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Originally Posted by jonesboy
Would anyone be interested in taking this part of the text and going through it for deeper understanding? Let's break it down for a start with this first section. Any thoughts?
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By "deeper understanding" I would mean being able to cause a change in one's moment to moment experience. A deeper understanding of myself in this moment. A deeper awareness of what is going on now and how now can be different if more awareness or self understanding is present now.
A lot of that text is basically a person who has discovered a new way of being and is living it trying to describe it to others so they may experience it. If a reader has no experience with the states of consciousness or being the writer is describing, then there probably won't be much communicating or understanding happening.
I don't think the part you quoted would be much help to anybody unless they already knew and had experienced what was being talked about, I would think these passage would be best.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
By Padmasambhava
I shall teach "Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness," which is a direct introduction to intrinsic awareness." Truly, this introduction to your own intrinsic awareness should be contemplated well,
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The word "intrinsic" means naturally a part of. Like sweet is intrinsic to ripe apples. So what is being implied here with the term "intrinsic awareness" is this thing he wants us to discover and experience is already a part of us. It is here now. We don't have to go to anybody else or anything else for it.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
Even though its inherent nature has existed from the very beginning, you have not recognized it;
Even though its clarity and presence has been uninterrupted, you have not yet encountered its face.
Even though its arising has nowhere been obstructed, still you have not comprehended it.
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So this thing that has always been here, we have no awareness of it, or knowledge of it, or experience of it.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
Furthermore, since ordinary individuals do not understand it,
they do not recognize their own nature,...not understanding your own mind is a very grievous fault.
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There's the why we don't live it..... we don't understand ourselves or what is going on in this moment.
Next comes the part where the writer attempts to tell the reader how they can discover this thing....to tell us what we are doing wrong... tell us what is in the way of this experience being discovered....
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
being attached to their own personal ideas and interpretations, Become fettered by these attachments and so do not perceive the Clear Light.
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This is pretty much all of it in a nutshell. Can one be here now, in this moment, with no attachment to their own ideas and interpretations? If you can, you will experience this "intrinsic awareness." The writer then goes on explaining all the various things we can be attached to.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
The Sravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas are (mentally) obscured by their attachments to subject and object.
The practitioners of the Kriya Tantra and the Yoga Tantra are (mentally) obscured by their attachments to seva-sadhana practice.
The practitioners of the Maha-yoga and the Anuyoga are (mentally) obscured by their attachments to Space and Awareness.
Nonetheless, because you persist in accepting and enduring attachments and aversions, you will continue to wander in Samsara.
Therefore, your active dharmas and your inactive ones both should be abandoned.
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The writer above is naming all the various religious or spiritual practices and paths and basically calling them all attachments that prevents this clear way of seeing and being. He says to abandon them all... So what is one to do? Well he already said, let go of your own personal ideas and interpretations.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
You should understand that all dharmas can be perfected and completed in the great total Self-Liberation.
And therefore, whatever (practice you do) can be brought to perfection within the Great Perfection.
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That's a nice little part as he is saying to people that may be freaking out about abandoning their spiritual practices, hey doing this will result in what the practices were pointing to in the first place.
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
The Sravakas call it the doctrine of Anatman or "the absence of a self."
Some call it the Praj?¨¢p¨¢ramit¨¢ or "the Perfection of Wisdom."
Some call it by the name Dharmadhatu or "the dimension of Reality."
Some call it by the name Alaya or "the basis of everything."
And some simply call it by the name "ordinary awareness."
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He points out all the names given to this moment to moment experience one can have when one abandons all thoughts and interpretations... thinking...Then another description of what he is talking about....
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Originally Posted by jonesboy
Thoughts in the past are clear and empty and leave no traces behind.
Thoughts in the future are fresh and unconditioned by anything.
And in the present moment, when (your mind) remains in its own condition without constructing anything,
awareness, at that moment, in itself is quite ordinary.
And when you look into yourself in this way nakedly (without any discursive thoughts),
Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer;
only a naked manifest awareness is present.
(This awareness) is empty and immaculately pure, not being created by anything whatsoever.
It is authentic and unadulterated, without any duality of clarity and emptiness.
It is not permanent and yet it is not created by anything.
However, it is not a mere nothingness or something annihilated because it is lucid and present.
This inherent self-awareness does not derive from anything outside itself.
This is the real introduction to the actual condition of things.
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That's a lot to take in because he starts out explaining what he is doing, then goes into trying to describe what he is experiencing...
What he is doing is taking his attention wholly off his brain's mind... his thoughts...taking his attention off the mental world, the verbal language based world.... this thing in our heads feeding us things to focus on, to make a part of our current experience... imagined reality... concepts....
Thoughts in the past are clear and empty and leave no traces behind.
Thoughts in the future are fresh and unconditioned by anything.
And in the present moment, when (your mind) remains in its own condition without constructing anything,
awareness, at that moment, in itself is quite ordinary.
The attention in not on anything from ones past or memory...
No ideas about the imagined future are present...
In this present moment, your mind is not constructing anything...
If your attention is off of mind, you are not adding to what is...
nothing is being "constructed"....
You are not creating stuff to be a part of now by having your attention on what the mind creates as mental stuff...
And when you look into yourself in this way nakedly (without any discursive thoughts),
Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer;
only a naked manifest awareness is present.
Discursive thoughts.... talking in ones head....discussing.......
The attention is off thoughts completely and is focused on the experience of now free of such things..i am fully here now and have discovered a new way of being...that has always been here...
Next the writer turns into a philosopher and starts thinking about his experience of just being... which is not good lol......as his attention has gone to thought again....but perhaps he is just trying to describe the experience he finds himself in...
(This awareness) is empty and immaculately pure, not being created by anything whatsoever.
It is authentic and unadulterated, without any duality of clarity and emptiness.
It is not permanent and yet it is not created by anything.
However, it is not a mere nothingness or something annihilated because it is lucid and present.
This inherent self-awareness does not derive from anything outside itself.
This is the real introduction to the actual condition of things.
It's not permanent because without realizing it or noticing it, one's attention slowly fades back into focusing on thoughts and thinking, as his just did....
It's something we practice with, try to do more and more, lot's of fading back into letting thoughts dictate our moods and experience, lot's of falling down and getting back up again... slowly over time, one can be in this non-attached free way of being more and more... it takes effort and attention and energy... it's like peeling a onion... lots to discover and learn about ourself and how our minds and thoughts work... those days when you are in conflict or mental struggle and suddenly realize the source is you are focused on thought and thinking and then you are instantly free because of this insight or awareness.... that's awesome stuff. it means you are changing what you are.. and this changes your future....and present.....
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