LOOPS FROM THE SOURCE OF DANGER IS FEAR
Introduction
The Source of Danger is Fear is a text that describes some of the situations that I faced while I was in retreat in the higher Himalayas between 1977 and December 1982, and the ways in which the said situations were resolved through the practice of the Dzogchen Menngagde (upadesha). In the original text, the first part of each section described one of the loops whereby we frequently tie ourselves up—which, inspired by Laing's Knots, I called “laces.” The point is that the loops of samsara cannot be undone by means of a contrived action; however, at some stages on the Path an initial action is required for them to spontaneously liberate themselves (which involves the instant dissolution of the doer). Thus the second part of each section provided instructions for the practice of the Dzogchen Menngagde (Skt., upadesha) that would create the conditions for the “lace” described in the first part to possibly undo itself spontaneously. The condition for the lace to possibly undo itself spontaneously is that we have already been Directly Introduced to the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness that the Dzogchen teachings call rigpa: It so happens that this text was written in the tradition of the Upadesha series of the Dzogchen teachings, which provides instructions allowing us to remain in the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness to which we have already been introduced.
It must be noted that some of the laces describe self-catalyzing systems—that is, systems involving positive feedback loops that cause them to grow exponentially from their own feedback. Only the effective work of elusion or bad faith, which depends on a low bioenergetic volume (Skt., kundalini; Tib., thigle) and the concomitant state of small space/time/knowledge (Tarthang Tulku, 1977a), can curb the system's tendency to increase its intensity toward a threshold level at which, having achieved its reductio ad absurdum, the system becomes liable to spontaneous liberation. The understanding of the functional structure of the “lace” described in any given section and the increase of the bioenergetic volume and the consequent enlargement of the individual's space/time/knowledge may activate the process of reductio ad absurdum, just as the introduction to the state of rigpa and the knowledge of the methods outlined in the second part of each section of the original text may create conditions allowing for the system's spontaneous liberation—or, in other words, for the “lace” to undo itself spontaneously.
In this book I will not reproduce the second part of each section, but only the one describing the “lace” in which we tie ourselves up. The reason for this is that the instructions contained in the second part are not to be publicly/indiscriminately broadcast by any individual whatsoever, but only transmitted individually to authorized, capable practitioners, by an authorized, capable Master.
I. Laces of Human Experience in General
Pleasure and pain
1 We fail to obtain lasting pleasure and constantly reap pain as a result of our obstinate attempt to attain lasting pleasure and avoid all pain.
2 We wish to obtain lasting pleasure and elude the pain produced by our attempt to obtain lasting pleasure and to elude the pain produced by our attempt to obtain lasting pleasure and to elude the pain produced...
Time and desire
1 By hungrily looking toward a supposed future pleasure
to be obtained from a supposedly substantial object we miss the total bliss of nowness. Then, when the desired future arrives we are so possessed by the attitude of looking toward the future and away from the present that we cannot at all enjoy the experience we had yearned for. Then we elude awareness of our frustration and of the lack we have discovered, by imagining that pleasure will be found in the future when we obtain another object.
Thus, the great bliss and plenitude of nowness continues to be hidden as we look and rush toward the future and experience the dissatisfaction and frustration of being away from the now.
2 We miss the now and its inherent bliss
and experience uneasiness and discomfort as we run after thoughts which project a “better” future, evoke a “better” past or imagine a “better” present, and thereby indulge in longing or nostalgia.
3 The now is supreme bliss, which we miss,
as we concentrate on thoughts about the future or the past or on countless miscellaneous thoughts, precisely as a result of missing the now's supreme bliss as we concentrate on thoughts about the future or the past or on countless miscellaneous thoughts,
precisely as a result of missing the now's supreme bliss as we concentrate on thoughts...
Delusion, distress and here-nowness
1 The distress inherent in delusion
may be taken to be inherent in leisurely here-nowness; therefore, we may spend our lives eluding leisurely here-nowness, trying to fill our time with business and distractions and thus generating the aversion to the here-and-now that gives rise to uneasiness and boredom and missing the plenitude, fulfillment and bliss that are inherent in plain here-nowness.
