Dzogchen Retreat 2015 - Realising our true nature (part 27)

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:31 It's said in the Pāli Canon that sometimes when the Buddha would become, in terms of appearances, a bit fatigued, need a bit of rest, he'd just go off into the jungle and go into shamatha, just rest in shamatha, fourth jhāna, fourth jhāna shamatha. So it's been kind of an intense day, and once you've been delving into Vipassanā and then trying to walk that tightrope of non-meditation, then shamatha may seem like a piece of cake. Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

1:03 To shamatha. So hang out. Have 24 minutes. Choose the shamatha method of your choice. Mellow out, chill, relax without falling asleep. Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:15 If you can. Be Report an error in the passage at 1:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15

· · · silence, 26 minutes

27:38 like you're my valet. Report an error in the passage at 27:38 Highlight the passage at 27:38

27:43 I'm properly dressed now. I'm decent. Not really decent, but I am properly dressed. So this is called the illumination by primordial consciousness of the face of the great perfection of saṃsāra nirvāṇa. So that's the great perfection right there. Viewing all of reality, saṃsāra nirvāṇa. As you have being of one taste, of equal purity from that perspective. So once you've reached there, once you have arrived, you really have become a Vidyadhara. Report an error in the passage at 27:43 Highlight the passage at 27:43

28:11 And the first stage of being a Vidyadhara is called the fully matured Vidyadhara. And by his own account, Dujyum Lingpa achieved that manifestly in that life when he was about 27. Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:25 And then he continued practicing. All modification, alteration, hope, fear, doubt, negation, affirmation, grasping, exertion, investigation and analysis. All of these aspects. And all of these having a role in practice. These are not all mistakes. These all have a role, right? Report an error in the passage at 28:25 Highlight the passage at 28:25

28:46 All of these are imputed by the intellect. They're activities involving the intellect. And the intellect is not the ultimate. So as Shantideva says in the ninth chapter, the wisdom chapter of A Guided Bodhisattva Way of Life, the ultimate is not in the field of experience of the intellect. The intellect cannot embrace, cannot capture. It's not up to it. It's locked into the framework of relative truth. Report an error in the passage at 28:46 Highlight the passage at 28:46

29:16 So the intellect is not the ultimate. The ultimate is not apprehended by the intellect. The ultimate transcends the intellect, so you must know this critical point. And again, this is not anti-intellectual. I hope that's all very clear. And this is what the whole issue of path is about. If one understands the path, everything fits. If one doesn't understand the path, one might, and I don't know how you could have made it clearer, but not all texts are this clear, then one might simply superimpose all the teachings as if you were to practice them all at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 29:16 Highlight the passage at 29:16

29:46 And then you might think, okay, I'm about to start practicing Dzogchen. And so I have to transcend the intellect, I mustn't use my intelligence. Okay, I can do that. And then you go right in, thinking that's the entry to the practice. You're right, Andrew, a bit silly. But there is a point at which you've used your intellect. You've used it to the point of the perfection of intelligence, perfection of wisdom. You've used it. Report an error in the passage at 29:46 Highlight the passage at 29:46

30:09 You've used it for what it was best used for. You finally made use of that frontal cortex, which is such a massive overkill for merely survival and procreation. I mean, really, what do we have all that intelligence for if it's not for this? Because we certainly don't need it just to survive and procreate. So, you must know this critical point. Report an error in the passage at 30:09 Highlight the passage at 30:09

30:32 The point, and it's a very extended point, of using the intellect, investigating, evaluating, doing all you can to really do your best to practice well. And then there's a point at which it's served its purpose and then you leave it behind and you just rest. And where you rest, we have prajna, And then we have jnana. A jnana is this primordial consciousness. You perfect your cultivation, your development of prajna. Report an error in the passage at 30:32 Highlight the passage at 30:32

30:59 And then you might recall that there are four perfections after that. After the six perfections, then there are four more. And the fourth of those, the culminating one, is the perfection of jnana, primordial consciousness. And that's not developed. That's simply now perfectly unveiled. So those are the differences. You develop your intelligence. And you can enhance your intelligence. Report an error in the passage at 30:59 Highlight the passage at 30:59

