Chögyam TrungpaYou have to start with what you are, where you are now. You are aware of the present state. You are now, you are not past, you are not future, but you are now. In that state of awareness, you don’t need to cling to a concept about who you are and what you will be. Concept cannot exist in the present state, but awareness is very much there.
Tag Archives: awareness
Vast and intimate ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheAs a drop of water placed in the ocean becomes indistinct, boundless, unrecognizable, and yet still exists, so my mind merged with space. It was no longer a matter of me seeing trees, as I had become trees. Me and trees were one. Trees were not the object of awareness; they manifested awareness. Stars were not the object of appreciation but appreciation itself. No separate me loved the world. The world was love. My perfect home. Vast and intimate. Every particle was alive with love, fluid, flowing, without barriers. I was an alive particle, no interpretative mind, clarity beyond ideas. Vibrant, energetic, all-seeing. My awareness did not go toward anything, yet everything appeared — as an empty mirror both receives and reflects everything around it. A flower appears in the empty mirror of the mind, and the mind accepts its presence without inviting or rejecting
Maintaing awareness in the states of agitation and meditative equipoise ~ Tilopa
TilopaIf you can maintain awareness in the states of agitation and meditative equipoise, the pollution of disturbing thoughts will clear automatically, just like a pond that is left undisturbed. Do not consider certain mental experiences as good and worth cultivating and other experiences as hindrances that need to be abandoned. If you can develop this attitude, your mind will gradually be emptied of its unconscious contents: The karmic traces and dispositions and all the obscurations.
Intellect and Intuition ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaThere are two approaches to the spiritual path: the intellectual and the intuitive. In the intellectual tradition, spiritual development is viewed as a sharpening of intellectual precision, primarily through the study of theology. Whereas in the intuitive or mystical tradition, spiritual development is viewed as a deepening of awareness through practices such as meditation. These two approaches are not in opposition. Rather, they are two channels that combine to form the spiritual path.
Awareness of our own condition ~ Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Namkhai Norbu RinpocheThe only source of every kind of benefit for others is awareness of our own condition. When we know how to help ourselves and how to work with our situation we can really benefit others, and our feeling of compassion will arise spontaneously, without the need for us to hold ourselves to the rules of behaviour of any given religious doctrine.
What do we mean when we say, becoming aware of our own true condition? It means observing ourselves, discovering who we are, who we believe we are, and what our attitude is towards others and to life. If we just observe the Limits, the mental judgments, the passions, the pride, the jealousy, and the attachments with which we close ourselves up in the course of one single day, where do they arise from, what are they rooted in? Their source is our dualistic vision, and our conditioning. To be able to help both ourselves and others we need to overcome all the limits in which we are enclosed. This is the true function of the teachings.
The single sufficient king ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Tsoknyi RinpocheThis true mindfulness is the single sufficient king. We can also call that equanimity, the meditation state. Equanimity literally means “placing evenly.” What is placed evenly? It is rigpa, awareness. Placing rigpa in evenness means leaving it alone. It’s not placing it as being aware of something other. Just leave your awareness as it is, alone. It’s not a sense of nowness, nor is it a sense of the past or the future. Rather it is something which embraces past, present, and future, which embraces the nowness but is not the nowness itself.
The Secret To Surfing the Waves ~ Tenzin Palmo
Tenzin PalmoWhat we need is to be interested and to watch, but not interfere or be caught up in what we are thinking. Don’t think of the past, don’t anticipate the future, don’t get fascinated by the present. See it as it is. Just be there with it. A thought is just a thought. An emotion is just an emotion. It is like a bubble. It will burst and another one will come up.
When we first begin to put this into practice the mind begins to split. We develop what is called the observer, the witness, the knower. This is an aspect of the mind. It is still just mind, conceptual mind, but it is a mind which is standing back and looking at what is going on, as if at a distance. In itself, this is not ultimate reality, because it is still a dualistic mind. But it is a vast improvement on the way we normally think, because it gives us the space to see a thought as a thought and an emotion as an emotion. Then we can decide whether this is a useful thought or emotion or not. We know it for what is, rather than being absorbed in it. We no longer identify with it.
