Approaching the Great Perfection

[Tibetan_Ice]

http://www.amazon.com/Approaching-Great-Perfection-Simultaneous-Dzogchen-ebook/dp/B00B6U17WI/ref=tmm_kin_title_0 Edited August 9, 2014 by Tibetan_Ice

[asunthatneversets]

Yes

[Tibetan_Ice]

I must say... This is one of the best books that I've read in a long time.

 

I believe I have a better understanding now about the "simultaneous" enlightenment vs the gradual path. But this book isn't just about that. In typical Buddhist fashion it reveals the differing levels of practitioners and recommends the types of practices that they should follow. This Is not a practice manual, but an exploration of the finer points of understanding. I learned many things.

 

Here are some of the highlights that I found useful:

 

 

Although that is the way of arriving at [realization], nowadays proud people who grasp these tenets settle them according to intellectual supposition; this is wrong. One arrives at [realization] through comprehending the true expanse of the Natural Great Perfection.

 

...

 

That which is called emptiness is empty from the very beginning, nonself, separate from the four and eight extremes of elaboration, the loose awareness of the present moment, transcending intellect; that is what we call gnosis.

 

...

 

If, while maintaining the flow of the great, inherent natural state, you think The essence of this gnosis is emptiness, then that which is labeling it as emptiness is your intellect. The intellect is a reference point. There is no way to attain buddhahood by means of an absorption that contains a reference point.

 

...

 

On the stage that is without progressive purification of gnosis, there is no need to train on the ten stages of the bodhisattvas, nor on the paths and stages achieved by accomplishing the exertions of development and completion in the outer and inner Mantrayāna. This is because they are all combined in the single essence of wisdom.

 

...

 

Those meditators who are fatigued by the penance of solitude and the burden of things to be counted and the teachers who support them are a long way from the definitive secret, the truth of the Great Perfection. If they can come to the place of the ultimate truth of meditation, just by recognizing stillness and just by recognizing movement, there is no need for any other kind of contemplation.

 

...

 

Therefore the name dharmakāya cannot be given to discursive thought before the awareness of the present moment is unimpaired and uncorrupted. This alone is the antidote for the agent of meditation, a total penetration not chained by attachment to the view.

 

...

 

The theoretical basis for leapover is given in Jigme Lingpas general discussion of its theory and practice. The primary sources for Jigme Lingpas presentation of leapover are chapter 8 of Longchenpas Tsigdön Dzö and chapter 20 of his Tegchö Dzö, which together contain all the elements of leapover found in YL. Other possible sources are the Nyingtig Yabzhi, which also contains many leapover texts, and instructions on leapover practice found in a number of the Seventeen Tantras.388 The theoretical basis for leapover is a complex system of channels (rtsa) and winds (rlung) located in the body of the practitioner. The winds are divided into the winds of mind (rlung sems) and the winds of gnosis (rlung rig)an extension of the distinction between gnosis and mind made in a more general way in Seminal Heart texts. Mind is located in a channel in the lungs, while wisdom is located in the physical heart (tsitta, a rendering of Skt. citta). The aim of meditative practice is to make the lamp of wisdom at the heart shine through the channels that connect it with the eyes, and hence appear as visions of light in the form of spheres (thig le) and chains (lu gu rgyud). The process is put very succinctly in GP: Internally, the experience of emptiness emerges, And externally, the wisdom of luminosity. Its paths are the channels, the self-arisen great secret, Connecting the heart with the eyes: [104] The kati and crystal tube, Which are like white silk threads. These continua become manifest to the senses In vipaśyanā as the vajra chains, Looking like cleansed pearls strung together: Luminous, bright, radiant, and free from impurity.

 

...

 

The complexity of the specific practices taught in leapover can be seen from the composition of YL alone, where concise instructions on the seven essential points of meditation, details of four visions (snang ba), and supporting instructions for leapover fill about sixty pages.

 

...

