Yangthang Tulku RinpocheNature of Mind Teachings

(excerpts from teachings given in the US in 1990/91)

The view of the Great Perfection is that all sentient beings at this time possess the essence of the sugatas, the foundational buddha nature; this is the basis of all sentient beings.

When one ascertains the nature as it is, this ascertainment is called the "view". The view then is the primary practice. Maintaining the view for months and years, with enthusiastic effort, is called "meditation". While one is engaged in meditation, the unfailing ability to observe one's behavior according to cause and result is called the "conduct".

All dharmas, including samsara, nirvana, and the path, have no true, inherent existence whatsoever and are nothing other than the nature of utter openness, or emptiness. This type of meditation will eventually lead to the unmistaken realization of the non-duality of appearance and emptiness. Appearance does not become void, and voidness does not become appearance. Appearance and voidness are experienced in a state of non-duality.

When the conflicting emotions and their habitual propensities are cleared, you will be able to see that your primordial nature is perfectly pure, and that this purity is the nature of existence and the nature of each and every one of us.

When you are able to become free from the stain of dualistic grasping and clinging, through the practice of the view, meditation, and conduct, you will then realize the all-pervasive purity of phenomenal existence and that the primordial nature of each and every sentient being is that of a perfect buddha.

Although your karmic afflictions are in no way affecting your pure awareness nature, they are creating the conditions wherein you remain unaware of it in its entirety. As long as you dwell in a state of lack of awareness, then the full magnitude of pure awareness cannot be experienced. It is extremely important to ascertain your own fundamental nature without any doubt or incorrect view whatsoever, and to understand very well how it is that it is, in fact, the innate nature of your mind. If you are able to do this, then you have correctly ascertained "the view".As one begins to remove the veils of ignorance, the obscurations that prevent awareness, one begins to see the primordial qualities that have always been present, seeing them again and again until they become clearer and clearer as one keeps on practicing the path.

The practice is really a process of viewing the primordial wisdom nature more and more clearly as it becomes more and more apparent.

The great perfection is the experience of the nature of emptiness, its radiant clarity, and its unobstructed compassion. When you sit in meditation, in the equipoise of the nature of the mind, that inexpressible, utterly open essence is emptiness. The measure of its

radiant, natural clarity is the quality, and the nature of that quality is unobstructed compassion.

These three - emptiness, natural clarity, and unobstructed compassion - are the nature of the mind.

In the practice of dzogchen one must remain, naturally relaxed, in the uncontrived awareness. Simply remain in the equipoise of the nature of emptiness free from elaborations, limitations, or the conceptualizing intellect.

One simply remains totally relaxed, expecting nothing in that state.

At the precise moment that concepts dissipate, rigpa, pure awareness, is there, and that is it. There is no experience of rigpa other than that. When the mind has dissolved, and the experience of the primordial wisdom dharmakaya arises, this is rigpa.

Once you are able to remain in the nature of the mind, which is rigpa, you will first experience what is called "abiding in the nature of the mind", then the "movement of the nature of the mind", and then "awareness of both abiding and movement". You need to examine these three - abiding, movement, and awareness, or observation - to see if they are separate or the same. When you are abiding in the nature of the mind, this nature of the mind is utterly free - free from discursive thoughts. Movement refers to the movement of the nature of the mind, which is the arising of discursive thoughts. Awareness of the abiding and the movement is simply that. When you examine these with awareness, you will see that they are not different, and you will come to understand that these three are one and the same - just one flow. When you are aware of abiding in the nature of the mind, that is the meditation. Yet from that nature of mind, anything and everything arises. Part of the meditation is to realize that all discursive thoughts, whatever is arising, are only the display of placement, or the nature itself.

When we are remaining in the nature of the mind, anything that arises, any discursive thoughts, are immediately recognized as being simply the play, or the display, of the nature of the mind.

You must practice the two sets of three - where the mind arises from, where it remains, and where it passes to, and then abiding, movement, and awareness. You must try your best to realize the nature of the mind to be empty, luminously clear, and unobstructedly compassionate. This realization is the actualization of the view, and is also the maintenance of the view in the meditative experience.

When you are in equipoise, your experiences are just experiences; they arise and they pass and there is nothing to hope for or to be disappointed in. As you maintain the meditation, which is awareness that everything is just the display of the primordial nature, you will be able to ascertain it all in the nature of the great equality and remain in that nature of equality, free from all expectation and disappointment and of all negative emotions.

