RigdzinTrinley

Agreed, many conceptions are from the vedic system. For me I second Bob Thurman and say that the Buddha was the greatest vedantist, as well as sri aurobindo who said that Buddha and Nagarjuna restored the ancient vedic wisdom to its proper function and understanding (see his "life divine" amazing book on indian philosophy)

did you read about king arthurs court? the grail stories and parcival? we westernrs are actually hopeless romantics - but anyway thats another story take care, I don't really answer any of your questions so I will slowly vanish from this thread

Dear micheal, can you say some more about those three letters? I can see how you relate them with expansion and contraction in mr penroses presentation - which shares a lot of similarities with the little buddhist cosmology I know - he somehow also figured out that time is a circle and not a line fire in buddhist thought is expansive and what gives a thing it's warmth so to speak and water is binding (what keeps things together) so similar I guess, wind is that which moves things I din't study too much cosmology actually, but there is a big section in jamgon kongtruls treasury of knowledge on it - I will read about that sooner or later

all my vajra brothers and sisters who try to lead a spiritual life had this experience and remember it very vividly I think it is somehow pretty universal I think several of my friends had it in connection with a mirror, strange childhood awakenings of all kinds I mean... also this first moment of thinking "whoops I exist as an seperate entity and I just now go to a place called school" or something like that - weird experience too, I recall that a little as well, not as clearly but yes.Also the first german feelings of "I will be late OH MY GOOOOD" sorry for the degression and also my mother had this amazing huge garderobe and all the doors were mirrors, and you could place them in a way that your own reflection became infinite - I spend a lot of time there as a child as well wondering "what is this?" and "who am I?" Mirrors are indeed magical things

I had this insight into my own mortality around the same age, but I was looking into a mirror - and it just dawned on me "this is not going to lat forever" hence my love for staring in the mirror and thinking "you are already dead" And Apech Apech what with this aleph mem shin situation and buddhist cosmology and also qabalistic thought? what you think about that?

I like not planing my sex life for the next 5 years and see what the great mother is preparing and having in store for me my two cents: the whole thing is in actuallity "out of control", so it could end up being very exhausting to "stay in control"

