Present Fresh Wakefulness

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

Basically and fundamentally, our mind is utterly empty, sheer bliss, totally naked. We do not need to make it like this; we do not need to cultivate it by meditating, to create this state by meditating.

Give up thinking of anything at all, about the past, the future or the present. Remain thought-free, like an infant.

Innate suchness is unobscured the moment you are not caught up in present thinking.

That which prevents us from being face to face with the real Buddha, the natural state of mind, is our own thinking. It seems to block the natural state.

Rigpa, the Natural State, is not cultivated in meditation. The awakened state is not an object of the intellect. Rigpa is beyond intellect, and concepts.

This is the real Buddhadharma, not to do a thing. Not to think of anything Like Saraha said, "Having totally abandoned thinker and what is thought of, remain as a thought-free child."

Thinking is delusion.

When caught up in thinking we are deluded. To be free of thinking is to be free.

That freedom consists in how to be free from our thinking.

As long as the web of thinking has not dissolved, there will repeatedly be rebirth in and the experiences of the six realms.

The method: But if you want to be totally free of conceptual thinking there is only one way: through training in thought-free wakefulness. (rigpa).

Strip awareness to its naked state.

If you want to attain liberation and omniscient enlightenment, you need to be free of conceptual thinking.

Being free of thought is liberation.

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 (the natural state) is immediately present the very moment the thinking dissolves, the moment it vanishes, fades away, falls apart.

Simply suspend your thinking within the non-clinging state of wakefulness: that is the correct view.

If you know how to relax, then nothing can disturb you

By Osho

LIFE WITHOUT IS A CYCLONE -- a constant conflict, turmoil, struggle. But it is only so on the surface -- just as on the surface of the ocean are waves, maddening noise, constant struggle.

BUT THIS IS NOT ALL OF LIFE. Deep down there is also a center -- soundless, silent, no conflict, no struggle. In the center, life is a noiseless flow, relaxed, a river moving with no struggle, with no fight, no violence. Towards that inner center is the search. You can get identified with the surface, with the outer. And then anxiety and anguish follows. This is what has happened to everyone: we are identified with the surface and with the struggle that goes on there.

THE SURFACE IS BOUND TO BE DISTURBED; nothing is wrong in it. And if you can be rooted in the center, the disturbance on the surface will become beautiful; it will have a beauty of its own. If you can be silent within, then all the sounds without become musical. Then nothing is wrong in it; it becomes a play.

But if you don't know the inner core, the silent center, if you are totally identified with the surface, then you will go mad. And everyone is almost mad.

ALL RELIGIOUS TECHNIQUES, techniques of yoga, meditation, Zen, ARE BASICALLY TO HELP YOU TO BE AGAIN IN CONTACT WITH THE CENTER; to move within; to forget the periphery; to leave the periphery for a time being, and to relax into your own being so deeply that the outer disappears completely and only the inner remains.

Once you know how to move backwards, how to step down into yourself, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT; it becomes as easy as anything. But if you don't know, if you know only the mind clinging to the surface, it is very difficult. Relaxing into one's self is not difficult: but clinging to the surface is.

I have heard a Sufi story.
Once it happened that a Sufi fakir was traveling. It was a dark night and he lost his way. It was so dark he couldn't even see where he was moving -- then suddenly he fell into an abyss. He was terrified. He didn't know what was down there in the darkness or how deep the abyss was. So he caught hold of a branch and started praying.
The night was cold. He cried but there was no one to listen, only his own voice was echoed back. And the night was so cold that his hands were becoming frozen, and he knew that sooner or later he would have to leave the branch -- it was going to be difficult to keep on holding it. His hands were getting so frozen that they were already slipping from the branch. Death was absolutely near. Any moment he would fall and die.
And then the last moment came. You can understand how terrified he was. Dying moment-by-moment, then the last moment came, and he saw the branch slipping out of his hand. And his hands were so frozen that there was no way to hold on, so he had to fall.
But the moment he fell he started dancing -- there was no abyss, he was on clear ground. But the whole night he had suffered...

This is the situation. YOU GO ON CLINGING TO THE SURFACE, afraid that if you leave the surface you will be lost. REALLY, CLINGING TO THE SURFACE YOU ARE LOST. But deep down there is darkness and you cannot see any ground; you cannot see anything else than the surface.

All these techniques are to make you courageous, strong, adventurous, so that you can STOP THE HOLDING ON AND FALL WITHIN YOURSELF. That which looks like an abyss, dark, bottomless, is the very ground of your being. Once you leave the surface, the periphery, you will be centered.

