Oskar:
What are these qi gong exercises for? Any spesific yogic purpose I
mean? (Comment to this
video).
Kim:
Hi Oskar. I come from a tradition that combines dharma practice
with martial and fine arts. But I realise it is very difficult for me
to answer what would be the purpose of it. Well, there are common
reasons, like learning to unify the body and to move with a unified
body. This alone is a tremendously rewarding learning process and we
can all understand what is the benefit of learning how to use and
carry our bodies well aligned. You don't learn this from only doing
sitting practices, nor you learn it from Western sports. From the
purely physical perspective, Alexander technique is somewhat close to
what is done in (specifically) Chinese "inner martial arts"
but what is done inwardly in Chinese arts, that knowledge is entirely
absent in modern sports and forms of exercise whatever they may be.
The result of this can be seen how (fit) people carry their bodies,
how people jog and so on. There is no inner structure, no inner
composition or understanding how the body could be used in optimal
fashion. Regarding the internal aspects of what I am
doing on the video, I wriote this few days ago:
http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2021/07/doing-nothing-just-stand.html What
you are seeing on the video is atiyoga from one perspective of mind,
while simultaneously using dynamic concentration (active mental
pushing while doing the pushing movement). Here from the point of
view of mind, the basic state and the action of dynamic concentration
(in the form of physical and mental pushing) are of same taste, and
not two separate things. Typically active mental
pushing, called yi in Chinese, pronounced ee in English (the yi in
yiquan, lit. intent), in inner martial arts is practiced just like
mindfulness is cultivated by mindfulness practitioners. Mindfulness
is always momentary and then you get distracted. Thosewith excellent
concentration abilities can remain mindful for as long as they want
but this doesn't mean that the basic state would be there as a sort
of bedrock. So, to me, merely cultivating active mental pushing (yi)
in yiquan momentarily, just like the practice of mindfulness, is
incomplete. This is the reason why I spent years in dharma practice
stabilising the basic state. Now when it is stabilised, I feel ready
and very motivated to give my inner state an external expression,
here through this movement. And as you can see there are no
“gaps”. To me, all forms of practice have always
been about reality and it's expression and this is also of course how
Terayama Sensei taught. But even long before that,when I started judo
at 7, I wasn't interested about belt colours or competing. It's been
a life long haul and now finally, with unshakable confidence, I can
focus on inner martial arts and bodywork. I don't know
what I can accomplish through this but because I took a vow of trying
to bring zen arts to Westerners and people of the world, that is what
I will do.
Kim:
The most difficult thing in (chi gong, zhan zhuang or yiquan)
practice is to remain perfectly and yet effortlessly aware. To apply
intent (yi), whether gentle or explosive, is momentary. Yi is
started, it is kept and it is let go. This is yi.
We
can compare this to any kind of concentration exercise and as anyone
who has ever tried to keep one's focus (yi) on a single task for
anything longer than few seconds, the various thoughts, ideas,
memories and impressions make the mind distracted. This is also the
case in yiquan. Although not all yiquan methods use this, typically
an yiquan practitioner uses certain mental visualisations to learn
about (1) the necessary correct alignment of the body, where the body
is unified and joints are open and (2) to study the mechanics of well
aligned body by applying gentle or forceful visualisations. This
whole methodology is based on the principle of concentrated focus and
being mindful of both the visualisations as well as sensations in the
body.
For
a long time in my own yiquan as well as meditation practice, I was
interested to find the kind of ”basic mind” that is always
present, always clear and never distracted. For a long time when I
tried to stand zhan zhuang or sit in meditation without doing
anything, without yi, I would sooner or later get distracted by
different mental fluctuations. Then as my practice kept progressing,
I started having longer and longer periods when this undistractable
basic mind was there. This in turn made it possible to really ”just
stand, doing nothing”. Little by little, I could just stand,
without using yi, without getting distracted.
To
me personally as I have been a ”spiritual seeker” as well as a
martial artists since I was a child, it has been a great relief to
finally, after decades of searching, lots of practice, study and
experimentation, to be able to ”just stand” without getting
distracted. I have met and studied with a number of yiquan, chi gong
and tai chi teachers but it is very difficult to find a person who
would be able to discuss this (which is why I began this thread here
now, in case others have this issue too). Anyhow.
My
inner martial art practice has been on and off as I realised pretty
early on that if I wanted to find and establish this ”basic mind”
in my practice, I would need to focus on meditation first, and then
only after that take it into martial arts.
I
don't actually feel like a ”martial artist” anymore, not for a
long time because I don't have any interest in fighting or match
skills, not really even push hands.
From
Mingyur Rinpoche's In
Love with the World, about
16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje:
”The
Karmapa reported that he could maintain his awareness throughout the
entire day, and track the dissolutions [of the senses] right up to
almost
falling asleep. Once he was asleep, he would again recognize his
awareness. But there were a few moments each night, just before
slipping into sleep, when he lost his recognition of awareness, and
he sought help on how to eliminate this interruption.”
”In
the essence traditions (tantra, mahamudra and dzogchen) the theory is
that this is all about buddhanature and awakening to your true
nature. Another thing that came out in essence traditions that is
really strong is the appreciation that it's not all about suffering,
that the positive qualities of mind are much better to facilitate
meditation practice, and much better for mental health than just
eradicating suffering. Eradication of suffering doesn't lead to the
positive qualities of mind, you have to develop them and it's
important. There is a lot of positivity in this Third Turning of the
Wheel.”
”Our
eyes are always pointing at things we are interested in approaching,
or investigating, or looking for, or having. We must see, but to see,
we must aim, so we are always aiming. Our minds are built on the
hunting-and-gathering platforms of our bodies. To hunt is to specify
a target, track it, and throw at it. To gather is to specify and to
grasp. We fling stones, and spears, and boomerangs. We toss balls
through hoops, and hit pucks into nets, and curl carved granite rocks
down the ice onto horizontal bull’s-eyes. We launch projectiles at
targets with bows, guns, rifles, and rockets. We hurl insults, launch
plans, and pitch ideas. We succeed when we score a goal or hit a
target. We fail, or sin, when we do not (as the word "sin"
means to miss the mark). We cannot navigate without something to aim
at, and while we are in this world, we must always navigate.”
