04-14-2013, 12:00 AM
is simply to develop a complete carefree
acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and relate
to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves
as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases
tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining
fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by
which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by
welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through
the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop
the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe.
We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind.
This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and
field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a
mouse. We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go
"deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world.
Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection
and concentration.
Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being
- the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness
in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment.
This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the
source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great
mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve
in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The
whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there
is nothing to attain or realise. The nature of phenomena appears
naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness.
Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear
in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern.
These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment;
yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment
in which they present themselves.
This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol
of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of
our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever,
liberation or enlightenment is already here.
The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself.
Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave
in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what
you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach
some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and
serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid
thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and
unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural
as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialised
or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should
realise that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and
the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always
ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything
that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory
meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place,
in your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious
feelings, we do not have to think "I am meditating."
Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without attempts
to control or force and without trying to become "peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we
stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we
resume
our meditation. If we have "interesting experiences"
either during or after meditation, we should avoid making anything
special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply
a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences
are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events.
We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves
to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely
free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are
experienced in timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which
arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We
should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes
of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our
being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of
our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe.
By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate
significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous,
accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see
the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and
future - our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The
past is
only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only
a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes
as
soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish
an illusion of solid ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions
of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique
and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable
of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or
hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our
whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is
enlightenment.
http://www.nyingma.com/dzogchen1.htm
acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and relate
to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves
as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases
tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining
fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by
which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by
welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through
the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop
the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe.
We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind.
This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and
field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a
mouse. We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go
"deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world.
Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection
and concentration.
Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being
- the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness
in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment.
This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the
source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great
mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve
in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The
whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there
is nothing to attain or realise. The nature of phenomena appears
naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness.
Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear
in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern.
These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment;
yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment
in which they present themselves.
This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol
of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of
our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever,
liberation or enlightenment is already here.
The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself.
Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave
in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what
you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach
some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and
serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid
thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and
unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural
as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialised
or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should
realise that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and
the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always
ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything
that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory
meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place,
in your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious
feelings, we do not have to think "I am meditating."
Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without attempts
to control or force and without trying to become "peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we
stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we
resume
our meditation. If we have "interesting experiences"
either during or after meditation, we should avoid making anything
special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply
a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences
are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events.
We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves
to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely
free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are
experienced in timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which
arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We
should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes
of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our
being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of
our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe.
By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate
significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous,
accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see
the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and
future - our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The
past is
only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only
a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes
as
soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish
an illusion of solid ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions
of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique
and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable
of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or
hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our
whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is
enlightenment.
http://www.nyingma.com/dzogchen1.htm