Rest and Be Taken

When there is deep abundance
there is nowhere to abide.
There is nowhere to rest
or grasp onto
and yet there is rest

The sky abides
yet it never rests.
Neither can we say that
the sky is not always at rest.
We talk about the sky
as if it were something
as if it actually exists -
and yet we cannot say that
the sky does not exist.
The sky is nothing but
coming and going.
Everything is perfectly spontaneous.
The coming and going arise mutually
instantaneously.
If the true I is asleep
you will miss the point entirely
and you will continue to dwell
in the world of opposites.

So see the two as one
and the one as empty
and be liberated
within the world of duality.

At first it seems
as if begoing follows becoming.
But look even closer
and you will see
that there are only
flashes of lightning
illuminating the empty sky.

Life and death
becoming and begoing
are only words.
In order to save your life
you must see that you die
instantaneously
moment to moment
instant to instant.

Now where are you going to abide?
And where are you not abiding already?

Indeed there is nowhere
to rest your head
and there is nothing but rest.
So let go of all ideas
about permanence and impermanence
about cause and effect
and about no cause and no effect.
All such notions are dualistic concepts.

The Truth of what you are
is completely beyond all duality
and all notions of non-duality,
and yet it includes duality
and non-duality alike.
Like an ocean
that is both waves and stillness
and yet un-definable
as waves or stillness.

The truth of being
cannot be grasped by ideas
or experiences.
Both waves and stillness
are the manifest activity
or your own self.
But self cannot be defined
by its activity
nor by its non-activity.
The truth is
all-transcendent
ungraspable, all-inclusive
and closer than your own skin.

A single thought about it
obscures its essence.
The perfume of true life
is right in your nose.
There is nothing you can do
to perceive it
and yet you must do something.
I say:
Rest and be taken.
Rest and be taken.

- Adyashanti, from My Secret is Silence: Poetry and Sayings of Adyashanti

Let Go of Grasping

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

When we don't cling to things, because we don't have to have them, we can develop a basic understanding of things as they are. We can let go of the reference point of grasping onto things: the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and other reference points we usually feel we need. We don't need to draw companionship of any kind from such things….We do not need to depend on such reference points. We do not need to closet ourselves in with personal reference points in order to clutch onto the hot breath of our particular dear old life that breathes so heavily on us.

The Only Meditation There Is: Watching

Osho

This essay is Osho's commentary on a sutra by Ta Hui. We have reproduced it by permission from Chapter 28 of Osho's book, The Great Zen Master Ta Hui.

THE SUTRA

Not "keeping the mind still," but mindlessness.

Though you may not fully know whether the teachers of the various localities are wrong or right, if your own basis is solid and genuine, the poisons of wrong doctrines will not be able to harm you, "keeping the mind still" and "forgetting concerns" included. If you always "forget concerns" and "keep the mind still," without smashing the mind of birth and death, then the delusive influences of form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness will get their way, and you'll inevitably be dividing emptiness into two.

Let go and make yourself vast and expansive. When old habits suddenly arise, don't use mind to repress them. At just such a time, it's like a snowflake on a red-hot stove. For those with a discerning eye and a familiar hand, one leap and they leap clear.

Only then do they know lazy Jung's saying: right when using mind, there's no mental activity. Crooked talk defiled with names and forms, straight talk without complications. Without mind but functioning, always functioning but non-existent -- the mindlessness I speak of now is not separate from having mind. These aren't words to deceive people.

THE COMMENTARY

There has been a long misunderstanding about these two things: keeping the mind still and mindlessness. There have been many people who have thought that they are synonymous. They appear to be synonymous, but in reality they are as far apart as two things can be, and there is no way to bridge them.

So first let us try to find the exact meanings of these two words, because the whole of Ta Hui's sutra this evening is concerned with the understanding of the difference.

The difference is very delicate. A man who is keeping his mind still and a man who has no mind will look exactly alike from the outside, because the man who is keeping his mind still is also silent. Underneath his silence there is great turmoil, but he is not allowing it to surface. He is in great control.

The man with no mind, or mindlessness, has nothing to control. He is just pure silence with nothing repressed, with nothing disciplined -- just a pure empty sky.

Surfaces can be very deceptive. One has to be very alert about appearances, because they both look the same from the outside -- both are silent. The problem would not have arisen if the still mind was not easy to achieve. It is easy to achieve. Mindlessness is not so easy to achieve; it is not cheap, it is the greatest treasure in the world.

Mind can play the game of being silent; it can play the game of being without any thoughts, any emotions, but they are just repressed, fully alive, ready to jump out any moment. The so-called religions and their saints have fallen into the fallacy of stilling the mind. If you go on sitting silently, trying to control your thoughts, not allowing your emotions, not allowing any movement within you, slowly slowly it will become your habit. This is the greatest deception in the world you can give to yourself, because everything is exactly the same, nothing has changed, but it appears as if you have gone through a transformation.

The state of no-mind or mindlessness is just the opposite of stilling the mind -- it is getting beyond the mind. It is creating such a distance between yourself and the mind that the mind becomes the farthest star, millions of light years away, and you are just a watcher. When the mind is stilled you are the controller. When the mind is not, you are the watcher. These are the distinguishing marks.

When you are controlling something you are in tension; you cannot be without tension, because that which is controlled is continuously trying to revolt against you, that which is enslaved wants freedom. Your mind sooner or later will explode with vengeance.

A STORY I HAVE LOVED

In a village there was a man of a very angry and aggressive type, so violent that he had killed his wife, for something trivial. The whole village was afraid of the man because he knew no argument except violence.

The day he killed his wife by throwing her into a well, a Jaina monk was passing by. A crowd had gathered, and the Jaina monk said, "This mind full of anger and violence will lead you to hell."

The situation was such that the man said, "I also want to be as silent as you are, but what can I do? I don't know anything. When anger grips me I'm almost unconscious, and now I have killed my own beloved wife."

