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Mahamudra

A teaching given by Kyabje Gehlek Rimpoche

Jewel Heart New York, October 14, 2004

Thank you and welcome here tonight. We are talking within the Mahamudra point of view. A number of earlier things are actually covered, and we are on the actual point of Mahamudra. [We will look into] common Mahamudra meditation and uncommon Mahamudra meditation.

Our subject is common Mahamudra, of which we made six outlines. We call it ‘leaving the mind as it is and meditating.’ Out of the root text we started with this

NANG WA BEN BUN NGANG DAY LA

Appearing little by little in his character

The way these verses are cut is wrong.

NANG WA BEN BUN NGANG DAY LA

RAY DOK LA SOK NM TOG GEE

CHEU CHEU GANG YANG MA JAY PAR

YO MAY CHJGN ZAY NYAM PAR SHOG

Appearing little by little in his character

Not making any fictions whatever

With constructs like expectation and fear,

Stay in equipoise without the least wavering.

That is a verse we already talked about: leaving the mind as it is. The second point is, when you are looking at that level, with mindfulness, you will not fall asleep or faint. We are on the original second point; that is actual looking at the mind as clear and lucid. Did we cover that already?

Audience: We got up to the mixing level.

Alright, if that is the case, we did quite well. I thought I am stuck here. Now to go briefly over looking at the mind itself:

RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA

HRIL GYEE DRIM LA CHER GYEE TO

It is the last line on this essence of philosophical clarity. I don’t think that’s what we are talking about. I think there is a problem with ‘philosophical clarity.’ RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA. The definition of mind is lucid and clear. That’s what we are talking about. Unfortunately there is no number. If you look at page four, and you look at the Tibetan verse, they mixed it. RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA has to go down. The KYAB(?) should be above that.

RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA

HRIL GYEE DRIM LA CHER GYEE TO

You really just have to look at two words. (Rimpoche repeats above two lines.) It really means a nature that is lucid and clear. RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA. What is the difference between lucid and clear?

Audience: Knowing.

Thank you. That means knowing clearly. There you go. It is sort of a definition of the mind. When you are not knowing clearly, it may be mind, but it may not be right mind. Probably, that’s what happens.

Anyway, RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA, the nature that is lucid, clear and knowing, look at that clearly. This translation is going quite haywire here. I’m really sorry.

RIG CHING SEL WAY NGO WO LA

HRIL GYEE DRIM LA CHER GYEE TO

I would really like to talk to you a little bit about these two. This translation is not very helpful at all. Actually, what it is really saying is that when you find it, that knowledge (knowing?), lucid nature of the mind, then focus on that. That is the bottom line. Focus on that without any wavering, without any moving.

You have to look back at the earlier talks, when we [discussed] the five faults, the eight awarenesses, etc. You have to apply all of them when they say ‘look at without any wavering.’ That’s all we talked about for half a year or more. That is [all contained] in this one verse. Up to here is general meditation. Remember? There is finding the focusing point, learning to focus, how to extend it, remembering the obstacles of sinking mind and wandering mind, and overcoming them. When applying those, there are the five faults, eight mindfulnesses, which will lead you to the nine stages by the six powers and the four conjunctions. All of them are just this one word here. (Rimpoche quotes Tibetan that I don’t find in the text.) Look straight without wavering, that’s what it is.

NAM TOK GANG DANG GANG KYAY PA

DAY DANG DAY NYEE NGO ZIN JA

They are now telling you specific points.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to leave this translation [aside] because I’m going to get more confused on this.

We are looking at the six power points. Remember, the third one says,

Whatever thoughts come up, recognize and

meditate.

That’s what those two lines are saying. Whatever thoughts come up, recognize that at that moment. Whatever they are. It’s very simply saying, when you are meditating, you have mindfulness [functioning] and you also have meta-alertness.

Any other points, any other thoughts that come up, whether it is the internal sinking mind or the external wandering mind, whatever it is should be recognized immediately by the meta-alertness.

This particular mental faculty is the result of mindfulness. Right now, we are naming it, we are talking about it, but we don’t have it. We do have mindfulness, whether it is full or not full, because we can focus. If you focus long, you are going to find something internally that tells you, ‘hey, you are not focusing.’ Something like an alarm goes off. That’s called meta-alertness. If you have the mindfulness, you know it’s going to come up. When you don’t have it, you don’t.

For example, when you are going somewhere, you’re carrying a bag. Your carrying bag goes everywhere. Suddenly, when you’ve forgotten the bag, your hand will feel something is missing. Then you realize [it’s your bag that is missing]. That is the meta-alertness. That is the body part we can easily talk about. At the mind level, right now everything is blank. We are so used to thinking on the physical points. Even when you say ‘meditate’ we have a visual image.

