04/29/2023
Resolve,
determindness, resoluteness,
but to what purpose?
to make money?
to gain status?
to raise a family?
a purpose that comes with Life?
Where to find it?
In Himalayan caves, cathedrals,
gambling halls, brothels,
or within us, in life, itself?
We close out the week and the month with one of Tilopa’s most important teachings: “The Six Precepts or Words of Advice” that he gave to Naropa.
“The Six Precepts or Words of Advice”
Don’t recall Let go of what has passed
Don’t imagine Let go of what may come
Don’t think Let go of what is happening now
Don’t examine Don’t try to figure anything out
Don’t control Don’t try to make anything happen
Rest Relax, right now, and rest
– Tilopa
So, try those out this weekend and see how you do. In that case then, there’s no senses in asking you to have a wonderful weekend.
Today’s Video: :Tilopa’s Six Essential Points of Meditation – Mahamudra – Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism”
04/28/2023
without borders
without patterns
keep the energy feeling alive,
spaciousness, vibrations,
the body participates
in that deepened sense,
understanding awareness.
Staying with the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, today we look at a legendary character and master, Tilopa. He practiced Anuttarayoga Tantra, a set of spiritual practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. He ground sesame seeds during the day and at night he was a solicitor and bouncer for Dharima, a prostitute. . After receiving the transmission in a vision of Vajradhara, Tilopa meditated in two caves, and bound himself with heavy chains to hold the correct meditation posture. He practiced for many years and then met the mind of all buddhas in the form of Diamond Holder Vajradhara. Tilopa is considered the grandfather of today’s Kagyu Lineage. Naropa, his most important student, became his successor and carried and passed on the teachings.
This quote is in the form of a song with which Tilopa instructed the Mahamudra to Naropa:
“The fool in his ignorance, disdaining Mahamudra,
Knows nothing but struggle in the flood of samsara.
Have compassion for those who suffer constant anxiety!
Sick of unrelenting pain and desiring release, adhere to a master,
For when his blessing touches your heart, the mind is liberated”
– Tilopa, from the song “The Ganges Mahamudra”
Today’s Video: “The short biography of Mahasidda Tilopa”
04/27/2023
Listen, listen closely.
We listen to things,
but real listening is not
listening to.
It is not listening to anything,
just the feeling of being
without conceptualizing,
without characterizing or judging.
Be available to the presence.
Let it unfold within you.
Allow the moment to come to you.
The last two sessions we looked at Milarepa. Today we look at one of his foremost teachers, Marpa Lotsawa. Known commonly as Marpa the Translator, Marpa Lotsāwa was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Vajrayana teachings from India, including the teachings and lineages of Mahamudra. Due to this the Kagyu lineage, which he founded, is often called Marpa Kagyu in his honour. This lineage was my first encounter with Tibetan Buddhism.
Upon Marpa’s athird journey to India, he eventually found Mahasiddha Naropa and received the full transmission from him, after which Naropa formally declared Marpa to be his successor. After Marpa’s second visit to India Milarepa became his disciple. After the death of Marpa’s son, Darma Dode, Milarepa inherited Marpa’s lineage in full.
Having made the mistake of chosing his personal meditational Buddha-form, Hevajra, over his teacher, Naropa, Marpa fell ill. His dharma brothers and sisters came to visit him, hoping to find a cure. Marpa tod them:
“Dear Vajra brothers and sisters! Whether I live or die depends purely on the karma of Tibetans. If they have the good karma to receive the teachings I am about to bring them, I will survive anyway, whether I get proper medicine or not. And if they do not have this karma, I will die anyway, however well you try to cure me. So, let us not spend money of the sangha and rely on the nature of phenomena!” – Marpa Lotsawa
Marpa soon got well. Therefore the Tibetans who were to receive his teaching must have had good karma. The statement by Marpa and his subsequent cure have not been approved by the FDA.
Today’s Video:
04/26/2023
simplicity comes through understanding,
stillness comes through understanding,
peace comes through understanding,
beauty and love come through understanding,
and what does understanding come through?
not through objects,
not through the mind,
but through grace,
the grace of being understanding.
Today, let’s do one more quote from Milarepa. This one is a rather lengthy, controversial quote.
