Luminous Emptiness

Where did my breath go?

2008-07-23T07:27:00.004Z

I've noticed a change in my meditation lately. After quite a period of formless mahamudra meditation, I've recently been practicing Shamatha with the breath as the focus.

But, funny thing, I can't really find the breath to focus on.

It's pretty much there when I start ... a sense of it popping up here and there, as my awareness begins to stabilise. I see it here, I see it there! .... and gradually the breath and awareness settle around each other, as it were.

Yet as my mind settles, the breath gradually goes out of view. As my mind settles, then I know more clearly, and the breath ceases to be a 'thing' which I can focus on. Instead of this 'thing' called the breath, which one might assume to be pretty continuous, and solid, a process with continuity, as it were ... there's .... well, what is there?

There are sensations, physical sensations, as the breath touches parts of the body - the lungs, the nose, etc, and leaves a sensation there. I pick these up. At other times there's a sense of energy, not clearly physical, which I am somehow 'associating' with the breath, though of that I can't be sure. It's just that they arise where the breath 'ought' to be, if you see what I mean?

At other times, what is there? There's a constellation of something, not sure what you'd call it .... maybe a vague cloud of vibrations, pulses, shimmerings, which again I'd collate all that together, and assume it to be breath.

Actually, there's no 'thing' there which is the 'breath'. There's shimmerings and appearances, and I have to somehow string that together, bunch it up and package it, and call that 'breath'. But that is not what I am aware of. I'm aware of a bunch of ever changing and ever varied stuff, which doesn't happen in a particular place, such as the nostrils, or the abdomen. It happens 'somewhere' ... well, nowhere really, it just happens, as a location? Nope. No location.

It's not at a particular place. It's not a particular 'thing', with continuity. It's actually a dance of appearances, which I have to almost cobble together and call it my breath.

So what's the issue with shamatha then?

Well, it's actually hard to settle the mind on this after a certain point, as there isn't really an 'object' to settle around at all. There's no one 'thing' which to keep the awareness resting on .... so this isn't a central point which to grasp onto, or focus down on, or keep hold off like I did in years gone by.

There's just this shimmering, and I can't really find it!

So what to do then? I'm kinda used to formless meditation at present, where there is no object of meditation, where I just rest in awareness, where there is resting, and bringing out of the knowing aspect, of clarity. But what that resting, knowing mind rests/knows is whatever appears, and whatever 'actually is' at that moment, which varies continuously.

Now, I'm trying to find an 'object' to rest the mind on, and I'm kinda struggling to find it.

So ... interesting to see how this plays out. How will this develop .... at present I've no idea, which is cool :-)

The birds have vanished into the sky - Li Po

2008-07-22T08:07:00.007Z

The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

from Endless River: Li Po and Tu Fu: A Friendship in Poetry,
Translated by Sam Hami.

This is so evocative. A truly beautiful image, of Li Po sitting *with* the mountain, together, and in stillness, until only awareness of mountain remains.

It's interesting the sense of time here, as Li Po sits for some time, as the birds fly away, the clouds drain away. Quite some time must pass, and eventually, Li Po's sense of self fades away ....

All the transient appearances are symbolised here (birds and clouds which pass across the sky) as gradually dissolving, until how things actually are (symbolised by the mountain) is seen as it is.

Perhaps more than this metaphor for how things are, what strikes me is the sheer beauty of Li Po's evocation of the process and path, of seeing things as they are ... yet utterly opening to what appears to mind .... relative and ultimate, luminous emptiness ....

Money can't buy you everything

2008-07-21T07:57:00.004Z

I was driving into work today, and suddenly run into a traffic jam. We inched forward, and eventually I could see cars signalling to pull across into the right hand land. Clearly there's a car ahead, probably an accident, I thought. When I got alongside it was a Porche, with the driver down on his hands and knees, wheel off, and looking under his car. The car was parked half across the lane, with cars trying to get around him and his stricken vehicle.

Through my mind passed the thought - "doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't buy 'luck' .... you can't ensure that everything will go smoothly in life, no suffering, nothing guaranteed to break down, etc, etc". All fair enough, you might think.

And yet, in the back of my mind, as it were, I felt a quiet sense of satisfaction, that someone with tons of money had been 'brought down' by life, and that somehow I felt better as a result of his suffering.

Not the most noble of thoughts, I'm sure you'll agree. Interesting finding that little gem lurking in the shadows, hidden pretty much from view by my more 'Dharmic' reflection on how none of the things people go after in life as 'refuges' would keep you away from impermanence or uncertainty.

Interesting ... and one which made me smile, in a way.

Why on earth would one get a sense of satisfaction out of another's sufferings?

What a strange thing. Hmm .... one to watch as it arises next time, to perhaps see a little more clearly how such a thing works ...?????

Silence - Rumi

2008-07-13T18:08:00.005Z

This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence.

Rumi

So Beautiful. Death and Silence.

Nothing whatsoever to add :-)

The Song of Distinguishing the Four Yogas - Milarepa

2008-07-10T08:14:00.011Z

I bow down at the feet of the supreme lama!

It’s the mind fixated on objects that causes samsara.
If you recognize as spontaneous
The luminous self-awareness, free of fixation,
You’ll taste the fruit of the first yoga, one-pointedness.

Some talk and talk about union, yet their meditation is all conceptual,
They talk and talk about cause and effect, yet their actions are flawed,
Such petty, deluded meditations
Have no place in the yoga of one-pointedness.

Luminous mind itself, free of fixation,
Is naturally blissful, without constructs.
If you recognize your very essence to be as clear as space,
You’ll taste the fruit of the second yoga, simplicity.

Some talk and talk about “no elaboration,” but they elaborate plenty,
They talk and talk about the “inexpressible,” but they’ve got plenty of terminology.
Such self-obsessed meditations
Have no place in the yoga of simplicity.

In the dharma body, appearance and emptiness are not two,
Samsara and nirvana are experienced as one.
If you know the Buddha and sentient beings to have the same identity,
As many have said: that’s definitely the third yoga, one-taste.

Some talk and talk about “oneness,” but they still want to make a point.
Such hazy confusion
Has no place in the yoga of one-taste.

Conceptual thoughts are in nature great awareness;
Cause and effect are non-dual, spontaneous.
They’re the three bodies,
And knowing this is the fruit of the fourth yoga, non-meditation.

Some talk and talk about non-meditation, but how active their mind is!
They talk and talk about “clear light,” but how thick their meditation is!
Such platitudes
Have no place in the yoga of non-meditation.

“Oh, what wonderful advice!” exclaimed the yogi from Gutang.

Translated by Nicole Riggs.
from 'Milarepa: Songs on the Spot.'

"It’s the mind fixated on objects that causes samsara.
If you recognize as spontaneous
The luminous self-awareness, free of fixation,
You’ll taste the fruit of the first yoga, one-pointedness."
- It's so easy to mistake experience for fact. The difference is in some ways vast between 'seeing' the world as solid stuff 'out there' and us as solid and 'in here'. Or just recognising appearances as shimmering mirages, dream-like appearances, that dance and play, yet have no enduring existence of them own which is worth grasping onto and giving over our life to their control.

