This is from one of the foremost Tibetan masters of the 21st century.
Enjoy!
"The Heart Jewel of the Fortunate"
Dudjom Rimpoche's Personal Advice
on Dzogchen Praxis
Taken from Counsels from My Heart by Dudjom Rinpoche
Shambhala: Boston, 2001
Homage to my teacher!
The Great Master of Oddiyana once said:
Don’t investigate the root of things,
Investigate the root of Mind!
Once the mind’s root has been found,
You’ll know one thing, yet all is thereby freed.
But if the root of Mind you fail to find,
You will know everything but nothing
understand.
When you start to meditate on your mind, sit up with your body straight, allowing your breath to come and go naturally. Gaze into the space in front of you with eyes neither closed nor wide open. Think to yourself that for the sake of all beings who have been your mothers, you will watch awareness, the face of Samantabhadra. Pray strongly to your root teacher, who is inseparable from Padmasambhava, the Guru from Oddiyana, and then mingle your mind with his. Settle in a balanced, meditative state.
Once you are settled, however, you will not stay long in this empty, clear state of awareness. Your mind will start to move and become agitated. It will fidget and run here, there, and everywhere, like a monkey. What you are experiencing at this point is not the nature of the mind but only thoughts. If you stick with them and follow them, you will find yourself recalling all sorts of things, thinking about all sorts of needs, planning all sorts of activities. It is precisely this kind of mental activity that has hurled you into the dark ocean of samsara in the past, and there’s no doubt it will do so in the future. It would be so much better if you could cut through the ever spreading, black delusion of your thoughts.
What if you are able to break out of your chain of thoughts? What is awareness like? It is empty, limpid stunning, light, free, joyful! It is not something bounded or demarcated by its own set of attributes. There is nothing in the whole of samsara and nirvana that it does not embrace. From time without beginning, it is within us, inborn. We have never been without it, yet it is wholly outside the range of action, effort, and imagination.
But what, you will ask, is it like to recognize awareness, the face of rigpa? Although you experience it, you simply cannot describe it – it would be like a dumb man trying to describe his dreams! It is impossible to distinguish between yourself resting in awareness and the awareness you are experiencing. When you rest quite naturally, nakedly, in the boundless state of awareness, all those speedy, pestering thoughts that would not stay quiet even for an instant – all those memories, all those plans that cause you so much trouble – lose their power. They disappear in the spacious, cloudless sky of awareness. They shatter, collapse, vanish. All their strength is lost in awareness.
You actually have this awareness within you. It is the clear, naked wisdom of dharmakaya. But who can introduce you to it? On what should you take your stand? What should you be certain of? To begin with, it is your teacher who shows you the state of your awareness. And when you recognize it for yourself, it is then that you are introduced to your own nature. All the appearances of both samsara and nirvana are but the display of your own awareness; take your stand upon awareness alone. Just like the waves that rise up out of the sea and sink back into it, all thoughts that appear sink back into awareness. Be certain of their dissolution, and as a result you will find yourself in a state utterly devoid of both meditator and something meditated upon - completely beyond the meditating mind.
"Oh, in that case," you might think, "there’s no need for meditation." Well, I can assure you that there is a need! The mere recognition of awareness will not liberate you. Throughout your lives from beginningless time, you have been enveloped in false beliefs and deluded habits. From then till now you have spent every moment as a miserable, pathetic slave of your thoughts! And when you die, it’s not at all certain where you will go. You will follow your karma, and you will have to suffer. This is the reason why you must meditate, continuously preserving the sate of awareness you have been introduced to. The omniscient Longchenpa has said, "You may recognize your own nature, but if you do not meditate and get used to it, you will be like a baby left on a battlefield: you’ll be carried off by the enemy, the hostile army of your own thoughts!" In general terms, meditation means becoming famiIiar with the state of resting in the primordial uncontrived nature, through being spontaneously, naturally, constantly mindful. It means getting used to leaving the state of awareness alone, divested of all distraction and clinging.
How do we get used to remaining in the nature of the mind? When thoughts come while you are meditating, let them come; there’s no need to regard them as your enemies. When they arise, relax in their arising. On the other hand, if they don’s arise, don’t be nervously wondering whether or not they will. Just rest in their absence. If big, well-defined thoughts suddenly appear during your meditation, it is easy to recognize them. But when slight, subtle movements occur, it is hard to realize that they are there until much later. This is what we call namtok wogyu, the undercurrent of mental wandering. This is the thief of your meditation, so it is important for you to keep a close watch. If you can be constantly mindful, both in meditation and afterward, when you are eating, sleeping, walking, or sitting, that’s it – you’ve got it right!
