New Dharma Talks
The Radiant River of Mahamudra
Updated 06 Jun 2003
1.
The Radiant River of Mahamudra
Tilopa was a wild and wise riverbank yogi, as well as the source of the Mahamudra lineage transmission in this world. One thousand years ago, through visionary revelation, he directly received the realization of Mahamudra from his guru Dharmakaya Vajradhara, the Diamond Holder, a mythic personification of the infinite space of formless Ultimate Reality. This is a historical fact, as well as a transmission outside of time, that we can access ourselves directly through realization of Absolute Reality or Mahamudra. The Diamond Holder that is the fount of transmission and transcendental vision is simply a personification of our own Awareness, known as the Innate Sovereign. The innate awareness-mind is like a wish-fulfilling jewel, as Saraha once sang.
The Hevajra Tantra says that we are all Buddhas by nature; it is only adventitious obscurations which temporarily cover that fact. We are all Buddhas; we only have to realize and recognize who and what we are. Tilopa once came to me in a dream, and proclaimed: “Mind is sheer lucency.” We and all beings are naturally endowed with this luminous Buddha nature, tathagatagarbha, from the beginningless beginning--How to access and realize that? This is where spiritual practices such as meditation come in.
Mahamudra is the nondual, direct, mystic path in Tibetan Buddhism. It was long held as a secret and advanced teaching, for initiates only. This Bigger Picture View embodies a luminous vision of ultimate reality unveiled through a process that, paradoxically enough, involves instantaneous self-realization—that the practitioner, the practice, and the results are inseparable; every step of the way is the Way. This realization of nondual, nonconceptual wisdom is not something outside ourselves or a mere philosophy. Mahamudra literally means the Great Symbol or Great Gesture, the Ultimate Stance or Complete Outlook: it is the ultimate gesture of awareness, a sacred vision of all-encompassing grandeur and profundity. Mahamudra is the ultimate nature of our mind, our spiritual ground or essence.
Nondualistic Mahamudra vision intuitively groks the interdependent dynamics of the sacred and the mundane; the One and the many, and their cosmic interplay; all polarity and dualism in a unitive vision of oneness, inseparable from the luminous void; and that this world is a perfect Buddhafield. Pioneering Mahamudra master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche—author, poet, and founder of Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado—said, in truly nondualistic fashion, that Mahamudra means that everything is symbolic, everything is a symbol of itself, of Reality. This could mean that everything is IT—if and when the practitioner realizes that.
My own root guru, the late Kalu Rinpoche, always used to say: “You are Mahamudra. It is all within.” Probably this is what Western mystics call the Infinite, or even the Godhead—immanent divinity. We call it Buddha nature: innate purity, joy, wisdom, and peace. This is our birthright--- our authentic, post denominational spiritual inheritance. It is already, effortlessly present within our own innate spiritual nature; it is not something we have to obtain, create or fabricate; nor does it belong to anyone, or exclude anyone. Mahamudra is inexpressible, ineffable, beyond language, concepts and ratiocination. Although it can’t effectively be taught through words and concepts, it can be transmitted and realized. Mahamudra can’t be taught, but it can be caught—when you catch on. This is an underlying principle of the Song of Mahamudra, the poetic teaching of Tilopa to Naropa that Kagyu masters call the “Ganges Mahamudra”. This yogic song or “doha” is more a transmission and pith instruction than a traditional teaching. It is part of the “Upadsha” or Pith Instruction group of direct oral teachings, transmitted from master to disciple, outside of books and scriptures.
Tilopa’s Song instructions consist of seven topics. They are: the view of Mahamudra, the conduct of Mahamudra, the meditation of Mahamudra, the samaya (commitments and bonds) of Mahamudra, the benefit of Mahamudra practice, the defect of not practicing Mahamudra, and how to actually practice Mahamudra.
