To Make the Unfocused Mind Focused

Nyam Gyü Gyalwé Chak Tri

Composed by Dru Gyalwa Yungdrung Rinpoche

The teachings of the Gyalwa Chaktri extracts the essence from the four teachings of the Dzogchen Zhang Zhung Nyengyü, condensing the realization, uncovering the hidden aspects, and summarizing the key points of the whole Zhang Zhung Nyengyü into three main parts to putting it into practice.

Ripening and liberating the mindstream through the main practice

The Profound Essential Point of the Main Practice

The all-pervasive guide of beings, Kuntuzangpo, directly self-arising primordial wisdom. 

Homage to the self-arising primordial wisdom.

Ripening and liberating the mindstream through the main practice

Three subdivisions:

1. To make the unfocused mind focused.

2. To make the unmindful mind mindful.

3. To make the unclear self-awareness clear.

To Make the Unfocused Mind Focused

[We could also call this section “to capture the uncaptured mind.” This is the practice of shamatha with characteristics. Why? Because there is still an object of meditation and a meditator.]

From the Six Lamps, “The mind is seized from light.” [I have also seen this translated as “Hold the thinking mind on the lights.”] From the Thing-shog [Blue Pepper], “The direct teaching of wheel dome of light.” 

[These two lines are the root text or the teachings of how to make the unfocused mind focused.] 

There are three subdivisions:

1. The key point of the body posture.

2. The key point of the gaze.

3. The key point of the training [advice].

The key point of the body posture

It says [the source is not stated], “Bound by the five-point physical body posture.”

1. To restrain the lower channel and wind, sit in the cross-legged position.

2. To restrain the bones and joints, straighten the backbone.

3. To stop all activities, place the hands in the equipoise position.

4. To subdue speaking, bend the neck. [Pull the neck and chin back towards the spine.]

5. To restrain grasping of subject and object, gaze forcefully.

Furthermore, press the right leg on the left leg and bind the ring finger slightly [press the thumbs where the palm and ring finger meet]. When you are doing the five body posture, at that time the four limbs and every part of the body are kept [naturally] tight. [Here tight means an intentional stillness, not constant muscle tightness.]

The key point of the gaze

Place a photo or image of a revolving three colored circle of light in front of you, neither too far nor too close. [You can paint, or print an image of a circular rainbow of white, red, and blue and place it about arms length away in front of you. These three colors are the colors that represent body, speech, and mind – the three enlightened bodies.]

Align the mind with the eyes, without looking up or down, left, or right. [Focus intensely only on the three colored circle of light.] Focus on the colored circle of light like one who throws a lance focuses on the center of the target. Focus on the colored circle of light like one who is threading a needle. Focus on the colored circle of light like one who is shooting an arrow.

Without moving the body, without speaking, without thinking about the past or future, focus single pointedly, strongly, clearly, sharply, and pressingly on the colored circle of light. [If you can, try not to blink. But don’t make a big deal about it if you do blink. Don’t make “not blinking” an obstacle.]

The key point of the training [advice].

When you practice, at that time if saliva, drool, tears, or snot begin to arise, let them flow naturally. There is no need to clean or stop them at this time, but simply let them come. The body and mind should be tightened together and should not be lost [gone astray from these instructions]. 

[At the end of your session, rub your palms together to warm them, then place your palms over your closed eyes and relax. Then rub and massage your face.]

Length of Meditation

As for the length of the meditation practice, first meditate for the time it takes to recite 200 Sa Le O mantra recitations. [This length is about three minutes.] Then in later sessions, you can slowly increase the length to 300 recitations and after that 400 recitations. [You can meditate in this way three times per meditation sessions. So a morning session would be three meditations of 3 to 5 minutes in length with short rests inbetween.] Increase the length of the meditation for each time you meditate in a session. 

[When you meditate, don’t judge or check yourself about the quality of the meditation, such as “too many thoughts are arising,” or “I am blinking too much.” This is a difficult meditation, and we will slowly develop over time through practicing many short sessions.]

