Integration in dzogchen: Sleeping Beauty or Sleeping Buddha? Public talk, Freiburg, 2009
James Low
Integration in dzogchen: Sleeping Beauty or Sleeping Buddha.
Public talk
Freiburg, Germany. 11th June 2009
Transcribed by Angelina McMillan.
Edited by Barbara Terris
Excerpts
… It’s a bit like in the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. After she pricks her finger on her birthday, she falls into a deep sleep. Gradually the wild plants, the briars and brambles grow over her. But one day a young prince takes care of this beautiful woman. He enters the dark forest and sees this whole mass of sharp thorns. Drawing his sword he cuts his way through it. With one tender and gentle kiss he awakens the maiden. Many people see spiritual life in some way like that—that all beings are some kind of Sleeping Buddha, wrapped around by different kinds of conditioning and karma, but drawing our holy sword of truth, we will cut through and liberate them!…
…We are not the owners of our nature, but rather we are the children of our own nature. The domain of I, me, myself is an energetic arising. It’s not a problem to be solved; it’s not something to be removed, but it does need to settle back and be held safely in the arms of its mother. The mother is space. The nature of our awareness, the ground of our existence is an open spaciousness, without corners or edges, something without beginning or end…
Contents
- The vision of mastery
- The house of control
- Sleeping Beauty and Sleeping Buddha
- What is the nature of my existence?
- ‘Awareness’ or ‘presence’ refers to the state prior to the arising of thought
- Making friends with yourself
- Compassion and connectivity