Mahamudra Free from Fixation
If you want to meditate on mahamudra you need to have an understanding of the lack of the true
existence of a self-entity of the individual, otherwise your perception of a personal self won’t
diminish. If you don’t have certainty about the lack of a self-entity of the individual, then you’ll
fixate in your mahamudra meditation. You’ll fixate on the meditator and you’ll fixate on the
object of meditation and on the means of meditation. This kind of conceptual fixation will
obscure your practice. You’ll be obscured by your own thoughts, of there being a truly existent
meditator, a truly existent object of meditation, and a meditation technique.
— From Talks on Mahamudra Shamatha: A commentary on the Shamatha section of
Mahamudra – The Ocean of Definitive Meaning by the Ninth Gyalwang Karmarpa,
Wangchuk Dorje, translated by Elizabeth Callahan, Dechen Chöling, 2002.
Mind’s Radiance
In the tradition of mahamudra, there is nothing that is established as an external object.
Even though there is nothing that is established as an external object, the nature of mind
—clear light, mahamudra—dawns as varied radiance. It dawns as radiance in various
aspects.
From Mahamudra Vipashyana, Karme Choling, Summer 1993, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
Rinpoche, P. 124 Translated by Jules B. Levinson
The Complete Practice
Look at life as illusory, appearance-emptiness
Look at mind’s true nature, unborn
Make prayers that you will be of benefit to others—
All practices are included in this verse.
Sung spontaneously by Dechen Rangdrol (Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche), Ojai,
California, December 16, 2004.
Look Nakedly
Look nakedly at these forms that are like rainbows, appearance-emptiness
Listen intently to these sounds that are like echoes, sound and emptiness
Look straight at the essence of mind—clarity-emptiness inexpressible
And fixation-free, at ease in your own nature, let go and relax. Ah, ah, ah!
A guru yoga verse by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpche. Translated by Ari Goldfield
There is one thing that, when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness and clear comprehension, to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom and awakening. And what is that one thing? It is mindfulness centered on the body. - The Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya
[Todeyya:]
One in whom there dwell no sensualities; one in whom no craving is found; one who has crossed over perplexity — his emancipation: what is it like?[The Buddha:]
One in whom there dwell no sensualities; one in whom no craving is found; one who has crossed over perplexity — his emancipation is not other than that.[Todeyya:]
Is he without desire, or desiring? Discerning or still acquiring discernment? Describe the sage to me, Sakyan with the all-around eye, so that I may recognize what he is like.[The Buddha:]
He's without desire, not desiring; discerning, not still acquiring discernment. Recognize the sage, Todeyya, as having nothing, unentangled in sensuality & becoming.
[Mettagu:]
I ask you, O Blessed One. Please tell me. I regard you as knowledgeable, with your self developed. From what have the many forms of stress & suffering arisen in the world?
[The Buddha:]
If you ask me the coming-into-being of stress & suffering, I will tell it to you as one who discerns. From acquisition [1] as cause the many forms of stress & suffering come into being in the world. Whoever, unknowing, makes acquisitions — the fool — comes to stress & suffering again & again. So one who's discerning, focused on the birth of stress & suffering, their coming-into-being, should make no acquisitions.
[Mettagu:]
What we asked, you've expounded. Now we ask something else. Please tell us. How do the prudent cross over the flood of birth & aging, lamentation & sorrow? Please, sage, declare this to me as this Dhamma has been known by you.
[The Buddha:]
I will teach you the Dhamma — in the here & now, not quoted words — knowing which, living mindfully, you'll cross over beyond entanglement in the world.
[Mettagu:]
And I relish, Great Seer, that Dhamma supreme, knowing which, living mindfully, I'll cross over beyond entanglement in the world.
[The Buddha:]
Whatever you're alert to, above, below, across, in between:[2] dispelling any delight, any laying claim to those things, consciousness should not take a stance in becoming. The monk who dwells thus — mindful, heedful — letting go of his sense of mine, knowing right here would abandon birth & aging, lamentation & sorrow, stress & suffering.
[Mettagu:]
I relish, Gotama, the Great Seer's words well-expounded, without acquisition, for yes, O Blessed One, you've abandoned stress & suffering as this Dhamma has been known by you. And they, too, would abandon stress & suffering those whom you, sage, would admonish unceasingly. Having met you, I bow down to you, Great One. Perhaps you will admonish me unceasingly.
[The Buddha:]
Whoever you recognize as a knowledgeable brahman, possessing nothing, unentangled in sensuality & becoming yes, he has crossed over the flood. Having crossed to the far shore, he is without harshness or doubt. And any one who has realized, who is knowledgeable here, having unentangled the bond to becoming and non-, [3] free of craving, untroubled, undesiring — he, I tell you, has crossed over birth & aging.
"A Buddhist should neither argue superiority or inferiority of doctrines, nor settle disputes over depth or shallowness or teachings, but only be mindful of authenticity or inauthenticity of practice." ~ Dogen
"The wonder of it! This marvelous, astounding event/reality (Dharma):
From that which involves no origination, everything originates;
and in that very origination, there is no origination!
The wonder of it!
In it's very enduring, there is no enduring!
The wonder of it!
In it's very cessation, there is no cessation!"
- Guhyagarbha Tantra
"Like mistakenly seeing a rope as a snake,
with these varied appearances
we perceive them as what they are not,
giving rise to the duality of externality and internality,
i.e. the material environments and life forms therein.
