Dzogchen Retreat 2015 - Realising our true nature (part 11)

0:13 So we'll keep right in sync with our reading of the text and move now this afternoon and spend a couple of days in this practice of watching thoughts as if we were cowherders watching our calves and sheep on a wide open plain. So please find a comfortable position. Supine is very good for this one. The sitting, of course, is very good as well. And we'll have two sessions. The first one I'll give a fair amount of guidance and the second one I'll be entirely silent. Report an error in the passage at 0:13 Highlight the passage at 0:13

0:40 And then you can see how you can do the same practice, but give yourself the guidance. And then if there's any points of clarity or lack of clarity, then you'll know what to ask when we have the time in the evening for discussion. Report an error in the passage at 0:40 Highlight the passage at 0:40

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:31 Settle your body, speech and mind in the natural state. Report an error in the passage at 1:31 Highlight the passage at 1:31

1:56 And for just a couple of minutes, calm the discursive mind with mindfulness of breathing. You may find it helpful to count breaths. In the Tibetan tradition, they'll often count 21 breaths before beginning the main practice. And you may count one brief count at the end of each inhalation, if you wish to try counting. And Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

· · · silence, 3 minutes

5:32 now let your eyes be open, your Report an error in the passage at 5:32 Highlight the passage at 5:32

5:38 awareness still and quiet, and Report an error in the passage at 5:38 Highlight the passage at 5:38

5:45 single-pointedly focus the light of your attention on the visual field, this elliptical field in which colors and shapes arise. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

5:58 Simply bring your full attention here, quietly. And in the scene, let there be just the scene that is without labeling, projecting, associating. Simply be present, single-pointedly, with whatever appearances arise within this visual domain from moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 5:58 Highlight the passage at 5:58

· · · silence, 1 minute

7:07 Now let the eyes close and single-pointedly direct your attention now to the auditory field, the domain of sounds with Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:22 the same quality of awareness, non-projecting, non-reactive, non-judgmental, without labeling, just being present with whatever arises within this auditory domain. Report an error in the passage at 7:22 Highlight the passage at 7:22

7:40 With no super musicians, no projections of I or mine, just sounds arising in space. Report an error in the passage at 7:40 Highlight the passage at 7:40

· · · silence, 2 minutes

9:26 And now to turn the full force of your attention to the space of the body, this field of tactile sensations, sensations of all kinds, sensations of solidity, of moisture, of warmth and cold, of motion of any kind, and also any feelings of pleasure, of discomfort, even neutral feelings. Whatever arises within this tactile domain, simply observe it without labeling, conceptualizing, simply be present from moment to moment, also very much without projecting any sense of I or mine upon these tactile events arising in the space of the body. Report an error in the passage at 9:26 Highlight the passage at 9:26

10:19 Do not visualize the body, do not think about, simply be present with whatever is arising within this one field of experience. Report an error in the passage at 10:19 Highlight the passage at 10:19

· · · silence, 3 minutes

13:04 Now once again let your eyes be at least partially open. Report an error in the passage at 13:04 Highlight the passage at 13:04

13:11 Return to the stillness of your own awareness, resting right in its own place. Report an error in the passage at 13:11 Highlight the passage at 13:11

13:24 And now simply briefly note the appearances arising in the visual domain, the Report an error in the passage at 13:24 Highlight the passage at 13:24

13:33 auditory, Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

13:43 and possibly any appearances of smells, of taste. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

13:52 So those are the appearances by way of the five sense doors. Report an error in the passage at 13:52 Highlight the passage at 13:52

13:59 And now sitting quietly with full vigilance, clear wakefulness, note very carefully, Report an error in the passage at 13:59 Highlight the passage at 13:59

14:09 do you directly perceive? Are you immediately aware of any other appearances that Report an error in the passage at 14:09 Highlight the passage at 14:09

14:20 do not arise by way of any of the five sense doors? Do you directly experience anything else apart from those five? Report an error in the passage at 14:20 Highlight the passage at 14:20

· · · silence, 1 minute

15:08 Perhaps the first thing you notice, the arising of thoughts, the internal chitchat, conversation of the mind. You Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:25 may note images, mental images, of a wide variety. Report an error in the passage at 15:25 Highlight the passage at 15:25

15:37 So these appearances, these mental appearances are not arising in any of the five sensory fields. They are arising in a sixth field, the field that is directly apprehended by mental awareness and uniquely by mental awareness. Cannot be seen or heard, cannot be measured or observed with any instrument of technology, but you can observe them directly. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:07 So focus your attention now single-pointedly on this one out of six domains of experience, taking an interest only in these mental events. Of thoughts and images and so on. And from moment to moment simply observe whatever arises in that domain without labeling, without judging, without projecting. Simply being present and observing the nature of whatever arises within that one domain from moment to moment without deliberately giving your attention to any of the other five sensory domains. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:53 This is shamatha focused upon the mind. Report an error in the passage at 16:53 Highlight the passage at 16:53

· · · silence, 1 minute

17:38 Let your body be still like a mountain and your awareness still like space. So the spirit of this practice should be very familiar now. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

17:48 Let your awareness be still while observing the movements of the mind without being pulled away from Report an error in the passage at 17:48 Highlight the passage at 17:48

18:01 the resting place of awareness. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

19:11 It's quite natural, of course, that your attention will be drawn away. There's a lot of momentum behind that. So whenever you introspectively, retrospectively, Report an error in the passage at 19:11 Highlight the passage at 19:11

19:25 Note that your attention has wandered. First of all, relax. Loosen up. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

19:35 If there's still some clinging to that thought or memory, release it. Report an error in the passage at 19:35 Highlight the passage at 19:35

19:45 And then your awareness effortlessly returns to its own place. You don't need to pull it back. Come to rest once again in the stillness of your awareness, illuminating the space of your mind and whatever arises within that domain. Report an error in the passage at 19:45 Highlight the passage at 19:45

· · · silence, 1 minute

21:02 Once in a while, check up on the body, especially the breathing. To see that it's relaxed, unimpeded, effortless. And Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:20 check once in a while to see that the muscles of the face are soft, especially those around the eyes, and that the eyes themselves are totally relaxed, blinking whenever you feel like it, soft, unfocused, your visual gaze resting vacantly in the space in front of you. It's Report an error in the passage at 21:20 Highlight the passage at 21:20

