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
(Note: If you have opened this file recently, your browser may show an older version. Please press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to force a refresh.)
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
Download links: PDF ·
EPUB
(Note: If you experience formatting issues with Apple Books, we recommend using a third-party reader like eBoox to open this EPUB file.)
(Note: If you have opened this file recently, your browser may show an older version. Please press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to force a refresh.)
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 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.
Windows
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.
宇宙并不离开投射它的诸心而存在;除了我们自心的明空不可分以外,并没有另一个明空不可分可供我们发现。我们能通过三种经验发现自身状态的明知,这一事实证明,我们所发现的是自己心真实状态的明知,而不是别的东西。至于宇宙的实相,正如圣天所说,发现一物的空性,就是发现一切事物的空性;而大圆满续说,知一而解脱一切(gcig shes kun grol)。
“在基(藏:གཞི,Wylie:gzhi)中,有未认出自己的中性识(shes pa lung ma bstan)。(大圆满文本实际上并不区分这种中性识是一还是多。)这种未认出就是俱生无明。由于来自前一宇宙的行为与烦恼习气,基被搅动,五种清净光照耀出来。当一个中性识把这些光认出为自己的展现时,那就是普贤王如来(不经造作善业而即刻解脱)。
好的,你必须明白,《The Crystal and the Way of Light》中一切内容都来自 ChNN 事业早期,那时他还不是用英语教学。当时他使用 John Shane、Barry Simmons 等不同英译者;后来大约在 1988 年,也就是《Crystal》出版同年,ChNN 才转为直接用英语教学。因此,我们不能把该书视为 ChNN 意趣的决定性表达,因为它是从其意大利语原讲翻译后编辑成的讲录。它大体上作为其教法导论有用,但从来不是要成为其教法的决定性陈述。更重要的是,大圆满中根本没有“存在的根本基”(fundamental ground of existence)这样的术语。gzhi 指的是你没有认出的自身本性,仅此而已。它不是 Paul Tillich 神学中的“存在之基”(ground of being);这个术语正是从那里来的:
“后来,当仁波切躺在草坪椅上休息时,他对围在身边的几位学生说:‘你们没有意识到这一点,但我实际上就是 Guru Rinpoche,而你们就是他的二十五位弟子。我已经达到法性穷尽(cho nyi zepa)的阶段。真实地说,对我而言没有色、没有受、没有想、没有行、没有识,没有色、没有香、没有根识或根识的对象等等;没有自他,也没有“佛”与“众生”的区别;一切都安住在本来自然圆满的平等状态中。从我内心深处,我真希望有什么方法能让你们都明白这其中的真理,但你们没有看见。’”
Straightforward Presence
-
I was meditating in my big stuffy purple chair in front of my altar the
other day and i noticed an index card on the table next to me. An … Continue
readin...
At The Drop of This Leaf
-
Well hello there.
It's been quite a few years, I guess. I've come back to this blog time and
again but never really found much to talk about. It seems that...
Buddha alone together with Buddha
-
*Buddha alone together with Buddha*
According to Dogen reality is actualized by ‘Buddha alone together with
Buddha’ (*Yui Butsu Yo Butsu*). Huike, the se...
-
Dharmatā is adorned with vidyā, vidyā is adorned with pristine
consciousness [*ye shes*], pristine consciousness is adorned with
compassion,* also compas...
Words Point To Flow
-
I’ve recently got some emails and blog comments with concerns about the
language I use – how I talk so much about a ‘me’, and how I seemingly
imply a ‘pers...
虛
-
I transmit the Zen Dharma of Absolute Tathata (Suchness). Striking away
all words & concepts, penetrating right to the Heart of Emptiness. Pointing
out ...
Gewahrsein und Gewahrtes
-
Die meisten Leute wissen nicht, was Gewahrsein ist. Dabei ist es sehr
einfach: Gewahrsein ist das, was weiß oder sich gewahr ist, dass gerade ein
Vogel zwi...
A new dawn: the end of co-dependency
-
I dream that everyone would just step back for a few moments and simply
stop investing (read: wasting) time and energy into others and thus start
dealing w...
The Ultimate Nature of Phenomena
-
*Bdcrtgb Rcnrcrrdfvnb*
It is not existent - even the Victorious Ones do not see it.
It is not nonexistent - it is the basis of all samsara and nirvana.
This...
Four Ways of Letting Go
-
--------------------------------------
Technorati: Buddhism Buddha Buddhist Dharma Compassion Wisdom Religion
Meditation Zen Philosophy Spirituality Insp...