31:20 Studies were done not long ago that by developing working memory, I won't try to elaborate, we need to tend to the text, but some simple exercises for developing working memory, it's a technical term in psychology, for a relatively short period, six weeks or so, they found that people who got that training, developed, enhanced their working memory, their IQ went up 20 points. Report an error in the passage at 31:20 Highlight the passage at 31:20

31:41 That's intelligence, and you can actually expand this. That's really good news. And there are brain correlates. Just yesterday or the day before, somebody, oh, my friend in Singapore, sent me a short YouTube of one of the TED Talks, something I actually knew about, but it was still interesting. And that is that fresh neurons are still being generated well into adulthood, even into, you know, my age. And they're generated freshly, brand new neurons, in various parts of the brain, but the most well-known one is the hippocampus. Report an error in the passage at 31:41 Highlight the passage at 31:41

32:12 And not very large number proportionately, but it seems according to this genetics researcher who was giving the talk, even though the numbers are small, they're very significant. Report an error in the passage at 32:12 Highlight the passage at 32:12

32:25 But then they can be retarded, the generation of fresh neurons. The word on the talent for a long time was once you hit age 20 or so, your neurons are just kissing them goodbye for the rest of your life. They're just dying off. Report an error in the passage at 32:25 Highlight the passage at 32:25

32:42 It turns out that that's not the case. It's really good news. And I heard about it in one of the Mind and Life conferences, one of the world experts, a man named Rusty Gage, a world-class geneticist. So I heard it from his own mouth. And this was a student of his. He gave this TED talk. But it turns out, and Rusty Gage mentioned this, and this was a talk he gave to the Dalai Lama. Report an error in the passage at 32:42 Highlight the passage at 32:42

33:01 And again, I was one of the interpreters. And that is that your environment, your conduct, and also it turns out your degree of exercise, diet. And various other things can all contribute to the generation of fresh neurons, but they can also impede. So stress, for example, inhibits the growth of fresh neurons. Report an error in the passage at 33:01 Highlight the passage at 33:01

33:21 Dark chocolate is good. Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:28 So dark chocolate advocates like to say dark chocolate is for smart people and milk chocolate is for stupid people. But I don't think that's fair. Report an error in the passage at 33:28 Highlight the passage at 33:28

33:38 Hola, so let's get back to this. laughter laughter laughter Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

33:40 But the whole point is, I mean, clearly the intellect, the intelligence is definitely tied into brain function. You can harm it with drugs, with all kinds of things. It can be harmed naturally through senile dementia and so forth. You can enhance it, you can use it. So it's definitely flexible. There's just no question about it from all sides. Neuroscience, psychology, Buddhism and so forth. When I was in Buddhist school of dialectics, I was being trained with... Report an error in the passage at 33:40 Highlight the passage at 33:40

34:07 After about several months, I was the only Westerner there. The other ones all got sick and went home. So I was the only survivor. And it was tough going. We lived on a dollar a day back then. But in any case, the training itself was outstanding. And we were told it's called the Riklam Lapta. It was called the Buddhist school dialectics. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:26 But we were told by the instructor right at the beginning, this training is designed to make you more intelligent. It's designed to make you more intelligent. And it's memorizing, spending an hour or so a day memorizing. So we wound up memorizing 150 pages over the first year and a half that I was there. Report an error in the passage at 34:26 Highlight the passage at 34:26

34:41 And then you're spending five hours a day debating. And you exercise. It's like working out in a gym. And you come better, more vitality, strength, resilience and so forth working out. You're working out. You're working in the gymnasium of intelligence. And it's true. That's what I saw. Is you're developing your stability by way of, to draw the shamatha parallel, you're developing your stability by way of memorization. It really does it. Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

