Nimbus Mechanistics

~ Heart Advice from Changchub Dorje

KYE HO!
dear children, listen closely!
what you call mind isn’t anything at all
allow your own mind to look at itself.
past thoughts are no longer here, and
the future’s not yet here
and whatever arises now
is beyond reckoning.

let all thoughts
the past, present and future
settle, right now,
and in this moment
see how it is

if you see
colors & shapes
this is a sign
you’ve wandered
into the house of delusion.

if you think “it’s nothing, there’s nothing”
you’re trapped
in the numb empty state
and the richness of your own nature
will not emerge.

you know,
you can investigate
meditate for a hundred years
and not be
moving towards freedom

great natural perfection
is present
awareness right now

no thoughts & conditions
clear & radiant, like the sky
this never changes
it is dharmakaya, the primordial

clear & radiant awareness
is unceasing in its splendor
it is sambhogakaya, the rapturous

the arising of all possible things,
an ever-present vibration
it is nirmanakaya, the magical

whatever
whenever something
happens
don’t do
anything
with it
let it
settle by itself
thoughts are fuel
flaring up &
toxic

let them come
and go
they will
dissolve into space
coming
going
no difference

when they come
look directly
how they come
when they go
look directly
how they go
it is
exactly
the same, no
favorites no
choosing
eating
sitting
walking
standing
sleeping
talking,
whatever
you do,
when
you do it
look directly
how you are
this is how
ordinary beings
become buddhas

nothing is more direct
than this
more profound
than this
teaching
& for those who rely
on this
teaching
causes & conditions are gone

this is the space
just this
directly know
every experience
is magical
the wisdom eye
is now open
clairvoyance
now here
your body is no longer solid
you can travel unrestrained
death time comes &
your material and vital forces break down
and your elemental energies transmute
into the blessings
of rainbow remains
never changing
it’s now dissolved
back into
the primal state
awareness settles back
into space
Dharmakaya, the primoridal
and it activates
all tangible dimensions
releasing enlightened activities
bringing benefit
to all who live
wide as space itself
this is how it is.
now bountiful benefits
will flow
BE HAPPY! GEY-O!

The Heart Advice from the Tibetan meditation master Nyakla Jangchub Dorje: A Concise Teaching on Seeing, Deepening, Responding and Arriving according to Dzogpa Chenpo Kadak Trekcho.

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The whole path of Dzogchen:

“The practice of Dzogchen or Atiyoga, is to realise the tathagatagarbha, or buddha nature, which has been present in our nature since the very beginning. Here it is not sufficient to concentrate on contrived practices that involve intellectual efforts and concepts; to recognise this Nature, the practice should be utterly beyond fabrication. The practice is simply to realise the radiance, the natural expression of wisdom, which is beyond all intellectual concepts. It is the true realisation of the Absolute Nature just as it is, the ultimate fruition.
At the present moment our awareness is entangled within our mind, completely enveloped and obscured by mental activity. Through the practice of Trekchö, or ‘cutting through all attachment’, and the ‘direct realization’ of Tögal, one can unmask this awareness and let its radiance arise.
To accomplish this it is necessary to do the practice of ‘the four ways of leaving things in their natural simplicity’ (Tib. chokshyak shyi) and through these, to acquire perfect stability in the Trekchö practice. Then will come the ‘four visions of tögal’ which are the natural arising of visions of discs and rays of light, deities and buddha fields. These visions are naturally ready to arise from within the central channel that joins the heart to the eyes. Such an arising from this channel will appear in a gradual process. In the same way that the waxing moon will increase from the first to the fifteenth of the month, these visions will gradually increase—from the simple perception of dots of light to the full array of the vast expanse of the sambhogakaya buddha fields. The manifestation of space and awareness will thus reach its culminating point.
These experiences are not linked with consciousness or intellect as the former experiences were; they are a true manifestation or radiance of awareness. After this, in the same way that the moon decreases and disappears from the fifteenth to the thirtieth of the month, all of these experiences and visions, all phenomena, will gradually come to exhaustion and reabsorb themselves in the Absolute. At this time the deluded mind which conceives subject and object will disappear, and the primal wisdom, which is beyond intellect, will gradually expand. Eventually one will attain the perfect enlightenment of the Primordial Buddha, Samantabhadra, endowed with the six extraordinary features.
This is the path intended for people of superior faculties who can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime. For those of medium faculties, there is instruction on how to achieve liberation within the 'Bardo' or ‘intermediate state’. When we say ‘Bardo’, in fact we recognise four bardos: the Bardo from conception to death; the Bardo of the moment of death; the Bardo of the Absolute Nature; and the Bardo of coming into the next existence.
The Bardo between conception and death is our present state. In order to destroy all deluded perceptions or deluded thoughts in this Bardo, the ultimate practice is Dzogchen Atiyoga. In this there are the two main paths of Trekchö and Tögal, as described above. As the ultimate fruition of this practice, the ordinary body made of gross aggregates will dissolve into the ‘Rainbow Body of Great Transference’ or ‘Vajra-body’, or dissolve without leaving any remnants.
But if one cannot achieve such ultimate attainment within a lifetime, then there is still the possibility of achieving enlightenment at the time of death. If our teacher or a close Dharma brother is near to us at the very moment of our death, he will remind us of the instructions—the introduction to the nature of mind. If we can recall our experience of practice and remain in this nature, then we achieve realization. It is then possible to depart to a buddha field straightaway with no intermediate state. If this is not accomplished, then the Bardo of the Absolute Nature, or Dharmata, will arise. At this time the Ground Luminosity of the Dharmakaya will appear. If one can unite the Ground Luminosity (Mother Luminosity) with the Luminosity which one has recognized whilst practising during one’s lifetime (Child Luminosity), then one will be liberated into the Dharmakaya.
If one is not liberated at this time, then countless manifestations will appear: sounds, lights and rays. Great fear will arise because of these emanations and visions, but if one is a good practitioner one will realize that there is no point in being afraid. One will know that whatever deities appear, wrathful or peaceful, they are one’s own projections. The recognition of this assures liberation in a sambhogakaya buddha field. But if this is not accomplished, then the Bardo of coming into a new existence will occur. If one practises in the right way at this time one can be liberated into a nirmanakaya buddha field.
In essence, the primordial nature of the Buddha Samantabhadra is like the ground or mother-nature of realization. The nature which has been introduced to us by the teacher is like the child-nature. When these two meet, one will attain full realization and seize the fortress of Enlightenment.
For ordinary beings unable to achieve liberation either in this life or in the intermediate state, liberation can be attained in the nirmanakaya buddha fields.
In brief, through the practice of the path of Trekchö and Tögal, one will reach the ultimate realization of the Dharmakaya, the enlightened state of the Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, within this very lifetime. This is the best case. If not, then one can be freed in the other three Bardos: the Bardos of the moment of death, Dharmata and Becoming. Even if this does not happen, one can still be relieved of suffering and be liberated by the virtues or blessings of the Dzogchen teachings. Whoever has a connection with these teachings is: liberated by sight, on seeing the teaching or the teacher; liberated through hearing, on hearing the teacher or teaching; liberated through contact, on wearing the precious mantras and scriptures of Dzogchen; or liberated through taste, and so forth. As a result, one will be liberated into one of the five nirmanakaya buddha fields.”

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - From a teaching on the Longchen Nyingtik Guru Yoga, given in Dordogne, France in August 1984

"When you meditate, do not try to have good thoughts, do not try to keep away bad thoughts, do not try to stop thoughts, and do not try to go after them.

Rather, rest in a state of being aware of the thoughts as they arise. This way, when bad thoughts arise, they arise out of the emptiness of mind and fall back into the emptiness of mind. The same is true for good thoughts.

This same process of examination can be applied to the many other traps of personality and physiology. For instance, are your emotions of desire and anger coming from the same mind, or from different minds? And, as to the sounds, tastes, sights, smells, and sensory experiences which can be so pleasing or displeasing to you, are these coming from the same mind, or from different minds?

When you take the time to thoroughly examine such issues, you will eventually come to conclusions that help formulate later stages of realization. In realizing the inherent emptiness of all reality, you will realize that the essence of the mind (which is also empty) pervades all things; as such, it is the seat of dharmakaya.

When you recognize that the clarity of the mind is also its natural state of being, you will realize that clarity as such is the seat of sambhogakaya.

For a buddha, who rests in natural liberation in dharmakaya, the clarity of mind, the seat of sambhogakaya, allows knowledge of the three times of past, present, and future.

In recognizing that the many thoughts that arise in the mind are essentially unimpeded, you will realize that unimpededness as such is the seat of nirmanakaya.

It is wholly because of the unimpededness of pure mind that buddhas manifest in forms of ordinary and supreme incarnations in the nirmanakaya state in order to benefit all sentient beings."

