The Real Buddha

Huang-po Hsi-yün (?-849)

People perform a vast number of complex practices
hoping to gain spiritual merit as countless as the grains of sand on the riverbed of the Ganges:
but you are essentially already perfect in every way.

Don’t try and augment perfection with meaningless practice.
If it’s the right occasion to perform them, let practices happen.

When the time has passed, let them stop.

If you are not absolutely sure that mind is the Buddha, and if you are attached to the ideas of winning merit from spiritual practices, then your thinking is misguided and not in harmony with the Way.

To practice complex spiritual practices is to progress step by step:
but the eternal Buddha is not a Buddha of progressive stages.

Just awaken to the one Mind,
and there is absolutely nothing to be attained.

This is the real Buddha.


***

Enlightenment

When practitioners of Zen fail to transcend the world of their senses and thoughts, all they do has no value.

Yet, when senses and thoughts are obliterated all the roads to universal mind are blocked and there is no entrance.

The primal mind has to be recognised along with the senses and thoughts. It neither belongs to them nor is independent of them.

Don’t build your understanding on your senses and thoughts,yet don’t look for the mind separate from your senses and thoughts.

Don’t attempt to grasp Reality by pushing away your senses and thoughts.

Unobstructed freedom is to be neither attached not detached.

This is enlightenment.


***


Here it is – right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.


***

All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you.

Start to think about it and immediately you are mistaken. It is like the boundless void, which can't be fathomed or measured.

***

People are scared to empty their minds fearing that they will be engulfed by the void. What they don’t realize is that their own mind is the void.

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The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.


Huang Po

Sermons

Ma-tsu (709-788)


The Patriarch said to the assembly, “The Way needs no cultivation, just do not defile. What is defilement? When with a mind of birth and death one acts in a contrived way, then everything is defilement. If one want to know the Way directly: Ordinary Mind is the Way! What is meant by Ordinary Mind? No activity, no right or wrong, no grasping or rejecting, neither terminable nor permanent, without worldly or holy. The sutra says, ‘Neither the practice of ordinary people, nor the practice of sages, that is the Bodhisattva’s practice.’

“Just like now, whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, responding to situations and dealing with people as they come: everything is the Way.

“All dharmas are mind dharmas; all names are mind names. The myriad dharmas are all born from the mind; the mind is the root of the myriad dharmas. The sutra says, ‘It is because of knowing the mind and penetrating the original source that one is called a sramana. The names are equal, the meanings are equal: all dharmas are equal. They are all pure without mixing. If one attains to this teaching, then one is always free. If suchness is established, then everything is suchness. If the principle is established, then all dharmas are principle. If phenomena are established, then all dharmas are phenomena. When one is raised, thousands follow. The principle and phenomena are not different; everything is wonderful function, and there is no other principle. They all come from the mind.

“For instance, though the reflections of the moon are many, the real moon is only one. Though there are many springs of water, water has only one nature. There are myriad phenomena in the universe, but empty space is only one. There are many principles that are spoken of, but ‘unobstructed wisdom is only one.’ Whatever is established, it all comes from One Mind. Whether constructing or sweeping away, all is sublime function; all is oneself. There is no place to stand where ones leaves the Truth. The very place one stands on is the Truth; it is all one’s being.

“All dharmas are Buddhadharmas, and all dharmas are liberation. Liberation is identical with suchness; all dharmas never leave suchness. Whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining, everything is always inconceivable function. The sutras say that the Buddha is everywhere.

“The Buddha is merciful and has wisdom. Knowing well the nature and character of all beings, he is able to break through the net of beings’ doubts. He has left the bondage of existence and nothingness; with all feelings of worldliness and holiness extinguished, he perceives that both self and dharmas are empty. He turns the incomparable Dharma wheel. Going beyond numbers and measures, his activity is unobstructed and he penetrates both principle and phenomena.

“Like a cloud in the sky that suddenly appears and then is gone without leaving any traces; also like writing on water, neither born nor perishable: this is the Great Nirvana. In bondage it is called tathagatagarbha; when liberated it is called the pure dharmakaya. Dharmakaya is boundless, its essence neither increasing or decreasing. In order to respond to beings, it can manifest as big or small, square or round. It is like a reflection of the moon in water. It functions smoothly without establishing roots.

“Not obliterating the conditioned; not dwelling in the unconditioned. The conditioned is the function of the unconditioned.; the unconditioned is the essence of the conditioned. Because of not dwelling on support, it has been said, ‘Like space which rest on nothing.’

“The mind can be spoken of in terms of its two aspects: birth and death, and suchness. The mind as suchness is like a clear mirror which can reflect images. The mirror symbolizes the mind; the images symbolize the dharmas. If the mind grasps at dharmas, then it gets involved in external causes and conditions, which is the meaning of birth and death. If the mind does not grasp at dharmas, that is suchness.

“The Sravakas hear about the Buddha-nature, while the Bodhisattva’s eye perceives the Buddha-nature. The realization of non-duality is called equal nature. Although the nature is free from differentiation, its function is not the same: when ignorant it is called consciousness; when awakened it is called wisdom. Following the principle is awakening, and following phenomena is ignorance. Ignorance is to be ignorant of one’s original mind. Awakening is to awake to one’s original nature.

“Once awakened, one is awakened forever, there being no more ignorance. Like, when the sun comes, then all darkness disappears. When the sun of prajna emerges, it does not coexist with the darkness of defilements. If one comprehends the mind and the objects, then false thinking is not created again. When there is no more false thinking, that is acceptance of the non-arising of all dharmas. Originally it exists and it is present now, irrespective of cultivation of the Way and sitting in meditation.

