Atiyoga
Craig, et al.. (1998: p. 476) convey a 'stream of consciousness' or 'mindstream' as a procession of mote events of consciousness (C) with algebraic notation C1, C2 and C3 thus to demonstrate the immediacy of nondual awareness through a Reductio ad absurdum argument:
That nondual awareness is the only possible self-awareness is defended by a reductio argument. If a further awareness C2, having C1 as content, is required for self-awareness, then since there would be no awareness of C2 without awareness C3, ad infinitum, there could be no self-awareness, that is, unless the self is to be understood as limited to past awareness only. For self-awareness to be an immediate awareness, self-awareness has to be nondual.
In the above quotation in the Tibetan nomenclature of the 'mind' or 'continuum' (Wylie: rgyud), 'nondual awareness' is 'Rigpa' (Wylie: rig pa) and 'self-awareness' (Wylie: rang rig) is 'Rangrig'. Rigpa is a contraction of "rang rig pa" which includes both rig pa and rang rig (Wylie, rang rig). Rigpa is key in the discourse of Atiyoga.
In general Himalayan spiritual discourse, Atiyoga is held to be the peak of the Dharma of the Nine Vehicles for both the Nyingmapa and Bonpo and is comparable to the complete realization of Mahāmudrā for the Sarma traditions. Though this hierarchical view is the general paradigm, Atiyoga is also the unity, fulfillment and primordial base of all the other vehicles. It is commonly held that Atiyoga speaks its own language and this is impenetrable for those who have not had empowerments, transmissions (Tibetan: lung) and direct experience, establishing the clear view of the nature of the mindstream. This is known as the "pointing out instruction" according to Namkha'i. In the other vehicles there is the doctrine of inter- and intra-permeable mindstreams, that support the entwining nirmānakāya or tulku lineages of the re-embodiment and "treasure" (Wylie: gTer) traditions. Padma Translation Committee's rendering of an embedded quotation of one of the famed "Twelve Vajra Laughs" (drawn from the Pile of Jewels Tantra; Wylie: Rin-po-che spungs-pa' rgyud which is numbered as one of the seventeen tantras) cited in the Nelug Dzö one of Longchenpa's "Seven Treasures" (Wylie: mDzod bdun) is clearly an example of the technical twilight language of Atiyoga and the pedigree of the skillful doctrine of the mindstream:
Listen further, O Vajra of Speech! Behold the nature of phenomena, empty and all-pervasive timeless awareness. How marvelous — it is unborn and abides timelessly, coemergent with being itself. Even if a person were to seize a sharp weapon and slay all beings at once, that person's mindstream would still be free of benefit or harm. Ha! Ha!
In a Peircean or de Sassurian semiotic analysis of the semantic signifier "mindstream", the signifier mindstream denotes an ineffable signified of an open and pervasive mystery: To limit the limitless by stating that it may not subject itself to boundaries or limit itself by grace is bunk. Sky is a limitless limit. Atiyoga is a verb. Atiyoga: "ati" or "adi" a Sanskrit term that holds the semantic field "beginning", "wellspring", "origination"; and "yoga" a Sanskrit term that may be rendered most appropriately into English in its full semantic analogue, "communion". Therefore, the verb or process of Atiyoga is "to commune" with the primordiality of the unknowable and pregnant "void" or "zero" (Sanskrit: śūnya). The perfect infinitive tense "to commune" was employed to convey an embedded philosophical view of the viewless Great Perfection. Void, is Emptiness, is Sky, is Space, is Zero: a garland of analogues. In the Dharmic traditions, Dharma has a 5000 year tradition of being conveyed and rarefied by realization forded through analysis and grammar of alphanumeric systems and semiology both esoteric and exoteric. Case in point in Atiyoga, the final or thirteenth bhumi of the "absolute bodhichitta", being the varnamala, the "garland of bīja. "Atiyoga" begins and ends with ཨ "Ah". For the Nyingma who self-identify as the ngagpas, siddhas and sādhakas of "secret mantra", "Ah" is the bīja mantra of the nature of the mindstream of Samantabhadra. Unlike the Dzogchen tradition of the Nyingma, the Bonpo Dzogchenpa have a sophisticated technical and iconographic language and semiology for limiting that which cannot be limited.
Read more about this topic: Mindstream