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Insight of Buddhism
AI Suggested Keywords:
Date given as 1988.04.28 on cassette
The talk centers on understanding the essence of Buddhism as distinct from its forms and visions. Emphasis is placed on the importance of recognizing the essence of one's mind to achieve true happiness and liberation, while cautioning against getting trapped in superficial forms and visions. The speaker articulates how various spiritual traditions arise from the same essence aimed at realizing universal truths, but distinctions in form often lead to misunderstanding and division. The speaker emphasizes the imperative to access one's inner wisdom, or "inner eye,” to overcome the egotistical visions that lead to suffering and separation, advocating for compassion and the renunciation of ego-driven impulses to attain enlightenment.
Referenced Texts and Concepts:
- "The Divine Madman": Recommended for its demonstration of humor and enlightened perspective, illustrating the transformative understanding of essence beyond superficial forms.
- Buddha's Teachings: Referenced to emphasize that recognition of Buddha nature involves seeing beyond forms and images to grasp the true essence.
- Karma: Discussed in both Buddhist and Christian contexts as personal responsibility for one's actions and their consequences, highlighting a direct connection between actions and experiences.
- Dakini and Dhaka (Vajrayana Buddhism): Represents wisdom and liberated vision, illustrating the dualism of essence and projection.
- Mind-to-Mind Transmission in Buddhism: Explains different levels of teaching including symbolic and verbal transmissions, underscoring the need to transcend verbal forms to grasp the true essence.
Central Teachings:
- Essence versus Form/Vision: The essence is the unchanging, fundamental nature, whereas forms and visions are transient manifestations.
- Ego and Superiority: Critiques ego-driven superiority, advocating for humility and understanding beyond labels to realize genuine interconnectedness and compassion.
- Meditation as a Path to Essence: Encourages meditation to access and sustain contact with the essence, which transcends the mental and emotional disturbances caused by attachment to visions.
- Compassion and Insight: Emphasizes developing compassion and insight to bridge the gap between transient visions and the enduring essence.
AI Suggested Title: Seeing Beyond Forms to Essence
Side: A
Speaker: Chhoje Rinpoche
Additional text: Normal Bias 120us EQ; TDK D90
Speaker: Chhoje Rinpoche
Possible Title: Insight of Buddhism
Additional text: No. 1
@AI-Vision_v003
So, I guess you're probably new here, and did you ever hear about Buddhism before? So, anyway. Today, what was our subject? It was Insight of Buddhism. Yes. [...] When I was a child, I used to go to school, and [...] I used to go to school, When I was a child, I used to go to school with my friends.
[01:20]
I used to go to school with my friends. [...] So now basically the spiritual understanding, the approach of spiritual and the practice of spiritual and the study of spiritual It's a very important study and development for our inner happiness and inner realization. And for that reason, throughout the ages, throughout the times, there has been many great spiritual traditions and spiritual teachings which have been manifested on our earth, on our planet.
[02:35]
Now, when we lack the understanding and when we do not have the fortunate, the good possibilities, then our lives become very hard because we do lack understanding in the inner presence of our nature. So all different teachings, the teaching of Buddhism, teaching of Hinduism, teaching of Christianity, teaching in Judaism, all different teachings have been great. They have made a great contribution for the humanity. They have shown one basic aim, a basic aim and object, and that aim and object
[03:38]
is happiness and liberation of our life. Now that means the happiness and liberation can only be obtained, can only be achieved by understanding, by recognizing the essence of the mind. As long as the essence is not touched, As long as we do not connect with our essence, we cannot understand our life and we cannot overcome the confusion and fear of our life. So able to understand the essence is one of the most important view. The whole energy is focused towards the direction. because it is the essence, the true happiness which is inside ourselves.
[04:39]
But as long as we are not able to have the inner eye, or the wisdom mind, or the mind of knowledge, we would not understand the paranoid of our life, the chaos of our life. So able to overcome the chaos of our life, these spiritual teachings have been manifested over the centuries and we have to appreciate, we have to be very grateful for all those teachings. And a person following the spiritual path means we are not trying to become a different group and trying to create some kind of criticism to others. It's not good that we follow a spiritual path and our minds become more and more criticism
[05:44]
and we become more and more narrow, we become more and more fundamentalist, and we become more and more extremes, and then the paranoia will increase instead of the opening and the connection with our essence. We lose our essence instead of getting closer to our essence. We create too many separations at this stage. We are creating separation with whom? With our own basic human beings, with our fellow human beings. We are creating separation with humanity. We are trying to believe ourselves into some kind of a better and a higher understanding on a very wrong belief. Isolating ourselves, in fact. instead of merging into the space, instead of really able to help other people, we are seeing ourselves as some kind of superiority.
