LION'S GAZE

Type: Practice

Definition:

A profound Pith Instruction from POGW tradition for "Crossing Over" from ordinary, localized consciousness to direct recognition of Awakened Mind. A specific meditative view that orients awareness toward the Unbounded Wholeness itself rather than particular content within awareness.

Method:

Prerequisites:

• Essential: Stable Natural State must be established first (vast, non-dual, boundless, timeless awareness with automatic emptiness, simplicity, freshness, and lucidity)

• Attempting prematurely leads to conceptual confusion or misapplication

Core Instruction (Six Steps):

1. Establish the Natural State: Begin by resting deeply in the stable Natural State—this is the unwavering foundation

2. Extend Awareness to Full Expanse: Allow awareness to be experienced in its full, infinite vastness—360 degrees in all directions, without center or periphery

3. Orient Toward Unbounded Wholeness: Shift the "focus" away from any particular content (thoughts, sensations, objects) within the field of awareness. Instead, orient awareness toward the totality of the Unbounded Wholeness of awareness itself. You are looking at the vastness, not from a point into the vastness at objects

4. Hold View Uninterruptedly & Effortlessly: Maintain this panoramic orientation without strain, without specific focus, without conceptualizing. Simply abide in this all-encompassing view

5. Relate to Particularizing: The mind's habit of "particularizing" (attention moving toward specific objects) will still occur. From Lion's Gaze, these instances are not distractions to be eliminated but seen as the activity of the Unbounded Wholeness itself. This reframing is key—particularizing no longer obscures Wholeness when seen as part of it

6. Allow Awareness to Awaken Itself: By holding this view with ease and stability, Awareness itself begins to "open to itself, awaken to itself." The process is self-occurring once correct conditions are set. There is no "doer" making awakening happen

Guiding Metaphors:

• The Lion and the Stick: Dog chases the stick (phenomena). Lion looks at the thrower (Source/Unbounded Wholeness). Lion's Gaze looks at the Source

• Child Viewing Temple: Taking in the entire temple atmosphere all at once, without focusing on anything in particular—the quality of all-encompassing, non-particularizing view

• Looking at the Mirror: Instead of being captivated by reflections (phenomena), look at the vast, clear nature of the mirror itself—the capacity of Awareness to reflect

Context:

Advanced Map 1 practice—the key "Crossing Over" instruction that facilitates the shift to awakened awareness. Part of the "Pārasaṃgaté" (Gone Completely Beyond) stage of the Heart Sutra. Must be preceded by stable Natural State, which itself requires completion of concentration training (Shamatha), emptiness realizations, and non-dual recognition. This initial "taste of awakening" becomes the foundation for Map 2 (stabilizing awakened awareness 24/7) and Map 3 (Path of Liberation to full Buddhahood).

Purpose/Goal:

• Cut through final subtle obscurations of ordinary information processing system

• Dissolve tendency to "particularize" and habit of localized consciousness

• Allow Awakened Awareness to recognize itself

• Shift basis of operation from limited, individual standpoint to Unbounded Wholeness

• Facilitate direct, stable recognition of Awakened Mind as fundamental nature

Key Characteristics:

Recognition Pathways (one or both occur):

1. Non-Localization: Sense of being localized, individual consciousness dissolves. No longer operating from specific "point" within awareness field—you are the Unbounded Wholeness. "A place that is no place, has no location, no reference point"

2. Lucidity: Awakened Awareness recognized by distinctly different qualitative nature:Nara: Intensity, vibrant presence
   Rigé: Sheer, self-evident awakeness
   Dampa: Intrinsic sacredness, profundity
   Bölé: Innate softness, gentleness, ease
   Trölé: Sparkling immediacy, ever-freshness
   

Fruition Markers:

• Experience of infinitely vast, timeless, boundless, non-dual, brilliantly lucid, inherently loving field

• Spontaneous overflows of compassion, gratitude, devotion ("moved heart")

• Sense of "coming home" to true nature

• Recognition of "the sun that never stops shining"

Related Terms:

Natural State (Naluk), Awakened Awareness, Crossing Over, Pārasaṃgaté, Unbounded Wholeness, Particularizing, Non-Localization, Three Maps, Automatic Emptiness, Dzogchen, Pointing-Out Instructions

Dan Brown's Teaching:

"When you hold this awareness oriented towards the unbound wholeness... This awareness will keep opening itself to itself. Awakening itself to itself."

"When you throw a stick to a dog, the dog chases the stick. When you throw a stick to a lion, the lion looks at the source from where the stick comes. Orient towards the Source, the Unbounded Wholeness."

"Hold this view uninterruptedly... particularizing will still happen, but each and every instant of particularizing is seen as the activity of the unbounded wholeness itself... in such a way that it no longer precludes the direct recognition of this unbounded wholeness..."

"Recognize the true face of this awakened awareness now, always right here. Always right here. The sun that never stops shining."

"Like a child viewing a temple. Taking in everything all at once without taking in anything in particular. Totally self-contented."