“When ye look at me I am an idle, idle man; when I look at myself I am a busy, busy man. Since upon the plain of uncreated infinity I am building, building the tower of ecstasy, I have no time for building houses. Since upon the steppe of the void of truth I am breaking, breaking the savage fetter of suffering, I have no time for ploughing family land. Since at the bourn of unity ineffable I am subduing, subduing the demon-foe of self, I have no time for subduing angry foe-men. Since in the palace of mind which transcends duality I am waiting, waiting for spiritual experience as my bride, I have no time for setting up house. Since in the circle of the Buddhas of my body I am fostering, fostering the child of wisdom, I have no time for fostering snivelling children. Since in the frame of the body, the seat of all delight, I am saving, saving precious instruction and reflection, I have no time for saving wordly wealth.” ― Milarepa, Songs of Milarepa
Here Milarepa seems like he is scoffing at some rather noble pursuits like raising a family, fostering children, building a business, farming. What he is actually telling us is no matter how noble a pursuit, if it is external, in other words dealing with objects, phenomena, don’t waist your time on it. Instead turn your attention inward to reflect upon your true nature, “fostering the child of wisdom.”
Today’s Video: “Milarepa (1) – Selected Pointers and Teachings for Meditation – Tibetan Buddhism – Kagyu”
04/25/2023
When life asks for thinking, think.
When life asks for acting, act
When life asks for stillness, be still.
When life asks for rest, rest.
When life asks for forgiveness, forgive.
When life asks for thanksgiving, give thanks.
Not through discipline, but understanding.
Last week we looked at quotes from Chan Buddhist masters in China. Today we move to Tibet and a famous Tibetan master from the 11th Century, Milarepa. In his younger years, he studied black magic in an attempt to gain revenge on a wicked uncle who had stripped his mother and sister of all their property. This led him to mass murder and destruction through the occult. Some time later with a heavy conscience, he sought out various Tibetan Buddhist masters, finally gaining acceptance as a full-fledged disciple under the guidance of the Tibetan master Marpa. After his years of study with Marpa were completed, Milarepa sought out remote, isolated mountain retreats in which he practiced rigorous meditation and was eventually enlightened. He went on to teach and convert many disciples.
“Life is short and the time of death is uncertain; so apply yourself to meditation. Avoid doing evil, and acquire merit, to the best of your ability, even at the cost of life itself. In short: Act so that you have no cause to be ashamed of yourselves and hold fast to this rule.” – Milarepa
Today’s Video: Milarepa: The Great Tibetan Tantric & His Enlightenment – Sadhguru
04/22/2023
Happy Earth Day, Everyone!
Don’t seek the purpose of Life.
Life has no purpose.
There is no one who lives,
there is no one who dies.
No liver and no dier.
There is only living,
only life.
Isn’t that enough?
Why do you want more?
Today we look at Bodhidharma’s main disciple, the monk who became heir to Bodhidharma and the Second Patriarch of Chan buddhism, Dazu Huike. Huike studied with Bodhidharma at Shaolin for six years. Then Bodhidharma gave Huike his robe and bowl, a sign that Huike was now Bodhidharma’s dharma heir and ready to begin teaching.
Bodhidharma also gave Huike a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra, which Huike is said to have studied diligently for the next few years. The Lankavatara is a Mahayana sutra chiefly known for its teaching of Yogacara and Buddha-Nature.
“Originally deluded, one calls the mani-pearl a potsherd
Suddenly one is awakened—and it is [recognized] as a pearl
Ignorance and wisdom are identical, not different.” – Dazu Huike
Enjoy Earth Day, everyone! And have an enjoyable weekend.
Today’s Video: “Zen Will Change Your Life – Bodhidharma & Huike”
04/21/2023
Reactions, deeply rooted,
can we let go?
Live grounded in our being,
completely harmonious
and appropriate
to our actions?
See the tension in our reactions.
See it without trying to change it.
Pure seeing, being aware.
Then the ground becomes the body.
The organic body memory,
natural, original.
A sensitive body is the real body.
We have been following two major Chan masters of the Tang dynasty, Lin-Chi and his mentor. Huangbo. So today we go all the way back to the start of the Chan Buddhist period in China with the arrival of Bodhidharma from India in the sixth century.
“To find Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don’t see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory, keeping precepts results in good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings—but no Buddha.” – Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma is telling us that the purpose of our life is not to gain good karma or have a good memory or a good rebirth or future blessings. It has nothing to do with the future or future lives. The purpose of life is to realize our true nature here and now.