The great master Guru Rinpoche has said:
A hundred things may be explained,
a thousand told,
But one thing only should you grasp.
Know one thing and everything is freed-
Remain within your inner nature,
your awareness!
It is also said that if you do not meditate, you will not gain certainty: if you do, you will. But what sort of certainty? If you meditate with a strong, joyful endeavor, signs will appear showing that you have become used to staying in your nature. The fierce, tight clinging that you have to dualistically experienced phenomena will gradually loosen up, and your obsession with happiness and suffering, hopes and fears, and so on, will slowly weaken. Your devotion to the teacher and your sincere trust in his instructions will grow. After a time, your tense, dualistic attitudes will evaporate and you will get to the point where gold and pebbles, food and filth, gods and demons, virtue and nonvirtue, are all the same for you-you’ll be at a loss to choose between paradise and hell! But until you reach that point (while you are still caught in the experiences of dualistic perception), virtue and nonvirtue, buddhafields and hells, happiness and pain, actions and their results – all this is reality for you. As the Great Guru has said, "My view is higher than the sky, but my attention to actions and their results is finer than flour."
So don’t go around claiming to be some great Dzogchen meditator when in fact you are nothing but a farting lout, stinking of alcohol and rank with lust!
It is essential for you to have a stable foundation of pure devotion and samaya, together with a strong, joyful endeavor that is well balanced, neither too tense nor too loose. If you are able to meditate, completely turning aside from the activities and concerns of this life, it is certain that you will gain the extraordinary qualities of the profound path of Dzogchen. Why wait for future lives? You can capture the primordial citadel right now, in the present.
This advice is the very blood of my heart. Hold it close and never let it go!
Counsels from my Heart
That's just what I needed to read today. Thanks.
You never cease to amaze me with your posts....Thank you from the bottom of my heart......
wonderful council John, thank you very much...
This piece is a clear transmission of the awakened state in writing. What an incredible being!
In the Tibetan tradition realized masters sometimes sing songs that express their realization and teach their students something about the realization or the path to it. Here is a translation of one of my favorite examples of these 'dohas.'
Rest in natural great peace this exhausted mind,
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thoughts
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.
— Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
Rest in natural great peace this exhausted mind,
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thoughts
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.
As I hold my grandson and he fights to stay wakeful, I sing to him. The first song that came back to me, the first time I held him in my arms was one my grandmother sang to me. She transitioned over 45 years ago, I was 7 and I don't think I'd thought of it since. John's dohas reminds me of it again now.
Sleep my child and peace attend thee, all through the night. Guardian Angels God will send thee, all through the night. Soft the drowsy hours are creeping hill and dale in slumber steeping. I my loving vigil keeping, all through the night.
Twice now, as he has been struggling to stay awake and just bordering on sleep, as his eyes are rolling back half closed he has started laughing~joyful, innocent, exuberant from the belly laughter~that lasts for bouts of 20 minutes or longer. I wonder what Guides and Angels comes to him in those moments! Holding him so close, his head upon my heart, the pure bliss of his laughter~there is no truer moment of pure awareness for me.
We are Love. Everyone of us. It is our birthright, it is our heritage, it is our legacy. It is our most important lesson. Thank you for the post John and for allowing me the pleasure of recalling one moment of pure awareness.
God give us the grace, patience and strength to be what the children need us to be.
I am touched and moved by your beautiful post.
Bless you more,
John
This is one I just received from my friend, Sperry.
"In reality there is only one source, dark in itself, making everything shine. Unperceived, it causes perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling. Unthinkable it causes thought. Non-being, it gives birth to being. It is the immovable background of motion. Once you are there you are home everywhere."
~ Nisargadatta
Sperry is the initiating force behind Consciouness Online, which I highly recommend. I believe I have posted about this weekly online meeting before; have any of you checked it out?
We are testing a new 90 minute format to hopefully make this more appealing to newcomers. This shortened session time makes it even more important that we arrive on time, having already eliminated any background noises in our environments, and have ear buds plugged in and ready for use! (Note: ear buds must be plugged in the entire time, even if you have to leave the room for a moment, to avoid distracting feedback to other participants.) Please feel free to sign in to tokbox.com five minutes ahead of the meeting time to make sure your internet and equipment are working.