~ Kalu Rinpoche

From: "Gently Whispered Oral Teachings by the Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche"

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“In terms of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection means that everything that has to be abandoned and everything that has to be realized is fully and completely perfected. That is the king of all the vehicles. The samayas for the Dzogchen teachings have two aspects: primordial purity and spontaneous presence - kadag and lhundrub. Primordial purity refers to the view of Trekcho, the 'thorough cut'. Spontaneous presence refers to the meditation training called Togal. Each of these has two samayas. The samayas for Trekcho practice are called nonexistence and pervasiveness. The samayas for Togal training are oneness and spontaneous presence. So, there are four samayas, nonexistence, pervasiveness, oneness and spontaneous presence. Because everything is included within these four, these are known as the king-like samayas. All phenomena of samsara and nirvana are complete in this. These four aspects of samaya - nonexistence and pervasiveness, oneness and spontaneous presence - are explained in the following way. Nonexistence, or literally 'devoidness', means that the primordial pure essence that is empty is unconstructed, totally devoid of any concrete substance whatsoever. Like space, it is pure from the beginning. The word 'pervasiveness' refers to being uninterrupted in or undistracted from the primordially pure wakefulness. In the moment of recognizing, there is also some sense of ongoingness, of continuity. This pervasive quality implies unbrokenness, a quality of arching over or encompassing all. Spontaneous presence is the other samaya for Togal. From the primordially pure space, spontaneous presence naturally unfolds. It is the apparent aspect (nangcha). So, these two - kadag and lhundrub - are actually indivisible, as emptiness and experience. The samaya, then, is to recognize that the essence of your wakefulness is primordial purity free of constructs and that the knowing quality of this wakefulness is the spontaneously present nature. You can also speak of three aspects of wakefulness being empty in essence, spontaneously present by nature and indivisible as empty experience. Our essence, which we call the basic space of dharmadhatu, is already primordially empty and nonexistent. At the same time, we have a natural cognizance that is spontaneously present: that is the other aspect. These two are the main qualities. That is to say, in the moment of recognizing how our essence actually is, there is a spontaneously present wakefulness that knows or sees this primordial purity. Therefore, you can say that primordial purity and spontaneous presence are indivisible, or that, in other words, basic space and wakefulness are indivisible. This indivisibility is the meaning of oneness, the fourth samaya. The essence is empty but also cognizant by nature. These two aspects are indivisible. Spontaneous presence is not fabricated in any way whatsoever. Once more, the samaya of oneness is the indivisibility of kadag and lhundrub.”

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche – ‘As it is’ Vol 2, pp136-7 - Rangjung Yeshe Publications

JAMES LOW

"Our lineage comes to us through my guru C.R. Lama also known as Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche. He was a refugee, as were all the great Tibetan teachers who fled to India to escape the colonial urge that intoxicated the Chinese under Mao Zedong. It is not easy to be a refugee.

They had to survive with few resources in a challenging climate, learning new languages and modes of behaviour and staying on the sweet side of their hosts.

To be a refugee is to live on the raw edge of impermanence, to lose land, possessions, books, ritual objects and so on. It is to be separated from friends and family and to be at the mercy of the good will of others. This is the Dharma teaching made flesh and brought into daily experience. Attachment is suffering. C.R. Lama had lost his country of origin and would not see his guru, Tulku Tsorlo, again. Yet, at least in my long experience of him, he was not sad or regretful. He was present with full awareness and this he could not lose or have taken from him.

This is the teaching for our time, a time when war and climate change are generating so many millions of refugees. Clinging to outer forms highlights our powerlessness to control events. Facing the twists and turns of inflamed egoic politics none of us know how secure our futures will be. So many of our past mothers are wandering without shelter, are staying in thin tents, are denied care. We ourselves might feel a little of how lonely and desolate this can be.

What will help all these beings? Our practice. Death will come to us all. The sufferings among the animals, hungry ghosts and hell residents are continuous. Therefore we are advised to pay attention to the many forms of suffering and to the roots of these sufferings and to use this as an encouragement to develop all-inclusive kindness, the bodhicitta mind of enlightenment free of prejudice. However, if you feel this great suffering with too much intensity you may well be overwhelmed. So it is vital to study and practise in order to awaken to the truth of the absence of inherent existence in all beings and in all phenomena. There are no truly existing sentient beings. All beings arise in dependence on other arisings within the -great dynamic expanse of unborn becoming, the dharmadhatu. Every day I was with C.R Lama he would emphasise emptiness, the emptiness of people, of cows, of houses, of our translation work, and of Padmasambhava. There is nothing to cling to except delusion. Do not grasp. Let it go.

Thus ours is the lineage of letting go, of opening to the here and now free of stories of past, present and future. There is only this and this you cannot have. It is not a possession. Yet we are part of the here and now, participating in each ungraspable moment. This is where you will find Padmasambhava, C.R. Lama, and your own awakened presence.

OUR WORK

The outer form of the work we do is available on the Simply Being website. The hub of this work is Barbara Terris who has overseen the archiving of texts and teachings since the beginning and has striven to make them easily available. She is supported in this by Chris who keeps an eye on the web functioning. So many people collaborate to make these teachings available: the translators, the transcribers, those who prepare the audios, the Zoom sessions, the videos and so on. Their names are there with the texts and the videos and audio recordings on the website. This is our work. It is not my work alone.