[06:57]
And seeing the superiority is coming out of that confusion of the ego. It's not coming out of an open heart. It's not coming out of the essence. It's coming out of the confusion of our ego. And because of that we have war, we have fighting, we have criticism, we have all these kills simply because we have not touched and experienced directly actual experience of the essence. We take things too much into visions. We take things too much into form instead of taking them to a direct experience of the essence. And we relate into a very form. Somehow we are unfortunately frozen into a form then able to free ourselves into the essence.
[08:03]
So that is a very fundamental confusion. A sadness. A sadness that we are not able to see that essence, though we are that essence. Though we are the essence, but we are not able to see that essence. And we get caught by images. We get caught by forms. We get caught by visions. and everything has more or less proved superficial than really seeing to its very basis of enlightenment. So, now how can we connect? Certainly there is a connection between the essence and the vision. The essence and the vision has always a connection. because the images, colors, forms, sounds, they all are a manifestation of that essence.
[09:11]
There is always a link, there is always a connection. But somehow we focus more on the images, more on the vision, instead of relating directly to the experience of the essence. And we miss the truth, the fact. Somehow we miss our original ground. Somehow we are lost from that sources of that richness, which we are, the presence of our awareness, the presence of our essence. So different teaching manifested. out of that essence. Teaching of Christianity, image and name. Teaching of Buddhism, image and name. Teaching of such and such, image and name. All different teachings give birth out of that essence.
[10:19]
And instead of really seeing the essence of our spiritual meaning, we get caught into the form of spiritual, then getting connected to the essence of spiritual. Now that's a very big problem. That is where we do not, we have all this constant separation, constant fight, constant criticism, because somehow we get caught into those forms, then really having a direct experience of the essence who we are. So we say, oh, I'm Christian, I'm Buddhist, I'm such and such. And we isolate ourselves instead of embracing. And the point of spiritual aim is to open our heart, is to embrace them, is to liberate, is to connect to the essence. But we are seeming that on the path of spiritual, we are getting farther and farther.
[11:23]
We are isolating ourselves more and more instead of becoming more and more open. So this is something one has to see very carefully, I think. If we are to be able to really open our heart and have a compassion to see the truth, then we need to see it very carefully with the inner eye of wisdom. we may miss entirely, we may interpret the whole spiritual path with our ego confusion. And it can be very tragic. The tragedy which happens in all situations in our life, the whole journey of our life is very tragic in a way. It has never been easy. It has always been pretty hard. And it has been pretty much confusing all the time.
[12:25]
So, the point of learning, studying, practicing, approaching an aim is to directly experience the essence of that nature which is, we call it fundamental, which we call it the primordial, which we call it the essence, which we call it the enlightened nature. And that has nothing to do with the habitual pattern of how we manifest. That we are fundamental. We are that essence. And it has nothing to do how things appears. So appearance is, are the birth of that essence. The visions are the birth of the essence instead of the essence is the birth of the vision. Somehow we think in a twisting way. We think the visions are coming, essence is coming out of the vision. And when we see the vision as ultimate, then we get caught into isolation.
[13:35]
Then we become fundamentalists. We become very fanatically, completely frozen in a tragic, tragic, tragic way. Not in an enlightened way, in a very tragic state of danger. So, I guess there's a lot of things to be learned. There's a lot of things to be learned, a lot of things to be really seen carefully because we ourselves are fundamentally responsible for the truth. We ourselves are fundamentally responsible for our happiness, for our realization. No one can do the job to you unless you're not willing to open your cell and able to see that. No one can do it on behalf of you.
[14:37]
If someone can do on behalf of us, then when those great enlightened beings got enlightened, we should be all enlightened at the same time. The world problem must have been solved a long time ago. But since that does not happen, we are primarily responsible for our own truth. And we have to see that very carefully with the unbiased mind, with the openness, the lovingness. use our skills, use our knowledge, use our method, how we can see and feel deeply touched to that essence. We need to have a connection. Though essence is there, somehow we have lost the connection with the essence, which means we do not experience the essence much. We experience the form
[15:43]
the vision, more the energy, the creativeness, too much, while we miss the root of our underlying who we are. And then we get caught into this tremendous display of phenomena. we get so seduced by all different visions which arises in phenomena. And different separation of countries, humanity, beliefs, all happen because simply getting caught into that form and getting caught into that vision and getting caught into that image, color. And Buddha himself said, If you see me as an image, as a form, you have never seen me.
[16:47]
If you directly experience the actual experience of the essence, that is what you have seen me or seen yourself. Because that essence is what is called the Buddha nature. We cannot suppose that when we become enlightened we will be seeing a golden image Buddha in front of us. That could be again a misinterpretation, again an expectation and a trip of the vision. Again a trip of a vision instead of totally openness of the essence. So we play between the essence and the vision all the time. But through spiritual teaching, there are moments when we do prayers, there are moments when we do, particularly in meditation, that we all come to a point where we all meet together.
