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Broasca Om on anatta
Soh
Someone posted in AtR group:

interesting view on awareness and no seer, no seeing, only the seen from Broasca Om

No, it is not. Awareness is just a word. Just an idea. When you look for awareness what do you really find? From what is awareness made of? Can you really see awareness? Can you feel it? How do you experience awareness right now? You may say that you are aware because if you hadn't you could not know that you live the experience of this moment, but is it really so? Is this not just a mental construct, just an assumption, based on inductive logic? The concept of "being aware" of an experience or phenomena is at the heart of the believe that you are separate from life. In the essence it can be seen as the idea or the feeling that you are here and life is somewhere else, there, that there is some kind of distance between what you are and the rest of life.

To think that you are awareness or consciousness is just another level of identification. You were identified with the body and you thought that you see and experience life from the inside of the body. You freed yourself from this idea and now you believe that you are not the body but you are instead immaterial awareness seeing and experiencing life but as immaterial awareness you are and you feel as separated from life as you felt when you believed that you were the body. You have just changed the object of your identification. You were identified with the idea of body and now you became identified with the idea of awareness or consciousness. But you are still identified and you feel as separated from life as before. This is nothing more than another level of delusion.

Can you see that the word awareness is spoken and then it comes to an end and in silence it is like it never existed? Can you see the thought awareness appearing and disappearing leaving no traces of its existence? Where is awareness when you don't talk about it? Where is awareness when you don't think about it? Does life really needs the word awareness or the concept of awareness? Isn't life happening even when you are not talking about awareness? Isn't life still happening when you are not thinking about awareness? Life doesn't need our ideas about life, our beliefs about it, our explanations about what it supposedly means. Life exists and happens free of any concepts, free of any believes. Life just happens. Does seeing need the idea that there is a seer to happen? Does the seeing not happen even when you don't think "I see"?

And if you go even more profound and sincerely with this introspection can you really perceive not only a someone who sees but even a seeing as a phenomenon apart from the image that is seen? We use to believe that there are three distinct parts, the seer, the seeing and the image that is seen but is it really so? Is this not just another assumption based on inductive logic? If you look sincerely for the seer, where is he, can you really find him? Can you really find more than the thought that there is a seer? Can you really perceive a seer? And if you look sincerely for the sense of seeing, can you really find the seeing itself? Can you really perceive in some way the seeing as if it is a concrete phenomenon? Can you really find more than the idea that there is seeing happening? Do you "see" what is here in the end?

The image or that "something" that we call image is here. It exists. it is real. it is happening right now. But the seeing is not. And the seer is not. Both the seeing and the seer are nothing more than impermanent thoughts appearing and disappearing and trying to explain what is with "the image". "The image" can be there without the thought that there is seeing and without the thought that there is a seer. Thoughts like "there is seeing" and "there is a seer" cannot exist unless there is an "image" happening first. And you my friend cannot be the seer and neither the seeing. You are "the image" itself. You are life manifesting itself as "the image", right in this moment. And you are also "the sound" about you thought that there is an entity called "me" who is hearing it. But the thought "I am here and I hear" cannot exist if there is not "the sound" happening first. And it is the same with all the other sensations and feelings and states. You are the entire flow of life manifesting right in this moment as the appearance and the disappearance of every image, sound, sensation, thought, feeling and state and whatever else you may name.

But what you are not is an entity being it called body, person, immaterial awareness, consciousness or self that is separated from the flow of live and exists outside of the flow of life. That's why you cannot free yourself from life, you cannot transcend life, you cannot "escape" or "evade" life. Because you are not a presence outside of life existing independent of life, you are life itself exactly like it is happening in this very moment. And there is nothing wrong with it. Even when a tiny drop of the flow of life takes the shape of the thought that tells that "there is something wrong that needs to be changed". There is nothing wrong. It is as it is. Just don't fight your nature anymore. Your fight is distorting your understanding. Accept everything as it is in this moment. Unconditionally. And you will realize that you are already home. That you are already what you should be. You may finally rest as you flow and happen as everything that happens. Finally at rest. Rest. Peace.

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The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra
Soh


[8:49 AM, 5/14/2020] John Tan: This book is talking abt anatta and it tries to present as clear as possible the steps towards it without anatta insight.  Means it does not focus on insight breakthrough leading naturally into action but step by step practice into a stage of no mind and explaining the meaning of anatta along the way in the practice of mind.
[8:50 AM, 5/14/2020] John Tan: So the goal of mahamudra is about anatta.
[9:42 AM, 5/14/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic.. but lacking insight?
[9:42 AM, 5/14/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Do u think the book is good?
[10:04 AM, 5/14/2020] John Tan: Not that it lacks insight but it does not see how the insight that sees through actually lead one towards the meditation they r talking about.  They r explaining the experience and the understanding of view.  But the path prescribed is gradual, it lacks the triggering point.

