By Chodpa
E Ma Ho!
How wonderful!
Remain relaxed, without clinging or contrivance
Within mind's nature, like space,
Free from any reference point
And with the vigor of vivid, mindful awareness.
Whatever outward or inward movement of thought arises,
Don't lose hold of the vital inner glow of the expanse of mindfulness.
Don't fabricate [mental states].
Rest your mind as it is -
It will be liberated into the absolute expanse.
Kalu Rinpoche
I was reading this song from Kalu Rinpoche last night, and thought I'd
share the start.
Rinpoche's description of Mahamudra meditation comes from the Shangpa
Kagyu tradition, but is no different to the Kagyu teachings I've
received. Rest in awareness, without trying to do anything - and mind
will free itself, all of itself.
Don't take this or that as a vantage point, as a frame of reference, and
indulge in comparisons. Don't strive after this or that. Just rest in
awareness, just as it is. However it is - is fine. It's ok. It doesn't
need to be anything else.
Whatever thoughts arise - it's fine. Whatever experiences arise - it's
fine. Whatever arises that appears as outer experience - stuff seemingly
going on 'out there' in the world, or as inner experience - stuff
seemingly happening 'in here' - this dreamlike mirage of experience -
just rest in that experience.
Kalu Rinpoche describes beautifully the difference between the resting
and doing nothing of Mahamudra or Dzogchen, and the doing nothing of
just zoning out, or being lost in thought. It's easy to imagine that you
are doing Mahamudra by thinking I don't need to do anything - whatever
it is, however it is .... that's Mahamudra. But what's missing there, in
that not-doing?
Awareness.
... and resting in that.
Don't do anything in meditation - that's for sure. Don't try to
fabricate anything, and make this or that experience arise, or try to
get away from or transform this or that experience. But without
awareness you are just lost. Lost in dualism and caught up in your
'normal' daydreaming state. This isn't 'ordinary mind'.
Just rest in whatever is - whatever is - without losing hold of
the vital inner glow of the expanse of mindfulness - as Rinpoche calls
it.
Rest in whatever is - and knowing will arise, and liberation is right
there.
E Ma Ho!
How wonderful!
--------------------
You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at the table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait, be still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
I love this quotation - it really speaks to me about how easy it is to
do something in meditation, to try to fabricate experience. It speaks so
well of how I can let go of a sense of effort, of a sense of goal, or
even of something to evaluate the meditation by, and how underneath that
letting go there's often something else which I'm clinging to which in
turn can be let go of.
The path to effortless meditation is often for me a shedding of onion
layers. I see something clearly once my mind relaxes and rests in a
seeing, and then I'm in a postion to simply let go. Not a 'doing' let go
- just a 'letting go' which happens of itself.
Only then can I hope to see a more subtle clinging, or a more subtle
fabrication.
I can't just drop it all at once, I find. And that too is part of the
letting go.
Kafta describes beautifully the reorientation away from needing
experiences 'out there' - the constant search for stimulation and
meaning and resolution 'in the world', towards contemplation, towards
knowing the nature of all that arises in experience. Instead of being
transfixed by the seemingly dazzling variety of solid experiences, we
find a dreamlike nature to experience itself, and of ourselves. And
then, strangely enough, a fascination arises at this utter emptiness,
yet play of appearances.
And Kafka's punchline here? That the nature of things will reveal
itself, all of itself - it has no choice. Let go and be. Let go and
allow experience to unfold. Let go and know.
You don't have to strive after a goal, of enlightenment, of freedom from
suffering, as it will come to you on its own, effortlessly. Trust in
that, and let go.