When you leave it to the mind, mind will pick that up. The mind has the actual exact function that the body consciousness has. ‘It is too light, or something. Did I drop something out of my pocket?’ All those kinds of things are the body alertness. But this is nothing compared with the mind alertness. But the way [the body alertness] functions tells you that you can get the [mind alertness]. That’s why I say meta-alertness is the result of mindfulness. You don’t have it before.

For laypeople like us, when we try to get this mindfulness, which is knowing, it becomes a new thought for us. Although we are meditating on mind, recognizing this is a new thought for us. Here we’re telling you to cut out all thoughts; however, if you remember I said cut out anything beside meta-alertness and mindfulness. So this is a new thought for us. When you are used to it for meditation, this will not be a new thought, it will become an old thought. At this level, it’s called [a new thought].

I don’t want to get so detailed here. Here at the third point, what you are really doing is you are watching. Mindfulness means that whatever you are focusing on, you are remembering that. It is recognized thoughts on which you are being mindful. Alertness may come up, it may not be recognized. It is a new thought. Still, we need that alertness. Beside that alertness, any new unrecognized thought that ever comes up has to be deleted.

Then the question arises, how do I delete [thoughts]? After deleting them, what should I do? The answer follows,

YANG NA RAL KOR KEN SHIN DU

NAM TOK CHEE KYAY BAY BAY CHEU

We give you the Indian arrow-man and the swordsman’s example. That’s what these two lines are telling you. Then, the next one is the question we just raised: how do I cut it, and after cutting, what do I do?

CHAY TAR NAY PA DAY YEE TSAY

DREN PA MA SHOR LHO KYEE LO

HRIL GYEE DRIM LA LHO KYEE LO

SEM KYEE JOK SA DAY NA DA

After it’s all cut out, there will be just mind that you are focusing [on]. You are focusing [on] that mind, which is not changing, or I should say, not moving. You will find here a lot of earlier teachers are telling you, ‘Let it go. Let it loose'.

JUR BU CHING PAY SEM NYEE NEE

LO NA DROL WA TAY TSOM MAY

I think this is Machig. There are two great Mahasiddhas. One is Machig and the other is Saraha. I think it is Machig who said, Let it loose, and hold it. Saraha says, Whatever the mind squeezes, if you let it loose you will be liberated.

A lot of people misunderstand that. ‘Lose it, liberate it.’ It means when you reach a certain level, just let it go. It doesn’t matter whatever you do, however you behave. Not only for the view, but even for practical purposes and everything. ‘If you let it loose, you’ll be liberated.’ [This is a] mistranslation, a misunderstanding. What this is really telling you here is let it loose. Don’t try to hold it so tight. That is true, but the mind must have alertness within that. If you lose the alertness, then it becomes the dull nature of the mind. Then it cannot be samadhi or yoga at all.

Therefore, the mind must be alert, yet not holding so tight. Why? If you hold so tight, there is a danger of losing, and wandering mind will come. If you’re so relaxed, the sinking mind will come. So the great mahasiddhas will say, ‘Let it go, when you lose it, you are liberated.’ It doesn’t mean exactly what we think it means. It really means certain points. A lot of people will say after a little while, you don’t have to pay any attention to moral discipline, because it’s crazy wisdom. This is what comes out of this.

JUR BU CHING PAY SEM NYEE NEE

LO NA DROL WA TAY TSOM MAY

We are talking about the fourth point, which has two:

1.what to do

2.what to do after that.

This is one of the major important points. In short, what to do is to remain focused on that [mind], free of the two obstacles of sinking and wandering, both gross and subtle. That will be the answer to, ‘after cutting new thoughts, what to do?’ What to do is remain focused. Basically, relax, yet with alertness. The focusing mind must be alert in nature. It should not be tightening too much. That is the balancing we learned with the two problems that we’ve talked about a number of times.

Now we reach the fifth point. That’s where we were supposed to begin today. The fifth point is the mixing of moving and remaining. It is NAY WA and GYU WA.(?) It is either changing or moving; they give you the word ‘moving.’

NAM TOK GANG GYAY NGO WO LA

TAY TSAY RANG YELL TONG SANG CHAR

DAY SHIN NAY TSAY-ANG TAK PA NA

MA DRIB TONG SEL HRIG GYA WA

TONG WA NAY GYU DRAY PA SHAY

DRAK SHING

Here you call it mixing. In order to mix something, you need two. What are the two we are talking about?