Dr. Jordan Peterson
Animals,
most of them anyway, remain attentive of their surroundings. They do
this to know whether they are safe or not. Human beings also go into
this primitive mode, for example in stressful situations. Soldiers of
special forces, such as SEALs, are taught how to disengage from
tunnel vision caused by fearful reaction by returning peripheral
vision by looking left and right, which is a classic meditation
exercise in the buddhist tradition. Our gaze reveals and reflects our
mental state, whether instinctual, habitual or meditative.
Seeking
from Outside
In
the above quote, Dr. Peterson describes what in yogic teachings is
called seeking from outside. Yogic tradition says that
unsatisfied beings seek pleasures and relief to their existential
confusion outside of themselves, rather than from within. It is an
instinctual habit for humans to seek happiness and acceptance from
outside. We try to fill the void within with foods, drinks, love,
sex, money, possessions or by asking affirmative responses from our
boss or parents. We go about our life by trying to fill the void
within. However, the nature of all experiences, pleasant or
unpleasant, is that they pass and therefore cannot make us
permanently content.
The
tragedy of habitual seeking is that it takes a lot of repetition and
a solid belief in the material world, until people begin to realise
that pleasures are fleeting. A new car or an amazing orgasm won't
keep us happy for long. When relief and satisfaction vane, again, we
begin to seek from outside and so it continues. We blindly follow our
wants and desires. This is cyclical existence, going around in
circles, bumping our head to the same wall again and again. This is
ignorance of our true condition.
Becoming
Aware of the Origin of Looking
Teachings
of yogic meditation are primarily interested in breaking the vicious
cycle of seeking. It is unsatisfactory so why keep repeating it? When
we manage to do that, stop seeking from outside, our mind comes to
rest in its natural condition. When that happens a recognition of our
natural state takes place. At that moment, our mind meets and
merges with its source. This source is called by many names in
religious and philosophical traditions. The name for it is
irrelevant, may those so inclined debate on that. However, the actual
experience of it changes lives and liberates.
There is nothing more satisfactory than knowing oneself without a
narrow identity and a storyline. The thought of this experience might
be scary but the actual experience is very pleasant, imbued with
freedom, clearmindedness and creativity.
So,
we aim our attention to our externals. We project our gaze to things.
We looks at things, one after the other, we seek, we seek, we seek...
When we do this from morning until night, we become tired because our
vital energy gets scattered. What happens here can be compared to
beacon that projects its beam of light outwards. As mentioned, this
is seeking from outside that can never make us happy.
A
simple way to stop looking outside is to bring our attention back to
the physical eyes and the area behind the eyes inside our head. When
we become aware that we have gone into the searching mode, looking at
things external to us, we simply bring our attention back into the
head or back to the source of beacon's light. This can be learned
after a little bit of experimenting.
What
happens with this is that becoming aware of the source of looking,
interrupts seeking (1) and makes us aware of our natural mind (2)
that is effortlessly aware and knows things, experiences and events
appearing in the mind.
Fulfillment
Tradition
of yoga is very old. It has specialized in solving existential
problems caused by the sense of us having a self or me within us, in
our thoughts, ideas and emotional reactions. Through the valuable
teachings and meditative exercises such as the one above, it offers
to solve our internal conflicts by making us aware of our liberated
condition. Numerous generations of female and male practitioners have
verified, that such methods are effective in solving neurotic and
deluded behaviour. By becoming aware of our instinctual and habitual
human animal behaviour, yogic practice helps us become clearminded,
satisfied and realistic human beings, not by adding anything to us
but by recognising what we already are.
Physical
and energetic bodies are three-dimensional, awareness is
non-dimensional.
Practice
of dharma is centered on removing dukkha or unsatisfactory and
confused existence, as is taught in the Four Noble Truths.
Existential confusion means perceiving our life in dualistic
fashion. Because we perceive ourselves as individual entities or
selves, we get confused and suffer. When this self-based dualistic
perception does not arise, even momentarily, that is a moment free
of suffering.
Introduction to Tibetan Heart Yoga: Lecture about the Principles:
Selfing
is spread over the energetic body or mind. It can be removed
according to the laws, functions and mechanisms of the mind. Selfing
cannot be removed by denying it or by disregarding the way how the
mind works. Selfing cannot be thoroughly removed by physical
exercises or by the means of plain awareness approach alone,
although both are very relevant. Psychology cannot be bypassed. If
profound transformation or realisation is attained it is through the
delusion stored in your mind, not in any other way.
Tibetan Heart Yoga: Guided Practice:
When
samsaric mind is ”seen through” by sutra or tantra practices, it
gets transformed into wisdom mind. Seeing through refers to the
principle of vipashyana meditation which means ”seeing clearly”.
Seeing clearly or vipashyana is a principle that can be applied in
sutric or tantric fashion. When a mental element, such as a thought
is seen through, it means that the self-charge in it is released.
Thereafter it has no binding power that causes selfing. In this way,
our sense of self is seen through and released by piercing through
it, not by transcending it. As vipashyana practices are applied, the
practitioner's mind becomes growingly more lucid, while one's true
self, selfless awareness, becomes the dominant mode of living.
Samsaric
mind, in other terms, the psychology of man, has four main aspects:
1.
subject-self
2.
object-selves referring to thoughts and emotions
3.
subconscious mind (energetics inside the physical body, bhumis 1-6)
and
All
aspects of the mind correlate directly to energy channels (nadi) and
energy centers (chakra). The ”mind” consists of numerous energy
channels and centers. Having a samsaric mind that goes round and
round in thoughts, emotions, fantasies and dreams means that the
channels and centers are filled with junk, junk that is our selves
with all the habits, tendencies, needs and drives.
