Awakening the Luminous Mind: Tibetan Meditation for Inner Peace and Joy (2 page)

P
REFACE

Meditation is a method of recognizing and being aware of the inherent completeness of each moment. It is not a matter of cultivating or finding something you don’t have, but of being aware of what you already have. The awareness of one’s inherent completeness is pure, and this awareness pervades all that is experienced, and guides all of our actions. The methods in this book do not involve learning rituals or following complicated philosophies. Rather, you are pointed to experience life directly, without any religious or philosophical views, forms, or divisions.

Among the practices we will directly experience in the book are the meditation instructions of Dawa Gyaltsen, a Tibetan Bön
dzogchen
master who lived in the 8th century. Dawa Gyaltsen was the 24th
dzogchen
master of my lineage, called the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyü, or oral tradition of Zhang Zhung, in which spoken instructions were passed down from teacher to student over the centuries in the ancient land of Zhang Zhung, and then Tibet. The Tibetan name of his teachings,
dzogchen
, means great perfection or great completeness. At the core of
dzogchen
is the view that all sentient beings are primordially pure and perfected, with the potential to spontaneously manifest in a beneficial way. This traditional language may sound mysterious, but it simply means that from its very origin, our nature is perfectly pure and complete; and this purity, when it is unobstructed, can express itself effortlessly, in a way that benefits everyone. This capacity is within each and every one of us. It is our nature. When we fail to recognize this true nature, we suffer and can cause harm to others. When we do recognize our inherent nature, we are able to liberate our own suffering. As we mature in this recognition, we can be of great comfort and help to others.

Many of the
dzogchen
masters were not intellectuals or scholars. Some couldn’t even read. But the transmission of the teachings from master to student, and the warmth and blessing of this connection, remain unbroken to this day. Traditionally, the teacher introduced the student to the nature of mind, which is already pure and complete. He or she “pointed out” or affirmed a recognition that the student was having. After receiving these pointing-out instructions, the students meditated in solitude for a period of time until their meditative realization became stable. Their realization would then be expressed in a few lines of spiritual advice directly from the heart. They imparted this heart advice, the fruit of their practice, to the next student, who in turn contemplated and practiced it until also attaining realization. Dawa Gyaltsen’s heart instructions consist of five lines, referred to as the Fivefold Teaching of Dawa Gyaltsen. These lines constitute a simple, elegant, and complete path to realization.

Vision is mind.
Mind is empty.
Emptiness is clear light.
Clear light is union.
Union is great bliss.

These five lines describe a path of pure awareness, leading us from confusion to great bliss. They are applicable in any situation and in any moment. As a young monk, I carried these five lines in my pocket when I left my birthplace, India, for the first time, having been called to teach the Tibetan Bön tradition to the West. I would often sit in an Italian café and contemplate the lines as I observed life streaming around me. Now in the United States, they continue to guide me in my life as husband, father, and teacher.

As you learn the meaning of the five lines of advice and begin to meditate on them, you will be encouraged to look directly and intimately within, and discover the jewel that is hidden in your ordinary experiences. Very often, we look outside of ourselves for help, advice, or relief, rejecting our own experience because we may not know how to work with it. Often we are filled with self-doubt and self-judgment. On any journey, it is important to know where to turn when we feel disconnected or confused in this way. That is why the principle of refuge is most essential—knowing how to turn within when we need help. Thus, I will devote
Chapters 1 through 3
to the discovery of inner refuge.

I will also share with you a teaching poem of inner refuge that I wrote as a form of guidance for my students. It will encourage you to honor and respect the “three doors” of your body, speech, and mind as opportunities for healing, and I hope it will inspire you to discover your inherent positive qualities. The poem appears in
Chapter 2
and the appendix, and is also recited on the CD.

Once you have discovered the inner refuge, in
Chapters 4 through 8
you will explore each of the five lines of heart advice given by Dawa Gyaltsen, learning how to contemplate them with guided meditation practices. As you connect with the openness, awareness, and warmth of being who you truly are, you will be connecting with the blessings of the practitioners and masters who have gone before you, for they connected to themselves through meditation just as you are doing today.

To engage these teachings, you need not adopt or rely upon a particular faith or belief; you need only be willing to face the experiences of your life directly and nakedly. The idea is to integrate the teachings with your life as you are living it. No matter what position you hold in life, or what particular stage of life you are in, wherever you are, I offer these teachings with the hope that you gain realization, transforming your perceived limitations into gifts. This is my prayer. And no matter what you do in life, if your actions are connected to the open source of being that is within you, the outcome will be beneficial, for it is only when we lose connection to the source of wisdom and light within ourselves that we suffer and cause harm to others.

