You have a center of knowingness in the middle of your chest, a hidden capacity to become familiar with a truth that our ordinary senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, touching, tasting (and the conceptual mind that names them as this or that) cannot perceive. In the system of the Ancients, this is designated by words such as Kuntuzangpo, which literally means all-good, ever-excellent, total-goodness, or always-positive.
This underlying outlook, that the human body seriously contains divinity, sets the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism apart as perhaps the most optimistic of all Buddhist traditions.
In early Buddhism, something known as “luminous mind” appears in the Anguttara Sutra. But, it was the Mahayanists who expanded that to the ideal of a metaphorical seed of awakening within each sentient being, called Tathagatagarbha; a hidden embryonic potential for Buddhahood, present in all sentient beings. You can nurture this capacity through purification practices and the accumulation of merit and wisdom over many lifetimes. It is compared to honey protected by bees, kernels enclosed by their husks, a gold nugget in excrement, a hidden treasure beneath the house, and the like.
Each of the Tibetan schools has positivistic tantric practice paths designed to accelerate this process by relying on sadhana practice that builds self-conception as a translucent Buddha made of light, paired with the mantra of the deity to turbocharge awakening. Yogins in long term retreat also harness the body’s circulating energy and the energy channels to foment realization.
But, as far as I know, none are as optimistic about your potential for swift enlightenment via anatomy of awakening as the Ancients. This is talked about as though you are deity/Buddha… but this fact is hidden by a temporary veil, like a flimsy film that could slip off at any moment. The ‘All good’ inherent Buddha within, whether male, female, or both is depicted as naked—naturally how you are in your birthday suit.
Stay tuned tomorrow for how this manifests in your encounters with awakened teachers from the Nyingma tradition.