Straightforward naturalness, genuineness, simplicity and spontaneity are important virtues in this tradition. There is a leap that has to be made beyond conventional behavior and ordinary egocentric activity, in this tradition. These subtle interior points are emphasized as integral principles of both Mahamudra meditation and its actualization through practice in life; more than outer forms of religious practice such as rituals, monastic disciplines and philosophical study. Tilopa, the riverbank yogi who lived beneath bridges and survived on offal, personifies and embodies the virtues of ordinariness, naturalness and uncontrived spontaneity—all of which he extols in his Ganges Mahamudra Song. Ordinariness is the Great Way. Natural heart-mind is Buddha’s heart and mind; natural mind is Buddha Mind, according to our tradition. As meditative instruction, it all boils down to the Three Droppings or Three Naturals—dropping the body; dropping the breath, voice and energy; and dropping the mind—which comprise what I call Natural Meditation: Just sitting, Just breathing, Just being… What could be more simple, more natural, more free?
Female master Machig Labdron says that in Mahamudra meditation one should be loose and relax all four limbs, while allowing the mind to settle and focus naturally. In this practice it doesn’t matter what is happening in our mind, as long as we can be aware of it. In Mahamudra, natural ease informs the View (outlook), Meditation (practice path), and Action (way of life), all the way through, from beginning to end. Wherever we find ourselves in life, we can find ourselves naturally and on the genuine path, for the true path is that from which one can never stray. In other words, you may feel far from the Tao and out of touch with the flow, but it always flows right through you. When you are aware of the nature of mind, nothing is outside of or apart from it.
The famous Four Yogas of Mahamudra are one-pointedness, freedom from complexity, one taste and nonmeditation. These free us from mental fabrications and mind-made meditation, aiding us in relying more on the innate wakefulness of present awareness than on creating particular states of mind or diving into special meditative experiences. Simply sustaining present awareness becomes the heart of this natural practice.
Meditation is a way of being totally present in the here and now, not just a matter of closing the eyes or sitting quietly. Meditation today is most commonly understood as a simple quieting and calming of the mind and the body, along with a stilling of the senses, in order to cultivate concentration and mindfulness--- not to mention for purposes of health and relaxation. Meditation is usually defined as mindfulness; a conscious, constant awareness of the objects of attention--the intentional use of directed attention. This is a skillful way of using the mind to know the nature of mind, of self and others, and of the world—which brings about the development of insight and wisdom. Mindfulness implies recollectedness: continuously recollecting what you are doing, what you are paying attention to, again and again, moment after moment—as in concentrating on the breath, or on a candle flame, visualization, or mantra. This helps clear the vision and open us to reality. For like Yogi Berra said, “You can see a lot just by looking.”
The cartoon character Pogo said that we should not shoot the arrow at the bull’s-eye, but rather keep the target wrapped around the arrow as it flies. This is precisely how Mahamudra views spiritual practice and results, with its unique, dondualistic concept of “co emergence”—wisdom inherent within delusion, and light within shadow. This is a key point, not to be overlooked. This means that the original, true Buddha--wisdom and love-- is within you.
Mahamudra View, Meditation and Action is different than mindfulness meditation, although grounded in it. It introduces us to a radical approach to reality—a direct assault on the steep summit of the mountain of enlightenment—through watchwords such as intrinsic awareness combined with goalless aimlessness, signlessness, groundlessness and boundlessness. While general teachings think of spiritual practices (including meditation) as cultivating the seed of enlightenment until it eventually, sometimes after many lifetimes, grows into a tree and produces fruits including wisdom and compassion, Mahamudra and Dzogchen work directly with the fruit, the innate wisdom of intrinsic Awareness-itself, rather than progressive cultivation. Mahamudra utilizes the fruit—wisdom, our own mind’s original nature-- as the path, not simply as the goal in a distant future. It is said that this Vajra-shortcut can bring enlightenment in a few years, with assiduous practice, in this very life.
We only have to learn to recognize and relax into Mahamudra, beyond the distinction between meditation and post-meditation, to experience the inherent freedom of being and stabilize our spiritual realization; this is the way of nonconceptual wisdom, in a nutshell. That is why it is said that one moment of total awareness is one moment of perfect freedom and enlightenment; one moment of enlightenment dispels the darkness of ages. A Mahamudra yogi finds order amidst chaos, love amidst hatred, light amid darkness, sublimity in ordinariness, joy amid misery, and enlightenment even amid confusion. An experienced practitioner comes to total openness and fearless acceptance through realizing the same taste of all experiences, and understands the meaning of Neurotikaya—conflicting emotions arising in the light of wisdom awareness.