· · · silence, 2 minutes

23:41 also very easy in this practice to just space out, for the awareness to grow vague, unfocused, unknowing. Report an error in the passage at 23:41 Highlight the passage at 23:41

23:53 So when you know that your awareness is drifting into kind of a nebulous, vague space, take a fresh interest in the practice. Restore your attention in the present moment in Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:11 that flow of mindfulness of the space of the mind and whatever thoughts and images are arising within that domain. Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

· · · silence, 29 minutes

53:41 So this practice too is actually a very simple one and the circling in on it is simply a preface that I introduced to make it a bit more accessible. The practice of shamatha focused on the mind is simply the final part where among the six domains of experience you are selectively focusing attention just on the mental domain. Report an error in the passage at 53:41 Highlight the passage at 53:41

54:03 But I have found it helpful, I've been teaching it this way a long time, to kind of circle in and that is just kind of a cook's tour of the visual domain and the auditory, the tactile, skipping lightly through the olfactory and gustatory and then going right to the... To the mental, just so that it becomes very apparent that there's nothing esoteric or mystical or occult about this. The sixth sense, you know, like that's something spooky, right? Report an error in the passage at 54:03 Highlight the passage at 54:03

54:28 Well the sixth sense is just the ordinary mental sense by which we can perceive mental events and of course that's the only one that's actively operating when we're dreaming. The five physical senses are shut down, they're dormant, but we can have replicas of sight, of sound and so forth as if we are attending to a surrounding physical environment. Report an error in the passage at 54:28 Highlight the passage at 54:28

54:48 The appearances are very, very similar, especially in a vivid dream. In fact, Stephen Laberge, who's a world expert on this dreaming, says there's one difference between waking and dreaming. Waking experience is dreaming experience with physical constraints, and dreaming experience is waking experience without physical constraints. Report an error in the passage at 54:48 Highlight the passage at 54:48

55:09 But the nature of the appearances is essentially the same. They're all generated, flowing forth from awareness, from the mind. And taking place in a space of experience, space of the mind. So this practice is taught in a very, very basic practice. As he said, it's a practice for novices, for beginners. And it's taught in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Emphasized more in the Kaikyut Nyingma, but taught in all four. Report an error in the passage at 55:09 Highlight the passage at 55:09

55:35 And when I was doing research for my book, Mind in the Balance, I found very explicit instruction on the same method. In the Christian tradition, orthodox, mainstream, Greek orthodox tradition, these... Greek Orthodox Hermits living in the 13th century on Mount Athos. They are doing this practice, as well as others, but this is part of their repertoire. And then it's known in the Hindu tradition as well, specifically in the Advaita Vedanta, probably elsewhere. Report an error in the passage at 55:35 Highlight the passage at 55:35

56:02 Clearly the method itself doesn't have any ideological trappings or attachments that you have to buy into. There's the method. And if one is interested in the nature of the mind, subjective experience, thoughts, emotions, attention, perception, memory, and so forth, then this would seem to be, to my mind, the most commonsensical, straightforward, non-ideological, radically empirical way to actually explore the mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:02 Highlight the passage at 56:02

56:27 So one might think that this would be absolutely a central avenue of inquiry, of empirical inquiry, in the scientific study of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:27 Highlight the passage at 56:27

56:37 One might think. Report an error in the passage at 56:37 Highlight the passage at 56:37

56:41 And from 1879 until 1910, the early pioneers in psychology, like Wilhelm Wundt, Titchener at Cornell University in New York, William James at Harvard, they were making, frankly, very primitive forays into this, because they just had no background, and they didn't check out the earlier Christian tradition, and even though there was information about Buddhism and Hinduism, they were too ethnic, frankly, to be really blunt, they were too ethnic-centric to look there. Report an error in the passage at 56:41 Highlight the passage at 56:41

57:09 Because they're Europeans, they're Americans. Why would we look to non-scientific cultures? After all, don't we know more about everything than anybody else? So, you know, as intelligent as they were, they were also very prejudiced. That was the spirit of the times. And so they didn't look, in which they started from scratch. And they did a pretty bad job of it. So bad that by 1910, there were so in disarray and so many inconclusive... Report an error in the passage at 57:09 Highlight the passage at 57:09

57:35 Observations being made and they seem to contradict that pretty much in 1910, it's not absolutely in that year, but basically academic psychology just scuttled the whole endeavor. And it was with a very clear competition coming in, the ideology and the methodology of scientific materialism that says, thou shalt look only outwards to the physical, the objective and the quantifiable. Report an error in the passage at 57:35 Highlight the passage at 57:35

57:58 And oh, by the way, nothing exists apart from the material and the emergent properties of the material world. So that was a slam dunk. That was like a left jab and a right hook. It's a knockout. And that was it. And academic psychology has never recovered from that. It's been unconscious ever since then. And I took a course at Stanford University in cognitive psychology, studied the big textbook, 500 pages, and there was no reference in 500 pages to mental perception. Report an error in the passage at 57:58 Highlight the passage at 57:58

58:26 Nowhere. It's kind of like we only have five senses and then we think and remember. There wasn't even a mention that we actually have the ability to observe thoughts, images and so forth. No mention of lucid dreaming, no mention of observing the mind at all. And I find that it's utterly astonishing to have a whole course about the study of the mind and never give any suggestion that you might want to look at it. Report an error in the passage at 58:26 Highlight the passage at 58:26

58:52 Isn't it astonishing? A little bit. And I've checked since then. I was teaching a... Teaching a meditation course at a Zen center in Santa Fe some years back and there was an author of textbooks of psychology who attended. And they said, is there any difference since I checked this out at Stanford? And she said, nope. So thus is the power of dogma. Dogma can shut you down. It puts you into a methodological and ideological straitjacket. Report an error in the passage at 58:52 Highlight the passage at 58:52

59:17 And I think it's high time to take that straitjacket, throw it into a pit, torch it and never look back. So here's the practice he's referring to. This practice, this is a practice for novices, but of course if you take this practice we just did and say this is it, this is Vipassanā, this is open presence, this is the essence of all meditation, this is choiceless awareness, this is Dzogchen and Mahamudra and there's nothing beyond this, then welcome to saṃsāra, you're here for a very long stay because you've now dropped the anchor of your practice, your mind, your whole existence into the depths of saṃsāra and you're going nowhere. Report an error in the passage at 59:17 Highlight the passage at 59:17