 

In particular, among people there are various types of faculty and intelligence. Those simultaneists of sharp faculties who are accomplished through previous training do not need to be led gradually through śamatha and vipaśyanā. For them, recognition and liberation arise at the same time. However, others need to be instructed gradually. At the beginning they should train for as long as necessary in the levels of śamatha with a focus, such as a stick, a stone, a deitys image, a syllable, a sphere, or breath control.450

 

...

 

Thus spoke Samantabhadra: The ālaya is a state that is like the vast general ground of all samsara and nirvana having fallen asleep and not being awake to the sense objects. However, even during the five unconscious states, mind itself and mind, which have the nature of support and supported, remain latently present. In the lower vehicles this [ālaya] is taught as the buddha nature for the sake of temporarily guiding the immature ones who are eaten by doubts regarding the stainless true condition.

 

...

 

Because from the perspective of the essence there is no falling into the extremes of appearance or emptiness, do not look hopefully for buddhahood in a creator and created that involve cause and effect.

 

...

 

the space inside a vase, it can be set forth with the term son. However, if ultimately the mother is placed outside and the son intellectually understood and experienced as being enclosed inside, then this is what I call the immature persons experience of absorption

 

...

 

Buddhahood is not obtained by meditating, and one does not wander in samsara through not meditating. This is called the great ever-pure wisdom, changeless through the three times, and endowed with the five characteristics: freshness, self-liberation, relaxation, spaciousness, and great settledness.

 

...

 

Now the definitions: When the manifestation of all teachings, without exception, that are the cause and result of the three kāyas and the seven limbs is experienced in a continuous cycle, this is the manifestation of the eleventh stage, light everywhere. This is what is known as the saṃbhogakāya of the result.

 

...

 

Lastly, after samsara has become empty, Not even the names container and contained will be known. [similarly], though you may investigate the nature of the state into which Subject, object, and so on disappear, Because that which has gone is totally pure, There is no place to which it goes.488 Therefore [i teach] the vast, all-encompassing compassion.

 

...

 

At that time, no matter what categorizing discursive thought arises, Whatever arises is not viewed, and that which arises is recognized. Thus, like hammering a peg into the earth, Awareness goes deep into the essential point of recognizing ones own essence.

 

...

 

As it says, through not trying to make anything and not falling into the extreme of sealing the wisdom of self-arisen non-elaboration, you can hold buddhahood in the palm of your hand as the state of freedom from efforts. Therefore this is the pinnacle of all vehicles. Extensive discussions on this exist in oceanlike collected works of the Omniscient One, Longchenpa, and in a number of works by Kaḥtog Śākya Dorje and Ngari Paṇchen Rigdzin Chenpo.519 Therefore, just to avoid mental strain and keep from falling asleep, this will be sufficient.

 

...

 

Gradualist people should give up distractions in the presence of a holy lama and establish, through meditation, that the nature of mind is free from the four extremes of existence and nonexistence. Having established and clarified this, you will hold in your hand the recognition that this nonconceptual śamatha is itself the essence of the object of meditation. As you sharpen your awareness and meditate, thoughts and emotions become like flies in a sunbeam; however, it is a great setback to turn this into many subjects and objects. Then there will be no benefit from meditation, and you may experience feelings of nausea. Some time after going through such mistakes, you will have an unobstructed understanding of the luminous essence of awareness, [488] and very strong experiences of emptiness will arise from pure, naked, unadulterated radiance. The extent of this depends on how long you have been meditating. If you do not meditate, a deterioration into ordinariness will occur. In Mahāmudrā this is called lesser one-pointedness. Although some think that this kind of thing causes over-confidence, that is an intellectual judgment and therefore unreliable.

 

...

 

It is not necessary to seal concepts with an awareness that directly apprehends whatever arises. Thoughts and emotions being empty of self and arising as groundless and rootless is sufficient. This is the way of modestly proceeding to the essence of simple cognizance. [495] If the luminosity is not influenced by ones cognizance of it, there is no ordinary or special and therefore, at that time, without meditating or being distracted, you are entrusted with the depths of the view. In Mahāmudrā this is called medium non-elaboration.

 

...

