Now, constraints are dispelled within the spacious state of enlightened intent that is the true nature of phenomena. To begin with, without interfering with the way the dynamic energy and display of awareness arise, you dispel constraints within the unique state of equalness and purity, beyond ordinary consciousness. If you are not distracted from the essence of awareness, as the unity of emptiness and lucidity — there is no problem, even if its dynamic energy expresses itself without restriction. This is illustrated by the fact that as long as a crystal remains in place, there is nothing contradictory about a five-colored light scattering from it in all directions.
It is not as though you hold your consciousness, which arises without restriction, within a single context. Rather, you ensure a simple, unobstructed state, in which you are not distracted from bare awareness — the ground from which consciousness arises. Well, you might think: “Wouldn’t one be distracted by allowing proliferating thoughts to scatter however they will?” But here, distraction is not possible. As subtle energy moves outward, awareness remains focused within. And as its radiance turns back inward, its dynamic energy is freed as it is absorbed into the ground of being. Because it is never separate from the unified sphere that is the bare essence of awareness.
(ཀུན་སྐྱོང་རྒྱལ་པོ་) The All-Creating Monarch states, “Given the oneness within the basic space of phenomena, there is nothing to traverse. Given intimate contact with the meaning of the heart-essence, there is no distraction. Given the unified sphere of being, thoughts do not proliferate anywhere.”
Even though you may meditate day and night with a one-pointed mind, if you are fixated on, or attached to, meditative experiences of bliss, clarity or non-conceptual awareness, your meditation will be identical to the meditative stability of the gods, and will not be able to lift you the slightest bit farther out of संसार (Samsāra) .
Even though meditative absorption may be thoroughly stabilized, if one indulges in overt fixation on it, one is said to be on the level of a fool’s entertainment. This will not lead to actual निर्वाण (Nirvāṇa) .
When Yogins come to a realization of bare awareness, even though, due to its dynamic energy, they are conscious of sense objects, this energy does not fall outside the scope of its essence — the true nature of phenomena. And so they have not strayed from the spontaneously present enlightened intent of Dharmakaya.
(ཀུན་སྐྱོང་རྒྱལ་པོ་) The All-Creating Monarch states, “Given the view that concepts are free in their own place, when one rests naturally, and without distraction — there is nothing to do, or to seek. Everything, moreover, occurs naturally and is free in its own place.”
Let me summarize the significant points here:
Even though deliberately contrived view in meditation, involving a framework — you should understand that they are in the realm of ordinary characteristics.
As for what is completely ordinary and uncontrived, you should understand that consciousness failing to realize awareness in its bare state and being lost in response to sense-objects, is the thinking-process in संसार (Samsāra) .
When the distortions of hope and fear do not intrude on the state of unobstructed awareness, all the sharp edges of concepts are worn away. You should understand that if there is no distraction from the context of that realization, there is a non-dual state which is the enlightened intent of the victorious ones.
The same tantra states, “Ah, the essence of the teacher is (ཀུན་སྐྱོང་རྒྱལ་པོ་) The All-Creating Monarch, while the true nature of phenomena entails no meditation or ordinary thinking. To abide in some vague state, without thinking, is संसार (Samsāra) , pure and simple. To seek something, and meditate on it, is the path of concepts and characteristics. Therefore The All-Creating One does not proclaim that freedom lies in abiding in meditative absorption that involves hope and fear. When realization severs the bonds of these two, one abides in the meaning of equalness — the absence of opposites. And so the enlightened intent of me, The All-Creating One, is spontaneously accomplished.” Thus the pith instruction is to focus one’s undistracted attention on The Heart Essence, which cannot be cultivated in meditation.
Having dispelled constraints, within the essence of enlightened intent, which is beyond ordinary consciousness, you can embrace that intent as the transcendence of the proliferation and resolution of thought and recollection.
Since the essence of awareness is free of the limitations imposed by elaboration, it is crucial that the spiritual path of Yogins who desire enlightenment not deviate from that essence, because the fruition will not be attained if the ground and path are at cross-purposes.
Therefore, there can be no deliberate process of meditation using some reference point. There is simply no straying from the naturally pure state, the realization of bare awareness. This is the enlightened intent of naturally occuring timeless awareness. It is free as the supreme state of total perfection in which nothing is rejected.
The Great Garuda states, “Responsiveness, which by nature expresses itself continuously in sense-objects, is free… In that these empty objects rest in their natural state, without being analyzed. The very absence of extremes purifies the avenues to rebirth in higher realms.”
Having proclaimed the enlightened intent of The All-Creating One, one should further proclaim that there is nothing to cultivate in meditation or to engage in, only attention to and familiarization with the expanse of realization.
The unobstructed essence of awareness, the unique sphere of being, it is unique Dharmakaya. From the standpoint of its being free of the limitations imposed by elaboration, it is great perfection. The view, free of limitation. Within the context of your realizing this same essence to be your own true nature, your consciousness is limpid and non-conceptual, with no proliferation or resolution of thoughts, no coming or going. And so this is the unique state of utterly lucid meditation.
Since this essence does not involve the duality of acceptance and rejection, one of its qualities is that acceptance and rejection are naturally cleared away. This is the unique state of non-dual conduct. And since संसार (Samsāra) and निर्वाण (Nirvāṇa) do not exist within this essence, there is no renunciation or attainment, no hope or fear. And so this is the unique fruition state.