Mahamudra is based on the universal truth that nothing essentially affects our true existential nature; that nirvanic peace is far beyond the dualism of noise and quiet, and can be maintained at any speed or decibel level; and that, through the eyes of purified perception and sacred outlook, holiness is simply an expedient concept. In the light of Mahamudra, we experience this earth as a veritable altar, and all beings as daka and dakinis, gods and goddesses, adorning it. Mahamudra is the groundless ground of being, the path that is practiced, and the goal or result as well. In this Vast View there are no separations, no corners; no center and periphery; nothing lacking, and nothing in excess to be disposed of. Mahamudra is a radiant vision of the underlying, overarching wholeness and totality.
Mahamudra is the natural state of innate Buddha Mind.
Milarepa
sang:
”It is important to have a free-from-hope-and-fear conviction
regarding the unborn and undying innate Dharmakaya of the intrinsic nature of mind.
Knowing that all beings are inherently Buddhas,
Whatever I do is the play of Dharmakaya;
whoever I am with is the tutelary deity;
wherever I stay is a Buddhafield;
Happy am I to forego outer supports and religious symbols.”
Mahamudra awareness is practiced according to three guidelines, according to my late master Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche. This triad is, in terse Tibetan terms: nondoing, noncontrivance and nondistraction. In Mahamudra meditation, we learn to be present in the immediacy of each moment through practicing relaxed, open-eyed awareness—based on a combination of concentration and panoramic awareness-- and experience these four steps almost simultaneously. First, we bring attention to whatever arises. We then let attention penetrate that momentary experience. Then we maintain attention upon whatever reactive processes are triggered by the arisings, allowing them to reveal and undo themselves. And finally-- we receive, and just be in, whatever remains when those unfed reactions fall apart, as they inevitably do. In this way we realize the emptiness and insubstantiality of all appearances and experiences, and rest centered in the immutable, sky-like nature of awareness itself rather than being distracted by illusory external appearances and internal experiences. In practical terms, Mahamudra is practiced with eyes open and posture relaxed and at ease; meditating outdoors is also common.
The female lineage master Sukkhasiddhi sang:
“Give up the mind that wants to meditate and calm down.
Focus on nothing at all.
Disturbing thoughts and lazy indifference are not liberation.
Remain unstained by thoughts and circumstances;
Rest relaxed in the uncontrived nature of mind, free of elaborations or alteration.
For the benefit of one and all, simply preserve peerless awareness.”
These pith instructions are delicious, but easier said than done. My Tibetan gurus say that IT is too close, so we overlook it; it is too clear and obvious, so we don’t notice it; it is not outside ourselves and is so deep, so we can’t get it; and it seems too good to be true, so we don’t believe it. These are four mistakes in recognizing the Buddha within us and the sacredness in every moment of daily life. Remembering these four faults alone will help us integrate the Dharma into daily life through a moment to moment appreciation of the nondual view of Mahamudra.
Milarepa, Tibet’s greatest yogi master, and also her preeminent poet (“The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milaepa”), spontaneously sang:
“ Behold and watch your unborn mind;
Seek not for satisfaction in Samsara….
He who realizes the nature of his own mind knows
that the mind itself is Wisdom-Awareness
and no longer makes the mistake of searching for Buddha from other sources….
This very mind is the womb of all the Buddhas.”
The late Mahamudra master Gendun Rinpoche sang:
“Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but is already present, in open relaxation and letting go.” Principles of Mahamudra meditation include naturalness and authenticity, non-contrivance, simplicity, spontaneous flow, equal taste, natural mindfulness, and openness inseparable from clarity of awareness.
Nineteenth Century master Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche sang:
“Nothing whatsoever, yet everything is experienced!
Simply recognize this appearance-void as magical display of awareness.
Let it remain naturally.
Don’t spoil it by tampering and worrying about being right or wrong.
The ultimate luminosity of Dharmakaya (Absolute Reality/ Buddha Mind) is this unfabricated, natural mind.
Lama Kalu once blessed and signed for me a photo of himself, still in my possession, with the words “Mahamudra Yogi Kalu Rinpoche” across his red-robed body. Practice in this timeless wisdom tradition should help you put your name there one day; for what we seek, we are. It is all within.
