Realise your inherent, self-existing Awakeness/Buddha-Nature
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I posted the following article in another forum yesterday (my forum name there is 'BeAwake'), initially didn't want to post here since these stuff have been posted here one form or another and hence it will only be 'repeat material'. But anyway just for sharing.
http://www.sgclub.com/singapore/realise_inherent_self_150666.html
Your Buddha-Nature, or Inherent Wakefulness, is already complete, right now at this moment. Development doesn't lead to Awakeness; Awakeness is always already here. The fact that we insist upon not noticing it is another matter.
Awareness cannot be reached through development. It cannot be cultivated. It cannot be attained. It is your natural state, and cannot be fabricated through contrived practices. Primordial Awareness cannot be an event in time since it is Prior to time. It is only about your already ever present fact of your being. It is present before you were born (i.e. in zen koan, "the original face before your parents were born"), present 1 year ago, 1 minute ago, present now. Unmoved.
It is unconditioned, does not increase upon enlightenment nor decrease while ignorant, nor disappear at any time, regardless of whatever conditions there is. Thoughts of "losing it" and "getting it" are just hypnotic thoughts that bind us like a spell into our imaginary make-belief dream and miss the self-evident actuality, and yet all thoughts are just surfacing in this already awake nature of our being. Without awareness, no thoughts or experience can even be. Yet, we have to overcome the bondage of conceptuality and thoughts to see this utterly simple, direct, and intimate Truth -- too direct for words and concepts.
Your Buddha-Nature, ever-present presence-awareness, is present and available at all moments regardless what you are experiencing, including your own present state of awareness right now. It is not an altered or fabricated state but our ordinary awareness at every moment. Hence, Ken Wilber says, "I'm going to talk you into this state, or try to, using what are known in Buddhism as "pointing out instructions." I am not going to try to get you into a different state of consciousness, or an altered state of consciousness, or a non-ordinary state. I am going to simply point out something that is already occurring in your own present, ordinary, natural state."
I hope the following pointers by Ken Wilber are helpful in noticing your already awake nature, and to fully abide in it at all times. The pointers pointing to the moon (i.e. your true nature) should not be mistaken with the moon itself, but hopefully will point us in the right direction -- to cease chasing and grasping thoughts and outer forms, to go against the worldly stream of thoughts and forms, to turn the light of awareness within and upon itself, to allow awareness to be aware of itself and be awakened to itself. As what Chinese call it: �闻闻自性
Quote:There are many things that I can doubt, but I cannot doubt my own consciousness in this moment. My consciousness IS, and even if I tried to doubt it, it would be my consciousness doubting. I can imagine that my senses are being presented with a fake reality – say, a completely virtual reality or digital reality, which looks real but is merely a series of extremely realist images. But even then, I cannot doubt the consciousness that is doing the watching…
The very undeniability of my present awareness, the undeniability of my consciousness, immediately delivers to me a certainty of existence in this moment, a certainty of Being in the now-ness of this moment. I cannot doubt consciousness and Being in this moment, for it is the ground of all knowing, all seeing, all existing…
Who am I? Ask that question over and over again, deeply. Who am I? What is it in me that is conscious of everything?
If you think that you know Spirit, or if you think you don’t, Spirit is actually that which is thinking both of those thoughts. So you can doubt the objects of consciousness, but you can never believably doubt the doubter, never really doubt the Witness of the entire display. Therefore, rest in the Witness, whether it is thinking that it knows God or not, and that witnessing, that undeniable immediacy of now-consciousness, is itself God, Spirit, Buddha-mind. The certainty lies in the pure self-felt Consciousness to which objects appear, not in the objects themselves. You will never, never, never see God, because God is the Seer, not any finite, mortal, bounded object that can be seen…
This pure I AM state is not hard to achieve but impossible to escape, because it is ever present and can never really be doubted. You can never run from Spirit, because Spirit is the Runner. To put it very bluntly, Spirit is not hard to find but impossible to avoid: it is that which is looking at this page right now. Can’t you feel That One? Why on earth do you keep looking for God when God is actually the Looker?
Simply ask, Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
I am aware of my feelings, so I am not my feelings – Who am I? I am aware of my thoughts, so I am not my thoughts – Who am I? Clouds float by in the sky, thoughts float by in the mind, feelings float by in the body – and I am none of those because I can Witness them all.
Moreover, I can doubt that clouds exist, I can doubt that feelings exist, I can doubt that objects of thought exist – but I cannot doubt that the Witness exists in this moment, because the Witness would still be there to witness the doubt.
I am not objects in nature, not feelings in the body, not thoughts in the mind, for I can Witness them all. I am that Witness – a vast, spacious, empty, clear, pure, transparent Openness that impartially notices all that arises, as a mirror spontaneously reflects all its objects…
You can already feel some of this Great Liberation in that, as you rest in the ease of witnessing this moment, you already feel that you are free from the suffocating constriction of mere objects, mere feelings, mere thoughts – they all come and go, but you are that vast, free, empty, open Witness of them all, untouched by their torments and tortures.
This is actually the profound discovery of… the pure divine Self, the formless Witness, causal nothingness, the vast Emptiness in which the entire world arises, stays a bit, and passes. And you are That. You are not the body, not the ego, not nature, not thoughts, not this, not that – you are a vast Emptiness, Freedom, Release, and Liberation.
With this discovery… you are halfway home. You have disidentified from any and all finite objects; you rest as infinite Consciousness. You are free, open, empty, clear, radiant, released, liberated, exalted, drenched in a blissful emptiness that exists prior to space, prior to time, prior to tears and terror, prior to pain and mortality and suffering and death. You have found the great Unborn, the vast Abyss, the unqualifiable Ground of all that is, and all that was, and all that ever shall be.