Ok lets move on to the second contemplation: Death and Imnpermanence in the words of my perfect teacher this is contemplated in seven steps, I write shortly about the first three: 1)The impermanence of the outer "container" universe we are living in 2)The impermanence of the "contained" beings inhabiting this universe 3)The impermanence of holy beings I'll stay more or less traditional but if you like you can continue to add your experiences and personal approach of working with those contemplations, I would really appreciate this. 1) the impermanence of the outer "container" universe this world is said to last for one kalpa, which in human years is more or less incomprehensible. How it appears is based on the collective karmic vision of the 6 types of sentient beings - means it is not actually something "out there" one famous example of disperate karmic vision is that of a glass of water - your ordinary human being will perceive it as water, a hell being as molten iron, a hungry ghost as pus and blood, a naga (representing animals) as a palace, a demigod as weapons, and a god as amrita those appearnces are said to be dreamlike and insubstantial, but through the force of past habituation it appears to be solid, truly established (real) and also it appears as if there is this seperation between perceiver and perceived so when we talk about how the universe "appears" - in philosophical lingo it's "mode of appearance" instead of its "abiding mode" we also have to talk about how everything compounded is impermanent in traditional teachings the destruction or death of this universe is meditated upon in 7 stages of fire and 7 of water (Michael + Apech, I hope you still read along here because - I found this to be somehow connected with the three hebrew syllabels Aleph, Mem and Shin... maybe you can share some western hermetic wisdom here?) one after another seven suns are said to appear and destroy first small water bodies - and then dry up the ocean, trees are burning, and at the end even the mountains and earth is being consumed in flames - so this human realm (+the humans) and other realms by this point are no more then 7 times massive rain clouds are forming in the higher form realms and wash everything away at the end when almost nothing is remaining - the crossed vajra of wind at the base of the universe rises up and destroys the remaining formless realms of the gods here now we have this strange correspondance of Aleph = the root of wind; Mem = the root of water; and Shin = the root of fire as having something to do with the manifestation of this universe from a qabalistic POV, could anyone of the hermetic order of TDB relate those a little bit more then the limited correspondance I saw there? back to the buiscuits: destruction through 7 times fire, 7 times water, 1 time wind and after that only space is remaining Patrul Rinpoche ends this chapter like this: "reflect deeply and sincerely - if every one of the billion universes which constitute the cosmos, each with its own mount meru, four continents and heavenly realms, is destroyed simulteniously in such a way, leaving only space behind, however could this human bodies of ours, which are like flies at the end of the season, have any stability or permanence?" straight to the heart like usual 2) the impermanence of beings inhabiting the universe: all those different karmic visions of beings that constitute their respective realms - all those illusion like appearances of life that they suffer and enjoy will end everything that is born is bound to die from the latter of consolation: have you ever, on earth or in the heavens, Seen a being born who will not die? Or heard that such a thing had happened? Or suspected that it might? there is no certainty when we will die, how we will die and where we will die - the only certainty is that we will Again I like the meditations from the Bodhisattvacharyavatara and other lojong text where you see yourself as a walking corpse and once in a while visualize your own death and disintegration - I like to look into the mirror and try to think of me as already dead I also do a short daily chöd practice, and there you visualize how you become the deity and cut your ordinary body (that which changes and dies finally) into pieces and boil it down to nice wishfullfilling amrita, that one then offers to the buddhas and bodhisattvas as well as the 6types of beings - the instruction is to see how you boil, how the skin is falling of your face etc. see your intestines, muscles, bones etc melt into nectar its a great way to remind myself that what does all the walking, sitting, pissing, shitting chatting etc is just here now because of karmic connections, it is fickle like "flies at the end of the season" or like a "bubble in a mountain stream" Now most people of course will say - "it is obvious that I am going to die, so why meditate on it? It is depressing, and I rather meditate on the deathless so I can feel a bit less depressed" or something like that the teachings say that meditation on death, is actually the fastest and fail save way to arrive at the deathless - so no problem, also usually we don't live our life like it is our last day on earth, we still plan this and that, and are busy with many things that seem pretty shallow in comparison with manifesting enlightenment for the benefit of all life... so from the 4 thought, this is my absolute favourite one and for me the most powerful one as well, so I am sorry we will stay here a bit longer Let's live in cities of walking dead corpses for a day or two and see what that does to our consciousness and "self-image" 3) the impermanence of holy beings The Buddhas of the past are no more, the Siddhas of the past are no more, great Yogis and Adepts of many traditions are no more, (we can argue that there are beings who manifested a body of light and still live with us and teach and benefit us, but again these meditations serve a certain purpose and are not meant as the "final word" on all matters) the arhats of old, the yogis who could fly like milarepa, or manifest things that are "not existent" and dematerialize things that are "existent" - in short beings with siddhis that don't really fit our usual mindset have exsited (and still do as far as I am concerned), but those powers and attainment didn't save them from suffering physical death (not that they suffer - they have a grand old time dying, because they spend their lifes working on realizing the true nature of "death") anyway they are no more, only their stories are with us now when I look at my self, and how much effort I put into practice and study of the wisdom traditions, how much I actually use of my time to become an accomplished adept or siddha, well in short - that ain't going to do it R.T. I don't feel insignificant because of that, I don't compare myself in terms of good and bad - I just try to be realistic I remember all the people who come to india for a short time - get inspired and tell me how they are going to manifest rainbow body in this life, or how they want to be wandering chö yogis and yogninis, I either stay quiet or wish them good luck with that. I think the beings that have the capacity to manifest rainbowbody are not in my immidiate social strata - lets say it like that it is a truly beautiful ideal and wish to have - for sure I rather meditate on my own death (and yes I probably will die shitting my pants, rather then disappearing in a cloud of light) then conceptualize how and where I will go into retreat to attain rainbowbody, while in actuality nothing much in terms of practice or retreat is happening Edited some major funky sentences

yes Apech makes a lot of sense, I try to tell fellow travellers on this path that in ngondro they allready practice all nine yanas - and that it is complete, a complete path to enlightenment, you can't go wrong with it really. It is a nice way of putting it though, because people love them nadis, pranas and bindus

you know that certain masters in India (Aurobindo comes to mind first and foremost and also Bhagawan Nityananda and his disciples) and also western esoteric adepts (Crowley, Regardie etc.) of our time speak of a reawakening of Shakti - the divine feminin? And that certain old male patterns will just melt if you do "the work" - I somehow see many of my strange experiences the last years also in light of this collective awakening we'll need to wake up together, individual awakening is outdated and there is no time for that anymore at the same time, experiences are like mist they will evaporate, so you know no need to talk about it too much either enjoy the ride or something like that

