Transform Your Mind & Change Your Life Retreat - 7-Point Mind Training from Atisha (part 27)

0:04 Quite Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:56 a close analogy. And that's of dreaming. We started out with a few phenomena as if they're dreams or dream-like. So now let's take just a dream. Let's imagine it's a non-lucid dream. It's a thought experiment. Imagine you're just cruising along in a dream. A long dream. And you just find that you're just finding no satisfaction. You go from one place to another, relationship to another. No satisfaction. Report an error in the passage at 0:56 Highlight the passage at 0:56

1:23 You keep on pursuing all over the place, going here and there. Never finding really satisfaction. And finally you just kind of get disillusioned. Like I think if I go to another place, it can be more dissatisfaction. Not finding that which I'm seeking. And then you find someone, maybe you're looking in the wrong place, looking outwards, pursuing, pursuing, pursuing. Maybe you should stop pursuing inside. Report an error in the passage at 1:23 Highlight the passage at 1:23

1:49 And of course part of the unrest, the dissatisfaction, the restlessness, the agitation and delays is what you're bringing to every situation. Every relationship, every job, every place, every acquisition, you're bringing your discontent with you. So don't think you can run so fast that you can outrun it. Report an error in the passage at 1:49 Highlight the passage at 1:49

2:08 Or you can become so absorbed in a relationship or a place and what have you that it will somehow be left behind. It won't be. So why don't you turn inwards to the source of your discontent rather than trying to obscure it, overcome it, overwhelm it with outside stimuli. And so the person teaches you Samatha. Helps you find a bit of peace of mind, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:08 Highlight the passage at 2:08

2:28 But it's a long dream. And it's long enough you actually achieve shamatha. So there you are in the midst of the dream. You're dreaming along and then you're just going deeper and deeper in samādhi. Your dreaming consciousness dissolves away. The whole dream appearance is all dissolved away. Your body within the dream dissolves away. Report an error in the passage at 2:28 Highlight the passage at 2:28

2:47 And you're just resting there. Withdrawn entirely from the dream. All the activities, the people and so forth in the dream. And you just drop right into the substrate consciousness. But you drop into it lucidly. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:00 Gradiently, clearly you've achieved shamatha. So there you are just resting in that respite, that withdrawal, that break from all the activities, the comings and goings of the dream. And you're just resting in this sublime stillness of luminosity, bliss. But then sooner or later you have to come out. Report an error in the passage at 3:00 Highlight the passage at 3:00

3:18 And so you start dreaming again. And you come out and you seek that meditation teacher, that guide, that yudamonia guide, whatever you call on that, him or her. And say, that was good, but I keep on coming out. And I come out. You know, I kind of lose it. And so it's really nice to go in, but I keep on coming out. And is there anything more you can tell me? Because this was good so far, but it doesn't seem, it's not completely satisfying, especially when I come out. Report an error in the passage at 3:18 Highlight the passage at 3:18

3:43 So can you give me anything more? Because this seems like I'm on the right track. And then the guide says, well, sure, sure. Why don't you, now that you have this inner sense of well-being, you know, you don't have to look outside for it. So you can forget that, you know, it's not going to be out there. Report an error in the passage at 3:43 Highlight the passage at 3:43

3:58 Why don't, now that you've re-engaged with me and the dream and so forth, why don't you start checking out what's the nature of this reality? Why don't you check it out? Because it appears like everything's really out there, right? Well, let me help you along here. Why don't you start investigating whether things really do exist in the manner in which they appear, as really out there. Report an error in the passage at 3:58 Highlight the passage at 3:58

4:16 Check it out from physics, philosophy, majamage. Check it out any way you like, but use your full intelligence. To really probe into not whether you're dreaming or not, or whether this is, of course, you're not even calling a dream, you're calling it reality, because you're not lucid. So the guide is just saying, well, just check out the things you're seeing. Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:35 And ask yourself, probe into how do they exist. For that matter, ask yourself, how do you exist as a person? How does your mind exist? Examine everything that appears to be by its own nature, but does it really exist in that fashion? Report an error in the passage at 4:35 Highlight the passage at 4:35

