A first glimpse at the ground of being.

When we are introduced to rigpa, or pure awareness, we discover authentic presence, which is actually a rediscovery of our natural state of being. In that moment of union, everything is interconnected and we develop an inner coherence in which all that appears and exists is resolved just as it is. The elusive secret of how to live our life is plainly revealed before our own eyes with nothing more to be done. The world around us becomes a dance in the pavilion of space as we step out from a way of becoming and enter into a way of being in the world.

What we awaken to is the very presence that hides in the heart of the human condition. That pure awareness becomes the source from which we continually shape our life and the world. Living fully in the world, but no longer overwhelmed by the world, genuine purpose and understanding arise anew.

This opening of the 'Dharma eye' requires reorienting ourselves and is often disorienting. No longer propelled by confusion and reactive emotions, we need to rely on careful attention and mindfulness to explore our new place in this emerging world. Time and again we must leave behind the tendency to slip back into the self-involved narrow lens of dualistic mind, self and other, me and mine. Recognizing the tendency to shut down, hold back and get hooked as a call to presence, we slowly learn to orient ourselves towards whatever is arising and thus weaving authentic presence into the very fabric of life.

No longer needing to deny the wounds and suffering inherent to the human condition, we continually rediscover ourselves as authentic human beings capable of loving ourselves and others, and ready to share the gifts we have brought to life within our own natural condition.

Stillness within movement.

Settle the mind. Let it rest naturally. Let it rest in its own place.

Let go of any thoughts or stories playing out in your head. Let go of your plans and projects. Simply rest in open presence.

Calm, peaceful, expansive presence.

Stillness.

Within that stillness,
thoughts will drift like tumbling leaves,
sensations will burst forth and disappear like water bubbles,
voices and sounds reverberate like an echo in a canyon.

Movement within stillness.

Nothing to do, simply rest.

Movement is free in its own place, naturally freed without having to do anything.

Resting deeply, we become like a vast ocean of equanimity; the variety of sights, sounds and thoughts rise and fall, yet we remain unmoved in the expanse of naturally settled meditation. 

Resting deeply in stillness we can accommodate movement without being disturbed. Gaining proficiency with movement within stillness, we can begin to recognize stillness within movement.

Extending an arm, lifting a glass, walking, conversing, working. All thoughts, expressions and movement manifest as a grand play of awareness.

There is no need to fight or struggle, movement doesn't destroy stillness, it enhances awareness.

Don't bind your mind to stillness. Don't block movement. The inseparability of stillness and movement is the wisdom mind of pristine awareness, the natural Great Perfection.

Dancing on the beat.

A playful dance,
meeting and parting,
coming and going.
Intense and fluid,
precision and presence.

Resist and you get pushed around.
Force and your foot will get stepped on.
Shut down for an instant, and you can't catch up.

Relax. Enjoy this opportunity to dance.

Standoff on the streets (or dancing on the sidewalks).

Twice in as many weeks I have heard people comment on the standoff that occurs on sidewalks everywhere across the country.  Imagine it: you are walking on the sidewalk and someone is walking towards you, and you are both in the middle. 

Do you move out of their way, or do they move out of yours?

There is a common conception that people feel like they are always the ones to move.  The comments that I have heard is that people experience this as a display of power.  That not moving is a sign,
I am more powerful than you.

This standoff is perceived as a power play, and if you move then you are losing.  But is that true?  Are people on the sidewalks really power walking?

Indefinitely there are a few people out there who treat this confrontation on the sidewalk as a display of power, best of luck to them.  My bet though is that most of the people aren't power walking, they are sleep walking.

Yep.  Sleep walking.

They are caught up in their story lines.  They are habitually driven between point A and point B.  They are not aware of the world around them and they have no concern for the people around them.  They are checking their phones, their senses closed off behind headphones and just trying to make it in their microcosm. 

What about you though?

You're a mover.  You are alert and aware.  You notice the people around you, adapt to a change in their stride.  You're present. 

By moving you lose nothing.  You're not giving anything up.  This sidewalk, it's not yours.  You are being polite, respectful.  You are making a choice and standing up (or moving aside) for what you want to see in the world. 

You can walk with confidence and compassion, which feels like dancing on the sidewalks.  

No one will even notice, but you are being the change you wish to see in the world. 

So next time you are out walking and are conscious enough to be aware of the people around you, make a decision: Do you move or stand your line?

