top of page
Essays listed in chronological order starting with most recent. For archives, please see previous volumes below.
Writer's pictureRudy Bauer

The Experiential Drama of Mahamudra and Dzogchen

Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D Diplomate in Clinical Psychology A.B.P.P.

The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Phenomenological and Existential Psychotherapy Studies


In Mahamudra one enters Transcendental knowing beyond mind, and beyond phenomena. In Dzogchen one experiences the field of Being as, and through the field of phenomenological experience. The field of phenomenological experience of our own Being, the field of phenomenological experience of the Being of others, and the field of the phenomenological experience of the Being of the world are all included and experienced. The field of Being is multidimensional and infinite in its horizons. All phenomena are the manifestation of the field of Being. There is the great Dzogchen prayer “May I experience all appearance as the Dharmakaya”. In Dzogchen, the field of Being encompasses three dimensions of manifestation: Dharmakaya which is pure Being, Sambogakaya which is archetypal Being in manifestation, and Nirmanakaya which is Being as the manifestation of the ordinary life world.

Radiance of Light

Equality Consciousness becomes the apparent path and the apparent fruition of Dzogchen praxis. Equality consciousness is the direct path of relational self-liberation. In equality consciousness there is neither above nor below, better or best, good nor evil. The duality of beings is directly experienced within the non-duality of Pure Being and Pure Being is non- conceptually experienced and non- conceptually felt. The human power of the transmission of the radiance of the light is essential in the self-manifestation of Great Perfection praxis. Personal transmission and personal self- manifestation of the radiant light happens naturally.

The light of Dzogchen is not simply the luminous clear light of the transcendental experience. Dzogchen is the experience of the “radiance” of the light of Being manifesting as the presence of all phenomena. Radiance is the self-manifestation of primordial luminous awareness, of ground awareness. Radiance is the self- manifestation of the light of Being as human presence and as the presence of worlds. Radiance is the self-manifestation of the light of Being as all phenomena, and as the Being of all phenomena. The Being of beings is Pure Being.


Presence As Radiance of Light

Our experience of human presence is the experience of the radiance of the light as the very luminosity of Being’s self-manifestation. This self-manifestation is our human presence, being connected to the presence of others and to the presence of the world. The experience of relational presence is the experience of our inner most radiance of our experiential self-manifestation. Human presence is the experience of self- manifestation of the radiance of Being. We are the self-manifestation of Being and we simultaneously self-manifest the experience of Being in the world, and as the world.

Opening of Phenomena and Gazing into the Luminosity of Phenomena

Many of Dzogchen methods such as the “opening up of phenomena “or “cutting through phenomena take place “so that the radiance of light can manifest and becomes experientially visible and knowable. There are the Togel praxis: of gazing into phenomena, gazing through phenomena and gazing into sky like spaciousness, so that the radiance can become directly experienced in its luminous self-manifestation.

Trekcho is cutting through phenomena, or the opening of phenomena in order to experience the open luminous spacious radiance of the field of Being. The field of Being of radiance is experienced as the Being of others and as our own Being. Through Togel we are gazing thorough phenomena, through the openness of phenomena, the spaciousness of phenomena, and the Being of phenomena into the luminous spheres of radiance. These luminous Dzogchen methods facilitate the invisibility of Being becoming visible through phenomena, and as phenomena. The source of unfolding visibility of luminosity is that the radiance of the light of awareness is the same light as the light of phenomena.

Great Compassion as Action

The power of the transmission and self-manifestation of the field of luminous awareness is the power of the great compassion. The great compassion is the power of the self-manifestation of the radiant light of awareness into the world and into others. The great compassion is the path of relational transmission of the field of innermost awareness. We can transmit our own innermost awareness into the world, into our companions, into those we love and even those we hate.

The great compassion is not simply a sentiment. The great compassion is the action of self-manifestation of our field of luminous awareness into this world and into the world of others. Dzogchen is a collective relational experience. Dzogchen is not a solipsistic Drama. Liberation is a collective experience and not a solipsistic moment.

Primordial awareness is the self- manifestation of the Great Compassion as the self-manifestation of infinite numerous beings in their actuality of Being-ness. In the great compassion we can transmit our light of awareness into the present moment of a person, into the past of the person and into the future of the person. We enter timeless awareness and manifest the radiance of timeless awareness in time. There are four times, past, present , future and timeless awareness. The drama of self-liberation is the drama of being in timeless awareness and time simultaneously.

