As we progress through the first, second and third Bodhisattva levels, we
experience
an increasing awareness of the Emptiness of the self, and of the true nature of mind.
Kalu Rinpoche
The Vajrayana contains teachings that can take one to the experience of complete Enlightenment in this lifetime.
The Lama is the one who bestows those teachings.
That is why the Lama is so crucial in tantric practice, and why Mahamudra teachings, which are part of tantric practice, place such emphasis on the student's relationship with the Lama.
Someone of the highest abiltities, engaged in Mahamudra practice, has intense faith in his or her Lama, and intense compas- sion for all other beings. He or she understands that while every sen- tient being has the potential to become enlightened, all the confu- sion and obscurations preventing the direct experience of mind create endless suffering and frustration. That understanding is the source of compassion. In all practice of Dharma, whatever tech- nique or meditation is employed, taking Refuge with great faith should be followed by the development of Bodhicitta.
Every Buddha who has achieved Enlightenment in the past has done so through first giving rise to Bodhicitta, the deep wish that our practice be not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit and eventual Enlightenment of every sentient being. In fact, it is because we are so concerned with our own interests, and so little with others' welfare, that we continue to wander in confusion, reinforcing our involvement with samsara. That is why concern for the happiness and Liberation of others is crucial to Dharma practice.
Finally, this best type of person has intense dedication and diligence in practice, so that any task required is carried through with ardor. If all these qualities come together in the practitioner, a very rare transformation can take place. Most people, however, are not of such superior capabilities. How does someone, matured through previous lifetimes, but still at a lower level of preparation, go about attaining ultimate awareness? just as clouds keep us from seeing the sun, thick levels of obscuration in our mind keep us unaware of the nature of mind. The function of our practice is to dispel those obscurations until direct experience of the mind can take place.
You need not give up in despair, thinking, "It's hopeless. I have so many obscurations it will take me lifetimes to get rid of them. " We are not meant to feel like that. Rapid transformation is the pur- pose of the wonderfully effective teachings of the Buddha. If you practice regularly, even for a few hours, even a few minutes, you can eliminate the confusions and obscurations that took aeons to ac- cumulate. That is the special blessing and efficacy of the Dharma.
Practice
For Mahamudra meditation to develop properly, our physical posture should be as straight as possible- not tense or rigid but erect and relaxed. In fact, relaxation of body, speech and mind is very important in meditation. With reference to speech, the jaws should not be clenched, nor should any of the associated muscles be tight. The lips should not be moving. The mind should not be tense or forced in any particular direction.
Once we have assumed a properly relaxed posture, we can try the following technique, searching for the "Origin, Location, and Direction" of mind, (jung nay dro sum ['byung gnas 'gro gsum]). In this context mind means that which experiences everything we perceive, think, and feel. Being aware of this mind, we inquire: Where does it come from? Can we find any origin for it? And where is mind located? Is it anywhere inside or outside the body? Is it located in any physical organ, any particular part of the body? Or is it in the external world? When the mind moves, does it actually go anywhere?
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Does mind move in any particular direction? If so, how does it move? As long as the mind is at rest, simply dwelling in a state of clear, transparent awareness without any thought, what rests and what experiences that rest is nothing other than mind itself. When a thought arises, the mind adopts some form of expression, takes some direction. How does that come about? In this technique, we try to maintain awareness of the process by which thought arises and takes form; we try to understand the nature of the actual experience of thought arising in the mind. The point is not whether the thought is a good or bad one. We are not concerned with the content of the thought, but the nature of it. How does a thought arise in the mind? Having arisen, where is it? How and where does it stay? When it disappears, what direction does it go in? North, south, east, west, up, down? Where does it disappear to? What is the cessation of a thought?
When there is no thought in the mind, but the mind is resting in a state of clear undistracted awareness, where exactly is it? Can we locate the mind anywhere? How does the mind dwell when it dwells in this state? When we examine the mind at rest, does it have any size of shape or limiting characteristic that we can discern and define?
In this approach, then, we seek to understand the mind in terms of its origin, location and direction. In its arising, staying, and passing away, is there anything we can describe other than empty, clear and unimpeded mind? Exactly how would we describe it?
If we use this technique again and again until there is some cer- tainty about what constitutes mind and how it works, it is entirely possible that we will come to some degree of authentic realization. On the other hand, there is also the danger of fooling ourselves, of getting lost in our own confusion and coming to what we think is a definite understanding when in fact we really have not understood anything. This is precisely where a relationship with a qualified meditation teacher is important. We need someone who can explain the process, evaluate our experiences, and give advice. If we refine our meditative technique in this way, by our own efforts and with the help of a skillful teacher's advice, our experience will become stable and authentic.
It is traditionally said that when mind is not contrived it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear. This is a most accurate description. In Mahamudra meditation we should maintain a bare awareness of the nature of mind as it is, without any effort to force some particular state of consciousness, to contrive a particular experience. In that sense, the goal is to be totally relaxed in a state of naked awareness, without distraction or dullness, alert to the nature of mind.
When the mind is resting in such a state and a thought arises, has the mind which was at rest become the mind in action? Or has something else been added to the mind that was at rest, something separate from mind? Are mind and thought the same? These are questions we need to be aware of while meditating.
When the mind is resting in this clear state of undistracted awareness, without any actual thoughts arising, the capacity that is aware of that state of being (and which is aware of mind in motion when mind is active and thoughts arise) is the mind's own Awareness. Are the mind at rest, the mind in motion, and the mind's Awareness different or identical?
These questions belong to another approach recognized in the Mahamudra tradition known as "The States of Rest, Movement, and Awareness," (nay ju rik sum [gnas 'gyu rig gsum]). If you work with this approach and come to what you feel is a significant ex- perience, you can then consult the Lama whose judgment will help you determine whether it is authentic or not, and whether or not you are working in the right direction. As in the previous approach, a certain "pointing out" (ngo tro [ngo sprod]) of your experience by a skillful Lama will be very beneficial.
Mistakes and Misunderstandings
If you understand the nature of these teachings and practice them well, there is perhaps no single more effective approach to the attainment of complete Enlightenment. But without understanding and effective practice, you are open to all sorts of errors. Without thorough understanding you may overemphasize one aspect or another of the teaching and thus distort it. For example, you might
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isolate the statement that phenomena, mind and experience are all empty, and develop a nihilistic view, thinking that nothing matters because everything is empty; that karma, virtuous and non-virtuous action, Enlightenment, and non-enlightenment do not exist. This is perhaps the single most harmful wrong view you could possibly develop.
It is true, of course, that the teachings say that mind and all ex- perience are empty. But the proper approach is to understand first the subjective nature of experience- that everything we perceive of the outer world, the physical body and the inner workings of our mind, is a projection and expression of mind. Having understood that, we return to the mind to determine that it is indeed essentially empty of limiting characteristics. But simply to understand this is not enough. You have to experience it through meditation. Only then, when you have directly realized the emptiness of mind and all experience, might you perhaps say: "Now I am not subject to the karmic process, the causal relationship between action and ex- perience. " Until you have had the direct realization of Emptiness that cuts the karmic process, karma is still unfailing and in- escapable. Positive deeds will continue to give rise to positive results, and negative deeds give rise to negative ones. This is not something you can change in any way. It is simply the way the karmic process unfolds as long as you have not had the Realization of the Emptiness of mind and all experience.
In following the Mahamudra path of meditation, there are many other possibilities for error. For example, if the mind lacks alertness, the result is not pure meditation at all, but stupidity. To reinforce this situation by taking it as the basis of meditative ex- perience leads to rebirth in the desire realm as an animal, especially one given to lethargy, like a crocodile, or creature that hibernates for months on end.
Even positive signs in the development of our meditation can become obstacles. In Mahamudra practice we can distinguish three basic forms of positive experience: states of bliss (de wa [bde ba]), states of clarity (sal wa [gsal ba]), and states of non-conceptual awareness (mi tok pa [mi rtog pa]).
If, for example, an experience of bliss arises and we cling to it or reinforce it, we fall into an error of limitation. Such practice will
definitely contribute to a higher rebirth, among the gods of the Desire Realm, for example. But the meditation is unstable, and its results subject to exhaustion; it will not take us to a pure state of Realization beyond the cycle of rebirth.