It's interesting how in days gone past I'd view Shamatha as primarily about honing down on an object - concentration, which somehow equated to a narrowing of focus. Now, I guess I see it more as a matter of opening out awareness, allowing some 'thing' to come into view, and allowing 'view' to open - whatever awareness illuminates - well, that is empty yet apparent .... so instead of narrowing down onto a semi-solid object, I'm now mixing awareness with appearances, and emptiness, which doesn't have the same sense of focussing down.

So you could say that my Shamatha has the flavour of Vipassana. Mixed. As the Dorje Chang Thung prayer stanza on Shamatha says:

As is taught, unwavering attention is the body of meditation;
whatever arises is the fresh nature of thought.
To the meditator who rests there in naturalness,
grant your blessing that meditation be free from intellectualization.

What's interesting there is that the meditator is urged to rest in 'naturalness', and what arises to minds eye, as it were, is 'the fresh nature of thought'. Well, that isn't a seemingly solid object being fixated upon, but more the seeing at one and the same time of things as they truly are, and as they appear - this as the basis of Shamatha.

This is the basis of the First Yoga, the Yoga of One-Pointedness.

"Luminous mind itself, free of fixation,
Is naturally blissful, without constructs.
If you recognize your very essence to be as clear as space,
You’ll taste the fruit of the second yoga, simplicity."
- I remember long ago on a retreat at Amaravati, the Theravadan monastery in the UK, being taught that we are really caught up in the content of our experience and little interested in the form of experience, and that this
change of inclination is what facilitates the arising of insight and thereby liberation.

Similarly from a Mahamudra approach, creating an interest in the nature of experience and not just attaching to what arises in experience is a profoundly useful change of orientation. Seeing that all appearances are empty, all thoughts are empty, and that that which seems to experience thoughts and appearances is also empty - this changes the way we experience, and lessens our grasping onto experience. As such, mind itself reveals itself as blissful in and of itself, and thereby again lessens are need to chase after pleasurable experiences. Though appearances seem to arise, they are no longer experienced as solid and objectively given, but reveal themselves to be dreamlike in essence - open, illusive and utterly groundless. As such, life becomes inherently simple, with no need to play the games of push and pull at experience, picking and choosing, endless conceptualising, and difficult to know what to do. The doer does what needs to be done, not-doing, just allowing action to arise from the resting, luminous mind.

This is the basis of the second Yoga, the Yoga of Simplicity.

Essential Mahamudra Verses - Maitripa

2008-07-09T15:30:00.012Z

To innermost bliss, I pay homage!

Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say—
All phenomena? Your own mind!
If you look outside for meaning, you'll get confused.
Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,
And mind is merely the flux of awareness,
No self nature: just energy flow.
No true nature: just like the sky.
All phenomena are alike, sky-like.

That's Mahamudra, as we call it.
It doesn't have an identity to show;
For that reason, the nature of mind
Is itself the very state of Mahamudra
(Which is not made up, and does not change).
If you realize this basic reality
You recognize all that comes up, all that goes on,
as Mahamudra,
The all-pervading dharma-body.

Rest in the true nature, free of fabrication.
Meditate without searching for dharma-body—
It is devoid of thought.
If your mind searches, your meditation will be confused.

Because it's like space, or like a magical show,
There is neither meditation or non-meditation,
How could you be separate or inseparable?
That's how a yogi sees it!

Then, aware of all good and bad stuff as the basic reality,
You become liberated.
Neurotic emotions are great awareness,
They're to a yogi as trees are to a fire—FUEL!

What are notions of going or staying?
Or, for that matter, "meditating" in solitude?
If you don't get this,
You free yourself only on the surface.

But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you?
Abide in an undistracted state.
Trying to adjust body and mind won't produce meditation.
Trying to apply techniques won't produce meditation either.

See, nothing is ultimately established.
Know what appears to have no intrinsic nature.
Appearances perceived: reality's realm, self-liberated.
Thought that perceives: spacious awareness, self-liberated.
Non-duality, sameness [of perceiver and perceived]: the dharma-body.

Like a wide stream flowing non-stop,
Whatever the phase, it has meaning
And is forever the awakened state—
Great bliss without samsaric reference.

All phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature
And the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground.
Freedom from conceptual activity
Is the path of all the Buddhas.

I've put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come.
By this virtue, may all beings without exception
Abide in the great state of Mahamudra.

Colophon
--------

This was Maitripa's Essential Mahamudra Instruction (in Tibetan: Phyag rgya chen po tshig bsdus pa), received from Maitripa himself and translated by the Tibetan translator Marpa Chökyi Lodrö.

© Nicole Riggs 1999.
-------------------

I've long had this very soft spot for Maitripa. Seems like somehow how teachings resonate through me more readily than Naropa's, which more often feature in the lineage figures of the Karma Kagyu. Though several streams are acknowledged, the one that passes through Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa etc seems the one usually featured stage front. Yet Saraha and Maitripa are in the mix too ... and in some ways for me are especially potent as they have the emphasis on ease, on self-liberation, on essence, and on letting go which I see most readily in Tilopa amongst the more common lineage.

Maybe it's because my path has often been one marked by struggle that this ease appeals so deeply to me? Not that I'm just wishful thinking, and 'choosing' it somehow as it's how I would like things to be, in distinction to how I experience things to be.

No, it's more of the nature of recognising that there is this other route, one marked more by ease and letting go rather than conflict and heroic effort, and that this other route is opening out for me at this time in particular, as something seems ripe and ready.

"the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground" is especially potent - the utter groundlessness of experience, nothing to cling onto, nothing to hold onto, nothing to stand on ... not even emptiness ... which is empty in and of itself. It's not as if we see through appearances, and then find something deeper, something behind them, something somehow more 'real' than them. Emptiness isn't a thing in itself, something we can attach to ... it's the utter groundlessness of all experience, which isn't exempt from groundlessness itself! .. you will not find this groundlessness anywhere, so don't try to cling to it. The abyss of emptiness, this was called once.

"I've put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come."
- is there any possible way to convey how blessed I am, and any other being with interest in this, to have these precious teachings in the palms of my hands? There are no words adequate to express my gratitude.

How extraordinary that these teachings have not only survived the ages and reached 21st century 'me' ... but that they seem to retain the extraordinary potency which survives untouched .. as experience never differs, but mere appearances in their mirage-like display.

Song of Six Essential Points - Milarepa

2008-07-08T14:41:00.013Z

Mental projections way outnumber the dust motes you see in the sunlight;
A great yogi knows what appears for what it is.

At bottom, the nature of things isn’t a product of causes, nor of conditions
A great yogi cuts to the core of the issue.

Even a hundred men with spears couldn’t stop the thought-bubbles of consciousness;
A great yogi knows not to get hung up on them.

You can’t lock up the flow of mind in an iron box;
A great yogi knows mind to be intrinsically empty.

Wisdom gods and goddesses don’t say no to sensory pleasures;
A great yogi knows this full well.

The Buddha’s own hands couldn’t block the appearance of objects to the consciousness;
A great yogi knows there is no object behind the appearance.