Dzogchen as Pantheistic Experience: All is Divinity

The Pantheistic Dzogchen Tantras reveal the understanding that Buddha Nature is not simply within everyone in a seed form but rather everyone is the completeness of Buddha nature just as they are. The world itself is complete as the field of Divine Being. The Universe is completely Pure as the field of Being. Each person is the completely pure field of Being in their own singularity. The world itself is Buddha Nature. The universe is Buddha Nature. You and I are Buddha Nature in completeness even as we read this text. Our essential self is Buddha Nature. Our essential self is innermost timeless awareness embodied in time.

Each person is Buddha Nature expressed in their singularity of their form and their singularity of character. The world itself is Divinity embodied. Each person is Buddha Nature embodied just as they are. Each person is Divinity embodied just as they are in their definitive singularity. The world itself is the manifestation of embodied Divinity. The field of Being is completely Pure. The field of Being is embodied and personified in non-conceptual awareness, non-conceptual knowingness. ( gnosis or jnana.)

Language as Transmission of Field of Being

You know that you know your experience of knowing, even if it is difficult to think it, and difficult to articulate what you are knowing. Experiential language arises out of our embodied field of awareness. Language arises out of non-conceptual experience into conceptual states of mind, into words and letters. Language itself is a mode of transmission of the field of Being. In speaking the experience of Being, one does not elaborate from their mind, rather one articulates their experience from within the place of the experience of our field of awareness.

Multidimensional Being

In our directly knowing Being through and within our awareness, we are directly experiencing Being, and we know Being as source. We have the felt sense of Being and the felt sense of our embodiment of Being. We have the felt sense of our self as embodied Being. We know Being as archetypal expression and we know Being as ordinary life world. We are not just visitors. We are these dimensions of Being and Being’s manifestation. We are also source, and we are the archetypal dimension, and we are the ordinary life world dimension. We are multidimensional beings. Dzogchen is a multidimensional praxis. In Dzogchen we invoke the different archetypal dimensions and bring them forth within our embodiment and our circumstances. The roots of Dzogchen are within the early forms of Bon Shamanism and early Existential Tantra


The Transcendental Path and the Path of Immanence

Philosophically and historically within Buddhism, there are there are different paths of self-liberation. The paths of Transcendence and the Path of Immanence is within Buddhism and are also present in western philosophy and in western theology as well as other forms of eastern philosophy such as Hinduism, Chan Daoism, and Kashmir Shavism.



Two Different Views and Two Different Forms of Praxis

We can pursue our discussion of self-liberation through two different understandings and two different views and two very different forms of praxis. One way is through the Transcendental path. In this Transcendental context, Ultimate Reality is Transcendental reality of Pure Non-Dual Transcendental Being. Self- liberation is being located in Non-dual Transcendental Reality . Within the Transcendental path, Non-Dual Transcendental Reality is the only reality. To be located in Non-Dual Pure Transcendental Being is self-liberation.

Within the Transcendental tradition ordinary phenomenological experience is considered illusionary. Ordinary phenomenological experience hides the Purity of Being. From the view of immanence, this transcendental view is incomplete in the perception of living reality. Living reality is our phenomenological world. Our phenomenological world is the world of the given-ness of experience, the given-ness of the experience of phenomena.

The transcendental view is the monastic experience of dissolving the phenomenological world. This view is dissolving of phenomena . This view understands that being in Pure Being is liberation from pain. This view does not experience and does not understand that all phenomena is Pure Being. The Dzogchen tradition understands this to be an ancient incompleteness of Transcendental Traditions.

The View of Immanence and Praxis within the Path of Immanence

The view within immanence and the praxis within immanence is different than the view and praxis of The Transcendental path. This view is that the luminosity of phenomena, the experience of phenomenological appearance and actuality are the authentic manifestations of primordial light, as Primordial Being.


