The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

THE UNIVERSAL PROCESS 3491. The Ground Luminosity, the absolute nature of mind, isthe primordial state of Rigpa that exists before any thought oremotion.2. Within its unconditioned space, a fundamental energystirs, the spontaneous radiance of Rigpa, which begins to ariseas the basis, the potential, and the fuel for raw emotion.3. This energy can then take on the forms of emotions andthoughts, which eventually propel us into action and cause usto accumulate karma.It is when we become intimately familiar with meditationpractice that we can see this process with unmistakable clarity:1. As thoughts and emotions gradually fall silent, and dieaway and dissolve into the nature of mind, we may momentarilyglimpse the nature of mind, the Rigpa itself: the primordialstate.2. Then we become aware that out of the stillness andcalm of the nature of mind unfolds a movement and rawenergy, its very self-radiance.3. If any grasping enters into the rising of that energy, theenergy inevitably crystallizes into thought forms, which inturn will carry us back into conceptual and mental activity.THE PROCESS IN EVERYDAY LIFENow that we have looked at the way this process reproducesitself in sleep and dream, and the very formation ofthought and emotion, let us see it at work in our day-to-dayexperience of our everyday life.This is best done by looking closely at one movement ofjoy or anger. Examine that movement and you will see thatthere exists always a space or gap before any emotion beginsto arise. That pregnant moment before the energy of emotionhas a chance to arise is a moment of pure, pristine awareness,in which we could, if we let ourselves, have a glimpse of thetrue nature of mind. For an instant the spell of ignorance isbroken; we are totally freed from any need or possibility ofgrasping, and even the notion of "clinging" is made ridiculousand redundant. However, instead of embracing the "emptiness"of that gap, in which we could find the bliss of beingfree from and unburdened by any idea, reference, or concept,we grasp at the dubious security of the familiar, comfortingdrama of our emotions, driven by our deep habitual tendencies.And this is how an inherently unconditioned energy