Theravadan Reflections on The Natural Great Perfection

Small Boat, Great Mountain

Theravadan Reflections on The Natural Great Perfection

Ajahn Amaro

Ajahn Amaro reflects on the teachings of The Natural Great Perfection from the Dzogchen teachings and compares it with those familiar in the Pali Canon and in the Thai Forest Tradition.
A very interesting perspective on freedom or the Deathless, the Unconditioned, the Unborn... using concepts and pointers from the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
Download the book here :
http://www.abhayagiri.org/pdf/books/SmallBoat.pdf
or there : http://www.abhayagiri.org/index.php/main/book/138/

Agitation in still Awareness in "Still in Awareness"

Another video by Gangaji "Still in Awareness" with an excellent excerpt about agitation.
Agitation, restlessness is considered to be a major hindrance in Buddhism when the mind is identified with the feeling. Concentration is prescribed as the antidote. Stability of mind helps to investigate what it really is all about. I realised in Burma that when we see/live/feel that consciousness is separate from its contents, its contents lose all power over the mind. Although the content may arise again, consciousness is unaffected : it simply has nothing to do with the object. Ajahn Chah also referred to it as oil and water. Many other Buddhist teachers in the Thai Forest Tradition talk about it like Ajaan Fuang Jotiko for instance.
The following audio excerpt is so wonderful as it points to that so directly and may make live this crucial insight if you are willing to investigate it !

Excerpt 1 (2:19min)

What is the liberating truth ? From the introduction to the video :
"The most sublime truth of all has never been stated, or written, or sung. Not because it is far away and cannot be reached but because it is so intimately close. It is too close to be described, objectified, or known, yet it is yours already. It is alive and present as the stillness that is the core of your being."

(It reminds me of what Nisargadatta said, and it is found in the book "I Am That", something like : "Reality is so close to you that you can't even see it".)

"One’s own awareness is so ordinary and all pervasive it goes continually overlooked, yet ironically it offers the very freedom that is longed for. When attention is turned toward the essential experience of simply being, it is possible to discover that one is not a body identified with thoughts and feelings, but rather the limitless awareness aware of it all. Here Gangaji offers the opportunity to be aware of awareness itself rather than the often conflicting factions of mind and emotion; to give the whole of oneself to this that is already effortlessly present, alive as the inherently free awareness that you are."

http://www.gangaji.org/satsang/bookstore/compdoc.asp

"You are freedom itself" - A short Video with Gangaji

A very direct teaching :

Addiction and the Choice of Not Moving, of Being Still

Gangaji - Addiction and Choice.

With addiction there has to come a point when you see that the desire is out of your control. Maybe the addiction is physiological. Maybe it has been practiced for so long that it has its own groove. But what is in your control, absolutely, is the willingness to NOT MOVE WHEN THE DESIRE APPEARS. The willingness neither to indulge nor repress but to not move in the fire of this impulse of thousands of years. Have you ever experienced this?

Yes.

Then you know the beauty of this fire. You know that in this moment, there is actually a willingness to die. Because the addiction to mind or to habits can be so strong that there is the sense if you don't feed the addiction, you will die. Eventually, through the maturity of the soul, there is a willingness to say, "Okay, if I die I will die. But I am not going to follow this demon down this road again."

This, too, is the mind, but it is the mind in service to what was betrayed. Vigilance was betrayed, and the mind humbled by this. It feels like a descent into hell because with any addiction, the impulse is strong to get rid of the craving, to get rid of the fire. How? How? How? There are millions of ways how, but to not get rid of it, to not go numb with it, to let it burn—this is the fire. This is the Buddha and the temptations of Mara. This is Christ in the desert. Everyone has to experience this—Oh my god, I am dying. Okay, so I am dying. I surrender. I surrender—and there is peace, there is freedom. You recognize what has never left. You recognize what is always here. In that moment, there is a break in the habit pattern. The habit may reappear, but there is something bigger than it, so it does not have the same hold on you. Do you follow this?

I want you to recognize that there are many moments before the acting out. There are many choices. They happen very fast. But if you will slow them down in your mind, just slow the film of this movie down, you will see where the choices were made.

From : http://www.gangaji.org/satsang/library/meetings.asp
...................................................................................

The moment of choice


Questioner: When I come to these retreats I usually spend the first couple of days with the mind running away, running any desire, running any anything: grabbing, reaching for … and I am just dying for some peace. Because when I am experiencing this emotion, it just…
Gangaji: Which emotion?

Q: Any. When I have a desire or a strong emotion, I use the opportunity, or I would like to use it to experience the … to not run, not to…
G: What if you don't do anything?