Non-Dual Being within the Field of Immanence

In this context of the path of Immanence, the ultimate reality is Non-Dual Being self-manifesting the duality of beings. In this path, the Non-Dual Ground of Being self-manifests dualistic beings who are the self-manifestations of the Ground of Being. In this context all appearance, all phenomena, and all experience are the self- manifestations of the Dharmakaya or Ground of Being. Beings and the Ground of Being are in Non-Duality and in continuous self-manifestation and self-emanation. Being emanates Being as beings. Being emanates beings through the gift of the Being-ness of beings. All Being is Pure, whatever the form.

Divinity of Appearance within the Field of Immanence

This path of Immanence is the ceaseless unfolding of phenomena as Pantheistic forms of Divinity. The path of Immanence is the path of the Divinity of Appearance. The world is not an Empty Illusion. The world is the appearance of Divinity. The experience of world is the experience of Divinity. The world is the actuality of the Divinity of Being. The world is the actuality of the manifestation of Divine Being as beings. The world is the actuality of luminous self-manifestation of the Dharmakaya.

Appearance as the Dharmakaya

Appearances are the Dharmakaya. This is a great Dzogchen prayer “May I experience all appearance as the Dharmakaya.” Pure Being is the Dharmakaya. The world is the Infinite Reality of Divinity of Being in its manifestation of Being as beings. To experience a being is to experience Being itself. Every being is an opening and manifestation of Being itself ‘just as they are.’ All appearances are the self-manifestation of Pure Being.


Personal Awareness as Self Manifestation of Primordial Awareness

Primordial awareness self-manifests as our personal awareness. Our personal awareness is not our mind alone. We are this cosmological personal awareness embodied in mind and body. From within Dzogchen’s understanding, we are timeless awareness manifesting in time. Ultimately, human awareness is unborn and undying. This understanding and experience of the indestructibleness our own innermost awareness is an essential unfolding of our self- liberation as the field of Being. This experience frees us from annihilation anxiety which is ontological terror.



Cosmological Radiance

Cosmological awareness manifests as our personal awareness, as our singular sense of subjectivity, as our singular knowingness and as our singular embodied awareness as self. In becoming aware of our own awareness, we embody the field of Being, which is spaciousness, radiant knowingness, and vital energy of Being. In embodying awareness we are embodying the field of Being. Self-liberation is the unfolding of our embodiment of the radiant light of awareness in the world, and which world itself is the self-manifestation of luminous primordial Timeless awareness in Time.

Dzogchen as The Path of Absorption

The experience of Immanence is the experience of our awareness as our embodiment of Being in the Field of Being, as the field of Being. Self- liberation happens naturally and happens non conceptually through the luminosity of phenomenological experience. This absorption in Being is the path of self-liberation through our experience of being Being. The praxis of absorbing ourselves in awareness is the essence of the praxis of Immanence. Experiencing who and what we are as Pure Being, as formless form. The nature of pure Being is awareness. The nature of phenomena is pure luminous Being.

Transcendentalism :The Path of Dissociation and Dissolving

Dissociation from phenomena, detachment from phenomena and the concurrent dissolving of phenomena are the praxis of Transcendentalism. Dissociation is the path of Transcendentalism. Dissociation is a method of dissolving of human experience and the dissolving of phenomenological actuality. Dissociation dissolves our experience of phenomenological existence and phenomenological embodiment of Being. Through the dissolving of phenomena we dissolve into the Transcendental Being.

The Path of Immanence is the Path of Dzogchen

The most direct way of understanding ultimate reality is experiencing the essential non-duality of Being within beings. This is a non-conceptual living experience. The experience is not based upon conceptual belief. Primordial Being which is not a being, manifests the relative reality of beings. All beings are the self-manifestations of Being. Being self-manifests Being through the Being of beings. All beings are of the nature of Being. Being is Pure.

The relative reality of beings and the ultimate reality of Being are indivisible. Arising out of the oneness of non-dualistic Being, dualistic phenomenological beings become manifest in actuality. The non-duality of Being is self-manifesting the duality of beings. All Beings are the same divine nature as Being. The Being of beings are of the same divine nature as Pure Being.

The Purity of Being As Divinity

The infinity of the Divinity of Being (Non- Dual Being) self-manifests dualistic beings of the same Divinity as Pure Being. So the dualistic phenomena of infinite numbers of beings are manifested by the non-dualistic Being. Relative reality, or relative phenomena of beings are the self- manifestation of absolute Being. Being is not a thing, Being is not only an entity, and Being is not only a being. The Dharmakaya is not only a being. The Dharmakaya is Pure Being. The ground of Being is not a being. The Ground of Being is Being as source. Primordial awareness is the openness of Being. Primordial awareness is the openness of the ground of Being. This drama of self- manifestation of Being does not depend upon conceptual knowing or a conceptual belief. The openness of Being is vast unbounding spaciousness.