In the tradition I practice in woman equal wisdom did you see "dr. strangelove" by kubrick? remember mandrake and the general? If not youtube search "I deny them my essence" if you want to get a certain understanding of how the world functions and how energies are moving and manifesting - then well, I think an awake woman can do and show you all sorts of incredible things about yourself and the manifest/unmanifest universe. Actually from a certain point of view, being or trying to be celibate can block you from psycho-spiritual growth, woman are naturally very much in tune with certain aspects of reality that the male counterpart likes to overlook. Now brother please udnerstand that I just talk randomly whatever comes to my mind after reading your posts, and maybe you are destined for a certain lifestyle - but you know, ask a good teacher of a system you feel drawn towards. I just think that making these kind of plans without prober guidance can backfire sometimes, better be sure that what you want to explore with your body.speech and mind will benefit you and all sentient beings for sure, and it is not just some strange conceptual grasping at an image of who you think you should be or how you think you should be or something like that... A personal anecdote: I remember one of my lamas looked me over when I was overly "celibate" wow I was almost holy but also a bit of a stick in the mud and just remarked "Matthias you should get laid" another anecdote: I asked one western teacher what he did when he came back from India after all the years of study and practice there, he said that he learned dancing because he had developed a horrible stick up his ass just saying sometimes our ideas of what genuin spirituality is might not be in line with what it actually is? Then again I don't know you, I am just a dude a little bit older then you - so in essence do what you want A.C. said every woman and man is a star those big shining things know pretty well how to move around the infinite ether so enjoy the ride brother and I wish you a realtively save journey (some adventure should be included too )

I had a strange snake dream recently too - my partner kasia told me that my pelvis was jumping the whole night, but I was sleeping very deeply didn't know whats happening at all, just swimming and playing with snakes in my dream I guess just releasing old tension and opening certain nadis - I don't know how you feel but I think this is nothing to worry or get excited about take care and a smooth awakening to you

Yes very strong stuff those "preliminaries" - I resonate very much with what you wrote steve, the ngondro somehow can channel a dark night of the soul, it happened to me and many of my friends as well while working with the preliminaries - these meditations don't ask you if you would like to transform and grow or not - you do it or you go a little cuckoo. I think this dark night can manifest because when you start working with those contemplations and from the inner preliminaries specially the Prostrations + Varjasattva, you can't look away any longer, you have to face your own suffering, and without doing that first, saying to oneself I will not only face the suffering of all sentient beings of all world systems, but also liberate them from it - is pretty hypocritical I receive teachings on hte 37 practices of the bodhisattva since two days and today Rinpoche went all over the different Yanas, how you work with sense pleasure in sutra, the different tantric systems and dzogchen etc. the verse was, something like: sense pleasures are like salt water, the more you indulge, the more thirsty you get when grasping at sense objects arises to immidiately drop grasping is the practice of a bodhisattva after dancing through the four states of bliss and the union of bliss emptiness, or how sense pleasures are the ornament of pristine awareness when you see your true face nakedly - rinpoche ended the teachings with talking about the four thoughts and how they are the root of the doctrine, and how without them one can't blossom into healthy flowers - the practice of hte higher tantras can become very sticky and strange without these foundational meditations, and they also have to do their work on waking mind and dreaming mind. Next we can discuss impermanence but for this I need to get my copy of the "words of my perfect teacher" because unfortunately I dont remember the correct order of those contemplations - I will post little later