4:49 Probing, probing, probing, practicing Vipassanā. Probing into how phenomena exist. Are they really there from their own side? And you start probing into one phenomena after another and eventually turn right in upon your awareness. And of course we know the person's dreaming and that person doesn't know he or she is dreaming. And just comes in and sees the mind too is arising always relative to, relative to. The mind is also not intrinsically, inherently, self-sufficiently existent. Report an error in the passage at 4:49 Highlight the passage at 4:49

5:13 It's also arising relationally. And all the objects I identify, all the appearances that I see, they're not, it turns out, they're not really out there. They're arising relative to. And you see, this is all kind of a system, all appearances, all empty appearances. Because there's nothing behind them that's objectively real. Report an error in the passage at 5:13 Highlight the passage at 5:13

5:31 And there's nothing behind the appearances of myself as a subject that is the real subject. It's all empty appearances, empty awareness, empty appearances. And the guy says, yeah, how would you describe it? How would you describe your experience? This is really dreamlike. Really, really dreamlike. Just empty appearance is really like a dream. And then the guy tells you, really dreamlike, is it? No, it's not. Report an error in the passage at 5:31 Highlight the passage at 5:31

6:01 This is a dream. And with that, you shift the axis of your perspective. Rather than viewing the dream within the context of the dream, from the framework of a dreamed person, you've just taken to heart, this isn't like a dream. This is a dream. And suddenly the bottom drops out. And you're no longer viewing it from the perspective here within the dream. You're viewing it from a perspective that transcends the dream. And that is the dream in consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 6:01 Highlight the passage at 6:01

6:36 And you've just become lucid. And you're looking at the same dream, but now you're seeing it from a radically different perspective. You're awake within the dream. And now you see instantaneously, because you had all that preparation, the Shama de Vipassanā. With this insight, already knowing that all the phenomena in the dream are empty of inherent nature, not objectively real, not subjectively real. And now that you're viewing the whole dreamscape, including yourself and the teacher and the environment, you're seeing it all from the perspective of an awakened consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

7:09 That is, you're awake within the dream. You have instantaneous freedom because you know that you are now free of suffering. Nothing can happen in the dream that can possibly harm you. Because you know it because you're awake. And just that alone then, how do you say, reinforces the insight, makes absolutely certain the insight that now that you're viewing the dream from the perspective of being awake, recognizing the dream as a dream, then of course you know. Report an error in the passage at 7:09 Highlight the passage at 7:09

7:38 Because you know this is a dream, then of course there's nothing out there that is real from its own side and nothing in here in terms of the dream persona of yourself within the dream that's really here from its own side. They're all empty appearances. But you're seeing that not from within the dream, but from a state of awakening. So that's a metaphor. Report an error in the passage at 7:38 Highlight the passage at 7:38

8:01 So the Buddha was once tracked. He had very unusual footprints. And he was tracked by, I think he was a wandering ascetic, his name was Drona, D-R-O-N-A, Drona. And he saw the footprints of the Buddha in this island, like a tracker, like a deer hunter, like a deer tracker. He saw these tracks, the exceptional footprints of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 8:01 Highlight the passage at 8:01

8:22 And he just, who made these footprints? I mean, that's... That's weird. And he traced it, and he's following, he's like a tracker looking down, and then he comes up, and there's the Buddha. And his immediate impression of the Buddha was just overwhelming. Like he was just seeing this radiant being, the likes of which he'd never seen before. He was really taken aback, awed by just the sheer physical presence of the Buddha, just radiant, just taken aback, and really unusual appearance as well, and let alone the footprints. Report an error in the passage at 8:22 Highlight the passage at 8:22