By
tantra practice, all of samsaric mind is transformed into wisdom
mind. This means that the self-charge, self-delusion, is released
from the mind elements. This is the outcome of vipashyana practice.
”Wisdom mind” means that all the thoughtforms and formless
energies of the subconscious mind (numbers 3. and 4. together)
become embodiments of awareness itself. When the self-charge is
released from mental elements, their true nature is experienced.
True nature refers to qualities such as sense of freedom, openness,
lucidity, clarity, lightness, elation, naturalness, aliveness and
utter ordinariness. All these are qualities of awareness or buddha
nature.
In
tantra, the self-charge is removed with the help of a guru and
buddha-deities, that the master or guru has assigned for practice.
In Open Heart we ask blessings and meditate many different masters
of the Mahasiddha Family,
but the main masters are Guru Padmasambhava and Guru Ma Yeshe
Tsogyal. Buddha-deities are cultivated through singing and repeating
mantras, verbal sounds, which are the main technique of tantric
yoga. Also Guru Yoga is one of our central practices where master's
presence is invoked and felt in one's own bodymind.
Deities
are always learned or received through empowerment given by the guru
or his representative so that the practitioner gets the deity or
deities correctly.
In
Tibetan Heart Yoga, there are over 20 different buddha-deities. The
list can be found
from the website.
By
using mantras relating to buddhas, the practitioner's mind goes
through a transformation where the self-charges are released from
all mentioned areas of the mind systematically. While some effects
can be instantly experienced, thorough transformation takes time and
committed effort because selfing is so deeply ingrained in the
channels and centers of the energy body.
In
addition to mantras, the practices include mudras (hand gestures),
visualisations and breathing techniques.
Open
Heart-method includes three approaches: sutra, tantra and dzogchen.
Tantra is recommended to householders because it is easy to learn
and practice, and it gives fast results. Results of Tibetan Heart
Yoga can be observed from publicly released bhumi studies from the
Open
Heart-blog and Open
Heart-YouTube-channel.
The
first task in practice is to open the bhumis, all the way up
to the 11th bhumi which is the first ”mahasiddha
bhumi”. Throughout this process one has glimpses and
insights into the selfless nature of the mind and also grows
in experiencing natural awareness.
When
the 11th, 12th and 13th bhumis open
up, awareness becomes one's default mode. Opening of the 11th
bhumi brings an important paradigm shift as one mostly rests in the
natural state. There is no need to ”get back to it” anymore.
From this point onwards, tantric and dzogchen practice is continued
for the reason of removing all habits, tendencies and karmas which
in other words is perfecting the bhumis.
First
(of three) stages of buddhahood is attained when the whole energetic
body, including all channels and centers, relating to the four
aspects of the mind, and the first 10 bhumis, is fully purified.
After this there are no impulsive actions in one's mind at all.
Being a ”buddha” means being free of one's mind while still
having it. This is what the famous line from the Heart Sutra means:
”Form is emptiness, emptiness of form. Form is form, emptiness is
emptiness”. A buddha does not experience selfing at all and
because of this is no longer a samsaric being. The first stage of
buddhahood could be described as ”mental nonduality” while the
latter two stages, referring to 12th and 13th
bhumis concern ”physical nonduality” and the so called ”light
body” or ”rainbow body”.
In
Open Heart, attaining the first stage of buddhahood where all of
psychology has dissolved into awareness, is seen as a realistic goal
to be achieved in this body and life. It is not something that
should be postponed because that is what we truly are.
Mother
Awareness** (rigpa, zero dimensional), Child Awareness united with
Mother Awareness
*Child
Awareness: State of pure awareness related only with one's personal
bodymind. When tapped in full equals with the Open Heart-definition
of a fully attained arhat, perfection of bhumis 1-6. Subtly
dualistic.
**Mother
Awareness: State of pure awareness related with one's personal and
the larger energy body, extending beyond one's personal aura. When
tapped in full equals with the Open Heart-definition of a buddha,
perfection of bhumis 1-10. Nondualistic.
Two
modes of mindfulness that disregards the natural state
Intention
or concentration without Awareness* as the base
Attention
(three-dimensional) without Awareness** as the base
*neither
Child or Mother Awareness
*Training
in one-pointed concentration where an object is used as a support to
one's shamatha meditation that simultaneously disregards
three-dimensional space and the natural state or awareness.
Dualistic.
**Training
in effort-based attention applied to three-dimensional space such as
in space gazing which disregards the natural state or awareness.
Dualistic.
Two
modes of mindfulness that takes the smaller natural state into
account
Intention
or concentration with Child Awareness as the base
Attention
(three-dimensional) with Child Awareness as the base
*Training
in one-pointed concentration where an object is used as a support to
one's shamatha meditation that simultaneously does not disregard
three-dimensional space or the natural state, that is, awareness.
Subtly dualistic.
**Training
in effort-based attention applied to three-dimensional space such as
in space gazing which does not disregard or exclude the natural
state, that is, awareness. Subtly dualistic.
Two
modes of mindfulness that takes the full natural state into account
Intention
or concentration with Mother Awareness* as the base
Attention
(three-dimensional) with Mother Awareness** as the base
*Application
of one-pointed concentration from within the fullness of the natural
state, or Mother Awareness. Nondualistic.
*Application
of three-dimensional attention from within the fullnes of the natural
state, or Mother Awareness. Nondualistic.
I feel these three are a
continuum. They are both practices and principles. In intention
and attention there is effort (practice) which are absent from
awareness. I feel it is the effort which make the two former feel
burdensome. That effort begins to feel something extra and needless
the more awareness that is not a practice becomes flesh. But because
the psychological mess is great and compulsive, is the reason why the
principles of intention and attention, the practices, are needed and
useful.
Awareness is home. As the
Tibetans I've called it rigpa but it is foreign language which brings
in the element of "Ooh, something mystical and exalted".
