psychotropic poem

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Life is a Magical Psychotropic Poem

VitorPomar_Catalogo_miolo_EN.indd 1 10/08/18 15:21

ILHA DO TESOURO

Um quase manifesto à luz da Perfeição Natural

Texto traduzido e adaptado de:

Old Man Basking in the Sun,Longchen Rabjampa (AD 1308-1363)

Treasury of Natural Perfection,Keith Dowman, tradução e comentário

www.keithdowman.net / www.vajrabooks.com.np

Vítor Pomar, edição e montagem, 2018


To the memory of my Father,

Júlio Artur, 10 January 1924 — 22 May 2018

A Note on the Pertinency and Urgency of this Presentation In which universal wisdom stands for that dimension from which art draws inspiration and nourishment.

The time, it appears, has come to endorse a view that will hopefully provide “a functional approach to

the medical ills of age, a redemptive approach to sexuality and a positive, joyful vision of death and dying.”

As if that did not already meet the deepest longing that common mortals may freely acknowledge, the author

reminds us that it is a mere corollary of what he calls “[the recognition of] the unity of all things in a nondual

universe of full awareness, harmony and compassion”. This allows us to define the very meaning of life as “‘Liberation’, synonymous with happiness”. More than a method to achieve such fulfilment, the author invites us to exercise “the mind’s spontaneous function of disengagement from sensory and mental objects

of attachment and simultaneous self-identity with the light of which they are made”, aware that “state of

spontaneity […] belies causality”. Thus is summarised the initiatory experience that is “present in this very

moment and nothing can be done to facilitate its event”.

Vítor Pomar, Assentiz, 17 June 2018


Tangentially, the message of Dzogchen provides a functional approach to the medical ills of age, a redemptive approach to sexuality and a positive, joyful vision of death and dying. These popular effects of Dzogchen, however, should not obscure its fundamental purpose – to recognize the unity of all things in a nondual universe of full awareness, harmony and compassion.p xiii


... the vision of Dzogchen is innate in any soteriological culture, or indeed in any human society. If a perfect nondual state of being is indeed the inescapable intrinsic state of all our being, as Longchenpa, the author of The Treasury of Natural Perfection, intimates, then we should expect to see traces of the idea around the world in poetry and historical religious literature, which surely is the case.p xv


‘Liberation’, synonymous with happiness, whatever the method, is thus the purpose of life. Dzogchen assumes a stance not only outside and beyond the innumerable schools of Buddhism and Hinduism that provide methods of attaining that release, but by default beyond all religious systems whatsoever, including the Judeo-Christian and Muslim, and all secular systems of belief including nihilist, atheist, hedonist and humanist.p xvii


The innate awareness of this pristine non-dual brilliance is called rigpa, which herein is translated as “gnosis”. p xviii


Dzogchen ‘nonmeditation’ is a spontaneous non contingent continuity – a timeless synchronicitous awareness. p xvii


...first is the mind’s spontaneous function of disengagement from sensory and mental objects of attachment and simultaneous self-identity with the light of which they are made. This is called Breaking Through, or Cutting Through (trekcho), into the original purity – or alpha-purity – where natural perfection lies. In the spacious luminosity of alpha-purity there may still be a gap between the mind of the hyper-yogin with its all-suffusing light and this last vestige of self-consciousness, and this is eliminated by the natural flow of non-meditation upon the brilliance of the light through its apparent nuclear components known as ‘holistic nuclei’ which may be compared to the pixels of light in a hologram. This phase of hyper-yoga is called Jumping Through (togel) and implies entry into the state of spontaneity that belies causality.p xix


Dzogchen provides a deconstructive view that allows automatic access to the spaciousness of the intrinsic complete and perfect reality that is the nature of mind. This lurch from a reliance upon the rational mind to an existential understanding of reality occurs in the light of deep initiatory experience, which is known technically as an introduction to the nature of mind. (...) The intellect is redundant in the momentary insight into every experience of the flow of experience as compassionate emptiness and light.p xx


Initiatory experience is present in this very moment and nothing can be done to facilitate its event.p xx

Recognition of our lived experience, just as it is, in its miraculous immediacy and beauty, without any yen for change, is the practice of radical Dzogchen, and belief in personal development and improvement, progress towards a social ideal, moral evolution of the species, and so on, is deviation from the pure pleasure of the unthought timeless moment.p xxi


