Thu, 20 Nov 2008
Instructions on Mahamudra
Here are some instructions on mahamudra practice by Ponlop Rinpoche. They come from my notes at a seminar he taught at KTD, called "Wild Awakening."
Milarepa said by looking nakedly you will see the nature you will see simplicity, like space. But what happens after you look nakedly? According to Milarepa, you rest freely and utterly upon the naked looking. If there are kleshas you rest nakedly on looking at the kleshas. Looking nakedly and resting freely. How do you rest when you rest freely? If you ask how do you rest, you relax, you loosen up. These three points are important: look nakedly, rest freely, and relax by loosening up. These three are very important. You don't need to push this mind aside and look somewhere else. Not only looking but resting in that nature is very important. We look for a good place to rest but we never find it. There is no perfect place or time to rest. According to a Sufi story, a man was looking for a perfect wife. He found the perfect wife, but she wouldn't marry him, because he wasn't the perfect man. If you are looking for perfect mind you will never find it. If you think this mind is not good enough, you must find one better. And then your time is up. Instead of doing that, rest directly and don't look for any other place to rest. Rest directly means to rest in what is immediately present. Like someone who has done a hard day's work. At the end you are ready to rest. You just flop on the floor. You don't care what floor looks like, you flop wherever you can and just relax. Relaxing is most important in mahamudra meditation. All the meditation instructions always say rest, relax. I don't know how we misunderstood. In mahamudra it is taught throughout the best relaxation is the best realization, through inferior relaxation, one has inferior meditation. Then anything is possible. If mind is relaxed, anything is possible. If the mind is not relaxed nothing is possible. The simplest movement of yoga is difficult if you are not relaxed. If we use these three instructions: looking nakedly, resting freely and relaxing at ease that is all we need to do to recognize the nature of mind.
It doesn't need to take long. Look again and again, rest again and again, and relax again and again. Whenever a big emotion arises, just look nakedly. Rest and relax. Milarepa said when meditating on mahamudra do so repeatedly for short periods (in little bits, like bite sized.) When people prolong a mahamudra session., they wind up with nothing. It's important that the period be short enough that all the elements are present. When you see a little drop of water dropping on same spot, you will see it destroys a solid rock. A potent meditation practiced again and again will destroy the solid rock of ego. If you throw a bucket water on the rock occasionally, it will just polish the rock. Ego will shine more clearly, but nirvana will be gone. But if you constantly drip a drop, one day it will destroy the rock of ego. When you sit this afternoon, try these three things. Do a little shamatha, then look nakedly, then rest and relax. Don't prepare to much. Just do it. When thought arises, look at it nakedly. If an emotion arises, look at it. If mind gets too distracted, return to breathing. If you find the nature of mind, you will find enlightenment.
