tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86906352024-03-07T19:38:08.126+00:00Luminous Emptiness - a Mahamudra Blog<br>
It is not existent - even the Victorious Ones do not see it.<br>
It is not nonexistent - it is the basis of all samsara and nirvana.<br>
This is not a contradiction, but the middle path of unity.<br>
May the ultimate nature of phenomena,
limitless mind beyond extremes, be realised.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.comBlogger210125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-58831494939513214792012-04-19T01:15:00.000+00:002012-04-19T01:23:41.515+00:00Rumi - The Real Threat ... Nothingness<blockquote>
If it escapes, the lover’s breath, and strikes the universe of fire,<br />
That universe without origin, it will dissolve into particles. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The entire universe becomes sea, out of fear that the sea will turn to nothing.
<br />
Neither man nor humanity remain when man is struck. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
A pillar of smoke rising to the sky, neither people nor angel remain,
<br />
And from that smoke suddenly he strikes the great roof with fire. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The moment when the sky is rent: neither being nor place remains,
<br />
A movement in the universe strikes mourning with celebration. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Sometimes it is fire that takes the water, sometimes the water that devours fire,<br />
From the sea of nothingness the waves strike the black or the white. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
The sun becomes infinitely small in the light of mankind’s breath.
<br />
Expect nothing from the uninitiated, where the initiate is so humble. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Mars has lost virility, Jupiter’s book is on fire,
<br />
No more majesty for the Moon, and its joy beats a melancholy rhythm. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Mercury falls in the mud, Saturn is wrapped in flames,
<br />
Venus has lost its bile and beats a joyful rhythm. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
There is no rainbow, no sky, there is no wine, no cup,
<br />
No pleasure or joy, and the balm is struck by no wound. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Water will make no patterns, the wind no longer sweep,
<br />
The garden will not shout: joy to you; cloud of April: not a drop. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
There is no pain, no cure, no enemy, no witness,
<br />
No flute, no rhythm, no lyre beating the sharps and flats. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
All causes are annihilated, the wine steward serves himself,
<br />
The breath says, "Oh my great God!" and the heart says, "Oh God who knows!"
</blockquote>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotItivlcriKmJ-ET4Qu9YaSS6EyZLeCH5iHR15Xd3oaux42QO7H_2FxuAl4-mdm383mXx6Otl0bOzoGWcjWdemIihr0mbG38T1hOw6dSUy_wUqzSB0P3bYycv9fgDSNWMF_Nk/s1600/rumi.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Rumi" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotItivlcriKmJ-ET4Qu9YaSS6EyZLeCH5iHR15Xd3oaux42QO7H_2FxuAl4-mdm383mXx6Otl0bOzoGWcjWdemIihr0mbG38T1hOw6dSUy_wUqzSB0P3bYycv9fgDSNWMF_Nk/s320/rumi.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
Rumi<br />
<br />
(translation from Rumi: The Fire of Love, by Nahal Tajadod)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Shunyata.<br />
<br />
Emptiness.<br />
<br />
Just so.<br />
<br />
...Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-37087645603161863972011-01-30T10:07:00.005+00:002011-01-30T10:51:32.784+00:00One By One as They Occurred - Anupada Sutta MN#111<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHLqPStWoS2lkOGfyq0qySRdKfLJn7CSpN6hAJpWN0wmeNJB8P8XE7VW4KsMOQPBtwtK7WcMFVSTvA3SJQDOIp3Q3tfG7To7XB9gKPr3LgtQUNQlm7Y0faiI4vzkcX9ouYBcS/s1600/sariputta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img alt="sariputta" border="0" height="294" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHLqPStWoS2lkOGfyq0qySRdKfLJn7CSpN6hAJpWN0wmeNJB8P8XE7VW4KsMOQPBtwtK7WcMFVSTvA3SJQDOIp3Q3tfG7To7XB9gKPr3LgtQUNQlm7Y0faiI4vzkcX9ouYBcS/s320/sariputta.jpg" /></a></div><blockquote>(Taken from the "Mahjjhima Nikaya: The Middle Length Sayings" by Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Nanamoli, this Sutta covers what was taught by the Buddha concerning the identification of what the student experiences while meditating in each of the Four Jhanas and the four Arupa Jhanas. It is to be read in its entirety out-loud.)<br />
<br />
1] Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika’s Park. There he addressed the bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus." - "Venerable, sir," they replied. The Blessed One said this:<br />
<br />
2] "Bhikkhus, Sariputta is wise; Sariputta has great wisdom; Sariputta has wide wisdom; Sariputta has joyous wisdom; Sariputta has quick wisdom; Sariputta has keen wisdom; Sariputta has penetrative wisdom. During half a month, bhikkhus, Sariputta gained insight into states one by one as they occurred. Now Sariputta’ insights into states one by one as they occurred were this:<br />
<br />
3] "Here, bhikkhus, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, Sariputta entered upon and abided in the first Jhana, which is accompanied by thinking and examining thought, with joy and happiness born of seclusion.<br />
<br />
4] "And those states in the first Jhana - the thinking, the examining, the joy, the happiness, and the unification of mind; The contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been, they vanish.’ Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this,’ and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
5] "Again, bhikkhus, with the stilling of thinking and examining thought, Sariputta entered and abided in the second Jhana, which has self-confidence and stillness of mind without thinking and examining thought, with joy and happiness born of unification.<br />
<br />
6] "And the states in the second Jhana - the self-confidence, the joy, the happiness, and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: "So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been they vanish." Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood; ‘There is an escape beyond this’, and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
7] "Again, bhikkhus, with the fading away as well of joy, Sariputta abided in equanimity, and mindful, and fully aware, still feeling happiness with his body, he entered upon and abided in the third Jhana, on account of which noble ones announce: ‘He has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful’.<br />
<br />
8] "And the states in the third Jhana - the equanimity, the happiness, the mindfulness, the full awareness, and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been they vanish’. Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this’, and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
9] "Again, bhikkhus, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, Sariputta entered upon and abided in the fourth Jhana, which has neither-pleasure-nor-pain and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.<br />
<br />
10] "And the states in the fourth Jhana - the equanimity, the neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, the mental unconcern due to tranquility, the purity of mindfulness, and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ’So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been, they vanish.’ Regarding those states he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood, ‘There is an escape beyond this’, and with the cultivation of that attainment he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
11] "Again, bhikkhus, with the complete surmounting of perceptions of form, with the disappearance of perceptions of sensory impact, with non-attention to perceptions of diversity, aware that ‘Space is Infinite,’ Sariputta entered upon and abided in the base of Infinite Space.<br />
<br />
12] "And the states in the base of Infinite Space - the perception of the base of Infinite Space and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him they arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been, they vanish’. Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this,’ and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
13] "Again, bhikkhus, by completely surmounting the base of Infinite Space, aware that ‘Consciousness is Infinite’, Sariputta entered upon and abided in the base of ‘Infinite Consciousness’.<br />
<br />
14] "And the states in the base of ‘Infinite Consciousness’ - the perception of the base of ‘Infinite Consciousness’ and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness; the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; known to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ‘ So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being: having been they vanish.’ Regarding those states he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this’, and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
15] "Again, bhikkhus, by completely surmounting the base of Infinite Consciousness, aware that there is ‘Nothing’, Sariputta entered upon and abided in the base of ‘Nothingness’.<br />
<br />
16] "And the states in the base of ‘Nothingness’ - the perception of the base of ‘Nothingness’ and the unification of mind; the contact, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness, the enthusiasm, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, and attention - these states were defined by him one by one as they occurred; know to him those states arose, known they were present, known they disappeared. He understood thus: ‘So indeed, these states not having been, come into to being; having been, they vanish.’ Regarding these states he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this’, and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
17] "Again, bhikkhus, by completely surmounting the base of ‘Nothingness’ Sariputta entered upon and abided in the base of neither perception nor non-perception.<br />
<br />
18] "He emerged mindful from that attainment. Having done so, he contemplated the states that had passed, ceased and changed, thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been they vanished. Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is an escape beyond this,’ and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is.<br />
<br />
19] "Again, bhikkhus, by completely surmounting the base of neither perception nor non-perception, Sariputta entered upon and abided in the cessation of perception and feeling. And his taints were destroyed by his seeing with wisdom.<br />
<br />
20] "He emerged mindful from that attainment. Having done so, he recalled the sates that had passed, ceased, and changed, thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having been, they vanish.’ Regarding those states, he abided un-attracted, un-repelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind rid of barriers. He understood: ‘There is no escape beyond this,’ and with the cultivation of that attainment, he confirmed that there is not’.<br />
<br />
21] "Bhikkhus, rightly speaking, were it to be said of anyone: ‘He has attained mastery and perfection in noble virtue, attained mastery and perfection in noble collectedness, attained mastery and perfection in noble wisdom, attained mastery and perfection in noble deliverance,’ it is of Sariputta indeed that rightly speaking this should be said.<br />
<br />
22] "Bhikkhus, rightly speaking, were it to be said of anyone: ‘He is the son of the Blessed One, born of his breast, born of his mouth, born of the Dhamma, created by the Dhamma, an heir in the Dhamma, not an heir in material things,’ it is of Sariputta indeed that rightly speaking this should be said.<br />
<br />
23] "Bhikkhus, the matchless Wheel of Dhamma set rolling by the Tathagata is kept rolling rightly by Sariputta."<br />
<br />
That is what the Blessed One said. The Bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.</blockquote><br />
Sutta translation (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha<br />
<br />
Revised April 23 - 2003Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-91377436613903085412011-01-20T07:05:00.003+00:002011-01-20T07:24:32.092+00:00Awakening Faith in Mind - Seng-ts'an<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OBjG7QyXY1gJgIxYFmr00m-qvfaP7dihuV2oGbLkwT3d4MMfjeZeH9DWvtuzp7DB6TgmXzzqq7ipmHOvjsnXi1DdnpPfH2oUphRcQ9OHyfkTJoE5JBjhWhWSaUwLEE_FlFVe/s1600/SengTsan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="282" width="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OBjG7QyXY1gJgIxYFmr00m-qvfaP7dihuV2oGbLkwT3d4MMfjeZeH9DWvtuzp7DB6TgmXzzqq7ipmHOvjsnXi1DdnpPfH2oUphRcQ9OHyfkTJoE5JBjhWhWSaUwLEE_FlFVe/s320/SengTsan.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote>The great way isn't difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.<br />
<br />
Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.<br />
<br />
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.<br />
<br />
If you want to realize the truth, don't be for or against.<br />
<br />
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.<br />
<br />
Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.<br />
<br />
As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.<br />
<br />
But because you select and reject, you can't perceive its true nature.<br />
<br />
Don't get entangled in the world; don't lose yourself in emptiness.<br />
<br />
Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.<br />
<br />
If you don't live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial.<br />
<br />
Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality;<br />
<br />
denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.<br />
<br />
The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.<br />
<br />
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.<br />
<br />
Returning to the root, you find the meaning;<br />
<br />
chasing appearances, you lose there source.<br />
<br />
At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.<br />
<br />
Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.<br />
<br />
For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.<br />
<br />
With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely.<br />
<br />
All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.<br />
<br />
All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.<br />
<br />
In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self.<br />
<br />
If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two."<br />
<br />
In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded.<br />
<br />
The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth.<br />
<br />
In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years.<br />
<br />
There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes.<br />
<br />
The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;<br />
<br />
the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits.<br />
<br />
Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being.<br />
<br />