 

As it says, when there is conceptual imputation, appearances should be intellectually understood as the magical play of mind. By directly equating appearances with mind, appearances and mind are liberated as placeless and rootless, and this manifests as the disappearance of grasping at the emptiness of ones own essence. However, examining this from the perspective of the higher path, there remains a subtle grasping at emptiness that pollutes gnosis with the subtle stains of mind. This is similar to the teachings in the Great Perfections Mind Series on absorption not being damaged by conditions such as sinking and scattering.

 

...

 

This handprint of untying the knot of the central channel was made after having examined the dynamic energy of gnosis in the vast expanse.

 

...

 

If they can come to the place of the ultimate truth of meditation, just by recognizing stillness and just by recognizing movement, there is no need for any other kind of contemplation.

 

...

 

If you ask which of these stages is the authentic accomplishment, it is the third of the ways of liberation, thoughts and emotions being liberated into the dharmakāya without benefit or harm, like a thief entering an empty house. [533] This itself is the path of the masters of yoga.

 

...

 

is like this: though a thief may enter an empty house, there is nothing for him to steal, and just as there is nothing to lose in an empty house, one transcends from the beginning the nature of benefit and harm, obtaining and losing. Here the all-penetrating essence of gnosis, an immoveable steadiness that is free from the cognitive obscuration of conceptual analysis, is itself the very heart of meditation, or innate mindful awareness. Although the dynamic energy of thoughts and emotions moves as usual, analytical perception is purified. Because of this, in the state of relaxed, non-intellectual, naked gnosis without a place or agent of arising, [the yogin] holds the secure place of the king, the unchanging dharmakaya.

 

...

 

Regarding the essential point of thoughts and emotions being without benefit or harm, after you have completed the practice of Great Perfection luminosity, then, through the practice of breakthrough, the body disintegrates into its subtle components, the mind disintegrates into the true condition, and one approaches liberation in the place of ever-purity. [535] Through the practice of leapover, at the time of the completion of the four visions, the body disintegrates into its subtle components and is reborn as radiant light. Thus you achieve mastery and arise in the body of great transference. If this happens, then, as the marks of the path, the body becomes like a corpse in a cemetery, speech becomes like an echo, and mind becomes like mists in the air.

 

...

 

is not necessary; The Great Perfection practitioner who is free from activities passes over into the exhaustion of phenomena.

 

...

 

How wonderful! There is no need for me to boast about my wisdom Because the winds and channels of apprehender and apprehended have entered the central Channel.

 

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One who boasts of the austerity he has borne for months and years May have miraculous powers, clairvoyance, and have transcended the marks of accomplishment, But after freeing the knotted channels of apprehender and apprehended into the heart, He will be confused about the Great Perfection and his mind will be troubled.

 

 

 

Now I hope one day to be able to read the restricted book called Yeshe Lama.

http://www.shambhala.com/yeshe-lama.html

 

Edited August 9, 2014 by Tibetan_Ice

[asunthatneversets]

You missed that the "Those meditators who are fatigued..." quote is actually Jigme Lingpa pretending to be an unqualified lama giving bad advice, to which he then (as himself) corrects in the sentences which follow.

[asunthatneversets]

I actually have cited this section a few times to point out this error in other's views, for example I wrote on vajracakra:

 

As has been pointed out, you're reading an exposition which is being delivered from the perspective of the natural state, and mistaking it as your own.

 

Jigme Lingpa discusses this error:

Jigme Lingpa sets up the main part of his The Words Of The Omniscient One not with his own instructions, but with those of an imagined teacher of the simultaneous method, in order to subject the statements of this teacher to criticism. He begins with this advice from the imagined teacher:

 

"Those meditators who are fatigued by the penance of solitude and the burden of things to be counted and the teachers who support them are a long way from the definitive secret, the truth of the Great Perfection. If they can come to the place of the ultimate truth of meditation, just by recognizing stillness and just by recognizing movement, there is no need for any other kind of contemplation."

 

To which Jigme Lingpa (as himself) replies with:

 

"Although you may achieve an initial acquaintance with the realization of the great ascension to ever-purity by throwing everything out at once as stated above, you will not really have come close to it."