Of course my name goes on the books and recordings. Yet if you asked me to write one of these books again I would not be able to do that. The James Low who wrote SPARKS is long gone. James Low is a name. As Heraclites said, “You cannot step in the same river twice.” The name of the river endures yet the water that is the river is a ceaseless ungraspable flow. This is the same for all of us. This is true for me. ‘James Low’ is the name applied to these ripples in the flow of co-emergence. The ripples play with other ripples and no one knows what patterns will arise. This is our inner relational work.

If you focus on the patterns and generate your own sense of who you are then this belief in your identity as a knowable existent will hide your own ever-fresh unknowable transient patterning. Look for your mind — you cannot find it as something. The flow of thoughts and feelings does not stop. Look for your speech: this sound is vanishing as it arises. Look for your body: your postures, your gestures, your rate of breathing all arise in conjunction with specific situational factors.

We are all essentially ungraspable. If you want to see how I am, look at yourself. Look without relying on assumptions. Look till you see with fresh eyes — then you will see your unseeable presence, then you will know your unknowable presence. This is our innermost work free of inner and outer.

Names, signs, data banks, artificial intelligence, information — these are the currency of our samsaric world. If you are relaxed, open and present then they can manifest as your nondual kindness. But if you are asleep in the dreams of your dualistic consciousness then they will catch you, limit you, and dull you into becoming their servant.

Our work is to collaborate with all while resting in intrinsic open awareness. We do this by not believing the stories others tell — for we see that they are illusions. Yet we attend to the unique specificity of their stories as they are offered to us — and in this way we work with the circumstances of their obscurations. This practice is the inseparability of wisdom and kindness.

The true nature of all sentient beings is multifaceted like a well-cut diamond. Our ungraspable core is the silent space of infinite presence. All that occurs at any time and in any place is inseparable from this. We cannot find this true nature — for it is not a thing. Yet we can find ourselves inseparable from this true nature. Using the Guru Yoga of the White A and other approaches we let go of identification with the grasper and the grasped. Arisings arise and pass. We abide in unchanging openness. This is the dharmakaya, the site of Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light. All is light, bright and uncatchable. Inseparable from this is the sambhogakaya, the site of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva whose kindly eyes see all that occurs.

His kindness manifests the nirmanakaya, the site of Padmasambhava, the many formed apparition who loosens our deluded belief in reified entities. These inseparable aspects of the mystery of our actual presence become alive for us through our practice.

Our practice is deconstructive. It does not construct anything, nor does it destroy anything. Rather it brings us into the presence of the ungraspable illusory nature of all that we grasp at, all that we adopt or reject. We are rainbows among rainbows — no wonder the Buddha smiles. We practise because we cannot see the difference between our clothes and our skin.

We are unaware of our intrinsic fresh open naked presence. We sustain the activity of reification which is the weaponisation of unawareness. Evanescent concepts are adopted as clothing and then allowed to define our sense of who we are. Misapplying them, we mistake them for tools which we use to install fixation and limitation.

We identify some arisings as ‘self’ and the rest as ‘other’. We do this. This is the dualistic activity consequent on unawareness of the absence of inherent existence in all that occurs. We are unborn openness, and, at the same time, we simultaneously believe that we exist as real people who can be identified by our name. When we truly see how we are, our ungrasped delusion is self-resolving and does not have to be removed or destroyed.

Imagine if this deep wisdom and unlimited kindness was available to all! Our work is our specific mode of participation in the ever-awake. It may seem small but it is not. You may feel that you are limited yet you are not. To live this is our work."

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"James Low has been a student of the fourth incarnation of Nuden Dorje for over thirty years. He studied Tibetan Buddhism in India with multiple masters and has translated numerous texts with Chhimed Rigdzin. Mr. Low worked as a consulting psychotherapist in a London public hospital and teaches dzogchen meditation around the world."

Books by James 👇🏽

https://simplybeing.co.uk/category/book/books/

www.simplybeing.co.uk

MINGYUR RINPOCHE

"Meditation is a Lie!"

For the next few months I continued to visit my father every day, and he taught me more about the Great Perfection. Often times we wouldn’t talk at all as we sat together. My father would simply sit in front of the large window and gaze off into the sky as I sat quietly by his side and tried to meditate. I desperately wanted his approval, so I always did my best imitation of what I thought a good meditator should do. I sat bolt upright and tried to make it look like I was absorbed in some deep experience, while in actuality I was just repeating a mantra in my mind and trying not to get lost in thought. Occasionally, I would open my eyes and peek up at my father, hoping that he had noticed my good meditation posture and ability to sit still for so long.