Until you understand this truth, you won't see anything clearly.<br />
<br />
One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?<br />
<br />
The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving,<br />
<br />
is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.</blockquote>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-29339569916984162312011-01-16T10:44:00.005+00:002011-01-20T07:19:16.794+00:00This World of Dew - Issa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4S5KgoolYba70m7N1hOgMSWyUtzBt2l43aNDieWK0ZkKPhej4Kk5UsYq0tVhd6whxszM35RAKMGmP9EN2df7BLY6HzCGOVubxtBdncwACOvIqTPQJHEicoPqE_upibwQlG3R/s1600/IssaKobayash.jpg" alt="Kobayashi Issa" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4S5KgoolYba70m7N1hOgMSWyUtzBt2l43aNDieWK0ZkKPhej4Kk5UsYq0tVhd6whxszM35RAKMGmP9EN2df7BLY6HzCGOVubxtBdncwACOvIqTPQJHEicoPqE_upibwQlG3R/s320/IssaKobayash.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote>露の世は露の世ながらさりながら<br />
Tsuyu no yo wa tsuyu no yo nagara sari nagara<br />
<br />
The world of dew --<br />
A world of dew it is indeed,<br />
And yet, and yet . . .</blockquote><br />
IssaChodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-31262746878346316102010-10-21T13:15:00.000+00:002010-10-21T13:15:04.465+00:00As many buddhas as there may be in any world<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRIA55rrIKzflyUNYAM9QWL80ED-6NSraYKHKM8em4zYp9y7uqVqB1CpLdRWaHHRDrcNl4SUHWDAdYdxIYTg7lR_E4RIUpm89yoEqVu1Pub6O4buEgZO5CEG7aUiImEX5nWbr/s1600/samantabhadra3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Samantabhadra" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRIA55rrIKzflyUNYAM9QWL80ED-6NSraYKHKM8em4zYp9y7uqVqB1CpLdRWaHHRDrcNl4SUHWDAdYdxIYTg7lR_E4RIUpm89yoEqVu1Pub6O4buEgZO5CEG7aUiImEX5nWbr/s320/samantabhadra3.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>Then the great enlightening being Universally Good, thus explaining<br />
courses of eons, as many eons as atoms in the untold buddha-lands in the succession<br />
of worlds, went on to make a vow:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>As many buddhas as there may be in any world<br />
Throughout the ten directions, throughout past, present, and future,<br />
I honor them all, without exception,<br />
Pure in body, speech, and mind.<br />
With as many bodies as atoms in all lands<br />
I bow to all buddhas,<br />
With a mind directed to all buddhas,<br />
By the power of the vow of the practice of good.<br />
In a single atom, Buddhas as many as atoms<br />
Sit in the midst of enlightening beings;<br />
So it is of all things in the cosmos—<br />
I realize all are filled with buddhas.<br />
I laud all the buddhas therein,<br />
Expounding in all languages<br />
The qualities of all buddhas,<br />
With endless oceans of manifestations.<br />
With the finest flowers, garlands,<br />
Musical instruments, perfumes and parasols,<br />
The finest lamps and incenses,<br />
I make offerings to those buddhas.<br />
With the finest clothes, fragrances,<br />
And mountainous baskets of aromatic powders,<br />
With the finest of all kinds of adornments<br />
I make offerings to those buddhas.<br />
Whatever be the best of offerings,<br />
I produce them for all buddhas;<br />
By the power of devotion to the practice of good,<br />
I honor and serve all buddhas.<br />
Whatever evil I may commit<br />
Under the sway of passion, hatred, or folly,<br />
Bodily, verbally, or mentally,<br />
I confess it all.<br />
And whatever the virtue of beings everywhere,<br />
Hearers, saints, self-conquerors,<br />
Enlightening beings and buddhas,<br />
In all that I do rejoice.<br />
And all the Lamps of the Worlds in the ten directions<br />
Who have realized enlightenment and attain nonobstruction<br />
I seek as guides, that they may turn<br />
The supreme wheel of teaching.<br />
And those who wish to manifest extinction<br />
I petition respectfully to remain<br />
For eons as many as atoms in the land<br />
For the welfare and happiness of all beings.<br />
By honor, service, and direction,<br />
By appreciating, seeking, and requesting teachings,<br />
Whatever good I have accumulated,<br />
I dedicate it all to enlightenment.<br />
May the buddhas of the past be honored,<br />
As well as those now in the worlds of the ten directions,<br />
And may those of the future be at ease,<br />
Filled with joy, having realized enlightenment.<br />
May all the lands of the ten directions<br />
Be purified, supreme, and filled<br />
With buddhas and enlightening beings<br />
At the tree of enlightenment.<br />
May all beings in the ten directions<br />
By happy and well;<br />
May all beings' righteous aim be successful,<br />
May their hope be realized.<br />
As I am carrying out enlightenment practice,<br />
May I recall my lives in all states;<br />
In every lifetime, as I die and am reborn,<br />
May I always transcend the mundane.<br />
Learning from all buddhas,<br />
Fulfilling the practice of good,<br />
I will practice pure conduct,<br />
Always free from defect.<br />
I will expound the Teaching<br />
In the languages of gods and dragons,<br />
In the languages of demons and humans,<br />
And of all living beings.<br />
May those engaged in the ways of transcendence<br />
Not stray from enlightenment;<br />
And may all evils to be inhibited<br />
Be thoroughly extinguished.<br />
I will traverse the paths of the world<br />
Free from compulsion, affliction, and delusion,<br />
Like a lotus unstained by water,<br />
Like the sun and moon unattached in the sky.<br />
Extinguishing all the miseries of bad states<br />
And bringing all beings to happiness,<br />
I will act for the welfare of all beings<br />
In all lands everywhere.<br />
According with the conduct of sentient beings<br />
While fulfilling the practice of enlightenment,<br />
And cultivating the practice of good,<br />
Thus will I act throughout future eons.<br />
May I always be in communion<br />
With those who share my practice;<br />
Physically, verbally, and mentally,<br />
I will carry out vows as one practice.<br />
And may I always be with my benefactors,<br />
Who teach me the practice of good;<br />
May I never displease them.<br />
May I always see the buddhas face to face,<br />
Surrounded by enlightening beings;<br />
I will make fine offerings to them<br />
Forever, unwearied.<br />
Preserving the true teaching of buddhas,<br />
Illumining the practice of enlightenment,<br />
And purifying the practice of good,<br />
I will practice for all future eons.<br />
Migrating through all states of being,<br />
Having acquired inexhaustible virtue and knowledge,<br />
May I become an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom and means,<br />
Concentration, liberation, and all virtues.<br />
As I carry on the practice of enlightenment,<br />
May I see the inconceivable buddhas sitting among enlightening beings<br />
In the lands as numerous as atoms<br />
That are in each atom.<br />
Thus may I perceive the oceans<br />
Of buddhas and lands of all times<br />
In each point in the ten directions<br />
As I practice for myriad eons.<br />
May I ever penetrate the eloquence of buddhas,<br />
The voices of all buddhas which adapt to mentalities,<br />
The purity of articulation of all buddhas,<br />
By the sounds of the ocean of tones in a single utterance.<br />
Into those infinite voices<br />
Of all buddhas of all times<br />
May I enter by buddha-power,<br />
Turning the wheel of teaching.<br />
May I enter all eons<br />
Of the future instantly,<br />
And may I act in all eons<br />
Of all times within an instant.<br />
May I see all buddhas of all times<br />
In one instant<br />
And always enter their sphere<br />
By the magical power of liberation.<br />
May I produce the arrays of all lands<br />
Of all times in an atom,<br />
May I thus perceive all the arrays<br />
Of buddha-lands in all the ten directions.<br />
Learning the teachings of<br />
The Lamps of the Worlds to come,<br />
I visit all the Guides<br />
Who have passed away to eternal rest.<br />
By occult powers, swift in all ways,<br />
By the power of knowledge, all-sided,<br />
By the power of practice, with all virtues,<br />
By the power of universal love,<br />
By the power of goodness, all pure,<br />
By the power of knowledge, unobstructed,<br />
Gathering the power of enlightenment,<br />
Clearing away the power of acts,<br />
Destroying the power of afflictions,<br />
Vitiating the power of demons,<br />
May I fulfill all powers<br />
Of the practice of good.<br />
Purifying oceans of lands,<br />
Liberating oceans of beings,<br />
Observing oceans of truths,<br />
Plumbing oceans of knowledge,<br />
Perfecting oceans of practices,<br />
Fulfilling oceans of vows,<br />
Serving oceans of buddhas,<br />
May I practice, untiring, for oceans of eons.<br />
The lofty vows of enlightenment practice<br />
Of the buddhas of past, present, and future<br />
May I fulfill completely,<br />
Practice what is good, and realize enlightenment.<br />
All who share in the practice<br />
Of the sage of Universal Good,<br />
The foremost offspring of all buddhas,<br />
I name them good.<br />
Pure in body, speech, and mind,<br />
Pure in conduct, with a pure land,<br />
As the sage is named Good,<br />
May I become thus equally.<br />
May I carry out the vow of Manjushri<br />
To totally purify the practice of good;<br />
Tireless through all future ages,<br />
May I fulfill all those tasks.<br />
May there be no limits to practice,<br />
And no limit to virtues;<br />
Persisting in infinite practices,<br />
I know all their miraculous creations.<br />
As long as the earth exists,<br />
As long as all beings exist,<br />
As long as acts and afflictions exist,<br />
So long will my vow remain.<br />
Let me give the buddhas all worlds<br />
In the ten directions adorned with jewels,<br />
Let me give celestials and humans supreme happiness<br />
For eons as many as atoms.<br />
Those who develop respect and devotion<br />
On hearing this supreme dedication,<br />
Seeking supreme enlightenment,<br />
Will be most blessed.<br />
They will have abandoned all evils<br />
And all bad associates<br />
And will quickly see Infinite Light,<br />
If they have this vow of enlightening practice.<br />
Great is their gain, worthwhile their life,<br />
Auspicious their birth as humans;<br />
They will soon be like<br />
The universally good enlightening being.<br />
Those who have committed hellish crimes<br />
Under the sway of ignorance<br />
Will quickly put an end to them all<br />
When this practice of good is expounded.<br />
Endowed with knowledge, distinction, and nobility,<br />
Invulnerable to false teachers and demons,<br />
They will be honored<br />
By all in the triple world.<br />
They will quickly go to the<br />
Tree of enlightenment<br />
And sit there for the benefit<br />
Of all living beings;<br />
They will realize enlightenment,<br />
Turn the wheel of teaching,<br />
And conquer the devil<br />
And all its cohorts.<br />
Buddha knows those who hold this vow to practice good,<br />
Who cause it to be told of and taught;<br />
The fruit of this is supreme enlightenment—<br />
Do not entertain any doubt.<br />
As the hero Manjushri knows, so too does Universal Good;<br />
As I learn from them I dedicate all this virtue.<br />
By the supreme dedication praised by the buddhas of all times<br />
I dedicate all this virtue to the practice of highest good.<br />
Acting in accord with the time, may I remove all obstructions,<br />
May I see Infinite Light face to face and go to the land of bliss.<br />
There, may all these vows be complete;<br />
Having fulfilled them, I will work for the weal of all beings in the world.<br />
Let me abide in the circle of that buddha, born in a beautiful lotus,<br />
And receive the prophecy of buddhahood there in the presence<br />
Of the buddha of Infinite Light.<br />
Having received the prophecy there, with millions of emanations<br />
I will work for the weal of beings everywhere, by the power of Buddha.<br />
By whatever virtue I accumulate, having invoked the vow to practice<br />
good,<br />
May the pure aspiration of the world he at once all fulfilled.<br />
By the endless surpassing blessing realized from dedication<br />
To the practice of good,<br />
May worldlings submerged in the torrent of passion<br />
Go to the higher realm of Infinite Light.</blockquote>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-76650708457681771142010-10-15T07:56:00.005+00:002010-10-15T08:07:21.497+00:00The Tao is a Silent Flower<blockquote>The Tao is a silent flower which blooms through the night,<br />
But the night through which it blooms is the flower itself.<br />
No Tao, no flower, no bloomer, no night.<br />
And for this reason, it blooms.</blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9BrdQkDFkBzHwwEbSoh_ImAdsbI7HRzQhb9Lx-lhJxyrYf2zMhmTh0GWZqImD2nRwR-VmWDKKjmC6ssZlqRnQrbfWOkLyxarUR4JX29Cy0ygvBhPUtp8UhsZT318ZkHqoiJzi/s1600/Taoism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9BrdQkDFkBzHwwEbSoh_ImAdsbI7HRzQhb9Lx-lhJxyrYf2zMhmTh0GWZqImD2nRwR-VmWDKKjmC6ssZlqRnQrbfWOkLyxarUR4JX29Cy0ygvBhPUtp8UhsZT318ZkHqoiJzi/s1600/Taoism.jpg" alt="Ying Yang Taoism"/></a></div>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-70062168858384836882010-06-03T05:27:00.001+00:002010-06-03T05:33:00.269+00:00Eight Extremes - Nagarjuna<blockquote>Based on dependent origination something occurs, yet<br />There is no arising nor passing away.<br />There is no nihilism nor eternalism.<br />There is no coming nor going.<br />There are not many nor one event(s).<br />Whatever tends to be elaborated becomes almost calm again and again.</blockquote><br />Nagarjuna.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-38WscGTm0ZrO_QSKKhpBtxvRooFX0kHyHRH7tz4na0UiLUElsxmCo0SQiHJC1hREhSxeAmoP_gPIKxTMiwjmcd1g7Ru3cR4pgJpm6K_apd9EzT-uqDJri7KuYxihuTreYoNC/s1600/nagarjuna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-38WscGTm0ZrO_QSKKhpBtxvRooFX0kHyHRH7tz4na0UiLUElsxmCo0SQiHJC1hREhSxeAmoP_gPIKxTMiwjmcd1g7Ru3cR4pgJpm6K_apd9EzT-uqDJri7KuYxihuTreYoNC/s320/nagarjuna.jpg" width="229" alt="Nagarjuna" /></a></div>When you meditate it seems as though a lot of experiences arise. You see this, you see that, and it seems to pass into and out of awareness, each experience followed by another.<br /><br />And yet as meditation deepens, the ability to clearly see 'things' or experiences fades away. This isn't because your awareness is getting duller or you are losing your ability to retain any clarity in meditation. On the contrary, it actually happens as awareness and clarity deepen.<br /><br />As your meditation deepens you find that what formerly appeared as substantial now no longer has such a distinct and demarcated identity. You increasingly find it hard to see exactly where 'something' is, or where it isn't.<br /><br />There seems little doubt that something is occurring, that something is arising. Yet you cannot in any way point to it, and say 'this is this' or 'that is that'. <br /><br />Do things arise? I really have no idea.<br /><br />Do they cease? I don't know.<br /><br />Do they appear to arise - it would seem so. Where are they, or where were they - I have no idea. And so it goes.<br /><br />Such definites as 'it does exist' fade away. They simply don't hold. And equally their negation - it doesn't exist' don't apply to what you experience, what you know - at all.<br /><br />Mind is as it is. Experience is as it is. And there's little that one can say about it.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-37174177970438058762010-06-02T07:53:00.000+00:002010-06-02T07:53:30.161+00:00What Colour is the Wind?<blockquote>What Colour is the Wind?</blockquote><br />