THIS CENTERING IS THE AIM. Once you are centered, you can move to the periphery but you will be totally different. The quality of your consciousness will have changed altogether. Then you can move to the periphery but you will never be the periphery again -- you will remain at the center.

AND REMAINING CENTERED AT THE PERIPHERY IS BEAUTIFUL. Then you can enjoy it; it will become a beautiful play. Then there is no conflict; it is a game. Then it will not create tensions within you, and there will be no anguish and no anxiety around you. And any moment that it becomes too much, too heavy on you, you can go back to the original source -- you can have a dip. Then you will be refreshed, rejuvenated, and you can move to the periphery again. Once you know the way...

And the way is not long. YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE ELSE THAN INTO YOUR OWN SELF, so it is not long. It is just near. The only barrier is your holding on, holding to the periphery, afraid that if you leave it, you will be lost. The fear feels just as if you are going to die. Moving to the inner center is a death -- death in the sense that your identity with the periphery will die, and a new image, a new feeling of your being will arrive.

So if we want to say in a few words what Tantra techniques are, we can say that they are a deep relaxation into oneself, A TOTAL RELAXATION INTO ONESELF.

YOU ARE ALWAYS TENSE; that is the holding, the clinging. YOU ARE NEVER RELAXED, never in a state of let-go. You are always doing something: that doing is the problem. You are never in a state of non-doing, where things are happening and you are just there not doing anything. Breath comes in and goes out, the blood circulates, the body is alive and throbbing; and the breeze blows, and the world goes on spinning around -- and you are not doing anything, you are not a doer; you are simply relaxed and things are happening. When things are happening and you are not a doer, you are totally relaxed. When you are a doer and things are not happening but are being manipulated by you, you are tense.

YOU RELAX PARTIALLY WHILE YOU ARE ASLEEP, but it is not total. Even in your sleep you go on manipulating; even in your sleep you don't allow everything to happen. Watch a man sleeping: you will see that he is very tense, his whole body will be tense. Watch a small child sleeping, he is very relaxed. Or watch an animal, a cat -- a cat is always relaxed. You are not relaxed even while asleep; you are tense, struggling, moving, fighting with something. On your face tensions are there. In dreams you may be fighting, protecting -- doing the same things as when you were awake, repeating them in an inner drama. But you are not relaxed; you are not in a deep let-go.

THAT'S WHY SLEEP IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT. And psychologists say that if the same trend goes on, soon the day will come when no one will be able to sleep naturally. Sleep will have to be chemically induced because no one will be able to fall naturally into sleep. The day is not very far. Already you are on the way towards it because even while asleep you are only partially asleep, partially relaxed.

MEDITATION IS THE DEEPEST SLEEP. It is total relaxation plus something more; you are totally relaxed and yet alert; awareness is there. TOTAL SLEEP WITH AWARENESS IS MEDITATION. Fully alert, things are happening but you are not resisting, not fighting, not doing. The doer is not there, the doer has gone into sleep. Only a witness is there, a 'non-doer alertness' is there. Then nothing can disturb you.

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO RELAX, THEN NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOU; if you don't know how to relax, then everything will disturb you. I say everything. It is not really something else that disturbs you, everything else is just an excuse. You are almost always ready to be disturbed. If one thing doesn't disturb you, then something else will; but you will get disturbed. You are ready, you have a tendency to get disturbed.

If all the causes are withdrawn from you, even then you will get disturbed. You will find some cause, you will create some cause. If nothing comes from without, you will create something from within -- some thought, some idea -- and you will get disturbed. You need excuses.

ONCE YOU KNOW HOW TO RELAX, NOTHING CAN DISTURB YOU. Not that the world will change, not that things will be different. The world will be the same. But you don't have the tendency, you don't have the madness; you are not constantly ready to be disturbed. THEN ALL THAT HAPPENS AROUND YOU IS SOOTHING -- even the traffic noise becomes soothing... if you are relaxed. Even the market-place becomes soothing. It depends on you. It is an inner quality.

AND THE MORE YOU GO TOWARDS THE CENTER, the more the quality arises; and the more you move towards the periphery, the more you will be disturbed. If you are too much disturbed, or if you are prone to be disturbed, that shows only one thing: that you are existing near the periphery -- nothing else. Simply this. It is an indication that you have made your abode near the surface. And this is a false abode -- because your real home is at the center, the very center of your being.

Absorption in the Treasury of Light

Zen Master Ejo - (1198-1282)

 There is a chapter on light in the Shobogenzo; the reason for writing this essay now is just to bring out this essential substance, the fact that the countenance of Buddhism is absorption in the treasury of light.


