2. The View and Non-Meditation as One
3. The 24-Hour Quality of Non-Meditation
4. The Sacred Weight of Dzogchen Precepts
5. Recognition as the Foundational Precept
6. Recognition as the Touchstone of Authentic Experience
7. Meaning Beyond Causality and Intellect
8. The Nature of Mind as Innate and Natural
9. Conceptual Models: Continuum, Field, and Ground
10. The Inexpressible Reality Beyond Conception
11. Intimations of Rigpa in Every Instant
12. The Trap of Intellectual Worship
13. Longdé and the Timeless Expanse
14. The Impulse Toward Concretization
15. Impermanence and the Flow of Luminous Clarity
16. The Ever-Present Purity of the Nature of Mind
17. The Here-and-Now as Sole Reality
18. Receptivity Over Technique: The Feminine Mudra
19. Non-Duality Beyond Subject and Object
20. The Exclamation of “Hūṃ” as Ritual Shock and Entry
Without assertion or negation, without addition or subtraction, there is no non- judgmental mind. No duality, no rejection, no argument, no division.
2. The View and Non-Meditation as One
I can’t wait to get back to these guaranteed precepts. But remember, this is one of those key precepts: that non-meditation and the view are two sides of the same coin. The view is not the view if there is any kind of contrived meditation, any kind of effort in doing something. If there is any kind of contrived meditation, it is not the view.
3. The 24-Hour Quality of Non-Meditation
We don’t need to be sitting in a formal meditation posture in order to maintain non-meditation. On the contrary, if we have to sit in a formal posture to maintain non-meditation, it’s not non-meditation. Non-meditation is defined by its 24-hour- a-day quality. Whatever we do in those 24 hours—that is non-meditation.
4. The Sacred Weight of Dzogchen Precepts
One word of warning: please don’t take these precepts lightly. These precepts are the essence of the teaching of the Buddhas of the three times. There is nothing more important than these precepts. This is the key to the rainbow body.
Now, these are just concepts—but a very special variety of concepts. They are concepts that dissolve into themselves. They form part of a subtle dialectic that allows us access to the nature of mind, the light, the awareness that resides within those precepts. If we take these concepts as mere information, data, or philosophical hypotheses, then we risk getting stuck in dualistic perception without recourse.
5. Recognition as the Foundational Precept
Last night we were dealing with the first of Garab Dorje’s precepts—the first word, which was Recognition. All three words are actually contained in this one word: Recognition. The other two words simply focus and penetrate that first word. And of course, the first word is vital. It is our understanding of that word—it is the recognition itself—that brings us here. Without that recognition, we can’t be here.
6. Recognition as the Touchstone of Authentic Experience
Maybe it’s a touchstone we’ve stored. Maybe it’s something that is actually a memory at the moment. It’s a touchstone—used by goldsmiths to verify if gold is real gold. That’s what it’s like. In this context, many people refer to it as a touchstone with the idea of contact. Right—it’s a reference point.
The recognition is the touchstone; it is the point of reference that validates our every momentary experience. We need that reference point—that’s the only reference point we need. We must return to that touchstone, back to that point of reference, back to that moment of recognition, that initial experience.
And again, that initial experience can arise in any context whatsoever—sacred or profane, bodily or mental—at any moment from conception to the moment of death. It doesn’t matter where it came from; that’s completely irrelevant. What matters is the fact that it is there and that we relate to it. The fact that we identify it with our being—that’s its significance.
7. Meaning Beyond Causality and Intellect
Because it’s that experience which gives us meaning. Nothing else gives our lives meaning. Everything else is causal; everything else is bound up in the field of causality. The intellect is somehow satisfied by figuring out cause and effect, the linear process of our lives. But that’s just a crossword puzzle—an intellectual game. And the meaning it provides is vicarious; it’s illusory.
What gives us—and gives our lives—meaning is that touchstone of recognition of the nature of mind. And that’s absolute. And it’s natural.
8. The Nature of Mind as Innate and Natural
Let’s not argue about the word “natural.” Simply take it as innate, inherent. And insofar as it is present everywhere, always and constantly accessible, for that
reason we say “natural.” But insofar as it is natural and accessible as a constant, for that reason we can always rely upon it.
