Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [170]
Light a candle.
Turn off the lights and sit down one or two feet away.
Stare at the candle flame for several minutes;
just watch the flame.
When the mind wanders and is carried away by thought, notice
that distraction and gently bring it back to totally paying
attention to the flame.
Watch the flame.
See the flame.
See fire burn.
Watch the flame;
go into the flame.
become the flame.
Suddenly, snuff or blow out the candle.
And close your eyes.
Watch the afterimage of the flame
forming on the inside of your eyelids.
Watch the flame.
See the flame.
Go into the flame.
Be flame.
Let go
and dissolve
into the clear light within
the natural mind—
and just like that
without further effort
meditate.
BUDDHA LIGHT VISUALIZATION MEDITATION
In this meditation, we get a deeper sense of what it feels like to connect with all that is sacred and holy. During this visualization, we imagine ourselves in a space filled with formless, spiritual light. The visualization is called Buddha light, but if you are more comfortable visualizing angels, Jesus, a goddess, or Mary, don’t hesitate to do so. We are dissolving into celestial light, entering into that sacred space. It doesn’t matter which door we open to get there. We are trying to find our own light, our own innate luminosity.
Start by imagining that you have entered a sacred circle of light. You step into that magic protection circle, full of all blessings and love.
Bow gently toward the gold, glowing Buddha in Bodh Gaya.
Take your seat. Make yourself comfortable.
Imagine the radiant Buddha, garbed
in warm yellow robes, sitting under the spreading bodhi tree
right before you.
Visualize him surrounded by saintly yellow-garbed monks and nuns, seated in meditation,
all radiating rainbow light and blessings, peace and joy.
You dissolve into that light, and into them
and they into you.
And then you rest contemplatively in the view
With nothing more to do
In the natural great perfection of all things just as they are.
FINDING THE HEART OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
Neither giving nor taking
Neither for nor against
Leave your mind at rest
With perceptions remain unconcerned
The great Way is a mind open to everything
which clings to nothing
which fixates nowhere
Radiant and stainless
Rest in the unmoved, uncreated and spontaneous and you will soon
reach Buddhahood.
—MEDITATION INSTRUCTION FROM TILOPA, A TENTH - CENTURY YOGI
All meditative techniques, including concentration and visualization, are simply ways to connect to the source and to awaken gradually to the Buddha within—your original nature, your natural mind. This is what people in the theistic traditions sometimes call the Godhead, or Self with a capital S: the true Self, the natural state. We come to our true state only by the practice of purifying and mastering the heart and mind. If we master the mind by training it and bringing it back to the source, we arrive at and reconnect with our true state, which was there all the time. Yet we hardly experience it.
As we walk the spiritual path and get closer to the innate luminous awareness that is the Buddha within, we discover that there are many degrees and depths of enlightenment, just as there are many different degrees and depths of love. Levels of enlightenment range from the momentary “Aha” experience or epiphany all the way to the highest, full and complete, perfectly blossomed enlightenment—Buddhahood. Mahayana Buddhists and Bodhisattvas say that there can be no real enlightenment until all are enlightened.
The wonderful, yet more common, “Aha” experiences are temporary, however transcendent they may seem to be. I often say that these days it seems easier to get enlightened than to stay enlightened. People have described a wide variety of these fleeting experiences as enlightenment—everything from meeting the Buddha