This blog is about spiritual awakening, maps and stages, the blinding effects of our strong momentum/conditioning (karmic propensities), view, realization, experience, etc. If you're new here, I recommend going through the 'Must Reads' articles (see sidebar). For discussions you are welcome to join the Awakening to Reality Facebook group
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Feedback:"The shortened AtR guide is very good. It should lead one to anatta (the experiential realization of no-self) if they really go and read. Concise and direct." – Yin Ling
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This is the original 1300+ page document on which the practice and abridged guides are based.
"I also want to say, actually the main ATR document >1200 pages helped me the most with insight... ...I did [read] it twice 😂 it was so helpful and these Mahamudra books supported ATR insights. Just thought to share." – Yin Ling
"To be honest, the document is ok [in length], because it’s by insight level. Each insight is like 100 plus pages except anatta [was] exceptionally long [if] I remember lol. If someone read and contemplate at the same time it’s good because the same point will repeat again and again like in the nikayas [traditional Buddhist scriptures in the Pali canon] and insight should arise by the end of it imo.", "A 1000 plus pages ebook written by a serious practitioner Soh Wei Yu that took me a month to read each time and I am so grateful for it. It’s a huge undertaking and I have benefitted from it more that I can ever imagine. Please read patiently." – Yin Ling
ATR Guide preview
Listening Guide
Listening to PDFs on Various Devices
How to download PDFs and listen with text-to-speech (TTS).
iPhone (iOS 18+)
Download & unzip: In Safari, download the ZIP. Open Files → Downloads and tap the .zip to extract.
Add to Books: In Files, select the PDFs → Share → Books (may appear as “Save to Books”).
Listen with Speak Screen:Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak → Speak Screen → turn on Speak Screen (and optionally Show Controller / Highlighting). Open the PDF in Books, then two-finger swipe down from the top, press Play on the floating controller, or say “Siri, speak screen.” Adjust Voices & Speaking Rate there.
Android
Download & unzip: In Chrome, download the ZIP and extract in the Files app.
Open a PDF: Use Drive PDF Viewer, Acrobat, etc.
TTS options: Turn on Select to Speak in Settings → Accessibility (voices/speed under Text-to-speech output), or use an app like @Voice Aloud Reader.
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Open the PDF in Microsoft Edge.
Click Read aloud (or press Ctrl+Shift+U).
Use Voice options to change voice and speed.
Adobe Acrobat Reader: View → Read Out Loud → Activate → choose a mode; voices in Preferences → Reading.
A reader recently sent me a message sharing that they experience everything as "just particles." John Tan responded:
Not everything is just particles; even that concept must be deconstructed without falling into nihilism. This realization comes when we understand how the vividness of luminous clarity and mental designations are enough to fabricate a vivid world of things that appear so "solidly real."
— John Tan
Further Discussion on Relationality and Emptiness
Mr. CG: “Relationalities are the very texture of appearance… There is no background mirror… the interdependent contrasting reflections themselves are the mirror.” To me it sounds like he subtly reifies relationality. But there is no inherent relationality to be found. Maybe I misinterpret.
Soh Wei Yu: He does not reify relationality, but sees this point clearly:
Yin Ling · Tsongkhapa short verse on his profound enlightenment to the truth. ***
In a short verse work composed as a letter to his first attendant, Tsakho Ngawang Drakpa, Tsongkhapa would articulate this crucial point about the equation between emptiness and dependent origination:
When, with respect to all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa,
You see that cause and effect never transgress their laws,
And when you have dismantled the focus of objectification,
At that point, you have entered the path that pleases the buddhas.
As long as the two understandings—
Of appearance, the regulated world of dependent origination,
And of emptiness, the absence of all standpoints—remain separate,
You have not realized the intent of the Sage.
However, at some point when, without alteration and at once,
The instant you see that dependent origination is undeceiving
If the entire object of grasping at certitude is dismantled,
At that point your analysis of the view is complete.
