These words from 16th century Tibetan lama, Dakpo Tashi Namgyal point directly to our own divine nature. To sit in This ... from This ... as This ... The View is revealed. This view is the pure, clear, natural state of all beings. When we come back in to This ... life is perfect, just as it is.
The first instruction: "Elevate your experience and remain wide open like the sky ..." is to be elevated into the Eternal Vastness. From here, all and everything is witnessed in complete clarity and surrender. We know nothing yet we Know all things.
To Know without knowing. We look out from this elevated view and nothing but Presence in Pure Being is witnessed. This is the vast and eternal clarity of who and what we really are, always have been and always will be. This is the Truth of Now.
"Expand your mindfulness and remain pervasive like the earth ..." To be pervasive like the earth is to awaken to the beyondness yet natural hereness of our infinite nature.
As This, we are nothing, yet we are everything and as both nothing and everything we are eternally present in all places and beyond place. This that we are gives birth to place.
This is the abode of the Eternal Vastness, the "Hereness" of our eternal presence.
"I Am Here" ... where else can we possibly be? Always, forever, already here. And, wherever we place our attention - there/here we are.
"Steady your attention and remain unshakeable like a mountain ..." For This that we are, to become our constant felt reality we are to allow for the simple instruction to be "unshakeable attention ... like a mountain ..." This allows for the Eternal Vastness to become a constant in our lives, moment by moment.
By moving into this unshakeableness "like a mountain", nothing will ever throw us, as all will be embraced and welcomed as part of its own kingdom. This mode of being can be reached in an instant. It's closer than our heartbeat and never more than a breath away. With clear intent, one breath will realize this position, it's as simple as breathing in and knowing that in this moment we are absolutely free ... and able to be all that we truly are, making ourselves available to the Eternal Vastness completely. And if it can be done in one moment, it is done! If we can realize ourselves even in one breath ... we have realized ourselves! As Thich Nhat Hanh said, if we touch enlightenment even for a single moment we are enlightened in that moment and, we know beyond a shadow of doubt who and what we are as the Eternal Vastness ... "unshakeable like a mountain ..."
"Brighten your awareness and remain shining like a flame." To know once and forget however is not enough, for we are to Know, really know in each and every moment. This requires a willingness to live in our depths ... to live in the full clarity of our own effulgence. We are to light our own way, to carry or become our own lamps, as the Buddha said.
In moving into This that eternally shines through us, to move back into the One that breathes life into all life, we are to bring in the "Bright" that is our own true nature. And by giving loving care and attention to the Light that awakens all, without and within, we allow for its brightness to expand into the deep fire of love that's always burning as the Eternal Flame.
"Shine like a flame..." raises us to our source and also brings the freshness of daylight ... the clarity of sunshine, into all the dark hidden places that we neglect to acknowledge. As we shine bright like a flame, nothing escapes us ... all that's been created is seen and released, allowing for life to live and breathe unhindered, unobstucted, unobscured. Be the Eternal Flame that you already really are.
"Clear your thought-free wakefulness and become lucid like a diamond ..." Beyond all thought and even in thought ... or, as thought, our "thought-free wakefulness" always, forever is. This is who and what we truly are. The instruction here is not to remove thought but to clarify what is really going on within our own consciousness .... what is right here before us now. We don't need to transcend thought or elliminate thought but to discover, to realize that who and what we truly are is this "Thought-free wakefulness" that allows for everything, including thought, to be.
So many struggle with their own minds, trying desperately to clear their heads of all the thoughts, believing this will lead to the liberation they are seeking.
What's really being asked of us here is to clarify our awareness by realizing how truly free we already are and have always been. Thought is not the enemy ... come back to the deep clarity of your own "thought-free wakefulness" and you are already, always eternally free ... with thought or without it.
This is the last thought ... the final thought that leads to liberation: No longer believe in any thought and you are free ... "Become lucid like a diamond."
1 comment:
Hey Leo!
Thanks for sharing your insights on "The Five Instructions".. powerful stuff! I got a lot out of your post, & yet, I know I've only just scratched the surface
Dino :)
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