The Important Dzogchen Distinction Between Awareness of Mind and Awareness of Being

The Important Dzogchen Distinction Between Awareness of Mind and Awareness of Being. The Drama of Sems and Semde!

Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D. Diplomate In Clinical Psychology, A.B.P.P.

The Washington Center For Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Existential Consultation

Preface

This is the  Most Basic and Most Necessary Distinction Within Dzogchen!

Our Awareness of Mind knows Phenomena and Our Awareness of Awareness as Being knows Being.

We will now focus on the essential Dzogchen distinction between our psychological awareness as our mind knowing our lived experience of our phenomenological world and our Ontological Awareness as our Being directly non conceptually knowing Being. In Dzogchen this direct non conceptual knowingness of Being is Gnosis or Jnana.

This was and is the most basic theme of Jigme Lingpa in his elaboration of Dzogchen understanding in his text The Yeshe Lama. The difference between the direct knowing of mind knowing phenomena and the direct ontological knowing of primordial awareness knowing Being.

Of course this most important difference between the psychological knowing of mind knowing phenomena and our ontological knowing of our Awareness knowing Being was expressed by Longchenpa in his ontological psychological distinctions and descriptions in the 14th century.

This is also the very same essential distinction of the two ways of knowing in various forms of contemporary existential phenomenological philosophy and psychology. This same distinction is made in many forms of contemporary existential psychoanalysis such as Michale Eigen and Donald Winnicott. The difference between mind and transitional space of  transitional awareness within human awareness  is totally  central to existential psychoanalysis and is this same distinction between knowing of mind and the knowing of ontological awareness as expressed in Dzogchen and Kashmir Shaivism.

Longchenpa of the 14 century made this distinction between the two ways of knowing as and he also emphasized the Energetic or the Prajna dimension of primordiality of central importance. Awareness is He considered to embody the experience of the Energetic Luminous Vibrational dimension of Awareness as central to the experience of self-liberation. This same distinction of the profound importance of the energetic luminous vibrational dimension of awareness as central to the unfolding process of self-liberation is in the Shaivite tradition.

The Two Ways of Knowing: The Phenomenological Knowing of Phenomena and The Ontological Knowing of Being

This understanding of the two ways of knowing is Essential to actually experientially know phenomena in and of itself   and to experience the living Being and  Beingfullness of Phenomena.  The psychological knowing of the actuality of the phenomenological and the actuality of ontological knowing of Being and  Beingfullness   leads us to the corresponding integration of these   two forms of knowing within our own lived experience as  the path of self-liberation. The integration of our mind knowing phenomena within our awareness Field of Being  knowing Being and with our mind integrated within the field of primordial awareness allows us to know the Being of phenomena and the phenomena of Being.

The Endless Absence of Being and Beingfullness

It is this very essential distinction of Being and Beinglessness that is so often absent in the many forms of Buddhist thought and Buddhist Understanding. The difference between the psychological experience of our mind knowing phenomena  and the ontological experience  of our awareness  knowing Being allows for the profound integration of our phenomenological experience into the ontological awareness field of Being and  Beingfullness.

This is the natural easy path of Dzogchen as self-liberation through the experience of our luminous Beingfullness Nature just as we are . This liberation is the self liberation of Equality Consciousness.

We will explore the foundational Dzogchen Praxis of the integrating the Union of our psychological phenomenological mind within our phenomenological ontological Beingfull Awareness. This union brings forth our  experiencing of phenomena and the Being and Beingfullness of the phenomena simultaneously. This is the naturalistic doorway to our natural ontological self-liberation just as we are! In our own lifetime! This is not the endless drama of earning merit. This is not the endless drama of Obedience to Religious Patriarchal authority. This is not the endless drama of self-imposed deprivation and isolation.

This is not the economic view of earning merit, this is not the deprivation  view of detachment, this is not the void  view of  dissociation and this is not the view of humiliation  as our necessary subjugation to the many forms of Patriarchal Authority. This is not self-liberation through Obedience and Subjugation. This is not the drama of the reward of heaven for the good dog and the damnation of hell fire for ever and ever for the bad dog.

Subjugation: Self Liberation Through Subjugation!

This is not self-liberation through Subjugation. This is not liberation through Institutionalization and Ritualization. This is not the view of self- liberation through self-negation and self-hatred and self-humiliation. This is not the view of liberation through solipsistic schizoid Beingless isolation. This is not the view of liberation through the Master Slave Relationship with the Gods as our masters and we as the slave of the Gods or God.