“Not cultivating and not sitting is the Tathagata’s pure meditation. If you now truly understand the real meaning of this, then do not create any karma. Content with your lot, pass your life. One bowl, one robe; whether sitting or standing, it is always with you. Keeping sila, you accumulate pure karma. If you can be like this, how can there be any worry that you will not realize? You have been standing long enough. Take care!”
Ma-tsu (709-788)


From Sun-Face Buddha: The Teachings of Ma-Tsu and the Hung-Chou School of Ch'an-translated by Cheng Chien Bhikshu

Fonte: Dayly Zen i

Mahamudra and Dzogchen: Thought-Free Wakefulness

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

The ability to dissolve thoughts is essential to attaining liberation, says renowned Dzogchen teacher Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Devotion and Pure Perception are two principles that lie at the root of Vajrayana practice that lead beyond confusion to thought-free wakefulness.

Meditation training, in the sense of sustaining the nature of mind, is a way of being free from clinging and the conceptual attitude of forming thoughts, and therefore free from the causes of samsara: karma and disturbing emotions. Please do not believe that liberation and samsara is somewhere over there: it is here, in oneself. Thought is samsara. Being free of thought is liberation. When we are free of thinking, we are free of thought. The problem is that the causes for further samsara are being created continuously. We spin through the six realms and undergo a lot of suffering.

Compared to the other life forms in samsara, we human beings do not suffer that much. We don't experience the unbearable, overwhelming suffering that countless other beings do. But for some humans, their mental or physical pain may be unbearable. If we continue to allow our ordinary thinking to run wild, we cannot predict what is lined up for us in the future, where we will end up, in what shape or form. The bottom line is this: we need to know how to dissolve thoughts.

Ego-clinging is simply a thought. Clinging to the notion of self is a thought. Clinging to the notion of other is also a thought. Clinging to duality is a thought. The concept of good is a thought, and the concept of evil is a thought. A neutral concept is also a thought. Whenever there is thought, it follows that there is clinging. The attitude of clinging follows the tracks of the three poisons—passion, aggression and ignorance. Since the formation of thought involves the three poisons, that means that thinking causes samsara, the endless suffering of cyclic existence. Whenever there is involvement in thought, our experience will be samsaric. Deluded thinking is the root of samsara.

Deluded thinking forms karma and disturbing emotions. When there is thinking, there are the acts of accepting and rejecting, of pleasure and of pain. The circumstances may be external, but the thinker is this mind within. Beauty and ugliness appear to belong to external objects. However, that which creates the beauty or the ugliness is actually the forming of a concept in this mind, here. Also, the liking and the disliking of what is considered beautiful or ugly are actions taken by this mind. The circumstance is the sense object, but the main factor is our mind.

In order for all six classes of beings [gods, asuras, humans, animals, pretas and hell beings] to be totally free of the entirety of samsara, we need to solve the problem of the thinking that forms the causes that propel us around through the various realms. We understand that thinking is delusion. However, to want to be free and at the same time to want to hang on to conceptual thinking is a contradiction in terms. It is something that will not happen. It is an impossible task.

If you want to attain liberation and omniscient enlightenment, you need to be free of conceptual thinking. Meditation training, in the sense of sustaining the nature of mind, is a way of being free from clinging and the conceptual attitude of forming thoughts, and therefore free from the causes of samsara: karma and disturbing emotions. Please do not believe that liberation and samsara is somewhere over there: it is here, in oneself. Thought is samsara. Being free of thought is liberation. When we are free of thinking, we are free of thought. The problem is that the causes for further samsara are being created continuously. We spin through the six realms and undergo a lot of suffering.

Compared to the other life forms in samsara, we human beings do not suffer that much. We don't experience the unbearable, overwhelming suffering that countless other beings do. But for some humans, their mental or physical pain may be unbearable. If we continue to allow our ordinary thinking to run wild, we cannot predict what is lined up for us in the future, where we will end up, in what shape or form.

The bottom line is this: we need to know how to dissolve thoughts. Without knowing this, we cannot eliminate karma and disturbing emotions. And therefore the karmic phenomena do not vanish; deluded experience does not end. We understand also that one thought cannot undo another thought. The only thing that can do this is thought-free wakefulness. This is not some state that is far away from us: thought-free wakefulness actually exists together with every thought, inseparable from it—but the thinking obscures or hides this innate actuality. Thought-free wakefulness is immediately present the very moment the thinking dissolves, the very moment it vanishes, fades away, falls apart. Isn't this true?

The Buddha described in detail that we can have 84,000 different types of emotions. In a condensed way, there are six root emotions and twenty subsidiary ones. An even shorter categorization of thoughts is that of the three poisons. Whatever the number of types of emotions or thoughts, the Buddha taught how to eliminate all of these by giving 84,000 sections of the dharma.

Perhaps you do not have the time to study and learn all these teachings, or maybe you don't have the desire, the ability or the intelligence to do so. In this case, the Buddha and the bodhisattvas very skillfully condensed the teachings into a very concise form. This is called the tradition of pith instructions that deals with overcoming all the disturbing emotions simultaneously. The basic instruction here is to understand that all of these emotions are merely thoughts. Even ego-clinging and dualistic fixation is simply a thought. The pointing-out instruction given by a master to qualified students shows how to dissolve the thought and how to recognize the nature of the thinker, which is our innate thought-free wakefulness.

The root of confusion is thinking, but the essence of the thinking is thought-free wakefulness. As often as possible, please compose yourselves in the equanimity of thought-free wakefulness. It is said, "Samsara is merely thought, so freedom from thought is liberation." Great masters explain this in more detail, because simply being thoughtless is not necessarily liberation in the sense of thought-free wakefulness. To be unconscious, to faint, to be oblivious, is surely not liberation. If those states were liberation, attainment would be swift since it is very easy to be mindless. That would be a cheap liberation!

Simply suspend your thinking within the nonclinging state of wakefulness: that is the correct view. One important point about the teachings on mind essence is that they need to be simple and easy to train in. Particularly in Mahamudra and Dzogchen practice, the view is said to be open and carefree. The less you cling and grasp, the more open and free it is. It is the nature of things. The less rigid our conceptual attitude is, the freer the view.

