"The bad news is you’re falling through the air"

Elsewhere I have boldly asserted that this was a profound meditation instruction so I thought I'd better explain what I meant by that.

“The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.” --CTR

The comment is a quote of a Tibetan meditation master and teacher named Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (CTR). There is a lot on Rinpoche on the net so I wont do the biographical thing suffice to say that he was probably the first fully qualified master from Tibet to live in the West and understand its values, norms and mores. As with all teachings it was given at a specific time for a specific audience and we now interpret it according to our current time and understanding.

This quote is what is known as a "pith instruction". It speaks directly to an aspect of our experience and in so doing seeks to impart some understanding of our basic condition as humans. What Rinpoche is specifically referring to is known in the Budhhist teachings as the Second Noble Truth, the truth of the origin of suffering. The origin of suffering is our continual grasping at experience and the efforts to manipulate this experience to make it more the way we want it to be. Some typical examples would be changing the radio to listen to music or talk we prefer, moving around in out chairs to deal with the numb spots in our bums, changing partners or jobs or cars or other possessions to something more up to date or desireable etc, etc. Of course we may achieve some passing satisfaction but then our external or internal environment changes and we need to get the situation back in order so off we go again. This goes on all our lives, a never ending ceaseless restless attempt to reduce discomfort or be happy. Like a sky diver without a parachute we are continually reaching out to try to stop the momentum of our lives and be safe and secure in a perfect world. As soon as we have it all together shit happens and we need to sort it all out again.

This becomes patently clear in meditation. There is a never ending stream of mental activity and sooner or later we get caught up in it and end up day dreaming. There may be good dreams (happy peaceful experiences) or there may be bad dreams (unwanted memories, bad moods etc) or boredom or whatever. But between the daydreams is where we can begin to see the sky-like open awareness that is our real nature. This intrinsic awareness has no hard landing spots. It is always there, it has always been there and as far as I can tell will be there until I die (I cant imagine that so I cant extrapolate any further). So as we learn to rest in and trust our intrinsic "sky-ness" we learn that actually there never was anything to grasp at as it was just flickering on the screen of our awareness, a bit like a good musical comedy! But grasping is a strong habit and it operates at lightening speed and so we are usually grasping at something or other. It is a moment to moment process.

Hence the usefulness of Rinpoche's statement. It is a reminder that our nature is like the sky, open, clear, luminous and always there. There actually is nothing to worry about or grasp at. There is no earth rushing up to obliterate us. Its a testament to his genius and the depth of his realisation that he was so evocative with so few words.

BTW Im actually not qualified to comment on this stuff. Seek out a real meditation master if you can see value in my amateur explanation. For those who have more experience or learning in these areas than me forgive my arrogance and honour all of us by correcting my mistakes. May all being benefit! May the peak of all wisdom, the Dzogchen teachings thrive forever, may the true masters flourish in their endeavours on our behalves! May we all spontaneously rest in our true nature!