The Patriarchal GOD or the Gods seem to continuously require subjugation as the Doorway to self-liberation. Dzogchen is  not the obsessive compulsive ritualistic endless repetition of prayers begging for  help from would be archetypal energies or entities.

As Dudjom Rinpoche would so often say “Take The Power into Your own hands. Stop begging for help.” Take the power of creative awareness into your own hands and your own voice.

Neither is this drama of Self Liberation the accomplishment of the would be manifestation of Human Grandiosity becoming Omnipotence or Omniscience. Many spiritual traditions place liberation as happening after eons and eons of practice and thus obtaining the natural reward of Omnipotent Omniscient Beingfullness after centuries of spiritual practices and subjugation. This is an unhappy delusion and illusion.

As the Dali Lama who is a practitioner of Dzogchen says I am the Dali Lama  and I do not know everything and I can not do everything. I am not omniscient or omnipotent.  I do like that people love me.

Grandiosity For Some is Illusionary Self Liberation

Realization is often wrapped within Grandiosity and within  the Absolutely Knowing of Everything and having the Absolute Omnipotent Grandiose Power of doing everything and willing everything.

In Dzogchen self-liberation is not the attainment of Grandiosity of Omnipotence and Omniscience. Self-liberation is not  the drama of Absolute knowledge and Absolute Mastery. Absolute knowledge is our human Grandiose illusion and Grandiose delusion of Power. Such self omnipotence and omniscience is a distorted form of Royalty. Of course Spirituality in Religious Context is always Infused and fused with Royalty and within Royalty. This fusion with would be Royalty of course distorts the nature of Equal Vision and Equality Consciousness.

Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Master and The Endless Master Slave Experience

This drama of Absolute Knowledge reminds us of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit wherein the person who has Absolute Knowledge becomes the Absolute Master over those who do not have absolute knowingness. The Master Slave Relationship dwells in most religious and spiritual traditions including Buddhism.  The Master Slave relationship dwells in most forms of monasticism and in most forms of concretistic fundamentalistic religious understanding and concreteness of ideational belief.

As the Dali Lama says  “I am the Dali Lama and I do not know everything and I cannot do everything, but I do love that people love me.”. The Dali Lama also expresses how the enduring realm of Tibetan Buddhist Patriarchalism will destroy Tibetan Buddhism. He made these statements when he was giving the Kalachakra teaching in Washington DC a number of years ago.

The History of Dzogchen is the natural liberation of the   Unfolding Of Our Experience of Primordial Awareness Knowing Being Within The Context of Our Human Mind Knowing Phenomena!

Embodied Awareness and Becoming Aware of Awareness!

As David Higgins describes so artfully in his wonderful dissertation, between the 8th and 14th centuries there were illuminating phenomenological distinctions that were essential to  the  understanding of the Dzogchen Practice of Becoming Embodied Awareness through the Experiential Praxis of  becoming aware of awareness.

In becoming aware of our own primordial awareness we become experientially aware of our own Being and Beingfullness.This experiential praxis was known as The Great Perfection or The Great Completeness. David Higgens   notes that these phenomenological distinctions were primarily made by the Nyingma Masters of Meditation.

In Becoming aware of our primordial awareness, we experience our own embodied  ontological Beingfull Awareness. We become our living Field of Being and Being fullness as Luminous Ontological Awareness and we Ontologically Experience  our own Being full knowing of Being. Awareness is our Being knowing Being.

Our primordial awareness is not our mind knowing Being. Our mind knows phenomena. Our Being Experientially knows Being. Our primordial  awareness is our Being knowing Being. Our primordial awareness knows the Being of beings. Our primordial awareness is our Being’s knowingness of Being. Primordial Awareness is an ontological knowingness knowing Being. Human beings are Ontic Ontological beings.

Heidegger And Our Direct Knowing of Being

Heidegger would call this awareness DA Sein. Human Dasein knows Being. Human Dasein is self-liberated through the direct experiential knowing of Being and the Being fullness of beings. This experiential knowledge of Being is both profoundly personal and profoundly relational and profoundly infinite in its horizons vast and profoundly multidimensional.

Sems and Semde: The Most Basic and Most Important Distinction Made Within Dzogchen!

