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Awakening Through Mindful Simplicity
AI Suggested Keywords:
The talk explores the notion of Mindful Simplicity as the path to awakening, contrasting the conventional mind and the ultimate mind. It argues that spiritual pursuit should be rooted in simplicity and the dissolution of ego, rather than ambition or attachment to philosophies. Enlightenment is described as a grounded process of releasing projections, confronting fears, and rejecting the conceptual duality that feeds ego. The teaching emphasizes direct experiential wisdom, highlighting that understanding one's projections can dissolve the confusion of samsara. Meditation and self-awareness are key practices to confront fears, purify the mind, and avoid the distractions of ego and projected phenomena.
Referenced Texts and Concepts
- Buddha's First Teaching: "Understand the suffering and recognize the cause." This underscores the necessity of starting from the ground of reality and self-responsibility for one's liberation.
- Meditation Techniques: Shamatha meditation is mentioned as a method to focus the mind, establish self-awareness, and explore the fundamental nature of consciousness without falling into distraction from projections.
- Samsara and Nirvana: Discussed as states of mind that arise from one's relationship with projections, emphasizing the non-duality of experiences and the necessity to understand one's own phenomena for liberation.
- Rainbow Body: Mentioned as a possible state achievable through mental purification but not a primary focus, illustrating the non-necessity and non-attachment to particular spiritual outcomes.
- Projections and Mind Perception: Explored in-depth concerning how individual perceptions shape reality, highlighting the role of awareness in distinguishing between genuine experiences and self-created obstructions.
Key Teachings and Insights
- Mindful Awareness: Advocated as the tool for observing and dissolving the ego-driven projections that create samsara.
- Fear and its Influence: Examined as a fundamental mental distraction, with teachings guiding practitioners to work through fear rather than avoiding it.
- Self-Responsibility: Stressed as an essential part of spiritual practice—each person must confront and work through their suffering and illusions without reliance on external saviors.
- Duality and Non-Duality: Dualistic perceptions are critiqued, with encouragement to experience the fundamental openness and interdependence of mind and phenomena.
This talk provides a detailed discourse on the practical application of Zen teachings and meditation in the pursuit of spiritual awakening and self-purification.
AI Suggested Title: Awakening Through Mindful Simplicity
Side: B
Day:
Speaker: Chhoje Rinpoche
Possible Title: Side 2
Additional Text:
@AI-Vision_v003
Recording ends before end of talk.
If you don't know the meaning of the word, you will not be able to understand it. If you don't know the meaning of the word, you will not be able to understand it. If you don't know the meaning of the word, you will not be able to understand it. So today we will go through a series of meditation practice and learning about our mind. So before we learn, I think it is important that we have to understand our mind, the conventional mind and the ultimate mind.
[01:30]
Now learning about this mind is an approach that we go through many different schools and we go through many different philosophies. Now what I think most important in learning the state of our mind is not that we learn a philosophy, it's not that we learn another idea, because we already have problem with ourself, so we don't need another problem to adapt. And I think that is how one has to first of all understand how to relate and how to learn ourselves. It's not the point now that you're learning Buddhism. It's not that you're adapting a new idea and that new idea has a completely different system and it may have its own problem. So if you view that like that, then there is no benefit. So the approach of spiritual approach should be relating and working with our present material, who we are and what we are.
[02:38]
That is very important. We don't need something, already we have a lot of problems, and now we don't need something extra problem how to relate with that thing. We don't need that. So now the point is, one has to learn how to approach, how to approach the spiritual And I would say we should approach the spiritual not with the ambition mind, not with the ego mind. We should approach the spiritual in a very simplistic way, without ambition. And that is how we can relate from the ground. We can relate to ourselves completely. We learn ourselves completely from the bottom level of the ground. We don't learn spiritual with some kind of fantasy, which is like your approach of spiritual is not something like a miracle. There is no such thing as a miracle. It's not going to work out. So how do we start?
[03:40]
We start in the very beginning, without mistake, which is the right view and right intention. So the right view we approach with the simplest thing. We approach very simple, without ambition. The whole point is to dissolve our ego. So, if our approach to spiritual is based on a tremendous ambition, then it's become enriching our ego. Again, we become caught into another materialist. We're caught into another form. then again there is no benefit from such a spiritual approach. Again, instead of dissolving the existing problems we have, we are creating another problem. So again, a person goes through another kind of trip. Already the existing trip is there, which is very, very, very strong. Now again, there we are looking for another problem.
[04:43]
So the approach should be very simple, without any permission. Now, The realization, the attainment of enlightenment. Enlightenment means touching on the ground. Enlightenment means getting on the earth. That is what enlightenment means. Enlightenment does not mean some kind of land, a habit where you're going to be born, where you can escape from what you are, and try to feel that environment. That's not enlightenment. That's, again, another looking for some kind of escape. And one does not find that, you see. Again, the ego is trying to experience that enriching, beautiful, pure life, beautiful habit. So the attainment of realization, the attainment of enlightenment is like a death.
[05:49]
to the ego. It's like, you see, it's like the final death to the ego. And that's how we approach, we approach with a very simple and without any ambition, fundamentally. But fundamentally, it's not, you know, when we think about fundamental nature, we tend to think of, we call it primordial nature. We call fundamental nature. Or we call Buddha nature. However we call this nature, but fundamental is not based, you know, something way back, one million years or two million years. That is again an ego's way of projecting that time. The fundamental, every moment is fundamental. Right now is fundamental. If you cannot relate the presence of that openness right now, then we are again distracted.
