Understanding the 3 Speed Transmission

" the Buddha points out the error of clinging to one's own views or one's own experience. It's a great practice reminder for all of us.
"

Will it be safe to say that this is the purpose of 3rd gear practice? to "uncling" from one's own views or one's own experience?
In my experience (or "non experience) it is possible to utterly surrender to the here and now. I do not think however, that this utter surrender is an ultimate goal (although I could see how it could be the ultimate goal for many practitioners, as the eradication of the 10 fetters may be the ultimate goal for others). Interestingly enough, one of the very first things that seems to arise shortly after "exiting" (for lack of a better word) this "emptiness", in my experience is the cognitive manifestation of realizing that there is nothing really to do, go, aim for, strive for, or ultimate goal for that matter. I think concepts such as "partial, ultimate, final" only make sense in the conditioned-experienced world.

"there has long been '” and still is '” a common tendency to create a "Buddhist" metaphysics in which the experience of emptiness, the Unconditioned, the Dharma-body, Buddha-nature, rigpa, etc., is said to function as the ground of being from which the "All" '” the entirety of our sensory & mental experience '” is said to spring and to which we return when we meditate. "

I would love to talk to other yogis that can "fully surrender" and ask them if they "perceive" that this "emptiness" is the ground from which the "All" - the entirely of our sensory & mental experience - is said to spring. My cutting edge practice is showing me (right now, at this time of my practice) that the such idea is pure avijjā (ignorance). There is no ultimate ground from which the "All" is said to spring. If that perception is present, then emptiness has not been realized.

Hi Jorge Freddy--
I share a similar understanding, perhaps, at this point of my path-- if I understand the nonduality of conditioned/unconditioned that you're pointing to, it definitely isn't a "source" from which things spring and to which they return, although in some traditions-- such as those I'm most attracted to, such as Zen, Mahamudra, dzogchen-- this is definitely a provisional understanding or tentative experience of some value.

But the essence itself just has no such quality, it's as if the very skhandas of conditioned experience are Unborn, Unconditioned. This very thought, this very feeling, this very sensation, is completely unborn, unconditioned. Only upon reflection, and the attempt to reconcile different concepts, does this pose any difficulty. In the "first instant" of experience there is no such thing as karma, no weight at all to phenomena, no origin, no cessation. Maybe this is similar. The phenomena have the same "taste" as the unconditioned. They are all non-arising, non-dissolving, even as they continue to arise and dissolve in another sense. These are completely non contradictory. Only upon reflection, when I am dealing with concepts not the actuality of this moment, do the concepts of "conditioned" and "unconditioned" seem irreconcilable.

I always have a hard time finding the link, but there's a great interview with Dan Brown (not the pulp fiction writer) on Conscious Tv. He spent some time practicing in southeast asian Theravada monesteries during the seventies and is well practiced in Mahamudra. Mahamudra is based on discovering and living from the experience/insight you seem to be pointing to here. He gives precise instructions on how to go about discovering this insight which should be easy to understand for anyone who can enter the A&P or 11th nana, and who also understands the difference between their self-image as a practitioner and their buddha-nature.

Basically you look at the arising and passing of phenomena from the point of view of buddha-nature, rather than from that of the bare attention cultivated by noting or other mindfulness practice, and you will immediately see that nothing is arising and passing, the phenomena of the skandhas have the same timeless quality as the buddha-mind. Don't "look at" awareness or buddha-nature with your bare attention; that practice is only for discovering the nature of mind in a very preliminary way. You have to BE buddhanature and look from that vantage point at phenomena arising and passing. You might notice that "arising", "remaining" and "passing" are only constructions, and when a movement in one of the sense fields presents itself you may start to see that "arising", "remaining" and 'passing" are each unique concepts which just appear. Then it may break down further until there is just the timeless vividness that each and all are unborn, unceasing-- time and conditioning are constructs, not reality.

"rather than from that of the bare attention cultivated by noting or other mindfulness practice, and you will immediately see that nothing is arising and passing, the phenomena of the skandhas have the same timeless quality as the buddha-mind. Don't "look at" awareness or buddha-nature with your bare attention; that practice is only for discovering the nature of mind in a very preliminary way. You have to BE buddhanature and look from that vantage point at phenomena arising and passing. You might notice that "arising", "remaining" and "passing" are only constructions, and when a movement in one of the sense fields presents itself you may start to see that "arising", "remaining" and 'passing" are each unique concepts which just appear. Then it may break down further until there is just the timeless vividness that each and all are unborn, unceasing-- time and conditioning are constructs, not reality."

Exactly. There is nothing or no one "looking". It is being (in the non-conventional way) the True Nature. In order for anything at all to "arise", there has to be "something" from which it arises from. Thich Nhat Hanh says: "Wave is Water. Water is Wave". It is by far the best analogy I have found to date. In my experience (or non-experience) this is realized by total and utter Surrender.

"I always have a hard time finding the link, but there's a great interview with Dan Brown (not the pulp fiction writer) on Conscious Tv. He spent some time practicing in southeast asian Theravada monesteries during the seventies and is well practiced in Mahamudra. Mahamudra is based on discovering and living from the experience/insight you seem to be pointing to here. He gives precise instructions on how to go about discovering this insight which should be easy to understand for anyone who can enter the A&P or 11th nana, and who also understands the difference between their self-image as a practitioner and their buddha-nature.

"

Thanks for the info, jhsaintonge!
I'd love to hear this interview!! I'll do some searching to see if I run into it. I have been beyond swamped with work this week! Don't hesitate to post the link if you find it!

JF

conscious.tv/nonduality.html?bcpid=45947...01&bctid=23850802001

Daniel Brown,

" conscious.tv/nonduality.html?bcpid=45947...01&bctid=23850802001

Daniel Brown,"

you da man, Brian!

Thanks, man!

This is a crackling-good interview. Brown is extremely lucid and clear about the Mahayana approach. I have a few friends who train with him; they speak highly of what they've gotten.

Mark

Third gear, original flavor, no transfats as usual. Probably just the same one gear actually but once over the top of the hill the vehicle tends to coast along faster than one can peddle.

SN 22.95, Phena Sutta: Foam, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.095.than.html

Dan's book Pointing Out the Great Way is a highly detailed meditation manual in the Mahamudra tradition. It lays it all out from "start" to "finish" according to this tradition, synthesizing a few of the most highly regarded traditional texts on it. So it's a full on detailed map of stages of practice, and the different practices one engages at each stage. I don't have much interest in the "preliminary" stuff in the Tibetan tradition, although I respect it, so I skipped to the heart of it.

Like any detailed map it's strength is that it presents a version of the path that has just about everything that could happen to just about any yogi who uses these methods, and the drawback is you can think you need to have all those experiences and use all those methods! I find this sort of thing useful when I get stuck and can use the map to hone in on where I'm stuck and see if there's a trick, a secondary practice, or a clue that can help me get unstuck.

The experience we're discussing here JF is mostly dealt with in the sections on One Taste yoga. There is also a key distinction or descriptive device running throughout the text, common in the Tibetan lineages generaly, of describing a moment from the "mind" side and then "event" side. So there is a point being made about which "mind" is even capable of "seeing" phenomena in which light, which is very handy and a prerequisite for this practice. I think we share the experience that "mindfullness" as ordinarily defined and experienced is an increasingly subtle but still conditioned factor-- attention-- and as such, if used as the vantage point for "looking at" phenomena, will always imply itself as "subject" and phenomena as "object", so automatically locks itself out of the One Taste insight into the nonduality of conditioned/unconditioned.