WISDOM ACADEMY

Shamatha and Vipashyana in the Dzogchen Tradition

B. ALAN WALLACE

Produced in association with the Garrison Institute

WISDOM ACADEMY

Shamatha and Vipashyana in the Dzogchen Tradition

B. ALAN WALLACE

Lesson 5: Ascertaining the Sharp Vajra:

Shamatha, Vipashyana, and Nonmeditation

Reading: Heart of the Great Perfection: Düdjom Lingpa’s Visions of the

Great Perfection, Vol. I “Essence of Clear Meaning,” pages 59-60

Phase 2: Revealing Your Own Face as the Sharp Vajra of Vipaśyanā

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b' Taking the Essential Nature as the PathThis section has two parts: (i') the path pristine awareness, free of con-ceptual elaboration and (ii') the ground pristine awareness, the great freedom from extremes.

i' The Path Pristine Awareness, Free of Conceptual ElaborationThis section has two parts: (A") the teaching and (B") the explanation.

A'' The Teaching

With the manifestation of the sharp vajra of wisdom,

For all sentient beings—without any distinctions of their being good or bad—primordially present, supreme wisdom is the sharp vajra, which is indivisible from emptiness. In the past it was obscured by ignorance, but in this phase, by the power of sublime pith instructions, it manifests and is seen, as if waking up from sleep.

B'' The Elaborate Explanation This section has four parts: (1") the six distinctions of pristine awareness, sep-arate from the mind, (2") the essential nature of resting in the innate nature, (3") how to perfect the qualities of the path and fruition, and (4") the great-ness of individuals who realize this. [362]

1'' The Six Distinctions of Pristine Awareness, Separate from the Mind

pristine awareness transcends the ethically neutral ground.

The pristine awareness that knows and identifies with great, pervasive wis-dom the ethically neutral state—the ground of confusion for sentient beings,

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60 h e a rt o f t h e g r e at p e r f e c t i o n

which becomes neither good nor bad—from the first instant has the dis-tinction of transcending the ethically neutral ground. This distinction is explicitly presented, while the other five distinctions are implied, as follows.

At that time, appearances unimpededly arise in the domain of pristine awareness, and without reification or dualistic grasping, pristine awareness is imbued with the power of wisdom that realizes identitylessness. This is the distinction of transcending dualistic grasping. In the very instant that the eye of wisdom and primordial consciousness opens, there is the distinction of pristine awareness being separate from the mind. It holds within itself the radiance of both kinds of primordial consciousness70 that master the essential nature and the natural radiance of that innate nature, so it has the distinc-tion of natural liberation within itself. Without entering into the intellect or analysis, pristine awareness holds its own ground within itself, so it has the distinction of not relying upon objects or contributing conditions. Aware-ness that is free of such beliefs has mastery over great, natural liberation, so it has the distinction of abiding in its own ground and of buddhahood. Thus it is explained.

In general, [363] these are said to be characteristics of the path pristine awareness, but they are mere facsimiles. The actual characteristics are present only in the experience of the ground pristine awareness, with its great libera-tion from extremes, as stated in the teachings on severance:71

Meditating on outer manifestations of appearing objects over there in their own place,

on the inner “I,” or “self,” over here in its own place,and on a mere vacuity in betweenis how water turns into ice.Note that few achieve liberation [in that way].72

70. The two aspects of primordial consciousness are knowing the nature of existence and perceiving the full range of phenomena. They correspond to knowing the essential nature of pristine awareness and perceiving all the manifestations of its natural radiance.

71. Tib. gcod. Severance is a meditative practice of imaginatively offering up your entire being as a means to realizing the empty nature of all phenomena, severing all clinging to the appearances of the three realms, and realizing that all gods and demons are none other than your own appearances.

72. Tib. gcod khrid kyi skabs. This quote is from The Profound Heart Essence of Saraha, translated in Dudjom Lingpa and Pema Lungtok Gyatso, Dudjom Lingpa’s Chöd and An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations, trans. Lama Chönam and Sangye Khandro (Ashland, OR: Berotsana Publications, 2014), 457.

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