35:08 And that's what they're teaching the little kids, the little chipmunks, you know, little baby monks. It's primarily memorization. They're so cute. I mean, what can you say? They're really a chipmunk. And so, you know, right across the hill from where we were, there was this Namgyal Institute and you get all these little chipmunks, you know. Report an error in the passage at 35:08 Highlight the passage at 35:08

35:25 And they'd be lined up, and they're all memorizing. They're doing a bit of study, but mostly they're being prepared to memorize hundreds of pages of liturgies, of pujas, of rituals and so forth. That's their job. That's what they're being trained for. And you'd see them, I remember it so vividly to this day, these little kids, like 8, 10, 12 years old, and they're all sitting on the side of a hill, and they're reciting what they've memorized. Report an error in the passage at 35:25 Highlight the passage at 35:25

35:50 And they're going... They have a melody, and they're doing... What's that called in the Jewish tradition? Anybody know? And they have a word for it. But the Jews do the same thing, where you're bobbing, you're bobbing like that. And they're doing it in a melody, and you've got 20 kids there, and they're all chanting something different. You've got a lot of company. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:17 And so they're all chanting something different, and they're all doing it at the top of their voices so they can hear themselves. So if I go louder, you have to go louder, but you go louder, but now you're going louder, I have to go louder. And so it's really quite a circus. That's very good for attentional stability. If you can continue reciting what you've memorized, while 20 kids around you are all reciting something else all at the top of your voices, and you're not freaking out, you're developing attentional stability. Report an error in the passage at 36:17 Highlight the passage at 36:17

36:43 And what about vividness? That wakes you up. The debating courtyard. It makes you really sharp, really sharp. So that's their basic training and it's all designed to make you more intelligent so you can take an intelligence and really investigate the teachings and then hopefully all of that will yield very, very sharp, very clear meditation. Report an error in the passage at 36:43 Highlight the passage at 36:43

37:04 I found it quite a brilliant pedagogical system, really quite extraordinary. Oh, Lazo, back to the text. The ultimate transcends the intellect so you must know this critical point. When you're utterly settled, You're now totally at rest, you're at ease, you're doing nothing, right? You're not doing anything better. It's not like you're doing nothing, you're not doing anything. Report an error in the passage at 37:04 Highlight the passage at 37:04

37:28 When you're resting, you may still fall into error. It's possible you may start that, just that. You may fall into a detour. You may fall into error and while you are present in the aspect of emptiness, you're really experiencing that emptiness. Thoughts may become hidden, and that is you dissolve into that vacuity, that silence, then thoughts may go subliminal. Report an error in the passage at 37:28 Highlight the passage at 37:28

37:54 They may go implicit. They may become hidden. And that means they're veiled. And then, because they are hidden, they're beyond the scope of creative expressions of pristine awareness. You don't see them. You don't perceive them as being creative expressions of pristine awareness because they have now been hidden. Which means then... Report an error in the passage at 37:54 Highlight the passage at 37:54

38:15 An element of unawareness has slipped into your practice. In this case, I say that thoughts become ethically neutral in the boundary between the mind and pristine awareness. In other words, you're not fully resting in pristine awareness and seeing, not imagining or pretending or visualizing. You're not seeing the thoughts as clear, unimpeded expressions of pristine awareness. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:41 You're not really seeing them as the mind either because, again, they're subliminal. So they're caught in this never-never land, kind of a no-man's land between mind and pristine awareness. You're kind of resting in pristine awareness, but it's somewhat shrouded. So even here there has to be perspicacity, a real clarity and discernment. Report an error in the passage at 38:41 Highlight the passage at 38:41

39:00 Not veering away from the nature of existence of the great perfection of saṃsāra nirvāṇa. Not veering away. Not slipping off to either extreme. It's a sublime and utterly critical point. So there's a tremendous amount of finesse here. This is why you need that tremendous foundation in shamatha and in vipassanā. Report an error in the passage at 39:00 Highlight the passage at 39:00

39:22 With it, by resting in that great perfection, with it all gods and demons and all of samsata and nirvāṇa are liberated within themselves with no distinction of good and bad. And when he says no distinction of good and bad, this exactly means from your perspective there's nothing for you to cultivate. Report an error in the passage at 39:22 Highlight the passage at 39:22

