Ancient Dzogchen and Contemporary Existential Phenomenology Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D.

Diplomate In Clinical Psychology, A.B. P P Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Phenomenological and Existential Psychotherapy Studies Part 2. Of Interface of Dzogchen and Phenomenology Natural Similarities I would like to describe the natural similarities of the Dzogchen Tibetan Meditative Tradition with Contemporary Existential Phenomenology. I will describe the natural interface of Ancient Dzogchen and Contemporary Existential Phenomenology. The Doorway into Dzogchen and Existential Phenomenology The doorway into Continental Phenomenology and the doorway into the understanding of the praxis of Dzogchen is our experiential focus on our awareness and our experiential lived experience within our innate experiential field of our pre-reflective non conceptual knowingness of our own awareness. This innate awareness field is our direct knowingness of Being. This direct knowingness of our awareness is our primal openness to Being. Awareness is our knowingness of Being. Heidegger called this knowingness Da Sein. Our awareness knows Being non dualistically. Our knowing of our awareness is distinct from our mind’s knowing of phenomena and from our mind’s knowing the appearance of phenomena, and the forms of phenomena. Our mind reflects our thinking, our affective feelings, our memory, our sensation, our memory, our imagination, and our reflective reasoning. Our mind knows intuitively the essence of phenomena. Our mind knows dualistically and our mind knows subject and otherness. Our mind knows representationally. Our mind re-presences experience mentally and conceptually. This distinction between our ordinary dualistic mind knowing of phenomenological form and our primordial non dualistic non conceptual direct awareness knowing of Being is of foundational importance for our profound understanding of our human experience. In Dzogchen our awareness directly knowing Being is called Jnana or Gnosis. This essential distinction of mind knowing phenomena and primordial awareness non conceptually knowing Being was consistently described in Dzogchen philosophy since the 8th century. The Tibetan scholar David Higgins has written extensively about this dramatically important distinction. It is this distinction that opens and unfolds and comprehends the lived phenomenological experience that becomes our experience of phenomenological ontological presence. The Essential Distinction Both Dzogchen and Continental Existential Phenomenology make this essential distinction between our mind knowing phenomenological form and our awareness knowing Being. Both Dzogchen and Existential Phenomenology both wonderfully emphasized the necessity of integrating the knowing of mind within our field of awareness knowing of Being. In this way our mind directly intuits the essence of phenomena, and our awareness directly and intuitively knows the Being of phenomena. This union of our mind within our awareness field is the medium of selfliberation. This essential understanding is often not understood in many forms of Buddhism. In phenomenology the initial focus of Husserl was on mind knowing and intuiting the essence of phenomena and understanding the nature of Transcendental Consciousness. This was a major focus and contribution of Husserl. Martin Heidegger who was Husserl’s assistant went beyond Husserl by opening the phenomenological experience of Da sein which is the power of our primordial awareness knowing Being. This knowing is direct and non -conceptual. This knowing is pre-reflective and non - representational. In the Dzogchen tradition this direct non conceptual knowing is called Jnana or Gnosis. Merging of Mind within Awareness Field In both Dzogchen and Existential Phenomenology there is the explicit merging of our mind within our field of awareness. The integration of our mind within awareness brings forth the union and integration of our two ways of knowing. This merging of mind within our field of awareness opens for us the experience of self- liberation through our capacity to know and experience the nonduality of Being within the duality of beings and to know simultaneously the duality of beings within the nonduality of Being. Phenomena rather than being a distraction from self- liberation, phenomena becomes the doorway into the lived non dualistic experience of Being within the dualistic experience of phenomenological difference. This is the Dzogchen Heart Essence path of self- liberation. When we integrate our mind knowing the essence of phenomenological form into our field of awareness directly knowing Being we can experience and directly know the Being of the phenomenological form. We, as the one knower, can directly know intuitively the essence of phenomena as the essence of phenomenological forms and simultaneously, we can intuitively know the Being of phenomenological forms. We can live simultaneously within the oneness of Being and the within the vast difference of forms. We can experience oneness and difference simultaneously. This is a path of self- liberation just as we are. Within this union of our two ways of knowing, we can know the duality of beings and simultaneously know the nonduality of Being within the dualistic beings. We can know oneness and difference simultaneously. This is self - liberation through our direct awareness of the Being of phenomena and our mind’s intuitive and direct knowing of the essence of phenomena. Our simultaneous Direct Knowing and Experiencing of the essence of phenomena and the Being of phenomena is our luminous path of selfliberation. This is the path of immanence. This is a path of embodiment. Dasein As Jnana and Gnosis: Awareness as Direct Knowingness of Being Dzogchen is a phenomenological ontology in the same way that the contemporary phenomenology of Heidegger and the contemporary phenomenology of Maurice -Merleau Ponty are phenomenological ontologies. There are many phenomenological ontologies. There is no one phenomenological expression of ontology. Phenomenological ontology begins with the understanding that our awareness is our openness to directly knowing Being non conceptually. Heidegger describes this openness of human awareness to knowing Being as Da Sein. Dzogchen calls this direct non conceptual knowing of Being Gnosis or Jnana. Phenomenology of Lived Experience Through our lived experience of beings, we can experience Being within beings, and knowing Being through beings, including our own being. Through our own being, we can know Being. We can directly