Namdrol wrote:adinatha wrote:Okay. Thank you for your continued patience and time. How do you explain blessings? They are just method? You've cited dohas which say the innate cannot be taught. The Kagyu teach that the innate can be discovered through blessings.
The Hevajra Tantra explains it very nicely:
Here there is no method and wisdom,
the appearance of true reality,
can’t be described by another, the innate
cannot be found anywhere,
but one can understand it in dependence on the Guru,
time and method, and from one’s merit.
This is quoted in Lord Jigten Sumgon's Co-Emergent Unification Guru Yoga text. I think this is widely disseminated in the Kagyu.
For example, Dombhi Heruka divides the innate into three aspects: cause, method and result.
The cause innate is the nature of the mind.
The method innate is fifteen innate dharmas:
...the innate three ṇāḍīs in the body, innate trio of exhalation, inhalation and abiding of the breath; and the innate as the three poisonous afflictions of the mind6; nine dharmas. In those innates, there is the inner obstacles, the innate three combined diseases; the outer obstacles the innate three demons.
Now then, the diseases are one, vata; pitta and blood both are counted as one; and kapha are three. The three demons are male class, female class, and nāgā.
Now fifteen dharmas exist from the beginning of the body’s development, and therefore are the fifteen innate dharmas.
The three innate experiences of bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality arise on the basis of these fifteen dharmas.
And the result innate is the three doors of liberation i.e. "Because the samadhis of the trio of pleasure, clarity and non-conceptuality occur, the three ṇāḍīs and the three vāyus are brought under control; one is liberated from the illnesses and the three types of spirits, and one actualizes the three doors of liberation."
All this can happen on the basis of shamata practice or with the recognition of the nature of mind, nondual.
Often people have a very restrictive concept of what "sahaja" means. Also the channels in your body are sahaja, the fact that you have one face and two arms is "sahaja" -- that is why two armed, one faced forms of Cakrasamvara and so on are called "sahaja" i.e. natural. In sahaja practice, unlike lower tantra and sutra, we do not reject anything.
Also, for example, the third Karmapa's commentary on Sahaja Mahamudra remarks that Sahaja Mahamudra is practiced in conjunction with Naro Chödruk.
Lord Jigten Sumgon teaches otherwise, that Sahaja Mahamudra is beyond Naro Chodruk.
Etc.
Finally, people have a funny idea for example that Tilopa hitting Naropa on the head was the end of Naropa's path. They don't realize that that was the beginning and it was only after that that Tilopa gave Naropa empowerments, practices connected with the channels and so on.
N
The tradition teaches that Naropa prophesied that all of Marpa's descendants would be greater than the previous. Anyway, Gampopa began teaching Mahamudra without channels and winds.
Basically, you didn't explain blessings. There's something more, related to interdependence and association with realized beings, elimination of doubt, etc., along with methods that allows one to realize the innate faster. Then, bliss clarity and nonconcept states are like pointed out directly. That alone calms the channels and winds.
Now that I'm thinking on the go, it appears that blessings are indeed connected with bliss, clarity and nonconcept. These three are a non-trio. The guru points out nonconceptuality as the nature of awareness. With that direct cognition, one naturally enters into blissful clarity. The channels and winds go smooth.
The Kagyus mention often blessing as "energy." Milarepa explained it as "bliss waves." I think this is interdependent connection. Association with a master, if one has faith in the master, just that is a direct introduction to nonconceptuality. The master's state, and our mirror-like awareness should be sufficient for recognition of the nonconceptual state.