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Notes for the 2015 8-week Retreat on Mahamudra

Prayers and Mantras

REFUGE

NAMO LA MA DE SHEG DÜ PAI KU

NAMO In the lama who is the embodiment of

KÖN CHOG SUM GYI RANG ZHIN LA

the Sugatas, of the nature of the Three Jewels,

DAG DANG DRO DRUG SEM CHEN NAM

I, together with the beings of the six realms,

CHANG CHUB BAR DU KYAB SU CHI

take refuge until our enlightenment. (Repeat three times)

BODHICITTA

SEM KYED DRO WA KÜN DÖN TUFor the sake of all beings, I generate the spirit of awakening and

LA MA SANGYE DRUB NEI NICultivate the realization of the lama as Buddha.

GANG LA GANG DÜL TRIN LEI KYIBy means of enlightened activity I shall train each being according to their needs.

DRO WA DRÖL WAR DAM CHA OAnd I vow to liberate the world. (Repeat three times)

The Seven Line Prayer and Mantras

HUNG ORGYEN YUL GYI NUP JANG TSAMHUNG In the northwest frontier of Oddiyana,

PEMA GE SAR DONG PO LAIn the heart of a lotus

YAM TSEN CHOG GI NGÖ DRUP NYEYSits the one renowned as Padmasambhava,

PEMA JUNG NEY ZHEY SU DRAKWho achieved the wondrous supreme siddhi,

KHOR DU KHAN DRO MANG PÖ KORAnd is surrounded by a host of many dakinis.

KYED KYI JE SU DAK DRUP KYIFollowing in your footsteps, I devote myself to practice.

JIN GYI LAP CHIR SHEK SU SÖLPlease come forth and bestow your blessings.

GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG

Guru Rinpoche Mantras

OM ĀḤ HŪṂ VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HŪṂ

OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ VAJRA GURU PADMA TÖTRENG TSÄL VAJRA

SAMAYAJAḤ SIDDHI PHALA HŪṂ

Excerpt from The Foolish Dharma of an Idiot Clothed in Mud and Feathers, by Düdjom Lingpa, translated by B. Alan Wallace

In my opinion, if you don’t submit your own snout to the hook and rope of self-centeredness, [463] but rather aspire for the hereafter by thinking of definitely reaping a harvest for all future lives, free of deception, then if you don’t do something meaningful in this present, precious human rebirth with its leisure and opportunity, it will be difficult to obtain such an opportunity repeatedly in the future. This occasion—of circumstances aligning and finding freedom—is no more than a dream, so if you pointlessly squander it, when you lose such freedom what will you do? Carefully reflect on this and know your own situation for yourself. This is the first point.

On this occasion when you have such a bounty of opportunities in terms of your body, environment, friends, spiritual mentors, time, and practical instructions, without procrastinating until tomorrow and the next day, arouse a sense of urgency, as if a spark landed on your body or a grain of sand fell in your eye. If you have not swiftly applied yourself to practice, examine the births and deaths of other beings and reflect again and again on the unpredictability of your lifespan and the time of your death, and on the

uncertainty of your own situation. Meditate on this until you have definitively integrated it with your mind. This is the second point.1

Now on the delusive, vast, illusory plain of emanations and transformations, reckless lunatics ride [464] the blind, wild steed of spiritual sloth, and, lacking the reins to control it, they lash it again and again with the whip of negligence. Thus, although there was a time when they could have sown a perennial harvest for all their lifetimes, from this life onward they are relentlessly impaled on the sharp spokes of the wheel of saṃsāra and the miserable states of existence. Fierce karmic energies bind them, they have nowhere to escape, and they are cast from one life to another. When that time comes [for you], you will have no freedom. Rather than wondering whether there is anyone who can protect you when you arrive in such a great fire pit of suffering, put off human pretense and the pursuit of this life’s affairs. This is the third point.

These [three points] are the field of sublime Dharma, the exhortation to achieve liberation, and the sole guide, guardian, and spiritual mentor to turn you away from the paths that descend into the dungeon of suffering of saṃsāra and the miserable states of existence. The spirit of emergence and spiritual zeal of those who lack these three points are like dew in the summertime…

Having established those teachings as your foundation, with constant devotion offer prayers of supplication to your guru. Outwardly, imagine your guru on the crown of your head. Inwardly, visualize your own body as the guru. Secretly, again and again transfer your own vital energies, mind, and consciousness, and nondually merge them with the nonconceptual primordial consciousness of your guru’s mind. This is the first point.

With devotion and affection, visualize your companions as being of the nature of vīras and ḍākinīs, and see the fine qualities of your guru and Dharma siblings rather than looking at their faults. This is the second point.

In this limitless realm of saṃsāra, [466] among all sentient beings, who are tormented and bound by unbearable suffering, there is not even one who has not been your father or mother. In other times, like your present father and mother, they cared for you with food and comfortable clothing and benefited you in countless ways. Having protected you from immeasurable fears and miseries, they have all been enormously kind. What they all desire is happiness, but in terms of their behavior, these poor fools engage in the causes and sow the seeds of suffering. Feeling compassion for each one, constantly reflect on this until heartfelt compassion causes tears to flow from your eyes and your mindstream is subdued. Beyond that, make the resolution, “I shall bring them to the state of omniscient, unsurpassed, authentic, perfect buddhahood,” and apply yourself to the practice of the sublime, profound Dharma. Whatever Dharma you perform, dedicate it to all sentient beings, with no partiality toward those near or far. This is the third point.

These three are the essential nature of all Dharmas, the root of all Dharmas, the source of all Dharmas, and the eyes and limbs of all Dharmas. Without them, whatever Dharma you perform will be like a corpse with no head or limbs.

1 Shantideva (III: 11) “As a result of surrendering everything, there is nirvāṇa, [and] my mind seeks nirvāṇa. Surrendering everything at once--this is the greatest gift to sentient beings.”

English mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) expressed the ideal of many scientists when he wrote, “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”2

Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Frederick S. Perls: “As Albert Einstein once said to me: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.” But what is much more widespread than the actual stupidity is the playing stupid, turning off your ear, not listening, not seeing.”

William James (1842–1910): Where preferences are powerless to modify or produce things, faith is totally inappropriate, he wrote, but for the class of truths that depend on personal preference, trust, or loyalty for actualization, “faith is not only licit and pertinent, but essential and indispensable. [Such] truths cannot become true till our faith has made them so.”3

William James: “In what manner do we espouse and hold fast to visions?  By thinking a conception might be true somewhere, it may be true even here and now; it is fit to be true and it ought to be true; it must be true; it shall be true for me.”4

At the Western Dharma Teachers Conference in Dharmsala, His Holiness the Dalai Lama categorically stated that the only qualification of a Buddhist teacher that matters is the benefit to the students, their development of realization, and their personal transformation. He said that all titles, certificates, lineages, and presumed attainments were irrelevant if the teacher’s students did not progress. If on top of that the teachers behaved badly, treated their students harshly, etc., the students should make such conduct publicly known.

“Religion is the opium of the people.”o Karl Marx: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the

expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”5

o Is śamatha the opium of the contemplatives? “Materialism is the datura of the intelligensia.”

2 William Kingdon Clifford, Lectures and Essays, ed. Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollack, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879), 2:183.

3 William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Psychology (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898), 96.

4 A Pluralistic Universe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977), 48.5 Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Written:

December 1843-January 1844; First published: in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 7 & 10 February 1844 in Paris.

o Arthur K. Shapiro: “A placebo is defined as any therapeutic procedure . . . [that is] objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated. . . . The placebo effect is defined as the changes produced by a placebo.”6

o Daniel Dennett: “With consciousness...we are still in a terrible muddle. Consciousness stands alone today as a topic that often leaves even the most sophisticated thinkers tongue-tied and confused.”7

o John Searle: “In spite of our modern arrogance about how much we know, in spite of the assurance and universality of our science, where the mind is concerned we are characteristically confused and in disagreement.”8

o Sigmund Freud: “The problem of a world constitution that takes no account of the mental apparatus by which we perceive it is an empty abstraction, of no practical interest…No, our science is not an illusion. What would be an illusion would be to think that we might obtain elsewhere that which science cannot give us.”9

o Sigmund Freud: “I find another advantage of religious doctrine in one of its peculiarities, to which you seem to take particular exception. It admits of an ideatiorial refinement and sublimation, by which it can be divested of most of those traces of a primitive and infantile way of thinking which it bears. What is then left is a body of ideas which science no longer contradicts and which it cannot disprove. These modifications of religious doctrine, which you have condemned as half-measures and compromises, make it possible to bridge the gap between the uneducated masses and the philosophical thinker, and to preserve that common bond between them which is so important for the protection of culture.”10

o Buddha: “Monks, just as the wise accept gold after testing it by heating, cutting, and rubbing it, so are my words to be accepted after examining them, but not out of respect for me.”

o Dalai Lama: “A general basic stance of Buddhism is that it is inappropriate to hold a view that is logically inconsistent. This is taboo. But even more taboo than holding a view that is logically inconsistent is holding a view that goes against direct experience.”

o William James: “Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them genuine keys for unlocking the world’s treasure-house to him who can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is exhaustive or conclusive of the other’s simultaneous use. On this view religion and

6 Arthur K. Shapiro, “Etiological Factors in Placebo Effect,” JAMA 187, no. 10 (1964): 712–14.

7 Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown and Co (1991), 21-22.

8 John R. Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), 247.

9 The Future of an Illusion, in Mass Psychology and Other Writings (Penguin, 1927/ 2004).

10 The Future of an Illusion

science, each verified in its own way from hour to hour and from life to life, would be coeternal.11

o Max Planck: “Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition... [and therefore] ‘On to God!’”12

Buddha: “In the seen there is only the seen; in the heard, there is only the heard; in the sensed, there is only the sensed; in the cognized, there is only the cognized. Thus you should see that indeed there is no thing here; this Bāhiya, is how you should train yourself. Since, Bāhiya, there is for you in the seen, only the seen, in the heard, only the heard, in the sensed, only the sensed, in the cognized, only the cognized, and you see that there is no thing here, you will therefore see that indeed there is no thing there. As you see that there is no thing there, you will see that you are therefore located neither in the world of this, nor in the world of that, nor in any place between the two. This alone is the end of suffering.” Udāna I, 10.

The Dhammapada:  “The mind is the basis for everything. Everything is created by my mind, and is ruled by my mind.”

Ratnameghasūtra:  “All phenomena are preceded by the mind.  When the mind is comprehended, all phenomena are comprehended.  By bringing the mind under control, all things are brought under control.”

Excerpt from The Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra by Düdjom Lingpa

Examine the body, speech, and mind, and among them recognize the one that is primary as the all-creating sovereign.

The shape and color of the all-creating sovereign,as well as its origin, location, and destination, are objectless openness.

This is the spontaneous actualization of the essential nature of the path of cutting through.

Simultaneous individuals enter the path with no basis and no root.Others should come to rest in space,and within three weeks they will certainly awaken and enter the path.Those of the class with inferior facultiesidentify stillness and movement,and by taking the mind as the path, they are led to the absolute space of pristine

awareness.

Einstein: “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” from “Physics and Reality” (1936), in Ideas and Opinions, trans. Sonja Bargmann (New York: Bonanza, 1954), 292.

