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Working with Light
Soh

Mr. TJ said: My Daoism teacher mentioned recently that according to his teachers, who have very highly developed divine eye siddhi, what is missing from contemporary teachers who focus on nondual awakening is that, even the ones who understand the need for some physical and psychological purification work, don't work with inner spiritual light, as though nondual awakening renders this superfluous. Dzogchen, of course, very much does work with light.

Soh agrees and replied: [The Taoist text] secret of the golden flower also talks about that.. and yes dzogchen, etc.

Mr. TJ said: Far as I can tell, internal alchemy in Daoism plays the same role as practice with channels and drops plays ... [snipped] ... golden flower practice plays the role of [snipped] (information removed after discussing with Tyler, not so important)
You and John talk about how going deep into the experience of luminosity actually makes things appear brighter, this seems related to practice with spiritual light.
Just heard Lisa Cairns mention that when she really lets go into non-identification she sees a really bright white light.
These kinds of things are seeming interesting to me rn, light as a bridge to pure consciousness.
 
Soh replied:
There is something i added to atr recently
Four Aspects of I AM
Eckhart Tolle describing the intensity of luminosity in the body in The Power of Now: “Connecting With The Inner Body
Please try it now. You may find it helpful to close your eyes for this practice. Later on, when "being in the body' has become natural and easy, this will no longer be necessary. Direct your attention into the body. Feel it from within. Is it alive? Is there life in your hands, arms, legs, and feet - in your abdomen, your chest? Can you feel the subtle energy field that pervades the entire body and gives vibrant life to every organ and every cell? Can you feel it simultaneously in all parts of the body as a single field of energy? Keep focusing on the feeling of your inner body for a few moments. Do not start to think about it. Feel it. The more attention you give it, the clearer and stronger this feeling will become. It will feel as if every cell is becoming more alive, and if you have a strong visual sense, you may get an image of your body becoming luminous. Although such an image can help you temporarily, pay more attention to the feeling than to any image that may arise. An image, no matter how beautiful or powerful, is already defined in form, so there is less scope for penetrating more deeply.
The feeling of your inner body is formless, limitless, and unfathomable. You can always go into it more deeply. If you cannot feel very much at this stage, pay attention to whatever you can feel. Perhaps there is just a slight tingling in your hands or feet. That's good enough for the moment. Just focus on the feeling. Your body is coming alive. Later, we will practice some more. Please open your eyes now, but keep some attention in the inner energy field of the body even as you look around the room. The inner body lies at the threshold between your form identity and your essence identity, your true nature. Never lose touch with it.”
John Tan replied in 2006, “The experience comes when the 'self' subsides and awareness is experienced as a vibrantly luminous bright clarity. The radiance of pure awareness creates a powerful sense of Presence that is experienced in the form of aliveness and clarity in all parts of the body. If you were to visualize it, it is like a very power inner light radiating out from nowhere to everywhere making everything that comes into contact alive.”
John Tan, early August 2010:
(12:49 AM) Thusness: do you feel like a luminous light?
(12:50 AM) AEN: yes, awareness is radiant and present
(12:50 AM) Thusness: u need to lose that sense of self first. you will not feel like radiance light with your current realization [Soh: that was spoken during my I AM phase of realization], only when you mature impersonality and non-dual. how did dharma dan describe pce?
(1:32 AM) AEN: i think he said something like pure delight in the senses, the physical, etc. i think he also talked about no sense of movement or fluxing?
(1:33 AM) Thusness: he said radiance, brilliance and luminous. the senses and physical. when the background and foreground are both experienced as so. there will be radiance throughout, then it is possible to talk about luminous radiance. otherwise what you experience is still far from it. there must be total transparency, and there be the experience of purity, primordial, radiance in whatever arises. you may also visualize radiance light vitalizing all your cells like what eckhart tolle said.
(1:37 AM) AEN: oic.. what eckhart tolle said is like non dual?
(1:37 AM) Thusness: yes. but he isn't clear about that, though the experience is there
[Comments by Soh: Eckhart Tolle's insight is more into I AM, Thusness Stage 1 and 2]
John TanThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:21pm UTC+10
do you have the experience of a transparent inner emanation?
Soh Wei YuThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:21pm UTC+10
do you mean outwards emanation? or something else
John TanThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:22pm UTC+10
yeah, like a transparent energetic glowing light emanating outward?
Soh Wei YuThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:29pm UTC+10
transparent luminosity yeah
John TanThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:29pm UTC+10
actually you don't need to meditate...just mature your insights and experience in daily activities [Soh: important - this comment was made 2+ years after my anatta realization, so do note that the I AM realization is insufficient to experience nondual luminosity in all manifestations in an effortless manner]
if it becomes stable...visualize light and experience that taste as a skillful practice
Soh Wei YuThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:30pm UTC+10
how to visualize light
John TanThursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:31pm UTC+10
not how...you must have that taste...like inner light emanating out... like a form of radiance...then visualize that as if it is healing your entire being and body, into boundlessness as a skillful way of practice
 