[10:25 AM, 5/14/2020] John Tan: Go read that book, although dry it attempts to present the way of anatta (the explanation may not b clear and not well articulated), for one that has anatta insight, he will know what it is trying to arrive at.
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Mahamudra Books for Cheap
Soh
I know nowadays you can find PDFs of dharma books for free (although not so legally) from google.

However, if you want to support the publisher/teacher/dharma and get them legally for cheap, check out this website: https://namobuddhapub.org/zc/PDF

You can get books like 'Clarifying the Natural State' and 'Essentials of Mahamudra' for $1.25 each, both of which I recommend.

I am getting some of the other pdfs.

I confirmed that this website is legit as it is listed in https://www.shambhala.com/khenchen-thrangu-rinpoche-readers-guide/

"Namo Buddha Publications is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization, which was was established to collect and publish all of Thrangu Rinpoche's books, Audio teachings, Video DVDs, and practice materials. The royalties and sale of his books go to towards publishing Rinpoche's teachings and supporting his charitable activities. The goal of Namo Buddha Publications is to make all of Thrangu Rinpoche's books, audio CDs, video DVDs, and Dharma photos available to everyone at a reasonable price."


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Be Still and Know that I AM / Self-Enquiry
Soh


  • Soh Wei Yu The I AM is not about having an experience, it is about discovering and realizing what You are. It is not something you do, not something you experience, but something that is realized. Eureka. So find out what is the experiencer. Who and what am I?

    W    hen you realize that with complete certainty, you simply know (or rather, is simply the Knowingness) of what you are and don't get confused about conceptual notions of a self entity that is existing and dissolving in time and so on. It is pure, radiant, timeless Presence.

    Tracing back all thoughts and perceptions to its source, there is just a radiant light of Being. Before birth, I AM.
  • Image may contain: text
  • Soh Wei Yu https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../realization...



    1. On Experience and Realization

    Comments by Soh: Also see related article - I AM Experience/Glimpse/Recognition vs I AM Realization (Certainty of Being)

    One of the direct and immediate response I get after reading the articles by Rob Burbea and Rupert is that they missed one very and most important point when talking about the Eternal Witness Experience -- The Realization. They focus too much on the experience but overlook the realization. Honestly I do not like to make this distinction as I see realization also as a form of experience. However in this particular case, it seems appropriate as it could better illustrate what I am trying to convey. It also relates to the few occasions where you described to me your space-like experiences of Awareness and asked whether they correspond to the phase one insight of Eternal Witness. While your experiences are there, I told you ‘not exactly’ even though you told me you clearly experienced a pure sense of presence.

    So what is lacking? You do not lack the experience, you lack the realization. You may have the blissful sensation or feeling of vast and open spaciousness; you may experience a non-conceptual and objectless state; you may experience the mirror like clarity but all these experiences are not Realization. There is no ‘eureka’, no ‘aha’, no moment of immediate and intuitive illumination that you understood something undeniable and unshakable -- a conviction so powerful that no one, not even Buddha can sway you from this realization because the practitioner so clearly sees the truth of it. It is the direct and unshakable insight of ‘You’. This is the realization that a practitioner must have in order to realize the Zen satori. You will understand clearly why it is so difficult for those practitioners to forgo this ‘I AMness’ and accept the doctrine of anatta. Actually there is no forgoing of this ‘Witness’, it is rather a deepening of insight to include the non-dual, groundlessness and interconnectedness of our luminous nature. Like what Rob said, "keep the experience but refine the views".

    Lastly this realization is not an end by itself, it is the beginning. If we are truthful and not over exaggerate and get carried away by this initial glimpse, we will realize that we do not gain liberation from this realization; contrary we suffer more after this realization. However it is a powerful condition that motivates a practitioner to embark on a spiritual journey in search of true freedom. :)
    • Realization and Experience and Non-Dual Experience from Different Perspectives
    www.awakeningtoreality.com
    Realization and Experience and Non-Dual Experience from Different…
    Realization and Experience and Non-Dual Experience from Different Perspectives
  • William Lim So the million dollar question is :

    HOW DO YOU REALIZE?

    HOW DO YOU INVOKE EUREKA?
  • Soh Wei Yu Just investigate who you are
  • William Lim Besides description, what's the prescription?
  • Soh Wei Yu Before thought, there is still a knowingness of existence. The knowingness of existence is not a subject-object knowing -- The Knowingness is the Self, it is not a knower knowing the self. You keep inquiring Before Birth, Who am I?/Who am I? until there is a quality of complete certainty of Existence, and that you find that certainty to be more real and obvious and certain than anything else you have known.