Mahamudra and its sister practice of Dzogchen are the pith instructional teachings of the yogic practice tradition of Tibetan meditation masters, reaching back to Marpa the Translator and his disciple Milarepa, and back even further to India and to Tilopa and Naropa— a lineage of enlightenment teachings and practices coming down to us today through the golden rosary of Vajra Gurus. Devotion and compassion are an important part of this tradition. If one might wonder what these warmhearted qualities have to do with the diamond-hard penetrating awareness of Mahamudra; the Third Karmapa Lama says, in his “Mahamudra Aspiration-Prayer”: “At the moment of love, the unfabricated Dharmakaya nature of mind nakedly dawns.”
Love and devotion transport us beyond ourselves, beyond our narrow egocentric minds and conceptual thinking, and into the timeless sunshine of awareness above and beyond all of mind’s obscuring clouds. I find that being moved to tears by devotion and compassion vastly enhances the luster of awareness. It is a mistake to think that Shunyata—emptiness, voidness—alone is sufficient. Shunyata without upaya—skillful means, method—such as compassion, self-discipline and virtue is as useless as a needle without an eye for a thread, or a solid iron hammer head without a hole in it for a handle. Another way of saying it is that we have to be both aware of the principles and trained in the techniques in order to fulfill the promise of enlightenment. A common mistake is grasping at emptiness as if it is a thing, and nihilistically paralyzing ourselves as far as explicit spiritual efforts and practice is concerned. The problem with many of our experiences of shunyata-emptiness is that it is not unlike Chinese food: an hour after eating, you are full again. It seems to me that genuine spiritual awakening is more often experienced less by addition and success than by subtraction and loss.
Although some Tibetan practices are considered secret (for initiates only) and risky; Abbot Thrangu Rinpoche says that Mahamudra is a meditative practice that can be used by all, since it is safe, effective, and easy to implement, especially for people of the West today. While some other esoteric and powerful Vajrayana practices may be complex, subject to misinterpretation and so forth, Mahamudra has great blessings and splendor and is a skillful path of liberation and enlightenment.
When I teach Mahamudra meditation according to the traditional teachings and lineage empowerments I received from my Kagyu gurus, Kalu Rinpoche and the Sixteenth Buddha Karmapa, I always emphasize one pertinent verse of Master Tilopa’s renowned sayings:
“It is not outer things which entangle you, Naropa; it is inner clinging and fixation that entangles you, Naropa.” Meditate well on this, again and again. For it is not outer circumstances and conditions—what happens to us—that determine our karma, our destiny, our character and the kind of experience we have in life; but it is how we relate to what happens that makes all the difference. This is a vital point.
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As far as meditation instructions, I always like to refer to the heart of Tilopa’s Song, where he says:
“Do naught with
the body but relax,
Shut firm the mouth and think of naught.
Empty your mind and think of naught.
Like a hollow bamboo
Rest at ease your body.
Giving not nor taking,
Put your mind at rest.
Mahamudra is like a mind that clings to naught.
Thus practicing, in time you will reach Buddhahood….
He who abandons
craving
And clings not to this or that,
Perceives the real meaning
Given in the Scriptures.”
If and when we can practice meditation in this style, effortless awareness, the essence of the practice of letting go and letting be--called in Tibetan nonmeditation or beyond-meditation, and what I have come to call natural meditation in English….”When nothing is done, nothing is left undone,” as the ancient Tao te Ching teaches….
Ganges Mahamudra instructs and inspires us to practice sitting meditation according to three crucial points: body like a mountain, unshakeable; breath unhindered, flowing freely, like the wind; mind open and radiant, like the sky. Then naturally ensues Tilopa’s famous three stages of meditative development— as he says in the Song: In the beginning the meditator’s mind is like a turbulent mountain stream or waterfall; later, a gently flowing river; and finally reaching the vastness of an ocean. This river of our own everyday mind directly connects us to the oceanic expanse of Mahamudra realization, the effortless natural state of innate wakefulness-- immanent Buddha Mind, Reality, the natural state of innate wakefulness. In meditation we cultivate that awareness which fixates nowhere, clings to nothing, and identifies with nothing; this is the spacious and clear Mahamudra style of meditation, based in vividly present naturalness and relaxation grounded in primordial being.