[17:57]
We all can experience our essence. that it has no fight, it has no struggle, that we can all share the space without any boundary. So we experience that actual direct experience of the essence. And so we know that there is something more to be understood than this ordinary vision and this ordinary form. There is something far more deeper in ourself, in who we are, something accelerating, something more powerful, something more blissful, something tremendous joy in our nature, the richness than simply this ordinary vision, which we are constantly putting all our resources, our energy, our time, everything into it. So,
[19:03]
And from that point, we are all the same. Whether what person has what name, whether what kind of sex it is, what kind of race it is, what kind of form it is, we all come to that essence exactly the same. So in all the teachings, sutras and tantras, it's explained that all the Buddhas meet at the same essence. And that Buddha means our essence of fundamental state of mind, which is always present there. It is the essence who we are fundamentally. So the question of samsara and nirvana, for instance, begins when we are able to relate and have a proper connection and able to see our essence being tremendous spaciousness, a profundity and a richness without any boundary of duality.
[20:13]
That is what is called the freedom, the liberation. Because we all can experience that insight far more deeper when we do meditation, when we do the prayers. So we understand there is something more in our life than simply this ordinary facet, you know, what we are trying to pursue all the time. There's something more to be understood inside. There's something more to be relayed inside. There's something more that we need to put our energy and time into our deepness that we experience. So we know that there is something more than what is happening. But yet, the visionary of this pattern of habits are also something which we have used for a pretty long time, for a very long time. So it's not very easy to cut the attachment.
[21:19]
It's not easy to cut the attachment of the visionaries. Somehow we get attached to the visionaries. We like to be labeled. We like to be superficial. Though we do not like to hear such things. So the whole thing, in a very deep experience of our essence, it really shakes our whole mind, shakes our whole emotion, shakes our whole belief. And I think that's very, very important because if we are to live, it's better to live in truth We can't live forever in a false superficial life all the time. So we need to use our inner eye or what you call like third eye.
[22:35]
We could name it in different, different labels. different, different labels, but fundamentally there is the connection of the essence is so important. Able to understand that essence is crucial to our enlightenment. So there is a essence and there is a vision. Now the essence is there. And we know that this is not the only thing. There's a tremendous depthness, something tremendous deep, a profundity which we experience, a flash of enlightenment in meditation. A flash of enlightenment in our prayers. A flash of enlightenment in our certain opening of the heart. But it does not last long.
[23:41]
So, so the insight, the insight, what we call insight, there's a difference between insight and essence. The insight still have limitation, but insight somehow experience the deafness on a certain extent and gives us information. about the essence. So we call it insight, it's like inner eye, it sees that. But it's not able to experience that essence all the time. It's able to know, it's like a memory. Insight is like a memory.
[24:45]
Insight is not realization. Insight is somehow it seizes what is into it. It investigates that part of our consciousness. It experiences certain states of that consciousness, of that experience relating with our essence. And it's helped us tremendously. And it could even lead us to realization that insight, what it can provide us. So insight is extremely important. it's become the bridge which will finally bridge between our vision and the essence. Insight is the bridge between the essence and the vision, finally.
[25:47]
Now when we lack that insight, we do not know how to apply the insight then we will never be able to come how to bridge that vision and the essence. So for that, a proper understanding of the essence is extremely crucial. And understanding all that essence, it will work on the path as insight. On the pad, it works as insight. On the pad, it's not called essence because essence cannot be labeled. Essence cannot be shown by words. Essence is a direct actual experience rather than some kind of labeling. So there is works between the vision and the essence.
[26:52]
How the visions can be healed? How it can be transformed will be the strength of the insight. Even at this stage, we do have an insight, the way we relate forth between our insight and our essence, even at this stage. But this stage, insight, is quite a questionable insight, quite a superficial intelligence. It does have a tremendous powerful intelligence in that insight itself. But the way it functions provides us with a very surface level instead of going to the deep part. So when we do prayers, when we do meditation, we experience very directly something far more deeper than what we are
[27:54]
being on this vision part, on this external part, into this form, into this color, into this poet, into this art, whatever it is externally. So we know that there is something more to be understood in our life than simply this surface level. And it would be a total tragic if we keep on putting all our energy, all our time, all our resources on the surface level, we can never come to the point where we will break the boundary of the duality, where we will break the boundary of the violence. All violence do come when we get caught into visions. So we never meet. There is no meeting point of all the mind. There is no peace.
[28:56]
There is no harmony. Because we are caught up into a belief. And to what? Not to the essence. We are not caught in essence. Never the essence is caught. To nobody the essence is caught. But where we are caught is we are caught in our visions. And that is not the right view, even in Buddhism. So Buddha himself said, if you see me as an image, you have never seen me. And if you see me from the essence, then you have seen me. And that is exactly how we are living. Each one criticizes. All criticism is extremely seen as not the right view in Buddhism. Because criticism is simply the path of egoism, it's not the path of the wisdom essence. Criticism arises from our being frozen into vision, being caught into a particular form, into a particular style, and believing that as the ultimate.