Furthermore, when appearance dispels the extreme of existence,
And when emptiness dispels the extreme of nonexistence,
And you understand how emptiness arises as cause and effect,
You will never be swayed by views grasping at extremes.
John Tan: This is perhaps the most important point for me post anatta insight. So profound and deep.
Yin Ling: John Tan yes and you emphasise this repetitively so thank you.
John Tan: Yin Ling yes. Tsongkhapa is familiar with emptiness free from all elaborations in traditional tibetan schools and in fact in his earlier days, he accepted this view. But many in the traditional schools see the ultimate that lacks sameness or difference, i.e, non-arisen of "sameness" of "difference" as literally "no" sameness or difference thinking that "oh ultimately they are just conceptual notions". Instead, Tsongkhapa pointed out that this "unestablished" free from elaborations means dependent arising, dependent on conditions, "this is, that is".
Soh Wei Yu:
“EMPTINESS DEVIATING TO THE BASIC NATURE Timeless Deviation to the Nature of Knowables
The meditation of inseparable phenomena and emptiness is called “emptiness endowed with the supreme aspect.” Not knowing how emptiness and interdependence abide in nonduality, you decide that emptiness is a nothingness that has never existed and that is not influenced at all by qualities or defects. Then you underestimate the cause and effect of virtue and vice, or else lapse exclusively into the nature of all things being originally pure, primordially free, and so forth. Bearing such emptiness, the relative level of interdependence is not mastered. In this respect, this is what is known as mahamudra: one’s basic nature is unoriginated and, since it is neither existent nor nonexistent, eternal nor nil, true nor false, nor any other such aspects, it has no existence whatsoever. Nonetheless, its unceasing radiance arises as the relative level of all kinds of interdependence, so it is known as emptiness having the core of interdependence and interdependence having the nature of emptiness. Therefore, emptiness does not stray to the nature of knowables. In the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way it is said:
Anything that doesn’t arise dependently
Is a phenomenon that has no existence.
Therefore anything that is not empty
Is a phenomenon that has no existence.
And as said in the Commentary on Bodhichitta:
It is taught that the relative plane is emptiness,
And emptiness alone is the relative plane.” – The Royal Seal of Mahamudra, Volume 2, Khamtrul Rinpoche
“A lot of talk on here lately about how lame relative reality is vs how awesome ultimate reality is.
Apparently an omniscient master is supposed to see how both the relative and the ultimate exist at the same time in a Union of Appearance and Emptiness.
It's because everything is dependently arisen that it can be seen as empty.
Not even the smallest speck exists by its own power.
Je Tsongkhapa said, "Since objects do not exist through their own nature, they are established as existing through the force of convention."
He was the biggest proponent of keeping vows and virtuous actions through all stages of sutra and tantra.
He also leveraged the relative by practicing millions of prostrations and offering mandalas.
He also practiced generation and completion stages of tantra while keeping his conduct spotless.
He held conduct in the highest regard in all of his texts on tantra such as his masterwork, A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages.” - Jason Parker, 2019
The birth of certainty ~ Lama Tsongkhapa
The knowledge that appearances arise unfailingly in dependence,
And the knowledge that they are empty and beyond all assertions—
As long as these two appear to you as separate,
There can be no realization of the Buddha’s wisdom.
Yet when they arise at once, not each in turn but both together,
Then through merely seeing unfailing dependent origination
Certainty is born, and all modes of misapprehension fall apart—
That is when discernment of the view has reached perfection. – Lama Tsongkhapa
Soh Wei Yu: Longchenpa on Nihilism. From Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind.
Those who scorn the law of karmic cause and fruit
Are students of the nihilist view outside the Dharma.
They rely on the thought that all is void;
They fall in the extreme of nothingness
And go from higher to lower states.
They have embarked on an evil path
And from the evil destinies will have no freedom,
Casting happy states of being far away.
”The law of karmic cause and fruit,
Compassion and the gathering of merit -
All this is but provisional teaching fit for children:
Enlightenment will not be gained thereby.
Great yogis should remain without intentional action.