What this particular verse is telling us is any thoughts, any new thoughts, unrecognized thoughts that pop up in our mind, keep on looking at those thoughts. When you are looking at it, this thought itself will stop. It will disappear. It will sort of shy [away] and disappear. You will see a void after the thought disappears. That is the moving, or the movement. That is one of the points you will mix. The other point is the old thought, the mind on which you are meditating. When you are looking at the nature of that mind it will be lucid and void, yet anything can be perceived and projected.

Are you with me? [It is] lucid, yet void, yet capable of projecting anything. If you have a big mirror seeing nothing, showing nowhere, it is clear. So it is lucid. It is capable of delivering any reflection if shown something. If you show your face, it will appear in there. That is what I mean: capable of perceiving, receiving, projecting anything. Yet [it is] void. Free of anything. There is nothing blocking it. That lucid [quality], that void is called the void that is remaining. It is called remaining, because it is your meditation focal point. It is the remaining one.

The thought that pops up is the new one, the traveling one, the coming and going one. When you look at that thought, you will find a void. When you look at the remaining real meditation point, you also have a void. These two voids become one within you. Right now, when you look at the new thought, it’s gone and there’s a void. Then you look here and meditate, there’s nothing really to be found. That is a void.

[At first] you’re not getting these two mixed together. You’re seeing this here, you’re seeing that there. After a little while, they will merge together. The void that is a consequence of the traveling thought and the void that is a consequence of the mind on which you are meditating, the old void and the new void; these two almost merge together. The two voids become one when you don’t see differences. A void is a void, no matter what it is a void of. That is called the mixing point.

You really have three points here. There is the point of stead[iness], the remaining void; then there is the traveling void; then you have the mixing together. Remaining, traveling and mixing: three points. They almost merge together. Certain traditions will tell you that to recognize these three is extremely difficult. I think the Second Panchen Lama said there is nothing difficult. If you have a wall over here, the wall remains; that is remaining. If the wall falls down, that is moving. Then the dust of the standing wall and the falling wall mix together. I think the Second Panchen Lama says this.

What really is, when you are focusing on mind, that is void nature. It is steady, remaining. Within that, thoughts come and you recognize them. Thoughts are the perception of the mind. When you really look at it very carefully, these thoughts cannot stand looking at you or your mind. It looks like they’ve been dissolved into the mind itself. That’s called steady and traveling mixed together.

To make it clearer, before the thoughts pop up when you are meditating on your mind, that void is the steady void. When thoughts come up and thoughts disappear, that is the second void. Then they merge together and mix. What do you expect out of this mixture? With the shamatha meditation, as you focus strongly on the subject, it will be like water, or lake or ocean. Then you will have the analytical mind analyzing and concluding. Focusing and analyzing are going to contradict each other. At the end, however, it doesn’t.

The example given here is very well known in the Zen tradition. In the Tibetan tradition, the example is, no matter how much the fish will move within the water, it will never shake the water. The fish will move very smoothly through the water, without mixing the water. What does that mean? Analyzing will never disturb focusing. Focusing will not disturb analyzing. They will complement each other. That is the true mixture of steady and moving. That is Tsong Kha Pa’s way of explaining that. Before Tsong Kha Pa, when you mixed these two voids, you were almost regarded as a mahasiddhi. Tsong Kha Pa said no, this is not the case. You moved up, but you really only learnt to complement the focusing mind and the analyzing mind.

How do we really see the new thoughts? We will see, we will recognize any thoughts that pop up in our head. [It will seem as though] they just popped up in our mind. We will really see that it is the mind that produces this. We almost see that this has nothing to do with the mind on which we are focusing. Yet these things pop up. We see these two have no connection. An independent thing has come up.

When you begin to look at it very carefully, all these pop-up thoughts came up with certain terms and conditions. Certain terms and conditions have made them appear. Basically, however, they are part of the mind, it is the functioning of the mind itself and nothing separate. What they tell you is that after mixing them together, what you are perceiving is that there’s nothing blocking anything. It is a huge void. Yet, it is solidly there to be able to perceive the functioning of anything. This is a sort of special language that great meditators use: nothing blocking, void, yet clear, solid and all of those.

What do we mean, ‘nothing is blocking’? It means there is no gross thought blocking the nature. Why is it void? It is because there is no physical thing at all, so it is a void. You recognize it clearly, so it is clear. The nature of the mind is holding tight. So it is tight, clear and vivid.

All of this has come out of one word from Milarepa. Milarepa says,

It is such a joy, the mind looking at the mind.

That is what they are talking about. It is one word of Milarepa’s made into these things. That covers the fifth part.

The sixth part is actually the same thing we have told you. Don’t let it stop. One of the six points said ‘Stop it.’ You don’t have to do all of six. One of them is good enough. Here the second choice is simply telling you ‘Alright, let the thought grow.’