39:40 Like, oh, this is good. I'll give my effort to that. And, oh, this is bad. I better bring out an antidote. They're all liberated within themselves. This is the point exactly of rangdol. They release themselves. Gods, demons, saṃsāra, nirvāṇa, mental afflictions, virtues, they arise as clear effulgence of pristine awareness and they dissolve right back into that ultimate ground. Report an error in the passage at 39:40 Highlight the passage at 39:40

40:04 And there's nothing whatsoever for you to do. And yet you're not stagnant. It's not like just sitting in a shamatha and just going nowhere. You're sitting in an ethically neutral state and there's no progress. You're not getting better at anything. Whereas here you're resting in Buddha mind. And so yes, there's a natural flowering here. Report an error in the passage at 40:04 Highlight the passage at 40:04

40:29 That ranjin neruk, ranjin neruk, those of you who look by background, looking at the two aspects of Buddha nature, ranjin neruk, the natural abiding Buddha nature, which is simply the ultimate ground. And then the gyakyuki rik, the evolving Buddha nature, well here the evolution is happening spontaneously as you rest in the ground. You're not doing anything. Report an error in the passage at 40:29 Highlight the passage at 40:29

40:50 You don't need to because you're resting in pristine awareness. And everything will flow from that unimpededly. So it's not stagnant. It's unfolding to the point that your realization of rikpa becomes conceptually unmediated, non-dual. And it's at that point that you become the vidyadara. A fully matured Vidadhara, and you have achieved the first Arya Bodhisattva ground. But it's not the same achievement as an Arya Bodhisattva who's just achieved the first Bhumi, or first ground, because that Arya Bodhisattva is realizing emptiness with subtle mind, and you're realizing emptiness, same emptiness, but you're realizing it with pristine awareness, with the innate mind of clear light. Report an error in the passage at 40:50 Highlight the passage at 40:50

41:34 So there's a point, you see this everywhere, the glukas are so clear on this point. Whether you're a Shravaka, Arha, Torah, An Arya on the Shravaka path, the emptiness you realize, that's emptiness. If you're an Arya Bodhisattva, the emptiness you're realizing, same emptiness. You're a Vidyadada, realizing emptiness with the innate mind of clear light, same emptiness. That's a perfection of wisdom. That's the wisdom aspect. But in terms of the skillful means, the motivation of the Shravaka is very, very different from the motivation of a Bodhisattva. Report an error in the passage at 41:34 Highlight the passage at 41:34

42:08 The mind realizing emptiness of this Arya Bodhisattva is still a mind conditioned within saṃsāra. It's a subtle mind. And so that is profoundly different than the mind, the awareness of the Vidyadhara realizing emptiness. One can say in that realization of emptiness by a Vidyadhara, which is of course simultaneously realizing Buddha nature or pristine awareness, there's a perfect symmetry, a perfect symmetry between that which is apprehended and that which is apprehending. Report an error in the passage at 42:08 Highlight the passage at 42:08

42:37 They're still subject-optic, nominally speaking. From your experience, do you see that over there and this over here? No. But when you come out of meditation and you're trying to put it into words that may be helpful for others to come to that realization, you say, that which apprehends is pristine awareness, personified as Samantabhadra. Report an error in the passage at 42:37 Highlight the passage at 42:37

42:55 That which is apprehended is Dharmadhatu, personified as Samantabhadri. Samantabhadri... Badri Or emptiness, absolute nature phenomena, Dhamma Datu, is unborn, unceasing, timeless. And here the perfect symmetry. Your awareness of it is unborn, unceasing, timeless. Whereas if you're an Arya Bodhisattva realizing emptiness, there's an asymmetry. Because the emptiness is the same emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 42:55 Highlight the passage at 42:55

43:23 It's unborn, unceasing, timeless. It's nirvāṇa. But your awareness of it is conditioned. It's arising from moment to moment to moment. That's different. So this is very powerful. This is why... It's so much swifter. It's just this. It's so much swifter than simply following the Suryana path. Report an error in the passage at 43:23 Highlight the passage at 43:23