The Jaina monk said, "The only way to still this mind, which is full of anger and violence and rage, is to renounce the world." Jainism is a religion of renunciation, and the ultimate renunciation is even of clothes. The Jaina monk lives naked, because he is not allowed to possess even clothes.

The man was of a very arrogant type, and this became a challenge to him. Before the crowd he threw his clothes also into the well with the wife. The whole village could not believe it; even the Jaina monk became a little afraid, "Is he mad or something?" The man fell down at his feet and said, "You may have taken many decades to reach the stage of renunciation…. I renounce the world, I renounce everything. I am your disciple -- initiate me."

His name was Shantinath, and shanti means "peace." It often happens...if you see an ugly woman, most probably her name will be Sunderbhai, which means "beautiful woman." In India people have a strange way...to the blind man they give the name Nayan Sukh. Nayan Sukh means "one whose eyes give him great pleasure."

The Jaina monk said, "You have a beautiful name. I will not change it; I will keep it, but from this moment you have to remember that peace has to become your very vibration."

The man disciplined himself, stilled his mind, fasted long, tortured himself, and soon became more famous than his master. Angry people, arrogant people, egoistic people can do things which peaceful people will take a little time to do. He became very famous, and thousands of people used to come just to touch his feet.

After twenty years he was in the capital. A man from his village had come for some purpose, and he thought, "It will be good to go and see what transformation has happened to Shantinath. So many stories are heard -- that he has become a totally new man, that his old self is gone and a new, fresh being has arisen in him, that he really has become peace, silence, tranquility."

So the man went with great respect. But when he saw Muni Shantinath, seeing his face, his eyes, he could not think that there had been any change. There was none of the grace which necessarily radiates from a mind which has become silent. Those eyes were still as egoistic -- in fact they had become more pointedly egoistic. The man's presence was even more ugly than it used to be.

Still, the man went close. Shantinath recognized the man, who had been his neighbor -- but now it was beneath his dignity to recognize him. The man also saw that Shantinath had recognized him, but he was pretending that he did not. He thought, "That shows much." He went close by Shantinath and asked, "Can I ask you a question? What is your name?"

Naturally, great anger arose in Shantinath because he knew that this man knew perfectly well what his name was. But still he kept himself in control, and he said, "My name is Muni Shantinath."

The man said, "It is a beautiful name -- but my memory is very short, can you repeat it again? I have forgotten...what name did you say?"

This was too much. Muni Shantinath used to carry a staff. He took the staff in his hand...he forgot everything -- twenty years of controlling the mind -- and he said, "Ask again and I will show you who I am. Have you forgotten? -- I killed my wife, I am the same man."

ONLY THEN DID HE RECOGNIZE WHAT HAD HAPPENED

In a single moment of unconsciousness he realized that twenty years have gone down the drain; he has not changed at all. But millions of people feel great silence in him.... Yes, he has become very controlled, he keeps himself repressed, and it has paid off. So much respect and he has no qualification for that respect -- so much honor, even kings come to touch his feet.

Your so-called saints are nothing but controlled animals. The mind is nothing but a long heritage of all your animal past. You can control it, but the controlled mind is not the awakened mind.

The process of controlling and repressing and disciplining is taught by all the religions, and because of their fallacious teaching humanity has not moved a single inch -- it remains barbarous. Any moment people start killing each other. It does not take a single moment to lose themselves; they forget completely that they are human beings, and something much more, something better is expected of them. There have been very few people who have been able to avoid this deception of controlling mind and believing that they have attained mindlessness.

To attain mindlessness a totally different process is involved: I call it the ultimate alchemy. It consists only of a single element -- that of watchfulness.

Gautam Buddha is passing through a town when a fly comes and sits on his forehead. He is talking to his companion, Ananda, and he just goes on talking and moves his hand to throw off the fly. Then suddenly he recognizes that his movement of the hand has been unconscious, mechanical. Because he was talking consciously to Ananda, the hand moved the fly mechanically. He stops and although now there is no fly, he moves his hand again consciously.

Ananda says, "What are you doing? The fly has gone away...."

Gautam Buddha says, "The fly has gone away...but I have committed a sin, because I did it in unconsciousness."

The English word "sin" is used only by Gautam Buddha in its right meaning. The word "sin" originates in the roots which mean forgetfulness, unawareness, unwatchfulness, doing things mechanically -- and our whole life is almost mechanical. We go on doing things from morning to evening, from evening to morning, like robots.

A man who wants to enter into the world of mindlessness has to learn only one thing -- a single step and the journey is over. That single step is to do everything watchfully. You move your hand watchfully; you open your eyes watchfully; you walk, you take your steps alert, aware; you eat, you drink, but never allow mechanicalness to take possession over you. This is the only alchemical secret of transformation.

A man who can do everything fully consciously becomes a luminous phenomenon. He is all light, and his whole life is full of fragrance and flowers. The mechanical man lives in dark holes, dirty holes. He does not know the world of light; he is like a blind man. The man of watchfulness is really the man who has eyes.

Ta Hui slowly, slowly is penetrating into the deeper secrets of inner transformation. He says, Though you may not fully know whether the teachers of the various localities are wrong or right, if your own basis is solid and genuine, the poisons of wrong doctrines will not be able to harm you...

He says it is useless to think who is right and who is wrong. There are thousands of doctrines, hundreds of philosophies, and if you go on searching for truth in those words, you will be lost in a jungle where you cannot find the path. All that you know is to attain to a solid basis within yourself.

...."Keeping the mind still," and "forgetting concerns" included. If you always "forget concerns" and "keep the mind still," without smashing the mind of birth and death, then the delusive influences of form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness will get their way, and you will inevitably be dividing emptiness into two.

Let go and make yourself vast and expansive....

It is not a question of controlling yourself separate from existence; it is a question of letting-go and becoming vast -- as vast as existence itself. And in watchfulness you become infinite: that is the only thing within you which has no limits.

Just have a look at your watching, witnessing. It is unlimited. No beginning, no end...it is formless.