Ultimate Reality is Being

Ultimate reality is Being and Being is Non- Dualistic. In this experiential truth within the non-duality of Being is dualistic beings. And within dualistic beings and between dualistic beings is the non-duality of Being. To experience and live within this field of Being is the experience of self- liberation. This experience of self- liberation does not depend upon or reflect a conceptual belief. Dzogchen is not religion of belief. There is no credo. There is open unbound experiential understanding. Religion almost always has a patriarchal veil of institutionalization. The power of Dzogchen is the power of primordial awareness and this power is innate and not a function of the power of patriarchal hierarchal institutionalization. The power of Being as self- liberation is non- political and non- religious.


Dzogchen as Ongoing Continuity of Being

Our direct understanding of self- liberation is living continuously within the non- dualistic Being of awareness within the duality of beings. We live non- dualistically within the event of Being. Relative reality is dualistic beings. So the

Relative Reality of beings and the Absolute Reality of Being are indivisible. The practice of cutting through, and the practice of Togel has to do with the opening of phenomena and opening the light of phenomena so that the Being-ness of Being shines through. Being and beings are indivisible. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa “You and I are indivisible”.

Phenomenology of Compassion

Being self-manifests as beings. Being self-manifesting as beings is the cosmological drama of compassion. This way of speaking is the phenomenology of immanence. The phenomenology of immanence is the phenomenology of compassion. Compassion is ontological and not simply a psychological affect or sentiment. The self-manifestation of compassion is completely intrinsic to the phenomenology of immanence. Compassion is Being’s self- manifestation of Being in, and as the world as beings. And so beings can self-manifest compassion in the world within others and to others. Compassion is the radiance of Being personified.

Phenomenology of Immanence

This phenomenology of immanence is both the Dzogchen understanding and the Dzogchen path of self- liberation. This understanding integrates difference within oneness and oneness within difference. The knowing of the Transcendental is transcendental knowing of transcendental Being. The Transcendental View of Ultimate Reality is different, then the view of Ultimate Reality as experienced within the path of Immanence.


The Difference between the Path of Immanence and the Transcendental Path

Our experience of self-liberation from within the Transcendental path is different than our experience of self-liberation from within immediate embodied path of Immanence. In the path of Transcendence, Non- dual Being as Ultimate reality becomes separated or dissociated or dissolved from the phenomenological dimension of the ordinary reality of dualistic beings and dualistic phenomena. There is a splitting between the Non-duality of Being and the duality of beings. There is a split between the experience of Oneness and the experience of Difference.

Non-Dual Being is Separated and Dissociated from the manifestation of beings. Non-Dual Being is ceaselessly becoming beings. Being is ceaselessly becoming actual beings. In Transcendental experience, Source and Becomingness are split! Non-Duality of Being is experientially dissociated or experientially differentiated from beings and the appearing of beings. Dharmakaya and appearance of the Dharmakaya are dissociated!

Foreclosure of Dualistic Phenomenological Experience

In Transcendental praxis, dualistic phenomena and dualistic phenomenological experience is foreclosed, separated from and dissociated from the experience of Non-dual Transcendental Being. In Transcendental praxis we go beyond phenomena. In Transcendental praxis we dissociate from all phenomena in a step by step process . In the Transcendental path we dissolve into formlessness Transcendental Being.

In this process of dissociation and in this process of dissolving a person enters the trance like state of Transcendental Being and Transcendental knowing. This trance like state is depersonalized and dissociated from phenomenological embodiment and the phenomenological world of personhood.

In this Transcendental context the experience of Ultimate Reality is only available to the knower who transcends the ordinary reality of phenomena, who transcends the ordinary reality of appearance and who transcends the ordinary experience of the phenomenological world.

In this path of transcending phenomena there is dissociating and dissolving from the phenomenological experience of the world and dissociating from the cognitive affective functions of our mind. In this dissolving process the person enters into Transcendental Realm of Pure Being.