The here-and-now is the receptacle of the nondual reality that is the matrix of mind where gnosis inevitably fires in the very moment of every experience. If this matrix of intrinsic gnosis sounds like God to some people, then they are definitely on the right track. If we look closely, it appears that this ‘God’ has no kind of existence or definable attributes whatsoever and can only be spoken of — if at all — in terms of gnosis, luminosity, emptiness and nonduality. ‘Buddha’ is primordial cognitive awakening that happens only in a moment of experience of here-and-now and, therefore, can never be distanced and objectified. It is an egregious mistake to understand ‘buddha’ or ‘the nature of mind’ as something infinitely subtle yet indicative of a state that may be attested or attained.p xxii


Far from being an objective philosophical description of the world at large, or a soteriological blueprint, this exposition is a magical psychotropic poem.p xxii


In the mind of natural perfection, certainly, moral discrimination and moral causality do not exist, yet what remains in nondual ‘bodhichitta’, both the ground and the emanation of pure mind, which can only ever be pure vision and perfect conduct. What begins as pure mind exists and ends as pure mind. Here, bodhicitta, which in Dzogchen means the pure Gnostic mind of nondual perception, reaffirms its Mahayana definition of compassion. Here and now compassion is all. (...) In Dzogchen, ‘taking the position of consequence’ (....) there is no fall from grace, and there never has been a fall, and in the realization of that reality where the golden age lies just beneath an insubstantial, fragile surface of dualistic belief, any moral dualism becomes a problem rather than the solution.p xxv


So stay here, you lucky people,Let go and be happy in the natural state.Let your complicated life and everyday confusion aloneAnd out of quietude, doing nothing, watch the nature of mind.This piece of advice is from the bottom of my heart:Fully engage in contemplation and understanding is born; Cherish non-attachment and delusion dissolves;And forming no agenda at all reality dawns.Whatever occurs, whatever it may be, that itself is the key,And without stopping it or nourishing it, in an even flow,Freely resting, surrendering to ultimate contemplation,In naked pristine purity we reach consummation. p xxv


a functional approach to the medical ills of age, a redemptive approach to sexuality and a positive, joyful vision of death and dying.p xiii

to recognize the unity of all things in a nondual universe of full awareness, harmony and compassion.

‘Liberation’, synonymous with happiness, whatever the method, is thus the purpose of life.

the mind’s spontaneous function of disengagement from sensory and mental objects of attachment and simultaneous self-identity with the light of which they are made.

the state of spontaneity that belies causality.p xix

Initiatory experience is present in this very moment and nothing can be done to facilitate its event. p xxi


IMPOSSÍVEL PORTÃO / GATELESS GATE2011165 cm x 370 cm

Em cada instante, a plenitude. Each instant is plenitude.


CÉU ENCARNADO / RED SKY 2008320 cm x 235 cm

Como um fogo que arde sem consumir, assim a nossa mente. A fire that burns but does not consume – such is our mind.


TÚLIPA / TULIP2008235 cm x 160 cm

As flores simbolizam a grande aventura da consciência, capaz de reconhecer a sua própria natureza, entregar-se a horizontes desmedidos que o ego ignora e desconhece.Toda a flor pode ser sentida como um convite a essa viagem que sempre nos espera para vir ao nosso verdadeiro, último e primordial encontro. Flowers symbolise the great adventure of consciousness, able to recognise their true nature and bask in the distant horizons that the ego ignores and is unaware of.Every flower may be felt to be an invitation to the journey which always awaits us for our true, ultimate and primordial encounter.


LUMINOSA MENTE DESNUDA / LUMINOUS NAKED MIND2009214 cm x 246 cm

Ao descobrirmos que a realidade pode ser absolutamente representada por “um eterno e extático abraço”, então podemos dar início a uma visão que implica uma “boa vida” globalmente generalizada. Assim, a liberdade torna-se um bem comum que a todos enriquece.Esta é a liberdade que não depende de causas e condições mas que torna possível o vago sentimento de liberdade que todos já alguma vez experimentámos e que sempre reivindicamos.When we discover that reality can be symbolised absolutely as “an eternal, ecstatic embrace”, then we can begin to see things from the perspective of a “good life” for everyone in every sense. Thus freedom becomes a common value that enriches us all. This is a freedom that does not depend on causes and conditions, but one which gives us that vague feeling of liberty we have all had at one time or another and for which we always yearn.