know the Being of our own being and the Being of other beings. We can experience the natural non duality of Being within beings, and we can experience within beings the natural non duality of Being. We can also naturally and directly experience the Being of Pure Being in and of its self. All phenomena reflect the openness of Being and all phenomena are manifestations of Pure Being. All phenomena are the appearance of the forms of Pure Luminous Being. Our Experiential Lack of Being Brings Forth Ontological Suffering. The Tibetan traditions of Mahayana and even forms of Vajrayana are often established in transcendental experience and expressed as transcendental philosophies. Transcendental methodology is dissociative in nature. In transcendental dissociative traditions, all phenomena are considered an illusion or delusion. In transcendental philosophy, phenomena is presented as lacking ontological actuality. Phenomena is presented as lacking Being. The world itself is considered an illusion. The world is considered as lacking Being. The world is Beingless. The existential and experiential lack of the sense of Being is a source of ontological human suffering and ontological hopelessness and emptiness. Bonded To Beingness and Through Beingness Attachments to those we love is considered by transcendentalist, a distraction from the transcendental path. Desire is considered a terrible distraction from the transcendental path. In the transcendental path, all phenomena lack actuality and phenomena lack reality. All phenomena lack Being and are absent of Being. Of course, our experience of our sense of the absence of Being, our experience of absence of Being within our self and absence of Being within others brings forth the dreadful experience of a Beingless life, a life of absence. For some Buddhist traditions life is Absence, the Absence of Beingness. Many Buddhist transcendental traditions described human life as unending selflessness in a Beingless, a world of Beingless suffering. In this beingless experience we easily experience that All Life is suffering. And the only way out of endless suffering for the transcendental person is detachment and various dissociative forms of transcendental experience. Without our experience of ongoing continuity of Being life is Suffering. This was Guatama’s unhappy experience. This Beingless life is what Guatama experienced and thus taught that all life as suffering. Our Beingless life is a life of empty Suffering. A Beingless life is a life without the sense of ongoing continuity of our lived experience of Being within our own lived experience and within our lived experience of others and our lived experience of the world. Our Beingless life is a Life without sense of self. Our Beingless life and selfless life lacks foundational self -agency and the self- liberation of self - manifestation. Our Beingless life lacks exaltation and the Bliss of Being. The anatman view is a Beingless experience of human existence. Our existential experience of embodiment of luminous Being is the natural path of Dzogchen and the Phenomenological Ontology of Existential Phenomenology. Being Is Not a being Dharmakaya is Being, Sambhogakaya is Being and Nirmanakaya is Being. These are the Dimensions of Being. The Nirmanakaya dimension of Being is the Ordinary Life World of Being. The Sambhogakaya dimension of Being is the Archetypal Dimension of Being. The Dharmakaya Dimension of Being is the Source Dimension of Being. This Dharmakaya Dimension is the Ground of Being. The Ground of Being is not a being. Being is unbound openness, unbound spaciousness. Being is luminous light and Being is vital energy of Pure Creativity. Being is not an entity. Our Two Ways of Knowing The Dzogchen distinction and the Phenomenological distinction of our mind knowing phenomenological form and our primordial awareness directly knowing Being brings forth the existential possibility of our merging and integration of our dualistic mind within our non-dualistic primordial knowing of our field of innermost awareness. Human Awareness directly knows and intuitively perceives the nature of Being. Our mind directly knows and intuitively perceives the essence of phenomena. The direct non conceptual pre-reflective knowingness of our awareness is our primordial openness and direct knowing of Being. Heidegger called this primordial openness Da Sein. Human beings have this wonderous innate capacity to know directly Being. This direct non conceptual knowing of Being in Dzogchen is called Gnosis or Jnana. Our knowing of our embodiment of Being organizes our experience of our existing-ness and our sense of ongoing continuity of self. Our sense of self is our sense of our Being, our ongoing continuity of Being. When our ongoing experience of our continuity of Being is fragmented and ruptured then our ongoing sense of self is fragmented and ruptured. Our Mind Intuitively and Directly Can Know the Essence of Phenomena Our mind knows intuitively the nature or the essence of phenomena. Our awareness knows the Being of phenomena. The experience of our mind merging within our awareness and our mind merging within our field of Being provides for us and brings forth for us self -liberation. Our direct luminous intuitive knowing of Being within our wonderous lived experience of knowing the essence of phenomena brings forth our direct experiencing the Being of the phenomena simultaneously with our intuitive knowing the essence of the phenomena. This integrated knowingness of mind within awareness opens the power of Dzogchen as a Phenomenological Ontology. Because of our Merging of Our Mind Within Our Awareness Field we can experience within the Duality of beings, we can experience the nonduality of Being. And within the non -duality of Being we can experience the duality of beings. In this way we can simultaneously experience oneness and difference. We can simultaneously experience oneness within difference and difference within oneness. This is the path of self- liberation. Our Awareness Knows the Radiance of Presence This luminous experience of Being is the experience of Presence. Our experience of Being is the experience of Radiance of Presence. This experience of Radiant Presence is both within us and simultaneously this Presence is within others and within the world. The experience of Presence is vast and multidimensional. The experience of Presence is pervasive and infinite in its horizons. The experience of the Radiance of the Being of a being is luminous Presence. To live within Presence as Pure Presence is the path of self- liberation. The great