____________________________________________________
Bio:
As an experiential scientist who has facilitated hundreds of groups ~ internationally ~ over more than twenty years, precisely researching how any individual ~ as well as humanity as a whole ~ can consistently share collective intelligence joyfully, I'm thrilled to say: Joy arises spontaneously and unasked for ~ whenever present-moment-awareness is made aware of itself.
Awakened adepts have recommended this level of Self-reflective awareness for thousands of years. Through a near-death experience at age four, I re-discovered this fact, and over the course of several decades thoroughly tested a simple and readily accessible way that reliably supports any group to enter into this level of joyful consciousness together: in person or via webcam online. A film project is now underway that's designed to provide this 'experience' to audiences in theaters, to awaken us to our collective Self.
Sperry Andrews, co-director
Human Connection Institute
www.connectioninstitute.org
Hi John, Sperry's groups look great but I don't have a webcam and don't plan on getting one. Otherwise, I'd be joining in. Namaste. kristyne
Where are you located in Michigan?
I'm outside the metro Detroit area, John. Maybe too close in a world of upheaval, but there is so much Lightwork to do here, I suppose there is reason for me to be.
located in Ann Arbor. It's website is http://www.deepspring.org/ . About 2 years ago, I encountered the teachings in the library on the website and quickly became engaged and involved. It might be worth your while to check it out & see if there is resonance for you.
Bless you more,
John
WHAT ARE YOU DEFENDING? - The end of spiritual posturing
by Jeff Foster
Perhaps you've had a profound realisation that everything is just a story, or that there is no separation, or that everything is simply consciousness appearing, or that everything is 'just happening' and it's not happening 'to' a person, or that 'this is all there is'...
Great. These are BEAUTIFUL insights.
But life doesn't end with insights.
One day, you encounter someone who fundamentally disagrees with what you are saying. You find yourself shouting at them, even abusing them. They are wrong and you want to let them know in the most dramatic way. In your eyes, they are ignorant and deluded and in the name of 'compassion' you attack them.
Very quickly, you move to justify your actions, because you know that 'getting angry' doesn't fit into your concept of yourself as an 'enlightened person'. The anger is a real threat to your spiritual ego. So you say things like "There's no 'me' getting angry! Nobody is getting angry at nobody! It's just anger appearing! Everything is just a story! It's just life happening! It's just consciousness! If you experience any abuse or suffering it's YOUR story and YOUR problem, not mine!".
Can you see how you are defending an image of yourself as an 'enlightened person'?
Other images we may be defending:
"I am no-one."
"I am not here"
"I have no self"
"I am fully awake"
"The ego is no longer functioning"
"I have a completely silent mind"
"I am pure consciousness"
"I am totally present"
"I am a guru"/"I am not a guru"
"I am a teacher"/"I am not a teacher"
"All seeking has ended here"
"There is no suffering here, ever"
My goodness, how easily we can use spiritual concepts to justify violence. (Of course, I'm speaking from past experience here!)
Oh yes, on an 'ultimate' level, it's just anger appearing. It's just fury appearing. It's just violence arising in and as consciousness. On an ultimately level, it's all deeply OKAY.
But, and this is the big BUT, is that really being seen in the moment?
If non-separation was truly being seen clearly in the moment, would violence (seeking) still arise?
Yes, there could still be clear, honest, authentic communication, and acknowledgement of any feelings present, but would the situation have been so charged?
In the moment when you yell furiously at your partner, your friend, your parent, your co-worker, experiencing real anger in the body, is it REALLY being seen that there is no separation? Is it REALLY being seen that there is only consciousness?
Or are you actually believing that there is someone 'out there' to be angry with?
Are you blaming a feeling here on an 'other' who is 'out there'?
Then, in the moment, 'non-separation' has simply become a dead concept, rather than a living truth.
Is the utterly obvious being missed: that the 'other' is simply YOUR story of the other?
Is it being seen that your fury is your reaction to your own story about the other?
It's one thing claiming that you are totally beyond separation.
It's another thing yelling at your partner because they didn't do the washing up, and then claiming that it's 'just yelling happening' and 'I have no control over it!' and 'there's nobody here!'.