Today’s Video: “Why do monks always greet with one hand? – The Story of Bodhidharma”
04/20/2023
A corpse is still.
A corpse has no thoughts.
A corpse has no conflicts.
A corpse has no desires.
A corpse has no anxiety, no stress.
Why do many spiritual teachers
encourage students to be corpses?
Today we continue with quotes from Huangbo “Chan Master Without Limits” and mentor to Lin-Chi
“Awakening occurs as the nature of the mind, it doesn’t involve the six perfections and myriad practices. These are all merely marginal activities for teaching and helping liberate others in various states and according to circumstances. “Enlightenment,” “suchness,” “ultimate reality,” “liberation”… all of these are expedient, temporary expressions, unnecessary to the awakened mind.” – Huangbo
So now that we see all these practices that spiritual advisors over the years have encouraged us to do, when are we going to stop chasing our tails and make ourselves available to our true nature?
Today’s video: “Zen Teaching of Huang Po”
https://youtu.be/ohz3VF27Ad
04/19/2023
A sense of lack
deep and engrossing,
the price we pay
for the enjoyment
of feeling separate.
Like most realized masters, Lin-chi had a spiritual teacher who guided him to the threshold. Huangbo, was the head of a monastery that he named Huangpo after the mountain where he grew up. He was given the posthumus title of “Chan Master Without Limits.
“As to cultivating the six perfections (of character) and all the other self-improvement practices, and performing all sorts of virtuous activities to accumulate merit – since you are already complete, you cannot add to that perfection through practice. You should perform practices when there is an appropriate occasion, and return to stillness when the occasion has ended. If you do not clearly see that this mind itself is awakening, but instead want to practice by attaching to forms and seeking rewards, then it is all delusion apart from the Way.” -Huangbo
Self-improvement, self-cultivation, seeking enlightenment, none of it has anything to do with becoming realized. The Self is already realized. One merely needs to see it, not as a concept but as the Truth.
Today’s Video: “Huang Po – Be a Buddha”
04/18/2023
Identifying with the body-mind
prevents it from living
to its fullest.
To be a perfect human being
we mustn’t believe
we are a human being.
To the extent we believe,
our humanity will remain hidden,
our best qualities won’t actualize.
So then, what are we?
Today we hear more from Linji, one of the most highly regarded of the T’ang period masters and founder of the Linji school of Chinese Zen (Chan) Buddhism.
“If you want to be free, get to know your real self. It has no form, no appearance, no root, no basis, no abode, but is lively and buoyant. It responds with versatile facility, but its function cannot be located. Therefore when you look for it you become further from it, when you seek it you turn away from it all the more.” – Lin-chi
Today’s Video: “Rinzai – Zen Master Lin chi- Linji Yixuan Quotes – Taoism and Iconoclast”
04/17/2023
Trusting is our nature.
without trust
we are something else,
not human.
Trusting is not calculation,
not plotting,
no hesitation.
It is beauty, love,
intelligence.
When one does not trust,
one does not love,
an expression of the heart,
not of the mind.
This week we move from Europe in the Middle Ages to the same period in the Far East, starting with the great ninth century Chinese Zen master Lin-chi, one of the most highly regarded of the T’ang period masters and founder of the Linji school of Chinese Zen (Chan) Buddhism.
“When it’s time to get dressed, put on your clothes.
When you must walk, then walk.
When you must sit, then sit.
Just be your ordinary self in ordinary life,
unconcerned in seeking for Buddhahood.
When you’re tired, lie down.
The fool will laugh at you
but the wise man will understand.” – Lin-chi
Any questions or do you understand? Ordinary self living an ordinary life, can anything be more clear?
Today’s Video: “Words of Lin-Chi | Zen Buddhism”
04/15/2023
Truth can only be understood
by Truth.
Truth can only be transmitted
by Truth.
One who criticizes, compares, judges
is not privy to the Truth,
Only when there is listening
without a listener,
observing
without an observer
does Truth reveal itself.
Yesterday we looked at Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Italian theologian and philosopher. Today, we move further back in history to the Dark Ages and two quotes from another Christian saint. Augustine of Hippo born in 354 A.D. spent his early life as a heretic until Saint Ambrose converted him. Eventually Augustine became an important “Father of the Early Church” and influence the development of Western Christianity.
