SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA

Pith Instructions on Mah›mudr›

by Ju Mipham Rinpoché

Stillness, Movement, and Awareness 1192

f you are able to make the very triad of Mah›mudr›’s still-ness, movement, and awareness a living experience, theessential point of gradually seeing the reality of the nature ofphenomena relies on the existence of the nature of the mind,

the [Buddha-]Heart, and on striking its core through the pith instruc-tions. Thus, since the true nature of all phenomena comes down to beingthe mind, when you search for the pith of your own mind, you will under-stand mind’s secret and thus become an expert in all dharmas and realizethe actuality of identitylessness.

Hence, cast away the many analyses through reasoning here. Rather, astaught in the pith instructions of those with realization, turn inward andlook at your own mind. At that time, if it abides without straying any-where, it is called “stillness.” The proliferation of all kinds of thoughts iscalled “movement.” No matter which one of these two occurs, while minditself is being aware of itself, it is called “awareness.”

By continuously sustaining it in this way, you will realize for yourselfthe essential point that all the various appearances of happiness and suf-fering emerge from your mind and dissolve back into it. Once you real-ize that, the recognition of all phenomena being mind’s own appearanceswill come to you. Then, through directly looking at the nature of thatmind which is still or moves, you will realize that it is empty in that anypossible essence of whatever appears in whatever ways is not established.You will further realize that this “being empty” is not being empty in thesense of extinction, as in [empty] space, but that it is the emptinessendowed with the supreme of all aspects: while its aspect of luminositythat knows everything and is aware of everything is unimpeded, it is not

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established as any nature whatsoever. When you realize this secret pith ofthe mind, despite there being no looker that is different from somethingto be looked at, the fundamental state of naturally luminous mind as suchis experienced. This is called “recognizing awareness.”

It is also what is to be pointed out in Mah›mudr› and Dzogchen. Ifyou are able to sustain it, the [basic nature] will dawn. This is the mean-ing of the following statements by Saraha [in his Treasury of Doh›]:

While you keep looking and looking at the nature of spaceThat is primordially pure, seeing will cease.1193

and the Mother:

The mind is no-mind. The nature of the mind is luminosity.1194

There is nothing easier than this. It is crucial to make it a living experience.

[This was written] by Mipham.

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Pointing Out Instructions

by Künkyen Dashi Öser

ünkyen Dashi Öser1186 (1836-1910) was a great scholar andmeditation master who served as the abbot of the monaster-ies of Baljor1187 and Palpung,1188 the latter being the main seatof the Tai Situpas. As a disciple of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö

Tayé (1813-1899), Jamyang Kyentsé Wangbo (1820-1892), and Dza PatrulRinpoché (1808-1887), he was greatly involved in the nonsectarian Rimémovement in eastern Tibet. Dashi Öser is also credited with bringingback the second Jamgön Kongtrul, Kyentsé Öser1189 (1904-1953), who hadreincarnated as the son of the Fifteenth Karmapa, Kakyab Dorje1190 (1871-1922), from the latter’s seat in Tsurpu to his monastery of Palpung. AfterDashi Öser had finished the reading transmission of the entire Kangyur(the Tibetan canon of the Buddha’s words) upon the invitation of the Fif-teenth Karmapa at Tsurpu in 1907, the Karmapa said that he would fulfillany wish of his, so he asked for the permission to take the Karmapa’s sonback to Palpung, which Kakyab Dorje granted.

Stillness, Movement, and Awareness 1191

Namo Gurave

The root of all of cyclic existence, nirv›˚a, confusion, and liberation is themind. If you analyze the characteristics of that mind by making yourrounds on the inside, there is nothing beyond the triad of stillness, move-ment, and awareness. Therefore, these need to be identified. As for themeans to [accomplish] that, when mind rests naturally settled withoutany thoughts at all stirring in it, it is called “stillness.” If you analyze thisnaming of [resting mind] as “stillness,” it is empty without any identi -

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fiable essence whatsoever. From within the sphere or the emptiness of thevery equipoise of undistractedly sustaining this state, due to the condi-tions of seeing or hearing outer objects, such as forms and sounds, erraticgood and bad thoughts arise all of a sudden. This is called “movement.”

Not recognizing their own face, but letting them run wild, one thoughtleads to many kinds of [other] thoughts. If you fall into letting this con-tinue, you wander around in confusion. Through directly looking at theface of whatever thought that comes up at the very start [of a potentialtrain of thought], without being able to stand its own ground, just like arainbow fading away in space, this thought vanishes into emptiness. Sinceyou arrive at such within the previous experience of stillness, if youbecome familiar with it, the stream of confusion is severed throughthoughts coming to rest on their own and vanishing on their own. Hence,if you know how to sustain this, even if you regard movement as a flawand [try to] stop it, you need neither stop it nor [apply] any other rem-edy for the movement of thoughts. Rather, by sustaining the state of real-izing their own essence, you realize the essential point that all the variousappearances of happiness and suffering emerge from the mind and dis-solve back into the mind. Through this, you realize the essential point thatall of cyclic existence and nirv›˚a is produced by the mind, the mind rest-ing naturally settled without being affected by thoughts about the threetimes.

By looking undistractedly at the own face of the arisen experience ofthe essence of uncontrived emptiness-luminosity and thus familiarizingwith it, though [mind] is still, it does not fall into ordinary dullness andsluggishness. Through the essential point of not being carried away by thedistractions of confused thoughts even when [mind] moves, you see theactuality that both stillness and moving are emptiness in which there areno distinctions as to them being something good or bad, or to be stoppedor accomplished. This [seeing] is “awareness.”

If you seize your own ground by sustaining this state of ordinary mindjust as it actually is throughout meditative equipoise and subsequentattainment, the experience of one-pointed meditation has arisen. Initially,in order to easily recognize the nature of the mind, it is given the threenames of “stillness,” “movement,” and “awareness.” However, ultimately,there is nothing to be realized other than just this single mind. Therefore,if you count the six syllables of the consummate speech of the supreme

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noble being, the Great Compassionate One, within the state of not los-ing the innate ground of stillness and movement not being two, that is,naked emptiness-luminosity just as it is, you meet the AvalokiteŸvara ofthe definitive meaning. This is what the lord of dharma Patrul Rinpochésaid.

As the aids to this practice, renunciation toward cyclic existence, [prop-erly] adopting and rejecting cause and result, being urged on by imper-manence, taking refuge, generating the mind [of enlightenment],hundreds of thousands of the hundred-syllable [mantra of Vajrasattva],ma˚˜alas, and prostrations, and especially compassion and the devotionof the guru yoga are crucial.

[This was written] by Maºgala, the Omniscient Dashi Öser.

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