Natural Appearances, Natural Liberation: A Nyingma Meditative Guide on the Six Bardos of Living and Dying by Tam Shek-wing

Author:Tam, Shek-wing [Tam, Shek-wing]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Ingram Distribution
Published: 2012-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Threefold Space and the Four Liberations–The Bardo of Meditation

THE THIRD BARDO TEACHING is the bardo of meditation, known as natural liberation of awareness. The experience of natural liberation of awareness has been likened to someone looking at his reflection in a mirror. This analogy makes natural awareness sound simple, and easy to accomplish, but it is not. The practice, which has two parts, being threefold space and the four liberations, is very advanced, and difficult to realize. Not only that, but the underlying views are difficult to grasp.

To begin, we will examine the very basic concept of awareness. The term awareness can be described as intrinsic luminous awareness. It is sometimes alternatively translated as intrinsic awareness, naked awareness or primordial awareness. In Tibetan, this exalted state is called rigpa. Realizing awareness is not a conceptual activity; we should not pursue awareness as if it were something tangible to be attained outside our mind. Rather, realizing awareness means experiencing our own intrinsic awareness–rigpa, the clear light of primordial purity. This clear light of primordial purity is not an objective phenomenon; it is not something we perceive. Because it lacks substantive existence, its nature is empty. It is a state of inner realization.

Recognizing rigpa involves the realization of its aspects: the clear light of purity and its primordial nature. In this chapter, we refer to this awareness by its full name, the clear light of primordial purity, to remind the reader of the aspects that constitute rigpa. Approached from another perspective, realizing the clear light of primordial purity is a means to realizing emptiness. As discussed earlier, we can only discern the nature of a phenomenon from its appearance and its inherent capabilities. In earlier examples, we illustrated that the way we arrive at an understanding of the nature of water is not from the water itself, but from its fluidity, its capability to clean, and other qualities. Following the same rationale, we cannot realize the nature of emptiness from emptiness itself, but rather through realizing its two aspects–its cognizance and inherent capabilities–all summarized in one term: the clear light of primordial purity. In this way, the clear light of purity is the aspect of cognizance of emptiness (or, in terms of the world of phenomena, its expression), while its being primordially abiding since beginningless time is the aspect of infinite displays of emptiness. As it is now and has been since the beginning of time, it is infused with boundless vitality, pervading space. This is the inherent capability of emptiness.

The clear light of primordial purity is a state of inner realization of emptiness. This spontaneous state is the wisdom of tathagatagarbha, which is often referred to in short as simply tathgatagarbha. When this state manifests effortlessly from the mind-itself, our mind of ignorance is transformed into the perfect state of wisdom. Meditation on threefold space is a practice to self-realize the clear light of primordial purity. Such attainment obtained through the effort of meditation, however, is not equivalent to full enlightenment.

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