If experiences of clarity arise, clinging to them leads to rebirth in one or another of the seventeen levels of gods in the Form Realm, still in the cycle of samsara. Should the experience of non- conceptual awareness arise in meditation, and Emptiness itself become an object of clinging, this kind of meditation, if reinforced, will still lead to rebirth in one or another of the four levels of the Formless Realm of samsara, and we will remain in the cycle of con- ditioned existence.
Such errors are possible until we actually attain Liberation from samsara. It is, therefore, important not to abandon the prac- tice of purifying ourselves by eliminating negative tendencies and developing positive ones such as compassion, wholesome aspiration, and so on. All these are very important.
Perhaps the best way to conclude this brief introduction to Mahamudra is with the words of Tilopa when his student, the great pandit Naropa, had his first experience of Mahamudra Realization under Tilopa's guidance:
"Naropa, my son, never be separate from practices which develop your Merit and deepen your Awareness. Merit and Awareness are like the two wheels on the chariot that is taking you to Enlightenment. "
Questions and Answers
QUESTION: If mind is intrinsically pure, where do obscurations come from?
ANSWER: In Buddhism, we do not try to ascribe an origin to ig- norance. We do not say that at some point the mind became unable to see itself and lost the direct experience of its own pure nature. Rather, we speak of the beginningless cycle of existence, and accept that as long as there was mind, there was ignorance, co-emergent (len chik che wa [lhan gcig skyes ba]) with mind itself. As mind arises, so does ignorance, and in our present state we cannot speak of mind separate from ignorance. Funher distortion takes place; the
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essential Emptiness of mind is distorted into a subjective leaning toward something that appears existent in itself. Rather than ex- periencing directly the essential Emptiness of mind, we experience a self.
Buddhist texts do not exaggerate when they say that our greatest enemy is clinging to a self. Why? We are caught in a situa- tion where mind is incapable of directly experiencing its own essen- tial emptiness, and instead posits a self that must be sustained. We thus develop all the needs and wants that must be gratified in order to maintain such a self. Suffering comes from the endless search to satisfy that which cannot be satisfied. "I'' leads to "I am" which leads to "I want" and so on.
The fundamental level of ignorance, the first level of obscura- tion in the mind, is the mind's inability to recognize its own nature. Moreover, mind is not simply empty. It has another aspect, its Clar- ity, which is its ability to experience all sensory impressions, thoughts, emotions and ideas. Because of fundamental ignorance, this aspect of the mind is also taken to be something different: the objects we perceive are seen not as expressions of the mind's Clarity, but as existent in and of themselves, separate from the mind. A dualistic split has occurred between the self which is posited, and an object understood to be separate from it. This duality and the cling? ing to it is the obscuration of habitual tendencies, the second level of mental obscuration.
Thus in our present situation, we already have a degree of ig? norance which causes us to experience a self as something ultimately real. Further, the Clarity of mind has been distorted into something objective, seen as completely separate from the mind and ultimately real.
This condition will continue forever if we do not attain Enlightenment. We cannot expect it simply to fade away. On the contrary, if we do not transcend the obscurations which led to this distortion, the state is permanent. It will continue to reinforce itself as long as we do not attain Enlightenment.
Even when we go to sleep, this dualism carries over from the waking state. In an entirely different realm, where the projections of the mind arise in dreams, there is still the perception of "I" and "other," the self and something outside it. This division permits all
the other more complex aspects of the dream state, such as pleasure, happiness, pain and so on.
In the future, when each of us comes to die, and our physical bodies are gone, even in that totally disembodied state, where there can be no physical basis for consciousness, there is a continued im- pression of embodiment, and the dualistic habit of mind continues: experiences arising in the mind are projected into an environment, and experienced as something other than mind itself.
The third aspect of mind is its Unimpededness. In a pure state this is simply the mind's spontaneous cognitive activity, but when we are caught in the split between subject and object, the thought arises, "That object is good, I want it," and so attraction and attach- ment form. Or we think, "That threatens me, that's bad," and repulsion and aversion develop. There is also another possi- bility-that of simple stupidity, of not understanding the situa- tion at all, but being caught up in the whole illusion. The three fun- damental poisons or patterns of emotional reaction- attachment, aversion and stupidity-enter here, and from them develops an abundance of emotions, which we traditionally call the eighty-four thousand emotions that afflict the mind. The distortion of the Unimpededness of mind forms the third level of obscuration, the obscuration of emotional afflictions.
When we speak about the three realms of the universe-the Desire, Form and Formless Realms-we are talking about the distorted side of the pure nature of mind, which itself is essentially empty, clear in nature and unobstructed in manifestation.
What pertains on the general level to the universe also applies to the individual unenlightened being: the experience of a self is a distorted perception of the direct experience of the essential emp? tiness of mind; the experience of speech is the distorted perception of the clear nature of mind; and the experience of the physical body is the distorted perception of the unimpeded manifestation of mind. With this threefold distortion we produce not only samsaric ex- istence in general, but also the body, speech, and mind of an in- dividual being.
Because of these distortions, we behave in various ways. Physically, verbally and mentally, we react through emotional af- fliction, which through repetition becomes habitual. Once habits
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are established, they lead to yet further actions which, like all ac- tions, lead to specific results later on. Causality connects our ex- periences with our actions. This is kannic obscuration. In this way, our basic confusion, our ignorance of the fundamental nature of mind is hannful to ounelves and othen.
We can think of these four levels of confusion (fundamental ig- norance, duality, emotional afflictions, unskillful action) as depen? dent upon one another. Basic ignorance is the mind's failure to ex- perience the Primordial Awareness which is its own nature. From this fundamental ignorance develops the dualistic clinging to self and othen as separate, independent entities. This is the second level of obscuration. The third level of obscuration, the mental afflic- tions, emerge from dualistic clinging. Finally, based upon emotional afflictions, the fourth level, kannic obscuration, develops, wherein all these unskillful, negative tendencies are reinforced through physical, verbal and mental actions.
In our present condition as unenlightened beings, we ex- perience all four levels at the same time. The inherent purity of mind has not been lost, but it is so veiled that we experience a great mass of obscuration. Confusion coven the pure nature of the mind as clouds cover the sun. The single element binding all this confu- sion together is the clinging to the reality of a self.
Until all these levels of confusion and obscuration are eliminated, Enlightenment cannot arise. We must recover the original purity and transparency of water now polluted by sediment; we must dispene the clouds veiling the sun, so we can see clearly and receive its wannth directly. Once we undentand through medita? tion the Emptiness of mind, its Clarity and Unimpededness, the in- tense constriction produced by clinging to self and phenomena begins to diminish.
QUESTION: My emotions seem as real as my body and the world around me. They interfere with my practice. What can I do about it?
ANSWER: At present, we are instinctively sure that we exist and have a mind. We are intensely aware of the physical body. We think, my body, and tend to regard the two, body and mind, as one. So we tend to experience emotions on the physical and mental levels
simultaneously, as if they were somehow inherent in both. In fact, the origin of all emotion is mental. Ultimately speaking, the way these emotions arise in the mind has nothing to do with the body. We have simply conditioned the mind to experience them as if there were some physical origin for any emotion. In fact, the mind is like a stem king, and the body like a humble servant. It is the body's func- tion to follow the orders of the mind, which it does without any iden- tity of its own. If there were no desire in the mind, there would be none in the body. Likewise, if the mind is without anger, so is the body.
Our problem now is that we experience mind and body as a unity, so whatever comes up in the mind we wish to translate im- mediately into physical action. When desire or anger arise in the mind, we hurry to express it on a physical level. Our sole mode of ex- perience seems to be that emotions arise in mind and body simultaneously. Yet this is not the case. If it were, then when the mind and body are separated at death, the corpse would continue to feel desire and anger, and act accordingly.
What is necessary is to understand how emotions arise in the mind, and how the physical body is based upon the projection of mind. We must understand more about the nature of mind itself, and see the intangibility of thoughts and emotions that arise from an essentially empty state of mind.
Since thoughts and emotions-attachment, aversion, envy, pride, and so on-are insubstantial and intangible, then we need not go to all the trouble of expressing them physically or verbally. Even if we do not have direct meditative experience, a great deal of difficulty can be eliminated simply by intellectually understanding that mental projections are as intangible and empty as mind itself. Nagarjuna, the great Indian siddha and scholar, said:
All things are realized when Emptiness is realized. Nothing is realized when Emptiness is not realized.