Conceptualizing the now as being boring, we reject it and thus experience the pain produced by rejection, which we believe to be inherent in leisurely here-nowness and that we reject, giving rise to further pain that we believe to be inherent in leisurely here-nowness and that we reject, giving rise to further pain...
2 And, in general, when we face situations with little variety or change
—whether in our daily activity or while sitting in meditation— we project the ideas of boredom, dullness and heaviness and thus reject our experience, experiencing the unpleasantness that we call “boredom, dullness and heaviness” and believing that it is inherent in those situations in which there is little variety or change. By rejecting both the unpleasantness and the situation with which we have associated it, we generate more unpleasantness, that we reject, generating more unpleasantness...
3 In order to forbear our daily toil and hardships
we need the incentive of aspiring to repose; however, as soon as an opportunity for repose arises, knowing that repose will cause us to face boredom, we tell ourselves that at present we cannot enjoy repose because before we do so we have to resolve some problems, and thus we engage in struggle in order to win the repose that we imagine will provide us with pleasure and satisfaction. However, when we “win” our repose and thus have no excuse to postpone it, as we experience no novelty or change again we project on our experience the concept of “boredom”
and thus experience uneasiness and discomfort, —and so again we tell ourselves that we cannot enjoy the repose because first we must resolve some problems, and therefore again
Meaning
1 When we miss the ineffable, nonconceptual meaning
there arises the need to endow our life and tasks with enunciable meanings and to place hopes in worldly aspirations. Then, we fear that if we lose these meanings and fail to realize these aspirations the result will be meaninglessness and despair.
How little can we see that the loss of false meanings and hopes is necessary for rediscovering the ineffable, nonconceptual meaning inherent in the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness.
Only this meaning may make us feel truly and completely full(filled) and realized.
2 Because we have lost the meaning beyond words
we give rise to conceptual meanings; because we cling to conceptual meanings we have no access to the meaning beyond words; because we have no access to the meaning beyond words we give rise to conceptual meanings...
Lacking
1 We feel empty and try to fill this lack
by contacting, acquiring and possessing valuable objects. However, by trying to fill our illusory lack we affirm it as real and true, sustaining it and making it grow proportionally to the “value” of the objects with which we try to fill it: the more valuable the object, the greater our lack becomes.
Thus, by attempting to recover the original plenitude we lost as we felt separate from the plenitude of the given, we make ourselves far more empty and dissatisfied.
Others, pride and value
1 We may also try to “fill the lack” by causing others to project value on us
and, becoming the object that they prize, swell our heart with pride. However, to make our heart's fluctuations depend on the Other's look, instead of granting us plenitude, condemns us to anguish and anxiety (as we are thereby exposed to the risk of being unrecognized, unappreciated, despised or humiliated), and causes us to fall again and again into the hell of self-deprecation, disparagement and humiliation.
A swollen heart is easy to puncture with the spear of a look or the arrow of a sharp phrase. The more we strive to obtain a high value through the Other's favorable look, the more we affirm ourselves to be lacking in value, and so the more we need to be filled with the value the Other bestows on us and the more exposed to contempt and humiliation we become —and so the more anguish we will have to experience and the emptier and more deprived we will feel.
Favorable conditions
1 The esteem and respect of many is a source of pride:
when others admire and accept the entity indicated by our name the mental subject establishes a “link of being” with that entity and, accepting it, it accepts the totality of its experience and sensations and thus experiences pleasure: as the Stoics knew well, sensations are pleasurable when we accept them and unpleasant when we reject them.
Thus, the others' favorable look causes us to feel well.i However, the act of accepting whatever we are conditioned to accept, further conditions us to reject what we are conditioned to reject as soon as the conditions of life force us to meet it.
Therefore, pride causes samsara's Ferris wheel to turn: after we ascend, we will have to descend and meet the distress which human beings call “hell.”
2 The Buddha Shakyamuni declared that, in samsara,
all pleasure is but a momentary relief from pain.
