Profound Instructions on the View of the Middle Way
by Ju Mipham Rinpoche
Having gone through the thorough training in analysis in the manner in which the individual is devoid of self, when you have entered into certainty about that crucial point of how what is known as the “I” is dependent upon the psycho-physical aggregates,
and in this way, how through unexamined conceptual imputation the five aggregates and the uncompounded and all phenomena are likewise via conceptuality labeled as “this” or “that”;
although there is fixation towards all of these various phenomena, if we examine and search for the reality of the imputed, it cannot be found, and when we finally reach the two-fold partlessness, accordingly, they are not established as true, even on the most subtle and minute level.
What appears under the power of dependent origination, entities, arise dependently, whereas non-entities are dependently imputed. Whether an entity or a non-entity,
that which is held to uncritically when it is subjected to investigation and analysis is found to be baseless and rootless, and likewise appearing yet unreal, like an illusion or a dream,
a moon in water, an echo, or a city in the clouds, a visual abberation, a mirage and the like, empty yet appearing, appearing yet empty: meditate on the way that empty appearances resemble illusions.
This is “the ultimate truth which can be expressed in words”. It has the confident knowing of a mind of understanding, it has the stainless sublime wisdom which sees the illusory nature of post-meditative experience, but
it is not yet free from the focus on an apprehended object, nor has it overcome the features of subjectivity; and since it has not gone beyond pervasive conceptual imputation, freedom from elaborations, the true nature of all phenomena, is not seen.
At the time when that kind of certain knowing is born, then even clinging to a mere illusion is understood as being conceptual imputation. There is indeed apprehension, but that which is apprehended has no essential nature that can be established,
and even the perceiving mind cannot be found: so rest without grasping in the natural disposition of relaxation. When resting like this, although all outer and inner appearances are uninterrupted,
within the perspective of the non-grasping true state, however many projections are cast upon phenomena, they are, from the beginning, unborn and unceasing, and are free from subject-object fixation,
and so rest in the basic space of evenness. This is free from assertions of “is” and “is not”. In the self-occurring flow of the inexpressible truth, an experience of doubtlessness will dawn
about the true nature of all phenomena: that is “the ultimate truth which cannot be expressed in words.” It is to be known individually; it is the equipoise of non-conceptual wisdom.
If one cultivates within that dimension, which is the coalescent union of emptiness and dependent arising, which is the the meaning of “the mode of abiding of the inseparability of the two truths”: then that is the Yoga of the Great Middle Way.
That meaning, beyond the experiential domain of the ordinary mind, is the timeless cognition of nonduality: those who wish to quickly actualize it, should meditate on the pith instructions of Mantra.
Concerning this, because it is the profound crucial point of bringing the Middle Way’s stages of meditation to final consummation, first, thoroughly study in conduct, and then gain experience in stages, and arrive at certainty.
Confident insight into the illusoriness of empty appearances: this is the meaning of “nothing to be cleared away from or placed onto the path”. This is the basic space of the far-reaching perfection of sublime discerning wisdom. In the state of absolute alike-ness, there is complete freedom.
When one is full to the brink with the agony of thirst, if one hears that there is water, one’s thirst will not be quenched; therefore, in the same way that if one drinks, there will be quenching, so it is for learning and experience, so the sutras say.
For that reason, someone who, through the many reasonings and logical approaches has tired oneself out with dry understanding, does not need sporadic practice; but if they meditate in stages, they will quickly attain the Patient Endurance towards the Profound.
Jampal Gyeypay Dorje (Mipham Rinpoche), on the twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month of the Water Dragon year (1892), wrote this free-flowingly. Through this, may all beings realize the profound meaning of the Middle Way!
MANGALAM!
Translated from the Tibetan by
Erick Tsiknopoulos, 2009.
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