The Esoteric Buddhism in Nyingma

The Esoteric Buddhism in Nyingma Toyofumi Kato Dzogchen is not something to be studied: The Way of Light is there to be travelled. Namkhai Norbu "Although the nature of the mind is inherently immaculate from the very beginning, there is no the true person (that is, Buddha) in this world ". This quotation from Shinran(1173-1262)is perhaps the best epitome of understanding Dzogchen, which means "the Great Perfection". However, we must be careful of the fact that Shinran does not describe the mind, but the nature of the mind. It is crucial, in order to understand Dzogcben, to clarify the difference between the mind(sems)and the nature of the mind(sems-nyid). The teaching of the Mind (sems-nyid)is the basis of Dzogchen. And if one realizes the nature of the mind, one will know that one is nothing but a Buddha, and what is to be called nirvana. But if not, one will keep falling back again and again into the cyclic existence which is called samsara. Self-knowledge is, in this sense, the dividing line between nirvana and samsara. One does not seem to be able to understand how important it is to know who one is, that is, self-knowledge. It is an axiom of the Dzogchen teaching that in knowing yourself as you really are, you are not anything else than a Buddha. And to find it, you need not seek any other place than in your own mind, because the nature of the mind has been a Buddha from the very beginning. It is just because we are always searching outside, even though it is inherently within us, that we cannot know it. According to Dzogchen teachings, it is said that right from the beginning there is the primordial Basis(gzhi) which is the source and the goal of all existence. Out of this Basis everything, the universe and the individual, arise and returns to it again. "The ultimate sphere of beginningless and endless time is the abode of all 1

phenomenal existents. Because of the presence of this in them, all beings are able to achieve nirvana " (Tulku Thondup:Buddha Mind; hereafter BM,s.220). However, it is not easy for us to attain nirvana, now that we have in our creation turned aside from the primordial Basis, or Dharmakaya(chos-sku)which is totally pure from the very beginning and have introduced another universal ground(kun-gzhi), that is, the mind which is composed of the eight consciousnesses. In other words, the Dharmakaya(chos-sku)has become the universal ground(kun-gzhi)which is the root of samsara for us. "As the universal ground(kun-gzhi)is the root of samsara, it is the foundation of all the karmic traces. As the Dharmakaya(ultimate body)is the root of nirvana, it is the freedom from all traces, and it is the exhaustion of all contaminations" (BM;s,210). Although man is, in this way, an emanation or a reflection of the energy of the primordial Basis(gzhi), it may happen that he literally introduces the dualistic mind of subject("i")and object in the universal ground by not realizing all phenomena to be self-appearance, so that he divorces himself from the pure primordial Basis. "All the sentient beings in the three realms(desire, form and formless)have gone astray into all sorts of life form out of the primordial Basis that itself is not some form. This basis is, with respect to its essence, a nothing(stong-pa) " (Guenther:From Reductionism to Creativity;s,200). At the same time, owing to ignorance of this mind (ma-rig-pa), man loses the experience of the non-dualistic vision of "What is (ji bzhin ba)" in the intrinsic awareness(rig-pa). Thus caught up in the concept of the self, regarding the body-mind as "I", man is infolded in a dichotomous appearance and consequently becomes deluded in the dream-like illusory samsara of birth and death. "Man is wandering in samsara with happiness and suffering day and night without cessation like the delusion of a dream and when he dwells in this dream-like delusory samsara, whatever efforts he makes are causes and effects of samsara " (BM;s,326). There are very few people who understand that there arise dualisms such as nirvana and samsara, happiness and suffering, birth and death, man and woman, and so on, by the loss of intrinsic awareness, that is, ignorance (ma-rig-pa). The root of dualism with which we continue to desperately struggle ceaselessly is the mind which dwells in the universal ground(kun-gzhi)." The experiences of happiness and suffering, high and low, are like the revolving of an irrigation wheel. In the samsara of the three times(past, present and future), beings of the three realms wander in delusion;they are tormented by the disease of ignorance, fabrications, and efforts No beginning or end to it-oh, pity the living beings " (BM;s,322). Furthermore, no matter whatever you experience, happiness or suffering, if it is just like a dream which you have, there is not to be either accepted or rejected, and you should know how silly it is struggle with it the same way as in a dream. 2