Zen saying.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmrUfcY8SP_d76HHOlHbrJ4Zf6-NfAyg7NWn3LJtq1Chi-HVoQdVa_5pdVlwylUtr2TKUf5tpR0HdI61lKmx2aeRUOTjSeqi-iR3dz2J0C4YV9cxWvR8Xxl3oqXztq9eP3y_q/s1600/zen-stones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmrUfcY8SP_d76HHOlHbrJ4Zf6-NfAyg7NWn3LJtq1Chi-HVoQdVa_5pdVlwylUtr2TKUf5tpR0HdI61lKmx2aeRUOTjSeqi-iR3dz2J0C4YV9cxWvR8Xxl3oqXztq9eP3y_q/s320/zen-stones.jpg" width="240" alt="zen" /></a></div>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-36292158269887282402010-06-01T15:31:00.001+00:002010-06-01T15:32:00.990+00:00Savaripa on the Nature of Mind<blockquote>In the process of searching for all that manifests as mind and matter<br />
There is neither anything to be found nor is there any seeker,<br />
For to be unreal is to be unborn and unceasing<br />
In the three periods of time.<br />
That which is immutable<br />
Is the state of great bliss.</blockquote><br />
Savaripa.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5syOSLHSUZOgeSLs_B5FqBh4HbpxJg9Thjlnmc6ADaoPxqlK2LEuKtl-hLSCtgfcVWs0ZMY7AwmcgjG1O-91p2FxmjY6vz8Spdc4upgYi7cAjco7NCMAO9WuaKTOPev7xzFJn/s1600/shavaripa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5syOSLHSUZOgeSLs_B5FqBh4HbpxJg9Thjlnmc6ADaoPxqlK2LEuKtl-hLSCtgfcVWs0ZMY7AwmcgjG1O-91p2FxmjY6vz8Spdc4upgYi7cAjco7NCMAO9WuaKTOPev7xzFJn/s320/shavaripa.jpg" width="247" alt="Savaripa - Shavaripa"/></a></div>I thought I'd share this quote from Savaripa (Shavaripa) - the eighth century India mahasiddha.<br />
<br />
Mahamudra meditation uses insight or vipassana meditation methods just like any other Buddhist path. Indeed, surprising to some it uses a lot of questioning, which is often thought to be more the realm of madhyamika rather than mahamudra. The texts don't always tell you *how* you work with questions - leading to the impression that it's a conceptual investigation. This couldn't be further from the truth.<br />
<br />
One the mind is resting (through mahamudra shamatha) you can then turn mind on itself, and pose a question:<br />
<br />
Where is my mind?<br />
<br />
Once this question is posed, don't seek to intellectually understand the answer. Just rest in the what follows. Should a gap arise, then rest in that gap. Don't seek to do anything other than rest, right there. After a while, you could pose another question:<br />
<br />
Where is experience?<br />
<br />
Again, let go of intellectual speculation, and just rest in what follows. If an experience of where experience *is*, or more likely, of where it *isn't* arises, then rest in that. Should an experience of experience not being found arise, then rest in that. This is an insight into the lack of fixed location of experience - an characteristic that experience, or mind lacks.<br />
<br />
Just rest there in that experience, if you can, and the experience may deepen. Or it might drop off, either into conceptualisation, or into distractedness.<br />
<br />
What am I?<br />
<br />
Rest there. You might find this seems to give rise to a shift. That shift may be related to what is arising in experience, and knowing that experience, to what knows that experience. Ultimately you may not be able to separate these - they are inseparable, but there's a definite shift possible when changing questioning to this aspect. <br />
<br />
I generally don't ask 'who am I?' as that will most likely bring up all sorts of connotations which might not be helpful.<br />
<br />
In this way we use the conceptual aspect of the mind to pose questions, and rest in whatever arises out of this. <br />
<br />
When you are able to rest in the shift that results from both these types of questions, you may find a knowing arises, a knowing that there is nothing to be found, and no seeker either. <br />
<br />
Please forgive my inane ramblings on practicing Mahamudra, inspired as they were by Savaripa's beautiful song.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-8818268489665270532010-05-28T06:51:00.003+00:002010-06-01T15:39:49.895+00:00Dharma Song (excerpt) from Kalu Rinpoche<blockquote>E Ma Ho!<br />
How wonderful!<br />
<br />
Remain relaxed, without clinging or contrivance<br />
Within mind's nature, like space,<br />
Free from any reference point<br />
And with the vigor of vivid, mindful awareness.<br />
<br />
Whatever outward or inward movement of thought arises,<br />
Don't lose hold of the vital inner glow of the expanse of mindfulness.<br />
Don't fabricate [mental states].<br />
Rest your mind as it is - <br />
It will be liberated into the absolute expanse.</blockquote><br />
Kalu Rinpoche<br />
<br />
I was reading this song from Kalu Rinpoche last night, and thought I'd share the beginning of it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9riLmSlLkMHi3v6Cd6phxrVK9da_qZ5eaZCv2d6IS6fAi_iWLzYF8iby5mp5bN0AlPytWmSmiqiN1kwuAWZjAZmXNQBlSazxNxySp1cAF92tUcBNqkdtOTws4NgHEGSXEbEg/s1600/kalu_rinpoche.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9riLmSlLkMHi3v6Cd6phxrVK9da_qZ5eaZCv2d6IS6fAi_iWLzYF8iby5mp5bN0AlPytWmSmiqiN1kwuAWZjAZmXNQBlSazxNxySp1cAF92tUcBNqkdtOTws4NgHEGSXEbEg/s320/kalu_rinpoche.jpg" width="253" alt="Kalu Rinpoche"/></a></div>Rinpoche's description of Mahamudra meditation comes from the Shangpa Kagyu tradition, but is no different to the Kagyu teachings I've received. Rest in awareness, without trying to do anything - and mind will free itself, all of itself.<br />
<br />
Don't take this or that as a vantage point, as a frame of reference, and indulge in comparisons. Don't strive after this or that. Just rest in awareness, just as it is. However it is - is fine. It's ok. It doesn't need to be anything else.<br />
<br />
Whatever thoughts arise - it's fine. Whatever experiences arise - it's fine. Whatever arises that appears as outer experience - stuff seemingly going on 'out there' in the world, or as inner experience - stuff seemingly happening 'in here' - this dreamlike mirage of experience - just rest in that experience.<br />
<br />
Kalu Rinpoche describes beautifully the difference between the resting and doing nothing of Mahamudra or Dzogchen, and the doing nothing of just zoning out, or being lost in thought. It's easy to imagine that you are doing Mahamudra by thinking I don't need to do anything - whatever it is, however it is .... that's Mahamudra. But what's missing there, in that not-doing? <br />
<br />
Awareness.<br />
<br />
... and resting in that.<br />
<br />
Don't do anything in meditation - that's for sure. Don't try to fabricate anything, and make this or that experience arise, or try to get away from or transform this or that experience. But without awareness you are just lost. Lost in dualism and caught up in your 'normal' daydreaming state. This isn't 'ordinary mind'.<br />
<br />
Just rest in whatever is - <b>whatever</b> is - without losing hold of the vital inner glow of the expanse of mindfulness - as Rinpoche calls it.<br />
<br />
Rest in whatever is - and knowing will arise, and liberation is right there.<br />
<br />
E Ma Ho!<br />
<br />
How wonderful!Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-60029892140496095642010-05-25T08:05:00.002+00:002010-06-01T15:42:22.413+00:00Simply Wait - Franz Kafka<blockquote>You do not need to leave your room.<br />
Remain sitting at the table and listen.<br />
Do not even listen, simply wait.<br />
Do not even wait, be still and solitary.<br />
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice.<br />
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.</blockquote><br />
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVXYRqH9A5S6GTLdTEtlcWBIvugOQUcBIwptckxRqeIqnsk-Ass0Unz2aCwAMYraW_lu9dcAxEdw8EJVaaTtxEHykTHiuEtzE6UvW5ZgeMBeE37M7mveu_2Nwkoqoyb5sbnH0l/s1600/franz-kafka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVXYRqH9A5S6GTLdTEtlcWBIvugOQUcBIwptckxRqeIqnsk-Ass0Unz2aCwAMYraW_lu9dcAxEdw8EJVaaTtxEHykTHiuEtzE6UvW5ZgeMBeE37M7mveu_2Nwkoqoyb5sbnH0l/s320/franz-kafka.jpg" width="241" alt="Franz Kafka"/></a></div>I love this quotation - it really speaks to me about how easy it is to do something in meditation, to try to fabricate experience. It speaks so well of how I can let go of a sense of effort, of a sense of goal, or even of something to evaluate the meditation by, and how underneath that letting go there's often something else which I'm clinging to which in turn can be let go of.<br />
<br />
The path to effortless meditation is often for me a shedding of onion layers. I see something clearly once my mind relaxes and rests in a seeing, and then I'm in a postion to simply let go. Not a 'doing' let go - just a 'letting go' which happens of itself.<br />
<br />
Only then can I hope to see a more subtle clinging, or a more subtle fabrication.<br />
<br />
I can't just drop it all at once, I find. And that too is part of the letting go.<br />
<br />
Kafta describes beautifully the reorientation away from needing experiences 'out there' - the constant search for stimulation and meaning and resolution 'in the world', towards contemplation, towards knowing the nature of all that arises in experience. Instead of being transfixed by the seemingly dazzling variety of solid experiences, we find a dreamlike nature to experience itself, and of ourselves. And then, strangely enough, a fascination arises at this utter emptiness, yet play of appearances.<br />
<br />
And Kafka's punchline here? That the nature of things will reveal itself, all of itself - it has no choice. Let go and be. Let go and allow experience to unfold. Let go and know.<br />
<br />
You don't have to strive after a goal, of enlightenment, of freedom from suffering, as it will come to you on its own, effortlessly. Trust in that, and let go.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-61345722633854786672010-02-19T16:09:00.001+00:002010-02-20T08:55:34.580+00:00Rehearsing my lifeI was just reflecting on just how much time I spend rehearsing my life, rather than, in a sense, just living it directly.<br />
<br />
By this I mean .... how much time do I spend thinking about what I should do in the future? How much time is caught up in going through various scenarios of what should happen, what could happen, what might happen .... in myriad detail?<br />
<br />
Compulsively these thoughts churn, end on end ... tumbling in my mind.<br />
<br />
Me trying to get ahead of the game. Me trying to get on top, me trying to beat someone else in some way.<br />
<br />
Trying to visualise better outcomes. Trying to get it 'right'.<br />
<br />
And all of it imagined experiences, imagines scenarios of what might be.<br />
<br />
So why am I doing this, out of control, compulsively spawning these versions of what could transpire?<br />
<br />
Why am I not simply experiencing what is, right here?<br />
<br />
Is the discomfort of sensations I don't fully want to experience the driving force? Is it that I can't fully allow these things to entirely permeate my awareness and allow myself to fully dwell in these things, however uncomfortable, however dull, is it this which compels me to spawn imaginary futures in which I rehearse life?<br />
<br />
Of course being in the present and just experiencing life could mean just = fully experiencing these thoughts as *they* are what is right now as much as any bodily sensation, any feeling, any visual or auditory sensation, would be. Mahamudra has no enemies, especially not though.<br />
<br />
Yet I tend not to experience it this way, at times. Thoughts are so seductive that I lose the open aspect of experience, the sense of thoughts in awareness, alongside all other sensations of being at that moment ... and just get sucking into the content of the thought, losing all else to awareness.<br />
<br />
And so it goes on, rehearsing, rehearsing, instead of opening to life as it is .....<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's like this ......Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-54696410493434155552009-11-28T11:16:00.014+00:002009-11-28T11:38:15.363+00:00One Who Is AwakeI came across this today, apparently an excerpt from Karen Armstrong's upcoming book - The Case for God. It was such a beautiful piece of writing, and sentiment, that I thought I'd reproduce it here:<br /><br /><blockquote>From almost the very beginning, men and women have repeatedly engaged in strenuous and committed religious activity. They evolved mythologies, rituals and ethical disciplines that brought them intimations of holiness that seemed in some indescribable way to enhance and fulfil their humanity. They were not religious simply because their myths and doctrines were scientifically or historically sound, because they sought information about the cosmos, or merely because they wanted a better life in the the hereafter. They were not bludgeoned into faith by power-hungry priests or kings; indeed religion often helped people to oppose tyranny and oppression of this kind. The point of religion was to live intensely and richly here and now. Religious people are ambitious. They want lives overflowing with significance. They have always desired to integrate with their daily lives the moments of rapture and insight that came to them in dreams, in their contemplation of nature and in their intercourse with one another and with the animal world. Instead of being crushed and embittered by the sorrow of life, they sought to retain their peace and serenity in the midst of their pain.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqPz2pISma-kOkyumPcdvA0tR1zjLDtOMQqPO9_yHy7_v7kdSoDtWkV92YDvbxMffY6-urpgD9xnd1xuD70BxV4FxJw50HIR_dZW6n0e1Gb8WldaNpgDo9HzZCWf4fOE0n8Ia/s1600/buddha_awake.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqPz2pISma-kOkyumPcdvA0tR1zjLDtOMQqPO9_yHy7_v7kdSoDtWkV92YDvbxMffY6-urpgD9xnd1xuD70BxV4FxJw50HIR_dZW6n0e1Gb8WldaNpgDo9HzZCWf4fOE0n8Ia/s320/buddha_awake.jpg" border="0" alt="The Buddha after his awakening - teaching the Dharma"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409113024815129010" /></a>They yearned for the courage to overcome their terror of mortality; instead of being grasping and mean-spirited, they aspired to live generously, large-heartedly and justly and to inhabit every single part of their humanity. Instead of being a mere workaday cup, they wanted, as Confucius suggested, to transform themselves in to a beautiful ritual vessel brimful of the sanctity that they were learning to see in life. Thy tried to honour the ineffable mystery then sensed in each human being and create societies that honoured the stranger, the alien, the poor and the oppressed. Of course they often failed. but overall they found that the disciplines of religion helped them to do all this. Those who applied themselves most assiduously showed that it was possible for mortal men and women to live on a higher, divine or godlike plane and thus wake up to their true selves.