59:58 So I love this practice. I've taught it. I practice it a lot. And if this is all you're doing, then you're stuck. So then we continue. So he's really kind of doing this survey of what he sees in his contemplative environment, spiritual, cultural environment, there in Tibet in the late 19th century. He's saying, some people say thoughts are like bolts of lightning. The primordial consciousness, pristine awareness, is like clear light. Report an error in the passage at 59:58 Highlight the passage at 59:58

1:00:25 And the non-duality of appearances and pristine awareness is the authentic path. That sounds pretty deep. So some people say that. So he's been listening. It sounds like he has his ear to the wall. What are people saying out there? Because bear in mind, he didn't go through any training in a monastery or hermitage, didn't study with many teachers, didn't have a lot of empowerments and so forth. He's living out there in the boonies, we say, or you'd call it the outback, the outback of eastern Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:25 Highlight the passage at 1:00:25

1:00:53 But he's listening. Okay, what are people saying? You say, others say that as soon as thoughts arise, The authentic path, what you really should do, is to recognize for yourself the non-duality of that which appears and that which cognizes. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:53 Highlight the passage at 1:00:53

1:01:09 So we see earlier, he said, here's a practice of observing thoughts over there, so to speak, which is clearly dualistic. You're over here, thoughts over there, and so you're not even challenging dualistic grasping, the strong bifurcation of subject-object. On the one hand, that sounds bad. On the other hand though, you're not totally enmeshed in with cognitive fusion in every thought, emotion, desire and so forth, such that whatever comes up, it just drags you along, drags you in. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:09 Highlight the passage at 1:01:09

1:01:39 Every mental affliction swallows you up and carries you away. That sounds like a good idea not to have a non-duality with your mental afflictions, your ruminations, your afflictive emotions and so on and so on. So on the one hand, there's that practice in which Dualistic grasping has not yet really been challenged, but you are getting a breath of fresh air, a bit of space, rather than being enmeshed in every convolution that your mind goes through, which is quite painful, as we all know. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:39 Highlight the passage at 1:01:39

1:02:09 But now here he goes and says, okay, how about this, where you're really looking for the total non-duality. Recognize for yourself the non-duality of that which appears. That includes, of course, thoughts, images, dreams. And that which cognizes, that which is aware of that which appears. And these two are non-dual. So this has the same meaning as the preceding position. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:09 Highlight the passage at 1:02:09

1:02:32 So those two back-to-back sentences pointing to the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:32 Highlight the passage at 1:02:32

1:02:38 So he just comments without judgment. But now he goes on to say, it seems to me that if you're like a Garuda that can fly from the nest, it is absurd for you to expel 21,000 dead mice from your nest in a single day. And presumably that's totally transparent. You know why he gave that one. That was a joke. So that is a bit unpacking. That's why we do have a footnote here. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:38 Highlight the passage at 1:02:38

1:03:04 But a Garuda, this mythical bird, like the great eagle, like a phoenix. Maybe it's not mythical, but it's a great bird. And it has to stay in its nest until, of course, he can fly. But if you're already a grown-up or an adolescent Garuda and you can fly, then why would you stay in the nest and expel 21,000 dead mice from your nest in a single day? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:04 Highlight the passage at 1:03:04

1:03:25 Okay, what's up with 21,000? Well, here he's stating he rounded off a little bit, rounding down, that each day we experience 21,000 breaths. Well, technically it's 21,600. And that's again 15 breaths per minute and that's again shallow breathing because it's only obviously one breath every four seconds. Every day we experience 21,000 breaths and the vital energies, the prāṇa that flow with the breath, the breath and the prāṇa being very closely conjoined, are closely related to the arising of thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:25 Highlight the passage at 1:03:25

1:03:57 So following after each of these 21,000 energy minds, this kind of hybrid or this alloy. of energy-mind rising together. If you're following after each one as if you were sending a hunting dog after a fox, in other words following after every thought, this thought and then following that thought and so forth, throughout a 24 hour period, if you're following after every thought that arises with every breath and then applying antidotes for each one, for expelling each one, oh there's anger, apply loving kindness, oh there's impatience, apply patience, oh there's greed, oh apply, you know, if you're doing that. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:57 Highlight the passage at 1:03:57

1:04:33 These are the dead mice. The dead mice with these mental afflictions, all the things to abandon. And if you're following after them 24 hours a day, breath by breath, following after them and applying antidotes to each one for getting rid of them. So those are the dead mice that you're expelling from your nest. It is absurd if you can instead rest in the space of awareness like a Geruda that can fly from its nest. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:33 Highlight the passage at 1:04:33

1:04:59 So it becomes a bit clearer. But if you're a Tibetan living in the Eastern history, maybe you just immediately know what he's referring to. But again, just to come back again, you remember he referred earlier to embracing, cultivating good thoughts and trying to expel negative thoughts. And a lot of us will have more of the latter than the former. But identifying each one or even following after each one, actually the second one, following each one back to its source, kind of like psychoanalysis, which of course has been helpful. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:59 Highlight the passage at 1:04:59

1:05:31 But if that's the limit of your practice, tracing back every dream, every anxiety, every trauma, every emotion, every resentment, tracing it back to its sort and then hitting it with a smart bomb of some type of an antidote, that's an awful lot of work, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But if on the other hand, and that's like the Gerudo who stays in the nest and he's just throwing out mice all day long, and the other one is just leave the nest. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:31 Highlight the passage at 1:05:31

1:05:57 Fly from this nest with all of its mice, its dead mice and rabid mice. Fly from the nest and just soar freely in the space, in the sky. Then this is like just flying from, lifting yourself up from the mind, the nest of the mind and just resting in the space of awareness and from that space, like the Garuda maybe just circling overhead, looking down on the nest, or maybe just hovering like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:57 Highlight the passage at 1:05:57

1:06:24 Facing into the wind, kiting into the wind, the great Garuda, looking down on the nest and seeing it's crawling with mice. But since I'm up here and they're down there, I don't have to be antidoting them. I don't have to throw them out of the nest. Better throw me out of the nest. And that's what it's like. You rest your awareness in the space and observe the mind from a spacious, open, unentangled perspective. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24 Highlight the passage at 1:06:24

