In the last two newsletters I discussed how mahamudra is:
Mahamudra has no genesis,
Mahamudra has no causes,
Mahamudra has no method,
Mahamudra has no path, and
Mahamudra has no result.
I also described a way of taking in these five points, taking them in to body, speech, and mind in such a way that each of them changes something in you. That change makes mahamudra practice more accessible.
Now we turn to the second section of Gampopa’s instructions. How does mahamudra come into being? Of course, some philosophers will jump all over me for posing such a question, but this is a practice text and we are faced with a simple fact. We may know about mahamudra, but we do not know mahamudra. How do we bring knowing mahamudra into being?
Here, Gampopa makes five more points:
Although mahamudra has no genesis, faith, devotion, and awe are its genesis.
Although mahamudra has no causes, excellent teachers are its causes.
Although mahamudra has no method, this unaffected mind is its method.
Although mahamudra has no path, this undistracted mind is its path.
Although mahamudra has no result, this mind freed in pure being is its result.
It seems that Gampopa is negating what he wrote in the first section. This kind of negation is not unusual in Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist practice. Often, what seems to be a direct negation indicates a shift, either of perspective or of level. If we do not recognize the shift in perspective, or, as is often the case, if we have not experienced the shift in the level of attention, awareness, or presence, then we cannot understand what is written. The best we can do is come up with an intellectual interpretation, and that is not much help. Most of the time, we are left puzzled or disconcerted by the apparent contradiction. The Diamond Sutra is filled with these kinds of negations. For instance, see §22.
In this text Gampopa is kind: he presents the negation and then tells us what the shift is — a shift in perspective from what mahamudra is to how mahamudra comes into being. Please note, Gampopa is not writing about what life is. He is writing about how we experience life. Today, we look at the first point: faith, devotion, and awe are its genesis
Why faith, devotion, and awe?
All of these, if cultivated deeply, leave you speechless, each in its own way. To put it another way, faith, devotion, and awe temper you in both heart and mind, just as fire, folding, and quenching temper steel.
How to cultivate faith, devotion, and awe?
In the end, I have found only one way that feels true in both practice and result. There are others, no doubt, but I cannot write about what I don’t know.
I go to why I was drawn to spiritual practice in the first place. I go back to the beginning. Why am I doing this? If the answer comes in words, I use those words to pose another question that uses the word why. For example, let’s say the first answer is “I wanted to become enlightened?” Then I ask “Why?” Now I have to go deeper. I repeat this questioning until I cannot go any further.
For a long time, the answer that I eventually came to was “Because I wanted to know that I knew something.” When I asked, “Why? again, my mind stopped. There was a palpable and powerful feeling for which I had no words. Yet in that stopping I felt a willingness to meet, open, and learn from whatever I encountered on this path, that is, I felt faith. I also felt a deep quiet passion that would keep me connected with my teachers and see me through whatever difficulties I encountered, that is, I felt devotion. And I felt awe, that feeling of being intimately connected with something that is infinitely greater than me.
I have practiced this way for many years. Now and then, the answer just before my heart and mind stop changes or shifts, but the next “Why?” still puts me straight into a profound unknowing where faith, devotion, and awe quietly grow stronger and deeper.
This is how I cultivate these three qualities. How do you get to the Total Perspective Vortex? Write to me (ken@unfetteredmind.org) and let me know.
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