Translated by Nicole Riggs.
from 'Milarepa: Songs on the Spot.'

"Mental projections way outnumber the dust motes you see in the sunlight;
A great yogi knows what appears for what it is."
How often do I not know appearances for what they are? How much easier it is to know them as mere appearances, the magical display of mind whilst meditating? How much harder to know this whilst in between meditations (post meditation)? Clearly I only have experience, not realisation, otherwise what is so very clear in meditation would persist more outside of it. There's certainly spaciousness there rather than solidity, but when anger arises on occasion, it all goes very solid in comparison.

Interestingly, I noted the other day that I couldn't remember how old I was. It took me nearly 5 minutes to work it out. It struck me that part of that is a very real loosening of conventions. I just don't seem to have quite such a strong hidden assumption around time and space as in yesteryear. Hmm .. that seems hard for others to understand, sometimes.

Funny thing about appearances - they are numberless, as Milarepa says. And conventionally we tend to want to understand them all, and follow them up, and arrange them just so. And yet, knowing the nature of one means you know the nature of them all, and fascination, no, entrancement by them all drops away ... little by little.

"At bottom, the nature of things isn’t a product of causes, nor of conditions
A great yogi cuts to the core of the issue."
I smile now at how I used to think my way round how causality relates to emptiness, how the unconditioned relates to the conditioned, how the so called mundane relates to the transcendental. How wonderful now to have some basis in experience to know these things. Not realisation, but some experience, so that thought no longer proliferates around these notions, and I can glimpse unfabricated experience as it appears, and how it truly is.

"Even a hundred men with spears couldn’t stop the thought-bubbles of consciousness;
A great yogi knows not to get hung up on them."
I used to try to push thoughts and emotions away. After that, I used to apply antidotes to them. Then I tried to transform them. Now, they just self-liberate, and I have to do .... nothing! How wonderful to let go. How wonderful the simplicity. How wonderful to let go, just a little, of trying to get somewhere, and to be, just a little right where I am, right here and now!

"You can’t lock up the flow of mind in an iron box;
A great yogi knows mind to be intrinsically empty."
Unobstructed are thoughts and appearances, which appear as they wish, and disappear again as they choose. Empty is the mind through which they appear to appear, yet nowhere can this mind be found, and nowhere can these appearances be found. You can't stop thoughts coming. In fact, letting go of trying allows them to subside all of themselves. The mind settles when no effort is made to calm it down. Just rest the mind in its own nature, and flow and stillness, just what they are ... are just what they are ...

"Wisdom gods and goddesses don’t say no to sensory pleasures;
A great yogi knows this full well."
Heheheheh .... I had to laugh at this. Why say 'no' to what self-liberates? Why push and pull at experience, when it's all same-taste? Well, because we are habituated to do so ... thinking it will bring us happiness. We think that happiness comes from sensory experience, from lining up an unending string of pleasurable experiences. Yet happiness comes from being at ease with however things are ... without the push and pull, allowing wisdom and compassion to flow forth!

"The Buddha’s own hands couldn’t block the appearance of objects to the consciousness;
A great yogi knows there is no object behind the appearance."
Block the appearances of objects to consciousness - you can't block them. But you can see appearances as what they are ... and know that there is no object behind or within them ... so empty illusions, magical projections, playing, flickering, touching us with their fragrance, yet nothing more than what they are .... so why get caught up with them ... why try to stop them ... why try to force them to not have what they didn't have in the first place?

Beautiful teaching ...

"may I come to know that which I only understand ... and may all beings be free from afflictions and struggle"

Working with Anxiety

2008-07-08T07:37:00.003Z

I thought I'd once again share a comment I made on another blog I've enjoyed greatly of late - Sacred West. We'd had a brief dialogue about a post on Stong Back, Soft Front, after which Sacred West was relating an experience from that morning:

Sacred West : "I awoke and thought of a stressful event to deal with this day, and I became anxious, I felt the pain of anxiety come into my gut and my stomach.

Then, thinking in terms of front and back I thought: pain just doesn’t belong here. And still in bed I moved this energy back into my spine and away from my organs, and it became strength, my resolve to stand up to the events of this day.

So, I don’t know, but the metaphor has its uses :)

What do you think about that?"

Chodpa : "Thanks for sharing that ...

what do I think? ... :-) ... I think that it’s great that this metaphor works for you, and affords you the means to work with conflicting emotions like anxiety, and find a means to transform that emotion into strength :-)

We all use different methods, right, whatever works and is appropriate at that time for where we are at?

For myself, when something like anxiety arises, then I simply allow it fully into awareness, as much as I’m able. Not pushing it away, not seeking to transform it, not in any way trying to grasp or reject it, but allowing awareness and what arises to mix fully.

When I’m fully and deeply aware of this arisen emotion, I tend to see it for what it is ... simply appearance, mirage-like appearance, devoid of any solidity, location or attributes in any way. It’s there, yet it’s not there. A dance of illusion.

Seeing thus, what seems to have arisen simply self-liberates ... it’s runs its course and melts away, without struggle, without conflict, without grasping or rejecting ... just what is, without the hooks into the psyche.

With that ... ease is neither won nor lost ... different flavours play and flicker, but what actually changes?

Well, that’s the way I go ... (or sometimes, try to go ;-)

One thing I’ve found very useful, is when an emotion arises, to see what is going on physically, emotionally, and at the level of storyline (or thought). Not analysing any of them, just allowing it fully into awareness, and watching if you like at all three levels. Doing thus takes all the ‘bite’ out of the emotion, allows us to see the way we habitually react to that which we don’t want to experience, and allows those patterns to dissolve in the sun of awareness, weakened, and less able to hold us in their habitual grip.

many thanks for your sharing ... and very best wishes to you!"

Mahamudra Inspiration

2008-07-07T13:45:00.017Z

One of the things that I really appreciate about Mahamudra is that there are instructions that seem to just 'hit the mark' for me. Sometimes I feel I need detailed instructions, and there are many of those.

There are primary texts such as those by Tilopa (The Six Words of Advice, The Ganges Mahamudra), Naropa (The View Concisely Put, A Summary of Mahamudra), Maitripa (Essential Mahamudra Verses), Milarepa, Saraha (A Song for the King), HH3 Karmapa Rangjung Dorje (Aspiration Prayer of Mahamudra), HH9 Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (Pointing Out the Dharmakaya, Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance), or Dagpo Tashi Namgyal (Clarifying the Natural State, Moonbeams of Mahamudra), for example.

Then there are commentaries or instructions, such as those by Thrangu Rinpoche or Peter Barth at one end of the scale, as it were - the traditional end, to those by Ken McLeod which attempt to teach without recourse to 'mythic' language.

Thrangu Rinpoche's commentaries point the way like none other for me, being quite direct and very systematic. Ken McLeod's teachings have been a revelation this year, once again opening out the path with clarity and great skillfulness.

Sometimes though, the simple pith instructions are what I need, such as the famous lines by Tilopa:

Let go of what has passed.
Let go of what may come.
Let go of what is happening now.
Don't try to figure anything out.
Don't try to make anything happen.
Relax, right now, and rest.