The mind is empty, cognizant, united, unformed. Please make the meanings of these words something that points at your own experience. You can also say the mind is the "unformed unity of empty cognizance." These are very precious and profound words. “Empty” means that essentially this mind is something that is empty. This is easy to agree on: we cannot find it as a thing. It is not made empty by anyone, including by us—it is just naturally empty, originally so.

At the same time, we also have the ability to know, to cognize, which is also something natural and unmade. These two qualities, being empty and cognizant, are not separate entities. They are an indivisible unity. This unity itself is also not something that is made by anyone. It is not a unity of empty cognizance that at some point arose, remains for a while and later will perish. Being unformed, it does not arise, does not dwell, and does not cease. It is not made in time. It is not a material substance. Anything that exists in time or substance is an object of thought. This unformed unity of empty cognizance is not made of thought; it is not an object of thought.

Whenever there is an idea based in time or substance, its upkeep becomes very complex; it takes a lot to sustain or maintain its validity. This unformed basic nature, however, is very simple, not complicated at all. So many complications are created based on concepts of time and substance—so much hope and fear. Honestly, substance and time never did exist; they never do exist, nor will they ever exist in the future, either. The conceptualization of time and substance is the habit of the thinking mind. Although right now time and substance do not exist, it seems to the thinking mind as if they do.

Concerning substance, if you look around, it seems like everything is solidly and precisely there. In the experience of a real yogi, time and substance do not exist, of course. Even a scholar can, through intelligent reasoning, feel convinced about this fact. When we think that which is not, is, then, it seems to be. As perceived by a buddha, however, all the experiences that samsaric beings have are no more substantial than dreams. It all looks like dreaming.


At the very foundation of Vajrayana practice lie two principles: devotion and pure perception. We should have devotion towards the unmistaken natural state, in the sense of sincerely appreciating that which is truly unmistaken, unconfused, never deluded. In reality, the nature of all things is totally pure. Impurity occurs only due to temporary concepts. That is the reason why one should train in pure perception.

In this context, there are three levels of experience: the deluded experience of sentient beings, the meditative experience of yogis, and the pure experience of buddhas. Whenever there is dualistic mind, there is deluded experience. The deluded experience of sentient beings is called impure because it is involved with karma and disturbing emotions. In deluded experience, there is the attempt to accept and reject; there is hope and fear. Hope and fear are painful: that is suffering. Whenever there is thinking, there is hope and fear. Whenever there is hope and fear, there is suffering.

The meditative experience of a yogi is free of giving in to ordinary thought. It is something other than being involved in normal thinking. We can call it the state of shamatha or vipashyana or other names, but basically it is unlike ordinary thinking. The meditative experiences of a yogi are good and they become evident because of letting mind settle in equanimity. The most famous of these meditative moods are called bliss, clarity and nonthought. They occur during vipashyana meditation, but they can arise even during shamatha practice. Through meditation training, the mind becomes more clarified, more lucid. But if we are not connected with a qualified master and if we do not know the right methods of dealing with these meditative states, we may believe that we are somehow incredibly realized beings. That becomes a hindrance; it can even turn into a severe obstacle.

The Mahamudra path is presented as the twelve aspects of the four yogas. These four yogas of Mahamudra constitute the path of liberation. The first of these, one-pointedness, essentially means that you can remain calmly undisturbed for as long as you want. The next yoga is simplicity, and means to recognize your natural face as being ordinary mind, free from basis and free from root: "Simplicity is rootless and baseless ordinary mind." We need to develop the strength of this recognition; otherwise, we are as helpless as a small child on a battlefield. We train by means of mindfulness, first effortful, then effortless. We train in simplicity at lesser, medium and higher levels, and then arrive at one taste, the third of the four yogas of Mahamudra. One taste means that the duality of experience dissolves, that all dualistic notions such as samsara and nirvana dissolve into the state of nondual awareness.

Having perfected one taste through the levels of the lesser, medium and higher stages, the fourth yoga is nonmeditation. This is the point at which every type of conviction and the fixing of the attention on something completely dissolves. All convictions and habitual tendencies have dissolved and are left behind. One has captured the dharmakaya throne of nonmeditation.

In the beginning one needs to be convinced about how reality is: one needs to have confidence in the view. Ultimately, however, any form of conviction is still a subtle obscuration, still a hindrance. At the final stage of nonmeditation, all types of habitual tendencies and convictions need to be dissolved, left behind. There is nothing more to cultivate, nothing more to reach. One has arrived at the end of the path. All that needs to be purified has been purified. Karma, disturbing emotions and the habitual tendencies have all been cleared up, so that nothing is left.

The path is necessary as long as we have not arrived. The moment we arrive, however, the need for the road to get there has fallen away. As long as we are not at our destination, then it is also necessary to have the concept of path in order to get there. But once the destination has been reached, once whatever needs to be cultivated has been cultivated and whatever needs to be abandoned has been left behind, the whole need for path is over. That is what is meant by nonmeditation, literally non-cultivation. This is the dharmakaya [the formless body of ultimate reality, one of the three bodies (kayas) of Buddha] throne of nonmeditation. In Dzogchen, the exhaustion of all concepts and phenomena is the ultimate level of experience. This is the state of complete enlightenment. Both these levels of realization are equal to that of all buddhas.

At this point, for oneself, there is exclusively pure experience. At the same time, other beings are still perceived, along with their impure, deluded experiences. Take the example of the six classes of beings. When their experiences are compared with each other, each being will feel that his or her way of experiencing is more profound than the realm below. In general, everyone thinks that what they experience is real. The difference in the experiencing of the different realms is the difference in the density of their karma and obscurations. The less dense the karma, the closer to real experience. Compared to the ordinary samsaric sentient being, the meditative experience of a yogi is more real, more pure. But compared to that, the pure experience of a buddha is more real and more pure still.

We need to dissolve impure deluded experience. Deluded experience comes from not knowing the nature of mind; it comes from unknowing, from being ignorant of the natural state. When not knowing our nature, we are sentient beings. Ignorance clears when knowing the natural state, the state of a buddha. While not knowing, there is the forming of karma and disturbing emotions. While knowing, karma and disturbing emotions are not formed. If, in the very moment of knowing innate nature and sustaining the continuity of that, you were to never stray again, then you would be a buddha.

