As the Clouds Vanish
tricycle
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–1996) was a master
in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Teachers of Dzogchen
(the GreatPerfection) regard it as the innermost essence of the
Buddha's teachings. During the last decades of his life, Rinpoche's
hermitage above the Kathmandu Valley was frequented by visitors
from all over the world. Today, his many monasteries and retreat
centers are managed by his four sons who are lineage holders,
including Tsoknyi Rinpoche. What follows is adapted
from Rainbow Painting by Tulku
Urgyen Rinpoche, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, and reprinted
with permission from Rangjung Yeshe Publications.
Buddhist practice involves three steps known as
intellectual understanding, experience and realization.
Intellectual understanding occurs when, for instance, we hear that
emptiness, meaning empty cognizance, is our nature. The mental idea
we get of this is called "understanding." In the case of
experience, we are told how to recognize emptiness so that we can
see exactly how this empty cognizance is. We have a taste of it,
maybe no more than a glimpse, but, nevertheless, an experience of
what is called "recognizing mind essence." That is what the word
"experience" means in this context. When this glimpse is followed
by training in repeatedly recognizing the nature of mind and
avoiding being carried away by thoughts, we gradually grow more and
more used to this experience. In this case, by recognizing the
empty nature we are disengaging from its expression, the stream of
deluded thinking. Each time the expression dissolves back into the
state of awareness, progress is made, and realization finally
occurs. Ultimate realization is when delusion has totally collapsed
and there is no reoccurrence of discursive thought
whatsoever.
Thoughts are like clouds and can vanish just as
clouds naturally disperse into space. The expression, meaning
thoughts, are like clouds, while rigpa the awakened state, is like
sunlit space. I use the metaphor of sunlit space to illustrate that
space and awareness are indivisible. You do not accomplish or
create the sunlit sky. We cannot push the clouds away, but we can
allow the clouds of thought to gradually dissolve until finally all
the clouds have vanished. Ultimate realization occurs when there is
no trace of the cloud layers whatsoever.
It is not as if we need to decide, "I hate these
thoughts. I only want the awakened state! I have to be
enlightened!" This kind of grasping and pushing will never give way
to enlightenment. By simply allowing the expression of thought
activity to naturally subside, again and again, the moments of
genuine rigpa automatically and naturally begin to last longer.
When there are no thoughts whatsoever, then you are a buddha. At
that point the thought-free state is effortless, as well as the
ability to benefit all beings. But until that time it does not help
to think that you are a buddha.
Listening to this explanation is merely getting the
idea. We intellectually comprehend that emptiness is empty yet
cognizant and that these two aspects are indivisible. It is like
going to a buffet where we don't actually taste anything, but only
receive a guided tour or explanation of the different dishes: "This
is Indian food, that is Chinese food. Over there is French
cuisine." Without eating anything your knowledge of the food is
only intellectual understanding. Once you finally put the food in
your mouth, that is experience. When your stomach is full, that is
realization. Realization is the total and permanent collapse of
confusion.
Empty cognizance is our nature. We cannot separate
aspect of it from the other. Empty one aspect of it from the other.
Empty means "not made out of anything whatsoever"; our nature has
always been this way. Yet, while being empty, it has the capacity
to cognize, to experience, to perceive. It's not so difficult to
comprehend this; to get the theory that this empty cognizance is
buddha nature, self-existing wakefulness. But to leave it at that
is the same as looking at the buffet and not eating anything. Being
told about buddha nature but never really making it our personal
experience will not help anything. It's like staying hungry. Once
we put the food in our mouth, we discover what the food tastes
like. This illustrates the dividing line between idea and
experience.
In the same way, if we have correct understanding,
the moment we apply what our master teaches, we recognize our
nature. That there is no entity whatsoever to be seen is called
"emptiness." The ability to know that mind essence is empty is
called "cognizance." If it were only blank, bare space, what or who
would know that it is "blank" or "empty" or "nothing"? There would
be no knowing. These two aspects, empty and cognizant, are
indivisible. This becomes obvious to us the very moment that we
look; it is no longer hidden. Then it is not just an intellectual
idea of how emptiness is; it becomes a part of our experience. At
that moment, meditation training can truly begin.
We call this training "meditation," but it is not an
act of meditating in the common sense of the word. There is no
emptying the mind essence by trying to maintain an artificially
imposed vacant state. Why? Because mind essence is already empty.
Similarly, we do not need to make this empty essence cognizant. All
you have to do is leave it as it is. In fact, there is nothing
whatsoever to do, so we cannot even call this an act or meditating.
There is an initial recognition, and from then on we do not have to
be clever about it or try to improve it in any way whatsoever. Just
let it be as it naturally is—that is what is called meditation, or
more accurately "nonmeditation." What is crucial is not to be
distracted for even a single instant. Once recognition has taken
place, undistracted non meditation is the key point of
practice.
