“རྣམ་རྟོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཕྲོ་ན་ལམ་གྱི་སྐྱེས་པ་ལ་ངོ་ཤེས།”
“nam tok na tsok tro na lam gyi kyé pa la ngo shé”
“རྣམ་རྟོག་” “nam tok” means the “projection of thoughts”, or the reflection of thoughts, whatever you call that.
“རྣམ་རྟོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཕྲོ་ན་ལམ་གྱི་སྐྱེས་པ་ལ་ངོ་ཤེས།”
“nam tok na tsok tro na lam gyi kyé pa la ngo shé”
so even you are witnessing the projection of thoughts that is arising or already in the front of you, in the state of mind and just simply look at the projection of thoughts. If you cannot deal with the projection of thoughts you cannot deal with the anger, you cannot deal with your jealousy, you cannot deal with your fear or anything. So in order to “deal” with our challenges, let put it like this, emotional challenges, in order to deal with that, you need to first overcome “how to deal with the projection of thoughts”. That’s something very important.
Like an example, somebody insults me, like you criticize me, you insult me, and then instead of me lashing out and say “how you could, how dare you … ”. And then I, when the anger is about to be arisen and then I examine the very sensation and the definition of the anger, in that very moment. As I define the very existence of the anger and the projection of the anger has to dissolve by itself. You understand what I am saying?
So like you know, when we say that “I’m angry” or “I’m upset” that it is already the result of being angry that’s quite far already. I mean, you already reach at the edge of the mountain on the side of the volcano, you are not on the edge of the island, you are on the other side, on peak of the volcano. When you say “I’m angry” and all these things, the effect of the anger is already done. You know?
So what I’m trying to say is that, in order to dissolve our negativities, emotions, we have to recognize “how to deal with our projection of thoughts”, you know? Because the projection of thoughts creates the reality, our perceptions, you know, what we want to believe.
Like an example, you say “Ah this person says something like this to me” and then you try to define the very word of that person said. You believe that word exists right? You say “that person said this to you”, “said this to you”. And then you’re saying that that person has insulted you, angered you. You believing it.
So if you’re believing it, that means it has to be … ; it has to be real. If it is real, then define that is real, in your state of mind, define that the anger came from that person, travelling and entering your body. Obviously, you don’t see that. There is no such thing as anger travelling from the other person like some sort of a bubbly thoughts and dissolving into your crown. There is no such thing, we all know, but yet we believe that that person causes me to get angry. There is no anger travelling, how do you call it, hundred miles per hour and entering into your body but we believe. We believe because we feel it, we feel it because we have a false identity of self. When we have a false identity of self, and then, with a lack of clarity, with a lack of awareness, and then everything pollutes but everything from within. Anyway not go in that direction.
Let’s go back to the anger topic. So when somebody criticizing you, you believe that person criticizes you, say something very bad. And then what I usually do, is that I examine if I’m about to be angry. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t do anything. I’m about to be angry. And then I define the very sensation of the anger “Does the anger exist in that person? Does that anger exist something in between the person and myself? Does the anger exist into my mind? Because I say I’m angry? and then how I define it? Does the anger look round, circle, in terms of geometry, in terms of wave, How does it exist, truly? Is it in the brain? Is it in the heart? Is it in the mind? Is it in my limbs? Is it in my kneecap? I don’t know, you know.” So you examine. You don’t examine like “Oh yeah, all the masters have said that no such thing exists”. You don’t go to that direction of solution. Don’t do that. you know? Make your own conclusion; make your own analytical understanding; that is very important.
If you go in the direction “Ah this master said it, that master said it, obviously it doesn’t exist” it’s a good excuse to ease the pain. But it is not really a good result in the long run. Because you did not have your own conclusion. So therefore it is very important to recognize the very sensation of the anger; and when you examine the very existence of the anger then you understand the very sensation and the origin of the anger comes from the aggression. And the aggression comes from the state of the illusion of mind and the illusion of the mind comes from the state of the ignorance.
The definition of the ignorance comes from the absence of clarity of mind. So when there is absence of the clarity of the mind and that creates the very reality of the ignorance. And due to the state of ignorance, Ignorance does not mean you’re stupid, it just simply means absence of the clarity, absent of wisdom, let’s put it like this, you know? So that’s something very important, you know.
I’ve been in the situation many times to be angry, many many many times. But each time when I encounter this kind of circumstance, then I always examine the very sensation of the anger and I examine “I believe that I’m angry, I believe that I’m upset”. And I define it further and further and further, then you reach to the conclusion, you say “Ah it doesn’t exist in that sense” and therefore I meditate. So then it’s how you can calm yourself down.
Just like that if you have a jealousy, same thing; just like that if you have any other sort of emotional difficulties then you examine, meditate, examine, meditate, these two has to combine together, not separate. So that’s that.
So I’m going back to the recognizing to the projection of thoughts.
“རྣམ་རྟོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཕྲོ་ན་ལམ་གྱི་སྐྱེས་པ་ལ་ངོ་ཤེས། འཔྲོ་རྦད་ཀྱིས་བཅད་ལ་བཞག།”
“nam tok na tsok tro na lam gyi kyé pa la ngo shé atro bé kyi ché la zhak”
The second cycle is this one. Whenever the projection of thoughts is arisen and then you simply gaze and look at the projection of thoughts. And then as you look at the projection of thoughts, and the projection of thoughts dissolves by itself.
And then of course, there will be another projection of thoughts, another projection of thoughts, another projection of thoughts, obviously. So whenever you’re having other projection of thoughts again and again, and then you can do the breathing exercise again, like you breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. And then being in a state of non-grasping, this is not a Buddha nature or all this, it is simply a non-grasping, so non-grasping state of mind. The projection of thoughts arises, look at the very image of the projection of thoughts that you believe that is there.
Look at that without any regret, without any exaggeration. Because the way to dissolve the anger is to dissolve without exaggeration. And then sometimes we, as a Buddhist practitioner, we are dealing with our anger and emotions in a very terrible way. Because we say “Ah I got so angry and I’m terrible” and we exaggerate ourselves from what it is. And exaggerating from what it is, is never the way of dealing with anger. Way to deal with the anger is to see it as it is. If you project more than what it is, it is succeed of the very existence of the anger.
So never exaggerate, whether you are able to overcome, whether you are unable to overcome, either way do not tell yourself that “I am terrible, I am a bad practitioner” none of that, don’t do that. Because then you are making the false bubble, you’re making the bubble, you’re making the illusion of the anger much more than what it is. So that is not really helpful the next time when you encounter certain, some sort of a discomfort emotion.
“འཔྲོ་རྦད་ཀྱིས་བཅད་ལ་བཞག། དམིགས་སྐོར་གཉིས།”
“atro bé kyi ché la zhak mik kor nyi”
So now that’s the second cycle.
Second Meditation
When various thoughts suddenly arise, recognize them immediately, vigorously cut them off, then settle [in natural repose].
༄༅། །ཕྱག་ཆེན་གའུ་མའམ་རང་བབས་རྣམ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་བཞུགས་སོ།།
“phyag chen ga’u ma’am rang babs rnam gsum zhes bya ba’i khrid”
Instructions for Great Seal of the Amulet Box or The Three Facets of Natural Repose
by Taranata
Niguma’s “Amulet Mahamudra” by Kalu Rinpoche (morning session – 55′ 10”)
Kagyu Sukha Chöling – Friday March 11, 2022
Comments are closed.