This is what I would call 'spiritual posturing'.
Beyond all of our spiritual posturing, what's really going on?
What's really true, in your experience?
Get honest: In the moment, what image of yourself are you defending? (Could you even be defending the image that you have no image of yourself?)
Nobody can answer this question for you.
Freedom calls for radical honesty here.
The moment you are defending an image of yourself, others become a threat to your identity. Violence begins here.
There is the possibility of seeing through all these images of yourself, including the 'enlightened' images, the 'spiritual' images, the 'Advaita' images, the 'no image' images. Compassion - and real freedom from violence - begin here.
This is the invitation. There is already completeness, AND life is the constant invitation to SEE the completeness, in every moment, in every interaction, in every situation.
This is not about becoming a 'perfect human being' - whatever that would mean.
It's about a total embrace of all 'imperfection', here and now, in the midst of every experience.
Ultimately, it's all already deeply OKAY.
And, there is this constant invitation to explore the NOT-OKAYness, rediscovering the OKAYness in the midst of it.
And ultimately, whether or not the invitation is accepted, it's still deeply OKAY.
And so, if you're still open to life, open to exploring, fascinated by suffering and how it arises, this is a beautiful invitation to accept, moment by precious moment:
What are you defending?
so well said....
this is articulate, clear and IMO helpful.
CHAPTER ONE:
Recognizing Awareness
by Scott Kiloby
(1) Recognize awareness
(2) Let all appearances be as they are
(3) See that appearances are inseparable.
Let’s start with recognizing awareness. The first and most important step in Living Realization is a direct, experiential introduction to awareness. This chapter focuses only on this experiential introduction.
In Living Realization, we recognize awareness as often as possible, throughout the day, everyday, until the recognition is unshakable and uninterrupted. We recognize awareness whenever we remember to do so. No matter what we are doing—relaxing, walking, sitting, working, engaging in physical exercise, or lying in bed at night—we take a moment to recognize awareness.
In recognizing awareness in all these situations, it dawns on us that awareness is always and already present, regardless of what is happening in our lives. This provides a peace and stability that passes all understanding. It truly transforms who we are. In seeing that awareness is ever present, we realize that awareness is our real identity. This naturally and effortlessly releases the tendency to identify with the various appearances that come and go within awareness. Appearances include thoughts, emotions, sensations, states and experiences. We will talk more about appearances in later chapters.
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A. How to Recognize Awareness
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1. Start with Non-Conceptual Awareness
When we first begin recognizing awareness in our lives, it is important to start with non-conceptual awareness. What is non-conceptual awareness:
Humans are accustomed to relying heavily on thoughts, both for a sense of self and for information about others and the world. But this habitual tendency to rely on thought creates a belief in separation. The more we learn, repeat, and rely on concepts, the more it really feels like the concepts are pointing to separate things.
This belief in separation is the underlying cause of human suffering, seeking, and conflict. It’s the reason we experience ourselves as separate people in a world of other separate people and things. As thoughts arise, there is a tendency to believe that they are pointing to separate things (e.g., me, you, us, them, apples, countries, the moon, atoms, mothers-in-law, etc).
This belief system lies at the core of personal suffering. Personal suffering comes from identifying strongly with the thought stream in our minds. If that thought stream is negative, we experience emotional and mental suffering. This belief system is also the root cause of human seeking. When we take ourselves to be separate selves, we think of ourselves as being separate stories existing time. In this story, the past feels incomplete. At every point within the story, we find ourselves in the middle of an unfinished movie called, “My Life.” The past has not yet completed itself and it seems that the future is needed for this completion. This results in constant seeking towards the future. The belief in separation is the reason we are often chasing contentment in the future, but never quite finding that contentment on any permanent basis. This belief system is also the reason why we experience conflict with other humans. Separation makes us feel “cut off” from other people and from life itself. When we feel like separate objects, we believe that other objects (i.e., people, places, and things) have the power to threaten or diminish who we are. This causes us to want to be right and to make others wrong. In being right, we build ourselves up, strengthening the sense of self. This protects the fragile self center (i.e., ego) from feeling diminished or threatened. Unfortunately, this is precisely why we find ourselves in conflict. For every right, there is a wrong and it is usually “the other” who is wrong.
