Introduction
Except for this intro, the content of this post comes entirely from the book, A Trackless Path by author, teacher and translator Ken McLeod. In it Ken translates and comments upon a poem by the 18th century mystic Jigme Lingpa about the practice of meditation in Tibetan Dzogchen, or atiyoga. While I believe Ken’s translation is faithful to the Indo-Tibetan tradition in which the poem has its origin, his commentary is mercifully free of the abstruse language with which many translations and commentaries can be burdened. What this amounts to as far as I’m concerned is that A Trackless Path can be considered a modern classic of pointing out instruction for natural contemplative awareness - the fundamental enactive and experiential elements of which I think are more and more coming to be recognized as universal across time and tradition. In short, A Trackless Path is an ecumenical meditation manual par excellence.
The rest of this post is divided between two sections. The first is a key excerpt from the book (pgs. 34-35) commenting upon his translation of one the early verses of the poem. The second section is an evocative and instructive collage of quotes, Ken’s pointings out, that I compiled from A Trackless Path. [Page number citations for each quote are given in the footnotes that follow.] All of this material is posted here in gratitude and with the permission of the author.
Excerpt
When we rest and look, we first become aware of a mass of unaware thinking. These movements in mind have many layers — bodily sensations that both trigger and are triggered by thinking; reactive emotions that spill into thinking and other bodily sensations; beliefs, prejudices and ideals; emotional projections, agendas and interpretations — stories upon stories upon stories. As we continue to rest, we may touch uncomfortable and difficult feelings. As we rest further, we often find uncomfortable and difficult bodily sensations connected with those feelings. We may also encounter feelings of extraordinary physical or emotional well-being and the impulse to hold on to them. We may experience clarity and dullness or peace and turmoil, coming and going without any rhyme or reason. All these experiences are piled on top of each other and interwoven in a chaotic, bewildering muddle. The truly surprising discovery is that when we stop trying to sort out the muddle, when we stop trying to change it, when we stop trying to make sense of it—when we stop struggling with what we are experiencing and just experience it—attraction, aversion and indifference to what we are experiencing drop away and a space opens up. ln that space we discover a possibility that we did not know was there and could not have imagined. For some, the possibility is the possibility of a profound peace; for others, it is more a transparent clarity or an intimation of limitless freedom; for still others, it is a sense of oneness, of no separation. Whatever its tone or however it arises, this is the priceless treasure we did not know was ours.
In other words. It is in knowing our own experience through and through that we discover the possibility of freedom. This knowing is not a psychological understanding of why we do things, what motivates us or the structure of our reactions. That kind of understanding may arise in the process, but it is a side effect. Nor does this knowing necessarily make us a better person, whether in the eyes of the world or in our own eyes. Such changes may arise, but again, as a side effect of our efforts. What we do come to know is that suffering comes from our wanting things to be different from what they are and from our struggling to change them. That understanding naturally brings us to feel compassion for others. This compassion is not based in pity, mercy or charity. It comes because we know, through our own experience, that we are all doing the same thing — struggling with our experience of life because we want things to be different from what they are.
A Collage of Pointings
The subject matter of this poem is a particular kind of awareness…an awareness that goes beyond the conceptual mind.1…an awareness in which thoughts, feelings and sensations form and dissolve like mist or clouds in the sky.2 The starting point is an acceptance, that to know directly the mystery of awareness, the mystery of this experience we call life, we have to let the conceptual mind go.3 We need a method, a very precise method, that brings us right into what we are experiencing without confining, restricting or reducing it.4 We learn how to refine attention until it becomes stable and clear. Stable clear attention gradually evolves into insight into the nature of experience.5 Every moment of experience is simultaneously a moment of timeless awareness.6 It is like silence or stillness. Silence is present whether there is sound or not. Stillness is present whether there is movement or not. The same holds for this awareness: it is there whether thoughts, feelings or sensations are there or not.7
When we experience timeless awareness, we cannot understand how we did not see it before. Timeless awareness does seem straightforward and natural. Yet for most of us the path to that awareness is not.8 To touch what is truly straightforward and natural we have to let go of ways of knowing we are used to. Letting go is not simply an act of will. It happens more often by accident than by design. However the purpose of practice is to make ourselves accident prone.9 Some people have to work long and hard just to be able to meditate at all. Others seem to have a natural relationship with the subtle awareness that is the focus. People with natural talent do not necessarily have an easier time.10 This one principle seems to apply over and over again: as soon as we recognize we are doing something or that we are lost, we stop, and start again. This approach applies to everything, and, in effect, dissolves the notion of practice itself. We just keep coming back into our life.11
Sooner or later, something lets go. For a moment we experience just what is there.12 What is left is a particular kind of awareness, a knowing that cannot be understood or described, a knowing to which no correction or adjustment can be applied. If we do not do anything with it, or to it, (and that is the hard part), it is there, Spartan in its simplicity, constant in its presence, vivid and awake, revealing and refreshing itself moment to moment.13 It all comes down to this, as soon as we recognize we’re engaged in thinking, we have already returned. Now all we need to do is rest right there. The key point is to recognize and rest.14 As we sit this way again and again, the transparent knowing of mind itself becomes more evident. We have to be able to recognize it of course, but it is there whether we recognize it or not. When we recognize it, sitting has a different quality - an openness to what we’re experiencing.15
Because it is difficult for many of us to meet that groundless knowing, let alone live it, we seek explanations and understandings for our lives and the world in which we live. Even when we experience immediate and naked presence, we still seek explanations.16 Yet if we look past the elaborate metaphors, the enigmatic stories and the naive fables, we see that this knowing does not necessarily make life any easier.17 Nor does this knowing necessarily make us a better person.18 Nevertheless few who seek this knowing have any regrets. The knowing is intensely meaningful to them in its own way. We see that everyone has the potential to experience their lives this way.19 Our hearts break then because we see and know the pain of the world and we know at the same time that it does not have to be this way. Compassion now takes on a different quality. It is no longer a feeling. It is how awareness takes expression in our lives.20
Notes
1) pg.6; 2) pg.112; 3) pg. 12; 4) pg.76; 5) pg.30; 6) pg.9; 7) pg.33; 8) pg.105; 9) pg.121; 10) pg.5; 11) pg.108; 12) pg.65; 13) pg.88; 14) pg.94; 15) pg.55; 16) pg.115; 17) pg.7; 18) pg.35; 19) pg.7; 20) pg.35
pg.6
pg.112
pg. 12
pg.76
pg.30
pg.9
pg.33
pg.105
pg.121
pg.5
pg.108
pg.65
pg.88
pg.94
pg.55
pg.115
pg.7
pg.35
pg.7
pg.35
Thank you..