"Distracted" means that once the attention wavers
and loses itself, thoughts and emotions can take place. Distraction
is the return of all these kinds of thoughts, in which the
continuity of nondual awareness is lost. The training is simply to
recognize again. Once recognition takes place, there is nothing
more to do; simply allow mind essence to be. That is how the
cloud-covers gradually dissolve.
The ultimate state is totally free from any
obscuration, like the short moment of recognition. However, in the
latter there is still the tendency for the obscurations to return.
The state of realization, complete enlightenment, means that no
cloud-cover can ever return; its causes are utterly and permanently
eliminated. When the clouds vanish, what else can cover the sun?
That is the final or ultimate realization—when there is only
brilliant, pure sunshine throughout space without any cloud-cover
whatsoever. In other words, everything that needed to be removed
has been removed and everything that needed to be actualized is
already present. The empty sky and the brilliant sunshine are not
of our making. They have always been there and are fully actualized
when the cloud-cover is eliminated.
Please understand that there are three steps:
recognizing, training and attaining stability. The first of these
steps, recognizing, is like acquiring the seed of a flower. Once it
is in your hands and you acknowledge it to be a flower, it can be
planted and cultivated. When fully grown, flowers will bloom; but
the seed needs the right conditions. However, we must first
acknowledge that it is indeed a flower seed. In the same way, the
naked awareness that has been pointed out by your master should be
acknowledged as your nature. This recognition must be nurtured by
the right conditions. To cultivate a seed, it must have warmth and
moisture and so on; then it will certainly grow. In the same way,
after recognizing we must train in the natural state: the short
moment of recognition needs to be repeated many times. As the
support for this training, have devotion to enlightened beings and
compassion for unenlightened beings. Devotion and compassion are a
universal panacea, the single sufficient technique. A famous quote
says, "In the moment of love, the nature of emptiness dawns
nakedly." Both compassion and devotion are included in the "love"
mentioned here.
Training is simply short moments of recognition
repeated many times and supported by devotion and compassion. In
addition, there are practices called the development and completion
stages. All these practices facilitate nondistraction. Repeatedly
training in nondistraction is how to progress in the practice of
mind nature.
Finally comes the stage of stability. When this
moment of nondistraction lasts unceasingly, day and night, what
will that be like? When the three poisons are obliterated and the
qualities of wakefulness become fully manifest, will we be ordinary
human beings or divine? A single candle-flame can set the whole of
a mountainside ablaze. Imagine what it would be like when our
present experience of the wide awake moment free from thought
becomes unceasing. Is there anything more divine than possessing
all the wisdom qualities and being utterly free from the three
poisons?
We can deduce from this that training is needed. We
must grow up, just like a new-born baby. The infant born today and
the adult 25 years later is essentially the same person, isn't he?
He is not someone else. Right now, our nature is the buddha nature.
When fully enlightened, it will also be the buddha nature. Our
nature is unfabricated naturalness. It is this way by itself: like
space, it does not need to be manufactured. But we do need to allow
the experience of buddha nature to continue through unfabricated
naturalness.
One sign of having trained in rigpa, the awakened
state, is simply that conceptual thinking, which is the opposite of
rigpa, grows less and less. The gap between thoughts grows longer
and occurs more and more frequently. The state of unfabricated
awareness, what the tantras call the "continuous instant of
nonfabrication," becomes more and more prolonged. This continuity
of rigpa is not something we have to deliberately maintain. It
should occur spontaneously through having grown more familiar with
it. Once we become accustomed to the genuine state of unfabricated
rigpa, it will automatically start to last longer and
longer.
What is meant by stability, then? First, to gain
stability, we need to have recognized genuine rigpa. We should have
clearly ascertained the true state. Through training, we should
have gained some degree of stability in this so that we are no
longer carried away by circumstances. These conditions can be
either positive or negative. Negative circumstances such as
difficulties, mishaps or illness, are much easier to recognize and
not be overcome by. Thus, it is easier to practice during times of
difficulty than it is when being successful. The worst obstacle for
a practitioner is when obstacle for a practitioner is when crowds
of followers begin to gather and say, "You are so wonderful; you're
such a great practitioner. You are very special. Please give us
teachings. Please guide us." Starting to have a great following
causes the most difficult kind of obstacle because, unless one is
the foremost type of practitioner, one will think, "Hey, maybe I am
special. Maybe there is something to what they say." Only the
foremost type of practitioner will not be carried away by such
"positive" conditions. When we reach the point of not being carried
away by either positive or negative circumstances, we have gained
some stability.