But why is that only halfway home? Because as you rest in the infinite ease of consciousness, spontaneously aware of all that is arising, there will soon enough come the great catastrophe of Freedom and Fullness: the Witness itself will disappear entirely, and instead of witnessing the sky, you are the sky; instead of touching the earth, you are the earth; instead of hearing the thunder, you are the thunder. You and the entire Kosmos because One Taste – you can drink the Pacific Ocean in a single gulp, hold Mt. Everest in the palm of your hand; supernovas swirl in your heart and the solar system replaces your head…
You are One Taste, the empty mirror that is one with any and all objects that arise in its embrace, a mindlessly vast translucent expanse: infinite, eternal, radiant beyond release. And you… are… That…
So the primary Cartesian dualism – which is simply the dualism between… in here and out there, subject and object, the empty Witness and all things witnessed – is finally undone and overcome in nondual One Taste. Once you actually and fully contact the Witness, then – and only then – can it be transcended into radical Nonduality, and halfway home becomes fully home, here in the ever-present wonder of what is…
And so how do you know that you have finally and really overcome the Cartesian dualism? Very simple: if you really overcome the Cartesian dualism, then you no longer feel that you are on this side of your face looking at the world out there. There is only the world, and you are all of that; you actually feel that you are one with everything that is arising moment to moment. You are not merely on this side of your face looking out there. “In here” and “out there” have become One Taste with a shuddering obviousness and certainty so profound it feels like a five-ton rock just dropped on your head. It is, shall we say, a feeling hard to miss.
At that point, which is actually your ever-present condition, there is no exclusive identity with this particular organism, no constriction of consciousness to the head, a constriction that makes it seem that “you” are in the head looking at the rest of the world out there; there is no binding of attention to the personal bodymind: instead, consciousness is one with all that is arising – a vast, open, transparent, radiant, infinitely Free and infinitely Full expanse that embraces the entire Kosmos, so that every single subject and every single object are erotically united in the Great Embrace of One Taste. You disappear from merely being behind your eyes, and you become the All, you directly and actually feel that your basic identity is everything that is arising moment to moment (just as previously you felt that your identity was with this finite, partial, separate, mortal coil of flesh you call a body). Inside and outside have become One Taste. I tell you, it can happen just like that!
(Source: Boomeritis, Sidebar E: “The Genius Descartes Gets a Postmodern Drubbing: Integral Historiography in a Postmodern Age”. More to be found in The Simple Feeling of Being, a collection of Ken Wilber’s inspirational, mystical and instructional passages drawn from his publications, based on his experiences.) -
The main problem with this kind of knownledge is that almost all of us(human beings with dualistic mind) do not wish to return to our original "vast, open, transparent, radiant, infinitely Free and infinitely Full" pure self.
The fact that we are still present in this world means we still prefer to remain as beings with desires and attachments. We still prefer to live in this "reality". (If you watch the Matrix movie, you will understand why we still choose to live in this world.)
Should we return to our pure self, then we will have absolutely nothing to do at all. There will be nothing that we need to obtain or achieve. We don't even need to think, feel, breathe, drink or eat at all. No more nice food to eat, no more movie to watch, no more vehicles to drive, no more games to play, no more Internet to explore, no more songs to sing, no more romatic relationships, no more sexual intercourse... ... the list can go on and on and on.
When we have suffered long enough in these lower realms of desires, we will want go back up and up to the highest realm eventually, its just a matter of time.
Of course, there are still some people in this world who are totally lost and not aware of their true self so it is still good to share this important knowledge with everyone.
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You visit sgclub too? :roll:
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double post
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Originally posted by SoulDivine:
The main problem with this kind of knownledge is that almost all of us(human beings with dualistic mind) do not wish to return to our original "vast, open, transparent, radiant, infinitely Free and infinitely Full" pure self.
The fact that we are still present in this world means we still prefer to remain as beings with desires and attachments. We still prefer to live in this "reality". (If you watch the Matrix movie, you will understand why we still choose to live in this world.)
Should we return to our pure self, then we will have absolutely nothing to do at all. There will be nothing that we need to obtain or achieve. We don't even need to think, feel, breathe, drink or eat at all. No more nice food to eat, no more movie to watch, no more vehicles to drive, no more games to play, no more Internet to explore, no more songs to sing, no more romatic relationships, no more sexual intercourse... ... the list can go on and on and on.
When we have suffered long enough in these lower realms of desires, we will want go back up and up to the highest realm eventually, its just a matter of time.
Of course, there are still some people in this world who are totally lost and not aware of their true self so it is still good to share this important knowledge with everyone.
No, there is no need to change your lifestyle and behaviors to practice. And every activity, eating, walking, singing, is just the activity of your Buddha-Nature.