Today, it was Dagpo Tashi Namgyal, whose texts leave me in awe, yet are entirely practical and directly realisable.

Elevate your experience and remain wide open like the sky.
Expand your mindfulness and remain pervasive like the earth.
Steady your attention and remain unshakable like a mountain.
Brighten your awareness and remain shining like a flame.
Clear your throughtfree wakefulness and remain lucid like a crystal.

The quote above comes from 'Clarifying the Natural State', and gives wonderful, poetic images with which to relax the mind into its natural state, and let go.

Without rigorous argument or great detail, these lines present images for the heart, which seduce it into letting go into simplicity. And yet, within those evocative lines are also contained precise instructions for Mahamudra meditation, just clothed in poetic colours, rather than colder, harder prose.

"May my mind always incline to realising Mahamudra.

May my mind learn to truly let go.

May my heart open to all beings' sufferings,

And may I find the path that leads all beings to liberation."

Starting from Experience and Starting from Thought

2008-07-03T18:19:00.006Z

I've recently discovered a blog called if you see the dhamma ... written by Joseiem, which I've really enjoyed reading, and commenting on. I thought I'd just lift a set of replies I posted to Joseiem's comments. I've used the title of this post to highlight what I'm trying to point at, not to characterise Joseiem's replies:

Hi again Josesiem :-)

A some observations ...

Josesiem : Even within Buddhism, as I’ve written before, there are massive conflicts and differences.

Chodpa : It is true at the level of conceptual formulations of the teachings, and methodology that there are massive differences within various Dharma traditions, but is there a difference in terms of fundamentals, realisations. or the result of following these varying paths? I see none personally. I can only suggest trying to be clear about what is view, what is method, and what is result, and then seeing if there is conflict.

Josesiem : all paths lead to the same peak and all fingers point to the same moon.”

Chodpa : how could we know this, unless we’ve travelled each and every one of those paths? To assert or deny otherwise would be a matter of belief - starting with an a priori idea, and then fitting experience into that.

Josesiem : the problem with the anti-representationalist, anti-realist, and nondualist schools of thought is that they are just another school of thought.”

Chodpa : if by this you mean the actual practice of Dharma, then I’d say ‘no, this isn’t the case’. They aren’t *just* another school of thought. What they provide are view and method. View is the attempt to conceptualise what is found as a result of following their methods to the end. As such, it’s not a belief set, but an attempt to provide a rough pointer to experience. The rest is method, the vital tools with which to walk the path. Those methods and view provided are only skillful means … don’t mistake them for conceptual elaborations, or philosophical positions!!!!

Josesiem : we can pretend that “ontology is not important” but there is an implied ontology in these theories.”

Chodpa : so????? There is a lot that might be elaborated from both view and method, but what of it? The Buddha was very clear that he taught the means to go beyond suffering and struggle. It’s fine to go elsewhere, indeed, anywhere we want from the central point of the Dharma, but perhaps it is of use to bear in mind what that central point is, and not lose sight of it.

Josesiem : “Emptiness is itself empty.” Which leaves what? Nothing. No, not even nothing. Nothing is still a something. It’s a perceived lack of something. This is where you find yourself beyond language in some kind of space vacuum. And I’d argue this not-nothing, not-something, non-thingy thingy is still a something. Perhaps I’m just dense, but you have to posit a something. You can’t escape ontology no matter how hard you try.”

Chodpa : Is this what the teachings on Shunyata are ‘about’? My experience says that when I meditate according to the teachings, then I find that the view of Shunyata is about as close as you can get conceptually to describing the nature of experience. That experience most certainly isn’t accurately described as ‘nothing’. No-thing might be closer ;-) You can posit all you like, but that has little to do with meditating and following the path, doesn’t it? It might be ‘interesting’ and it might satisfy curiosity, but does it actually liberate? Emptiness (as it’s sometimes translated) is a description *after* the event, as it were. It’s an attempt to provide a means to describe something that is to be experienced, here and now! It’s not a belief from which one then thinks, or analyses, or elaborates. It is in itself a description of unelaborated mind or experience!!! Again, you can elaborate from there back into dualistic thought, a ’something’ or a ‘nothing’ … but hey …

Josesiem : So, the unavoidable and inevitable question for everyone is: where will you place your faith?”

Chodpa : I’m right behind this one. In distinction to ‘belief’ .. if you will … where we start with an idea, and then proceed to map all our experience to fit that …. Buddha taught the means of using faith to open out into experience, and thereby to see experience for what it is, and so on. With faith, we gain the openness to what is, without immediately attempting to manipulate it. Without that, one cannot see it for how it is, and thereby the doors to transformation are closed. One starts with confidence in the teachings as a result of whatever experience you’ve had, and that then develops through the three levels of faith that the Buddha describes until the final flowering of faith is wisdom itself. From the deepest perspective, what the Buddhist has faith in is the three jewels - we can see directly in our experience how mind is open, expansive and ungraspable. This is the Buddha. We can see how mind is clear and lucid nevertheless (even though this clarity cannot be found) - this is Dharma. And we can experience mind as entirely unobstructed - this is Sangha. The three jewels are directly available to experience, to open-heartedness (faith) and as such are not a matter of belief. All else is subject to change and decay, whether belief, or what appears to the mind. Only these three ‘aspects of mind’ - the three jewels provide ’something’ that we can truly have faith in, as they are true refuges - they are always present, and always reliable.

once again, many thanks for your stimulating thoughts :-)

(more ramblings which hope to be of some use somewhere)

Chodpa

The Melody of Wisdom : A Supplication to the Wisdom Dakini Niguma

2008-06-26T07:42:00.009Z

Vajra queen, mother of all buddhas,
Dark-brown woman wearing bone ornaments who flies through space,
You bestow supreme accomplishment on your fortunate disciples:
Noble Niguma, to you I pray.

You were born in the wonderful land of Kashmir,
In a sublime city
Known as Incomparable in the Land of Jambu,
Emanated through Madhyantika's blessing; to you I pray.

In the family circle
Of the pure Brahmin, Shantivarma,
Narotapa and you, the wisdom dakini, were brother and sister
Your karma ripened together like sun and moon; to you I pray.

You are the feminine form of true emptiness,
Sublime among all appearances, giving birth to all victorious buddhas.
Although you manifest in a worldly form,
You renounced any connection to existence through craving and grasping;
to you I pray.

During incalculable past lives, you reached the far shore
Of awakening's stages and paths.
Thus, in this life, you gained the inconceivable, perfect freedom of
self-manifest accomplishment.
Innate dakini, to you I pray.

You did not have to rely on exhausting training
When some advice from accomplished masters entered your ears,
You understood all teachings.
Great bliss of natural liberation, to you I pray.

Knowledge of one subject - the tantras' subtle, profound meaning led to your total liberation
And the flowering of your two forms of knowledge.
You saw directly and without obscuration the truth of the nature of reality.
Illustrious woman of accomplishment, to you I pray.

You bound your mind, eyes, and circulating energy within the expanse of
emptiness,
Permitting you to see in the central channel the [empty] forms created
by the spring vital essence.
Vajra illusory reflections, such as smoke, developed together.
You completed the branch of familiarization; to you I pray.