8:53 And he just turned to him with awe and said, Are you a god? And that was a very reasonable question in India 2,500 years ago. They did have the notion of gods appearing among human beings, ancient Greece and so forth, a very common notion. So that was not a silly question. And he turned to the Buddha and said, are you a god? Because that would have been really good sense to him. And the Buddha said, no, I'm not. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:18 He said, well, are you an elemental being, some kind of like an earth spirit or something like that? Are you that? Are you like an elemental being? Report an error in the passage at 9:18 Highlight the passage at 9:18

9:28 The Buddha said, no. Are you a celestial being, like an angel or something like that? The Buddha said, no. Then he said, are you human? And the Buddha said, no. Report an error in the passage at 9:28 Highlight the passage at 9:28

9:55 But he said, I'm awake. I love that story. Report an error in the passage at 9:55 Highlight the passage at 9:55

10:03 Let's make sense of it. The Buddha Gautama, the historical figure, his father was named, he had a father, king. He had a mother. She gave birth to him in an unusual way, but nevertheless, she was a human female, and she did give birth to him. So mom and dad were both human. He married a human, and they had a human baby. Report an error in the passage at 10:03 Highlight the passage at 10:03

10:26 That pretty much brackets him as a human being, your mom and dad, your spouse and your baby. If you're not a human, what on earth is going on here? So, I mean, a very reasonable answer would be, yeah, I have a wife, a child and I have parents and aunts and uncles and cousins and so forth. But he said no. Report an error in the passage at 10:26 Highlight the passage at 10:26

10:44 He said no. So how can he say no? Because we all know about his context and that lineage in which he was born, the Shakyat lineage. Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

10:54 So how could he? Possibly say no to that final one. I am not a human. And I think we can look at it in this way. Report an error in the passage at 10:54 Highlight the passage at 10:54

11:07 Imagine that you're dreaming and you're not lucid. You're not lucid. But imagine now, this is a thought experiment, of course. Imagine that you're dreaming along and somehow a Buddha or someone, maybe your guru or someone, has emanated into your dream, appearing in your dream. And it's lucid. So you're not lucid, but the person... Report an error in the passage at 11:07 Highlight the passage at 11:07

11:31 The encountering is lucid, so an unusual dream. Conceivable. Because not all dreams are closed affairs. Sometimes you have visitors can be mopping in. Unusual dreams. In fact, one student of mine in Phuket, he was dreaming along, and he said, in our weekly meeting, he said, this past week I was dreaming along in a non-lucid dream, and then I encountered somebody, and he said, you know this is a dream? Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:58 And he became lucid. Just by encountering somebody else asking. So he was much better than my audience in that diner. He actually took it to heart and became lucid just by, do you know this is a dream? I said, oh, wow, and he became lucid immediately. So imagine you bump into somebody like that, who actually is lucid, right, knows this is a dream. And maybe this person is, being lucid, is kind of showing off a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:21 Because if you're lucid in a dream, I mean, you can do anything. You can fly, you can walk on water, you can multiply lobes, you can turn yourself into a bunny rabbit. Report an error in the passage at 12:21 Highlight the passage at 12:21

12:30 Really, I mean, you do whatever you like, you're completely, if you're very lucid, there's just, there's no limits. They say the limits are only your imagination. And so imagine this person you meet in the dream is walking on water and flying through the air and doing all kinds of really cool things, really unusual things. Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

12:48 And so then you might ask him, are you, are you God? And imagine, and then the person said, no, I'm not. Are you a celestial being? Are you an elemental being? And no, no, no. But now imagine you still being non-lucid, right? And this is your world, as far as you're concerned, this is reality. And this person is doing very cool but unusual things, unusual footprints and so forth and so on. Report an error in the passage at 12:48 Highlight the passage at 12:48