[06:56]
So the point is one has to develop the presence of oneself every moment, and every moment is the fundamental pure nature. So understanding of fundamental has to be based on every moment to moment. Moment to moment means you don't try to call to a moment, but being simply yourself where there is no ambition, where there is no complication, where there is no dreaming, where there is no promising, that is enlightenment. If you have a dream of enlightenment, if you have a promising of enlightenment, if you have an idea of enlightenment, you are not enlightened. You are always on the run. You are always on the, you know, looking towards that. So therefore, fundamentally, there is no such thing as fear. Fundamentally, there is no such clouds as fear. Therefore, when you simply watch that nature, then the life becomes very simple.
[08:02]
The life, you can relate directly with your life at that point. Then, you know, you can just know yourself, whoever you are. But we do not know ourselves because we are always on the run. We are not watching ourselves. We are not trying to learn ourselves. Instead, we are looking for something. We are looking for a new idea. We are looking for another philosophy. We are looking for some other teaching. In that way, mind is creating that teaching. Mind is fabricating that philosophy. Mind is fabricating that thing. And we are always on the run. There is no such end. And therefore, because we are on the run, we like to believe in miracles. We like to believe in changes, you see, magic. And that shows that person is not being oneself. That shows a weakness in our mind, a dissatisfaction, a weakness where we cannot simply relate to our own awareness.
[09:08]
One cannot see those things as simply one's own fundamental awareness. One, try to, there's a confusion there. There's a confusion, a confusion relationship between yourself and your projections. So you tend to believe that there is something different existing beside yourself, what you are projecting. So therefore you carve and entertain your projection with all sorts of different ideas. And then we make an endless, endless project. entertainment and we make all kinds of conflict entertainment we fight we set their points sometimes we agree and there sometimes we disagree and then all situations where there is no such thing as stability there's no balance in every situation there's no balance there's no stability and we cannot relate to our work
[10:10]
And we cannot relate to our communication because there is no such thing as no such stability. And that whole thing is arising from confusion relationship between our self and our projection. Now this is the fundamental, fundamental confusion. Why we are in samsara? Samsara means the confused relationship of your self and your projection. That is called samsara. There is no other thing that's called samsara. There's no such thing as externally fully solidified as a samsara or fully solidified as nirvana. Because samsara and nirvana is, you see, is your own mind. Having not understood your projections, it's become samsara. There's a gap. There's a gap between yourself and your projection. There's a confused relationship between yourself and your projection. That's called samsara. Now the perfect relationship between yourself and your projection, well I would say a perfect relationship between yourself and your projection is a language communication.
[11:19]
Without language we can't communicate. But there is no such thing as a duality within that state where there is yourself and the other. So if we can relate to that point where we can see that projection is not something separate from our mind, projection is simply our own state of mind, then the whole seriousness of the confusion, the whole structure which we started to develop on a very serious, big deal, started to dissolve. Because now you're not going to, you know, if you understand your projection, what's the point of making a big deal? And then you finally realize, what am I doing all this thing for? It's like a big joke to do all this thing. Why I believe in my projection so seriously. So now the thing is, though at the beginning level you could understand, you know, through the point of dharma practice means understanding one's own mind, we learn our mind and we meditate on that so we fully materialize into that state.
[12:33]
Now our point of meditation is to materialize fully into that state of fundamental realization. Now, without meditation, we cannot experience that because we are caught into the conventional frozen state of the mind. The conventional frozen state where there is confusion relationship between yourself and yourself. That is the frozen state. It is frozen now. It is not open. It's not like a liquid which is flowing. The whole liquid is frozen there. It's like an iceberg now. So when this is conventionally we are experiencing like ice, then the relationship between yourself and your projection seems to work. It appears to work. It appears to work within that state that we are frozen. It appears to work within the state we are frozen. So it appears to work in our life also.
[13:35]
There is somebody else existing beside me. And you talk and you say, I can feel it. You shake hands and everything. We go through the conventional mind. So going through that conventional thing, within that conventional, there is the human realm, which we label, there is the six realms. There is the heavenly realm, there is the human realm, there is the titan's realm, there is the animal's realm, there is the hungry ghost, and there is the hell realm, which is in general the sixth realm. But that is not the most limitation. They're endless. The universe is endless. They're endless beings with all kinds of endless phenomena that we could project. We are those very beings. We have been everything. Because if you look to our state of mind, how we are thinking, we have no end to the way of thinking. Our way of thinking is like endless. The energy is like tremendous energy is always arising with all sorts of different ideas.
[14:41]
And all these different ideas, we are not able to release those into the pure state of the fundamental space. We are freezing them all the time, you know, feeding them and freezing them. The more we feed them, the more we freezes this mind. So therefore we reflect the cause and karma, the cause and effect, the karma reflects back to us in such a case that we experience the human dream, we experience sometime happiness, we go through an up and down, all kinds of levels and layers because of the freezing of our concept, freezing that belief, freezing the structure of it. So therefore, approach to spiritual has to be simple. Because if you approach with a tremendous ambition and with a tremendous kind of promising, it's not going to open up.