Dzogchen text the Guhyagarba Tantra elaborates the integration of our mind within the field of awareness which is the field of Being. This tantric text teaches us how to bring our mind into our innermost heart center, the center of our direct experiential knowing of Being. This text focuses on the integration of mind within our field of embodied awareness. Being is the openness of pure creativity. Being is the unbound infinite openness of potential space. Being is also the pure energy of creativity and self- manifestation. Pure Being self- manifest as the infinity of beings. The Pure Being of All Beings and The Pure Being of All Phenomena The experiential lived process of Dzogchen is a not the transcendental process reflecting the path of dissociation and the radical detachment from inner phenomena of self - experience and the experiential phenomena of the world. Dzogchen as phenomenological ontology reflects our experiences of the Being of phenomena and the phenomena of Pure Being as essentially the same actuality. Our experience of phenomena and the Pure Being of Phenomena is neither delusion or illusion but the lived actuality of non-dualistic Being within the duality of beings. The Singular Delusion There is a singular delusion that Longchenpa describes in his commentaries on the text The All Creative King or The All Creative Source. Longchenpa described in detail how there arises a philosophical delusion when phenomena are not understood to be of the same essence or the same nature as the ontological source of the phenomena. The Ontological Source is the Ground of Being manifesting all phenomena as the same essence or same nature as the ontological source. This ground of Being is the same essence as the appearance of phenomena. Source and phenomena and the appearance of the phenomena are in oneness and are of the same nature and the same essence, the same essential Purity of Being. Phenomena and The Ground of Being Phenomena are not an illusion as some Buddhist traditions would think. Form is not an illusion as some transcendental traditions would think. The experience of the delusion and the experience of the illusion of phenomena reflects a profound lack of the direct experiential knowing of the Being of phenomena and the profound absence of our experiencing the oneness of source as the Ground of Being within phenomena and the oneness of the Ground of Being as manifested phenomena. The Ground of Being is completely the same essence of all phenomena. Contemporary Existential Phenomenology describes this unhappy and focal misrecognition as a foundational delusion within forms of eastern philosophy and philosophical forms of Transcendental Consciousness. The Ground of Being self -manifests as all phenomena. The Ground of Being is the same Pure nature as all phenomena. Source As Ground of Being Manifesting of Phenomena Actually, the oneness of source with and within manifested phenomena and the oneness of Pure Being, as the Being of all beings, is an implicit pantheism that the great Nyingma Lama Mirpam in a late 19th century reflected upon. Mirpam understood his formulation of the oneness of the ground of Being as phenomena is an expression of philosophical pantheism. Here pantheism reflects the Divinity of Being and the Divinity of beings. Another great master of the indivisibleness between phenomenological form and the Being of the forms is the Great contemporary Master of Kashmir Shaivism Swami Muktananda . Muktananda would simply say over and over God dwells within you as you and see God within each other. Phenomena and the Ground of Being who is manifesting all phenomena are of the same nature. The delusion is the contracted and distorted understanding that phenomena is non reality and phenomena is non actuality and phenomena is not the same essence and the same nature as the source which is the Ground of Being. There are many names of the Source such as All Creative Being, Pure Potential Space or Buddha or Shiva or Deus or Allah among many names. Of course, Being is not a being or Being is not an entity. This does not mean of course that Being is not who-ness, vast who-ness! Language of Manifestation There is a Singular delusion within our perception when we perceive Phenomena as being of a different nature or different essence then the source. Phenomena is not mere display, a mere illusionary display. Phenomena is not simply an as if hallucination! This language of “mere display” or as if-ness invalidates the luminous actuality of the field of Being becoming everything and everyone. The wording of display is a weak, inadequate and delusional description of the actuality and equality of nature of all beings and the equality of nature of all phenomena and the primordial source. This delusional form of thinking is an unhappy and repeated distortion within personal human experience and familial human experience and cultural human experience. This perceptual distortion destroys the purity and truth of equality of consciousness and fosters the delusion of above and below, better and best, and most of all the great and endless tragedy of human prejudice. Prejudice is the cultural distortion of equality consciousness and equal vision that is the unhappy basis of personal, familial and cultural prejudice. The distorting of equality consciousness and equal vision is intrinsic to Patriarchal Religions who relentless teach Outside of their church there is no salvation. In dramatic contrast the Nyingma prayer declares” may I experience all phenomena as the Dharmakaya”. May I experience all phenomena as the Ground of Being. The Ground of Being and the infinity of beings are self - manifested through and by the Ground of Being. Being is Uni-Voce as the medieval theologian Dun Scotus declared. Uni-Voce is a metaphor of equality consciousness and equal vision of the Purity of Being of all beings. Self -liberation is the existential manifestation and experience of equal vision and equality consciousness reflecting the purity of the Being of all beings. The primordial source of Being is the Ground of Pure Being. Pure Being is the Ground of Being which ground is not a being but Pure Being is unceasingly self- manifesting infinite numbers of beings. Pure Being selfmanifest as all beings. This ground of Being is the pure potentiality of Pure Being. This ground of Being as Source is the focus of the great foundational 8 th century Dzogchen text The All Creative King. This understanding of the All Creative King, the Ground of Being is foundational to Dzogchen. In the Vajrayana tradition this Ground of Being is called the