If one has this basic understanding of the Emptiness of mind and its projections, then any method of meditation will be effective. Without it, no technique will work.
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QUESTION: Doesn't the desire for Enlightenment contradict the teachings that say desire is a bad thing?
ANSWER: We have to want Enlightenment, because we must start from where we are right now-afflicted with a great deal ofdualistic attachment. Since our experiences are governed by a sense of "I" and that "I" therefore wants "things," let us at least make what we want something worthy-Enlightenment. As we actually get closer to that Enlightenment, the need to want it becomes less powerful.
As we progress through the first, second and third Bodhisattva levels, we experience an increasing awareness of the Emptiness of the self, and of the true nature of mind. This brings a gradual lessening of our desire for Enlightenment.
We can illustrate this rather simply. When you staned this morning from wherever you were in New York to come here, you first had the strong thought in your mind, "I'm going to the teaching. " The closer you got, the less you needed to worry about it, because you were getting closer. When you finally arrived here, there was no point in thinking, "I've got to get to the teaching," because you had already arrived. Dualistic desire for Enlightenment is gradually dispelled and need not be considered an obstacle; in a certain way, it is essential.
QUESTION: How can one practice Mahamudra if one does not have regular contact with one's Lama?
ANSWER: If we are not able to be in close proximity to our Lama, it does not mean that we cannot receive blessing and inspiration and guidance from that teacher. If we really have faith in our teacher, it does not matter how far away we are or how seldom we see our Lama. It is our own faith, devotion and prayers which bring about the benefits. If such faith is lacking, we could sleep at the Lama's feet and derive no benefit.
QUESTION: When I try to meditate, my mind keeps wandering. What should I do?
ANSWER: In order to meditate properly, it is necessary to have practiced shi nay, tranquility meditation. This will pacify all disturbing emotions and allow your mind to remain in one- pointedness.
When you first start tranquility meditation, the experience is like water rushing from a mountain top: the mind just keeps run-
ning, full of many thoughts. Later, at the second stage, the mind is like the same river when it reaches the plains, running slowly and steadily. Later still, in the last stage, the water in the river reaches the sea and dissolves into it.
Diligence and devotion will help you calm the mind in this way, and then you will be able to meditate properly.
QUESTION: I'm not very strong physically, and it's difficult or im- possible for me to sit cross-legged, let alone do prostrations and so on. Does that mean I can't learn to meditate?
ANSWER: For people who are young and healthy, it's important to keep strict meditation posture; the physical discipline will help strengthen both the body and the meditation. But older people, or those in poor health, or with some infirmity, can do their meditation in many different postures, even lying down. The meditator is mind, not body. So if you can properly meditate with the mind, your meditation will be fine.
QUESTION: I have so many responsibilities in my life that I don't have much time for practice. What should I do?
ANSWER: There is a story in Tibet about two young men. One was quite intelligent and had thought a lot about samsara, and about the enlightened state, and what these two conditions meant. The other had a basic understanding that the world was not such a good place, that Dharma practice was very good; beyond that, he did not have a clear understanding of the situation at all. Once the in- telligent fellow and he were talking and he said, "Dharma practice really seems difficult, it's something you've got to put your mind to. It takes too much effort. It really is hard and bothersome to commit yourself to it. " His friend answered, "It's not so difficult. You ac- cumulate vinue and evil all the time, in everything you do; just as you walk along, what you say or what you do with your hands can be acts of vinue. Simply walking can take the life of some creature, if you step on an insect and kill it. We're always involved with vinue and non-vinue. Vinue doesn't have to be a huge project-you can simply be aware of what you're doing at each and every moment. "
As you walk along, if you come to a garden which is particularly beautiful, your experience of its beauty can be an offering to the Three Jewels or to your Lama. It can be offered with the sincere in- tention that thereby all beings may develop merit, deepen
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Awareness, and progress on the Path. In this way an ordinary aesthetic experience can be transformed into an offering which your motivation can make very great, very powerful. If you meet an animal, you can do something very simple, like saying OM MANI PADME HUNG so it hears the sound; some seed has been planted. That takes no effort beyond repeating those six syllables, yet it is beneficial.
QUESTION: What are indications that higher levels of Realization are being reached? What happens?
ANSWER: Through Realization, freedom of mind increases. That's really all that takes place, but this freedom expresses itself in a vari- ety of ways.
Imagine a hundred different images of the Buddha, each show- ing a multiplicity of colors, postures and so on, in a hundred dif- ferent places around the world-India, China, America, Canada, France and so on. Imagine trying to meditate on all these varied im- ages of the Buddha simultaneously. We would be doing well to visualize even one clearly. This is because our present mind is so limited. At the first of the ten Bodhisattva levels, mind can encom- pass all those one hundred objects of meditation in a single instant without confusion, with no detail missing. This is freedom of mind.
As this freedom of mind begins to express itself, it retains cer- tain limitations, but its capacity is far greater than what we ex- perience now. A story may illustrate this. A Mahasiddha named
Jalandhara held a particular lineage of the Hevajra Tantra. He gave a disciple the empowerment and meditation instruction for visualiz- ing the form of the Yidam Hevajra. Then Jalandhara sent him into retreat.
Now Hevajra has sixteen arms and is quite a complex figure. The disciple meditated on this form and identified himself with it in meditation. He attained success in his practice to the extent that he felt he was the Yidam and could in actuality manifest those sixteen arms. At that point Jalandhara came to see how his student was do- ing. When he got there he said, "You should wash my feet. " India is often very hot and dusty, so that when someone comes to visit after a long journey, it is a mark of respect and courtesy to wash the visitor's feet in cool water. Indeed the Lama did seem hot, tired and dusty
from the trip. The student brought the water in a basin to wash his Lama's feet. The Lama said, "Wash my feet; use one hand for each foot. " So with his left hand the disciple began to wash Jalandhara's right foot and with his right hand the Lama's left foot. All of a sud- den he looked down and the guru had four feet. That posed no problem. He simply emanated two more hands and washed the four feet. Then there were eight feet. Again no problem; he emanated eight hands. Then there were sixteen feet, so he emanated sixteen hands. All at once, though, he found himself looking down at thirty? two feet, and then he was stuck: he had treated his meditation on sixteen hands as so real, so substantial, that he couldn't get beyond that number.
QUESTION: Is the discussion of Emptiness unique to the Mahamudra teachings?
ANSWER: The doctrine of Emptiness is fundamental to Buddhist teachings. In the Prajiiaparamita, the literature dealing with the Perfection of Wisdom, we find detailed analyses of Emptiness from different viewpoints. Eighteen aspects of Emptiness are enumerated to facilitate an understanding of the Emptiness of phenomena and of mind.
In both Japanese and Tibetan traditions, we find great em? phasis on the principle of Emptiness, and on experiencing it in meditation. In both traditions the Heart Sutra is chanted. The languages differ, but the essential concepts remain:
There is no eye, there is no ear, there is no nose, there is no tongue, there is no body, there is no mind.
Here is a denial of the ultimate reality of all aspects of our ex- perience. At face value, it seems absurd. Here is a monk solemnly reciting that he has no eyes, no tongue, no ears-and he patently has them. What is he talking about?
Think of a dream. In dreams we hear, see, taste, smell, touch, and think, yet no sense organs are being used. The mind relays the impression of sensory experience, but there are no sense organs in- volved. One wakes up and the scene disappears. Later, we treat the memory as something the mind invented. If we extend that analysis
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to the waking state, we will understand that all phenomena and ex- periences are essentially like those in dreams in that they partake of the same illusory nature. When we meditate, we will run into dif- ficulties if we lack a basic understanding of Emptiness and the in- tangibility of ideas and emotions. That is why the Perfection of Wisdom teachings were given by the Buddha, and why the Wisdom sutra is still recited.
Consider someone working with a meditation practice such as that of Chenrezi. Meditating on the form of Chenrezi, we visualize ourselves in that form. When we lie down to go to sleep, does the Bodhisattva also lie down and go to sleep? Meditators can make problems like this for themselves if they treat appearances as substantial or self-existent. Once they have apprehended the Emp- tiness of mind, however, no such confusions occur. Emptiness does not get up or lie down. It is not subject to limitations. There is an immense freedom in the way one can use the mind through the understanding that it is essentially empty.
