notes on trekchod

From the Teaching Notes on Tregchod given by HE Garchen Rinpoche at Vancouver, March 2007:

So how is it that we can avoid falling under the power of conditions, it is through stabilizing mindful awareness. When we go outside and we engage our daily activities, if we do so with mindfulness then we will become like Milarepa, who sang “Whenever I go from one place to another, I am bring all appearances onto the path.” So for example if we are sitting down and suddenly we have the wish to get up and go do something, we should just for a moment look at the mind that wants to get up and do. When we do this, the wish to get up and go dissipates and then within a state free of needing to get up, we can get up and engage our activities. When we want to eat something, we should first just recognize that desire to eat, and then the desire itself is liberated. And within a state of desirelessness eat the food. When we suddenly give rise to anger at something someone has said to us, we can look at that mind of anger and it will dissipate and then we can respond in a state free of anger. In this way by cultivating mindful awareness we can engage all of our activities in a state free of negative emotions. We can enjoy all of the five objects of senses pleasure in a state free of fixation. This is what it means to mix awareness with conduct.
At the time when we are engaging activities, we should do so in the context of the Tregchod practice or the practice of destroying delusion. So what is this Dzogchen view of Tregchod, it is when the mind is abiding in a state free of fixation on negative emotions as being real. So for example when you are extremely hungry and then you see food, you immediately want to eat it so that you mouth starts watering, and if in that moment you look at the desire to eat, the desire itself dissipates. In this way you directly cut through the fixation. That is what we call Tregchod or the direct cutting through. We also use this term “Trushak” in Tibetan, which means destroying delusion. And so for example if you taste something and it tastes so delicious to you, in that moment you should think, its not that this food is ultimately delicious because for someone else it doesn’t taste the same way. I see it as delicious because I have been habituated in that way from an early age, if it was ultimately delicious, everyone would think it was delicious. So in this way my notion that this food is so delicious, it is delusion. So when I recognize my habituated perception as delusion, then I can let go of it and I can eat whatever is healthy, whatever supports the health of the body without creating a lot of distinction between delicious and not delicious. In this way, I destroy my delusive fixation. Then I can enjoy whatever food I eat, as I would enjoy partaking of the five nectars.
These teachings on Tregchod and destroying delusions can be understood in another way, whenever we give rise to attachment and aversion and we have fixation on them, that fixation obscures the mind. If we recognize the fixation, through the power of our meditation or our awareness, the fixation itself dissipates and then it does not obscure the mind. If we have pure water for example and we pour milk into it, the water becomes clouded, it is obscured and in a similar way, fixation on negative emotions obscures the mind. If we give rise to great anger and then we recognize the anger, it is purified through the recognition. So we should understand that the fixation is what obscures the mind and when we are free of fixation, negative emotions are spontaneously purified. The awareness that we cultivate is like a flame that burns away the fuel of all arising afflictions. In this way although anger may arise, it does no harm at all. When the anger is recognized with awareness, it is rendered impotent, there is no sensation, there is no feeling associated with the anger, this is what is meant by destroying delusion. If on the other hand we fixate on the anger and we remain in a state of fixation that is the very essence of delusion. Now it is through engaging the practice of the natural state that you will experience, you will understand experientially what I am talking about. When you are in a state free of fixation, there is nothing at that can arise that obscures the mind, this is what is meant by destroying delusion.