thanks for the encouraging words steve, it is also very beneficial for me to go over these thoughts again and get some imput from other practicioners - my root lama is very much emphasising "the words of my perfect teacher" as the backbones of it all so to speak and once in a while will see if I actually remember the four thoughts in the correct order and can explain them - so I try not to get into trouble on some level (fear based level?) anyway I liked what you wrote very much as well, and it is true and good to remember that I am RT and not Jetsun Milarepa - if i try to be Milarepa probably within three months I have such a horrible Lung-disorder that the rest of the year I need to be a vegetable forgotten on the beach anyhow these teachings are very profound, more profound then they sound and look. They really do transform the mind - maybe not in a nice and pleasant way for some (for me it was a bit hard at the beginning for sure). I feel that psycho-spiritual growth is painful sometimes, but worth the effort. Now how that process is started and unfolds might be disimilar in different systems, but in essence transformation is challenging - and as far as I know, no heros without challenges lets continue with the 10 riches they are further seperated into two sets of five the first five are called something like "the five individual riches" 1) being born a human 2) with all senses intact (means so that there is a possibility to study and practice the dharma, being blind is not a problem, but maybe blind, deaf and mute simultaniously, unless past karma does the trick - and the being just remembers it all and is a natural meditative genius) 3) being born in a central land 4) gaining my lifelyhood in accord with the dharma - or not following wrong livelihood 5) having faith in the teachings the second pair is called "the five circumstancial riches" 1) a buddha appeared 2) thought the dharma 3) his teachings are still existing 4) there are followers who uphold the teachings 5) spiritual masters are guiding students I just explain randomly some of those 10 riches from the first five no.3 is interesting - being born in a central land, that means in a land where the buddhas teachings are present in both scriptural form and as realisation in the minds of practicioners also maybe no.4 needs some attention - not following wrong livelihood, in short a way of earning money that is not harming or exploiting other beings. Now without harm is impossible, thats one of the marks of existence - Dukkha, suffering and within that I think of the all pervasive suffering of compounded phenomena. the example that comes to mind is selling tea as a lifelihood: on first glimpse nothing negative and in accord with the dharma, but only on the first glimpse - because in order to sell tea one is partly responsible for the death of many insects, if it is imported from far away then that means certain negative effects on our planet, and probably some human beings get exploited along the way too so even selling tea is producing negative karma, and basically everything we do unless our motivation and mind is very pure I remember the first time I got a glimpse of what this means, I was in Nepal close to the great white Stupa in Boudhanath (Yarung Kashor in tibetan). I was contemplating those four thoughts daily for 30 minutes at least and I also did postrations either at home or next to the stupa. I had a pretty hard time with these four thoughts and accumulating prostrations, all of it in this strange alien land, and Kathmandu is one dirty polluted city, that didn't help either anyway I was listening to teachings of Tai Situ Rinpoche on the four thoughts, and Rinpoche explained this point of all pervasive suffering, that no matter what you do some negative karma slips in - it opened some sort of understanding (I read and thought about it daily for many months already, but sometimes it takes time to click on a deeper level) anyway that night I a had a dream of ordering a salat in one of the restaurants around the stupa - and I got the salat but when I looked closer I saw it was full of dead worms and insetcs, that didn't really shock me in the dream. I just accepted that this is part of this all pervasive suffering and indirectly I kill insects by ordering salat... since that time this part of the teachings is very easy to remember sounds all pretty dark and depressing, but actually it really was a big house cleaning - I know that now after looking back to those first years of practicing the preliminaries. I also remember that Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said that reading the words of my perfect teacher and working with the material in there should make you depressed at the beginning otherwise its not doing its job now I am inspired by these thoughts, but yes thinking back on the beginning of working with them.... I was rather grumpy