If we develop this inner awareness, which is like an inner space, we can ride the waves of life. People imagine that to be a meditator you have to always live in very tranquil situations and that you are likely to be inundated if a turbulent situation arises. This is true for beginners, just as it is for someone who is learning how to surf. At the beginning, they have to stick to the small waves otherwise they will be bowled over. But an expert surfer looks for the big waves. The greater the waves, the more fun, once you have your balance. The secret is to be balanced, to be poised. To be a good surfer you need to be neither too tense nor too relaxed, just balanced. This is what we need in our practice, too.
When we develop this inner space, everything takes on a dream-like quality. Not dream-like in the sense of being sleepy, but in that it is no longer so solid, so real, so urgent. It has a quality almost like an illusion. You don’t take it quite so seriously, because you are not so totally involved in it. Now when we have that sense of stepping back and seeing life with a degree of clarity, we are able to respond to situations which arise with freshness and spontaneity, instead of our usual automatic response, which is like pressing a button on a machine. We begin to respond naturally and in an appropriate manner.
Spacious awareness ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheMy training had introduced me to the spacious awareness of my natural mind. We compare this awareness to open skies and oceans — references meant to invoke immeasurable vastness, even though awareness is more immeasurable than skies and oceans combined. Once we learn to recognize the ever-present quality of awareness, to let go of the conditioned and contingent mind and recognize that we are this spacious awareness, then our thoughts and emotions manifest as waves or clouds inseparable from awareness. With recognition, we no longer get carried away by the stories that keep our minds spinning in repetitive cycles, or jumping around like a crazy monkey.
Recollecting kindness ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaTake the initiative to seek out information, and then merge what you learn with your feelings. This is a way to use the Internet wisely, to allow you to feel your connectedness. You could read about the daily lives of people in that country. You could do a search for images of factory workers. When you find them, look into their eyes, and reflect that they or someone like them ran the machine that sewed your garments. You could learn more about the circumstances of their lives, and try to feel how your life would be if you had grown accustomed to living under those conditions.
When it is grounded in gratitude and a sense of closeness, your greater awareness of the disparities between your living conditions and theirs could motivate you to act to improve their circumstances. At a minimum, each time you put on an article of clothing, you can recognize that you are wearing a sign of others’ kindness. You could feel as close to others as your clothes are to you.
Healing the mind ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheIf we have both mindfulness and awareness, when the mind is wild and distracted, thinking only about worldly things, we should think that until now we have been caught up in the suffering of samsara, and realize how useless everything is that we do in that regard. If the mind is spoiled by being caught up in that way, there will be no way to become free from the suffering of the three lower realms. If the mind is not spoiled, our bliss and happiness will increase, just like that of the exalted ones. Thinking of that, we should try to heal the mind. In the beginning, it is very difficult to control, but gradually, as we get used to doing so, it becomes easier.
The kindness we receive from others ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaLiving in a society should be our daily reminder of how much we receive from and owe to one another. A clear awareness of this debt for the kindness we receive from others can provide a stable foundation for engagement in social service or activism. Our actions can be grounded in the simple wish to care for others as we ourselves have been cared for by the world.
The dawn of naked wisdom ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheWhen about to settle in the natural way of mind-essence, some people merely try to stay conscious and aware. Then they rest in this state of mental consciousness with the feeling: “Ah, how clear!” Other people fixate on a state of utter void as if their mind had gone blank.
Both of these cases, however, are simply aspects of consciousness clinging to a dualistic experience. Whenever this duality occurs — between the clarity and the one perceiving clarity, the emptiness and the one perceiving emptiness — look into the nature of this stream of rigidly fixated mindfulness. By doing so, you pull up the stake to which the dualistic mind, which holds to a perceiver and something perceived, is tethered, and make room for the naked, wide-open natural state of awareness — a luminous emptiness without center or edge.
To apprehend in a nondual way this luminous and open, natural state is the essence of awareness. It is the dawn of naked wisdom, free from the veils of fixated experience.
Awareness of death ~ 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai LamaOne of the positive side-effects of maintaining a very high degree of awareness of death is that it will prepare the individual to such an extent that, when the individual actually faces death, he or she will be in a better position to maintain his or her presence of mind. Especially in Tantric Buddhism, it is considered that the state of mind which one experiences at the point of death is extremely subtle and, because of the subtlety of the level of that consciousness, it also has a great power and impact upon one’s mental continuum.
