Have you had the experience of clear light? It implies "white light" though I suspect it is something more / else. What is the nature of the experience?
On long courses, less at home, there can be an experience, slightly annoying, with wondering why I left the curtains wide open in directly in front of the blazing sun. Later upon ending practice and opening eyes, i realize i am in a near dark room. There can be an experience of vast blueness everywhere, as if awareness is within, or perhaps is a vast blue sky. But its not blue light. It seems to be just light but, like the sky, it is blue perhaps due to vastness. Are you aware of references to such in tantric or other literature? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > from a question and answer session with HH the 14th Dalai Lama, after > teachings on the Mind which is devoid of Mind, San Jose 1989. > > Question: Can you relate any examples of the experience of clear light? > > HHDL: There are various types of experience, associated with different > degrees of subtlety in your experience of clear light. Generally > speaking, Dzogchen terminology distinguishes between two situations: > > - dissolution due to the influence of liberation, and > - dissolution due to the influence of confusion. > > Given that there is a distinction between the ground and the > appearances of the ground, when the appearances of the ground dissolve, > it can happen in one of these two ways: dissolution due to the > influence of liberation, or dissolution due to the influence of > confusion. The former refers to dissolution through the power of yoga > practised on the path, whereby coarser and subtle levels of > consciousness are dissolved, and the latter refers to the dissolution > that takes place automatically at the time of death. In this regard, > depending on the extent to which the dissolution process has taken > place, there can be different degrees to the experience of clear light. > In any case, for us the whole point is to arrive, through practice, at > the ultimate experience of clear light. > > When that ultimate experience of clear light takes place, all the other > types of consciousness, the coarse levels of mind-sensory faculties, > sensory consciousnesses and the coarse levels of mental > consciousness-are all dissolved, and the breathing process ceases. But > one question which is not settled or certain yet is whether or not a > very subtle functioning of the brain might still be present in that > state. This is something we still have to discover, and I have > discussed it with a number of brain scientists. Given the premise of > neuroscience, that consciousness, awareness, or psychological states > are states of the brain, we have to find out whether or not at that > point of clear light the brain still retains some function. > > > Question: Do sentient beings have free will? > > HHDL: According to Buddhism, individuals are masters of their own > destiny. And all living beings are believed to possess the nature of > the Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, the potential or seed of > enlightenment, within them. So our future is in our own hands. What > greater free will do we need? To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