Buddhist philosophy has many splendid words to describe what happens. The Chittamatra, or mind-only school, presents a threefold classification of reality as the imaginary, the dependent and the absolute. In the Dzogchen teachings, ignorance is described as having three aspects: conceptual ignorance, coemergent ignorance and the single-nature ignorance. These are all very nice words. Basically, it is in the state of not knowing that confusion can take place. Not knowing our own essence is confusion. The essence of what thinks is dharmakaya. The thinking itself is not dharmakaya, but the identity of that which thinks is dharmakaya. Thinking is thought. Thinking is not the thought-free state. It is the identity of that which thinks that is thought-free.

Whether we use the terms mind-essence, the primordially pure state of cutting through, original coemergent wisdom, or the Great Middle Way of definitive meaning, one point is true: at the moment of not being involved in thought, you spontaneously have arrived at the true view, automatically.

There are two ways to approach the view. One is through scriptural statements and reasoning, and the other is through experience. The first way is called "establishing the view through statement and reasoning." Although we want to train in Mahamudra or Dzogchen, still, without some feeling of certainty about the view obtained through studying and through our own reasoning, it is not that easy to be sure.

It is sometimes possible to transmit or communicate the view without using any scriptural statements, but this requires that a totally qualified master possessing the nectar of learning, reflection and meditation meets with a qualified disciple who is receptive. There are three types of transmission. The first two, the mind transmission of buddhas and the symbolic transmission of the knowledge-holders, are like that. Mind transmission uses not even a single word or gesture, no sign. Yet, something is communicated—the wisdom of realization is communicated and fully recognized. Symbolic transmission uses no more than a word or sentence—no explanations, just a gesture—to point out the wisdom of realization and have it recognized. The third type is the hearing lineage, which uses a very brief spoken teaching.

In these times we are in, most people would have a hard time if we were only to use mind transmission, symbolic transmission or hearing transmission with nothing else, no explanation. Explanation is generally necessary in order to point out the natural state. There are two ways to do so. One of these is the analytical approach of a scholar; the other is the resting meditation of a simple meditator. There are some people who can trust a master and be introduced to the natural state without using any lengthy explanations. For other people, this is not enough. Then it is necessary to use scriptural references and intelligent reasoning in order to establish certainty in the view. But after arriving at the intellectual understanding of the true view, the scholar still needs to receive the blessings of a qualified master and to receive the pointing-out instruction from such a master.

Do you have doubts about anything? Does anything need to be cleared up?

Student: Could you give a few more details about pure perception?

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche: To refrain from hurting others and to abandon the basis for harm is the main precept of the Hinayana teachings. To help others and to create the basis for benefit is the main precept for Mahayana. Vajrayana is called the path of pure perception, taking sacred outlook as the path. This is done on the foundation of the two previous precepts: the attitude of wanting to avoid harming others, and of wanting to help them. In addition to this, we train in pure perception, not only in a spiritual context but also in any normal life situation in human society.

The Vajrayana statement to regard everything as pure could at first sound strange, maybe even awkward. But examine very carefully and you will discover that the very nature of everything is one of purity. Therefore, to regard everything as pure is very reasonable. Pure perception is very close to ultimate reality, to how things actually are. All sentient beings have an enlightened essence, buddhanature. It is said that all beings are buddhas, yet they are covered by temporary obscurations. Even though all beings are veiled by obscuration, they are still in reality buddhas, and therefore, it is perfectly all right to see all beings as perfectly pure.

The Hinayana precepts of refraining from hurting others are vital. The Mahayana precept of the will to assist other beings is extremely important. In addition to that, the Vajrayana training in pure perception is tremendously profound. It is a training in recognizing and acknowledging the natural purity of everything. Therefore, the Tibetan approach to Buddhism is one in which the three vehicles are not separated, but are practiced in combination.

We need to very carefully examine this principle of pure perception, because seemingly things are not pure. On the seeming level, we can have notions of something being pure or impure, but on the level of what really is, everything is pure. The Vajrayana perspective of pure perception is that everything, since the very beginning, is in actuality the three kayas of the Buddha [nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya]. All movement of thought is the play of original wakefulness. We discriminate and judge because of not knowing this.

It is a mistake to hold the opinion that something which is actually pure is impure. But to regard that which is pure as being pure is correct. Compared to the attitude of regarding things as being permanent and concrete, the attitude of regarding everything as being impermanent and insubstantial is correct. To regard everything, all phenomena, as not only being insubstantial and impermanent but as being completely pure is an even higher view.

Student: With regard to pure perception, it seems easier to see oneself as pure, doesn't it?

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche: Without pure perception, Vajrayana is very difficult. Vajrayana is the swift path because through the power of trust and devotion it becomes much easier to realize the nature of things.

Generally speaking, pure perception means appreciating that everyone has the capacity to be enlightened, everyone has a nature that can be totally revealed and perfected. Moreover, the five elements, the five aggregates, the five poisons—all the different aspects of experience—are by nature already pure. It is only because we see these in a confused way that they appear as impure. In the pure experience of not forming concepts of clean or unclean, pure or impure, everything is seen as it actually is—as manifestations of original wakefulness.

When someone understands the value of devotion and pure perception and is willing to train in this way, he or she is a suitable recipient for Vajrayana teachings. This suitability for Vajrayana entails being both broad-minded and sharp. Everything is total purity, all-encompassing purity. Unless someone is very open-minded and has a sharp intelligence, he or she just does not understand that this is how reality is.

Moreover, we should also train in perceiving the teacher and our fellow practitioners as pure. One person cannot truly judge another. Therefore, we should have appreciation for our vajra brothers and vajra sisters. As for the teacher who expounds the Vajrayana, we shouldn't have the attitude: "He is just another guy, another human being, probably a little special, but what do I know?" Not like that! Have a pure appreciation of the teacher as well. There is great power in such pure perception.

