[Ground]

To continue this posting

What then is 'natural meditative stability'?

The answer is given in chapter 10:

Originally Posted by Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Padma Publishing 2001

The decisive experience that you come to [ann.: through direct introduction] - the way of abiding as awareness - is itself shown to be implemented through naturally settled meditative stability.

That means that that to which one is introduced in direct introduction is naturally settled meditative stability.

Why is this so?

Originally Posted by Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Padma Publishing 2001

True meditative stability is a particular feature of the great perfection approach. Just as heat is present as a natural attribute the moment there is fire, and wetness is naturally present in water, naturally settled meditative stability is present in awareness. Once you have been directly introduced to awareness, you abide in that naturally settled meditative stability, so that even though you do not deliberately cultivate meditative experiences of bliss, lucidity, and nonconeptual awareness, they arise naturally.

Therefore natural meditative stability and timeless awareness are two aspects of the ground of being.


And what is the differences between awareness or natural meditative stability on the one hand and meditation on the other hand?
Meditation is based on ordinary mind not on awareness:

Originally Posted by Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Padma Publishing 2001

Once you forge the spiritual path using ordinary mind, it is in the very nature of the process that you either have the experience of meditating when you strive or lose it when you do not. But as soon as you forge the path using awareness - timeless awareness - you abide in the ongoing flow of naturally settled meditative stability, so that you abide at all times in that state ...

Although the difference between natural meditative stability/awareness and meditation/ordinary mind is vast and very important there are similarities which may entail that one who has not been successfully directly introduced confuses meditation/ordinary mind with natural meditative stability/awareness. Therefore Longchen Rabjam explicitly explains some aspects of the difference:

Originally Posted by Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Padma Publishing 2001

There is a similarity between the way a great meditator achieves a nonconceptual state of ordinary mind and the way a yogin recognizes awareness in all its nakedness to be nonconceptual. But while there is a similarity in that both are nonconceptual states, there is a difference in that the nonconceptual state of ordinary mind is lost if physical posture and other factors are let go, for awareness has not been elicited in all its nakedness. Nonconceptual awareness has nothing to do with such factors, and therein lies a vast difference.


Forging the path with ordinary mind entails using antidots to refine away concepts, so that these incidental concepts seem to vanish without a trace, whereas in experiencing awareness one is unfettered by concepts. These two situations are similar in that ordinary recollection and thinking vanish into a state in which there is no fixation. But those who follow the former approach do not cut through the very root of the problem, and so conceptual reification and fixation can arise at random and one might think to oneself, "Being unborn, these arise continously." In the latter approach, one cuts through that root, so there is nowhere and no way for them to arise. Rather, the continous inner glow that is the dynamic energy of responsiveness becomes fully evident, manifesting reflexively like images in a mirror. There is a vast diffence here, since one perceives what arises outwardly from responsiveness to be like rays shining from the sun.


Furthermore, both the state of ordinary mind resting naturally and innate abiding of awareness resting naturally have a vivid quality. These states are similar insofar as they are lucid yet nonconceptual, but the aspect of ordinary mind remains anchored in dualistic perception, so that any quality of abiding entails an element of fixation. There is a vast difference here, in that in the latter case there is no interruption of awareness, which is unobstructed.


In addition, sense objects manifest within the limpidity of awareness, so that there is a continuous aspect of clarity, and thought processes arise as the ordinary mind's response to external sense objects. These two situations are similar, for in both there is conscious perception of sense objects. but awareness does not focus on external objects, for even though they manifest to it, it is unencumbered by them, so the root of ordinary mind has been cut through. The focus of ordinary mind shifts outward in response to sense objects, so the root has not been cut through and ordinary thinking takes place. Therein lies the difference.

Originally Posted by Longchen Rabjam, A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Padma Publishing 2001

In brief, meditation with ordinary mind, which involves some frame of reference, is anchored in dualistic perception, while awareness - naturally settled meditative stability - is the ongoing and naturally settled state that is the true nature of phenomena.