The Heart Sutra concludes wiah a mantra, TAYATA OM GA TE GA TE P ARAGA TE P ARASAMGA TE BODHI SOHA, which is the mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom, a mantra which pacifies all suffering. It condenses the experience of Emptiness into a verbal formula. The mantra signifies the experience of Emptiness: there is no basis from which suffering can arise, because one has seen the essential Emptiness of mind and all its experiences.
Q. UESTION: Rinpoche has spoken about conventional and ultimate reality. Doesn't such designation just reinforce dualistic thinking?
ANSWER: Until we have directly experienced the ultimate non- reality of self, of mind, and of causality, it is very important to ac- cept both reality and non-reality. That is, until we are enlightened, we have to adopt two stances. We can take the position that all phenomena are ultimately unreal, even now. Since they are ultimately unreal and essentially empty, all phenomena are only conventionally real; they are not ultimate but deeply and mutually interrelated. This is the Dependent Origination of all things. On the other hand, it is essential to respect the way things work on the con- ventional level, because we are still bound to it. Once we achieve the
ultimate level, it will be poindess to talk about conventional or ultimate-we will be beyond both terms, beyond any dualistic mode of thought. Until we get to that stage, however, it is beneficial to ac- cept the ultimate non-reality of phenomena, and also to acknowledge the unfailing conventional reality of things.
Q. UESTION: Does the intelligence of mind produce the thoughts of which it becomes aware?
ANSWER: If we posit a watcher, such as intelligence watching the thoughts it creates, we split the mind from what it produces; and if we posit such an initial dualism, we can compound it into an infinite series of watchers watching watchers. The mind isn't like that.
In the same way that this light source, this lamp beside me, is spontaneously expressed by the light it radiates, so the mind, which is essentially empty and clear by nature immediately and spon- taneously comes to expression as mental activity. Intelligence is simply that aspect of mind which is simultaneous with mental activ- ity, and aware of it: what arises in the mind is the awareness, mind radiating its spontaneous activity.
Q. UESTION: What connection is there between Mahimudra Realization and compassion?
ANSWER: Through understanding the nature of your own mind, you begin to understand more about the situation of every being in samsara. This kind of understanding, automatically and without any effon at all, gives rise to compassion for every other living being. Appreciating the nature of mind in general, you also come to
understand in particular the way mind operates on the impure and the pure levels. Through understanding the impure and the pure as two aspects of the same mind, you give rise to compassion for beings trapped in the impure state of experience, and to faith in beings who have realized pure states of Awareness. There is an automatic development of faith and conviction in the Buddhas and Bodhisatt? va, and in the goal of Enlightenment for the sake of all beings.
Moreover, by understanding the nature of mind, you will be better able to deal with the sufferings, fears and frustrations you en- counter. Once you have this basic understanding, you can deal with everything more effectively. For example, suppose you had a large,
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painful boil on the back of your hand. You could try various remedies: massaging it, or gently rubbing cream into it, and over a period of time you might cure it. Or, you could take a needle, lance the boil and remove the pus immediately. Whereas other kinds of practice are like a gentle, slow, and gradual approach, understand- ing the nature of mind cuts directly to the core of the problem. Why? Because you come to understand that all thoughts and emo- tions, all fears and mental turmoil are nothing but a projection of the mind.
Epilogue:
The Eight Thoughts
Through the power of the compassionate Truth of the Supreme Refuges, and through the root of virtuous action, and through pure noble motivation, may I alone, by my own efforts, dispel the suffer- ings, whatever they may be, of all beings, who pervade space.
Through the excellence of virtuous activity in this world and beyond it, may I fulfill the hopes and desires of beings just as they conceive them.
May my body, flesh, blood, skin, and all the rest of me benefit all sentient beings in appropriate ways.
May the sufferings of beings, who all have been my mothers, dissolve into me; may my happiness and virtue be obtained by them.
As long as the world remains, may there not arise in my mind, even for an instant, the thought of harming others.
May I exert myself diligently in benefitting beings, not letting up for even a moment because of sadness or fatigue or anything similar.
May I be able to give effortlessly whatever enjoyment is desired to all beings who are thirsty and hungry and needy and poor.
May I take upon myself the great burdens, the difficult-to-bear sufferings of beings in hell and others, and may they be liberated.
This aspiration prayer, The Ezght Thoughts ofa Great Person, was made by Karma Rangjung Kunchab [Kalu Rinpoche].
Kalu Rinpoche and Lama Norlha
Appendix 1
The Fz"ve Skandhas by Lama Norlha
Because of the practical importance of understanding the five skandhas-the constituents of our experience-the editors asked Lama Norlha, the director of Kalu Rinpoche's New York retreat center, to give a teaching on them. Here Lama Norlha gives a concise account of the skandhas, and integrates with it teachings that suggest how the information may be used in meditation.
At the end of the article is a tabular outline of the skandhas, with the Tibetan terminology.
All the teachings presented by the Buddha in the sutras, whether they deal with the Basis for the Path, the Path itself, or the Fruit of the Path, can be subsumed under the topic of the five skan- dhas (pung bo nga [phung po lnga]). The study of the five skandhas is important because it directly relates to our habitual tendency to cling to a self.
Skandha, a Sanskrit word, means 'heap' or aggregate, and refers to the objects and mental states of which our experience is composed. There are five: Form, Sensation, Recognition, Forma- tion, and Consciousness.
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Form (zuk [gzugs])
The first, form, is a very general term referring to all the many things perceivable by the eye and other sense organs, whether they be near or far, clear or indistinct, pleasant or unpleasant, in the past, present, or future. Forms are classified according to whether they are causes or effects. There are four main types of causal form, and eleven main types that are effects.
Of theJour types ofform which serve as causes, the first is Earth in its most general sense as the ground for all activity. The second is Water, the cohering agent that brings things together. The third is Fire, whose basic characteristic is heat: it is the catalyst that makes things ripen. The fourth is Wind, which causes movement and dispersal.
There are eleven types of resultant form. The first five are the sense faculties, forms capable of perceiving sense objects. The sec- ond five are the sense objects themselves. The eleventh is a type of form of which I will speak in detail later.
Forms are further classified as being of two kinds: those with which contact can be made (by the hand, with a stick, and so on) and those which may be examined mentally (such as those which arise in meditation).
The first type of form is the faculty of the eye, which makes the eye able to perceive visual objects. It is compared to the sarma, a certain blue flower with a white center.
Then there is the form that is the faculty of the ear, the ability to hear. It is compared to the protuberances on the bark of a birch tree.
Next is the form which is the faculty of the nose, the sense of smell. It is like a cluster of fine copper needles which are hollow in- side.
Then there is the form associated with the tongue, the faculty of taste. This is like a half-moon on the surface of the tongue.
Finally there is the kind of form that is the faculty of bodily feeling. It resembles the skin of the rek najam [reg na 'jam], a bird in India which has fine down covering every part of its body.
The first of the jive sense objects is form as object of the visual sense. Visual objects can be classified in two ways: by color and by
shape. With regard to colors, four are basic: red, yellow, blue, and white. Included among color phenomena are dust, smoke, sunlight, shadow, and mist. All such appearances are modes of form as color. The shimmer that can be seen between the blue of the sky and the surface of the earth is also considered to be an example of this type of form. Even the sky itself, which has no shape, does nevertheless have a color, and is therefore also classified as form. Some colors are seen as pleasant, some as unpleasant, and some as neutral.
The other way of looking at visual form is with regard to shape-short, long, wide, thin, round, semi-circular, and so on. All the different shapes of inner and outer appearance we're familiar with are permutations of the category of form-as-shape. Some shapes are pleasant, some unpleasant, and some neutral.
