– an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Winter 2002
In order to directly experience the nature of mind, during dzogchen practice we try to create certain conditions within the body, speech and mind. We use postures or movements of the physical body, practices of the breath, and the concentration and focus of awareness of the mind.
It is not as if the nature of mind is a separate object, a separate place where you as a subject can take a bus, train or a plane to. It is not like that - there is no place to go, no place to search for the nature of mind. Nor is the nature of mind a form with a particular shape or color that you can experience. If you are searching for your nature in those ways, you will not find anything. That is guaranteed. We are so conditioned to always be expecting to see some THING. It is very, very difficult for us to rid ourselves of the mind of ours that has expectations.
If you go out to find a job, you go with the expectation of finding one that pays well, say. That expectation helps guide your search toward finding the right job for you. In looking for the nature of mind, though, it makes no sense to look with the expectation that you will see something, because there is nothing to see.
Now you may be thinking, "There's nothing to see? Well, that's a little discouraging." Maybe you are curious about what this means. You are beginning to realize that you cannot experience the nature of mind in the same way you can experience your dreams, your thoughts, your feelings, or any kind of form. The nature of mind will not be seen in any of those ways. It is possible that during meditation, sometimes you will see various colors or shapes that are signs or qualities of some experience of, or connection to, the nature of mind, but even these are not the nature of mind.
The introduction to the nature of mind is essentially about creating the right causes and conditions - that's really what it is. In the same way that by placing a mirror in different locations you find that your view changes, so too by putting your body in the right position, your breath in the right position, and your mind in the right position, you are able to simply find your self in that place. But when you find your self in that place, it is not that you are seeing something, it is only that you are being. The moment you think that you are seeing your nature, you are actually not. You see, one of the subtlest obstacles to resting in the nature of mind is not being able to get rid of the seer, the one who sees. Until you get rid of the observer, the perceiver, the subject, the nature remains hidden.
So, you don't create or force the experience of the nature of mind; rather, you can put the proper conditions together for finding your self there. It would be a good idea to look at all that we experience in our lives in that same way - understanding that we can't always achieve the results we want by forcing them, but we can instead try to set up the proper conditions for those results to arise naturally. Often we ignore the advantages of setting up the proper conditions and just struggle to force the result into manifestation.
For example, you want to be happy. So what do you do sometimes? You just try to force yourself to be happy, even though in a relative sense you are simply in the wrong place to support being happy. Let's say you are somebody who has a knack for electronics, who is fascinated working all day long on computers and has so much knowledge about how they work, and yet you may not be able to cook even a cup of tea for yourself. Now, if you were put into the position of being a chef at a restaurant, then that would definitely be the wrong place for you to be happy. So, you don't realize you are in the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong situation, and all you know is that you want to be happy. The location makes you suffer, the situation makes you suffer, the timing makes you suffer, and yet you simply push yourself to be happy. You just cook furiously, and the customers continually are dissatisfied, and eventually the restaurant has to go out of business. That forcing of the situation would obviously be the wrong approach. What should you do instead? Focus your effort on changing the place, changing the timing, changing the circumstances to make them the right ones for being happy. If you do find the right conditions, then you'll be naturally happy. You create the causes for natural happiness rather than futilely struggling to force the result.
Many times in our lives we get stuck simply because we don't know we are trying to force a result that is not supported by our circumstances. We may only be repeating to ourselves, "I want to be happy, I want to be happy, I want to be happy." The added tension created by trying to force your happiness actually tends to worsen your situation. It actually creates the opposite effect, digging you deeper into that unfortunate situation. Do you see how that kind of narrow, result-oriented focus can be a kind of a secret obstacle for us at times?
This is especially true regarding the practices of the nature of mind. So, what is the introduction to the nature of mind? You understand that it is not the same as my saying "Look at this cup" (Rinpoche holds up a teacup). Rather, there are exercises, practices and techniques that all create a space where there is a greater chance to have experience. None of those techniques you learn are the nature of mind. None of those practices are the nature of mind. They are a very skillful means. In one important sense the only time you will have an experience of the nature of mind is when you are not practicing. But you must begin with the practice and then during the session you forget the practice. How can you forget the practice? When you come to the place where there is nothing at all you could call effort, that is the moment when you find yourself in the nature of mind: free from your thoughts, feelings, emotions and conditions, abiding in the space of infinite potential, in which there is a cause for the perfection of every experience that could arise. There is a sense of nothing lacking, because everything is perfected. The sense of longing, lacking, missing, not having enough - none of those experiences are there. On the contrary, there is the sense of being complete, perfected, whole; and you find your self.
So, regarding the introduction to the nature of mind, the important point here is not to get too attached to the techniques or methods, but to work with them so you can create the right position of the body, the right breathing, the right focus of the mind. If you are able to bring together the right conditions of body, energy and mind, then there is no way not to experience your nature. As we always say, there is no power or force that could possibly stop the result when all the causes and conditions are together. The same is true with regard to being happy. If all the causes and conditions for your being happy are together there, you will naturally be happy, and there is no force at all that can stop you from being happy and make you suffer. Likewise, if those causes and conditions are not there, if the causes and conditions are the wrong ones, then there is no force that can make you feel good. That is why the whole notion of cause and effect, or the law of karma, is so important in the dharma.
So, we must develop those causes and conditions that support the experience of the nature of mind without being too attached to the techniques or practices. This does not mean you don't learn how to do the practices precisely; you do learn them - very precisely. However, it's just like an old man who walks from one place to another with the help of a walking stick: His goal is to arrive at the new location, not simply to become attached to the walking stick, right? We also know that if the old man tries to walk there without the stick, for sure he will not reach his goal. Therefore, when walking to the new location he makes sure he has a firm grasp of the sturdy stick that supports him. Once he reaches his destination, the walking stick is no longer important to him. The practices, the techniques, are exactly like that. The methods are exactly like that. They never lose their potential to be of benefit when the need arises, but just don't get attached to them. Is that clear?
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