All quotes taken from
http://www.shenpen-osel.org/issue7.pdf.
Following Quotes by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
"The perceptions of the five sense consciousnesses—sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and touch—are pure and unobscured, which
means that they are free of any form of conceptuality. But
unenlightened sentient beings do not experience that non-conceptual
purity. Every moment of direct non-conceptual sense consciousness
is followed instantly by a moment of direct non-conceptual mental
consciousness, which is then instantly followed by a mental replica
or image of that particular direct mental consciousness, which is
not a direct experience, but has been called a vague approximation.
We would probably call this vague approximation a projection, as
in, “You are projecting.” It is this vague approximation or
projection that forms the basis of the subsequent conceptuality
that recognizes it as such and such, or good or bad and so on,
which immediately ensues. In the words of Thrangu Rinpoche, this “.
. . sixth consciousness . . . recognizes things, it brings concepts
to bear upon experience and thereby confuses the experiences with
the concepts about those experiences, including the confusion of a
present experience with a past experience of something similar or
apparently the same. So the sixth consciousness, which is
conceptual, not only experiences the present, but brings the
concepts of the past and the future to bear upon this present
experience.”
The consequence of this process is devastating. It means that we
are never experiencing accurately what is happening; we are always
involved in some degree of conceptual misperception. And therefore
our reactions and responses to what we experience are always going
to be, even in the most ideal of circumstances, somewhat skewed. In
less than ideal circumstances, our reactions can be
catastrophic.
The whole purpose of dharma study and practice is “the
abandoning of this activity,” which results in our recognition of
the true nature of things, the dharmata. When we recognize the true
nature of things, our responses to life are accurate, helpful,
intelligent, and compassionate. But this recognition is not easy to
come by. One must, in fact, deconstruct one’s experience piece by
piece. This process begins first by coming to understand the
dilemma we are in. Once we have come to understand that our
problems, and indeed the world’s problems, result from
ego-clinging, the next step is to develop the wisdom and the
courage to recognize that there is no other purpose in life that
even approaches in importance the deconstructing of ego and
ego-clinging. Once one has developed that courage, one can
gradually eliminate distractions and simplify one’s life
sufficiently to make the practice of dharma one’s main concern.
The deconstruction of ego proceeds in stages. First we must let
go of acting out our emotional reactions to events; which is to
say, we must purify the veil of karma, the push-button reactivity
of our behavior. In order to do so we practice ngöndro. Next, we
must allow the emotional confusion of our minds to subside, which
means we must practice shamatha or the meditation of calm abiding.
Next we must develop the clear seeing, or the superior seeing of
vipashyana; we must come to see the true nature of our experience
for what it is, and then we must meditate, resting in that state
until all confusion and roots of confusion have been eliminated.
Seeing through confusion is to see through the process of
conceptualizing and superimposing our conceptual version of things
onto our experience and then taking that as real. Truly knowing the
truth of this process sets one free from it, and instantaneously
“phenomena’s lack of self-essence is known.” The true nature of
things, the dharmata, is known. The dharmadhatu, primordial
awareness, the clear light nature of mind, is known. Knowing this,
we meditate on the dharmadhatu, and this meditation leads directly
to the full realization of buddhahood.
The conceptuality that we superimpose upon our experience like
plastic overlays in an anatomy text are better understood when we
understand that there are four types of thoughts: the thought of
“I,” the thought of “mine,” the thought that names, and the thought
that attributes characteristics to what is named. It is our
clinging to these that is the source of our problems. If we have a
row with a friend, part of our suffering comes from the
identification or naming of the person as our friend, and the
expectations that this person will manifest the characteristics
that we attribute to friends. Friends love you, they share your
interests, and are supportive of you. Our anger with our friend
during our row arises from the fact that their behavior is not
consonant with these characteristics. If we did not think of the
person as “friend,” their behavior would not be so distressing to
us.
Deeper even than this level of conceptual designation is that we
have identified this person as “our” friend,” “my” friend. If
someone else is having a row with “their” friend, it may not bother
us at all; in fact it may even become a source of amusement and
delight. If “our” children misbehave, we suffer; if someone else’s
children misbehave, we may think it regrettable and be mildly sorry
for it and concerned, but we will not suffer in the same way. If a
salesperson drops an expensive Rolex watch on the floor, we will
probably not suffer. But if we drop the same watch after having
bought it, then we are likely to suffer considerably. Yet the watch
is the same watch, the children and our friend are just people. The
source of our suffering with respect to all of these objects is the
fact that we think of them as “mine.” If we hear that a school bus
has gone off the road and several children have been killed, one of
which might be our own, we suffer tremendously. But the instant we
discover that not our children, but someone else’s children have
been killed, the greater part of our suffering is over. The
identification of things as “mine” sets us up for suffering.
But without “I” there can be no “mine,” and without the
fundamental misperception that splits our experience into two
poles, a perceiver and a perceived, and the subsequent
identification of the subjective pole of our experience as being of
paramount importance, there can be no “I,” and thus no clinging to
“I.” Without clinging to “I” there is utterly no suffering. Without
clinging to our conceptual versions of perceiver and perceived,
there is no misperception, and where there is no misperception,
there is the clear light nature of mind and reality; there is
happiness and all positive qualities.