1:06:50 And couldn't that be more effective? Especially there's some really good news here. And it is news. It's news that still remains, as far as I can tell, totally unknown in modern psychology. I think as far as I know, clinical as well as cognitive psychology. And that is that the mind has an extraordinary capacity to heal, to balance, to cure itself, to heal itself if we don't keep on aggravating, compounding and perpetuating the internal entanglement, convolutions, distortions and afflictions of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:50 Highlight the passage at 1:06:50

1:07:22 And that is if we let our awareness float free and not in dissociation. Dissociation implies an anxiety, a withdrawal, aversion, like kind of maybe even a bit freaking out, like I think I need to get out of here. Not like that. That's not this practice. But rather just a lightness, free of grasping, but at the same time a total attentiveness. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:22 Highlight the passage at 1:07:22

1:07:47 Dissociation means just pulling away. But this is not that. This is just... Releasing the grasping and then remaining totally present, totally attentive to, mindful of the mind, but now without either of two extremes. Without the entanglement, the grasping, the identification, the total getting oneself enmeshed in, entangled in, caught up and swept away by the activities of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:47 Highlight the passage at 1:07:47

1:08:16 That's called saṃsāra. And the other one is so withdrawing. That's got to be kind of a mental problem as well. Dissociation, kind of psychotic removal. I mean, it doesn't sound good, where you're just withdrawing from reality, like it's freaking you out, like post-traumatic stress disorder, but you've been stressed out by your own mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:16 Highlight the passage at 1:08:16

1:08:34 So you just kind of go into reaction, freaking out, freaking in. Neither one of those being totally present. And then here's the news. When you do that, and you do that for sustained fashion, Without falling either into the entanglement or the dissociation, what winds up happening is your mind turns out, it manifests, its ability, its capacity, which just seems kind of like fathomless, to heal and balance and untangle itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:34 Highlight the passage at 1:08:34

1:09:04 That is, the mice die of old age. Or if you just don't feed them, they die very quickly. That's it. If you don't feed them, they die quickly. These mental afflictions of the whole range of them, if you just let them be. Then they give many analogies, a rope unknotting itself, a snake that ties into knots and then just unravels itself. It's called rangjul, they release themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:04 Highlight the passage at 1:09:04

1:09:31 So that should give a sense of utter relief. Like I know my mind has 84,000 mental afflictions, but maybe I don't have to expel 21,000 dead mice every day. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:31 Highlight the passage at 1:09:31

1:09:44 Maybe I can just stand back and watch the release itself. And what a relief that would be. Let's check. So that's what he's referring to here. Now hopefully that rather obscure metaphor is totally clear. If you take these practices, the ones he just cited, these practices as the path and get stuck there, you'll be like a blind, dazed person wandering about on a plane with no companions. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:44 Highlight the passage at 1:09:44

1:10:15 That's pretty clear. And again, he lives up there. I've been up there in Amdo. You have these vast plains. Wide open spaces. And if you look north, you just keep on going to the North Pole. There's just not much between you and the North Pole, except for more of the same. You go up through Mongolia, up through the steppes of Siberia. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:15 Highlight the passage at 1:10:15

1:10:33 It's just, that's a lot of space. And so if you're stuck in that space, you're blind. Imagine that. You're out there on the remote highlands of eastern Tibet and you're blind and you're dazed and you're wandering about and there's no one there to guide you. That's really pathetic. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:33 Highlight the passage at 1:10:33

1:10:53 And that's what he referred to, the practice he just did. If that's all you're doing, well, you know, please keep on reading. There's more to come. At the same time, he's not disparaging it. He's not disparaging it. This is a good practice for novices. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:53 Highlight the passage at 1:10:53

1:11:12 So, it's a fine balance there. Like the Dalai Lama said, that's very good, this mindfulness, mindfulness, very good. Just don't conflate it with Buddhism. Or I also, I think I made it very clear, it's helping so many people. Let's never disparage it. But let's also not overstate it. Let's not exaggerate it. Then everything's fine. And now here he says it in real plain speak. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:12 Highlight the passage at 1:11:12

1:11:35 Know that they are indeed indispensable specific phases of familiarization on the path, like the three specific phases of childhood, youth and adulthood in the course of a person's life. So there it is. He's just referred to shamatha with allusions to these deeper practices, but he's going to unpack that later. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:35 Highlight the passage at 1:11:35

1:11:55 So there he just kind of took in the scene. What's it like there in Eastern Tibet, late 19th century? What's the scene? What's happening? And these are some of his observations. It's very autobiographical here. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:55 Highlight the passage at 1:11:55

1:12:09 And now he turns inwards. Okay, that's what's happening around me. But now how about you, Dujum Lingbao? How has your practice been? You've been quite the unusual one. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:09 Highlight the passage at 1:12:09

1:12:21 In meditative visions and dreams, I was granted pointing out instructions by way of symbols and words expressed by the glorious Lakeborn Vajra of Orgyana. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:21 Highlight the passage at 1:12:21

1:12:31 Manifestation of Padmasambhava. So now he's kind of stopped goofing around. Now he's just saying, well, okay, since I was two or three, the Lakeborn Vajra has been my guru. And in repeated visions, dreams and so forth, during the daytime, the nighttime, pure visions and so forth, I've received this pointing out instructions, direct, specific guidance, really guru to disciple, by Lakeborn Vajra, Padmasambhava of Oregon, and I possess a path of my own. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:31 Highlight the passage at 1:12:31

1:13:02 He's following in the footsteps of his teacher. And of course, he had been a teacher for a long time because this is the 19th century, but way back in the 8th century, he was one of the 25 close disciples of Padmasambhava. He was known as a young man, and he was an interpreter, translator, translator. And so he had a long history with Padmasambhava. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:02 Highlight the passage at 1:13:02

1:13:23 And so that link, I'll bet you back then he made the prayer in all my lifetimes, always catch me with a hook of your compassion. Because it kept on coming. And there it is in the 19th century. He passed away, Dujum Rinpoche, the same connection. Dujum Rinpoche passed away. And now the young, there are actually two tukus that I know of, but I have not met either one. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:23 Highlight the passage at 1:13:23

1:13:43 But a number of my friends have been receiving teachings from the young Dujum Yangsi, Dujum Incarnation, young man who was born in Tibet. And some of my Dharma friends have really been around for a long time, some are younger. They're all totally blown away by him. He's a young man. But they say, just listening, you feel like you're just sitting with ancient wisdom. So I look forward to the day I have the opportunity to meet him. I have not. But that lineage is carrying right on through. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:43 Highlight the passage at 1:13:43