    Just keep inquiring who you are until you arrive at that.
  • William Lim I tried that for two days... nothing yet :)
  • Soh Wei Yu Without a thought, do you exist? Are you aware that you exist? What is existence-awareness at that moment?
  • Soh Wei Yu The first two questions simply usually returns concepts like 'yes'. But it doesn't lead to complete non-conceptual certainty. The third one, or questions and koans like Who am I? leads to that non-conceptual certainty and realization. It requires penetrating all discursive thinking to arrive at the actuality of the fundamental ground.
  • Soh Wei Yu When you get a sense of being a Living Spirit, go deeply into that. Don't think, just come to the point of complete stillness of Being. “Be still, and know that I am God.”
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Reality, I AM, nondual, anatta, karmic constructs and mental proliferation: a conversation with John Tan
Soh

[4:52 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What u understand

[4:53 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: When u say the tree exist, it is out there....how u feel and experience

[4:55 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Feel like a separate observer interacting with an observer independent object out there.. everything about the tree including its shapes and colours just exist out there and are intrinsic attributes of the object

[4:55 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Also experience things from a distance as a self before anatta

[4:55 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Yes

[4:55 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Even the sound we hear.

[4:56 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: We don't actually examine and investigate deeply.

[4:57 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What happened in I M or I-I or just I and post that?

[4:59 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Theres a doubtless direct immediate taste of luminosity.. without concept or intermediary. Just a pure sense of presence

[5:00 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: But for I AM just the thought realm and not as sound etc

[5:00 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: I m not talking about that

[5:01 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: I m talking about trees, separation, objects...as u said earlier...does it change anything

[5:03 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: At the I AM level up to one mind, all phenomena are like passing clouds floating by from within a vast ground of being.. especially at I AM it still feels dualistic. At one mind everything is indistinguishable but there is not the clarity of view and no mind not fully stabilized. Anatta realization dissolves the background observer

[5:03 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: At I AM and one mind i feel like the source out of which everything emerges

[5:05 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: At I M, do u feel things r still external?

[5:05 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yes and the focus is on the internal sense of background beingness

[5:06 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Just recall ur experience even after I M. Don't mixed up phases of insights and gross through.

[5:07 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Do u or do u not feel things r still external?

[5:09 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: There is a sense that they are contained or emerging from and subsiding within a formless container of pure being.. so things are in a sense within me but not me, still dualistic

I wrote about how i am not running past objects, the scenery is passing within me

[5:10 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: So from before I M and post I M, what has changed?

[5:11 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Before I AM, i am a little person or ego residing inside the body relating to an object out there

After I AM, the body and mind and universe merely emerges and subsides from the source of pure beingness

[5:12 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Ok. Before that, what is reality to u?

[5:12 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: And after that what do u mean by reality?

[5:13 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Before that the identity self as well as objective world is reality

[5:13 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: After I AM, only the I AM is ultimately real. Everything else is just like projection of a movie on a movie screen

[5:14 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Before that reality is physical reality correct?

[5:14 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: After that I M is the Reality.

[5:15 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yeah.. physical reality plus the sense of being a person relating to physical reality.. the person is also seen to be part of that

[5:15 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yeah

[5:15 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now from before I M to I M, what has changed?

[5:17 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Before I AM ignorance and karmic propensity projects ego and world as real... After I AM the intense luminosity is so real and overwhelming yet its nature is not understood, the mind with its ignorant mechanism of understanding reality then swaps the sense of identity and imputation onto the I AM. Then it turns into ultimate reality and background

[5:19 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Don't tell me on hindsight, tell me just before and after I M experience....don't tell me anything other thing...

[5:19 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: U r not focusing. from things being very physical to I M spiritual, what has happened?

[5:20 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: U r turning ur attention from external to internal right?

[5:21 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: So what r the difference from before I M and After?

[5:21 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yes focus on internal, just pure beingness

[5:21 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Until what happened?

[5:21 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Before i am focus is as a observer focusing outwards but dualistic

[5:23 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Until the four aspects of i am and then nondual insights.. the aspect of impersonality is not focused solely on internal but leads to a sense of universality, diffused and being lived. But its still dual here and attention is still mainly focused on internal and background.

What really changed is after nondual and especially anatta

[5:24 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: No

[5:24 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What is the most important experience in I M?

[5:24 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What must happen in I M?

[5:25 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: There is not even an M, just I... complete stillness, just I correct?