Stanford University cosmologist Andre Linde:11 The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York:

Penguin, 1902/1985), 122-3. The italics are mine.12 Religion and Natural Science (1937). Originally entitled Religion und

Naturwissenschaft. Complete translation into English found in Max Planck: Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, 1968.

o “The standard assumption is that consciousness, just like space-time before the invention of general relativity, plays a secondary, subservient role, being just a function of matter and a tool for the description of the truly existing material world. But let us remember that our knowledge of the world begins not with matter but with perceptions… We are substituting the reality of our feelings by the successfully working theory of an independently existing material world. And the theory is so successful that we almost never think about its possible limitations.”13

o He then hypothesizes that consciousness, like space-time, might have its own characteristics independent of matter, and that neglecting this will lead to a description of the universe that is fundamentally incomplete and misleading. “Is it possible,” he asks, “to introduce a ‘space of elements of consciousness,’ and investigate a possibility that consciousness may exist by itself, even in the absence of matter, just like gravitational waves, excitations of space, may exist in the absence of protons and electrons?”14 He hypothesizes that with the further development of science, the study of the universe and the study of consciousness will be found to be inseparably linked, and that ultimate progress in the one will be impossible without progress in the other.

o “The universe becomes alive (time-dependent) only when one divides it into two parts: an observer and the rest of the universe. Then the wave function of the rest of the universe depends on the time measured by the observer. In other words, evolution is possible only with respect to the observer. Without an observer, the universe is dead.”15

Georgia Tech physicist David Ritz Finkelstein16

o “An idol, in the language of Francis Bacon (1620),17 is a false absolute resulting from reification. ‘Idols of the tribe’ are those common to a whole community, such as those resulting from innate propensities to reify. ``Idols of the theater’’ are those erected within a particular theory. If my usage differs from Bacon’s, it is because I regard idols as inevitable and useful products of the same theory-making process that breaks them.”

o “The Galilean compound space/time forms from the Aristotelian simple time and simple space when time “swallows” space. That is, in Galilean thought there is no space separate from time; we cannot recognize the

13 Andrei Linde, “Inflation, Quantum Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle,” in Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity, honoring John Wheeler’s 90th birthday, ed. John D. Barrow, Paul C. W. Davies, and Charles L. Harper, Jr. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 450-451.

14 Ibid. 451.15 Andre Linde, “Choose Your Own Universe” In Spiritual Information: 100

Perspectives on Science and Religion, edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr., 137-141. West Conshohocken, PA, 2005, p. 139.

16 “Emptiness and Relativity” in Buddhism & Science: Breaking New Ground, edited by B. Alan Wallace (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 365-386.

17 Novum Organum. Translated and edited by P. Urbach and J. Gibson, Peru, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Company, 1620/1994.

same place at a different time, and to speak of it has no meaning; but there is still time within space-time, and still a unique space at each time, a time-slice of the tree of history. Galileo has absolute time and absolute space/time but no absolute space.… Such one-way coupling is a sure sign of a compound and is circumstantial evidence that the unresponsive partner in the coupling is what Francis Bacon (1620) called an idol, a false absolute.”

o “Galileo had shown that space was an invalid reification. Einstein’s development showed that time was too. Aristotle’s two uncoupled absolutes, space and time, had evolved through the compound space/time of Galileo into the one symmetrically coupled absolute space-time of Einstein.”

o “In classical physics since Descartes… Physicists took for granted that there was a special variable of the system called its state (of being, implicitly), independent of the experimenter, and completely describing the system… When an ideal experimenter determines the state, the state couples to the experimenter, who learns something, but the experimenter does not couple to the state, which is fixed. Here the state is the absolute, like the time of Galileo or the space-time of special relativity.”

o “In quantum physics… Learning (something about the system) and doing (something to the system) are no longer fantasized as fundamentally different kinds of action. The act of determining a property is an interaction between experimenter and system that now has significant consequences for both… The idea of visualizing anything completely and exactly, a goal of some mental practices, is renounced by Bohr and is alien to quantum mechanics. Since illuminating the system disturbs it unpredictably, completely visualizing anything ‘as it is’ is self-contradictory. ‘As it is’ means without external intervention, in which case the system is sitting alone in the dark, unperceived.”

o “When the question arose whether concepts like a variable matter-space-time-law unity had been expressed in the Sanskrit or Tibetan Buddhist literature, verses from Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka treatise The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way… can indeed be read as saying that space, time, matter and causation are interactive, with no permanent essence, and that this is inferred from the very fact that we perceive them. Critical steps in the evolution of physics have required us both to break prior idols and to form appropriate new ones. The Madhyamaka appears to focus on the first part of this process, the emptying of concepts, and not on the formation of new idols…”

o “Laplace and Einstein believed in the existence of an absolute law and took it as the supreme goal of physics. But other Western scientists and philosophers, including Newton, Mach and Whitehead, like some Buddhist and Hindu philosophers, declared that there is no fixed absolute law of nature, and that it makes sense to speak of a varying law. Bohm’s (1965) expression of this philosophy especially influenced me. He views a scientific theory as a specialized extension of normal human discourse.

A theory is something that we tell one another. A final all-inclusive theory is as likely as a final all-inclusive story.”

Dualism, subjective idealism, and materialismo René Descartes (1596 – 1650) his Passions of the Soul and The

Description of the Human Body suggested that the body works like a machine having material properties. The mind (or soul), on the other hand, is nonmaterial and does not follow the laws of nature. This form of dualism proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion, but he was never able to provide a compelling explanation of how the “ghost” of the mind and the “machine” of the body causally interact.

o Anglo-Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley, a priest of the Church of Ireland, (1685 – 1753) advanced a theory he called “immaterialism,” later referred to as “subjective idealism.” He argued that forces and gravity, as defined by Newton, refer to nothing in any objective existing independently from the mind, and that those who posited “something unknown in a body of which they have no idea and which they call the principle of motion, are in fact simply stating that the principle of motion is unknown.” Therefore, those who “affirm that active force, action, and the principle of motion are really in bodies are adopting an opinion not based on experience.”18 Forces and gravity existed nowhere in the phenomenal world. On the other hand, if they resided in the category of ‘soul’ or ‘incorporeal thing,’ they ‘do not properly belong to physics’ as a matter. Berkeley thus concluded that forces lay beyond any kind of empirical observation and could not be a part of proper science.19 He proposed his theory of signs as a means to explain motion and matter without reference to the ‘occult qualities’ of force and gravity.”

o The American behaviorist John B. Watson (1878–1958) argued that psychology must “bury subjective subject matter [and] introspective method,”20 and that it must “never use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery, and the like.”21 He further declared that mental processes in general and consciousness in particular did not exist at all—precisely because they had no physical attributes!22

o Dutch neuroscientist Victor A. F. Lamme: “We need to let go of our intuitive or psychological notions of conscious experience and let the

18 De Motu, in Berkeley, George, and Jessop, T.E. The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. London: Thomas Nelson and Son Ltd., 1948–1957, 4:36–37

19 Downing, Lisa. “Berkeley’s Case Against Realism About Dynamics.” In Robert G. Muehlmann (ed.), Berkeley's Metaphysics: Structural, Interpretive, and Critical Essays. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995

20 John B. Watson, Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist (London: Frances Pinter, 1983), 3.

21 John B. Watson, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It,” Psych. Rev. XX (1913): 166.

22 John B. Watson, Behaviorism (New York: Norton & Co., 1913/1970)

neuroscience arguments have their way. Only by moving our notion of mind towards that of brain can progress be made.”23

o Psychologist Daniel Wegner: “it seems to each of us that we have conscious will. It seems we have selves. It seems we have minds. It seems we are agents. It seems we cause what we do … it is sobering and ultimately accurate to call all this an illusion.”24 This is because all human actions are caused solely by neurobiological events operating according to the laws of physics and chemistry.

Idols, old and newo Exodus 32: 1 – 4: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in

coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ Aaron answered them, ‘Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.’  So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’”

o Bull worship was common in many ancient cultures. The Israelites took their most valued possession, gold, and shaped it into a calf as a symbol of the ultimate good and the source of their freedom. Likewise capitalists today symbolize their ideal of the ultimate good and of freedom in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a charging bull.

o Much as Aristotle conceived of two idols, space and time, Descartes conceived of two idols, mind and matter. Berkeley cast out the idol of matter but retained the idol of mind; Watson cast out the idol of mind, but retained the idol of matter. Whenever anything is reified, or turned into an idol, it become impossible to cogently explain how it can causally interact with anything else.

o Nāgārjuna cast out all idols, explaining that it is only because all phenomena are empty of inherent existence that they can causal interact as dependently related events (pratītyasamutpāda).

o Philosopher Patricia Churchland: “there is an appearance of a mind, or of a self, but there is no such thing. There is an appearance of a flat earth, but it is no such thing.”25

23 Victor A. F. Lamme, “Towards a true neural stance on consciousness” TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 10, no. 11, Nov. 2006, 494.

24 Daniel M. Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 341–42.

o Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano: “How does the brain go beyond processing information to become subjectively aware of information? The answer is: It doesn’t… there is no subjective impression; there is only information in a data-processing device.”26

o American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist Hilary Putnam (1926 -) (who adopted Judaism in midlife after years as an atheist) argues that our words and concepts so deeply influence our experience of what we call “reality,” that it is impossible for humans ever to observe or represent the universe as it exists independent of our own conceptual frameworks.27 However, once we have chosen a language and a conceptual framework by which to make sense of the world, we can discover facts about the world that are not simply figments of our imagination or artifacts of our methods of observation. In other words, the methods we choose to observe the world and the ideas we choose to make our observations intelligible to us restrict what we can know about reality, but they do not predetermine the answers to our questions. The world as we experience and conceive of it is therefore a product of our perceptions and thoughts, so we are like characters in a novel who are writing our own story.

o “Invictus” by William Earnest Henley“It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll,I am the master of my fate,I am the captain of my soul.”

o Buddha: “You are your own refuge,Who else, indeed, could be your refuge?By good training of yourself,You gain a refuge hard to find.” Dhammapada 12: 160

Francis Bacon: “I would address one general admonition to all; that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, or for profit, or fame, or power, or any of these inferior things; but for the benefit and use of life; and that they perfect and govern it in charity. For it was from the lust of power that the angels fell, from lust of knowledge that man fell; but of charity there can be no excess, neither did angel or man ever come in danger by it.” (Bacon IV [1901], 20f: Instauratio Magna, Preface).

Max Planck: o “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from

consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we

25 Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism, ed. Zara Houshmand, Robert B. Livingston, and B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1999), 139.

26 “Are We Really Conscious?” New York Times, Oct. 10, 2014.27 Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, ed. James Conant (Cambridge, MA:

Harvard University Press, 1990), 28.

talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” (The Observer, January, 25 1931)

o Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with. [Where Is Science Going? (1932)]

Five of the 46 secondary infractions of the bodhisattva vowso Not seeking the means for gaining samādhio Not abandoning the five obscurations of dhyānao being addicted to the joy of meditative absorptiono Not using paranormal abilities we have achieved to be of service to otherso Not using paranormal abilities, if one has them, in order to stop others

from doing unwholesome actions Vimuttiimagga (by Arhat Upatissa, 1st c. C.E.): the standing and walking postures

are particularly suitable for lustful natured personalities, while sitting and reclining are more appropriate for anger-natured personalities. [Ehara, N.R.M. et al. tr., The Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga), Kandy: BPS, 1995, 61]

Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga (430 C.E.): Whichever posture is effective for developing concentration is the one to be adopted. (128)

The Vajra Essence: “Leaving your body, speech, and mind in a state of inactivity is the unsurpassed, supreme technique for inserting the vital energy and mind into the central channel.”

