As It Is, Volume 1 by Urgyen Tulku Rinpoche

Author:Urgyen, Tulku Rinpoche [Urgyen, Tulku Rinpoche]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9789627341703
Publisher: Random House Inc Clients
Published: 2011-12-06T02:00:00+00:00

8

Overcoming Obstacles and Demons

There are definitely obstacles, and generally speaking there are three kinds: outer or external, inner, and innermost. External obstacles are imbalances in the outer elements, which manifest as natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, fires, and hurricanes. These create a lot of obvious difficulties for sentient beings.

Inner obstacles are imbalances in the nadis, pranas and bindus—the channels, energies and essences, also called the structuring channels, the moving winds and the arrayed essences. These can be disturbed in various ways. The channels can be constricted, the winds or energies can be reversed and move in the wrong way, or the essences can be deranged. ‘Essence’ here means mainly the white and red elements obtained from the father and mother. These three serve as the blue-print, the basic structure, for the human body. When they suffer from imbalances, we feel that our illusory physical body is sick. Of course, there are certain remedies we can use to cure such imbalances.

Most considerable, though, are the innermost obstacles, which involve fixating on perceiver and perceived. Basically this refers to our habit of dualistic experience, which is caused by lack of stability in the original basic state of empty cognizance. When this empty cognizance is not stable in itself, its expression is to reach out and fixate on the five objects of experience—the five sense objects. They are the perceived. The perceiver is the mind that fixates upon them.

Although this basic original state of self-existing wakefulness has no duality whatsoever, because of fixating upon the experience as being something other, seeming duality takes place. This seeming duality is then continued. This perpetuation of dualistic experience is exactly what characterizes the minds of all sentient beings. The minds of sentient beings are caught up in fixating on perceiver and perceived. This is the very core of samsaric existence, and this is in itself our innermost obstacle.

No one is beyond obstacles. We are all hurt and injured again and again by these three levels of obstacles. External obstacles, the calamities of the four elements, can be dealt with by either moving to some other place or performing certain practices to appease or pacify the elemental forces.

The inner obstacle of imbalances in the vajra body, in the channels, energies, and essences, shows itself in physical sickness as well as various other ways. You can take medicine to treat these, as well as perform yogic exercises to control, manipulate and master the movement of the energies in the channels and the placement of the essences. Such practices belong mainly to Mahayoga and Anu Yoga, but there are some aspects concerning this within Ati Yoga as well.

The most important point, though, is how to overcome the innermost obstacle of dualistic experience, the habit of holding on to perceiver and perceived. The only way to conquer that duality is to not let the expression stray into being dualistic mind, which apprehends duality where no duality exists. It is said, “Until duality dissolves into oneness, there is no enlightenment.” We

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