[5:26 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Realization, certainty of being.. yes just stillness and doubtless sense of I/Existence

[5:26 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: And what is the complete stillness just I?

[5:26 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Just I, just presence itself

[5:28 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: This stillness absorbs excludes and includes everything into just I. What is that experience called?

[5:29 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: I am everything?

[5:29 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: That experience is non-dual.

[5:30 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: And in that experience actually, there is no external nor internal, there is also no observer or observed.

[5:30 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Just complete stillness as I.

[5:31 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ic.. yeah even I AM is nondual

[5:31 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: That is ur first phase of a non dual experience.

[5:32 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: We say this is the pure thought experience in stillness

[5:32 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Thought realm

[5:33 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: But at that moment we don't know that...we treated that as ultimate reality.

[5:33 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yeah

[5:34 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: I find it weird at that time when u said it is non conceptual thought

[5:34 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Lol

[5:34 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Yeah

[5:34 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Lol

[5:34 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now I dun want to mix up

[5:35 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: But u really do not know what that encounter is...seems mystical

[5:35 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: We thought it is damn special right🤣🤣🤣

[5:37 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yeah lol

[5:38 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now what about non-dual? What leads to non-dual for u before anatta?

[5:41 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: The first breakthrough was when i was dancing on the nightclub.. at that time i was a little drunk but because i was dancing and listening to the music, the attention was shifted from background to foreground.. then the bahiya sutta came up in my mind and that triggered a vivid nondual experience and i understood that the taste of existence is not just background i amness but in everything.. then that nondual experience lasted two days before background witnessing returned. When i went to army in september i was contemplating the border and edge between manifestation and awareness a lot and i became increasingly certain that awareness is nondual and the nondual experience is stabilizing but it is not anatta yet. I realised anatta in october

[5:43 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now from I M, is the not just a non-dual experience, u have en-counter clarity directly and without intermediary.

[5:44 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Therefore 明心 (apprehending Mind) or 验证本心 (experientially verifying the original Mind)

[5:45 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: This is the most key insight but it requires a non-dual mode to 验证 (experiential verification)。

[5:46 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ic..

[5:46 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: So it is what I call 顿悟 (sudden awakening) also.

[5:46 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now Reality in esoteric practice is referring to this reality.

[5:48 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: When ur focus turned internal, u find that without this I, nothing is real, this is more real than real. Correct?

[5:50 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ic.. yeah

[5:50 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Only I AM is more real than real

[5:51 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: When u turned from I M to non-dual, u r dissolving the line or layer that divides, when u dissolve that line, u have sort of non-dual experience.

[5:51 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: But that dissolving is not effortless, y?

[5:51 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yes.. i saw in august that the taste of reality and existence is also found in everything.. although the dualistic view and inherent view still hasnt gone through refinement

[5:51 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Yeah

[5:52 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What exactly is preventing u from have effortless non-dual, what exactly is causing the oscillation to and fro from background to foreground?

[5:53 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Don't talk about "inherent view"

[5:54 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: The very strong tendency to view that I AM as eternal witness and ultimate reality is still there.. so without a breakthrough in view i returned to witnessing after 2 days until insights into nondual deepen

[5:56 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: U don't have to know about "emptiness" or "inherent view", u can just contemplate on certain koans and stanzas. What must happen for effortlessness to happen?

[5:57 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Insight into anatta leads to effortlessness

[5:58 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What is anatta?

[5:58 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What exactly is seen through?

[5:59 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: In seeing just the seen.. i saw through the sense of a seer besides seeing or seeing besides seen.. the subject-action-object and background/foreground paradigm is seen through and therefore i realise and actualized awareness as pure manifestation

[6:01 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now there r two important points, seeing through self/Self and seeing through subject-action-object, any difference?

[6:02 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Subject/object if seen as undivided can still end up in one mind, seeing through self/Self dissolves the construct via realisation into mere luminous manifestation and aggregates

[6:03 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Its a bit like chariot except i wasnt thinking of that analogy at that time

[6:04 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: But anatta properly seen dissolves subject-action-object

[6:04 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: (referring to Chariot) This is much more deeper

[6:05 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: This seeing through, what did u understand?

[6:07 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: The emptiness of the construct of self/Self and awareness, as well as subject-action-object structure.. seeing through the emptiness of awareness as background and realising and actualising luminous taste as manifestation.. also at that time no agency and two stanza becoming clearer. One week later the same insight of anatta applied on mind body led to mind body drop

[6:09 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: 1. U see through constructs

2. U understand the relationship between constructs and experience

3. What else???

[6:09 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: What did i tell u?

