Number 2, March 2002
My mind was zooming along - developing a whole set of COC dyads (Consciousness Of Consciousness). You may recall that there were about five dyads listed in the previous Dogzen Newsletter, with a promise of more to come. There was one with the body, one with the body in motion (even dancing!), another dealing with problems, another dealing with physical objects (not just the nut), another with mental images, and so on. I was on my way to creating about ten or more. I was sort of bursting with excitement.
Then I had a flash. Oops, wrong path.
Now I see only two dyads, the one that starts with a physical object (COC,
consciousness of consciousness) but is basically about stabilizing COC, and the
one with another (COCOA, consciousness of consciousness of another).
My flash was this: we should not chase a problem. That is the key error
everyone makes! If there is a problem with the mind, we chase the mind. If there
is a problem with being identified with the body, we chase the body, and so on.
It doesn't work very well.
Do pure awareness of awareness and you go directly to the root. If you try to
solve ANY problem in this enlightenment work, you will probably get hooked in the problem space. You can
stay in a problem space forever!
What about awareness of awareness of the other (Dyad
4)? Several people have experienced something very far out when doing that
dyad. It disassembles everything. Note that the "other" here is not
their body, mind, personality, or anything like that, but sentience being
expressed as another.
I encourage you to give the dyads a try. If you do try them, I suggest you do
COC first (Dyad 2) for one or two
40-minute periods, then do COCOA (Dyad 4).
After that, stay a while with the one that seems right for you (in your own
estimation). Just keep at it until it becomes second-nature, until you don't
have to do it at all. It just happens on its own. Begin to practice it in
day-to-day situations.
Caveat: If you have trouble with schizophrenia or other serious mental illness, these techniques are probably not for you.
I'd appreciate any feedback you might want to share with me.
One result of doing the dyads is that you discover the nature of awareness itself. (Note: I'm currently not discriminating between the words "consciousness" and "awareness." They mean the same thing to me.)
At first you get changes in your state. You feel better, your mental chatter leaves, you feel very present (it revitalizes your "who am I" enlightenment, for example), you make vivid contact with others, you feel free, your visual field is lit up and seems to have enhanced 3D, and sometimes there is a faint hiss. Some or all of these effects and more are available right away, within a few dyads. This, in itself, is pretty surprising.
You also begin to realize more and more about the nature of awareness itself. Because there is direct experiencing of awareness, it reveals its intrinsic nature. The more you know about the nature of awareness, the less likely you are to be tricked by its many illusions.
"Some call it 'the nature of mind,' or 'the absence of self,' or 'the self,' or 'the perfection of wisdom,' or 'the seed of Buddhahood,' or 'Mahamudra,' or 'the great symbol,' or 'the unique sphere,' or 'the dimension of reality,' or 'the basis of everything,' or some simply call it 'ordinary awareness.' [loosely paraphrased from the Rig-pa ngo-sprod gcer-mthong rang-grol, a terma text, probably written by Padmasambhava]
"It is not permanent and yet it is not created by anything." [Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness]
"The flash of knowing gives awareness its quality." [Manjusrimitra]
"There is no concept that can define the condition of 'what is,' but vision nevertheless manifests: all is good." [from the Cuckoo of the State of Presence (Rig pa'i khu byug)]
I think everyone who went to the last few meetings were reporting a distinct change for the better in their daily lives that they directly attribute to doing the Dogzen Dyads. I (Edrid) have been fizzing like an uncorked bottle of carbonated water! There were even several people who by just reading the first issue of the newsletter report altered states of consciousness (this thing seems amazingly accessible):
One said "I got a spiritual hard-on reading your descriptions of the dyads. Now I'm so conscious of my own awareness, I haven't a thing to say, besides Thanks!"
Another wrote, "Just reading the newsletter and contemplating the nature of the dyads/instructions has catapulted me into an amazing few days. At Mt. Baldy last year I remember Osha saying that the only question/instruction that interested her at that time was, "Tell me something/what you are aware of right now," and I shared my enthusiasm from a similar interest... Just going directly to the root of our experience right Now. You have hit on something, I think, and put it into a wonderful and accessible form. I am meeting with my teacher from the Tibetan meditation group here on Wed. and will try to interest her in getting together with a few people and trying some dyads."
There is plenty of room for some brave souls to attend our meetings. If you are sincere and want to live enlightenment in your life, you are invited. We don't work directly on personal problems. We are working on a basic ability that will enable us to live life better in the broadest sense (including solving problems).
I don't think one needs to attend our group meetings over and over. Just a few sessions and you know what to do, you experience how to do it, then you just go do it. However, some in the group love the spiritual fellowship, and our relationships are unfolding.
| We will meet a few more times and then stop for a while.
The next meeting is March 20, 2002, a Wednesday, from 7:30 to 9:30 PM, at Edrid's house in Menlo Park. If you want to come, email Edrid at edrid@sandoth.com or phone 650 328-4941. |
If you can't come to a meeting, you can just read this newsletter and do the dyads with whomever will do them with you. If you want any advice about the practical details of the dyad technique, just call me or send an email.
If you know someone who might want to receive the newsletters, tell them to email or call. I'll send them to anyone. I will also post them to www.sandoth.com. (To minimize unnecessary email traffic, I will only send newsletter announcements to those who indicate they want them.)
If I were you, I wouldn't read a lot of books about this since it just loads up the intellectual mind with ideas. It is better to just go for the experience directly. However, reading one or two books might help to give some clarity about what we are up to, and you can even get a "transmission" from some great 8th century Tibetan master if you're lucky.
The first newsletter had a list of some good books. Not all books communicate to everyone, so here are a couple more books that you may want to try if the others don't come through for you:
Dzogchen, The Self-Perfected State, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Snow Lion Publications.
The Practice of Dzogchen, Longchen Rabjam, Snow Lion Publications.
Wishing you the best,
Edrid