But it is actually very natural, extremely natural. It is so natural
that at first it feels amazing because we've used to having a messy
and confused. Anyway, I think too much
emphasis on "emptiness", "transparency" and "no
qualities" can and does actually give artificial colouring to
the experience itself. Yes, awareness is empty of self and
transparent but it is also brimming with life. Being aware is like
living in a jungle, in a rain forest. There is so much life in a rain
forest! Alive! As is rigpa. Not dead, not dull, not blank. If we
connect with awareness from the head space only, it is clear,
transparent and pronouncedly empty of self. But the aspect of
aliveness, or love, makes a connection with the rest of the body,
especially the heart space, without excluding the head. Head and
heart together. Clarity and aliveness joined. Manjushri and
Avalokiteshvara having a party together.
Five years ago I wrote a
book called Four Houses of Enlightenment which is an explanation of
the so called four dantiens (ch. dantien, jap. tanden) known from
Taoism (and it's various practices), and their relation to natural
awareness (rigpa). Since then, my understanding of these four
doorways has changed and developed. This text is a concise version of
this topic.
Inside the space of the
physical body there are three (non-physical) areas that act as
doorways to natural awareness. I like to call this natural awareness,
or rigpa, simply as ”home” because that is what it is, our home
as clear, calm, loving and knowing awareness, devoid of me, yet
having a will.
Each of these doorways are
areas about the size of one's own fist. First is at the lower belly,
slightly under the level of the navel, deep in the gut. Second is
deep inside the chest and is sometimes referred to as the ”spiritual
heart”. Third is inside the head at the level of the eyes. Fourth
is not inside the body (and is not the size of one's fist) but
relates to the three highest of the seven chakra-centers above the
head. These three chakras also relate to what in Open Heart Bhumi
Model are known as mahasiddha bhumis. Through all four of these one
can access home, if the instructions are correct. I say that the
instructions need to be correct because there are many teachings that
basicly teaches about this and yet doesn't.
The way how one can use
any of the doorways is to bring one's attention to the mentioned
location and just be openly aware of what happens in one's body and
mind. The doorways are sort of like balls or bubbles that one's
awareness has to penetrate and unite with. This is something that
cannot be done with force, but rather with gentle attention. The way
how you know ”you're in” is that seeking, questioning and selfing
stops. Your mind becomes clear, lucid and subtle brimming with life.
At first it will be short moments until it grows on you but even
short moments make a difference.
In the beginning it
doesn't matter which door you choose as your main doorway.
Essentially all the doors ”get you to the same location” even
though they have subtle distinguishing characters as well. In the
long run, I feel, it is importat not to get stuck in using only one
doorway because this has the potential pitfall of onesided
interpretation.
The four doorways are not
four separate things, but one underlying whole. As is taught in
orthodox dzogchen, there is one special energy channel (tib. kati,
skt. amrita nadi*) that goes from the eye balls to the crown and to
heart, similarly there are these four doorways. These doorways are
not ”made of” ordinary energy channels but of extraordinary ones
that are beyond cause and effect. These areas do not store karmas but
are ever pure and clear. They are doorways to home for anyone. And
everyone is invited.
*according to Machig
Labdron
When we are talking about
these four doorways, we are really talking about the most profound
essence of all yogas. This is the teaching of great perfection or
dzogchen. There is nothing more profound than this.
About two years ago I was
taught a series of meditation practices by mahasiddha Vimalamitra.
This series is known by the name of Wisdom Meditations or Vimalamitra
sem dzin in Open Heart-teachings. We have an ongoing 3-year
meditation course that focuses on these practices.
However, I have to admit
that regarding the mentioned first doorway, I didn't understand it
until very recently. You see, the way I understood this doorway was
how it is cultivated and applied in Japanese rinzai zen buddhism. I
trained in that tradition for a couple of years back in the day and
always remained a big ”tanden” or ”hara” fan. However, at
some point I started to feel that essentially it is mistaken to teach
about the energetic tautness of the lower belly or hara because then
one is really stil working with the ordinary channels and energetic
sensations arising from them. I feel that the way it, gut practice,
has originally been in zen buddhism must have been the way I am
presenting it here but whether this is historically true or not
doesn't make a difference. When going in through the doorway of the
gut, there is no tautness and there is no need to cultivate or build
a ”strong hara” with special kind of body posturing and breathing
techniques as the Japanese traditions say. One is not working with
ordinary pranic energies here. Therefore, I feel, that at some point
in history some mistakes lurked in into zen buddhism and probably
taoism also. But gee... The zen-priests of the ancient times must
have been amazing if they applied the gut-door the right way. You
know, zen-people sit hours and hours on end on daily basis. This
cannot but have a great and tasty fruit.
Regarding the second and
third doorways it is necessary to emphasize that they are not the
heart and forehead chakras that are commonly known. These two
centers, again, are made of ordinary channels and therefore they
don't do so well as doorways. If you are working with the ordinary
channels, you mind keeps busy with thoughts, forms and lights and
there is no profound clarity of home. In both cases one has to go
deep inside the body to access them. Deep inside the chest, deep
inside the head.
Fourth of these doorways
is a bit more tricky to locate because the mentioned centers are high
above one's crown, floating high up there. It is not impossible but
one needs to have very good concentration and attention skills to be
able to differentitate between the higher centers. But a simple and
functional way to do go in through this door is to relax, open up and
surrender to it. Tibetan Heart Yoga has techniques for this,
as well, but essentially all one needs to do is to surrender to the
rain that falls on you.
Here, as with all
doorways, it is important to recognise the three characteristics: 1.
calmness and clarity, 2. aliveness, lovingness, compassion and 3.
knowingness, cognizance that is selfless.
Devotion
is important. Devotion can be understood in several ways. I like to
think of devotion as something that has to do with the opening of the
heart, like loving devotion. Devotion is essential in many kinds of
spiritual approaches, both buddhist and otherwise.