They should meditate upon reality that is like space.
Such is the definitive instruction.”
The view of those who speak like this
Of all views is the most nihilist:
They have embraced the lowest of all paths.
How strange is this!
They want a fruit but have annulled its cause.
If reality is but a space-like void,
What need is there to meditate?
And if it is not so, then even if one meditates
Such efforts are to no avail.
If meditation on mere voidness leads to liberation,
Even those with minds completely blank
Attain enlightenment!
But since those people have asserted meditation,
Cause and its result they thus establish!
Throw far away such faulty paths as these!
The true, authentic path asserts
The arising in dependence of both cause and fruit,
The natural union of skillful means and wisdom.
Through the causality of nonexistent but appearing acts,
Through meditation on the nonexistent but appearing path,
The fruit is gained, appearing and yet nonexistent;
And for the sake of nonexistent but appearing beings,
Enlightened acts, appearing and yet nonexistent, manifest.
Such is pure causality’s profound interdependence.
This is the essential pith
Of all the Sutra texts whose meaning is definitive
And indeed of all the tantras.
Through the joining of the two accumulations,
The generation and completion stages,
Perfect buddhahood is swiftly gained.
Thus all the causal processes
Whereby samsara is contrived should be abandoned,
And all acts that are the cause of liberation
Should be earnestly performed.
High position in samsara
And the final excellence of buddhahood
Will speedily be gained. - Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind (vol 1)
Also by Longchenpa:
"To reject practice by saying, ‘it is conceptual!’ is the path of fools. A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided.” — Longchenpa
Mr. TJ: John Tan do you consider this most crucial post-anatta insight fundamentally different from the other post-anatta insights discussed at length on the blog? Such as +A/maha/total exertion or spontaneous perfection? Does anyone other than Tsongkhapa and his followers clearly point to it?
John Tan: Mr. TJ no. It does not differ +A and -A, the natural openness requires that understanding. Tsongkhapa is profoundly insightful and revolutionary in certain sense, unfortunately I am not familiar with his other followers. However in my opinion what Tsongkhapa expounded cannot be understood by analysis alone, we can't logically deduce or induce what he said, it can only be experientially authenticated.
12 APRIL 2021
Malcolm (Acarya Malcolm Smith):
MMK refutes any kind of production other than dependent origination. It is through dependent origination that emptiness is correctly discerned. Without the view of dependent origination, emptiness cannot be correctly perceived, let alone realized. The MMK rejects production from self, other, both, and causeless production, but not dependent origination. The MMK also praises the teaching of dependent origination as the pacifier of proliferation in the mangalam. The last chapter of MMK is on dependent origination. The MMK nowhere rejects dependent origination, it is in fact a defense of the proper way to understand it. The only way to the ultimate truth (emptiness) is through the relative truth (dependent origination), so if one’s understanding of relative truth is flawed, as is the case with all traditions outside of Buddhadharma, and even many within it, there is no possibility that ultimate truth can be understood and realized.
John Tan: The DO part is really good. When did malcom say that? Recently or in the past?
Soh Wei Yu: I see. https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36315... from above. The others from here https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=36283...
John Tan: Many misunderstand that oh ultimately it is empty and DO (dependent origination) is conventional therefore conceptual so ultimately empty non-existence.
We must understand what is meant by empty ultimately but conventionally valid. Nominal constructs are of two types, those that are valid and those that are invalid like "rabbit horns". Even mere appearances free from all elaborations and conceptualities, they inadvertently manifest therefore the term "appearances". They do not manifest randomly or haphazardly, they are valid mode of arising and that is dependent arising. When it is "valid" means it is the acceptable way of explanation and not "rabbit horn" which is non-existence. This part I mentioned in my reply to Andre.
Do you get what I meant?
What it means is there is still a "right" or "acceptable" or "valid" way to express it conventionally. Take freedom from all elaborations for example, it doesn't mean "blankness" or "anything goes". There is right understanding of "freedom from all elaborations" that is why Mipham has to qualify that it is not "blankness", it does not reject "mere appearance", it must be understood from the perspective of "coalescence"...and so on and so forth. Similarly, there is right understanding of "arising" conventionally and that is DO (dependent origination).