Dharmakaya. This Ground of Being is self -manifest as our own inner most Awareness, as our own field of awareness, and as our own subjectivity as Pure awareness, the Pure Being of awareness. This understanding about the creative Ground of Being is foundational to both Contemporary Existential Phenomenology and ancient Dzogchen. Our Innate Power of Primordial Knowing The power of primordial knowing or primordial awareness is elaborated both in Dzogchen and Phenomenology. This Direct Knowing is called Gnosis or Jnana. To experience primordial knowing or primordial awareness is to experience the awareness of our luminous field of awareness. The awakening of awareness is the power of experiencing this primal dimension of our direct non -conceptual knowing of Being. Our capacity for our direct knowing of Being reflects our ontological experience that our own Being is the knower of Being. We can directly know the Being of our own embodiment of Being and the Being of other beings and the Being of Cosmological Being. Amazingly, this knowing is completely close and completely available. This knowing is the very nature of our own Being which is the nature of awareness. Awareness is Being’s knowing of Being. Yes, Awareness is our Beings knowing of Being. Both Dzogchen and Phenomenology focus on our direct knowing of Being infinite in its horizons, vast and multidimensional. Our direct Knowing of Being is not omnipotence or omniscient as some esoteric traditions would think or like to think. This knowing, this Gnosis this Jnana is knowing the presence of Being in and of its self and within all phenomena. The early Dzogchen text The All Creative King of the 8th century emphases this understanding as the direct knowing of the light of Presence in everyone and everything. The knowing of the light of awareness is the knowing of the light of Presence and this light is the knowing of the light of Being itself. This knowing is the trans- lucidity of our awareness and the trans-lucidity of Being. This direct luminous knowing is a natural givenness within all human Beings. This knowing of Being and the Presence of Being is self- liberating and yet is completely ordinary. This direct- knowing is the Bliss of the Ordinary. This knowing, this natural knowing is the essence of natural self -liberation. This knowing is not mystified or considered exceptional or special or reflecting the chosen One of ones. This capacity is within everyone and can be brought forth naturally. This knowing is Obscured by Spiritual Omnipotence and Spiritual Grandiosity. This knowing is Obscured by Patriarchal and Theocentric domination. Theocentric domination is the Union of Spirituality and Royalty (Hierarchy). Equally Consciousness and Equal Vision Our direct non conceptual pre-reflective knowing is the knowing of equality consciousness and equal vision. This direct knowing of our awareness is knowing the sameness of Being and the oneness of Being in all beings. This is the drama of equality consciousness and this is the experience of self- liberation through the luminous experience of equal vision. To experience the Being of phenomena is to experience the Purity of Being of all beings. To know the Purity of Being is the Knowing of our own Purity of Being, the Purity of our own innate awareness. This knowing of the Purity of Being is a path of self- liberation and our direct experiencing of Being of the world is the Bliss of Ordinary life world. The Experience of Presence as Self Liberation Phenomenological ontology as elaborated by Heidegger and Merleau - Ponty elaborate the power of Presence. Presence is the radiance of Being becoming manifest in and through the inner experience of all beings. In the 8 th century AD, the newly written text the All Creating King was a primary source of both Dzogchen understanding and Dzogchen praxis. The focus of this text is that the experience of Being is the experience of Presence. This text All Creating King describes self- liberation as liberation through our direct experience of Presence. This presence of Being is completely Pure, Radiant Light. The presence of awareness is the presence of the trans-lucidity of Being that knows Being. This presence of Being reflects the actuality of Being and the luminous Reality of Being. The Existential Field of Presence and Existential Psychotherapy The famous Zollikon seminar presented by Martin Heidegger and Menard Boss was a fantastic seminar for psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychologist and phenomenological philosophers. In this 10 year ongoing summer seminar, the focus was on the phenomenological experience of ontological presence of Being, and the implications of this onto-ontological view of the Presence of Being to the understanding and praxis of existential psychotherapy. This great seminar integrated psyche, soma and ontology. Existential Psychotherapy includes Psyche, Soma and Being. Human Beings are ontic ontological Beings. The experience of Presence is interwoven through existential phenomenology and existential Dzogchen. The tradition of existential psychotherapy and existential psychoanalysis illuminates the ontological phenomenological power of working within the field of Being as the Field of Presence. First, we learn to hold the experience of Presence, and then we find ourself within the field of Presence and then we experientially become the field of Presence which is the field of Being. We become who we are. We become the field of Being. The Natural Transmission and Natural Self Manifestation of The Field of Being There is the drama of our own self Manifestation of Being and our own transmission of our field of personal awareness into other human beings and into human events. Both Dzogchen and Phenomenology are focused on the direct experiential knowing of Being. This knowing is both non conceptual and pre-reflective. Both Dzogchen and Phenomenology emphasize the natural transmission of the experience of the field of luminous awareness from one person to another, from one generation to another, and from one culture to another. Hans Gadame, Michael Eigen, Menard Boss, Erving Polster, R.D.Laing, Donald Winnicott, Austin Deslaurier, Henry Elkin , Eugene Gendlin, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Henry Corbin are some of the Existential phenomenologists and existential psychoanalysts that emphasize our power and our self- agency in the transmission and manifestation of the field of Being within human beings. In Dzogchen there are Lama’s who also emphasize the power of transmission in the unfolding of natural self- liberation. Some of