This absolute stillness of the mind is exactly no-mind or mindlessness. It is not control, it is not discipline; it is not that you are putting all your pressure on your mind and keeping it silent. No, it is simply not there. The house is empty. There is nobody to control and there is nobody to be controlled. All concerns for control have disappeared into a simple watchfulness. This watchfulness is expansive. Once you have tasted it a little, it goes on expanding to the very limits of the universe.

When old habits suddenly arise, don't use your mind to repress them. At just such a time, it's like a snowflake on a red-hot stove.

He is reminding you that even when you are moving on the path of watchfulness, sometimes old habits may revive. But don't be concerned; they are like snowflakes on a red-hot stove, they will disappear of their own accord. You simply watch. Don't get concerned, don't get disturbed, don't be worried.

Sometimes there will be anger, sometimes there will be a desire, sometimes there will be an ambition, but they cannot disturb your watchfulness. They will come and they will go without leaving a trace on your mirror-like purity. But you have only to remember one thing: not to start fighting with them, smashing them, destroying them, throwing them away. It comes very naturally to the mind that if something wrong is happening, jump on it and destroy it. This is the only thing you have to be aware of, because this is what never allows a man to get beyond the mind. Old habits will come -- and old habits are very old, many, many lives old. Your awareness is very fresh and very new; your mechanicalness is ancient, so it is very natural that it will come back.

Somebody insults you -- you don't have to be angry, but suddenly you find anger arising. It is not an effort, it is just an old habit, an old reaction. Don't fight with it, don't try to smile and hide it. Just watch it, and it will come and it will go... like a snowflake on a red-hot stove.

For those with a discerning eye and a familiar hand, one leap and they leap clear. Only then do they know lazy Jung's saying: right when using mind, there's no mental activity. If a man has learned the art of watchfulness he can use his mind too, and still he has no mental activity.


I Am Talking to You, and I Am Using My Mind Because There Is No Other Way


Mind is the only way to convey any message in words; that is the only mechanism available. But my mind is absolutely silent, there is no mental activity: I'm not thinking what I'm going to say, and I'm not thinking what I have said. I'm simply responding to Ta Hui spontaneously without bringing myself into it.

It is as if you go into the mountains and you shout and the mountains echo: the mountains are not doing any mental activity, they are simply echoing. When I am talking on Ta Hui, I am just a mountain echoing.

Right when using mind, there's no mental activity. Crooked talk defiled with names and forms, straight talk without complications. Without mind but functioning... This is a strange experience, when you can use mind without any mental activity... Without mind but functioning, always functioning but non-existent.


I Was From My Very Childhood in Love With Silence


As long as I could manage I would just sit silently. Naturally my family used to think that I was going to be good for nothing -- and they were right. I certainly proved good for nothing, but I don't repent it.

It came to such a point that sometimes I would be sitting and my mother would come to me and say something like, "There seems to be nobody in the whole house. I need somebody to go to the market to fetch some vegetables." I was sitting in front of her, and I would say, "If I see somebody I will tell...."

It was accepted that my presence meant nothing; whether I was there or not, it did not matter. Once or twice they tried and then they found that "it is better to leave him out, and not take any notice of him" -- because in the morning they would send me to fetch vegetables, and in the evening I would come to ask, "I have forgotten for what you had sent me, and now the market is closed..." In villages the vegetable markets close by the evening, and the villagers go back to their villages.

My mother said, "It is not your fault, it is our fault. The whole day we have been waiting, but in the first place we should not have asked you. Where have you been?"

I said, "As I went out of the house, just close by there was a very beautiful bodhi tree" -- the kind of tree under which Gautam Buddha became awakened. The tree got the name bodhi tree -- or in English, bo tree -- because of Gautam Buddha. One does not know what it used to be called before Gautam Buddha; it must have had some name, but after Buddha it became associated with his name.


There Was a Beautiful Bodhi Tree, and It Was So Tempting For Me


There used to be always such silence, such coolness underneath it, nobody to disturb me, that I could not pass it without sitting under it for some time. And those moments of peace, I think sometimes may have stretched the whole day.

After just a few disappointments they thought, "It is better not to bother him." And I was immensely happy that they had accepted the fact that I am almost non-existent. It gave me tremendous freedom. Nobody expected anything from me. When nobody expects anything from you, you fall into a silence.... The world has accepted you; now there is no expectation from you.

When sometimes I was late coming home, they used to search for me in two places. One was the bodhi tree -- and because they started searching for me under the bodhi tree, I started climbing the tree and sitting in the top of it. They would come and they would look around and say, "He does not seem to be here."

And I myself would nod; I said, "Yes, that's true. I'm not here."

But I was soon discovered, because somebody saw me climbing and told them, "He has been deceiving you. He is always here, most of the time sitting in the tree" -- so I had to go a little further.


There Used to Be a Mohammedan Cemetery


Now people ordinarily don't go to graveyards. Of course, everybody has to go once, but except that, people don't like going to graveyards. So that was the most silent place...because dead people don't talk, they don't create nuisance, they don't ask you unnecessary questions, they don't even ask you who you are or for introductions.

I used to sit in the Mohammedan graveyard. It was a big place, with many graves, with trees, very shadowy trees. When my father came to know that I was sitting there he said, "This is too much!" He came one day to find me and he said, "You can start sitting in the bodhi tree, or under the bodhi tree, and nobody will disturb you. This is too much, this is dangerous -- and in fact, when somebody goes to the graveyard he should take a bath and change his clothes. You have been sitting here the whole day and sometimes at night, and when you come home we don't know from where you are coming."

This is usual, that when you come back from the graveyard.... Ordinarily nobody goes there unless they are sent, and they have to go; so, reluctantly they go. From the graveyard people normally go directly to the river to take a bath, to change their clothes, and only then do they enter the house. So my father said, "I don't know how long you have been doing this."

I said, "Since you disturbed me on the bodhi tree. I had to find some place...." And I told him, "Even you will enjoy it once in a while. When you get tired and too tense, just come here -- no dead man disturbs anybody."