This relief is felt to be pleasurable insofar as it allows us to cease rejecting our experience and accept it, thus experiencing the pleasure issuing from acceptance. However, the pleasure thus obtained is transient, for it is not possible to make acceptance permanent, shunning rejection forever; moreover, this pleasure is neither complete nor genuine, insofar as it is pervaded by the subtle pain
inherent in the illusion of separateness.4 * * * * * * ii
Looking for pleasure is a source of pain, yet we cover the embers with so many ashes that awhile we cannot feel the burn.
Thus, we consolidate our habit of clinging to the ember and so sooner or later we will burn our hand.
Fear, insecurity, suffering and refuge
1 We are constantly searching for security because we are fearful.
We are fearful because we search for security instead of giving ourselves up to the insecurity that life is: if we gave ourselves up to insecurity we would feel secure, for we would have no fear of insecurity.
Escaping insecurity, instead, implies and begets fear: the more we escape, the more we affirm that there is something to fear; the more we affirm there is something to fear, the more we fear.
Thus, we search for security because we fear and we fear because we search for security.
2 We fear the terrible sensation that fear is
but the fear of the sensation of fear begets the sensation of fear that we fear.
3 We try to elude our fear by taking refuge in objects:
friends, lovers, groups, beliefs, identities, position. Since these objects are breakable and unstable by taking refuge in them we condemn ourselves to the fear of losing our refuge: we take refuge because we fear losing the refuge that we take because we fear losing the refuge that we take because we fear...
4 We fear that others discover our fear
but our fear that our fear may be discovered
is fear that may be discovered by others:
we fear that they may discover the fear that they may discover the fear that they may discover the fear that...
Self-importance
When we anguish about another's anguish
our anguish feeds the other's anguish by confirming the belief in the extreme importance of life and pain which is the deepest root of anguish.
At first, the immediate cause of anguish may be an external situation; once anguish has manifested, the immediate cause of anguish may be the presence of anguish itself.
2 In the same way, consoling someone confirms
the belief in the extreme importance of that individual, of his or her experience and of his or her grief. Since this belief is the deepest cause of grief, confirming it may cause grief to increase.
By trying to do something to uproot distress we cause the aversion at the root of distress to increase and confirm the illusion of absolute importance which is the deepest cause of distress.
Worrying for others
1 When those who care for us worry about our vicissitudes
the true cause of their worry is not whatever we do but the fact that they have taken refuge in us —who are breakable and changing entities— rather than in their own unbreakable and changeless essence. Nevertheless, they often make us feel that the cause of their sorrows is our behavior —for example, our dedication to the spiritual quest— and thus feel justified in inflicting themselves with suffering simultaneously feeling compelled to make us feel guilty by letting us know that we are the cause of their sorrows. If we believe them, we may experience guilt and worry, failing to see that they have themselves caused their own sorrows just as we are causing ours by inflicting guilt and worry upon ourselves.
If we have any responsibility for both their suffering and ours it lies in our mistaken refuge and the delusory valuation that sustains it.
Tension
1 The delusory valuation of thought at the root of the belief in a self
is sustained by neuromuscular tensions, vibrations, contractions and reverberations which, insofar as attention is occupied with thoughts/objects other than the said tensions, vibrations, contractions and reverberations, are not felt to be unpleasant and thus may be conserved. In turn, insofar as they are conserved, we are compelled to elude them and, thus, to conserve them.
2 Whenever there is tension, consciousness rejects it;
conversely, there can only be tension when there is rejection. However, insofar as tension is not the central object of attention rejection of it is subtle and, therefore, tension is slight. Then, as we become aware of tension, our rejection increases proportionally to our awareness of it, making tension increase and become more unpleasant. The more unpleasant tension becomes, the more we reject it, making it ever more unpleasant. May this self-catalyzing system bring the unpleasantness to the threshold level at which the subject-object duality/delusion at its root may collapse and thus unpleasantness may come to an end!
Hatred and blaming others
1 As soon as we experience guilt, fear, distress
or any other undesired emotion we want to escape: We fail to understand that undesired emotions are painful only when we regard them as undesirable and want to escape.
