Regarding being able to separate pure awareness from afflicted awareness, one of Milarepa’s disciples asked him:
“How do I meditate?”
Milarepa told the disciple: “Go meditate like a mountain. ”
The student went and meditated like a mountain: vast, stable, and strong. But certain thoughts kept developing. In his experience, they seemed like trees growing on the mountain. The student went back to Milarepa and said:
“Well, I can meditate on the mountain, but these trees are difficult. Please give me a way of clearing away the trees.”
Milarepa answered, “The trees are not a problem. They grow on the mountain. They will decompose into the mountain. There is not the slightest thought arising in your mind that is negative, that you need to get ride of. It dissolves by iteslf, back into your mind.”
Then he told the student,”Go meditate like the ocean.”
The student did that with vast motivation and, as so often happens, thoughts began to arise like waves on the ocean. The student went back to Milarepa and said, “It is easy to meditate on the ocean, but it is difficult to conquer the waves. How should I get over the waves?”
Milarepa gave him similar advice,”Those waves are just coming out of the ocean. They are the movement of the ocean. They are the manifestation of the ocean. They will go back into the ocean. Like that, these thoughts are manifestations of your deepest true nature that I am asking you to meditate on. They will dissolve back into it.”
After some time, Milarepa instructed the student: “Go meditate like the sky.”
The student was having a very vast meditation like the sky, like space. When thoughts started to arise, they seemed like clouds in the sky. The student returned to Milarepa and said, “It is easy to meditate on space, but difficult to get rid of the clouds in the southern sky. Please give me instruction to eliminate the clouds.”
Milarepa said: Those cloud-like thoughts are not a problem. They arise in the sky of your mind. They will dissolve right there in your mind. Don’t think they are bad, just watch them come and go.”
Thoughts will come. When we try to meditate, there will be nothing but thoughts! When we use this method of looking directly at the essential nature of our own mind in the present moment, we are using what could be called a remedy. When thoughts arise, it is important to recognize them as thoughts, to note that a thought has arisen. But wen you look at its very nature it instantly dissolves. It does not remain. Eventually this is the kind of experience that occurs. It is called ‘simultaneous arising and release’ in the Dzogchen, Great Completion teachings.
It is similar to snowflakes falling on a hot sidewalk. Like in India, where it is very hot, if there is ever any snow it instantly melts as it hits the hot stone. It is like that with thoughts when they come into the environment of this kind of meditation: as soon as it is noticed that they have arise, they are instantly released and dissolve. In that way, you realize they do not have the essence that they seemed to have.
Written by Khenpo Karten Rinpoche in his book Precious Teachings, under the chapter, “Sunyata, Essence of Mind,” pages 96-97 in the print version, and pages 103-104 in the PDF version online. Image of Big Sur coast in California, courtesy of Miles McBreen, aka Karma Palden.