He said, "Don't talk to me about dead men -- and particularly in a Mohammedan grave...." Mohammedans are poor; their graves are mud graves. In the rain, sometimes a dead body will appear. The mud has washed away and you can see the dead body -- somebody's head is showing, somebody's leg is showing. He said, "Don't ever tell me to go there. Just the idea that one day I will be in such a position, with my head showing out of a grave, makes me feel so frightened...you are a strange boy!"

I said, "What is wrong with it? The poor fellow is dead, he cannot do anything. It is raining, he cannot manage to have an umbrella, what can he do? If one of his legs is showing, what can he do? He cannot pull it in -- if he pulls it in then too there will be trouble, so he keeps silent and lets things be as they are."

A love of silence and a love of being absent has helped me so tremendously that I can understand when he says, Always functioning but non-existent -- the mindlessness I speak of now is not separate from having mind. These are not words to deceive people.

Ta Hui is saying, "I am not using these words to deceive anyone; I am not trying to show my knowledge; I am not trying to pretend that I am more knowledgeable than you are. I am saying these words just to share my experience that no-mind and mind can exist together. There should be no repressive methods used, only pure watchfulness...and slowly, slowly mind loses all content. It becomes no-mind."

So mindlessness and mind are not separate. Mindlessness is mind without any content, without any thought. It is just like a mirror not reflecting anything.

The silence of being a mirror not reflecting anything is the greatest bliss that existence allows man to have. And from there things go on expanding -- mysteries upon mysteries...no questions, no answers, but tremendous experiences...nourishing, fulfilling, giving contentment to the hungry soul which has been wandering for lives upon lives.

It is time to stop this wandering.

To stop this wandering there is a simple method, and that is to start watching your mind, your body, your actions. Whatever you are doing or not doing, one thing you have to be alert of -- that you are watching. Don't lose the watcher -- then it doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Jaina or a Buddhist.


The Watcher Is No One. It Is Just Pure Consciousness


And this pure consciousness can only bring a new humanity, a new world, where people will not discriminate against each other for stupid reasons. Nations, races, religions, doctrines, ideologies -- those are just for children to play with, not for mature people. For mature people there is only one thing in existence, and that is watchfulness.

...A monk is going to spread Gautam Buddha's message. He himself is not enlightened yet; that's why Gautam Buddha calls him and tells him, "Remember, I have to say this because you are not enlightened yet...you are articulate, you speak well, you can spread the message. You may not be able to sow the seeds but you may be able to attract a few people to come to me -- but use this opportunity also for your own growth."

The monk asked, "What can I do, how can I use this opportunity?"

And Buddha said, "There is only one thing that can be done in every opportunity, in every situation, and that is watchfulness. You will sometimes find people irritated by you, angry because you have hurt their ideologies, their doctrines, their prejudices. Remain silent and watchful. You may have days when you cannot get food because the people are against you, they will not even give you water. Watch...watch your hunger, watch your thirst...but don't get irritated, don't get annoyed. What you will be teaching people is of less importance than your own watchfulness.

If you come back to me watchful, I will be immensely joyful. How many people you approached does not matter; how many people you spoke to does not matter. What ultimately matters is whether you have come home, whether you yourself have found the solid basis of witnessing. Then all else is insignificant."

This is the only meditation there is; all other meditations are variations of the same phenomenon.

So this sutra of Ta Hui is one of the most fundamental ones.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Mind Nature Composition 001

Experience follows intention. Whatever we are, whatever we do, all we need to do is recognize our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions as something natural. Neither rejecting or accepting, we simply acknowledge the experience and let it pass. If we keep this up, we'll eventually find ourselves becoming able to manage situations we once found painful, scary, or sad. We'll discover a sense of confidence that isn't rooted in arrogance or pride. We'll realize that we're always sheltered, always safe, and always home.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Tibetan word used here for "nature" literally means "simply that." The "that" refers to the fact that the ultimate true nature is not apart from being the nature of the relative state of mind - it is simply its nature. That's why it's called "simply that." Since everyone has this nature, what is important is to be sincerely interested and trust that it is possible to recognize it by looking. After looking, we need to see it; and after seeing it, we need to fully realize exactly how it is. Do not feel satisfied with intellectually having figured it out; or with inferring that it's probably like such-and-such. That is called "clouding the nature of mind with inference," or "obscuring yourself with intellectual thoughts." Instead, nakedly and directly see this nature as it is and realize it.
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

One danger in practicing Mahamudra is that we may confuse inferred knowledge with direct experience and fail to see the difference between what we figure out and what we see directly. These two can be mistaken. Naropa uses the word "see," rather than "know" or "understand," to make sure that we don't make that mistake. In this context, the nature of mind is not an object of knowledge. It is not an entity that we inquire about, investigate and finally get an idea about and feel gratified. That would be what is called "having a deduced or inferred idea of an entity held in mind."
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

To make sure that we get the point, Naropa uses the word "to see," which means like seeing something with the naked eye. When you see something, you don't have to have any idea about what it is in order to see it - you simply see it, directly and nakedly. What is necessary here is to let our mind simply look into itself and directly see how it is. Our mind is empty of any identity, and is cognizant by nature. These two qualities are indivisible. Knowing this is direct knowledge, attained by seeing in actuality.
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

When training in this seeing, everything - all that appears and exists - is experienced as Mahamudra. Both that which is perceived and the perceiving mind have the identical nature of being the basic state of Mahamudra. If we grow accustomed to this through training and attain complete realization, everything is the great and all-encompassing Dharmakaya. The innate nature is seen as encompassing everything.
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

Look nakedly at the inexpressible
Mind's basic nature, bliss and emptiness.
Relaxed, at ease, fixation-free
All that binds is free in bliss-emptiness.
Within this clear light, the dharmadhatu,
take a look at the play of the unborn mind
Mind's play manifests as appearance-emptiness.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

The ability to let go of attachment and resolve our mind is the result of practice and understanding. This achievement is somewhat beyond ordinary human experience; it is extraordinary. But we are not walking alone on this path. Countless beings have gone before us, and countless others are yet to come. To think that we're special would defeat the whole purpose of the path.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

