We are never trapped in life, because there are constant opportunities for creativity, challenges for improvisation. Ironically, by seeing clearly and acknowledging our egolessness, we may discover that suffering contains bliss, impermanence contains continuity or eternity, and egolessness contains the earth quality of solid being. But this transcendental bliss, continuity, and beingness is not based on fantasies, ideas, or fears.
From Chögyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1976), “Egolessness.”
29
THE NATURE OF THE MAHAMUDRA OF PERCEPTION
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
Lord Buddha taught the Dharma in a way that was adapted to the mental capacity of his listeners. He taught beginners how to practice in a gradual fashion so that they could start at whatever level they happened to be at and progress step by step. When the Buddha turned the Wheel of the first set of teachings, he focused on the Four Noble Truths. The first Noble Truth is the truth of suffering, which we should all be able to easily understand. The second is that suffering has a cause, which is karmic actions and disturbing emotions. The third Noble Truth is that suffering can be brought to an end; and the fourth describes the way that leads to the cessation of suffering, called the path. In order to help beginners actually apply the teachings, the Lord Buddha began by introducing egolessness, the absence of the individual self.
It is a fact that ordinary sentient beings do suffer. They have problems and troubles, hardships and grief. Most of this suffering takes place in the realm of thought. The most difficult and troublesome thoughts are disturbing emotions. One of the main disturbing emotions is anger, or a hostile frame of mind. Out of this anger, we may use harsh words or act out physically, throwing or breaking something or hitting someone. Sometimes our negative actions are motivated by attachment or greed. Other times they come from ignorance, indecision, or being unclear, stupid, or deluded. Sometimes we feel conceited or proud, sometimes jealous or competitive. So, do you understand the sequence of events? First, disturbing emotions occupy our minds, making us unsettled. Next, we express them through words, complicating matters. The worst situation is when we physically act out these unhealthy thought patterns. Disturbing emotions create a tremendous amount of problems, for ourselves and others. All of these disturbing emotions are based on ego-clinging—the feeling “Me, I am the most important.” Once we understand this point clearly, we may decide to consciously do the opposite, saying to ourselves: “I will no longer consider myself important.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t solve the problem. Merely thinking “I shouldn’t behave like that” is not in itself a direct remedy against ego-clinging. A thought cannot eliminate the concept of self.
Relative bodhichitta is a way to reduce disturbing emotions. By our shifting our attitude away from selfishness and aspiring to help others, disturbing emotions can be reduced. This type of training diminishes their strength, but it doesn’t totally uproot them. That is why that type of bodhichitta is called “relative” or superficial. It only decreases disturbing emotions, but does not bring them to an end.
Ultimate bodhichitta, on the other hand, brings disturbing emotions to a permanent end. If we are introduced to and become certain about the nature of our mind, we can fully understand that there is no such thing as a self. Without carefully investigating, however, we tend to believe in the existence of a self. We’re not very clear on exactly what constitutes “myself,” assigning that term to all sorts of different things—our body, our consciousness, or some unclear mixture of these factors. We must practice to the point that we become clear of the fact that whatever the word me refers to, this object is not to be found anywhere at all. First we must learn to look for this “me.” Next, we need to become completely certain that there is no such thing as an I or a self. At that point, the very basis for disturbing emotions and selfishness is totally eliminated from the very root.
This is why the Buddha taught in his very first set of teachings how we can cultivate insight into egolessness. In the second set of teachings, the Buddha went even further. He taught that it is not only the individual self that is nonexistent. Everything, all phenomena, all objects, as well as consciousness itself, is devoid of any true identity. All things have the nature of emptiness. Discovering this for ourselves changes our perspective. When we fully actualize emptiness, we are no longer obstructed by anything. Our minds are able to remain at great peace, at total ease. This is a wider or more expansive insight than that of simply realizing egolessness.
The understanding that all things are emptiness is entirely correct. However, we might misconstrue the meaning of emptiness to mean nothingness, a complete voidness. This misunderstanding fixates on the thought that all things are a blank, nothing whatsoever, which is not correct. To remedy this, the Buddha taught that not only is the identity of all things utterly empty; it is emptiness itself. This emptiness, by nature, has the capacity to know, to experience, to cognize. That is the wakeful wisdom quality that is indivisible from emptiness itself. This is the intent of the third set of teachings, the final turning of the Wheel of Dharma.
Among the teachings given by the great master Naropa is one that expresses the view of Mahamudra under three headings. I will explain the first one, called “Stating the nature of the Mahamudra of perception.”