Monastic in Orientation

This is an ancient method of self-liberation that is reflected in many spiritual traditions. This Transcendental path is monastic in origin. This Transcendental path is lacking in realism of beings and dissolves the realism of phenomenological experiences. There is the luminous dissolving of phenomenological experience of phenomenological beings.

Oneness Is Separated from Difference of Phenomena

Through this experience of Transcending the ordinary life world of relative phenomena of reality and Transcending of the phenomena of mind, the person re- locates their knowing into the Transcendental dimension of pure Being. In this Transcendental experience, there is a profound separation of oneness from difference and difference from oneness. There is the profound separation and dissociation and the dissolving of dualistic phenomena from our experience of Transcendental Being.

Our person goes beyond the appearance and experience of phenomena into the Transcendental experience of Pure Being alone. This going beyond the experience of phenomena reflects our deeply entering into the dissolving trance like state of Transcendental Being. When we are in Transcendental awareness there is a dissolving of phenomenological experience around us and within us. Dissolving is of the essence of Transcendental Being. Dissolving is of the essence of Becoming Transcendental.

There is a separation of our trance like experience of the Non- Duality of Pure Transcendental Being from our experience of dualistic phenomena, dualistic experience of the world and from dualistic mind. This dissolving goes deeper and deeper and further and further, and more subtle and more subtler into the unbound spaciousness of Pure Transcendental Being.

Dissolving

This dissolving is the intimate process of self- liberation into Pure Being. This is the Transcendental drama of purposeful separation from the appearance of the dualistic phenomenological world and then dissolving within the refined experience of Non Dualistic Transcendental Pure Being. This is the purposeful differentiation of our Non-Dual experience of Pure Being from our Dualistic experience of the phenomenological world and the phenomenological appearance of the world. This is liberation through dissolving.

In this Transcendental formless non-dual experience, there is the dramatic dissolving of the phenomena of dualistic beings from the Non-Duality of Pure Transcendental Being. In this Transcendental process one cuts off and dissolves the difference of phenomena, the differences within phenomena and one remains in pure ontological Oneness.

Transcendental Knowingness

Many spiritual traditions use this process without understanding the ontological implications and ontological limitations. This is not the Dzogchen integrated experience of oneness within difference or difference within oneness. This is not the Middle way of Nagarjuna. This is not the path of Dzogchen indivisibleness. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa ‘you and I are indivisible”. In this transcendental moment there is ‘neither you nor I’ and there is only Transcendental knowingness of Transcendental Being. The knower and the known are identical.

Dissociative Splitting

Moreover, in this dissociative splitting of our experience of Non-Dual Being from our experience of dualistic phenomena and the burden of dualistic phenomena and the reality of dualistic phenomena, we can experienced this Vast Pure Freedom of Non-Duality within the State of Transcendental Pure Being. This Transcendental State of Pure Being is beyond our dualistic psychology of mind and beyond the impinging dualistic phenomena of the world of phenomena.

Unreality

From this Pure View of Transcendental Knowing, the world of dualistic beings and the world of dualistic phenomena is experienced as being unreal and is experienced as being illusionary and even being absent and being no longer present. The world of phenomena dissolves. There is a freedom of Transcendental Being within this trance like luminous Transcendental solipsistic experience. There is the freedom from Reality of “otherness”. There is this separation of Pure Oneness from Difference. A person is freed from realism, and the burdens of realism.

Some Transcendental mystics describe this experience as “I alone exist in Completeness.” Some mystics describes this experience as the experience of deathless awareness. Some Transcendental mystics often describe the “I alone Exist” experience and then in time the “I ” disappears and only Transcendental Being remains.

Transcendental Reality and The Drama of the Self Manifestation of Compassion.

The phenomenological Being of our world as viewed and experienced from within this Transcendental Knowing is felt to be unreal or illusionary or even absent. The world lacks realness. My relational life of the world seems illusionary. The only reality is this Transcendental Reality of Pure Being, pure no- thingness. The experience of the world becomes ‘as if.’ The experience of the world becomes memory, a fading and dissolving memory. And then as we leave Transcendental Being and corresponding Transcendental Knowing, and enter into our awareness of the world of phenomena, phenomena and the Being of phenomena reappears and re-manifests.