In dzogchen practice, the conflicting emotions are simply left in their natural place. One simply remains in the natural state, and in the natural state, in one's own nature, they are liberated without one having to abandon them.

The Dharma exists solely for the sake of eliminating the conflicting emotions that sentient beings experience, the same conflicting emotions that are the very source of their suffering. When you have begun your Dharma practice, you should definitely notice that your lack of awareness is decreasing, your aggression is deceasing, your pride is decreasing, your attachment and desire are decreasing, your jealousy and competitiveness are decreasing, and that your mind is becoming more peaceful and tame.

The real sign of accomplishment in Dharma practice is the changing of your mind - the subsiding of the five conflicting emotions, the lessening of your attachment to samsara, the decreasing of your self-centered attitude and desire to be famous or gain profit or impress others. The true sign is that your constant attraction to the short-lived pleasures of this world decreases. If this is your experience, then you are really experiencing the signs of true Dharma accomplishment. Being able to fly in space or leave your footprint in stone are signs of siddhi, some power, but they are not signs of the ultimate result, which is none other than the pacification of delusion and conflicting emotions.

We must eliminate the eight worldly concerns. This begins with reducing our personal concern for self-liberation or for our own purpose in general. We must increase the motivation that wishes to be only of benefit to others. Clearly recognizing the importance of integrating the Dharma with our mindstream, we must begin the practice by reviewing the Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind.

Bodhicitta can be defined as the realization of the nature of emptiness within which effortless compassion arises like heat arising from fire. Compassion, or bodhicitta, is inherent in emptiness as an innate quality, and if one has realized emptiness it is simply impossible that compassion would not be there.

The nature of mind is introduced by way of practice by seeing that all appearances arise from the mind. They are nothing other than the expression of the mind. This must be realized: "objective" appearances all originate from the mind. The nature of the mind is then realized or introduced to be empty, and the nature of that emptiness, as experienced in meditation, is the primordial wisdom of great bliss. The mind is blissful and by nature empty, and that emptiness is recognized as rigpa, pure awareness.

The dzogchen introduction to the nature of the mind is different from the mahamudra introduction in the following way. First of all, the physical posture is extremely important. After assuming the proper sitting posture one simply allows the mind to remain or to rest in its natural place, letting it be just as it is and remaining in the natural state. Through this one becomes free from the conceptual proliferations of the three times. One no longer recalls the thoughts of the past or anticipates the future or clings to the present moment. One does not pursue sensory perceptions. One does not necessarily hold on to the apprehension of form or sound or smell at all. One simply rests in the natural state where the thoughts of the three times just vanish by themselves. They are set free.

It is important to understand that when the fundamental nature is realized, it is not a new realization.

All meanings in samsara are just like a dream. They have no true inherent existence and arise only as the display of pure awareness. When one fails to understand appearances as merely the display of pure awareness and identifies them as arising from self, i.e. self-identifies with them, then they become the experience of samsara. This is a

misinterpretation of the nature of the display, which would be like misinterpreting a striped rope to be a snake. Samsara is actually the confused perception of the display of rigpa, pure awareness.

If an appearance is not recognized as arising from the ground, then in that moment the confusion begins. A confused sentient being begins in the very moment when they fail to recognize their own display for what it is. They are covering or obscuring their own nature by failing to recognize it as the display of the ground. This is called "not seeing it as one's own nature when it arises", the "unawareness of singular identity", and this precisely is the beginning of samsara.

If we were to ask whether the inconceivable qualities of buddha nature that we develop as we grow on the path are new qualities, the answer is no. They are qualities that we possess right now. Although we are developing on the path, we are simply bringing out or actualizing our inherent noble qualities that we've possessed all along, because we are originally Buddha.

After you have been introduced to the nature of the mind, i.e. after you have encountered your own intrinsic awareness as it is and you have ascertained the view of the Great Perfection, then maintaining the view over a period of months and years is the meditation. Meditation is only the maintenance of the view indefinitely, for a very long time. This is done in formal sessions which always begin with guru yoga practice. At the point where one's mind and the guru's mind become one taste, one enters into the dzogchen practice of equipoise. When one concludes the session and goes on to the postmeditational experience, arising experience, i.e. in between the formal dzogchen sitting sessions, one should consider the Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind, contemplate the Four Thoughts, as well as perform other practices that one is doing on a daily basis. By maintaining this type of practice of dzogchen meditation over an extended period of time, it becomes the increasing experience of the vision of the dharmata.