The Vajra Essence: “Motionlessly relax your body in whatever way is comfortable, like an unthinking corpse in a charnel ground.  Let your voice be silent like a lute with its strings cut.  Rest your mind in an unmodified state, like the primordial presence of space.   Remain for a long time in these three ways of resting.  This pacifies all illnesses due to disturbances of the elements and unfavorable circumstances, and your body, speech, and mind naturally calm down. The ultimate purpose of this practice is to experience the dharmakāya, free of activity.”

H. H. the Dalai Lama (Dzogchen): “When you rest the mind, putting it out of work, the vital energies naturally become refined, and solely by non-conceptual meditation, you slip into the clear light with the mind and vital energies. This requires settling in complete inactivity, which is not easy!”

John R. Searle: o “Acceptance of the current views is motivated not so much by an

independent conviction of their truth as by a terror of what are apparently the only alternatives. That is, the choice we are tacitly presented with is between a “scientific” approach, as represented by one or another of the current versions of “materialism,” and an “antiscientific” approach, as represented by Cartesianism or some other traditional religious conception of the mind.28

o “We might summarize these points by saying that our modern model of reality and of the relation between reality and observation cannot

28 John R. Searle, The Rediscovery of the Mind (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), 3-4

accommodate the phenomenon of subjectivity. The model is one of objective (in the epistemic sense) observers observing an objectively (in the ontological sense) existing reality. But there is no way on that model to observe the act of observing itself. For the act of observing is the subjective (ontological sense) access to objective reality.”29

o “Earlier materialists argued that there aren’t any such things as separate mental phenomena, because mental phenomena are identical with brain states. More recent materialists argue that there aren’t any such things as separate mental phenomena because they are not identical with brain states. I find this pattern very revealing, and what it reveals is an urge to get rid of mental phenomena at any cost.”30

o “If one had to describe the deepest motivation for materialism, one might say that it is simply a terror of consciousness...The deepest reason for the fear of consciousness is that consciousness has the essentially terrifying feature of subjectivity. Materialists are reluctant to accept that feature because they believe that to accept the existence of subjective consciousness would be inconsistent with their conception of what the world must be like.”31

The Nine Steps to Attentional Balance

1. Directed attention What is achieved: One is able to direct the attention to the chosen object The power by which that is achieved: Learning the instructions What problems persist: There is no attentional continuity on the object Attentional imbalances: Coarse excitation The type of mental engagement: Focused The quality of the experience: Movement The flow of involuntary thought is like a cascading waterfall

2. Continuous attention What is achieved: Attentional continuity on the chosen object up to a minute The power by which that is achieved: Thinking about the practice What problems persist: Most of the time the attention is not on the object Attentional imbalances: Coarse excitation The type of mental engagement: Focused The quality of the experience: Movement The flow of involuntary thought is like a cascading waterfall

3. Resurgent attention What is achieved: Swift recovery of distracted attention, mostly on the object The power by which that is achieved: Mindfulness What problems persist: One still forgets the object entirely for brief periods

29 Ibid. 9930 Ibid. 48-931 Ibid. 55

Attentional imbalances: Coarse excitation The type of mental engagement: Interrupted The quality of the experience: Movement The flow of involuntary thought is like a cascading waterfall

4. Close attention What is achieved: One no longer completely forgets the chosen object The power by which that is achieved: Mindfulness, which is now strong What problems persist: Some degree of complacency concerning samādhi Attentional imbalances: Coarse laxity and medium excitation The type of mental engagement: Interrupted The quality of the experience: Achievement Involuntary thoughts are like river quickly flowing through a gorge

5. Tamed attention What is achieved: One takes satisfaction in samādhi The power by which that is achieved: Introspection What problems persist: Some resistance to samādhi Attentional imbalances: Medium laxity and medium excitation The type of mental engagement: Interrupted The quality of the experience: Achievement Involuntary thoughts are like river quickly flowing through a gorge

6. Pacified attention What is achieved: No resistance to training the attention The power by which that is achieved: Introspection What problems persist: Desire, depression, lethargy, and drowsiness Attentional imbalances: Medium laxity and subtle excitation The type of mental engagement: Interrupted The quality of the experience: Achievement Involuntary thoughts are like a river slowly flowing through a valley

7. Fully pacified attention What is achieved: Pacification of attachment, melancholy, and lethargy The power by which that is achieved: Enthusiasm What problems persist: Subtle imbalances of the attention, swiftly rectified Attentional imbalances: Subtle laxity and excitation The type of mental engagement: Interrupted The quality of the experience: Familiarity Involuntary thoughts are like a river slowly flowing through a valley

8. Single-pointed attention What is achieved: Samādhi is long sustained without any excitation or laxity The power by which that is achieved: Enthusiasm What problems persist: It still takes effort to ward off excitation and laxity Attentional imbalances: Latent impulses for subtle excitation and laxity

The type of mental engagement: Uninterrupted The quality of the experience: Stillness The conceptually discursive mind is calm like an ocean unmoved by waves

9. Attentional balance What is achieved: Flawless samādhi is long sustained effortlessly The power by which that is achieved: Familiarity What problems persist: Attentional imbalances may recur in the future Attentional imbalances: The causes of those imbalances are still latent The type of mental engagement: Effortless The quality of the experience: Perfection The conceptually discursive mind is still like Mount Meru, King of Mountains

Coarse excitation: The attention completely disengages from the meditative object. Medium excitation: Involuntary thoughts occupy the center of attention, while the meditative object is displaced to the periphery. Subtle excitation: The meditative object remains at the center of attention, but involuntary thoughts emerge at the periphery of attention.

Coarse laxity: The attention mostly disengages from the object due to insufficient vividness. Medium laxity: The object appears, but not with much vividness. Subtle laxity: The object appears vividly, but the attention is slightly slack.

The Achievement of Śamatha

You experience a sense of heaviness and numbness on the top of the head, which signals freedom from mental dysfunction and the achievement of mental pliancy and mental fitness.

Vital energies that cause physical pliancy then course through the body. When those energies have pervasively coursed through all parts of the body, you are freed of physical dysfunction and physical pliancy arises, which is the remedy for physical dysfunction. Once these saturate the entire body, there is an experience as if you were filled with the power of this dynamic energy.

When physical pliancy initially arises, due to the power of the vital energies a great sense of bliss arises in the body, and in dependence upon that an extraordinary degree of bliss also arises in the mind.

Once the rapturous pleasure of the mind has disappeared, the attention is sustained firmly upon the meditative object; and you achieve śamatha that is freed from the turbulence caused by great pleasure.

The Substrate Consciousness Excerpted from The Vajra Essence

Revealed by Düdjom Lingpa, translated by B. Alan Wallace

“O Vajra of Mind, the rope of mindfulness and firmly maintained attention is

dissolved by the power of meditative experience, until finally the ordinary mind of an ordinary being disappears, as it were. Consequently, compulsive thinking subsides and roving thoughts vanish into the space of awareness. You then slip into the vacuity of the substrate, in which self, others, and objects disappear. By clinging to the experiences of vacuity and luminosity while looking inward, the appearances of self, others, and objects vanish. This is the substrate consciousness. Some teachers say that the substrate to which you descend is ‘freedom from conceptual elaboration’ or the ‘one taste,’ but others say it is ethically neutral. Whatever they call it, in truth you have come to the essential nature [of the mind].

When you fall asleep, all objective appearances of waking reality—including the physical worlds, their sentient inhabitants, and all the objects that appear to the five senses—dissolve into the vacuity of the substrate, which is of the nature of space, and they infinitely pervade that vacuity. Once again, self-grasping consciousness is aroused by the apparitions of the movements of karmic energies. Consequently, from the appearance of the self, as before, all inner and outer phenomena—including the physical worlds, their sentient inhabitants, and sensory objects—emerge as dream appearances within the ground space of awareness. Joy, sorrow, and indifference are held close and clung to as being truly existent. This is delusion, so recognize it!”

State-effects of Śamatha

Any thoughts that arise naturally subside, without proliferating. There is no sensory awareness of your body or environment. You have a sense as if your mind has become indivisible with space. You achieve a state of attention belonging to the dimension of pure form (threshold

concentration in the first meditative stabilization), physical pliancy, mental pliancy, and single-pointedness.

You experience mental bliss to such a degree that you do not wish to arise from meditation.

You experience non-conceptuality such that you feel you could remain in meditation uninterruptedly for months or even years.

The mind becomes still in an unfluctuating state, in which you experience bliss like the warmth of a fire, luminosity like the dawn, and nonconceptuality like an ocean unmoved by waves.

Trait-effects of Śamatha

When arising from meditation, you have a sense as if the body has suddenly come into being.

The occurrence of afflictive thoughts and emotions such as hatred is feeble and of brief duration.

For the most part, the five obscurations—(1) sensual craving, (2) malice, (3) laxity and dullness, (4) excitation and anxiety, and (5) uncertainty—do not arise.

The sense of attentional clarity is so great that you feel that you could count the atoms of the pillars and walls of your house.

Due to deep attentional stability, you feel as if your sleep was suffused with samādhi, and many pure dream appearances take place.

When the attention is settled inwardly, meditative equipoise and physical and mental pliancy arise very swiftly.

When you rise from meditative equipoise, you still possess some degree of physical and mental pliancy.

Your attention is highly focused throughout all your daily activities. When you are inactive, the mind slips into a space-like state of awareness. You experience an unprecedented fitness of body and mind, such that you are

naturally inclined toward virtue. Due to bodily fitness, there is no feeling of physical heaviness or discomfort, the

spine becomes straight like a golden pillar, and the body feels blissful as if it were bathed with warm milk.

Due to mental fitness, you are now fully in control of the mind, so you are virtually free of sadness and grief and continuously experience a state of wellbeing.

The fitness of the body and mind is coarse at first, but then becomes subtle, which is superior, for you are now perfectly prepared for more advanced levels of contemplative training.

Amitabha

On forgiveness, compassion, and loving-kindness: http://www.salon.com/2015/08/23/the_science_of_forgiveness_when_you_dont_forgive_you_release_all_the_chemicals_of_the_stress_response/

The final four perfections are: skillful means, aspirational prayer, spiritual power, and primordial consciousness.

Metaphysical realism asserts that (1) the world consists of mind-independent objects; (2) there is exactly one true and complete description of the way the world is; and (3) truth involves some sort of correspondence between an independently existent world and a description of it.32 For scientists, this means that the objects of scientific inquiry are describable in principle in and of themselves; and they are believed to exist objectively—independently of any descriptions or interpretations imputed upon them by any subjects.33

Protagoras of Abdera (ca. 490-ca.420 BCE): “Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not.” (DK 80B1)

Plato: “If what each man believes to be true through sensation is true for him - and no man can judge of another's experience better than the man himself, and no man is in a better position to consider whether another’s opinion is true or false than the man himself, but...each man is to have his own opinions for himself alone, and all of them are to be right and true - then how, my friend, was Protagoras so wise that he should consider himself worthy to teach others and for huge fees? And how are we so ignorant that we should go to school to him, if each of us is the measure of his own wisdom?” (Theatetus, 161B).

George Berkeley (1685-1754): o God generates appearances of physical objects to our minds without ever

creating any physical objects at all.34 According to this view, one’s perception of the tree is an idea that God generates in one’s mind, while the tree continues to exist in God’s omniscient mind when you are not there to witness it. In short, the mind of God directly generates all our experiences of the world, without ever creating an absolutely objective physical world as the basis for sensory perceptions.

o Three fundamental assertions provide the framework of his philosophy: (1) Any knowledge we have of the world is to be obtained only through direct perception; (2) false ideas about the world are a result of thinking about what we perceive; and (3) our knowledge of the world may be purified and perfected simply by stripping away all thought, and with it language, from our pure perceptions.