Mahamudra utilizes the metaphor of empty, open, sunlit space to represent the ultimate nature of mind. Intrinsic awareness is said to be ungraspable, intangible, open, infinite, unimpeded, boundless and groundless—like space—in which there is room for everything to arise and to appear: a unity of emptiness and lucid knowing. Immutable space itself remains unmoved and unchanged, without will or volition; yet, as if magically, there is cognizance—it is not just a sterile void or blank vacuum. Sometimes the nature of mind is likened to a brilliant crystal; elsewhere, the clear and reflective mirror-like nature of mind is emphasized. Tilo eloquently rhapsodizes about space, openness, and nongrasping-- and the effortless opening to Being itself, through Mahamudra practice. Present awareness is the essence.
Space is an important concept in pointing out the nature of intrinsic mind in the Ganges Mahamudra teachings. Space is used as an example of the absence of solidity; as an example of when and how Mahamudra is practiced; as an illustration of how and where thoughts and other arisings dissolve; as an example of changelessness and immutability. Like the mind’s nature, space is as clear and radiant as sunlight-- indescribable, immeasurable, and without borders or limits, center or periphery. It is empty and open, yet radiantly luminous.
There are traditionally three streams or types of Mahamudra teachings in Tibetan Buddhism: sutra mahamudra, tantra mahamudra, and essence or sudden mahamudra; all three like rivers heading toward the same oceanic sea. The first is Sutra Mahamudra, where one approaches realizing Absolute Reality and immanent Buddha nature through self-discipline, attitude transformation and mind training, and especially through reason and study, directed towards an understanding of Shunyata—emptiness and selflessness. In Tantric Mahamudra the approach is more yogic and direct, without recourse to many traditional religious forms of philosophical training and meritorious practice; it utilizes subtle states of clear light consciousness and special Tibetan yoga practices such as Inner Incandescence (“tummo”or heat yoga) and Dream Yoga (lucid dreaming) to purify karma, deepen meditation, and mature inner realization. Both Sutra Mahamudra and Tantric Mahamudra are somewhat gradual, using progressive stages of development as a path to awakening. Essence Mahamudra is more intuitive and nondualistic, and relies more on a teacher, on karmic connection, and on sudden awakening.
In actual fact, most of us practice both sudden and gradual styles as complementary, rather than contradictory or mutually exclusive, during our progress along the path. Padma Sambhava, the Lotus-born Guru and Eighth Century founder of Buddhism in Tibet, said that we should practice with the view from above—the absolute perspective, the big picture-- in mind, while climbing up from below according to relative practices and our own individual capacity. He said: “Though my view of emptiness is higher than the sky, my actions regarding cause and effect are as meticulous as finely ground flour.” This teaching embodies the great Middle Way of Mahayana Buddhism, and avoids extreme views—such as nihilism, materialism, and quietism-- and some of the other pitfalls, potholes and subtle sidetracks on the path.
An example of Essence Mahamudra or sudden awakening is the manner in which Naropa, a greatly learned abbot, was introduced to the nature of his mind as Mahamudra by Tilopa. When Tilopa hit Naropa in the face with his filthy old sandal, Naropa experienced mindmeld and dissolution simultaneously; realized his guru and himself and Buddha were inseparable, in their true nature, and always had been; and had his great awakening. It was as if a bubble had burst and returned to the seas from which it had never been apart: in this case, the bubble being the disciple’s (Naropa’s) small self or finite mind, and the sea being the guru or Buddha Mind.
There are many stories like the sandal-transmission story of Tilopa and Naropa to be found in the Vajrayana literature. In books, it seems as if everybody’s always getting enlightened, and it sounds so easy. Would that were the case! It is important to remember that these ancient, timeless teaching tales only provide one moment, one episode, of that person’s whole life-- leaving out all the years of striving and all the mistakes made along the way, until that crucial point is reached where something remarkable happened. In Naropa’s case, he was an erudite and accomplished abbot at Nalanda Monastery in India before he even set out to seek for his karmically predestined guru, Tilopa, after having received a visionary prophesy from the wisdom dakini; and then he had to undergo twelve strenuous years of schlepping to enlightenment, while Tilopa put him through all kinds of tests and travails… Until one day Tilopa hit Naropa in the face with his own dirty sandal, and Naropa was introduced to and recognized Mahamudra within his own heart-mind, and was enlightened. This is one of the most often told stories in Tibetan Buddhism.
