Simply Resting as the Spacious Awareness of What Is

An Edited Excerpt from Oral Teachings Given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Summer 2018

When you come to a retreat here at Serenity Ridge, or to any retreat with me, you make a substantial effort involving your family, your work, finances, everything. It is an important opportunity for us to engage in the practice and for being in the practice. So when you get here, you want to make the best of it, don't you?

The most important way to make the best out of it is just to be – not to bring the same patterns of neurosis, of everyday life, that you live with. We try to be able to take a break from those, to cut something, to change something, to be here, as much as possible, with full openness toward these teachings, transmissions, experiences and learning. Being fully open means not having too much expectation, most importantly of yourself, but also of others and – thank you very much – of me either! [laughter] Whatever the expectations, usually you have too much of them, and that's not going to serve you well here. We come here to learn a different way of being.

In dzogchen teaching we speak of this sense of unbounded space, pure awareness and warmth as a core understanding of everything. That openness has so much to do with an absence of effort. Resting is the main path to get there, rather than through applying a lot of effort to try and push any obstructions away. In the practice when we talk about clearing, I say allow to clear a lot because it feels less effortful. Regardless of what words are used, in the end it all comes down to how much effort is expended. Effort is not encouraged; basically, effort is another word for pain. Whether you recognize it or not, it is a pain.

In the space of the openness and awareness and warmth that arises in practice, I encourage you to look at your life. Look at it from the space with the eyes of awareness, with the attitude of warmth. It's very different when you look from that place. You don't hate, you don't get upset, you don't get angry, because it’s warmth, it’s awareness, it’s openness. How can you hate?

But when you don't look from this space, then it is the pain speech that is looking at the pain body. From there, it moves right into the mood of criticism. That happens all the time in daily life. The pain speech is active and criticizing the pain body. Does the pain body need criticism from the pain speech? No. Two pains are worse than having the one pain, right? Clearly. The fact, though, is that it happens. When it happens, if one recognizes it, that's also good; you see clearly that both the one who is criticizing and the object of criticism are in the same group – the pain identity or ego.

It's just simple recognition, and then resting. Resting is the key. This is what we need to embrace. Rest, rest, rest. Not so much, though, that you fall asleep in that restful place, because when you rest, you clearly can become more aware. It’s like the analogy of water from a stream – when you agitate the water it becomes muddy, and for it to become clear, we need to stop shaking it and let it rest. Then the water returns to being very clear. All the mud and stones settle to the bottom. The buoyant leaves float to the top. And there in the middle, the water is crystal clear. That comes about through the power of resting. Then with that clarity, you can see deep down if there is something more that needs to be cleared. So resting is the key.

In the end, we say the true antidote is only one – the “A,” which is pure awareness. As for the conventional antidotes, there are many. Love is the antidote for anger; generosity is the antidote for greed; openness is the antidote for closedness. They are paired like couples. But as a principle of dzogchen, there is only one antidote, and that is awareness. It’s really amazing to understand in that way.

It is important to remember, when you are meditating and reflecting on your life, that you not look in the usual way, with fears looking at fears, or with pain speech looking at pain body, or with pain mind looking at pain speech. If we do that, we end up in the same place. Most of the time in our lives, that is the way we reflect on ourselves. It doesn't help, and sometimes it even makes things worse. In those cases, it is better not to analyze too much, or reflect too much, or think too much, because there's no solution there. It's like trying to make a very important life decision at a time when you are so tired, exhausted, unclear, and doubtful. It's clearly not a good time to do that. Instead, take a power nap! Get a good cup of fresh coffee. Or run a few miles, then come back and try making that decision. Then the result will be different, right? At least physically and energetically you're more clear and open to be able to see something.

If you are able to practice, then do the nine breathings or the five tsa lung and become aware of the stillness in your body, the silence in your speech, the spaciousness of your mind. Try taking a deep breath. Then, from that spacious, luminous awareness, look again at the situation. Similarly, if someone cannot see something clearly, rather than forcing their bad eyes to try to see what they cannot see, they put on their glasses and look again. That's the better solution – having one's glasses ready when needed.

We say, look from that spaciousness. Look with those eyes of awareness. Look with the attitude of warmth. These three aspects are what we've always been talking about. For example, bring to mind a person who is very challenging for you, and imagine that you have to talk about a complicated issue with that person. And this is not the first time that you've had to do that, either. Maybe it's the 108th time! [laughter] Now, if it hasn't worked for 100 times in the past, then what will make it work this time? The difference is that this time you will not get trapped in your pain body. You will not speak with your pain speech. Nor will you imagine with your pain mind. Also you will not get stuck with regard to your breath. Breathe deep, be still, be aware, feel that warmth and talk from that place, connecting.

If it's harder to do that with this particular person, then talk less, not more. You see, if it's harder to connect in that instance, then rest more in your heart rather than trying harder. Trying harder without having the positive qualities is not advised. The solution always involves coming back to the source. Then you will manifest from that place. If it's not possible to come from there, then it's okay – at least come back to the source. You might not resolve the problem, but at least you will not create more problems. That's a good enough outcome then.

When you are aware of what's happening or aware of what you feel, then it’s important to observe what kind of awareness is there. The instruction during the practices is to be aware of what arises. But then what do I say? Don't judge. Most of the time what we do is become aware, then we judge or we analyze. But if you don't judge and simply be aware, that distinction is very important. Then you may look at something like this beautiful thangka here on the wall, say, and see that it's just beautiful, beautiful as it is.

It’s a matter of simply looking at things as they are. This is one of the mantras that Yongdzin Rinpoche, my teacher, says when he's teaching: Leave it as it is. Leave it as it is. Can you leave it as it is? It's hard. It may be only for small moments of maybe five minutes, or two minutes – that's fine. Leave it as it is. It is sometimes described in the text as seeing with the eyes of a corpse. Do you think that a corpse lying with eyes open is analyzing you, wondering, hmm, what astrological sign are you? You must be a Libra or a Pisces. No, it's not analyzing you. Another way that it's described is like seeing with the eyes of a baby. I like that description better, but they're pointing to the same way of seeing.

If in meditation you find that you are carried away with strong feelings, maybe of fear or self-doubt, then it's good to draw your attention to your body, because you are so very much in your head, in your mind, in your stories. When something is charging us up, then it‘s like we say at the beginning of meditation – bring your attention to your body. Your body is grounding your mind, grounding all the things that you are thinking and that your mind is imagining. The pain mind needs the support of that silence and stillness. If you can come more into your body, it will help bring you more into the present moment.

Why is there such an emphasis on being in the present moment? It’s because being truly in the present moment, things are good. Even if you have problems, they are simply, in that moment, an experience happening. When one is living more fully in the present, there's no reason to think so much about the future. The future will be beautiful, anyway, when you're living in the moment. Whatever the future brings – all of its causes and conditions, either individual or collective, whatever is meant to come – will be good, because they're all coming out of the present moment. Is that clear?