1:14:11 So Dujum Lingpa is still alive and well. And now he's got a brand new body. It's great. So I possess a path of my own. Of stable, illusory visions of my body, speech and mind being blessed by his three vajras. His body, speech and mind, this is what he's referring to earlier in his teachings on Guru Yoga. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:11 Highlight the passage at 1:14:11

1:14:30 His body, speech and mind being blessed by, indivisibly merged with the three vajras, which is the enlightened body, speech and mind of Bhapna Sambhava. So now he's just told you the source of what he's going to be explaining from here on. Just to summarize, now to go directly from his own experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:30 Highlight the passage at 1:14:30

1:14:48 right? This is not In fact, I've not read a single text of his that I would say, this was a treatise of great erudition. Boy, do you know the books. You cited this one and that one, and man, you are erudite. I have no idea actually how erudite he was, but the texts that Gyatrā Rinpoche has guided me to, which are all pith instructions, they include very, very few citations from anyone coming straight from his own visions or his own experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:48 Highlight the passage at 1:14:48

1:15:16 It's just straight. So to summarize, novices enter the authentic path. By means of investigation and familiarization. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:16 Highlight the passage at 1:15:16

1:15:30 So there it is. That's a really good way to start. How do you enter an authentic path? Because there's an awful lot out there. There are many, many teachings in Buddhism and other religions, other traditions, psychology, philosophy. I mean, just so many people are proclaiming to know the truth. Many, many philosophers. We know the nature of the mind. We know, we know. Oh, here's the right definition. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:30 Highlight the passage at 1:15:30

1:15:50 So there's a lot of teachings out there. We have more access to... Through teachings and spiritual paths and philosophies and scientific insights and speculations than ever before in history. And so in this morass, and now we have it all available by way of the internet, so it's just kind of like we're drowning in a sea of information. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:50 Highlight the passage at 1:15:50

1:16:08 Drowning, just so much. And in a way it's a wonderful thing to have such free access, but it's also, it's trying to listen to a flute solo in downtown Manhattan during rush hour. It's just, it's there. But there's so much more noise. How can you pick out the flute solo? How can you identify what is authentic and what is not authentic? If you're already enlightened, it's easy. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:08 Highlight the passage at 1:16:08

1:16:33 But if you're not enlightened, then how do you recognize, how do you distinguish between the gold and the fool's gold? How do you do that? So the answer is investigation. You follow your intuition. The first tug, the first tug is intuition. At least in my experience. It wasn't analysis. It wasn't intellect. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:33 Highlight the passage at 1:16:33

1:16:52 It wasn't reasoning, it was just like the tug, right? Something intuitive. But of course, intuition can lead us astray because it gets filtered through everything else. Craving, desire, attachment, expectation and so on and so on. So go ahead and let it be moved by your heart. They say in posture, move with your heart first. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:52 Highlight the passage at 1:16:52

1:17:12 You ever heard that one? Let your heart be first, not your head first. Move with heart first. Good. But let your head follow very quickly behind. And that is be moved by intuition, but then check up. Use every bit of intelligence, discernment, discriminating intelligence you possibly have to then check and check and check in every which way. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:12 Highlight the passage at 1:17:12

1:17:32 Check the teacher, check the teaching, check the Saṅgha, check the institutions. Check to see because this is a major investment. This is the biggest investment you ever make in your life. You lose all your money, big deal, you make some more. Lose your whole life, then what are you going to do? If you invested in a wrong teacher, follow a wrong path, something is inauthentic, then that's kind of the most catastrophic mistake you could make. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:32 Highlight the passage at 1:17:32

1:17:56 So you enter by means of investigation first, and then you investigate, you investigate hearing, thinking, and then you go in, when so far it's all green lights, it looks sound, it looks authentic, beneficial, ethical, good, then okay, now go in, and now familiarize yourself. And bearing in mind the Tibetan word for familiarization, gomba, is right next door to the term gomba, which means meditate. So then go in, try it out. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:56 Highlight the passage at 1:17:56

1:18:24 It's like going into a restaurant and then checking the whole menu and then calling in the chef and say, I saw your menu, but now tell me more about the exact ingredients. Are they organic or inorganic? Are they genetically altered? So just really investigate. If you're going to eat there, you might want to be really careful, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:18:24 Highlight the passage at 1:18:24

1:18:41 Especially if you're going to eat there every day. So you'd really want to check out the menu, you want to check out the cook, you want to check out who's cleaning the dishes, are the tables clean, the cutlery thing, you want to check it out totally and then if it all looks good, okay, start eating and see how that turns out. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:41 Highlight the passage at 1:18:41

1:18:56 First investigation, then familiarization. It's really good cautious advice. So do this, novices enter the authentic path by means of investigation and familiarization, so first go to a place of solitude. This is when you're ready. Ready to just go off and launch. Let's see what he says here though. First go off to a place of solitude. Solitude is of two kinds. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:56 Highlight the passage at 1:18:56

1:19:19 There's physical solitude and mental solitude. Physical solitude's easy. Marmots do that. Hermits do that. Misanthropes do that. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:19 Highlight the passage at 1:19:19

1:19:31 Forest rangers who are looking out for fires, they do that. A lot of people do that. Doesn't mean they become enlightened at all. It just means that they're by themselves. People in solitary confinement do that. You know, people in prison. They go into a solitary place. Not voluntarily, but they get it for free. And so first go to a place of solitude, that's physical solitude. That's not so hard for many of us. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:31 Highlight the passage at 1:19:31

1:19:53 But then there's mental solitude, and that's much harder. And mental solitude is isolating yourself, withdrawing yourself, not just from the hurly-burly of the complexity of social interactions in modern life, but isolating yourself from all of the eight mundane concerns. That's actually much more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:53 Highlight the passage at 1:19:53

1:20:12 The concerns to acquire wealth and not lose it. The concern to find hedonic pleasure and not displeasure. The concern to make sure other people are praising you, appreciating you and not despising, ridiculing you. And the concern that your reputation is intact. People admire you, appreciate you, acknowledge you and love you and not the opposite. Those eight mundane concerns. So cut it loose. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:12 Highlight the passage at 1:20:12

