Perception | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Logic and Relative View

January 11, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Perception”

The Buddha never really bothered to address cosmological questions. It is true that in the Vajrayana tradition there is a cosmological history that is given, but to my understanding that history does not teach us how the original assumption came about. This cosmology speaks of the absolute void, and it says that from the void came movement. In the way that it is spoken of, one understands that the void is the totality of form and formless as one. They are the same. They must both be contained in the void because form came from the void. Emptiness and fullness are the same taste, the same essence, and the nature is pregnant with all potential. In the state that is called the void there is non-distinction. Form and formless are not distinguishable from one another; they are the same. They are the same taste.

However, we do not perceive form and formless to be the same. Neither do we experience the clear luminous nature that is our own true nature and is also the nature of all phenomena. Why don’t we experience that?

We don’t experience that because we are involved in consciousness. We are involved in taste; we are involved in feeling; we are involved in subtle and gross perception. And this process, this entire process of elaboration and exaggeration that extends from every single perception that we have, is so elaborate it extends, seemingly, forever. We are so involved and so tremendously tripped up by and so compelled to compute instantly, because consciousness deals with relativity and specific perception and specific computation. We are compelled to be involved in that. We do not, then, perceive the true nature.

When you compute in the way that I have described, as quickly and as compulsively as you do, while you are utilizing these experiences which are a function of the assumption of self, there is no space to perceive that nature.The nature hasn’t gone away, nor has the void disappeared. The void isn’t something that used to be back there in time out of mind and now it’s not here anymore because everything developed. This is how we think, isn’t it? We think in terms of relativity. That space, that emptiness, that voidness is the same. It remains. It is steadfast. It is unchanging. It is as close as it has ever been and as far as it can ever be. Close because voidness is the nature. Far away because we cannot see it, not even for an instant, due to the functions which are based on an assumption of self-nature.

What conclusions can we draw from this? Perhaps we can think that there is a tremendous amount of intelligence and logic in the Buddha’s teaching when he taught that the relative view, the relative world view, does, in fact, exist. You, in fact, exist. The world exists. Relative view exists. Yet, the nature that is your nature, that is the nature of all phenomena, that is the nature of the world, that is the same nature of both form and formless, that nature is the true nature. One cannot say that because you perceive yourself to be real and your experiences to be real that one can then deny the truth of your primordial wisdom nature, the nature that is really you.

Perception and Consciousness

January 9, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Perception”

Think of the experiences that constitute our lives and then single them out. For instance, we certainly have the experience of form, and we have the experience of that which is formless. We have the experience of touch. We have the experience of taste. We have the experience of hearing. We have the experience of sight. We have the experience of smell. We have the experience of consciousness. We have the experience of the perception that one computes, such as the perception of time and space, as well as the perception of sense, such as internal sense. We have the perception of immediacy and distance, on both an emotional and a physical level. We have many gross and subtle perceptual avenues. Perception of some kind is an experience that we live with constantly.

Each one of these experiences is extremely compelling. It is compelling beyond what can be easily described. What I mean by compelling is not in the gross sense that we think of, like, for instance, an alcoholic might be compelled to drink alcohol or a really thirsty person might be compelled to drink water. It isn’t that kind of compelling. It’s more subtle, but it’s extreme, it’s very strong. For instance, if I pick up this object I am compelled to compute it. I can’t not compute it. I have to compute it. I pick it up, and I immediately have the experience of how big it is, of how hard it is compared to my hand, of how hot or cold it is compared to my body, compared to my temperature, my own body temperature. The sense of color compared to what? Compared to my own color. All phenomena are relative to my perception of self. It’s extremely compelling. The moment I have this kind of contact I immediately compute it in this most compelling way, and I can’t help myself. I can’t come between myself and that computation. The inability to come between yourself and that computation is the lack of spaciousness that is the karma of our minds. There is no space. There is the immediate fixation, compulsive computation of the relativity factor, the relativity between self and other.

Now, when I have any kind of awareness, subtle or gross, when I have any sense of time and space -such as I have a sense of being in this chair, being so far from you, of being halfway through my talk, it’s nighttime, these things – this kind of perception is actually a conglomeration of many different factors that have come together. It takes a tremendous amount of computation to have this kind of perception. It’s tremendously complicated. Usually, all of the senses are used. The air feels different. Not only is it dark but things sound differently. Things happen differently at night; usually you don’t come here this way during the day. Many different things must take place to compose – and I mean the word “compose “– the experience that I’m having.

There’s also a general awareness of a process of distinction, or a process of differentiation, that constantly occurs. You could call that process, that awareness, consciousness. Consciousness, as we understand it, is a specific consciousness. This consciousness that we have is a very specific function. You cannot have consciousness without, on some level, computing relativity because consciousness is specific awareness. By the way, you really should not use the word consciousness when you talk about the nature of mind. That’s done commonly, and it really is not correct. You should not think you want to move into Buddha consciousness or that you want to have primordial consciousness. Consciousness is specific, and the state that we speak of when we speak of the primordial wisdom state or when we think of the Buddha nature or when we think of an awareness that is non-specific, is pure and undifferentiated. It is free from any such contrivance as specific “-ness”.