2 Worse still, when, for any reason, we experience guilt, we try to get rid of it by blaming others for the “evil” for which we feel guilty. Thus we add to our guilt the guilt of blaming others, making our guilt increase and therefore giving rise to an even greater need to blame others.iii
3 Regarding some aspects of ourselves as abhorrent, and feeling that a self having such aspects would itself be abhorrent, we are compelled to deny the said aspects in ourselves, project them on others, and abhor those others.
Moreover, we can only abhor and hate others if we justify our hatred and elude guilt for it by thinking that it is the fully cogent response to the evil-doing and the supposedly evil nature of the individual whom we hate.
4 We elude awareness of the pain in our heart that hatred is
by concentrating on the object of our hatred and its supposedly evil character. Since we do not realize the pain that hatred implies, we may continue to hate, perpetuating the pain that hatred is.
Good and evil
1 As children, we are taught that, in order to “be good,”
we have to keep our nature under control and “behave”iv —which implies that we are inherently evil and that this evil will manifest if we do not control our nature.
Even those of us who were told that we were “good” were repeatedly made to feel bad in order to discourage unwanted behavior patterns and cause us to try to feel good by adopting the “positive” identity offered usv and behaving as others want us to behave.
Nevertheless, since the condition of our “goodness” is the implantation of a monstrous shadow/phantasy (the monster that mother saw us as while punishing us) no matter how deep inside we bury this shadow/phantasy it will surface again and again soiling our “good works” with “evil.”
Moreover, every time the monster emerges into the scope of our conscious awareness we are compelled to project it on others and condemn it and possibly even destroy it in and as those others on whom we projected it.
And the more we do the above, the greater the phantasy grows and the more urgent becomes the need to project it.
Thus, by trying to make us be “good” “well-meaning” people implant the roots of “evil” in us.
Despise the passions?
1 Let us take the example of anger:
If I despise my anger
I will give rise to anger against my anger.
Since anger against anger is also anger, by despising anger I will produce more of what I want to uproot.
The more my anger grows, the more I will despise it;
the more I despise it, the more it will grow.
2 In general, it is impossible to despise our passions without despising ourselves,
for we feel responsible for our passionsvi
(and, when we no longer do so, we are no longer prey to passions).
So, when we despise our passions we become a despicable self; the more we despise them, the more despicable we become, and the more despicable we become, the more the passions that we deem despicable grow in us.
Self-consciousness
1 When we are carrying out an activity
and worry about erring our worry and self-consciousness interfere with our subjectivity, causing us to blunder.
It is when fearfully we look down toward the abyss that we fall.
2 When we become the object that others watch and judge
and thus self-encumbered obtains, fear both of others and of our painful experience causes us to try to “hide our head in the sand” in an attempt to minimize suffering by minimizing awareness of our painful experience. This experience of rejection and the pain it implies, however, will last only insofar as we reject it and elude full awareness of it.
Illness and pain
1 By obsessively protecting ourselves from what we regard as the sources of illness we may give rise to the bioenergetic imbalances that beget illness.
Similarly, it is our rejection of “pain” that turns into pain what is but naked sensation: the only pain is the one resulting from the making of pain a problem, rejecting it, and despairing about our inability to bring it to an end.
II. Laces of Practice
Opening up
1 We fear opening up, feeling that this would expose us to evil and harm and, possibly, make us lose ourselves and ultimately be destroyed. How little we realize that we can only be harmed when, being possessed by delusory valuation, dualism and self-clinging, and believing that we are ultimately real and important selves, we close ourselves in an attempt to be protected and safeguarded: since the “I” that we believe to be real and important may always be harmed we are thus condemned to terror, anguish and anxiety and provide a target that is vulnerable to attack.
By opening up in Awakening, instead,
we attain plenitude and stability that cannot be harmed and are freed from fear, anguish and anxiety.
