Dzogchen Practice of Contemplation

[jonesboy]

One might ask: If in this Shine you do not recognise the
forming of thoughts (that is, movement), if you are able to
discern only the calm state, then what should you do? As I
have j ust said, in order to release Shine you need to know
how to be in the state of thoughts; in stable Shine there
must always be the presence of thoughts arising. Otherwise
it would mean that we are distracted, and that we are not
in Shine.

When there is this presence it is as if 'the one' who is
in the state of Shine turns to observe 'the one' who is
observing, and this presence has its own precise kind of
clarity.

That Is, you expenence a different mode of
presence.

This, however, is merely a description; the state we
are speaking of must in any case be directly experienced.

This is the way to release Shine.

Having reached this point, the practice session
comprises:

First remaining in stable Shine;
Then releasing it;
Then continuing.

In general these last two stages are shorter, while at
the beginning one should remain a little longer in
stable Shine.

Subsequently, with a little training it is no longer
necessary to remain in stable Shine for a long time; as
soon as you enter the state of Shine, whether or not
thoughts arise you observe 'who' is in this state,
immediately release it and then continue.

That is, you should seek gradually to increase the
duration of the continuation, of the 'after having
released'.

When you have achieved released Shine and remain in
the continuation of this state, you have finally become a
Dzogchen practitioner,

and this means that now there is the possibility to
'enter into action'.

[jonesboy]

Released Shine is different from stable Shine.

Stable shine is a very delicate state: you can alter it
by just changing your posture. Conversely, a
practitioner who has ripened released Shine can slowly
stand up, and gradually moving a little at a time more
and more, can learn not to lose presence. It is necessary
to train in this progressively, like someone in hospital
patiently learning to walk again. We can learn every
day, every moment, even while we are working.

Neither a particular place or posture are necessary,
you can train at any time. When you have really
achieved the level of released Shine then training in it
will not impair your work. Someone might think: "I
work in a factory, I have to package one piece a minute,
if I get distracted I might cut my finger! " However in
released Shine you do not get distracted, not even at
work that requires the greatest attention.

In this state we are really able to control ourselves,
integrating all circumstances with our clarity; this is
the fundamental means for the development of clarity.

'Clarity' refers not only to the distinct vision free of the
obstacles produced by the dualistic mind but also to
intelligence: intelligence is part of clarity. When the results
of their practice ripened, one of these being the
development of clarity, many teachers of the Dzogchen
lineage spontaneously manifested vast knowledge and
profound learning even without having studied.

There are many teachers of this type; one of the most
recent, for example, is the famous master Jigmed Lingpa.
Of great renown and deemed by everyone a great scholar,
he wrote several books that range over the most diverse
subjects. How can one explain that a person such as
Jigmed Lingpa, who never studied in depth, could have
been able to write works and treatises concerning all the
fields of knowledge?

However, the development of clarity does not only
bring about the enhancement of ordinary knowledge.
What most counts, is that the great development of
clarity engendered by this method of contemplation is
the fundamental vehicle for realization.

It is in order to develop clarity that this tradition
insists so much on the diverse purification practices.

Realization is accomplished on the basis of the
accumulation of wisdom, and accumulating wisdom
means entering the practice of contemplation; there is
no other way to accumulate wisdom.

Entering the state of released Shine is true
contemplation.

[jonesboy]

NAMKHA ARTED

A very important practice for making progress is
Namkha Arted Practising it occasionally is of great
help to those who engage in a more general way in
Shine and especially to those with few meditation
experiences (nyams).

The place. You should stay in a place out in the
open, such as the top of a hill or mountain, or by the
sea.

The time. The ideal time is when the sky is
clear. Clouds are an obstacle to this practice; however
nor should the sunlight be too strong. During the
morning session you should look to the West, in the
afternoon to the East, so as always to have the sun
behind you. The best times of the day are the late
afternoon, or early morning until about eleven o'clock,
because later if the sky is clear the sun is too high and
the light too strong so it can irritate the eyes.

This, then, is what you have to do: you can sit in a
controlled posture, but if you are familiar enough with
released Shine then the posture is no longer so
important. Stay as you are, in a posture that does not
require any effort; remaining thus, fix your gaze in the
sky, into empty space.

You have to stay in a condition of presence, as if
entering into space, and as if the sky you see is integrated
in your own state of consciousness, so that no perception of
subject an d object any longer obtains.

This practice is not based on the act of 'looking', like a
subject looking at an obj ect. The sky, and space, are
metaphors for the nature of mind. Space is boundless and
without definition, just as our state, while we are
observing, cannot be bound or defined by concepts.

Remain in this non-dual state, in presence of the
union of subject and object. This practice can produce
many nyams and is of the greatest help for making
progress.

As a practitioner you should not be a spectator of the
nyams, nor should you form attachment or revulsion
towards the nyams, whether beautiful or ugly, you should
simply be aware of them. Even if a very beautiful nyam
arises, the main thing is that your own state must be present
in that nyam. You must not allow the dualistic mind to
consider the nyam as an object to observe. If the nyam is
integrated into the unity of subject and object you will
make progress. But it is important to be clear that,
however many nyams arise, you should never form
attachment.

Namkha Arted of this kind, that is, practised in this
way, reveals the state in which there is unification of
the state of Shine and the "Shine that has clarity too"
called Lhagthong.

