• Don’t project outwardly
• Don’t concentrate inwardly
• Don’t keep a state in between
• Totally give up any mental effort

Urgyen to me was the most effective Tibetan teacher

he was expert in multiple lineages

he understands this subject so he can describe it quickly and thoroughly using less words

some of these snippets are me paraphrasing his teachings so go buy his books like I did lol

normally I advise finding information online for free but these are worth having physical copies, and richard gere commissioned them which is cool

do not add to it (there is no meditator)

when thoughts occur, turn awareness onto the thinker and observe the thinker & thoughts return to the emptiness they came from

do not cling to existence or non existence, rest between, life is naturally dream like

dependant origination - examine causes not symptoms

The Tibetan variety of Buddhism is full of jargon.

Urgyen was skilled at condensing it.

There are links in this slideshow where you can research more.

Dzogchen, the ultimate view is to relax into nondual awareness

you need to be able to dissolve dualistic mind in nondual awareness

the training in recognizing mind essence is this: short moments repeated many times

Direct Introduction to Rigpa

• rigpa definition
• rigpa is a fundamental layer of wisdom

everything in the video is also in Urgyen's books which have more context

these are my notes combining both which I try to make more readable for my own comprehension

Namtok

• The Tibetan word for thought is namtok.
• Nam means the perceived forms of the five senses and the mental objects.
• Tokpa means the concept formed about what is perceived.

Twofold Ignorance

• coemergent ignorance - is simply to forget (the pure nature of mind)
• conceptual ignorance - comes in the moment after forgetting, forming thought after thought.
• If these two were purified, we would be buddhas.
• as long as the coemergent and conceptual aspects of ignorance are not purified, we are sentient beings.

thought free

• IS THERE ANYTHING MORE FANTASTIC THAN BEING TOTALLY FREE OF THOUGHT?
• non-duality - no ego - no self
• before it happens we don’t believe that this is really it
• because it’s too easy There’s nothing more easy than this
• nothing else can stop thoughts

no self

• the very moment that you TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO WATCH YOUR OWN MIND
• it is evident that it is simply and empty cognizance with no thing whatsoever
• Don’t think of anything and totally ABANDON THINKER AND WHAT IS THOUGHT OF
• Dissolving of subject and object is the pure form of the deity
• In other words, disown everything

• the very moment of seeing your own nature
• in the instant or a second afterwards there is no thought
• yet there is a seeing of that because mind is also cognizant
• these are the primordial original unity of being empty and cognizant

• In other words, disown everything
• Dissolving of subject and object is the pure form of the deity

as it is

• Whatever moves or occurs in the realm of your ears in sound or the sounding whether pleasant or unpleasant
• just let be in the continuity of the sound being emptiness because no matter what you are hearing in the sound it is indivisible from emptiness

• Don’t project outwardly
• Don’t concentrate inwardly
• Don’t keep a state in between
• Totally give up any mental effort

• This is what Padmasambhava said in the seven-fold supplication
• no matter what appears in the field of your vision for your eyes, the world and so forth
• even though experienced just let it be without any fixation

• If you just let it be, it naturally dissolves
• It dissolves naturally into dharmakaya—erm

• introduce wakefulness
• don’t do anything to it
• accept or reject
• hope or fear
• That is sufficient

uncontrived

short moments

• You need to train in that: short moments, many times.

rigpa

• remaining like this everything is vividly experienced
• The empty resounding beyond arising and ceasing is the voice of the victorious ones

ignorance

• to not to be distracted for even a second
• Being distracted is the same as forgetting
• if you start to investigate and label you are involved in thoughts
• forgetting your nature is ignorance
• there are two types of ignorance

• thinking means our thoughts of this and that
• Do not get involved in concepts, leading or following
• by leading you’re thinking to yourself

• it is said on the path of distraction the demon is lying in ambush
• The moment you look towards and acknowledge empty cognizance,
• that is called having recognized.