9. Conceptual Models: Continuum, Field, and Ground
We can conceive of that as a continuum in time, and thereby see ourselves as a mindstream—like a comet across the sky, or as a passage from birth to death. Or we can conceive of it as a field—as the ground of being, as an internal sky that interfuses with all degrees of relativity. Or as the field of being that delivers everything with different levels of relativity.
But these are just concepts. The point about this reality is: you can’t say anything about it at all.
10. The Inexpressible Reality Beyond Conception
First of all, it is beyond conception—it cannot be conceived. If we conceive of it, it ceases to be that anymore. If it becomes a continuum, it’s a mere concept, just a structure of mind. If we see it as a field—a multidimensional field—it’s lost. It’s lost in magic, lost in mystery, lost in its overarching presence.
We know this reality. We have known this reality. If we saw it just for an instant and were born into it, we could abide by it. But ever since then, we’ve had intimations of it. And in moments of what we call grace and sensitivity—in each timeless slice of experience—we have absolute awe. We can see the reflection of it.
11. Intimations of Rigpa in Every Instant
That slice—where there’s no time and no space—that moment of tiredwess is what is called long. It has absolutely no equivalent in the English language, and probably in any other language. There’s no equivalent in Sanskrit either. In that moment, out of time, there’s no time—it’s not describable. There’s no word for it, though there is a term: a type of time called long.
In that moment—out of time—there’s a term, but no equivalent in English. It is often translated as “expanse” in mainstream Buddhist translation, particularly in the Dzogchen context. It’s the Longdé translation of Dzogchen.
With intimation of that nature of mind—in each instant (and I say “instant” advisedly)—there is this vast expanse of light: out of time, out of space, a timeless moment. And that is our every reality. All of us, constantly—we only know that.
12. The Trap of Intellectual Worship
The intellect tends to negate it. And if we worship the intellect—which is a common disease these days—if we worship the intellect, then we’ve lost that long chain. What we’ve got instead is a structure in time and space that the intellect creates. That’s the intellect’s creation.
So, this is a mental, intellectual creation. And we worship the intellect—that’s what we do. Therefore, we create this space out of time that doesn’t exist, this reference of time. And we’ve lost the long chain in space.
13. Longdé and the Timeless Expanse
Like it or not, that’s what we’ve got: that long chain. Long chain rabjampa. Rabjampa means “all-interfusing.” Long chain rabjampa—that we’ve all got that. That’s our natural state of being.
But intellectually generated concepts, in that light, induce a numbness—to such an extent that we think all we’ve got is this temporal-spatial structure. To such an extent that we think this mental structure is all there is.
14. The Impulse Toward Concretization
It’s so much easier to accept these structures that our intellect presents than to identify with the timeless moment that is the clear light. Why? Because there is this impulse toward concretization—toward identifying what is essentially an unformed life as either this or that, something specific, something pinned down.
We try to concretize this light in a materialized way—to identify it in an amorphous light. We want things to stay the same. We want security, stability. We want the body to remain at its peak of youth. We want to wake up with the same pattern in the morning. We want the relationship to remain reliable. If only our bank balance wouldn’t decrease—we’d be happier for it not to increase.
15. Impermanence and the Flow of Luminous Clarity
Of course, this is the reason why we meditate on impermanence—because actually, this congealment, that crystallization, doesn’t happen. Or if it happens, it’s just momentary. But actually, it is Inchoate light in this constant movement.
Inchoate—unformed, fluid light—and form.
In that long chain, in that space of reality that is our birthright—that is our nature of being—there is a cause that knows neither birth nor death. It’s that inexpressible, clear-light nature that preceded our birth and will be there waiting for us at the moment of death. And it remains with us every instant of this embodiment.
16. The Ever-Present Purity of the Nature of Mind
Insofar as the embodiment arose out of that light, it never ceases to be that light. What is pure at the beginning remains pure in the middle and at the end. It cannot become anything else.
Yes, there is the tendency to conceive it as something else—and therefore the light is dimmed. But that does not change its reality. And the proof of that is in the intimation of the nature of mind in this instant of experience—the here and now.
17. The Here-and-Now as Sole Reality
Insofar as we are always in the present, we cannot move out of that tiniest moment of the here and now. Past and future are just concepts; past and future are just delusions. The reality is only here, now—it cannot be anything else.
And the way into that is through the intimation of the experience of recognition of the nature of mind.