With presence of mind, we experience a sense of relaxation and inner resolve in the face of life's challenges. The natural grace and elegance of inner resolve are a measure of a practitioner's life.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

A mind that is resolved is simply present. We are not struggling with good or bad, right or wrong, life or death. We are not trying to shape our mind through Dharma Practice or anything else. We have the presence of mind to simply enjoy our life - good or bad, right or wrong, "dharmic" or not. We take great pleasure in the world and the people around us, and we walk in the world with elegance and grace.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Anything and everything can arise in the mind. This is either good news or not such good news, depending on how we look at it. On the one hand, it means anything and everything is possible. On the other hand, if we possess no understanding of mind and how it works, we will be - as the traditional example describes - like someone without limbs trying to ride a wild, blind horse. We will not be able to reign in the mind, and so the mind will never serve us - it will never take us where we want to go.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The buddhadharma harnesses the power of natural intelligence in a unique way. As we encounter mind’s raw, unprocessed conceptual activity, the teachings encourage us to utilize our natural intelligence to look dispassionately at mind and emotions and sort through our confusion and ignorance; in this way we uncover our innate wisdom and clarity. The Buddhist teachings affirm this natural gift and also challenges us: “Analyze! See if it’s true.” Everything we need to move forward is right here.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

With an open mind, fear can become your greatest ally - because facing fear means facing your life, and facing your life means living your life. You become courageous and victorious over the world of good and bad, right and wrong, comfort and pain. This notion means a great deal to me, as my birth name, Jigme Namgyel, means "Fearless Victory." But I think it is good advice for everyone.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Someone asked me recently if I'm afraid to die. Truthfully, I am more afraid of not living my life fully - of living a life dedicated to cherishing and protecting myself. This fear-driven approach to life is like covering your couch in plastic so it won't get worn. It robs you of the ability to enjoy and appreciate your life.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Fear and worry are understandable at times. It would be stupid not to be concerned for our personal well-being, and selfish not to be concerned for others. Feeling concern is a natural part of human goodness. But when it prevents us from accepting our life, fear is crippling. We find ourselves saying no to the world; no to our karma; no, no, no to everything - which is a very painful way to live. When we spend our life wishing it were different, it's like living someone else's life. Or, we could say, it's like living our life despite ourselves. Meanwhile, the full spectrum of our life experience goes by unnoticed.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Practitioners who train in courage become true warriors. The war we wage is not with enemies outside ourselves but with powerful forces of our own habitual tendencies and negative emotions. The greatest of these is fear. In order to become fearless, we need to experience fear. Facing fear changes our perspective and gives rise to the courage to face our neuroses as well as our enlightened qualities.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The great eleventh-century Indian pandita Atisha taught that the greatest pith instructions are those that rub hard on our sore spots. Exposing these sore spots is the teacher's job. In this sense, the teacher is the greatest mirror. When I was in the presence of my teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the evenness, clarity, and spaciousness of his mind naturally exposed my self-importance. I knew he could always see through my self-absorption, no matter how significant or complex I thought my story was. This was an unspoken understanding we had as a teacher and student. This kind of communication was one of the ways I learned from him.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

In the empty space of sky with no center or edge
On the globe of this world without a bottom or top
In the company of beings empty forms like a dream
Mind knows clarity and emptiness unspeakable

This cannot be realized by knowing alone
But if one knows the natural way to naturally relax
This is meditation and non-meditation's best
In this non-meditation live in and from it do not stray.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

The basic nature of things is not produced by cause or condition
If you can't cut through your subtle ideas
About the way things really are
Your own theories about reality
Will shackle you in chains
So baselessness and rootlessness are
Definitive meaning's profound point.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

Thanks to http://twitter.com/ryderjaphy

The Essence of Wakefulness - A Method in Sustaining the Nature of Awareness

Homage to the glorious Primordial Protector.

When sustaining the nature of awareness, the three stages of recognizing, training and attaining stability will gradually occur.

First of all, scrutinize the naked and natural face of awareness by means of your master's oral instructions until you see it free from assumptions.

Having resolved it with certainty, it is essential that you simply sustain the nature of just that.

It is not enough just to recognize it, you must perfect the training in the following way:

You may already have recognized the face of awareness, but unless you rest in just that, conceptual thinking will interrupt it and it will be difficult for awareness to appear nakedly.

So, at that point it is essential to rest without accepting or rejecting your thoughts and to continue by repeatedly resting in the state of un-fabricated awareness.

When you have practiced this again and again the force of your thought waves weakens while the face of your awareness grows sharper and it becomes easier to sustain.

That is the time when you should abide in the meditation state as much as you can and be mindful of remembering the face of awareness during post-meditation. As you grow used to this the strength of your awareness is trained further.

At first, when a thought occurs you need not apply a remedy to stop it. By leaving it to itself it is, at some point, naturally freed - just as the knot on a snake becomes untied by itself.

When you become more adept, the occurrence of a thought will cause slight turmoil but immediately vanish in itself - just like a drawing on the surface of water.

When you train in just that, you gain experience that transcends benefit and harm, at which point thought occurrences cause no problem whatsoever. Thus, you will be free from hope or fear about whether or not thoughts do occur - just like a thief entering an uninhabited house.

By practicing further you perfect the training so that, finally, your conceptual thinking and the all-ground along with its moving force dissolve into un-fabricated Dharmakaya.

That is the attainment of the natural abode of awareness.

Just as you cannot find any ordinary stones on an island of gold even if you search for them all that appears and exists will be experienced as the realm of Dharmakaya.

Attaining stability is when everything has become all-encompassing purity.

In the same way, just as conceptual thinking gradually falls under the power of awareness during the daytime, at night you do not need to apply some other instruction, but should simply understand how the recognition of dreams and the luminosities of the shallow and deep sleep correspond.

Until you attain stability, by all means continue with undistracted diligence like the steady flow of a river.

This was taught by Mipham. May virtuous goodness increase!