Concerning what is called Mahamudra:
All things are your own mind.
Seeing objects as external is a mistaken concept;
Like a dream, they are empty of concreteness.
What does it mean when we use the word Mahamudra? What is it that we are talking about? What does this term refer to? What is Mahamudra about? This verse introduces the nature of the Mahamudra of perception. Actually, what is it that we as sentient beings perceive? Through what is called the eye consciousness, we perceive visual objects and see sights. Because we have the capacity to hear through our ears, the ear consciousness, we hear sounds. We have the capacity to taste with our tongues, which is called the tongue consciousness. Through our nose consciousness we can experience smell, and through our body consciousness we can touch. In general Buddhist terminology these are labeled the five sense consciousnesses, or the five sense cognitions. The mind experiences the world through these five senses. However, our mind consciousness itself does not experience sights, smells, sounds, tastes, or textures directly. What is being perceived is a mental impression of these experiences. Based on that mental image, we create secondary thoughts about past, present, and future. We determine what we like and don’t like, what should be accepted or rejected. That activity is named the sixth consciousness. Sometimes it is called the ideational consciousness, other times simply mind consciousness. Thus there are six consciousnesses altogether.
The term “all things” refers not only to mental objects but to the objects of all six consciousnesses—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures, as well as mental objects. What is normally being experienced is an impression or an image that takes place in the mind. Not knowing this, we tend to believe, for example, that when the object of the eye consciousness is presented to the mind, this perceived object is somewhere outside. It is apprehended as being outside of ourselves; and the perceiver, the mind, is considered to be somewhere inside. Likewise, whatever quality we attach to these perceived objects as being either pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, is similarly apprehended as a “real” entity that exists outside of ourselves.
This is how it seems to be, in that this is how we normally perceive. But is this the real state of things? No, it isn’t, because it only seems like what we see is outside. Actually, what we experience is an impression that arises in or exists in our own mind. Whether it’s something that is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt physically, all these impressions or perceptions take place within our mind. All perceptions, be they the objects of the six consciousnesses or all the different thoughts and emotional reactions that might arise, are not external to ourselves; they are mental occurrence
s that take place in our own mind. Therefore, all things are your own mind. Believing objects to be external is a mistaken concept. To believe that what is being experienced is other than our own perception, some object that exists by itself, apart from and separate from our experience of it, is a deluded idea.
The great masters give all sorts of different teachings to help us understand how things actually are. They may ask us to use our own intelligence to figure out whether the normal way of experiencing is true or not. For example, look at a pillar in a room. The pillar appears to us through our seeing, our visual cognition, and in our minds the image of the pillar is perceived. Based on that we form the thought “There is a pillar in the room.” The real proof of whether this is or isn’t true is our own experience. The great Buddhist logicians Chandrakirti and Dignaga explained that we use our personal impressions as the final authentication of reality. They state that the sole evidence beings have that things are perceived as being outside is because we say, “I see them; therefore they exist.” There is no other way to validate a perception. That is called the proof of clearly knowing. Based on this reasoning, there is no reason to believe that things exist outside our own experience or are separate from their being known.
Mahamudra is the catalyst that changes our normal comprehension. The starting point in the tradition is proof through experience. The belief that things are outside of ourselves is nothing other than a mental perception. When examined, it becomes apparent that this mere presence has no reality to it. It is likewise with the perceiving mind, in that it does not possess any concrete existence. When mind is pointed out and recognized, it is possible to realize that both perceptions and the perceiver are nonexistent.
We can discover this through intellectual reasoning or through direct experience. The end result is the same. The Buddha and many great masters used the analogy of a dream to facilitate the understanding of the essential unreality of all things. Whatever we perceive during the daytime, we also can experience at night in dreams. We can see and vividly experience mountains, houses, people, and all sorts of different things. Do they really exist because we see them in our dreams? Are there actually mountains and houses while we dream? No, it only seems like there are. While they don’t really exist, still, for the dreamer it feels as if they do. That is why it is said that all things are like a dream—because, just as in a dream, all impressions of external objects in our waking experience appear only in the mind. Therefore, they’re empty of concreteness. This point covered the nature of the Mahamudra of perception.
Adapted from Thrangu Rinpoche, Songs of Naropa (Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1997).
30
WISDOM THROUGH MEDITATION
Patrül Rinpoche
Through meditation, as you gain practical experience of what you have understood intellectually, the true realization of the natural state develops in you without any mistake. Certainty is born from within. Liberated from confining doubts and hesitations, you see the very face of the natural state.