The nature of Being is the ultimate nature of cosmological universe. Being’s unceasing compassion is Being’s self-manifestation as beings and as infinite worlds and as the unceasing infinity of the universe.

The transcendental method of dissociation, detachment and dissolving may minimize our experience of the fullness of the field of Being as both source and as phenomena. We may only directly experience the field of Being as pure Transcendental Reality. Transcendental knowingness is neither source nor phenomena. Transcendental knowingness is a formulated experience that lacks phenomenological Being and beings.

Transcendental Knowing of the experience of self-manifestation of Being as existential phenomena is limited and incomplete. The field of Being is no longer experienced as infusing phenomena and our living experience of self- luminous manifestation of phenomena is no longer be experientially present.

Disembodiment of Being

Our Transcendental View of our human experience of phenomenological universe lacks the embodiment Being and embodiment of actuality and the embodiment of Reality. Our phenomenological experience may no longer manifest the radiant presence of the beings and their Being-ness of Being. Dissociation creates the result of absence.

Through dissociation of and from phenomenological experience , we do not experience simultaneously the form and formlessness of our human being and of human phenomena. Our experience of our House of Being may dissolve and our sense of our Being of our world as our Home, may deeply dissolve. Our sense of our Home of Being can become Being-less and from within our Transcendental view our phenomenological world is experienced to be empty and without continuity of being, without continuity of lived history, without the continuity of love and beloved-ness. This is Ma Rigpa.

Our transcendental experience can be freed from the experience of the past, and free from the burden of care. Our love and our beloved’s love may no longer feel actual or viable. The veil of dissolving has fallen and muted our experience of the Being-ness of beings who we love and adore. This is knowing is incomplete truth. This is Ma Rigpa. Ma Rigpa is incompleteness.

From within the Transcendental Realm there can be a profound absence of phenomenological Being and phenomenological Presence. Although there is the Pure Presence of Pure Luminous Transcendental Being. There is not the experience of Pure Being as the Being of phenomena, as the being of the world and as the Being of our own self. This is not mystic humanism. This is not the reality of the three kayas, the three ontological dimensions of Being.

In the Transcendental State there is only the Presence of Transcendental Being and simultaneously there is limited experience of the Presence of Being of the world, and the world of Embodied Being. There is no actuality of the world. Transcendental Being and Transcendental Knowing does not experience the union of form and formless Being of all phenomena. Transcendental Reality can foreclose experience of phenomenological actuality. Transcendental Reality is Clear Light within luminous formlessness of unbound spaciousness . Transcendental Reality is a Bliss of Pure Being. Transcendental Reality is not the bliss of beings. Transcendental Reality is a function of ontological splitting of the Phenomena of Being and the phenomena of beings. This is incompleteness.


The Experience of Form and Formlessness

Form without Being lacks presence. Form without Being lacks vitality. Formlessness becomes form. Form embodies formlessness. Being is formlessness. Form without formlessness is empty. Form without formlessness is empty of Being. Being without form is un-manifest. Being without form is un-manifest radiance. Form is the radiance of formless Being. The dissociation of form from formlessness is a natural distortion of the intimate relationship of form and formlessness.

The dissociation of form from formlessness interrupts the natural shining forth of the radiance of Being into the Being of the world. Transcendental Praxis dissociates form from formlessness. Transcendental Praxis is formlessness without form. This is an Existential interruption of the manifestation of the Shining forth of Being as forms. Nonetheless transcendental formlessness is limitless Clear Light.

Interruption of Manifestation!

The natural process of the self- manifestation of Being as beings is interrupted and foreclosed through the transcendental dissociation from the phenomena of form. This transcendental knowingness is a dissociated state of experience and this Transcendental state cuts off our experience of Being as manifesting the Being of phenomenological world. The perception of Being is withdrawn from phenomena. What results in phenomenological experience is a profound diminishing of our experience of the field of Being. The presence of radiance of the world is phenomenologically foreclosed. The vitality of the trans-lucidity of Being is limited. The Clear light of Non-Duality Remains.

In the Transcendental traditions foreclosure of the phenomenological world, the result is a falling into Being-less-ness. This is the power of the withdrawing of our human awareness field from the world. The Transcendental traditions use the “insipid” wording of “display” to described the “as if” apparitional world of phenomenological reality. These transcendental philosophical traditions are terrified of the word “manifestation” and even worst , the word “self- manifestation.” The transcendentalist are more terrified of the word “Pantheism.” In this context, the Dzogchen Heart Essence teachings brings forth the self- manifestation of the Divinity of Appearance and the Divinity of phenomena and the Divinity of the Being of the World. Divinity Dwells within Us as Us.

