Again, once, while Marpa Lotsawa was seated on his throne deeply absorbed in
meditation, his disciple Marpa Golok came to see him, and in place of Marpa
Lotsawa, he saw the real Vajradhara on the throne. Later, when he asked Marpa
about it, Marpa replied, “It was a coincidence that, when I was meditating upon
my personal deity Vajradhara, your defilements diminished, and you saw that
vision.” To obtain that pure vision, it is necessary to have diminished obscuration;
then, with faith, there is confidence in the illusions of emptiness and appearance
in union.
Once, when Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje was giving an empowerment at Menyag
Lhagang, everyone saw the lama as Avalokiteshvara seated on the throne with one
thousand arms and eyes. Doubtless the lucky people who saw him had diminished
defilements and obscurations.
1.36 A FINGER POINTING DIRECTLY AT PURE PRESENCE
If we put all of this in a nutshell, no matter what the quality of the view, whether
we are happy or sad, whether appearances are fearful or pleasant, whether mind
is active or passive, we should not tilt our mind toward any antidote. Whatever
appears, look nakedly at the essence of the appearance as it arises, and, without
modifying it in any way, just let it be. Then pure presence in all its radiance arises
from within.
In his Lifeblood of the Mountain Retreat, Dudjom Rinpoche says,
Whatever the sensory field, whatever the object, gaze at it like a child enrapt
before an altar in a temple. Don’t clutch the sensory specifics; hold to the
freshness. Let it be in its own place without contriving anything about it,
without changing its shape or complexion and without adulterating it with any
conceptual fixations. Then all appearances will arise as the naked primal
awareness of clarity and emptiness in pure presence.In The Chariot of Omniscience, Jigme Lingpa says,
Objective appearance in pure presence does not crystallize, and since pure
presence cannot mingle with the object, the perceptual dualism of samsara is
like a drawing in water, and there is Saraha smiling serenely, the renouncing
and the antidote reflexively released. Without revealing any attachment or
rejection to the pure presence that thereby does not slip into the objective
field, there is Phadampa Sangye, shining, in the space of liberation of samsara
and nirvana.The five sensory stimuli—forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile objects—do not
crystallize in the five doors of perception, and whatever arises is allowed to arise
just as it is. When the consciousness (pure presence) is not mixed up with the
objective aspect of form and so on, when it does not slip into the object, the nature
of dualistic samsara vanishes, just as a drawing in water vanishes as it is drawn.