Beyond the Ordinary Mind by Adam Pearcey

Author:Adam Pearcey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2018-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

This is an explanation of what is beyond description. The dawning of clear light referred to here is necessarily identical to direct realization in the Great Perfection. And this cannot occur until the wind energies enter the central channel. As the Omniscient One said:

With the karmic winds of dualistic perception inside the central channel,

In the Great Perfection, there is no notion that they could lead one astray.5

This refers to the stage that begins when the wind energies enter the central channel with very little force. In the main practice of meditation, the karmic winds and the movement of thought that is dependent upon them are naturally brought to a halt. The three modes of liberation are therefore means of sustaining the practice when thoughts have not yet disappeared.

Direct seeing in the Great Perfection occurs from Dzogchen’s own path of joining onward, while Dzogchen meditation begins on the path of accumulation. Some so-called great meditators have not so much as glimpsed even the general tendency of this vajra path. They have no idea that settling without accepting or rejecting thoughts, which generally comes later, brings about the warmth that usually occurs earlier. To such practitioners, even talk of the crucial point of thoughts fading into basic space will seem bizarre, like seeing a white crow for the very first time. Still, I shall persist, as untroubled as a madman striking a yak on the nose.

What we are concerned with here corresponds to the line, “With expansive realization, there is no distraction nor one who is distracted.” This means that when we see the mind of clear light vividly and clearly in the Great Perfection, the six sensory objects that are potential sources of distraction and the dualistic perception that could be distracted are no more. They have disappeared entirely within great natural clarity, following the dissolution of the karmic winds. That is the real sense of this line, not some form of stability that must be protected from distraction.

As long as there is movement of wind energy, the actual face of pure awareness will be obscured during meditative equipoise by the thoughts and three illuminating experiences that are rigpa’s expression. And therefore, as long as practitioners do not neglect the natural resting place of experience, they will not stray from the vajra-like nature of the mind. Although we might term this mindfulness, you must understand that it is not at all like lesser ways of being mindful.

Mindfulness Encompassing Experience

The fifth stage corresponds to the fusing together of the power of the practice of meditative equipoise and experiences during postmeditation. This means there is an emphasis on the experience of realization, in which appearance and awareness arise as the radiance of clear light. There is some similarity here with the third stage described above. However, that type of mindfulness was a means of sustaining experience between sessions, when meditating on the essence of pure awareness. By contrast, this is a way of integrating postmeditative appearances from the point when rigpa can be elicited through the force of experience.

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