German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872): “Man—this is the mystery of religion—projects his being into objectivity, and then again makes himself an object

32 Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, ed. James Conant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), 30.

33 Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 33-34.

34 George Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Colin M. Turbayne, ed. (London: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1713/1988).

to this projected image of himself thus converted into a subject.”35 Humans unconsciously project their desire for meaning and immortality onto the universe, giving the name “God” to what they themselves have projected. By the end of his career in 1871, Feuerbach considered himself to be an atheist, materialist, and communist. His projection theory had an immense impact on the development of European atheism in the nineteenth century, deeply influencing the thinking and writing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who catalyzed more confusion and human misery than any other intellectuals in modern times.

Physicist Steven Weinberg in his book The First Three Minutes: “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”36 But that universe, which purportedly exists independently of all systems of measurement, exists nowhere but in the imaginations of the scientists who conceive it. It’s their brainchild, but they have to live with it only as long as they believe it’s real.

Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould: “Evolution is purposeless, nonprogressive, and materialistic.”37

From Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: “At the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century, natural philosophers relied upon the authority of two sources: (1) the book of divine revelation, the Bible, and (2) the Book of Nature, God’s creation. …In the twentieth century, science became fused as never before with the state; and like the union of the Christian Church with the Roman Empire, great wealth, power, and prestige were at stake. Those in power needed to determine which kinds of phenomena were to be included in the Book of Nature, and the Church Scientific emphatically insisted that only physical phenomena were to be included. Experience was still central to scientific inquiry, but only the experiences, or data, derived from objective scientific measurements. Nonscientific experiences—especially concerning anything that was not physical—were invalidated in principle, and claims of nonphysical discoveries in nature were deemed heretical, illogical, and delusional.

According to modern cosmology, the universe consists of 5% atomic matter, 25% dark matter, and 69% dark energy (with 1% consisting of neutrinos, photons, and black holes. “Although general relativity is now a hundred year-old theory, it remains a powerful, and controversial, idea in cosmology. It is one of the basic assumptions behind our current cosmological model: a model that is both very successful in matching observations, but implies the existence of both dark matter and dark energy. These signify that our understanding of physics is incomplete. We will likely need a new idea as profound as general relativity to explain these mysteries and require more powerful observations and experiments to light the path toward our new insights.”38

35 Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, trans. Marian Evans [pen name George Eliot] (New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855), 52–53.

36 Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1993), 154.

37 Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1980/1992), 14

38 David N. Spergel, “The dark side of cosmology: Dark matter and dark energy” URL: www.sciencemag.org on April 22, 2015.

Post-modernist philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer: “The text that is understood historically is forced to abandon its claim that it is uttering something true. We think we understand when we see the past from a historical perspective, i.e. place ourselves in the historical situation and seek to reconstruct the historical horizon. In fact, however, we have given up the claim to find, in the past, any truth valid and intelligible for ourselves. Thus this acknowledgment of the otherness of the other, which makes him the object of objective knowledge, involves the fundamental suspension of his claim to truth.”39

o “The…limitation of Gadamer’s historical treatment of texts, however, is that his own works are written in ‘disappearing ink’: that is, as soon as his hermeneutical criteria are applied by others to his writings, his own texts are forced to abandon their claim to utter anything that is true. On the other hand, if advocates of his viewpoint wish to claim a privileged perspective, superior to and unlike all others, they must stand at the end of a long line of earlier proponents of all manner of religious, philosophical, and scientific theories who make the same claim.”40

Various versions of post-modernism, anti-realism, instrumentalism, constructivism, and subjective relativism propose that all accounts of the world are so fundamentally subjective, that equal credibility must be attributed to widely divergent views, including those of Creationists.41

Joaquin Pérez-Remón, Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism, (New York: Mouton, 1980), 263-4

o Buddha: “Prepossessed by two speculative views, bhikkhus, among both gods and men, some stick fast, some go too far; and those who have eyes see. And how, bhikkhus, do some stick fast? Gods and men, bhikkhus, are fond of becoming, in love with becoming, utterly pleased with becoming; when the dhamma is explained for the stopping of becoming their mind does not jump at it, does not find satisfaction in it, does not settle on it, does not give itself up to it. Thus, bhikkhus, some people stick fast.

o And how, bhikkhus, some go too far? Some, afflicted by becoming, vexed by becoming, disgusted with becoming, welcome non-becoming, saying, ‘Since, friend, after the dissolution of the body, after death, this self (ayaṃ attā) is annihilated, is destroyed, does not exist after death, this is what is real, this is what is excellent, this is the true view. Thus, bhikkhus, some go too far.

o And how, bhikkhus, does one who has got eyes see? Herein, bhikkhus, one regards what has become as having become, regarding what has become as something that has become he attains to revulsion, to

39 Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method. Garrett Barden & John Cumming, trans. (New York. Reprint, 1988), p. 270. Cited in C. W. Huntington, The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Mādhyamika, p. 13.

40 B. Alan Wallace, “Methodological Perspectives” in Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications 2005.

41 See Paul Feyerabend, “Has the scientific view of the world a special status compared with other views?” in Jan Hilgevoord, ed. Physics and Our View of the World. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 135-145.

detachment, to cessation of what has become. Thus, bhikkhus, one who has got eyes sees.

o Those who regard what has become as having become, and go beyond what has become, they are released in what really is, by the destruction of craving for becoming. One who truly knows what has become, free of craving for becoming or non-becoming, that bhikkhu, by the cessation of what has become, does not proceed to any further existence.”42

o Joaquin Pérez-Remón: “Can anyone deny that in saying that one is released in what is real the reality of the true self is implicitly asserted? Otherwise what is the connection between the one that is released and that reality into which he is released?...The eternalist is wrong due to his attachment to becoming, the annihilationist is wrong due to his attachment to non-becoming, the one who has got eyes to see steers a middle way by detaching himself from becoming and non-becoming and thereby transcending both and attaining liberation.”

Lerab Lingpa: “Due to settling the mind in its natural state, there may arise sensations such as physical and mental wellbeing, a sense of lucid consciousness, the appearance of empty form, and a non-conceptual sense that nothing can harm the mind, regardless of whether or not ideation has ceased.”43

Ludwig Wittgensteino A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting

entirely of jokes.44 o The world is my world: this is manifest in the fact that the limits of

language (of that language which alone I understand) mean the limits of my world.45

o To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.46

o So in the end when one is doing philosophy one gets to the point where one would like just to emit an inarticulate sound.47

o There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.48

o Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.49

Leonard Bernstein: “You see what happened: those musical protons and electrons —the separate notes that is — have combined together forming atoms, which then combined into molecules, which finally combined into recognizable matter, like

42 Khuddakanikāya Vol. I, pp. 211, 212, Itivuttaka 2, 22.43 His commentary on The Heart Essence of Vimalamitra44 As quoted in “A View from the Asylum” in Philosophical Investigations from the

Sanctity of the Press (2004), by Henry Dribble, p. 8745 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922, 5.6246 Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 7: Remarks on Frazer's Golden

Bough, p. 11947 Philosophical Investigations (1953), § 26148 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) (6.522)49 Ibid. (7)

this wood or this hair, or that Blue Danube Waltz. So it turns out that an atom of music is not a single note at all, as you might think, but at least two notes; and that two-note relationship is called an INTERVAL. A very important word, ‘interval,’ because it's the heart and soul of music. You see music is not made out of notes by themselves, but out of the intervals between one note and another. That's why it's so necessary for us to understand this word, interval.”50

Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, Ch. 3o 7. May I be the medicine and the physician for the sick. May I be

their nurse until their illness never recurs.51

o 8. With showers of food and drink may I overcome the afflictions of hunger and thirst. May I become food and drink during times of famine.

o 9. May I be an inexhaustible treasury for the destitute. With various forms of assistance may I remain in their presence.

o 10. For the sake of accomplishing the welfare of all sentient beings, I freely give up my body, enjoyments, and all my virtues of the three times.

o 11. Surrendering everything is nirvāṇa, and my mind seeks nirvāṇa. If I must surrender everything, it is better that I give it to sentient beings.52

o 17. May I be a protector for those who are without protectors, a guide for travelers, and a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over.

o 18. May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest, and may I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.53

o 19. To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune, an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.

o 20-21. Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient beings dwelling throughout infinite space,54 So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout space until they are all liberated.

o 22-23. Just as the Sugatas of old adopted the Spirit of Awakening, and just as they properly conformed to the practice of the Bodhisattvas, so I myself shall generate the Spirit of Awakening for the sake of the world; and so I myself shall properly engage in those practices.

50 http://www.leonardbernstein.com/ypc_script_musical_atoms.htm51 Tibetan: “For as long as beings are ill and until their illnesses are cured, may I be

their physician and their medicine and their nurse.”52 Tibetan: “As a result of surrendering everything, there is nirvāṇa, [and] my mind

seeks nirvāṇa. Surrendering everything at once--this is the greatest gift to sentient beings.”

53 Tibetan: “May I be an island for those seeking an island, a lamp for those seeking light, a bed for those seeking repose, and a servant for all those beings desiring a servant.”

54 Tibetan: “Like the great elements such as earth and space, may I always serve as the basis of the various requisites of life for innumerable sentient beings.”

o 24. Upon gladly adopting the Spirit of Awakening in this way, an intelligent person should thus nurture the Spirit in order to fulfill his wish.55

o 25. Now my life is fruitful. Human existence is well obtained. Today I have been born into the family of the Buddhas. Now I am a Child of the Buddha.

o 26. Thus, whatever I do now should accord with [the Bodhisattvas’] family, and it should not be like a stain on this pure family.56

o 27. Just as a blind man might find a jewel amongst heaps of rubbish, so this Spirit of Awakening has somehow arisen in me.

o 28. It is the elixir of life produced to vanquish death in the world.57 It is an inexhaustible treasure eliminating the poverty of the world.

o 29. It is the supreme medicine that alleviates the illness of the world. It is the tree of rest for beings exhausted from wandering on the pathways of mundane existence.

o 30. It is the universal bridge for all travelers on their crossing over miserable states of existence.58 It is the rising moon of the mind that soothes the mental afflictions of the world.

o 31. It is the great sun dispelling the darkness of the world’s ignorance. It is the fresh butter formed from churning the milk of Dharma.

o 32. For the caravan of beings traveling on the path of mundane existence and starving for the meal of happiness, it is the feast of happiness that satisfies all sentient beings who have come as guests.59

o 33. Today I invite the world to Sugatahood and temporal happiness. May the gods, asuras, and others rejoice in the presence of all the Protectors!

The venerable Domang Gyatrul Rinpoche (1924-) (Naked Awareness): the stage of the yoga of single-pointedness is as follows: “the first stage of single-pointedness occurs with the accomplishment of śamatha, wherein one single-pointedly attends to one’s own awareness, which is primordially unceasing and luminous.”

The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorjé (1284–1339) (The Great Instructions) associates the small stage of the yoga of single-pointedness with the Mahāyana Path of Accumulation, the first of the five paths culminating in perfect enlightenment.

55 Tibetan: “Having joyfully adopted the Spirit of Awakening, in order to apply and increase it, an intelligent person should exalt this mind like this.”

56 Tibetan: “Now, by every means, I shall behave in accordance with this family, and it should not be as if I have contaminated this flawless noble heritage.”

