Mahamudra and Dzogchen: Thought-Free Wakefulness

By Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche

The ability to dissolve thoughts is essential to attaining
liberation, says renowned Dzogchen teacher Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche.
Devotion and Pure Perception are two principles that lie at the root of
Vajrayana practice that lead beyond confusion to thought-free
wakefulness.

Meditation training, in the sense of sustaining the nature of mind, is
a way of being free from clinging and the conceptual attitude of forming
thoughts, and therefore free from the causes of samsara: karma and
disturbing emotions. Please do not believe that liberation and samsara is
somewhere over there: it is here, in oneself. Thought is samsara. Being
free of thought is liberation. When we are free of thinking, we are free
of thought. The problem is that the causes for further samsara are being
created continuously. We spin through the six realms and undergo a lot of
suffering.
Compared to the other life forms in samsara, we human beings do not
suffer that much. We don't experience the unbearable, overwhelming suffering
that countless other beings do. But for some humans, their mental or
physical pain may be unbearable. If we continue to allow our ordinary
thinking to run wild, we cannot predict what is lined up for us in the
future, where we will end up, in what shape or form.
The bottom line is this: we need to know how to dissolve thoughts.
Ego-clinging is simply a thought. Clinging to the notion of self is a
thought. Clinging to the notion of other is also a thought. Clinging to
duality is a thought. The concept of good is a thought, and the concept of
evil is a thought. A neutral concept is also a thought. Whenever there is
thought, it follows that there is clinging. The attitude of clinging follows
the tracks of the three poisons—passion, aggression and ignorance. Since the
formation of thought involves the three poisons, that means that thinking
causes samsara, the endless suffering of cyclic existence. Whenever there is
involvement in thought, our experience will be samsaric. Deluded thinking
is the root of samsara .

Deluded thinking forms karma and disturbing emotions. When there is
thinking, there are the acts of accepting and rejecting, of pleasure and of
pain. The circumstances may be external, but the thinker is this mind
within. Beauty and ugliness appear to belong to external objects. However,
that which creates the beauty or the ugliness is actually the forming of a
concept in this mind, here. Also, the liking and the disliking of what is
considered beautiful or ugly are actions taken by this mind. The
circumstance is the sense object, but the main factor is our mind.
In order for all six classes of beings [gods, asuras, humans, animals,
pretas and hell beings] to be totally free of the entirety of samsara, we
need to solve the problem of the thinking that forms the causes that propel
us around through the various realms. We understand that thinking is
delusion. However, to want to be free and at the same time to want to hang
on to conceptual thinking is a contradiction in terms. It is something that
will not happen. It is an impossible task.