18. Receptivity Over Technique: The Feminine Mudra
So, instead of saying “recognition,” let’s say Intimation of Recognition. It takes the heat off. We don’t have to do anything. An epiphany is not demanded of us—just an intimation of that light. And it runs right in front of our faces all the time. It’s not a difficult thing.
And again, as I said yesterday, there’s not actually a technique. It might be just a matter of picking up the corner of the curtain to look through—just a simple, single exercise. But we can’t pin that down. There are no one-two-three stages in that process. There’s no process; there’s no technique—no technique except this readiness: receptivity, the receptive mudra.
You were talking yesterday about the feminine nature of that waiting. Don’t take it literally—just take it as a pointed finger. For example, there’s the feminine nature, the feminine aspect of this. We should see this only with a pointed finger: the feminine nature of mind.
19. Non-Duality Beyond Subject and Object
Where does non-duality come from? “The non-duality of non-duality” is the best phrase to describe the longdé. It’s the only non-duality we can’t express. Any expression requires a subject and an object. Any expression requires a subject conscious of an object.
And in that non-dual long chain, there’s no possibility of that. There are no reference points there. There’s no subject. Well—if there’s no reference point out there, the subject has nothing to do. It’s redundant; the ego is lost. There’s nothing to pin down in that long chain.
It’s like—and again, it’s a timeless moment—there’s no time in that space, so there’s no time for a process of perception to occur. The reference points out there that the subject pins down or draws in—you want to see that those functions fall back into themselves, and there’s no ego function left.
On the other hand, of course, there’s still something there. On the other hand, if we fall into nihilism—into the negation of both subject and object, both self and other—we’ve missed the point.
Non-duality is not a statement of denial. It is a statement of the indeterminacy of the absolute—not an absolute that is up and beyond or way down the line at the end of life, but the absolute that is present right here in the long chain.
20. The Exclamation of “Hūṃ” as Ritual Shock and Entry
And it’s for that reason that we can’t get access to it—because how can we structure time and space in order to access something that is completely beyond time, space, and concepts?
But there is this key—the key, the first, number one precept: non-action.
So, what I want to do now is to remind you of Patrul Rinpoche’s method of entry into that non-active sphere: the exclamation of the syllable HŪṂ.
Rather than me talk about it, let’s do it—so you can see what effect it has. You know what effect it has. But see it in the context of what I’ve just been saying.
It’s not the method to access the nature of mind—the non-dual nature of mind. But it produces a state of non-action in which we are optimally sensitive to the potential.
One thing behind the explosion of sound is that there’s a silence—conceptual silence. And as you know from your meditation training, between two thoughts there’s the light trying to pop out. The light tries to pop out.
What we’re doing, of course, when we use this sound, is performing a ritual. And it sounds right—perhaps that’s what we were talking about last night: What is ritual?
In one way, the practice of exclaiming this syllable grooves the mind so that, in the moment of synchronicity—when the sky is about to fall—it will fall easily. And maybe that is the most important thing.
But on the other hand, the actual performance of the ritual does create a change in consciousness—not in the minds of lazy monks who’ve been playing games during the lead-up to that exclamation, but for those who have remained mindful and sensitive. For them, consciousness has changed by that exclamation.
That’s not it—it can only be it if that one-in-a-billion chance of a fall-from-the-sky happens at that moment. But it’s an interesting change of mind.
To maximize the effect of this exclamation, it’s beneficial to be in a calm state—so we often do it in periods of formal meditation.
And I should mention something else about the ritual nature of it: the ritual is actually a model of something that can happen in time and space at a specific, similar juncture. In other words, an explosion in one’s mindstream—in the normal flow of life—can actually penetrate the wall of concepts.
For example, I know two people very well who became Buddhists—converted upon being hit by a car. Or we can go further: a similar effect is contrived by divorce, or being told of one’s cancer diagnosis. Precisely—a shock in one’s life stream.
The ritual is the exclamation of the syllable HŪṂ.
The actuality is a shock—it can be mental, vibrational, or physical.
The syllable can be vocalized by oneself or by someone else—probably doing it oneself is more effective. In practice, there’s a danger of overdoing it. I’m not saying the syllable should be held sacred, but it’s useful to keep it a little bit sanctified. We don’t want it so sacred that it becomes inaccessible.
So, let’s start this practice with vocalization.