13:12 But in this case, maybe walking in water doing very cool things like that. And then you turn to this person who is lucid and you're not, bear in mind the context. And you say, are you human? What do you mean by that? You're in the dream, you're not lucid. So if you ask this person, are you human? You're asking, of course, are you human? Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:31 Like me. Which means, do you have a mom and dad? Are you born? Are you going to get old? Are you human? And do you live here? I live here. I'm human. Are you like me? I'm human. Because bear in mind, you don't know you're dreaming at all. As far as, this is it. Right? And I'm human. So you ask this person who's lucid, are you human? And what you're asking is, are you human like me? And Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

14:03 the answer would have to be, no. The person you see has no parents. Is not human. I'm not human like you. I appear to be, yes, but I'm not human like you. I'm not human. And like you means, that's all you mean by human, is like you and other people you know who live there, for whom this is their reality, this is it. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:29 They say, no, I'm not human. And then you say, well, if you're not human, you certainly look human. What are you? I'm lucid. Which places you outside the dream, because you're not located in it. You're seeing the dream as a dream. So you're viewing the dream from the perspective of being awake. Report an error in the passage at 14:29 Highlight the passage at 14:29

14:50 So we can ask, is there a perspective from which it is true to say that our experience here in the suburb of Sydney in the year 2016, on this planet which is 5 billion years old and the universe 13.8 billion years old, and each of us having our parents, grandparents and going back, back, back in time, all very comfortable, if not comfortable, at least familiar with this world of human beings of which we all feel we're full-fledged members. Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:16 Is there a perspective from which this world, in which we inhabit, which we're full participating members as human beings, is there a perspective from which what we're experiencing here in terms of environment and our own identity, is there a perspective from which this is not like a dream, but it is a dream? Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:39 And the answer would be, well, not from the perspective of a psyche, from a man's mind, woman's mind and so forth, not from that perspective. This might be like a dream, but this is not a dream. Compare it to your dreams last night. It's not the same. This is not a dream from the perspective of psyche, woman's mind, man's mind, so forth. Report an error in the passage at 15:39 Highlight the passage at 15:39

15:59 It's not a dream from the perspective of the substrate consciousness. This is the present incarnation. It's not a dream, it's a present incarnation. It's as real as it gets. But from the perspective of pristine awareness, unborn awareness, from the perspective of Buddha mind, and these are all synonymous, Buddha mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:59 Highlight the passage at 15:59

16:18 Dharmakaya, pristine awareness, to tagat garba, Buddha nature. From that perspective, this is a dream. Report an error in the passage at 16:18 Highlight the passage at 16:18

16:34 And so we can ask, now within this context of Mahāyāna Buddhism, is the Buddha aware of us? Is the Buddha aware of you? And the Buddha, Shakyamuni, to whom devout Mahāyāna Buddhas, I am one of them. We make prayers of supplication, we offer devotions, offerings and so forth and so on. We take vows in the presence of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 16:34 Highlight the passage at 16:34

16:54 We receive blessings from the Buddha. And so forth, whether manifesting as Tada, as Manjushri, as Padmasambhava, Buddha, Shakyamuni. But right, we really have an Aidao relationship, a relationship with a Buddha. And we have a sense, this is absolutely classic mainstream Ayana Buddhism, which I embrace utterly, that the Buddha is aware of us. He's not just in some transcendent realm of having a really nice time in some immutable bliss, having turned his back forever, for eternity, on all sentient beings, which is frankly the view of Theravāda Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 16:54 Highlight the passage at 16:54

17:25 The Buddha lived, he died, and now he's just gatte gatte. He's gone, gone. And don't pray to him because he's not listening. And is he existent, non-existent? Well, he can't talk about it. Noble silence. But don't pray to the Buddha because he's not listening, not going to do anything. He's gone. He's immersed in, gone into Nirvāṇa. Report an error in the passage at 17:25 Highlight the passage at 17:25