the contemporary Lama’s who teach the necessity and power of personal transmission of the field of Being are Yang Thang Rinpoche, Lama Norlha, Lama Wangdor, Lama Tharchin, Kunsang Dechin Lingpa , Rigdzin Dorge, Namkai Norbu ,Dudjom Rinpoche. In Kashmir Shavism, Swami Muktananda was most generous and free in his transmission and the teaching of transmission of Being being most natural. Muktananda also understood that the transmission and self - manifestation of the field of awareness was most natural to human beings. He taught the power of transmission is within everyone. In Daoism the great contemporary Qi Gong master Dr. Yan Xin emphasized the vast power of our transmission of the field of Being to each other. In Hinduism the great woman Master of transmission to so so many people is the beloved Ammachi. Ammachi transmits the field of awareness, the field of Being, the field of Energy, the field of Light by the human embrace. Being Knowing Being This knowingness of Being is Beings knowingness of itself as Being. Being’s knowingness is primordial awareness. The knowing of Primordial Awareness is not the knowingness of Mind. The knowing of primordial awareness is direct, intuitive and non- conceptual and non -dualistic and completely experiential. In direct knowingness of Being we become what we know. Our Knowingness of Being knows Being. Awareness is the knowingness of Being. Awareness is the knowingness of Being knowing Being. As we become aware of our awareness, we directly know our Being and the Being of beings and the Being of the cosmological world. Timeless Awareness in Time As Bodhidarma the tantric master of transmission of the sublime field of luminous awareness said in the 6th century AD “Beyond words and letters there is a transmission. This transmission does not belong to any tradition. This transmission is the nature of human awareness. This transmission is the Buddha.” In Dzogchen the understanding is that the metaphor of Buddha is the dynamic nature of the transmission and revelation of primordial awareness in all human beings. The Buddha is not a person, but the Buddha is power of self- revelation of Being and self -manifestation of Being. Buddha is the Primordial Guru. This understanding of the Guru as the power of selfrevelation is not unlike the Greek presocratic understanding and experience of the Logos. Awakening of Awareness as Becoming Aware of Awareness Our field of awareness is the field of Being. There is a natural awakening of awareness. There is the natural awakening of our experience of the field of Being. There is this awakening of our direct knowing and direct experience of our embodiment of our luminous field of Being. This direct knowing of Being is called Gnosis or Jnana. This direct knowing is non conceptual prereflective and is the direct intuitive translucid knowing of Being in oneself and Being in others and Being in and of the world. There is this felt sense of Being and there is this felt sense of our power of transmission of our experience of Being to other human beings. This knowingness of awareness is the direct immediate natural luminous knowing within the Trans-lucidity of Being. Awareness is Being’s knowingness. To become aware of our own awareness is to experience and to directly know Being. Being is both luminous knowingness and Being is the unfolding self -manifestation of beings. Transmission As Self Manifestation The power of transmission is our power of self- manifestation of the field of awareness into other human beings and human situations. This field of awareness is the field of Being that is both a profound support and is a profound method of awakening awareness that is emphasized in both the tradition of Dzogchen and the tradition of Existential RelationalPhenomenology. Again as was stated by 6th century Tantric Master Bodhidharma “Beyond words and letters there is a transmission , it does not belong to any tradition. Its nature is human awareness. This is the Buddha. Buddha here is not a person but the compassionate action of transmission of luminous awareness from person to persons. Human beings participate in the manifestation of Being. Human beings participate in the manifestation and transmission of the radiance of Being, the light of Being. Human beings participate in the transmission of the field of awareness which is the field of Being. We bring forth the transmission of the spacious and the openness of the field of Being. We transmit the vital life -giving energy of the field of Being. We transmit the experience of the Purity of the field of Being, we transmit the trans-lucidity of the field of our awareness which is actually the luminous knowingness of our field of Being. Ontological Compassion Compassion is not merely wishing good for another. Compassion is not simply the empathic experience of feeling another’s affective states. The Tibetan Dzogchen Master Yang Thang Rinpoche taught about Compassion as our innate and intrinsic self- manifestation and transmission of the field of Being into other human beings. The mind knows empathy and awareness knows compassion. Compassion self- arises out of nature of awareness which is the knowingness of the field of Being as our very own awareness. We can manifest and we can transmit this field of awareness into a person and into personal events and personal situations. Who-ness This manifestation arises of our innermost awareness of our own being Being experienced as our innermost who-ness. This who-ness is our inner awareness as Pure Being and our experiencing of the Being of the human person as profound who-ness. Our experience of who-ness is our knowingness of the face of Being. Our who-ness is the face of our Being knowing the Face of Being of the other and of the world. Phenomenologically the world is Personal. Phenomenologically, Reality is Personal. Cosmic Who-ness And the Purusha The ancient Upanishads described this personal face of Being as Purusha. The Unpanishads described this Purusha as profound who-ness. Sometimes this who-ness would archetypally manifest as a luminous Blue Person, cosmological Personhood. Cosmological who-ness is simultaneously personal who-ness! The transcendental view of objectified witness consciousness is not the personal face of Being or a personal experience of luminous who-ness. Objectified witness consciousness is not the personal innermost experience of Being. Witness consciousness is an objectified de- personalized state. Witness consciousness is not the whoness of depth and breathe of pure luminous Beingness. Who-ness As the Who-ness of Being The nature of our