Once attained, this state is the state where you
should abide; in it there is nothing to affirm or to
confirm. The only thing the practitioner can and must
do, once this state has been achieved, is to engage in
continuing in it.

[jonesboy]

HELPING OTHERS

To learn Shine you need the help of an instructor, who
helps you to deal in the right way with anything that
comes up. However, j ust as a doctor must know an illness
well in order to be able to cure it, an instructor too must
have precise knowledge, founded on direct experience. In
this case having as your base your own experience is of
decisive importance; it is very difficult to give effective
help relying solely on intellectual reasoning. If a
practitioner with more experience wants to help a beginner
by giving explanations on particular meditation practices
that is fine, but what advice can she give in the case of
practices related to contemplation such as Shine?

In actual daily practice, not only do the things described in
books on meditation take place, an infinite number of
diverse individual experiences can occur. In order to be able
to identify the problem and give advice you have to know
how to enter into the (other person's) experience. In other
words, say a student asks me a very complicated question; in
order to be able to help her it is not enough to remember
my teacher's words or to consult a book, instead I must enter
the state of the person asking the question. I must be able to
"go and see", to feel the experience (of her state) . By asking
me the question the student is already describing or showing
me her state; only in this way can I find the way to help her.
Even though each individual perceives him or herself in a
way that appears to be different, in reality the condition of
people is more or less the same.

Only someone who has true experience of practice is able to discover this
condition, and this is the only base for helping others; and
it is also the most effective way to examine oneself.

[jonesboy]

Now I think everyone can understand the progressive nature of the Dzogchen Tradition. How a tradition is made up of a system of practices that moves one ever deeper.

I hope for those searching for a method of meditation they find this thread of benefit and may it help to improve the quality of there life.

I am now done posting from the book so if anyone has any question or comments. Please feel free to do so.

[jonesboy]

Nine mental abiding

Also called: Ten Bulls

In a formulation originating with Asaṅga (4th CE), śamatha practice is said to progress through nine "mental abidings" or Nine stages of training the mind leading to śamatha proper (the equivalent of "access concentration" in the Theravāda system), and from there to a state of meditative concentration called the first dhyāna which is often said to be a state of tranquility or bliss.

An equivalent succession of stages is described in the Ten oxherding pictures of Zen. The Nine Mental Abidings as described by Kamalaśīla are:

1.Placement of the mind (S. cittasthāpana, Tib. འཇོག་པ - sems ’jog-pa) occurs when the practitioner is able to place their attention on the object of meditation, but is unable to maintain that attention for very long. Distractions, dullness of mind and other hindrances are common.

2.Continuous attention (S. samsthāpana, Tib. རྒྱུན་དུ་འཇོག་པ - rgyun-du ‘jog-pa) occurs when the practitioner experiences moments of continuous attention on the object before becoming distracted. According to B Alan Wallace, this is when you can maintain your attention on the meditation object for about a minute.

3.Repeated attention (S. avasthāpana, Tib. བླན་ཏེ་འཇོག་པ - slan-te ’jog-pa) is when the practitioner's attention is fixed on the object for most of the practice session and she or he is able to immediately realize when she or he has lost their mental hold on the object and is able to restore that attention quickly. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche suggests that being able to maintain attention for 108 breaths is a good benchmark for when we have reached this stage.

4.Close attention(S. upasthāpana, Tib. ཉེ་བར་འཇོག་པ - nye-bar ’jog-pa) occurs when the practitioner is able to maintain attention throughout the entire meditation session (an hour or more) without losing their mental hold on the meditation object at all. In this stage the practitioner achieves the power of mindfulness. Nevertheless, this stage still contains subtle forms of excitation and dullness or laxity.

5.Tamed attention (S. damana, Tib. དུལ་བར་བྱེད་པ - dul-bar byed-pa), by this stage the practitioner achieves deep tranquility of mind, but must be watchful for subtle forms of laxity or dullness, peaceful states of mind which can be confused for calm abiding. By focusing on the future benefits of gaining Shamatha, the practitioner can uplift (gzengs-bstod) their mind and become more focused and clear.

6.Pacified attention (S. śamana,Tib. ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ་ - zhi-bar byed-pa) is the stage during which subtle mental dullness or laxity is no longer a great difficulty, but now the practitioner is prone to subtle excitements which arise at the periphery of meditative attention. According to B. Alan Wallace this stage is achieved only after thousands of hours of rigorous training.

7.Fully pacified attention (S. vyupaśamana,Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ་ - nye-bar zhi-bar byed-pa), although the practitioner may still experience of subtle excitement or dullness, they are rare and the practitioner can easily recognize and pacify them.

8.Single-pointed attention (S. ekotīkarana,Tib. རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་ - rtse-gcig-tu byed-pa) in this stage the practitioner can reach high levels of concentration with only a slight effort and without being interrupted even by subtle laxity or excitement during the entire meditation session.

9.Attentional Balance (S. samādhāna,Tib. མཉམ་པར་འཇོག་པ་བྱེད་པ་ - mnyam-par ’jog-pa) the meditator now effortlessly reaches absorbed concentration (ting-nge-‘dzin, S. samadhi.) and can maintain it for about four hours without any single interruption.

10.Śamatha, Tib. ཞི་གནས་, shyiné - the culmination, is sometimes listed as a tenth stage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samatha