The most basic philosophical distinction is the distinction between our Mind of Dualistic phenomenological experience (Sems) and our Primordial Ontological Awareness of our Naturalistic Non-Dualistic Experience of Primordial Knowingness (Ye she) or (Semde). This Primordial Knowingness (Ye she or Semde) is non dualistic non conceptual direct experiential ontological knowingness of Being as Being. This direct perception or direct non conceptual experiential ontological knowingness is also known as Gnosis or Jnana in the Eastern Philosophy of Dzogchen Dr. Higgins has some excellent papers on the essential distinction between mind and awareness. Mind knowing Phenomena and Awareness Knowing Being and Beingfullness.

Our Mind Knows Phenomena. Our Awareness Knows Being.

There is the Luminous Union of our Direct Non-Conceptual Knowing of Being and our Direct Conceptual Knowing of Phenomena.

There are Two Ways of Knowing. There is the psychological knowing of our mind knowing phenomena and this psychological knowing of mind in Tibetan language is Sems. And there is the experiential ontological knowing of our primordial awareness which is our direct ontological knowing of Being. This direct non conceptual experiential ontological awareness of Being is Semde in Tibetan language. Self-Liberation Is Natural Unfolding of Being and Being fullness.

There is the Self - liberating Existential Drama of the  Union of our psychological mind knowing phenomena within Our field of primordial ontological awareness which is our direct ontological knowingness or our direct experiential  perception  non conceptually knowing Being and the Being fullness of beings.

In the Dzogchen traditions this direct non conceptual knowing of Being is called Gnosis or Jnana. When there is this Union between our psychological mind knowing phenomena and our ontological awareness knowing Being, we can then experience Phenomena and the Being of the Phenomena simultaneously.  This union of knowing phenomena and the Being of the Phenomena is the self-liberating experience that unfolds into and within our natural Beingfull self-liberation.

Visionary Experience As An Opening of the Door of Luminosity

Self-liberation is this Direct and Immediate. Self-Liberation is an unfolding  function of experiential metabolization. Self-liberation is not a once and for all moment. Self-liberation is repetitive movement into Being through  phenomena. Neither is self-liberation simply a function of a “visionary” experience and the “visionary” moment. Visions are the opening of perceptual experience to the Luminous Being full dimensionality of this multidimensional universe. Self-Liberation is an embodiment of the Being and Beingfullness that we are, infinite in its horizons and vast and multidimensional.

This union of our psychological knowingness of mind within our ontological awareness of Being has the dramatic experiential result that we can experience both the Duality of Phenomena within the Nonduality of the Being of the Phenomena Simultaneously.

We can experience the Oneness of Being  and the Separateness or Differences of Being  within Phenomena Simultaneously.  We can experience oneness and difference simultaneously. We can experience the Oneness of Being within the different beings of Being. We can experience the Duality of beings within the Non Duality of Being and Non Duality Being within the Duality of beings. This is the experience of self-liberation.

Moreover, this direct knowing is infinite in its horizons and infinitely vast and multidimensional.  This is Self-liberation just as we are. We can experience the Duality of Living Phenomena within Luminous Non-Duality of Being. We can experience the Non-Duality of Being within the duality of living phenomenological beings. This experience is the unfolding of Self-Liberation just as we are.

Rudolph Bauer,Ph.D. Diplomate In Clinical Psychology. A.B.P.P.

The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Phenomenological and Existential Consultation.

To contact Rudolph Bauer,Ph.D  rbauer@rsbauer.net  2436 4th Street, apt 5 ,Santa Monica,Ca.90405  phone 202 256 0307 . The weekly Seminar on The Contribution of Phenomenology and Dzogchen to Psychotherapy and Healing  are available through Zoom and also our many Dzogchen Meditation and Phenomenological Seminar videos on our website. Washington Center For Consciousness Studies.www.meditatelive.com. You can, if you wish, also participate in the Live OnLine Seminars. Contact Inquiry at rbauer@rsbauer.net.

www.meditatelive.com

References:

Bauer,R. The Absence of Self: An Existential Phenomenological View of the Anatman Experience, The Journal of Philosophical Investigations, Vol,13. Issue 28, Fall 2019.

Bauer,R, The Experience of Presence in Dzogchen: A Phenomenology. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field . Vol 9,2019.