What is meant by the term "a dream" is that everything we experience in this world is made out of the same stuff which a dream is made of. "All the phenomena which appear in various forms are the same in not existing in their true nature. They are like the various dreams which are the same as the state of sleep " (BM;s,276). A dream is the unconscious projection of a fluctuating mind based on experience and knowledge stored in the eighth consciousness(kun-gzhi), while during the waking state we only fabricate artificially, or possibly arbitrarily, following our own mind. The world of phenomena is, whatever it may be, nothing but the projection of the mind. We still, for this reason, continue a dream even when we wake. The state of waking is only a prolongation of the dream. In fact, we do not know anything about the world as "What is" beyond the mind. For the ultimate reality does not exist within the range grasped by the mind of the division into the subject and object. It is a human being that comes from the Basis and goes astray on the way back to the Basis, and the so-called life is nothing but a dream that human being projects between these two Basis. However beautiful it might be, it is still a dream. From moment to moment, there arise various kinds of sentient beings who are deluded from the Basis and pass away without intrinsic awareness, just to be reborn some place in samsara. This process is repeated from time without beginning. And during the time when man has been born again and again into samsara, he seems to have been forgetful of even the possibility of escaping from samsara. No wonder he does not know anything about the nature of the much less be able to realize it. "All these apparent phenomena are illusory in their nature. However they appear, they are not real-all these are the projection of my mind, and since the mind itself is illusory and nonexistent from the beginning. I did not understand in this way before, and so I believe the nonexistent to exist, untrue to be true, illusion to be real;therefore I have wandered in samsara for so long. And if I do not realize that they are illusions, I shall still wander in samsara for a long time and certainly fall into the muddy swamp of suffering. "(Chögyam Trungpa; The Tibetan Book of the Dead; s,86). It has been stated in the teaching of Buddhism that man does not cease to exist with the death of the physical body, but transmigrates from one place to another among the six sentient beings(god, demi-god, human being, animal, hungry ghost and hell being)of the three realms. That is why man has a mental body of unconscious tendencies based on the universal ground. Therefore, there also is an intermediate state between death and the next birth, which is called bar-do in Tibetan Buddhism. At the moment when the body and the mind separate, according to the Bardo Thotrol, we experience a brief moment of Clear Light of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya(the ultimate body of reality)in the bar-do of the moment of death('chi kha'i bar-do). This is the last and most recondite experience during this lifetime. Moreover we find ourselves in the presence of the primordial state of Basis that is called emptiness(stong-pa) 3

without any effort on our part. At that moment, if we are able to recognize the luminosity and emptiness which is the true essence of our mind, we will become inseparably united with Dharmakaya and attain liberation. However, although, in this way, the pure luminosity and emptiness with which we merge at the moment of death arises as the manifestation of our intrinsic awareness, it is not just that we do not recognize the ultimate reality, our primordial state(gzhi); rather we shrink from it. "A complete luminous absorption at each time of death, but by not realizing it one returns to the delusion '' (BM;s,82). That is why most people pass away without awareness, since they are fallen in unconsciousness, confused by fear of extinction of the self which is caused by the absorption into the emptiness;that is the true meaning of death. As a result, they can not recognize all phenomena which appear in the bar-do as self-appearance, namely, the natural radiance of their own minds;they wander in succession, escaping fear, from the bar-do of dharmata (chos nyid bar-do)to the lower bar-do of becoming(srid-pa'i bar-do)and eventually take refuge in the womb to be reborn into illusory samsara, only to repeat the same pattern of life. "The essential point is to recognize with certainty that whatever appears, however terrifying, is your own projection. If you recognize in this way, you will become a Buddha at that very moment" (BM;s,68). Thus, we experience the three bar-do states between death and the next birth. In the meantime, phenomena that we have not even thought about in this world are revealed, but this death hardly produces total awakening to attain nirvana. For a being in the intermediate state is not aware of anything about the essential nature of the mind, much less does he recognize it. He has a dream in his mental body, although it is not so solid as that of people in their physical bodies in this world. So long as we change, first of all, the idea that there is nothing more than the life in the physical body and that death is the termination of our life, there will be no way of knowing the reality of existence. Death is, as I have described above, a great opportunity for us to realize the real essence of the mind. Nevertheless, because we have identified ourselves with the body, after the body made of flesh and blood is discarded, we seek to latch on to a new womb to obtain a new body and come back again to this world. This only promotes death. "You will experience going everywhere to look for a body but even if you look for a body, there is nothing but suffering. Birth is more fearful than death. Wherever you take rebirth in samsara, there is no place of happiness. The Buddha has said; it is like a pit of fire" (BM;s,177). In truth, the reason we have great afflictions in our lifetimes is that we have a physical body. And we do not know anything other than this ephemeral body. At most, we know a mental body hidden behind it. Everyone, however, has a real body that is not subject to birth and death. It is the physical body which die, while the real body never dies. We should know the true body beyond both the physical body and the mental body. Although we try to do anything whatsoever to avoid death, it is, in a sense, only attachment to the body, because of 4