By Mipham Rinpoche - From DharmaMind

The Infinite Sky Beyond

By Shabkar (1781-1851)

Kunzang Shenpen went on, "That being the case, when one is remaining in the nonmeditation samadhi that is like a continuous stream, what should it be like?"

I replied:

One must remain in a vivid, lucid openness,
Like looking out
Into the reaches of the boundless sky
From the peak of a mountain open to every direction.

The lord of siddhas, Jetsun Tilopa,
Directing his gaze toward the sky,
Said to the great pandita Naropa:

What supports the sky? On what does sky rest?
The Mahamudra of one's mind has nothing to rest on.
If you loosen the bonds, liberation is certain.
Remain at ease in primordial simplicity.

The nature of mind is the sky beyond the contents of thoughts.
Remain thus at ease,
Not holding on to some thoughts,
Or pushing other thoughts away:
In true Mahamudra mind is undirected.

The unsurpassable fruition
Is simply to preserve this state.

Thus, through Marpa Lotsawa,
There will come many sky-like yogins,
Sons of the lineage of the great panditas Naro and Maitri.

The great awareness-holder, Shri Singha,
Pointing his finger toward the heart of a cloudless sky,
Told the Lotus-born Guru:
Ever empty, ever empty; ever void, all void;
This crucial absolute truth is a treasure
Which shines everywhere- above, below, between, in all directions-
Shri Singha made it spring from the perfect vessel:
Action inseparable from view.
And with this he dissolved into vajra space.

In the same way the omniscient Longchen Rabjam said:
In the infinite sky, there is neither meditation or non-meditation.
This is the vast expanse that is Samantabhadra's wisdom.

It is also said in the Miscellaneous Sayings of the Kadampas:
The place for practice must be open and spacious;
One's view must be vast and open, too;
Even if the whole of samsara and nirvana were placed within it,
It would remain as unfilled as ever-
Such should be the immensity of the view.


The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin
by Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol, Matthieu Ricard (Translator)
Published by Snow Lion, Ithaca, 2001

An Old Man Basking in the Sun

Longchen Rabjam


The pathless path is the path always under our feet and since that path is always beneath us, if we miss it, how stupid!

The dynamic of involuntary concentration, irrespective of meditation, is always present -but surely we all know that!

Surely we all know that our selves and the things we want and cling to, from the very first, in reality, are all images of intrinsic gnosis.

The five passions, self-imposed shackles, from the first occur together with gnosis -surely we all know that!

The four material elements, earth, water, fire and air, constitute the body -surely we can all see that!

The distilled elixir of the most secret instruction resounds spontaneously in every ear -surely we can all hear it! Or don't we have ears to hear?

The tang of natural spaciousness and gnosis indelibly surrounds us -surely we can all smell it! Or are our noses blocked up?

The three elixirs rolled into one secret precept have always been the flavor of body-mind -surely we can all taste it! Or have we lost our tongues?

The phantasmagoria of pure vision is always with us, day and night, like a shadow, a part of the body -or are we shadowless corpses? Surely we can all feel it!

Happiness, hand in hand with suffering, inexpressibly, is intrinsically present -or are our minds too dull to notice?

The build-up of samsaric propensities, primordially, is the pure dimension of being -pity him who has not noticed!

In the field of sense organ, object and consciousness every recollection and apperception, every flicker of the mind, arises as the dimension of perfect enjoyment -how can we fail to see it!

All goal-oriented conventional activity and all chatter, gossip and laughter, is the dimension of magical emanation -surely we all know that! Or are we so dull?

Every impulse and stirring of the mind, seamless, like a flowing stream, our constant mental enchantment, is effortless, natural meditation - surely we can't miss that!

Looking closely at matter and energy, and at thought, sound and form, it is all insubstantial projection, and this view that empties our urban samsara has always been with us, though unseen -surely our doors of perception are now open!


-Kunkhyen Longchenpa, An Old Man Basking in the Sun, translated by Keith Dowman, Vajra Publications, 2006

On the Awakened State

by the great Dzogchen teacher Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798)

"Maha-ati is of the greatest simplicity. It is what is. It cannot be shown by analogy; nothing can obstruct it. It is without limitation and transcends all extremes. It is clear-cut nowness, which can never change its shape or colour.

When you become one with this state, the desire to meditate itself dissolves; you are freed from the chain of meditation and philosophy, and conviction is born within you. The thinker has deserted. There is no longer any benefit to be gained from "good" houghts and no harm is to be suffered from "bad" thoughts. Neutral thoughts can no longer deceive.

You become one with transcendental insight and boundless space. Then you will find signs of progress on the path. There is no longer any question of rampant confusions and misunderstandings."

No Use Trying To Be Different

Trungpa Rinpoche

Spirituality does not exist on another level, or on a "higher plane," quite different from ordinary life, as is generally assumed. That is to say, if we are what we are, and this existence is not a real one, and we must become different to see "reality," then there is little or no hope, because spiritual development would not seem to fit with the general pattern of life. It is no use trying to be different—different from your neighbor, different from the general public. So religious or spiritual practice is not of this nature. It is not trying to be something more than you are or something better than you are, for that matter. What is known as relative truth, or the truth which exists right here, now, in our everyday life, that truth has to be accepted as the general ground, and it is also the absolute truth.

Appearance Dawns As Text

Jigme Lingpa(1730-1798) •

"Since I have perfected the display-energy to show my own prowess,developed in previous lifetimes, my awareness is freed into the open directions. Thus am I freed from the ravine of expectation or anxiety.

Whatever happens, I decide that it is fine. Having broken out of the trap of wishful thinking, I don't listen to what anyone says. I act with great roomy spontaneity and since appearance dawns as text, I understand everything that occurs to be a key instruction."


-from Dancing Moon in the Water (v. 17)

Stream of Continuous Non-meditation, Flow of Unbroken Samadhi

By Shabka (1781-1851)

Once my fortunate spiritual son Kunzang Shenpen asked me, "How should one remain in the nonmeditation samadhi that is like a continuous stream? What is meant by 'stream'? Is there any risk of confusing this with another state?" My answer was this song:

Having received the faultless instructions on Mahamudra or on Dzogchen,
The unique path traveled by countless
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
If you wish to remain uninterruptedly
In the nonmeditation samadhi
That is like a continuous stream,
You must do this:

Keep your body still;
Keep your voice silent;
As to mind, don't bind it: let it rest at ease.
Let consciousness relax completely.