17:44 That's not the Mahāyāna view at all. Absolutely nothing. It would be so anticlimactic to practice Dharma for so many eons. And then teach only for 45 years and then out like a light. That would be really limited. It's not the view. I don't think that's true for a second. It seems to be impossible. So the view, of course, is that the Dhammakai is unborn, unceasing, omnipresent, everywhere aware. Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

18:13 And viewing with immeasurable compassion. So if we take that, if we accept that, it's not by reasoning, I can't prove it, I've not seen it, but intuition. And we all have to rely on intuition sooner or later. And so, is a Buddha aware of us? If he's not, then what's the point of being a Buddha? If you're not aware of sentient beings, if you're not aware of them, you're not going to do anything for them. So, frankly, you're useless. You're a useless Buddha. A retired Buddha, you know, paying up his socks and just hanging out in immutable bliss, but you're completely useless. Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:52 Except for to yourself, I'm sure that would be nice, but for everybody else who's still struggling in saṃsāra. So, no, I would say the Buddha is infinitely, compassionately aware of all sentient beings. That is certainly the view. So then you can ask for yourself, from what perspective is the Buddha aware of you? Report an error in the passage at 18:52 Highlight the passage at 18:52

19:10 From some Mount Meru? Or from Akanisha, someplace far away in some Buddha land, pure land, looking down on you like Zeus from Mount Olympus? Is it like that? Oh, hello, Mel, I see you down there. Tough going down there, isn't it? I wish you were here. Send you a postcard. Report an error in the passage at 19:10 Highlight the passage at 19:10

19:29 Is the Buddha viewing us from afar, from his divine immutable bliss and so forth, and viewing us poor wandering critters meandering around on saṃsāra? Is the Buddha's view of us dualistic? That he's saying, I'm okay, you're not okay. That I'm over here, you're over there. And I'll try to get you over here, because it sucks over there. Is this the Buddha caught back into dualistic grasping? And of course, there's no way that can be true. Report an error in the passage at 19:29 Highlight the passage at 19:29

20:00 It violates everything they said about Buddha mind in Mahāyāna, Vajrayana, Dzogchen and everywhere. So what is said is that the Buddha's awareness is non-dual. If you're a Buddha, your awareness of everything is non-dual. If it's dualistic, you're a century being. You're right back to the same old, same old, right? Report an error in the passage at 20:00 Highlight the passage at 20:00

20:19 And so from what perspective? Sutton? What's your name? Pema, Pema, thank you. So from what perspective is the Buddha, let's say Tara, for example. Embodiment of a mighty compassion. Feminine. From what perspective is Tata viewing Pema? From up in Tata's pure land or from what perspective? Because if Tata's not aware of you, there's no reason to have any devotion or prayers and so forth to Tata. So she is. She is. And there's blessings. I'm very confident there's blessings in Tata. Report an error in the passage at 20:19 Highlight the passage at 20:19

20:54 Fantastic. That you can really know. So if this is true... I could be completely deluded, but then there's no reason to listen anymore. If this is true, from what perspective is the Buddha Tara, embodiment of Buddha's compassion, aware of Pema? From what perspective, what would you think? Report an error in the passage at 20:54 Highlight the passage at 20:54

21:15 From? Tara's own perspective. Pada? From the Buddha's own perspective. Yeah, from Buddha's own perspective. And what perspective is that? Report an error in the passage at 21:15 Highlight the passage at 21:15

21:27 No, it's just kind of like, I'm seeing you from over here. You're about four feet away. So here we are, person to person, friendly, subject to subject. What perspective? All-pervasive? What does that mean? Yeah? These are certainly true, but from what perspective? Yeah, well, just from what perspective are you aware of yourself? Report an error in the passage at 21:27 Highlight the passage at 21:27

21:56 Yeah, that's not really what I was fishing for. It's some kind of obvious. You're aware of yourself from your perspective, right? From where you are, that's where you're viewing yourself. And I'm aware of you. I'm not trying to grill you, by the way. There's no right answer, wrong answer here. But I'm aware of you from this perspective, right? And then everybody has a perspective on you. Report an error in the passage at 21:56 Highlight the passage at 21:56

