Someone asked at the end of the class on Saturday about the difference between “seeing” and “awakening” and what I thought about it. It was almost 11:00 and I did not trust my memory or felt I had time to check and find what the Buddha Master said about the matter. I did remember that sometimes people “see” first and sometimes they “awaken” first and vice versa and that either way was ok. What I forgot was the whole sequence that was so very relevant to our current discussion on “ta” or dhyana. As we progress in these classes we can see how the Buddha Master introduces us to these concepts so clearly and in ways we can understand them. The unfolding of the truth is such a beautiful thing, especially the way it is portrayed by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
The following is taken from a preliminary translation of Expounding the Absolute Truth through the Heart Sutra, pp. 51-52:
“When you sit down to meditate, it is like what the Sixth Patriarch Master said, “Do not ponder, do not conceptualize, and do not seek and investigate. Relying and depending on nothing, act naturally.” This is telling you not to think and conceptualize. It is telling you not to pretend that your so-called ordinary wisdom is prajna wisdom and that through such ordinary wisdom you can find your original nature. Do not fancy yourself as being so smart. Rather, you should not have any movement of thought. Your prior thought has already gone. Your next thought has not yet arisen. At this time when your last thought has gone and your next thought has not yet arisen, at this in-between stage, you will naturally attain the state of untaught, natural wisdom. However, this is momentary. It is not the case that once you see this state it never withdraws. That is because you are, after all, an ordinary person with karmic forces that have accumulated over continual lifetimes and eons. Even if you see this state of untaught, natural wisdom, it will immediately be covered up. However, I tell you that perhaps you will not even be able to see it.
As I have been saying these many things, it can be said that the untaught, natural state of wisdom has glittered a number of times in the mind of each of you disciples here. However, you have not seen it because it is a state where your prior thought has gone, and your next thought has not yet jumped forward. You might say, “I just experienced it. I went searching for that state.” You went to search for it, but the time you went searching for it was exactly the time you were engaging in delusive thought. This is like searching for a baby who is on your very own back. Doing that is incorrect. You should truly attain the state where the prior thought has gone, the next thought has not yet arisen, yet in such an in-between state you are not attached to anything. You enter what is called “a state of awareness of clear emptiness that is free of thought and is without attachment to being free of thought.” That is your original appearance. That is the dharmakaya of the Tathagatas. That dharmakaya is not inside your body, nor is it outside your body. You should earnestly try to comprehend what I am saying through experience.
At this time, you are free of delusive thoughts and have thoroughly clear awareness. You left behind delusive thoughts and have thorough understanding and awareness, but there is no understanding or awareness to be attained. That means you are unattached to such understanding or awareness. Without being attached to it, you engage in a myriad of activities but are not attached to any of them. It is this that is prajna wisdom. Prajna wisdom does not entail you sitting there in a trance. That would be a type of dhyana state or samadhi. You might confuse that with prajna wisdom. The dhyana state of samadhi should not be confused with prajna wisdom. You should engage in a myriad of activities but not be attached to any of them. We still go about handling all kinds of matters as usual, while abiding in the state of prajna. One could even expound the sutras and Dharma yet still abide in the state of prajna. Only this can be called true prajna wisdom.
Now, before you realize this state, you must first understand the state of initial breakthrough into the truth of your original appearance. What is called “initial breakthrough” is divided into seeing, awakening, dhyana, and wisdom. This is very profound. There are those who first see this original appearance and then awaken to it. After first seeing it, they do not recognize what they saw. Eventually, some happenstance moves them to introspect, and they immediately understand. There are those who first awaken and then see. They first understand this truth of original appearance. Most of you now belong to this category of those who first awaken and then see. I am talking about you who are sitting here. As I said a moment ago, you have a little bit of related understanding, but you have still not seen it. That is what is meant by first having a state of awakening to and later seeing and realizing the truth.
However, after seeing and awakening, have you succeeded? No. You still need dhyana. You still have to imperturbably abide in this state. Only if you can imperturbably abide in it are you in dhyana. This dhyana is called the dhyana of samadhi. If you can, in a state of brightness, be a body that pervades all of space and the entire dharma realm, yet not be attached to it, then you have attained what is called “samadhi of limitless and profound brightness.” This is the dhyana that the World-Honored Shakyamuni Buddha entered when He was practicing. However, this is very difficult to attain. It would be remarkable if you were even able to stay in a dhyana of no awareness. All states of dhyana require putting forth effort.
When you can engage in a myriad of activities but not be attached to any of them, then you have attained untaught wisdom, natural wisdom. Thus, it would not have been taught to you by me, your master. Is this clear to you? It appears on its own when your own delusive thoughts stop. If your Master in a forceful way, orders this wisdom to appear, it will not appear. If you yourself do not stop your delusive thoughts, it will not appear.”
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