For most humans, thoughts happen very quickly, one after another, and carry such a force or momentum that the thought stream feels uncontrollable. There is a sense that we can’t shut it off. Throughout the day, that thought stream displays all sorts of judgments, opinions, beliefs, mental positions, criticisms, and other concepts. The thought stream has a sense of self invested in it. We consult that thought stream to know who and what we are—including name, history, memories, beliefs, family of origin, political affiliation, and all other thoughts about ourselves. A great majority of thinking is self-centered. The self center is the main object in our experience. The term self center, in Living Realization, refers to the sense of being a separate person in time and space. We’ll talk more about the self center in Chapter Three: Thoughts.
The point of Living Realization is not to shut off that thought stream permanently. Although we may experience a quieting of the mind, Living Realization is not about having a completely non-conceptual experience in life. Thoughts are a part of life.
Thoughts serve the function of identifying things for conventional purposes. For example, how would we know to mow the lawn if we weren’t able to determine that there is a person, a lawnmower, and a lawn that needs mowed? How would we know how to drive a car, clean the house, or pay taxes?
Living Realization is designed to help you see through the belief in separation, not get rid of thought. As that belief falls away, thought is seen to be not only harmless, but a valuable tool for living. It’s an inseparable appearance within awareness, which means it is none other than awareness. We’ll talk more about inseparability later in the text.
Once we no longer identify with thoughts, and believe they are pointing to separately existing things, what is left is the functional, conventional aspect of thought (e.g., lawn mowing, talking to a friend, buying food at the grocery story, and teaching a child).
Although the ultimate purpose of Living Realization is not to get rid of thought, we encourage you to start with non-conceptual awareness in the beginning. Recognizing non-conceptual awareness interrupts the belief in separation. It provides a relaxation and release from the story of past, present, and future that is constantly and uncontrollable playing itself out in our heads (i.e., the self center).
Through recognizing non-conceptual awareness, we come to see that we do not need to rely on thinking so much. We can simply be, as awareness. This is the simplest and most effortless way of living. In Living Realization, we come to experience awareness as natural, effortless, and ever present. As we experience non-conceptual awareness, our stories are seen to be less important in our lives. Therefore, self-centeredness naturally falls away. We come to see awareness as our real identity. This recognition provides the peace, freedom, wisdom, joy, and well-being we’ve been seeking in our lives.
What do we mean by recognizing non-conceptual awareness? Awareness is not a concept. The word “awareness” is a concept that comes and goes within the awareness that sees that and every other concept. All concepts, and other appearances, come and go within awareness. Recognizing this from the start goes a long way in avoiding confusion.
It is worth repeating an explanation of non-conceptual awareness:
If you have some difficulty with the pointer above, start with something really simple when you first begin. Bring your attention, over and over, throughout the day to the felt sense of presence in your chest or inner body. Just return to that felt sense repeatedly, as often as possible. Notice that there is no thought there. There is only a felt sense of presence. Just rest each time you experience that inward space. As you rest there more and more, you start to notice that this space is naturally non-conceptual. You don’t have to think about the space. It is just there. And you are merely noticing it and resting as that inward space all throughout the day. As you rest there more and more, the space seems to expand. It starts to encompass more of your experience. You start to notice that that same space in your chest is also in your legs, your arms, and in your head. The voice in your head, which is playing one thought after the other, is seen to be happening within this space. You notice that this space is what hears that voice. So this space starts to feel more and more like what you really are. The thoughts start to seem less and less like what you are.
You even start to notice that the spaciousness you are experiencing within your body and mind is the same spaciousness outside your body and mind. You begin to notice this non-conceptual present space wherever you go, no matter where you are. You notice it at home, at work, in the company of others, and when you are alone. You find that this space is always present. You experience its natural peacefulness. And this peacefulness draws you into it, over and over. It feels like home. This is a peace that passes all understanding. Even if you were to try to understand it, it would be a thought trying to do that. The thought would be just a temporary appearance coming and going within this stable, ever present space. That thought cannot grasp this space. The first and most important thing to do in Living Realization is to make this present, restful space the most important thing in your life. Return there often until the return becomes automatic. It will become automatic because the peace within that space has a powerful pull to it.
If you forget what is meant by non-conceptual awareness, simply return to this chapter and read the paragraphs above. Mark this page, if necessary.
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2. Is Recognizing Non-Conceptual Awareness a Practice?