[30:13]
while we lose the experience of our essence. So experience, the development of the experience of essence is so crucial, it's so fundamental, it's so important in our life to grow, to heal, to transform ourselves into a proper path and a better living and a better realization. It's extremely crucial. So, when we can really relate to that essence, we would not find difficulty in the words and images, and we would not find difficulties in communication. For instance, in Buddhism, the word such is used called karma. The karma is taught in Buddhism
[31:16]
that letting ourselves understand that we need to have a direct responsibility on ourselves. It shows us the truth that it is extremely crucial for our development, for our progress, for our progress, we need to have a direct responsibility on ourselves. So therefore, the way the teoreo, the way the karma is taught, needs to be applied by oneself for one's own development in any direction you are going. If you want to go to hell realm, you need to apply that certain seed of the hell realm, wherever you wanted to go. You have the responsibility, even if you want to go to hell, you can't go to hell if you don't take the responsibility. You need to take the responsibility to go to hell also. Or if you want to go to a state of tremendous wisdom and a tremendous enlightenment, again you have to make the direct responsible towards yourself.
[32:27]
So the karma teaches, the karma introduces our life to see ourselves clearer and to see ourselves, see where we can reach. on such and such action, what kind of reaction or what kind of reflection we can expect by such direct involvement, participation, planting certain kinds of emotion, planting certain kinds of seed. what any kind, good thoughts, bad thoughts, or neutral thoughts. So it's a direct thing which is shown that nobody can steal that.
[33:30]
Nobody can, either you can lose it. So that is what the karma, It's extremely important thing on the journey of our life to be understood as a direct responsible. Now the same thing is shown in essence in Christianity. But we don't take it. We get caught in images. We get caught in forms. And now Christianity says that if you do such and such, then you will be there. But if it says that if you do such and such, that shows a direct responsibility also. It didn't say that if you don't do, you will be there. If you do, then there will be such and such.
[34:33]
And if you don't do, you won't be there also. The way it is shown is a little bit different way, but there's a lot of things in common. There is a certain limitation in the state of the opening of the essence. There are certain essence, many Christian teachings, perhaps they are lost today, which does not show the inner essence of our mind. But there are a great deal of development which is really shown from the essence. It says that you have to apply that. If you have to go to heaven, which is heaven is related as some kind of a place to be reached of joy, to be reached as a joy of enlightenment, to be reached as a place of opening, to see the truth, to relate to the essence, then one should apply the positive merit. which means we relate in our essence and our vision into much more better and positive vision instead of projecting negative vision.
[35:42]
Since the life is the experience of that vision, then we emanate, we manifest positive vision. And we need, in fact, it shows that our cell is the one who is creating that. Our cell is the one who is functioning and who is seeing that. Who goes through that experience is our cell. But if we do not have to go our cell, then there is no need for those teachings to be told to us. Those teachings don't have to be told to anybody. So the whole question of different teachings are relating with different visions, relating with different visions how to skillfully, how skillfully one can let that mind understand its direct actual experience of the essence.
[36:58]
And these teachings do manifest at certain times. At certain times. Sometimes it is important that teachings are shown in a different way. For instance, in Tibet we have the Bon religion. There have been many great Buddhist Tertums, those who came as Bon teachers. And they simply skillfully connect them to see that essence simply because it was needed at that time. And essence can be understood simply. The whole thing was very crucially needed at that stage. There's this particular time, a particular kind of teaching has become extremely essential. And there is no conflict.
[38:04]
But if some people, those who are caught in vision, for them it can be uncomfortable. Because those who do not experience the essence, it is very uncomfortable. And they may say, oh, you are wrong. I am right. And there is wardens. So, you know, even in Christianity, it says, don't tell lie, don't do this thing, don't do bad, don't kill. Because if you kill, you who kill, you kill. You involve, you participate directly. And therefore, you plant that thing on the space of your mind, and then who goes through that experience? You. God does not experience that. Angel does not experience that. Nobody experiences that. You experience because you did it. But it says that if you do such and such, there is a beautiful paradise.
[39:06]
Now that is like the skillful me, you know, at that stage. To certain people like to, you know, like to need some kind of affection. And an enlightened affection is a blessing. But an ego affection can be very tragic. We know that. We know how ego affection can be. We can deceive people, which is happening all the time in samsara. People deceive each other all the time. But to deceive you need to show affection. That is the self-deception where the ego shows a certain kind of affection and then the person gets caught. And it does not relate to enlightenment even though everyone believes into that affection as a reality of happiness.