Bauer,R. The Experience of Presence in Dzogchen: A Phenomenology,Transmission:The Journal of The Awareness Field.Vol.9.2019

Bauer, R. Timeless Awareness In Time: A Phenomenological View of Self Liberation. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol.9.2024

Bauer, R. The Metabolization of Our Experience of Phenomena. A Phenomenological Dzogchen View.Transmission: The Journal of Awareness. Vol 9.2024

Bauer,R. A  Gestalt Approach to Internal Objects. Psychotherapy, Research and Practice. Vol,13, Fall 1976

Bauer, R. The Use of Transitional Space in Psychotherapy With the Existential Concerns of Borderline Experience. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vo.8.2022

Bauer, R. Intimacy: A Phenomenological Ontological Study.  Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol 9.2024.

Bauer,R.The Nature of Awareness As Tantra.A Phenomenology, Transmission:The Journal of The Awareness Field. Vol,8,2022

Bauer,R. The Natural Hiddenness of The Luminous Experience of Being Within Human Beings. Journal of the Awareness Field .Vol.7.2021.

Bauer,R. The Absence of Self:A Hermeneutical Understanding of The Anatman Experience. Transmission: The Journal of the Awareness Field.Vol.8.2022.

Bauer,R, The Timeless Interface of Dzogchen and Contemporary Existential Phenomenology, Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field, Vol.20, 2021

Bauer,R, Transitional Space: A Opening of The Experiential Realm Beyond The Mind. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field, April 2017,

Bauer,R, The Nature of Awareness As Tantra: A PhenomenologyTransmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.Vol 2020

Bauer,R. Mind as The Knower of Forms and Awareness as The Knower of Being. A Phenomenological View. Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field.Vol 7.2016

Bauer,R, The Direct Experience of Our Ontological Sense of Being as Self.The Journal of The Awareness Field, Vol,8,2017.

Bauer,R. The Phenomenological Epoche and the Phenomenological Reduction in Dzogchen and Contemporary Continental Phenomenology, Transmission: The Journal of The Awareness Field, Vol 21,2021

Bollas,Christopher, Being a Character, 1992, HILL and Wang 1992.New York.

Boss,Menard, Editor of  Martin Heidegger Zollikon Seminars, North Western University Press,Evanston , ill. 2001.

Capobianco, Richard,(2014) Heidegger's Way of Being, University of Toronto Press,

Guenther, Herbert, The Teachings of Padmasambhava,EJ Brill,1996.

Higgins, David. An Introduction to the Tibetan Dzogchen (Great Perfection) Philosophy of Mind, Religion Compass. Vol 6/10.2012/ Wiley-Blackwell.

Higgins, David. How is Consciousness Related to Wisdom? Studia Religiologica. 48.2015. Pp.341-362.

Higgins, David. On the Dzogchen Distinction between Mind(sems)_ and primordial Knowing(Yeshe) Clarification and Transcendental Arguments. Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, vol 2,2016 pp 23 -54.

Higgins, David, On The Dzogchen Distinctions Between Mind ) Sems and Primordial Knowing(Ye She) Clarifications and Transcendental Arguments. Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, vol2 2016,pp.23-54

Lingpa,Dudjom, The Vadjra Essence, Wisdom Publications, Translated by Allan Wallace,2015.

Koppel,H, Translator 2008 Establishing Appearance as Divine by Ronzompa Snow lion Press .

Longehen Rabjam. The Precious Treasury of Genuine Meaning/Berotsana Publications. Ashland Oregon, 2025. Translated by Lama Chonam and Sangye Kandro

Muller Ortega,Paul, The Triadic Heart of Shiva, State University Press of New York.1989

Meyerowitz, Rael. Morning and Metabolization.  Tavistock Clinical Series. Routledge.2023.

Muktananda, The Play of Consciousness. Siddha Yoga Foundation,2010.

Namkai Norbu, The Song of The Vajra, Staton Hill Press.1992

Erving Pollster. Gestalt Therapy Integrated.

Thomas Sheenan, Heideggerian Methodological  Expert ,Stanford University, author of many papers and text On Heidegger

Winnicott, D.W.  Playing and Reality. Tavistock Publications.1971.

Valby, Jim. Translator. Ornament of the State of Samantabhadra. Valby Publications.2013.

Fonagy,Peter . Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the Development of Self, Other Press 2002