Awakening the Luminous Mind: Tibetan Meditation for Inner Peace and Joy (17 page)

Let’s continue with the example of you and your boss. You go to work and try to be present with the discomfort of the situation with your boss. You hold stillness and feel protected. You hold that spaciousness and feel good. Now at some point you are able to engage with your boss from that open place. You feel quite good talking and engaging. “Wow, this is amazing. Now I feel quite good with my boss.” You lose the motivation to continue to connect with spaciousness, because you are feeling okay. As a result of the practice you feel spacious and open and clear and comfortable, but that experience becomes just another object of ego if you lose the connection to the base, the mother, the space. Clear light is not union for you anymore. You had it, then you lost it. You lost it because you were grasping it.
Clear light is union
is the antidote to what we don’t have when we lose it.

So be aware of the space as you engage in the activity of life. Maintain the connection between the space and the action, the experiencer and the experiences, the base and the appearances, emptiness and clarity. To maintain that experience is very important. Simply put: when you are dealing with things, continue to be aware of space. When you are aware of spaciousness and can deal with a situation and not get caught up or lost in the activity, but can continuously refresh and maintain awareness of the space, that is
Clear light is union
in everyday life.

I
N
C
ONCLUSION
: C
LEAR
L
IGHT
I
S
U
NION

We get so caught up in objects or the imagination that ego created, and yet, when we realize our state of being caught up, it dissolves. Remember at this point to see who is looking—that also dissolves. That becomes empty. Is everything empty? No, it is clear light. We realize the experience of awareness. We can get caught up in the vividness of our experience, and so we say
Clear light is union
. There is no separation between the emptiness of experience and the vividness of experience. Each realization leads you to the next, which illuminates places where you might go off course, and then, guides your practice back into connection.

CHAPTER EIGHT

U
NION
I
S
G
REAT
B
LISS

Union
refers to openness and the awareness of openness. As mentioned before, openness is the mother and awareness is the son or child. Openness, the mother, is emptiness. Clarity, the child, is awareness. Openness is sky; awareness is sunlight. Sky and sunlight are not separate. Openness is not separate from awareness of that openness. It is not that union itself is bliss, but from that union, from that recognition of openness, bliss arises.

The notion of pain body, pain speech, and the pain mind—the whole existence of your personality and characteristics—is caused by not knowing your true self. The definition of not knowing yourself is ignorance, which is the root cause of suffering. But from the union of space and the knowing of space, another experience of yourself arises. That union gives birth to a new sense of self, a new sense of being. That new sense of yourself has a deep quality of bliss—the bliss of infinite qualities. That is what
Union is great bliss
means. Bliss is just one experience. All qualities, such as love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, will naturally manifest from that union, from experiencing the natural mind. If union is experienced, all these qualities will naturally manifest. What kind of experiences would you love to manifest in your life? If you ask the ego, it will make a long list. Ego thinks it needs so much to secure itself. But in this union, what you truly need at any given time or place in your life will spontaneously manifest.

Although the positive, healing qualities will spontaneously become available as we recognize and trust openness, often as we practice meditation we may experience layers to the pain identity. For instance, you may bring your attention to an experience of anxiety or discomfort. As you do so, you become aware of the presence of anger. If you remain in awareness and host the anger, it releases. As it does, you may become aware of an underlying fear. And if you bring naked awareness to the fear and host the fear, as it releases, you can taste an underlying sadness. As you continue to bring awareness to that sadness and host it, it dissolves. As sadness is released, you come to a much deeper stillness, silence, and spaciousness. Once you are in that space and aware of that space, there is a quality of warmth available. You discover it because it is no longer obscured by the pain identity. That is the warmth of that union, which Dawa Gyaltsen refers to as bliss. In that bliss of union, joy naturally arises. Not only can joy arise from that union, but confidence comes from that union—blissful confidence—because the pain body of anger and fear and sadness has dissolved, and the resulting openness that becomes available gives birth to the bliss of confidence. Whenever a painful experience dissolves, a positive quality emerges, as long as you remain in that union long enough. That is how we discover
Union is great bliss
.

So you begin with the famous person who is the apparent source of your pain, and by the end of this practice, the object of pain becomes the discovery of bliss. Your pain becomes bliss. You start with pain and you end with bliss. Of course, you have followed clear and specific steps to become conscious of your pain and bring naked awareness to it, and as a result, the changeable painful body becomes the changeless body of bliss.

The experience of great bliss is born from that union of space and light, openness and awareness. Union is there, bliss is there. The only reason we don’t experience this in our everyday life is that space is occupied with pain body, pain speech, and the pain mind. Thus, we don’t feel the connection, and we are not aware of that union. But as we work in meditation with the five lines of Dawa Gyaltsen’s heart instructions, we come to a deep and clear space in ourselves. At least for a moment we are opening up with the pain body, pain speech, and the pain mind. You are open and you are aware that sky and sun are unified. You feel a sense of awareness of that inseparable state, and you feel a deep sense of bliss and a deep sense of joy. Deep peace is experienced there.