awareness is our own who-ness as our direct experiential knowingness of our own Being as Being itself. Our direct knowingness of Being is our who-ness. Or field of innate primordial awareness is our knowingness of our Being knowing Being itself. Our experience of our Being and our experience of the manifestation of our own Being reflects our profounds sense of our vast unbounded who-ness of Being. Our who-ness is our Being knowing itself not as personality, but as a unbounded who-ness. Our who-ness is not our Personality and is not our mind. Who-ness does not reflect our ontic dimension of experience. Our who-ness is not a bounded entity. Our who-ness is not our sense of ontic Personality. Our who-ness is the ontological dimension of our Being. Dzogchen and Phenomenology both have the understanding that to focus within on our felt sense of our who-ness we will directly and easily enter into the field of our innermost awareness as Pure Being. Who-ness is Rigpa. Who-ness is our primordial awareness is an emanation of the Ground of Being. Timeless Awareness as Who-ness Compassion arises within our natural experience of timeless awareness within time. Timeless awareness is the essential nature of our awareness which is ultimately timelessness awareness manifesting within time . Our who-ness, our innermost awareness becomes obscured and hidden and contained by our mind. Our mind can dominate and contain and dissociate from this pure non conceptual knowing of Being which is our innermost self. Or innermost self is our innermost sense of Being that is manifesting as us within us as our who-ness. Our intrinsic who-ness is our innermost translucid knowingness of Pure Being. The timelessness of our awareness can manifest in the present moment of a person, in the pass time of a person and in the future time of a person. This timeless awareness is the trans-lucidity of our Being and the spaceousness of our Being and the vital radiant energy of our Being that is infinite in its horizons and vast and multidimensional The Four Times of Dzogchen and of Phenomenology In both Phenomenology and Dzogchen there are four times. There is the time of the past, the time of the present moment and the time of the future. The fourth time is timeless awareness. This experience of timeless awareness is the timeless essential experience of Dzogchen and Phenomenological Ontology. Most importantly and wonderfully we can experience timeless awareness simultaneously within the time of the present moment. We can experience timeless awareness within time of the past moments and even within the time of the future. Timeless awareness is the fourth time. Timeless awareness is our experience of the Ground of Being in its manifestation of past, present and future. Our integration of our existential phenomenological experience into our embodied awareness brings forth the radiant luminous light of Pure Being. Our integration of our mind into our experience of Pure Being illuminates our mind and de-densifies the concreteness of our thinking, feeling, and sensation functions. Our transmission of light brings forth the embodiment of light in our self and in others. Our experience of our embodiment of Light brings forth our experience of natural self- liberation. The luminous who-ness of our innermost awareness is the innate translucidity of our Being as innate Beingness, innate openness, innate potential space, innate knowingness of Being as Being. Our who-ness is the innate trans-lucidity of our own Being which is ultimately Being itself. Being itself is the light of who-ness. Who-ness is luminosity. Luminosity is pure immaterial light of Pure Being infinite in its horizons and vast and multidimensional. The Human Gaze of Trans-lucidity The importance of the human gaze is a focus both in Dzogchen and in Phenomenological Ontology. Our human gaze is the gaze of our who-ness of direct non conceptual knowing-ness. Heidegger describes this gaze as seeing Being or Perceiving Being. The Gaze sees through phenomena into the Beingness. Our human gaze goes beyond the objectified mind of witness consciousness. Our human Gaze is the gaze of and within the trans-lucidity of embodied Being. Our gaze is the trans-lucidity of subjectivity gazing into the trans-lucidity of Being within another person’s subjectivity. The gaze is an intersubjective translucid experience of nondualistic luminous indivisible Being within both of our beings. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa “You and I are indivisible”. Our personal human embodied gazing is our direct knowing of awareness knowing the Being of beings. Our direct human gaze of trans-lucidity is foundational in the Dzogchen praxis of Thogal. Our gaze perceives through phenomena and sees within phenomena, and our gaze feels through phenomena and feels within phenomena the field of luminous Being. Our Personal Gaze senses fully and directly perceives within the appearance of phenomena the translucid field of Being. Our gaze is the trans-lucidity of our own light of Being experiencing the trans-lucidity of phenomena and the trans-lucidity within phenomena. Our gaze is our luminous Presence of Being perceiving the luminous translucid presence of Being. Our gaze is radiance of Pure Being Knowing the Pure Being of beings. Our Gaze is the Gaze of who-ness. Gazing As Embodied Direct Perception Gazing within phenomena opens us to directly experience the trans-lucidity of the field of Being that is embodied around us and within us. Our human gaze is a full embodied gazing into phenomena and through phenomena as the field of Being within our innermost experience. Our gaze experiences through phenomena and within phenomena, the infinite trans-lucidity of the field of Being. The gaze is an inside- to- inside knowingness which is intersubjective knowing. The gaze is the knowingness of the field of Being phenomenologically. Our gaze is the field of our translucent Being knowing the trans-lucidity of Being. Our gaze is our field of Being knowing the field of Being within phenomena and as phenomena. Our gaze experiences the indivisibility of Being. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Linpga “You and I are indivisible”. The gaze not is not simply gazing from our mind. The gaze arises out of our embodied awareness as Timeless awareness knowing the Being of phenomena. We gaze from within our embodied awareness and from within our embodiment of Being into the Being of beings and into the Being of the world. The gaze of our innermost awareness brings forth the experience of the trans-lucidness of phenomena and the trans-lucidity of the Being of phenomena. Trans-lucidity of Experience The trans-lucidity of experience and the trans-lucidity of Being is a foundational experience of our human experience both in Phenomenology and in Dzogchen. Through the trans-lucidity of Awareness Human Beings directly know Being and the Being of beings. Our Awareness is our openness to the field of Being. Our awareness is our Beings openness to Being itself. To become aware of our awareness we directly begin to experience and to know directly and non-conceptually the luminosity of the field of Being. We experience the trans-lucidity of phenomena which is the Being of phenomena, the radiance of phenomena, the shining of phenomena, the luminosity of phenomena. The lucidity of the light of our own awareness opens the trans-lucidity of phenomena and the trans-lucidity within phenomena. Through gazing in and through phenomena we gaze into the field of phenomenological Being in its very manifestation and its self -manifestation. Such is the power of our human gaze. Our embodied luminous gaze gazes into phenomena and through the appearance of phenomena we experience the trans-lucidity of phenomena as the trans-lucidity and shining of phenomenological Being. The experience of trans-lucidity is self- liberation. The experience of translucidity is an empowerment of the Being of our own luminous Being. The Trans-lucidity of Our Inner Most Field of Awareness The nature of our innermost awareness is the trans-lucidity of our awareness field which is infinite in its horizons, vast and multidimensional. The very essence of trans-lucidity is the nature of our awareness as profound luminous who-ness. The trans-lucidity of our awareness is the very who-ness of our awareness. Our who-ness is not a psychology of mind phenomena. Our who-ness is the field of Being manifesting in our luminous human dimension of embodied flesh. The Beatific-ness of Vision and The Beatific Vision of Being To experience and perceive the vision of the luminosity of Being is to experience the Beatific-ness of Vision. The Beatific Vision has always been a dimension of mystical experience. The luminous face of Being is the Beatific Vision. The experience of the Beatific-ness of Pure Being is the Beatific Vision. There are three dimensions of the Beatific Vision. We experience the Beatific vision as we experience the Purity of Being manifesting within and as the ordinary life world. The purity of Being manifest through the forms of Being of human beings and all the various forms of beings in and of the ordinary life world. In Dzogchen language this is the Nirmanakaya dimension of Beatific Existence. There is also the Beatifc Vision of the archetypal dimension of Being as there is the apparitional manifestation of archetypal energies and luminous forces that manifest as the Pure Personifications of archetypal apparitions and visions of the Being of beings. This is the sambhogakaya dimension. There is the Beatific experience and direct Beatific resonance with the Pure Ground of Being. This experience is beyond mind and is the experience of the Timeless Light of Self Illumination. This is the experience of self -liberation within the trans-lucidity of the Ground of Being. Merleau Ponty: Visible Phenomena and Invisible Being For phenomenology the dramatic work of Maurice Merleau -Ponty opens for us the knowledge and the experience of the phenomenology of direct Perception of lucidity. There is a phenomenology of our mind that intuitively perceives the essential character of a phenomena, the essence of a phenomena. And there is the direct non conceptual perception of our awareness that allows us to perceived and directly experience the translucent field of Being both in and of itself as well as our experience of the translucent field of Being embodied as the infinite forms of Being, including our own being. Our translucid non conceptual awareness perceives the trans-lucidity of the flesh of human beings. By our merging of our two ways of knowing that we are, we can directly experience the essence of phenomena and simultaneously we can experience directly the translucent Being of the phenomena. Being is not a being and Being in its self -manifestations is ceaselessly multidimensional. Phenomena may self- reveal the trans-lucidity of the Being of phenomena within the translucid experience of our personal awareness. Luminous Immanence in the Context of Transcendental Phenomenology Husserl later philosophical unpublished papers were maintained at the University of Louvain, Belgium. In the Husserl archives these unpublished works were a source of phenomenological study for many scholars including Maurice Merleau -Ponty. Maurice Merleau Ponty would travel to Louvain from Paris and study Husserl’s unpublished text that open the door of philosophical luminous ontological immanence in the context of Transcendental Phenomenology. The Opening of The Trans -Lucidity of the Luminous Being of Phenomena Embodied human awareness illumines phenomena. Embodied awareness Illuminates our mind and our body. This light is not simply clear light but is the vitality of radiance, the energy of radiance, the phusis of radiance. This embodied awareness brings forth the trans-lucidity of phenomena and the trans-lucidity of Pure Being of phenomena. In essence the power of awareness is the power of trans-lucidity. The power of awareness is the power of the trans-lucidity of our own Being. Our very who-ness is the power of the trans-lucidity of our Pure Being’s knowingness. The Opening of Being The luminosity of our trans-lucidness of awareness opens the translucent experience within all phenomena. The radiance of the light of our awareness is in resonance to the luminous openness of phenomena and to the openness to the light of phenomena, to the radiance of phenomena. The power of awareness is the power of trans-lucidity. The trans-lucidity of awareness is the power of luminous resonance that opens and brings forth the trans-lucidity of the Being of phenomenological beings. Awareness is Pure luminosity. Dudjom Lingpa was a Dzogchen master who founded the Dujdom lineage in the 19h century and taught that Dzogchen was teaching us how to experience the purity of Being of all beings. The trans-lucidity of Being is the trans-lucidity of awareness which is the unfolding process of self - manifestation of the field of Being as phenomenological Being and phenomenological awareness. Awareness is the trans- lucidity of our Being. Who-ness is the trans-lucidity of Being as us. Opening of Our Lived experience of the Trans-lucidity of Phenomena: Trecho