The second type of sense object is sound, i. e. , the objects perceived by the ear. Some sounds are made by sentient beings, human or animal, and can be vocal sounds or such sounds as finger snaps. Then there are sounds which do not arise from the activity of sentient beings, such as the sounds of earth, water, fire, wind, or rock. There are also sounds produced by the interaction of sentient beings and inanimate objects, such as the beating of a drum: the drum only produces a sound when struck by a being. Some sounds express meaning to sentient beings, others do not, such as the sounds of the elements. Amongst the sounds that express meaning are names and words used by worldly beings. There are also names and concepts used by Exalted Beings to express excellent and incon- ceivable meanings such as Body of the Buddha, Buddha Realm, and so on. In general, sounds can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
Someone of the highest abiltities, engaged in Mahamudra practice, has intense faith in his or her Lama, and intense compas- sion for all other beings. He or she understands that while every sen- tient being has the potential to become enlightened, all the confu- sion and obscurations preventing the direct experience of mind create endless suffering and frustration. That understanding is the source of compassion. In all practice of Dharma, whatever tech- nique or meditation is employed, taking Refuge with great faith should be followed by the development of Bodhicitta.
Every Buddha who has achieved Enlightenment in the past has done so through first giving rise to Bodhicitta, the deep wish that our practice be not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit and eventual Enlightenment of every sentient being. In fact, it is because we are so concerned with our own interests, and so little with others' welfare, that we continue to wander in confusion, reinforcing our involvement with samsara. That is why concern for the happiness and Liberation of others is crucial to Dharma practice.
Finally, this best type of person has intense dedication and diligence in practice, so that any task required is carried through with ardor. If all these qualities come together in the practitioner, a very rare transformation can take place. Most people, however, are not of such superior capabilities. How does someone, matured through previous lifetimes, but still at a lower level of preparation, go about attaining ultimate awareness? just as clouds keep us from seeing the sun, thick levels of obscuration in our mind keep us unaware of the nature of mind. The function of our practice is to dispel those obscurations until direct experience of the mind can take place.
You need not give up in despair, thinking, "It's hopeless. I have so many obscurations it will take me lifetimes to get rid of them. " We are not meant to feel like that. Rapid transformation is the pur- pose of the wonderfully effective teachings of the Buddha. If you practice regularly, even for a few hours, even a few minutes, you can eliminate the confusions and obscurations that took aeons to ac- cumulate. That is the special blessing and efficacy of the Dharma.
Practice
For Mahamudra meditation to develop properly, our physical posture should be as straight as possible- not tense or rigid but erect and relaxed. In fact, relaxation of body, speech and mind is very important in meditation. With reference to speech, the jaws should not be clenched, nor should any of the associated muscles be tight. The lips should not be moving. The mind should not be tense or forced in any particular direction.
Once we have assumed a properly relaxed posture, we can try the following technique, searching for the "Origin, Location, and Direction" of mind, (jung nay dro sum ['byung gnas 'gro gsum]). In this context mind means that which experiences everything we perceive, think, and feel. Being aware of this mind, we inquire: Where does it come from? Can we find any origin for it? And where is mind located? Is it anywhere inside or outside the body? Is it located in any physical organ, any particular part of the body? Or is it in the external world? When the mind moves, does it actually go anywhere?
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Does mind move in any particular direction? If so, how does it move? As long as the mind is at rest, simply dwelling in a state of clear, transparent awareness without any thought, what rests and what experiences that rest is nothing other than mind itself. When a thought arises, the mind adopts some form of expression, takes some direction. How does that come about? In this technique, we try to maintain awareness of the process by which thought arises and takes form; we try to understand the nature of the actual experience of thought arising in the mind. The point is not whether the thought is a good or bad one. We are not concerned with the content of the thought, but the nature of it. How does a thought arise in the mind? Having arisen, where is it? How and where does it stay? When it disappears, what direction does it go in? North, south, east, west, up, down? Where does it disappear to? What is the cessation of a thought?
When there is no thought in the mind, but the mind is resting in a state of clear undistracted awareness, where exactly is it? Can we locate the mind anywhere? How does the mind dwell when it dwells in this state? When we examine the mind at rest, does it have any size of shape or limiting characteristic that we can discern and define?
In this approach, then, we seek to understand the mind in terms of its origin, location and direction. In its arising, staying, and passing away, is there anything we can describe other than empty, clear and unimpeded mind? Exactly how would we describe it?
If we use this technique again and again until there is some cer- tainty about what constitutes mind and how it works, it is entirely possible that we will come to some degree of authentic realization. On the other hand, there is also the danger of fooling ourselves, of getting lost in our own confusion and coming to what we think is a definite understanding when in fact we really have not understood anything. This is precisely where a relationship with a qualified meditation teacher is important. We need someone who can explain the process, evaluate our experiences, and give advice. If we refine our meditative technique in this way, by our own efforts and with the help of a skillful teacher's advice, our experience will become stable and authentic.
It is traditionally said that when mind is not contrived it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear. This is a most accurate description. In Mahamudra meditation we should maintain a bare awareness of the nature of mind as it is, without any effort to force some particular state of consciousness, to contrive a particular experience. In that sense, the goal is to be totally relaxed in a state of naked awareness, without distraction or dullness, alert to the nature of mind.
When the mind is resting in such a state and a thought arises, has the mind which was at rest become the mind in action? Or has something else been added to the mind that was at rest, something separate from mind? Are mind and thought the same? These are questions we need to be aware of while meditating.
When the mind is resting in this clear state of undistracted awareness, without any actual thoughts arising, the capacity that is aware of that state of being (and which is aware of mind in motion when mind is active and thoughts arise) is the mind's own Awareness. Are the mind at rest, the mind in motion, and the mind's Awareness different or identical?
These questions belong to another approach recognized in the Mahamudra tradition known as "The States of Rest, Movement, and Awareness," (nay ju rik sum [gnas 'gyu rig gsum]). If you work with this approach and come to what you feel is a significant ex- perience, you can then consult the Lama whose judgment will help you determine whether it is authentic or not, and whether or not you are working in the right direction. As in the previous approach, a certain "pointing out" (ngo tro [ngo sprod]) of your experience by a skillful Lama will be very beneficial.
Mistakes and Misunderstandings
If you understand the nature of these teachings and practice them well, there is perhaps no single more effective approach to the attainment of complete Enlightenment. But without understanding and effective practice, you are open to all sorts of errors. Without thorough understanding you may overemphasize one aspect or another of the teaching and thus distort it. For example, you might
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isolate the statement that phenomena, mind and experience are all empty, and develop a nihilistic view, thinking that nothing matters because everything is empty; that karma, virtuous and non-virtuous action, Enlightenment, and non-enlightenment do not exist. This is perhaps the single most harmful wrong view you could possibly develop.
It is true, of course, that the teachings say that mind and all ex- perience are empty. But the proper approach is to understand first the subjective nature of experience- that everything we perceive of the outer world, the physical body and the inner workings of our mind, is a projection and expression of mind. Having understood that, we return to the mind to determine that it is indeed essentially empty of limiting characteristics. But simply to understand this is not enough. You have to experience it through meditation. Only then, when you have directly realized the emptiness of mind and all experience, might you perhaps say: "Now I am not subject to the karmic process, the causal relationship between action and ex- perience. " Until you have had the direct realization of Emptiness that cuts the karmic process, karma is still unfailing and in- escapable. Positive deeds will continue to give rise to positive results, and negative deeds give rise to negative ones. This is not something you can change in any way. It is simply the way the karmic process unfolds as long as you have not had the Realization of the Emptiness of mind and all experience.
In following the Mahamudra path of meditation, there are many other possibilities for error. For example, if the mind lacks alertness, the result is not pure meditation at all, but stupidity. To reinforce this situation by taking it as the basis of meditative ex- perience leads to rebirth in the desire realm as an animal, especially one given to lethargy, like a crocodile, or creature that hibernates for months on end.
Even positive signs in the development of our meditation can become obstacles. In Mahamudra practice we can distinguish three basic forms of positive experience: states of bliss (de wa [bde ba]), states of clarity (sal wa [gsal ba]), and states of non-conceptual awareness (mi tok pa [mi rtog pa]).
If, for example, an experience of bliss arises and we cling to it or reinforce it, we fall into an error of limitation. Such practice will
definitely contribute to a higher rebirth, among the gods of the Desire Realm, for example. But the meditation is unstable, and its results subject to exhaustion; it will not take us to a pure state of Realization beyond the cycle of rebirth.
If experiences of clarity arise, clinging to them leads to rebirth in one or another of the seventeen levels of gods in the Form Realm, still in the cycle of samsara. Should the experience of non- conceptual awareness arise in meditation, and Emptiness itself become an object of clinging, this kind of meditation, if reinforced, will still lead to rebirth in one or another of the four levels of the Formless Realm of samsara, and we will remain in the cycle of con- ditioned existence.