The Perfect Dynamic Energy of the Lion states, “Conduct is beyond the dualities of reifying attachment. Meditation is beyond the duality of discarding and adopting. View is beyond extremes and bias. Fruition is beyond the dualistic extremes of renunciation and attainment. Since everything is free of constraints within naturally occuring timeless awareness, it is embraced as the supremely spacious uniform ground. When myriad dream images manifest, even though months and years, even eons seem to pass, none of them has ever existed — for they simply manifest as they do, without straying from self-knowing awareness as their place of rest. Similarly, you should understand that even though everything seems to manifest at present, as the universe of appearances and possibilities, whether of संसार (Samsāra) or निर्वाण (Nirvāṇa) , and to endure for a long time, none of it strays from the basic space that is its essence. And so, it is without transition or change within this primordial state. Free of any substance, they are natural expressions of emptiness.”
Now, there are some major criteria for making distinctions in order to dispel the limitations imposed by conceptual doubts. One such clear distinction to be made concerns resting within naturally occuring enlightened intent as the method for purifying संसार (Samsāra) — that is, perceptions based on confusion. The essence of self-knowing awareness is not reified as an object, and even though it manifests as a display, that display is not reified, and so awareness is not sullied by external sensory appearances. Inwardly, you do not reify what arises within mind, due to its dynamic energy — and so it is emptied of कर्म (Karma) and afflictive emotions. There is nothing that could cause you to take rebirth in संसार (Samsāra) or fall into confusion, and so you are freed from the reification of mind and sensory appearances. The stronghold of dualistic perception crumbles, awareness becomes fully evident as an unobstructed state, devoid of confused perception and reification. Then you are said to have arrived at the point of resolution, to have reached the pure realm of Samantabhadra… to have gained the most majestic ongoing state of authentic being, Dharmakaya.
When you experience awareness free of ordinary mind, implicitly it is also free of ordinary mind’s confused perception, so there is no place to go, only the unique state of Buddhahood. This is because the essence that is Buddhahood, being free of anything that could obscure it, becomes fully evident. When awareness is involved with ordinary mind, we speak of an ordinary being. And when it is free of ordinary mind, we speak of The Buddha .
The Pearl Garland states, “Wise people should know the distinction between ordinary mind and timeless awareness. Ordinary mind is the ground of all habitual patterns. It is the distortion common to ordinary beings. It is the reification of objects and mind. Therefore, it is the very nature of संसार (Samsāra). If there is freedom from ordinary mind, that is awakening to Buddhahood— the distortions common to all ordinary beings have been exhausted. Beings are driven by ordinary mind, for without it, they would not go on being driven… Therefore beings appear as if in a magic show.”
Due to the ordinary mind that reifies things, perceived objects — though they lack true existence — appear clearly manifesting in five ways: as forms, sounds, odors, tastes and tactile sensations. Due to the ordinary mind that reifies itself, कर्म (Karma) and its inevitable consequences, as well as afflictive emotions, manifest in countless ways. संसार (Samsāra), the reification of objects, when none exists, and the reification of mind, when none exists — manifests to ordinary beings like a dream, due to the arising of the expressions of dualistic mind.
By their very nature, ignorant and spiritually undeveloped people try persistently to tie space into knots. They reify their perceptions of sense-objects, even though these objects do not exist. Though nothing exists as self or other, out of confusion they reify things as self or other. Thus, forging the spiritual path with unique timeless awareness, awareness in which ordinary mind does not exist, is the key point for ensuring the attainment of Dharmakaya— free of ordinary mind, in this lifetime. Forging the path with ordinary mind entails other approaches that do not transcend the state of ordinary beings and afford no opportunity to attain Buddhahood.
You may ask, “Doesn’t one forge the path with what arises continuously in the mind?” That is, with an aspect of responsiveness, the simultaneous arising and freeing of thoughts? Though you are in fact forging the path with an aspect of responsiveness, here, this refers to bare awareness, the ground for the arising of thoughts, not wavering from its natural place of rest. You absolutely do not forge the path from the perspective of thoughts. That is, with what has already arisen in the mind, due to the dynamic energy of responsiveness. I have already explained again and again that when you rest in the essence of awareness, you let go of ordinary mind, so that it vanishes naturally.
Therefore, understand that ordinary confused mind is a confined space. It is rooted in the non-recognition of awareness. It reifies sense-objects as having identity, and is unable to stay in one place without being caught up in sense-objects. And so forge the path with unconstructive, non-conceptual timeless awareness, free of ordinary consciousness that engages in thinking in terms of identity.
The Perfect Dynamic Energy of the Lion states, “Such duality occurs in the minds of ordinary beings… as for the perceptions of ordinary mind and the non-recognition of awareness, they are reinforced by the reification of sense objects, when none-exist. As for the perspective of awareness, timeless awareness, it is free of concepts, which invest things with identity. There is no hope that something is, and doubts vanish that something is not.”
This key point alone is understood to be extremely important. Though there is freedom from ordinary mind, from conceptual mind, from ordinary consciousness — still, the experience of meditative absorption is not forsaken. This is the inconceivable secret of enlightened mind, of those who have gone to suchness.
Awareness abiding in its natural state of rest has the quality of being naked, unobstructed awareness. This can be differentiated from a one-pointed state of calm-abiding, the quality of abiding without thoughts proliferating. As you become familiar with that state of awareness, the कर्म (Karma) and habitual patterns that perpetuate rebirth fall-away by virtue of the cessation of ordinary mind. Your present familiarity with awareness, free of ordinary mind, also makes Dharmakaya, which is also free of ordinary mind, fully evident.
All moments in which you experience awareness, free of ordinary mind, are identical, in that awareness does not stray from the ground of being, and so the auspicious circumstances for the fruition becoming fully evident, arise as you extend the flow of awareness, moment by moment…