The legends of the 84 Siddhas (tantric adepts) exemplify the crazy wisdom of Mahamudra which daringly proclaims that every moment and every walk of life is a door to awakening. Dog Master Kukkuripa was an enlightened yogi who lived over one thousand years ago in the middle of a poisonous lake with five hundred bitches. Tradition tells us that his canine following of five hundred bitches were actually incarnate dakinis (angels, white witches, fairies), with whom he reveled deliriously.
The hirsute Dog Master’s face famously looked like a dog’s, which ordinary people found ugly but a few with different karmic perception found bewitching. The Wisdom-Dakini said: “Kukkuripa is free from concepts. He sleeps in an outhouse, consorts with bitches, is without possessions; plays no instruments, and parrots no prayers or scriptures. Since he relies on no higher authority than innate wisdom-awareness, we sky-going dakinis are bound to sport and consort with him.”
Naropa’s Mahamudra lineage-heir and disciple, Marpa the Translator-- Milarepa’s guru-- sought esoteric teaching and spiritual transmission from Kukkuripa. Later, after returning to Tibet, Marpa praised the Dog Master to the limit, saying, “My glorious Dog Master made me realize that even one’s base sensual nature is more precious than gold, since it is, like all things, innately pure, free, and untarnished. Everything is a manifestation of the absolute unborn Mahamudra, the innate clear light of reality; even my internal, shadow-like conflicting emotions and desires are nothing but light!” This is a high-test brand of vajra-wisdom that worldly thinking can hardly begin to comprehend. Mahamudra passes down to us from these masters, all of whom inspired Milarepa and many others to enlightenment.
In our Dzogchen tradition there was Patrul Rinpoche, the nineteenth century Tibetan master known as “the enlightened vagabond” who had vowed never to sleep indoors. One night he and his main disciple Nyoshul Lungtok went outdoors and lay out on a hilltop. (You can read this story in my collection of 158 teaching stales called The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane: Wisdom Tales from Tibet.) Patrul Rinpoche and Nyoshul Lungtok were lying on the hilltop and stargazing, just relaxing and taking their ease, when the dogs started barking at Dzogchen Monastery in the valley far below. Patrul said to his disciple, “Do you see the stars?” And the disciple, Nyoshul Lungtok, said, “Yes. I see the stars.” Patrul said, “Do you hear the dogs barking?” Nyoshul Lungtok: “Yes, I hear the dogs barking.” And Patrul Rinpoche suddenly shouted, “THAT’S IT!” With that, Nyoshul Lungtok awoke. That was his introduction to the nature of mind. “That’s it!” Every moment, this is it. This is nondual wisdom. If you need a clue to the moral of this story, reflect on the principles of ordinary mind as Buddha Mind and naturalness as the Way.
Here is where crazy wisdom, effortlessness, and direct introduction to the nature of mind by an authentic master come in. Enlightenment experiences, when they occur, are almost like accidents—you can’t exactly predict and fabricate them; however, spiritual practice does make you more accident-prone. Mahamudra teachings such as the Ganges Mahamudra Song are introductions to the nature of mind as well as an enlightened master’s personal instructions on how to practice meditation, post-meditation, and action in the world—instructions we ourselves can take to heart.
Dzogchen and Mahamudra are famous for their whispered oral teachings and elixir-like pith-instructions. The Dzogchen and Mahamudra paths have a unique tradition of powerful mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart spiritual transmission called “direct introduction to the nature of mind”. This is one of the biggest boosts one can ever receive on the spiritual path, as far as I know and have experienced. I have been zapped by my gurus, I admit it. There are great enlightened gurus in the world. I have been fortunate to have been blessed and taught by some of them, which has helped me immensely, for which I am forever grateful. There is a lot of magic, bliss and joyous delight in that kind of spiritual connection, which is doubtless the result of a great deal of karmic ripening. Still, the fact remains that it is far easier to have a religious or spiritual experience than to live a spiritual life, which is far more important in the long run.