One day, as we sat together in silence, I glanced up at him in the middle of my meditation and was surprised to find him gazing down at me. “Are you meditating, son?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said proudly, filled with joy that he had finally noticed. My answer seemed to amuse him greatly. He paused for a few moments and then said gently, “Don’t meditate.”

My pride vanished. For months, I’d been doing my best to copy all the other meditators who came to be with my father. I learned some short prayers, sat in the right posture, and tried hard to still my turbulent mind. “I thought I was supposed to meditate,” I said with a shaky voice.

“Meditation is a lie,” he said. “When we try to control the mind or hold on to an experience, we don’t see the innate perfection of the present moment.” Pointing out through the window, he continued, “Look out into the blue sky. Pure awareness is like space, boundless and open. It’s always here. You don’t have to make it up. All you have to do is rest in that.”

For a moment, all of my hopes and expectations about meditation dropped away and I experienced a glimpse of timeless awareness.

A few minutes later he continued, “Once you’ve recognised awareness, there’s nothing to do. You don’t have to meditate or try to change your mind in any way.”

“If there’s nothing to do,” I asked, “Does that mean that we don’t have to practice?”

“Although there’s nothing to do, you do need to familiarise yourself with this recognition. You also need to cultivate bodhichitta and devotion, and always seal your practice by dedicating the merit so that all beings may recognise their own true nature too. The reason we still need to practice is that at first we only have an understanding of the mind’s true nature. By familiarising ourselves with this understanding again and again, however, it eventually transforms into direct experience. Yet even then we still need to practice. Experience is unstable, so if we don’t continue to familiarise ourselves with pure awareness we can lose sight of it and get caught up in our thoughts and emotions again. On the other hand, if we are diligent in practice, this experience will transform into a realisation that can never be lost. This is the path of the Great Perfection.” With these words, he stopped talking and we both continued to rest in pure awareness, gazing off into the deep blue sky above the Kathmandu Valley.

THE THREEFOLD SKY PRACTICE

"The practice is called mingling the three skies, the three spaces, or the threefold sky. What are the three skies? Externally, the outer sky is the empty space, the openness right in front of you. Inner sky is the empty quality of mind, and the secret sky is the empty awareness.

There are three words, but actually it is one meaning, so the last word, mingle, means they are all combined into one. The external sky is called space because it is unimpeded, unblocked. It is not like a wall or something. It is empty and it is open. The inner sky is the empty mind, which all sentient beings have. Otherwise, mind would be like a piece of wood or a stone. Since mind is sentient, that is the mind referenced in the inner sky’s empty mind. The secret sky is the empty awareness, which is the essence of mind. Once you recognize the essence, the three skies are unified. Otherwise, without recognizing the essence of mind, you will only have unified two skies, not three.

Awareness is understood to be and defined as the essence of the mind. To understand what is meant by rigpa or the essence of mind, we can use the example of our own body. The heart in the main trunk of the body is like rigpa, and the arms or legs are like mind. From one perspective, it is one thing, but from another, there are two. To see rigpa, you have to look to the main trunk of the body. If you are distracted and in mind, it is like looking outwardly, away from the body. You are following yourself somewhere else, and you have no way to meet the essence. If you look into the origin, the source of where mind is, it is.like looking at where the arm attaches to the trunk. You come back to the mind essence, the heart is in the trunk of the body. That is why it says that sentient beings look away, and the Buddha looks toward (the mind’s essence). Awareness or rigpa is the trunk of the body; dualistic mind is like an appendage. If you look further out the arm to the hand, will you see your own heart? No. That is the difference between looking away and toward. If I want to see my heart and look further and further away, will I see it?

We do not see through dualistic mind. If you look toward the mind’s essence, you will get to the heart of it. That is the example. If you practice mingling the threefold sky, you need to recognize awareness; otherwise, it becomes an instruction in mingling the two skies. Mingling the two is something all sentient beings do. They hold their space outside, and inside they have mind. But in the moment of recognizing awareness, the three skies are automatically mingled, because at that moment there is no fixation on outer objects. There is no holding onto the mind, which perceives. There is no dualistic experience. You can easily teach about the mingled three skies, but it will probably only become the practice to mingle the two skies.

Again, in the mingling of the three skies, the outer sky is the empty space, the inner sky is the empty mind, and the secret sky is the empty rigpa, or awareness. In the secret space of rigpa, grasping and fixating are both gone. The three skies are automatically mingled when you have recognized rigpa. If you have not recognized rigpa, you are trying to construct the mingled three spaces. As long as you try to construct something, it is not rangjung, which means self-existent rigpa or self-existing awareness. The basis of the mingled three skies is rangjung yeshe, self-existing wakefulness. It is self-existing because it doesn’t have to be constructed and wakeful because it has cognizance. Without recognizing rigpa, it becomes nonarisen, unknowing.