[40:09]
But we do not come to the stage of happiness. because of the egoism, because of the confusion, because of not seeing the essence. So somehow one cannot trust into the duality. One has to, one can only trust that essence, unchangeable, unfabricated, which is meeting at a point with all the mind. So we should have a, very important, we should not have a, what we need to do is to take care of ourself. What we need to do is to have an open heart, a compassion, a love an understanding to ourselves better.
[41:13]
And when we understand ourselves better with an open heart, we understand everybody. We will have a peaceful and enlightened society and an enlightened world instead of all these different groups and all these different fights. And you are that essence. You manifest that essence. And that is all. It's simple essences. It's full of richness, profundity, depthness into that. It's very sad when things happen like that. That's how it's called the time of the degenerate time, the time of the Kali Yuga, the dark age, when there are very few enlightened beings and more they are wrong, showing the distorted view more and more. So we have to get, we have, we are human beings, we have a basic intelligence and we can see that essence.
[42:27]
And once we have seen that essence, there is no need to have a label or there is no need to go to the superficial aspect of a group or name that, okay, I'm a Christian or I'm a Buddhist or whatever. You can name whatever you like. If you like so much name, you can name anything you like. Names are not important. What is important? The meaning is important. Even in the teaching it says, Don't relate to the person, relate to the teaching. Don't relate to the teaching of words, don't get caught up in the words, get relate to the meaning. Don't get caught into the meaning of the relative but relate to the meaning of ultimate. Don't relate to the ultimate of the intellectual because the essence transcends all intellectual. Essence transcends that duality. So relate to that essence of wisdom. That is how we can really have a true experience of our essence if we are to approach our life, our direction, our path in that.
[43:38]
But nobody does that. Very few people do that. Very few people will go that direction. Everyone will go into the vision, into the form, into the color. And then we get, if you're lucky, very good. But you can also get screwed up in the middle. It's not easy. Without the wisdom eye, the inner eye, it's not an easy path. Enlightenment is not an easy path. It cannot be simply understood just like that. It needs the transmission of the wisdom so you really understand yourself, able to have the vision to see that, the insight to see that. What I mean is insight. The insight is related with vision, the insight to see that.
[44:41]
So what is more important in the insight of Buddhism is the essence, not the vision. Vision is a connection to that essence. Seeing the golden image of the Buddha, seeing the different thangkas, different arts, the body of the teacher, is a channel is a bridge to understand and realize that essence. But you can't take that vision as the ultimate. Because if you take the vision as ultimate, you may say, his ear is too long, or you know, something, or maybe he has short hair, or he has too long hair, or he needs to be a little bit taller, or whatever. Those things will come.
[45:47]
So, so these are, you know, to be able to understand the essence, the very different presentation of different kinds of mind in the human world. If there is one million people, there is one million different kinds of visions. Not everyone thinks the same. Not everyone understands the same. Because each person has their karmic phenomena which they entertain in that... in that... things which some very few people can see things. We are not able to see the other beings, we are not able to see the beings in other planets because the limitation of the eyesight of our visions. So similarly, to see the inside, inside the depthness of that essence is something we need to make an effort, something we need to really to work it seriously and to commit ourselves to see that because it is the life, we are going through this life every day today and we have to understand what we are, who we are and what, how we are functioning.
[47:19]
And if we are able to open that essence, able to touch to that ground of essence, then the visions can be a healing vision. Our vision can be a compassionate vision. Our vision can be a love. Our vision can be a teaching. Our vision can be a transformation of the true vision or the compassionate wisdom. But as long as we do not experience directly the essence, our visions are pretty much distorted in a great way also. We are frozen into a certain fixed concept, certain fixed paranoid, certain fears. And we believe that is what we are. And we believe that we are helpless, we become extremely rude to ourselves, we become very unforgiving to ourselves, because we simply believe that vision is ourselves.
[48:34]
That is ourselves. We lost the entire real truth, that essence. But we get caught into that vision and we believe that is what me, that paranoid is me and I don't forgive myself. But you don't see the aspect of the richness, the background, the wonderful background, the tremendous profundity of that enlightened state, the essence there. And those who are extremely frozen into that vision become very hard to teach them also. The mind is so filled, you know, it's completely filled at that stage. The whole space is filled, for instance, that there is no room to see oneself. And when that happens, it's quite a dangerous time. Then we cannot...
[49:41]
it would be extremely hard to heal ourselves. We need to go to a real rehabilitation center, working with ten teachers, day and night. Not only in our dream phenomena, but in our dream phenomena also. Twenty-four hour cleansing. Twenty-four hour cleansing. But I don't want anybody to go through such a stage. We pray that there is a space which is left unpolluted. And if we don't have the space, without contamination, then it's extremely hard. So the experience of actually the hell realm, the lower realm experience is something, an experience of a total, filled with this anger,
[50:59]
and totally filled with such a vision and emotion which the essence is totally lost. There are a lot of people who feel that if they don't have emotions, they don't exist. But also in the Western world you have the Cartesian logic which says that, I think, therefore I am. So if you're not thinking, how do you know you exist? How do you overcome the two objections? Yeah, that is what we need, the insight, you see. You discover yourself by your insight, the essence. That's what we need, the bridge between the vision and the essence. The teachings explain from step by step. We do meditation and we have the flesh of that experience. But we don't have all the time because at this stage our phenomena is overwhelming to us.
