Naturally abiding.

རང་གནས་
Tibetan: rang-nay
English: naturally abiding, indwelling, naturally present, self-sustaining

Having come to a place of rest in our meditation, the next instruction involves how to sustain or maintain that continuity.

Initially when we have come to a place of rest, or rang-bab, we encounter tension and stray into mind and mental states. The instruction here is to simply recognize that, and again let go. Rang-bab.

The second instruction in order to maintain the continuity of that state is to recognize mind as illusory.

Mind encompasses not only mental states but all sensory experience. All is mind.  The play of mind and mental states are the illusory play of phenomena, the unceasing unfolding of reality at this very moment. By applying the instruction to recognize mind as illusory, we can learn to rest with ease in the illusory play of emptiness in which luminous clarity naturally unfolds free from acceptance or rejection.

As we learn to naturally abide, rang-nay, the unceasing play of emptiness unfolds and gives rise to various experiences of bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality. Do not cling to those experiences or chase after them. Simply recognize them as the illusory play of mind, no matter how shiny or enjoyable they are. Recognize them as ornaments of your practice and simply let them be as they are. When we gain familiarity working with appearances in this way, we recognize them as free in their own place, rangdrol. With no effort or contrivance on our part, everything is naturally liberated just as it is and we continue in a state of naturally abiding equipoise.

Applying the instruction of recognizing mind as illusory in our meditation allows us to maintain the continuity of this indwelling, naturally present awareness and to draw out or reveal the natural clarity of the mind, which is the third stage of rang-sal, in which we reveal and recognize the lucid clarity of awareness itself.

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A reminder to register for our upcoming daylong meditation retreat- resting in the nature of mind. We will be practicing these methods of resting in the natural state and receiving more detailed instruction on these methods.