In the moment of recognizing rigpa, you don’t have to mingle the three spaces; they are self-mingled automatically. Otherwise, we usually have the concept that the space is there, and that we are here watching; we have this dualistic setup. But in the moment of rigpa, this fixation falls apart. The difference between sems, dualistic mind, and rigpa is that sems has fixation and rigpa does not.

In short, it is like this: you don’t need to take charge of space outside. You don’t need to take charge of the space within. Just totally disown all three—outer and inner spaces and the secret space of rigpa—as they are already mingled. They do not need to be mingled.

Your eyes need to connect with space and not look down at the ground. Direct your eyes toward space. For sure, the mind is empty. Leave this empty mind within rigpa. This is called already having mingled the three spaces. It is then possible to be free from fixation. Any attempt to mingle the three spaces is always fixation. If you think of the space outside and the space within and then think, “I should mingle these two and then add rigpa,” we should not call this `mingling the threefold space’, but instead `mingling the threefold concepts.’ If we call `three concepts’ the state of rigpa, it makes concepts more important than rigpa.

Why should we engage in this practice? Because space is perfectly pure, empty, and totally unconfined. There is no center, no fringe, and no edge in any direction whatsoever. Directing the gaze into the middle of empty space is an aid for allowing rigpa to be similarly unconfined and all-pervasive.

Outer space transcends arising, dwelling, and ceasing. This is the example. The ultimate meaning is that rigpa is all-pervasive and empty, with no end, like space. In the context of means and knowledge, this practice is the means, method. Simply leave rigpa in unconfined external space; there is nothing to arrange. Within this state, there is a shimmering configuration of light and something moving about. Direct your gaze toward this configuration. This is beneficial.

What it comes down to is this: If you have recognized rigpa, it becomes, automatically, the general mingling of the three spaces, the three skies. But if you have to try to mix it together, then it becomes quite difficult. You think, “First, there is the sky, then there is my mind, and finally there is rigpa.” It becomes very hard because it is interrupted by concepts.

The starting point is to recognize mind essence. When we talk about recognizing mind, we talk about the pointing-out to the essence of mind, not to mind. Nobody asks the lama to please point out the mind. We say, point out the mind essence; we don’t say point out the mind. That is the difference, and we should understand its meaning. We don’t have to point out mind, as everybody already has mind. If one is sentient, a sentient being, one automatically has dualistic mind. The student requests to a precious master, “Please show me mind essence.” The essence of mind is rigpa, awareness. And what is rigpa? It is self-existent wakefulness, whereas the mind is nonexistent stupor.

In order to practice like this, you first have to recognize the mind essence. Then it is possible to practice mingling the threefold space. Without that, I can tell you words, saying that the eternal sky is empty space, which is free from anything that can obstruct or impede, such as mist, dust, or clouds. That is the example for the external empty sky. Sky is unsupported; there is no focal point in the empty sky. Baseless space doesn’t have any reference point that we can focus on. If there is a reference point it is shamatha. Unsupported space completely destroys our sense of shamatha, fixating concentration. That is why it is very beneficial. Best is the sky; second best is an endless ocean. You can go to the ocean bank, shore, and look out; that is the second best.

Space is basically complete openness, unobstructedness. It doesn’t mean the blue thing we can see up there. This blueness we see is called the ornament of the sky. It is said according to the scriptures that because of the reflection of the sunlight on the southern slope of Mount Meru, which is made of sapphire, our sky and ocean are blue in appearance. However, if you are higher up, further up, the sky doesn’t have any colors; it is black. But if you fly further and further, straight up, you will never find a place where you touch something. There is no end to it. No matter how many billion—or countless—aeons you fly, there is no end. Likewise, if you fly down through the earth to what is called the Golden Base, you will also go endlessly through, without finding any bottom anywhere. If there is no above and no below, then how can there be south, east, west, and north?

To practice this, you should take into experience what is really meant by space— that there is no top, no bottom, and no limit to south, east, west, or north. Space is complete without any limitation in any direction. That is what you focus on to begin with for the three skies. That was about the external sky. Now let’s turn to the inner sky of the empty mind. Does mind have a place that it comes from, dwells, or goes to at any point? We find that it does not. The external sky is empty and so is the inner sky, the empty mind; it’s empty as well. If something has a place where it arises, a place where it stays, and a place where it ceases, it wouldn't be empty. Since the mind is without any arising, dwelling, or ceasing, it must be empty. That was the second sky.