Even when you have experience in your meditation that feels like it’s very vast and you’re congratulating yourself on how vast that experience just was and you’re so impressed with the vastness of your experience and you think that you’ve surely attained cosmic consciousness or something like that, under those conditions – probably especially under those conditions – the consciousness is extremely specific and computes relativity. Consciousness means that I am conscious. I am having this experience. To be able to have this experience requires consciousness.

So what is this consciousness a function of? This consciousness is a function of the assumption of self. One cannot have consciousness, or taste, or feeling, or any kind of subtle or gross perception, without the assumption of self. The assumption of self comes first. The main thing that’s confusing about this point is that you want to know, well, who is having this assumption? Who is having this consciousness? Who is having this taste? I am. I am conscious. I have feeling.

Anybody want to test feeling? We’ll give them the old Ahkön Lhamo test for feeling. If you think that you are beyond feeling, I have a pin somewhere on my undergarment that I can take out very quickly and there you go! I will show you that you have feeling.

So what is your answer? Who has consciousness? Who’s conscious? Who’s having this feeling? Your answer has to be, although you’re terrified to say it: I am. You are, aren’t you? Can you doubt that? Can you say that you can’t see? Only if you close your eyes, but they have to be your eyes that you close. You are conscious.

Pure Form – Deity Generation

January 14, 2017January 14, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

We are involved in Vajrayana. We go much further in our practice than this thinking about nature and this going around in circles and this logic and this theory and this philosophy. We go further than that. We actually engage in practices in which one generates oneself as a pure consciousness form, which is the deity or the particular Buddha that you generate yourself as when you do your practice.

Let’s say that you generate yourself as Chenrezig. Chenrezig is a pure consciousness form. He displays and demonstrates all the pure qualities and activities associated with the deity. The emphasis associated with Chenrezig is indicated by his posture, his color and the things that he’s holding in his hands. In generating ourselves as this pure deity form, we have in our hearts the seed syllable surrounded by the mantra. The seed syllable, the mantra and the deity all emerge spontaneously out of shunyata, or the void.

We do this in Vajrayana to indicate something that is a very important aspect of this teaching and of our practice. First, it is important to understand the philosophy and the logic associated with the Buddha’s teaching because [then] one can knock down the dependency on the perception that defines self and other. One can break up a good deal of the rigidity associated with the automatic involvement in these extensions and exaggerations of perception. One can break up the experience of perception itself through meditating and contemplating on the illusory quality of self-nature. One can meditate on emptiness and try to find self in every object in the world and, perhaps when one is finished, one can lay down the game in a sense. After doing all this, one would have attained a certain degree of awareness of emptiness and also an awareness of the emptiness of self-nature, and an awareness of the emptiness of the nature of phenomena. Then one’s mind could become stable in that it would not be so automatically involved in the processes that are functions of the assumption of self. Yet, is that the same as supreme realization? Is that as far as it goes? Do you break down things, and after you’ve broken them down, sort of sit there with them?

Perhaps we can come to understand that, in Vajrayana, we are given something else, and that something else is very hard to describe. It is recommended that we do the above process, but it’s also recommended that we meditate on shunyata. It’s recommended that from that meditation on shunyata we arise spontaneously as this pure form. What is a pure form? A pure form is actually a form that is an illusory image of a self, an entity, which is based on the assumption of emptiness. It is not based on the assumption of self. You are based on the assumption of self. Everything about you is based on the assumption of self. All your karma is based on the assumption of self. Everything you see, everything you feel is based on the assumption of self. But this pure deity form arises from shunyata and arises as the seed syllable, as the mantra and as the form itself, bearing all the pure qualities, all the pure attributes and all the pure activities of an illusory, gossamer-thin form that arises based on the assumption of emptiness.

So we do not stop with the assumption of emptiness or with breaking up the ordinary view and perceptions; but rather, we, in generating ourselves as the deity, have an even more profound experience of emptiness. Because the deity arises from the voidness, shunyata, you should meditate on emptiness before you generate yourself as the deity. The seed syllable that is the first birth is the condensation of the body, speech and mind of such a pure form. It is based on the assumption of emptiness. It has in it all the qualities that arise spontaneously from that awakened state, condensed into the seed syllable. The mantra is the same, having all the activities and qualities that arise spontaneously from this empty state, from shunyata. So from that, we are led to believe that one should not stop merely at breaking things down so that the game no longer computes, but that there is a more profound state. There is a more profound awareness that allows for miraculous birth. It allows for a miraculous birth in order to bring about miraculous activity, in order to demonstrate miraculous qualities such as compassion, which is completely consistent with emptiness, the same as emptiness, united with emptiness, inseparable from emptiness. Through this practice, through this miraculous birth, we actually purify our perception. Not through breaking down the game alone, but through actually utilizing these condensed manifestations of emptiness, one’s perception is purified to realize the illusory quality of all phenomena, to realize the union, the sameness of formless and form, to realize the spontaneity of experience and to realize also the infallibility of pure view.