Q: Then I just…
G: Forget using it.

Q: By lack of effort, I run with it.
G: No.

Q: I understand that it is an effort. But also, you know, it's habit. It's an addiction.
G: By habit, you run with it.

Q: Yes.
G: That is very different.

Q: It's an addiction.
G: That's right: by addiction, you run with it.

Q: So….
G: So what if you just experience the burn of the impulse to run.

Q: The impulse to run is so automatic.
G: Yes, habits are automatic: they have been fed. And maybe it is even physiological. That's all right. But you can just experience the impulse. It is a fire, a tempering fire.

Q: But I have to stop, to even recognize the impulse.
G: No, no. You can recognize the impulse in mid-flight. You know how the impulse feels. You know the signs of the activity of mind. But there is this other thing that has been added: you want to use it to get to peace, or whatever… Forget all of that.

Q: There is this…
G: It is the "using it" part. You have to let go of the user; that is what keeps the addiction going. There is no addiction without a user.

Q: I understand what you are saying. This vigilance, the way I understand it, is being with the emotion as it comes up, and not running with it. And I must be conscious of that, not to do that.
G: Forget that, because it has become an exercise that you are supposed to do. Forget about it. Isn't that a relief? Forget about that. So right now, just remember a time when you ran with it, whatever that means to you. Just recall a memory of that.

Q: Okay.
G: Okay. Now go back to that memory in your mind and slow it down to the moment right before the "running with it" started. So you put the memory into frames, and slow it down so much that you can see it frame by frame by frame.

Q: Okay.
G: And find the moment of choice.

Q: It's there.
G: That's right. Now, go to the frame right before the moment of choice.

Q: Um. (Laughs) Peace.
G: Yes. Now, between peace and the moment of choice there is another frame. And in that frame is maybe an experience of extreme discomfort, or what I am calling impulse, or maybe it is instinct. Maybe it is as superficial as habit. Maybe it is as physiological as an addiction. You get that?

Q: Yeah, I got it.
G: Great. That's it. That is the place to burn. It is very useful to recall a moment and go back and deconstruct it or dissect it: not to analyze it, or figure out why. Just see the fact of it and in that there is an opportunity, a second chance to actually experience the burn of what once seemed automatic. Then you see that it is not automatic. It seems that way until there is a direct experience. You don't know you have choice until you have choice. And then you realize, "My God, all these years I have been saying, I have no choice, there is no choice. Wow, there is choice." There is actually a long period of choice, and then there is another choice, and another one. And you say "Well, too late, I chose". But now there is another choice and another — if you are willing to tell the truth. That is all we are doing here: telling the truth. But we are telling the truth more precisely, inquiring a little more deeply.

integralnaked.org and Ken Wilber

Thanks to Alexis for this link to videos and audio files on the Integral teaching. It is a little difficult to summarize what it's all about. I could say it's an experiment to integrate ALL (yes you've read it well : ALL) types of scientific knowledge and spiritual traditions in an integral framework. It's not just a new philosophy but it can helps us to integrate the most advanced interpretations of ourselves and the world in our views of life. Or in other terms : the "I", the "we", the "it" and the "its" dimensions of experience. These 4 dimensions are also known as 4 quadrants with different levels or stages, types, states in an integral or harmonious theory of evolution. Well... I told you I couldn't summarize it well !! Here's the link to the Integral Institute :

http://in.integralinstitute.org/whatsnew.aspx

And a video where Ken Wilber summarizes it a little under the terms of "Integral Operating System" :
http://soundstruestore.stores.yahoo.net/kt00948d.html

And the Integral Spiritual Center : http://isc.integralinstitute.org/Public/static/Default.aspx
If you find a good summary, please let me know.

Ken Wilber has serious health problems right now. The following letter—written by Ken to the I-I managers—explains a series of unfortunate accidents that have left him not that much far removed from functionally quadriplegic :
http://www.kenwilber.com/news/list/1
I hope his health condition will improve quickly.

They also have released a product with DVDs, the "Integral Life Practice" :
http://www.myilp.com/ ("Allow you to take anything you’re already doing and place it within a comprehensive framework that finally makes sense of it: a place for everything in your life! with various body-mind-spirit practices).

Two videos from Gangaji on Google video

Two one-hour videos from Gangaji. Awakening now !

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=gangaji

Gangaji - Burning of Spiritual Materialism 1996

Gangaji - Innocence, Trust and Self Betrayal

Ever-present Awareness and States of Awareness

Q: The question is, is there ever a time when awareness is no longer
overshadowed by emotion?