The so-called treasury of light is the root source of all Buddhas, the inherent being of all living creatures, the total substance of all phenomena, the treasury of the great light of spiritual powers of complete awareness. The three bodies, four knowledges, and states of absorption numerous as atoms in every aspect of reality, all appear from within this.

This great light of Lamplike Illuminate pervades the universe, without differentiating between the mundane and the sacred. Because this one light extends throughout all time, if there were any attaining it, then it would have to be twofold.


The Scripture on the Miraculous Empowerment of Vairochana attaining Buddhahood says,



“Oh, Master of the Secret, what is enlightenment?

“It means knowing your mind as it really is. This is unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment, in which there is nothing at all that can be attained. Why? Because enlightenment has no form; it has no knowledge and no understanding.


Student: If Buddha-nature is present now within the body, it is not separate from ordinary people. Then why can’t I see it? Would you please explain this more?

The same scripture says, “Master of the Secret, the practice of the Great Vehicle awakens the mind that transports you to the unconditioned, guided by selflessness. Why?

“Those who have cultivated this practice in the past have observed the basis of the clusters of mental and physical elements, and know they are like illusions, mirages, shadows, echoes, rings of fire, castles in the air.



“Thus they relinquish the selfish, and the host of the mind autonomously awakens to the fundamental nonarousal of the essential mind. Why? Because what is before mind and what is after mind cannot be apprehended. Thus knowing the nature of the essential mind, you transcend two eons of yoga practice.”

The Flower Ornament Scripture also says, “The body of Buddha radiates great light of infinite colors perfectly pure, like rainbows covering all lands. All who are illumined by the light rejoice; beings with pains have them all removed. Everyone is inspired with respect and develops a compassionate heart. This is the independent function of enlightenment.”



The knowledge of the enlightened is light, a concentration of the light of immutable knowledge beyond the two extremes of ordinary and holy, or absolute and conventional. It is the light of the nonconceptual knowledge of Manjushri, who represents great knowledge. This becomes manifest in the effortlessness of simply sitting.


“The practice of the Great Vehicle awakens the mind that transports you to the unconditioned, guided by selflessness.” The Third Patriarch of Zen said, “Do not seek reality, just stop views.” Obviously there is no ego in the treasury of light, no opinionated interpretation. Ego and opinions are different names of spirit heads and ghost faces. This is just the light alone, not setting up any opinions or views, from the idea of self and ego to the ideas of Buddha and Dharma.


So we should know that this light is the universal illumination of matchless, peerless great light completely filled with infinite meaning. Sitting meditation is absorption in the treasury of light inherited directly from Shakyamuni. This is the light that is not two in ordinary people and sages, that is one vehicle in past and present. It does not let anything inside out and does not let anything outside in: who would randomly backslide into cramped boredom within the context of discriminatory social and personal relationships? It cannot be grasped, cannot be abandoned: why suffer because of emotional consciousness grasping and rejecting, hating and loving?


In The Lotus Sutra Manjushri is told, “Great enlightening beings dwell in a state of forebearance, gentle, docile, and not rough, their minds undisturbed. And they do not ruminate over things, but see the real character of things, and do not act indiscriminately.” This is simply sitting: without acting indiscriminately, one thereby goes along in conformity with great light.



A verse from the same book says:


“Delusion conceives of things as existent or nonexistent,
As being real or unreal, as born or unborn.
In an uncluttered place, concentrate your mind,
Remain steady and unmoving, like a polar mountain.
Observe that all phenomena have no existence,
That they are like space, without solid stability,
Neither being born nor emerging.
Unmoving, unflagging, abide in oneness:
This is called the place of nearness.”



This is a direct indication, “only expounding the unexcelled Way, getting straight to the point, setting aside expedients.”


In China, the great master Bodhidharma replied to the question of an emperor about the ultimate meaning of the holy truths, “Empty, nothing holy.” This is the great mass of fire of the light of the Zen of the founding teachers: crystal clear on all sides, there is nothing in it at all. Outside of this light, there is no separate practice, no different principle, much less any knowledge of objects; how could there be any practice or cultivation, or deliberate effort to effect specific remedies?


The emperor said to Bodhidharma, “Who is it replying to me?”

Bodhidharma said, “Don’t know.” This is simply the single light that is empty.

The light is everyone: Shakyamuni and Maitreya are its servants. What is not more in Buddhas or less in ordinary beings is this spiritual light, so it is existent in all; it is the whole earth as a single mass of fire.


Excerpted from Minding Mind – A Course in Basic Meditation translated by Thomas Cleary

From: Daily Zen