57 Tibetan: “It is the supreme elixir of life that conquers the Lord of Death.”58 Tibetan: “It is the universal bridge that liberates all beings from miserable states of

existence.”59 Tibetan: “For the caravan of beings traveling on the path of mundane existence and

longing to experience the bounties of happiness, this is the immanent supreme joy that satisfies sentient beings who have come as guests.”

Karma Chakmé (1613-78) (Naked Awareness): “Up until single-pointedness, primordial consciousness that realizes the path has not arisen, so that is not genuine meditative equipoise. Thus, as subsequent appearances do not appear as illusions, there is no genuine post-meditative state.”

Mahāmudrā: The Ocean of Definitive Meaning by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorjé (1556–1603): “How then should one seek to realize śamatha? It is highly praiseworthy for someone to achieve śamatha at the threshold to the first dhyāna [within the form realm], as stated before. Failing that, one would do well to realize a single-pointed concentration in the desire realm.”

The Lamp of Mahāmudrā by Tselé Natsok Rangdröl (Tselé Gotsangpa) (b. 1608): “One-pointedness, the first yoga of Mahāmudrā, has three levels: small, medium and great. One-pointedness, for the most part, consists of śamatha and the gradual progression through the stages of śamatha with support, without support, and finally to the śamatha that delights the tathāgatas. During that process, grasping gradually diminishes.”

According to Jé Gyaré as cited by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (1512/3-1587) (Moonlight of Mahāmudrā):

o One-pointedness: paths of accumulation and applicationo Freedom from elaboration: path of preparationo One taste: path of seeing (first bhūmi)o One taste: paths of meditation and part of the path no-more-learning

(bhūmis two through eight)o Non-meditation: rest of path of no-more-learning, buddhahood (bhūmis

nine through thirteen) The five dhyāna factors remove the five obscurations

1. The factor of single-pointed attention removes the obscuration of sensual craving.

2. The factor of well-being removes the obscuration of malice.

3. The factor of coarse examination removes the obscurations of laxity and dullness.

4. The factor of bliss removes the obscurations of excitation and anxiety

5. The factor of precise investigation removes the obscuration of uncertainty.

Water similes of the five obscurations 1. Sensual craving is like water mixed with various colors.2. Malice is like boiling water.3. Laxity and dullness are like water covered over by moss.4. Excitation and anxiety are like agitated water whipped by the

wind.5. Uncertainty is like turbid, muddy water.

Buddha: “So long as these five obscurations are not abandoned one considers oneself as indebted, sick, in bonds, enslaved and lost in a desert track.” (Sāmaññaphala Sutta in Dīgha Nikāya I 73)

“As above, so below.”

o The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus: “That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.”

o This principle, however, is more often used in the sense of the microcosm and macrocosm. The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one (usually the microcosm) a man may understand the other.

o Buddha: “It is in this fathom-long body with its perceptions and its mind that I describe the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world.” Saṃyutta Nikāya II 36

o See H. H. the Dalai Lama’s book The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

Buddha: “Here, monks, a disciple dwells pervading one direction with his heart filled with loving-kindness, likewise the second, the third, and the fourth direction; so above, below and around; he dwells pervading the entire world everywhere and equally with his heart filled with loving-kindness, abundant, grown great, measureless, free from enmity and free from distress.” [Dīgha Nikāya 13]

Padmasambhava in Natural Liberation: “Now alternately sharply focus your attention, wholly concentrating it without wavering, and then gently release it, evenly resting it in openness. Again concentrate, and again release. In that way, meditate with alternating focus and release. At times, steadily direct your attention up into the sky. Steadily focus your awareness with the desire to be without anything on which to meditate. Relax again. At times, steadily, unwaveringly, direct your awareness into the space on your right; at times, direct it to the left; and at times, direct it downwards. During each session, rotate the gaze around in those directions. Occasionally inquire, “What is that awareness of the one who is focusing the interest?” Let the awareness itself steadily observe itself. At times, let your mind come to rest in the center of your heart, and evenly leave it there. At times, evenly bring your mind into the expanse of space and leave it there. Thus, by shifting the gaze in various, alternating ways, the mind settles in its natural state. As indications of this, if awareness remains evenly, lucidly, and steadily wherever it is placed, śamatha has arisen.”

First five of the 12 links of dependent originationo Ignorance (avidyā)o Karmic formations (saṃskāra) by way of the body, speech, and mindo Consciousness (vijñāna)o Naming and form: (nama-rūpa): Nama (naming) is experience seen

subjectively as the mental process of identifying an object, and rupa (appearance) is experience seen objectively as an entity that is perceived and conceived through the mental processes of identification. The term mano, translated here as “mentation,” integrates and makes meaning out of the different percepts brought in through the various senses. In short, this meaningful totality of “experience” is viewed subjectively as

“identification of an entity” (nama) and objectively as “the entity identified” (rūpa).60

o Six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana): six sense faculties The Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra, revealed by Düdjom Lingpa:

“Thus, as for the emergence of impure appearances and mindsets of saṃsāra,from the displays of great original purity, subtle self-concepts obscure wisdom and primordial consciousness, and due to the subsiding of the inner glow and radiance of the ground into the womb, the luminosity of its outer radiance, the ethically neutral substrate of saṃsāra, manifests from immaterial space, and the consciousness of grasping at the “I” serves as the basis from which appearances and mindsets emerge. With mentation alone established as the basis from which appearances arise, from the movements of the six kinds of conditioned consciousness manifest indeterminate phenomena, like hallucinations.”

The Flight of the Garuda, by Shabkar Rinpoche: “Now, fortunate children of the mind, listen!This is how the dharmakāya Samantabhadra is first liberated Without performing the slightest bit of meditation,And how the six classes of sentient beings wander in saṃsāraWithout committing the slightest bit of virtue or vice.In the primordial, first beginning before everything, one rests inThe primordial ground, devoid of the words saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.Then this is how pristine awareness arises from the ground.Just as the light of a crystal shines outwards when it is struck by sunlight,Vital energies of primordial consciousness, pristine awareness, are aroused,Shattering the youthful vase kāya,And, like the sun in the sky, the spontaneously actualized clear light Shines forth as the kāyas, facets of primordial consciousness, and buddha-fields.Then the dharmakāya Samantabhadra recognizes them as its own appearances,The outwardly illuminated kāyas and facets of primordial consciousness

dissolve within,And one is awakened in the originally pure, primordial ground.By failing to recognize the appearances of that as being of the nature of Spontaneous actualizations as one’s own radiance,That muddled, unmindful consciousnessIs called connate ignorance.Then the arising of consciousness that dualistically graspsTo the clear light of the appearances of the groundIs called imaginative ignorance.Then one is trapped inside the sphere of the two kinds of ignorance.Then habitual propensities gradually proliferate,And all these activities of saṃsāra occur.”

From Mind in the Balance: o Many physicists believe that the universe began in a perfectly symmetrical

but unstable vacuum, in which all the forces of nature were

60 Ven. Weragoda Sarada Thero, Treasury of Truth Illustrated Dhammapada. (Taipei, Taiwan: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Education Foundation, 1993), 61

undifferentiated. The potential energy of the initial state was like being on top of a hill and the potential energy of the true vacuum was the energy of being at the bottom of the hill. The difference in energy led to the creation of photons, particles, and antiparticles and the reheating of the universe to a very high temperature. As the universe further expanded, it went through several symmetry-breaking phase transitions, which led to the distinction of the forces into gravitational, weak, electromagnetic and strong forces. The final vacuum we see has much less symmetry than the original, high-temperature vacuum, much as liquid water is more symmetric than ice. As the universe cooled down, transitioning from the state of the “melted vacuum” to the current “frozen vacuum,” the initial symmetry was broken in various ways.

o According to M.I.T. cosmologist Alan Guth, the theory of an inflationary universe leaves open the possibility that the big bang was not a singular event, but was more like the biological process of cell division. According to this view, the universe is a process that may never have started and will almost certainly never stop. If so, we are dwelling in an eternally self-reproducing universe, with our current universe originating from an earlier universe. Likewise, according to Andre Linde, our universe is just one of countless self-reproducing universes, or “bubbles,” in each of which, the initial conditions differ and diverse kinds of elementary particles interact in different ways. The entire universe may be likened to a cluster of bubbles attached to each other, with each universe emerging from its own big bang involving a fluctuation of the vacuum followed by inflation. This vision of the world we see around us is, as physicist Steven Weinberg has put it, “only an imperfect reflection of a deeper and more beautiful reality.”61

Düdjom Lingpa in The Vajra Essence: “This ground is present in the mindstreams of all sentient beings, but it is tightly constricted by dualistic grasping; and it is regarded as external, firm, and solid. This is like water in its natural, fluid state freezing in a cold wind. It is due to dualistic grasping onto subjects and objects that the ground, which is naturally free, becomes frozen into the appearances of things.”

Robert Browning, from the poem “Andrea del Sarto”: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”

A world of informationo Physicists Časlav Brukner and Anton Zeilinger: “In quantum physics the

notion of the total information of the system emerges as a primary concept, independent of the particular complete set of complementary experimental procedures the observer might choose, and a property becomes a secondary concept, a specific representation of the information of the system that is created spontaneously in the measurement itself.”62

61 Jim Holt, “Where Protons Will Play,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 2007.62 Časlav Brukner and Anton Zeilinger, “Information and Fundamental Elements of the

Structure of Quantum Theory,” in Time, Quantum and Information, ed. Lutz Castell

o John Archibald Wheeler (1911–2008): The universe consists of a “strange loop,” in which physics gives rise to observers and observers give rise to at least part of physics. The conventional view of the relationship between observers and the objective world is that matter yields information, and information makes it possible for observers to be aware of matter by way of measurements, which could be depicted as follows: matter information observers. Wheeler, on the contrary, proposes that the presence of observers makes it possible for information to arise, for there is no information without someone who is informed. Thus, matter is a category constructed out of information, and Wheeler inverts the sequence: observers information matter.63

o Wheeler: “It is wrong to think of that past as “already existing” in all detail. The ‘past’ is theory. The past has no existence except as it is recorded in the present. By deciding what questions our quantum-registering equipment shall put in the present we have an undeniable choice in what we have the right to say about the past.”64

o William James: Everyone is “prone to claim that his conclusions are the only logical ones, that they are necessities of universal reason, they being all the while, at bottom, accidents more or less of personal vision which had far better be avowed as such.”65

o “At Sāvatthī. Now the bhikkhunī Vajirā, having robed herself and taken her bowl and upper robe, entered Saavatthii before noon to collect food. Having wandered through Sāvatthī and returned after her meal, she entered the Andha Grove and sat down at the foot of a certain tree to rest during the heat of midday. Then Māra, the evil one, approached the bhikkhunii Vajirā and, desiring to cause fear and consternation, to make her hair stand on end and cause her to fall away from concentration of mind, addressed her with this verse: ‘By whom was this being made? Where is the maker of the being? From where does a being arise? Where does a being cease?’ Then the bhikkhunī Vajirā thought, ‘Who is this human or non-human being who speaks this verse?’ And then she thought, ‘It is Māra, the evil one, desiring to cause me fear and consternation, to make my hair stand on end and cause me to fall away from concentration of mind.’ So the bhikkhunī Vajirā, realizing that it was Māra, the evil one, replied to him in verse: ‘A being! Why seize upon this word? A wrong view Māra surely has? A mere heap of conditions this, Where no ‘being’

and Otfried Ischebeck (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003), 352.63 Paul C. W. Davies, “An Overview of the Contributions of John Archibald Wheeler,”

In Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity, Honoring John Wheeler’s 90th Birthday, ed. John D. Barrow, Paul C. W. Davies, and Charles L. Harper Jr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 3–26. p. 10.