According to the Vajrayana tradition, it is through devotion and trust that realization dawns in our stream of being. Devotion springs from pure perception of everyone. All sentient beings are potentially buddhas. They are temporarily obscured, but in essence they are buddhas. Obscured suchness may become unobscured suchness, which is buddha. The obscuration can be purified; it will be purified; it is able to be purified.

So pure perception is very profound and precious. It is through pure perception that we can have true devotion. And through this devotion, realization dawns. This is like Milarepa's statement to Gampopa: "Unlike now, there will be a time in the future, my son, when you will see me as a buddha in person. At that point, the true view will have dawned within your stream of being."

Vajrayana is not like the general teachings of the Buddha. A Vajrayana saying goes: "Regard whatever the teacher says as excellent, whatever he or she does as pure, and mingle your minds as one." Unless a person is very open-minded and sharp as well, it is just not easy to be that way. When seeing somebody as pure, it does not mean being blind. That is not what we are talking about here. That would be stupid admiration, false admiration. Real trust has more to do with acknowledging the basic purity of all things.

Devotion or trust and pure perception are the basis for Vajrayana practice. And that holds true whether we are listening to a dharma talk, whether we are applying those teachings or whether we are interacting during daily activities: in any situation pure perception is vital.


Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is the abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling monastery in Kathmandu. Eldest son of the late Dzogchen master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, he also teaches annually at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, his retreat center in northern California.

This teaching is excerpted from Present Fresh Wakefulness: A Meditation Manual on Nonconceptual Wisdom, published by Rangjung Yeshe. This article © 2003 Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Reprinted with permission of Rangjung Yeshe Publications.

Mahamudra and Dzogchen: Thought-Free Wakefulness, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Shambhala Sun, November 2002.

Fonte: Shambala Sun

Before you go further

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj


There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person. The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot.
By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected.

***

When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected.

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All that a guru can tell you is: 'My dear Sir, you are quite mistaken about yourself. You are not the person you take yourself to be.'

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To expound and propagate concepts is simple, to drop all concepts is difficult and rare.

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There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking.


***

Understanding the ‘I am’, your sense of ‘being’ or just ‘presence’ is extremely important as on it rests the entire outcome of the teaching. Firstly, are you at all aware of your ‘being’ or of the fact that ‘you are’? You have ‘to be’ before anything else can be, your sense of ‘presence’ or the feeling ‘I am’ is very fundamental to anything that has to follow. Secondly, this sense of ‘being’ or the feeling ‘I am’, was it not the very first event or happening before any of your living experiences could begin? Apply your mind go back in time to the moment when it dawned on you that ‘you are’ or ‘I am’. This ‘I am’ is still there with you, ever present, ever available, it was and still is the first thought, refuse all other thoughts and come back there and stay there. So try to understand and grasp this ‘beingness’ or ‘I amness’ that is inherent in you. The more precisely and clearly you do it the more rapid would be your progress.

***

Having understood the ‘I am’ in every way, the next thing is to stay there, establish yourself in your sense of ‘being’ and not deviate from it at all. The very moment you start thinking about anything else you can be lest assured there have been ‘add-ons’ on the basic ‘I am’ and it has lost its purity. Reject anything that is ‘I am plus …’and so forth because all the rest are contaminants and do not go with it.

***

All this is not as easy as it sounds it is hard work, your consistency and perseverance are keys to you success. Separate the ‘I am’ from ‘I am this’ or’ I am that’ or ‘I am so and so’ all these are add-ons and have been loaded onto you by others and society. All these appendages on the ‘I am’ maybe of some value in your day to day living but if your goal or quest for eternity, then they are impediments. You will have to separate them from the ‘I am’ and just keep in mind your sense of ‘presence’ or the feeling ‘I am’.

***

Right from the day you came know that ‘you are’ to this day you still know that ‘you are’. All add-ons have come and gone are transient but the fundamental ‘I am’ has remained unchanged and is the only certainty. This ‘I am’ is impersonal, it’s common to everybody and wordless, the moment you came know that ‘you are’ you did not know any words or language, which came later. Based on this non-verbal ‘I am’ you could later on say verbally ‘I am’ in whatever language you were taught. From this small minuscule ‘I am’ further knowledge grew leaps and bounds to gigantic proportions. So all knowledge stems from the ‘I am’, it is very fundamental, the base, the origin, the root of everything. You have to hold on to this ‘I am and let everything else go.

***

You are definitely sure that ‘you are’ only then everything else is! Not before that. Since the ‘I am’ lies at the very base of everything and is common to all, does it not form the totality of being? Throwing aside everything, come back to this sense of ‘presence’ or ‘being’ in all its purity and it would heal your mind. The use of the word ‘heal’ is very important as it clearly suggests that the mind or whatever has been loaded on the ‘I am’ afterwards is a pain an illness that needs to be cured. There is also here a hint towards something that is beyond the ‘I am’.

***

This sense of ‘being’ is always there, fresh as ever, it doesn’t leave you, it’s always available. At whatever stage you are in your life it has stuck to you unchanged. Circumstances, relationships, people, ideas and so forth everything else has been changing and is inferential but the ‘I am’ remained and has stood throughout this turbulence. And what would happen when this ‘I am’ goes? What would remain? The hint is now more emphatic on something beyond the ‘I am’, the Absolute.


***

In reality you were never born and never shall die. But now you imagine that you are, or have, a body and you ask what has brought about this state. Within the limits of illusion the answer is: desire born from memory attracts you to a body and makes you think as one with it. But this is true only from the relative point of view. In fact, there is no body, nor a world to contain it; there is only a mental condition, a dream-like state, easy to dispel by questioning its reality

***

Before you go further you must accept, at least as a working theory, that you are not what you appear to be, that you are under the influence of a drug. Then only will you have the urge and the patience to examine the symptoms and search for their common cause.

All that a guru can tell you is: "My dear sir, you are quite mistaken about yourself. You are not the person you think yourself to be."