There are signs of accomplishment, such as having
good health and long life or becoming famous and influential, but
these belong to the superficial type of accomplishment. The true,
unmistaken signs of accomplishment as established by the masters of
the lineage, are to possess compassion, devotion and an acute sense
of impermanence. Combined with this, thoughts grow less and less
and the genuine awakened state lasts for increasingly longer
periods. In the moment of unfabricated awareness thoughts do not
have the power to remain, because that instant is totally free from
the duality of perceiver and perceived. What we call sem,
dualistic mind, is always involved in upholding the concepts of
perceiver and perceived. Rigpa, however, is by nature devoid of
duality. If the concepts of perceiver and perceived are not kept
up, duality crumbles, and there is no way conceptual thinking can
continue.
It's not hard to gain some intellectual
understanding of the Dharma; as they say, talk is cheap. Anyone can
talk about it. One can easily say, "The awakened state is amazing.
It is endowed with all perfect qualities, totally free from any
faults. In fact, nothing can ever harm the state of rigpa. It is
totally untainted." Or it is very easy to say, "Everything is
illusion. The whole world is merely an illusion. Nothing has any
independent or true existence. It's all magical trickery." We can
deliver these words from our mouths, but this is not enough to
destroy the state of confusion, to make our delusion fall apart. To
do this, we need the genuine experience.
Experience here, means to recognize the essence that
is like space. In the moment of rigpa, any deluded state is seen as
baseless, illusory and rootless. The false nature of thought
becomes totally obvious, in a very immediate and personal way that
is not just an idea that we have heard. At that moment we directly
touch the truth of those statements. By attaining stability in this
direct experience, the great masters of the Kagyu lineage could
make statements like, "The rock here is totally transparent.
Everything is the magical trickery of illusion." Due to their level
of realization, these masters could pass through solid rock, drill
themselves into the ground, walk on water, fly through the air and
so forth. This was not because they had developed some special
powers through their practice or because they were very strong or
stubborn, but simply because everything is unreal from the very
outset. Because of realizing the insubstantial nature of things, as
it is, practitioners have been able to manifest such signs of
accomplishment. Otherwise, we can study the teachings and say pithy
things like, "There is nothing to worry about in the bardo.
Everything that then occurs is an illusion; there is nothing real
about it." But when we eventually arrive in the bardo states, we
will be completely embroiled in the raging river of our fear.
Let me reiterate the three steps, intellectual understanding,
experience and realization. Intellectual understanding is, for
instance, to have heard about the awakened state. Theory, is, of
course, important, and we should definitely know the intent of the
teachings. However, we should not leave it with that. We need to
incorporate all three: theory, experience and
realization.
Then there is recognizing, training and attaining
stability. Of these three, "recognizing" is like identifying the
authentic seed of a beautiful flower. "Training" is like planting
the seed in fertile soil, applying water, and so on—not leaving the
seed lying on bare stone. The seed needs the right circumstances to
grow in. By applying these skillful means, nothing whatsoever can
prevent the plant from growing. Likewise, we need to train in, to
develop the strength of the recognition of mind nature. After
applying water and creating positive nurturing conditions, the
plant will certainly grow taller and taller. Eventually, it will
fully blossom with beautiful brightly colored flowers, because this
potential was inherent to the seed. But this does not happen all at
once. In the same way, we hear about the amazingly great qualities
of buddhahood, such as the fourfold fearlessness, the eighteen
unique qualities of the buddhas, the ten powers, the ten strengths
and so forth. We then wonder, "Where are those qualities? How come
they are not apparent in a moment's experience of the awakened
state! What is wrong!" It can be understood in the following way.
Within a few seconds' glimpse of the state of rigpa, these
qualities are not experienced the same as when recognition has been
stabilized. Although inherently present in our nature, these
qualities do not have time to be fully manifest. Just as the seed
is the unmistaken element for the fully blossomed flower, so the
moment of recognizing the awakened state is definitely the basis
for buddhahood itself.
If the flower-seed is planted and nurtured, it will
without question grow. But do not expect the moment of rigpa to be
an amazing or spectacular experience. Actually, there is one aspect
of the awakened state that is truly amazing—the fact that
conceptual thinking and the three poisons are totally absent. If we
look around, apart from rigpa, what can really bring an end to
thought, the very creator of samsara! We can drop a million nuclear
bombs on this world and blow everything to smithereens. If that
stops conceptual thinking and delusion, let's do it! But it
doesn't. It would be fantastic if we could simply blow up all the
confused samsaric realms and end them permanently, but
unfortunately that's not possible…Is there anything in this world
that stops deluded thinking! Nothing other than the moment of
recognizing the awakened state can truly cut through the stream of
deluded thinking. That's quite amazing.