ignorance of the real body. In fact, it only leads us endlessly from death to death. It is not very significant how long we can live in this world. As long as we do not know the true body(dharmakaya), not only are we unable to get rid of death, we are still more entangled in this vicious circle, just roaming about in samsara. What is the meaning of our entry into this world, or what is in truth the cause of it? Having evaded such a question considering it a mere trifle, we are bent on producing a physical body, while there are very few people who make an effort to reproduce the real body. If we do not understand the difference between these two, whatever we may discuss human being, not only is there no gain, there is even loss. How many people on earth understand the difference? The fact is that since we do not understand it, much less recognize that we will be liberated from the physical body which undergoes a succession of birth, old age, disease and death through reproducing the real body out of the physical body, we cling to the body until death, and eventually we will but chain ourselves in the prison of samsara. No wonder we can never escape the affliction and frustration of life. Longchenpa, on the other hand, says that there has never been anyone who has become a Buddha. Why is that? It is because all sentient beings are essentially Buddha from the very beginning. Consequently, it can be said that although he could be nothing other than a Buddha, a human being is wandering through innumerable cycles of birth and death seeking to become something else than what he already is, a Buddha. It is extremely important to know that " becoming", whatever you may become, even if it is a human being, is to escape from your innate being just as it is(ji bzhin nyid)and to remain in samsara. We should remember that it is in the bar-do of becoming that those who cannot realize ultimate reality in the bar-do of dharmata have obligatorily to wander. The urge to becoming something, in whatever bar-do you find yourself, even in skye gnas bar-do, namely, in this world, means to escape from the ultimate reality. " Being just as it is" and " becoming" are two different things, which correspond to nirvana and samsara. There is, nevertheless,no fundamental difference between a Buddha and a human being, because the latter is nothing but a Buddha that has a dream of birth and death. Therefore, all that you have to do is just to awake from the dream. " One has to wake up and move away from the universal ground (kun-gzhi)that is like sleep and the site for the emergence of all one's dream in the wake of mistaken presences" (From Reductionism to Creativity;s,217). But as long as the world of phenomena is the projection of your own mind, no one can bring you out of the world of samsara. It all depends on you. This is one of the hardest facts to accept. It is just as in the case of one who is tormented by a nightmare, as long as he himself does not wake up by knowing that it is a dream. Thus, we have Buddha-nature as a seed, deeply enshrined in the body, even though we are transmigrating in the samsara of birth and death. Therefore we must neither be disgusted with nor cling to the body. The Buddha-nature is the essential center of your innate being. It is not something that you obtain in the future, 5

