When we talk about the nature of reality, many of us think of a
Source. What source? An ultimate source, an ultimate awareness that
displays or manifests everything.
In our mind, we picture awareness like an eternal sun shining on
the passing clouds in the sky... the eternal sun is primordially
untainted, pure, unaffected by the passing/transient stuff, yet it
is also the source of all the manifestations/transient stuff. We
picture a Source 'illuminating' and 'manifesting' things... We
think of Awareness as an agent 'perceiving' and 'illuminating'
objects... this can certainly appear to be the case even after
transcendental experiences of I AM and Non-Dual, with the 'view of
inherency' still strong.
However the insight of Anatta removes the notion of an agent or
source... why is this so? Anatta means this... in hearing, there is
no hearer... there is simply the self-accomplishing process of
hearing which is really the experience of sound, music, changing
moment to moment, arising according to conditions.
In seeing, there is no seer... it is simply a self-accomplishing
process of seeing which is is simply the experience of sight, the
shapes and colours, changing moment to moment, arising according to
conditions.
In thinking, there is no thinker or controller of thought...
there is simply the self-accomplishing process of thinking which is
thought, changing moment to moment, arising according to latent
tendencies and other supporting conditions.
So if there is no agent, no source, no ultimate Awareness - only
awareness/hearing/thinking as a process of manifestation... this is
not a denial of awareness, hearing, seeing, perceiving, but a
denial of awareness/perceiving/etc as an 'agent' of experience - it
is simply a process of experiencing without experiencer.
If this is the case, is there a primordially pure Awareness? The
answer is this... Awareness is simply the self-luminous appearance,
and this self-luminous appearance is ultimately empty, unborn, and
primordially pure.
This arising sound... this arising sight... scent... thought....
This is it. It is not about the transient clouds obscuring or
tainting the primordially pure sun and then trying to remove all
the clouds to get back to that pure sun... rather, it is that, the
passing cloud seen as it is, is primordially pure, empty,
self-luminous and spontaneously perfected. And yet... undeniably,
ignorance arise and we experience apparent duality and inherency
where none can be found... this false view of reality is the cause
of all our grasping and sufferings and problems.
Yet the cause of liberation is not found by shunning the
transience or sinking back into a Source... it is not about a
'freedom from appearance' or even a 'freedom despite appearance'...
appearance is primordially pure! This appearance (seen rightly)
alone is self-liberating! It is about a shift in view/paradigm... a
shift from duality and inherency to a non-dual, non-inherent
viewless view of transience.
Liberation is thus not about abiding in an unborn ultimate
essence... but seeing all appearances as luminous, empty, unborn,
primordially pure and spontaneously perfected.
Dzogchen master Longchenpa:
...All phenomena are primordially pure and enlightened, so
it is unborn and unceasing, inconceivable and
inexpressible.
In the ultimate sphere purity and impurity are naturally
pure and phenomena are the great equal perfection, free from
conception.
Since there is no bondage and liberation, there is no going,
coming or dwelling.
Appearance and emptiness are conventions, apprehended and
apprehender are like maya (a magical apparition).
The happiness and suffering of samsara and nirvana are like
good and bad dreams.
From the very moment of appearing, its nature is free from
elaboration.
From it (the state of freedom from elaboration), the very
interdependent causation of the great arising and cessation appears
like a dream, maya, an optical illusion, a city of the gandharvas
an echo, and a reflection, having no reality. All the events such
as arising, etc., Are in their true nature unborn.
So they will never cease nor undergo any changes in the
three periods of time.
They did not come from anywhere and they did not go
anywhere.
They will not stay anywhere: they are like a dream and
maya.
A foolish person is attached to phenomena as true, and
apprehends them as gross material phenomena,
"i" and "self," whereas they are like a maya-girl who
disappears when touched.
They are not true because they are deceiving and act only in
appearance.
The spheres of the six realms of beings and the pure lands
of the buddhas, also are not aggregations of atoms, but merely the
self-appearances of beings’ minds.
For example, in a dream buddhas and sentient beings appear
as real, endowed with inconceivable properties.
However, when one awakens, they were just a momentary object
of the mind.
In the same way should be understood all the phenomena of
samsara and nirvana.
There is no separate emptiness apart from apparent
phenomena.
It is like fire and heat, the qualities of fire.
The notion of their distinctness is a division made by
mind.
Water and the moon’s reflection in water are indivisibly one
in the pool.
Likewise, appearances and emptiness are one in the great
dharmata.
These appearances are unborn from the beginning, and they
are the dharmakaya.
They are like reflections, naturally unstained and
pure.
The mind’s fabricating their existence or nonexistence is an
illusion,
So do not conceptualize whatever appearances
arise...