“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” – Saint Augustine
“Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.” – Saint Augustine
Today’s Video: “Saint You Should Know: Augustine of Hippo”
04/14/2023
welcoming,
surrendering,
listening,
not knowing.
always new,
always the same,
eternally young,
eternally new.
For today’s quote (actually two short ones), we turn back to the middle ages and the 13th-century Italian theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
“Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.” – Thomas Aquinas.
And one more…
“One aspect of neighbourly love is that we must not merely will our neighbours good, but actually work to bring it about.”
– Thomas Aquinas
Today’s video: “Five Ways to Prove God Exists (Aquinas 101)”
04/13/2023
There is nothing to take,
yet we cannot give up trying.
See there is nothing there,
and the desire to take fades.
Over the past two days, I have been including a couple of Sadguru’s video lectures in conjunction with Dhyan Giten’s 3 stages of satori. So, today I thought I would post a quote from Sadguru.
“If you ask a tree how he feels to know that he’s spreading his fragrance and making people happy, I don’t think a tree looks at it that way. I am just like that, and it is just my nature to be like this.”
― Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Today’s Video: “The Secret Language of Trees”
04/12/2023
Would you like
to live in peace,
to be free from
a stressful life,
draining relationships
petty foibles?
defending your self-image
brings nothing but trouble.
Let go!
Today we have Part 3 of Swami Dhyan Giten’s three stages of enlightenment.
“The third stage of enlightenment:
Ocean, Wholeness, No-self, Pure being
At the third stage of enlightenment, at the third step of Satori, our individual river flowing silently, suddenly reaches to the Ocean and becomes one with the Ocean.
At the third Satori, the ego is lost, and there is Atma, pure being. You are, but without any boundaries. The river has become the Ocean, the Whole.
It has become a vast emptiness, just like the pure sky.
The third stage of enlightenment happens when you have become capable of finding the inner being, the meditative quality within, the gap, the inner silence and emptiness, so that it becomes a natural quality.
You can find the gap whenever you want.
This is what tantra callas Mahamudra, the great orgasm, what Buddha calls Nirvana, what Lao Tzu calls Tao and what Jesus calls the kingdom of God.
You have found the door to God.
You have come home.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten
There’s nothing much I can add. This is the third and final stage in which you return to your true nature. Though you still function in the world, you are not of the world. You are not in it; the world is in you.
Today’s Video: “The Simplest Way to Enlightenment – Sadhguru Spot of 10”
04/11/2023
bodily sensations,
by not accepting them,
trying to change them,
taking pills to escape them
robs us of intimacy.
Today is Part 2 of Swami Dhyan Giten’s three stages of enlightenment.
“2. The second stage of enlightenment:
Silence, Relaxation, Togetherness, Inner Being
The second stage of enlightenment is a new order, a harmony, from within, which comes from the inner being. It is the quality of freedom.
The inner chaos has disappeared and a new silence, relaxation and togetherness has arisen.
Your own wisdom from within has arisen.
A subtle ego is still present in the second stage of enlightenment.
The Hindus has three names for the ego:
1. Ahamkar, which is the ordinary ego.
2. Asmita, which is the quality of Am-ness, of no ego. It is a very silent ego, not aggreessive, but it is still a subtle ego.
3. Atma, the third word is Atma, when the Am-ness is also lost. This is what Buddha calls no-self, pure being.
In the second stage of enlightenment you become capable of being in the inner being, in the gap, in the meditative quality within, in the silence and emptiness.
For hours, for days, you can remain in the gap, in utter aloneness, in God.
Still you need effort to remain in the gap, and if you drop the effort, the gap will disappear.
Love, meditation and prayer becomes the way to increase the effort in the search for God.
Then the second stage becomes a more conscious effort. Now you know the way, you know the direction.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
Needless to say, it is quite a leap from Stage 1 to Stage 2. Perhaps the good Swami should have included a few intermediate steps to get us to Stage 2 such as bodywork, attending satsang and dialogues with a spiritual teacher, guided meditations, reading scriptures and books by noted teachers to name a few.