<br /><br />One day a brahmin priest came across the Buddha sitting in contemplation under a tree and was astonished by his serenity, stillness and self-discipline. The impression of immense strength channelled creatively into an extraordinary peace reminded him of a great tusker elephant. "Are you a god, sir?" the priest asked. "Are you an angel...or a spirit?" No, the Buddha replied. He explained that he had simply revealed a new potential in human nature. It was possible to live in this world of conflict and pain at peace and in harmony with one's fellow creatures. There was no point in merely believing it; you would only discover its truth if you practices his method, systematically cutting off egotism at the root. You would then live at the peak of your capacity, activate parts of the psyche that normally lie dormant, and become fully enlightened human beings. "Remember me, " the Buddha told the curious priest, "as one who is awake."</blockquote><br /><br />This story of the first person that the Buddha met after his Enlightenment has always been a powerful one for me. There are so many strands here - he did not recognize him for what he was, he passed on by after the Buddha told him what he was, not knowing how to profit from the encounter ..... and on and on ....<br /><br />The notion that the Buddha is one who is awake - fully and utterly awake to their experience - has also remained powerful and poignant. Not about being someone different, becoming someone different, becoming anything other than what we are, right now. But opening fully, and utterly to what is, right now, and seeing it for what it is, not lost in it, not entranced and seduced by it, but seeing it for what it is, in the fullest possible context, in detail, and it nature. Fully awake.<br /><br />Karen summarizes so well the best of this inner urge that many of us feel, that seems to have become a little lost in the public eye, transfixed as it is with the words and deeds of fundamentalists.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-38982494369096388342009-11-17T07:38:00.003+00:002009-11-17T07:53:24.600+00:00Reflection on Khakhyab Dorje - Melody of Buzzing BeesI began this post a couple of months ago and wasn't able to finish it. I thought I'd just publish what was there, as the teaching from Khakhyab Dorje is extraordinarily rich ...<br /><br /><br /><br />Last night I dreamt of HH15 Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje, so thought sharing 'Melody of Buzzing Bees' would be auspicious.<br /><br />Just a few reflections, unnecessarily trying to gild a solid gold statue:<br /><br /><blockquote>You are the primordial ground, Buddha Vajradhara,<br />Unobstructed manifestation, the body of great compassion.<br />You posses the kindness that delivers Buddha into the palm of one's hand,<br />Please enjoy being an ornament on the top of my head.</blockquote><br />This nature that's there in *all* experience, the primordial ground, which Khakhyab Dorje refers to as the Buddha Vajradhara is the groundlessness of experience. This never changes whatever arises in our mind, whether pleasant or unpleasant, skilful or unskilful, nor whether englightened or not. It's always there and is known as Buddha Nature. You don't have to become something else to be enlightened. You don't have to become something else. Right there, right here - where is the ground in whatever you experience right now?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEHKPHqSRTP4KvjhaRRzmQEhfDYuU6MftwctDFhrNju-AVHrHlDiXvx-wIGMCe8ENF_EOj_hfFyMbMRVHxIKcMioVt6_QM9s4AUWEx6Cj5dtN4sv3C3q8SgJK0WdEomj8cL1zN/s1600-h/hh15k.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 176px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEHKPHqSRTP4KvjhaRRzmQEhfDYuU6MftwctDFhrNju-AVHrHlDiXvx-wIGMCe8ENF_EOj_hfFyMbMRVHxIKcMioVt6_QM9s4AUWEx6Cj5dtN4sv3C3q8SgJK0WdEomj8cL1zN/s320/hh15k.jpg" border="0" alt="HH15 Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314405930514733170" /></a>How beautiful the image of keeping the lama who shows you the nature of mind, the nature of all possible experiences, above your head. How beautiful.<br /><br /><blockquote>Your son supplicates with devotion and longing;<br />Father Rinpoche, please look on me with kindness.<br />Lord, by the light rays of your kindness,<br />The darkness of confused ego-fixation has been cleared.</blockquote><br />To develop sufficient level of attention so that we can remain aware in *any* experience, however unpleasant, however hooked into past actions and patterns and conditioning, then we need a lot of energy available to that attention. In Vajrayana that energy comes from cultivating devotion to the guru. It could be loving kindness or compassion, such as in the Hinayana or Mahayana. For myself, what matters most is that the emotional energy, the energy that can move mountains, is there. It's clear how powerful emotions are compared with thoughts. You can feel the whole shift when emotions stir. Having that available to fuel your attention underlies your ability to remain in attention when appearances beguile.<br /><br /><blockquote>NAMO GURU-GUNASAGARAYA<br />You are the primordial ground, Buddha Vajradhara,<br />Unobstructed manifestation, the body of great compassion.<br />You posses the kindness that delivers Buddha into the palm of one's hand,<br />Please enjoy being an ornament on the top of my head.<br /><br />Having obtained a human body this one time,<br />I was accepted by your great kindness, lord.<br />You, the Jetsun who makes this free and well-favoured birth meaningful,<br />Please dwell inseparably in the very centre of my heart.<br /><br />Your son supplicates with devotion and longing;<br />Father Rinpoche, please look on me with kindness.<br />Lord, by the light rays of your kindness,<br />The darkness of confused ego-fixation has been cleared.<br /><br />In this song of the realization of the pure ultimate natural state,<br />These naive words are like the buzzing of a bee.<br />Although they irritate the ears of the father Jetsun,<br />Your son, with overwhelming longing,<br />Offers this song of nonsense words; please think of me with compassion.<br /><br />In general, this body endowed with the eight freedoms and the ten favourable circumstances<br />Is more excellent than the wish-fulfilling gem.<br />Obtaining this body,<br />I know it to be the power of unperverted merit.<br /><br />Although I have obtained it, it is impermanent,<br />And, therefore, the moment of death is unavoidable, as is said.<br />Since one never knows when it will come,<br />I wonder, "When will death come for me?"<br /><br />The cause and effect of karma ripens infallibly in everyone<br />Just like a see that has been planted.<br />Because of my actions of deceiving myself and others,<br />I wonder, "What will my end be like?"<br /><br />In general, ignorance, the great city of samsara,<br />Is filled with endless and strenuous suffering.<br />When I think about this, I almost lose my mind.<br />Panic-stricken, I wonder, "When will I be liberated?"<br /><br />My body, blown by the wind of bad karma,<br />Falls from the precipice of the wrong path.<br />Now I am sunk in the mud of samsara; please look on me here!<br />Kind lord, precious Guru,<br />Please protect me from this terror.<br /><br />Through a break in my evil karma, I discovered good karma.<br />I met the father Jetsun, the excellent true Buddha<br />Whose essence if Sri Cakrasamvara.<br />The skin of ignorant ego-fixation fell away from me,<br />And the great knot tied by passion and aggression was loosened.<br /><br />As for the klesas, produced by the three poisons,<br />The object of their arising, the arising itself, and the one who gives rise to them<br />Are all projections of mind.<br />Like a reflection in a mirror,<br />Their essence is empty.<br />Like waves merging with the ocean,<br />they subside into empty ineffable space.<br /><br />External phenomenal objects: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and objects of touch,<br />All these phenomena are no other<br />Than the magical tricks of mind.<br />Like a child who builds sand castles,<br />It is mind that fixates on names.<br />Realizing that this is unreal is also mind.<br /><br />Therefore, nothing exists as separate from mind<br />Neither as substance nor as a mark.<br />Realizing that everything is the manifestation of mind,<br />So-called samsara and Nirvana,<br />Considered to be bad and good respectively, do not exist.<br />Realization that mind is the manifestation of Dharmakaya,<br />The natural state of self-existing mind<br />Does not exist as form or substance.<br /><br />It completely passes beyond even being shown by analogy.<br />To say "emptiness" is not total negation;<br />Rather, its nature is luminosity,<br />All-pervasive like space.<br />To say "existence" is not to establish a reality.<br />Just like space,<br />It does not exist, but it is very luminous.<br />Although it arises, it does not exist as separate,<br />But is liberated in the essence of this luminosity.<br />Like clouds in the sky,<br />It arises from space and dissolves into space.<br /><br />In short, the phenomenal world is mind.<br />From the aspect of its luminosity, there is appearance.<br />From the aspect of its essence, there is emptiness.<br />Neither Buddhas nor sentient beings<br />Exist as separately established things.<br />All the so-called gods and demons do not so exist.<br />Everything is mind.<br />Mind is self-existing luminosity.<br />It passes beyond all arising, ceasing, and projecting.<br />It is free from dwelling, coming, or going anywhere.<br />Other than this ineffable mind,<br />There is no Vajradhara.<br />Mind is luminous;<br />I have confidence in realizing that this is so.<br /><br />Jetsun, this realization is your kindness.<br />Rinpoche, now I remember your kindness.<br />Please look upon me, one of bad karma, with compassion.<br />Father Jetsun, ultimate Vajradhara,<br />Time and time again I think of you and devotion blazes up;<br />With undistracted longing I supplicate you.<br />Father, grant your blessings so that we may be beyond meeting and parting.<br /><br />This song of experience<br />I offer to your ears, father Jetsun.<br />If there has been any stain of error,<br />Please wash it away with the amrta of loving kindness.<br />This son supplicates with one-pointed longing;<br />Please accept me with the iron hook of your compassion..<br /><br /> <br /><br />At the Karma Vihara of Akanistha, the great Dharma palace of the Buddha Karmapa, in the year of the Iron Tiger called Vikrta, I offered this song with great devotion of body, speech, and mind at the feet of the omniscient Jetsun, the king of Dharma.</blockquote>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-41403525818504872732009-10-05T07:43:00.007+00:002009-10-05T07:51:47.197+00:00Today is a Good Day to Die<blockquote>Today is a good day to die!</blockquote><br /><br />Tasunka Witko, Crazy Horse<br /><br />If you are truly prepared for death like this, then you are truly prepared for life too.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjL3ipVTnNfW8n7Se1Fs85LwrdhbbypZcGS8qlGVjRacnS3SNmGdYyqQhSK9GXG3OVWqKD_gvXOhgJhjOA6hPOlFFF1WpzgDGjthgomIseSwBgRnXPSFmQoG2udvGDzEZ4fDQ/s1600-h/Crazyhorse+Photo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjL3ipVTnNfW8n7Se1Fs85LwrdhbbypZcGS8qlGVjRacnS3SNmGdYyqQhSK9GXG3OVWqKD_gvXOhgJhjOA6hPOlFFF1WpzgDGjthgomIseSwBgRnXPSFmQoG2udvGDzEZ4fDQ/s320/Crazyhorse+Photo.jpg" border="0" alt="Tasunka Witko, Crazy Horse" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389020241741616178" /></a>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-35416742516242374712009-03-07T12:21:00.009+00:002009-03-07T15:21:43.504+00:00Nothing Special<blockquote>Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.</blockquote>Shunryu Suzuki<br /><br />I love this quote. <br /><br />It's not about having special experience. No experience with 'save you', or give you eternal happiness. You cannot take refuge in particular experiences. Not satori, not insight, not enlightenment, not getting there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZj3GSMdujI594sD7e7wZWfBd91nGGlvtvvWZZsSftoxJQ_u810zAUE7uwuc7Z_k38Jl0xNgrV69zE05hJAZgKljl-pQVxJbwlODV_HcCitioba2mg3_2gT_Hti6Ish_rIbc3q/s1600-h/Suzuki+Roshi.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZj3GSMdujI594sD7e7wZWfBd91nGGlvtvvWZZsSftoxJQ_u810zAUE7uwuc7Z_k38Jl0xNgrV69zE05hJAZgKljl-pQVxJbwlODV_HcCitioba2mg3_2gT_Hti6Ish_rIbc3q/s320/Suzuki+Roshi.jpg" border="0" alt="Suzuki Roshi"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310423611545595154" /></a>It's just right here, right now, opening to what is, fully, deeply, clearly. Not trying to get somewhere else. Not trying to change or manipulate it. Not trying to get comfortable. Not preferring this to that.<br /><br />And being able to rest in it, this nowness, without reactivity. Rest in whatever arises. Rest in the groundlessness of experience. Rest in whatever life serves up. Rest there, with an open heart. Allowing the moment to soak you, to teach you, to whisper in your ear.<br /><br />And when you can just rest there, in however it is, then you'll know what to do, in each and every experience. Without thought, without plans, without judgment, without agendas.<br /><br />So we can just get on with life, without trying to get somewhere else, each moment open, each moment aware, each moment knowing what it is that needs to be done. Not for me, not for you, but just what needs to be done.<br /><br />You don't have to chase after something special. Special is all around, already here. Just open to it. <br /><br />And then the Dakini's warm breath will be felt at *your* ear.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-84175020022518234862009-03-05T08:18:00.013+00:002009-03-05T13:41:09.609+00:00All Experience is MindAll experience is mind is probably a misleading title for this post. It seems to suggest that experiences are ‘something’, and that this something is ‘mind’ – a thing. It’s as if there is this thing called mind which exists, and our job is to discover it, to reveal it. But actually, it doesn’t!<br /><br />Instead, we could see this title as pointing to what is the starting point in many ways for the path of Mahamudra. As normal people, we tend to view the world as a ‘me’ in here, and a whole bunch of stuff ‘out there’ – other people, other living beings, inanimate objects, etc. It all seems so natural seeing the world this way. Yet the very basis of the path transforms our view here, and points to a radically different way to view our life.<br /><br />For as long as we are caught up in this dualistic view of the world, we’ll experience suffering. We’ll be forever caught up in pushing and pulling at our experience, accepting and rejecting, wanting and not wanting – a cycle of trying to somehow ‘make it right’, to adjust stuff, so that we can experience happiness, ease and contentment. This cycle of adjustment, of constant nagging dissatisfaction with our experience, with somehow being in struggle, with needing to transform how it is seems endless, it just goes on and on. That’s why Samsara is said to be endless. For as long as we experience things as if ‘I’ am ‘in here’, and the rest is ‘out there’ ... then this struggle goes on. <br /><br /><strong>Dukkha.</strong><br /><br /><strong>Samsara.