You used your breath to block the dark circulating energies and made
them descend to your belly.
You joined the vitality and descending energies equally at the six
energy centers,
Blocking the movement of the six elements' sun and moon.
You completed the branch of proximate accomplishment; to you I pray.

You transcended the three seals to reach incomparable Great Seal (Mahamudra).
The innate light of its unchanging, coemergent bliss
Created your ten-faceted illusory body, replete with all powers.
You completed the branch of accomplishment - to you I pray.

You blocked the twenty-one thousand six hundred circulating energies and
attained that many forms of changeless bliss.
At the crown of your head, the mind of awakening became stable,
And you traversed awakening's stages in an instant.
You completed the branch of great accomplishment; to you I pray.

Through engaging in conduct that is enlightenment's direct cause,
You enjoyed many pleasures and were nurtured spiritually by Buddha Vajra
Bearer.
Your fortune equaled his - your body of training's integral union
Works for beings whose numbers equal space; to you I pray.

You saw directly all phenomena without obscuration
And opened inconceivable millions of gates to meditative states.
You master the secret treasury of all victorious ones.
Consort of all buddhas, to you I pray.

Body of great bliss, emptiness and compassion inseparable,
Manifestation of blissful buddhas, sovereign of common and supreme
accomplishment,
Powerful bodhisattva on awakening's tenth stage, glorious guide for beings,
Wearer of Bone Ornaments, to you I pray.

Sentient beings, our venerable mothers, wander along the wheel of life
In endless and fathomless seas of suffering.
With your universal great compassion,
Lead them to a pure land of flourishing, uncontaminated bliss, I pray.

Nurture fortunate persons who have entered the path;
Pacify all adversity, hindrances, and obstacles;
Continually enhance our experience and realization;
And bless us with the completion of awakening's five paths and ten stages.

(A Garland of Udumvara Flowers, pp. 3a-4a, by Jamgon Kongtrul)

Excerpted from /Timeless Rapture/, by Ngawang Zangpo.

A second prayer of supplication to a Shangpa Kagyu lineage holder (prayer of supplication to Sukhasiddhi, this prayer to Niguma once again stirs a deep resonance in my heart. Though couched in deeply mythic language, unlocking the symbolism points directly into minds nature, and illuminates what is, simply is.

The lines:
"You are the feminine form of true emptiness,
Sublime among all appearances, giving birth to all victorious buddhas."
speaks a lot to meditation experience. So much seems encapsulated there. So much summarised so pithily (is that a word? .. it is now!). So much that can't really be said, just pointed to, by allusion, fingers pointing to the moon.

Once again:
"You did not have to rely on exhausting trainingó
When some advice from accomplished masters entered your ears,
You understood all teachings.
Great bliss of natural liberation, to you I pray."
How wonderful to read these lines, the ease of natural liberation, how different from the hard won struggle so often portrayed. Not that I want it easy, not that I want to project a notion that it *should* be easy ... just enjoying hearing of ease-won liberation, alongside the natural ease of the Mahamudra path of resting mind. How blessed I am to have found this path of no-struggle. How simple the path of self-liberating dharmas. One sees how unnecessary this creation of suffering or struggle is. How wonderful to find the path itself which is without struggle. Seeing the 'problem' of struggle, finding a path beyond that which itself doesn't involve 'struggle'. No longer at war with myself, trying to be something other that what I appeared to be. No longer trying to be somewhere else, not at peace with things. How deeply I pray that all beings find this ease, and allow the illusory chains of suffering to disappear like dew drops in the sun of awareness.

An extraordinary peon to accomplishments ... beyond my imagination, yet so very near.

The Melody of Great Bliss : A Supplication to the Wisdom Dakini Sukhasiddhi

2008-06-19T11:12:00.015Z

Bestower of uncontaminated, coemergent bliss;
Radiant with the full splendor of sixteen-year-old youth;
Leader of every assembly of dakinis in the three locations
Venerable Accomplishment of Bliss [Sukhasiddhi], to you I pray.

You manifested in a pauper's home in Kashmir
And trained in realization on the path.
Having completed the force of faith and great compassion,
You diligently gave gifts without attachment; to you I pray.

Millions of eons ago, you perfected the cultivation of merit and wisdom
And the result of your training manifested.
The awakening of your karmic connections
Made you renounce home life; to you I pray.

In the land of Oddiyana, source of great mysteries,
Men were spiritual warriors; women, female warriors.
Just by your reaching the center of that gathering,
The power of your enlightened potential awakened; to you I pray.

You demonstrated the skillful means of illusory conduct as a vendor of delicious alcohol.
You gave twice-strained rice alcohol to a female adept.
This created a connection through faith
With a tantric practitioner in the forest; to you I pray.

Noble Virupa accepted you as his disciple
And gave you the full four empowerments into secret practice.
Instantly, your ripened karmic body of sixty-one years
Became that of a sixteen-year-old maiden; to you I pray.

Taking the inner path, you truly traversed in a single moment
The major vajra stages of awakening,
And you appeared in an uncontaminated, vajra rainbow body.
Powerful one of the celestial realms, to you I pray.

You became the manifest form of coemergent wisdom, Buddha Selfless One,
To remain until the end of cyclic existence.
You watch over the three realms' beings during the six periods of day and night.
Honored female buddha, to you I pray.

You manifestly bless those who pray to you
And lovingly watch over your children who preserve your lineage, never parting from them.
You bestow common and supreme accomplishment in a matter of months or years.
Powerful one of great compassion, to you I pray.

Vajra Yogini, perfection of transcendent knowledge,
You appear to help beings in a body that has form.
The exquisite flower of your body, which one never tires of seeing,
Blooms with the marks and signs of physical perfection; to you I pray.

In the Teaching's infinite gates, which have the nature of emptiness,
You speak according to beings' dispositions.
Your speech, invincible sweet sound in every situation,
Flows imbued with the sixty tones of Brahma's voice; to you I pray.

Inseparable bliss and emptiness, the true vajra of space,
Pervades all animate and inanimate life.
Your sublime enlightened mind of luminous Great Seal
Is coemergent and uncontaminated; to you I pray.

Epitome of the qualities of freedom and maturity,
You have an inconceivable life.
Just hearing your voice inspires uncontaminated bliss.
Sublime wish-fulfilling jewel, to you I pray.

You unite in pleasure with all victors and bodhisattvas.
Your emanations reach the four elements' limits.
Like an excellent vase, a gem, or a wish-fulfilling tree,
Your enlightened activity is spontaneously present; to you I pray.

Your compassion knows no distance and embraces all equally.
You guide fortunate persons on the path to the celestial realms.
Your loving face wears the conscientious smile of compassion.
Friend to all beings, to you I pray.

To your child who preserves the lineage and who prays to you,
Show your loving face and joyfully grant me your supreme prophecy.
Bestow the empowerment of great vajra wisdom,
And bless me that I merge inseparably with you.

by Jamgon Kongtrul.

Excerpted from Timeless Rapture, by Ngawang Zangpo.

As always with these devotional poems, there's so little to add of any substance. What always strikes me is the beauty of the devotion, the sheer beauty in the heart that lets go in supplication, which opens to that which is possible, even that which seems beyond or impossible from our limited perspective.