I just write some personal thoughts here, this might or might not be part of the teachings, anyhow I found it helpful for my practice and understanding - so take it or leave it as you please renunciation seems to be a dreaded thing in the west - I even found it written in some western esoteric books, how we are notment to renounce but to conquer the manifest world... how we demand more life not less life etc. I think these are more or less the words of Dion Fortune. That statement is maybe true or maybe not true, personally I think its maybe her specific kind of colored glasses, and that mayhabs the great buddhist masters had another set of glasses on we don't want to renounce life, I guess we want it all: enlightenment plus chocolate icecream and so on - well why not actually? I think here is how renunciation gets confused for some sort of strange world denying ego trip. renunciation in the buddhist sense, is not a partial renounciation (but that is how it usually starts) - it is impartial and doesn't fall into any extremes the analogy is to be found in the Bodhisattvacharyavatara by Shantideva (I think I quote that text more then anything here) - I can't remember the exact quote but the meaning is something like that: there is a person having a beautiful dream - the dream reality is seemingly endless, years and years of bliss and happiness - and then the person wakes up there is another person having a horrific dream - the dream reality is seemingly endless, years and years of suffering and depression - and then the person wakes up this moment of waking up is the essential point - because in that moment both persons understand it was just a dream, also in that moment where are all this years of suffering and happiness? It is as if they never existed and in buddhism renunciation comes from realizing the union or appearance and emptiness - and it ment to lead back to that realisation if this dance of immaterial phenomena is just like a dream, then trying to be free of suffering and trying to be always happy makes not much sense - momentary happiness or momentary suffering are equally deceiving and just our ordinary dualistic vision to renounce only suffering or think somehow renounciation means to give up icecream is a very limited approach renounciation might mean to don't run around and do all sorts of things - but not because they are inherently negative or evil - just because there is no point in either samsaric happiness or samsaric suffering better to actualize non dual wisdom, and with that realisation then I think one will also "renounce" samsaric happiness and suffering once and for all - so we could call this great renunciation to contrast it with the small renounciation that is induced through contemplating these four thoughts now the small renounciation that we try to give rise to through contemplating the four thoughts, are like the door that will allow us to actually enter the teachings and finally actualize great renunciation - primordial wisdom or jnana or gnosis however you wanna translate or name it maybe that helps in putting buddhist renunciation into a better light?

I would like that Michael likes to say more

Signs that the Common Preliminary Practices Have Penetrated the Mind If you can devote your body unstintingly to the practice, That is a sign of taking to heart the preciousness of the freedoms and advantages. If you can view gold and dirt with equanimity and see them as equal, That is a sign of having realized the illusory nature of transient things. If you can regard the phenomena of samsara as your enemies, That is a sign of crossing over the ocean of suffering. If you can pay meticulous attention to your actions and their effects, adopting virtue and abandoning non-virtue, That is a sign of finding the swift path that ascends the staircase to liberation. If you can purify the negativity, defilements and habitual tendencies of your body, speech and mind, That is a sign of closing the door to rebirth in samsara’s lower realms. If you can keep the Three Jewels in your mind, so that they are never separate from it, That is a sign of being hooked by the compassion of the supreme refuge. If you know how to integrate emptiness and compassion in your mindstream, That is a sign of bringing phenomena into the essence of awakening. If you can meditate on how all beings have been your parents, That is a sign of the arising of the sun and moon of the great vehicle. If you can dispel the obscurations of the darkness of ignorance, That is a sign of the dawning of clear light within immaculate space. If you can carry the two accumulations onto the path continuously, That is a sign of the maturing of the fruition of kāyas and wisdoms. If you can see all that appears and exists arising in total purity as the lama, That is a sign of reaching the pinnacle of Dzogchen yoga. If you can recognize the vajra kāya of all-penetrating pure awareness, That is a sign of transference into the timeless space of primordial purity. If you can recognize the unity of the three kāyas in pure awareness, That is a sign of the ripening of the fruition, which is Samantabhadra. This brief summary of the signs showing that the common preliminary practices have penetrated the mind Was written in response to repeated requests from the assembly of my students, By the old beggar called Dündul. Through this merit may all beings be matured and liberated! | Translated by Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2005. I will comment on some of this soon, but it shows that renunciation goes all the way And thanks for answering my call dear sir, very nice post - good to remember these teachings and get another perspective on them