If you want to attain liberation and omniscient enlightenment, you need
to be free of conceptual thinking. Meditation training, in the sense of
sustaining the nature of mind, is a way of being free from clinging and the
conceptual attitude of forming thoughts, and therefore free from the causes
of samsara: karma and disturbing emotions. Please do not believe that
liberation and samsara is somewhere over there: it is here, in oneself.
Thought is samsara. Being free of thought is liberation. When we are free of
thinking, we are free of thought. The problem is that the causes for further
samsara are being created continuously. We spin through the six realms and
undergo a lot of suffering.
Compared to the other life forms in samsara, we human beings do not
suffer that much. We don't experience the unbearable, overwhelming suffering
that countless other beings do. But for some humans, their mental or
physical pain may be unbearable. If we continue to allow our ordinary
thinking to run wild, we cannot predict what is lined up for us in the
future, where we will end up, in what shape or form.
The bottom line is this: we need to know how to dissolve thoughts.
Without knowing this, we cannot eliminate karma and disturbing emotions. And
therefore the karmic phenomena do not vanish; deluded experience does not
end. We understand also that one thought cannot undo another thought. The
only thing that can do this is thought-free wakefulness. This is not some
state that is far away from us: thought-free wakefulness actually exists
together with every thought, inseparable from it—but the thinking obscures
or hides this innate actuality. Thought-free wakefulness is immediately
present the very moment the thinking dissolves, the very moment it vanishes,
fades away, falls apart. Isn't this true?
The Buddha described in detail that we can have 84,000 different types of
emotions. In a condensed way, there are six root emotions and twenty
subsidiary ones. An even shorter categorization of thoughts is that of the
three poisons. Whatever the number of types of emotions or thoughts, the
Buddha taught how to eliminate all of these by giving 84,000 sections of the
dharma.
Perhaps you do not have the time to study and learn all these teachings,
or maybe you don't have the desire, the ability or the intelligence to do
so. In this case, the Buddha and the bodhisattvas very skillfully condensed
the teachings into a very concise form. This is called the tradition of pith
instructions that deals with overcoming all the disturbing emotions
simultaneously. The basic instruction here is to understand that all of
these emotions are merely thoughts. Even ego-clinging and dualistic fixation
is simply a thought. The pointing-out instruction given by a master to
qualified students shows how to dissolve the thought and how to recognize
the nature of the thinker, which is our innate thought-free wakefulness.
The root of confusion is thinking, but the essence of the thinking is
thought-free wakefulness. As often as possible, please compose yourselves in
the equanimity of thought-free wakefulness. It is said, "Samsara is
merely thought, so freedom from thought is liberation." Great masters
explain this in more detail, because simply being thoughtless is not
necessarily liberation in the sense of thought-free wakefulness. To be
unconscious, to faint, to be oblivious, is surely not liberation. If those
states were liberation, attainment would be swift since it is very easy to
be mindless. That would be a cheap liberation!

Simply suspend your thinking within the nonclinging state of wakefulness:
that is the correct view. One important point about the teachings on
mind essence is that they need to be simple and easy to train in.
Particularly in Mahamudra and Dzogchen practice, the view is said to be open
and carefree. The less you cling and grasp, the more open and free it is. It
is the nature of things. The less rigid our conceptual attitude is, the
freer the view.

The mind is empty, cognizant, united, unformed. Please make the
meanings of these words something that points at your own experience. You
can also say the mind is the "unformed unity of empty cognizance." These are
very precious and profound words. “Empty” means that essentially this mind
is something that is empty. This is easy to agree on: we cannot find it as a
thing. It is not made empty by anyone, including by us—it is just naturally
empty, originally so.
At the same time, we also have the ability to know, to cognize, which is
also something natural and unmade. These two qualities, being empty and
cognizant, are not separate entities. They are an indivisible unity. This
unity itself is also not something that is made by anyone. It is not a unity
of empty cognizance that at some point arose, remains for a while and later
will perish. Being unformed, it does not arise, does not dwell, and does not
cease. It is not made in time. It is not a material substance. Anything that
exists in time or substance is an object of thought. This unformed unity of
empty cognizance is not made of thought; it is not an object of thought.
Whenever there is an idea based in time or substance, its upkeep becomes
very complex; it takes a lot to sustain or maintain its validity. This
unformed basic nature, however, is very simple, not complicated at all. So
many complications are created based on concepts of time and substance—so
much hope and fear. Honestly, substance and time never did exist; they never
do exist, nor will they ever exist in the future, either. The
conceptualization of time and substance is the habit of the thinking mind.
Although right now time and substance do not exist, it seems to the thinking
mind as if they do.
Concerning substance, if you look around, it seems like everything is
solidly and precisely there. In the experience of a real yogi, time and
substance do not exist, of course. Even a scholar can, through intelligent
reasoning, feel convinced about this fact. When we think that which is not,
is, then, it seems to be. As perceived by a buddha, however, all the
experiences that samsaric beings have are no more substantial than dreams.
It all looks like dreaming.