but you are already That; it is the very source that you have come from and is also the goal to which you should come back some day. The attainment of Dzogchen is, consequently, to make real what is the primordial state or the state of Buddha from the very beginning, it is not question of obtaining something afresh at all. There is nothing else to add to your essential nature, which is innate perfection. Whatever you need, whether or not you are aware, is always with you. In other words, if you attain the primordial state, everything is spontaneously accomplished without your own efforts and this is what is referred to as(the action of)non-action and it is also the true meaning of Dzogchen(the Great Perfection). For this reason, the realization in Dzogchen can be said to attain the non-attainment. To better understand this seemingly illogical reversal of common sense, let us take an example; Although we, because of ignorance, imagine that we can derive happiness from objects or mental events, bliss, which is not the so-called happiness fabricated out of ignorance that is the root of samsara, is nothing but your own essential nature. In fact, all beings are made of what is called bliss without any traces of sorrow. "All existents dwell in the blissful expanse of the simultaneously perfected Dharmakaya" (BM;s,335). And yet while we seem to do everything in order to become happy there is no need to do so at all, because the ultimate bliss which we are always searching for in our lifetimes is always present in our innate being. On the contrary, only because of ignorance of this bliss, are we deluded by an ephemeral happiness. This ultimate bliss and our innate nature are not different things. However, this does not mean that we do not need to do anything to attain the bliss o four own primordial state; rather we must make an effort with the most devotion, even to attain the non-attainment. Otherwise, we will continue to wander in samsara with happiness and suffering, without knowing what the bliss in truth is. Coming back to the realization in Dzogchen, the goal is always present in the nature of our mind, the primordial state of the individual, and yet it is a human being that searches for happiness(the goal)every place other than in his own mind. The key to bliss is our own mind. Without understanding it, whatever efforts we make do not produce anything else than a dream-like illusory happiness in samsara. However, it is not enough just to know about it, because no one can realize the intrinsically perfect state of an enlightened being, a Buddha, without engaging in practice. Therefore, " Knowing this to be true also of me, I commit myself to supreme realization" says Longchenpa. The process of death, as described above, is itself the opportunity to recognize the pure nature of the mind as a Buddha for us. And we will experience to a certain degree what is called Clear Light at the moment of death. However, in bursting out the after-death experience, we recoil at the radiance of our innate nature, due to lack 6

of intrinsic awareness, that is, ignorance(ma-rig-pa). And we escape the fear of karmic apparition and eventually driven through the rebirth process which is called the bar-do of becoming(srid-pai bar-do). Therefore, it is crucial that we enter the process of death with awareness(rig-pa). And the practice for dying with awareness is what is known as meditation(sgom-pa). In fact, meditation is in many ways analogous to the process of death. In meditation we voluntarily come to enter the same space as death. Therefore meditation can be called an experience of death while still living on earth. Let us call the experience of death before we die " a real death" to distinguish it from ordinary death, the latter is but a change of abode. In other words, since we cannot realize the true meaning of death, we are not finished, but we appear unconsciously in some womb and transmigrate from one place to another. The only concern of Dzogchen is to lead us directly to the nature of the mind, which is also called intrinsic awareness, but even so we have to begin with the mind that is transmigrating in the wheel of birth and death. For there is no way to get rid of the dream-like samsara as long as the mind remains. Moreover, the Mind (sems-nyid)is not apart from the mind(sems)which wanders in samsara, just as waves not ocean. Therefore we come to begin meditation with observation of the mind(sems), or the incessant stream of thought, even to attain the nature of the mind(sems-nyid). The path of Dzogchen does not, for this reason, take the attitude that it is necessary to make efforts to eliminate or modify the mind; rather we should see through the illusion of the human mind which is firmly bound in a dualistic pattern. However, even if you seek for your own mind, where it comes from, you will not find it anywhere, because you are not anything else than the mind which you are seeking for. And still you unceasingly continue to observe your mind without distraction, you will feel yourself disappear slowly, as you come to the innermost core of your being, so that eventually you will neither find your mind nor what is called self("i")in ordinary life at the center of the manifestation of all phenomena. There will be nothing left but pure emptiness, since all your being has dissolved into the space-like emptiness which is the primordial Basis. This means that what is called "self" did not in reality exist from the very beginning, just taking the body-mind as self. We cannot find any self anywhere, now that the mind has dissolved away into emptiness, because there is no self apart from the mind which has no essence itself. The individual self is just an incessant stream of thought which gives structure to our experience. As long as you, therefore, have different sorts of experience during practice, even if they be beautiful ones, you do not transcend your mind at all. You are still bound by the dualism of subject and object. All experiences are, external or internal, based on something false, that is, on the mind. Consequently, we should not consider what sorts of experience we have to be the enlightened experience in Dzogchen; rather these can impede the path to 7

