Map 1 - Using the Heart Sutra as the Outline

Map 1 describes how to bring oneself to the first taste of awakening within the 3 maps system developed by Daniel P. Brown based on Tibetan Buddhist practices. The first map is described from minute 34 in Sacred Sundays with Dr. Daniel Brown, Ph.D.

Step 1 - GATE - Gone - Awareness gone beyond thought

Method: Shamatha

Using shamatha meditation (one-pointed or three-pointed focus), we start operating out of awareness rather than thought. When one gets skilled enough, thoughts calm and can completely stop. The sense of self, which is itself a thought, can also quiet so you experience stretches of time without selfing.

Step 2 - GATE - Gone way beyond - Awareness itself gone beyond self representation

Method: Emptiness-of-Self Practice

In step 1 we are operating out of awareness, but there is still something directing the meditation. Now we shift the basis from thought to awareness and recognize awareness is doing the meditation.

Step 3 - PARAGATE - Gone way beyond Gone way beyond the convention of time to ocean-like changeless boundless awareness as your basis of operation

Method: Emptiness of Time Practice

You question and deconstruct the felt sense of time, moment by moment:

• When something arises: take the perspective “It is not truly arising — it is already here.”
• When something passes away: take the perspective “It is not truly going — it remains here.”

This collapses the cognitive act of temporalizing experience. Aspects of awareness such as timelessness, changelessness, and ever-presentness get revealed, entering the boundless field where awakened awareness can be recognized.

Step 4 - PARASAMGATE - Gone way way beyond Gone way way beyond the localization of individual consciousness in your information processing system

Method: Direct Introduction / Pointing Out

Always right here is a brilliant field of limitless awakened awareness love that is your true nature.

Emptiness is the path—clearing away clouds that block the sun of your Buddha nature. When you can enter the state incorporating steps 1–3, awakened awareness is right there, but you may still need someone to help you recognize it. This is where the teacher points it out.

There are two ways to recognize it:

1. Instead of operating out of an individualized, localized consciousness, operate from unbounded wholeness—no reference points, no location, no time.
2. Notice qualities distinct from regular awareness:
   • brightness
   • awareness
   • intensity
   • softness
   • sacredness
   • sparkling immediacy

BODHI SVAHA - Oooh what a realization

The effect of realizing your own Buddha nature includes:

• surprise
• wonder
• shock
• recognition
• gratitude
• devotion
• heart opening