[52:03]
We get again sucked into that vision. We get completely sucked into it, completely overwhelmed by it. But a presence, one who is able to keep the presence of that essence, can see that as a display, as a mere display of the essence instead of being frozen into their vision. So most ordinary people do not see that. Most ordinary person, if you look into the street, the way their life is functioning, has no sense. It's just like a tool, just like an instrument. It's just like a very, very... No quality, total loss of essence. I was in San Francisco yesterday and I was in this cafe. I watched this person who was doing this washing thing and the person has no sense.
[53:07]
just washing it and putting it completely caught into that vision, you know, completely frozen into that vision. No sense of opening, no sense of experience of that essence. Though the essence is there, but yet one is more like, we are very mechanical from that point. Very, very mechanical. The flexibility, the question of flexibility is hardly there when the essence is not experienced. The humor is totally lost. The humor of enlightenment is completely lost in such a state. So we do not have humor, you see. It's very interesting. If you really understand this well, if you have really experienced your essence, I'd like you to read this book called The Divine Madman. It's an interesting book how he sees things in such a humor because for him it's simply a mere display of his mind and it's extremely joyful to reach that book.
[54:23]
It's not caught into vision. And that would require a lot of practice. It will require our perseverance, our continuity of the practice, continuity of our meditation, continuity of our observance and working and healing ourselves from time to time. It is a state that cannot be simply achieved just by relaxing, sitting on your chair and thinking of it. We cannot do that. It will not happen. You need a constant continuity, like a stream of a water flow. We did not grow up this big if we just have a sip of a mother's milk one time. It need a continuity.
[55:25]
He took us continuity milk fed, continuity food, continuity clothing, shelter, and then we are able to grow this big, and now what we are. But similarly, to be able to experience that essence, though essence is there fundamentally, but somehow we have lost that connection. The connection, losing connection, does not mean that essence is not there, but we are not able to directly experience the essence. So we have lost that openness. We have lost the ground of light, the open light. So then we get frozen into the darkness of vision. So vision, getting caught into vision is called darkness. Not being able to cut it through. I'm coming back to the same question.
[56:29]
A lot of people are afraid that if they don't think, they can't function in this world. He's saying that part of the aspect of this experience, the essence, is the free-flowing consciousness. No, the thinking does not mean that essence does not have thinking. All these visions are grown out of the essence. The colors, the images, the forms, these are all a birth of that essence. And now we don't have to, our confusion is that we think what is born, that is what we are. What we lose is the contact with our mother. The mother space where we are the essence. Essence is the mother space. And in Vajrayana, that mother space is called the feminine aspect of wisdom, the Dakini. And the manifestation of that vision, the vision of liberation, the vision of opening, the vision of light is called the Dhaka.
[57:48]
the male aspect, which is grown. And that is the essence of the mind. But when we... And that does not have any label. The essence of the mind does not have any label. The essence of the mind does not have any form. The essence of the mind does not fall into any group, any category. It does not go to any tradition. It does not fall into any culture. It is universal. If there is such, that is the universal. That is common. That is where we meet. But somehow... the vision has even named that essence also, such as essence. Such is the Buddha nature. Such is the enlightenment. Such is the realization. So, so we have to, it's important
[59:01]
The names are important because for a person who is caught into a vision cannot be shown a path without a name. Because that person involves and circulates in that vision throughout the time. So if Buddha just simply sits quiet, he's not going to understand. So the place turned the wheel of the Dharma was important so that the visionary can relate to see the essence. That was the main purpose of the teaching of Buddha. But for a very high realized being, there is no niche for them. The teaching has to be verbal. The teaching does not have to be verbal. simply, you know, they could relate the transpiration like in the lineages. There's the mind-to-mind transmission.
[60:02]
And there is the symbolic transmission. And there is the hearing transmission. Today we go through the hearing and even we do not understand that well. A hundred times we start and a hundred times we lose our sense. So when the mind-to-mind transpiration, there's no verbal teaching, there's no labeling, directly essence-to-essence relation. Now that kind of transmission is very hard for a mind which is completely, very heavily, grossly solidified, grossly caught into the fabrication of different patterns of phenomena. Completely use accumulation of that style. And it's called obscuration. There's nothing other than that. Because it prevents us from cutting through the limitation of the duality. So mind-to-mind transmission. Then symbolic transmission.