One problem with spiritual experiences today is that it would seem that it is easier to get enlightened than stay enlightened, in the popular meaning of the term (this includes some drug experiences, kundalini awakenings, satoris and other such awakenings which lack the boundless and groundless infinitude of that kind of Buddha-like total and complete enlightenment from which there is no falling back, which Tilopa, Marpa and Milarepa experienced). This is where some spiritual seekers of the already-enlightened persuasion seem to get sidetracked or plateaued along the path. It may be true in the ultimate sense that there is nothing to do and no one to do it, but it is probably too soon for you yourself to follow that profound nondualistic dictum.
Tilo: “To
transcend duality
Is the Kingly View;
To conquer distractions is
The Royal Practice;
The Path of No-practice
Is the Way of Buddhas;
He who treads that Path
Reaches Buddhahood.”
We should not be taken in by the intensity of our latest spiritual epiphany while losing sight of the endless journey yet to be unfolded. I diagnose this seeker’s disease as “premature immaculation”, and it does crop up on this shore today: thinking we are there before we actually are. We may actually have gone far; and yet, there is still far to go. A spiritual teacher and spiritual friends can be very helpful to keep us going along the great Way of awakening; a clear head and good heart are essential, and can be cultivated and developed; and a regular spiritual practice is absolutely indispensable in this spiritual pursuit.
Concerning the details of conventional practice, Mahamudra master Phagmo Drupa said there are five branches to the path of Mahamudra: the steed of love and compassion, that runs for the benefit of others; body realized as the temple of the deity; mind stabilized in the unchanging ground of reality; devotion as warm and bright as the sun; and aspiration for universal deliverance as unshakable as the earth on which all stand. Without these it will be difficult for blessings to arise and wisdom to blaze forth and illumine the world.
Shit may happen along the way, which is natural. On his deathbed in Zion Illinois, in 1981, the Sixteenth Karmapa looked into the eyes of Osel Tenzin and said: “Nothing happens.” This reminder of our true existential situation- like Saint Teresa of Avila’s famous utterance: “All things pass, only God remains” has helped many a soul through troubled times. “Nothing happens” is the Mahamudra pith instruction par excellence; it epitomizes how to regard death as well as every single moment of life. This steep, pithy introduction to the nature of reality helps us remember to see through all dreamlike, phantasmagorical things as well as seeing them clearly with accurate understanding of how they work and function and are interrelated. Yes, everything is like a dream, a phantasy, a mirage, echoes, bubbles on a flowing stream: in that clear light of Reality, nothing matters. But here on Earth, on the relative plane of conventional reality where we live and breath and exist, everything little thing matters—every thought, word and deed counts and amounts to something, karmically speaking. There is no need to be dualistic about dualism; there are no separations in reality. Spiritual practice can be performed with the view that there is no one doing it and nothing to do; then all is spontaneously accomplished. In the nondual Mahamudra tradition we say that we practice illusory practice in an illusory way so that all dreamlike, illusory beings suffering at the hands of the illusions may achieve illusory enlightenment. Chogyam According to the late great lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche: “Apparent phenomena are primordially self-liberated, and the mind of the practitioner is primordially self-enlightened.” This is the koan of the two levels of truth, absolute and relative, which can help us to reconcile the often contradictory and paradoxical nature of life.
This is the mystery of Mahamudra, the two-sided mirror of emptiness and appearances-- fullness and emptiness in intimate embrace. When we realize that nothing happens and everything is just us as it is; when we realize ourselves, as we are; then we realize that there is nothing to do and nothing to become, and we can really begin to get on with it. We have realized the sublime Dharma truth that is beyond action and inaction. Nothing happens, yes—and what a show it is! Thus we learn to see through empty, hollow, insubstantial infinite outer appearances as well as seeing through infinite empty inner experiences, and penetrate the secret of empty infinite open radiant mind nature. Thus we can realize the transrealescent rainbow light body of perfect freedom--enlightenment—the fruit or result of Mahamudra practice.