</strong><br /><br />Yet, the Dharma says ‘it needn’t be so’. That it is possible to live in ease, with contentment, and with peace in our hearts, whatever is happening, whatever we may encounter at that time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1FisPdwG_euTxYD57mTs5xiG-Ege2hc1GS1vF-eDXmR106KkybZDfy-t2f6T6hRwnCHKVvxUutLVDzNPmBekPR8JIMikyG6xD6Hn3PC7PfheH9_bXJuhvijBLGC6FY746iJa/s1600-h/blue_sky.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1FisPdwG_euTxYD57mTs5xiG-Ege2hc1GS1vF-eDXmR106KkybZDfy-t2f6T6hRwnCHKVvxUutLVDzNPmBekPR8JIMikyG6xD6Hn3PC7PfheH9_bXJuhvijBLGC6FY746iJa/s320/blue_sky.jpg" border="0" alt="Clear Blue Sky"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309626355648251330" /></a>When we practice Mahamudra we learn to rest in awareness. We learn to bring attention to our lives and to rest in that attention, without trying to make it any different to how it is. We are not trying to avoid experiences we don't like. We are not applying antidotes to things we view as 'bad'. We are not even trying to transform our experience.<br /><br />We simply rest in our experience and allow ourselves to fully experience it. All of it.<br /><br />At any moment, we have body sensations. At that same moment, we have emotions. We have stories going through our mind. These things arise.<br /><br />At any moment, can we experience all of this?<br /><br />Can we allow our bodies to tell us what is happening on that level, even when we are swept up in the swirls of deep emotions?<br /><br />Can we know what our bodies are telling us when the stories are running at express speed in our mind, justifying and judging, analysing and rationalising?<br /><br />Can we open to all of it, all the time, whatever it is, however difficult it might seem to be?<br /><br />As we practice this, this resting in experience, without trying to change it, or get away from it, but instead opening to its fullness, its variety, we begin to notice that our experience takes on a flavour of spaciousness. Rather than feeling as though we are shrunk down into 'this emotion', or 'this experience of physical pain', or 'this thought' ... a great openness unfolds, in which all our experience plays out. And play out it does, with whatever arises 'self-liberating' all by itself, without need for manipulation. What a relief this all is!!!!<br /><br /><strong>Spacious openness, and self-liberation.</strong><br /><br />And in that spacious openness in which all experiences self-liberate, we begin to see that this thing we call 'life' is a succession of experiences, of sensations, emotions and thoughts. And, we begin to notice that there isn't much of a 'me' in all of that. We begin to see that the notion of 'me' is an experience which arises, which flickers into view from time to time, and which is no different to any other experience. Instead of imagining that there's this 'me' there which is at the centre of the universe, which is wrestling which this enormous universe, and which therefore seems forever locked up in a sense of struggle with something much larger than itself, and which constantly changes and constantly seems to frustrate our desire to have life as we want it ... instead of this ... we begin to see that there really isn't a 'me' in all of this, not in the way we thought there was. We begin to see that this notion of 'I' is just an appearance, and empty appearance. It arises like all other appearances. As such, it's not at the centre. It's just a mirage-like appearance, dancing and shimmering into view, but relatively rarely.<br /><br />No constant me, right there in the centre of things.<br /><br />Just a flickering appearance, empty of substance, which sometimes arises along with the rest.<br /><br />So ... endless experiences in succession, of body sensations, thoughts and emotions. No 'me' in there. And no 'world' out there. Not 'my' sensations, thoughts and emotions now. Just appearances which we helpfully characterise as thoughts, emotions and sensations.<br /><br />In this way, we come to see that what we call 'life' is the play of appearances, empty appearances, a flickering of experiences, without centre, without solidity.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-12525386874268687902009-02-18T07:38:00.003+00:002009-02-18T07:53:58.195+00:00What's it all about?... it's about opening to what is, every moment ... and being able to fully open to whatever arises. That's all.<br /><br />It ain't about getting somewhere, having any particular sort of experience rather than another, however so called spiritual, or getting enlightened.<br /><br />No place to go, nobody to be ...<br /><br />just open and rest in the opening.<br /><br />Such a simple thing, so extraordinarily simple. Rest in what already is. without preference.<br /><br />then everything becomes possible.<br /><br />(simple post on a simple thing that is the key to all doors)Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-66632326748323035962009-02-15T06:34:00.015+00:002009-02-16T20:15:15.601+00:00Reflections on Niutou Farong - Song of Mind (Xin Ming)Some sleepy reflections when unable to sleep whilst ill ...<br /><br /><blockquote>The nature of the mind is non-arising,<br />What need is there of knowledge and views?<br />Originally there is not a single dharma;<br />Why discuss inspiration and training?</blockquote>Niutou Farong begins with the view, a view which includes the need to go beyond views. When we rest in awareness we are able to see that mind cannot be found, that experience cannot be found. It has no shape, no characteristics ... wherever we touch we find only melting, vast open no-thingness. This groundless nature of mind is non-arising. Why? Because that too we cannot find. It's not as if we've exchanged the seemingly solid stuff of ordinary existence with some profound 'thing' or 'reality' or 'transcendental' which somehow underlies all else, which somehow has eluded us up to now, and *now* we've got it, now we have the 'real deal', the 'real thing'. Nope, this groundlessness isn't there, it can't be found, or grasped, or seen. We all try to do that in meditation, to grasp onto how emptiness reveals itself. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifCmTsGRUZn-8Yxop7St4QAcf8gJOtbDzKXR7MOL3CNj75HKyWEIqQssUinGAn8rcI8AciyPpckDr6ew9lo342Kui7ZFBlF-wgtUUod4O3hXRogJHFqfW2rpOS8Ucow9geoW6U/s1600-h/11247629d6.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifCmTsGRUZn-8Yxop7St4QAcf8gJOtbDzKXR7MOL3CNj75HKyWEIqQssUinGAn8rcI8AciyPpckDr6ew9lo342Kui7ZFBlF-wgtUUod4O3hXRogJHFqfW2rpOS8Ucow9geoW6U/s320/11247629d6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302925923656165986" /></a>To understand it rather than to know it ... but .. the nature of mind is non-arising. When we know this, truly and deeply, then words are a very poor substitute for this direct knowingness. Not even a finger pointing at a moon. More like a finger pointing to a moon which is altogether different to what 'moon' is to most of us. Not one 'thing' pointing to 'another thing'. One thing, pointing to no-thing. How things are? You won't find a single experience that can be grasped onto or held, however sublime. Not a single dharma originally exists. That's how it is, both prior to and after all that practice and training. You're just spun around and walking backwards through it all. Just not knowing yet.<br /><br /><blockquote>Coming and going without beginning;<br />Sought for, it is not seen.<br />No need to do anything;<br />It is bright, still, self-apparent.</blockquote>When we rest in knowing, though utterly groundless, yet endless appearances seemingly arise. Mind's nature is luminous, though utterly without ground. Empty appearances arise unimpededly, arising and ceasing, though where are they? When you rest in knowing, appearances clearly arise. Yet can you say where? Can you say when? Where and when just don't apply. Resting in knowing, mind has no shape. Yet when appearances are clearly there, has a shape come into being. Has mind/experience changed in any way. It seems to have, yet utterly groundless it remains. All these appearances - thoughts, feelings, stories, sensations, perceptions ... can any be truly found? Tell me ... where are they? Cause a thought to arise right now ... where is it? Did mind change when it arose? Did mind change when it ceased? You can seek for experiences ... profound experiences, wholesome experiences instead of the stuff you don't like, but this utter emptiness never changes, minds nature remains as is ... and all that seemingly arises, self-liberates, back to where ... who knows? From where? who knows. Profound mystery indeed. Never understood, but can be known. Bright and luminous, unmoving yet unceasing, revealing itself as Mahamudra always, however minds content should be. All of Samsara and Nirvana are not different to this. All experiences are of the same nature ... so why seek for certain experiences? for enlightenment, for purity, for something special?<br /><br /><blockquote>The past is like empty space;<br />Know anything and the<br />Basic principle is lost,<br />Casting a clear light on the world,<br />Illuminating, yet obscured.</blockquote>When appearances arise, they are vividly present. Yet soon they are gone. Where did they go? Watch closely. Know. However acute the mind, you won't see where they went. Our memory of them is what? More empty arisings. Groundless like empty space. Niutou here uses the word 'know' in a way I'm using the word 'understand'. Know anything and the principle is lost. I'd say, try to understand anything with concepts, with conceptual mind, and you are a million miles away. These words mislead. They are not suchness. Allow them to point directly, don't try to understand them. When we have our hard-won conceptual understanding, we think we finally know everything, the world is our oyster, we sit astride it .... illumined and understood. Yet the next disturbing emotion arises, the next pattern ... then bang! .... suffering again! Understanding will not save you!! .. hehehehe.<br /><br /><blockquote>If one-mindedness is impeded,<br />All dharmas are misunderstood.<br />Coming and going thus,<br />Is there need for thorough investigation?</blockquote>You won't see much ... meaning, you won't know it as it is if you mind cannot rest. Otherwise all you'll see is the waves, not the ocean. Mind you, the ocean isn't 'behind' the waves, like we all thought, like some pristine true reality, which we've never glimpsed. More like you see one thing, but it's something else, not behind it, or within it, or more truly it .... in one and the same thing, known differently, known as it is. These very appearances - anger, hopelessness, happiness, frustration, peacefulness .. not seeking to exchange one for the other, to get from one to only the other. Just knowing experience as it is. Then samsara *is* nirvana. Then samsara and nirvana are known to be inseparable. Without the ability to rest the mind, you'll only see everything that's stirred up and muddy. And then everything is misunderstood, experiences taken as solid and enduring, all dharmas are misunderstood.<br /><br /><blockquote>Arising without the mark of arising,<br />Arising and illumination are the same.<br />Desiring to purify the mind,<br />There is no mind for effort.</blockquote>Appearances don't leave any trace, like the bird flying across the sky. Does it leave a trail?<br /><br /><blockquote>Spontaneous wisdom<br />Throughout time and space<br />Nothing is illuminated;<br />This is most profound.<br />Knowing dharmas is non-knowing;<br />Non-knowing is knowing the essential.</blockquote>This knowingness which is incontrovertible. Which knows with a certainty that understanding never approaches. Which itself is vast, open and empty. Across all experience. Where does awareness begin? Where does it end? When looked for it's nowhere. Yet, equally, it's everywhere. Depends on how you wish to express it. You can't find it, yet it fills all of experience. Boundless and unending. Spontaneously co-arising, it knows appearances as they arise. It knows emptiness for what it is, ultimately illuminated, known as it is ... yet does emptiness or appearances change when they are known thus? Nope, just as they were. Illuminated, yet not illuminated. And this knowing, this incontrovertible direct seeing? Is that 'something'? Something you can grasp, something that you can understand, to intellectually makes sense of? Nope, non-knowing. A direct knowing which can't be found. A direct knowing of the one thing which makes a difference, ultimately. That all other realisation relies on. Knowing the essential frees you. This one aspect of all that seemingly arises. Don't get lost in the jungle. Know this one thing. Then you are at base-camp, and the journey can begin.<br /><br />Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy head. Time to sleep now.<br /><br />Homage to Niutou Farong, whose profound words I massacre:<br /><br /><blockquote><br /><br /> The nature of the mind is non-arising,<br /> What need is there of knowledge and views?<br /> Originally there is not a single dharma;<br /> Why discuss inspiration and training?<br /><br /> Coming and going without beginning;<br /> Sought for, it is not seen.<br /> No need to do anything;<br /> It is bright, still, self-apparent.<br /><br /> The past is like empty space;<br /> Know anything and the<br /> Basic principle is lost,<br /> Casting a clear light on the world,<br /> Illuminating, yet obscured.<br /><br /> If one-mindedness is impeded,<br /> All dharmas are misunderstood.<br /> Coming and going thus,<br /> Is there need for thorough investigation?<br /><br /> Arising without the mark of arising,<br /> Arising and illumination are the same.<br /> Desiring to purify the mind,<br /> There is no mind for effort.<br /><br /> Spontaneous wisdom<br /> Throughout time and space<br /> Nothing is illuminated;<br /> This is most profound.<br /> Knowing dharmas is non-knowing;<br /> Non-knowing is knowing the essential.<br /><br /> Using the mind to maintain quietude,<br /> Birth and death forgotten;<br /> This is original nature.<br /><br /> The highest principle cannot be explained;<br /> It is neither free nor bound.<br /> Lively and attuned to everything,<br /> It is always right before you.<br /><br /> There is nothing in front of you;<br /> Nothing, yet everything is as usual.<br /> Do not belabor wisdom to examine it;<br /> Substance itself is empty and obscure.<br /><br /> Thoughts arise and pass away,<br /> The preceding no different from the succeeding.<br /> If the succeeding thought does not arise,<br /> The preceding thought cuts itself off.<br /><br /> In past, present, and future,<br /> There is nothing;<br /> No mind, no buddha.<br /> Sentient beings are without mind;<br /> Out of no-mind they manifest.<br /><br /> Distinguishing between profane and sacred,<br /> Their vexations flourish.<br /> Splitting hairs deviates from the eternal.<br /> Seeking the real, you give up the true.<br /><br /> Discarding both is the cure,<br /> Transparent, bright, pure.<br /> No need for hard work or skill;<br /> Keep to the actions of an infant.<br /><br /> Clearly knowing,<br /> The net of views increases<br /> Stillness without seeing,<br /> Not moving in a dark room.