[61:05]
And then the hearing transmission. So in hearing transmission, 84,000 texts. Buddha has shown 84,000 teachings. And all the thermal teachings. all the teachings which are written, are all different, using different words, simply to understand the essence of our human nature, the essence of our mind. For a human being, the human nature, or whatever we may call it, the essence of the mind, to be able to understand that. So, So it needs, it definitely needs our perseverance, our strength, it will require many circumstances, compassion, because compassion merges, compassion, when we have a deep compassion, it cuts through the isolation of fear.
[62:13]
Compassion cuts through the isolation of fear. Compassion cuts through the fear of being isolated also. Because the compassion embrace, compassion opens while our ego mind isolates us more and more, make us more and more limited. Bring us more confusion, creates more fear, creates more paranoia. While the compassion is like the limitless, the boundless sky, which everyone can come into your space and dance and eat and celebrate and they can go or they can come. It's 24-hour welcome. It's 24-hour open restaurant. That's the compassion mind like. While the ego mind, as you know, is like all the minefields, all the watchdogs, all these spotlights and washtubbers.
[63:26]
And you have special code everywhere in your hand. Check your left hand to make sure it is you and your right hand to make sure it is someone so paranoid that there are some people like that. And perhaps they have code number to each fingers also. Put it through first finger. Is that you really or not the same person? And finally you are let inside through different doors. And then you are given a certain number of time. And you do not know what really happens during that time. Very fortunate if you are able to get out of that fancy game. So, this is how we lack in wisdom. We have to really, that is so important, to be able to free ourselves from the fear of isolation, from this confusion. We need to generally develop compassion.
[64:28]
It has a profound meaning. We're not really paying that close attention. We're just simply going through a certain kind of very gross thing. We think compassion means like, we think compassion is like now isolating yourself. Compassion is now like putting yourself into a situation which you could be unbearable. Pain. Torturing now. Okay, now I have to do this. How painful. But it's not like that. There is a tremendous joy because it relates to the truth of the essence, compassion. It's caused the fear of isolation. It merges into the space of freedom. It frees all our emotion. It frees all our clarity. When we really follow the path of bodhisattva, the path of the compassionate enlightened mind,
[65:31]
So one has to understand deeply. You need to do a deep study. You need to do an understanding. You need to do a meditation. Then you can really make an opening, a real, you will be able to understand what it really is now. What produces the joy? What process makes it that we have this joy feeling? Why should there be joy at all? The renunciation of ego. The renunciation of ego is the renunciation of the grasping. The renunciation of the grasping will give the joy experience. Why do we feel something? Why just feel nothing at all? Why do we have to feel this feeling? Why just... Nothing. Why joy? Why are you listening at all? I guess because we are pretty much screwed up.
[66:37]
We are pretty much screwed up in a way. We are so, at this stage, somehow we are so much frozen. We are so much caught into the vision. So it's still a joyous death. Of course. So we need to, you know, so the ten stages of bodhisattva is true. Ten levels of bodhisattvas and how we need to generate. Because we don't see. It requires tremendous practice, tremendous understanding of seeing the fact, the truth. For instance, look in our ordinary stage, how we relate. Usually, if someone comes and fights with a person, both persons will fight each other. Both person will just completely be violent. But if you have an understanding at this stage, you would not fight that person. Because you understand that other person is not fighting by his real intention.
[67:42]
In essence, no one wants to be unhappy. But that person is fighting because person does not have any sense on himself or herself. It's completely lost. The mind is completely caught into that vision being neurotic now. The vision transformed into neurosis. And when you see that, you have a love. And if you generate yourself, you're putting yourself into lower hell experience than putting yourself into a joyful and a liberating experience. You don't see a joy and a happiness into it at all. You just see suffering at this stage. But we are so screwed up, you know, really screwed up, so caught so much into that darkness, we think, someone fight, I fight. Not realizing the fact that both persons will go through the pain. Both persons will suffer. And somehow our society also teaches us to fight.
[68:48]
Our education system is also brought up, you know, how, okay, we've got to be strong, we have to finish our opponents, whatever. So this is how the view the distorted inside supporting from externally and implementing that by ourself internally. Internally is implementation, integration by ourself, that external influence. Then the whole crisis happens and that's called the viciousness of the samsara. So we need to understand. We need to understand the feeling of others. We need to do the best, what we can do for others, the best thing. And it will open up. We need to generate at this stage because we are not in the essence state. If we are in the essence state, we would not be doing that in the first stage.
[69:52]
And from the essence point, even to generate such is a duality because essence transcends all these little developments. There's no little developments in the essence experience. The essence is like the boundless sky, the stainless sky experience. So we need, we need in order to understand That essence, we need to generate compassion. We need to understand ourselves better. We need to study how our mind functions, how our emotion functions, how they originate, how we can dissolve them, and how we can see them. It's extremely crucial. And that is the journey of our life. And we can transcend those states by seeing the truth. But we cannot transcend those states if we do not see the essence. We may be playing a lot of things.