When we practice meditation, we must be able to discern the difference between mind and intrinsic awareness, sems and rigpa. Mind is that which causes conceptual proliferations, and rigpa is that which is free from conceptual proliferations.

As Guru Rinpoche taught, when we practice formal meditation our sessions should be short and frequent. When we enter into equipoise we should simply relax in the natural state as it is. In the natural state as it is we should not become distracted by the external display nor should we grasp internally. We should experience a state where there is not even a hair's worth of clinging or grasping to any experience.

In the practice of dzogchen, the method of dealing with the conflicting emotions is entirely different from the method of sutra (renunciation) or tantra (transformation). In dzogchen we are still dealing with the basic problem, the conflicting emotions or the delusions but they are self-liberated. Simply by recognizing that the conflicting emotions are just the display of intrinsic awareness, in that moment of recognition they vanish, they are no more. The moment they are recognized as what they are, they are set free, like a snake that uncoils itself. No one else needs to uncoil the snake; it does it by itself.

Conflicting emotions are self-liberated through recognition, through pure awareness. Some practitioners may achieve the same result, i.e. self-liberation of the conflicting emotions, by experiencing the conflicting emotions or discursive thoughts to be free from benefit or harm. It is like a thief breaking into an empty house. There is nothing for him

to steal and there is nothing for the owner to lose, hence nothing happens. And so when the meditator recognizes discursive thoughts or conflicting emotions to be without benefit or harm, they are self-liberated. Through pure awareness the five poisons and all conceptualization are recognized to be none other than the display of wisdom.

To know whether your dzogchen practice is proceeding purely and developing and bearing fruit, you should check to see if you are experiencing effortlessly arising compassion for sentient beings or not. Is your faith in your lama and in the Three Jewels increasing or not? And your pure vision, your pure perception, is it there or not?

If you can isolate the mind from its distractions - which are, essentially, the concepts of the three times: the recollections of the past, the anticipations about the future, and the distractions of the present moment - you will be able to directly perceive the inherent primordial wisdom nature. This is pristine awareness, rigpa. When the mind is mingled with the concepts of the three times one cannot perceive one's pristine awareness nature, rigpa. To become aware of it, it is necessary to be introduced to it.

If you focus on external objects, objective appearances, you will be distracted. You must turn inside and allow the mind to look at itself. It is a matter of taking that which usually looks outside and turning it around and going in, going inside, and then not doing anything once you get inside. This means not anticipating the future, not reviewing the events of the past, and not chasing after and reacting to the experience of the six sense fields in the present.

Without concepts of good or bad, pleasing or displeasing, just allow the mind to relax so that there is no apprehension by an apprehender. In this state of relaxation wherein you no longer experience the thoughts of the three times, you have gone beyond the experience of the conceptualizing intellect and you are in the awareness of rigpa, the nature of which is totally open and empty, luminously clear, and unobstructedly compassionate. This experience is inexpressible; it is an experience of luminous nothingness. When you recognize that that is it, and you remain with it, this is rigpa - pristine awareness - it is not the mind.

Many different experiences may arise during meditation, and a lot of people ask about the different experiences that they have had: What is this? What is that? Is this important? There is really no need to even ask about these experiences because there is no need to be attached to them. So something happened, and that's it. Let it pass. It's just an experience of meditation and nothing more than that.

Through the practice of the view of dzogchen which is trekchö, after many, many years of practice, the noble qualities of realization are developed and many signs of realization arise. And throughout the entire experience one is neither accepting nor rejecting a single thing on the path of practice. Neither is one obstructing or accomplishing a single thing. All one is doing is abiding in pristine awareness and maintaining that, free from the ordinary mind. If one can persevere in this meditative absorption upon pristine awareness, after just five or six years of constant meditation, there will be results.

When the mind remains in its natural place, there is neither happiness nor unhappiness, nor is there any distraction. One simply maintains rigpa without any grasping to the experience - and that is the difficult part: to maintain it without grasping at it.

I would like to remind you of the importance of the four contemplations. Each and every day you should think about these four contemplations, because as dzogchen practitioners this is your preliminary practice. These contemplations are part of the dzogchen practice, and if you do not have them, then your path is mistaken, incorrect. Dzogchen practice includes both the common and uncommon preliminaries, which must be incorporated into one's other practices on a daily basis. A dzogchen practitioner will do the preliminary practices every day. They are extremely important.