realization. The process of meditation is totally different from experience in your ordinary life, because it is an experience of your disappearing into emptiness, that is, the space of nothingness which has been referred to by mystics (gnostics) of the past all over the world. At the moment when you attain the abyss of nothingness, it seems as if you were about to die. In fact, in plunging into the space of nothingness, you will come to an end. This means, however, merely the cessation of your own self("i"), an ego, but the emergence of your real existence, an enlightened being in the primordial state. This is what is meant by death before ordinary death, that is, real death. The true meaning of death is extinction and annihilation of any self in emptiness or nothingness; This is Death. Consequently it sometimes happens that you recoil to avoid the fear of death even during the practice of meditation. However, it is necessary to remember that you are wandering samsara by not recognizing the mind which is by nature pure emptiness(mind), or the ultimate sphere of nothingness that is the eternal abode of all phenomena, all including human beings. Only those who have the courage to die into nothingness fearlessly can arrive at the shore of realization. And at the same time all appearances will dissolve as dreams or illusory vision. "This world is as the dream of asleep"(rumi). As far as the human mind is concerned, the world of phenomena continues to exist. In other words, the world of phenomena exists only in dependence on the mind. Therefore, when the mind is transcended, the world of phenomena also loses the foundation of its own existence and disappears like a dream. "All the external and internal world are the modes of arising of one's own mind. They are like dreams. The mind itself is also emptiness in its essence"(bm;s,362). When you, in this way, realize all appearances as emptiness, then and only then you will be able to know this world as apparition(maya). The primordial state, in which all phenomena including you disappear is what is referred to as Dharmakaya. When there is no mind in your own mind, the Mind begins to become luminous. The cessation of the mind (sems)means the beginning of the Mind(sems-nyid).The great perfection(dzogchen)is the Mind which is free from the mind. "The intrinsic awareness which transcends the mind is the specialty of Great Perfection.. When one's intrinsic awareness becomes free from the mind, one is called a Buddha" This very state of the intrinsic awareness(ye-shes)which is beyond the mind is also what is meant by samadhi(ting-nge 'dzin). We must recognize the authentic being of the Mind that always accompanies us, because "by not realizing the self-face of the Mind"(BM;s,227)neither will we be able to escape from the bondage of our illusory self which is the cause of samsara, nor will illusory visions be removed. As described above, this happens when you put an end to the self ("I") in the primordial state of emptiness. At the same time when you die, the world of phenomena too dissolves away as if the clouds disappear into the 8

sky without any traces. Once you have, in this way, understood that all phenomena including your self have no real essence, you have attained Buddha-nature of your innermost essence. Then, there is no longer any womb of sentient beings for you. You have disappeared into the womb of emptiness, Dharmakaya. Subsequently, you would be fundamentally transformed through submergence into emptiness, as if you no longer had your physical body. Only thus can you be born as a real body of bliss which is detached from the physical body and the mental body. To die into emptiness, namely, real death, means the resurrection of the real body, Dharmakaya from which a man of enlightenment thus realized may manifest either Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya in order to help sentient beings in samara. "So in order to teach the transformation into the real, perfect body through meditation on voidness or emptiness, the Buddha taught that all phenomenal existents have no self-nature and he taught his disciples to meditate on voidness"(bm;s,246). Meditation in Dzogchen leads us to the transformation into the real body. This is what is meant by the term; "the Body of Light or the Rainbow Body('ja 'lus)" which is the final goal of Dzogchen teaching. There is eternal life as the Body of Light. And everyone must return to that life which is the primordial state of the individual. A totally realized being does not die. He simply dissolves into the primordial state, while ordinary people who have not realized, that is, the ignorant also do not die. They have to be born unconsciously again and again in cyclic existence. The physical body is only a manifestation of the frustration of people who don't attain the real body. If we were able to know the real body, we would never have entered the physical body. However, even though you are resurrected as the real body, your physical body must die, but it will become totally awakening for you. To those who have experienced the real death and recognized the nature of the mind as Buddha-nature, death will no longer be something terrible. They have already known what is happening at the moment of death, and it will cause them to unite inseparably with Dharmakaya; rather they have already identified with it while still living on earth. "Those who have recognized their own mind and become experienced while they were alive are very strong when the luminosity appears at the moment of death, therefore practice during life is most important"(the Tibetan Book of the Dead;s,70). It can be easily understood that meditation is, in a sense, the practice for dying in life and how important it is to recognize the nature of the mind before we die by means of meditation. One of the most fundamental problems in relation to the destiny of humanity is that most people don't really understand what is meant by the term "meditation". The so-called life, which is lukewarm, is not so great as what the real death can reveal. There is no more significant experience in our life than real death through meditation. All that we are lacking in understanding is that the real meaning of life is hidden in the midst of death. Real death is the key both for transcending the samsara of birth and death and revealing the mystery of existence. Most people do not seem to notice the 9

