Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:
There are two types of mindfulness: deliberate and effortless.
By starting out with the mindfulness of deliberate attention, the
practitioner can make a clear distinction between being distracted
or not. Effortless mindfulness is of course possible if you happen
to be one of the people of the highest calibre - the instantaneous
type of person - who does not really need to go through the path.
However, for most other people, especially in the Mahamudra system,
the mindfulness of deliberate attention is essential in the
beginning. Otherwise, by relying only on effortless mindfulness,
you may not even notice whether you are distracted or not. Even
worse, you may convince yourself that you are never distracted.
Rather than this, it is much better to practice deliberate
mindfulness even though it is subtly conceptual, and gradually
progress to effortless mindfulness.
In the Mahamudra teachings, you often find the phrase 'original
innate nature'. This is none other than buddha nature. The training
is simply to become used to that, whether you call it Mahamudra,
Madhyamika or Dzogchen. These are all different words for the same
natural state. But to train, you must first of all be introduced
to, and have then recognized the view. In Mahamudra, once the
practitioner has recognized the view, he or she takes mindfulness
as the path; it is a way of training in that view. If mindfulness
is lost, then he/she is led completely astray into the 'black
dissipation' of ordinary habitual patterns. Black dissipation means
one forgets all thought of practice and simply deviates into
ordinary activities. All practice is left behind. So, either we
remember the view and sustain it (remain undistracted), or the
practice is destroyed. We need to know when we are distracted.
Discursive thought is distraction, but once we recognize the
essence of the thought, we arrive at non-thought. A quote from The
Rain of Wisdom by Jamgon Lodro Thaye says: "Within complexity I
discovered dharmakaya; within thought I discovered
non-thought."
A person of the highest capacity can immediately arrive at
effortless mindfulness. This is someone who possesses the
continuity of former training from the life before this, who has
been reborn with a very strong aptitude for this type of practice.
Needless to say, most people do not belong to this category. Most
of us are not of the highest capacity, so there is no way around
having to remind ourselves of the view by deliberately being
mindful.
That which goes astray is simply our attention. Our mind becomes
distracted, and that which brings us back to the view is called
'deliberate mindfulness'. In the same way, if you want the light to
come on in a room, a conscious act is necessary. You must put your
finger on the switch and press it; the light does not turn itself
on. In the same way again, unless a beginner reminds him/herself
determinedly to remember the view, the recognition of mind-essence
never occurs. The moment we notice we have been carried away, we
think, "I have wandered off". By recognizing the identity of who
has been distracted, you automatically arrive back in the view. The
reminder is nothing more than that. This moment (of recognition) is
like pressing the light-switch. Once the light is on, you do not
have to keep pressing the switch. After a while, we may again
forget and are carried away. At that point, we must reapply
deliberate mindfulness.