Rigpa...

"The one who experiences perceptions does not exist; before, during, or after the experiences of seeing and so forth."
-Nagarjuna

This then applies to the subject that observes thoughts as well. The thought as an object arises along with the subject that views a separate object; the thought. An observer of a thought, or an emotion, or a sensation, arises as a mental event also, as the perceiver or observer. This is like the self identity in a dream at night that "observes" the dream environment. Both the dreamed self and the dreamed scenery are equally empty projections of the subconscious.

In rigpa this dualistic relationship is absent. There is no perceiver of thoughts. And thoughts or any separate objects don't appear because there is no observer of them. Since there is no separation, and therefore no distance between a subject and an object, there is nothing apart to be observed. How can the water in the ocean observe the same water in a wave? There's no separation.

Another term for rigpa is "ting'e dzin" or samadhi; non-dual contemplation. In such non-dual clarity nothing can be said to have "happened". This is prajna or the natural emptiness insight regarding all subjects and objects. Appearances appear but not as objects appearing to a subject. Instead they appear as self-appearing wisdom or rangjyung yeshe itself, and that is a necessary quality of rigpa.


- Jackson Peterson