43:44 So everything is liberated all by itself. So now he's jumping to something that is not self-explanatory. On the occasion of extinction into ultimate reality, okie dokie, so you get to that state of becoming a fully matured Vidyadhara and you proceed along the path. At some point you ascend to the next level, which is a Vidyadhara with mastery over life. Report an error in the passage at 43:44 Highlight the passage at 43:44

44:09 Second one, you continue on the path of unfolding, you become a Mahamudra Vidyadara. You continue on the path, you become a spontaneously actualized Vidyadara. And corresponding to those four states, you achieve, you realize the four visions. And the first vision is the vision of the direct perception of ultimate reality. Report an error in the passage at 44:09 Highlight the passage at 44:09

44:31 That is that initial realization, simultaneous, of primordial consciousness and Dhammadhatu. of a fully matured Vidyadhara. So that's the vision of the direct perception of ultimate reality, dharmata. You continue in the practice, you become then a Vidyadhara with mastery over life and that corresponds to the vision of progress in meditative experience. Report an error in the passage at 44:31 Highlight the passage at 44:31

44:56 Something is unfolding here in terms of the way phenomena are appearing to you. Pure vision is now arising spontaneously. Without visualizing your environment as a mandala, without visualizing deities and so forth, these pure visions are now starting to naturally arise effortlessly, with no visualization whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 44:56 Highlight the passage at 44:56

45:15 You continue in the practice and you become a Mahamudra, Vidyadhara, corresponds to the third vision, which is the vision of reaching consummate awareness. Consummate awareness. It's very, very deep now, very close to enlightenment. And now... Pure vision is just saturating your experience altogether. You're just moving out of the whole realm of impure vision generated by prior kreśa and karma. Report an error in the passage at 45:15 Highlight the passage at 45:15

45:42 All of that is just kind of like unveiling, unveiling. So all that you're seeing are these pure, unmediated, unfiltered, pure appearances right from pristine awareness, right from Dharmakaya. And then there comes the culminating phase on the path. And that's where you become a spontaneously actualized vidyadada and the corresponding vision is the vision of extinction into ultimate reality, into dharmata. Report an error in the passage at 45:42 Highlight the passage at 45:42

46:09 Prior to that point, you look in all directions and it's all pure vision. You're seeing the five Buddha families, you're seeing mandalas, you're seeing bindus. It's the kind of things that you visualize in state regeneration. It's all happening spontaneously with no visualization, all arising effortlessly. And so you're really living there. When you get to that... Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:28 Third stage, that reaching consummate pristine awareness. It's just pure vision everywhere. You own, of course, yourself. But your whole environment, one can say, your whole environment is simply divine. It's divine. And you're not imagining anything, just what appears. And then you come to the culmination of this. And then all these appearances are extinguished. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:51 They dissolve right into dharmata, into the dharmadattu. And there's an extinction, a vanishing, a dissolution of all appearances. And you're almost a Buddha at this point. On the occasion of extinction into ultimate reality, all such appearances, all these pure appearances, and there aren't any more impure appearances, they've all vanished, all such appearances subside into their own inner luminosity. Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:16 It's like they all withdraw into the inner luminosity of the Dharmakaya itself, like the dissolution of illusory apparitions. After an illusionist has made the play, made all these illusions, all these apparitions, then he simply dissolves them. It's like that. Or like the moon in an empty sky, like the moon in an empty sky vanishing into space. And it is as if the crystal light of unobscured primordial consciousness subsides within. Report an error in the passage at 47:16 Highlight the passage at 47:16

47:52 It's kind of like... Maybe it's cheesy, but I'm going to give it. It's like a star going supernova. And then just like, like all these pure visions. And then it's as if they go, and they all dissolve into a black hole. Just all drawn in. So inside the black hole, I'm speaking metaphorically, but it's an analogy, of course. It's like all the light's now inside the black hole. Report an error in the passage at 47:52 Highlight the passage at 47:52

