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Developing Wisdom Through Contemplation
The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
Excerpted From the transcript of "Listening, Contemplation and Meditation: the Three Prajnas" (Karme Choling, VT, 1996).
Originally published in Bodhi Issue 2
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The second stage that we go through is the process of internalizing that knowledge. The wisdom or prajna that we have developed through hearing or studying is, as Milarepa said, like the patch of understanding.  This means that, even though it can cover the hole temporarily, it doesn't mean that the patch has become one with the original cloth. It still stays separate. It still has not become one with the continuity of that fabric, the basic fabric. In a similar way, this knowledge, this understanding that we have accumulated through the process of hearing or learning has not become one with our stream of mind. It is  there like a patch.  Whenever we have some doubts, we can simply apply an intellectual patch, but that's not really solving or healing any of our problems at this stage. We can tell that from our stomachs. We're still hungry.

In the second stage, we have to go to the grocery store and get the vegetables that we have imagined, that we have conceptualized, and then come back home and engage in cooking.  At this stage, the best thing is to leave the cookbook aside and totally engage in cooking, totally engage in internalizing. If we are reading and cooking at the same time, we will burn the food, right? It will not be real food. It will not smell, not taste like it says in the cookbook. Therefore, it's important for us to master the cookbook first, before we come to the actual stage of cooking, which is the second stage, which we call "reflection or contemplation."   True reflection or contemplation will develop the prajna of experience. At this stage, we're developing the prajna of experience, which is getting closer to our hearts. We are internalizing our prior learning. At this point, what we are doing is cutting through a certain sense of duality. We are no longer separated from the cookbook like we were when we first read it. At this stage, we have become the cookbook.  We, ourselves, cannot be separated from the cookbook. We are like a living cookbook.

Yes, so at this stage we have become the cookbook, a living cookbook. There's no separation between oneself and the cookbook. We have come one step closer to the non-dual experience. We are internalizing whatever dharma we have learned, whatever dharma we have studied through the first stage. We are contemplating and reflecting on that, precisely. It is still conceptual because we go through conceptual meditation, conceptual reflection and contemplation. But still it is very profound. It is very profound in the sense that we're internalizing our intellectual knowledge. We're not leaving the intellectual knowledge as an intellectual property. We're internalizing that property and becoming one with that intellectual understanding. There's a profound experience taking place here that is known as the prajna of experience. At this stage we're cooking and smelling the food. We're maybe baking chocolate chip cookies and smelling these beautiful, delicious chocolate chip cookies from the oven.  We're not only conceptualizing how cookies would smell, but we're really smelling them. We're not just conceptualizing the cookies, the chocolate and the dough  together in the oven, but we have really done it. We have done it in our own experience. We also have an experience of taste through smelling, through just simply being there with the cookies. It's a great experience. (Rinpoche laughs.)

 At this stage, we're not trapped in the intellectual understanding. We're not frozen in intellectual theory.  We are clearly experiencing what we have learned. And we do that through analytical meditation. Analytical meditation develops the second prajna, the prajna of experience, in which we go through the process of cutting through duality.  In this process, our intellectual understanding becomes part of our being, rather than part of our brain or part of our notebook or part of our computer. At this stage, we are internalizing that whole understanding of dharma, the whole understanding of hearing, studying, and we are meditating on what we have learned. It is still conceptual but very important conceptual meditation. This conceptual meditation in the traditional path of Mahayana is known as analytical meditation. It was practiced in the past at Nalanda University in India. It is still done frequently in the great institutions in India, such as Nalanda Institute, and in most of the Tibetan monastic institutions.  We do a lot of analytical meditation.  This is a very important method of developing the second prajna and also an important method of processing through the second stage of development.

Milarepa said that our experience is like the morning mist. At the time it seems so thick, so dominant, so solid, so real. We have seen the mist this morning.  It seemed so real, so thick, so beautiful. But in the daytime, when the sun comes out, it just disappears. Milarepa said experiences are like the morning mist. They will disappear. He doesn't mean that you will lose them completely, but that experiences come and go like the morning mist and the morning mist comes and goes and comes and goes. This means that we can't simply be satisfied or simply be proud of our experience and say, "Look I have this great achievement. I have a meditative experience which is so powerful, so real, so beautiful."  When we get this kind of pride, it's like inviting the sun and that causes us to lose the existence of our morning mist, the beautiful fog.

 There's a story from 19th century Tibet about a great master who taught the meditation on emptiness, which all of his students were practicing.  One day the teacher had this beautiful experience of emptiness.  While meditating, he leaned backward in his cave.  When he came back from the meditation, he clearly saw a hand print in the solid rock cave, which came out of his meditative experience. He said, "Wow. This is a great sign of achievement, a great experience of meditation. I must show this achievement to my students." So one day he invited all the students to meditate together.  During that meditation, he slapped his hand very hard on the rock in front of him, with the intention of leaving a handprint. They all looked, all the students were watching. (Rinpoche slaps his hand)  He slapped very hard again on the rock, and when he lifted his hand they just saw a pink palm. Therefore, such experiences of meditation come and go. There's nothing to be proud of. Nothing to be surprised about.  Nothing to cling on to.  As Milarepa said, these experiences are like the morning mist, which comes and goes. And he said that you should not be satisfied. You should not be proud of the experiences. They're very good, but you shouldn't be stuck at that stage. You should go on to the next stage of this process, which is the third stage, developing the prajna of realization.

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