...The particular method of Dzogchen is called the Path of Self-Liberation, and to apply it nothing need be renounced, purified, or transformed. Whatever arises as one's karmic vision is used as the path. The great master Pha Tampa Sangye [South Indian Yogin of the 11 century (ed.)] once said: It is not the circumstances which arise as one's karmic vision that condition a person into the dualistic state; it is a person's own attachment that enables what arises to condition him. If this attachment is to be cut through in the most rapid and effective way, the mind's spontaneous capacity to self-liberate must be brought into play. The term self-liberation should not, however, be taken as implying that there is some 'self' or ego there to be liberated. It is a fundamental assumption...at the Dzogchen level, that all phenomena are void of self-nature. 'Self -Liberation', in the Dzogchen sense, means that whatever manifests in the field of experience of the practitioner is allowed to arise just as it is, without judgement of it as good or bad, beautiful or ugly. And in that same moment, if there is no clinging, or attachment, without effort, or even volition, whatever it is that arises, whether as a thought or as a seemingly external event, automatically liberates itself, by itself, and of itself. Practicing in this way the seeds of the poison tree of dualistic vision never even get a chance to sprout, much less to take root and grow.(p33)
So the practitioner lives his or her life in an ordinary way, without needing any rules other than one's own awareness, always remaining in the primordial state through integrating that state with whatever arises as part of experience -- with absolutely nothing to be seen outwardly to show that one is practicing. This is what is meant by self-liberation, this is what is meant by the name Dzogchen - which means Great Perfection - and this is what is meant by non-dual contemplation, or simply contemplation....
~ Dzogchen teacher, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche -
Originally posted by maggot:
You visit sgclub too?
Yeah. Recently.
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Very good advise by Loppon Namdrol from E-Sangha:
You need to just sit and relax.
Take a proper posture. Expell the stale air.
Do Guru yoga.
Then relax. As one's mind slowly subsides, a vivid, clear and energetic radiance will emerge. This is not rigpa itself, but is instead the radiance aspect of awareness. Relaxing in this is the essence of tregchod.
If it does not arise-- it doesn't matter-- it is there anyway. If it arises, it doesn't matter, since there is nothing one can do to cause it to arise, nor will it ever subside. But it is revealed when one is sufficiently relaxed.
If thoughts occur, it doesn't matter, since thoughts do not exist outside of this state. If there are no thoughts, it doesn't matter, since this radiance is not product of stillness, no more than the lustre of clear water is a product of the settling out of detritus.
When one can "see" the radiance of awareness even in the midst of the chaos of concepts, then one's tregchod is moving ahead.
Otherwise, just relax and integrate into your primordial state.
A few words of advice on tregchod written by a so called "dzogchen pa" named Namdrol. -
Yeah, one more thing I need to ask. I have this experience only for a few times before. It only occurs when I am sleeping/dreaming.
There is an energy in my mind that keeps expanding(requires a lot of concentration), to the point it actually "explodes". But once I lose concentration (wakes up), it will be gone.
Is this actually a good thing or I am going mentally crazy?
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Originally posted by SoulDivine:
Yeah, one more thing I need to ask. I have this experience only for a few times before. It only occurs when I am sleeping/dreaming.
There is an energy in my mind that keeps expanding(requires a lot of concentration), to the point it actually "explodes". But once I lose concentration (wakes up), it will be gone.
Is this actually a good thing or I am going mentally crazy?
It's some sort of side effects resulting from strong concentration. Don't need to be too concerned about it. When we meditate all sorts of strange sensations can occur. There is no need for alarm, but don't indulge them either.
What's important is we don't lose our mindfulness and awareness, remain undistracted. Our awareness is not a contrived experience, it is not an altered state, it is not something that can be 'induced', it is not a trasient experience. It is our natural state. It is what is always already present. It is a field, an open field of awareness that gives rise to and allows all experiences to come and go without any obstructions. Relax into that open field of awareness which is unaffected by any experiences.
p.s. in the practice I described, there is no need to practise any sort of contrived concentration. Any sort of focusing is artificial and contrived. There's nothing you need to do to 'be' what you already are. All you have to do is let go and RELAX. But not losing clarity or awareness or falling into trance... in fact the more you relax your clinging/fixation, the clearer awareness will be. It's natural, uncontrived.
Whatever arises is allowed to pass away by itself (self-liberates) in the field of awareness, there is no attempt to cling, focus on, or solidify what is evanescent, the mirror of awareness simply 'reflects' what is without distortion or grasping. And hence, no special type of focusing or concentration needed, and the only concentration needed is as Adam West said: 'being brightly aware of what is. Concentration in this sense simply means being naturally aware and not being distracted by having our attention divided by activities of mind.'
See the advise by Loppon Namdrol above.
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I am really impressed with your words.
You really know what is going on inside the human mind.If I were to tell others that my mind exploded due to strong concentration, they may think that I am crazy and refer me to a psychiatrist. *Laughs
And also, I believe that you are right. I should not indulge into this type of strong, enforced concentration or focus. Instead, I should pay more attention to the awareness part, be aware of thoughts that rises, ceases but don't restrict them.
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Haha, my wisdom is nothing compared to a lot of great practitioners here.
What you said is right.
No matter how many transient states and experiences we had, no matter how spectacular it is, will bring us no closer to awakening. Because our true nature is not an experience, it is the unmoving awareness that is present and accessible regardless of what we are experiencing. It is THAT to which everything is happening. Whatever you are experiencing, to whom is that experiencing occuring to/in/as? Awareness. No matter where you are, what you are doing, Awareness is fully present and 'accessible'... and is the basis of all experiences -- all experience implies there is an awareness OF experience, and that awareness is our unchanging nature of mind. We just miss it when we get lost in the transient contents (experience) arising in awareness. Therefore chasing after experiences are precisely besides the point and goes the opposite direction of awakening, i.e. realising what is ever-present regardless of content.
Anyway while reading something just now, I found a quote by Leo Hartong which I think is quite relevant here:
First slowly, like the lifting of a mist, it dawned on me, then suddenly it was clear: IT is not about experiences, but about THAT which is aware of the experiences: the space in which it all occurs. Whether it is a peak experience, washing your hands, or stubbing your toe - it makes no difference to THAT in which it all appears. IT is the seeing rather than that what is seen. That is the shift.