Whether recognizing non-conceptual awareness is a practice or not depends on the person. For some, one taste of recognizing non-conceptual awareness is all that is needed. They do not need to continue visiting or returning to the recognition of awareness. That first taste reveals to them that awareness is their real identity. From that point forward, awareness is seen to be ever present and all appearances are seen to come and go effortlessly and inseparably within awareness.
Others may have to repeatedly take brief moments of resting or recognizing non-conceptual awareness, returning again and again to it until it is stabilized and experienced as ever present. If you find yourself needing to take these brief moments, notice that the first few times you take a brief moment, the experience may last for only a second or a few seconds. That is fine. You have tasted awareness. That is all we are asking you to do in the beginning. We invite you to experience non-conceptual awareness on a regular basis, as often as possible throughout the day, everyday, no matter where you are or what you are doing. As you continue doing this, it becomes easier and easier to rest in non-conceptual awareness. The force and momentum of thinking can be so strong at first that all you can do is take brief moments. But as you take more and more brief moments, continuing to rest in non-conceptual awareness very often throughout the day, the moments get longer and longer. It eventually becomes very natural and effortless to return to awareness. At some point, it stops feeling like a practice that you are doing. Awareness is seen to be ever present—not something you visit, not something you practice, but what you are in the deepest sense.
This simple practice of repeatedly taking brief moments to recognize awareness provides rest from constant thinking, and puts you in the perfect position to begin seeing that you do not have to identify with all the thoughts, emotions, sensations, states, and experiences that come and go temporarily within awareness. It also places you in the perfect position to begin to really look into your experience and see whether separation is real or whether it is belief system. We will talk more about seeing through separation in the remaining chapters.
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3. What Exactly Is Awareness?
The remainder of this chapter provides a more detailed discussion on awareness, helping us to recognize awareness in our own direct experience. Awareness is the limitless, boundless non-conceptual space to which everything comes and goes. It is wordless, thought-free, non-locatable presence. Appearances come and go to awareness. Everything that happens in life is an appearance to that awareness. For example, a concept is an appearance to awareness. When a concept appears, it seems to refer to a separately existing object. What is it that sees that concept? That is awareness. When that concept disappears, the experience of that object existing as its own separate thing disappears also. All things are really thoughts and sensations. We will discuss this more in later chapters.
The awareness to which all thoughts come and go is not, itself, a concept. The word “awareness” is pointing to that which hears the voice in your head. When that voice utters the word “awareness,” or any other word, that which hears that sound and sees that thought is actual awareness. Therefore, we can never state, express, or capture awareness with any word or thought. Whatever we state, express, or think, it is an appearance to this basic awareness.
It is best not to try to get too involved in intellectualizing what is meant by the word “awareness.” The most direct approach is simply to rest, without thought, on a regular basis until it is recognized that non-conceptual space is like the very ground of our experience, before a thought or anything else appears.
Intellectualizing awareness or using metaphors may be helpful in the beginning before we get an experiential introduction to awareness. But being clear, right from the start, on the fact that we cannot state, express, or capture awareness with any word or thought goes a long way in reducing the tendency to try to understand or intellectualize awareness. No one understands awareness. It is not a thing. Remember: humans tend to rely on thought heavily. In Living Realization, we come to see thought as something that comes and goes within what we really are—awareness. Our greatest ideas and descriptions of awareness are concepts that come and go within awareness. No matter how profound or ridiculous our concepts are about ourselves, friends, family, society, science, God, enlightenment, self-realization, business, religion, philosophy, cultures, politics, or anything else, they are not the awareness to which the concepts come and go.
In Living Realization, we also sometimes refer to awareness as the pure seeing within which all thoughts, emotions, sensations, states, and experiences come and go. By referring to awareness as seeing, we aren’t referring to vision. Vision is a sense, just like touch is a sense. All senses are appearances that come and go within awareness. See Chapter Five: Sensations for more on vision and other senses.
If we open our eyes, we visually see colors, shapes, and things. That is visual seeing. If we close our eyes, all the colors, shapes, and things disappear. Awareness is that which is present and awake both to the colors, shapes, and things that appear when our eyes are open and to the absence of those colors, shapes, and things when our eyes are closed. Seeing, in Living Realization, is not just the seeing of colors, shapes, and objects that seem to appear outside the body and mind, but also the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that seem to appear inside the body and mind. Awareness is that which sees all of those internal and external things appearing and disappearing. As all these things come and go, awareness remains ever present. This is why the recognition of awareness provides stability in our lives on every level. We no longer feel that our sense of self is wrapped up in the various temporary appearances that come and go. We come to know our true identity as something more stable and ever present.