1:20:35 Just cut it loose. Let go. And now you can go into solitude. And you will not have all of those hounds chasing you. Of your concern about money and reputation and pleasure and praise and so forth. So two types of solitude, the easy and the difficult. And sit on a comfortable cushion. So he's doing this step by step here. Sit on a comfortable cushion. That's assuming there's a cushion on which you can sit comfortably. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:21:01 If there isn't, then this doesn't work. It doesn't matter whether it's a $10,000 satin and gold plated cushion. If you're not comfortable on it, you've not followed his instructions. Right? Because no cushion by itself is comfortable. Because a cushion doesn't know what it feels like to be a cushion. If you ask a cushion, are you comfortable? I'm not going to say anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:01 Highlight the passage at 1:21:01

1:21:21 So the comfort is all relative of when you're sitting under, are you comfortable or not? And if you're not, then you're not following the teachings. Right? It doesn't matter if you're sitting, but I am too. I'm sitting with a seven point barocchana. My back's killing me, but at least I'm doing it. That's great. You're not following the instructions. You're not sitting on a comfortable cushion because you're not comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21:21

1:21:41 So, he means both. Comfortable cushion. The cushion could be a yoga mat. He didn't say. I'm a lawyer. Where's the loophole? Where's the loophole? Could it be top of the bed? Yep, my cushion is my bed. Lying flat on my bed. My cushion is a, what do you call it, zero gravity chair. That's my cushion. You know, whatever your cushion is. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:41 Highlight the passage at 1:21:41

1:21:59 Where you can sit comfortably and your mind can be alert and focused and you really hunker down and do the work. So, first go to a place of solitude, sit on a comfortable cushion and... Generate bodhicitta. Okay, now this practice is all about Dzogchen. So there's only one suitable motivation for Dzogchen, one suitable motivation for Vajrayana in general, and that is bodhicitta, the aspiration to achieve perfect enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:59 Highlight the passage at 1:21:59

1:22:25 So, step by step, further instructions. With sincere devotion, offer prayers of supplication to your guru and take the four empowerments. So he's assuming that if you're at this point where you've done enough preparation, And that could be 3 months, it could be 3 years or 30 years. It may take you 5 or 10 or 15 years, who knows how long to find a teacher that you really feel, this one I'm really, it really, this is a good match. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:25 Highlight the passage at 1:22:25

1:22:54 This is, the term I've looked at it for decades, Guru in Sanskrit, Lama in Tibetan, their equivalent. Spiritual mentor, I think it's as close as it gets. Spiritual mentor. It is a mentor. It's not simply a teacher. Tibetans have another word for teacher, the gege. That could be a language teacher, an art teacher, any kind of teacher. So it's more than a teacher. It's not a priest. It's a mentor. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:54 Highlight the passage at 1:22:54

1:23:20 But not a mentor for tennis or a mentor for cooking. All kinds of mentors, right? It's a mentor who is really a spiritual mentor. And by spiritual, I don't mean to introduce you to spirits. But rather a mentor to take you on a spiritual path, and a spiritual path is simply one that is entirely oriented around the increasing realization of genuine happiness, eudaimonia, liberation and awakening. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:20 Highlight the passage at 1:23:20

1:23:47 And a guide, a friend, a teacher, a mentor who is capable, qualified and compassionate and motivated to guide you along such a path. And you have a good chemistry with that person, that person is qualified, you have faith, confidence, trust in that person. You know it's a good, sound, healthy relationship, then that's your guru. And you can have one, and you can have 50. I have about 40. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:47 Highlight the passage at 1:23:47

1:24:14 Atisha had 60. I don't think I'm going to catch up to him. And so, this is for people who have found their guru, but don't rush it. Just like it's a terrible idea to rush into a marriage. Really? I mean, just generally, isn't that true? Terrible idea to rush into it? This is a terrible idea to rush into a guruship as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:14 Highlight the passage at 1:24:14

1:24:33 Terrible idea. Take your time. It's a big, big decision. So with sincere devotion, offer prayers of supplication to your guru. And then take the four empowerments. As you'll see, four empowerments. This is classic Vajrayana, highest yoga tantra. The Vasa empowerment pertaining to the body. The fusion of your body with the Vajra body of the guru. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:33 Highlight the passage at 1:24:33

1:24:54 The Vasa or water empowerment. The second one, the secret or crown empowerment. This pertains to speech. Your speech, the Vajra speech of the guru. The Wisdom Primordial Consciousness, the Shadap Yeshigi Wang, Wisdom Primordial Consciousness Empowerment, or the Vajra Empowerment, the third, pertaining to the mind, of course. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:54 Highlight the passage at 1:24:54

1:25:12 And then finally, the Culminating Empowerment, the Word or Bell Empowerment. And this is the one, for those of you who received it, I think probably I won't break some eye by commenting how simple that one is. Because the earlier ones may entail the vas and the water and drinking water and various ritual instruments and chanting and so forth. And likewise for the secret empowerment, the wisdom, primordial consciousness empowerment, there does tend to be an array of ritual practices, ritual items, maybe taking substances and so forth, a drop of alcohol, what have you. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:12 Highlight the passage at 1:25:12

1:25:46 But when it comes to the word empowerment, it's kind of like then it's just this total silence. That's not like, oh, now I give you the word, it's Aum. It's not, it's not like that. This word empowerment, that corresponds directly to Dzogchen. Dzogchen. So that's a fourth empowerment. So you can do this on your own in the eight-week retreat we completed. So we're doing that on a daily basis, really following in the footsteps of Jujjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:46 Highlight the passage at 1:25:46

1:26:17 So you're really creating a sacred space with your motivation, with your bodhicitta, with your devotions, taking the four empowerments. And it's right there. That you're taking the four empowerments, it's right there that you're jumping boat, jumping in the boat. You're jumping out of the boat of yourself as a sentient being. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:17 Highlight the passage at 1:26:17

1:26:39 That's nominally true. There's no pretense here. There's no pretending that something that isn't true is true. Sometimes Vajrayana has practiced that way. I think it's fraudulent. There's no pretending here. If you don't understand emptiness, then it is pretending. But if you do understand emptiness... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:39 Highlight the passage at 1:26:39