Ask yourself why?  What are you trying to assert?  What are you trying to defend?

Who is making this about a power play?  What if you are establishing a power play against someone who is sleep walking?

Maybe you are still learning what it means to be awake and this person, they are your teacher.

Rest in movement.

I think we all have an impulse to see rest as state without movement.  It's a gap in your day, a day off of work or a moment of connecting with the breath. 

We see rest as stillness.  Peace and quiet. 

We struggle to reconcile movement with rest.  When we are busy, we long for the moment when we are not.  When we are at work, we long for the moment we are done.  Movement becomes our adversary and our days are lost in spite of ourselves. 

What if we learned to rest in the dance?  What if we could rest with the dynamic display that manifests around us and through our day?  What if movement didn't pull us away, but rather reinforced our awareness. 

What if we no longer had to fight against 'busy', but took 'busy' along with us on the path of realization?

If we no longer had to divide our days between busy or restful, how would we live them?

Just breathe.

You hear this a lot.  Don't freak out.  Don't panic.  Don't blow this up any bigger than it is. 

Just breathe.

Part of what this advice is suggesting is: Don't get caught up in your emotions and the situation.  If staying with your breathe can help you hang in there longer, stay focused and precise, then yes!  Just breathe.

But don't confuse just breathe with
just back away slowly,
just go find a safe place to hide,
just protect yourself,
because that is bad advice and that is not what we are doing here.

Just breathe.
Just let go of what you are stuck on.
Let go of having to control the situation.
Let go of 'this or that',
Let go of value judgements.
It's hot in here.  It is going to get hotter.
You have to dance to the music that is playing.
Just breathe.

Why am I so angry?

Is it the person in front of me or the situation?
Is it because of what they are doing or because I don't know how to respond?
Is it too intense?  Am I too tired? 
Is it because I don't know the right answer?
Is it because what I have tried isn't working?

Why am I so angry and what am I to do with this anger?

If you can sit with the intensity of that question and continue to work with it,
the only thing left to do is create.

Try another method.
Push another limit.
Fail another attempt.
Reach a different conclusion.
Dance to a different rhythm.

When the situation is intense, you could simply be angry- internally or externally.
Or you could dance harder. 

Dancing Partners

It's tempting when you go dancing to only dance to the songs you like and the people who dance like you.  It feels safer to dance with those who have the same tempo and those who make you look good.

The problem with this sort of dancing is that you spend most of your time waiting.  Waiting for the right song to play, waiting for your partner to be free, waiting for the right time to start.  You want to dance, but you never actually get around to dancing.

Start dancing with those who are bad dancers.  Be patient.  Slow down your tempo and adjust your posture.  Cut them some slack and give them time to catch up.  Listen to what they need and guide them with tiny steps and repetition.  You actually learn a lot about your own dancing when you teach others to dance.

Start dancing when it is not your song.  Explore a new tempo, a new style.  Feel the music and the beat, listen closely and let it guide you.  Trust your instincts, your intuition.  Dance on the edge of unknowing and fear.  Dance on the edge of 'you might look stupid'.  Watch what others are doing, adapt and adjust.  Make it your own.  You're still dancing.

Start dancers with others who are so much better than you.  Be awed by their grace and poise.  Mimic their moves.  Embody their grooves.  You might not have that much style and definitely don't have their grace, but let them lift you.  Be inspired.  Want to leap higher and with some extra pizzazz.  Now you know it is possible, keep dancing.

When every song and every partner presents themselves as an opportunity to dance, your practice has reached its consummation.  Now you are practicing the art of dance, so just keep on dancing.

Then you just need to learn how to bring those skills off the dance floor.  Dance in the streets, dance at work.  Dance with anger, dance with love.  

Undermining fear.

Fight the temptation to fill boredom with busyness. 

Resist the urge to reach for your cell phone.  Relinquish the need to look something up.  Wait to check your email, your social media, your news outlet. 

For a moment, just sit with the irritation of having an open moment.  Witness all the momentum and inertia pushing you to keep moving, keep doing.  Feel all the subtle agitation and static energy that insist on you shifting your attention somewhere else.

In order to avoid the uncomfortableness of the present we consume- food, ideas, news, pictures, entertainment- anything we can fit in that space at that time.
In order to avoid the hollowness of the present we do- all kinds of things.