The benefits to an individual of letting go of the activity of
conceptualizing and superimposing are apparent. But the benefits to
society at large are also immense. Where there is no conceptual
overlay, where there is no conceptual confusion and no
ego-clinging, the confused energies of karma and klesha are
transformed naturally, spontaneously, and effortlessly into the
energies of wisdom, which radiate outward as warmth and light and
blessing to all sentient beings. In the words of Chögyam Trungpa
Rinpoche, where there is no ego-fixation and no conceptual
misperception, there is “radiation without a radiator.” This
radiation of blessing, which is sometimes called the power of
compassion, pacifies emotional affliction, enriches the minds and
experience of sentient beings, magnifies their attention so that
they can be taught the path to peace, and destroys their obstacles.
This radiation strikes beings deep in their hearts and inspires
them to drop their small-mindedness and to concern themselves with
the benefit of others. For those who have been involved in social
movements and politics and still aspire to bring peace, harmony,
freedom, prosperity, and happiness to the world, the profoundest
political act is, there- fore, to meditate upon and realize the
dharmadhatu. For in the words of Lao Tsu, “The wise person
accomplishes everything by ‘doing nothing,’ and the people think
that they did it themselves.” Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
Rinpoche
"There are three causes of samsara. The first is karma, defiled
action; the second are the kleshas, the mental afflictions; the
third is conceptual mental activity, conceptuality. The basis or
the ground in which these three are purified is the dharmadhatu,
which is primordial awareness, inherent awareness, originally
present wisdom. The path of practicing the dharma is what purifies
these three causes. It clears away all of the adventitious,
fleeting stains that obscure the true nature of the mind but are
not part of its true nature. When these adventitious stains are
cleared away, what remains is pure primordial awareness. This is
given the name nirvana. It is also given the name dharmakaya. This
also tells us what the dharmadhatu is.
In short, what is the dharmadhatu? It is the very essence of our
present mind, the very essence of this present moment of mind,
which essence is radiant clarity. It is completely free of any
flaw; it is naturally perfect just as it is. Therefore, the true
nature of mind is the ultimate thing to realize; it is the ultimate
object of meditation. When purified of stains, it is nirvana.
Form and the other five outer sources of consciousness, making
six altogether, do not appear to conceptual consciousness as they
really exist. If we examine the outer sources of consciousness down
to the smallest atom, we cannot find anything. For example, if we
examine an eye in very fine detail, in atomic and subatomic detail,
we cannot find even an atom that truly exists.
The eye that perceives is not made of anything; it is just a
mere appearance. Similarly, the form that appears to the eye sense
consciousness is also not made out of any [truly existent] atoms;
there is nothing substantially there at all. When these two things
which are not composed of anything, which are just mere
appearances, come together, then the eye sense consciousness that
perceives form does so in a way that is non-conceptual. When the
eye sense consciousness perceives a form, it is an experience of
perfect clarity that is unmediated by concepts, that is not
polluted by any concepts about what is there; it is just a pure
experience of clarity, of vision. At that time, the appearance is
not arisen truly, nor does it ever cease, and this
appearance-emptiness, this appearance which is empty of arising and
empty of ceasing, which is empty of any existent matter at all,
this appearance-emptiness undifferentiable is the dharmadhatu.
Later, when thoughts arise, we think, “Oh, this is form; and this
is a nice looking form or this is an unpleasant looking form,” or
whatever thought might want to impute to the nature of that form.
But its actual nature is appearance-emptiness.
Based on the coming together of sound and the ear, an experience
of consciousness that is mere clarity, that is the mere experience
of hearing the sound, occurs. This consciousness is pure. The
reason why it is pure is that there is no conceptuality, there are
no thoughts happening, and so the consciousness is pure. In the
Tibetan it literally says it is pure of thoughts. So it is pure
because there are no thoughts happening. It is a pure experience.
At that time, this consciousness, to which this appearance is
appearing so clearly, together with its object, are only the
dharmadhatu and nothing else. They have no other characteristics;
they have only the characteristics of awareness and emptiness
undifferentiable, because no other characteristics exist. Later,
when the thought process kicks in, we can think, “Oh, I just heard
a sound.” But that only comes after the actual experience and is
not connected with it. It is only a label that thoughts put on it
after it happens.
The sound, which is not composed of any atoms, is not made of
anything. The ear sense faculty is not composed of any “truly
existent” atoms. And the ear sense consciousness is mere clarity
that is not corrupted by any thoughts; it is not stained by any
thoughts. And the coming together of these three is just like their
coming together in a dream. There is no difference. Their nature is
the dharmadhatu. They have no characteristics [that exist] from
their own side [independent of conditions from the “other” side].
They have only the characteristics of the dharmadhatu. But because
we do not recognize what the dharmadhatu is, then thoughts arise
and we think, “Oh, that was a sound.” So thoughts prevent us from
knowing what the true nature of that experience was. Our obscuring
thoughts prevent us from seeing that it is actually the dharmadhatu
and confuse us by labeling it as a sound, and then further labeling
it is a “good” sound, a “bad” sound, or whatever.
When we hear something in a dream—before we conceptualize what
it is that we are hearing— the sound and the sense faculty that
perceives the sound are appearance and emptiness undifferentiable
from each other. The sense consciousness that perceives it is
clarity-emptiness undifferentiable, and it is all just the
dharmadhatu. But then, because we do not recognize the dharmadhatu,
we have a thought, “Oh, that is a sound”; and then we think, just
as we do during the daytime, “That was a good sound, that was a bad
sound,” and we start to take action in response to that
[conceptualized version of the] sound. We either try to do
something to get more of that type of sound or to avoid that type
of sound, all based upon this conceptual confusion."