Trust nobody, not even yourself. Search, find out, remove and reject every assumption till you reach the living waters and the rock of truth. Until you are free of the drug, all your religions and sciences, prayers and yogas are of no use to you, for, based on a mistake, they strengthen it.


***

Neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself.

***

Do realize that it is not you who moves from dream to dream, but the dreams flow before you, and you are the immutable witness. No happening affects your real being - that is the absolute truth.

***

Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual.

***

A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.

***

Pain is physical, suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no suffering. Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but none compels you to suffer. Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a sign of our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life. As a sane life is free of pain, so is a saintly life free from suffering. A saint does not want things to be different from what they are; he knows that, considering all factors, they are unavoidable. He is friendly with the inevitable and, therefore, does not suffer. Pain he may know, but it does not shatter him. If he can, he does the needful to restore the lost balance, or he lets things take their course.

***

By looking tirelessly, I became quite empty and with that emptiness all came back to me except the mind. I find I have lost the mind irretrievably. I am neither conscious nor unconscious, I am beyond the mind and its various states and conditions. Distinctions are created by the mind and apply to the mind only. I am pure Consciousness itself, unbroken awareness of all that is. I am in a more real state than yours. I am undistracted by the distinctions and separations which constitute a person.

As long as the body lasts, it has its needs like any other, but my mental process has come to an end. My thinking, like my digestion, is unconscious and purposeful. I am not a person in your sense of the word, though I may appear a person to you. I am that infinite ocean of consciousness in which all happens. I am also beyond all existence and cognition, pure bliss of being. There is nothing I feel separate from, hence I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing. Life will escape, the body will die, but it will not affect me in the least. Beyond space and time I am, uncaused, uncausing, yet the very matrix of existence.

***

It is choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing--food, sex, power, fame--will make you happy is to deceive yourself.


***

Perfection is a state of the mind, when it is pure. I am beyond the mind, whatever its state, pure or impure. Awareness is my nature; ultimately I am beyond being and non-being."

***

Time is in the mind, space is in the mind. The law of cause and effect is also a way of thinking. In reality all is here and now, all
is one. Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only.

What is Zen?

Master Seung Sahn

Zen is very simple... What are you?

In this whole world everyone searches for happiness outside, but nobody understands their true self inside.

Everybody says, "I" -- "I want this, I am like that..." But nobody understands this "I." Before you were born, where did your I come from? When you die, where will your I go? If you sincerely ask, "what am I?" sooner or later you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off. We call this "don't know."

Zen is keeping this "don't know" mind always and everywhere.

When walking, standing, sitting,
lying down, speaking, being
silent, moving, being still.
At all times, in all places, without
interruption -- what is this?
One mind is infinite kalpas.

Meditation in Zen means keeping don't-know mind when bowing, chanting and sitting Zen. This is formal Zen practice. And when doing something, just do it. When driving, just drive; when eating, just eat; when working, just work.

Finally, your don't-know mind will become clear. Then you can see the sky, only blue. You can see the tree, only green. Your mind is like a clear mirror. Red comes, the mirror is red; white comes the mirror is white. A hungry person comes, you can give him food; a thirsty person comes, you can give her something to drink. There is no desire for myself, only for all beings. That mind is already enlightenment, what we call Great Love, Great Compassion, the Great Bodhisattva Way. It's very simple, not difficult!

So Buddha said that all beings have Buddha-nature (enlightenment nature). But Zen Master Joju said that a dog has no Buddha-nature. Which one is right? Which one is wrong? If you find that, you find the true way.

Fonte: www.kwanumzen.com

Net of Jewels from an Advaita Master

Ramesh Balsekar

The universe is uncaused, like a net of jewels in which each is only the reflection of all the others in a fantastic interrelated harmony without end.

Self-Realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.

Enlightenment is total emptiness of mind. There is nothing you can do to get it. Any effort you make can only be an obstruction to it.

If you but cease from useless conceptualizing, you will be what you are and what you have always been.

Seeing truly is not merely a change in the direction of seeing, but a change it its very center, in which the seer himself disappears.

The only ultimate understanding is that nothing is, not even he who understands.

For enlightenment to happen the perceiver must turn right around and wake up to the fact that he is face to face with his own nature - that HE IS IT. The spiritual seeker ultimately finds that he was already at the destination, that he himself IS what he had been seeking and he was in fact already home.

Concepts can at best only serve to negate one another, as one thorn is used to remove another, and then be thrown away. Only in deep silence do we leave concepts behind. Words and language deal only with concepts, and cannot approach Reality.

Between pure Awareness and Awareness reflected as consciousness there is a gap which the mind cannot cross. The reflection of the sun in a drop of dew is not the sun itself.

Ceasing to conceptualize means ceasing to perceive objectively, which means perceiving non-objectively. It is to see the universe without choice or judgement and without getting into subject-object relationship. What happens then? Nothing, except that you are what you were before you were born: everything.

When the apparent but illusory identity called a person has disappeared into the awareness of total potentiality that it is and has always been, this is called enlightenment.

Manifestation may adopt any number of forms but the substratum of all the myriad forms is Consciousness, without which there cannot be anything whatsoever.

Nothing can have any meaning, or even any existence, except in terms of something else.

The man of wisdom is devoid of ego even though he may appear to use it. His vacant or fasting mind is neither doing anything nor not doing anything. He is outside of volition, neither this nor that. He is everything and nothing.

Your doubts will never be totally destroyed until perception has gone beyond mere phenomenality, and such perception is not a matter of will but of Grace.

Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-consciousness is your true identity. That is Reality. It is here and now, and there is no question of anyone being able to reach for it or grasp it.

The same Consciousness prevails at rest as the Absolute and in motion as duality. When the sense of "me" disappears completely, duality vanishes in ecstasy.

To any conceptual problem there cannot be any valid answer except to see the problem in perspective as an empty thought, and that there is no such thing as a "problem" which is other than merely conceptual.

