In one way, the Buddhist Path may be described in terms of View, Meditation, and Action.
To see directly the absolute state, the Ground of our being, is the View; the way of stabilizing that View and making it an unbroken experience is Meditation; and integrating the View into our entire reality, and life, is what is meant by Action.
What then is the View?
It is nothing less than seeing the actual state of things as they are; it is knowing that the true nature of mind is the true nature of everything; and it is realizing that the true nature of our mind is the absolute truth.
Dudjom Rinpoche says:
“The View is the comprehension of the naked awareness, within which everything is contained: sensory perception and phenomenal existence, samsara and nirvana. This awareness has two aspects: ‘emptiness’ as the absolute, and appearances or perception as the relative.”
What this means is that the entire range of all possible appearances, and all possible phenomena in all the different realities, whether samsara or nirvana, all of these without exception have always been and will always be perfect and complete, within the vast and boundless expanse of the nature of mind.
Yet even though the essence of everything is empty and “pure from the very beginning,” its nature is rich in noble qualities, pregnant with every possibility, a limitless, incessantly and dynamically creative field that is always spontaneously perfect.
You might ask: “If realizing the View is realizing the nature of mind, what then is the nature of mind like?”
Imagine a sky, empty, spacious, and pure from the beginning; its essence is like this.
Imagine a sun, luminous, clear, unobstructed, and spontaneously present; its nature is like this.
Imagine that sun shining out impartially on us and all things, penetrating all directions; its energy, which is the manifestation of compassion, is like this: nothing can obstruct it and it pervades everywhere.
You can also think of the nature of mind like a mirror, with five different powers or “wisdoms.”
Its openness and vastness is the “wisdom of all-encompassing space,” the womb of compassion.
Its capacity to reflect in precise detail whatever comes before it is the “mirror-like wisdom.”
Its fundamental lack of any bias toward any impression is the “equalizing wisdom.”
Its ability to distinguish clearly, without confusing in any way the various different phenomena that arise, is the “wisdom of discernment.”
And its potential of having everything already accomplished, perfected, and spontaneously present is the “all-accomplishing wisdom.”
Source: Based on Sogyal Rinpoche. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. 20th Anniversary Edition. Edited by Patrick Gaffney and Andrew Harvey. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
How can the wisdom mind of the buddhas be introduced? Imagine the nature of mind as your own face; it is always with you, but you cannot see it without help.
Now imagine that you have never seen a mirror before.
The introduction by the master is like suddenly holding up a mirror in which you can, for the first time, see your own face reflected.
Just like your face, this pure awareness of Rigpa* is not something “new” that the master is giving you that you did not have before, nor is it something you could possibly find outside of yourself.
It has always been yours, and has always been with you, but up until that startling moment you have never actually seen it directly. (Sogyal Rinpoche)
*Note: Rigpa a Tibetan word, which in general means ‘intelligence’ or ‘awareness’. In Dzogchen, however, the highest teachings in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, rigpa has a deeper connotation, ‘the innermost nature of the mind’. (Source: rigpawiki.org)