[15:42]
It's going to enrich that ego again. Therefore then it is caught into another kind of materialism. because already the material is caught up. Now the point is to free that instead of freezing it. So now this is something, you see, while we are caught in conventional, We have to respect the compassion. It's very simple, as I said. As I said yesterday, please don't try to, you know, you wear what you like, but you don't have to wear like a lama. You don't have to wear like a Tibetan. You don't have to be anything. Tibetan Buddhism, what we call, is not a Tibetan Buddhism. But we used to say Tibetan, but in fact it's not Tibetan, you see. You don't have to imitate something. You simply, if you're trying to imitate that, you're looking for another problem. Instead of working with your present material problem, what you have, you're looking for another problem.
[16:47]
So what the point is, Buddhism, is to simply, you see, working with our state of mind, from the ultimate state, and conventionally, conventionally you respect the cultures. And that is nothing, we are not missing any points. Conventionally, when you're in Rome, do as the Romans do. Right? Conventionally, when you go to a Chinese restaurant, you eat with the folks. You eat with the chopsticks. And when you go to an Occidental restaurant, you eat with folks. And that's very simple. We simply appreciate all the different characteristics which is frozen there. So it's like we simply appreciate whatever is there. But also, at the same time, we don't get stuck in a conventional manner. Now, that is the reason. If we get stuck in conventional sense, then we would never able to free ourselves from this nature of self-suffering. Because then we will believe in this thing.
[17:50]
It always reflects. Your projection reflects to you. It's like an echo. If you shout, it will shout you back. If you smile in the mirror, it will smile you back. If you cry in the mirror, it will cry. Your projection is your own reflection. So you learn that life is your own reflection. Actually, every moment is a teaching for us. But we don't have the wisdom clarity to see that it's a teaching to ourselves. Because there's a confused relationship between ourselves and our projection. And that is what's really creating the... which is totally kind of, it's like a wheel, you see, putting in front of our face, which is not able to see through. But every moment we are reflecting our own mind. Karma is, you know, reflection of one's own mind. We created that karma, it comes back to us, you know, we experience that. But since we cannot see that from a very beginning level, so therefore once the karma has been so structured, so big, then it becomes so confused, you cannot see the effect right away.
[19:01]
But always you can see the effect. In many ways, you can learn about those effects. For instance, if you hit your hand on the table on a hard rock, you can get the pain. So there's a reflection. Right? But there are certain things you cannot see immediately because those things have gone quite... So what I mean, we should respect the conventional things. It's not that, you see, you come to do a Buddhist meditation in Buddhism and now you are totally, you can release the space just like that. You can't. It's going to take time. And for that you need patience. And you have to make the effort. That is important. You cannot, you see, lose the effort. You have to make the effort. And you have to respect, you see. You respect with the simplest. You don't respect with a very seriousness. You respect with an open heart, with a simplicity, where you see everything as something open. Open nature is simple and it's beautiful and it's a precision.
[20:05]
And that is how the life has been. And when we cannot see this nature, then we become so serious. And then there's a conflict that, you know, you believe in this, you believe in that, I don't believe in that. So that we don't respect each other's feelings. We have to respect everybody. Conventionally, we have to respect because we are all living on this earth, I think. And we should respect whatever great things are there. We have to respect conventionally what the teachings in Christianity, all the compassion, tremendous great levels of compassion is shown by Jesus Christ. We should respect that. Those are for the benefit of people. It's not that, you know, I'm a Buddhist and therefore you cut the walls down. That is bad. If you do like that, again, you are fighting with your own projection. You are not having a sense of compassion of doing this. But at the same time, you don't get trapped in your conventional thing, you know, where you make it so serious. The point is to relieve yourself, free yourself from these conventional karmas.
[21:10]
The Dharma is to transcend both good and bad. It's the nature of the ultimate state which is introduced to you where you don't get afraid of being, you know, where you don't get afraid of being what you are. Because we always get afraid and we always try to have a membership in one of the religions. There is no membership, you see. You are yourself. You don't need any membership. But we like that because we're used to that convention. Oh, I belong to that school. I belong to that thing. Now I feel so comfortable. It's like your insurance. You bought insurance. There's no such insurance. You came alone. You are alone. And it's your own very mind. And so it's not that the point is you do not belong anywhere. Belonging itself shows a surrendering to our ego.
[22:15]
It's a weakness in our mind where you do not have the confidence of your awareness. And this state of convention is always the fear that you have to relate to something where you feel comfortable. And that feeling, that kind of refuge will not last long. It will be very temporary. then one day you may have, and next day the feeling may change. Here you are not taking refuge in your wisdom, you are taking refuge in your perceptions. You are taking refuge in your fear. The fear which is trying to escape from the fact. But here we have to work with our disappointments. The existing material. You have to work with your suffering. The raw material. You don't work with some kind of beautiful thing, thinking, and that thing is going to disappear.
[23:17]
It will never disappear. If you have a shit all over your clothes and you think a perfume, it's never going to turn into a perfume. You have to work directly cleaning with the shit before thinking. You cannot dream about the fact. We have to work with reality, the fact. So if you work with, you know, miracle, if you just think, oh, the magic will turn all the shit into a perfect, that will never happen. So we start with our basic, basic left. We start from the ground. So therefore, starting from the ground, we don't have to be certain ambition. We start with the simple one. We just relate directly as it is. So therefore, the first teaching Buddha gave, he said, understand the suffering. He said, understand the suffering and recognize the cause of the suffering.
