Rlung, Rtsa and the Tibetan Body: A Complete Guide·Part E of 7
The Mind
Three terms that all translate as "mind" or "consciousness", and are not the same thing.
17. Sems, rnam shes, rig pa
Three terms that all translate as “mind” or “consciousness”, and are not the same thing.
sems (sem) — mind
The ordinary mind: the one that thinks, wants, remembers, is troubled. The word also has the meaning “intention, disposition”.
In the texts there also appears sems nyid — “the nature of mind itself”, which is different from its contents.
rnam shes (nam-she) — consciousness
Technical Buddhist term: differentiated awareness, in six or eight kinds (five sense-consciousnesses, mental consciousness, and in some systems two more).
It is always consciousness of something. There is no rnam shes without an object.
rig pa (rigpa) — awareness
The most difficult. Technical term of Dzogchen: a non-conceptual, non-dual awareness that is not consciousness of an object and is not constructed by practice.
The classical distinction: sems is the waves; rig pa is the water. And the mistake described continuously in the texts is to take a calm state of mind for rig pa — that is, to confuse serenity with the nature.
The practical consequence
The system explicitly says that you can have the deepest serenity and nothing has changed. Calm is a state, and every state passes.
That is why the tradition systematically distinguishes between:
- zhi gnas (shi-nay) — calm abiding, stabilisation of attention
- lhag mthong (lhak-tong) — penetrating vision, seeing what is
The first without the second is considered, explicitly, inadequate — and even dangerous, because it produces satisfaction without change.
18. Five poisons, five wisdoms
dug lnga (duk-nga) — the five poisons. The fundamental distortions.
And here lies the most characteristic move of the entire tantric approach.
| Poison | Tibetan | Transforms into |
|---|---|---|
| Ignorance, confusion | gti mug | Wisdom of reality as it is |
| Attachment, desire | ‘dod chags | Wisdom of discernment — seeing what distinguishes each thing |
| Anger, aversion | zhe sdang | Mirror-like wisdom — reflects without distortion |
| Pride | nga rgyal | Wisdom of equality |
| Envy, competition | phrag dog | Wisdom of accomplishment |
The move: transformation, not elimination
The non-tantric approach treats the poisons as things to be removed: you give up anger, you combat desire.
The tantric says something different and bolder:
The energy of the poison is exactly the energy of the wisdom. Direction changes, not quantity.
Anger has clarity, immediacy, precision — this is why the angry person sees sharply what is wrong. The problem is not the sharpness; it is that it serves the defence of the self.
Desire has attention to detail, interest, attractive force. The problem is not the interest; it is the graspingness.
Why this is serious — and why it is dangerous
The serious: it explains why suppression fails. A system that tries to remove intensity removes vitality at the same time, and the result is a person calmer and less alive.
The dangerous: this exact rhetoric — “I don’t suppress, I transform” — is the easiest excuse for unrestrained behaviour. And it has been used exactly that way (chapter 27).
The tradition knows this, and that is why it places this material after years of preliminary work — not out of elitism, but because the distinction between transformation and self-justification is not easy and does not happen by itself.
19. Lojong
blo sbyong (lojong) — “mind training”. A body of short sayings, used as tools of daily work.
The lineage starts with Atisha (11th c.) and is codified by Chekawa (12th c.) in the Seven Points of Mind Training — about sixty sayings.
Their character
They are short, memorable and operational. They do not explain; they direct. Indicatively, in their spirit:
- Whatever you encounter, use as material of practice
- Do not expect gratitude
- Do not make the misery of others the measure of your own success
- Do not study the faults of others
- Work first with your greatest fault
- Do not wait for the right moment
Tonglen — the central technique
gtong len (tonglen) — “giving and taking”.
Connected to the breath, and it reverses the intuitive direction:
- On the in-breath, you take in the pain — your own or someone else’s — imagined as dark, heavy, hot
- On the out-breath, you give relief, coolness, spaciousness
Every instinct says the opposite: keep the bad out, keep the good in.
Why it works, independent of metaphysics: the basic pattern of avoidance is tightening and refusing contact. Tonglen systematically trains the capacity to approach the unpleasant without closing — and does so with the breathing cycle as structure, which keeps it somatic rather than intellectual.
And the warning, which must go here
Some of these sayings — especially the ones that say “put the blame on one thing”, i.e. on your own self-grasping — have been used to silence people who were being abused.
The instruction “do not blame others” is a tool of inner work. It is not a rule for how you react when someone harms you.
Chapter 26, principle 10, makes this an explicit limit.