An experience is never factual but only conceptual. Whatever an experience may be, it is nonetheless only a happening in consciousness.

The manifest phenomenal aspect of what we are and the unmanifest noumenal Absolute are not different. Phenomena are what we appear to be. Noumenon is what we ARE.

The essential basis of self-realization is the total rejection of the individual as an independent entity, whether it comes about as a spontaneous understanding or through an utter surrender of one's individual existence.

Mountain thinking

zen teachings
by Philippe Coupey
mountain thinking


Polishing the tile to make it a mirror
And sitting impassive as a mountain.
The true object of Buddhism from the West
Is like the pomegranate before it opens, like the volcano before it erupts.

- Eihei Dogen, The Eiheikoroku (poem n°6)


In the first line, Dogen is referring to a mondo between Baso and his master Nangaku.

One day Baso was practicing zazen somewhere in front of the dojo. Nangaku was walking by, saw him, and said, “Hey, you’re still doing zazen?! Tell me, do you have an object when you do zazen? Do you have an object in your practice?” At that time there was no expression like mushotoku, which means “no object” or “without goal.” Baso said, “Yes. It’s to become Buddha.” Nangaku didn’t say anything, but he saw a tile near his feet. He picked it up and started to rub it against a big, smooth rock. He was polishing the tile. “Master, what are you doing?” asked Baso. “I’m making a mirror.” By now Baso wasn’t doing zazen anymore. He stared at his master and said, “How can you make a mirror out of a tile just by polishing it?” “And you,” replied Nangaku, “how can you become Buddha by doing zazen?”

You can understand why this mondo has become so famous. It’s because it touches directly and completely on the subject of practicing with an object – for something – or practicing for nothing.

In Soto Zen, we don’t practice to obtain satori, or to become Buddha, or to become pure, or even to progress. In fact, one of Dogen’s basic principles is that zazen itself is satori. No need to look for it. Satori means becoming deeply free; and becoming free doesn’t mean getting something, but rather losing: losing your hindrances, your prejudices, your ideas, your personal thoughts. Dogen, Nyojo, Sawaki, Deshimaru – they all said the same thing: mushotoku, no object, is essential.

“How can you become Buddha by practicing zazen?”

The story of Baso and Nangaku is also told by Master Dogen in the Fukanzazengi. Right at the beginning of that text he talks about the mistake of wanting to polish the tile to make a mirror, of wanting to become anything at all, even just wanting to become better. Error. You’re already better. You’re beyond better. Deep down, you’re not calculating. Deep down, you’re not ambitious. Deep down, you’re not motivated by competition. Fundamentally, you’re not looking to succeed. Why? Because fundamentally, you are already Buddha. And also because you don’t own this Buddha. So: no competition. This is Zen teaching.

The second line of the poem –

And sitting impassive as a mountain

– means being one with the cosmos. It’s zazen as it was transmitted by the buddhas and patriarchs.

The mountain has no object and it’s not looking to obtain satori; it’s not trying to become Buddha, as Baso was. The mountain has no plans. The mountain has no personal thoughts. That’s what it means to follow the cosmic order: sitting without an object, like Mount Sumeru, which is the mountain in the middle of the universe. Sometimes it’s called “Silver Mountain,” sometimes “Crystal Mountain”: frozen, cold like a diamond. These are images from Buddhist mythology, but they are also metaphors for the practice.

So please, stay seated, impassive like Bodhidharma on Mount Shoshitsu. Impassive like a mountain, but not heavy like a mountain. Be light like a swallow ready to take wing. Like a lion going into the mountains. Naturally. Like going home, fearless.

“Going into the mountains” means becoming one with the mountain. No separation. So if the master says to you, “Go into the mountains,” you should understand what he means. He means, “Study and transform your mind.” Becoming the mountain is i shin den shin.

Here’s what Sensei said when he commented on this image of the mountain: “If you don’t use zazen for your ego, then mountain thinking appears: the posture, and nothing else.”

Fonte: http://www.zen-road.org

Sho-do-ka – Song of Realization

Yoka-daishi (d.713)
Commentary by Nyogen Senzaki - 1953

An ideal Zen student neither seeks the true
Nor avoids the untrue.
They know that these are merely dualistic ideas
That have no form.
Non-form is neither empty nor not empty.
It is the true form of Buddha’s wisdom.

To assist you in the interpretation of this stanza I shall paraphrase a portion of Shin-jin-mei, a poem written by the Third Patriarch in China.

“Truth is like vast space without entrance or exit. There is nothing more, nor nothing less. Foolish people limit themselves, covering their eyes, but truth is never hidden. Some attend lectures trying to grasp truth in the words of others. Some accumulate books trying to dig truth from the pile of trash. They are both wrong. A few of the wiser ones may learn meditation in their effort to reach an inner void. They chose the void rather than outer entanglements, but it is still the same old dualistic trick. Just think non-thinking if you are a true Zen student.

“There you do not know anything, but you are with everything. There is no choice nor preference, and dualism will vanish by itself. But if you stop moving and hold quietness, that quietness is ever in motion. If children make a noise, you will scold them loudly so that the situation is worse than before. Just forget and ignore the noise, and you will attain peace of mind. When you forget your liking and disliking, you will get a glimpse of oneness. The serenity of this middle way is quite different from the inner void.”

The mind mirror illuminates all ingenuously.
Its penetrating, limitless rays reach everywhere
In the universe.
Without exception everything is reflected
In this mirror.
The whole universe is a gem of light
Beyond the terms of in and out.

Here is another portion of the Shin-jin-mei to interpret the preceding stanza:

“Zen transcends time and space. Ten thousand years are nothing but a thought after all. What you have seen is what you had in the whole world. If your thought transcends time and space, you will know that the smallest thing is large and the largest thing is small; that being is non-being and non-being is being. Without such experience you will hesitate to do anything. If you can realize that one is many, and many are one, your Zen will be completed.