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This can also relate back to your false assumption that awakening will somehow stop us from experiencing all the mundane activities in life -- which is obviously not the case, as Awareness is the basis of all activities, and is completely accessible whatever we are doing.
Awareness is not a transcendental state or experience which 'cancels out' all mundane experiences and activities. Awareness is the ground of being, the ground of all experiencing, and whether what we are experiencing is so called 'mundane' (getting your work done, watching movies, washing dishes) or 'special' (entering deep samadhi, absorption, etc) makes not a difference to the nature of our mind (which is ever brightly luminous (aware), and empty). It is the basis of all mundane or non-mundane activities.
You will 'see' that the awareness now, the awareness when experiencing calmness, the awareness when experiencing strange sensations, the awareness when experiencing thoughts, is exactly the same. Awareness is timeless. Awareness has no coming or going, totally unmoving.
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wow cheem stuff...
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Originally posted by wonderamazement:
wow cheem stuff...
It's not chim. It's the only thing that you cannot deny even without thoughts or using concepts.
Pause all your concepts for a moment. In that gap between two thoughts, isn't there a vivid, clear, presence/beingness? You cannot doubt that even without using thoughts, it is vividly clear.
Does your awareness-presence get lost because you were not thinking about it?
Similarly when thoughts arise, to what is it arising in? That presence-awareness. That is your true abiding nature, never born, never ceases.
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We must never, never study spirituality as if it is a 'chim' subject like a difficult subject we are learning in school.
Because if we are just trying to figure it out using the mind or intellect, then we are going the wrong directions. Words can only help as pointers for us to have an 'intuitive feel' of what it is talking about. Then the rest is practising, abiding in the recognition in our daily lives.
Intellect is the wrong tool for this endeavor. It can never grasp spirituality. Intellect is devoid of the dynamic presence and livingness that only intuitive awareness can touch. Truth (what is always present) is obvious by itself, requiring no other tool to figure it out. As the 3rd Zen Patriarch said, don't seek truth, just cease to cherish opinions. Capturing spiritual understanding through concepts and ideas into dead images is of no use here. But when we take the focus off of the mind, then perhaps the all-pervading field of awareness might just reveal itself on its own accord.
6th Zen Patriarch Hui Neng:
"What I can tell you is not secret. If you turn your awareness inwardly and you will find what is secret within you."
Leo Hartong:
"In relation to Pure Awareness, the best the intellect can do is to recognize its own modus operandi. In other words, to get it, we must get why we cannot get it. If, at this point, the intellectual mind does not see its natural limitations, it may jump to a wrong conclusion like, ‘Oh if I can’t get it, it must be complicated.’ No doubt about it, trying to capture the non-dual in the dualistic medium of language can get very complicated; but in essence, it is not complicated at all, just as pointing out the color blue to a child is simple, but explaining it to a professor who was born blind is next to impossible.
While the heart – or right hemisphere of the brain – has a feel for this type of reasoning, the dividing and classifying left-brained aspect doesn’t. It is simply not the correct tool for dealing with the undivided whole to which this text is pointing. The intellect is the wrong tool for relating to non-dualistic reality, in the same way that a bucket is the wrong tool for scooping up the summer wind, or that bars are unfit to confine the rain, or that a sealed coffin can’t hold sunlight.
The mind not only appears in Awareness, it tends to confuse its own intellectual activity with Awareness. In fact, Awareness is not a product of the mind, but the mind is a product of Awareness – the silent and permanent background common to everything, including the mind and its activity. Like the screen on which we watch a movie, this background is generally ignored in favor of the impermanent activity that appears on or against it. Zoom out, and Awareness and its content unify in a Self-luminous singularity about which nothing can be said or known for the simple reason that anything said or known is part-and parcel of this singularity."=====================
Thusness:
http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-anatta-emptiness-and-spontaneous.html
"Before proceeding any further, it is of absolute importance to know that there is no way the stanzas can be correctly understood by way of inference, logical deduction or induction. Not that there is something mystical or transcendental about the stanzas but simply the way of mental chattering is a 'wrong approach'. The right technique is through 'vipassana' or any more direct and attentive bare mode of observation that allows the seeing of things as they are. Just a casual note, such mode of knowing turns natural when non-dual insight matures, before that it can be quite 'efforting'." -
Originally posted by SoulDivine:I should pay more attention to the awareness part, be aware of thoughts that rises, ceases but don't restrict them.
http://www.inthenow.tv/actual%20pages/awakeinthenow.html
Excerpt:
...It's INCREDIBLY useful. Thoughts can ONLY happen in 'the instant',
one by one, in front of witnessing. Once you are awake, then in
'the instant', thought by thought, you can remain as the witnessing of
the thoughts and not be hypnotised by them. And that will lead to
liberation from the thoughts.
Humans are imprisoning themselves in the thoughts and emotions.
They are unnecesarily living like BIOLOGICAL robots... 'living' out
their lives in a trance, a hypnotic state. They THINK that they are
awake because they are walking around and are not asleep in bed,
but in actual fact they are not TRULY awake.
Stopping the trance is ONLY possible once there has been an
AWAKENING to the fact that you are the WITNESSING of all of the
appearances (thoughts, emotions, etc). THEN, if, in the INSTANT,
priority is given to ABIDANCE AS THIS WITNESSING ...and NOT
the appearances ...then, and ONLY then, will the trance cease.
Realise that you are NOT your thoughts or feelings, they are JUST
a part of the bodies' apparatus. You are the witnessing which is
looking at the thoughts, emotions, bodily senses, etc... -
Your posts are skewing towards Advaita-Vedanta. That is not Buddhism. Practice this as an intermediate phase and not over-emphasized it.
