ON FINDING YOURSELF IN THE NATURE OF MIND
– an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Winter 2002

In order to directly experience the nature of mind, during dzogchen
practice we try to create certain conditions within the body, speech
and mind. We use postures or movements of the physical body,
practices of the breath, and the concentration and focus of awareness
of the mind.

It is not as if the nature of mind is a separate object, a separate
place where you as a subject can take a bus, train or a plane to. It
is not like that - there is no place to go, no place to search for
the nature of mind. Nor is the nature of mind a form with a
particular shape or color that you can experience. If you are
searching for your nature in those ways, you will not find anything.
That is guaranteed. We are so conditioned to always be expecting to
see some THING. It is very, very difficult for us to rid ourselves
of the mind of ours that has expectations.

If you go out to find a job, you go with the expectation of finding
one that pays well, say. That expectation helps guide your search
toward finding the right job for you. In looking for the nature of
mind, though, it makes no sense to look with the expectation that you
will see something, because there is nothing to see.

Now you may be thinking, "There's nothing to see? Well, that's a
little discouraging." Maybe you are curious about what this means.
You are beginning to realize that you cannot experience the nature of
mind in the same way you can experience your dreams, your thoughts,
your feelings, or any kind of form. The nature of mind will not be
seen in any of those ways. It is possible that during meditation,
sometimes you will see various colors or shapes that are signs or
qualities of some experience of, or connection to, the nature of
mind, but even these are not the nature of mind.

The introduction to the nature of mind is essentially about creating
the right causes and conditions - that's really what it is. In the
same way that by placing a mirror in different locations you find
that your view changes, so too by putting your body in the right
position, your breath in the right position, and your mind in the
right position, you are able to simply find your self in that place.
But when you find your self in that place, it is not that you are
seeing something, it is only that you are being. The moment you
think that you are seeing your nature, you are actually not. You
see, one of the subtlest obstacles to resting in the nature of mind
is not being able to get rid of the seer, the one who sees. Until
you get rid of the observer, the perceiver, the subject, the nature
remains hidden.

So, you don't create or force the experience of the nature of mind;
rather, you can put the proper conditions together for finding your
self there. It would be a good idea to look at all that we
experience in our lives in that same way - understanding that we
can't always achieve the results we want by forcing them, but we can
instead try to set up the proper conditions for those results to
arise naturally. Often we ignore the advantages of setting up the
proper conditions and just struggle to force the result into
manifestation.

For example, you want to be happy. So what do you do sometimes? You
just try to force yourself to be happy, even though in a relative
sense you are simply in the wrong place to support being happy.
Let's say you are somebody who has a knack for electronics, who is
fascinated working all day long on computers and has so much
knowledge about how they work, and yet you may not be able to cook
even a cup of tea for yourself. Now, if you were put into the
position of being a chef at a restaurant, then that would definitely
be the wrong place for you to be happy. So, you don't realize you
are in the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong situation, and all
you know is that you want to be happy. The location makes you
suffer, the situation makes you suffer, the timing makes you suffer,
and yet you simply push yourself to be happy. You just cook
furiously, and the customers continually are dissatisfied, and
eventually the restaurant has to go out of business. That forcing of
the situation would obviously be the wrong approach. What should you
do instead? Focus your effort on changing the place, changing the
timing, changing the circumstances to make them the right ones for
being happy. If you do find the right conditions, then you'll be
naturally happy. You create the causes for natural happiness rather
than futilely struggling to force the result.

Many times in our lives we get stuck simply because we don't know we
are trying to force a result that is not supported by our
circumstances. We may only be repeating to ourselves, "I want to be
happy, I want to be happy, I want to be happy." The added tension
created by trying to force your happiness actually tends to worsen
your situation. It actually creates the opposite effect, digging you
deeper into that unfortunate situation. Do you see how that kind of
narrow, result-oriented focus can be a kind of a secret obstacle for
us at times?

This is especially true regarding the practices of the nature of
mind. So, what is the introduction to the nature of mind? You
understand that it is not the same as my saying "Look at this cup"
(Rinpoche holds up a teacup). Rather, there are exercises, practices
and techniques that all create a space where there is a greater
chance to have experience. None of those techniques you learn are
the nature of mind. None of those practices are the nature of mind.
They are a very skillful means. In one important sense the only time
you will have an experience of the nature of mind is when you are not
practicing. But you must begin with the practice and then during the
session you forget the practice. How can you forget the practice?
When you come to the place where there is nothing at all you could
call effort, that is the moment when you find yourself in the nature
of mind: free from your thoughts, feelings, emotions and conditions,
abiding in the space of infinite potential, in which there is a cause
for the perfection of every experience that could arise. There is a
sense of nothing lacking, because everything is perfected. The sense
of longing, lacking, missing, not having enough - none of those
experiences are there. On the contrary, there is the sense of being
complete, perfected, whole; and you find your self.

So, regarding the introduction to the nature of mind, the important
point here is not to get too attached to the techniques or methods,
but to work with them so you can create the right position of the
body, the right breathing, the right focus of the mind. If you are
able to bring together the right conditions of body, energy and mind,
then there is no way not to experience your nature. As we always
say, there is no power or force that could possibly stop the result
when all the causes and conditions are together. The same is true
with regard to being happy. If all the causes and conditions for
your being happy are together there, you will naturally be happy, and
there is no force at all that can stop you from being happy and make
you suffer. Likewise, if those causes and conditions are not there,
if the causes and conditions are the wrong ones, then there is no
force that can make you feel good. That is why the whole notion of
cause and effect, or the law of karma, is so important in the dharma.

So, we must develop those causes and conditions that support the
experience of the nature of mind without being too attached to the
techniques or practices. This does not mean you don't learn how to
do the practices precisely; you do learn them - very precisely.
However, it's just like an old man who walks from one place to
another with the help of a walking stick: His goal is to arrive at
the new location, not simply to become attached to the walking stick,
right? We also know that if the old man tries to walk there without
the stick, for sure he will not reach his goal. Therefore, when
walking to the new location he makes sure he has a firm grasp of the
sturdy stick that supports him. Once he reaches his destination, the
walking stick is no longer important to him. The practices, the
techniques, are exactly like that. The methods are exactly like
that. They never lose their potential to be of benefit when the need
arises, but just don't get attached to them. Is that clear?