QUESTION
Dear Ven. Robina-la,
First of all, thank you for the recent teaching on emptiness. It was really useful; some points you talked about in a fresh way for me which was very helpful. Thank you for that.
You explained mahamudra has two steps – first concentration, and second wisdom. I don’t understand the instructions for the second stage, what to do there.
On some intellectual level I understand it’s similar to the first point in the four-point analysis. In the four-point analysis it’s conceptual, and this makes sense to me, but I don’t understand how to do that in a non-conceptual way. How is it different than simply watching the mind in the first step of mahamudra?
Kind regards,
R
ANSWER
Good to hear from you, R.
Okay: there are two approaches to realizing emptiness – lamrim and mahamudra; and there are two ways of using the two modes of meditation (calm abiding and special insight).
Actually, the description of the object to be negated in the lamrim is the same for both; that doesn’t differ. It’s the way we investigate this object to be negated that is different.
In the lamrim approach you first learn the theories about emptiness and then get the experience of the truth of them in meditation.
This is actually how we learn everything, isn’t it? First the theories – cooking, carpentry, everything – then we experience them in practice.
In the mahamudra approach it’s the opposite: you first go straight to meditation to get the experience of emptiness: no theories.
Lama Yeshe’s book, Mahamudra: How to Discover Our Own True Nature, describes all this beautifully.
As Panchen Lama says in his text, which Lama uses as his basis: “Between the two approaches of (1) seeking meditation [on calm abiding] on the basis of the view and (2) seeking the view on the basis of meditation [on calm abiding], the explanation here follows the second approach.”
This is actually quite sophisticated, although to our ears it sounds easy. “Oh, good, no theories, just meditation!” But imagine even in just the making of a cake not learning the recipe but going straight to the ingredients and attempting to intuit how to use them. Not easy at all!
The irony is that the only person who could do this is the one who’s already intimately familiar with the theories. Same with mahamudra, I’d say.
Which doesn’t mean we beginners can’t try. Lama certainly encourages us to.
In the book, Lama takes us through the meditation process.
Simply speaking:
The lamrim approach
- Using whatever method you like, use calm abiding meditation to gain some concentration.
- Now go to the special insight mode of meditation and, using that concentrated mind, do whatever analysis you’re working with, such as the dependent arising of the self, to prove the emptiness of self.
During that process, the analysis might trigger an insight. You stop the analysis and revert to the concentration mode but this time you concentrate on the insight, holding it, no thoughts.
When it wavers, go back to the analysis.
So it’s back and forth like this. The deeper the concentration, the more profound the analysis, the more profound the insight and the longer we can hold the concentration on the insight — until one day it becomes an actual nonconceptual realization.
The mahamudra approach
- The object of concentration in calm abiding meditation is the clarity of the mind, its nonphysicality, the conventional nature of the mind, which as Lama describes it is actually quite subtle.
Remember, the definition of mind is “that which is clear and which knows, or cognizes” – “clear” refers to its nonphysicality. Sometimes, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama points out, that “clarity” is referred to as “luminosity,” which, as His Holiness says, is why the mind can cognize.
That’s quite subtle, so we start by focusing on simply whatever arises in the mind: the thoughts. That’s it. Eventually the object becomes the clarity, the luminosity.
- When the concentration is stable, you’d now go to the second mode of meditation, the special insight mode.
The difference here is that you never leave the concentration on the mind. You’d stay there continuously: you never waver from it. And you don’t use analysis.
So while you are concentrating on the mind, as we discussed, sort of like out of the corner of your eye you’d try to catch how the self appears; how it feels, if you like.
You never stop focusing on the mind, you stay there continuously, and you use your mindfulness fish, as Lama calls the subtle wisdom that’s doing the looking – taken, of course from what Panchen Lama refers to as the small fish moving in the water without disturbing it, to catch the way the self appears.
Something like that!
Anyway, read Lama’s book: it’s so helpful.
All the best, R!
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Robina,
Thank you so much! This is very helpful, both for mahamudra and for the traditional approach. I’ll try to apply it.
I’m reading Lama Yeshe’s book again and trying to slowly apply.
Thanks again!
And happy new year and birthday! I hope you’ll have a wonderful year.
Kind regards,
R