When Padampa Sangye asked him to express his realization, Lama Jungne Yeshe sang:
Like a fatally ill ascetic,
Seek to remember your own death!
Like a lone man struck with leprosy,
Seek realization of disillusionment!
Like a stone thrown into the sea,
Seek realization of irreversibility!
Like a bird seeking worms,
Seek realization of undistractedness!
Like meeting your only child,
Seek realization of recognition!
Like a lion coursing through the snow,
Seek realization beyond fear!
Padampa Sangye said:
Don’t take appearance inside!
Don’t project inner conceptions outside!
Don’t enslave body to mind!
Don’t occupy mind with body!
Don’t attend to view or meditation!
Leave mind unfabricated, just where it is!
~from Lion of Siddhas: The Life and Teachings of Padampa Sangye, trans. David Molk
Lately I’ve been reading Padampa Sangye, the great Indian siddha of the 11-12th century, who visited Tibet, Bhutan and China. Some say in China he was known as Bodhidharma, the legendary founder of Zen. (!) Some say he was also known as the famous sage Kamalashila in India. Some say he lived hundreds of years. In any event, it seems certain that he taught in a style that was unique and unclassifiable (in Tibet, the people were unsure at first whether he was a Hindu or Buddhist siddha), yet powerful and direct. I hope to share some more of his teachings here in the future.
Nondual awareness is our natural state, always present and underlying all experience. But how can we see it and feel it vividly for ourselves?
In general, there can be said to be two approaches. One is to just rest, not altering anything. The other is to use inquiry, first to distinguish consciousness from its contents, and then, through further inquiry, to see that consciousness and its contents are not ultimately separate–consciousness’ contents are the appearance of consciousness, like waves are the appearance of water.
In this talk, our weekly Real Dharma group experimented with bringing nondual awareness to consciousness through group dialogue and inquiry. This was an experiment in open-eyed dialogic meditation. I think that most of us felt the experiment worked.
To listen to our session, conducted at the Real Dharma group on November 1, 2011, use the flash driver below.
If you are unable to use the flash player, listen or download here.
For Tuesday, November 8 ONLY: The weekly class will begin with meditation at 7:15 p.m. (instead of the usual time of 7:30).
We will have a discussion on the Buddhist teaching of dependent origination (pratitya samutpada or the 12 nidanas). Dependent origination is one of the earliest teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha and is a central teaching in all schools of Buddhism.
Real Dharma 