At this time, attachment to "meditation"' and "nonmeditation" clears,
And mind remains without any aim or fabrication
In self-luminous awareness, vast and transparent.

To remain just like this
Is the view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
If intellect does not tamper with this state,
And if you are graced by blessings of your root and lineage gurus,
The view arises, clear as the sky.

Preserving this view continuously
With awareness undistracted,
In a continuity unbroken like a flowing stream,
Is what is called "nonmeditation samadhi, continuous like a stream."

If one has not recognized this,
One might simply let everything go
And lapse into an amorphous, ordinary state
That cannot be said to be this or that-
To be immersed in an indistinct vagueness.
This would be a mistake.

Although these two states are similar,
Insofar as neither is intentional meditation,
Nonmeditation samadhi that is like a continuous stream
Is just remaining in a vivid clarity
That is like a bright, cloudless sky -
Limitless, pervasive, transparent.

The other is merely a dull state of mind
That is nothing in particular:
A constricted, fragmentary, biased state
Lacking lucid clarity,
A vague and hazy stupefaction.

Apart from confusing these two states,
There is no other error to be made.


The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin
by Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol, Matthieu Ricard (Translator)
Published by Snow Lion, Ithaca, 2001

Our One and Only Commandment

By Maurine Stuart Roshi

Before the time of Hui-neng, who lived in the seventh century in T’ang China, it was thought that the experience of enlightenment could be attained only after one had practiced and attained some depth in dhyana, meditation. Perhaps some of us still think that. Hui-neng, however, maintained that prajna, transcendental wisdom, is inseparable from dhyana. Neither can be understood without the other.

There are three forms of discipline in our practice. The first is shila, moral precepts against stealing, gossiping, coveting, and so on. The second is dhyana, or Zen, and the third is prajna. Hui-neng said that for true understanding, we must know that dhyana is not different from prajna, and that prajna is not something attained after practicing Zen. When we are practicing, in this very moment of practicing, prajna is unfolding itself in every single aspect of our lives: sweeping the floor, washing the dishes, cooking the food, everything we do.

This was the very original teaching of Hui-neng, and it marked the beginning of true Zen Buddhism. Everything is teaching us, everything is showing us this wonderful dharma light. All we have to do is open our eyes, open our hearts. While we are doing, thinking, and feeling, Zen is there, prajna is there. This intuitive mind infuses everything we do. But this is not something about which we can have discursive knowledge. We cannot attain realization of this in that way. This intuitive knowledge comes from our body and our mind. We don’t sit here and think about what enlightenment is. To think “I must get enlightened” is the greatest impediment. To have some degree of enlightenment is wonderful; to think about it is terrible. “No-knowing” is what we do, as in the famous phrase of Bodhidharma. When the emperor of China asked, “Who is this who stands before me?” Bodhidharma replied, “No-knowing.” No-knowing. There is no way that we can take this intuitive mind and quantify it. We can’t say, “Here it is, I’m going to give you one month’s worth, or two months’ worth, and now your course is finished.” That’s not it. We may see it in an instant, or it may take several lifetimes. This is a practice of endurance and patience. Forgetting all about gaining anything, we are simply trying to see clearly.

What does seeing clearly mean? It doesn’t mean that you look at something and analyze it, noting all its composite parts; no. When you see clearly, when you look at a flower and really see it, the flower sees you. It’s not that the flower has eyes, of course. It’s that the flower is no longer just a flower, and you are no longer just you. Flower and you have dissolved into something way beyond what we can even say, but we can experience this. This kind of seeing, this kind of understanding is “as-it-is-ness.” This wonderful intuitive wisdom infuses everything we do, if we just open ourselves up to it, and forget about all our selfish, petty concerns, forget about what we want, what we must get, whether this is doing something for us. Forget it. We are here for the sake of all sentient beings, and we are one with all sentient beings when we come to see this as-it-is-ness. Meister Eckhart, a thirteenth-century Christian mystic who really understood this, said, “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”

We all see things through the conceptualizing of color and form, and yet we do not see them in their true essence, because we separate ourselves from what we see. When we think of something as good or bad, it is our own habit of thought. It is because we have so much attachment to this discriminating mind that we do not experience Mu. Our attachment even shows in our bodies. We have something blocked somewhere, something that refuses to let go. We’re so attached, even to pain. “That is my pain!” Whose pain? When you hear the han struck, do you feel the pain of the wood? Can you let go of your own pain, give up this imagined individual self, and just dissolve into Muuuuu?

Each of us is sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, and we are endlessly thinking of things. What about paying attention to what it is that makes us think and feel this way? We train our minds by looking into them. We just look in, not allowing ourselves to be carried away by our perceptions; we just look into what is going on, and ask, “Where does this come from?” We are training ourselves in the practice and study of Buddhism so that our thoughts and emotions do not disturb our true-nature mind, so that we can sit imperturbably no matter what.

Hui-neng had an awakening when he heard the words from the Diamond Sutra, “Depending on nothing, realize your own mind.” We are so often depending on this religion or that, this “ism” or that. Don’t even think about Buddhism. The true Buddhist never says, “I am a Buddhist.” We are people who are practicing this universal principle with everybody in the whole cosmos. There is no label, no separation, no statement like “I am a Buddhist, he is a Christian.” True Buddhism embraces the whole universe, without a single label. You must have your own experience of the study and practice of Buddhism, not think thoughts that have been given to you by anyone else, including myself. Forget everything I have said. Depend on yourself. Your own experience of your inner self is what this is about.