 

Later in the same text Jigme Lingpa quotes a passage from Longchenpa's Lungti Terdzö in which much the same criticism is made:

 

"The sage oriented toward realization who explains to every flawed person with little merit he meets, 'The genuine realization that whatever arises is the nature of the dharmakāya is itself self-arisen wisdom,' and, 'Absorption is accordingly nescience and manas,' teaches what is tantamount to a fabrication that seduces beings. Because of this, one sees [disciples] who are cut off from the profound Dharma, which will not be found elsewhere. Such a teacher is a thief of this vehicle. There are many appearing nowadays."

[Tibetan_Ice]

You are right.. Here it is:

 

 

THE MAIN PART of KZL begins with this advice, it becomes apparent as one reads on that these are not the instructions of Jigme Lingpa, but those of an imagined teacher of the simultaneous method, set up in order to be subjected to criticism. Jigme Lingpa replies: Although you may achieve an initial acquaintance with the realization of the great ascension to ever-purity by throwing everything out at once as stated above, you will not really have come close to it.355 Later in the same text Jigme Lingpa quotes a passage from Longchenpas Lungi Terdzö in which much the same criticism is made:

 

The sage oriented toward realization who explains to every flawed person with little merit he meets, The genuine realization that whatever arises is the nature of the dharmakāya is itself self-arisen wisdom, and, Absorption is accordingly nescience and manas, teaches what is tantamount to a fabrication that seduces beings. Because of this, one sees [disciples] who are cut off from the profound Dharma, which will not be found elsewhere. Such a teacher is a thief of this vehicle. There are many appearing nowadays.

 

Here Longchenpa directly attacks those lamas who, as he sees it, teach the simultaneist method to all and sundry. While Jigme Lingpa repeats Longchenpas concern with those who wrongly interpret the simultaneist style of Great Perfection literature, he directs it more toward students than teachers, as can be seen in SN, where the fourth of the four ways of straying from emptiness (the first three ways of straying were discussed in chapter 5) is a premature rejection of meditation and conceptualization:

 

Not maintaining the watchman, who is the nonfixated flow of ordinary gnosis that transcends the intellect, he keeps the initial theory [of emptiness] in mind. Thus he says, There is no meditation or meditator, Everything is emptiness, Everything is dharmakāya, Actions and their results are not real, Thats just the intellect, Thats just discursive thought, and Everything is unaccomplished. This is known as being sealed by a definitive view of emptiness. There is a lot of this about nowadays.

 

 

[idiot_stimpy]

Never liked this one.

 

Thought it was too intellectual for me.

[Tibetan_Ice]

Never liked this one.

 

Thought it was too intellectual for me.

Ha. This one wasn't too bad for me. But I know what you mean. Keith Dowman is too scholarly for me. I mean, it is a good thing to expand one's vocabulary and all, but if you string too many big words together something gets lost in the complexity of it all.

 

What type of books do you prefer?

[Tibetan_Ice]

A Sun,

We must have been creating our responses at the same time.

[idiot_stimpy]

Ha. This one wasn't too bad for me. But I know what you mean. Keith Dowman is too scholarly for me. I mean, it is a good thing to expand one's vocabulary and all, but if you string too many big words together something gets lost in the complexity of it all.

 

What type of books do you prefer?

 

Actually I like Keith Dowmans translations. I much prefer reading translated texts than commentaries about said texts. However it could be my karma. Sometimes I feel I can read things and sometimes not.

[idiot_stimpy]

I couldn't seem to get into this one either.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861712994/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Tibetan_Ice]

Have you ever read "Sublime Dharma"?

 

http://www.sbinstitute.com/node/1841

[Simple_Jack]

I couldn't seem to get into this one either.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861712994/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

That's funny because this (along with its commentary by the same author) is a meditation manual which modern teachers still use to teach Sutra Mahamudra.

[idiot_stimpy]

That's funny because this (along with its commentary by the same author) is a meditation manual which modern teachers still use to teach Sutra Mahamudra.

 

Quite funny.