22:14 And so I think there's only actually one. I mean, everything he said is correct, but it didn't quite answer my question. And that is, from what perspective is Buddha non-dually aware of your thoughts, your joys and sorrows, your hopes and fears, aspirations? From what perspective? Your perspective. Not outside. If the Buddha's awareness of you is from outside, it's dualistic. Report an error in the passage at 22:14 Highlight the passage at 22:14

22:43 The Buddha's looking through your eyes. And the Buddha's aware of your thoughts from your perspective. Otherwise it would be dualistic. It would be higher and lower, but it's not dualistic. Report an error in the passage at 22:43 Highlight the passage at 22:43

23:00 And so there is a perspective of awareness that is aware of your thoughts, your emotions, your substrate consciousness, bliss, luminosity, non-conceptuality, your mental afflictions, your hopes and fears, memories and all kinds of things. There is a perspective of your very intimate, utterly personal and private thoughts, emotions, memories and everything. There is a perspective on those. Report an error in the passage at 23:00 Highlight the passage at 23:00

23:27 That is the Buddha's perspective. Unborn, unceasing, boundless compassion, boundless light, effortless blessing, effortless. But it's not coming from outside, like a photon. It's not striking from outside. It's from your perspective. But not from your psyche. It's not from this person's perspective, because that's locked into your psyche, mental clictions and all of that, right? And not from the perspective of your substrate consciousness, which is still individuated, very local. Report an error in the passage at 23:27 Highlight the passage at 23:27

23:58 Substrate, very local, it's where you are, it's not over there. So the Buddha's perspective on your experience is clearly not from your psyche, because then the Buddha would be as neurotic as you or I are. Which is then, why become a Buddha? If it's no better than you or me, then what's the point? So the Buddha's perspective on your psyche is not from your psyche. And the Buddha's perspective on your psyche is not from the substrate consciousness, because that's still the perspective of a sentry being. Report an error in the passage at 23:58 Highlight the passage at 23:58

24:23 Kind of an undefined, undifferentiated sentry being, not human or anything else, but still sentry being, right? Still in saṃsāra. So the Buddha's perspective on your psyche, on your body, your experiences, your substrate consciousness, the Buddha's perspective, Tata's perspective, Buddha Shakyamuni's perspective, Maitreya's perspective, is from the dimension of Dharmakaya, of course. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:45 But not somebody else's Dharmakaya. A perspective of Dharmakaya that's not different than your Dharmakaya. Not the same, otherwise you would be Tata, and there would be no sense of being there at all. But not different in the sense of somebody outside looking at you. So neither the one, not identical, otherwise you don't have to practice Dharma, relax, you're already Tata. But you probably have to feel there's work to be done still. But Tata is not someone else either. Report an error in the passage at 24:45 Highlight the passage at 24:45

25:14 So it's neither one nor separate. Neither you as identical to how you conceive of yourself, nor somebody else looking on outside. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:22 That there's a perspective on you and all the dimensions of your physical embodiment, your thoughts, memories, your substrate consciousness. There's a perspective on all of that which is Tata's own perspective, Buddha's own perspective. And it's a perspective of your pristine awareness and not somebody else's. It's not a possession, it's not an invasion of somebody coming out and then bumping you aside like celestial possession or bodhic. Report an error in the passage at 25:22 Highlight the passage at 25:22

25:51 It's not like that. That your Rigpa, your pristine awareness, is not different than, not other than Dharmakaya of Tara. So when you view your own thoughts, images of all the activities of your body, your mind, your substrate consciousness, when you view your presence here in the world from the perspective of your own pristine awareness, then you are viewing your own embodiment, presence in the world from the perspective of Tara. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:23 And from that perspective, you are Tara. Report an error in the passage at 26:23 Highlight the passage at 26:23