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I see... ok..
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View and Meditation of the Great Perfection
by the first Jamgon Kontrul RinpocheHomage to the Guru, the teacher.
The View and Meditation of Dzogchen can be explained in many, many ways, but simply sustaining the essence of present awareness includes them all.
Your mind won't be found elsewhere.
It is the very nature of this moment-to-moment thinking.
Regard nakedly the essence of this thinking and you find present awareness, right where you are.Why chase after thoughts, which are superficial ripples of present awareness?
Rather look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; then there is no duality, no observer, and nothing observed.
Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness.
Make yourself at home in the natural state of pure presence, just being, not doing anything in particular.Present awareness is empty, open, and luminous; not a concrete substance, yet not nothing.
Empty, yet it is perfectly cognizant, lucid, aware.
As if magically, not by causing it to be aware, but innately aware, awareness continuously functions.
These two sides of present awareness or Rigpa-its emptiness and its cognizance (lucidity)-are inseparable.
Emptiness and luminosity (knowing) are inseparable.
They are formless, as if nothing whatsoever, ungraspable, unborn, undying; yet spacious, vivid, buoyant.
Nothing whatsoever, yet Emaho!, everything is magically experienced.
Simply recognize this.
Look into the magical mirror of mind and appreciate this infinite magical display.With constant, vigilant mindfulness, sustain this recognition of empty, open, brilliant awareness.
Cultivate nothing else.
There is nothing else to do, or to undo.
Let it remain naturally.
Don't spoil it by manipulating, by controlling, by tampering with it, and worrying about whether you are right or wrong, or having a good meditation or a bad meditation.
Leave it as it is, and rest your weary heart and mind.The ultimate luminosity of Dharmakaya, absolute truth, is nothing other than the very nature of this uncontrived, ordinary mind.
Don't look elsewhere for the Buddha.
It is nothing other than the nature of this present awareness.
This is the Buddha within.There are innumerable Dharma teachings.
There are many antidotes to many different kinds of spiritual diseases.
There are many words in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen nondual teachings.
But the root, the heart of all practices is included here, in simply sustaining the luminous nature of this present awareness.
If you search elsewhere for something better, a Buddha superior to this present awareness, you are deluding yourself.
You are chained, entangled in the barbed wire of hope and fear.
So give it up! Simply sustain present wakefulness, moment after moment.
Devotion, compassion, and perfecting virtue and wisdom are the most important supportive methods for completely fulfilling this naked, nondual teaching about present awareness, the innate Dharmakaya.
So always devote yourself to spiritual practice for the benefit of others and apply yourself in body, speech, and mind to what is wholesome and virtuous.Sarva mangalam.
May all beings be happy!
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A reply I wrote to someone in sgclubs a few days ago:
Quote:Originally Posted by s4bnw
Some might think feeling peaceful would mean you are suitable, but may in effect simply due to a relaxation of one's senses and changing one's mindset about certain things. This can be done with or without practising pure awareness.Would like to add on or clarify my previous reply: since pure awareness 'feels' exactly the same whether in calm state, a state with thoughts, a pleasant state or experience or an unpleasant one, awareness is the fundamental 'seeing' that allows all experience to arise -- whether a calm state or a state of thought. Because to have an experience, there must be an awareness of that experience, and that seeing/awareness of that experience is precisely our true nature. That means in calm state, our true nature is that awareness that knows the calm state. In thinking state, our true nature is the awareness that knows the thoughts.
So the question is, when the pleasant, peaceful (or non peaceful) feeling arise, are we abiding AS the awareness of the feelings or are we lost in the feelings? It is that simple.
Similarly thoughts arising is perfectly fine -- but are we lost in the thoughts, or are we abiding as the awareness of thoughts? In each moment, we are either abiding as awareness, or lost in the hypnotic/trance-like state of thinking. Without mindful abidance in awareness the thinking will lead you away into a dreamland, one thought chaining up with another endlessly, and that is the samsaric dream of suffering. OR, we can abide as the awareness that knows when thoughts arise, and continues to KNOW when no thoughts arise. Most people are living their lives in a trance-like, hypnotic state of being completely identified and attached to their thinking. There is no freedom for them. But as practitioners we can learn to be liberated from all thoughts (note: this is not the same as having no thoughts, liberation can occur whether or not there is thoughts but the key is in being awake). Awareness is always present, unmoved, and never lost. But when we fixate on and chase our thoughts, feelings and emotions, and become 'hypnotised' by them into a trance state, we lose sight of awareness. This is the meaning when Buddha said "一切众生皆有如æ�¥æ™ºæ…§å¾·ç›¸ã€‚å�ªå› 妄想执ç�€ä¸�能è¯�得。" So we need to bring ourselves back. In fact we cannot abide in awareness all the time especially for beginners: just do short periods of it whenever possible. We cannot do it for long at first because our habitual tendencies to get 'lost' in appearances and thoughts is very strong. It takes practise but we can certainly build the momentum. But whenever we abide in awareness, in that instant there is totally no identification and grasping on the thoughts AT ALL.