Today’s Video: “Sadhguru – what is enlightenment and how to get there”
https://youtu.be/nbVP11csZiY
04/10/2023
Intimacy
transcends the body.
true to the glimpse,
beyond the mind.
we are everything
intimate,
without borders,
open
in not knowing.
yet we know
through intimacy
This week we begin our quotes on Enlightenment with a Swedish spiritual teacher and author, Swami Dhyan Giten with the three stages of enlightenment. Today is Stage 1 – A Glimpse.
“These are the three stages of enlightenment, the three glimpses of satori.
1. The first stage enlightenment:
A Glimpse of the Whole
The first stage of enlightenment is short glimpse from faraway of the whole. It is a short glimpse of being.
The first stage of enlightenment is when, for the first time, for a single moment the mind is not functioning. The ordinary ego is still present at the first stage of enlightenment, but you experience for a short while that there is something beyond the ego.
There is a gap, a silence and emptiness, where there is not thought between you and existence.
You and existence meet and merge for a moment.
And for the first time the seed, the thirst and longing, for enlightenment, the meeting between you and existence, will grow in your heart.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
This is a stage that many gurus and spiritual teachers point out as a sudden breakthrough. Over the course of time, if one is sincere in their cultivation, these glimpses become more frequent and longer and for some can eventually lead to satori.
Today’s Video: “Swami Dhyan Giten intuition, the inner source of love truth & wisdom.”
04/08/2023
Taking a cup of tea,
there is no one
who takes tea.
Making some toast,
there is no one
who makes toast.
No taker of tea,
no maker of toast,
only tea-taking,
only toast-making.
One last Carl Jung quote to close out the week, and it’s a profound one indeed.
“A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” – Carl Jung
We can see this recurring theme in Jung’s quotes of going within and facing one’s dark side as the path he believes will free us from ourselves. Here he gives us an additional clue as to what to look for within – those behaviors we see in others that irritate us.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
Today’s Video: “How to Integrate Your Shadow – The Dark Side is Unrealized Potential”
04/07/2023
Flowing through us,
it is our beingness.
the Oneness,
there are not two.
There is no other.
only the One.
We continue today with more from Carl Jung who speaks to us about enlightenment and the darkness that sets us free.
“When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.” – Carl Jung
Our true nature is always hidden by the darkness that lies within the depths of our unconscious. So, Jung had said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” He is restating that insight in the quote above. There are no two ways about it – if one seeks enlightnment, one must face the darkness of the unknown and, as Jung states, venture into it.
Today’s Video: “Jordan Peterson: Carl Jung’s Intelligence was “bloody terrifying”
04/06/2023
presence is the absence
of what you are not.
neither this nor that.
it does not come by will,
only by waiting,
waiting and being open.
Today’s quote on enlightenment is from the world of psychology. Carl Jung is considered the father of analytical psychology, but he was a an insightful philosopher as well. If you remember, Jung’s commentary served as the preface fro Richard Wilhelm’s German translation of “The Secret of the Golden Flower, an eighth-century Chinese text on Taoist alchemy.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”
― C.G. Jung
According to Jung, and I believe he is correct, you can chuck all those visualizations your meditation and yoga teachers have given you. Instead start on the level of the body and work your way inside, peeling away one layer at a time.
Today’s Video: “Becoming Your True Self – The Psychology of Carl Jung”
04/05/2023
Discernment
leads to clarity.
A clear mind
leads to openness.
An open mind
leads to availability.
Grace will seek out
one who is available.
Two similar quotes today but from two different spiritual sects. The first one is from Dogen Zenji, a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer and philosopher and founder of the Soto School of Zen Buddhism. The second one is from Jean Klein, a French author, spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita Vedanta.
“Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.” – Dogen Zenji
“You know yourself only in relation to objects, in relation to the image that yu have created. You believe that you can see what really are the same way that you cam see an object.”
Both of these quotes are telling us that the Reality which we are – our true nature – is not an object. Therefore, we cannot use our minds to realize our true nature. The mind is just another object the same as the body, and we know ourselves in relation to our body-mind. Thus, we need to cultivate silent observation, observing our body-minds and other worldly objects without conceptualization. To do that we must first see that we do not observe free from any conclusion.
Today’s Video: Zen Master Dōgen Zenji: Four Lessons About Genuine Enlightenment
04/04/2023
beyond the mind,
beyond our thoughts,
our true nature awaits.
nothing to find,
nothing to obtain,
it is in waiting
that we are waiting,
waiting in stillness.