So when we clearly see how essence = true existence = independence of causes and conditions are untenable for anything to arise, we see dependent arising.
John Tan has started uploading videos to his YouTube channel, and we have created a new AtR page to collect his YouTube videos and related audios here:
The current materials include teachings and pointers on dependent arising, emptiness, anatta, post-anatta insight, the vividness of appearances, dependent designation, freedom from extremes, and the experiential understanding of how emptiness and dependent arising are not separate.
John will continue uploading more videos in the coming days, weeks, and months, so please keep checking back. The page will be updated as more YouTube videos and audio materials become available. Remember to hit Subscribe to John Tan’s YouTube channel!
2. Awakening to Reality blog redesign
The AtR blog has also been redesigned with a new Cosmic Dawn Dharma Library Theme. Unique design by Soh for Awakening to Reality.
The desktop version now looks more refined and spacious, with a clearer article area, improved sidebar presentation, better search visibility, and a more contemplative purple-gold visual theme.
There is also now a proper mobile-responsive version. On phones, the site is much easier to read, with a compact “Start Here” / library preview near the top, while the full AtR Dharma Library remains available after the article.
Special thanks to Nafis Rahman for testing, and to both Nafis and William Lim for pushing me to finally implement proper mobile responsiveness. Without their feedback, I might have kept postponing it.
3. Updated Awakening to Reality Practice Guide + the Longer Original AtR Guide
The Awakening to Reality Practice Guide and the Longer Original AtR Guide have also been updated. Both the English and Chinese versions have been refreshed.
The guides remains one of the best starting points for those who are new to AtR, especially for understanding the stages of insight, from I AM to anatta and emptiness, and practice orientation in a concise and structured way.
Please feel free to share these resources with anyone who may benefit.
The Light Was Already On: Eden on No Background, No Watcher, and Instant Presence
This is a transcript of a conversation with Eden, shared with permission. Eden wrote: “Totally fine! My name is Eden” and “Honored to be on the blog!”
Note: This version has been lightly converted from chat-log style for readability using Prompt 8: obvious typos, punctuation, capitalization, and shorthand have been cleaned, while emojis, technical terms, quoted passages, links, chronology, speaker identity, and substantive meaning are preserved. A closed Zangthal / AMS screenshot is intentionally omitted from this public transcript, and one cut-off screenshot line is marked.
1. The lack of doer-ship that links and co-ordinates experiences.
Without the 'I' that links, phenomena (thoughts, sound, feelings and so on and so forth) appear bubble-like, floating and manifesting freely, spontaneously and boundlessly. With the absence of the doer-ship also comes a deep sense of freedom and transparency. Ironical as it may sound but it's true experientially. We will not have the right understanding when we hold too tightly 'inherent' view. It is amazing how 'inherent' view prevents us from seeing freedom as no-doership, interdependence and interconnectedness, luminosity and non-dual presence.
2. The direct insight of the absence of an agent.
In this case, there is a direct recognition that there is “no agent”. Just one thought then another thought. So it is always thought watching thought rather than a watcher watching thought. However the gist of this realization is skewed towards a spontaneous liberating experience and a vague glimpse of the empty nature of phenomena -- that is, the transient phenomena being bubble-like and ephemeral, nothing substantial or solid. At this phase we should not misunderstand that we have experienced thoroughly the ‘empty’ nature of phenomena and awareness, although there is this temptation to think we have. :-)
Depending on the conditions of an individual, it may not be obvious that it is “always thought watching thought rather than a watcher watching thought.” or "the watcher is that thought." Because this is the key insight and a step that cannot afford to be wrong along the path of liberation, I cannot help but with some disrespectful tone say,
For those masters that taught,
“Let thoughts arise and subside,
See the background mirror as perfect and be unaffected.”
With all due respect, they have just “blah” something nice
but deluded.