Such errors are possible until we actually attain Liberation from samsara. It is, therefore, important not to abandon the prac- tice of purifying ourselves by eliminating negative tendencies and developing positive ones such as compassion, wholesome aspiration, and so on. All these are very important.
Perhaps the best way to conclude this brief introduction to Mahamudra is with the words of Tilopa when his student, the great pandit Naropa, had his first experience of Mahamudra Realization under Tilopa's guidance:
"Naropa, my son, never be separate from practices which develop your Merit and deepen your Awareness. Merit and Awareness are like the two wheels on the chariot that is taking you to Enlightenment. "
Questions and Answers
QUESTION: If mind is intrinsically pure, where do obscurations come from?
ANSWER: In Buddhism, we do not try to ascribe an origin to ig- norance. We do not say that at some point the mind became unable to see itself and lost the direct experience of its own pure nature. Rather, we speak of the beginningless cycle of existence, and accept that as long as there was mind, there was ignorance, co-emergent (len chik che wa [lhan gcig skyes ba]) with mind itself. As mind arises, so does ignorance, and in our present state we cannot speak of mind separate from ignorance. Funher distortion takes place; the
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essential Emptiness of mind is distorted into a subjective leaning toward something that appears existent in itself. Rather than ex- periencing directly the essential Emptiness of mind, we experience a self.
Buddhist texts do not exaggerate when they say that our greatest enemy is clinging to a self. Why? We are caught in a situa- tion where mind is incapable of directly experiencing its own essen- tial emptiness, and instead posits a self that must be sustained. We thus develop all the needs and wants that must be gratified in order to maintain such a self. Suffering comes from the endless search to satisfy that which cannot be satisfied. "I'' leads to "I am" which leads to "I want" and so on.
The fundamental level of ignorance, the first level of obscura- tion in the mind, is the mind's inability to recognize its own nature. Moreover, mind is not simply empty. It has another aspect, its Clar- ity, which is its ability to experience all sensory impressions, thoughts, emotions and ideas. Because of fundamental ignorance, this aspect of the mind is also taken to be something different: the objects we perceive are seen not as expressions of the mind's Clarity, but as existent in and of themselves, separate from the mind. A dualistic split has occurred between the self which is posited, and an object understood to be separate from it. This duality and the cling? ing to it is the obscuration of habitual tendencies, the second level of mental obscuration.
Thus in our present situation, we already have a degree of ig? norance which causes us to experience a self as something ultimately real. Further, the Clarity of mind has been distorted into something objective, seen as completely separate from the mind and ultimately real.
This condition will continue forever if we do not attain Enlightenment. We cannot expect it simply to fade away. On the contrary, if we do not transcend the obscurations which led to this distortion, the state is permanent. It will continue to reinforce itself as long as we do not attain Enlightenment.
Even when we go to sleep, this dualism carries over from the waking state. In an entirely different realm, where the projections of the mind arise in dreams, there is still the perception of "I" and "other," the self and something outside it. This division permits all
the other more complex aspects of the dream state, such as pleasure, happiness, pain and so on.
In the future, when each of us comes to die, and our physical bodies are gone, even in that totally disembodied state, where there can be no physical basis for consciousness, there is a continued im- pression of embodiment, and the dualistic habit of mind continues: experiences arising in the mind are projected into an environment, and experienced as something other than mind itself.
The third aspect of mind is its Unimpededness. In a pure state this is simply the mind's spontaneous cognitive activity, but when we are caught in the split between subject and object, the thought arises, "That object is good, I want it," and so attraction and attach- ment form. Or we think, "That threatens me, that's bad," and repulsion and aversion develop. There is also another possi- bility-that of simple stupidity, of not understanding the situa- tion at all, but being caught up in the whole illusion. The three fun- damental poisons or patterns of emotional reaction- attachment, aversion and stupidity-enter here, and from them develops an abundance of emotions, which we traditionally call the eighty-four thousand emotions that afflict the mind. The distortion of the Unimpededness of mind forms the third level of obscuration, the obscuration of emotional afflictions.
When we speak about the three realms of the universe-the Desire, Form and Formless Realms-we are talking about the distorted side of the pure nature of mind, which itself is essentially empty, clear in nature and unobstructed in manifestation.
What pertains on the general level to the universe also applies to the individual unenlightened being: the experience of a self is a distorted perception of the direct experience of the essential emp? tiness of mind; the experience of speech is the distorted perception of the clear nature of mind; and the experience of the physical body is the distorted perception of the unimpeded manifestation of mind. With this threefold distortion we produce not only samsaric ex- istence in general, but also the body, speech, and mind of an in- dividual being.
Because of these distortions, we behave in various ways. Physically, verbally and mentally, we react through emotional af- fliction, which through repetition becomes habitual. Once habits
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are established, they lead to yet further actions which, like all ac- tions, lead to specific results later on. Causality connects our ex- periences with our actions. This is kannic obscuration. In this way, our basic confusion, our ignorance of the fundamental nature of mind is hannful to ounelves and othen.
We can think of these four levels of confusion (fundamental ig- norance, duality, emotional afflictions, unskillful action) as depen? dent upon one another. Basic ignorance is the mind's failure to ex- perience the Primordial Awareness which is its own nature. From this fundamental ignorance develops the dualistic clinging to self and othen as separate, independent entities. This is the second level of obscuration. The third level of obscuration, the mental afflic- tions, emerge from dualistic clinging. Finally, based upon emotional afflictions, the fourth level, kannic obscuration, develops, wherein all these unskillful, negative tendencies are reinforced through physical, verbal and mental actions.
In our present condition as unenlightened beings, we ex- perience all four levels at the same time. The inherent purity of mind has not been lost, but it is so veiled that we experience a great mass of obscuration. Confusion coven the pure nature of the mind as clouds cover the sun. The single element binding all this confu- sion together is the clinging to the reality of a self.
Until all these levels of confusion and obscuration are eliminated, Enlightenment cannot arise. We must recover the original purity and transparency of water now polluted by sediment; we must dispene the clouds veiling the sun, so we can see clearly and receive its wannth directly. Once we undentand through medita? tion the Emptiness of mind, its Clarity and Unimpededness, the in- tense constriction produced by clinging to self and phenomena begins to diminish.
QUESTION: My emotions seem as real as my body and the world around me. They interfere with my practice. What can I do about it?
ANSWER: At present, we are instinctively sure that we exist and have a mind. We are intensely aware of the physical body. We think, my body, and tend to regard the two, body and mind, as one. So we tend to experience emotions on the physical and mental levels
simultaneously, as if they were somehow inherent in both. In fact, the origin of all emotion is mental. Ultimately speaking, the way these emotions arise in the mind has nothing to do with the body. We have simply conditioned the mind to experience them as if there were some physical origin for any emotion. In fact, the mind is like a stem king, and the body like a humble servant. It is the body's func- tion to follow the orders of the mind, which it does without any iden- tity of its own. If there were no desire in the mind, there would be none in the body. Likewise, if the mind is without anger, so is the body.
Our problem now is that we experience mind and body as a unity, so whatever comes up in the mind we wish to translate im- mediately into physical action. When desire or anger arise in the mind, we hurry to express it on a physical level. Our sole mode of ex- perience seems to be that emotions arise in mind and body simultaneously. Yet this is not the case. If it were, then when the mind and body are separated at death, the corpse would continue to feel desire and anger, and act accordingly.
What is necessary is to understand how emotions arise in the mind, and how the physical body is based upon the projection of mind. We must understand more about the nature of mind itself, and see the intangibility of thoughts and emotions that arise from an essentially empty state of mind.
Since thoughts and emotions-attachment, aversion, envy, pride, and so on-are insubstantial and intangible, then we need not go to all the trouble of expressing them physically or verbally. Even if we do not have direct meditative experience, a great deal of difficulty can be eliminated simply by intellectually understanding that mental projections are as intangible and empty as mind itself. Nagarjuna, the great Indian siddha and scholar, said:
All things are realized when Emptiness is realized. Nothing is realized when Emptiness is not realized.
If one has this basic understanding of the Emptiness of mind and its projections, then any method of meditation will be effective. Without it, no technique will work.