At the very foundation of Vajrayana practice lie two principles:
devotion and pure perception. We should have devotion towards the
unmistaken natural state, in the sense of sincerely appreciating that
which is truly unmistaken, unconfused, never deluded. In reality, the
nature of all things is totally pure. Impurity occurs only due to
temporary concepts. That is the reason why one should train in pure
perception.
In this context, there are three levels of experience: the deluded
experience of sentient beings, the meditative experience of yogis, and the
pure experience of buddhas. Whenever there is dualistic mind, there is
deluded experience. The deluded experience of sentient beings is called
impure because it is involved with karma and disturbing emotions. In deluded
experience, there is the attempt to accept and reject; there is hope and
fear. Hope and fear are painful: that is suffering. Whenever there is
thinking, there is hope and fear. Whenever there is hope and fear, there is
suffering.
The meditative experience of a yogi is free of giving in to ordinary
thought. It is something other than being involved in normal thinking. We
can call it the state of shamatha or vipashyana or other
names, but basically it is unlike ordinary thinking. The meditative
experiences of a yogi are good and they become evident because of letting
mind settle in equanimity. The most famous of these meditative moods are
called bliss, clarity and nonthought. They occur during vipashyana
meditation, but they can arise even during shamatha practice. Through
meditation training, the mind becomes more clarified, more lucid. But if we
are not connected with a qualified master and if we do not know the right
methods of dealing with these meditative states, we may believe that we are
somehow incredibly realized beings. That becomes a hindrance; it can even
turn into a severe obstacle.
The Mahamudra path is presented as the twelve aspects of the four yogas.
These four yogas of Mahamudra constitute the path of liberation. The first
of these, one-pointedness, essentially means that you can remain
calmly undisturbed for as long as you want. The next yoga is simplicity,
and means to recognize your natural face as being ordinary mind, free from
basis and free from root: "Simplicity is rootless and baseless ordinary
mind." We need to develop the strength of this recognition; otherwise, we
are as helpless as a small child on a battlefield. We train by means of
mindfulness, first effortful, then effortless. We train in simplicity at
lesser, medium and higher levels, and then arrive at one taste, the
third of the four yogas of Mahamudra. One taste means that the duality of
experience dissolves, that all dualistic notions such as samsara and nirvana
dissolve into the state of nondual awareness.
Having perfected one taste through the levels of the lesser, medium and
higher stages, the fourth yoga is nonmeditation. This is the point at
which every type of conviction and the fixing of the attention on something
completely dissolves. All convictions and habitual tendencies have dissolved
and are left behind. One has captured the dharmakaya throne of nonmeditation.
In the beginning one needs to be convinced about how reality is: one
needs to have confidence in the view. Ultimately, however, any form of
conviction is still a subtle obscuration, still a hindrance. At the final
stage of nonmeditation, all types of habitual tendencies and convictions
need to be dissolved, left behind. There is nothing more to cultivate,
nothing more to reach. One has arrived at the end of the path. All that
needs to be purified has been purified. Karma, disturbing emotions and the
habitual tendencies have all been cleared up, so that nothing is left.
The path is necessary as long as we have not arrived. The moment we
arrive, however, the need for the road to get there has fallen away. As long
as we are not at our destination, then it is also necessary to have the
concept of path in order to get there. But once the destination has been
reached, once whatever needs to be cultivated has been cultivated and
whatever needs to be abandoned has been left behind, the whole need for path
is over. That is what is meant by nonmeditation, literally non-cultivation.
This is the dharmakaya [the formless body of ultimate reality, one of the
three bodies (kayas) of Buddha] throne of nonmeditation. In Dzogchen,
the exhaustion of all concepts and phenomena is the ultimate level of
experience. This is the state of complete enlightenment. Both these levels
of realization are equal to that of all buddhas.
At this point, for oneself, there is exclusively pure experience. At the
same time, other beings are still perceived, along with their impure,
deluded experiences. Take the example of the six classes of beings. When
their experiences are compared with each other, each being will feel that
his or her way of experiencing is more profound than the realm below. In
general, everyone thinks that what they experience is real. The difference
in the experiencing of the different realms is the difference in the density
of their karma and obscurations. The less dense the karma, the closer to
real experience. Compared to the ordinary samsaric sentient being, the
meditative experience of a yogi is more real, more pure. But compared to
that, the pure experience of a buddha is more real and more pure still.
We need to dissolve impure deluded experience. Deluded experience comes
from not knowing the nature of mind; it comes from unknowing, from being
ignorant of the natural state. When not knowing our nature, we are sentient
beings. Ignorance clears when knowing the natural state, the state of a
buddha. While not knowing, there is the forming of karma and disturbing
emotions. While knowing, karma and disturbing emotions are not formed. If,
in the very moment of knowing innate nature and sustaining the continuity of
that, you were to never stray again, then you would be a buddha.
Buddhist philosophy has many splendid words to describe what happens. The
Chittamatra, or Mind-Only school, presents a threefold classification
of reality as the imaginary, the dependent and the absolute. In the Dzogchen
teachings, ignorance is described as having three aspects: conceptual
ignorance, coemergent ignorance and the single-nature ignorance. These are
all very nice words. Basically, it is in the state of not knowing that
confusion can take place. Not knowing our own essence is confusion. The
essence of what thinks is dharmakaya. The thinking itself is not dharmakaya,
but the identity of that which thinks is dharmakaya. Thinking is thought.
Thinking is not the thought-free state. It is the identity of that which
thinks that is thought-free.
Whether we use the terms mind-essence, the primordially pure state of
cutting through, original coemergent wisdom, or the Great Middle Way of
definitive meaning, one point is true: at the moment of not being
involved in thought, you spontaneously have arrived at the true view,
automatically.