MATRIZ / MATRIX2009215 cm x 125 cm

O exercício da criatividade tal como o podemos conhecer, aparece como uma pedra de toque desse eterno e extático abraço. Não será esse o fascínio que as artes espelham? Não será essa a vertigem que nos chama e ilumina? Não será esse o ponto de partida que, coincidindo com o ponto de chegada, torna o objectivo finalsempre presente e acessível? Creative practice, as we know it, is a touchstone of this eternal, ecstatic embrace. Could this be the fascination reflected by the arts? Could this be the light-headedness that calls out and enlightens us? Could this be the point of departure that coincides with the point of arrival, turning our final goal into something ever present and accessible?


“To see the world as if looking at myself in a mirror”

Adapted from the interview conducted by Anabela Mota Ribeiro for:BES PHOTO 2004 — Centro Cultural de Belém


All the mystics, of all mystic schools, say: “I am Thou”. Duality does not exist. I am the non-dual consciousness of the Universe. If I look into the world, I see myself. There is a definition of human being that I constructed over the years: “Man is a stinky bag of skin”; to which I recently added: “With an overgrown central nervous system, a step away from recognizing itself as a (non-dual) conscience of the Universe”. From this definition you can infer a whole way of living: that which I do to others, I do to myself. Fundamentally, that is the great freedom of the self: the disembowelled self.

Exposed and freed from the self. Not by cutting off arms and legs, but through the recognition that it is an illusion, something non-existent. The self is a dictator, always saying: “I like this, I don’t like that.” If we manage to turn conscience in on itself and confront our ghosts, we realize that they puff up in smoke, that they do not exist on their own.

The definition of conscience commonly given is “clear light of bliss”. We free ourselves from something, which does not exist, from an illusion. It is a weight taken off our back, a joy we learn to love. You need to be careful with these things . You need to make them come from the inside of yourself, not forcing them upon you so that they come as liberation, not as amputation. The moment you identify yourself with your body you are in trouble! It hinders you from coping with the fundamental problems of suffering: you never reach satisfaction. And then you grow old and death becomes the main anxiety: will I cease to be?

In the West we have lost the connection between the physical and the spiritual because, at some point, we have denied introspection as a valid method of investigation. We became imprisoned by reality. Language and reason are very coarse levels of the mind. The subtler mind is non-verbal. The work of art originates on a non-verbal, non-dual level.

Lets consider the gap between thoughts. We identify with the body, but also with thoughts, sensations and emotions. The key is to recognize that it is not simply white noise but shapes that profound nature assumes. Mental activity is very hard to dismantle, which is why people practice meditation.


By recognizing the nature of the mind, we can put the nature of phenomena in perspective.

Zen is a direct perception of reality.

[In order to avoid] the interference of words and concepts, you need to create space, a mental attitude that allows for that surprise and, obviously, for that perplexity. This type of perception is present in the work of Pessoa [who, in spite of overflowing with words, with anguish] they are just annotations. They represent the way he tried to solve existential problems. They are the reason why many literary people dislike him, because they consider that what wrote is not something to be presented and therefore not an oeuvre. He posed himself questions. Why is it that the best poets and painters of Japan are Zen masters? They are not focused on producing a piece of work, they are centered on experiencing. All of a sudden, a frog jumps, and the mental state in which you are in allows that enthrallment, which is so rare in our lives.The mental state is of an introspective sort, one in which the mind, without closing itself to the exterior, is focused on itself. What is the importance of the space between thoughts? First, there is the initiation that allows the disciple to access that gap. Then, the breach widens and you realize that the thoughts are like bubbles that emerge to the surface of the water and self-resolve. Conscience is equivalent to a luminous space, with no boundaries and no centre.

[What causes suffering is] an incorrect posture towards existence.

All problems are false. All pain is just information that reaches the brain. Think of something else and it doesn’t hurt.

[Lightness] has to do with non-effort. Those things have to come to us, they cannot be grasped. You need to be receptive to them instead of wanting to possess them.

Time is a parameter of duality.


I feel like I am a marathon man, a specialist in long distance run. I think a lot about that image of a string of pearls: each moment has its own shimmer, its charm, but if there is no conducting string, you cannot shape them into a necklace. We cannot remain enchanted by each moment without a broader view of existence. It’s about that, the concept of vacuity that is not void but plenitude.

I’m interested in referring the concepts that I recognize as useful.

[In order to get out of linear time] you need to understand that there is dual system imposed on us. For example, it was very hard for me to integrate all of the obligations implied by the use of a car. The sheer number of identities, like onion layers, that we carry with us is amazing! We are users, we cross the street and we are pedestrians, we are men or we are women, we are this or that age... all of that is rubbish, white noise.