<br /><br /> Wakeful without wandering,<br /> The mind is tranquil yet bright.<br /> All phenomena are real and eternal,<br /> Profuse, yet of a single form.<br /><br /> Going, coming, sitting, standing,<br /> Don't attach to anything.<br /> Affirming no direction,<br /> Can there be leaving or entering?<br /><br /> There is neither unifying nor dispersing,<br /> Neither slow nor quick.<br /> Brightness and tranquility are<br /> Just as they are.<br /> They cannot be explained in words.<br /><br /> Mind is without alienation;<br /> No need to terminate lust.<br /> Nature being empty, lust will<br /> Depart by itself.<br /> Allow the mind to float and sink.<br /><br /> Neither clear nor clouded,<br /> Neither shallow nor deep.<br /> Originally it was not ancient;<br /> At present it is not modern.<br /><br /> Now it is non-abiding;<br /> Now it is original mind.<br /> Originally it did not exist;<br /> "Origin" is the present moment.<br /><br /> Bodhi has always existed;<br /> No need to preserve it.<br /> Vexation has never existed,<br /> No need to eliminate it.<br /><br /> Natural wisdom is self-illuminating;<br /> All dharmas return to thusness.<br /> There is no returning, no receiving;<br /> Stop contemplating, forget keeping.<br /><br /> Wisdom from the Zen Classic "Xin Ming"<br /> Translated by Master Sheng Yen</blockquote>Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-17125588444286199362009-02-09T05:54:00.011+00:002009-02-09T11:19:20.750+00:00Using an Object as a Support - Concentration or Awakening<blockquote>From a reply on a Dharma list, where someone asked:<br />"I have an object such as watching the breath but I am constantly distracted. Please elaborate on "In order to keep from being distracted, that object is a support."</blockquote><br /><br />Hi there, one way you could approach this is by reviewing your intention - what is the intention behind your practice? Is it to get somewhere? Is it to achieve a certain state? Is that state something that you'd characterise as quiet, still, concentrated? Is that something that I'm chasing after, in however subtle a form?<br /><br />One way you can look at the intention behind practicing Dharma, is to awaken. To be aware. To be fully and deeply aware of whatever you are experiencing, right now. Aware .. and even knowing it's nature.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghvGdjivpueCz6QsLjD0LxQkPapqCHS5U6DL7l9nFtxyCJmZ-82-v23BDPTETXZTYdvsDHfSeYh6ll_5ziM0-RAzh77c2KlLDjv6KTxx8YvyEZuk_Rufb4Eec2CBl9IRwBtiFx/s1600-h/Shibuya+street.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghvGdjivpueCz6QsLjD0LxQkPapqCHS5U6DL7l9nFtxyCJmZ-82-v23BDPTETXZTYdvsDHfSeYh6ll_5ziM0-RAzh77c2KlLDjv6KTxx8YvyEZuk_Rufb4Eec2CBl9IRwBtiFx/s320/Shibuya+street.jpg" border="0" alt="awake to experience"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300681659022766818" /></a>As such .. there's no real reason to try to get rid of thoughts, or to make them subside, or to set up any sort of division between where you are and where you want to get. What is arising at that time can be the focus and intention of your practice. Can I fully experience what is here at this moment. Fully experience it?<br /><br />You can have a support in this .. such as the breath, which is something that you can you can begin with ... throughout your practice. You can allow yourself to experience the breath. And rest in that experiencing. If you are then able, you can open the awareness to include what other sensations of the body, tactile sensations you are experiencing. Without moving away from experiencing the breath ... but opening to include more in your awareness. If you then lose the breath, then come back gently to it.<br /><br />Should be you able to rest in experiencing fully the breath and the body sensations .. you can include visual sensations in your experience in your awareness. Not focussing down on any of them .. not concentrating .. but allowing them into your awareness ... together with the breath, and the tactile sensations. Again, if you lose the breath, gently come back to experiencing fully the breath, then open awareness to include tactile sensations .. and the visual sensations.<br /><br />You can carry on this way and gradually open to more and more of your experience, your heard sensations, taste, smell ... then asking 'what is going on at the emotional level' and experiencing that together with the rest. Then 'what is going on at the story level' .. and allowing thoughts to be fully experienced in awareness.<br /><br />So gradually you move to deepen and open your awareness to *all* your experience at that moment. The breath is a support as it's where you begin with awareness of your experience, and where you return to each time you lose awareness.<br /><br />You *will* lose awareness! It's the nature of things :-) .... so we don't really need to get too caught up in calling it names like 'distraction' .. and trying to get away from that happening. If you keep doing the practice, then over time you build up 'capacity'. With capacity, you gain the ability to rest the mind with whatever is there. It's a natural process, and one which you don't' have to fight. And one you don't have control over, as such. You can't force yourself to concentrate.<br /><br />There are three aspects to our ability to hold whatever arises in our awareness, each of which you need:<br /><br />- You have the 'motivation' to be aware. <br /><br />- You have knowledge of 'techniques' for being aware, such as the above, and what you've been taught. <br /><br />- Then, you just need to do it, and gradually, the third ingredient will build, that of 'capacity'.<br /><br />With increased capacity, you will lose awareness less, and you will be able to be aware of thoughts without getting lost in them so often, and you will most likely come back to awareness more quickly when you are out of awareness. You'll see that these three happen over different time-spans, and with differing degrees of control. Motivation is something which can be easily set (and lost) in the moment. Capacity, by contrast, is something which builds up slowly over time, and something we cannot 'decide' to do or have.<br /><br />This sort of gentle, open, inclusive approach will tend to lead to less annoyance with being distracted, I find. And rather than trying to concentrate ... if your intention is to wake up ... to be able to rest in fully experiencing what is present, in each moment ... then awareness will naturally deepen, and knowing will naturally unfold, and you will find less tension and unease (suffering) in the path, as well what was already there!<br /><br />I hope this description of the Mahamudra approach has been of some use ...Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-74449563339954784342008-12-02T12:03:00.037+00:002008-12-02T17:39:58.222+00:00Reflections on Naropa - The Summary of Mahamudra<blockquote>Homage to the state of great bliss!<br />Concerning what is called Mahamudra<br />All things are your own mind.<br />Seeing objects as external is a mistaken concept;<br />Like a dream, they are empty of concreteness.<br /><br />This mind, as well, is a mere movement of attention<br />That has no self-nature, being merely a gust of wind.<br />Empty of identity, like space.<br />All things, like space, are equal.<br /><br />When speaking of 'Mahamudra'<br />It is not an entity that can be shown.<br />There the mind's suchness<br />Is itself the state of Mahamudra.<br /><br />It is neither something to be corrected nor transformed,<br />But when anyone sees and realizes its nature<br />All that appears and exists is Mahamudra,<br />The great all-encompassing Dharmakaya.<br /><br />Naturally and without contriving, allowed simply to be,<br />This unimagined Dharmakaya,<br />Letting it be without seeking is the meditation training.<br />But to meditate while seeking is deluded mind.<br /><br />Just as with space and a magical display,<br />While neither cultivating nor not cultivating<br />How can you be separate and not separate!<br />This is a yogi's understanding.<br /><br />All good deeds and harmful actions<br />Dissolve by simply knowing this nature.<br />The emotions are the great wisdom.<br />Like a jungle fire, they are the yogi's helpers.<br /><br />How can there be staying or going?<br />What meditation is there by fleeing to a hermitage?<br />Without understanding this, all possible means<br />Never bring more than temporary liberation.<br /><br />When understanding this nature, what is there to bind you?<br />While being undistracted from its continuity,<br />There is neither a composed nor an uncomposed state<br />To be cultivated or corrected with a remedy.<br /><br />It is not made out of anything<br />Experience self-liberated is dharmadhatu.<br />Thinking self-liberated is great wisdom,<br />Non-dual equality is dharmakaya.<br /><br />Like the continuous flow of a great river,<br />Whatever you do is meaningful,<br />This is the eternal awakened state,<br />The great bliss, leaving no place for samsara.<br /><br />All things are empty of their own identities.<br />This concept fixed on emptiness has dissolved in itself.<br />Free of concept, holding nothing in mind,<br />Is in itself the path of the Buddhas.<br /><br />For the most fortunate ones,<br />I have made these concise words of heartfelt advice.<br />Through this, may every single sentient being<br />Be established in Mahamudra.</blockquote><br />This was given orally by the great pandita Naropa to Marpa at Pullahari.<br />(Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang.<br />Published in Songs of Naropa: Commentaries on Songs of Realization, by Thrangu Rinpoche (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1997).<br /><br /><blockquote>Homage to the state of great bliss!<br />Concerning what is called Mahamudra<br />All things are your own mind.<br />Seeing objects as external is a mistaken concept;<br />Like a dream, they are empty of concreteness.</blockquote><br />What is our life? What does it consist of?<br /><br />Thoughts, feelings and sensations. That's it. All of what we think of as life, our relationships, our work, our practice, our hopes and fears, our body, our sense of self, our children, our car, our iPod, etc - it's thoughts - stories that pass through experience - it's feelings - it's what going on emotionally, and it's sensations - it's sensory sensations of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and touching ... that is our life. Life is experience. Life is mind. There isn't any world out there we can touch directly. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWMOQ3GTDckRYUqsjfso9YKuPwH6AQWGMJy8xj7u-nFzr43Xsm3c9S7r8XFKgwipHMhhhEzUiLDjdCk447NKCSa_zpG2zHGabd66Kclp7j8AlvVjzV91gOoLZ5HhNEVeI8RDTb/s1600-h/lg_naropa9.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWMOQ3GTDckRYUqsjfso9YKuPwH6AQWGMJy8xj7u-nFzr43Xsm3c9S7r8XFKgwipHMhhhEzUiLDjdCk447NKCSa_zpG2zHGabd66Kclp7j8AlvVjzV91gOoLZ5HhNEVeI8RDTb/s320/lg_naropa9.jpg" border="0" alt="Naropa"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5275163549280268562" /></a>Yet we constantly project the display of mind into solid stuff that is actually out there. When we look, when we know .... we see that life has no more substance than a dream. As each appearance is examined ... we see that it is empty of substance .. where is it, we cannot say. What is it, we cannot say. Where did it come from, we cannot say. It's mysterious. It's undefinable. It's like a mirage, like a dream, without substance.<br /><br />It's all mind. It's all experience.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of perception.<br /><br /><blockquote>This mind, as well, is a mere movement of attention<br />That has no self-nature, being merely a gust of wind.<br />Empty of identity, like space.<br />All things, like space, are equal.</blockquote><br />When we turn attention to what is aware of all this experience ... what knows experience? What do we find? Nothing.<br /><br />Though we have this sense that 'something' is aware of all these appearances which seem to arise and fall .... when we ask "what is aware?" .. and rest in the gap that follows this .... we do not see anything .. our knowing reveals .. nothing. Nothing - no-thing.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of awareness.<br /><br /><blockquote>When speaking of 'Mahamudra'<br />It is not an entity that can be shown.<br />There the mind's suchness<br />Is itself the state of Mahamudra.</blockquote><br />When we rest in knowing, it's clear that there seems to be arisings, yet nothing can be found. These are both equally there, and yet not there. Nothing, and seemingly something. At one and the same time, we can know the inseparability of appearance and emptiness ... luminous emptiness.<br /><br />There's nothing we can really say ... it's just like this ... empty, and yet at once apparent... suchness.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of union.<br /><br />These three were the view - the view of Mahamudra.<br /><br /><blockquote>It is neither something to be corrected nor transformed,<br />But when anyone sees and realizes its nature<br />All that appears and exists is Mahamudra,<br />The great all-encompassing Dharmakaya.</blockquote><br />Unlike in so many approaches to mediation, to practice, or to the spiritual path, mahamudra emphasises one of self-liberation .. where nothing needs to be done. We don't need to correct what we find. We don't need to strive after some special state. We don't need to be good, to be better, to be enlightened.<br /><br />Just being aware, just resting in attention, with whatever is present, right now, just as it is. This resting in what is present, resting in knowing what is present, resting in knowing the nature of what is present right here and know. This takes care of the whole thing :-)<br /><br />Do nothing, rest in awareness.<br /><br />How things are is Dharmakaya. How things are is emptiness. How things are is unfindable, ungraspable, groundless, nameless, unborn ... this doesn't change with practice. It is simply how experience is. How mind is. Now, when you are awakened, when you are unawakened. It is the ground.<br /><br />There is no experience that isn't this way. Nothing in samsara or nirvana.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of the basic state.<br /><br /><blockquote>Naturally and without contriving, allowed simply to be,<br />This unimagined Dharmakaya,<br />Letting it be without seeking is the meditation training.<br />But to meditate while seeking is deluded mind.</blockquote><br />The path of Mahamudra consists of letting it be. Of letting go. Of simply being aware of what is, right now. In its nature. And resting there.<br /><br />No effort. No effort to being aware, no effort to doing anything with what we are aware of. No correcting. No fabricating. No seeking to get away from, to have any other experience. No trying to attain, or to develop, or change. <br /><br />Seeking takes you away from what is, here, right now. Only with what is, right here, can the nature of mind, of experience be known.<br /><br />We don't need to conjure up this emptiness, this Dharmakaya. We don't need to be still, to have no thoughts or emotions, or only perfect ones. We just allow what is present to be .. to rest in awareness, rest in knowing ... and know.