Cultivation of Awakening

Very often, I ask my disciples: “What, in fact, are you cultivating in practice? To what extent are you cultivating? If one cultivates concentration, then ‘where’ is that concentration fixed, and ‘what’ is it doing there? If the mind is only capable of remaining in concentration, then it becomes a stagnant mind—a mind obscured by afflictions. For example, when we are sunk in afflictions, we become fixed within those afflictions and are unable to emerge from them. If, even in places of delusion, one is able to awaken, then there will be no further rebirth in samsara. How, then, do we put cyclic existence to an end? We must strive to ensure that at all times, we do not fall into confusion and delusion, that each thought remains luminous and clear—this is what is called being vividly awakened, attaching to nothing.

Everyone must clearly understand that at every point of contact we should maintain a contemplative awareness that is luminous and unobscured, rather than being rolled about within ignorance and growing ignorance. “All conditioned dharmas are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like dew and lightning. Thus should one contemplate them.” This verse speaks precisely of such a breakthrough. We must not stray away from this view for even a single moment. All our actions and thoughts must carry through this understanding. Yet often, once we get occupied with tasks, we forget mindfulness: we think only in terms of our own ignorance. As soon as we are busy with work, we forget about Dharma; we forget that all conditioned phenomena are like dreams and illusions. What then remains is only the ignorance of greed, aversion, and ignorance—along with calculation, competition, pride, and self-attachment.

At all times, we must observe our intentions: Are there thoughts of pride? Are they motivated by greed? When interacting with others, do we have patience and compassion? How can we cultivate patience toward situations, toward others, and toward ourselves? Do we habitually criticize others? Do we delight in gossip and disputes? Do we enjoy creating problems? Do we habitually harm others? At that very moment, we must become aware of our own intentions. If such thoughts arise, by what methods do we eliminate pride, remove greed, dissolve aversion, and allow the mind to become empty? When the mind can be free from fixations, it will be at ease and unconfined in all circumstances. When we can remain alert and responsive, unobstructed in all situations, and never fall into confused attachment, then after one year, two years, three years of gradual practice, the “samadhi of emptiness” will naturally be realized, and one will possess the capacity to liberate oneself from cyclic existence.

If we do not even entertain the concepts of greed, aversion, and ignorance, the mind will not store them, and we can attain a samadhi of ease and freedom. Dharma practice must integrate and synthesize one’s thoughts and actions in order to reach a state that is unobstructed, unarising, and unceasing, and to return to suchness as it truly is. Otherwise, everything one does remains at the level of ordinary, worldly thinking patterns—without the perspective of emptiness, without the habitual transformation of consciousness into wisdom—and one simply revolves endlessly around trivial, petty matters. The teaching of “being able to realize emptiness in everything” is something people refuse to adopt; the realm of “entering all that is truly real” is somewhere they refuse to enter. So what, then, is to be done?

The instruction I give you is the “cultivation of awakening”—the cultivation of vigilance. The “cultivation of awakening” means to grow and become stable within the midst of activities themselves, rather than constantly seeking to escape. Where, after all, could you escape to? For a practitioner, there is nothing from which to run away. To run away is to turn away from awakening, to distance oneself from liberation, to keep away from true suchness, and to flee great freedom and profound stability. The more you give of yourself, the more you approach selflessness or egolessness; the more you let go, the more you move in the direction of liberation. If you spend the entire day mired in your own afflictions and melancholy, you will only become more entangled in “you” and “me.” When there is non-conception, non-abidance, and notionlessness, one experiences this state everywhere. This is precisely what is meant by “luminous awareness that is unobscured.”