When it comes to practitioners, those in Mere Emptiness and Dzogchen each embrace unique cognitive approaches. Let's illustrate this with the case of depression. The moment that unpleasant sensations like a congested chest arise, or the thought 'My heart aches!' claws at your mind, awareness is already there, observing. For a Mere Emptiness practitioner, this is the cue to bring their understanding of emptiness to bear on the mental object - depression.This is called “seeing depression as Mere Emptiness.” In other words, mentally, they directly experience that depression is just an illusion. This profound insight, if it strikes with enough force, can actually dissolve the dark cloud of depression. This approach, then, is essentially a countermeasure against mental afflictions and beyond.
Dzogchen takes a radical approach: depression itself is awareness. This is difficult for people to understand, and some may not be able to understand it at all. Dzogchen practitioners do not try to fight against depression; instead, they simply see it as awareness. When they see depression through their awakened mind and wisdom, it is awareness itself. When you look at them, they may appear depressed, but in reality, they are in a state of the nature of awareness. Similarly, when they seem angry, they are actually dancing in the Dharmata. Even wrathful bodhisattvas, with their fierce visages, joyfully engage in the dance of compassion and emptiness.
The principle of consciousness being cognized is certainly like this, but if we describe it, we can only describe it roughly. In short, consciousness can also become the object of cognition. For example, we often experience various afflictive emotions and physical and mental suffering because of our erroneous ways of perceiving. Our cognition tends to adopt a perspective that is deeply rooted in the sense of self when perceiving an object. For instance, feeling lonely arises only when viewed from an individualized perspective. The conventional human approach to addressing loneliness is to find a companion, make a phone call to a close friend, or go out for drinks with friends. While these methods may have some effect, the loneliness often returns, and the cost of resolving it in this way is high. Going out for drinks might lead to unintended intoxication and fighting, and the consequences of such actions don't fundamentally eliminate such suffering.
When a practitioner who practices Mere Emptiness feels lonely, he employs the mind power cultivated through practicing Mere Emptiness to dissolve loneliness. In no time, he feels peaceful and happy. Interestingly, you do not have to be very good at this practice to experience the effect. When a practitioner realizes the nature of awareness, he will start to play with loneliness, embrace it, and even look for it to play with. A realized being, at a certain point, will deliberately seek situations or things that can stir him up, and in Dzogchen, this is referred to as “training with extraordinary mind power.
No matter what the object of consciousness is, be it desire, aversion, ignorance, arrogance, or doubt, its essence is ultimately the nature of awareness. Therefore, all negative emotions, which we often consider attachments or sins, are, in Dzogchen, likened to dark clouds vanishing swiftly when sunlight shines upon the sky. However, it's worth noting that this framing, while helpful, ultimately misleads. It suggests that sunlight and dark clouds are two separate entities, when in reality, they are not.
It is clear that the cognitive approach is extremely important. Our spiritual practice lies in honing our cognition. We transform the egocentric mode of cognition into the Bodhisattva's way of cognition, and we train the duality-based cognition into the Dzogchen—where all appearances are recognized as awareness itself.
Excerpted from:Cognition and Expression Part One