Reformulation of the Sense of Reality

Within this transcendental experience of Being there is a reformulation of the sense of reality, and our sense of the real. From sense of the fullness of the reality of dualistic phenomena within Non duality of Being , there is the withdrawal of awareness from the disembodied dissociative transcendental experience of Pure Transcendental Being. This results with the enduring felt sense of unreality of phenomena and the unreality of phenomenological existence. This dissociative withdrawal of our experience of Being into the Transcendental experience of transcendental Being alone is a distortion of the fullness of reality, a distortion of the fullness of Being, and a distortion of the unceasingly compassionate manifestation of Being becoming beings. This is a distortion of the self- revelation of Being. This is a distortion of Alethea. This is a distortion of our natural mystic humanism.

Phenomenological Empty of Radiant Luminosity

This transcendental reformulation of the sense of reality, results in the world becoming phenomenologically empty of the radiant luminosity of Pure Being. Pure Being is now only in the Jewel Box of Transcendental Reality. This is a containment of The Purity of Being and the Purity of all beings. The Transcendental Reality is a containment of the Purity of Being and the containment of Beings infinite unbound-ness as beings. There is also in the experience of Transcendental Being a containment of the field of Being in its multidimensionality. This containment limits the self- revelation of Being. Alethea is placed in the jewel box.

“Whatever is received is received according to the mind of the receiver” says St. Thomas Aquinas.

This statement means that the experience and transmission of knowledge is a hermeneutical process. Knowledge is a direct function of our skillful means and the methods of knowing we use to know our experience of Being. Our experience of Being is both within our self and within phenomena.


Necessary or Unnecessary?

The Existential question for everyone is this. Is the skillful Transcendental methods of dissociation, detachment, and dissolving really necessary? Are the methods of going beyond, and going beyond the phenomena of our being in the world and going beyond the phenomena of the Being of the world actually and really unnecessary other then when we are existing in terrible pain and relentless suffering?

Is the praxis of going beyond the experience of our mind ,and the praxis of going beyond our experience of our ordinary life world and the praxis our going beyond our existential relational life really unnecessary? Is this time well spent? This going beyond into Transcendental Reality is not mystic humanism of self- liberation within the natural context of our world and our ordinary life.

This going beyond is not only unnecessary but lacks the natural embodied self -liberation and lacks profound experience of the action of compelling generosity of the Great Compassion. The Great Compassion is Being itself in self manifestation. The Great Compassion is the self-manifestation of the radiance of awareness into the Being of world and into the Being of others.

Within Transcendental Reality there is the relentless containment of the experience of our own self-manifestation. This containment of self- manifestation is a containment of compassionate action and containment of Translucid vision of the world of appearance and presence. The Transcendental view lacks cosmological generosity and compassionate action.

In Presence

The going beyond our ongoing continuity of embodied awareness of our own innermost luminous awareness may be completely unnecessary and is not the liberating self-manifestation of the Great Compassion. We do not need to go beyond our personal awareness which is forever in union within the field of primordial awareness and within which there is the three divine dimensions of awareness as Being’s self- manifestation. These are the kayas. These three divine dimensions are manifestation of the ordinary life world of flesh of the Nirmanakaya, the manifestation of the archetypal world of Sambogakaya dimension, and the dimension of the primordial source of self-manifestation of the infinite potentiality which is the ground of Being as Dharmakaya. We are these dimensions. We are not just visitors.

We do not have to dissociate from our natural experience of phenomena of our life to bring forth the Divine knowing and experience of wisdom gnosis which is completely within us and completely within the Field of Being as Being and as the Being of Phenomena. All phenomena are the Purity of Being. This ancient method of going beyond and going beyond opens the profound transcendental experience of Transcendental Being which does not liberate us from within phenomenological existence and does not liberate us from within the manifestation of phenomenological existence. We live and die in phenomenological existence. We work and love within phenomenological existence. We self- liberate within phenomenological existence.