Now for the secret sky of empty awareness, we should first understand what mind essence is and how it is uncompounded. Dualistic mind has thoughts, thinking. Namtok, (rnam rtog), dualistic thought, is nram pa, an appearance, manifestation of the five sense objects, and rtog pa, which means to conceptualize, hold onto that. That is thinking. But the secret space of rigpa is without any thoughts. While being free from thoughts, its essence is empty; its nature is cognizant, or luminous; and its capacity is unobstructed.

Dualistic mind is decorated with thoughts, dualistic thinking. Thoughts are not something that stay by themselves. Thoughts arise, disappear, arise, and disappear, one after the other. That is what causes all the confusion. We sentient beings run after each thought that arises, which is why we forget the essence. In the secret space of empty rigpa, even though it’s devoid of any conceptual thinking, there is still a wakefulness. Dualistic mind is decorated with the conceptual thoughts, and rigpa is decorated or adorned with basic wakefulness.

Sems falls under the power of the three times but rigpa does not. Sems is always involved in thoughts about past, present, and future. Rigpa is devoid of these thoughts.

The difference between sems and rigpa is this: while sems is empty and cognizant, it has no awareness of its own essence. It has not taken hold of this empty cognizance. It is like the example of not identifying where the heart is and instead looking away from the body to find it. Having not recognized this empty cognizance, the mind of sentient beings is called the unity of being empty and cognizant with a core of nonawareness or ignorance. On the other hand, the mind of a yogi and a practitioner is the unity of the empty and the cognizant with a core of awareness. The difference lies in knowing how to look, as in the example of looking toward one’s own heart or looking out and away—out the length of the arm to find the heart. If you recognize where the heart is, you meet the heart or the essence of mind, rigpa, which is the essence, nature, and capacity. If, instead, you look away from the heart, the essence evolves into the three or five poisons, and you wander in samsara.

Since you are quite intelligent, you can understand this one point, which is what it all comes down to: recognize your own heart as in this example. Recognizing our mind essence is the main point of every teaching—whether it is samsara, nirvana, or the path. If you look and say, “I am trying to find my heart,” but you look down the arm to the hand and further away, you will never find your heart.

Finally, the smart person will look the right way and say, “Oh, here it is.” That is the example. Just like the most important part of the body is the heart, likewise, the most important point of the dharma, samsara, nirvana, and the path, is mind essence. You find the essence, the heart, by looking the right way, connecting with it. In so doing, you see nothing; there is nothing to see. Still, everything is vividly seen. It is said that this essence is endowed with the threefold wakefulness of essence, nature, and capacity. Actually, seeing this is not the thing seen—it is seeing that there is nothing seen.

In the Kagyü teachings it says, “Nothing whatsoever, yet everything arises from it.” ‘Nothing whatsoever’ refers to the empty essence, which everything arises from—it is the cognizant nature. That is the same as in the Nyingma terminology: the empty essence, yeshe; the cognizant nature, yeshe; and so on.

The essence is empty, cognizant, and unobstructed. This is what one has to touch base with. It is said that in the beginning one should touch what should be touched or connected to. Here there is nothing to connect to. There is not a thing that one gets and reaches, because the essence is without anything to hold or to touch. If you want something to hold, then there are plenty of thoughts to hold on to. Not touching something is called nonaction, which means free from concepts. It is said that one nonaction outshines all activities, because this moment of nonaction destroys the three poisons.

There is actually no other agent than this that can clear away the three poisons. The three poisons always follow after a conceptual thought. If there were no conceptual thoughts to begin with, there would be no three poisons to follow after that. Therefore, it is said that one nonaction outshines all activities or doings. The three poisons are not something that we can kind of prohibit or try to bury, burn, wash away, or flush away. Not even the smartest person in this world can handle the three poisons. If you try to suppress mind poisons, they just come back up again; it is impossible. Of course, you can try to be patient, but that won’t uproot the three poisons.

It is only the empty essence and wakefulness that can totally annihilate the three poisons. What is meant by yeshe? The basic word is shepa (shes pa), which means knowing or being awake. There is no sense of being oblivious or not knowing. While it is free from action and concepts, it still knows whatever there is to know. That is how the essence is. You are mistaken if you think, “Oh the essence is nothing whatsoever. It is merely a blank state, like being hit and knocked out with a stick.” It is not like that at all. It is unobstructed, being completely empty. It is empty while cognizing, cognizing while being empty. We don’t have to manufacture that; it is automatic. People can’t make the essence anyway.

It is beyond being cleared and obscured, just like the flame of a butter lamp. It is uninterrupted like the flow of a river. But then the bandits of conceptual thoughts have taken it and tied it up with the sense objects and consciousness. In the past, we wandered endlessly in samsara, and if we don’t recognize that, samsara will continue endlessly. There is nothing more essential or important than this. Putting this into practice is like the wish-fulfilling jewel, because when we die, we don’t have any free will whatsoever. If we have grown accustomed to rigpa, it means we are free from the fixation of the three poisons, which are the basis for continuing in samsara. Once we attain stability in the essence, being in the three realms of samsara is like playing around.