Again another insightful quote from Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, a spiritual teacher in the Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
“But beyond the mind, beyond our thoughts, there is something we call the ‘nature of the mind’, the mind’s true condition, which is beyond all limits. If it is beyond the mind, though, how can we approach an understanding of it?
Let’s take the example of a mirror. When we look into a mirror we see in it the reflected images of any objects that are in front of it; we don’t see the nature of the mirror. But what do we mean by this ‘nature of the mirror’? We mean its capacity to reflect, definable as its clarity, its purity, and its limpidity, which are indispensable conditions for the manifestation of reflections. This ‘nature of the mirror’ is not something visible, and the only way we can conceive of it is through the images reflected in the mirror. In the same way, we only know and have concrete experience of that which is relative to our condition of body, voice, and mind. But this itself is the way to understand their true nature.”
― Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State
Here Namkhai Norbu is telling us to use the entire body-mind to sense, to feel our true nature. Use your entire body and mind to patiently wait with a welcoming openness.
Today’s Video: “Chögyal Namkhai Norbu – Margarita – January 2nd 2012”
https://youtu.be/gePd_7aT7y8
04/03/2023
The body is in you,
but you are not the body.
This room is in you,
but you are not this room.
The world is in you,
but you are not the world.
You are the Reality
in which all things dwell.
Continuing with Tibetan Buddhist master, today we look at Namkhai Norbu (8 December 1938 – 27 September 2018). He was a Tibetan Buddhist master of Dzogchen and a professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at Naples Eastern University. He was a leading authority on Tibetan culture, particularly in the fields of history, literature, traditional religions (Tibetan Buddhism and Bon), and Traditional Tibetan medicine. Below is a rather long but important quote on his teachings of Dzogchen and the trap we get ourselves into as we try to discover our true nature intellectually.
“All the philosophical theories that exist have been created by the mistaken dualistic minds of human beings. In the realm of philosophy, that which today is considered true, may tomorrow be proved to be false. No one can guarantee a philosophy’s validity. Because of this, any intellectual way of seeing whatever is always partial and relative. The fact is that there is no truth to seek or to confirm logically; rather what one needs to do is to discover just how much the mind continually limits itself in a condition of dualism.
“Dualism is the real root of our suffering and of all our conflicts. All our concepts and beliefs, no matter how profound they may seem, are like nets which trap us in dualism. When we discover our limits we have to try to overcome them, untying ourselves from whatever type of religious, political or social conviction may condition us. We have to abandon such concepts as ‘enlightenment’, ‘the nature of the mind’, and so on, until we are no longer satisfied by a merely intellectual knowledge, and until we no longer neglect to integrate our knowledge with our actual existence.”
― Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State
We need to see how our dualistic minds have trapped us into an intellectual way of seeing reality, which can only be reached experientually not intellectually. Thus, as Namkhai Norbu tells us, we need to drop our various conditioned thinking and abandon such intellectual concepts as ‘enlightenment’, ‘the nature of the mind’,
Today’s Video: “IN DZOGCHEN THE MIRROR IS A METAPHOR FOR OUR REAL CONDITION”
04/01/2023
Can you hear them?
The plants, the trees
talking to one another.
Can you feel them?
Their openness and love
for one another.
We begin April with another Tibetan Buddhist teacher and scholar. Chögyam Trungpa was a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the 11th of the Trungpa tülkus and supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries. He was considered a radical of sorts in that he merged Tibetan Buddhism with the myth of Shambhala and originated an enlightened society that became known as Shambhala Buddhism. Both his controversial teaching methods and behavior particularly his heavy drinking, womanizing, and the physical assault of students were considered provocative. The quote below is an example of his provocation.
“Dharma literally means ‘truth’ or ‘norm.’ It is a particular way of thinking, a way of viewing the world, which is not a concept but experience. This particular truth is very painful truth—usually truths are. It rings with the sound of reality, which comes too close to home. We become completely embarrassed when we begin to hear the truth. It is wrong to think that the truth is going to sound fantastic and beautiful, like a flute solo. The truth is actually like a thunderbolt. It wakes you up and makes you think twice whether you should stay in the rain or move into the house. Provocative.”
― Chögyam Trungpa
Hopefully everyone will stay out of the rain this weekend. See you on Monday.
Today’s Video: “Surrendering Your Aggression -Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche –Shambhala”