When you are trying to proceed on the path, you shouldn't be looking for external signs of accomplishment such as auspicious dreams, or visions, or clairvoyance, or other signs of power. The sign of accomplishment is the decreasing of your conflicting emotions and the fact that your mind is becoming tranquil. Other than these, there are no signs of accomplishment that are worth noticing.

To "remain in the natural state" refers to the fact that generally, like now, you experience the arising of the mind, which is the constant flow of concepts or conceptual proliferations, that arise and subside, arise and subside. Through objective appearances and subjective awareness you experience the conceptual proliferations. So when you sit in equipoise and attempt to remain in the natural state, you are looking in, turning in, you are no longer focussing externally. You turn inside and then simply relax.

"Simply relax" means that you don't think of a single thing. You don't generate faith or fervent regard, or give rise to virtuous thoughts, or have some devotional thought for the guru, nor do you stop thoughts, or change or obstruct them. You don't do anything other than just simply relax. In that state of simple relaxation, the arising of thoughts or concepts is naturally arrested, severed, as if cut off with a knife. In the moment of that experience, there is no experience of thinking about the past, anticipating the future, or being distracted in the present. One simply remains in the natural state.

This natural state, where there is no presence of mind or conceptual proliferations, is unlike one's previous experience of mind. In fact, it is inexpressible. It can't even be comprehended intellectually; it is simply one's own experience, one's own encounter with one's own nature, and nothing other than that. If you try to express something about it, you can say that its essence is a vibrant nothing; it is empty, totally open and vast. Its nature is sheer lucency, unceasing clarity. And that experience of utter openness and clarity and yet nothing, is rigpa, intrinsic awareness. When one is in a state of intrinsic awareness, the mind ceases to exist. The mind is the experience of thoughts and conceptual proliferations, and nothing other than that. That is the distinction. When you remain in the natural state, you remain in intrinsic awareness that is unobstructed by the mind.

When you focus externally, you are experiencing the mind. When you turn within in practice - and the nature of meditation is to turn within - then you should experience intrinsic awareness. The experience of intrinsic awareness is to be without external distraction, without the distraction of objective appearances and without the internal distraction of grasping. If internally you are still grasping, then again you are only experiencing mind, which has no place in this type of meditation.

If you remain in the natural state internally, and just simply relax, then you will experience the open expanse where there is nothing other than vibrant clarity. When the state of intrinsic awareness is actualized without grasping, that is the view. Meditation is the view and nothing else. Once intrinsic awareness has been recognized to be free from

external distractions and internal grasping, you just maintain that recognition as the view and apply it as the meditation. If there is internal grasping, there is no view, and if there is no view, there is no meditation.

What is necessary, first and foremost, before even considering intrinsic awareness, is to realize that the nature of the mind is empty and to establish this realization with conviction. It is realized to be just nothing, empty, of the nature of emptiness.

When the awareness of emptiness is established with a firm conviction, one is easily introduced to intrinsic awareness. One is able to encounter intrinsic awareness clearly once the nature of emptiness is realized. Therefore it is best, initially, to realize the empty nature of the mind before going on to the practices dealing with intrinsic awareness.

The mind and rigpa are definitely not the same. At the time of realizing the buddha nature, the mind no longer exists. It is not part of that experience. What is experienced is the omniscient state of primordial wisdom, which is definitely not the mind.

When one is in a state of meditation, naturally remaining in the "nature-as-it-is", and one recognizes or experiences rigpa, intrinsic awareness, that is to encounter one's own nature. Rigpa means to see or to encounter. What is encountered is the "nature-as-it-is", which is also synonymous with "unobstructed, all-pervasive compassion".

It should be clearly understood that anyone who has realized the nature of emptiness experiences the spontaneous arising of bodhicitta. There is no realization of emptiness that doesn't inherently contain bodhicitta. Just like fire is hot, the nature of emptiness is compassion. And the nature of compassion is emptiness. So, for a bodhisattva, one who sees the nature of emptiness, the compassion he experiences for the beings who don't see that nature is limitless, measureless, unbearable. It's beyond comprehension. That is what we call great compassion.

And the buddhas and bodhisattvas, those who are realized, set free from cyclic existence, still perceive the three realms, yet they themselves experience no delusion, no conflicting emotion, no suffering. They experience nothing other than omniscient, primordial wisdom. In that state of wisdom awareness they are able to see sentient beings and their different states of suffering which in itself has no true, inherent existence. It is a temporary experience that sentient beings experience because they are sentient beings. The buddhas and bodhisattvas see it yet they are not involved in it, they don't experience it because it has no true, inherent existence. They already realize its nature.