There are two ways to approach the view. One is through scriptural
statements and reasoning, and the other is through experience. The first way
is called "establishing the view through statement and reasoning." Although
we want to train in Mahamudra or Dzogchen, still, without some feeling of
certainty about the view obtained through studying and through our own
reasoning, it is not that easy to be sure.
It is sometimes possible to transmit or communicate the view without
using any scriptural statements, but this requires that a totally qualified
master possessing the nectar of learning, reflection and meditation meets
with a qualified disciple who is receptive. There are three types of
transmission. The first two, the mind transmission of buddhas and the
symbolic transmission of the knowledge-holders, are like that. Mind
transmission uses not even a single word or gesture, no sign. Yet, something
is communicated—the wisdom of realization is communicated and fully
recognized. Symbolic transmission uses no more than a word or sentence - no
explanations, just a gesture - to point out the wisdom of realization and
have it recognized. The third type is the hearing lineage, which uses a very
brief spoken teaching.
In these times we are in, most people would have a hard time if we were
only to use mind transmission, symbolic transmission or hearing transmission
with nothing else, no explanation. Explanation is generally necessary in
order to point out the natural state. There are two ways to do so. One of
these is the analytical approach of a scholar; the other is the resting
meditation of a simple meditator. There are some people who can trust a
master and be introduced to the natural state without using any lengthy
explanations. For other people, this is not enough. Then it is necessary to
use scriptural references and intelligent reasoning in order to establish
certainty in the view. But after arriving at the intellectual understanding
of the true view, the scholar still needs to receive the blessings of a
qualified master and to receive the pointing-out instruction from such a
master.
Do you have doubts about anything? Does anything need to be cleared up?

Student: Could you give a few more details about pure perception?
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche: To refrain from hurting others and to abandon the
basis for harm is the main precept of the Hinayana teachings. To help others
and to create the basis for benefit is the main precept for Mahayana.
Vajrayana is called the path of pure perception, taking sacred outlook as
the path. This is done on the foundation of the two previous precepts: the
attitude of wanting to avoid harming others, and of wanting to help them. In
addition to this, we train in pure perception, not only in a spiritual
context but also in any normal life situation in human society.
The Vajrayana statement to regard everything as pure could at first sound
strange, maybe even awkward. But examine very carefully and you will
discover that the very nature of everything is one of purity. Therefore, to
regard everything as pure is very reasonable. Pure perception is very close
to ultimate reality, to how things actually are. All sentient beings have an
enlightened essence, buddhanature. It is said that all beings are buddhas,
yet they are covered by temporary obscurations. Even though all beings are
veiled by obscuration, they are still in reality buddhas, and therefore, it
is perfectly all right to see all beings as perfectly pure.
The Hinayana precepts of refraining from hurting others are vital. The
Mahayana precept of the will to assist other beings is extremely important.
In addition to that, the Vajrayana training in pure perception is
tremendously profound. It is a training in recognizing and acknowledging the
natural purity of everything. Therefore, the Tibetan approach to Buddhism is
one in which the three vehicles are not separated, but are practiced in
combination.
We need to very carefully examine this principle of pure perception,
because seemingly things are not pure. On the seeming level, we can have
notions of something being pure or impure, but on the level of what really
is, everything is pure. The Vajrayana perspective of pure perception is that
everything, since the very beginning, is in actuality the three kayas of the
Buddha [nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya]. All movement of thought
is the play of original wakefulness. We discriminate and judge because of
not knowing this.
It is a mistake to hold the opinion that something which is actually pure
is impure. But to regard that which is pure as being pure is correct.
Compared to the attitude of regarding things as being permanent and
concrete, the attitude of regarding everything as being impermanent and
insubstantial is correct. To regard everything, all phenomena, as not only
being insubstantial and impermanent but as being completely pure is an even
higher view.