Dear Micheal, these contemplations serve a specific purpose, they are not the final wisdom of the buddhas and vidyadaras. Also not in how to work with and approach our embodied existence In the system I follow, you work on many levels - or yanas, without loosing sight of whats the essential point (non-dual wisdom), usually you have nine yanas to work with, and the teachings say that those nine yanas do not exist anywhere outside of your own spiritual development, you enter tantra once you are fit for tantra - before that you can only outwardly practice a certain method that looks like tantra and thats what most beings who call themselves dzogchenpas or tantrikas are doing (me not excluded) "the meditation and action follow the view" if you see the one taste of all phenomena beyond pure and impure, beyond delicious apple pie and not so delicious dog shit in short when both substances are equally tasty - then yes your meditation will be pretty powerful and your action free of probably any sort of social, paternal, or cosmic law and order... and then you really do practice the higher tantras (sounds weird, but yes vajrayana and dzogchen is out of the ordinary a little) now an accomplished tantric master, probably doesn't eat dog shit for lunch, but there is no limitations and if there is a necessity to display such crazy behaviour to wake up a disciple from their dualistic dream that sees good and bad ..... I jump around a lot the teachings of the 4 thoughts that turn the mind from samsara are more connected with renunciation and giving up distraction, or the teachings of the first three yanas - later more on distraction as I am reading the complete magical system of the G.D. and the mystical Quabalah atm, I do see similar patterns also within this tradition - even if you would like to jump you can't jump certain parts of the path - I somehow feel that the grades of initiation and working through the 9yanas are similar in approach, there is also a hierophant (the vajramaster) bestowing initiation/empowerment on certain cardinal points of the path. Ok back to the biscuits now maybe in the western esoteric tradition renunciation is not so much emphasized but in buddhism there is an emphasis on it. and somehow you work on that level for some time - or for a long time depending on your mind and karmic patterns. In the tibetan tradition big lamas with big money and an empire of monasteries and dharma centers are not unusual but if you ask the tibetans themselves - they have more faith and recpect for the simple yogis who spend their time in retreat and as wandering mendicants like patrul rinpoche would say: the cloth of the yogi is mountain mist and not brocade and many many teachings and teachers emphasize times of retreat - and for that you need renunciation, otherwise why be away from life and focus on spiritual development? there is much more interesting stuff going on. these four thoughts are in the context of making space and time for retreat - they put some fire underneath the adepts ass to get moving fast - where? move where? to enlightenment for the benefit of all life the good qualities of solitude are praised in many important sutras and shastras, and for the beginner retreat is very important to go deeper into the teachings and discover how this path is working and how ones own mind is working (or well not-working, an even more important discovery) for going deeper into these teachings one needs to be as littel distracted as possible... distraction is not in what is happening around us of course but in our minds - so a great yogi can be in the middle of the market and never loose sight of the essential point, do you remember the analogy of the different animals and how they relate to the adept? It is like in that analogy, there is a time of beeing a deer - away from the busyness of life, and there is a time for the lion, and madman there seems to be a transformation on the relative level of the mind, the mind gets more and more pure - so also phenomena become more and more pure and appear in their natural luminosity (mirroring the natural luminosity of mind). at that point phenomena are not a distraction but food for meditation, but as long as there is ceaseless habitual mental chatter and only rare glimpses of natural mindfulness - some time in retreat to focus on tantric practice might be not a bad idea after all. but here we discuss the entrance door to tantra, not so much tantra and tantric practice itself. so you know if you talk about the adeptus minor and the magus then those two beings are different and do different things - yet the magus can't just through away the knowledge that he or she unlocked in the lower grades - because they are not "lower", but foundational

