Working with Sensations

Every bit of the dharma is made up. You're going to need to release a lot of your belief systems to practice dzogchen. In fact, all dzogchen is, is a method for releasing belief systems.

Right now we are working in this sensations group, in which our goal is to get rid of our catastrophizing habits. We catastrophize everything causing us all sorts of problems. We especially catastrophize our sensations.

First, in the skandas is form, which symbolizes the original oops. That misperception of self and other that happened in the beginning of time. Causing time and space to occur and happens in each moment of time and each moat of space – that original “oops.” The first belief system – me here and all that there. And that is an oops. It is not true. And that original oops of misperception in which no evil deed was ever done, began to cause karma which breaks itself into gewa and digpa. 

There are inklings left within us. And ever so often the inkling of non separation between self and other – not unity and not multiplicity – but right down the middle between them. Where the awareness is neither singular nor multiple, what is referred to as the middle road.

This midline between “is(s) and isn't(s),” between “either and or,” this is where we are trying to find. So with form, the original oops “there's me and there's the stuff out there” and it is physical sensations of the six sense organs by which I experience that stuff “out there.” This is the base assumption that we exist in as human beings.

If you watch it happen, the first thing that happens is that original oops – the subject/object dichotomy – which is called the shattering of the youthful vase body. With that original shattering, you have three feelings arise. These are baseline feelings before thoughts and emotions arise. It's either “I like it,” “I don't like it,”  or “meh.” These are the three.

If you can short circuit it right there in the “original oops” right as it's forming into like/don't like, that is excellent. Because with like and dislike leads to grasping and shoving. The thoughts about it arise, the stories about it. The stories arise based on your habits, so you tend to tell the same stories again and again. Perhaps an adventure story, or a victim story, or a guilt story. There are so many stories, but the main point is they are habitual, formed from the past and continue to arise again and again. It is all these complexities of the whole set of stories that arise which form what we call our personality. A personality that is made up of all the stories you ever told yourself. And that is all it is, there is nothing solid inside your personality. 

But every so often there is a little opening of the “gone beyond” – the open awareness which has a little bit of an inkling that we're all in this together. And instead of grabbing what is wanted, open-handedly offers what is wanted. Hence spreading of gewa the relaxation necessary to recognize the nature of things as they occur.

So in this whole clump of sensations, liking & disliking, attraction and aversion, thoughts and stories that arise around it, we are going to practice working with the sensations. And the recognition of a sensation. And then recognize all that arises around that experience of a sensation.

To do this, pick one of your five senses. Let’s start with the sense of smell. Then find an object with a scent, and smell it. Did liking or disliking arise for you? Perhaps that more neutral “meh” arose? Notice that feeling tone. Then find another object and do the same. When you find something that you like, allow yourself to notice that. And when you notice something you smell you don’t like, allow yourself to notice that. And the same when you notice that neutral “meh” feeling arise.

Next, having identified two sensations, one you like and one you do not like, take them both and go back and forth sensing each again and again. The practice here is to see what didn't change.

What stayed the same while you felt liking and not liking? Don’t focus on the story, the personality. And don’t focus on the object itself. Just see if you can become aware of what does not change as you flip between the pleasant and unpleasant sensations. A word of clarification here, the practice is to become aware of what does not change and not to think about and intellectually ponder what does not change. This is not a thinking exercise. This is a practice of direct experience. If you are thinking and contemplating about what does not change, you have made a misstep. Try not to get caught up in words, labels, and descriptions here. That is not the point of this practice. The practice is to directly recognize that which does not move experientially without any story attached to it.

Continue to do this practice with all five senses using the same instructions. Just go back and forth and try to perceive what does not change. For instance, taste a strawberry and a hot pepper. Watch how your mind reacts to it. Watch the liking disliking arise and try to find out what is exactly the same in both circumstances. Continue with sounds, tactile touch, and seeing in the same way.

All your past belief systems will have determined which ones you found pleasant and which ones you found not pleasant. Can you see what moves and what does not as you go between liking and disliking? What moves is the five skandhas. What isn't? That is the key here to working with sensations. Look at your mind. Look at all of it. Look at your feelings. Look at your sensations. Look at the stories. Look at all of the skandhas moving. Look at what is not moving.