At the root of all of these lie fear, uncertainty and doubt.  We consume and do all sorts of things just to avoid these unpleasant feelings and perceptions.  Our assumption is that by consuming and doing we might be able to avoid them all together.  We haven't succeeded to date.     
 
Cultivate space in your life.  Carve out intentional moments.  Create boundaries.  This is your battle field. 

As you learn to rest with openness, all the irritation, boredom and anxiousness are undermined.  As you dig deeper, fear and uncertainty have no ground on which to stand.  No longer holding onto any ground, openness gives rise to a natural outpouring of inner wealth and fullness.  A wellspring of generosity, kindness and compassion springs forth with nothing left to hold it back.

Of course, when you share generosity, kindness and compassion you are making yourself vulnerable.  With openness comes vulnerability, with vulnerability comes fear. 

This is the dance.  Dance with openness.  Dance with fear.  And I'm sorry in advance if a couple toes get stepped on. 

Work as dance.

Work as dance,
opportunity to do art,
endless play of partners and songs,
some lead, others follow.
Meet them where they are at,
not enough to show them what to do,
need to recognize where they are,
and where they can go.

Static.

We are not very familiar anymore with static on the radio, but do you remember those days of dialing into a radio station? You would get close, close enough to hear the lyrics, but just off enough that you kept tweaking the dial. 

Then you would hit it.

The vibrance of the music would shoot through the speakers, its clarity would lift your soul.  Its energy enliven your mind.  Oh, how those hips would start to groove and that music would move you.

You would dance.

Today most of our days are filled with static.  The endless distraction, consumption and activity.  The static of our job, our situation, our chosen social network.  We are all supposed to be somewhere or something but where we are at is not it.  Most days we can barely even discern the lyrics, there definitely ain't no music coming through.

Every once in awhile though, we tune in.  We hear something that we connect with.  It moves us.

If that music stirs your heart, picks you out of your funk, makes you feel a little jive-  Follow it.  Let it move you and create the conditions for it to keep playing in your life.  Go deeper. 

Then you might find your music.  Your rhythm.

Share your music with the world.  Be Generous.  Be Loving.  Be Kind.  Let it lift the weak and enliven the weary.   Let it infuse your work, your life and your day.

It's good to be dancing again.  

White Sheet, White Mind

Do me a favor.  This is something to be experienced yourself, don't just read the words.

On the next bright, beautiful sunny day go outside, sit in a field and lay out a perfectly white sheet.  Sit in a field that has trees, flowers and all kinds of stuff.  Sitting comfortably on the sheet, just be aware of the sheet, your surroundings, the sun in the sky above.  Just relax.  

You will notice as the winds stir that your sheet starts to collect a lot of dirt and debris.  You might get some leaves and flower petals, some insects trekking across your sheet.  Your once perfectly white sheet will actually start to look rather untidy.

So there are a couple things we can do about this.

The first method is to be constantly mindful of anything that stains our sheet and then strive diligently to clear it.  Using this method our mindfulness is paramount and we actually may be able to keep the sheet clear for a period of time.  Invariably though more dirt and debris will arise and we will keep ourselves busy in the clearing process.

This is the method of the causal vehicles.  The vehicles based on mind.  They do enable one to recognize and experience the pure nature of the mind, but they are bound by their fixation on defilements and impurity.

The second method is to just rest and continue to watch as our sheet starts to collect debris.  As we continue to identify with the originally clean and white sheet, not reacting to anything whatsoever, we start to notice that the debris doesn't actually defile the sheet.  Actually, as the winds continue to stir the debris moves around on the sheet and can even remove itself if we wait patiently.  The debris starts to become an ornament, magically dancing around the purity of our perfectly white sheet. 

This is the method of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection.  If we can identify and recognize the originally pure nature of our own minds, then there is really nothing to do but rest in openness.  The resting without fixation is actually what allows the liberation of the defilements, if there are any defilements to begin with. 

In this example, sitting outside represents resting in openness.  The perfectly white sheet represents our originally pure nature of mind.  The stirring winds represent the constantly changing process of dependent origination; cause and effect.  The trees, flowers and stuff represent our reality- often times beautiful but also messy.  The insects trekking across the sheet represents our own neurosis, ugly and disgusting.  The dirt represents all of our thoughts and emotions, fears and insecurities.

Oh, and if you want to leave the sheet that is your own anxiety and doubt.  Just relax and stay seated.

Be the sheet.  

Stepping Forward

You have your practice.