Eden / 李亦登:
I watched all of John Tan's videos and then made a transcript of the one titled “Reality Isn't Made of Things” to share with a friend, and then I read over it again.
I was about to fall asleep and was reading this again for the 100th time, but the second part hit me.
Eden / 李亦登:
It's just thought after thought after thought, no constant background.
Eden / 李亦登:
It was clear that my way of “being in rigpa” was just conceptuality, a thought confirming and still going on undetected.
Eden / 李亦登:
Until I saw it, how silly, how could that thought be any of this? How could it ever stain this? So much easier and simpler and so obvious, but it was totally unclear before when I read that second part.
Eden / 李亦登:
You said:
"From a letting go perspective, "a watcher watching thought" will create the impression that a watcher is allowing thoughts to arise and subside while itself being unaffected. This is an illusion; it is 'holding' in disguise as 'letting go'."
Exactly what was happening.
Soh:
Do you experience instant presence?
Eden / 李亦登:
Yes, it's so immediate.
Eden / 李亦登:
I get why it's called instant now.
Eden / 李亦登:
It's so intimate, so close, right here.
Soh:
What is it like? Before yesterday, did you also experience presence, and what was it like?
Eden / 李亦登:
It feels like fully inhabiting all senses, no residue and no film in between.
Eden / 李亦登:
Before, I thought I did experience instant presence.
Eden / 李亦登:
But now I see it was still a fabrication, a subtle reification of a watcher.
Eden / 李亦登:
I still needed to put effort in, to maintain something that I had thought was it.
Eden / 李亦登:
Now it's effortless.
Eden / 李亦登:
Like, pervasive, so obvious, no effort needed. Clear, like there's nothing wrong and nothing to do.
Eden / 李亦登:
Before, I had to go through the mental motions of “oh, I'm going to be in instant presence,” and then I was also subtly grasping at an idea or thought of how it was supposed to be. But now it's just immediate and instant, like if I were to flip a switch, but the light was already on. Full contact already.
[Closed Zangthal / AMS [Ācārya Malcolm Smith] screenshot was shared privately here and is intentionally omitted from this public transcript.]
Eden / 李亦登:
The past few days, I've been trying to understand what AMS [Ācārya Malcolm Smith] meant when he pushes back against “candle illuminates itself,” because I didn't understand what was wrong with it. But then I came across this post today and reread it, and it didn't really click until I reread ATR.
Image shared: WhatsApp with John Tan, 10:56
John Tan:
The video? That was from the anatta article.
Soh:
Yeah, he quoted your article.
John Tan:
Then he gets what?
Soh:
I think he saw no background.
Soh:
Before that, he talked to me about presence, but it sounded I AM.
Soh:
His previous I AM awakening was through Dzogchen practices and teachings.
John Tan:
I see. Post-anatta, one has to have all those mini experiences of total exertion as undivided activity in experience.
Then work on maturing deeply the view due to the desync of view and experience to overcome cognitive obscurance. Otherwise, effortlessness and natural spontaneity are impossible by insights and experiences alone.
👍
John Tan:
It is not easy to clearly understand the relational view correctly and apply the logic.
Soh:
I was reminded of something:
Soh:
What John said here in 2013, highlighted part.
Image shared: 2013 transcript / page 2069 of 2487
John Tan:
Awareness aware of itself soon becomes dead.
The measure of one's depth is in the ineffability and marvelous manifestation in activity. Anatta and emptiness cannot be dead.
Soh Wei Yu:
I see.
John Tan:
Every time I go on tour, my Awareness just heightens multifold.
Soh:
Cool, your anatta breakthrough was also in Korea.
Soh:
I mean the first two lines: “Awareness aware of itself” and “The measure of one's depth.”
Eden / 李亦登:
Yes, exactly. The awareness of awareness is just what I was doing before. It felt like what everyone was talking about, but it was the difference between the idea of openness and the vivid, ever-changing experience of openness that is absolutely not dead.
Eden / 李亦登:
It's more like, “What the hell is this? What is going on?”