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QUESTION: Doesn't the desire for Enlightenment contradict the teachings that say desire is a bad thing?
ANSWER: We have to want Enlightenment, because we must start from where we are right now-afflicted with a great deal ofdualistic attachment. Since our experiences are governed by a sense of "I" and that "I" therefore wants "things," let us at least make what we want something worthy-Enlightenment. As we actually get closer to that Enlightenment, the need to want it becomes less powerful.
As we progress through the first, second and third Bodhisattva levels, we experience an increasing awareness of the Emptiness of the self, and of the true nature of mind. This brings a gradual lessening of our desire for Enlightenment.
We can illustrate this rather simply. When you staned this morning from wherever you were in New York to come here, you first had the strong thought in your mind, "I'm going to the teaching. " The closer you got, the less you needed to worry about it, because you were getting closer. When you finally arrived here, there was no point in thinking, "I've got to get to the teaching," because you had already arrived. Dualistic desire for Enlightenment is gradually dispelled and need not be considered an obstacle; in a certain way, it is essential.
QUESTION: How can one practice Mahamudra if one does not have regular contact with one's Lama?
ANSWER: If we are not able to be in close proximity to our Lama, it does not mean that we cannot receive blessing and inspiration and guidance from that teacher. If we really have faith in our teacher, it does not matter how far away we are or how seldom we see our Lama. It is our own faith, devotion and prayers which bring about the benefits. If such faith is lacking, we could sleep at the Lama's feet and derive no benefit.
QUESTION: When I try to meditate, my mind keeps wandering. What should I do?
ANSWER: In order to meditate properly, it is necessary to have practiced shi nay, tranquility meditation. This will pacify all disturbing emotions and allow your mind to remain in one- pointedness.
When you first start tranquility meditation, the experience is like water rushing from a mountain top: the mind just keeps run-
ning, full of many thoughts. Later, at the second stage, the mind is like the same river when it reaches the plains, running slowly and steadily. Later still, in the last stage, the water in the river reaches the sea and dissolves into it.
Diligence and devotion will help you calm the mind in this way, and then you will be able to meditate properly.
QUESTION: I'm not very strong physically, and it's difficult or im- possible for me to sit cross-legged, let alone do prostrations and so on. Does that mean I can't learn to meditate?
ANSWER: For people who are young and healthy, it's important to keep strict meditation posture; the physical discipline will help strengthen both the body and the meditation. But older people, or those in poor health, or with some infirmity, can do their meditation in many different postures, even lying down. The meditator is mind, not body. So if you can properly meditate with the mind, your meditation will be fine.
QUESTION: I have so many responsibilities in my life that I don't have much time for practice. What should I do?
ANSWER: There is a story in Tibet about two young men. One was quite intelligent and had thought a lot about samsara, and about the enlightened state, and what these two conditions meant. The other had a basic understanding that the world was not such a good place, that Dharma practice was very good; beyond that, he did not have a clear understanding of the situation at all. Once the in- telligent fellow and he were talking and he said, "Dharma practice really seems difficult, it's something you've got to put your mind to. It takes too much effort. It really is hard and bothersome to commit yourself to it. " His friend answered, "It's not so difficult. You ac- cumulate vinue and evil all the time, in everything you do; just as you walk along, what you say or what you do with your hands can be acts of vinue. Simply walking can take the life of some creature, if you step on an insect and kill it. We're always involved with vinue and non-vinue. Vinue doesn't have to be a huge project-you can simply be aware of what you're doing at each and every moment. "
As you walk along, if you come to a garden which is particularly beautiful, your experience of its beauty can be an offering to the Three Jewels or to your Lama. It can be offered with the sincere in- tention that thereby all beings may develop merit, deepen
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Awareness, and progress on the Path. In this way an ordinary aesthetic experience can be transformed into an offering which your motivation can make very great, very powerful. If you meet an animal, you can do something very simple, like saying OM MANI PADME HUNG so it hears the sound; some seed has been planted. That takes no effort beyond repeating those six syllables, yet it is beneficial.
QUESTION: What are indications that higher levels of Realization are being reached? What happens?
ANSWER: Through Realization, freedom of mind increases. That's really all that takes place, but this freedom expresses itself in a vari- ety of ways.
Imagine a hundred different images of the Buddha, each show- ing a multiplicity of colors, postures and so on, in a hundred dif- ferent places around the world-India, China, America, Canada, France and so on. Imagine trying to meditate on all these varied im- ages of the Buddha simultaneously. We would be doing well to visualize even one clearly. This is because our present mind is so limited. At the first of the ten Bodhisattva levels, mind can encom- pass all those one hundred objects of meditation in a single instant without confusion, with no detail missing. This is freedom of mind.
As this freedom of mind begins to express itself, it retains cer- tain limitations, but its capacity is far greater than what we ex- perience now. A story may illustrate this. A Mahasiddha named
Jalandhara held a particular lineage of the Hevajra Tantra. He gave a disciple the empowerment and meditation instruction for visualiz- ing the form of the Yidam Hevajra. Then Jalandhara sent him into retreat.
Now Hevajra has sixteen arms and is quite a complex figure. The disciple meditated on this form and identified himself with it in meditation. He attained success in his practice to the extent that he felt he was the Yidam and could in actuality manifest those sixteen arms. At that point Jalandhara came to see how his student was do- ing. When he got there he said, "You should wash my feet. " India is often very hot and dusty, so that when someone comes to visit after a long journey, it is a mark of respect and courtesy to wash the visitor's feet in cool water. Indeed the Lama did seem hot, tired and dusty
from the trip. The student brought the water in a basin to wash his Lama's feet. The Lama said, "Wash my feet; use one hand for each foot. " So with his left hand the disciple began to wash Jalandhara's right foot and with his right hand the Lama's left foot. All of a sud- den he looked down and the guru had four feet. That posed no problem. He simply emanated two more hands and washed the four feet. Then there were eight feet. Again no problem; he emanated eight hands. Then there were sixteen feet, so he emanated sixteen hands. All at once, though, he found himself looking down at thirty? two feet, and then he was stuck: he had treated his meditation on sixteen hands as so real, so substantial, that he couldn't get beyond that number.
QUESTION: Is the discussion of Emptiness unique to the Mahamudra teachings?
ANSWER: The doctrine of Emptiness is fundamental to Buddhist teachings. In the Prajiiaparamita, the literature dealing with the Perfection of Wisdom, we find detailed analyses of Emptiness from different viewpoints. Eighteen aspects of Emptiness are enumerated to facilitate an understanding of the Emptiness of phenomena and of mind.
In both Japanese and Tibetan traditions, we find great em? phasis on the principle of Emptiness, and on experiencing it in meditation. In both traditions the Heart Sutra is chanted. The languages differ, but the essential concepts remain:
There is no eye, there is no ear, there is no nose, there is no tongue, there is no body, there is no mind.
Here is a denial of the ultimate reality of all aspects of our ex- perience. At face value, it seems absurd. Here is a monk solemnly reciting that he has no eyes, no tongue, no ears-and he patently has them. What is he talking about?
Think of a dream. In dreams we hear, see, taste, smell, touch, and think, yet no sense organs are being used. The mind relays the impression of sensory experience, but there are no sense organs in- volved. One wakes up and the scene disappears. Later, we treat the memory as something the mind invented. If we extend that analysis
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to the waking state, we will understand that all phenomena and ex- periences are essentially like those in dreams in that they partake of the same illusory nature. When we meditate, we will run into dif- ficulties if we lack a basic understanding of Emptiness and the in- tangibility of ideas and emotions. That is why the Perfection of Wisdom teachings were given by the Buddha, and why the Wisdom sutra is still recited.
Consider someone working with a meditation practice such as that of Chenrezi. Meditating on the form of Chenrezi, we visualize ourselves in that form. When we lie down to go to sleep, does the Bodhisattva also lie down and go to sleep? Meditators can make problems like this for themselves if they treat appearances as substantial or self-existent. Once they have apprehended the Emp- tiness of mind, however, no such confusions occur. Emptiness does not get up or lie down. It is not subject to limitations. There is an immense freedom in the way one can use the mind through the understanding that it is essentially empty.