[70:56]
We may be playing with our emotions, trying to put them here, trying to change their forms, trying to change their styles, but yet there will be, no matter what kind of style we change, there will be the same continuity of that presence of neurosis all the time. So, seeing that essence, one can only transcend. But not seeing that essence, one cannot transcend. We may be able to shift them from one side to the other side. We may be able to change their color from white to blue, from red to green, or to change their forms, but we may never be able to transcend that. So, insight, vision. You know, our life is going from vision to essence. Essence is there, but vision ain't. And in between, how we understand is the insight. Having the right insight can open up and relate to the essence. And not having the right insight, it can give the false interpretation, the interpretation of the egos.
[72:01]
So, So that essence mind does not have any label, you see. As far as the essence is concerned, it does not have any label. And as far as the vision is concerned, our thoughts are fundamentally there, but thoughts are not something, the expression of the essence is not something frozen. The expression of the essence is very much into a blessing, into a blessing of liberation. So if we can relate the way the mind it is, there is experience of enlightenment. That which we experience in meditation. We directly relate to our essence, to it. But if we are to focus ourself, if we are to focus ourself into a vision, If we are to focus ourselves into some kind of form, we may find it very difficult to get a touch to the essence.
[73:15]
So even certain visualization practice in Buddhism, eventually it relates to the dissolving part. At that stage, seeing the essence. The dissolving stages also is necessary for a certain state of mind which is very heavy, but actually dissolving never needs to be dissolved also. The whole process is even a question of how to lead a very neurosis mind, a very caught up mind, how to kind of reach to that stage. So we even try to make, label that stage, even inside, psychologically, inside also dissolving. But actually it is the essence, it's always there. The whole question of dissolving also has a tremendous different realization into it. But it's important at this stage because we just cannot even think because we are so, we want to think, but the thing is we cannot think.
[74:23]
We want to think how the dissolving goes because we are always caught in our thinking. And that is our vision. So simply to let us be the way it is at this stage, sometimes when you first do meditation, you have different kinds of experience. To some people, your whole mind will open up, all your karmas of the past will come, the present and the future, everything will melt at one time, so you experience all kinds of inner fluctuations. You may go through sometimes very emotional, sometimes sad, sometimes very happy, sometimes tremendous joy, sometimes tremendous openness. So it depends at different, different times. But you are flushing it out. You are constantly cleansing. You are completely purifying the state. And So different, different kinds of experience will manifest when we relate to that essence because now those visions, those false interpretations of our lives simply dissolve.
[75:47]
The transformation takes place from reality instead of this present transformation of the false, which brings the experiences, limitation, fear, confusion, paranoia, suspicious, duality and doubt. All these different manifestations do arise out of that false transformation. Now we go, we look deeply inside and we see ourselves completely spacious and open and when we relate to that essence, naturally the transformation is done by essence. We don't have to transform ourselves into some kind of ideas. We don't have to think ourselves, okay, now I try to visualize my ear a little bit longer so then I can have like a Buddha's ear or something like that. We don't have to do that. If we are doing it, then perhaps it is not right at this stage. We trust ourselves at this stage.
[76:51]
It's a stage where you can see yourself, trust yourself, have your presence yourself, and you can heal yourself. And healing is basically extremely powerful because experiencing the essence, there's a tremendous joy. The joy do comes when all those fears, fears and confusion are overcome and seen, that not as a reality. You see those visions as not something as a reality, you simply see those visions as something not that serious. and you can see them deeply from your heart, what it is. So now we will go through a meditation stage. Okay, a session meditation here. Please don't get caught into your forms, images and visions. Because if you get caught into a form, images and vision, there is no end to that cycle.
[77:54]
No matter what that vision or image is, there is no end to that circle. There is no end to that paranoid. So try to connect with your essence. Try to go to the connection to your essence. The essence does not have any label. And there is no need to have any fear. Fear are the one our own visions are creating that fear, but our essence never had that fear. The vision telling us, okay, if you don't do this, if you don't think, perhaps then you're going to get lost. We just need to renounce that whole stuff which is bringing us the problem. Simply what we have to do is to renounce that very criticizer. And once we renounce that criticizer, then we can relate to our essence. Thank you.
[81:26]
Clarity is very important in meditation, not to get sleep, clearness, so we can see our essence clearly. If the clarity is not preserved, then we can fall asleep and completely again get seduced into a very dark vision. So awakening is very important in meditation. When we are not able to directly experience the essence, then the old elements, our energy become turbulent, or they may not be able to remain in a peaceful, calm circulation.
[87:13]
So a breathing problem, many things may occur. So we have to heal that. Everything can be healed by touching and experiencing directly that essence. Thank you.
[90:46]
We should heal our visions by liberating them. We should not try to own them, we should not try to possess them because we cannot possess them. Simply the idea of possession itself is a very confusion. We have to give up that confusion.
[91:55]
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