The Western world is quite chaotic because it keeps chasing time. Everyone is driven nuts by the intense pressures of time. We create a schedule, and then we can’t follow it. We feel stressed when we don’t reach our goals. When we are late for an appointment, late for work or for a job interview, for school, or meeting friends for coffee, everybody complains, “Why are you late?” That is all because of time.
Our time is very limited, and we are stuck with that. We are busy and tired; we have no time. We say, “Oh, I must finish this, I must do that!”
But time is an illusion. Who created it? Our mind created it. We make it up through our ideas of past, present, and future—what we call “the three times.” If mind doesn’t go to the past, present, and future, then the three times have no reality. The past is finished, yesterday is complete. We can’t go back to yesterday, and we can’t go forward to tomorrow either, because it is still today. We keep on chasing past, present, and future and being distracted by them. But are they really of benefit to us or do they just give us more trouble?
We experience sickness, old age, death, suffering, happiness, sadness, and so on because of time. Time is what allows us to experience these things. Without time, none of these things could happen; we would remain calm and peaceful because there would be nothing to experience. Everything else is just a dream. Whether it’s a good dream or a bad dream, it’s still only a dream. It ceases to be real when you wake up.
In Dzogchen, we have a fourth time: “absolute time,” or “no time.” It isn’t really “time,” however; we just give it that label. It is beyond time. This may be a new concept for you, as it is outside the familiar structure of past, present, and future. But the three times are just a distraction.
Every single mind exists within the three times, within the past, present, and future, and every single thought belongs within them. A buddha is beyond the three times. When you really see that the three times are fabrications, time stands still. There is no change. Change happens only in samsaric time. That is where we suffer, where we are stressed by the past, where we worry about the future, and where we struggle with the present. So where are those thoughts when past, present, and future are no more?
This is the absolute unity. It’s completely silent, completely clear, very pleasant and peaceful. Past thoughts are gone, future thoughts stop coming, and present thoughts immediately dissolve. There is nowhere for thoughts to arise. Where is the stress? Where is the fear? Where is the worry? The space for all that is gone. As we say in Dzogchen, “The three times become one time.”
You have wisdom within you, but it can’t lead if you don’t concentrate the mind.
We were born, we remain for a while, and then we die. We need the three times for that. If the three times are no more, there is nowhere to be born, nowhere to stay, and nowhere to go. Seeing that is what we call “recognizing your true nature.” In that moment, you realize that time is completely at rest, and when time is at rest, you experience rigpa, your nondual pure awareness. It’s just there. You don’t need to search for it. You will just experience it immediately, on the spot: no past, no future, no present, no change. That is the miracle.
What name, then, can we give this “time”? We can’t call it the present, we can’t call it the past, and we can’t call it the future, so we call it “timeless time.” We can remain very peacefully in timeless time because it doesn’t change. Change is the nature of samsara.
You recognize the unity of timeless time by letting go of past, present, and future while resting the mind. When you rest the mind, time also rests. When time rests, it’s amazing! You feel very still, calm, and powerful. You have cut the chain of thoughts completely and are free, like a clear and cloudless sky.
Take a moment to experience this for yourself. Relax your body and settle into the meditation posture. You can sit on the ground with legs crossed, or simply sit in a comfortable chair and rest your hands on your knees. Rest your gaze straight ahead or slightly upward and breathe from the mouth, not the nostrils. Breathe in naturally, then breathe out and hold the out-breath for a few seconds. Breathe in again before it becomes uncomfortable, then breathe out and hold the out-breath for a few seconds again.
Holding the out-breath for those seconds creates a moment of pause. During that moment it is impossible to give rise to thoughts. This is the key. Dzogchen meditation is about looking for that gap: We breathe out through the mouth, hold the breath, and find the perfect gap.
Our mind is always leading us, always influencing us and demanding things. But when you hold the breath, the mind is very still. It is naked mind. There are no thoughts; there is no past, present, or future. All our problems come from the mind. The mind makes life difficult. It makes enemies, it makes problems for others, it makes a mess in the world. We need to let go of this mind a bit and tell it to calm down.
Breathe in, breathe out, and hold the out-breath for a moment. Everything you need is there.
When you calm your mind, you can find that incredible gap. It is beyond the mind; it is absolute reality. It is rigpa, our nondual pure awareness. Our rigpa is always present, but we need to catch it in the gap, almost like putting a golf ball into a hole. You breathe in, breathe out, hold the out-breath, and put your mind into the gap. Pause with no thoughts, no movement—completely and permanently still.
Take a moment to see what you experience when you hold the breath. This is not about what you feel but what you experience. Is it something completely calm and peaceful, something without movement?
It’s important for you to experience this gap, to get a momentary glimpse of it, so you can come to identify it: “Here you are.” But you don’t need to overthink it. Breathe in, breathe out, and hold the out-breath for a moment. Everything you need is there. You will know there is no name or description for this experience. It’s beyond language, beyond words, it’s incredible. That’s the moment when you see the face of a buddha.
The real practice is maintaining this awareness and staying in it for as long as you can. We progress slowly with this. It is risky to stay for too long, because breathing is part of life. When you breathe in, you have air in your lungs. We call that “life.” When you breathe out, you have no air in your lungs. We call that “death.” In this meditation you experience life and death together. Whenever we breathe in, we are born again. Whenever we breathe out, we die.
When you move out of the gap, you become part of the present again, and your mind goes to the future, to the past, and to the present. The gap will be gone. Maybe you can’t stay in the gap for too long yet, but you can stay there sometimes; you will gradually learn to stay there much longer until you can comfortably rest in that state. The more you can maintain that state, the better. Calm your mind, then maintain that calm for as long as you can without thought.
This gap may seem like a small seed of something greater, but it is very powerful. In that moment, you no longer believe your dualistic perceptions and gain a fleeting glimpse of an incredible peace that is beyond language. Clarity gives you that experience. From time to time, you will have spontaneous experiences of spaciousness and peace, but these spontaneous experiences happen only when you are resting in the gap, and there is no reason or purpose to them. That is Dzogchen practice. That is the experience of buddhanature. When your thoughts dissolve in that moment, wisdom can arise.
We have wisdom already, but we need the space to recognize it. The mind and wisdom always go together. We can take the example of smoke and fire to understand how this works. You know there is a fire when you can say, “I see smoke over there.” If there is smoke, there must be fire. In the same way, if there is a mind, there must be wisdom. There is no mind without wisdom. That’s very necessary to understand. Smoke comes from fire; fire never comes from smoke. Similarly, the mind comes from wisdom. That’s how it is.
You have wisdom within you, but it can’t lead if you don’t concentrate the mind. Only ignorance will lead you. You need to minimize the thoughts and stress in your mind so that it becomes very clear, like a cloudless sky. When the mind is free of thoughts, it has a lot of space and peace. That is how wisdom and concentration go together. Wisdom is there, but if you don’t concentrate, wisdom will not be able to lead you. Your meditation is perfect when wisdom can lead. When mind is leading you, you are a sentient being. When mind is resting, you are a buddha. You experience that moment of resting in the gap. That moment is enlightenment.
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Adapted from Meditation for Modern Madness © 2024 by His Eminence the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications.
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