Eden / 李亦登:
What does he mean by “maturing deeply the view due to the desync of view and experience”?
Eden / 李亦登:
“The mirror is not perfect; it is the happening that is perfect. The mirror appears to be perfect only to a dualistic and inherent view.”
Absolutely true. Before, I was still reifying awareness as a state to be in, even though I knew not to. It was so, so subtle but ended up just being another thought. It was a thought that tried to make reality a kind of way, still subtly getting distance from everything and trying to control subtly. But the happening is already perfect; there was nothing to fix or to control or to change about all of this at all.
Eden / 李亦登:
I read this right before going to the anatta article. I'll reread it again.
Soh:
Yeah, you should read the whole article again. Also, the relevant part starts from:
The
Philosophical Foundations of
Classical rDzogs chen in Tibet:
Investigating the Distinction
Between Dualistic Mind (sems) and
Primordial knowing (ye shes)
John Tan: He goes on to point out
that self-occurring primordial
knowing lacks most of the qualities
associated with the Yogacara
svasaṃvedana - its [message continues, but the screenshot cuts off here]
Image shared: WhatsApp with John Tan, 11:20
John Tan:
Yes, that is experiences and insights, but our view itself is still inherent. This means that whenever we attempt to logically analyze or understand, the conceptual mind becomes immobilized.
This habitual way of understanding and analyzing runs very deep and is the default framework for orienting our world.
This is the desync between insights, experiences, and the view we deeply hold.
When our conceptual mind encounters teachings like Nagarjuna Madhyamakakarika, the mind just immobilizes and can't understand anything.
It can't see how past, present, and future contradict. How causal efficacy is maintained, how eight extremes are overcome from a non-substantialist standpoint.
It is like when I asked you the question two decades ago: this moment ceases as it arises, does it arise or cease?
Eden / 李亦登:
It's like he's reading me. 😭
I was just reading Chandrakirtis Madhyamakavatara before bed and then stopped because all my mind was doing was becoming immobilized. Before reading John's message, I thought that was the whole point of Madhyamaka; but, as he says, I don't think it is, because they obviously understand something, and it's not just a paralyzed mind.
Eden / 李亦登:
What they understand, though, I don't know. I will have to deepen the view.
Eden / 李亦登:
Thank you, Soh. I get what desync is now.
Eden / 李亦登:
I will continue to read. 🙏 Endless gratitude to you and John Tan.
10:30
Soh:
Is it okay if I share this conversation on the ATR blog? I can also anonymize your name if you prefer.
You must understand the way happenings are expressed through our language—specifically, how verb-like events or vivid happenings are articulated.
For instance, in thinking, there are only thoughts; there is no thinker. Or, as in Madhyamaka, there cannot be a thinker without thoughts, and no thoughts without a thinker—they are neither the same nor different.
This is how the conceptual mind, which can only operate using discrete parts, fragments and expresses that which is fluid and seamless. However, over time, the mind "mistakes" and reifies these conceptual parts, believing them to be "real," independent, and separate entities.
We must understand exactly what sort of self Buddhism is negating. It is negating the Atman or Brahman type of self—an inherent self. That is, a self that is separate, independent, and unchanging.
The conventional self is not negated. Therefore, even agency—such as Karen Barad’s concept of the "agential cut" (from the book Yin Ling introduced to me and the conversations I had with her)—is not negated.