They are just like clouds passing by in the vast, empty sunlit sky without being obstructed by the sky, nor is the sky being obstructed by the clouds. The clouds (i.e. thoughts and experiences) do not affect that presence of awareness, our presence of awareness shines ever brightly whether or not appearances show up. Also, our presence of awareness does not have a preference for a state without thoughts or appearances, nor does it reject thoughts or appearances when they arise. Our awareness simply 'knows'. But is utterly unattached. And as a result of this non-identification and non-attachment, discursive thoughts lessen -- thoughts arise naturally for practical matters, but when its purpose is met they just disappear on its own accord without a trace. All appearances and thoughts just come up spontaneously by themselves, and then go by themselves, and you are not identified with them. They do not affect you as presence-awareness. But this is not the same as having no thoughts (as due to practical reasons we do require thoughts to function in our daily living). All appearances, experiences, and thoughts, are appearances of awareness and cannot be separated from awareness. They all occur in your awareness and not outside of it, doesn't it? As the ancient Tibetan scriptures say, Everything -- the whole universe -- is encompassed in this single nature of mind! Awareness is all-encompassing and all-pervading. Awareness is all there is.
While abiding in awareness there is no identification with the thoughts: you see that you are not the thoughts nor the thinker of the thoughts, nor the controller of feelings and bodily actions -- thoughts, feelings etc show up spontaneously by themselves and pass away by themselves in the space of awareness. There is no thinker or doer involved. Everything is just a spontaneous appearance in vast space-like awareness. They are all the magical display of awareness. But there is no identifying of certain objects with a personal self, as 'me' or 'mine'. Because there is no more investing of self-identification in the appearances, there is no grasping on whatever happens, yet there is an ever-present vivid clarity which knows.
Also one note... when doubts arise 'Am I practising correctly?' or 'Is this awareness?' or 'Am I experiencing awareness?' or whatever the thought might be -- just bring your attention to WHOM does the thought occur? To have that thought, you must be aware of it. That SEEING or AWARENESS of that thought is IT. It is undeniable, undoubtable -- and thus have absolute confidence in it. Don't look for something special. It is very simple, very ordinary, we just overlook it. 'Ordinary Mind is Tao' as the saying goes.Quote:Excerpt from http://www.wheniawoke.com/Titles/pointing-out2.html
...Patrul Rinpoche asked him, in a very affectionate way: "Do you see the stars in the sky?"
"Yes"
"Do you hear the dogs barking from the Dzogchen monastery?"
"Yes"
"Do you hear what I am saying to you?"
"Yes"
"Well, the nature of Dzogpachenpo is just - simply this."
At this moment, everything fell into place, and instantaneously Nyoshul Lungtok was completely realized.Lastly regarding the practise of chanting, if you understand what I wrote above and recognised this fundamental awareness in direct experience, then you will see that there is no contradictions at all. You can practise this at any moment, not just in sitting meditation, but also in chanting, doing your work, doing your chores, walking, talking with others, even thinking, basically: anything. (Awareness is ALWAYS accessible wherever you are. All activities are just the manifestation of Buddha-Nature, so there is no need to retreat into a mountain to practise. Awareness does not cancel out our mundane daily activities, but is the basis for these activities to occur -- without awareness how can we act?) There is also Zen Masters who advise the practise of 'Who is chanting the Buddha name?' I also know of people who awoke to their pristine awareness while doing chanting. (though awakening does not need to occur in any particular settings: some are awaken after hearing a sound, or seeing something, it can be anywhere, any occasion) Awakening to our true nature as awareness can occur at any time -- when chanting, we can be be awake to and abide in the awareness of that chanting. As said earlier: we can practise being awareness at all time and we should. But chanting helps to calm the mind so that we have loosened our identification with our thoughts enough to notice and abide firmly in our true nature as awareness, rather than being lost in following those discursive thoughts. This is important. Personally I prefer to do sitting meditation, but sometimes I do chant as well.
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The mind itself has no color, shape, or form, but it has energy. It is our duty to let go of and abandon the conditioned, proliferating mind. But the mind of present knowing, that which concentrates on Buddha, listens to Dhamma and reflects on its meaning, having been clearly observed, that true mind should be developed. In this case to "develop" means to give care and attention to establishing it in peace. Peace comes by countering the out-going stream of mentality and penetrating this present knowing.
The normal unrestrained mind is absorbed by the thought-consciousness seeking distraction. Go against the stream by looking at the source of mental activity. It originates from this knowing. The source of the mind lies within us. However this knowing is nothing substantial. It has no color, form or shape in the way that material objects do. It is a formless element. To speak in terms of the five aggregates there is:
- rupa — these bodies of ours;
- vedana — the experience of objects as pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable;
- sañña — discrimination based on memory — e.g., that this is a human being and this is an animal; this is red, this is black;
- sankhara — conditioning mental activity;
- viññana — cognition conditioned by mental activity.
The four formless aggregates of vedana, sañña, sankhara, and viññana arise within the knowing. The Buddha taught that during sitting and walking meditation we should make the knowing converge on itself, not allowing it to go outwards. Thoughts of good and bad are all exterior matters and are endless. In thinking and cognizing we must know the thinker, know the knower. All movement proceeds from this present knowing. That being the case, don't be deceived by these expressions of mind. They are merely shadows, flitting off into the past and future, thinking about and elaborating on the things that we like and the things that we don't. This proliferation is what conditions the mind.
What is it that knows the true mind and what is it that knows the conditioned mind? It is just this one single knowing, the same thing that hears the sound of the discourse and meditates on "Buddho." As there is just this single knowing, muster your energies and vow to yourself "I will not indulge the thinking mind. I will gather the mind into itself." Not allowing the mind to wander means that it stays with Buddho. All you have to do then is to maintain Buddho.
~ Looang Boo Sim Buddhacaro
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The Most Effective Method to Gain Enlightenment:
“You concentrate on learning
to uphold the Buddha’s Dharma.
Why don’t you listen to your own hearing?"