Sukhasiddhi's story is inspiring in itself, with her ease of realisation a particular source of gentle encouragement. Not all masters seems to have to take the rough roller coaster ride to liberation!

Her images always seem to open something out deep within me, speaking to me in a way that words cannot. It's strange how some images do this, yet others speak of nothing. So easy to understand why beings grasp at 'explanations' such as karma and past lives to explain this. Why does this need explaining? Why not remain in the not-knowing, and just sit in the wonderment and blessedness?

Jamgon Kongtrul speaks so eloquently of the qualities that cannot be spoken. How marvellous it is to read the words of one who has realised. How utterly different it is to read the words of those of us who 'understand', but do not 'know'.

Profound thanks for the teachings, the lineage, the blessings of Sukhasiddhi and Jamgon Kongtrul, which resonate beyond time and space, and envelop me in their gentle uplift.

For someone like me trained in intellect, how liberating the open heart which inclines to devotion.

And how interesting the whole area of prayer .... of what this is, in its various manifestations.

The Winds have Died

2008-05-28T10:58:00.004Z

The winds have died, but flowers go on falling;
birds call, but silence penetrates each song.

The Mystery! Unknowable, unlearnable.
The virtue of Kannon.

Ryokan

These incomparable words express so eloquently the mystery of inseparable emptiness and appearances.

Poignant indeed :-)

Snowflakes melting on Fire

2008-05-27T11:59:00.006Z

The great achievements of the world are but snowflakes melting on fire,
Accomplishments that move oceans are but dew disappearing in the glare of the sun,
Why live a dream in this ethereal life of dreams,
I forsake all to walk towards the great eternal truth.

Seongcheol
Korean Seon (Zen) Master - on becoming a monk.

I was just laughing to myself whilst meditating. I'd not get too much sleep last night from the pain, so was more 'vegetating' rather than meditating! Nevertheless, whilst working with the drowsiness and general dullness which advanced and retreated like waves, I suddenly remembered Seongcheol, and his example. He was well known for being able to not just keep awareness of minds nature throughout the day, continuously, but also throughout dreaming *and* deep sleep too.

And I can't maintain alertness for more than a few moments even in formal meditation posture!

I'm entirely in awe of this great master :-)

Pointing to your Original Mind

2008-05-26T10:31:00.020Z

Some reflections on a dialogue between Chinul (also known as Bojo, and Jinul), a 12th century Korean master and one of his students:

Question: In our case, what is this mind of void and calm, numinous awareness?

Chinul: What has just asked me this question is precisely your mind of void and calm, numinous awareness. Why not trace back its radiance rather than search for it outside? For your benefit I will now point straight to your original mind so that you can awaken to it. Clear your mind and listen to my words.

From morning to evening, throughout the twelve periods of the day, during all your actions and activities ... ultimately who is it that is able to perform all these actions? Speak! ... You should know that what is capable of seeing, hearing, moving and acting has to be your original mind: it is not your physical body. Furthermore, the four elements which make up the physical body are by nature void; they are like images in a mirror, or the moon's reflection in water. How can they be clear and constantly aware, always bright and never obscured - and, upon activation, be able to put into operation sublime functions as numerous as the sands of the Ganges? For this reason it is said, 'Drawing water and carrying firewood are spiritual powers and sublime functions.'

There are many points at which to enter the noumenon. I will indicate one approach which will allow you to return to the source ... Do you hear the sounds of that crow cawing and that magpie calling?

Student: Yes.

Chinul: Trace them back and listen to your hearing-nature. Do you hear any sounds?

Student: At that place, sounds and discriminations do not obtain.

Chinul: Marvellous! Marvellous! This is Avalokiteshvara's method for entering the noumenon. Let me ask you again. You said that sound and discriminations do not obtain at that place. But since they do not obtain, isn't the hearing-nature just empty space at such a time?

Student: Originally it is not empty. It is always bright and never obscured.

Chinul: What is this essence which is not empty?

Student: As it has no form or shape, words cannot describe it.

The Collected Works of Chinul

I thought I'd share some words about the inexpressible ... foolish being that I am ;-)

I was really struck when I read this dialogue yesterday as to how similar the pointing out instructions by the Korean Zen master Chinul were to the pointing out instructions of Mahamudra.

When Chinul asks the student to trace back mind's radiance, rather than search for it outside (in concepts or answers from the Master),he proceeds to give the pointing out instructions in a very clear and precise way. First he asks him to clear his mind and listen. It's so easy for us to jump to conceptual answers when we hear a teaching, or are asked a question. In Mahamudra meditation we can ask a question such as 'who am I?' and then 'listen' for the answer. Before the conceptual mind steps in, there's a spacious opening, as the conceptual mind lets go, and awareness 'holds' the question.

For the beginner, these questions just 'zap' the mind, as we have no idea at all what or who we are. Then there's the rush of thoughts that seek to fill the not knowing.

When we've had more experience with these things .. we don't rush to fill the gap ... we can sit in the unknowing ... sit with the lack of answer .... and sit in the opening.

Depending on our experience, we can sit in that opening for longer, with the mind clearer .. allowing us to see more clearly ..... and actually know what we see ... and not just try to understand it in thoughts and concepts.

"ultimately who is it that is able to perform all these actions?" ... when we look we see no-thing, no-one who is there 'behind' our actions. Even the 'I', the 'self' the sense of being 'someone' arises as an 'object' to awareness. It comes and goes, and is no more real or substantial than any other arising to mind.

"You should know that what is capable of seeing, hearing, moving and acting has to be your original mind: it is not your physical body." The physical body isn't there to us, directly and unmediated. Any experience we have that we ascribe to 'body' is simply arisings of perceptions in the play of mind. We never actually experience body as such ... only our dreamlike experience, some of which we separate out into 'body' and grasp onto it as real.

"Furthermore, the four elements which make up the physical body are by nature void; they are like images in a mirror, or the moon's reflection in water. How can they be clear and constantly aware, always bright and never obscured - and, upon activation, be able to put into operation sublime functions as numerous as the sands of the Ganges? For this reason it is said, 'Drawing water and carrying firewood are spiritual powers and sublime functions." The endlessly fascinating interplay of emptiness and appearances, of the apparent, and the ultimately true. How wondrous indeed that no-thing actually exists, and yet everything seems to arise, and carry out its own function perfectly! Somehow we'd think that for something to function, it must be real. It must truly exist. And yet, these mirages flit and flicker, yet dance their very own dance of the world, painting all colours on our experience and the world. Truly mysterious, ungraspable and wondrous indeed!

"There are many points at which to enter the noumenon. I will indicate one approach which will allow you to return to the source." Chunul gives an approach to working with mind, to allow the student to move away from grasping at appearances as if they were inherently real, and opening instead to how things really are. Chunul asks the student to listen to the birds singing:

"Chinul: Trace them back and listen to your hearing-nature. Do you hear any sounds?

Student: At that place, sounds and discriminations do not obtain."