and Togal What Dzogchen calls Trecho or the Cutting through phenomena is actually the Opening of the Innate Luminosity of Phenomena. This metaphor of cutting through (trecho) is our experiential opening of the field of translucent being. The Dzogchen method of ‘Cutting Through or Trecho’ Is a method for opening up of the radiant luminosity of Phenomena within the trans-lucidity of our field of awareness. Dzogchen exquisitely describes the skillful means method of Cutting through. Cutting through of and by our field of luminous awareness is the power of Our translucid awareness field in opening up of the trans- lucidity of phenomena. The trans-lucidity of awareness field luminously opens, and shines through the luminosity of phenomena, the revealing and opening the luminosity of the phenomenological Being of beings. Another fundamental Dzogchen skillfull means is Togal. Togal is the nonjudgmental gazing within awareness and gazing as awareness into the phenomena and seeing through the phenomena into the radiance of Pure Being. Being shines through phenomena and in gazing at the sky or gazing into phenomenological forms opens the trans-lucidity of the phenomena as a manifestation of the field of Being. Trecho and Togal are phenomenological methods for experiencing the radiant light of Being within phenomena manifesting through phenomena and Being revealing its luminous nature through the field of phenomena. Leaping Into the Pure Trans-lucidity of Being Dzogchen also describes the luminous methodology of leaping through or leaping into the translucent radiance of the field of the light of Being within phenomenological beings and through phenomenological beings. There is this passing through phenomena as ourself as the field of energy and the field of light. There is a subtle merging or union or mysterious conjunctio that takes place through and within the trans-lucidity of Being of beings. Human Beings can as the trans-lucidity of the field of Being pass through each other. This is the source of tantra and the power of tantric life and tantric light. This passing through is non sexual in its luminous essence. In both Phenomenology and in Dzogchen there are very similar methodological or skillful means Practices. There is the similar praxis of becoming aware of awareness. There is the similarity in that once a person is established in the field of awareness, they can integrate the knowing of their mind and the functions of their mind within the field of awareness, within the field of our Being. This merging or union of our mind within our awareness field allows for us as the one knower to know simultaneous the essence of phenomena with our mind and simultaneously to know intuitively and directly the Being of phenomena. Our merging of our mind within our awareness field allows both for our mind knowing intuitively the essence of phenomena and our awareness knowing intuitively the luminous Being of phenomena to be experienced simultaneously. The Sea of Being With this union of the two ways of knowing within the one knower then a person can experience the nonduality of Being within the duality of beings. And the person can experience within the duality of beings can experience the nonduality of Being of beings. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa “you and I are indivisible.” Within our who-ness as primordial who-ness we live in the sea of Being as the sea of Being. A person can experience simultaneously in their life and circumstance the self -liberation of oneness and difference. A person can live their life in the sea of embodied luminous Being, the sea of embodied Light, the sea of embodied luminous vital energy, the sea of direct knowing of beings and the Being of beings. A ordinary person can live within the sea of Being. A person can live within the ongoing continuity of Being life after life and death after death. The person can experience and live within the liquidity of Being which is expressed as the experience of Khechari Mudra. Innate Luminosity of Phenomena The Skill of Cutting Through is the skill of Opening the innate radiance of Phenomena, the innate light of the trans- lucidity of the Being of a being. There is also the Skill of our awareness directly Leaping into the Field of Radiance of Light of Pure Being. This skill of our embodied awareness is the power of entering into the trans-lucidity of the pure radiance of Being within all beings and through all beings. The Guru Is Not a Singular Person: The Power of Self Revelation We can utilize the trans-lucidity of our awareness field for the cutting through the luminous forms of phenomena. This luminous cutting through opens and brings forth our translucent capacity for opening of the luminous forms of phenomena. Often the form or forms of phenomena can hide and conceal the innate luminosity of the Being of the phenomena, the luminous Being of the phenomena. Utilizing these cutting through methods the hidden becomes unhidden and the concealed becomes unconcealed. This drama of self -revelation and self -liberation is the unfolding of the truth of Alethea. Alethea is the truth of the Guru. The Guru is the nature of our own innermost trans-lucidity of awareness. The guru is the trans-lucidity of selfrevelation. The guru is not a person but the archetypal Logos the wisdom of self- revelation of the field of Being. The Guru as Who-ness, The Guru as Radiant Light, The Guru as Gnosis The Radiant light of our innermost awareness opens and penetrates the innate light of phenomena of phenomenological form and allows the radiance of phenomenological form to shine forth. This luminous opening and moving through or passing through the form of phenomena, the forms of experience is the power of luminous awareness to cut through and open the light of Being contained and hidden within the infinite forms of the phenomena and infinite forms of phenomenological events including our own form of body and mind and the events of our life. The light of trans-lucidity can pass through the form, and light of translucidity can magnetize the luminous energy within the phenomena and bring it forth. The light of trans-lucidity passes through the containment of phenomenological forms. The light of awareness liberates the light within the containment of the forms of phenomena. Phenomena opens and reveals its nature as the radiance of Being, the light of Being, the sea of Being. Phusis is the unceasing manifesting of luminous Beingness. Rudolph Bauer, Ph. D Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, A B. P.P. 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