Essential is knowing oneself.

In the West that statement is Socratic, and it is accepted. We keep to it, not really knowing what to do nor where it leads. We are, in fact, “a stinking bag of skin”! If we rub it too much we start to bleed. If we don’t rub enough, we start growing mould and begin to smell. The safety margin is quite narrow.

I left Portugal when I was 21and my turn came to go to war; then I left to the Netherlands. It took me another 21 years to arrive at Bodhgaya, the place where Buddha reached enlightenment, in India. Now I say to myself: what if I had gone to Bodhgaya when I was 21? I would have become fascinated by all that splendor, but I would not possess the relationship I have with western culture, with art and the creative process that I have today. Apparently, I am sitting on these two chairs, and I recognize that the creative process has a quality certified by the teachings to which I had access.

What inspires me today is, for example, to relate the practice of photography with the Japanese haiku.


It’s not about depuration, it’s about spontaneity. In the West we have the tendency to depurate, to polish things. The discovery of simplicity is very delicate and rare, and it develops with age. Instead of clouding the mind, one evolves in the other direction. After this, there is not much else you can aspire to.

[Simplicity] is an indicator. Like that technique with the toothpick to see if a cake is done. We need indirect indicators. It is impossible to observe it directly.

[The exhibition follows three main vectors] that are spontaneity, intuition and simplicity — they can be put on an altar. Slowly, since these are not things that you can fabricate. Our look scrutinizes minutely, it inquires. We do not know what a receptive gaze is. Looking is something that comes from the outside in.

Yes, life as a practice. The professionalism of producing a piece of work has its own value. However, I don’t really have the wish of becoming a professional. I want to hold on to a freshness that does not include that. To each person its own. What is central to me is the way of being (even when I’m awkward at it!). This is what motivates and orientates me, much more than the production of work. The work is the corollary.

[Art] is the vision that integrates the lot.Nothing is left outside, not in the sense of confinement but in a holistic sense.

Western words are very limited. It would be better if we did not hold on to words, if we tried to understand their meaning. Once you practice this, the oeuvre occurs naturally, there are annotations.

There is the level that I refer to as the inner-outer level to look outside with an interior gaze, to look inside as a manifestation or ornament of the nature of the mind. [...]

In Zen, the aim is each step you take, each moment. The moment is pure plenitude; all the rest is confabulation, a loss of directions. There is not a path but a succession of moments. It is like the projection of a movie: we cannot see the separate images; we have the illusion of movement. The perception of existence is somewhat similar to this.


I inhabit a frame of references much larger than art. The art world is very limited.

[Art] serves the purpose of reflecting this practice. What differentiates the artist from the mystic? The fact that the mystic doesn’t need to produce objects.

The battlefield is existence itself. It is about assuming a correct posture instead of trapping yourself in mental hell , which is the worst kind of hell. Essentially, we are the great enjoyment, the “clear light of bliss”. [...] It is something that is part of you, and you do not lose. The key is recognition. Either you’re there or you’re lost.

[“No hope, no fear”] is a definition of illumination. To look at things and seeing them as they are. It’s pure faith. No doubts, no fears, no hope. It is plenitude.


VITOR POMAR nasceu em Lisboa, em 1949. Vive e trabalha em Assentiz, Rio Maior.

Exposições individuais, selecção:

“VER o que salta aos olhos / SEEING what hits you in the eye” pintura, vídeo e fotografa, com Júlio Pomar, Galeria 111, Lisboa 2016;

“Uma Pátria Assim.../Such a Homeland...”, Museu da Eletricidade, Lisboa 2012;

“Nada Para Fazer Nem Sítio Aonde Ir / Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go”, Vídeo e fotografa, CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, 2011;

“O Meu Campo de Batalha / My Own Battlefield”, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto 2003;

Prémio de Pintura EDP.Arte, 2002

Filmografa, selecção:

“Zen Sermon“ I, 1984, Super 8, cor, som, 25’ 22’’ | Super 8 mm, colour, sound, 25’ 22”, com / with Annelies van Dooren.

“As Doze Risadas Vajra / Twelve Vajra Laughs”, 2004-08, MiniDV, cor, som, 106’ 11’’

“O Lago da Consciência e a Montanha dos Meios Hábeis / The Lake of Wisdom and the Mountain of Skilful Means” 2008 MiniDV, cor, som, 56’ 43’’

“Uma Pátria Assim, Depoimento / Such a Homeland, Statement”, 2009-2012, Mini DV, cor, som, 58’ 54’


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