Soh:
Visualising light from brow was also taught by my mahayana teacher and it is also taught by chnn [Dzogchen teacher Chogyal Namkhai Norbu - I believe it was this book https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Day-Night-Namkhai-Norbu/dp/0882680404]
 
Tyler:
Very good! JT is so clear about all these subtleties, different aspects of the path. It's really incredible.
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Shunryu Suzuki and Anatta
Soh

 Someone posted to me,


"In our practice the most important thing is to realize that we have buddhanature. Intellectually we may know this, but it is rather difficult to accept. Our everyday life is in the realm of good and bad, the realm of duality, while buddhanature is found in the realm of the absolute where there is no good and no bad. There is a twofold reality. Our practice is to go beyond the realm of good and bad and to realize the absolute. It may be rather difficult to understand."

~ Shunryu Suzuki

 

I said,

 

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Yes. I don't think Shunryu Suzuki is reifying some monistic oneness as Absolute. His views are pretty in line with anatta and impermanence.
 
"Each existence depends on something else. Strictly speak-ing, there are no separate individual existences. There are just many names for one existence. Sometimes people put stress on oneness, but this is not our understanding. We do not emphasize any point in particular, even oneness. One-ness is valuable, but variety is also wonderful. Ignoring variety, people emphasize the one absolute existence, but this is a one-sided understanding. In this understanding there is a gap between variety and oneness. But oneness and variety are the same thing, so oneness should be appreciated in each existence. That is why we emphasize everyday life rather than some particular state of mind. We should find the reality in each moment, and in each phenomenon. This is a very important point" - Shunryu Suzuki
 
"The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth, and all the teach-ing of Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self. In fact, the self-nature of each existence is noth-ing but change itself, the self-nature of all existence. There is no special, separate self-nature for each existence. This is also called the teaching of Nirvana. When we realize the 102 RIGHT UNDERSTANDING everlasting truth of "everything changes" and find our com-posure in it, we find ourselves in Nirvana. "
 
“When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world,” but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.”
 
“Wherever you are, you are one with clouds
and one with sun and the stars you see.
You are one with everything.
This is more true than I can say,
and more true than you can hear.”
 
“When you bow, you should just bow; when you sit, you should just sit; when you eat, you should just eat. If you do this, the universal nature is there. In Japanese we call it ichigyo-zammai, or ‘one act samadhi.’ Zammai (or samadhi) is ‘concentration.’ Ichigyo is ‘one practice.’ ”
 
“Doing something is expressing our own nature.”
 
“There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.”
 
“When you do something,
you should burn yourself up completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.”
 
“When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions; you should just listen to him, just observe what his way is. We put very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad. We just see things as they are with him, and accept them. This is how we communicate with each other. Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you will reject it or you may not even really hear it.”
 
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything,
it is open to everything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the experts mind there are few.”
 
“There is also the real secret of the arts:
always be a beginner.”
“The world is its own magic.”
 
“Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.
To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way.”
 
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

 

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