We
can use loving devotion, in the form of feeling love in our hearts or
by praying to God, guru or our own essence, both in good and bad
ways. A good or spiritually valid way is to use that emotional
surrender as a stepping stone, use it and then discard it, not
dragging it along. Just say the prayer, feel it having the effect of
your biased mind opening up from the heart-region and then forgetting
it. A bad way to use the same technique would be to keep the attitude
of surrendering our egos, limited minds or dualistic problems and
never let go of it. The point is not to remain inferior to whatever
it is that you are praying or surrendering towards. The point is not
to stay below or separate of your spiritual ideal. If you do, you end
up being caught in the dichotomy of self and other, ”me” and the
chosen ideal. Were you to keep this view, you only end up being as
miserable as before.
When
we pray, ”Heart, heart, heart... Love, love, love... Master,
master, master...” or however it is that you pray, it is done
because loving surrender is perhaps the most powerful way to bypass
the self-based mind and with the help of that mechanism to go beyond
the dualistic mind and enter rigpa. Now, if we insist and stubbornly
stick with the idea, with the conceptual thought of ”heart”,
”Love”, ”guru” or ”God”, this will not happen. The point
is to use a concept to go beyond it by applying loving surrender
which is emotion. For a beginner, it is possible to experience bliss
and overwhelming love, and this can be good because this can heal a
lot of hurts, but from the point of view of our true self, rigpa or
home awareness, this is not really the point. The point is, by
applying the emotion of loving surrender, to reveal our true nature
and become it, instead of becoming a self-biased fool. Rigpa is
subtle, transparent, and there is no one there. There is no God or
buddha there. You are not there either. Home or rigpa is nonspatial,
non-dimensional and entityless. Just the openness, brimming with
subtle power and life. You don't ”feel” rigpa. You don't and
cannot ”recognise” it. Our home is beyond our self, beyond our
minds. Home knows itself, it is self-cognisant. So, I feel, that
loving surrender is correctly applied when it transcends itself and
our knowing awareness (rigpa) is recognised. This is not rocket
science. This is not ”highly spiritual” or something ”very
evolved meant only for experienced meditators”. No, no. You don't
have to create this barrier of difficulty and then pursue to go
beyond it. Anyway, loving surrender or devotion can be useful.
Something
important. The thing is that if you have never tried this, it is
likely that you aren't aware of the emotional aspect of yourself,
i.e. you can have a great of territory in your bodymind that you've
never even become aware of. One can become a very skilled meditator,
like a surgeon's scalpel, that can follow the breath for hours on end
and perform analytical meditation like a machine but this doesn't
mean that one has recognised one's truen nature, or arrived home even
for a moment. Don't become a ”skilled meditator”. Open up.
Lighten up!
What
can be discovered with this application is that as our minds become
clear and transparent, and we really see with the eyes, hear with the
ears, feel with the bodymind, is that our problem is self-caused and
the solution is never away. The solution is sort of ”here and now”
but if you look for something that is ”here” or something that is
in the ”now”, you are again playing with concepts and getting
caught by them. Our home is beyond concepts. That's the thing. Pray
and open your heart and see for yourself.
Loving
devotion is as handy a technique as the diamond cutter mantra phet
is. The first uses our emotional aspect to access rigpa and the
latter applies our power of concentration brought to a momentary
maximum combined with energetic power to access rigpa. It would be
idiotic to keep shouting ”Phet! Phet! Phet!” on the top of your
lungs all the time. You'd only end up exhausted. A few phets will do
to cut through. It's the same thing with prayer. And ultimately it's
the same thing with all techniques. Praying is enough when the heart
and our whole being opens up. Opening up means becoming subsumed by
rigpa. That is our home, our true nature, us as buddhas. This is not
radical. This is how it actually is. Be practical. Don't romantisize.
Try.
Discover
Your Innermost AwarenessBY
THE DALAI LAMA
In
his teaching on the essence of Dzogchen, the Dalai Lama describes the
shock that naturally accompanies an experience of innermost
awareness, which is actually the basis of all reality.
”I
have great interest in the statement by many wise persons in all the
orders of Tibetan Buddhism that their systems come down to the same
final principle, and I feel that this is what I should and must
explain. Such an exploration may be controversial, but in any case,
these great scholar–yogis say that all these systems come down to
the same final basic insight, the same principle, because there is
indeed a final basic experience on which they all alight. There is no
way they would say this just to be polite.
In texts we
inherited from India, the basic principle is sometimes called the
“fundamental innate mind of clear light” or the “fundamental
innate wisdom of clear light,” these two terms having the same
meaning. In other texts, it is called the “space-diamond pervading
space,” while in yet others it is called the “jewel mind,” as,
for example, when it is said, “Separate from the jewel mind, there
is no buddha and no sentient being.”
Then, in Tibet, in some
texts, it is called “ordinary consciousness” and “innermost
awareness.” These terms are used in the context of speaking about
freedom from thought, which is psychologically and experientially
described as “self-release,” “naked release,” and “unimpeded
penetration.” The innermost awareness is said to be the basis of
the appearance of all of the round of suffering (cyclic existence)
and also the basis of liberation (nirvana). Everything, without
exception, is complete in the continuum of innermost awareness. It is
even said to be naturally arisen, since it has always been and always
will be.
All of the phenomena of cyclic existence and nirvana
are, when you come down to it, not newly produced by causes and
conditions but integrally complete within the nature of primordial,
naturally arisen innermost awareness; everything is contained within
its sphere, within its scope. On the low end, the basis of the
dawning of all of the phenomena of the world of suffering is this
diamond mind of clear light; on the high end, the basis of the
dawning of all the pure phenomena of liberation is just this
innermost awareness, also called the diamond mind of clear
light.
This is a topic well worth exploring for the sake of
furthering our inner peace by opening our minds beyond our usual
stream of thoughts. We should look into this with the aim of creating
more peace with our neighbors and throughout our world.