When we let go of the entrancement of believing in 'objects' and just open to what really is, we don't find the solid separate 'things' which we believe exist. Instead, we find a magical display of fleeting appearances, all without substance. None have names, none have definite characteristics, and none have anything that we can call 'this' or 'that', 'it's here' or 'it's there', or even 'this exists' or 'this doesn't exist'. We have no idea at all what something 'is' in this sense. Just empty arisings.

"Chinul: You said that sound and discriminations do not obtain at that place. But since they do not obtain, isn't the hearing-nature just empty space at such a time?

Student: Originally it is not empty. It is always bright and never obscured."

Chinul asks whether because no-thing can be found, whether there is nothing at all. The abyss of nihilism as I believe Nagarjuna called it. The student clearly sees that this emptiness is full, and describes the luminosity of mind. Though no-thing can be found, experience is vivid and clear, blazing in clarity, full in its magical display. Awareness shines, whether the clouds of our ignorance and thoughts obscure it or not. Wakefulness is always present - how could it be otherwise? How could it be possible for our mind to grow quiet and experience this expansive knowingness were it not eternally awake?

"Chinul: What is this essence which is not empty?

Student: As it has no form or shape, words cannot describe it."

Asked to describe this luminosity, the student refuses to go where words cannot (unlike myself!!!!) and merely states that nothing definite can be said of that which illuminates the void. (the void - horrible term, but fitting here). Though emptiness is not nothingness, that which is other than nothingness is not a thing, nothing that can be pointed to with words.

How clear this experience that is describes from centuries ago, between two beings I've never met!

How crazy these idle ramblings, trying to put the horns on a rabbit, trying to describe the indescribable!

Adding Labels and Tags

2008-05-25T07:20:00.004Z

How fascinating it has been these last two days to go through this blog adding on labels or tags to each post, giving a signpost to what is contained within. It's been fascinating reading snippets of so many of these postings, seeing what I was doing, and more importantly, seeing how I was experiencing things throughout these years.

And fascinating indeed to see which labels come up most frequently in my posts. That clearly gives some indication of the notions that I am particularly interested in in my life - those things that I care about and wish to express here.

It's almost like a league-table of what my life is about! (the league table is over on the right side, if you wish to see)

As if a mirror has been held up, and suddenly revealed my life, in all its (in)glory!

Funny old thing, blogging ....

The Measure of a Life

2008-05-13T07:33:00.010Z

Did I love well?

Did I live fully?

Did I learn to let go?

- Jack Kornfield

I've recently been delving back into 'A Path with Heart' by Jack Kornfield after many years, and once again came across this lovely aphorism. He relates how when one is lying on your deathbed you are unlikely to be thinking 'did I stay late enough at work that night', or 'did I earn enough' .. but much more likely these three questions in the quotation.

Many, many times I've reflected on this, and come back to this fundamental point about life. It says so much about what we put our energy into, and whether that's really what we want our life to be about.

And much like Buddha's

"Cease to do evil,

do good,

purify the heart"

this most pithy aphorism contains so much in the way of guidelines to practice, encompassing the whole path.

Well, did I? Do I? Will I?

What a beautiful thing this journey is, bitter or sweet it appears to be .....

More Simplicity

2008-05-09T07:32:00.003Z

- following on from yesterday's reflection on the simple pleasure of sitting, just sitting - it struck me today how odd it is in a way that I can get so much joy from just looking at trees, the sky and the wind. I'd just finished meditating yesterday, and looked up and out at the trees. I was fascinated by how 'blue' the sky was, how verdant the green of the new leaves on the trees was, how wondrous the shapes that the leaves made against the sky, and how lovely the movement of the leaves and branches against the backdrop of the blue sky.

I had this sense of completeness, of needing nothing, and just content to be where I was, enjoying what was.

How odd? ... why odd? ... well, in a way, wouldn't most people think it really odd that I was sitting there, looking at trees with a funny smile on my face? Where was my cigarette, or chatter, or planning, or entertainment from ipods and other gadgets? What struck me in particular was that at that moment, I didn't need all these technological marvels that we've invented in order to give us pleasure. I didn't need entertainment from things that were complex, that I had to strive to buy, or which took a lot of work or conditions to acquire. All I needed at that moment was? ... well, not a lot really. Simple pleasure in being right where I was, in the present, fully open to what was around me, and within, or wherever any of that actually is.

Like the old adage of the person with the jewel on their person, who'd not known that they have this wealth there all the time, unbeknownst to them .... I felt a recognition today that contentment was right there - simply there all the time, should we want it. We don't actually need all that other stuff to make us feel good. Just open to what is, don't push and pull at it with want and don't want .. just open to the texture of what is there, fully, with an open heart, and right there and then, in whatever it is, anger, happiness, complexity, simplicity .... whatever it seems to be ... open to what is ... and it's all same taste, all one taste, all both wondrously apparent and beguiling, yet utterly empty and ineffable, and extraordinarily mysterious. How beautiful, however it is ....

simple things .... strange 'world' we inhabit .....

Simple Pleasure

2008-05-08T17:13:00.005Z

I've found myself experiencing some wonderment recently, at how pleasurable simply sitting still is, and doing absolutely nothing, (other than remaining in awareness).

Doing nothing?

How much of my life is caught up in doing? How much of it is to do with getting somewhere, achieving something, or trying to somehow alter what actually is?

Simply sitting, resting the body, resting the mind, and allowing what is to simply be in awareness - what an amazing thing that is. How little there actually is to say about it ... how little can be expressed in words. How do you convey an inner experience, one which is utterly intangible and ineffable, into words that somehow convey something to another being?

I don't know, and guess that's part of why I've not posted here much over the last year. Seems like it goes in cycles, sometimes feeling a great desire to share, to attempt to cross the divide. Other times, the inclination is to remain with what is, and just allow it to be what it is.

The waves and the ocean are what they are. Can we taste them for what they are? Can we see appearances for what they are and follow their luminous flickering path in awareness?

No direction in this blog, just like there is no direction in mind, in experience. Just what is. Suchness.

How beautiful simply sitting can be.

What's your Poison?

2007-11-14T15:35:00.002Z

One familiar grouping of emotional obscurations in Buddhism is the five poisons - greed, hatred, pride, jealousy and ignorance. I was reflecting this morning that my predominant poison has changed from what it was 6 months ago ... so ....

Let's 'name and shame' !!!!

My predominant poison at present is hatred. (It's the desire to push things away, to reject aspects of experience and seek to move away from them).

6 months ago it was Pride. Previous to that, I was predominantly craving or greed.

Hmm .... interesting the change. Nothing stays the same ... all that arises ceases.

I always remember a teaching that the Buddha gave in the Pali sutta's, of how the person with anger is like someone with a red hot coal in his hand, who is trying to throw it at someone else .... but, the coal just stays in your hand. Likewise, your anger, which seeks to harm another, but actually primarily harms yourself, (as well as them).

Let me focus on and watch Anger, and see how this is ....

Deepening Compassion

2007-11-13T09:43:00.002Z

I thought I'd therefore share some further reflections on Gampopa's threefold classification of Compassion (from The Jewel Ornament of Liberation).