It may also be helpful to refer to the word “being” instead of awareness. It is difficult to refute the simple fact of being that is always present. It is present when our eyes are open and when they are closed, when we are awake and when we are asleep, when we are thinking and when we are not thinking. Regardless of the word we choose to refer to awareness, find out what aspect of your existence never comes and goes. Thoughts, emotions, sensations, states, experiences, objects, colors, sounds, and all other phenomena come and go. No matter what comes and goes, the simple fact of being remains present and here. That is awareness.
In Living Realization, we want to avoid emphasizing some thought within our personal stories in order to recognize awareness. Awareness is like the seeing in which every thought about ourselves (past, present, or future) comes and goes. Awareness cannot be recognized by referring to a previous moment when you recognized awareness or by projecting forward into a future moment when you hope you will be able to recognize awareness more clearly. Awareness is an ever present seeing. It happens only in the space of this moment. Thoughts of past and future come and go within this present space of awareness. Remember, awareness is that which sees these thoughts come and go. If you find yourself emphasizing thoughts of past and future, simply let those thoughts come to rest. Stop there! Recognize the non-conceptual awareness that is automatically and effortlessly present as those thoughts come to rest.
Take a moment right now and recognize awareness. Keep it simple and let all the ideas above drop away for one moment. Let all the ideas you have ever learned about yourself, others, the world, and awareness come to rest right now.
Just recognize what is timelessly awake and looking. Forget everything that has been said in this text thus far. Just drop it all and look into the present fact of your own being. This non-conceptual awareness has been there all your life. It is the only thing about you that has never come and gone. Many concepts have come and gone. Many emotions, sensations, states, and experiences have come and gone. But this awareness has always been here. Feel into that. Rest there. As you rest there, if a thought arises, just let it pass. Let it fall away. Rest again into present seeing or space (whichever word you prefer). There is no need to think about or analyze any of the words on this page. Awareness is more akin to the white page on which this text appears than any pointer that appears on it. Now drop that pointer too! In fact, as you read the remainder of the Living Realization text, periodically just take moments in which you forget what the text is saying. Just relax and rest in non-conceptual awareness. Then return to the text or not. The value of this text is not found by memorizing the concepts. The value is in seeing that the text is pointing to what you are in the most basic sense. In recognizing this basic presence, you may not need the text any longer. Any good teaching self-destructs in that way, making itself no longer needed. It is important to recognize awareness in your own, direct experience. It’s the most important discovery you can make in your life. Memorizing this text merely gives you more information, more concepts.
Awareness is so immediately here and present in all situations that it repeatedly gets overlooked as we focus on our personal story and other ideas and images appearing within awareness. What is here that never moves or changes, that never comes and goes? There may be a tendency to overlook this basic fact and, instead, go looking into the various things that move through awareness such as objects, thoughts, emotions, sensations, states, and experiences. If you find this happening, be easy on yourself. Just stop, whenever you notice that happening, and recognize the basic, non-conceptual awareness that is inseparable from the present moment. Do this as often as possible, until it is seen that awareness is ever present, no matter what is happening.
Awareness is always available, no matter what is happening in our lives. In Living Realization, we do not make recognizing awareness into a practice that we do only in the morning or at night. Treating the recognition of awareness this way tends to compartmentalize life into recognizing awareness in the morning and living in the “real world” for the rest of the day. Awareness is always present. It is present during work, during time with the family, and every other place and time in our lives. We do not recognize awareness only when we are in peaceful places or free from the daily stress of our busy lives. We “check in” with awareness in all situations. We recognize awareness when things are going well and when life is going badly. We just take a moment, no matter where we are or what we are doing. We drop all of our labels about the situation that is presently happening and we discover for ourselves that awareness is here, always.
Take a moment now and try this. Drop even the words “awareness,” “presence,” “being” and any other pointer you have read in this text or in another teaching. Let each word, within each sentence, just fall away in this text. Don’t look back at what you’ve just read. Let all thoughts come to rest. Simply rest here for a moment. Just be, without any thoughts. Take a moment for that.
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Living Realization is a direct discovery within your own life, right here, right now!