May you discover the treasury of your natural mind and receive the many benefits available to enrich your life. May you experience the blessings of the lineage, which support deep personal healing, as you allow the teachings of Dawa Gyaltsen to enter your heart. May the fruit of your practice ripen and offer nourishment to you and to countless others.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

October 2011

I
NTRODUCTION

The path of meditation presented in this book is not a matter of merely learning techniques and concepts. After all, we are lively, warmhearted beings, not mechanical objects. Therefore, to evolve and mature as feeling beings, we need a sense of where to turn when we become confused or encounter difficulties. In my tradition, we obtain this help by going for
inner refuge
. Seeking refuge is not a vague abstraction, nor is it a plea for help. It involves helping ourselves by focusing our attention in very specific ways. When we do this, the discoveries that we make and the benefits that become available are clearly discernible.

What do we commonly do whenever we feel confused? We reject our confusion and try to get rid of it or push it away; we magnify it by dwelling upon it and becoming lost in it; or we disconnect from our confusion by distracting ourselves. Typically, we look outside ourselves for some kind of comfort, support, or advice. However, it is not possible to find what we truly seek by looking outward. We may think we have found something out there, but it is temporary, and in the end we lose what we have found, or we constantly worry about losing it. Ultimately, any external support is not the best medicine for our suffering. To find the best medicine, we must turn within. Turning within doesn’t imply improving our ideas, challenging our thoughts, or changing our feelings. It means turning inside to find support in what we already are.

When you are stressed or challenged, bring your attention inward. Usually your attention is not directed inward; it is fixated on whatever is challenging you. You think thoughts such as
My health is not good. … I am worried about this change. … That person is annoying me
. Your attention is separated from yourself and focused on “the problem,” which could be a person or a situation. And your thoughts go back and forth, trying to solve this problem or complaining about that situation or person. Maybe you divert your attention altogether and dwell on something else because your problem is too overwhelming. Or you accommodate yourself to the situation, thinking that acceptance is sane or noble or mature. In all these ways, no matter how creative or sophisticated they are, you are reinforcing your identity as the one who suffers. I call this a pain identity. No matter how familiar any pain identity may be, this is not who you truly are.

Inner refuge is the recognition of your true nature, which, according to these teachings, is the open and clear space of being. This is the nature of your true identity: open and clear. This nature is often referred to as the natural mind. It can be directly perceived, but not by the moving, problem-solving mind; only pure awareness can apprehend it. The awareness of openness is the source of all healing as well as the source of creativity, joy, love, compassion, and all other positive qualities.

To discover this source within, this inner refuge, you must shift your focus or attention from the perception of a problem to the awareness of
being
itself. This book provides specific guidance on how to do this, on how to recognize what is true in the midst of confusion. It will guide you to bring awareness to the ordinary experiences of everyday life, for these experiences, which may appear bounded and limited, can become doorways to experiencing the magic of infinite possibilities. It is not a matter of the technique of this meditation or that meditation, although there are many useful and skillful techniques to help you. More than any technique, what is important is your relation to yourself. Changing your life is a matter of connecting with places in yourself you may have never fully connected with, and understanding things you may never have fully understood or trusted. Do you recognize and honor the
space of being
, the truth of who you are, in the life in which you find yourself? This space within yourself is not a passive place where nothing happens. The whole universe arises, rests, and dissolves in that single space. Everything in your body arises, rests, and dissolves in that space. Surely we can trust that there is a deeper intelligence at work than the intelligence of ego with all its plans and proposals. Solutions will come naturally from the connection with the open space of being, which is boundless and infinitely full of potential.

If you follow the principles in this book, guidance, creativity, and intelligence will naturally and spontaneously arise as you recognize and connect with the openness of being fully present. You will see changes happening in your everyday life. Trust that openness is the source. Discovering this is not a passive experience; it is lively and participatory. As you come to know the liveliness of connecting to the infinite possibilities of each moment, you will experience an inherent sense of worthiness and richness. Your actions will spontaneously arise from the warmth of connection and will bring benefits and blessings to yourself and others.

U
SING
T
HIS
B
OOK AND
CD

In the following chapters, I will describe a series of meditations designed so that you might practice along with them. After reading each chapter, you may wish to pause, listen to, and practice along with the corresponding track on the CD. This will help you to become more familiar with each practice and to bring what you have been reading and reflecting upon directly into your experience in a deeper way. This is the traditional Buddhist way of progressing on the path: reading or hearing the teaching, reflecting upon what you have read or heard, and then bringing what you have understood directly into your meditation practice.

You may wish to use the CD frequently as a support for your meditation practice. I recommend beginning a session of practice with the refuge poem. Engaging the inner refuge as guided on the CD will establish a foundation for your practice and can be a complete practice in itself. If you continue on, you may choose one or all of the tracks corresponding to the lines of Dawa Gyaltsen to reflect upon. Your practice finds completion as you bring the fruits of your meditation practice into everyday life. It is traditional to conclude a period of meditation, no matter how brief, with the intention to dedicate the merit of one’s practice for the benefit of others. A traditional dedication poem is provided in both Tibetan and English as a support to express such an intention. You will also find a copy of this poem in English in the appendix.

CHAPTER ONE