2 In the same way, we fear that if we open up,
an underground monster lurking in our depths may possess us. However, the shadow monster of unconscious phantasy is sustained by our drive to check it and keep it under control: by supposing that it is our deepest nature, we keep it alive, producing unforeseen effects.
This does not mean we should “be sincere” and reveal to others the phantasy that we think we are believing it to be our deepest self: this would only further feed the illusory monster that then we will have to keep at bay.
What it means is that we must apply the instructions that may spontaneously result in the genuine opening up constituted by the unveiling of anoic gnosis,vii free of subject and object, that dissolves the illusory monster and rids us of inveterate impulses.
Moralist teachings and relative practices
1 Relative teachings and moralist practices
may help beings of certain capacities lead a less conflictive existence. However, an exaggerated emphasis on them may lead us to believe that rules and precepts are absolute and that observing them is ultimately important, which would increase the delusory valuation at the root of duhkhaviii and make us more intolerant toward others.
Whatever causes us to rise to heaven later on will be the cause of our falling into hell.
As stated by Yung-chia Hsuan-chueh:lx
“Giving (dana) practiced with an aim may result in the grace of being reborn in heaven. This, however, is like shooting an arrow upwards: when the strength propelling the arrow is exhausted it will return to the ground and this will be a source of adverse karma for times to come.”
By taking the way of heaven we fall deep into hell.
In a succession or toothaches and ice-creams which does the child want to have first? It is better to create a deficiency in the gloomy-go-round that carries us up to heaven and then takes us down to hell.
Yet the worst with moralism is that it may be used by “demonic” pseudomasters as a pretext for murdering truly Enlightened Masters. In the name of purity, the greatest possible fault is committed.
Purification
1 If one tries to “purify oneself” through relative practices —from the visualization and recitation of Vajrasattvax to practices of tsa/lung/thiglexi— the assumption that there is an impurity to be purified will sustain the delusory valuation of thought and thus the duality and judgement which constitute the impurity. Thus, our endeavor will be comparable to cleaning a pristine mirror with a dirty cloth.xii
If the bioenergetic volume is high enough, if one is subject to the supreme samayaxiii of Dzogchen, and if one possesses the instruction, spontaneous liberation will disperse the clouds covering the sky and blocking the sunlight.
Contrariwise, the idea of an impurity to be purified sooner or later would become the door to hell.
Uneasiness in meditation
1 When we sit in meditation and look at our thoughts
we may feel uneasy and think that this uneasiness is inherent in meditation. Actually, it is the uneasiness of delusory valuation and grasping, which normally we fail to realize as such because we are closed and our attention is preoccupied with countless projects and ideas.
If this uneasiness becomes evident when we sit to meditate, we may wrongly associate it with meditation and openness and thus be “instinctively” tempted to interrupt our meditation and keep clinging to and following overvalued thoughts, trying to escape from uneasiness by clinging to its very source.
If, instead, (we) “reGnize” the essence of the present thought and thus “Enter” the State uneasiness disappears in the plenitude and bliss of the unborn.
We project the uneasiness of delusory valuation on openness and Contemplation and thus keep from the latter and cling to and follow overvalued thoughts, reaffirming and reinforcing the source of uneasiness.
Boredom in meditation
1 In Contemplation, plenitude, bliss and satisfaction are inexhaustible.
However, sooner or later, Contemplation is interrupted, we feel separate from the continuum of the Base, become obsessed with an object of desire which we imagine will provide us with plenitude, bliss and satisfaction, and, by developing a powerful yearning for it, we maintain the state of illusory duality and separation which is lack of plenitude, distress and dissatisfaction. Thus, we compulsively run after our own tail which, no matter how fast we spin, always remains out of reach.
If the conception of an object of desire does not spontaneously liberate itself upon appearing and we fail to apply the instruction which allows its spontaneous liberation the uneasiness of delusory valuation and desire will drive us to interrupt our practice in order to run after the object of desire.
Contemplation and uptight mindfulness
1 In order to attain the state of Contemplation
—that is, to “rest” in the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness— and avoid being drawn away from this state by distracting thoughts an alert attentiveness is needed.