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of realization.<br /><br /><blockquote>Just as with space and a magical display,<br />While neither cultivating nor not cultivating<br />How can you be separate and not separate!<br />This is a yogi's understanding.</blockquote><br />Am I separate from this display, these appearances, this awareness, this experience, this mind?<br /><br />I'm not looking literally *at* experience. As if there is an 'I' over here, and 'experience' over there. I simply rest in knowing. If a sense of 'me' arises, it arises as an experience. One more experience. Subjectivity arises as an experience. If a sense of something 'out there' arises, it arises as an experience. One more experience. Sometimes there's this flicker of 'I-ness' which seems to be there .... knowing cannot find it. Only when we project a world out there, only when we project a me in here, only with this imaginary life of things, of inner me, of division ... only then is there a seeming separation. But with awareness, with knowing of thoughts, feelings and sensations .. no sense of separation is ever found. There's no me, you, things, inner, outer .... it's just ... mind, experience, call it what you will.<br /><br />Just a magical display which appears in emptiness ... empty yet seemingly appearing at one and the same time. No separation can be found between this seeming dream, nor the nothingness of the dream.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of indivisibility.<br /><br />These three are meditation - the Mahamudra of meditation.<br /><br />Clarifying the view and clarifying mediation, Naropa now clarifies conduct.<br /><br /><blockquote>All good deeds and harmful actions<br />Dissolve by simply knowing this nature.<br />The emotions are the great wisdom.<br />Like a jungle fire, they are the yogi's helpers.</blockquote><br />We don't need to change who we are, strive to be good, to be a better person, to be enlightened. Our nature is what it is, empty, unborn, regardless of whether clouds appear to obscure the sun or not. Action is what it is ... seeming appearances arising. Past action ... past deeds, karma ... dissolves like snow on hot stones in the knowing of knowing. In emptiness, in knowing emptiness, nothing disturbs us, however 'violent' the emotions, however 'difficult' the stuff that arises. It simply is what it is, it seems to arise, and in knowing, in resting in knowing, it seems to pass though and pass away. Yet what arose, what went? And where? Like a dream, these actions.<br /><br />True enough, the stronger the emotion, the more energy is available for attention, *if* we can rest in it. Can we just rest in it, this raging sea? If we can, then awareness gains in energy, and knowing penetrates ever deeper. If we can't, we are blown off course, and start reacting to the emotion, to pushing and pulling.<br /><br />Just know what is .... this mass of knotted emotion ... don't push it away, don't try to transform it, don't try to get past it, or through it, or even try to understand it. Just rest in the knowing .... and emotion will fuel the knowing like a raging fire.<br /><br />If we have sufficient capacity to rest in awareness, then the more emotion, the greater the awareness, the greater the knowing .. it's all good :-)<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of self-liberation.<br /><br /><blockquote>How can there be staying or going?<br />What meditation is there by fleeing to a hermitage?<br />Without understanding this, all possible means<br />Never bring more than temporary liberation.</blockquote><br />You don't need to be in 'ideal conditions' to meditate or practice. You don't have to have a certain lifestyle. You don't have to be a monk or nun, single, on retreat, or any particular place in life to practice mahamudra.<br /><br />You just need to be right were you are .... now .... right here .... and rest in the knowing of what is present. That's it. And ever time you realise you are not right there, then you open awareness out, and rest in it. And know mind, know experience right here, right now.<br /><br />Otherwise you build dependency and attachment. Attachment to conditions, attachment to a way of life, attachment to being Buddhist.<br /><br />Attachment brings suffering in its wake, not liberation.<br /><br />You don't need to go anywhere to experience liberation. All dharmas self-liberate. Right here and now, just as it is, rest in knowing, in wakefulness, and know things as they are.<br /><br />Bringing all of life to the path, all of life to practice ... wherever you are, whatever is there, resting in the knowing ... <br /><br />Then you'll see that all experiences have the same taste .... the taste of emptiness, the taste of seeming appearances, the taste of inseparable appearance and emptiness. You don't have to go anywhere to know this. All experience is like this ... all possible experience is like this.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of equal taste.<br /><br /><blockquote>When understanding this nature, what is there to bind you?<br />While being undistracted from its continuity,<br />There is neither a composed nor an uncomposed state<br />To be cultivated or corrected with a remedy.</blockquote><br />When I rest in this knowing, it's as if all the dreams of suffering are a mirage .. how could they possibly arise, how could I ever get lost in all this, imagining it's all real, in here and out there?<br /><br />Nothing binds in this knowing, life flows, with great ease, actions take place spontaneously, we simply know what to do, and do it, at any moment, in any circumstance.<br /><br />There is just this flow of ease ... and we simply do what needs to be done.<br /><br />This is the nature of the Mahamudra of indivisibility.<br /><br />And these three were conduct - the Mahamudra of conduct.<br /><br />Goodness me ... what a lot of words!<br /><br />Just rest in the knowing of what is here already.<br /><br />:-)Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-46995540821817610252008-11-18T14:10:00.029+00:002008-11-23T17:00:08.566+00:00Reflections on Niguma - Vajra Verses of Self-Liberating Mahamudra - Reflections<blockquote>The wisdom dakini known as Nigupta, illustrious Narotapa's sister, was a self-manifest yogini, a powerful lord bodhisattva on awakening's tenth stage, who received direct instruction from Conqueror Vajra Bearer. She sang these vajra verses of self-liberating Great Seal:<br /><br />Nature of mind,<br />Wish-fulfilling jewel, to you I bow.<br /><br />Wishing to attain perfect enlightenment,<br />Visualize your body clearly as the deity<br />To purify ordinary thoughts.<br />Develop a noble intention to help others<br />And pure devotion to your spiritual master.<br /><br />Don't dwell on your spiritual master or the deity.<br />Don't bring anything to mind,<br />Be it real or imagined.<br />Rest uncontrived in the innate state.<br /><br />Your own mind, uncontrived, is the body of ultimate enlightenment.<br />To remain undistracted within this is meditation's essential point.<br />Realize the great, boundless, expansive state.<br /><br />Myriad thoughts of anger and desire<br />Propel you within the seas of existence.<br />Take the sharp sword of the unborn state<br />And cut through them to their lack of intrinsic nature.<br />When you cut a tree's root,<br />Its branches won't grow.<br /><br />On a bright ocean,<br />Bubbles emerge then dissolve back into the water.<br />Likewise, thoughts are nothing but the nature of reality:<br />Don't regard them as faults. Relax.<br /><br />When you have no clinging to what appears, what arises,<br />It frees itself within its own ground.<br /><br />Appearances, sound, and phenomena are your own mind.<br />There are no phenomena apart from mind.<br />Mind is free from birth, cessation,<br />And formulation.<br /><br />Those who know mind's nature<br />Enjoy the five senses' pleasures<br />But do not stray from the nature of reality.<br />On an island of gold,<br />You search in vain for earth and stones.<br /><br />In the equanimity of the great absolute expanse,<br />There is no acceptance or rejection,<br />No states of meditation or postmeditation.<br /><br />When you actualize that state,<br />It is spontaneously present,<br />Fulfilling beings' hopes<br />Like a wish-fulfilling jewel.<br /><br />Persons of highest, middle and common levels of capability<br />Should learn this in stages suitable to their understanding.</blockquote><br /><br />----------------------------------------<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfGOW263K5mqLuh7aXTfsJaM6ND9opN-WDrxoFz8v2PnjVKpkDi38F94XrGUlu7KtZYG8PzavufBVm8pRWSI5VSwkfvlCHxKjm0Cgw1wWn79rEViTjm5FvR4RVjqUa-Hij9Vi/s1600-h/niguma.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfGOW263K5mqLuh7aXTfsJaM6ND9opN-WDrxoFz8v2PnjVKpkDi38F94XrGUlu7KtZYG8PzavufBVm8pRWSI5VSwkfvlCHxKjm0Cgw1wWn79rEViTjm5FvR4RVjqUa-Hij9Vi/s320/niguma.jpg" border="0" alt="Niguma"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270316245125977058" /></a>from Timeless Rapture - Inspired verses of the Shangpa Masters.<br />compiled by Jamgon Kongtrul.<br />Translated by Ngawang Zangpo.<br /><br />Selections from an alternative translation are <a href="http://luminousemptiness.blogspot.com/2004/11/niguma-mahamudra-as-spontaneous.html">here</a>.<br /><br />After preliminary instructions, of maintaining vajra pride, bodhicitta and guru devotion, Niguma's beautiful verses teach how to realise ordinary mind through mahamudra, through the non-meditation, and the self-liberation of all experiences.<br /><br /><blockquote>Don't dwell on your spiritual master or the deity.<br />Don't bring anything to mind,<br />Be it real or imagined.<br />Rest contrived in the innate state.</blockquote><br />There's no need to alter your mind in any way, to bring anything in particular or special to mind. You can recognise how mind or experience is, how it truly is, and how it appears, at any time, with any particular thought or appearance present, or none at all.<br /><br /><blockquote>Your own mind, uncontrived, is the body of ultimate enlightenment.<br />To remain undistracted within this is meditation's essential point.<br />Realize the great, boundless, expansive state.</blockquote><br />Experience, just as it is, at any time, *is* the Dharmakaya. It is empty, it cannot be found. When I'm aware and rest in that awareness in how experience is, it's clear it isn't anything. It isn't anywhere. It isn't anything that a concept can tie up or encapsulate. Knowing mind's nature, mind is ungraspable and indescribable. This groundlessness *is* what the notion of Dharmakaya points to. <br /><br />It's relatively easy to know this, to experience this. But to rest in that knowing - *that* is much, much harder to do. To remain undistracted in this resting, without falling off into conceptual thought, or losing that groundlessness that one is resting in .... like balancing on the tip of a needle, for one of limited capacity as myself. It's also easy to get lost in 'understanding' this, rather than knowing it .... but what is the relation between understanding concepts and direct experience?<br /><br />Just as it's impossible to say where experience is, where mind is, just so is it impossible to say that it's limited in any way. Experience appears to be boundless, without circumference, without limits. Empty, open and full is experience.<br /><br /><blockquote>Myriad thoughts of anger and desire<br />Propel you within the seas of existence.<br />Take the sharp sword of the unborn state<br />And cut through them to their lack of intrinsic nature.<br />When you cut a tree's root,<br />Its branches won't grow.<br /></blockquote><br />The disturbing emotions create the six realms of existence for us. As they arise, so too does the corresponding realm, and so too do we appear to inhabit that realm, that aspect of samsaric conditioned existence, without either knowing or freedom.<br /><br />As such as anger or desire arises, it's easy to lose knowing, to lose our resting in the knowing of the groundless, empty nature of experience, and to get sucked up into 'believing' in the solidity, the facticity, the reality of the emotion that arises. As we lose that knowing, then we get lost in a world of seemingly solidity that pushes and pulls away at us, driving us on and on, and giving rise to a sense of 'me' as well as 'other' or 'things'. These arise simultaneously with the loss of resting in knowing emptiness. As Niguma says, we are propelled on ... a lovely choice of word which describes so well how we are as if a runaway train, without little ability to either steer or stop our course.<br /><br />Yet as we come to knowing, as we realise our error, and being groundlessness back into view, that simple recollection cuts all the roots of this delusion, and the six realms dissolve from whence they came .. like dreams they melt away in an instance. In meditation or postmeditation, when you rest in minds nature, it's almost impossible to imagine how disturbing emotions could ever arise again, or how you could ever ride the runaway train of samsaric realms again. (and yet you do, time and time again!).<br /><br /><blockquote>On a bright ocean,<br />Bubbles emerge then dissolve back into the water.<br />Likewise, thoughts are nothing but the nature of reality:<br />Don't regard them as faults. Relax.</blockquote><br />How strongly I tried to get away from thoughts in my early days of meditation, and attempt to quieten the mind through subduing this enemy! Myriad ways of working with thoughts, each more subtle than the last, but each with the same end in mind - to get rid of thoughts from my mind, and instill clarity, peacefulness and stillness.<br /><br />It's funny that, how pushing a cork down into the water results in? ... results in the cork shooting up out of the waters surface ... reacting to the effort, and triggering a new cycle of activity.<br /><br />Regarding thoughts as in any way problematic, or to be removed is counterproductive. Thoughts are just what they are, seeming arisings in mind, seeming appearances in experience. When aware of thoughts, what is known? They are empty in nature - you can't find a thought, you can't hold it, you can't pin it down. It comes from where? .. we can't say ... they go to where? we can't say. And whilst seeming there ... are they there? ... we can't say. Ungraspable and unfathomable are thoughts.<br /><br />So thoughts reveal the nature of experience, when knowing is directed there. Just like anything else, their nature is the same. Not different from a still mind, not different from an 'enlightened' mind, not different from any other experience at all. Thoughts are empty. Know them, and you will not find them. Bizarre but true - the more clearly you know, the less that's there to actually know!<br /><br />Why on earth would you want to get rid of them, when they are precisely what you are looking for?<br /><br />One of the most direct ways I can know the nature of mind is to cause a thought to arise, and 'see' whether the nature of experience changes before, during or after the thought is there. Or to see where it comes from, abides at, and goes to. Etc. Resting in the response to those allows me to know that mind/experience doesn't change in nature whether thought is present or not. Empty, and groundless.