Post Meditation Practice

After meditation sessions both in the morning and evening, reflect on how Buddhas and sentient beings, good and bad, existing and nonexistent, viewer and meditator, are all arising in the mind. Everything is arising and labeled by the mind. In post meditation, reflect on how all perceptions arise in the mind. Identify what qualities, what conditions, what essence, what kind of form, what color, and what are the characteristics of this mind? What does this mind look like? Check repeatedly. 

[This practice is very important. For it is this mind which is ordering us around every moment of our day. It is this mind which is telling us who is friend and enemy and what is good or bad. Who is this one who barks orders at us? This is the main point, to identify this very mind. Whether you can or cannot identify this mind, is not as important as the practice of continually checking, and looking for this mind again and again.]

[How to check? Just sit after your meditation and reflect “who am I?” I say “I am me, but who is this 'me'?” What does it mean to be me? Is it something that can be identified or found? Or is the name just a sound? If you have no body, how do you identify yourself? ]

At this time, the lama will ask relevant questions about searching the mind. Such as where is the mind? What does it look like? Is it outside the body? Is it inside the body? And so forth.

[A side note about one’s connection with their lama. A lama is like a fire. And our relationship with the lama is like our relationship with a firepit. If we get too close to the fire, we may get burned. And if we stay too far away from the fire, we will not receive any heat from the fire. So like sitting around a fireplace, we need to find that connection to the lama where we are not too close to get burned and not too far away to miss out on the warmth. 

This means if you get too close and friendly with your lama, you may only see their personality, and see them as a normal person with all the daily dramas of life. You may start to judge them, and treat them like friends, roommates, or coworkers. Thoughts like “why doesn’t my teacher do this, or talk to me about that? They did not say good morning to me today in passing. I don’t like how they are cooking or eating that dish.” may arise. Then they are no longer being perceived as a lama or teacher, but just another peer sentient being in the mix of the dramas of life. 

If you are too far from the lama, then the knowledge, blessing, and that transmission that takes place beyond words will lose its power. The energy will fade like a distant memory. 

So when we meet with our lama we should not just engage in too much idle chatter and keep the relationship as one of a teacher and student with a degree of professional separation, and when we are away we should also make sure to reflect on our kind teacher’s words and teachings in the morning, evening, and throughout our day. Even when eating, we can imagine offering our first bite or drink to our teacher. This way our mind stays connected to our teacher. Then our lama will never be too far away.]

We should search where the mind comes from? Second, we should search where the mind stays? Finally, we should search where the mind goes? Check continuously. 

[We can imagine our teacher sitting with us and asking us these questions. If our teacher asks us these three questions, how would we respond? What is your answer? How can you consider yourself a dzogchen practitioner, yet not investigate where the mind comes from, stays, and goes? We have to have an answer. But this isn’t about having a correct or incorrect answer. You need an answer that gives rise to the experience of analyzing and searching the mind. That is what is important, this experience of searching. This is why you can’t just accept an answer from someone else. Because it is not about getting the answer, its about the confirmation that arises through repeated searching.]

The mind must be checked.

[Homework questions: Where does your mind come from? Where does your mind stay? Where does the mind go?]

Again check, if mind comes from the outer elements or mind comes from the inner body, the illusory body? Check from the crown of the head down to the bottom of the feet. [If you do not have this mind, how are all these daily activities and thinking happening?]

The student needs to confirm with the lama to see if they are having success or not. Investigate thoroughly your mind. Having practiced in this way after a long time, the thinking mind will settle down into its own nature. Through that practice, there are three kinds of experiences that may arise.

First, the best practitioners will become free from grasping, the experience being like a turtle placed in a basin. The practitioner is not worried about anything. [Think of how happy a turtle is in his tank, without any fear of predators, and all that he needs, comfort, food, and water is provided.]

Second, the intermediate practitioner will remain undistracted in single-pointed concentration, like drawing into an iron pipe. [Water traveling through a pipe goes only in one direction. There is only one way for the water to go. Likewise the mind of the practitioner goes in one single-pointed direction without any distraction.]

