the ideas inherent in Non-Duality teachings that I'm afraid, for me, there's now just no way of going back to those comfortable old days of belief in the system of Buddha's doctrine. Such a pity, in a way. It had such a vast and lovely collection of logical answers to seemingly every question I could imagine at the time. But, if you're happy with reincarnation, more power to you, as they say. The current set of beliefs I now carry around certainly hasn't made me one whit a more happy and contented person, so I wouldn't dream of trying to off load them in your direction. My feeling is that for each one of us, our karma takes us where it will. I don't believe that any of us have any choice in the things that we find ourself attracted to and which we may well end up believing in with faith and dedication.

Perhaps you have heard of the Tibetan teachings on the Bardo. Essentially a similar (though not as bad) process happens as we fall asleep - essentially the gross energy dissolves into ever more subtle levels and then re-emerges in the dream state. What Silent Thunder is referring to, is a specific training which can maintain awareness of this process (and thus use it for meditative benefit). A dream is a perfect example of how the mind creates duality. The non-dual is divided into the subject and its objects. We can have all kinds of experiences but the entire process is only within our mind. If we realise this within the dream (lucid) it's a game-changer. So, there is a whole lot happening within this Holistic swamp. How useful it is to us depends on what we are able to get out of it.