Wisdom of the Masters
Longchenpa - ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ - Dzogchen
07 Jun 2022
Chapter 1: What are the teachings of Longchenpa on the nature of reality?
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The third Vajra point. Trick of sight. The third Vajra point. Now that it has been demonstrated that phenomena which are by nature like magical illusions are an unceasing display, we must now show how these same phenomena come from nowhere, just like optical illusions or tricks of sight.
Phenomena appear and yet they have no intrinsic being. They arise from nowhere, just like something seen in an optical illusion. It is said in the middle-length Prajnaparamita Sutra Sabuti phenomena are like tricks of sight. By their nature they come from nowhere. This teaching condensed into an essential instruction
is divided into three parts corresponding to ground, path and result. First, by means of the view, we establish the ground which, like a trick of sight, comes from nowhere. Shadows are cast by material forms.
They arise in the shape of these forms, but are different in kind. In similar fashion, there is the radiance of awareness of the primordial ultimate expanse, empty, luminous, spontaneously present. This corresponds to the material form, not recognizing this radiance, being stray into the duality of apprehended and apprehender. And there appear, concomitant with the radiance of awareness,
the five aggregates, the five elements, the five defilements, the five sense objects, the five material sense organs, and so on. They are different in kind from the radiance of awareness, for they manifest as a host of hallucinatory appearances that afflict, obstruct and are impure, and as karma and the five defilements.
So it is that there are the three worlds and six migrations wherein beings circle through the coming together of causes and conditions. Just like shadows cast by material forms, even so are manifold hallucinatory experiences. When the conditions are assembled, the deceptive mechanism of karma manifests. On the basis of false appearance,
Beings turn and wander in a further level of hallucinatory experience. Childish beings who do not understand that samsara is like an optical illusion constantly take it as something real. Their mental consciousness strongly clings to apparent but hallucinatory sense objects, form, sound, smell, taste, textures, all of which are perceived but are without real existence.
Beings are engrossed in sense objects. They hold to I and mine. and thus turn constantly in samsara. They are like children who lose themselves in their games. If one does not understand that the apparent world is devoid of intrinsic reality, one is deceived by it. And even among those engaged upon the path, there are many who are just like childish people.
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Chapter 2: How do phenomena relate to optical illusions according to Dzogchen?
When a small thing appears to be great in size, this is a hallucination. For example, in an immense desert and at a distance A crow may appear to be as big as a yak, and a yak may look as large as a mountain. This impression occurs because the desert is dry and one is in a distressed state, overcome by the heat.
Furthermore, the object is very far away. It is the same in the case of the appearances of samsara. Because of the subtle ignorance of self-grasping, which is the root, one becomes habituated to conceptual ignorance
and to the dualism of apprehending subject and apprehended object. By this means one provides the cause and through various actions one provides the conditions for the various hallucinatory appearances of the outer universe and the beings it contains, which pervade the whole infinity of space.
All this derives from a subtle root, hard to discern. Yet if this same root is examined, it is found to be the utterly pure nature of the mind, which is itself rootless. The rootless nature of the mind is the root of all phenomena. . Because the ground and root are subtle, they are hard to discern and cannot be indicated with words. However,
If one leaves the mind alone without contrivance, it will clarify in the same way that muddy water does when it is left to stand. No one is able simply to annul an optical illusion.
But if the form that triggered the trick of sight in the first place is removed, the optical illusion will no longer occur. In the same way, it is not possible simply to remove the hallucinatory appearances of samsara for the simple reason
that they are not actually existent things. On the other hand, it is through halting one's apprehension and clinging to such appearances that the latter will disappear. When all apprehension or clinging is left to settle in its own nature, all this will be brought to an end. How can the duality of apprehender and apprehended remain when all conceptuality collapses?
Amin. Amin.
Whatever appears cannot be conceived of, expressed or found. Everything within phenomenal existence is like an optical illusion. It appears and yet is devoid of intrinsic being. With regard to the phenomena that appear in the world, one should overcome the partiality of accepting or rejecting them, the assumption of their true existence, and all attachment and aversion
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