[6:13 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Hmm not sure.. after that no mind and luminous taste becomes effortless mode rather than efforting

[6:14 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: The power of constructs, how it creates an experience so real and so convincing, how it blinds. U cannot just look at just one side of the coin.

[6:15 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ic.. yeah i had a better understanding of the power of constructs a year after that

[6:17 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: If u do not understand the power of constructs, u r only knowing half. It is the process of forming and dissolving these constructs in relation to consciousness creating all the one mind, no mind, anatta, non-dual experiences.

[6:18 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: And u r always overcoming those, so know the power and know the way of overcoming and what do u call that?

[6:20 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Prajna?

[6:20 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Wisdom

[6:20 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: No

[6:23 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Karmic propensities?

[6:23 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Bond

[6:23 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ignorance

[6:24 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: U can say all that...but what do u call these constructs in Buddhism?

[6:25 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Mental proliferation?

[6:26 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: 造作

[6:26 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Means what?

[6:26 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Mental proliferation means what?

[6:27 PM, 4/24/2020] Soh Wei Yu: It is the continuous activity of projecting those constructs into reality

[6:28 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: It is the continuous activity of projecting those constructs into experience...

[6:29 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: Now there r 2 one is releasing these constructs, the other is the post releasing...so what r the difference?

[6:30 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: The actual experience post releasing

[6:31 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: And the question is emptiness and DO just seeing through these constructs? Or is there something more?

[6:34 PM, 4/24/2020] John Tan: When u see through the background, u don't just experience vivid effortless non-dual experiences. But u always realize all along there isn't any self behind, just this activity of on going proliferation ... And the freedom of it. When it is free...what is experience like?

(to be continued)

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The Eight Doha Treasures: A text that clearly teaches the Mahamudra instructions
Soh
Thusness and I thinks this is good

"The Eight Doha Treasures
A text that clearly teaches the Mahamudra instructions"

https://app.box.com/s/oualei9w0bhw36c2pgnkr2h8iciyb922
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Realising Whatever Appears as Empty Clarity
Soh
[9:28 AM, 4/18/2020] Soh Wei Yu: I explained i am already way past the phase of i amness realisation in spiritual enlightenment


There is no self within, awareness is just right there where everything is (something like that)


I was very expressive in explaining:


In the seeing, just colors

In the hearing, just sound


Best of all i am free

There is no center within and no circumference without


 i also had a plan to explain to him that while i do not see essence in phenomena it does not mean i subsume everything into consciousness


Everything is like a chariot so besides the functioning and aggregation of dependent arising on display an “it” essence cannot be found within or without it


That does not mean therefore everything exists only inside some consciousness or some subjectivity


Nor does an essence reside outside in objectivity to be found


It just means besides these empty dependent aggregation in function/appearance/operation an essence cannot be found


So experientially everything is just very vivid and yet essenceless like a mirage or reflection




[9:34 PM, 4/18/2020] Soh Wei Yu: [quoted a few pages from The Fearless Lion’s Roar: Profound Instructions on Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, on the Four Strayings: “The straying point of emptiness’s having the character of a knowable object, The straying point of taking emptiness as the path, The straying point of taking emptiness as a remedy, The straying point of superimposing emptiness.”] This just reminded me of what A wrote


[9:34 PM, 4/18/2020] Soh Wei Yu: From what A wrote he seems to take emptiness as a remedy

[9:35 PM, 4/18/2020] Soh Wei Yu: This seems intellectual.. rather than directly realising whatever appears as empty clarity



Also, I wrote to A: Taking emptiness as a remedy is different from directly realising whatever appears as empty clarity. Taking emptiness as a remedy, a path, and so on is listed as one of the diversions and strayings in thusness stage 6



[9:38 PM, 4/18/2020] John Tan: Yes.  Whatever appears as empty clarity is the whole purpose the teaching imo.  How do u understand this with DO and emptiness? How does it help?

[10:10 PM, 4/18/2020] Soh Wei Yu: It’s like what i said about the chariot.. whatever appears does not exist in and of itself.. also doesn’t mean nonexistent.. but rather like chariot merely manifest and functions in dependence but ultimately unfindable. Phenomena may be reified as objectively existent before and even after anatta... but if one realises all directly perceivable phenomena is of the nature of being like chariot, essenceless and dependently originating, but not truly originating.. then whatever appears are vividly seen as a self luminous display of total exertion yet empty or free of the sense of existence and nonexistence, arising and ceasing, etc

[10:13 PM, 4/18/2020] John Tan: Yes. From experience, there are 2 effects like I always tell u, one is freeing the mind from essence and substance view, the other is the actual expression of the nature of whatever appears.
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