[24:20]
That is what Buddha said. He never started by saying that, you know, there is this pure Buddha for you and then you just pray to me and then you will be realized. You will never get realized. In fact, you are enriching your ego, entertaining your ego with a field. Whether you like it or not. But it could be like that. So we have to start from the ground level. And that could be, you know, a bit disappointing in a way. It could be disappointing to hear that, you know, oh, I've been looking for something, so now again I have to start by myself. That is true. You have to do it for yourself. You have to work for yourself. You can't, you know, rely on somebody else to work for yourself. You have to touch the ground. You have to really get to the point that you take the full responsibility on yourself and then you learn how to clean up that mess which is there.
[25:24]
You have to learn that if you don't clean up the mess, there is no such thing as magic, there is no such thing as miracle which is going to change the situation. So that is how, you see, Buddha said, I'm showing you the path of liberation. Now it's up to you whether you get enlightened or not. So how we get enlightened? Not by, you know, dreaming about enlightenment. Not by dreaming about something blissful. Not by dreaming about tranquility. Not by dreaming about some kind of, you know, all the Buddha is going to come in front of you and then, you know, totally suck you away and then you become free. It won't happen like that. How you start enlightenment, cleaning that mess, the cloth which is fully with shit, you know, you clean that thing. And you understand, I have to clean this, without cleaning this, you know, there is no purity. The purity will come when you clean up that mess, not by dreaming about the mess.
[26:27]
So you understand there is a wisdom which shows that now, you know, I have to work. So the work here relates with disappointment. The disappointments of the materialist. Disappointment, the materialist. Dissatisfaction, the materialist. Nervousness, the materialist. Emotion, the materialist. Duality, the materialist. Confusion. And those are the very material we have to work with, though. And they are the very great things for our enlightenment. And if we do not relate with these disappointments, then we will not be able to free ourselves. Even you think about something beautiful, you know, after a while, as long as you really think about the smell of the perfume, but in fact, this smell is never going to go away. The dirtiness will always come in front of you. So we cannot escape. Trying to escape to a situation is like a weakness. It's like weakness, the biggest weakness in our mind.
[27:31]
So we have to have, you know, instead of thinking about beautiful, you just take the cloth, put it into water, and you rub it, and you clean it, and squeeze it, and dry it. That's it. So, therefore, you need, you have to approach within that way, even in teaching. And then you are able to purify this mind. Purifying this mind is the main thing in the practice of Buddhism. Purifying mind is the all different techniques shown in Buddhism. the prostration, the mantras recitation, the meditation. These are all to purify our basic disappointments, the dissatisfaction, the emotion. These are all relating, working with those materials. They are not working with any other materials. These are directly working with those energies. You know, you may have a sense now, getting back into your body, okay, now I really, there's no such thing which is going to save me.
[28:33]
There's no such thing as savior. If you look for a savior, that looking like a savior will never end. Nobody can save you, you see. If such person can save you, Jesus Christ might have already saved all of us. Buddha Shakyamuni has saved already all of us. Now, there won't be one being left who is suffering right now. They were not able to do that, you see. They were not able to do that, so the result is right now, we are here. If they have this power to do that, we won't be here now. Do you think so we would be here? We won't be, because if they have such a power to liberate all beings, then they may have done it, because their compassion is infinite. They may have done it a long time ago. So it shows that we have to work with our own impure to clean it by ourselves, so therefore here we are.
[29:34]
So now the teaching is a tent. Teaching is a technique where you become the technique, and the technique becomes the reality. So teaching is a technique which shows you how to get out of that, you know, how to purify, and how you, after purifying, what is the thing, there you are. And that is what the technique is showing. So the teaching is a technique. And you become the technique on the path, while the process, he said, you become the process, you become the time. And eventually the technique becomes the reality. So for this there are different ways of learning our mind through the shamatha meditation. First we try to build our mind into one pointed concentration. Because if we do not let this, we cannot go to the most ultimate state right from the beginning. And it does not mean that every person has the same quality of mind, same structure of mind, where they can all relate to the same style.
[30:39]
Nobody can relate to the same style. Each one has a different style of reflecting their mind. So certain people have a very spacey mind. The spacey mind where it cannot be grounded. It is hard to ground. You just sit and while you're talking something, you forget what you're talking about. Your mind is already spaced out. And that shows a tremendous spaciness in their mind. And therefore that kind of mind cannot relate with the light energy, cannot relate with the ultimate energy. It cannot relate with the ultimate energy of the ultimate nature. So that kind of mind needs to balance the mind by bringing the mind together. to make it more straight. To bring it together in an essence where you are able to relate to yourself and not getting spaced out.
[31:45]
And once you are able to relate to yourself, then you can free that. Because you cannot free that before without relating to yourself. You can get spaced out. Then to do a formless meditation at a certain stage, it could be like you don't know where you are because you don't know from the beginning where you are. So there is no starting point where you're going to start from. So the first level of meditation brings a person together at a certain stage where you can relate to yourself, where you can recognize the scattering of your mind and bringing those whole minds into one pointedness. you know, that conventional mind which you are able to bring it, then the second step you release that. So that is how the layers of meditation is shown and today we will go through those different layers of meditation. First we will go through the shamatha meditation. In shamatha meditation there is a We try to bring this mind into one essence.