64 John Archibald Wheeler, “Law without Law,” in Quantum Theory and Measurement, ed. John Archibald Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), 194.

65 William James, A Pluralistic Universe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), 10.

can be found. As when, with all its parts assembled, ‘Chariot’ is the word then used. So when the aggregates exist, one speaks of ‘being’ by convention. It is just suffering that arises, suffering that stays and disappears. Nothing but suffering arises, suffering ceases and nothing else.’ And Māra, the evil one, thinking, "The bhikkhunī Vajirā recognizes me," vanished away, grieved and dejected.66

o From the Milindapañhā, 25:Then the venerable Nāgasena spoke to Milinda the king as follows:—   29

  “Your majesty, you are a delicate prince, an exceedingly delicate prince; and if, your majesty, you walk in the middle of the day on hot sandy ground, and you tread on rough grit, gravel, and sand, your feet become sore, your body tired, the mind is oppressed, and the body-consciousness suffers. Pray, did you come afoot, or riding?”

  30

  “Bhante, I do not go afoot: I came in a chariot.”   31

  “Your majesty, if you came in a chariot, declare to me the chariot. Pray, your majesty, is the pole the chariot?”   32

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   33

  “Is the axle the chariot?”   34

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   35

  “Are the wheels the chariot?”   36

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   37

  “Is the chariot-body the chariot?”   38

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   39

  “Is the banner-staff the chariot?”   40

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   41

  “Is the yoke the chariot?”   42

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   43

  “Are the reins the chariot?”   44

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   45

  “Is the goading-stick the chariot?”   46

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   47

  “Pray, your majesty, are pole, axle, wheels, chariot-body, bannerstaff, yoke, reins, and goad unitedly the chariot?”   48

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   49

  “Is it, then, your majesty, something else besides pole, axle, wheels, chariot-body, banner-staff, yoke, reins and goad which is the chariot?”

  50

  “Nay, verily, bhante.”   51

66 Saṃyutta Nikāya 5.10; http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/ireland/wheel107.html

  “Your majesty, although I question you very closely, I fail to discover any chariot. Verily now, your majesty, the word chariot is a mere empty sound. What chariot is there here? Your majesty, you speak a falsehood, a lie: there is no chariot. Your majesty, you are the chief king in all the continent of India; of whom are you afraid that you speak a lie? Listen to me, my lords, ye five hundred Yonakas, and ye eighty thousand priests! Milinda the king here says thus: ‘I came in a chariot;’ and being requested, ‘Your majesty, if you came in a chariot, declare to me the chariot,’ he fails to produce any chariot. Is it possible, pray, for me to assent to what he says?”67

o Mind in the Balance: “Since the dawn of modern science, physicists have been trying to understand the evolution of the universe ‘ the bottom up,’ starting with the initial conditions. Today the beginning of the universe is conceived in terms of the Big Bang. But Hawking and Hertog challenge this entire approach, declaring that like the surface of a sphere, our universe has no definable starting point, no defined initial state. And if you can’t know the initial state of the universe, you can’t take a ‘bottom-up’ approach, working forward from the beginning. The only alternative is to take a top-down approach, starting from current observations and working backwards. But how you work backwards depends entirely on the questions you ask and the methods of inquiry you adopt in the present… According to Hawking, every possible version of a single universe exists simultaneously in a state of quantum superposition. When you choose to make a measurement, you select from this range of possibilities a subset of histories that share the specific features measured. The history of the universe as you conceive of it is derived from that subset of histories. In other words, you choose your past.”68

o Philosopher John Searle rightly counters, “the information in the computer is in the eye of the beholder, it is not intrinsic to the computational system. . . . The electrical state transitions of a computer are symbol manipulations only relative to the attachment of a symbolic interpretation by some designer, programmer or user.”69

o Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: “According to Buddhism, the flow of experience includes both the arising of appearances, made possible by the “luminous” aspect of consciousness, as well as the cognizance of those appearances, by way of the “cognizant” aspect of consciousness. This flow of experience may then be regarded as a continuum of three elements: (1) objective appearances arising, (2) knowledge of their nature, and (3) a subject who knows. When treating illness, in addition to the brute force of physical, pharmaceutical, or surgical interventions, the transference of meaningful information may prove therapeutic. Physical interventions

67 http://www.bartleby.com/45/3/202.html68 Stephen W. Hawking and Thomas Hertog, “Populating the landscape: A top-down

approach” Physical Review 3 73, 123527 (2006); Martin Bojowald, “Unique or not unique?” Nature, Vol. 442, Aug. 31, 2006, 988-990.

69 John R. Searle, Consciousness and Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 34.

commonly include detrimental side effects, which are far less prevalent with information-based interventions, such as talk therapy and cultivation of positive subject expectancy. The Buddhist hypothesis suggests that meaningful information, rather than the brain, is primary; and as a result of the transference of meaningful information, the corresponding physiological mechanisms are activated to achieve the desired or expected outcome.”

The meaning of informationo Buddhist definition of a human being: “One who knows how to speak and

understands the meaning.”o “Human communication is concerned with meaning derived from content

embedded in physical objects called symbols that serve as the base units in narratives, programs, and codes called messages.”70

o Marcia [Professor Emerita of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles] distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative definitions of information as ‘information 1’ and ‘information 2’ where the former is defined as the “pattern of organization of matter and energy” and the latter as “some pattern of organization and matter and energy given meaning by a living being (or its constituent parts).”71

o Marcia Bates: “the only thing in the universe that does not contain information is total entropy.”

o Physicist Hans Christian von Baeyer conflate “information 1” and “information 2” in the following assertions, which is a very common source of confusion within the materialist paradigm: “All empirical evidence in science is collected through the mediation of the senses. We learn about atoms by peering through scanning tunneling microscopes, by translating their random motion, revealed to the touch as warmth, into thermometer readings, by converting invisible nuclear events into the audible clicks of Geiger counters…[Information] is the strange, compressible stuff that flows out of a tangible object, be it an atom, a DNA molecule, a book or a piano, and, after a complex series of transformations involving the senses, lodges in the conscious brain. Information mediates between the material and the abstract, between the real and the ideal…Knowledge of the world is information; and since information is naturally quantized into bits, the world also appears quantized. If it didn’t we wouldn’t be able to understand it.”72

70 Newhagen, John, “Interactivity, Dynamic Symbol Processing, and the Emergence of Content in Human Communication” The Information Society (20) (Taylor and Francis Inc, 2004), p. 395.

71 Bates, Marcia “Fundamental Forms of Information” Journal of the American Society for Information and Technology [Volume 57, Issue 8], pp. 1033–1045, June 2006].72 Von Baeyer, Hans Christian. Information: The New Language of Science (Phoenix,

2003). pp. 15, 17, and 229.

o Quantum physics has introduced the concept of qubits, essentially quantum bits of information, as being the fundamental building block of the knowable world instead of matter, atoms or the quantum field.73

o Roger Penrose, “Consciousness Involves Noncomputable Ingredients” Gödel’s theorem: you can produce statements that you can’t prove

using any system of rules you’ve laid down ahead of time. But what was now being made clear to me was that as long as you

believe in the rules you’re using in the first place, then you must also believe in the truth of this proposition whose truth lies beyond those rules… Thus, I’m claiming, there’s something in our conscious understanding that simply isn’t computational; it’s something different.

A lot of what the brain does you could do on a computer. I’m not saying that all the brain’s action is completely different from what you do on a computer. I am claiming that the actions of consciousness are something different. I’m not saying that consciousness is beyond physics, either — although I’m saying that it’s beyond the physics we know now.

There doesn’t seem to be any place for conscious phenomena in the science that we understand today. On the other hand, people nowadays often seem to believe that if you can’t put something on a computer, it’s not science.

Current physics ideas will survive as limiting behavior, in the same sense that Newtonian mechanics survives relativity. Relativity modifies Newtonian mechanics, but it doesn’t really supplant it. Newtonian mechanics is still there as a limit. In the same sense, quantum theory, as we now use it, and classical physics, which includes Einstein’s general theory, are limits of some theory we don’t yet have. My claim is that the theory we don’t yet have will contain noncomputational ingredients. It must play its role when you magnify something from a quantum level to a classical level, which is what’s involved in “measurement.”

The conservation of information74

o The firewall problem posed by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s: What happens to information that falls into a black hole? The rules of quantum mechanics require that information can never be lost. Even burning a book doesn't destroy the information inside—it just scrambles it up. But black holes do seem to destroy information, sucking it past the event horizon, a point of no return.

73 The qubit was first introduced by Anton Zeilinger in 1999 [see “A Foundational Principle for Quantum Mechanics.” Foundations of Physics (29:4) (Kluwer, 1999)]. For a very readable introduction to this concept see Von Baeyer, Hans Christian. “In the Beginning Was the Bit” New Scientist (2278: February 17, 2001) [last accessed on January 29, 2007].

74 http://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/v-Ch.14.html

o Black holes exert such a strong gravitational force that not even light can escape, and they are able to distort the very fabric of space and slow the passage of time. These are very real objects. Black holes are said to absorb matter and never let it go. The matter simply disappears inside the black hole. But matter also entails information. For instance, in a single atom of hydrogen, there are a proton and electron. That’s matter. But there is also information in how they are connected. Are they near one another, or far apart? On a macro level, in an apple there are protons, neutrons and electrons. Without the information tells you how they arranged, it wouldn’t have the apple’s tart taste. In fact, it wouldn’t be an apple at all. Ultimately, it is information that is at the heart of the mystery.75

o According to the rules of quantum mechanics, information should never be lost, not even if it gets sucked inside the black hole. This is because of two premises: causality and reversibility. Taken together, it means that effects have causes, and those causes can be undone. But information is permanently and irreversibly lost as it enters a classical black hole.

o In the 1970s, Hawking postulated what is now called Hawking radiation, which in principle, causes black holes eventually to evaporate as the radiation carries away energy. However, Hawking radiation should be completely independent of the matter absorbed by a black hole. So, information really does appear to be lost, in complete contradiction of quantum theory.

o Very recently Hawking countered the claim that the black hole gobbles and destroys the information by positing that the information never actually falls into the black hole. Instead, the information is held on the black hole’s surface—the event horizon. An event horizon is a wall of fire that prevents Hawking radiation on the outside from remaining intertwined on a quantum level with material inside.

o This is an intriguing thought and is analogous to how holograms are made. Holograms are two-dimensional sheets of, for example, plastic that can make three-dimensional images. All of the information of three dimensions is encoded in the two dimensional plastic. (By the way, there are some who hypothesize that our entire universe is a hologram!)

o Physicist Brian Greene76: There was a time when the word universe meant “all there is. The

notion of more than one universe, more than one everything, would seemingly be a contradiction in terms. Yet a range of theoretical developments has gradually qualified the interpretation of universe. The word’s meaning now depends on context.”

The strangest version of all parallel universe proposals is one that emerged gradually over 30 years of theoretical studies on the

75 Don Lincoln, “Has Stephen Hawking solved the mystery of black holes?” September 3, 2015: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/03/opinions/lincoln-hawking-black-holes/index.html

76 “Our Universe May Be a Giant Hologram,” August 04, 2011: http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jun/03-our-universe-may-be-a-giant-hologram

quantum properties of black holes. The work culminated in the last decade, and it suggests, remarkably, that all we experience is nothing but a holographic projection of processes taking place on some distant surface that surrounds us… Reality… may be akin to a hologram. Or, really, a holographic movie. The journey to this peculiar possibility combines developments deep and far-flung—insights from general relativity; from research on black holes; from thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and, most recently string theory. The thread linking these diverse areas is the nature of information in a quantum universe.