However, attention is precisely what Contemplation
must dissolve. Being alert so that distraction will not carry you away generates tension. However, tension is precisely what Contemplation must cut.
If you are not alert, thoughts will carry you away and make you revolve in the wheel of samsara . However, if you are alert, this will beget tension and aversion and sustain the illusory perceiver-doer which is the root of samsara .
2 When we begin to meditatexiv we keep alert
so that thoughts will not carry us away from nowness constituting a “chain of delusion” that would cause us to ceaselessly revolve in the “wheel of samsara ”: we are taught that we must “reGnize” the essence of thoughts so that they will liberate themselves in the ocean of gnosis— the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness.
Trying to do this, we give rise to a delusive “uptight mindfulness” which is a function of the duality of subject and object and of the delusory valuation of “the self” and “its thoughts”— and which, thus, keeps us revolving in the “wheel of samsara .”
Too many passions and delusions in Contemplation
1 If, while we ”practice“ Contemplation,
passions and delusions arise uninterruptedly and we experience anguish or uneasiness we feel that these are justified by the undesirable flow of passions and delusions which we believe is their objective cause. However, in truth our uneasiness springs from the delusory valuation of the concept of “passions and delusions” and the belief that these are inherently undesirable.
Profound instructions
1 When the “two lights”xv shine and, failing to “reGnize” their nonduality,
the “light of the son” fights against the “mother light,” or when a tremendous agitation possesses us and we do not manage to cease struggling and despairing, we should apply the “profound instructions” we have received.
However, the more we apply these instructions in order to “resolve” the situation, the more we affirm ourselves as different from the latter and the more value and reality we ascribe to both the situation and ourselves;
therefore, the more we affirm and sustain our delusion and the more conflictive and unbearable we make our situation.
Our attempt to resolve the situation reinforces the situation we want to resolve.
Peaceful mandalas
1 Our inability to somehow alter the impassivity of peaceful mandalas
—the peaceful, undefiable immutability of the ground— seemingly begets irritation. Actually, the cause of irritation is the inveterate impulses of delusion rather than the peaceful mandalas to which we are reacting and which we thus turn into wrathful mandalas.
Wrathful mandalas
1 If, as (we) are “rest” in the state of Contemplation
with a really high bioenergetic volume, we feel subtly separate of whatever is happening the experience of the wrathful mandalas may take place: the flow of experience shakes us until the delusion of someone who is shaken and something shaking her or him dissolves in absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness.
Ignoring that the agitation that we suffer is the skillful means of the True Teacher we may feel anguished and resist and try to escape, thus increasing the agitation: our most precious friend is perceived as our most dreadful enemy.
III. Social Laces
Ecology and survival
1 Our terror of insecurity and impermanence leads us to invent
technological “solutions” in order to eradicate all risks of death, illness and all that we consider to be a problem. Thus, we produce pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, drugs and all kinds of “sciences,” devices and machines —from nuclear energy to genetic engineering— that disrupt the ecological balance on which our lives depend both in the so-called “external world” and “inside our own bodies.”
We try to destroy the “negative” side of the coin of existence —the side featuring death, suffering, illness, discomfort, insecurity, hard work, pain and so on— by constantly putting corrosives on it.
Nowadays, corrosion has worn away so much of the coin that it is about to reach the side we wished to preserve —life, joy, health, comfort, security, leisure, pleasure and so on— and thus put an end to human existence.
By trying to destroy death
we have come to the brink of bringing all life to an end.
Social change
1 The oppressive structures of society are internalized by all of us,
molding our psychological and experiential structures. If we set out to transform society without having transformed our own inner structures we unavoidably reproduce those structures in the new order of things.
Therefore, what we mean to be a total transformation of society will be but a mere change of masters.
2 The internalized, aggressive and oppressive elements of society
are integrated into the structure of our psyche. If we project those elements of our psyche on the ruling class and try to destroy them by destroying the members of that class our destructive and oppressive actions will make all the more powerful the negative elements of our psyche which we wished to destroy. Having destroyed the ones on whom we projected those elements, the latter's' underground presence will be felt again in our own selves and thus we will be compelled to project them in new “others” who may also be destroyed as though they were those aspects.