Having first eliminated all your doubts through hearing and reflection, you come to the practical experience of meditation and see everything as empty forms without any substantiality, as in the eight similes of illusion:
As in a dream, all the external objects perceived with the five senses are not there, but appear through delusion.
As in a magic show, things are made to appear by a temporary conjunction of causes, circumstances, and connections.
As in a visual aberration, things appear to be there, yet there is nothing.
As in a mirage, things appear but are not real.
As in an echo, things can be perceived but there is nothing there, either outside or inside.
As in a city of gandharvas, there is neither a dwelling nor anyone to dwell.
As in a reflection, things appear but have no reality of their own. As in a city created by magic, there are all sorts of appearances but they are not really there.
Seeing all the objects of your perception in this way, you come to understand that all these appearances are false by their very nature. When you look into the nature of the subject that perceives them—the mind—those objects that appear to it do not stop appearing, but the concepts that take them as having any true existence subside. To leave the mind in the realization of the nature of reality, empty yet clear like the sky, is transcendent wisdom.
To explain the six transcendent perfections in detail, each one is divided into three, making a total of eighteen sections. The category of material generosity has three sections of its own, making twenty sections altogether. If we add transcendent means, that makes twenty-one; transcendent strength, twenty-two; transcendent aspiration, twenty-three; and transcendent primal wisdom, twenty-four.a
Going into even more detail, each of the six transcendent perfections can be divided into six, making thirty-six sections. We can see how this works by examining the section on the giving of Dharma in transcendent generosity.
When the teacher who teaches, the Dharma to be taught, and the disciple to whom the teaching is to be transmitted come together, explaining the teaching is transcendent generosity. That the teacher does not seek gain or honor for teaching the Dharma, and does not contaminate what he is doing either with self-aggrandizement, resentment of the position of others, or any other negative emotion, is transcendent discipline. That he repeats the meaning of a phrase over and over again and ignores all difficulty and fatigue is transcendent patience. That he teaches at the appointed time without giving way to laziness and procrastination is transcendent diligence. That he explains his subject without letting his mind get distracted from the words and their meaning, without making any errors, and without adding or omitting anything is transcendent concentration. That while teaching he remains imbued with wisdom free of all concepts of subject, object, and action is transcendent wisdom. All of the transcendent perfections are therefore present.
Now look at material giving—offering food or drink to a beggar, for example. When the gift, the giver, and the recipient are all brought together and the action is actually accomplished, that is generosity. Giving from what you would eat or drink yourself, rather than giving bad or spoiled food, is discipline. Never getting irritated, even when asked over and over again for alms, is patience. Giving readily, without ever thinking how tiring or difficult it is, is diligence. Not letting yourself be distracted by other thoughts is concentration. Knowing that the three elements of subject, object, and action have no intrinsic reality is wisdom. Here again all the six transcendent perfections are included. The same subdivisions can be defined for discipline, patience, and so on.
Summing up the essence of the transcendent perfections, Jetsun Mila says:
Perfectly give up belief in any true existence,
There is no other generosity than this.
Perfectly give up guile and deceit,
There is no other discipline.
Perfectly transcend all fear of the true meaning,
There is no other patience.
Perfectly remain inseparable from the practice,
There is no other diligence.
Perfectly stay in the natural flow,
There is no other concentration.
Perfectly realize the natural state,
There is no other wisdom.
Perfectly praise Dharma in everything you do,
There are no other means.
Perfectly conquer the four demons,
There is no other strength.
Perfectly accomplish the twofold goal,
There is no further aspiration.
Recognize the very source of negative emotions,
There is no other primal wisdom.
When Khu, Ngok, and Dromb once asked him what were the best of all the elements of the path, Atisha replied:
The best scholar is one who has realized the meaning of the absence of any true existence.
The best monk is one who has tamed his own mind.
The best quality is a great desire to benefit others.
The best instruction is always to watch the mind.
The best remedy is to know that nothing has any inherent reality.
The best way of life is one that does not fit with worldly ways.
The best accomplishment is a steady lessening of negative emotions.
The best sign of practice is a steady decrease of desires.
The best generosity is nonattachment.
The best discipline is to pacify the mind.
The best patience is to keep a humble position.
The best diligence is to give up activities.
The best concentration is not to alter the mind.c
The best wisdom is not to take anything at all as truly existing.
And Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa says:
The Dzogchen Primer Page 29