[32:48]
It's very important. This meditation is very profound because we have to relate with ourself completely. We cannot free this mind without relating to our conventional mind at the beginning. So in shamatha, we relate with this conventional mind, which is what we are going through. And now the next step meditation is relating the nature of this conventional mind. So we cannot see the nature of the conventional mind as long as the mind is spaced out. There's no way how you can see that nature when you cannot relate with that mind itself. So here, you know, however you like, if you like to look on an object, or whatever you think is easy in your mind. You try to bring your mind straight. You sit straight and then you have your tongue touching your, what do you call this? Roof of your mouth. Roof of the mouth. You touch gently the roof of your mouth and then
[33:52]
Now watch you, you don't have to fantasize anything, okay? Don't fantasize, really. If you fantasize, that's not going to work out, as I said. Work with yourself. However your state of mind is arising at that stage is scattering space in mind you cannot control, which is driving you, you know, crazy in a way. Try to bring that, whether you, if you see anything, whether you start with one thing and don't try to change that thing. Either you can start with a letter or you can start with any form you like. It's easy in your mind. And then meditate straight on that. And when your mind is scattered, try to concentrate that particular thing. And while you are trying to concentrate that particular object, you will notice your mind cannot do that. Again their mind is spacing out. Again their mind is scattering away. So again you try to bring that back. Again you try to bring that back and you meditate. And it appears that now there is more projection.
[34:57]
More than you ever experienced before. Because in meditation you are bringing your world energy on the surface. It's not that usually we don't have those experiences. We have those experiences all the time. But usually we are somehow, we see it's working or we're hiding all our energies underneath ourselves. But meditation brings the whole thing out. But however it is, as I said, you work with however your materials are. You cannot hide that because you have to face them sooner or later. If you try to hide them away, how long you can hide them? They're going to be more stronger and stronger. So we start right now, you see. So in that way, you just concentrate on one particular thing, and when your mind's scattered, recognize the scattering, and don't let that scatter, no matter how important thing you think it is. If you make it important, everything is important, you see. So point here is to get your mind into your own control, not letting the mind running away from your own self.
[36:03]
So please visualize, you know, just see on one thing. You don't have to visualize it. Just concentrate on that particular thing. And when your mind's scattered, bring it back. And again, when it's scattered, bring it back. And don't give importance to any scattering mind. Bring that back and let it be in your control. Relax and concentrate.
[42:19]
Don't make it a hard concentration. If you make it very hard, very tight, then it will make you nervous. So the point is you have to find a balance where you don't become frivolous and where you don't become tight. And you relax and concentrate. So here we do find there is some works to do.
[46:42]
There is some kind of working, some kind of solidified hard working we are doing within this meditation. But yet you are in this and you be yourself at this state. Completely let it go. Here you don't visualize, you don't concentrate anything. Now you become merged into the space. Here you will notice the ego, the fear very strongly.
[47:43]
When you merge into the space you are exposing yourself totally. You are not leaving anything behind. When you're exposing yourself totally, the fear will start to reassure itself. It will try to reassure your existence. What am I doing? How am I? This question arises to yourself. And that is what you have to totally let it go. You don't have to judge here at all. You completely have to let go that part. Merge, mingle into the space. Not slightly separation is there.
[48:45]
Totally you are mingled in one taste. If you get distracted here, you are very much exposed here. So if you get distracted, then again you are not being yourself, you see. So here you find the distraction, the fear that which is trying to look for something will arise. You don't have to look for something. If you try to look for something, you're distracted. It will try to confirm every situation here.
[50:46]
And that is the fear, is what it was trying to confirm. And the moment you get hold to that confirmation, then you are at total loss. So you release that space, you let the space as it is. You don't try to confirm the space. Here you discover who you are within this space. The fear will be there who will try to judge, who will try to interfere and judge every situation. And if you relate to that, it creates the uncertainty. You have to expose yourself completely.
[51:53]
You don't hang up to any pure or impure here. If you try to hang on to something, it's simply your fear. Who is expecting something great from a pure and having a fear of something negative, again you are caught in duality. You should not get caught in duality. You should let the mind be spacious as it is. And the confirmation is a fear here. You don't need any confirmation. Mingle your mind into the space. You will notice when you mingle your mind to the space, you may see there is, where am I?
[53:09]
What's happening to me? And that fear is again the fear of the confusion mind. So why simply be yourself? There's nothing to be afraid of oneself. Nothing to be afraid of the spaciousness. You can relate. That is what the ground you can relate who you are. If you let the fear work, again it will try to reassure your existence. And if you hang to that existence, then it will drag you again into all kinds of phenomena. Every thought is here, not judged. They are fundamentally pure and fundamentally they are liberated here. If you interfere, it's your fear who is trying to make a judgment, being pure and in pure concept.
[54:14]
Then, if you judge, again, your fear is getting hold of you. Go through without any hesitation to work with the reality of the space. Don't try to reassure, don't try to assure your existence by trying to get a hold of something. Then you won't be able to see the truth. You have without any hesitation go through that. You will notice tremendous fear here because here you are directly recognizing those fears.
[56:28]
And since you are used to fear so many times, so long time, they will really manifest into very strange ways. But that's how we work straight from the beginning way here working with our fears. And you can find the openness within that nature when you let the fear do not try to reassure every situation. They do not make you a hang-up in one another. You do not get caught in karma. Become like a stainless sky where nothing can catch you. The nature of the mind is a spacious nature, no interference, no judgment, totally free from fabrication.
