In this passage from Buddhahood Without Meditation, Ken is steering people away from treating direct awareness as something to produce, monitor, fine-tune, or possess. The phrase “Direct awareness is no big deal,” from his translation of Revelations of Ever-Present Good, can perhaps be understood as a deliberate antidote to spiritual ambition. Ken’s point is that because it is already here, direct awareness is not something to attain, but we keep trying to achieve it nonetheless.
This passage also helps me understand why Ken is wary of “observing” in the usual sense. “Be what knows the arising.” The point is not to become a skilful tracker of every thought and feeling. Instead, be awake in whatever is happening. No spacing out. No suppressing. No trying to manipulate experience. The image of standing “like an oak stake in hard ground” carries a strong, resilient simplicity.
Sukhasiddhi’s instruction gathers the whole thing into three lines:
In empty space, free from concept,
Plant the root of mind which is awareness.
Plant the root and relax.
For me, that “relax” is crucial, but relaxing is not drifting off or going blank. It means I have to drop the wishful thinking that understanding will dawn through conceptual clarity. It means I have to stop meddling.
From Buddhahood Without Meditation 6
Ken:
Direct awareness is no big deal and doesn’t need any work. Stop trying to change it or adjust it.
(How many of you spend your meditation practices trying to fine-tune that natural awareness?)
Whenever conceptual thinking arises, don’t look at what arises: be what knows the arising.
Like an oak stake in hard ground, stand firm in awareness that knows, and go deep into the mystery.
Now, there are two approaches to this kind of practice. One is look at what arises. And the other is to look at what experiences the arising. Very broadly speaking, some people say that in mahamudra, the emphasis is on looking at what arises. In dzogchen, the emphasis is on looking at what experiences the arising. What’s the difference? Caroline?
Caroline: No difference, because what experiences and the experience, you can’t separate them.
Ken: That’s right. Two different approaches that end up in the same place. So one approach will probably work better for some people, the other approach would work better for others. That’s how it is. And one isn’t particularly better, even though lots of people will stand up on soap boxes and claim that it is.
Ann: Didn’t you recommend that in the case of dullness that looking at what experiences the arising could be helpful?
Ken: Yeah, I did. You can also do it the other way. What is the dullness?
Minor question: what’s the difference between knowing and emptiness?
Student: I really want the answer to that one, because in the Dancer in Pristine Awareness practice, you plant the root of mind in empty space.
Ken:
In empty space, free from concept,
Plant the root of mind which is awareness.
Plant the root and relax.This is Sukhasiddhi’s very famous pointing-out instruction.