And I respect that.  I honor that. 

That is a living transmission between you and your teacher.  Go deeper.

But what happens when you bring your practice off the cushion, out of the studio and into the world.  What happens to your practice when no one around you cares about your meditation experience or how long you can hold half moon while controlling your heart rate. 

Real-time is messy.  It is unpredictable and you are out there all by yourself. 

Do you long to get back on the cushion, hit the next yoga class or seek to enjoy a week-long, peaceful retreat?    

Then you aren't actually doing the practice.  You are escaping and hiding from fear and emotion when it matters most.  You are letting the resistance win. 

Your practice will teach you how to stand.  If you leave it at that then it is all about you.  Be brave enough to walk.  To step forward into the opening with discipline, patience and generosity. 

You might just learn how to dance. 

The Artist

 

Namo Buddhaya!
I prostrate and praise the sublime artist,
Who chisels away the afflictions and obscurations of beings,
Refining their body, speech and mind,
Into the indestructible three kayas.

He who reveals this timeless work of art,
Innate buddhanature,
Is simultaneously the art and artist,
Benefitting beings through their creative display.

Dance Standing Still

The ultimate bodhicitta slogans are instructions that are meant to allow one to recognize and cultivate ultimate bodhicitta in meditation.  

2. Regard all dharmas as dreams.

Normally, our reality and day to day affairs seem very concrete.  Our experience feels very real as we are going through it- the whirlwind of our thoughts, surging emotions, feelings of joy and our aches and pains.  We usually don't examine our experience and we just take it for granted.  Life in a nutshell.  

As we move away from our experiences, in the following hours, days and weeks we find it increasingly hard to remember what it was exactly that we were holding onto.  What did that wine and steak taste like again?  What were we arguing about?  What was it that we were so desperate to uphold, reaffirm or prove?  Was it worth all the effort?  

Regarding all dharmas- all experiences, sense objects and activities- as a dream means that we relate to them with less fixation, more openness.  Dream here doesn't mean hazy or unclear.  We can have very lucid dreams, dreams that evoke very real emotions and feelings while we are caught up in them.  The key is that when we awake from a dream we know it was just a dream and that the experience was temporary and fleeting, that it was just something that we were fixating on in our own mind. 

We can experience this sort of insight in our own meditation.  When we take our seat in meditation we become aware of an endless dance of thoughts, sights, sounds and feelings.  Our habitual tendency is to fixate on these phenomena in all their variety, but in meditation we just let them be as they are without following after them.  As we begin to relax into that illusory dance we begin to discover an underlying stillness.

Within the space of meditation, without grasping at the dynamic display that is arising in all its variety, we begin to notice and appreciate this unchanging quality.  Despite movement there is stillness.  It is here that we can look at the next slogan.

3. Examine the nature of unborn awareness.  

When we look at this awareness, we are aware of this unceasing dance of phenomena that is occurring, but since we are not getting caught up in that display we are also aware of this calm stillness.  Look at that.  Where does this come from, where does it go?

When you look at the dance you find there is nothing to hold onto, it is an endless play that can take any form at all and yet never exists as a single thing whatsoever.  When you look at the mind, there are all these things we are aware of, yet there is an underlying stillness that is lucid and alert.  When you look at that mind, you cannot find anything.  There is nothing there to hold onto, mind is unborn, yet there is this awareness that perceives very clearly.  From here we can address the next slogan.

4.  Self-liberate even the antidote.

When we look at the dynamic dance of phenomena, we find that despite the unceasing play there is this unchanging stillness which could be interpreted as nothing ever really happening.  When we look at the mind we find that while it is aware, we cannot find any particular 'thing' that is actually mind. 

The danger here is that we could come to the conclusion of 'Well, what's the point? Nothing matters, nothing ever happens.  Who cares, it doesn't matter what you do'.  This is very tricky, for we risk becoming nihilists- heartless narcissistic bastards.  Don't do that. 

Self-liberate the antidote means not to get caught up in that experience, don't solidify that experience of emptiness.  Don't fixate on that experience of not finding anything that is truly lasting.

5. Rest in the nature of the alaya, the essence.  

In meditation, we seek to move beyond our coarse level of mind and learn to rest in a more subtle level.  There are eight types of consciousnesses- five sense (sight, hearing, olfactory, taste, touch), conceptual consciousness, emotional consciousness and the alaya, or foundational consciousness.

