Voice of Clear Light

Volume 14, Number 1 / February 2014

'Shining Through with the Light of Awareness'

Edited Excerpt from Transcript of Oral Teachings on ‘Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind' Given by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, February 2012 

Photograph by Maria Aurelia Kulik

When you are conscious, that consciousness, that awareness, has a wind. Literally, it's like a wind, what we call prana. Energy moves through that, and when there's awareness, there's actually a wind there. The wind of the awareness is called wisdom wind. That wind clears the darkness. So wisdom wind basically means the energy that flows by one’s knowing something. It takes time to understand that concept and to become familiar with the practice. For example, what we are trying to do here, when we take refuge, is to enter through that stillness, silence and spaciousness, trying to find that unbounded space, infinite awareness and genuine warmth.

When we find that deep inside, rest a little bit in that, then it gives some sense of that spaciousness, that awareness, some strength to be able to face and to look at some of the pain. If the pain comes at the wrong time, hosting it doesn't work. If it comes at a right time, it works. So it's a question of preparing to host that pain. Sometimes, when one is ready, it's a fantastic experience of releasing, clearing and feeling that warmth. When one is not stable enough, it's challenging. That's what it seems is happening here at the retreat. Some of you are feeling more subtly into that inner refuge to face things. Others are not feeling so much subtlety there, so when the pain arises, you are encountering more of a challenge.

So the point is, who is encountering the challenge? If it's clear, the one who is finding the challenge won't be there. So when we speak of clearing something, it's because it's not clear. One has not rested enough and hasn't found that unbounded space. One has not recognized enough. So it's like when we pray, we are trying to recognize that mother, like the child recognizes that mother. I think that metaphor is very important. Or like somebody who lost their home and finds their home again. It's very comforting, right? But you don't know how comforting home is until you’ve lost your home. That sense of being home is a beautiful experience in meditation.

Sometimes people really enjoy doing practice, and sometimes people put effort into doing practice. It's so important, though, to try to find that sense of warmth and bliss in the practice. It could be addictive, in a good way. If you have 15 or 30 minutes, you want to do that, you want to be in that space where there is that experience of recognition, like a child finding their mother, a lost person finding a home. How is it not possible to enjoy that? To feel that sense of peace and fullness is the recognition.

Of course, there's always this point of one's ability to break through that grasping mind, which is not the right mind. When we use the term light, when we say touch the pain with light, we're not talking about that grasping mind; we're talking about the awareness. Sometimes I use these metaphors and expressions just to make some understanding, but touch does not mean physical touch. Touch means awareness; that naked awareness is seeing the truth. What is the truth? Truth means there is no pain there. Pain is created by the one who is grasping it. As long as that grasping mind is there, that mind always sees that pain. When that mind is free, there is no pain. The grasping mind has created that. So touching with light means the naked awareness is seeing the pain.

When it sees the pain, there is no pain, or the pain is dissolved. Not when the grasping mind sees it, though. It's the same as if you look at a very negative person who is looking at one thing and a very positive person looking at the same thing. They are looking at the same thing, but the very positive person doesn’t see all those problems. A negative person sees all those problems. So the negative person is that grasping mind; it sees those pains. The positive person is that awareness; it's not seeing any pain there, or if it's seeing, then it is allowing in that space rather than holding on to it.

Sometimes I use language in a more traditional way, with certain expressions which have come down through thousands of years. One of the expressions is, "Nakedly seeing, nakedly liberating." “Cher ta, cher troll” is the Tibetan expression. Cher means naked, ta means look. Cher again means naked, troll means liberating, liberation. So "Nakedly seeing, nakedly liberating" is the literal translation. That has a great meaning – a great meaning. What it means is when the wisdom eye sees the pain, the pain liberates. If pain is looking at pain, pain does not liberate.

Most of the time what we are doing is, our pain is looking at that pain. Even sometimes when we say host, your one pain is trying to host another pain. That is what we do. Sometimes when we are in groups, we have a group pain. That is what is happening. People have some kind of belief in something higher than themselves, or something higher than their problem, but they don’t know exactly what that is. There are no specific practices, but there’s some kind of sense of awake, belief or trust. That sense of something higher is the main key the group is getting help from, and individuals are getting help from that. But when you have a clear sense of what that is, it's far better. And what that is, is that unbounded, sacred space. What that is, is that naked awareness. The naked awareness is able to look at that.

(This excerpt is taken from the transcript “The Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind,” oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Feb. 10–12, 2012. The transcript is available at Ligmincha’s Bookstore & Tibet Shop)