Is a black hole’s surface where the information is actually stored? “It’s a deep issue and has been pursued for decades by some of the most renowned physicists. The answer depends on whether you view the black hole from the outside or from the inside—and from the outside, there’s good reason to believe that information is indeed stored at the event horizon. This doesn’t merely highlight a peculiar feature of black holes. Black holes don’t just tell us about how black holes store information. Black holes inform us about information storage in any context.”

Physicists Leonard Susskind and Gerard ’t Hooft: “Since the information required to describe physical phenomena within any given region of space can be fully encoded by data on a surface that surrounds the region, then there’s reason to think that the surface is where the fundamental physical processes actually happen. Our familiar three-dimensional reality, these bold thinkers suggest, would then be likened to a holographic projection of those distant two-dimensional physical processes.”

If this line of reasoning is correct, then there are physical processes taking place on some distant surface that, much as a puppeteer pulls strings, are fully linked to the processes taking place in my fingers, arms, and brain as I type these words at my desk. Our experiences here and that distant reality there would form the most interlocked of parallel worlds. Phenomena in the two—I’ll call them Holographic Parallel Universes—would be so fully joined that their respective evolutions would be as connected as me and my shadow.

Five Families of Jinas Five Facets of Primordial Consciousness Vairocana Primordial consciousness of the absolute space of

phenomena Amitābha Primordial consciousness of discernment Akṣobhya Mirror-like primordial consciousness

Ratnasambhava Primordial consciousness of equality

Amoghasiddhi Primordial consciousness of accomplishment

Five Poisons Five Places: Delusion Crown Attachment Throat Hatred Heart Pride Navel Envy Genitals

Information, Mind, and Karmao Freud: “in mental life nothing which has once been formed can

perish...everything is somehow preserved and...in suitable circumstances... it can once more be brought to light.”77

o Information 1 is physical information and is physically measurable, while information 2 is semantic, or meaningful, information, and it has no physical properties and is not physically measurable.

o Physical information is stored in the brain, and at death it is conserved as it reverts to nonliving matter-energy. Semantic information is stored in the mind (accessed by way of brain activation), and at death is conserved as the coarse mind reverts to the substrate consciousness.

o One of the four laws of karma is that if karmic seeds are not purified (like the collision of matter and antimatter), they will certainly germinate, no matter how long this may take, so that “information” is conserved and does not evaporate through a kind of karmic entropy.

o To account for the transference of birthmarks from one body to the next incarnation, Ian Stevenson postulated the existence of a “field” that retains memories and dispositional characteristics of the deceased. He called this hypothetical field a “psychophore.”78

o According to the Kālacakra Tantra, the jiva, or “life force,” is an energetic continuum that is of the same nature as the subtle continuum of consciousness that carries on from life to life, and it is the actual repository of memories, mental traits, behavioral patterns, and even physical marks from one life to the next.

o According to Dzogchen, the substrate consciousness is the subtle continuum of consciousness that carries on from lifetime to lifetime, indivisibly with the life force, which is subtly “physical” but not material. This subtle energy-mind continuum carries the information of memories and karmic propensities in a way similar to the way information is contained in electromagnetic waves transmitted from one computer to another.

77 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents. James Strachey, trans. & ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1961), 16.

78 Ian Stevenson, Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, 2 vols. (New York: Praeger, 1997), 2: 2083–92.

Beliefs and theorieso Religious beliefs characteristically are based on divine authority, without

necessarily relying on logical reasoning or empirical evidenceo Philosophical speculations are derived using logical reasoning, without

necessarily lending themselves to empirical corroboration or repudiation.o Scientific theories are based on empirical evidence and logical reasoning,

and they do lend themselves to empirical corroboration or repudiation.o Buddhism includes (1) assertions pertaining to “very hidden” phenomena

that can be corroborated only by a Buddha, who is viewed as a divine authority, so their validity is known by inference based on authority, (2) assertions pertaining to “slightly hidden phenomena,” the truth of which that can be known using logical reasoning, and (3) assertions pertaining to “evident phenomena,” the truth of which can be known with direct perception, including mental and yogic perception. Progress along the path to enlightenment entails progression from the first to the second to the third modes of knowing, until the third is all that remains.

The Limits of Thoughto The four imponderables:79

The range of powers a Buddha develops as a result of becoming a Buddha

The range of powers that one may obtain while absorbed in dyāna The precise working out of the results of karma The origin the cosmos

o We are unaware of the first moment of a wandering, non-lucid mind, of a wandering, non-lucid dream, and of a wandering, non-lucid rebirth. This is unawareness, the root of saṃsāra. We cannot recall that of which we were unaware in the first place, so the first moment of each is unknowable. It makes no sense to attribute existence to that which is unknowable.

o The Vajra Essence: “Due to excellent karmic connections from the past, now you have obtained a precious human life with freedom and opportunity, and you have encountered the most sublime of dharmas, the secret mantra, Vajrayāna. This is no time to hold on to the hope of accumulating merit over a long period until you finally attain enlightenment. Rather, you must apprehend the ground of your own being for yourself, by experiencing the intrinsic nature of the sugatagarbha, the primordial ground that is the path to liberation in this lifetime. Apart from this, the teachings that say that the state of liberation arises from accumulating much karma from one life to another are effective for bringing about temporary happiness in the minds of beings, but enlightenment in this way is extremely difficult. Consider that such teachings may have a merely provisional meaning.”

Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: o “In the scientific worldview, the universe began with the emergence of

lifeless, unconscious configurations of matter and energy; over the course

79 Acintita Sutta, Aṅguttara Nikāya 4.77

of billions of years, this gave rise to living organisms, which gradually evolved into conscious, sentient beings. While many fundamental questions remain concerning the origins of life and of consciousness, scientists take a “matter-of-the-gaps” approach, assuming that any future discoveries will necessarily take place within their familiar, materialistic framework. Anything else is unthinkable. The general assumption seems to be that it’s simply a coincidence that the evolution of the cosmos has followed the exact same sequence as did the evolution of modern science since the sixteenth century. Was it a logical necessity that the first great discoveries within the natural sciences took place in physics and were followed by discoveries in the life sciences? Or do members of the Church Scientific believe that it was the hand of Nature that caused the first pioneers of modern science to be physicists and caused them to be followed by biologists and finally by psychologists?

o The materialists’ belief—that the entire universe, as it exists independently of the human mind, consists solely of physical entities—entails a wild leap of anthropocentric faith. They are avowing that reality, as it exists independently of human concepts, fits neatly within the human, conceptual construct of “physical,” as we define this term in the twenty-first century. This is an expression of blind faith in something that can never be verified or even put to the test of experience. If the term ‘metaphysical’ denotes ‘the transcendent, or a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses,’ then the physical world as it exists independent of all systems of measurement is metaphysical and therefore ‘supernatural.’

The gist of [John Wheeler, Stephen Hawking, and Thomas Hertog’s] theory is that there is no absolutely objective history of the universe as it exists independently of all systems of measurement and conceptual modes of inquiry. Rather, there are many possible histories, among which scientists select one or more based on their specific methods of inquiry. If we apply this insight from contemporary physics, we are led to a remarkable conclusion, similar to Ludwig Feuerbach’s projection view of Christian doctrine. In essence, quantum cosmology can be interpreted to imply that the current scientific, materialistic view of the origins and evolution of the universe is a projection of the origins and evolution of modern science over the past four hundred years. This may be called the “true or anthropological essence of scientific materialism.” It points to a “false or materialistic essence of scientific materialism,” namely, the view of Nature, as we experience it and conceive of it, as having an existence separate from and independent of humanity. We alienate ourselves when we project human history onto the physical universe, and the very act of attributing human qualities to the brain alone necessarily withdraws these same qualities from the human species. Materialists unconsciously project their desire for meaning and immortality onto the universe, giving the name “Nature” to what they themselves have projected. History repeats itself, from one Church to another.

Ajahn Poh, an account by Andrea Capellai: “Ajahn Poh, ex-abbot of Wat Suan Mokkh in Suratthani and present abbot of Wat Dipabavan of Kho Samui, is the

closest disciple of Ajahn Buddhadasa, and I attended several retreats where he meditated with us and gave instructions. He is 82 years old but as agile and supple as a 30-year-old person. He enters meditative equipoise in less than 3minutes and sits in meditation, not moving and without signs of discomfort for hours. He explains the nimitta and form and formless realm states of mind from direct experience. He surely achieved shamatha long ago.

He uses the breath as his object of meditation, and he’s pretty much in line with Ajahn Buddhadasa’s instruction. A lot of teachers in Thailand and in Burma tend not to be so strict about developing nimitta, saying that it could be a stage you might not need to reach before going into the remaining three applications of mindfulness. You can sense their uncertainty regarding the possibility of achieving that stage. In contrast, Ajahn Poh has a natural confidence about reaching nimitta and a sense of ease in understanding the “symptoms” indicating a certain person’s stage, getting into very detailed explanations on how to reach different levels. Moreover, he gets into exceptionally detailed explanations of the form and formless realm consciousness perspectives, clairvoyance, or the Divine Eye, which reminded me a lot of my studies of the “Concentration and Form” section of Abhisamaya or Abhidharma. Moreover when he explains the view of reality naturally rising from the close attendance of the 5 skandhas, he goes again into a very natural, spontaneous, clear, detailed account of how ALL phenomena appear to the perceiving mind due to a mere mental labeling process and that the mind itself disappears when ultimately analyzed. Again, he explains the resulting perspective of the pure mind in a way very similar to Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings.

There are no remaining western Sangha from the students of Ajhan Buddhadasa (who died in 1993), and when Ajhan Poh took over as abbot of Wat Suan Mokkh, all of them had already left. He’s very highly respected among the Thai Forest Sangha, but nowadays all of the westerners following the Forest Tradition are related to Ajahn Chah’s tradition.”

The Buddha’s description of the universe appears to be fundamentally incompatible with that of mainstream physics and astronomy.

o For example, in the Anguttara Nikāya 3:80 (Numerical Discourses pp. 313–14), the Buddha gives a description of the universe in which there is no mention that the moon is particular to planet earth and that other planets have their own moons. It assumes that each “world system,” which may be equivalent to a planet inhabited by sentient beings has one sun and one moon. Each world system has Mount Sineru at its center, surrounded by the same four continents described by the Buddha in the fifth century BCE. Buddhist tradition and modern astronomy both present the universe as vast in time and space, with countless planets, or “world systems” capable of supporting living, conscious organisms. But the differences between the detailed descriptions of planets are obvious.

o A second area of incongruity between Buddhism and science has to do with the causes of natural phenomena. To take just one example, in the Samyutta Nikāya one finds the question asked, ”Why does the weather become warm, why does it become cold, why are there storms, why does

it become windy, why does it rain?” The Buddha answers that these phenomena are each caused by a particular class of devas (see Connected Discourses pp. 1028–29). This answer could hardly be more different than the explanations presented by modern meteorology.

o A third area of incompatibility between Buddhist and scientific descriptions of the physical world has to do with history of our world and other worlds as explained in discourses attributed to the Buddha.The early canonical texts speak of past buddhas, three of whom are said to have lived in northern India in the very same region where Gotama lived and taught. Their lifespans were remarkably long. Kakusandha had a lifespan of 40,000 years, Konāgamana of 30,000 years, and Kassapa of 20,000 years. Our Buddha, Gotama, who volunteered to appear in our world at a time of spiritual degeneration, lived for only 80 years. For the clearest statement of this, see Dīgha Nikāya sutta no. 14 (Long Discourses pp. 199–200). In stark contrast to all such Buddhist accounts, contemporary archaeology, anthropology, and paleontology give us a remarkably precise and accurate account of the history of humankind and human civilizations, and one conclusion we can draw from their investigations, with near certainty, is that there were never any advanced Buddhist civilizations in India preceding Gotama Buddha. And there is certainly no scientific basis to support the hypothesis that humans in earlier civilizations had lifespans of up to 40,000 years.

o Moreover, evolutionary biologists claim that if the earth were to start off from the same initial conditions with which it actually started, but was subjected to different influences such as bombardment by cosmic rays and the choices made by evolving organisms, the evolution of life on earth would probably have been completely different from the course it took. Given different circumstances over the course of biological evolution on our planet, if intelligent beings were to emerge they would be utterly different from human beings as we have evolved to this day.

o Buddha: “Whatever the Tathāgata says is just so and not otherwise” (Anguttara 4:23), and “Whatever is seen, heard, sensed, and cognized, all that I know, all that I have directly known” (Anguttara 4:24). This means that when he made such statements about past buddhas and their lifetimes, he was doing so on the basis of direct experience—his own direct experience—most likely in advanced states of meditative consciousness.