The idea of resting in the alaya is that we are not supposed to get caught up in the dance of the other seven consciousnesses.  We don't want to follow after all the sights, sounds, smells, feelings and thoughts we are experiencing as we sit in meditation.  Learn to rest in a calm, clear, non-discursive awareness.  As we familiarize with this place of natural rest, free from coming and going, we also familiarize ourselves with ultimate bodhicitta.

It is important to understand that the alaya is not ultimate bodhicitta, but it is a much more subtle level of mind where we can begin to appreciate the qualities and characteristics of the nature of the mind.

Resting in the alaya we can see the dreamlike nature of all phenomena.   Not getting caught up in the dynamic dance of phenomena, we are able to examine the nature of unborn awareness.  Without clinging to that experience we self-liberate even the antidote, which is the empty nature of awareness.  We rest in lucid clarity, the mind open and expansive.  All of this is something that we are not creating in meditation, it becomes self-evident as we continue to sit with the proper instruction.

6.  In post-meditation, be a child of illusion.

At the end of the meditation session, don't just get up and go about your day.  Carry whatever insight or experience you have from meditation into your daily life.  Let it infuse your relationships, your work, your good times and your bad. 

Regard all situations and activities as dreams.  Don't get caught up in the dance.  We need to participate in the dance, we don't really have a choice here.  We cannot be a wallflower in the dance of life.  But as we dance we can adapt, respond; we can lead or follow; show strength or vulnerability.  We can affect the shape and the form the dance takes, a miraculous display that can appear in any way whatsoever. 

Go dancing, be a child of illusion. 

Impermanence

The second preliminary is the contemplation on impermanence.  The key point is that all conditioned phenomena are impermanent.

There are several implications to consider when contemplating impermanence.  First is the impermanence of the outer world.  No matter where we look we cannot find anything permanent or lasting.  Our environment composed of mountains, lakes and trees is constantly changing.  The beings that live in the world are constantly undergoing birth, aging, sickness and death.  No matter where we look, high or low, nothing permanent or lasting can be found.

Second, we can examine the inner world- our own life, body, thoughts and feelings.  When we look closely, we cannot find anything that withstands the test of time.  Our body undergoes many changes throughout life, our thoughts come and go like a never ending movie, our feelings constantly rise and fall like the tide.  Whether our experiences are pleasant or not, they come and go leaving only a faint memory similar to last nights dream. 

People often say, 'I cannot believe how fast this month/ year has gone.'  It is quite strange that even though we notice how quickly life passes us by, they do not apply it to their future.  We stand with our mouths agape at how fast the past ten years have went, what about the next ten?  Do you think they are going to slow down?   This life is like a water bubble, clearly apparent for a moment but vanishing in an instant. 

The third implication to consider is the faults of permanence.  We often consider phenomena, whether that of the outer world or the inner world, to possess an identify of their own.  We think that they really truly exist from their own side.  We tend to fixate on notions of self and other, mine and yours, right and wrong.  It is this fixation that then leads to fear, stress, anxiety, anger and attachment.  

When we understand the impermanence of the outer and inner world as well as the faults of permanence, we can come to embrace a larger scope, which is that if everything is impermanent then change is possible.  We often feel stuck- in situations, work, feelings and thoughts.  When we contemplate on impermanence we gain certainty that nothing is fixed, that while things may seem very solid at the time it is really just our mistaken perception.  By loosening our fixation on identity, we come to eliminate the extreme and faults of permanence.  We come to appreciate the larger scope, that reality is dynamic, flexible, a vast web of dependent origination. 

We then come to the decisive experience of impermanence.  By not getting caught up in the dynamic display of the environment or beings, we come to discover the fundamental ground of being, the true nature of reality which is unchanging.  Having never existed as anything whatsoever, it manifests in any way at all.  All that appears and exists within samsara and nirvana is nothing but an ornament of awareness, the unceasing play of dependent origination that is utterly beyond speech, thought or expression.  Life opens itself to an endless dance of creative display.  Our minds, free from fixation, come to appreciate and rejoice in experience rather than being bound by it. 

While there is uncertainty as to the time of death, death is certain so we must realize our true nature now.  For too long we have thought we had so much time, but now the sun is setting and life has run its course.  We have no time left to practice, our body is growing old and weak, our mind frail. 

Life is a passing glance of possibility.  Do we act or not?  Seize the moment!