Meditative awareness ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheWhen our perception shifts to meditative or steady awareness, it is no longer narrowed by memory and expectation; whatever we see, touch, taste, smell or hear has greater clarity and sharpness, and enlivens our interactions.
Anywhere, anytime ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheBecause awareness is as present in our lives as the air we breathe, we can access it anywhere, anytime.
The way to rest the mind ~ Saraha
SarahaThe way to rest the mind
Should be neither too intense nor too relaxed.
Let the mind rest with clarity and without distraction,
Like a lamp on a windless night.
Let the mind wander to various objects with awareness,
Like a bird set free from a ship at sea.
Regard whatever arises in the mind as part of mahamudra,
Like the flames of a forest fire.
Regard all sensory impressions as part of meditation,
Like reflections of the moon on water.
A yogi allows the mind to wander and rest with ease,
Like a skilful elephant herder looks after his elephants.
A yogi should delight in sensory experiences,
Just as fields rely on water and manure.
The unity of shamatha and vipashyana ~ 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche
3rd Jamgon Kongtrul RinpocheWhat does it mean to practice shamatha and vipashyana together? Shamatha involves letting the mind rest on an object in a state of concentration. Both mind and object lack ultimate reality. This true nature is present at all times, not only when one achieves insight into it through vipashyana meditation. Maintaining this awareness or insight in shamatha meditation – that is, not separating one-pointedness from awareness — is the unity of shamatha and vipashyana.
When a feeling or thought arises, what does it mean to unite “calmness movement, and awareness” through shamatha and vipashyana? Let us take the arising of anger as an example. First one notices that anger has arisen and acknowledges it. This corresponds to shamatha or mental calmness, that is, mindfulness which allows one to notice that a feeling has arisen. Based on this, one examines the feeling or thought by means of vipashyana. Calmness, movement, and awareness are the three phases that one examines. Calmness corresponds to the question: “where does the feeling or thought dwell?,” movement to the question: ”where does the feeling or thought go to?,” and awareness to the question: “what is present between the arising and the subsiding of the thought or feeling?” This form of investigation brings one to the realization that the feeling has no real existence.
Awareness is always present ~ Mingyur Rinpoche
Mingyur RinpocheOne of the first qualities of buddhanature that my teachers introduced me to was awareness. Awareness is like a thread that runs through every experience we have. Our thoughts and emotions are constantly changing. Our reactions and perceptions come and go. Yet despite these changes, awareness is always present. It is wide open and accommodating like the sky, immeasurably deep and vast like the ocean, and stable and enduring like a massive mountain.
Awareness doesn’t get better when we have an inspired thought or a sublime emotion. It doesn’t get worse when we’re completely neurotic. Awareness just is. It’s not something we do. It’s who we are.
Since awareness is always there, the only thing we need to do is recognize it. We don’t need to improve it, and we couldn’t even if we tried.
The biggest challenge with awareness is that it’s so close, we don’t see it. It’s so ordinary, we don’t believe it. It’s just knowing, effortless presence.
Maintaining awareness ~ Gampopa
GampopaWhen meditators are learning to stabilize the mind, they should not regard meditative equipoise as something good. If they fail to have an experience of meditative equipoise,they should not regard that is a failure. The important point is not whether meditative equipoise is present, but whether you can maintain awareness in both a settled and a disturbed state of mind. If disturbing thoughts arise, you should use them with awareness to recognize that thoughts are transient — they arise, persist for a while, and then disperse. The transience of a thought is revealed by its elusiveness. Before you can get hold of a thought, it is already gone, and another one has appeared in its place.
Gratitude ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaGratitude is a value of interdependence. It is an inner orientation that aligns us emotionally with the outer reality of our lives. Bringing heart and mind together, gratitude is an affective state that can be produced by an awareness of interdependence. We identify interdependence at work and train ourselves to respond to that awareness with gratitude. Like other values of interdependence, gratitude can lead us from awareness to feelings and, eventually, can culminate in action.”