48:18 Intense, I mean, almost perhaps infinite light, but also inside. So you can't see from outside. So all those pure appearances, all drawn in, drawn inside. Report an error in the passage at 48:18 Highlight the passage at 48:18

48:34 So from your own perspective, activities, now what happens? Then you achieve perfect awakening. Then you achieve a perfect awakening. And you emerge, and you emerge from that state. And then all your appearance, you're still in the center of your mandala, and all appearances from your perspective are pure appearances of Buddha mind. Report an error in the passage at 48:34 Highlight the passage at 48:34

49:01 But you also inconceivably have non-dual awareness of everybody else's mandala from their perspective. So you know what it's like to be Pema from Pema's perspective. Report an error in the passage at 49:01 Highlight the passage at 49:01

49:14 But you're Buddha. But you're looking through Pema's eyes or Rhonda's eyes or Charles' eyes. You know everybody's mandala from their side. It's not dualistic. You're not up on Mount Buddhahood looking down on others. You are everywhere. But your own perspective, everything pure vision. But you know that from Randa's perspective, it's not always pure vision. Sometimes really bad days, good days and so forth, everything else. And so your compassion for Randa is completely non-duo. Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:41 You're not seeing her over there and feeling sorry for her if she has a bad day. And so then the emanations flow unimpededly, effortlessly. Emanations for the Arya Bodhisattvas and so on as Sambhogakaya. Emanations for all manner of sentient beings, unimpeded, everywhere throughout space, manifesting in the Manakaya. Report an error in the passage at 49:41 Highlight the passage at 49:41

50:03 To serve the needs of sentient beings wherever they may be. And all of these emanations are effortless. So from your own perspective, activities for the sake of others are as effortless. The nice metaphor that's given is as effortless as a full moon on a clear night sky, emanating reflections of the moon in a myriad of ponds and other bodies of water. Report an error in the passage at 50:03 Highlight the passage at 50:03

50:27 And if another pond suddenly appears, it doesn't take the moon any extra effort. To cast another reflection there, all spontaneous. You just need to have a pool. So the radiance from the inner glow of the expanse manifests as the naturally unimpeded five khayas and five Buddha fields. Now that radiance is flowing forth unimpededly, effortlessly, manifesting in all the five types of embodiments, the five khayas, manifesting in all the five Buddha fields, and from them the creative expressions of compassionate nirmanakayas. Report an error in the passage at 50:27 Highlight the passage at 50:27

51:02 Our self-emergent teachers who are the disciples' own perceptions. So all these namanakayas are appearing in the mandalas of all the disciples, everyone who is seeking the path, and that you appear in their mandala. So that's it. He's just described the entire path to enlightenment and its culmination. And then he ends. He's going to, as we'll see tomorrow morning, he's going to basically, I'd say, review this in verse. Report an error in the passage at 51:02 Highlight the passage at 51:02

51:31 But he's finished with his prose. He's covered the whole path. And he states, since I've not entered the treasury of hearing and reflection, that is, he's not gone to monastic school, did not receive training, he's not had teachers and so forth, and I've not served even one sublime spiritual mentor, not one human being. Report an error in the passage at 51:31 Highlight the passage at 51:31

51:49 So he basically says, I'm uneducated and therefore I'm not skilled in composition. So please don't be dismayed with me. Please don't be upset. If you're looking, well, where's your erudition? Where's the text you cite? Where's the text? Where did you show that you know Longchenba and you know the other great masters and you know the tantras? Report an error in the passage at 51:49 Highlight the passage at 51:49

52:10 Hey, where are the citations? What do you actually know? Because all he told about was his own experience and the direct visions he had. So no indication here of erudition, no indication of ever even having an education. So he said, if you're disappointed, well, I'm sorry, please don't be upset. But he did just give you the entire path to enlightenment from his own experience. Some of that should come for something. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:34 See you at 7 o'clock. We'll cover the verse tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 52:34 Highlight the passage at 52:34