This week, Lama Surya Das gives a talk about how we can rest in the practice of non-action and enjoy the View.
Show Notes
Non–Action (Opening) – Whether it is a mantra, focusing on the breath or mindfulness practice, we are usually directly engaged in spiritual practice, in doing. Lama Surya Das looks at the View, a form of practice that instead emphasizes not doing, known as Wu wei in the Daoist philosophy.
“The Middle Way includes action and inaction (non-action). We emphasize the View in this tradition more than the action, such as meditation.” – Lama Surya Das
Deviations from the View (11:10) – Lama Surya Das discusses the nature of the View in Dzogchen practice. Using the story of The Wizard of Oz as an allegory for some of the habits that pull us away from the clear vision of the View.
“A lot of this is about non-attachment, but I am trying to tease it out and look at all the facets. It is too simplistic to say that it is all about attachment or non-attachment, it takes so many forms.” – Lama Surya Das
Surya Das looks at more unintentional deviations that we make from our spiritual practice in Ep. 57 of the Awakening Now Podcast.
How Do You Know? (38:45) – How can we tell the difference between true awareness that comes with practice and a state of mind fabricated by the Ego? Lama Surya Das speaks with his live audience about discerning progress from delusion in our practice.
“It’s about discerning the difference between Semdé, mind with a little letter M, and Rigpa, ’Mind’ with a big letter M – that is the whole subject of Dzogchen. The first introduction to the nature of mind is recognizing the Rigpa, the awareness or your true nature. Otherwise, you have nothing to rest in or leave as is, you just keep thinking about things.” – Lama Surya Das
