Togal

The book as it is volume Two covers this along with the completion stage.

REPEATING MANY TIMES

The only way to acquire all the great qualities of enlightenment is to repeat many times the short moment of recognizing mind essence. There is no other method. One reason for short moments is that, as there is no stability right now, the recognition of awareness doesn’t last for more than a brief moment, whether we like it or not. By practicing many times, we
get used to it.
The virtue of repeating short periods many times is that it is unspoiled by conceptual mind. If it lasts a long time, it is influenced by concepts. If we remain for a long tim.e, it is only our intellect prolonging it. This state should endure by itself, automatically. If it is not natural but contrived, it will be spoiled. Therefore, in repeating a short period many times, that short period will be automatic or natural.

I’m dumping paragraphs here I’ll distill it later

Togal is to recognize that the natural display is spontaneously present.

Without cutting through with Trekcho, you can’t directly cross with Togal.

The samayas for Toga! training are oneness and sponta- neous presence.

In order to find our way out of the unaware and mistaken clinging to duality that has gone on endlessly in samsara, we begin with mindful- ness. Mindfulness, however, has a definite dualistic connotation. It is like putting a hook in a piece of meat and holding it there. There is a subject keeping an eye on the object. There is a more subtle level called watchfulness, which is a mere noticing, but it also is subtly dualistic. Even more subtle than watchfulness is awakeness. That is the point of separating sem and rigpa. Sem, the dualistic frame of mind, means in- volvement with thoughts of either past, present or future. Rigpa simply means uninvolvement in thoughts of the three times.

Mind is that which thinks and remembers and plans all these differ- ent thoughts that we have. Thought in Tibetan is called namtok.. ‘Nam’ means the object, what is thought o£ ‘Tok’ means to make ideas and concepts about those objects. Namtok is something that mind churns out incessandy, day and night. A buddha is someone who recognizes the essence itself, and is awakened through that. A sentient being is someone who didn’t, and who is confused by his or her own thinking. Someone who has failed to recognize the essence of mind is called a sentient being. Realizing the nature itself and becoming stable in that realization is called a buddha.

Samsara means spinning, circling, continuing to circle around. Apart from recognizing mind essence, there is no other way to stop the mind from thinking.
The operating system of this spinning around is called the twelve links ofdependent origination, the head ofwhich is ignorance, the lack of knowing. This ignorance of unknowing means not recognizing what our·nature really is. Ignorance forces the five skandhas to be perpetuated – the physical forms, sensations, conceptions, formations and cognitions that make birth follow death, again and again. Mind doesn’t die. When it remains ignorant of its own nature, again it perpetuates the arrangement of the five skandhas to create a new body in one of four ways – through a womb, as in the case of a human being; through instantaneous birth; through heat and moisture; or through an egg. These are the four different ways of taking rebirth in the three realms and among the six classes of beings.

While resting free of anything to imagine, like space, do not be dis- tracted for even one instant. The one who trains like that can truly be called a ‘space yogi’. A yogi is an individual who connects with that which is naturally so. Space means that which always is. Remain with- out imagining anything at all, not meditating on anything. Once you start to meditate on space, it becomes an imitation. Simply allow the space to not wander. Remain undistracted. There is no impetus for any thoughts to reoccur. A thought is a mental way of formulating some- thing – in other words, our attention formulates a thought. The thought doesn’t come from anywhere else. If we don’t think, where would a thought come from? In the basic space that is unimaginable, remain undistractedly. Let your indescribable awareness remain undis- tracted in the naked state ofbasic space. It doesn’t have to be imagined, because this basic space that is utterly naked is our own nature already. You don’t have to imagine that this is so.
Imagine space! It is not an object of thought. Give up thinking and what is thought of, both the present and what is about to come. Past has already gone. Now abandon the present and what is about to come. Then what is left?