• there is the continuity of empty cognizance
• which you don’t need to fabricate in any way

• don’t forget it
• Once you forget and start to think then continuity is lost
• The moment you look, empty cognizance is seen and recognized

• allow the continuity of this seeing to continue and be sustained automatically
• for an ordinary person, again a thought occurs.
• remember, “Oh, I forgot!”
• again notice who forgot and simply recognize (the empty cognizance) again and again
• you arrive back in the state of recognizing your natural face

• That doesn’t mean sitting and straining trying not to be distracted.
• It’s like ringing the bell once and the sound continues.
• It doesn’t mean ringing the bell continuously.

• Once the continuity fades,
• that means we start forgetting and we get involved in thought.

• Then again we notice “Oh, I forgot! I got carried away.”
• Then, alright, go towards and again you’re back recognizing and again there is natural stability in the continuous state of empty cognizance.

We have learned to live in this life through training, how to move about…We have to train while involved in the activities of this life, to move about… For example while eating, you taste the food, then we start to think about the food and then notice, “Oh, I got carried away!” Again, recognize while eating. That moment, you arrive back vividly in the state of the essence.

Then you forget again, get lost, you know while walking about, moving around…you can still recognize Buddha Nature…when you lie down to sleep, if you are diligent also recognize again…when you sit, recognize…actually, there is no time when you are not allowed to recognize nature of mind, even when you sit on the toilet.

It is said like this, in the naked state of dharmadatu, which is unimaginable, relax in incredible state of awareness, a thought occurs, it arises from yourself and dissolves back into yourself.

Any thought that occurs is your own expression, comes out of your own essence. It is only when forgetting the essence that the “expression” takes the form of a thought.

But the moment you recognize your own expression, it arises out of yourself, dissolves back into yourself, meaning dissolves into the expanse of the essence. This is what we need to train in, to become used to.

There is no other meditation or object or act apart from that as much as dust mote, even. But, if you forget and get distracted, you are involved in thoughts.

So please train in this. That is the practice. This is what rinpoche (Padmasambhava) taught in the past and today he has nothing to say besides this.”

• padmsambhava prayer

Twofold Ignorance

• coemergent ignorance - is simply to forget (the pure nature of mind)
• conceptual ignorance - comes in the moment after forgetting, forming thought after thought.
• If these two were purified, we would be buddhas.
• as long as the coemergent and conceptual aspects of ignorance are not purified, we are sentient beings.

development and completion stage are to be practiced as a unity the two are indivisible

Development stage is spontaneous presence completion stage is primordial purity

notes

this is a book on the development stage of vajrayana

When recognizing mind essence, don't do anything to it. Allow it to be as it is; the moment you get distracted, remind yourself again to recognize. When recognizing, leave it in naturalness.

When forgetting, remind yourself. That is the training in essence. By training thoroughly in this way, discursive thinking will gradually grow less and less, and moments of thoughtfree wakefulness will grow longer and longer.

When this nonconceptual wakefulness lasts one hour, you have attained the level of an arhat. When it lasts throughout the day, you have attained the level of a bodhisattva.

When it is uninterrupted day and night, you have become a fully enlightened buddha. There is nothing more precious than this.

If you train in this, you could be a cow herder and still be liberated. If you don't train in this, you might be a great scholar and still remain in delusion.

notes

this book is about the completion stage of vajrayana

great perfection

ati yoga

final steps in vajrayana

ground

• essence
  • emptiness - trekcho
• nature
  • cognizance - togal
• compassion
  • unconfined, unobstructed all-pervasive

Trekcho is to simply acknowledge that one's innate essence is empty. Togal is to recognize that the natural display is spontaneously present. They are not our creation; they are not produced by practice. There is no imagining of anything in either trekcho or togal.

• trekcho
• rigpawiki

Togal

Togal is to recognize that the natural display is spontaneously present. They are not our creation; they are not produced by practice. Without cutting through with treckcho, you can't directly cross with togal.

• rigpawiki

Throughout all these stages, keep renunciation, bodhicitta, the purification of obscurations, the gathering of the accumulations, and devotion to the guru as the foundation of the path. Remain in mountain solitude, limit your speech, pay attention to cause and effect, acceptance and rejection, and act towards everyone impartially and with a pure heart. This is crucial.

vajra - qualities

• invulnerability
• indestructibility
• reality
  
• incorruptibility
  
• stability
  
• total unobstructability
  
• total invincibility

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