Thusness wrote in 2009:

‘Psychological pain’ is directly related to our ‘sense of self’. The sense of self is directly related our deeply rooted ‘inherent and dualistic thought’. This pain is an indication that we have not fully recognized the cause and many faces of the arising ‘sense of Self/self’ and that includes the attempt to remain as an unaffected passive observer. If we prescribe the wrong medicine, then there is no cure. Therefore your experience that “remaining as a detach observer doesn’t seem to eliminate the pain and anxiety yet breathing exercises and some physical exercises do” is a precious realization. There are 2 parts to it.

First we must realize why we equate ‘detachment’ to this ‘unaffected and passive observer’. It is due to an incomplete insight of our pristine yet non-dual and empty nature of awareness. It is partly due to our direct and non-conceptual experience of our “Unborn, pristine and luminous nature “of awareness and partly due to the karmic tendency of solidify experience. When this direct experience is understood from the lens of a ”dualistic and inherent” framework, it is natural that we view “a passive observer” as the way to solve this psychological pain.

Second, in addition to the ‘unborn, pristine and luminous’ aspect of awareness, we must have a more thorough and deeper insight into our ‘intimate, inseparable, non-dual and dependent originated’ aspect of Awareness. This relates to why “breathing exercises and some physical exercises is able to relieve psychological pain". We must directly and deeply experience what is meant by “inseparable” from the transient and understand “beingness” is never apart from whatever arises.

Lastly what that is ‘unborn, pristine and luminous’ cannot be “dependent and inseparable from the transient” appears sound only logically but not experientially. It will first seem illogical and unnatural to accept such an idea, but when the tendency to dualify and solidify experience subsides, then scenery, taste, scent, sound, breathe, the sensation of our feet touching the ground…all arising will help lighten this psychological pain. Therefore fearlessly, unreservedly and completely open to whatever arises.
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5 Responses
  1. David Says:

    Cann't grasp the meaning of the last paragraph. Could you kindly expand.


  2. Soh Says:

    There can be the false misconception that awareness is inherently existing and distinct from transient experience. This is dualistic and tends to solidify the subject/object structure, the sense that I am I and experience is apart from myself.

    In sleep paralysis, for example, there can be a situation where there is deep fear due to the sense of an intruder or some fearful 'other'. But in my experience, if there is recognition of the nondual and empty nature of mind/experience, there is liberation in that very instant.

    In my previous four times I had sleep paralysis (and I haven't had any recently), each time the structure of subject/object is dissolved in transparent bliss and boundless clarity. The sense of myself being here facing a fearful 'other' or intruder completely dissolves naturally into boundless bliss and presence even as it arises. I no longer get locked in that fearful situation.

    There is complete fearless dissolving into whatever appears, seen, heard, smelled, etc. And you will love to dissolve, to die, in a sense, without resistance, without choosing to be in another situation. This very situation, condition, appearance, whatever it is, is your nature, empty-clarity.

    And this is why in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead", there is an emphasis on the recognition of whatever deities - wrathful and peaceful, as simply a display of your own state, your own nature, essence and energy. They are not apart from yourself, so do not fear them, but recognise them as your very Presence.


  3. David Says:

    Many thanks Soh for your explanation. Are you saying therefore that fear, anxiety and psychological suffering can be dissolved with the realisation that there is no inherant self, dreamer or background witness to which phenomena arise, reality ' is' the dependantly arrising phenomena, no seperate witness.?
    But is this not contary to what is said in the Tibetan Book of the Dead? You say : ' in the "Tibetan Book of the Dead", there is an emphasis on the recognition of whatever deities - wrathful and peaceful, as simply a display of your own state, your own nature, essence and energy. They are not apart from yourself, so do not fear them, but recognise them as your very resence.'
    This implies that phenomena are just an aspect of 'ones' own state.
    Both veiws appear non dual, in yours there is no subject only object, in the Tibetan Book of the Dead only subject no object.
    Thanks again please excuse my ramblimng.


  4. Soh Says:

    There is neither subject nor object.

    One's own state means the nature of your individual's mindstream, it is not a universal or inherently existing Self.

    The essence, nature and taste of empty-clarity (pure conscious presence that is empty of inherent existence) is universal to every taste of lemon, but there is no universal Sour. There is no one great Sour that all lemons share. There is no supreme Sour that remains independent of lemons once all lemons are eaten. Lemons would never say “We are One” because they are all sour. Neither would they say ‘we are separate’ because they don’t share one universal Sour.

    See http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/clarifications-on-dharmakaya-and-basis_16.html


  5. David Says:

    Thanks again Soh. I will let this sink in.