What a wonderful way to start the year. Thank you!
Robert, would you please help me with this? I know there are people, myself included, who find the Dzogchen description of that Ultimate Awareness you speak about being "luminous" or "Light" confusing, since all those words seem to point out precisely at appearences within Awareness, Awareness which by definition can't have any characteristic Itself. It might lead the mind to create the image of that Awareness as something exterior to us, as something to reach outside, as the typical NDE light at the end of the tunnel. Can you please clarify?
Thank you so much for that wonderful texts you gave us the whole year.
We cannot discover this Timeless Luminosity outside of ourselves. We must look within. At some point, we discover this vastness beyond subject and object, something that is not a thing, something so openly aware that we realize that it is who we really are, the Nature of Mind itself. The pointing out of Dzogchen is not really something that we can say is one way or another. What it really is is shaking us a bit up so that we can recognize this natural condition that we sometimes call awareness or luminosity; though, it really cannot be named or conceptualized. We remain at ease in the knowledge of our unlimited potentiality, remaining instantly present in that, instantly aware of our real condition.
When you study Dzogchen and Mahamudra, learn to grow accustomed to knowledge beyond concept and belief, or it will have no lasting benefit. It's very subtle, even though it is far more vast than our own universe, encompassing all possibilities. This knowledge is found at the junction of Vipassana and Shamatha, in that condition where we are relaxed enough to merge with our infinite potentiality in awareness. Stop trying so hard with everything and everything opens up.
What a wonderful way to start the year. Thank you!
Robert, would you please help me with this? I know there are people, myself included, who find the Dzogchen description of that Ultimate Awareness you speak about being "luminous" or "Light" confusing, since all those words seem to point out precisely at appearences within Awareness, Awareness which by definition can't have any characteristic Itself. It might lead the mind to create the image of that Awareness as something exterior to us, as something to reach outside, as the typical NDE light at the end of the tunnel. Can you please clarify?
Thank you so much for that wonderful texts you gave us the whole year.
You are welcome!
We cannot discover this Timeless Luminosity outside of ourselves. We must look within. At some point, we discover this vastness beyond subject and object, something that is not a thing, something so openly aware that we realize that it is who we really are, the Nature of Mind itself. The pointing out of Dzogchen is not really something that we can say is one way or another. What it really is is shaking us a bit up so that we can recognize this natural condition that we sometimes call awareness or luminosity; though, it really cannot be named or conceptualized. We remain at ease in the knowledge of our unlimited potentiality, remaining instantly present in that, instantly aware of our real condition.
When you study Dzogchen and Mahamudra, learn to grow accustomed to knowledge beyond concept and belief, or it will have no lasting benefit. It's very subtle, even though it is far more vast than our own universe, encompassing all possibilities. This knowledge is found at the junction of Vipassana and Shamatha, in that condition where we are relaxed enough to merge with our infinite potentiality in awareness. Stop trying so hard with everything and everything opens up.
Great question!