Innermost
Awareness Pervades Every Type of Consciousness
No
matter what kind of consciousness we might consider, the clear light
of innermost awareness pervades it. Ice, even when it is solid and
very hard, does not pass beyond the nature of water. In the same way,
no matter how gross, tough, or coarse conceptions might be, the place
from which they dawn and the place into which they vanish when we no
longer think about them does not pass beyond innermost
awareness.
Conceptual awareness appears from within the sphere
of innermost awareness and finally dissolves into the sphere of
innermost awareness. Since this is the case, as the early
twentieth-century scholar–yogi of the Old Translation (Nyingma)
School Dodrubchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima says, just as oil pervades the
entirety of sesame seeds, so clear light pervades all consciousness.
He concludes that therefore even at the time of the manifestation of
the coarser levels of mind—both during thinking and during the
operation of the sensory consciousnesses associated with the eye,
ear, nose, tongue, and body—it is possible to identify, through the
force of a lama or guru’s empowering blessings* and quintessential
instructions, a subtle feature of clear light that pervades each of
these consciousnesses.
*Added
note. Lama Alan Wallace, Dalai Lama's direct student: "(There
are) two approaches to identifying the mind. We can receive pointing
out instructions from a qualified master, or we can just do the
practice".
Practicing
the Path Right Now
How
can we take innermost awareness into the spiritual path right now? It
is through being introduced to and identifying—in experience—the
clear light that pervades all types of consciousnesses and
one-pointedly meditating on this, sustaining attention to it within
nonthought, nonconceptualization.
Then, as the clear light
becomes more and more profound, the types of coarse thoughts diminish
more and more. This is why this practice is called “the essential
path through knowledge of which all states are released.” Coming to
know this single innermost awareness in our own experience, we are
liberated from all sorts of tense situations.
To identify
innermost awareness, the most difficult part is to make the
distinction between mind (sems) and innermost awareness (rig pa). It
is easy to talk about this difference, to say, “Innermost awareness
has never been infected by mistake, whereas mind is under the
influence of conceptualization and polluted with mistaken thought.”
This is easy to say, but in terms of actual experience in our own
mental continuum, it is very difficult. Dodrubchen said that although
we might fancy that we are meditating on innermost awareness, there
is a danger that we are actually, in fact, merely maintaining
concentration on the clear and cognitive nature of a more superficial
mind, and so we need to take care. It is helpful to do the latter,
but it is not so profound.
The
Innate Mind of Clear Light
All
Tibetan systems, in their final view, emphasize the fundamental
innate mind of clear light. In terms of the center of these systems,
all of the phenomena of cyclic existence and nirvana are the sport,
the effulgence, of the fundamental innate clear light. Hence, the
root, and foundation, of all of that is within the scope of cyclic
existence and nirvana is the fundamental clear light.
This
being so, when practicing the spiritual path, there is nothing else
needed to purify these impure appearances—which themselves dawn
from within the context of innermost awareness or clear light—than
to turn the fundamental innate mind of clear light itself into that
through which you practice the spiritual path. Manifesting the fruit
of practicing the path, the fundamental innate mind of clear light
itself, when separated from all obstructive defilements, is the
resultant omniscience of buddhahood, a state from which the greatest
benefit to others can be effected.
Introducing
Innermost Awareness
I
will now explain the first section of the text Three Keys Penetrating
the Core, from the mind of the great adept Dza Patrul Jigme Chokyi
Wangpo (1808–87). Patrul Rinpoche’s teaching, and thus his poem,
is organized around three keys for uncovering innermost awareness,
the Great Completeness. The essential meaning of how to place
yourself in the core of reality is cast into three sets of
quintessential teachings for the sake of severing the life, so to
speak, of self-ruinous mistake. Here, I will discuss the first
key:
The view, the multitudinous expanse, Is cast in
practical essentials of three keys.
I.First set your own
mind in a relaxed state, Not emitting, not withdrawing, without
conceptuality. In this relaxed state of total absorption, Suddenly
shout PAT, striking your awareness, Strong, intense, short. E MA
HO! Not any thing, astounding. Astounding, unimpeded
penetration. Unimpeded penetration, inexpressible. Identify
innermost awareness of the truth body. Its entity is identified
within yourself—the first essential.
I will try
to provide a little commentary.
Relax
The
initial introduction to the view of naturally arisen innermost
awareness cannot be made while you are involved in constantly
generating many conceptions, such as thinking about good and bad and
the like. For instance, it is difficult to identify somebody you
don’t know well in a huge crowd, but once you have been introduced
to a person and come to know him or her, it is easy to identify the
person even in the midst of a big crowd. Similarly, even though
innermost awareness pervades every moment of consciousness, including
every single thought, it is not possible to bring out innermost
awareness in its nakedness without being introduced to it first,
because it is bound and obscured by conceptual thinking. However,
after you have identified it, you can see it even in the midst of a
multitude of thoughts.
Therefore, without making any
adjustments to your mind, such as by conceptually working at
analysis, leave, among the various phenomena of the world, whatever
appears to your mind—people, buildings, mountains, your work, your
friends, your problems, and the like—as just an appearance, and do
not get involved and polluted with identifying it and thinking, “This
is such-and-such.” Since a state of mere appearance and mere
awareness needs to be sustained, do as the author of the poem says
and “first set your own mind in a relaxed state,” not allowing
the busy state of a multitude of thoughts.
Stop
Thinking for A While
Naturally
arisen innermost awareness naturally exists within you; it is
naturally there, not newly generated or constructed by superficial
conditions. Rather, it is original wisdom, naturally flowing
awareness whose continuum is itself fundamental, uncontrived. For it
to become evident to you now, do not allow new superficially
fabricated conceptions to develop. Do not emit new thoughts, and even
when you notice that conceptions have been produced, do not exert
yourself thinking that they have to be withdrawn; just let them
disappear. As the poem says, “not emitting, not withdrawing,
without conceptuality.” Rather, vividly stay completely within the
self-flow, the natural flow of nonconceptuality. On the spot, let go
of all conceptual thinking altogether.