Third, for the lowest practitioner their mind is focused but moves slightly. It does not move by distraction, but still has a slight movement like a bee drinking nectar. [A bee is focused on drinking the nectar from the flower, but the bee still has slight buzzing movements here and there. Likewise the lowest practitioner is focused on the object, but there is still slight movements.]

Practice this way through the single-pointed meditation with characteristics until you get some positive experiences through your meditation such as the experience of a calm mind. Then you can move to the second level single-pointed meditation without characteristics – shine without an object. 

Meditation on Sound

Furthermore, if the experiences of a calm mind are not yet complete [You are having difficulty with the meditation on the circle lights], then focus the mind forcefully towards the sky and make neutral sounds such as HUNG and HRIH. [To do this, sit in the fivefold body posture and focus your attention on the sky above you. Then at a normal volume level, speak a long HUNG sound. You can slowly increase the volume of the HUNG and then lower the volume, so it slowly increases and then decreases each time you say HUNG. Focus your mind on the HUNG, and connect with that sound. You can then do the same with the sound HRIH.] 

Meditation with Rest

If practicing with sound is also difficult, then do hard strenuous work, tiring yourself out, and exhausting your body’s energy. When you are totally fatigued and exhausted, simply sit down and rest. Then check your mind with the same investigations of mind. [This is a very simple practice to do everyday for those who work hard and may have little time for meditation.]

[These are the three practices, using the light circles, using sounds, or using strenuous work to calm the mind. The investigation of the mind practice is the same for all three.]

Additional Meditation Objects

The object of focus can also be directed to a mirror, or the space between the eyebrows [third eye] of a Yidam statue. [You can focus on a mirror or Buddha statue placed in front of you. The body posture and gaze are always the same.]

For those practitioners whom the elements of fire and wind are dominate, the signs of seizing the mind may come sooner. But later in their practice, obstacles will come. [This means that practitioners who quickly come to calm the mind in concentration in only one or two days, is not considered a good sign. As obstacles will arise later in their practice. Why? Because their connection and “capturing” the mind is not arising due to meditation, but due to the dominance of fire and wind elements in the body. And when these elements start to lessen, then their ability to “capture the mind” will fade.]

For those practitioners whom the elements of earth and wind are dominate, the signs of seizing the mind may be delayed, but later it will be very helpful for them. [These practitioners may not see any signs of progression in their practice for a long time. But this is good, as later in their practice they will have a lot of help through this training.]

For those who have not received these instructions before, they can be understood easily through the symbols and way of reasoning. It can be easier to guide those practitioners this way. [Some people have heard these teachings of “searching for the mind” many times before. And they may think “yeah, yeah, I have heard all this before.” It is like their ears are filled with their own ideas about the practice and are unable to hear. Thus it’s easy to teach and guide someone who has never heard these instructions before on searching the mind. So make sure to put down any thoughts, opinions, and notions one has about how to do this practice. Listen to the instructions here with fresh ears, like hearing it for the first time.]

For those who are dull or stubborn, it is difficult to teach them due to their lack of interest. [This means people interested only because this teaching seems new or interesting. This will quickly fade, and leave them with no motivation for practice. They will soon lack interest and move on to some other new teaching or practice, never investigating continuously and deeply. A true practitioner searches for the mind not out of interest, but because they realize that this mind rules over everything as the great decider, and they wish to get to the bottom of this inquiry.] 

Any kind of person can come to get the meaning of these teachings if their teacher is an authentic lama. [No student should feel these teachings and practices are out of their reach. Through authentic teachers, these teachings and practices are available to everyone, including us.]

Through the practice the king has been seized and the army of the mind has been controlled. The wild dog of conceptualization are caged and subdued. From the Chi Gyud [Outer Tantra] it says, “Seize the king of the mind. Control or subdue the subject of the mind. Bind and tame the wild dog of mental affections [disturbing emotions].” From the Lung Drug it says, “By focusing the mind on the material object, the mind is more and more pacified and thoughts disappear. Then the primordial wisdom [nature of the mind] become more and more clear.”

This is the teaching of seizing the mind on the characteristics. 

Virtue!