significance of this. When you realize the nature of the mind, you will not come back to this world again through the womb of any sentient beings, because you no longer have inveterate habits in the universal ground(kun-gzhi)which drag you into the cycle of birth and death. In other words, you remain in the primordial state(gzhi)without projecting anything, where there is no experience based on subject-object dualism, in short, no "Ⅰ" to experience. Of course, this does not mean that you become drowsy or unconscious, but you would rather find yourself present in the intrinsic awareness, namely, the pure and innate consciousness from the very beginning. We can, in this sense, say that there has never been anyone who has realized the eternal truth; rather it is by no means impossible to realize it, so long as this "Ⅰ" remains. This is, in a strict sense, what is meant by Longchenpa's saying " There bas never been anyone who has become a Buddha". The path of Dzogchen is not that you obtain the truth in the ordinary sense, but you yourself, namely, the self ("I") which creates illusions disappear. When there is no "I" to experience, you will not come to accumulate myriad causes in the universal ground (kun-gzhi)which is a storehouse of experience and knowledge. For, no matter what experiences you have, they spontaneously dissolve again back into Dharmakaya of which the essence is nothingness(stong-pa). There, consequently, is no longer any cause that makes you return to the samsara of birth and death. Those who realize the primordial state are not subject to the confusion of causes and effects stored in the mind which is consciousness of the universal ground. Only in this way can you transcend the wheel of birth and death. Moreover, you realize that you were always in the primordial state(gzhi)beyond birth and death. In fact, neither have you been born nor died from the very beginning; you are just having a dream of birth and death. Where does a man of enlightenment who has awakened from the dream of birth and death go? In the first place, there is no longer transmigration for him. It is for the unenlightened ignorant people. Then where will he go? Nowhere, but he is everywhere. Now the perfection of ultimate nature freedom from going and coming,has been achieved. Then where to go? Nowhere. The yogi who has reached that kind of state has transcended the objects of delusion, and no one will return to the samsaric cities, because he has reached the space-like Basis" (BM;s,271). When you, beyond the illusion of subject-object dualism, re-enter into Dharmakaya which is both the source and the goal of all existence, you will arrive at the center of universe, so that you are nowhere as the self, yet you are everywhere as the universal Self, that is, Dharmakaya-Buddha. Ths is self-liberation, nirvana. As the essence of intrinsic awareness is emptiness, it dwells nowhere. As the character of it is various, it is present in all beings"(bm;s,368). 10

Thus, once you have realized your own innate being, Buddha-nature, you would see, through an eye of enlightenment, the entire universe in you and you in everything of the universe. This is what is meant by the saying; " recognize whatever you see as self-appearance and you will become a Buddha on the instant". In other words, when you have awakened into the space-like visions of " What is " in the emptiness of both subject and object, you have become like a mirror reflecting everything of the universe. A Gnostic of Sufism called this state "the mirror of nothingness". And Kabir too said in one of his songs; here is a mirror within, but in it one's face cannot be seen. One's face can be seen only when the mind is free from the conflict of dualities "The Song of Kabir" Needless to say, what is referred to as "one's face" is synonymous with Longchenpa' s saying "the self-face of the Mind(rig-pa)" (BM;s,227). In short, you would see reflected your own innate face, that is, Dharmakaya in everything surrounding you, as if looking at yourself in a mirror. What, then, on earth exists except Dharmakaya-Buddha, including you? " This is the significance of the ultimate meaning, the very summit of views, Dzogchen"(Longchenpa). All beings are from the very beginning Buddhas. This very place the Lotus paradise, This very body the Buddha. Hakuin; Chant in Praise of Zazen February 15,1992 Calgary,Canada 11