How do I meditate? Lets say I didn’t cut it, like [the] earlier cutting, which is also called ‘smashing it.’ If I don’t smash it, if don’t cut it, what do I do? It says, ‘alright, let the thoughts come up, good or bad, let it grow. Just make sure you recognize that it grows. Whatever grows, you recognize that. Look at that thought itself in a very relaxed way. Let it follow wherever it’s going to go. This thought will transcend; it will become something else, something else, something else, something else, something else. It will keep on transcending, and changing, changing, changing, and finally there is no place, nothing to go. It will come back.

The example that’s given is [a boat] that carries this bird, and in the middle of the sea you let it fly in the air. The bird will keep on flying. Then the bird will get too tired, need to land and can find no other place. If there is a rock or mountain or land, the bird would land there. But there’s not. Finally the bird has to come back to the same boat where it went from. Just like that, if you trace the thought, after a little while, there’s no more to go, no more to manifest. So it has to be just a dead-tired bird that has to sit and rest. That’s an example of that.

It’s not, however, very strongly recommended for us. Number one, if you have all the time on your hands, you can sit there and keep on watching it. There’s no time limit, no pressure, nothing. So you don’t have to go anywhere, no telephone ringing, nobody, no appointment, nothing. You’re not going to get hungry or anything, just sit there and keep on watching thoughts. That’s OK.

Number two, following these thoughts, actually the thought can really trick you. It can really go and build a huge castle on ice. We all know that. Sometimes it even helps to grow some attachments. Even hatred, all this; and it does, if you let it go, it really does. It may be great for certain people, but not for everybody.

Now, after saying how to meditate, including even these six [methods], then what do you expect after that. Here, we have to recognize what meditation really is. This verse is in the root text,

Jee shin kyang pa lay

Hyam shag ngo wo gang gee kyang

Ma drib dang shing sel wa dang

Zug chan gang du-ang ma drub pay

Tong sang nam ka ta bu dang

Chee yang char way hrig gay wa

Just like before we explained, when you are meditating in that way, at the result, what do you get? [You get] that meditation which is absolutely clear, which is not blocking, we explained earlier, which is pure, clear, free of any fault, therefore void like space. Yet anything projected to that mind, it is capable of perceiving.

[It is] void-like space, clear, lucid, capable of projecting, perceiving anything with [those] three qualities in one point. When you look at [those three qualities], it is void, it is clear, lucid, it’s knowing; that means, anything projected can be seen. Then what happens? This has a quality: whenever you are seeing that mind, it has no manifestation or anything. It is clear. Whatever you see or perceive, whether it is perceiving the mind [itself] or perceiving things outside; whatever it is, it is absolutely clear. It also has the capability of developing all the qualities of total enlightenment. Yet it is nothing new that we have obtained. It is with us, with every living being, from whenever we have been existing. Continuously, we have it. We don’t recognize it, but we have it. Yet we don’t see it. We only see it once; during the time of death, or if you’re meditating. You can recognize it through the power of meditation, particularly in such cases as when you focus on the Vajrayana points, when all the airs are collected in the central channel. [They are] not only collected, but made stable and remain. Not only stable and remain, but they dissolve to your central channel. At that moment you will see [your mind] face to face. [That nature of mind remains] whether the individual has a good life, like a great human life, or samsaric god; or the individual has a bad life in the hell realm; hot, cold, hungry ghost, wherever it may be. The nature of that [mind] never changes.

It is pure. It is pure like sunshine or sunrays. Even if it has some problems we encounter, it is natural; it is like pure gold. The pure nature like sunshine is the seventh quality, even if it has collected wrong thoughts here and there, but it really remains like pure gold. Any faults are temporary. It can be removed. It is removable, temporary. Why is it removable? Because it is not true to the nature. It’s not a part of the nature, not true; therefore it is removable.

The ninth quality here is the pure water. If there is no dust involved, it will remain completely pure. Just like that, mind is pure. However, whenever there is attachment, hatred, etc., then it is a block that blocks us and as an ordinary person, we don’t see it. These are some qualities of the mind. The Hevajra Tantra says,

It is very hard to explain, but it simultaneously grows with us all the time. It’s hard to find it. By the teachings of the lama, and by the luck and the fortune of mine, I may be able to get it.

The great Mahasiddha Saraha said,

The nature of it is very hard to explain by anyone.

So that is about that much for tonight. We have one more Thursday here, so that will be next Thursday. I’ll be here, so I will be concluding this, and this will be the Mahamudra in two; common and uncommon. Uncommon is total emptiness. So the common part is completed. I think I’ve got one or two verses for next week, and that’s it.

Thank you.

10/21/2004