“All you who listen here should turn inward your
faculty of hearing to hear your own nature. This is how
enlightenment is won.”
.....................
“Ananda, and everyone in the great assembly,
Turn yourselves around and revert the hearing.
Return the hearing and listen to the self nature
Till the nature reaches the supreme way.
That is what perfect penetration really means."
“It is the gateway entered
by Buddhas as many as dust motes.
It is the one path to Nirvana.
Thus Come Ones of the past
perfected this method.
Bodhisattvas now merge
with this total brightness.
People of the future
who study and practice
Will also rely on this Dharma.
Through this method I, too,
have been certified.
Gwan Shr Yin Bodhisattva
was not alone in using it."
“As the Buddha, the World Honored One, requested,
I choose sincerely a skill-in-means,
One to save those in the final aeon
Who seek to escape the mundane world,
And perfect the heart of Nirvana:
The best way is to contemplate
the sounds of the world."
“All the other kinds of expedients
Require the awesome spirit of the Buddha.
In some cases they bring immediate transcendence,
But they are not the customary means of practice,
Spoken for those of shallow and deep roots alike."
“I bow to the Ones Come Thus and the Tripitaka,
And to those inconceivable ones with no outflows,
Trusting they will aid those in the future,
So that no one will doubt this dharma-door.
It is an expedient easy to master;
An appropriate teaching for Ananda
And for those immersed in the final age.
They should cultivate this organ of hearing,
A perfect penetration that surpasses all others.
It is the way to the true mind.”
(last 5 verses from from Manjushri Selects the Organ of Entry)
~ Shurangama Sutra
...........
An excerpt of a commentary by Ven Hsuan Hua:
“Ananda, and everyone in the great assembly / Turn
yourselves around and revert the hearing.” You should cultivate
according to this method. Don’t let yourselves run outside. Come
back. Look within and find yourself. “Return the hearing and
listen to the self nature / Till the nature reaches the supreme
way. Your nature can accomplish the unsurpassed path. That is
what perfect penetration really means.” Why does he select the
organ of the ear? It is the easiest to cultivate successfully. I believe
that some of you already know how to develop this skill, while
others do not. What does it mean to return the hearing to hear the
self-nature? It is the skill used in investigating Ch’an. When you
investigate Ch’an, you don’t want to expend all your energy on
seeking outside. You want to turn the light around and shine it
within. Then you ask yourself, “Who is mindful of the Buddha?”
“Who?” You want to put the “Who?” in your heart and then listen
with your ears. Pursue “Who?” Do this nonstop. Don’t let your skill
become dispersed. You investigate this topic in everything you do.
Walking, standing, sitting, reclining,
don’t be apart from this.
If you depart from this,
you’ve made a mistake.
What is “this?” It is the question, “Who is mindful of the Buddha?”
You don’t have to ask out loud; ask in your heart and listen with
your ears. Listen within, not outside. After you have listened
within, your heart and your hearing-nature will eventually merge
into one. And then in some unexpected way, at some unexpected
moment, you will suddenly open enlightenment. But you definitely
must bring your mind and nature together. Don’t let them scatter in
all directions. Don’t let them get dissipated outside. Collect them
within. Return the hearing and listen to your own nature.
Eventually and naturally your skill will develop. Investigating a
Ch’an topic and returning the hearing to listen to the self-nature are
the same. And now everyone knows that using the organ of the ear
in cultivation is the easiest method. So put your energy there and
cultivate this Dharma-door.
................Ven Shen Kai:
Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva practises "Ear Faculty Complete/Rounded Penetration" dharma door, this is because he practises till "turning perceiving inwards to perceive self-nature". What is "turning perceiving inwards to perceive self-nature"? That is not like ordinary people who listens to sounds outside, then follow the sound away. In contrast, his hearing faculty listens to self-nature, therefore he could succeed when practising this dharma door, irregardless of where sentient beings reside in the universe, suffering from whatsoever disasters, only if you chant his name, he will hear it. Actually, the dharma door he practises is very simple, everyone can practise it, let us all now discuss how to practise dharma, let everyone learn Guan Yin Bodhisattva, I will state an example.
Once, there is a small child who is eating rice, suddenly he puts down his chopsticks and said "Shi Fu! Shi Fu! I heard it!" I asked, "What did you hear?" He said "I heard the sound of no sound." May I ask, have all of you heard of the sound of no sound? Shen Kai is talking here, you all can hear, hear what? Heard Shen Kai talking. Now Shen Kai stops talking, does everyone hear it? Three minutes later everyone answer this question. Ok! Three minutes passed, does everyone hear it? If you hear, raise your hands. Good! Please say, (one of the audience said: at this place other than Fa Shi's voice, there are no other voices.) Wrong! Wrong! When Fa Shi is talking, you hear the voice of Fa Shi speaking the dharma. When Fa Shi is not speaking, you hear the sound of "no speaking dharma". This is called awareness-nature, awareness-nature does not change, when talking about 'ear faculty complete/rounded penetration' dharma door, that is called 'perceiving nature not changing', other than perceiving external sounds, you perceive your self-nature, that is the sound of no sound. You only need to go back, everyday with your ear faculty attend to self-nature and not move, 'turning inwards and perceive self-nature', if you practise this way, one day you will succeed. If everyone practises 'ear faculty complete/rounded penetration', everyone will be able to be Guan Yin Bodhisattva.................