G: Actually all the time. All the time. What happens is that
individual awareness, which is a ray of universal awareness, gets
fixated on a loop of emotional drama. But if at any point in that
loop, the individual mind stops and investigates — all the way, then
whatever the emotion, there is instant clarity. So then, every emotion
is a vehicle. Every moment of every emotion is a vehicle. Awareness is
not overshadowed by anything. Ever.

Q: Yes.

G: Ever. We speak of awareness, but often what we are talking about,
is a state of awareness. It gets called mindfulness, or equanimity, or
samadhi, or clarity. Those are states of awareness. And then we also
have what we call the negative states: confusion, anxiety, lack of
equanimity, negativity. Those are also states of awareness. But you
cannot have any of those states without awareness. This is not
illogical. This is very logical. You can also have awareness without
any state. You do not need any state for awareness, as some people
here have discovered. There can be a moment when nothing is happening,
when there is just awareness: as you just said, "no trees, no me".
There is just awareness and then the trees reappear. Does awareness
disappear? Well how did you know there were trees, if awareness
disappeared? How did you know there were no trees if awareness
disappeared when there were no trees?

So what happens as a result of spiritual conditioning, is that we
learn to equate the elevated state with the truth of awareness, rather
than recognizing that awareness is present in all states. Awareness is
omnipresent. Awareness is God. It is always here, omniscient.
Awareness knows everything, is aware of everything. That does not mean
that it is some powerful "thing" that knows what you are thinking, and
that you blinked or you didn't blink. It means that everything that
occurs or does not occur occurs in the presence of awareness. The
shift that can occur in individual awareness happens when you
recognize that you are here, regardless of emotion or state. Emotions
are like weather. So the winds came up this morning and there were
white caps on the lake, and then rain came. But here you are. You did
not change. Life did not change. Individual awareness drops deeper and
deeper into its source. I am not saying that you have to "stay in the
source" because you can not be separate from the source. If you are
trying to "stay in the source", then there is still some latent belief
that "if I do not stay here, then I will not be aware." This is fluid,
effortless being.

Identification with particular states of awareness is perhaps part of
the organism or part of the evolution, but it is a source of suffering
because there is identification as a sufferer. The sufferer is an
image that appears in awareness, and gets identified as "me" and is
associated with the physical body. But always there is awareness,
aware of the suffering, aware of the sufferer, aware of
identification, and yet free of that. The mystery is how it gets
overlooked. But you don't have to solve that mystery. Just stop
overlooking it. Just tell the truth.

Gangaji
States of awareness
Silver Bay, New York
Retreat - September 25, 2003
http://www.gangaji.org/satsang/library/excerpts/states.asp

Listen to Gangaji's talks online (mp3s)

These talks inspired me much. Thank you !
http://gangaji.org/satsang/library/listening.asp

The courage to give up hope	8:16 min
		Pondering	8:45 min
		Boundaries of Awareness	13:48 min
		Resistance	13:00 min
		Two birds and a lake	9:57 min
		Suffering — the call home	7:30 min
		Ego doesn’t get awake	9:24 min
		The dancing salad	6:56 min
		You are Here	6:25 min
		Beyond Experience

"Who Am I ?" Ramana Maharshi's leaflet

As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery, as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one's self, and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one's nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one's self. For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form "Who am I?", is the principal means.

---

1 . Who am I ?

The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not; the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not; the five cognitive sense-organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not; the five vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind which thinks, I am not; the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functioning's, I am not.

2. If I am none of these, then who am I?

After negating all of the above-mentioned as 'not this', 'not this', that Awareness which alone remains - that I am.

3. What is the nature of Awareness?

The nature of Awareness is existence-consciousness-bliss

4. When will the realization of the Self be gained?

When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer.

5. Will there not be realization of the Self even while the world is there (taken as real)?

There will not be.

6. Why?

The seer and the object seen are like the rope and the snake. Just as the knowledge of the rope which is the substrate will not arise unless the false knowledge of the illusory serpent goes, so the realization of the Self which is the substrate will not be gained unless the belief that the world is real is removed.

7. When will the world which is the object seen be removed?

When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition's and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear.

More on : www.ramana-maharshi.org/whoami.htm

Free videos from Gangaji and Adyashanti. You are freedom itself. Recognize it now !

"Who you are is freedom itself and it's non-conditional. It's here right now.
Your body is in it, your thoughts are in it, your emotions are in it, your enligntenment is in it, your ignorance is in it...
What is eternally here..."
It is not to be memorized, not to be learnt. It is to be recognized in this moment. Because it's time."

Video on freedom :


other videos :
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gangaji&search=Search

videos with Adyashanti :

http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=watchvideo