To reiterate, the threefold sky practice is as follows: Outwardly, there is empty space, which means there is nothing to focus on; there is no focus, nothing to rest the attention on. That is the external space, the outer sky. The inner sky is the empty mind, the emptiness of the mind within. The secret space is the empty rigpa that has been recognized, the knowing of empty mind. These three become mingled into one. If you practice this very well, then when you die you will mingle with primordial purity. The threefold sky practice is the ultimate phowa, for a Dzogchen practitioner.

You sit with the eyes directed toward midair, without focusing on anything and without thinking of space inwardly. It is said, “In unsupported space, place nonfixated rigpa.” Do not think about space; leave the inner mind without fixation. Do not form any thought such as, “I am looking into the sky,” or anything like that.

The secret space of rigpa is the knowing of this emptiness. Do not direct the mind outwardly but recognize mind essence. That is called the secret sky of rigpa. In this way, you naturally let outer, inner, and secret be undivided. That is called mingling. Without thinking of sky outwardly, and without forming any thought inwardly, you automatically mingle the threefold sky.

The first key point is to recognize the mind essence, rigpa. Once you have done that, repeat that recognition in short moments many times; that is the real way to mingle the three skies. When you are sitting outside, aim into space. It means that your eyes can look toward the open sky. Your eyes can face toward the outer empty sky, but really, your mind faces toward the empty rigpa. If you do not recognize rigpa, then you take outer space as the object and dualistic mind as the subject. Then you create this dualistic setup, but after recognizing rigpa, you have no duality like this.

Sit outside letting the eyes face toward the open sky and the inner mind face toward rigpa. That doesn’t mean you have to sit and hold this unity of the three skies. Just look once and then completely relax, let go. Automatically the three skies are mingled. The perfect mingling occurs by itself, automatically. In other words, space or sky means no point of reference. There is no thing to look at, right? In space, is there anything to focus on? Focus on no focus. In unfocused space, abandon awareness unsupported.

QUESTION: When we practice mingling the threefold space, firstly, do we concentrate on space far away for a long time?

RINPOCHE: First look away, then lead toward you; then it becomes all-pervasive. But actually, it is the same. Without fixating outwardly, immediately to do that is okay. You can stay that way outwardly and slowly look towards. Wherever the eyes are placed is space—far away, close, and everything inbetween is the same space.

If you leave it out in space, then it turns into a conceptual object. Once brought towards, out and in are the same, no division. There is really no difference; it is just a matter of close or far. This is a method; if you do not do it, it is perfectly all right. Away is empty space; close is empty space. The only reason to pull the space towards is to avoid sitting and watching space as being over there as a focus. There is nothing to think about. Simply rest in the all-pervasiveness. Don’t dwell on the appearance; rest in rigpa itself."

♦️

~ from Vajra Heart Revisited: Teachings on the Path of Trekcho

"Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s impeccable qualities were evident to all who met him and received pith instructions and empowerments from him. His teachings on mind nature and the path of the Great Perfection were unparalleled. He had confidence and utterly pure trust based on the personal, direct understanding that buddha nature really is present in every sentient being. Just like oil is present in each and every sesame seed, any sentient being can realize the awakened state and thus has the basis for enlightenment.

These pith instructions in Vajra Heart Revisited are concise, brilliant expositions on the path of Trekcho, starting with the ground, the preliminaries, shamatha, and viphashyana, Three Vital Words, up to and including teachings on guru yoga, and bardo. They are extremely clear explanations on all aspect of practice that the Dzogchen yogi can use as a manual of guidance and inspiration. They include key topics such as differentiating mind and awareness and threefold sky practice, among others. It is all that is necessary to attain full mastery and realization.

The depth of Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s actual understanding was unsurpassed, and many Nyingma and Kagyü masters stood in awe of his comprehensive knowledge. He had thoroughly studied and practiced the Atiyoga, and his teachings on Dzogchen transformed the lives of those he touched with gentle, penetrating clarity. As a meditation teacher and a master of initiations, he was without peer.

As he said, “We should focus our minds on simplicity, the state of buddhahood, nonconceptual wakefulness… Although you will not arrive at enlightenment immediately, if you aim towards it, as if intending to go to Bodhgaya, then no matter what happens on the way, if you never give up you will arrive. Since harm occurs in the mind, whatever disturbances arise in this body from aggregates, elements, and sense factors, just let go again and again into unfabricated naturalness. Then you will reach your destination, the state of Buddhahood”.

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