The teachings of Shambhala, a pure land on this earth, but invisible to those with impure vision.

The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava by Yeshe Tsogyal (Author), Erik Pema Kunsang (Translator)

The Vajra Essence: “Only those who have stored vast collections of merit in many ways, over incalculable eons, will encounter this path. They will have aspired repeatedly and extensively to reach the state of perfect enlightenment, and they will have previously sought the path through other yānas, establishing propensities to reach this path. No others will encounter it. Why not? Although people lacking such fortune may be present where this yāna is being explained

and heard, because they are under the influence of their negative deeds and the strength of the powerful, devious māras of mental afflictions, their minds will be in a wilderness five hundred yojanas away.”

Psychologist Jerome Bruner: “Perception is to some unspecifiable degree an instrument of the world as we have structured it by our expectancies. Moreover, it is characteristic of complex perceptual processes that they tend where possible to assimilate whatever is seen or heard to what is expected.80

Cognitive scientist J. M. Wilding: “We conclude that the appropriate description for a given input is highly dependent on the way the perceiver chooses to process it, which may vary qualitatively in the way information is interpreted and the degree to which information in memory is tapped, and quantitatively in the number of features extracted from the stimulus and from information in memory associated with it.”81

Einstein commented to Heisenberg: “But on principle, it is quite wrong to try founding a theory on observable magnitudes alone. In reality the very opposite happens. It is the theory which decides what we can observe.”82

Niels Bohr: “As our knowledge becomes wider, we must always be prepared, therefore, to expect alterations in the points of view best suited for the ordering of our experience. In this connection we must remember, above all, that, as a matter of course, all new experience makes its appearance within the frame of our customary points of view and forms of perception.”83

Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887 – 1985): 84

o In the transcendent state, the dualism between subject and object disappears, so that one experiences a sense of unity with whatever is experienced in that state. One’s own sense of personal identity dissolves into a sense of space without the presence of any subject-object distinctions. He experienced a sense of depth, abstraction, and great universality in the thoughts that arose while in that state, beyond which there was an “impenetrable Darkness,” which he knew to be the “essence of Light.”85 The lingering effects of this realization were a profound sense of contentment and serenity in the face of adversity, joy, and benevolence.86

o His compassionate motivation led to an unexpected second Realization that resolved the tension between nondual consciousness and the phenomenal world. This realization resulted in a sense of perfect

80 Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press, 1986), 46.81 Perception From Sense to Object (London: Hutchison, 1982), 100.82 Cited in Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations

(New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 63.83 Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (London: Cambridge University Press,

1961), 1.84 http://www.merrell-wolff.org/biography85 Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Experience and Philosophy

(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2003), 265.86 Ibid. 269.

equilibrium between relative and ultimate levels of consciousness, without his being attached to either one. In this state of pristine awareness he no longer valued transcendent, nondual awareness over the experience of the phenomenal world, for he recognized that ultimately there was no difference between the two. Wolff called this realization “High Indifference,” in which he experienced a complete resolution of tension between all opposites... This entailed the complete transcendence of all distinctions, including the distinction between the transcendent and the relative. At this point he had relinquished all sense of personal identity, in terms of a lower sense of an ego as well as the highest sense of a transcendent Self.

o During this awakening, which lasted several hours, Wolff felt a sense of identity with both a primordial “unlimited and abstract Space,” as well as a “subject-object and self-analyzing consciousness” that had a “sort of point-presence within that Space.”87 This entailed a shift of consciousness away from individual identity toward a ground of consciousness that gives rise to the manifested world. Here he identified with a universal substrate in which he felt he knew the objects of the world through having become one with them, and this brought with it an extraordinary state of bliss.

Jakob Böhme (1575-1624) had a number of mystical experiences throughout his youth, culminating in a vision in 1600 as one day he focused his attention onto the exquisite beauty of a beam of sunlight reflected in a pewter dish.88

o “If you want to know about Heaven and what Heaven is and where it is, you do not need to cast your thoughts many thousands of miles off, for that place, that heaven thousands of miles away, is not your Heaven. The true Heaven is not a created place but an uncreated place, and it is not found in a particular place but everywhere, even in the very place where you are standing and going. For when your spirit within yourself is able to penetrate inward through and beyond your own flesh and life, and is able to catch hold of the innermost moving of God, then you are clearly in Heaven. Moreover, if your eyes were but opened, you should see God everywhere in His Heaven, for Heaven is found everywhere.”

o “Moreover, this unity is found throughout the universe, for all that there is both here and throughout the universe is, in essence, one Person manifesting Himself. This seemingly outward universe is nothing more than the Godhead playing the joyous melody of His life through His creative instruments which are all of the varied physical forms found throughout the universe, especially the form known as man which He always intended to be His highest song of praise to His eternal and uncreated glory! So you see that wherever you are in this world, you are in Heaven.”

o “And so little children, if you now want and desire to draw near by faith to the Life of God, Listen! You must enter inward to the depths within

87 Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Franklin Merrell-Wolff’s Experience and Philosophy (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2003), 284.

88 http://www.jacobboehmeonline.com/quotes

yourselves wherein Christ dwells — not without. For within you there exists an eternity, even as there is an eternity within Him. So you must go in to the depths of the hidden secret place within you, to the very depths of the abyss of the Eternal Willing in the Father, which is God's Desire and the source of all things.”

Taking the Bodhisattva vow (Chapter three of Śāntideva:)o 22-23. Just as the Sugatas of old adopted bodhicitta, and just as they

authentically conformed to the practice of the Bodhisattvas, so shall I, too, generate bodhicitta for the sake of the world and engage in those practices.

o 24-26. Having joyfully adopted bodhicitta, in order to apply and increase it, an intelligent person should inspire this mind like this: “Now my life is fruitful. Human existence is well obtained. Today I have been born into the family of the buddhas. Now I am a Child of the Buddha. Now, by every means, I shall behave in accordance with this family, without ever contaminating this flawless, noble heritage.”

Buddha: “Just as in the last month of the hot season, when a mass of dust and dirt has swirled up, a great rain cloud out of season disperses it and quells it on the spot, so too concentration by mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, is peaceful, sublime, an ambrosial dwelling, and it disperses and quells on the spot unwholesome states whenever they arise.”

Düdjom Lingpa from The Essence of Clear Meaning: A Short Commentary on the Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra: "Whether or not people have identified pristine awareness within themselves, those who become muddled due to distraction and sloth should first mount their discursive mind, which is like a cripple, onto their breath, which is like a blind, wild stallion. By tethering it with meditative experience and sustained attention so that they can meditate uninterruptedly, eventually all coarse and subtle obsessive thoughts will seem to be purified—and uncontrived, primordially present consciousness will manifest. When one alights upon the great nonmeditation of pristine awareness, it is easy for the guru’s introduction to pristine awareness to strike home." 

A Parable from Karma Chagme’s Naked Awareness: “These are the profound practical instructions of Avalokiteśvara. This is an

introduction to parables in conjunction with their meanings for the purpose of identifying your own mind-itself as the dharmakāya.

While giving the complete, combined empowerments and teachings on all the secret peaceful and wrathful deities, Orgyan Rinpoche [Padmasambhava] taught the following [parable]: It is said that long ago in Go Phodrang Phardey in the land of India, in the center of the region of Orgyan, there was a structure built of precious substances, with five doors and inexhaustible wealth, a palace wherein dwelled King Ākāśagarbha. With 84,000 districts, he ruled over many subjects. His queen was named Vimalaprabhinimanojñā and his son, Prince Kiraṇa, had not come into his strength and was foolish. [611] His wise minister was named Suryanaśim. In short, he possessed a splendid entourage, realm, subjects, and wealth.

Once near the King’s palace there was a great festival held in a marketplace, and Prince Kiraṇa, together with his entourage, went to see the

show. The prince went to watch the various spectacles displayed by an illusionist, and he was carried away by them. After getting separated from his companions, he became confused about the way back to the palace and lost his way. The prince wandered by foot in lands of people of more than one race and became a vagrant. He forgot his homeland and wandered from the gates of one city to another, eating beggars’ food [612] and wearing beggars’ rags. Living in the company of foolish derelicts, he found nowhere to sleep but on doorsteps and experienced great misery.

Many months and years went by, and the kingdom, having lost its princely heir, was on the verge of collapse; and there was fear that the royal line of King Ākāśagarbha had come to an end. At that time, the young beggar-prince, in roving about among all the city-states, happened to arrive at the door of the wise minister Suryanaśim. The minister, recognizing him as the prince, exclaimed, “Oh, our prince who was previously lost has returned! You need not beg. Come to the palace!” and he began to lead him there.

The beggar-prince replied, “I’m no prince. When I search my memory, I recall being only a vagrant. You may bring me to the palace, but I’m not fit to be king. So I shall not go.”

The minister replied, “As a young, foolish prince, not come into your strength, you went to watch an illusionist’s show in the marketplace. Getting caught up in the spectacle, you left the domain of the palace and went wandering. Now, even though you live as a vagabond, you [613] are indeed the prince. So you will be given the seat of royalty. If you persist in your doubts about being the prince, I ask you: What was your original homeland? What was the palace? What was the city? What was your home? What was your class? Who was your father? Who was your mother? Who were your companions? What was your occupation?”

The beggar found he had nothing to say, and he was stunned. “Well then,” he requested, “Tell me in detail about all these things and grant them to me.”

The minister gave names to the realities and pointed out his homeland; and he likewise told the prince everything about his district, palace, city, home, sleeping quarters, family, and parents. The wise brahmin then bathed the prince, took him outside, placed him on the throne, and established him in the palace. There he was crowned, with the diadem placed upon his head, and clothed in royal garb. All at once he was offered the wealth of his domain, a coronation ceremony was held, and he was given the kingdom and the royal palace. He became like his father. In an instant, even though he did not discard his identity as a beggar, he did no longer lived in the manner of a beggar. The misery of being a vagrant disappeared by itself, and the kingdom and [614] all his subjects without exception came under his rule. And they lived in great joy and happiness.”89

89 It is especially important to note that the prince did not have to lose his identity as a beggar, or have to continue living as a beggar.