The Heart Sutra concludes wiah a mantra, TAYATA OM GA TE GA TE P ARAGA TE P ARASAMGA TE BODHI SOHA, which is the mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom, a mantra which pacifies all suffering. It condenses the experience of Emptiness into a verbal formula. The mantra signifies the experience of Emptiness: there is no basis from which suffering can arise, because one has seen the essential Emptiness of mind and all its experiences.
Q. UESTION: Rinpoche has spoken about conventional and ultimate reality. Doesn't such designation just reinforce dualistic thinking?
ANSWER: Until we have directly experienced the ultimate non- reality of self, of mind, and of causality, it is very important to ac- cept both reality and non-reality. That is, until we are enlightened, we have to adopt two stances. We can take the position that all phenomena are ultimately unreal, even now. Since they are ultimately unreal and essentially empty, all phenomena are only conventionally real; they are not ultimate but deeply and mutually interrelated. This is the Dependent Origination of all things. On the other hand, it is essential to respect the way things work on the con- ventional level, because we are still bound to it. Once we achieve the
ultimate level, it will be poindess to talk about conventional or ultimate-we will be beyond both terms, beyond any dualistic mode of thought. Until we get to that stage, however, it is beneficial to ac- cept the ultimate non-reality of phenomena, and also to acknowledge the unfailing conventional reality of things.
Q. UESTION: Does the intelligence of mind produce the thoughts of which it becomes aware?
ANSWER: If we posit a watcher, such as intelligence watching the thoughts it creates, we split the mind from what it produces; and if we posit such an initial dualism, we can compound it into an infinite series of watchers watching watchers. The mind isn't like that.
In the same way that this light source, this lamp beside me, is spontaneously expressed by the light it radiates, so the mind, which is essentially empty and clear by nature immediately and spon- taneously comes to expression as mental activity. Intelligence is simply that aspect of mind which is simultaneous with mental activ- ity, and aware of it: what arises in the mind is the awareness, mind radiating its spontaneous activity.
Q. UESTION: What connection is there between Mahimudra Realization and compassion?
ANSWER: Through understanding the nature of your own mind, you begin to understand more about the situation of every being in samsara. This kind of understanding, automatically and without any effon at all, gives rise to compassion for every other living being. Appreciating the nature of mind in general, you also come to
understand in particular the way mind operates on the impure and the pure levels. Through understanding the impure and the pure as two aspects of the same mind, you give rise to compassion for beings trapped in the impure state of experience, and to faith in beings who have realized pure states of Awareness. There is an automatic development of faith and conviction in the Buddhas and Bodhisatt? va, and in the goal of Enlightenment for the sake of all beings.
Moreover, by understanding the nature of mind, you will be better able to deal with the sufferings, fears and frustrations you en- counter. Once you have this basic understanding, you can deal with everything more effectively. For example, suppose you had a large,
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painful boil on the back of your hand. You could try various remedies: massaging it, or gently rubbing cream into it, and over a period of time you might cure it. Or, you could take a needle, lance the boil and remove the pus immediately. Whereas other kinds of practice are like a gentle, slow, and gradual approach, understand- ing the nature of mind cuts directly to the core of the problem. Why? Because you come to understand that all thoughts and emo- tions, all fears and mental turmoil are nothing but a projection of the mind.
Epilogue:
The Eight Thoughts
Through the power of the compassionate Truth of the Supreme Refuges, and through the root of virtuous action, and through pure noble motivation, may I alone, by my own efforts, dispel the suffer- ings, whatever they may be, of all beings, who pervade space.
Through the excellence of virtuous activity in this world and beyond it, may I fulfill the hopes and desires of beings just as they conceive them.
May my body, flesh, blood, skin, and all the rest of me benefit all sentient beings in appropriate ways.
May the sufferings of beings, who all have been my mothers, dissolve into me; may my happiness and virtue be obtained by them.
As long as the world remains, may there not arise in my mind, even for an instant, the thought of harming others.
May I exert myself diligently in benefitting beings, not letting up for even a moment because of sadness or fatigue or anything similar.
May I be able to give effortlessly whatever enjoyment is desired to all beings who are thirsty and hungry and needy and poor.
May I take upon myself the great burdens, the difficult-to-bear sufferings of beings in hell and others, and may they be liberated.
This aspiration prayer, The Ezght Thoughts ofa Great Person, was made by Karma Rangjung Kunchab [Kalu Rinpoche].
Kalu Rinpoche and Lama Norlha
Appendix 1
The Fz"ve Skandhas by Lama Norlha
Because of the practical importance of understanding the five skandhas-the constituents of our experience-the editors asked Lama Norlha, the director of Kalu Rinpoche's New York retreat center, to give a teaching on them. Here Lama Norlha gives a concise account of the skandhas, and integrates with it teachings that suggest how the information may be used in meditation.
At the end of the article is a tabular outline of the skandhas, with the Tibetan terminology.
All the teachings presented by the Buddha in the sutras, whether they deal with the Basis for the Path, the Path itself, or the Fruit of the Path, can be subsumed under the topic of the five skan- dhas (pung bo nga [phung po lnga]). The study of the five skandhas is important because it directly relates to our habitual tendency to cling to a self.
Skandha, a Sanskrit word, means 'heap' or aggregate, and refers to the objects and mental states of which our experience is composed. There are five: Form, Sensation, Recognition, Forma- tion, and Consciousness.
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Form (zuk [gzugs])
The first, form, is a very general term referring to all the many things perceivable by the eye and other sense organs, whether they be near or far, clear or indistinct, pleasant or unpleasant, in the past, present, or future. Forms are classified according to whether they are causes or effects. There are four main types of causal form, and eleven main types that are effects.
Of theJour types ofform which serve as causes, the first is Earth in its most general sense as the ground for all activity. The second is Water, the cohering agent that brings things together. The third is Fire, whose basic characteristic is heat: it is the catalyst that makes things ripen. The fourth is Wind, which causes movement and dispersal.
There are eleven types of resultant form. The first five are the sense faculties, forms capable of perceiving sense objects. The sec- ond five are the sense objects themselves. The eleventh is a type of form of which I will speak in detail later.
Forms are further classified as being of two kinds: those with which contact can be made (by the hand, with a stick, and so on) and those which may be examined mentally (such as those which arise in meditation).
The first type of form is the faculty of the eye, which makes the eye able to perceive visual objects. It is compared to the sarma, a certain blue flower with a white center.
Then there is the form that is the faculty of the ear, the ability to hear. It is compared to the protuberances on the bark of a birch tree.
Next is the form which is the faculty of the nose, the sense of smell. It is like a cluster of fine copper needles which are hollow in- side.
Then there is the form associated with the tongue, the faculty of taste. This is like a half-moon on the surface of the tongue.
Finally there is the kind of form that is the faculty of bodily feeling. It resembles the skin of the rek najam [reg na 'jam], a bird in India which has fine down covering every part of its body.
The first of the jive sense objects is form as object of the visual sense. Visual objects can be classified in two ways: by color and by
shape. With regard to colors, four are basic: red, yellow, blue, and white. Included among color phenomena are dust, smoke, sunlight, shadow, and mist. All such appearances are modes of form as color. The shimmer that can be seen between the blue of the sky and the surface of the earth is also considered to be an example of this type of form. Even the sky itself, which has no shape, does nevertheless have a color, and is therefore also classified as form. Some colors are seen as pleasant, some as unpleasant, and some as neutral.
The other way of looking at visual form is with regard to shape-short, long, wide, thin, round, semi-circular, and so on. All the different shapes of inner and outer appearance we're familiar with are permutations of the category of form-as-shape. Some shapes are pleasant, some unpleasant, and some neutral.
The second type of sense object is sound, i. e. , the objects perceived by the ear. Some sounds are made by sentient beings, human or animal, and can be vocal sounds or such sounds as finger snaps. Then there are sounds which do not arise from the activity of sentient beings, such as the sounds of earth, water, fire, wind, or rock. There are also sounds produced by the interaction of sentient beings and inanimate objects, such as the beating of a drum: the drum only produces a sound when struck by a being. Some sounds express meaning to sentient beings, others do not, such as the sounds of the elements. Amongst the sounds that express meaning are names and words used by worldly beings. There are also names and concepts used by Exalted Beings to express excellent and incon- ceivable meanings such as Body of the Buddha, Buddha Realm, and so on. In general, sounds can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