<br /><br />Of course, our habitual patterns tend toward grasping onto ideas. Many of us find them particularly alluring, and we buy into them as if they were 'fact', rather than thought. Then we get lost. But as we practice the entrancing quality of thoughts lessens, and we can more easily know them as just what they are, just another seeming appearance in mind.<br /><br />As we come to know the nature of thoughts, we can ask "what is going on at the story level" ... and rest in the gap or response that arises. Knowing thoughts in this way, we see them as no other than mind's nature, as empty arisings.<br /><br />As we because less fearful of thoughts through no longer seeing them as the enemy of meditation, we can relax, and rest in what is, whatever is, and know if for what it is.<br /><br /><blockquote>When you have no clinging to what appears, what arises,<br />It frees itself within its own ground.</blockquote><br />Without clinging to what arises, without pushing or pulling at it (with desire or ill-will), without attempting to apply any antidote to it, just allowing it to be, and resting in the knowing, thoughts naturally self-liberate, they are empty in nature, and mind remains empty throughout.<br /><br /><blockquote>Appearances, sound, and phenomena are your own mind.<br />There are no phenomena apart from mind.<br />Mind is free from birth, cessation,<br />And formulation.</blockquote><br />When an appearance arises, such as a sound, we can ask "where is this thought"? The knowing that arises in the resting after this question reveals the same answer as when we ask "where is mind"? Nowhere and yet everywhere.<br /><br />I can't find a difference when knowing mind and knowing thought. I can't find a difference when knowing 'awareness' and knowing 'what it is that awareness holds'. When I ask "what is this"? ..... and direct knowing towards awareness itself ..... that is, when I know 'mind' in Niguma's teaching .... and also when I ask "what is known by awareness?" when I direct awareness towards whatever seems to be known or held by awareness ... I can't find anything that would allow me to say 'these are different.<br /><br />There's different flavours to directing one's attention to awareness or to what seems to arise in awareness .... they seem to appeal to me at different times, and keep practice fresh. But when I know either .... inseparable is the only way I can describe what is revealed.<br /><br />When I rest in experience, it's clear that experience is what there is. No phenomena are known to mind beyond itself. There's nothing out there, and there's nothing in here. There's nothing other than the endless unfolding of experience, nothing other than mind itself. It's not saying that nothing exists outside of 'my' mind. It's simply that I know nothing of anything other than experience. How could I? Nothing I know is untouched by awareness. Nothing is known 'before' it touches experience or awareness or mind. There is nothing beyond experience that can be known. The great completeness. Innocence <br /><br />When "where do appearances (of sight, sound, pressure, etc) arise from"? And where do they go to? Where are they when they are arisen? Do these 'things' actually happen at all? Mind's nature remains the same, and untouched by all of this seeming display. Not a jot more, or less, better or worse is the nature of experience, regardless of whatever seems to arise.<br /><br /><blockquote>Those who know mind's nature<br />Enjoy the five senses' pleasures<br />But do not stray from the nature of reality.<br />On an island of gold,<br />You search in vain for earth and stones.</blockquote><br />No longer either caught up in pushing/pulling, in Samsara's game ... nor indeed caught up in trying to change things, trying to apply antidotes, trying to get somewhere in meditation, trying to make things better, in hopes or fears .... no longer caught up in all this .... one can simply abide in what is ... know if for what it is ... and enjoy the magician's display ... the dance of luminosity ... and smile :-)<br /><br />Why try to change mind, when it is 'perfect' as it is? Why look for rocks and stones of ideas of perfection, when knowing reveals the great completeness/perfection, right here and now, wherever that is?<br /><br /><blockquote>In the equanimity of the great absolute expanse,<br />There is no acceptance or rejection,<br />No states of meditation or postmeditation.</blockquote><br />You don't need to do anything at all ... just relax and rest in mind's nature. You don't need to change anything, to get anywhere ... all goals are empty .... just rest .. and what needs to be done is revealed each moment ... and actions take place, effortlessly, without doing, without a doer.<br /><br /><blockquote>When you actualize that state,<br />It is spontaneously present,<br />Fulfilling beings' hopes<br />Like a wish-fulfilling jewel.</blockquote><br />Should I ever remain resting in wakefulness, rather than slipping off the resting, then no doubt activities will flow forth, as the teachings say .... and Enlightened activity will pervade the ten directions!<br /><br /><blockquote>Persons of highest, middle and common levels of capability<br /> Should learn this in stages suitable to their understanding.</blockquote><br />Dimwits such as I .... build capacity to do nothing ... rest, slip away, come back, rest again ... slip away. Knowing is timeless, awareness is timeless ... coming back to it ... you've never been aware .. stringing a thread of beads, of beads that are not discrete or other than infinity ....<br /><br />such as it is ... is how it is ... awareness opens .... and resting in this allows knowing to deepen. <br /><br />What does it reveal ... nothing other than what was there all along.<br /><br />The taste of grapes, the sight of mountains ... the discordant sound of car engines ... just what they are ... complete, and none other than empty, lucid, and unhindered ...<br /><br />"May Niguma's heart words illuminate the hearts of all beings ... and the unborn awareness bring great peace to all"Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-13277391103248844682008-11-12T10:19:00.007+00:002008-11-12T20:44:12.322+00:00Nobody is running this showOne thing that's been coming into view lately in meditation is how my common sense notions that 'I' am somehow taking the decisions and choices and thereby the active agent of my life is not actually backed up by experience.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tdsMmqsE3Rh9ObJ2EnfTmHpFWTzjsMq2RhPHX55Q16tNWMddtyczFhyPrdQyHS_Hz0dWhF3aAkFkeC7Qds5DrVHzNv7WmObCx3sqVoaGx3c3OYdzU0aT7BscXORQN_37vlMT/s1600-h/headless-male-mannequin+MHM03.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 209px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7tdsMmqsE3Rh9ObJ2EnfTmHpFWTzjsMq2RhPHX55Q16tNWMddtyczFhyPrdQyHS_Hz0dWhF3aAkFkeC7Qds5DrVHzNv7WmObCx3sqVoaGx3c3OYdzU0aT7BscXORQN_37vlMT/s320/headless-male-mannequin+MHM03.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267755768294709026" /></a>My conventional notion is that, for example, when I decide to switch my focus in meditation, say, to being aware of my physical sensations, rather than what is going on at the 'story' level, that it's somehow 'me' that is taking that decision, and that it's the result of some sort of continuity of purpose, which is what allows me to have a general aim to the meditation, and that somehow that carries through whatever is coming and going in appearances.<br /><br />Knowing reveals something quite different.<br /><br />I cannot find any 'me' that resides throughout the mediation, and which is making those decisions. Any sense of 'me' that does arise is momentary, and not continuous. So it's just another arising of appearances, like any other, rather than a glimpse into something deep and hidden, and lurking 'behind' everything else.<br /><br />Moreover, when I allow the process of 'choice' to come into awareness, the actual moments of choice themselves, what do I 'see'?<br /><br />Well, I see nothing, can't find anything that corresponds to that at all. Choice takes place, quite clearly, yet no location for choice is revealed to awareness, neither location in time, nor in place. It seems to happen, yet it's as if it's a living dream .... it's not happening at all when I turn knowing directly 'towards' it. <br /><br />"where is this choice" .... I might ask ... and rest in the response - the opening that follows this question, not any answer, any rush to conceptualise or answer or fill that gap or opening with understanding, but just resting in the opening there .... resting in that opening and then taking a choice, doing, acting, creating karma through exercising will .... nothing is there, nothing is revealed, nothing whatsoever is findable .. and yet ... the action occurs.<br /><br />So where is the agent in all these empty arisings, this luminous emptiness?<br /><br />When awareness knows, it's clear that there isn't really any agent, no agency. These seeming actions occur, these appearances of action take place, yet nobody is really bringing them about. Similarly, when I don't act, when I decide to act, then stop that and don't follow through on that .... there isn't really an agent which doesn't act. The not acting takes place without 'me'. Not only is there no 'me' there with the doing and deciding not to do, but there's no action or non-action either. Nothing transpires, and nothing is guiding this action.<br /><br />Woh! .... to my common sense view of myself, my ability to guide my life, to make choices, to direct my life in a way that seems valuable and meaningful is one of my most treasured abilities.<br /><br />But actually, I'm not running this show at all!<br /><br />Stuff seems to take place, and choices seem to be made, which attempt to guide my life in useful directions.<br /><br />Yet knowing reveals nobody there, as well as nothing happening.<br /><br />There's nobody home.<br /><br />There's nobody in charge.<br /><br />The lights are indeed on, yet nobody is home!<br /><br />Mahamudra has indeed taken 'me' to a strange land, where everything I used to 'know' is no longer true, and what I now actually know is ... well .... nothing! .... but nothing which is truly known, rather than a whole bunch of something which I believed in and thought that I actually knew.<br /><br />How do I actually take a decision, or act? Where does this take place? What makes it happen, at that time, that place? <br /><br />Hard to see is this 'acting' (to paraphrase Yoda) - actually, not hard, but impossible thus far.<br /><br />Actions seem as though they well up, from where? no-where. For what reason? It's hard to say. Most assuredly, it doesn't emanate from any 'me' or locus which is somehow directing this show. <br /><br />Actorless and actionless.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-50888161939489769642008-09-25T06:23:00.001+00:002008-09-25T06:25:29.885+00:00Autumn HaikuSitting in meditation today,<br />After the Autumn rain;<br />The smell of wet leaves lingers.Chodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690635.post-83926042059153904782008-08-28T13:36:00.009+00:002008-11-19T15:05:03.247+00:00My breath don't live here no moreI've been reflecting more on my experience of Mahamudra Shamatha ... resting with the breath.<br /><br />Continuing from where I got to in my last post ... the breath isn't anywhere ... and it's not a thing. There is no breath as such, nor is it in a particular place. So how do I rest on it, if there isn't a locatable 'it', as it were.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdkUIEL0H7WWBjtneGQu1Fus6TaC31qbH1c8vRW6GyCnLZe_F7LeFqh_3c16ERMwNlhHNGsbZanVU6w-WmkvMZApcr30AYDAGP0cWXuMMtXp9KNiTHBJdUyI3wx3UCdH2prhqG/s1600-h/DandelionSeeds.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdkUIEL0H7WWBjtneGQu1Fus6TaC31qbH1c8vRW6GyCnLZe_F7LeFqh_3c16ERMwNlhHNGsbZanVU6w-WmkvMZApcr30AYDAGP0cWXuMMtXp9KNiTHBJdUyI3wx3UCdH2prhqG/s320/DandelionSeeds.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239582874861703666" /></a>One of the things I've been noticing in particular, is that there is no 'place' or dimension in my meditation. When I visualise Machig Labdron on a lotus above my head, I have a sense of that .... but actually, there isn't any above at all in experience, in mind. Whilst it's true that to a certain extent I can sense things as being spacially in relation to each other .... there's no absolute or real sense of up or down to be found, or any other dimension. Dimension doesn't apply.<br /><br />Similarly with the breath ... where is the breath? Is it a sensation in the abdomen. Is it a sensation in the nostril. Is it a sense of movement in the chest. In a way, it's all of these and none. <br /><br />The breath isn't there in the sense of perceiving it directly. All I can do it perceive various sensations in the body. And they give a clue that the breath was 'passing by' at that point. It was 'there' ... it was 'here'. And then what do I do? .. I string all those disparate sensations together, and call that 'the breath'. I say conceptually, that these are all 'breath' ... and other sensations aren't. So this is the 'breath'.<br /><br />Ok .. you say .. but actually ... most of the time, those sensations are not there. Most of the time, whatever that is, when I'm resting on the breath in shamatha, there's no appearance or sensation arising. Most of the time I'm between breaths, or sensations. There's space, you could say. Or emptiness. Well, most of the time, I'm kinda hanging around in that space, and waiting for the breath to show up. I'm hanging around, perhaps where I suspect my next sensation around the nostril will be .. for sensations, which indicate that the breath is there. <br /><br />But how do I hang around in the area of the nostril? Where is this? Spacially? There's no place, or dimension in mind, in experience, only that which I impute. So I'm hanging around .. my awareness is open, and resting .. some'where' .. but where? Somehow I'm hanging in awareness .. and somehow, I'm resting somewhere ... where I think that the breath will reappear, rather than somewhere else ...<br /><br />and yet I'm not, because I'm just resting .....<br /><br />and wherever the breath appears, that's where my awareness is, and rests.<br /><br />However, then it's not resting on a particular sensation, or set of sensations, like 'nostril' ... but wherever the breath shows up ....<br /><br />I suspect that's why I've got less shamatha and more vipassana in this nowadays, as I can't really switch off the knowing aspect, which knows things as they appear, and knows things as they really are ... or at least, knows these two to some degree.<br /><br />Can't really just switch that off .... and somehow just rest on a particular object .... and become absorbed in that object .... as nothing is so solid anymore ....<br /><br />Seems like the 'knowing' aspect is there, and doesn't wanna be turned off!<br /><br />hmm ... random thoughts on where my breath wentChodpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15533282351557497598noreply@blogger.com1