1:26:55 Then you know that your very identity as a sentient being is something conceptually designated and does not exist prior to and independent of conceptual designation. If you really understand that, that from your side, where you're looking out from, so I'm looking over at Randa, and there's someone looking back from Randa's side, I presume. That one looking back from Randa's side is not looking back from the side of a sentient being, inherently really there where my finger's pointing. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:55 Highlight the passage at 1:26:55

1:27:22 There isn't one. You might think there is one. Look for it. When you have a sense that there's really someone there lingering in your practice of awareness, that there's somebody in there and doggone it, it's me. You know, like me with a grimace, me. Like sentient being, that bugger that's kind of like a tick, like an itch, like a rash. When did that bugger ever go away? That me, that big looming presence of me. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:22 Highlight the passage at 1:27:22

1:27:49 Sentient being, not a very nice one. And then you say, but wait a minute, this is the Wizard of Oz. As you look for it, pull back the curtain, there's nobody there. It's just a big spooky apparition, like a mirage. There's nothing there. So you look for the senjit being within yourself and lo and behold there's this great exaltation. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:49 Highlight the passage at 1:27:49

1:28:08 Oh hallelujah. There's no one there. There is no senjit being there. And if there isn't, then just dissolve it. Dissolve any vestige of it. Dissolve even the nominal imputation of yourself as a senjit being. Knowing that it has its relative. You don't have the truth from that perspective, but you're dissolving that perspective, deconstructing that perspective, dissolve into emptiness, dissolve right down to what remains in the absence of all conceptual designation. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:08 Highlight the passage at 1:28:08

1:28:40 And what remains is primordial consciousness which transcends all conceptual constructs. Primordial consciousness doesn't come into existence because you designate it. That would make it just a little excretion of the conceptual mind, which it's definitely not. It proceeds, it's timeless, it's beyond space and time. That's all that's left of your awareness when you dissolve all vestiges of your mind as that of a sentient being. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:40 Highlight the passage at 1:28:40

1:29:05 And from that ground, that pristine awareness, primordially indivisible, from Dharmadhatu, which is emptiness, out of that, then you conceptually designate yourself. Body, speech and mind non-dual with the body, speech and mind of Padmasambhava and from that or in that process you receive the four environments of Padmasambhava and it kind of like seals it. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:05 Highlight the passage at 1:29:05

1:29:27 It seals it, right? There's this indivisibility of my mind, Padmasambhava's mind and right on through body, speech, mind and the indivisibility of body, speech and mind which corresponds then to the word empowerment. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:27 Highlight the passage at 1:29:27

1:29:43 So there's your preparation. And this is very dense because I've seen the more elaborate ones. And man, this is like a compact disc or it's like a microchip. He brings in so much here in very few words. It would be easy to spend the next six days on the next couple of paragraphs or next, what do we have, three and a half, four days. So with sincere devotion, offer prayers of supplication to your guru and take the four empowerments. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:43 Highlight the passage at 1:29:43

1:30:09 Then... Identify the primacy of the mind among the body, speech and mind, dispelling any uncertainty about this point. Boy, that was short. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:09 Highlight the passage at 1:30:09

1:30:21 It's in one sentence. And for a Tibetan, that might take about a day. In the 19th century, there's no competition. There weren't any materialists in Tibet. I mean, really, there weren't any. There were Muslims, a few Muslims. They're not materialists. Quite a few Bhumpos, they're not even remotely material, and the rest are Gelu, Kagyu, Sakya, Nyingma, they're all Tibetan Buddhists. So they heard about materialism as something that was a really dumb idea that people talked about a few advocates during the time of the Buddha, but then everybody laughed it off and it never came back. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:52 It was like some old mummified, you know, dead philosophy that they only read about in books of ancient, crazy ideas. And now it's reared its head. And so this becomes a hot topic nowadays. And of course, happily, in Eurocentric civilization, in most, many, well not all, but many places, societies around the world, we really have total freedom to investigate this on our own. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:52 Highlight the passage at 1:30:52

1:31:19 This is a point of investigation. Among body, speech and mind, which one's primary? It's a very simple question. Which one's primary, which one's derivative? And every materialist will tell you the body is primary and the speech and the mind are simply derivative, emergent properties, quality of the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:19 Highlight the passage at 1:31:19

1:31:35 And that idea goes back to Aristotle. It goes back to Galen, one of the great early physicians of Rome and Greece. So it's been around for a long time and now it's totally dominating academia and dominating the press that your brain is the agent. Your brain is doing everything. Your mind is fluff. It's an epiphenomenon, it's simply a function of what's really doing the work and you, you probably don't exist at all. So the vote has been cast and the academia, government policy and media are now, have all jumped onto the bandwagon with hardly any dissenting voices because you get fired if you dissent that among body, speech and mind, body is primary. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:35 Highlight the passage at 1:31:35

1:32:17 Well it's either true or false and the issue here is investigate it as much as you need to investigate. And if you come out with the conclusion the body is primary, I'm very glad you have the freedom of that thought, but you may as well stop reading right here. Because there's just no point in going further. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:17 Highlight the passage at 1:32:17

1:32:30 You'll not be practicing Dzogchen if you proceed. And that's fine. I really am not upset at all. People want to think the body is primary. Live with that and see how it turns out. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:30 Highlight the passage at 1:32:30

1:32:41 But you may as well stop reading right here if that's really a conviction. This is not asking anybody to get brainwashed. It is saying, do investigate. And if through very careful investigation, and I spent about 20 years doing it, to the point that, as you can see, I just cannot possibly, by the greatest stretch of my imagination, take materialism seriously anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:41 Highlight the passage at 1:32:41

1:33:02 It's hard for me to do anything other than ridicule it, which is not a very skillful means. But I have put in the time, because I figure this is important. So from my mind, this is just no longer a question. So I guess I have myself. I will claim this. There's just no uncertainty in my mind about it at all, and not based on authority. It's by reading rather exhaustively philosophy of mind, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, etc., etc., and saying, what's your case? Report an error in the passage at 1:33:02 Highlight the passage at 1:33:02

1:33:28 Make your case. Make your case. And it's a hall of mirrors. It's a straw man. It's bullshit. But that's just my view. One way or another, come to uncertainty about this point. Then... And you must see. The mind is, that is if you want to proceed, if this is the path for you, then you will come to the conclusion by whatever means, quickly or slowly, directly or in a very roundabout way, the mind is primary. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:28 Highlight the passage at 1:33:28