Shock
Still,
it is not sufficient just to keep your mind from diffusing and
scattering. Even if bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality dawn in
meditative experience, these interfere with being introduced to and
identifying naturally arisen innermost awareness. You need to avoid
even bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality. You have to get beyond all
of these.
Therefore, in this relaxed state not affected and
polluted by the tightness of conceptuality, suddenly shout PAT
(pronounced “pat” with the tongue curled to the top of the mouth
behind the front teeth while saying the final “t”)—strong,
intense, and short—for the sake of immediately clearing out any and
all of the commotion of thinking It is so-and-so, It is like this, It
is like that. The sudden sound of PAT will strike conceptual thinking
out of your consciousness: “In this relaxed state of total
absorption, suddenly shout PAT, striking your awareness, strong,
intense, short. E MA HO! Not any thing, astounding.”
Old
thoughts have stopped and new thoughts have not yet been produced.
For example, when a boat moves quickly through water, the water is
moved to the two sides with an empty place right then and there in
its wake at the back of the boat.
At the point of shouting
PAT, between when you are unable to think your former thoughts and
before you are able to produce new conceptions, in between those two,
when you cannot make conceptual distinctions, there is astonishment,
clarity, vividness, mere knowing.
If you have faith and keen
interest, as well as a guide’s quintessential instructions, then
remaining in place of the sudden removal of thoughts will be a sense
of shock that cannot be identified as anything, this or that. The
clothing of thought suddenly thrown off, you will be left in a state
of wonder, feeling astounded, astonished.
There are several
types of shock. One is like having your eyes closed and being unable
to think anything; another is a state of nonconceptuality in which
the mind is free from the pollutions of the mind being either too
loose or too tight. There are also others. At this juncture, the
emitting and withdrawing of conceptuality has stopped to the point
where you are in a state of astonishment, having lost the power to
recognize objects as this or that.
With a shock, mental
activity suddenly halts. For example, when a dog suddenly barks near
you, you can be shocked into being unable to think anything. Here, in
this practice, you are released from the varieties of thought, from
the binding confines of the groups of adventitiously generated new
conceptions, but still it is not as if you have fainted. Rather, the
perspective of your consciousness is vividly clear.
Texts
speak of making evident a state in which the usual underlying
consciousness has lost its intensity and conceptual apprehension
cannot get started, and thus during this interval naked innermost
awareness can manifest for a period. The great Tibetan scholar Mangto
Lhundrub Gyatsho cites many scriptural sources, such as:
Between
earlier and later conceptions, the continuum of the clear light of
innermost awareness remains unbroken.
In the space between two
thoughts, there is an easy opportunity for identifying this moment of
innermost awareness.
Therefore, this state of shock is not
just astonishment, but also has, as Patrul Rinpoche says,
“Astounding, unimpeded penetration.” The nature of this is to be
known, just as it actually is, in the context of experience, and is
otherwise indescribable in words, so he says, “Unimpeded
penetration, inexpressible.” Though called innermost awareness of
the truth body, it is inexpressible as any of the poles of being
existent, nonexistent, and so forth. This innermost awareness of the
truth body must be identified in experience.
Unless you can
identify it, there is no way to sustain the view of the Great
Completeness in meditation. This type of meditation, in which you are
sustaining the experience of innermost awareness, is a case of
remaining within the experience of what you are meditating on, rather
than meditating on an object.
Beyond this, as is clear in
Dodrubchen’s writings, if you are able to recognize all phenomena
as the sport, vibration, or effervescence of this naturally arisen
innermost awareness, this allows you to easily see that phenomena do
not exist in and of themselves, independently, and are only set up by
conceptuality. When you identify innermost awareness, also called
ultimate truth, and ascertain that all the phenomena of cyclic
existence and nirvana are its effulgence, then along the way you
understand that all pure and impure phenomena are, as the
philosophical texts say, only nominally existent. You understand that
all appearing and occurring objects of knowledge are adventitious and
essenceless, that although such phenomena have, from the start, not
been established under their own power, they nonetheless appear to
you to have their own autonomous nature, whereupon you adhere to this
sense of seeming existence from their own side. You further
understand that this misapprehension leads to engagement in various
good and bad actions and the accumulation of those predispositions,
leading to still more entanglement in cyclic existence.
To
identify innermost awareness and properly sustain it in meditation,
it is important to have previously reflected on from where the mind
arises, where it abides, and that into which it ceases, as well as
other analytical techniques. For these practices, the reasonings as
they are laid out in the great texts are helpful.
If you can
cause all these phenomena to appear as the vibration of innermost
awareness, not deviating from the sphere of that mind, you will not
come under the influence of conventional conceptions. When you
identify your own basic entity yourself and directly ascertain its
meaning continuously and forever in meditative equipoise, then even
though acting in the world, you are enlightened.”
This
article is adapted from the Dalai Lama’s new book, The Heart of
Meditation, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins from oral
teachings, published by Shambhala, 2016.
My
meditation background is largely buddhist, zen buddhist in
particular. In zen buddhism it is common to sit a lot every day
either in any of the cross-legged sitting postures or in kneeling
posture (seiza). It is common in that school to insist on particular
physical form of sitting, despite of physical troubles one may have
due to long hours of sittingfor days on end.
One
thing that has become obvious to me is that cross-legged posture or
even sitting on a meditation cushion, are not essential factors of
meditation practice, even though many schools of meditation say just
the opposite.
I
have found that the most important factors about the physical posture
are:
erect
spine,
erect
head,
overall
comfortability of the posture which
allows
free and relaxed breathing
When
these four factors are marked, you can choose to sit in any posture
without loosing any of the benefits that perfect full lotus-posture
(padmasana) is said to bring. There is no difference whatsoever.
Postures
Here's
what Daniel Ingram says on Postures, from Mastering the Core
Teachings of the Buddha:
”The
four postures for meditation that are mentioned in traditional
Buddhist
practice are those of sitting, walking, standing and reclining.
