Sun, 07 Sep 2008
Book Excerpts
Khenpo Karthar's most recent book was his commentary on The Quintessence of the Union of Dozgchen and Mahamudra, a short text by Karma Chagme. One of the Buddhist magazines published an excerpt from the book. That article is now online. It's on the creation and completion stages of tantra. It's interesting because the completion stage described here is essentially mahamudra practice. So we have a public instruction on mahamudra from a great teacher:
There is no object of meditation because your mind is simply experiencing itself just as it is, in the present moment. It is sufficient here to look at the nature of your mind without distraction. The words look fixedly at are by nature dualistic language, and are misleading in the sense that the mind that is looked at is not something other than the mind that is looking.
While doing this, it is unnecessary to hope that things will go well and that you will recognize your mind's nature, or to fear that things will go poorly and you that will become distracted or lose the recognition. It is unnecessary to think, "Is this it, or is this not it?" It does not matter whether your mind is still or moving. If it is still, it is not going to stay still forever, so it shouldn't matter anyway. It does not even matter whether your mind is particularly lucid in that moment or for that day. Regardless of whatever is happening in your mind, simply look with an intense or glaring awareness at the nature of whatever arises. The term vivid means "one-pointedly without distraction." This means not allowing the distraction of thoughts to divert you from looking at the nature. That itself is the main practice here.
KTD Publications has also put online some excerpts from Khenpo Karthar's next book, the third volume of Karma Chagme's Mountain Dharma. Here's another excerpt on the subject of meditation:
While resting in even placement, all kinds of thoughts can naturally arise. When they arise, if you become involved in evaluating each thought by thinking, "This one was better," "That one was worse," and so on, this does not serve to help you, and it is also not meditation. If thoughts arise, then remain undisturbed. If they do not arise, then remain without delight. To be unmoved by whatever pleasant or unpleasant thoughts may arise and to remain in the state of even placement within that nature -- this is the authentic method of practice. About this, Padampa Sangye said, "Thoughts leave no trace, like birds in the sky." We see birds flying around in the sky, but they leave no print or trace at all in their wake and so the sky itself remains undamaged and unmarked. In this way, regardless of whatever thoughts may arise for you, if you simply rest in even placement within that essential nature, free from fixation on the duality of apprehended object and apprehending cognition, the thoughts will not become a conceptual focus or defect, nor will they disrupt your experience of meditation. If you cultivate your practice in this way, it will lead to realization.