You should then practice every single practice that you do, and examine for yourself and contemplate and meditate as you have been instructed, with the understanding that in every generation, in every accumulation of any kind, you should try to realize the profound, incredible opportunity, if you will, to go beyond that into the astonishing pure view and to realize for yourself that the generation of the deity is the same as emptiness.The deity arises from emptiness, it indicates the assumption of emptiness and that you also arise from emptiness. Yet the mistake that you make is the assumption of self. Every compulsion comes from that. Every perception comes from that. Every experience that you have and all experiences that you have had are artificial constructions that come from that. Every piece of your lives, your experience, your consciousness, even the senses, if you think this way, cannot be trusted, because they are based on a false assumption.

This is why you have the opportunity to generate yourself as the deity and to practice this profound method. It is so you can view the sameness, the suchness, the purity, the pristine luminosity that is the nature of all phenomena, as well as of the self. It is so you can view the indistinguishability between the two based on the assumption of emptiness.

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Perception”

The Trap of Intellectual Satisfaction

January 2, 2017January 2, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Perception”

So, if you are conscious, does that lead you to the assumption that self-nature is real? Yes, it does. Of course it leads you to the assumption that self-nature is real. What are you doing here if you don’t think self-nature is real? I mean, be real. Why are you sitting here listening to this teaching so that you can attain realization in order to benefit beings? The whole thing is built on the assumption of self being real. I mean, you go to work every day. Would you go to work if self wasn’t real? It doesn’t make any sense at all, does it? Would you go through what you go through if self wasn’t real?

So, self is real. Where we get into trouble is when we try to find self. If you go through the process that I have described, and if you really do it diligently, if you follow that process and follow it faithfully, you will become extremely confused because then you will not know who is being confused. It will be clear to you, very clear to you, that self is not to be found.

Well, what do you do with this, I mean, really? What you’re supposed to do with this is meditate because if you try to do this with your brain, first of all, you’ll be crazy within a week. It simply won’t work. You can come to some conclusions. One thing about the Buddha’s teaching is that the philosophy is extremely appealing to the intellect. A lot of what the Buddha taught was made for very intellectual people. It was made to be sifted through and reasoned out intellectually. The Buddha’s instructions were that we should not practice anything that’s not reasonable to us and intelligent, so you must reason it out for yourself. There are even some arguments that are used about reincarnation. One can sum it up by saying that to have only one lifetime that continues into infinity is about as logical as postulating a stick with one end. It’s not logical. It does not seem as though it could be possible, or it does not seem as though it could be realistic.

So when it comes to this kind of philosophy that we’ve been learning about, one should really think on these things. Let’s say that we contemplate a little bit on this, and we come up with the dilemma that our experience is very real. I am having an experience, there’s no denying it and yet, when I come to find self, I cannot find it.

So, we might, because we’re Westerners, and because this is a habitual tendency of Westerners, and also because we are confused and deluded and sentient beings, we might want to get into this meaty kind of inner dialogue with ourselves. We might want to say to ourselves, “If I can’t find self and yet I am clearly feeling and touching and tasting and smelling and I clearly am conscious, what is happening here?”

Now if I listen to the Buddha’s teachings, and I say to myself, “Well, the Buddha teaches us that this is all a function of the assumption that self is real. Everything that I perceive seems extremely real to me, and yet it is a function, just like my fingers are a function of my body. In that same regard and with that same directness, these experiences that I’m having are actually the extensions of perception that I’m having, and the perceptions themselves are actually a function of the assumption of self. Yet, I can’t find the self, and the Buddha said, in fact, my nature is empty of self.” We might get into the trap of trying to figure out who made the assumption.

Don’t you love that question? You would love to hear the answer. What if I told you that if you paid me two hundred dollars apiece I would tell you the answer to that question. You might do it! But actually, the Buddha did not teach, really, the answer to that question. The Buddha recommended that we don’t waste our time concentrating on our ability to compute and understand some occurrence that, perhaps or perhaps not, happened in time out of mind. He recommended that we do not waste our time with philosophical questions. And the reason why we should not waste our time with such philosophical questions is that they do not lead to enlightenment, or in fact, to growth of any kind.

To have these questions answered and to be satisfied with them, one plays with them in the intellect. One uses them as toys. They’re interesting baubles to juggle. Every moment that you juggle these interesting baubles, you increase your awareness of consciousness, you increase the awareness of intellect, you deepen the self-cherishing, the clinging to self-nature as being inherently real.