[57:59]
But deluded mind is fabricated. It's this fear which is always trying to reassure every situation. So when you relate with the space, totally into your clarity, open nature, then always the energy which arises will start to reassure this energy. And that is where either you liberate or you get hanged up. That is the point. So when here, when the fear is arising in tremendous strength, you should not become scared. The fear will come, but the point is to release that fear You have to have the awareness of the fundamental nature.
[59:13]
That nature is called the awareness. That is the recognition of oneself without trying to reassure yourself. Reassurance is simply a fabrication. You do not need any reassurance because simply you are there fundamentally. So why you need a reassurance? You don't need a reassurance. And when you relate into the fundamental state within the space, you are completely yourself without any clouds of fear. But one who is trying to reassure that, you know, what this could be, what that could be, that is the fear, the display of the fear. And here you purify the display of the fear. How do you purify without judgment?
[60:47]
If you make an interference trying to reassure that, then it is not purification. It's enriching that fear. It's enriching that ego. You do not enrich your ego. You do not enrich your fear. You simply let it be in the space without having the fear of your existence. You do not freeze by when you have the existing reassurance. It's freezing the space. You do not freeze the space. That is the fundamental confusion. You release those energies, not freezing them. How do you release? You do not release by reassuring. You release simply letting it be as it is, which means you do not try to control them.
[61:50]
There is nothing to control. It will bring up fears in your mind. It will bring up certain uncomfortable in your mind. But that is how we are exposing ourselves and communicating with ourselves directly. That's how we purify here. So relax and open your eyes and look into the space and work with yourself.
[62:57]
See the nature of their mind. Do not fall into any category. One who is trying to catch a category, that is the fear. And if you catch that, you fall into spiritual truth. If you do not catch, you are free. There is always a mind which we are used to, the state of fear, which tells us, dictates us what to do and how to do.
[64:27]
And that immediately we get following after that. And that is how here you recognize that as your fear and let that frozen state free itself into the space. The fear will really start to manifest in your body. You may feel uncomfortable. The fear will really start to appear in your mind.
[65:31]
You may feel uncomfortable. But there is the whole point here. We are completely challenging the fear. Don't be scared. If you become scared, again you fall into that trap. Every time the mind is distracted, immediately it tries to get hang up to the phenomenon.
[68:01]
That's how we become fundamentally distracted. It's the fear who is trying to immediately reissue. That is called the suspiciousness. The fear itself. open yourself completely that is the basic purification merge your mind into the space and learn to sit there
[69:02]
very hard to sit. And you have to, that's how we make the patience, we challenge the fear. Because fear will immediately start to distract oneself from that state. Put you in a trip immediately. Here the victory will come either to your awareness, if you are strong to go through this, or again your fear gains control over you, which you are defeated again.
[71:23]
So a good practitioner and a weak practitioner depends on this point where one can really challenge that fear and not take that fear as a refuge. The whole thing will lie just on this one point. Now please can we do a walking meditation. Everyone stand up and just walk slowly and you become totally inseparable. There is no obstruction at all that is outside and this is inside. One who is standing outside and inside is the obstructed mind. If you mingle it into the space, the movement of energy which arises, no obstruction is there. And yet you do not get afraid, you do not confirm those existences. If you confirm, it is distraction.
[72:24]
Totally rest, don't make it restless. wisdom you experience is that you can find a transparent quality in all these thoughts, an openness in our thought which is unobstructed.
[74:03]
But yet we can see the obstruction has come from our fear which is trying to reassure those phenomena. However the phenomena arises in our life, daily life, the moment we try to reassure it, obstruct that. So point here, we relate ourselves completely without the obstruction of those fears. Okay, so that's enough. That's enough. Because here it will manifest so much fear in you. You are able to see those fears before all the fears are there, but it's like hiding there. Now here you expose those fears, so it will really even make your body sometimes uncomfortable, makes your mind. But that is how we are cleaning up. We have to challenge that. Now the ultimate state is beyond those fears, but conventionally, as long as we do not realize the state, that is the state which we have understood.
[75:10]
The more you have to do more meditation to seeing this view very clearly. Once you have seen this view very clearly, then you have a confidence in yourself that which will not distract you. You don't get fall under the categories of fear. But as long as we do not realize that state, we have respect conventionally, all relative things. It's not that now, you see, if you could work that way, it's great, but you cannot. You are always living in a world of hope and fear. there's a fear always. So for that, we should help people, you know, we should do relatively, we have to respect. However, the situations are there, just simply respect, but not in a gross way, but a simple appreciation. There's a simple appreciation, open appreciation. That we need to take along the path, because fundamentally the energy is there. Fundamentally the energy is always there. So as an appreciation for the energy, We open ourself up and we appreciate the different relative conventional things appearing from there.
[76:12]
But also we don't make it hard and gross because there was no such thing as gross. There was no such thing as block. There was no such thing as which is obstructed. If there was such thing as obstructed, then we would cannot even think now. We are like in a total blank comma. There was no such thing as comma blank which is obstructed. Therefore, there's always a rising edge. The nature of the arising mind is always free, whether you have an emotion, whether you have a... However the thought may manifest its nature, it's a wisdom nature. It's always an openness. There is no obstruction. It has no fear of obstructing. But the fear which the obscuration is interfering into our thoughts, which is judging our thoughts, that is what makes the obstruction, that is what freezes the space. So one has to relieve the space and one has to have the understanding of the ultimate and the relative very carefully. So, do you experience a lot of fear? Lots of fear arises, makes your body uncomfortable, makes your mind really irritable.