Student: With regard to pure perception, it seems easier to see oneself
as pure, doesn't it?
Rinpoche: Without pure perception, Vajrayana is very difficult. Vajrayana
is the swift path because through the power of trust and devotion it becomes
much easier to realize the nature of things.
Generally speaking, pure perception means appreciating that everyone has
the capacity to be enlightened, everyone has a nature that can be totally
revealed and perfected. Moreover, the five elements, the five aggregates,
the five poisons—all the different aspects of experience—are by nature
already pure. It is only because we see these in a confused way that they
appear as impure. In the pure experience of not forming concepts of clean or
unclean, pure or impure, everything is seen as it actually is—as
manifestations of original wakefulness.
When someone understands the value of devotion and pure perception and is
willing to train in this way, he or she is a suitable recipient for
Vajrayana teachings. This suitability for Vajrayana entails being both
broad-minded and sharp. Everything is total purity, all-encompassing purity.
Unless someone is very open-minded and has a sharp intelligence, he or she
just does not understand that this is how reality is.
Moreover, we should also train in perceiving the teacher and our fellow
practitioners as pure. One person cannot truly judge another. Therefore, we
should have appreciation for our vajra brothers and vajra sisters. As for
the teacher who expounds the Vajrayana, we shouldn't have the attitude: "He
is just another guy, another human being, probably a little special, but
what do I know?" Not like that! Have a pure appreciation of the teacher as
well. There is great power in such pure perception.
According to the Vajrayana tradition, it is through devotion and trust
that realization dawns in our stream of being. Devotion springs from pure
perception of everyone. All sentient beings are potentially buddhas. They
are temporarily obscured, but in essence they are buddhas. Obscured suchness
may become unobscured suchness, which is buddha. The obscuration can be
purified; it will be purified; it is able to be purified.
So pure perception is very profound and precious. It is through pure
perception that we can have true devotion. And through this devotion,
realization dawns. This is like Milarepa's statement to Gampopa: "Unlike
now, there will be a time in the future, my son, when you will see me as a
buddha in person. At that point, the true view will have dawned within your
stream of being."
Vajrayana is not like the general teachings of the Buddha. A Vajrayana
saying goes: "Regard whatever the teacher says as excellent, whatever he or
she does as pure, and mingle your minds as one." Unless a person is very
open-minded and sharp as well, it is just not easy to be that way. When
seeing somebody as pure, it does not mean being blind. That is not what we
are talking about here. That would be stupid admiration, false admiration.
Real trust has more to do with acknowledging the basic purity of all things.
Devotion or trust and pure perception are the basis for Vajrayana
practice. And that holds true whether we are listening to a dharma talk,
whether we are applying those teachings or whether we are interacting during
daily activities: in any situation pure perception is vital.

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is the abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling monastery in
Kathmandu. Eldest son of the late Dzogchen master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, he
also teaches annually at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, his retreat center in
northern California.

This teaching is excerpted from Present Fresh Wakefulness: A Meditation Manual on Nonconceptual Wisdom, published by Rangjung Yeshe. This article © 2003 Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche. Reprinted with permission of Rangjung Yeshe Publications.