The enemy
A Fearing that the Enemy may destroy us
we have almost achieved the destruction that we fear.
If we used the most powerful weapons that we have developed we would not only destroy our enemies, but would destroy ourselves. Moreover, in building those weapons we have released so much radioactive pollutants into the environment, that even if we do not use them our survival is uncertain.
Who is deceiving whom when there is talk of an anti-missile shield? If many nuclear warheads were caused to explode in space the effect would be the immediate destruction of humankind.
i Naturally, if we are ashamed of pride, the first moment of acceptance will be followed by a second moment of rejection, which, being rejection-of-sensation, results in an unpleasant experience.
ii The “three types of sufferings of samsara” are: (1) the pain of having to face pain (insofar as the illusory subject-object duality implies that acceptance and the ensuing fleeting, empty pleasure, will be necessarily followed by rejection and the ensuing pain); (2) the pain of having to face change (especially when present conditions are favorable, their cessation it is painful); and (3) all-pervasive pain (which is inherent to the illusion of separateness insofar as the latter implies feeling that we are at a distance of the plenitude of the continuum of plenitude that the universe is). The third type of pain implies that, even when the pain of having to face pain comes to an end and we feel the pleasure of relief, our experience is still marked by the all-pervasive pain inherent to feeling that we are at a distance of the plenitude of the continuum of plenitude that the universe is.
iii Demons arise when people begin to hate what demons represent, for they see it in them, but established (who establishes it and why?) morality forces them to condemn it and then they have to hate is in and as those others on whom it is projected (because they learned to embody it, because significant others projected it on them?), giving rise to the evils that arise from this projection and subsequent hatred toward those on whom the projection is made (and in the first place it represents the rupture Urteil ;,?)
iv That is, to “be-having-ourselves,” which implies that the inner observer, that has assumed the values of society, has to check and govern us as objects.
v This will be so, provided that our parents or educators allow us to embody the kind of identity that themselves and society deem “positive.” If they do not allow us to embody a “positive” identity, we will have to assume an identity socially regarded as negative and, therefore, we will have to obtain the approval and admiration that we need in order to function, from people generally regarded as suspicious or evil. This, however, does not mean that we become “good” or “evil” due solely to the influence of others during childhood; genetic propensities (which always correspond to karma) may partly explain why the same parents react differently to each of their children, helping them adopt a specific role in life. Thus, there is a determining influence of karma from “previous lifetimes.” For a brief explanation of it, see Capriles (2000b); for a more detailed explanation of this, see Capriles (1976; 1986).
vi Often—and even more so when we are Dharma-practitioners—we may feel that the passions are alien forces trying to possess us, and thus we fight against them (begetting further passions). Since, while we fight against the passions, we experience them as alien forces, we do neither feel responsible for them nor identify with them. However, once we fall prey to the passions, we feel responsible, at least for having yielded to them, and we identify with them, for we are acting them out.
vii (a) I call this gnosis because it is a function of cognitiveness/awareness and because certain Gnostic trends called gnosis the cognition of the absolute; (b) I add the adjective anoic because in the unveiling of such gnosis the mind (noia)—implying the noetic-noematic (subject-object) duality, delusory valuation, and other experience-shaping, delusory mechanisms—is disconnected.
viii As pointed out in Chapter I of this book, duhkha has the connotations of dissatisfaction, lack of plenitude, missing the point, and also implies recurrent pain. The term, which indicates the First Noble Truth, is employed in the Hinayana Schools to characterize samsara. For a brief explanation of the Four Noble Truths and therefore of the concept of duhkha, see the corresponding note to the first chapter of this book. For a longer explanation, see Capriles (1976, 1986, 2000a).
ix Yoka Daishi (Yung-chia Hsuan-chueh)/Taisen Deshimaru (Spanish 1981).