Gampopa's first category - 'Compassion with reference to Sentient beings' is simply the desire to help beings when we see that they are suffering. However, due to our level of understanding and practice, we ourselves suffer alongside those who wish to help. Our compassion, (but lack of wisdom and skillful means) leads us to pain, as we don't have sufficient understanding to help without causing ourselves pain. It's worth noting that this wouldn't be a reason for us to not help! It's still important as a means to develop further compassion and wisdom, and also to actually alleviate suffering, that we do reach out to others, even if that causes us pain :-)

The second form of Compassion that Gampopa notes is that of 'Compassion with reference to the Dharma'. Here we have a deepened level of understanding. As a result, we 'understand' something of the causes of suffering, due to our increased 'understanding' of Dharma. So, when we see suffering, and our desire to help arises, we know that this suffering arises from causes. We know the suffering arises from attachment, from craving and ill-will, and ultimately, from ignorance (of how things really are). We understand something of the Four Noble Truths, and we know something of causality - of Dependent Origination. As such, when compassion arises, and we seek to help others, we suffer less, as we are less inclined to attach, or to crave whilst helping.

For example, we don't get so caught up in results, in needing to 'solve' the others' problem. So we can help, to our utmost, but let go of results, let go of having to take things through to a solution. Sometimes it's not possible to solve the other persons problem (they might have an incurable illness, for example) and in this case, we can help to our utmost, without causing ourself suffering at not being able to control the outcome.

Another aspect here is that now that we've generated some understanding of how suffering comes about - its causes and conditions - we sense that those we see suffering do *not* know what is causing their suffering. We see that they live life only wishing to be happy, but that their very actions are the cause of their suffering. As such, that recognition of their situation is the cause for a much stronger compassion to develop.

The third form of Compassion Gampopa talks about is that of 'Compassion without Reference Point'. This is where we have developed sufficiently that we see something of the true nature of things. We have some experience of Shunyata, of Emptiness, and therefore we no longer cling to the notion of person, of illness, of helping as solidly existent 'things'. As a result of seeing the play of mere appearances in mind, we don't attach to these illusory notions, and therefore we don't suffer whilst helping alleviate suffering. We see this play of appearances, which are ultimately empty, but at the same time, we recognise that the 'person' before us does not see this.

We also see that the difference between seeing things as they are, and of grasping onto the solidity or reality of things, is, in a sense, razor thin. The difference is so slender between seeing, and not seeing.

When the experience of emptiness arises, we see that seeing how things are, and seeing with ignorance is the most subtle shift, in a sense, (and yet the most enormous shift, in another sense!!!!). We see how easy it is to lose this 'view', both during, and between meditations. We slip into it and out of it so easily. So, we have an appreciation of how small a shift it is, in a sense, and how 'easy' it could be for those suffering beings to see in accordance with the nature of things, to act in accordance with the nature of things, and therefore not suffer. That recognition of how 'easy' it would be for them to not suffer becomes the cause for a great compassion to arise in us. The recognition of how unnecessary that suffering is, indeed, how unnecessary and how easily thrown off.

Further, the recognition from the previous stage (and classification) that we ourselves self-cause our own suffering is deepened here - with the addition of now seeing the potential 'ease' of throwing it off.

At this stage, our compassion arises without having an object, as we no longer 'see' any being to be the object of our compassion. Indeed, we no longer see 'ourselves' as being compassionate, nor see the 'act' of compassion either. We see the play of empty appearances - and yet, and yet ... we act. How is this? How can we act, when we no longer see sentient beings, as such? Well, from my very limited experience, this Compassion is the natural response, the natural outpouring of the mind that sees things as they are. It's as if when we take all this mistaken understanding and seeing out of the way, what lay beneath - the sun behind the clouds - can pour forth its energy, which had been previously obscured and dammed up.

- an attempt to clarify in my own mind my own confusion, and previous potentially confusing post ... in the hope it might also be of help to others -

may we all give rise to the Compassion that has no reference point ...

Gampopa - Compassion with Reference to Sentient Beings, Reference to Dharma, and without Reference Point

2007-11-12T08:45:00.001Z

In a sense, what distinguishes the three types of Compassion that Gampopa sets out in 'Jewel Ornament of Liberation' is the development and level of our Compassion *and* our Wisdom.

With the first, Compassion with reference to Sentient Beings, we see beings suffering, and we feel a response to that suffering which is our compassion. At this level, we tend to suffer ourselves with that response. We see them suffer and tend to get attached to taking that suffering away.

With Compassion with Dharma as objects, we again see other beings
suffering, but this time we no longer suffer ourselves as a result, even though we may not be able to directly relieve our suffering. We understand something of the nature of things, of dependent origination, of suffering, and the cause of suffering, and therefore can help in a less 'sticky' or attached fashion. We are less attached to our ignorant ideas of how things are, and less attached to 'making things right'. We are able to help more, and let go.

At the level of Compassion without Reference Point, we no longer see things as solid and permanent as we would ordinarily have done. As a result of our developing practice, we see that these beings we have before us are actually all manner of sizes, shapes, colours, smells, etc, arising in our minds. We see that we don't really know where these sensations arise from, nor where they go to. We see that we cannot place or grasp any of those sensations, let alone the 'person' that we assume we see before us. Life begins to take on something of the nature of a dream, rather than the seemingly self-existent solid drama that is somehow 'out there'.

As we begin to see the play of our minds, we become less attached to our ignorant views of what we believe to be actually existent.

As we ourselves begin to loosen the bonds of our suffering, through no longer grasping at our deluded understanding of appearances, we notice how those around us make the same mistakes as we have continually done. We see how they cause there own suffering, through believing in the permanence and solidity of the world, and wanting/not wanting all that passes through it.

As a result of our newly found tendency to let go of this grasping, and causing of our own suffering, we see how they too could let go of causing their own suffering. We see how easy it is, in a sense, to not cause suffering for themselves. Even though this ability has been very hard won for ourselves, and we know full well how easily we lose this ability, we also see how easy it is to not cause self-suffering. It's easy in the sense that in a moment, just one moment, we can either give rise to attachment, or we can just let go. It's just a choice in one moment.

So at one and the same time, we hold a lighter grasp on life, through not grasping at experience as though it was solid, real, and self-existing. And yet we clearly see the suffering of those before us, self-caused suffering, and the natural desire to help them arises.

We see no-one before us, just dreamlike mere appearances, yet we feel strongly compelled to help others to loosen the bonds of suffering, just as we've loosened them.

We we hold these two things, the ultimate and the relative, the view of the dreamlike nature of things, yet the compassionate desire to help dreamlike beings be free of their suffering, then we tend not to suffer ourselves through this compassion.

This is the sense in which I believe Gampopa sets out this classification of Compassion. When we fully believe in the fixed selfhood of ourselves and of others, then we suffer through our compassion. When we see things as they are, with a direct apprehension of appearance and emptiness, then we feel the strongest urges to help relieve that suffering, yet that doesn't become the cause of suffering for ourself.

In those moments, we simply do what needs to be done, without rigid conceptualisation, without attempting to force things, but just a simple outpouring of spontaneous action, with no thought of self or other.

Seeing phenomenon for what they are, we act with compassion, naturally, and most effectively.