Ven Hsu Yun ( http://hsuyun.budismo.net/en/dharma/chan_sessions2.html ):
TAKING CARE OF A HUA T'0U AND TURNING INWARD THE HEARING TO HEAR THE SELF-NATURE
Someone may ask: 'How can Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva's "method of turning inward the hearing to hear the self-nature" be regarded as Ch'an training?' I have just talked about looking into the hua t'ou; it means that you should unremittingly and one-pointedly turn the light inwards on 'that which is not born and does not die' which is the hua t'ou. To turn inwards one's hearing to hear the self-nature means also that you should unremittingly and one-pointedly turn inwards your (faculty of) hearing to hear the self-nature. 'To turn inwards' is 'to turn back'. 'That which is not born and does not die' is nothing but the self-nature. When hearing and looking follow sound and form in the worldly stream, hearing does not go beyond sound and looking does not go beyond form (appearance), with the obvious differentiation. However, when going against the mundane stream, the meditation is turned inwards to contemplate the self-nature. When 'hearing' and 'looking' are no longer in pursuit of sound and appearance, they become fundamentally pure and enlightening and do not differ from each other. We should know that what we call 'looking into the hua t'ou' and 'turning inwards the hearing to hear the self-nature' cannot be effected by means of the eye to look or the ear to hear. If eye and ear are so used, there will be pursuit after sound and form with the result that one will be turned by things (i.e. externals); this is called 'surrender to the (mundane) stream'.[26] If there is singleness of thought abiding in that 'which is not born and does not die', without pursuing sound and form, this is 'going against the stream'; this is called 'looking into the hua t'ou' or 'turning inwards the hearing to hear the self-nature'. -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
We must never, never study spirituality as if it is a 'chim' subject like a difficult subject we are learning in school.
Because if we are just trying to figure it out using the mind or intellect, then we are going the wrong directions. Words can only help as pointers for us to have an 'intuitive feel' of what it is talking about. Then the rest is practising, abiding in the recognition in our daily lives.
Intellect is the wrong tool for this endeavor. It can never grasp spirituality. Intellect is devoid of the dynamic presence and livingness that only intuitive awareness can touch. Truth (what is always present) is obvious by itself, requiring no other tool to figure it out. As the 3rd Zen Patriarch said, don't seek truth, just cease to cherish opinions. Capturing spiritual understanding through concepts and ideas into dead images is of no use here. But when we take the focus off of the mind, then perhaps the all-pervading field of awareness might just reveal itself on its own accord.
6th Zen Patriarch Hui Neng:
"What I can tell you is not secret. If you turn your awareness inwardly and you will find what is secret within you."
Leo Hartong:
"In relation to Pure Awareness, the best the intellect can do is to recognize its own modus operandi. In other words, to get it, we must get why we cannot get it. If, at this point, the intellectual mind does not see its natural limitations, it may jump to a wrong conclusion like, ‘Oh if I can’t get it, it must be complicated.’ No doubt about it, trying to capture the non-dual in the dualistic medium of language can get very complicated; but in essence, it is not complicated at all, just as pointing out the color blue to a child is simple, but explaining it to a professor who was born blind is next to impossible.
While the heart – or right hemisphere of the brain – has a feel for this type of reasoning, the dividing and classifying left-brained aspect doesn’t. It is simply not the correct tool for dealing with the undivided whole to which this text is pointing. The intellect is the wrong tool for relating to non-dualistic reality, in the same way that a bucket is the wrong tool for scooping up the summer wind, or that bars are unfit to confine the rain, or that a sealed coffin can’t hold sunlight.
The mind not only appears in Awareness, it tends to confuse its own intellectual activity with Awareness. In fact, Awareness is not a product of the mind, but the mind is a product of Awareness – the silent and permanent background common to everything, including the mind and its activity. Like the screen on which we watch a movie, this background is generally ignored in favor of the impermanent activity that appears on or against it. Zoom out, and Awareness and its content unify in a Self-luminous singularity about which nothing can be said or known for the simple reason that anything said or known is part-and parcel of this singularity."=====================
Thusness:
http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-anatta-emptiness-and-spontaneous.html
"Before proceeding any further, it is of absolute importance to know that there is no way the stanzas can be correctly understood by way of inference, logical deduction or induction. Not that there is something mystical or transcendental about the stanzas but simply the way of mental chattering is a 'wrong approach'. The right technique is through 'vipassana' or any more direct and attentive bare mode of observation that allows the seeing of things as they are. Just a casual note, such mode of knowing turns natural when non-dual insight matures, before that it can be quite 'efforting'."In short: only awareness can know itself (that is why it is called "self-knowing awareness"), transient and changing thoughts disguising as "understanding" merely pops in and out of awareness, but awareness is completely unaffected by the comings and goings of ideas, concepts and thoughts. It is an unmoving presence-awareness.
Thought can never understand something greater than itself, something that is intimate, evident, obvious, and self-authenticating. 1000 descriptions of the moon is still not the same as the direct seeing of the moon. This is not a perfect analogy because awareness is not a "thing" to be seen yet it can be recognised in direct experience. The eye cannot see itself, the knife cannot cut itself. Yet it sees, it knows.
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Advise from Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, 14th century Mahamudra master:
"The meaning in a nutshell is this: allow your mind to be as it naturally is, and let thoughts dissolve in themselves. This is your innate mind, which is an unidentifiable, self-knowing, natural awareness. Remain one-pointedly in its continuity and do not get distracted.
During the daily activities between breaks as well, try to keep this kind of mindfulness undistractedly as much as you can."
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
It's not chim. It's the only thing that you cannot deny even without thoughts or using concepts.
i define the term of being unable to understand what you are trying to say...although at times i find myself asking myself "who am i, why am i here, do i have a purpose here?" is there a form to oneself... and also how am i able to be aware and concious...