x In Tantric and Dzogchen Buddhism, Vajrasattva, the “vajra individual” (i.e., the “immutable/indestructible
individual”), is the embodiment and symbol of the sambhogakaya, containing all zhitro (zhi-khro) or “peaceful-wrathful” deities. In the outer or lower Tantras, the visualization of Vajrasattva is used in combination with the famous Hundred-Syllable mantra as a most important purification practice. In the inner or higher Tantras, Vajrasattva is the pivot of the visualization-transformation version of the practice of zhitro, as all the relevant deities are contained in him. In the Dzogchen Menngagde (upadesha), the zhitro—which in this case does not involve visualization or transformation—is a means to catalyze the process of spontaneous liberation of delusion, so that samsara and the propensities for it to manifest are most rapidly neutralized without any effort whatsoever on the part of the practitioner.
xi rTsa/rlung/thig-le.
xii This is the point in the story, told in the fifth chapter of this book, involving the poems by Ch'an Buddhist Masters Hui-neng and Sen-shui when the 5th Patriarch, Master Hung-jen, was to name a successor.
xiii Samaya is usually translated as “commitment.” Hinayana Buddhism is based on keeping vows that are lost at death. Mahayana Buddhism is based on the training of bodhichitta, that requires the practitioner to go beyond all limits (including vows as well as other manifestations of the drive to protect his or her own individual existence) if this is necessary to benefit beings and lead them to Enlightenment. Tantric Buddhism is based on samaya or commitment, which involves a series of duties that vary according
to the Tantric vehicle involved, but which in general require that the disciple must have a pure vision of the Teacher (the vajra Master or Vajracharya) and fellow students (vajra brothers and sisters). Dzogchen also has a samaya, but in this case the samaya does not involve keeping specific precepts, as samaya is one of the “ten natures of Tantra” that are denied by the “ten absences” or “ten mepas” (mepa chu [med-pa bcu]) characteristic of “the deep understanding of Dzogchen” (Namkhai Norbu and Clemente, Italian 1997/English 1999, pp. 67-8). In fact, the samaya of the Atiyana-Dzogchen may be resumed in the four absences or “four mepas” (med-pa bzhi), which are the negation of the four main points of the samaya of the inner or higher Tantras (Namkhai Norbu, unpublished/Ed. Capriles; Capriles, 2000a, pp. 103-6). The point is that the samaya of Dzogchen may be resumed in the teaching Tilopa gave Naropa on the banks of the Ganges that was codified as the Mahamudra Upadesha:
“The highest samaya is broken by thinking in terms of precepts.”
Trying to keep precepts necessarily involves the delusory valuation of thoughts establishing what is permitted and what is forbidden, as well as an activity of the apparently separate observer that is supposed to keep the precepts. The Dzogchen teachings do not permit or forbid any particular actions: they just require the practitioner to be beyond delusory valuation, transcending the apparently separate observer in the continuity of the inherently all-liberating state, and thus being beyond the acceptance and rejection that would be necessary in order to keep precepts. Since this involves being beyond the illusion of a self, it involves being beyond selfishness and beyond all causes of evil;
therefore, the individual does not need rules, as he or she is a selfless vehicle of the Dharma.
xiv When I use the noun “meditation” or the verb “to meditate,” I am referring to a function of mind—that is, of delusion—which involves mindfulness, attention and the subject-object duality. When I use the word “Contemplation,” I am referring to a state in which mind—that is, delusion—as well as mindfulness, attention, and the subject-object duality, have disappeared, and the state of absolute, nondual, undeluded Awareness is uninterruptedly manifest for a given period of time.
xv There is a division into the Light of the Base, the Light on the Path and the Light of the Fruit (or Resulting Light). Regarding the second of the above three, and in a general, technical way, the two lights have been explained by saying that the Offspring Light “is that which dawns as the indivisibility of voidness and appearances.” The Mother Light “is the primordial condition of the mind that shines forth between one thought and the next.” Its reGnition “is the blending of the two.”
However, in this case reference is being made to a very particular Dzogchen experience in which the two lights are associated, respectively, to the internal and external dimensions or jing (dbyings).