26:29 That dimension has never fallen into saṃsāra. So it never achieves enlightenment. And all you have to do is tap into that which is already awake. It's there. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

26:51 So that's unborn awareness. And from the Dzogchen perspective, this is what I've just been immersing myself in the last 26 years. Because when I finally got to it, I was held off for 20 minutes, like having a rock in a slingshot. And one year, two years, three years, five years, twenty years, okay, I'm about to snap. Then I had nothing else I wanted to do. Report an error in the passage at 26:51 Highlight the passage at 26:51

27:13 Because it's what I wanted to do from the very moment that I first learned anything about Tibetans. The first taste was Dzogchen. I didn't understand anything, really. I mean, that's not humility. I read this book, the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. I don't think I understood much of anything. I just intuitively felt, this is it. I've now found what I'm looking for. Report an error in the passage at 27:13 Highlight the passage at 27:13

27:32 This is the place. This is the path. So, this is the Dzogchen interpretation. I'll examine the character of unborn awareness. Report an error in the passage at 27:32 Highlight the passage at 27:32

27:44 And Padmasambhava, when he teaches that method that I shared with you in the earlier session, of examine the nature of the observer, examine the nature of the agent, he said this may be sufficient. He's teaching that in the context of shamatha, in the context of shamatha. But he said this for those who are gifted, those who are quite ripe, sharp faculties. Report an error in the passage at 27:44 Highlight the passage at 27:44

28:05 This simple practice, resting in awareness and then verting in upon the observer, upon the agent. If it's controlling, releasing, controlling the mind, that may be sufficient for cutting through your psyche and even cutting through the substrate consciousness and ascertaining pristine awareness. That simple technique there, just inversion, might just shatter the glass of reification of my mind and my substrate consciousness, which is local, crystallized and reified. Report an error in the passage at 28:05 Highlight the passage at 28:05

28:32 It may shatter that, just like a glass, and then you break right through to that which is always present. That may be enough. That may be sufficient. Report an error in the passage at 28:32 Highlight the passage at 28:32

28:42 Or the practice we just did, more of a softer touch. Just noting, this is the condition, this is the mind, this is the mind. And when you've seen the spectrum, the bandwidth of the mind and the permutations, the flavorings of consciousness, and even the subtle levels of blissful, luminous and unconceptual, when you've seen the flavors, you've seen the bandwidth of the conditioned mind, the arising mind, the samsaric mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:42 Highlight the passage at 28:42

29:07 And then you can ask, what is aware of that? And is there a dimension of awareness that is not that, that is unborn, primordially unmoving, not in time, not in space, and completely inexpressible and inconceivable? And that may be sufficient to cut through. So when you cut through, then the question is, can you rest there, or do the old habits start coming up? Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:35 And then your sindrigal force flying out into your mind again, and carried away again and again and again. And then reifying. And reifying this and reifying that. And oh yes, I am a sentient being. That was a nice talk, but now I'm firm. I'm a sentient being. I'm not a Buddha. And grasping, grasping. Report an error in the passage at 29:35 Highlight the passage at 29:35

29:53 So the question comes, if you do get a taste, you receive pointing out instructions, and you get some glimmering, some taste, some crack in the door, opening in the clouds, and you see, you do examine and identify the character of unborn awareness. Can you rest there? Or do you go back? Report an error in the passage at 29:53 Highlight the passage at 29:53

30:15 And that's what Samad and Vipassanā are for. To be able to get there and then go for total immersion until you really know truly and irreversibly that you are a Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 30:15 Highlight the passage at 30:15

30:29 That's a little commentary. I'm examining the character of Unborn Awareness. So, see you at 7 o 'clock. Yeah, 7 o 'clock. One hour and 50 minutes. 55 minutes. I can't have to do it this time. That can be enough. See you at 7 o 'clock. Very good. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29