Incompleteness

This form of Transcendental self- liberation is incompleteness. The process of the self- revelation of Being is incomplete within the Transcendental tradition. The natural process of Alethea is narrowed, contained and incomplete within the Transcendental process.

The method of going beyond phenomenological experience is a beginning method and reveals for us the Transcendental Dimension of Existence. This liberating experience of Transcendental Reality is incomplete in its containment of the breathe and depth of humanness, and human Beingness. The containment of the Transcendental experience is beyond time and beyond place. Transcendental existence is beyond the Mystic Humanism of ordinary existence. Transcendental meditation is a formulated experience of transcendental containment dismissive of phenomenological life.

There are ways within which the understanding and freedom of Dzogchen can be utilized to open up Transcendental Meditation to become more inclusive of the phenomenological world of ordinary life. There are ways within the understanding and freedom of Dzogchen to open Transcendental reality to the ongoing self- liberating continuity of phenomenological experience and presence.

This knowledge of transcendental Being accomplished by going beyond ordinary phenomena and going beyond ordinary mind into dissociative Transcendental Reality, is radically different then the existential skillful means that uses our human absorption within our phenomenological experience of the world. This same skillful means of human absorption uses simultaneously our mind ‘s knowing of form, and our awareness’s directly knowing of Being within ourselves ‘just we are.’

Through the path of human immanence, We can live in the field of Being continuously and we can live within the field of Being of phenomena and within the Purity of Being continuously. We can live within the field of Being ,without dissociating and dissolving our self from Being in the world. There is limitedness, and there is lack and there is incompleteness of Transcendental Traditions. Transcendental path is incomplete and not the reality of Being just as it is, just as it appears.

We can live experiencing the Purity of Being of all phenomena including the Purity of our own being and our own form. This is the path of Dzogchen as made so explicit by Dudjom Lingpa. Dudjom Lingpa would say Dzogchen is a training to be able to always experience the Purity of Being of all Phenomena and to experience the phenomenological actuality of all beings. This is self- liberation in the immediacy of our life just as it is. This is the path of circumstance, the path of life and this is the path of death just as it is. This is the path of Mystic Humanism, .

We can all naturally know directly the Being of forms and the forms of Being . Through form we experience the Divinity of Being and the Purity of Being. Through appearance of phenomena we experience the Buddha Nature of Being and the Buddha nature of beings. We do not have to use the metaphor of Buddha nature but other illuminating metaphors reflecting the Divine Nature of Being can be used. There is only One Being and many, many different philosophical and cultural metaphors are descriptive of the pantheistic nature of our Beingness of Being. This path of Immanence does not belong to any culture and to any one religion. This path is not contained in patriarchal mythology and theocratic illusions. This is not a path of absolute knowledge and the absolute knower. There is no absolute knower.

Our natural knowingness as the one knower uses the union of the knowing of our mind within the union of the knowing of our awareness, thus knowing the direct experiences of the Pure Being of the world, the Pure Being of companions, the Pure Being of Phenomena and the Pure Being of Appearance ‘just as they are’.

Our ordinary life world of Nirmanakaya becomes our life experience of living within the Pure Being of Being ‘just as we are’. Living within the field of Being takes us beyond the containment of time and space of meditation. Dzogchen is the path of liberation without meditation. The saying does not mean not to meditate. But the meditation of becoming aware of awareness and entering into the field of awareness and remaining in awareness is only the beginning. We then integrate our mind and the world of forms into our field of awareness our field of Being. Then through our experience of living events of Being’s manifestation we experience self-liberation through our experience of the Being of phenomena and the Being of circumstances. There is only One Being whatever the forms, whatever the phenomena, whatever the appearance.

This existential skillful means will bring forth our self- liberating experience within our world as Being, within our Self as Being and within the Being of others. Our continuous integration of our mind within our field of awareness allows us to experience the very Being of circumstance and the very Being of events as the natural process of self- liberation. We live within the Being of phenomena and we live within Being of events and within the Being of circumstance as divine method. As St. Thomas said “Whatever is received is received according to the mind of the receiver”.

From within immanence, a person can deepen or enter into transcendental-ness. In transcendental-ness, it is difficult to enter into immanence without embracing the actuality of phenomena as the nature of light.


Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Phenomenological and Existential Psychotherapy Studies


4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

コメント


bottom of page