1:33:53 Awareness, consciousness is primary. It's only by way of awareness that there is speech. There is no speech. There's just noise without mind. There's just vibrations in the atmosphere. And there's no experience of the body. There's no experience of the body. There's no experience of the bardo. Without mind. So again, one can elaborate, but he does this in one sentence. I just said, do it. Do it until there is no more any uncertainty about this. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:53 Highlight the passage at 1:33:53

1:34:19 And then, so there it is. I'll just tell you what it's like. It winds up, all of the weight goes to the mind, to the point that actually in Tibetan tradition, sometimes there's a bit of, how do you say, negative side effect of that. I know it's true. I mean, I'm utterly persuaded this is the correct conclusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:19 Highlight the passage at 1:34:19

1:34:39 But then, I know from my own self, as well as observing the scene in Tibetan Buddhism for the last 45 years, the, how do you say, the conviction that among body, speech and mind, or more just simply put, between body and mind, the mind is overwhelmingly more important. This is what continues on from life to lifetime. The body's around for a little while, turns it to, you know, manure or fertilizer. And with that strong emphasis on mind, mind, mind, mind, Report an error in the passage at 1:34:39 Highlight the passage at 1:34:39

1:35:09 It all too often happens in Buddhism as in Hinduism and in Christianity. The body gets overlooked. And even really fine monks and scholars and yogis don't pay careful attention to their diet. They don't do any real exercise. They do get fat even without eating much. They get fat because they're not exercising at all and they're not eating properly. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:09 Highlight the passage at 1:35:09

1:35:32 And they get diabetes and they get hypertension and then they get strokes and they have heart attacks and they get... Terrible health, and then they can only walk around on crutches. Their minds are fabulous, but the body, terrible. So that's kind of a side effect that we, in our materialistic society, maybe not a good idea to follow that aspect. Because it's really sad, because I've known some superb yogis. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:32 Highlight the passage at 1:35:32

1:35:59 One Gen Chambawandhu, amazing. He was one of my teachers. 25 years, something like that, in retreat. He lived on these metal chulen, these flower essence. He lived on them for months. Where you just shift your whole digestive tract, your whole metabolism shift, because you're just taking this flower essence and you don't, after two weeks you don't excrete, there's nothing more, your whole system is cleaned out, you've just shifted to a higher frequency. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:59 Highlight the passage at 1:35:59

1:36:23 You're taking in only what the body assimilates and it gives out nothing except for, you know, drink as much as you like and you pee. And he lived on that for months. The Chudan Rinpoche, same thing, I just read that, Chudan Rinpoche, when he was in that basement for 20 years. He's living on Meadow Chulin. That's astonishing. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:23 Highlight the passage at 1:36:23

1:36:42 Now, happily, Chudin Rinpoche lived quite old. Oh, again Chamawanda, he was a jewel. Lama Zopa knew him. He was a jewel. He died in his fifties. Died in his fifties. Didn't take care of his body. Oh, he was an ascetic ascetic. He was an incredible son, incredibly sweet man, too. So sweet, so generous. But he told me once during, you know, during the years that he was, you know, during some of the years, he said, and they're dead poor. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:42 Highlight the passage at 1:36:42

1:37:10 You know, they're just dead poor. You got nothing. And he said, oh, before the years, my lunch was, I'd take some atta, some brown flour, I'd put it in a cup, and I'd pour in some boiling water, and I'd stir it, and then I'd sloop it with my finger, and that was lunch. And he said, I wasn't happy. He was happy, but he didn't live very long. And so I wish he'd lived longer. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:10 Highlight the passage at 1:37:10

1:37:36 So, primacy on the mind, that's all very well. But then, now that you've done this, now that you see the mind is called the all-creating sovereign, the all-creating monarch. The mind is primary. Mind is primary. Sounds a lot like you've become a citta matran, a mind-only advocate. You've gotten very close, if not actually fallen right into that, which is a very profound philosophy, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:36 Highlight the passage at 1:37:36

1:37:58 But it sounds like you've gotten there. And then he says, after you're at least flirting with citta matran, or maybe you just say, yeah, citta matran, that's it. Then carefully investigate this so-called mind. The translation is very careful. It's very precise. Investigate that which you call the mind, your own. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:58 Highlight the passage at 1:37:58

1:38:18 Investigate this, which you call the mind, in terms of its initial place of origin, where does it come from, its location, once it's arisen, where is it, and then when you lose your mind, like every time you fall asleep and so on, where does it go? Where does it come from, where is it, where does it go? Classic, classic Vipassanā practice in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions. Analysis of these points. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:18 Highlight the passage at 1:38:18

1:38:42 So he's just telling you the question and telling you the answer. There you do. You check this out and you check it out. If it takes five years, it takes five years. But you check it out until you have clarity, decisive insight. And he said, well, he's just going to give away the plot. He's got very few words here, so he's going to just tell you. Analysis of these points reveals the emptiness of its origin. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:42 Highlight the passage at 1:38:42

1:39:05 The mind doesn't really come from anywhere. It's not really located anywhere. It doesn't really go anywhere. This reveals the emptiness of the origin, location and destination of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:05 Highlight the passage at 1:39:05

1:39:17 Bump right into Chittamatran and then you nuke it. You nuke it in the sense of this mind that is the all-creating sovereign is empty of origination, empty of location, empty of destination. It has no inherent existence and you've just now moved beyond Chittamatran. And you've moved right into the middle way view of Nagarjuna. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:17 Highlight the passage at 1:39:17

1:39:38 And that's where they stay. Nagarjuna's middle way view is the philosophical foundation for Dzogchen. Period. Completely compatible. And Jujum Lingma makes that extremely clear, Longchen Rapjamba makes it clear, His Holiness Dalai Lama makes it clear. So anyone that thinks that the Madhyamaka is somehow incompatible with Dzogchen, or one person mentioned to me that somebody, some Galupa thought that in Dzogchen they're still holding on some vestige of ego grasping, they're simply insufficiently informed. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:38 Highlight the passage at 1:39:38

1:40:10 I'll try to keep my voice very gentle. Insufficiently informed, but they don't know what they're talking about. So let's take a break. It's 20 minutes, so let's come back at 4 o'clock on the button. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:10 Highlight the passage at 1:40:10