Each
has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, and each may be useful
at
one time or another. Looked at another way, this means that we can
meditate
in just about any position we find ourselves... Which posture we
choose doesn’t really matter from a pure insight point of view, but
there are some practical reasons why we might choose one or the other
for formal practice. Posture choice is mostly about finding one that
works in our current circumstances and which matches our current
energy level...
Sitting
has the quality of being more energy-producing than reclining
and
less energy-producing than walking and standing. It can also be very
stable
once we learn to sit well. However, many people find that
learning
to sit well is a whole endeavor in and of itself...
Many
traditions make a big deal about exactly how you should sit,
with
some getting particularly macho or picky about such things, but in
the
end it doesn’t matter so much. The things that seem to matter most
are
that you can sustain the posture, that your back be fairly straight
so
that
you can breathe well, and that you are not permanently hurting
yourself.
Aches and pains are common in meditation, but if they persist
for
a long time after you get up from sitting, particularly in your
knees,
seriously
consider modifying your sitting posture.
Standing
is an even more energy-producing posture than sitting, with
the
obvious advantage being that is it even harder to fall asleep when
standing
than when sitting. It seems to up the intensity of a meditation
session
even more and can be useful when the energy is really low. I
recommend
standing with the eyes slightly open to avoid falling over,
though
some people can do just fine with their eyes closed. If you are
sitting
and finding that you simply cannot stay focused and awake, try
standing.
Walking
is the most energetically active of the four postures and
also
provides a nice stretch for the joints and back after we have been
doing
a lot of sitting. Its strengths are its weaknesses, in that the fact
that
one
is moving around can make it easier to stay present and also lead to
a
lack of stable concentration. Some people consider walking practice
to
be
very secondary to sitting, but I have learned from experience that
walking
meditation should be given just as much respect as sitting
meditation.”
Cross-legs
vs. straight legs
I
once saw a documentary filmed in a Taoist nunnery in China. In the
documentary whenever the nuns were seen meditating they sat on a
particular kind of a chair where they had their legs straight (not
cross-legged). I thought this was something interesting as their way
of practice could well be older than buddhism and therefore might
have beneficial time-tested factors to it. Traditionally, buddhist
meditation is always encouraged to be practiced cross-legged on a
meditation cushion, unless one's body or health doesn't allow it. If
a cross-legged posture cannot be practiced, sitting on a chair as a
secondary option is used.
I've
recently tried to remember to sit down on a chair instead on a
cushion to try this out. And everytime I remember to do so, it's much
easier than sitting cross-legged with folded legs. Due to my hip
bones not being identical, it's pretty much always been challenging
for me to sit in one posture, although at some point I was sitting so
much daily that it didn't matter. I've always had to shift legs every
20-30-40 minutes. I've done that when it was allowed. Now, I wouldn't
join a training session where this was not allowed. Enduring pain and
physical discomfort is a big waste of time and energy. It is
counter-productive.
So,
I've had wonderful sittings when sitting on a chair. I have to admit
that I have also become habituated by thinking that ”real
meditation” only happens sitting cross-legged. I've told students
to use either postures for several years as a teacher but I never
tried it myself, until recently. This is a good example of becoming
conditioned to a training aspect of an old tradition, just because
”this is the way it always has been done and there is no other way
to do it”. So be careful and have common sense of what you are
told.
Mindfulness
of the body
Obviously
mindfulness of the body is a common issue to all styles of buddhist
meditation. We work with mind and awareness through the body because
body, mind and awareness are interconnected. Body is a good and
concretic tool. Imagine how it would be to concentrate or meditate
without a physical body. It'd be a different sport.
Comparing
cross-legged and chair sitting positions, the biggest difference is
in the posture of the legs. In the first legs are folded in a way
that the crus and thigh are right next to each other. In the latter
legs are also tilted in the knees but the angle is much wider, 90
degrees or more. This allows a lot more openness and relaxalation in
the body on purely physical level which cannot but have an effect on
the mental and emotional bodies, and in consequence on he recognition
of awareness itself. Especially for beginners, the open sky-like mind
is easier to find when the body is as relaxed and open as possible.
It can be very difficult to be focused or recognise knowing awareness
when the body is forcibly put into a posture where it's not used to
being in. This is basic logic, right. For this reason, I'd always
vote for sitting on a chair over sitting cross-legged.
Energetics
Usually
schools of meditation which are unanimous of the sitting posture, it
is common for them to prove their point by saying that in full lotus
the subtle energies of the bodymind circulate in an ideal way and
that this circulation, sometimes called as ”full body seal”
(mudra) is what meditation is. In a sense this is correct. It is true
in the case of a yogi who 1. can effortlessly sit in this posture for
an extended period of time and 2. who needs the support of this mudra
for his or her meditation. For those who cannot do it or for those
who don't need it as a support, this rationale is entirely
irrelevant.
It
is also not logical to say that one couldn't be openly aware and
meditate without sitting in some particular posture. It doesn't make
sense, does it. If this is the view in regards to sitting posture, it
is safe to assume that the one who insists on such views is 1. biased
to his view perhaps because of his tradition, in a similar way like I
was and 2. there is no sufficient understanding what the connection
of body and energetics (mind) to open awareness is.
Posture
and Tibetan Heart Yoga
Level
4 of Tibetan Heart Yoga concerns tantric (mantra, visualisation and
breathing) practice in the subtle centers and channels in all four
limbs. This practice can be done in a cross-legged posture, sure.
However, in my experience, it is easier to sense the body cavities,
the insides of the limbs, when legs are straight. This is a universal
notion, of course. For this reason I'd recommend those
THY-practitioners who practice this level, to try the practice
sitting on a chair.
Conclusion
All
in all, nowadays I tend to think that the cross-legged posture is an
unstudied habit of the Eastern meditation culture. There is a strong
emphasis on cross-legged meditation posture which can be seen
everywhere in meditation centers, temples, in paintings and statues
both in East and West but ultimately, just as Dan said, it's not a
big deal.