Simply be aware of that warmth, that bliss. You are having this experience because you are in that union, that inseparable state. When that becomes available in your practice, feel it fully. As you bring attention to your heart, and connect with the spaciousness, you can feel the expansion of that bliss throughout your body. It is possible to feel this not by forcing anything, but by simply being aware. As awareness travels, bliss travels. So it is important to feel that expansion through your entire body, and also in the face, where we often hold the expression of our sadness. Once you connect with that sense of union in meditation, you will experience a feeling of warmth. As you bring awareness to your heart, you can feel the expansion of that warmth through your entire body. Awareness, like sunlight, expands, and light will naturally expand beyond the bounds of your body. In this way you effortlessly radiate love, or joy, or whatever quality you are experiencing. Experience the bliss of positive qualities, and invite an experience of the pain body. Bring that sense of joy to the way you identify yourself, and to the ways you experience sickness. Bring bliss there. Become aware of the way in which you talk to people when you are rushed or tense, and feel the bliss radiating through those constrictions. As you become aware, you will hear your voice changing from harsh to gentle. Your inner pain voice will shift its qualities because of bliss. In the same way, the experience of bliss can pervade the habitual negative and depressive patterns of mind you experience. Instead of being vigilant, scanning for problems, or engaged in worried problem solving, you will have more positive, productive, and kinder thoughts that are naturally solution-oriented. In this way, your experiences of your body, your voice, and your mind will transform. Become aware of these transformations. This will encourage and support you to continuously engage your practice.

G
UIDED
M
EDITATION
P
RACTICE OF
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NION
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G
REAT
B
LISS

After reading the above section, you may wish to use the CD to follow the guided meditation. Practice this until you feel a shift and begin to taste the experience of
Union is great bliss
. Additionally, I include instructions below for a meditation that supports the discovery of
Union is great bliss
.

Sit in a comfortable posture. Draw your attention inward. Feel stillness in your body, silence in your speech, and spaciousness in your mind. Just feel stillness, silence, and spaciousness while you feel connected and present in your body. Allow time for this.

Whatever vision you are working on, continue with the same vision and bring it to conscious awareness. Observe that vision nakedly without thought, judgment, or analysis. Observe directly, going closer and closer until it dissipates into an experience that is open like the sky. Be aware and feel a sense of clear sky.
Vision is mind
.

Now look: Who is observing that vision? Who is looking? Look inward; look closer and closer. Look directly, nakedly, until the mind that is looking dissolves. You don’t find that mind; all you find is emptiness, vast space. Rest in that vast space without any effort.
Mind is empty
.

Without falling into or getting lost in vastness, be aware of the awareness of vastness. That is
Emptiness is clear light
. That vastness is luminous because awareness is there. Be aware of that awareness.
Emptiness is clear light
. Be aware of the alertness, vividness, vitality, luminosity of this moment.

Without grasping at that vitality, that light, that energy, be aware of its connection to that vastness, that space, that emptiness. That is what we mean by
Clear light is union
. They are inseparable. Abide in that nondual state, that inseparable state of openness and awareness, emptiness and clarity. Rest there without any effort.

This last session is
Union is great bliss
. Continuously rest in that union, that openness and awareness, feeling completely boundless, feeling this vast, infinite space around and within you, feeling that deep sense of stillness throughout all appearance and forms, feeling a deep sense of silence throughout this awareness, while being fully aware, alert, vivid, and energetic. Resting continuously in that nondual state, gradually experience a sense of warmth, a sense of joy in your heart. Just feel it. Allow it. It is there. That very natural and deep sense of joy is the joy of being, the joy of who you are, and the joy of knowing yourself. That is why we call it
Union is great bliss
. Allow it; you will feel it. As you feel it, allow it to expand through your heart and through the rest of your body, through your flesh, bones, blood, skin, through your face, your eyes—through every cell of your body.

Wherever you may detect the presence of depression or sadness, this inner bliss transforms and blesses those places. Allow the warmth and joy to pervade throughout your body and mind. You don’t have to do anything. Just be aware and feel the natural movement of warmth throughout your body, emotions, and mind.

Allow bliss, like pure medicine, to move through your body wherever you have pain or sickness, or wherever you are concerned about getting sick. Allow the warmth to move and clear those inner obstacles. This inner bliss is medicine. You don’t need to make any effort; just allow it and feel it. It is happening in you spontaneously.

T
HE
I
NFORMAL
P
RACTICE OF
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LISS