Here is one..
Do you see the Buddha?
Back in high school I was pretty stressed out. Everything was so raw, so deep and intense - as it usually is for most teenagers I guess. Back then, I was beginning to practice meditation even before I had ever really heard of Buddhism. I would get out of school [sometimes skip school before eventually dropping out altogether] and head for my "space". This was of coarse not "myspace" but my "space" - way, way before personal computers.
My "space" was a small, grassy, tree lined hill in a park not far from my home. I would lay down on the side of the hill which had the most open view of the sky.
Then, I would turn my head off, no thinking allowed. In fact though, I was still sort of thinking. I would just imagine that there was only me and the sky with no earth below. I would just fly through the sky as far and as fast as I wanted to go in any direction. Nothing could impede my flying or falling. I would just turn everything loose and fly, feeling the wind, feeling the sun and the occasional cloud. I was completely free for a while and my stress was really gone while this lasted.
"Sky Gazing" is a kind of meditation that comes from the Tibetan tradition called Dzogchen ("ZO chen"). Dzogchen means "great complete" or "great perfection". This tradition - like Zen Buddhism - puts an emphasis on your 'innate enlightenment'. Your "innate" enlightenment is also called your "Buddha nature" or your innate "natural nirvana".
What is natural nirvana?
Things are complete. Some might say it as things are "perfect", but to me that implies a sort of "goodness" within things and I think that what we're really talking about goes beyond goodness or "badness".
This "completeness" is an innate (natural) quality of all phenomena, of all experiences, but we miss it in our usual way of thinking.
When we "miss" the natural completeness of our experience we create this un-natural world of THING-NESS and THINGS to grab onto and in Buddhism this world is given the name of "samsara"
THINGS don't exist!
A "THING" is an isolation.
"Isolation" is impossible.
"Interdependence" is reality, but not as a THING called "interdependence".
Things appear, but they appear based on their emptiness. In other words, they appear as interdependence-emptiness. They are without THING-NESS. This is the concealed truth of all things and when this truth is no longer concealed, or when it is "cognized" the cognition is called "attained nirvana".
So natural nirvana (aka "your Buddha nature") is just (or exactly) the truth of phenomena that is concealed within our 'samsaric" experience of the world. It is a potential experience when we miss it. It is a realized truth when we see it.
We have to undo that "missing it".
This is where meditation as a "path" or a "practice" comes in.
Meditation as a "path" is the process of uncovering the innate truth that is exactly THE TRUTH precisely because things have ALWAYS or primordially been this way.
The unique path of Buddhist meditation is to take this truth, this innate state of THIS as THIS is, and use that potential as the path to realize the goal.
Meditation changes nothing.
The path IS the goal.
Meditation changes everything.
When we look at the world it looks like a pile of shit. But when a fly looks at a pile of shit that pile of shit is a feast.
The world is a pile of shit that has within it the potential to be a feast!
There is an innate completeness to things but it is only a potential until we actualize the potential as our truth. That is what Buddhism is about.
The world is a pile of shit.
Actualizing means ridding our experience of the THINGS that block the realization of the completeness.
The world is a feast.
Here is another shot of Buddha I took in the bus yard at work today..
Please go get you some "attained nirvana".
The "sky gazing" that I do has very few rules.
Find a place with a view
A viewless view is best, but anywhere will do
Look up, look out
Endless, boundless, infinite
Space, freedom, uninhibited
Not nothingness, which is something
Awareness is present
Nothing to be aware of
Emptiness is presence
Complete as it is
Nothing to add to or take away
Not future, not past, not even now
Just emptiness, awareness, emptiness
Just sky
Please feel free to use the photos you find here for your 'sky gazing' practice on your computer - it works well in lieu of the real thing.
"Rules" for sky gazing are as follows:
Don't become enthralled by the beauty of the sky, but don't suppress the beauty either.
Don't focus on one particular aspect of the sky, but don't look around and become distracted either.
The best sky's have some clouds, but clouds can't hinder the vast sky.
Don't think about the sky when sky gazing, but don't suppress your thoughts either.
Don't analyze your sky gazing, but do notice the emptiness and awareness that is present.
When you breath out when sky gazing sometimes say AHHHHhhh..., but most of the time don't.
Just sky gaze, let it all go and sky gaze.
Here are a couple more pics I found of the Buddha - these were already online so I guess I ripped them off.. PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZE!
PS - Ive added one more image of the Buddha that I took to help you with your "sky gazing" meditation. Don't forget to CLICK ON THE PHOTOS (all of them) to see the FULL version:
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