Dissolution/Illumination: images of rDzogs-Rim
I'm wrapping up a three-month-long project exploring a series of visual analogs/interpretations of the "completion stage"/rDzogs-Rim in Vajrayana practice. The images that follow point to the luminositythat is inherent in the process of dissolving a visualization and reposing in mind-as-such/mind-in-itself/sems-nyid. The completion stage follows the generation or creation stage/sKye-Rim, in which an image of a buddha, bodhisattva, yidam, or other figure is held in mind. The visualizations may be quite complex or quite simple. They may be generated in steps (first a lotus seat, then a seed syllable atop the seat, and so on) or they simply appear to the mind to be meditated on, in the nature of light and therefore, translucent. I've had it explained to me that this is the "shamatha" or single-pointed or calm abiding aspect of Vajrayana practice and indeed, there's much to be said of it and for it, but the completion stage is not often remarked on in...