Through clarifying our minds we can abandon our delusions and enlighten ourselves. Realizing we are a part of the whole universe, not separate, our minds become as clear as crystal, and all the dharma is revealed. So let us see clearly; let us put all the past aside and go deeply into this, moment after moment. How do we do it? Just by our own natural breathing. If we try to slow the breath down, it becomes awkward and uncomfortable. Instead, we can narrow the breath. When we exhale, we narrow the exhalation, in what is called “bamboo breath.” When we inhale, we don’t take in a great gulp of air, but just a little, just enough. By breathing like this, more air is retained in the lungs, and quite naturally the breathing slows down. The transition from inhalation to exhalation becomes smoother; sitting becomes joyful. It is an immeasurable pleasure just to breathe in zazen.

Just to breathe, just to see clearly: this is the real meaning of the precepts. To keep the precepts does not mean following a set of rules. It is giving ourselves to a way of life, a path of compassionate action that expresses itself in everything we do. Our practice of zazen purifies and warms the mind so that the precepts are not really necessary. We have certain rules of behavior, of course. We get up in the morning; we wash, we dress mindfully; we straighten our cushions, we pay attention to our posture and our breath. Zazen practice itself is a precept—one of them, and at the same time, all of them. Dhyana is prajna. Everything is contained in what we are doing. This is our zazen, and this is our everyday life, every minute. So the power of this practice we are engaged in helps us keep the precepts without self-consciously trying to follow a set of rules. If we try to do it, if we think about it, if we read the list of precepts every morning and say, “Now, I mustn’t do this, and I mustn’t do that,” it doesn’t work. If it comes from the hara, from the intuitive wisdom mind, then it can be done. We can control ourselves very well when we are without any idea of controlling at all. There is nothing to do; there is nothing to control, nothing to follow. Without trying to do something, we simply practice, in the same way as when we are hungry, we eat; when we are tired, we rest. The precepts are not some rigid formulation outside ourselves.

There are a few Buddhists sects in which very strict precepts are observed. Some Buddhist monks could not come here because I am a woman. They could not come hear a woman, let alone shake hands with her. I respect them, and they should not violate their commandments; if they find some meaning in them, that’s fine. But in our practice, our one and only commandment is the intuitive response to our lives, and if we pay absolute attention to this, it is really difficult to violate.

From Subtle Sound: The Zen Teachings of Maurine Stuart, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications, Inc. in December 1996.

From: http://www.tricycle.com/

Advice from Dogen

Images and Relics
If you think you can become enlightened just by worshipping images and relics, this is a mistaken view. This is actually possession by the poisonous serpent of temptation.

Discipline
If you insist upon disciplinary regulations and vegetarianism as fundamental, make them established practices, and think you can attain enlightenment that way, you are wrong.

Overcoming Greed
If you would be free of greed, first you have to leave egotism behind. The best mental exercise for relinquishing egotism is contemplating impermanence.

Tact
When you see others' errors and you want to guide them because you think they are wrong and you feel compassion for them, you should employ tact to avoid angering them, and contrive to appear as if you talking about something else.

Emotional Views
Students of recent times cling to their own emotional views and go by their own subjective opinions, thinking Buddhism must be as they think it is, and denying it could be any different. As long as they are wandering in illusion seeking something resembling their own emotional judgments, most of them will make no progress on the way of enlightenment.

Appearance and Reality
Most people of the world want others to know when they have done something good, and want others not to know when they have done something bad.
If you refrain from doing something because people would think ill of it, or if you try to do good so others will look upon you as a true Buddhist, these are still worldly feelings.

If you have compassion and are imbued with the spirit of the Way, it is of no consequence to be criticized, even reviled, by the ignorant. But if you lack the spirit of the Way, you should be wary of being thought of by others as having the Way.
What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good.

If people who keep up appearances and are attached to themselves gather together to study, not one of them will emerge with an awakened mind.

You should not be esteemed by others if you have no real inner virtue. People here in Japan esteem others on the basis of outward appearances, without knowing anything about real inner virtue; so students lacking the spirit of the Way are dragged down into bad habits and become subject to temptation.

Practicing Truth
If you study a lot because you are worried that others will think badly of you for being ignorant and you'll feel stupid, this is a serious mistake.
People of the world cannot necessarily be considered good - let them think whatever they will.

To "leave the world" means that you do not let the feelings of worldly people hang on your mind.

You should not do what is bad just because no one will see it or know of it.

You should think about the fact that you will surely die. This truth is indisputable. Even if you don't think about the inevitability of death, you should determine not to pass your time in vain. Our lives are only here for now.

One should not differentiate good and bad on the basis of taste.
One need not necessarily depend on the words of the ancients, but must only think of what is really true.

If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.

Morals
The ancients thought it shameful to seek advancement or to want to be the head of something, or the chief or senior.

No one should torment people or break their hearts.

Just regard people's virtues, don't be obsessed with their faults.
People should cultivate secret virtue.

No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.
Do not be so proud as to hope to equal the great sages; do not be so mean as to hope to equal the ignoble.

If one pursued selfish schemes to stay alive, there would be no end to it.
There is fundamentally no good or bad in the human mind; good and bad arise according to circumstances.

Though a nobleman's power is greater than that of an ox, he does not contend with an ox.

To plow deep but plant shallow is a way to natural disaster; if you help yourself but harm others, how could there be no consequences?

Understanding
Don't cling to your own understanding. Even if you do understand something, you should ask yourself if there might be something you have not fully resolved, or if there may be some higher meaning yet.

Although a suspicious mind is bad, still it is wrong to cling to what you shouldn't believe in, or to fail to ask about a truth you should seek.
Even if you have thoroughly studied the stories of the ancients and you sit constantly like iron or stone, as long as you are attached to yourself you cannot find the Way of enlightenment, ever.

Although the Way is complete in everyone, realization of the Way depends on a combination of conditions.

Tenacious opinionation is not transmitted by your parents; it is just that you have tacitly come to believe in opinions for no reason other than that over time you have picked up what people say.

Whether or not beginners are imbued with the spirit of the Way, they should carefully read and study the sagacious teachings of the scriptures and treatises. Once having understood, you should read the teachings of the sages many times.

Truth is not greater or lesser, but people are shallow or deep.