Hi Longchen,
我可以看见空性知见与你的非二元经验同步——整合知见、修行与经验。这就是我们空性本质的精髓,也是佛教中对非二元经验的正确理解,不同于不二吠檀多的教导。这也说明为什么“一切即一实相”包含因、缘,以及我们空性本质的光明性,三者为一且不可分。“一切即一实相”绝不应从二元/自性成立的立场来理解。
摘录:
Daniel M. Ingram 写道:https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/318001#_19_message_319167
……至于那些疯狂的经验,以下是一份很短的清单:以我的心移动火焰,并伴随着非常像《捉鬼敢死队》式的能量冲击,那股力量移动了火焰;无尽的出体经验和清明梦经验,其中有些是直接从坐垫上出去又回到坐垫上;准确预知我妻子四年后会发生车祸;听见和看见各种各样的东西(从英国妇女在客厅里聊天说电视新闻,到星期天早晨某些传道人谈论我住的佛寺中的佛教徒都会下地狱,以及许多许多其他东西);有非常深刻且极具解释力的过去世经验;有一些类似双处显现的经验;能够把我的“鬼手”伸进墙里,并且所有觉知与感受知觉都体现于那只手中,而不是我通常的身体中;能够召唤出超越性高潮的喜乐在身体中滚动;在开车回家路上,在我还不可能看见鹿要冲到我前面之前,就知道要踩刹车减速;能够让人做或停止做各种事情(这里是非常灰色的道德地带);能够看见并操控我身体中的能量脉道;有时能在电话响起时知道是谁打来的(其实很多人都能这样);驱逐一两个恶魔(不论那是什么意思);还有无尽疯狂的 A&P 现象,我的身体爆炸成能量和像烟火一样的经验、强光、闭眼也能看见、震动、旅行,以及许多其他怪异的事情。还有更微细的魔法:以远距离正式施设的意向,使某些情境在某些参数内解决;能够感受我帮忙按摩背部的那个人所感受到的东西,以及疼痛在哪里;发愿让各种禅那经验发生,或获得入流等等;身体、房间、情境、互动、谈话中的一般微细能量操控;还有更微细的事:关于事情将如何发展、在某个情境中该做什么或不该做什么的奇异直觉。有时候,甚至我写的音乐似乎也是自己冒出来的、像是不请自来的,显得有魔法感;但那大概不是你所追问的。
许多人相信‘灵能现象’是罕见天赋或神圣恩赐。另一些人则完全不相信它们存在。但最新的科学研究显示,这些现象既真实又普遍,并且是我们所处这种相互连接、纠缠的物理实相不可避免的结果。阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦称纠缠为‘鬼魅般的远距作用’——两个物体在初次互动很久之后,仍然跨越时间与空间保持连接,而不以任何常规方式通信。类似的心灵纠缠是否能解释我们表面上的灵能能力?意识科学研究所(Institute of Noetic Sciences)资深科学家 Dean Radin 认为,也许可以。
在那一世作为西藏僧人,这意味着他肯定已经皈依、发过菩提心愿等等。但这并不意味着他能在那一世解脱,因为多数人并不能。也不是说他证悟了无我或空性,或证得初地等等。事实上,他记得自己在那一世西藏僧人的生命中只证得了 I AM 证悟,而那是他第一次进入灵性修行的生命(此前那些过去世发生的事件,则导致或造成他随后生命中的灵性追寻;这里我就不展开)。
在紧接着的上一世,他没有遇到佛教,而是转生在西欧,我相信是法国。他在第一次世界大战中于战壕里作战,并重新经历了一幕,意思是那种经验极其真实、生动,好像他又“在那里”一样;在那一幕中,他能回忆起自己跑过战壕,停顿一会儿,想着自己的妻子(我想是这样),那是一个悲伤的场景。这在他身上造成了一些创伤,并解释了他今生对战争的焦虑;而他对过去世的回忆帮助他解决了这些创伤。在那一世,他也只是证悟 I AM,并涉入神秘主义,这解释了他今生在遇见 John Tan 之前与神秘团体的联系。
拥有 I AM 证悟并不能保证某种对投生/轮回的掌握之类。它甚至不是初地。话虽如此,Sim Pern Chong 确实回忆起某种潜意识层面(他称之为“阿赖耶”)在此生出现之前,对投生的规划或蓝图。我自己也曾有过那类印象,一个短暂印象,关于我此生化生/投生的灵性目的,好像有某种计划或目的。但我当然不是某种高层次存在的有意识化身、完美无缺、从出生就开悟。(更新:关于成为化身,慧律法师表达得很好,他大概这样说:
“那些大师和老师,为了激发‘信心’,制造或明知而允许这种印象——无论他们自己明说,还是允许弟子继续这样说——即他们是伟大菩萨的化身,这是在造严重过失。”
我同意他,而且我觉得这很邪教化、令人厌恶。我永远不会让任何人神化我。
我拒绝给任何人留下我是某种化身的印象——这种行为完全是邪教式的。
当我向 John Tan 提到这一点时,他也同意;他自己说“这很重要”,甚至建议我在发表关于他的陈述时,要确保绝不神化他。)
Soh Wei Yu:*如 John Tan 以前也说过:“ATR 洞见是看穿自性,只是其 praxis 即修行方式,是通过毗婆舍那——特别洞见——的直接方法。看穿作为背景的自我,并不是通过分析。当那被看穿时,一个人在经验上会不费力地非二元,因为没有主体可与之‘二元’。无自性与非二元在单一跃入中同时显现,但这并不意味着一个人已经彻底根除戏论。因此《中论》有助于做到这一点。所以这不是要废除概念性,而是一个看穿自性的特别洞见。”
John Tan:去读 Sam Parnia 医生。他很好,像 Ian Stevenson 一样……他是医生、心脏病专家,不像精神科医生……他每天处理死亡……处理心脏骤停和被宣告临床死亡的人……而且在自己的领域受尊敬。与其读 Sam Harris,不如读他。
Soh Wei Yu:我准备去买 Ian Stevenson 的书。
John Tan:就像当你研究 Ian Stevenson 和他的助手所记录的过去世经验时……去读他助手的叙述……如果我没记错,他的助手已经去世,只是为了取得一些真实叙述。不要那些胡扯的东西。OBE 和 NDE 不是那些看见光隧道……感到平静……或给松果体区域通电以诱发某种经验……我感兴趣的是 Sam Parnia 博士所谈的那些叙述。血液停止……脑活动停止……没有任何登记记忆或任何感官功能的可能性,因为从临床上来说是不可能的,因为他是心脏病专家,处理如何把人救回来……他需要知道当时当地各种迹象……我们谈的是急诊室中生命与死亡、试图复苏生命……不是作为学者谈这个那个、讲故事。
Soh Wei Yu:明白……Sam Harris 谈 Ian Stevenson 时说:“要么他是极其精心骗局的受害者,要么确实有某种有趣的事情正在发生,”Harris 说。“多数科学家会说这不会发生。多数人会说,如果发生了,那就是骗局。……很难看出为什么有人要制造骗局——每个人都被这个[异语症]现象弄得很痛苦。”追问之下,他承认某些细节毕竟可能“有问题”。
John Tan:意思是?
Soh Wei Yu:我想他认为 Ian Stevenson 的研究也许令人信服地暗示轮回,但他仍有疑虑。
John Tan:总会有怀疑,因为他是怀疑论者……而 Ian Stevenson 的书是科学研究,不是科学。他是科学家,但明白科学不能证明那样的东西,只能做验证。
Soh Wei Yu:明白……
John Tan:除了验证,还能怎样证明过去世?不同于 OBE 经验,在那里“死亡”的医学定义很清楚,人们开始把人抢救回生命……听真正领域专家的话很重要。
Soh Wei Yu:明白……我想 OBE 的问题是,他们可能怀疑 OBE 是发生在医学死亡之前或之后的瞬间。但我看不出他们如何解释在 OBE 中准确目击医疗程序这类事情。
John Tan:不是要你去想。去 YouTube 听 Sam Parnia。有一些我喜欢。
Soh Wei Yu:明白……好。
John Tan:只有三种方式:其一是听受尊敬的专家;其二是凭宗教信仰;最后是自己通过修行亲身体验。怀疑主义对我来说和凭信仰接受一样胡扯。我的方法两者都不是。
Soh Wei Yu:明白……
John Tan:修行,并听受尊敬的专家。我也喜欢 Peter Fenwick 医生。还有另一个 Pim Van Lommel 医生。
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