Compassion comes from clearly seeing the state of how others are. Shifting your attention away from being concerned with merely your- self, you begin to tune into how other beings feel. Soon you realize that their aims and what they actually manage to achieve are in total contra- diction. Everyone wants to be happy and free, but the involvement pursued through thought, word and deed for the most part creates fur- ther pain, further entanglement. When one really sees this clearly, the sense of compassion becomes overwhelming. The insight into empti- ness in the moment of overwhelming compassion is totally free from any sidetrack, so that you can realize the primordially free, primordially
pure essence, the buddha nature present in everyone. That’s why com- passion is so important in the Sutra system. To unify means and knowl- edge, compassion and emptiness, is the very essence, the very heart of the general teachings ofBuddhism.
Vajrayana tells us that the nature of mind of all beings is covered by two obscurations. One is called ‘the emotional obscuration’ – desire, anger, and dullness. The second, the ‘cognitive obscuration’, is the sub- de holding onto subject, object and interaction, in which awareness strays into dualistic clinging. These two types ofobscuration need to be dissolved and purified. This is accomplished by gathering the two ac- cumulations – the accumulation ofmerit and the accumulation ofwis- dom, the training in original wakefulness. By gathering the two accu- mulations we unfold the two types of supreme knowledge – the knowledge that perceives whatever possibly exists and the knowledge that perceives the nature as it is. By unfolding the two types of supreme
knowledge we realize the two kayas, dharmakaya and rupakaya. ‘Rupa- kaya’ means ‘form body’ and has two aspects: sambhogakaya, which is the form of rainbow light, and nirmanakaya, which can take the physi- cal form of flesh and blood. This is a summary of the Vajrayana path. To practice this and attain enlightenment is the real blessing.

To reach enlightenment, you need to directly experience the empti- ness of mind. Empty means not arising, not dwelling, not ceasing. Like the space here all around us – does this space come from somewhere? Does it stay at some location? Does it go anywhere? It’s just like that. In the same way, the empty essence of mind is beyond all limited mental constructs, yet it naturally has the ability to know. Absorb this, and you have to agree with what the Buddha taught: the nature of mind is an unconfined empty cognizance. This is obvious, and why? Empty means there is no thing to see. Yet there is a knowing, an awake quality that sees that there is no thing to see, which we call cognizance. These two are not confined to one or the other; while being empty you can still cognize; while cognizing mind essence is still empty. If it were confined to one or the other, it would be either a void state or a conscious entity.
But it is not one or the other- it is a natural unity ofboth. The nature of mind is truly an unconfined empty cognizance. The quality of empty essence is what we call dharmakaya, the cognizant nature is sambhoga- kaya and the unconfined capacity is nirmanakaya.
If our basic state were restricted to being empty, it would be like being knocked out, oblivious, unconscious. There would be no experi- ence of anything; we would be incapable of seeing, of hearing, of knowing. But we know for certain that we are capable, that our capacity is not blocked but unconfined. While perceiving, mind essence is empty. While empty, we perceive. While hearing, the mind is empty; while being empty, we can still hear.

Conceptual mind means the perceiving mind that fixates.

There is no need to do anything to your present wakefulness at that moment; it is already as it is. That is the true meaning of naked ordinary mind, tama/ kyi shepa, a famous term in Tibetan. Ordinary mind means not tampered with. There is no ‘thing’ there which needs to be accepted or rejected; it is simply as it is. The word ‘ordinary mind’ is the most immediate and closest way to describe how the nature of mind is. No matter what terminology is being utilized within The Middle Way, Mahamudra or Dzogchen, naked ordinary mind is the simplest term. It is the most immediate way to describe how our nature really is. It means that nothing needs to be accepted or rejected; it is already perfect as it is.
Do not project outwardly, do not withdraw inwardly, don’t place your wakefulness anywhere in between. Whether the attention is di- rected outside or inside, it’s not necessary to place it in a forced state of calm. We need to be free of the thoughts of the three times. There is nothing easier than this. It is like pointing at space: how much do you need to do before you point at space? It’s like that. That is the moment in which no doing is required whatsoever. ‘Mind essence is originally empty and rootless’. To know that is sufficient in itself. Of course you can know your own mind!
To ‘cultivate shamatha and to train in vipashyana’ is like learning the alphabet. If we do not learn it we will never be able to read or write. Once meditation has dissolved into the expanse of your basic nature, then it is ‘easier to see and easier to maintain’. ‘Easier to see’ means that recognizing is simple. ‘Easier to maintain’ means to be proficient in naturalness. Without projecting, without focusing, without thought, get accustomed to the continuity.
To make it extremely short: “Never meditate, yet never lose it.” It is not an act of meditating like shamatha. But if you forget and get dis- tracted, you fall back into confusion. Never meditate, and never be dis- tracted. When you forget, apply mindfulness. Without this watchful-
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ness, the old pattern takes over again. The old habit of not seeing mind essence and being continuously caught up in thought is called ‘black diffusion’. Without the watchfulness, without reminding, there is nothing to remind us to recognize mind essence.