“Faith and mind-essence are not separate from each other. You will see only the ‘not two.’ The ‘not two’ is the faith. The ‘not two’ is the mind essence. There is no other way but silence to express it properly. This silence is not the past. This silence is not the present. This silence is not the future.”

When a Zen student sees emptiness one-sidedly,
They are likely to ignore the law of causation,
Then live aimlessly with impure thoughts and wrong actions.
This idea is morbid as they deny the existence of anything,
But admit an entity of emptiness.
To escape drowning, they have thrown themselves into the fire.


To “see emptiness onesidedly” is to give another name to relativity, phenomenality or nothingness. When Buddhism denies the existence of anything, this of course includes the existence of emptiness. There is order; there is the law of causation. The use of the word “emptiness” implies that which cannot be spoken.

One who rejects delusions to search for truth,
May achieve skill in discrimination,
But such a student will never reach enlightenment
Because they mistake the enemy for their own child.

Some Christians admire an angel but hate a devil. Some Confucians pine for the ancient kingdom but complain of the present government. All of them attempt to take hold of the true by abandoning the false. They struggle endlessly, but never attain true peacefulness. Zen students who try to reach truth by rejecting delusions are making the same mistake. Learn silence and work on constantly in silence, to see clearly what the mind is.

People miss the spiritual treasure and lose merit
Because they depend on dualistic thinking
And neglect the essence of mind.
To pass through the gate of Zen,
One must correct this error.
Then one can attain the wisdom
To enter the palace of Nivana.

Buddhists often refer to the ‘seven treasures’ (paramitas), which are faith, perseverance, listening, humility, precepts, self surrender, and meditation and wisdom. Meditation and wisdom are considered as one, inner cultivation and outer illumination. To acquire these seven treasures one must first of all see Mind-Essence clearly, just as Aladdin had first to find the lamp before he could produce other wonders.

Wobaku, a Chinese Zen master, once said, “Buddhas and sentient beings both grow out of One Mind, and there is no reality other than this Mind…Only because we seek it outwardly in a world of form, the more we seek, the farther away it moves from us. To make Buddha seek after himself, or to make Mind take hold of itself, this is impossible to the end of eternity. We do not realize that as soon as our thoughts cease and all attempts at forming ideas are forgotten, the Buddha is revealed before us.”

Yoka-daishi (d.713)
Commentary by Nyogen Senzaki

Excerpted from Buddhism and Zen
Compiled, edited and translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Ruth Stout McCandless 1953

Fonte: DailyZen

Uma breve exposição do Grande Selo

Mahasiddha Maitripa

Rendendo homenagem no estado de satisfação total, vou falar do Grande Selo [Phyag-rGya Chhen-Po].

Toda coisa possível não é mais que nossa mente – buscar a verdade no exterior é o funcionamento de nosso intelecto confuso. Todas as aparências são essencialmente vazias, como num sonho. E a mente não é igual ao movimento da memória e das idéias. Sem natureza própria inerente, ela é parecida à energia do vento e como é vazia por essência, ela é semelhante ao céu.

Toda coisa possível permanece na igualdade, como o céu – é assim que eu expresso o Grande Selo.

Nossa própria essência não pode ser demonstrada, também a natureza da mente não deixa o estado verdadeiro do Grande Selo, nem o modifica. Se pudermos verdadeiramente realizar isso, então todas as aparências fenomenais se tornam o Grande Selo. É o grande modo natural onipenetrante.

Permanecei relaxados em vossa natureza não bloqueada. É o modo natural livre do pensar. Esta meditação permanece nela mesma sem buscar o que quer que seja além. O tipo de meditação que consiste em buscar alguma coisa é a atividade do intelecto confuso. Completamente como o céu ou uma ilusão mágica, na ausência da meditação bem como da não-meditação, como poderemos falar de separação ou de não-separação?

Para o yogui que tem esta compreensão, todas as ações virtuosas e errôneas são liberadas pelo conhecimento desta realidade. Todas as aflições mentais tornam-se a grande cognição primordial e agem como amigas do yogui, semelhantes ao fogo incendiando a floresta. Como então poderíamos nós falar de ir ou de ficar?

Pouco importa quanto estabilizais vossa mente em um lugar tranqüilo, se não tendes realizado esta verdade, vós não sereis liberados dos estados que são somente circunstanciais. Mas se experimentais esta verdade, alguma coisa poderia doravante vos entravar?

Quando permaneceis impertubavelmente neste estado, não tereis mais necessidade de meditação construída para vosso corpo e vossa fala. Quer estejais ou não no que chamamos a verdadeira integração [mNyam-Par-gZhag], não tereis nenhuma necessidade de meditação forçada incluindo os antídotos. Sem tentar realizar o que quer que seja, descobrireis que tudo o que pode surgir é desprovido de natureza própria inerente. Todas as aparências são espontaneamente liberadas nesta dimensão aberta. [Chhos-dByings] e todos os pensamentos são liberados espontaneamente na e enquanto grande cognição primordial. É a igualdade não dual e perfeita do modo natural. Como a corrente dum grande rio, o sentido real estará convosco onde permanecerdes. É o estado de budeidade em marcha, a grande alegria de estar livre de todos os objetos samsáricos.

Todos os fenômenos são eles mesmos naturalmente vazios e o intelecto que é apegado a esta vacuidade é purificado em seu próprio lugar. Livre de toda intelectualização, não há implicação com mentalização. Esta é a Via de todos os Budhas.

Para aquele que é verdadeiramente afortunado, eu compus este sumário de meus verdadeiros ensinamentos. Graças a isso, possam todos os seres sensíveis permanecer no Grande Selo.

Isso conclui a exposição de Maitripa sobre o Grande Selo. Ela foi recebida diretamente desse sábio e traduzida em tibetano pelo tradutor tibetano Marpa Chökyi Lodrö.

Por Maitripa
Do livro: "La simplicité de la Grande Perfection"
textos recolhidos e traduzidos do Tibetano apresentados por James Low.
Tradução p/português: Karma Tenpa Dargye

Fonte: Shunya