Entering The Mind 3-Part Podcast

Riot Material Presents

Entering The Mind 3-Part Podcast

Entering The Mind 3-Part Podcast is an intimate discussion on “mind in its natural state” — what the Tibetans refer to as rigpa — and how we as meditators can recognize this already awakened mind within ourselves, then fully realize it through day-to-day practice. But the conversation is so much more than that, for it is an intimate discussion between two intimates — husband and wife duo C von Hassett and Rachel Reid Wilkie, both of whom are practitioner’s of a timeless wisdom practice known as Dzogchen, which points the meditation practitioner directly into the fertile interiors of their own mind — not the conceptual mind, which we are all too familiar with. The mind referred to here is the naturally occurring one, the innate mind, or what is known in Dzogchen as “mind in its natural state.” It has been called the awakened mind, or the fully realized one, and not only is this mind within each of us, it is also ever-so close – as close to us as our finger is to touching space. How far must we move our finger to touch space? Our own natural state is this close, and we must only turn inward to first see it, then familiarize ourselves with it, before intimately coming to know it.

The rich discussion in the series below speaks to the key concepts in C von Hassett’s new book, Entering the Mind, excerpts from which can be read here. We hope you enjoy the 3-Part Podcast, and we likewise hope you enjoy the book.

[RACHEL REID WILKIE NARRATES ETM THE AUDIOBOOK]

Entering The Mind, Part 1

Topics of Discussion: What is Dzogchen / The unique ways the Dzogchen teachings have been transmitted over time / What is emptiness, and how are emptiness and awareness one / Intellectual understanding vs experiential / How do we observe ‘the natural state’ / The third chapter in Entering the Mind, titled “The View” (the full chapter can be read here), compares the view of the Grand Canyon to the view of one’s own natural state. How are they similar / The release of fear, anxiety, depression, anger, addiction, all from the recognition of our own naturally occurring mind / How love, joy, and compassion arise naturally in our experience once we become familiar with mind in its natural state.

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Entering The Mind, Part 2

Topics of Discussion: Entering the Mind, the book, begins with the fable of a pilgrim who sets out to meet a renowned sage who will reveal the wisdom mind through a series of questions known as “the pointing out instructions.” These instructions “point out,” or pierce through conceptual mind to reveal the ‘mind beneath the mind’ – the non-conceptual mind which gives rise to the conceptual mind, as well as our conceptual selves / The importance of letting go of our labels, our stories, our fixed identities / What is “The Fourth Time” / Joseph Campbell speaks to the mythical journey, or “The Hero’s Journey,” and how spending time in our own natural state is wholly reflective of that epic journey / The relationship between the Artist and the inward practice of entering the mind to observe it in its natural state / How the paths of the artist and the meditator converge / Meditation as a creative process; Art being a spiritual practice.

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Entering The Mind, Part 3

Topics of Discussion: Piercing the veil of our I-Entity and coming to know the “natural state” / The I-less Awareness / The splitting point between duality and the non-dual, natural state / The human body being an incredible 99.99% space; the substance of our body amounting to no more than a literal speck of dust / Proportionally, the space in our body is equal to that of the universe above / David Lynch and his musings on world peace resulting from the very act of meditating.

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C von Hassett and Rachel Reid Wilkie are, as they say, co-conspirators in all things – with heavy emphasis on spirit – which together they’ve been exploring since the day they met. Throughout the years they have collaborated on numerous projects in the Arts, both in Los Angeles and New York City. Their time in the East Village culminated in a monumental exhibition, Documents of Love, at the famed Hosfelt Gallery in Chelsea, where the couple exhibited a diverse body of work – poetry, paintings, photography, a short film – to the attendance of thousands. Upon returning to Los Angeles, C von & Rachel founded Riot Material magazine, a now thriving and widely read literary-cultural magazine with its eye on Art, Word, and forward-aiming Thought.

Rachel and C are the rare married couple who not only work and create together, but practice together day after day, side by side, often knee to knee, in the singular pursuit of knowing the deeper self beyond the conceptual self – that timeless, eternal Being which births forth the temporal one. To that end, the Pandemic Years saw the couple in contemplative retreat at their high-desert ranch in the Northern Mojave, a sacred landscape which sits just below the 12,000-foot peaks of the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. Here, beyond their full immersion into meditative practice, C von wrote Entering the Mind, while Rachel delivered to the world her inaugural spoken-song album, titled XI.

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