[77:22]
It will come. That is how when we really challenge the fear, it will attack. That's how first time you're really working. It's like talking to what we are really having the whole problem. So it won't be easy. It's like the biggest destruction to the fear. It's like the biggest death to the fear. So it will be like that, but as I said, the moment you recognize, you see, that itself is a very strong, fearless nature who recognizes, which is the wisdom nature of the awareness. And then step by step, you have to be tender. You don't have to be kind of, you're not going to strike it right away, but you are striking also fundamentally. that you don't get distracted by its concept, by its ways. But it won't be easy, right? But the thing is, that is the way we have to challenge and we have to purify. As long as you don't challenge this basic core where the origin of suffering is arising from, there is no way to be free from this suffering.
[78:26]
So this fear, this is a good development, you see. This is a good development. And that is how we really, we are fearless to challenge this. If you're big, you know, you try to think of something beautiful. It's feeling that fear. Fear is trying to tell you that. And there's no realization. There's no liberation. So, you know, it's good. It's very good that you have noticed this fear. I think it's most wonderful. It's wonderful. Straight. Straight direction. It's like straight. There's no fabrication in it. So now, you know, relax. Now you need a balance in meditation. You don't have to make it hard. If you go too hard, then maybe it's not very wise to do. You know, maybe one can become crazy. If you make two intelligent people become crazy, you see. Because they think it too intelligent. Then afterwards they cannot relate to the real fact. They always think in terms of some kind of philosophy.
[79:27]
So that's how, you know, there needs a balance in every situation. So you meditate it. Now you relax, you see. Now you, the point is you should not lose the awareness of yourself constantly that fear is the one who will always dictate to you. So you should not lose that awareness that being yourself And at the same time, you know, you don't have to work it that hard. What I mean is, you see, you work it very gently here. You don't make enemy to yourself, you see. You make, you start to be friendly. Then you can communicate easily. If you started to be enemy, then it will also fight back to you. So you have to be very seductive. You have to be very seductive to your fear how to work with that. And sometimes you make it hard. And sometimes you give it chocolate. And sometimes you make a pizza. So what I mean is one has to be very tender. One really has to have a sense of compassion to oneself.
[80:30]
And the tenderness is where you relax, where you don't think about anything, just do it. And also the heart, the effect is there where you have the presence of awareness that you don't get distracted. So this requires a tremendous awareness in yourself. Holding the awareness that knowing yourself constantly that you don't get distracted. And that is the thing. Distraction is the main thing here. The fear is the distraction. The fear is the state of mind which is a suspicious nature. Always telling this could be right, that could be right. So putting you into two directions. Schizophrenic. It's like a split personality. There is not one state. It's always like creates a true person out of wordpress one cannot relate then easily if you want to sew a cloth you need one pointed needle you cannot sew a cloth with two pointed needle the two pointed needle will always obstruct the space but one pointed needle will go through it without obstruction so that is how when we are without the fear when we
[81:34]
without leaving the faith, we can move freely, the mind really sees the awareness, and seeing that awareness, the awareness byproduct of the meditation, you know, that one may experience lightness, one may go through a tremendous energy, one can experience and see the unceasing energy, which is unobstructed, which is based not on ego, which is based on this clarity. And that clarity itself has the recognition where you do not get caught into the dreams, where you do not get caught into the phenomena. And ultimately, there are different, some gain rainbow body and some do not gain rainbow body. However, that is not the point. If you try to freeze rainbow body, you don't get rainbow body. The point is you have to free that concept of rainbow body. There is no such thing as freezing. So I think this much meditation we are not going to do anymore now. I think that is it. The morning time. So afternoon we will start the second session.
[82:35]
And if you have any question, you can ask me. And now relax. Now just relax. Just relax. Don't worry about it. If all exterior phenomena is a projection of our mind, that would mean that in the limited sphere, all beings sitting in this room, myself included, are a projection of my mind. If I attain enlightened awareness and recognize my own inherent emptiness, and recognize the inherent emptiness of all beings, yet they still see me? Am I, in fact, but a projection of their mind? First question. And secondly, how is it that if they are my projection, my enlightenment does not bring their enlightenment?
[83:42]
Who is questioning all this thing? I'm questioning the teachings that you're giving. No, no, the point is, you see, So I'm asking, who is questioning in yourself? That's the point. Well, it seems slightly futile. The biggest fear I have, when you ask for fear, is the possible failure of fulfilling my Bodhisattva commitment. And yet, the teaching is that everything is my projection, so all beings, all realms, are but my projection. So, if I continue to pursue the path to bring myself to this enlightened state, then why is not spontaneously my enlightenment the enlightenment of all beings? Yeah, it can't be the enlightenment of all beings, you see. If you can recognize your dream state, then those who are so separate, you think, then that is the enlightenment for all beings.