However, upon scrutiny only the rope itself is found -
These environments and life forms are primordially empty,
as the ultimate only seems to have such concrete form
within the dissimulating process of the conventional.
The perception of a snake is phenomenologically true in terms of our seeing it as so,
but seeing the rope instead is authentically true;
analogically, it is like the appearance of a bird on a promontory:
The nature of these two truths is that
this transitory world is merely conventional dissimulation,
which the authentic reality has no relationship to -
In the expanse of emptiness
everything is free within it's essence."
- Garland of Precious Pearls Tantra
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~ 慧律法师 http://read.goodweb.cn/news/news_view.asp?newsid=67819
Words of the Buddha
“The perceiving of impermanence, Bhikkhus, developed and frequently practised, removes all sensual passion, removes all passion for material existence, removes all passion for becoming, removes all ignorance, removes and abolishes all conceit of ’I am.’ “Just as in the autumn a farmer, ploughing with a large plough, cuts through all the
spreading rootlets as he ploughs; in the same way, Bhikkhus, the perceiving of impermanence, developed and frequently practised, removes all sensual passion … removes and abolishes all conceit of ’I am.’”1
“It would be better, Bhikkhus, if an uninstructed ordinary person regarded this body, made of the four great elements, as himself rather than the mind. For what reason? This body is seen to continue for a year, for two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years, and even more. But of that which is called mind, is called thought, is called consciousness, one moment arises and ceases as another continually both day and night.”
1 SN 22:102.
2 SN 12:61.
The fear of death comes from the delusion that you exist as some permanent thing now and won't after death.
The Buddha said this:
"Just as when a person's fear disappears when they think they've stepped on a snake to find that it was only a rope, so my fear vanished when I realized my mistake."
§ 48. “For a monk practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma,
this is what accords with the Dhamma: that he keep cultivating disenchantment
with regard to form, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to
feeling, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to perception, that
he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to fabrications, that he keep
cultivating disenchantment with regard to consciousness. As he keeps cultivating
disenchantment with regard to form… feeling… perception… fabrications…
consciousness, he comprehends form… feeling… perception… fabrications…
consciousness. As he comprehends form… feeling… perception… fabrications…
consciousness, he is totally released from form… feeling… perception…
fabrications… consciousness. He is totally released from sorrows, lamentations,
pains, distresses, & despairs. He is totally released, I tell you, from suffering &
stress.” — SN 22:39
§ 49. “Suppose that an archer or archer’s apprentice were to practice on a
straw man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to
shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce great
masses. In the same way, there is the case where a monk… enters & remains in
the first jh›na: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed
thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that are
connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as
inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a
disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those
phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of
deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite—the resolution of all fabrications;
the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion;
cessation; Unbinding.’
52
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the effluents. Or, if not, then—
through this very Dhamma-passion, this Dhamma-delight, and from the total
wasting away of the first five Fetters [self-identity views, grasping at precepts &
practices, uncertainty, sensual passion, and irritation]—he is due to be reborn (in
the Pure Abodes), there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that
world….
[Similarly with the second, third, and fourth jh›na.]
“…. Suppose that an archer or archer's apprentice were to practice on a straw
man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to shoot long
distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to pierce great masses. In
the same way, there is the case where a monk… enters & remains in the
dimension of the infinitude of space. He regards whatever phenomena there that
are connected with feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as
inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a
disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those
phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of
deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications;
the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion;
cessation; Unbinding.’
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the effluents. Or, if not, then—
through this very Dhamma-passion, this very Dhamma-delight, and from the
total wasting away of the first five of the fetters—he is due to be reborn (in the
Pure Abodes), there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that
world…. ”
[Similarly with the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness and the
dimension of nothingness.] — AN 9:36
§ 130. “Monks, you would do well to cling to that doctrine-of-self-clinging,
clinging to which there would not arise sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, &
despair. But do you see a doctrine-of-self-clinging, clinging to which there would
not arise sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair?”
“No, lord.”
“Very good, monks. Neither do I….
“What do you think, monks: If a person were to gather or burn or do as he
likes with the grass, twigs, branches & leaves here in Jeta’s Grove, would the
thought occur to you, ‘It‘s us that this person is gathering, burning, or doing
with as he likes’?”
“No, lord. Why is that? Because those things are not our self, nor do they
belong to our self.”
“Even so, monks, whatever isn’t yours: Let go of it. Your letting go of it will
be for your long-term welfare & happiness. And what isn’t yours? Form isn’t
yours… Feeling isn’t yours… Perception… Fabrications… Consciousness isn’t
yours: Let go of it. Your letting go of it will be for your long-term welfare &
happiness.” — MN 22
Wisdom thinks that it can be the tree, while the bright mirror was trying to be the stand. Fundamentally, there was no contamination, to say we need purification, it's also a defilement.
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While reading the sutras, disciple ask Buddha, what Buddha said about the other shore(Nirvana), i cannot see it. How can i believe it's true? So Buddha bring the disciple into a dark room and told the disciple that on the wall, there hang a hammer. Disciple replied, it's too dark, i cannot see it. Buddha then light a candle, and indeed there hang a hammer on the wall. Buddha told the disciple, what you cannot see, does not mean it does not exist.
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