[84:47]
But then why do they continue to suffer? Why do they continue to suffer? Yes. Why do they continue to suffer? Why do they continue to suffer as long as you don't recognize your dreams? You see, one cannot, one cannot separate, one cannot separate a one's own phenomena. The thing is, the... Our awareness, one has to see the awareness as not something separate. The nature of the awareness is not a separation state. The nature of the awareness is a spontaneity awareness. There is no freezing point. There is no such thing as solid obstruction. But who is creating the obstruction? Your fear, your ego is creating the obstruction. So the teaching is that every person has to understand their unobstructed nature. Every person has to understand their unobstructed nature where there's the basic openness within the state.
[85:56]
But each person is caught into their own realm where they do not see their unobstructed nature. Buddha didn't say that, you know, now I get enlightened so all of you got enlightened. But it's one's own phenomena at the center. All these people you see in your dream is your own phenomena. You see all of them very seriously, 100%. But as they re-verify me, I am their phenomena. So somewhere there is a co-emergence that somehow or another does not seem to benefit one another. If Buddha became enlightened for the benefit of all beings, and his enlightenment was totally and completely, then why are we not totally and all completely enlightened by that action? Buddha did not say that he became enlightened for the benefit of all beings. Buddha never said that he became enlightened for the benefit of all beings. He simply understood his nature of non-duality. That is what he became. And recognizing his non-duality state, he is able to free from the obstruction of the freezing space where there is no such thing as obstruction.
[87:03]
He recognizes his own state. Within the Dharmakaya state, there is no such thing as obstruction. But he is also at the same time, he has the awareness, the wisdom to benefit being where he gave the 84,000 texts to show them the path where each one can be free from their own phenomena. Buddha did not say that he became enlightened for the benefit of all beings. He has generated the enlightened man for the benefit of beings means it is the obstruction state, the grasping mind which has been holding, is simply letting it go, there is a communication. So that is, you see, like you're caught in your dream state, right? There is no problem. If you project like that, it's endless. If you project like that, then it's always a controversial. The concept is limited. It's always a controversial. There is no end to that. The point is we have to directly work with ourselves.
[88:04]
That is the most important. You know, that's how the yogis goes. The yogis meditate and they recognize the dream state dissolve. And after the dream state dissolve, for them, the conceptual state also dissolve. But a dualistic mind will always, you know, project a dualistic state. So it is something to be experienced, you see. You cannot work with the theory all the time. You have to be very practical on this respect. And as I said, Buddha have understood his own awareness, which is unobstructed. When there is an end to samsara from your point, but there is no end to samsara from other's point also, from the teacher. From your point means where you can completely dissolve the phenomena which you have created that. Yes, but then why does it itself not dissolve? Because as long as the... It's dissolved to the one who is... To the one who is enlightened, but that seems to create a sense of duality. In the sense that if other beings are still suffering beyond my supposed non-dualistic state, then it seems contradictory.
[89:17]
What is contradictory? As if all beings are the projection of an individual's mind. And that individual recognizes no distinction, yet beings continue in their own delusion One being is not deluded, others are. This presents a dualism. One person, the Buddha or whoever, attains enlightenment, all others are still struggling. It creates a phenomenal division. Some have, some don't, some are, some aren't. I think you have to understand this perspective. Maybe you misunderstand a little bit about the teachings. What we mean by projections means, as I said, there is the end to samsara from one's own phenomenal point, but there is no end to samsara from others. If there is the end to samsara from one point, then as you said, when Buddha will realize, everyone will be realized.
[90:21]
But Buddha didn't say that. Buddha said there is the end to samsara from one's point of phenomenon. where you can totally liberate the space, where you can totally see the spontaneity of the energy which is always arising without any obstruction. So what are those energies? It's your own phenomena which is creating your own side of the world. So when that problem ceases to you, then the phenomena is dissolved. And that does not mean that the obstruction state of another awareness is opened. So this is, you see, something one has to understand very clearly. He never said that there's an end to samsara from the general way. He says there's an end to samsara from one's own point of view. So when you recognize your dream, which is so separate at the beginning state, you see, are you going to tell that that is not your mind?
[91:25]
That the dream is not my mind? No, this I will not lie about. No, the dream is my mind. And even who you are telling right now, all of us, is your mind or not your mind? It is my mind co-existent with many other minds. And it is your dream and their reality. Dream is also co-existent with many other minds because in dream they are all talking to you. This I... Can't debate and not debate. The dream is a little bit more divisional. The thing is we cannot debate there. If we debate... But if I tell them they don't exist, they will definitely disagree with me. But they will also disagree in your dream also, at the beginning level. At the beginning level, they will also disagree. And if I also turn around and tell them I disagree, they will also disagree with that because I'm now talking. But there's a state, you know, this is the thing with our dualistic mind, there's always a disagreement, you see. When we look at that, where there is always a disagreement, even in the dream we see.
[92:28]
But then, how do one yogi recognize? After sometimes the dream, you really learn that is your projection, and then the whole thing disappears. Same thing to a yogi, you know, the day experience also is very similar to that. But that does not mean that these people will disappear. It's an unobstructed energy, unobstructed energy. Enlightenment is not something like a big bang and there's nothing. It's very different. Could you please, with the knowledge of your language and the perception of ours, explain the word projection? Because I believe perhaps my fault in perceiving this teaching lies in the difference of definition between our languages. It's not a question of language. It's a language of our inner perception.
[93:30]
What does projection mean to you? Inner perception will talk to us in our different, different ways.
[93:36]
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