I dont know how to cut the quotes in pieces, so anyway I will just answer like that. First I would like to remind you that these are basically a method to give rise to what is called "a genuine heart of sadness" - now why would you want that? and what does that mean? This genuine heart means that you see what is going on inside and outside of yourself - one starts to face it, face samsara as it is. IN order to do that there are these four contemplations - they are method not wisdom, I think we discussed wisdom alot and from the POV of non-dual wisdom you can't say the body expresses the soul, or the soul expresses the body or there is no connection between body and soul or there is a connection between body and soul etc. nor can you say the body is "impure", or it is the from skandha appearing as one of the five Buddha families in other words the body appears "pure" etc. etc. the experience of "body" from the pov of non dual wisdom is ungraspeable, unthinkable etc. the actual abiding nature of "body" is beyond conceptual elaboration, a more poetic rendering of that statement is phenomena are like space now what we want from these contemplations is not wisdom per se, they aid us in focusing on actualizing wisdom in our life. What they aim at is a house cleaning of our minds and bodies. We need some space to see phenomena as space so there is alot of baggage that is keeping the spiritual journey from unfolding faster, and we get rid of that baggage while working with these thoughts. thats the Intro again now for specifics: your first remark I think I did answer a little, I will add one personal experience and one traditional example to explain how the Hinayana and Mahayana is approaching the body respectively I was in Sri Lanka on a Lagoon, maybe you remember my espresso addiciton and how it ruined samadhi for me? anyway on that meditators island in hte middle of the lagoon there was also a glass-box, in that glass box there was another glass box filled with earth and two human corpses on top, one was already more or less a sceleton the other was falling to pieces, full of interesting creatures and if you dare approach preeeeeettty smelly that box is placed on hte entrance to the temple - before you even sit down to meditate or meet the Banthe to have a chat on buddha dharma you meet death and what this body essentially is " a walking corpse" - there are many teachings on htis and also contemplations to do, one of my favourites is looking in the mirror and just remembering "I am already a corpse, just animated for a little time through causes and conditions - when those causes and conditions are exhausted, I will be just like those two friends in the glass box" (that is by the way part of the second thought that turns the mind away from samsara: "impermanence and death") I feel that there are two places where one can learn almost all of dharma without needing a human guru: !) the charnel ground 2)underneath a banyan tree or Bodhi tree that approach to the body is more related with the hinayana system, in mahayana this is still used as a starting point but then you use certain contemplations to transform this body, and in the bodhisattvacharyavatara we can find a beautiful example: the philosophers stone this philosophers stone is Bodhicitta, the mind of awakening that wishes to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all life and stay with all sentient beings in samsara to guide them and work for their benefit with this philosophers stone we can transform the base metal (of our impure body) into gold (the rupakaya or form bodies of a buddha) and it is on this nexus of teachings that this contemplation of the preciousness of hte human body is functioning. Interlude: in the scriptures it is said that to attain a human body is very rare, the example given is that of a blind turtle living in the depths of the ocean (the whole earth is covered by ocean in this example), now on the surface of this ocean is a yoke being tossed around from east to west and north to south etc. never stannding still for a second - now this blind turtle only surfaces once in every 100 years.The Buddha said the possibility that this blind turtle will stick his head through the yoke when surfacing is still higher then attaining a human rebrith, also remember the blind turtle has no wish to stick his head through the yoke - nor does the yoke have a concept or freedom to move towards the turtle. the ocean symbolizes the depthless depths and shoreless ocean of samsara the blind turtle is our consciousness, blindness is our ignorance of our true condition beyond ordinary consciousness the yoke is the human embodiment the wind and waves tossing the yoke from left to right is our karma (showing that we are not in control as much as we might want to think) that example is also part of contemplating how rare it is to be human amongst all classes of beings... so in this contemplation, our body is seen as the base metal from the example above, and our effort to listen, contemplate and meditate on the dharma will produce the philosophers stone (Bodhicitta) so that we can manifest the gold of full enlightenement for the benefit of all life. It serves to wake us up from slumbering and wasting time with too many projects and aims and goals that have no lasting benefit - to what is most important in life, psycho-spiritual growth without using our body for this end - again it is just called an ordinary body, a compounded phenomenon that will disintegrate and become like our two friends from the glass box, all the projects, all the possesions that we worked for so hard, all the relationships that we had with our loved ones are gone with this embodiment, the only thing that lingers is our karma - in the sense of how far did we awaken to our true human potential? because that will determin if we can continue on our spiritual evolution in a relatively unhindered way or if we need to take a detour in some strange existence without hermetic knowledge of any kind, no living lineage holders of any kind, and no time to practice dharma of any kind because we either suffer sooo much that there is no space for contemplation or there are again simply no teachings available (no information on what to do with our mind). Or in the sense of an animal-like rebirth: a mind not evovled enough to understand dharmic teachings and that there is the potential to evolve infinitely - because the union of emptiness and appearance also means infinite potentiality to manifest enlightened qualities (one at the time - takes longer then most beings want ) ok I stop here for now, because I think this might already explain some of the other points, but if there is still some contention or misunderstandings left please let me know I also hope that steve, apech etc. join the discussion and share some experience and knowledge.

what about this inspired manuscript by bhagawan nityananda? http://www.ebdir.net/enlighten/chidakasha_gita_chap_1.html don't mind the rest of the webpage

the buddha was right about impermanence - coke arrived in its full glory, and if there is no espresso to keep the yatra (pilgrimage) going then a coke will do. Made me move through strange situations (or did this devils brew cause the situations in the first place? the chicken and the egg dilemma) india 30 years ago and india now is probably like the difference between earth and sky - somehow related but also totally different spheres anyway I dont want to high-jack bindis discussion with my useless blabla I go now bye

wow wow there, I am an addict alright and will never attain samadhi because of that, but but but sir I do have some class *I am a classy addict!!! *you should visualize foam forming on my mouth and some droplets of spittel spraying about while I say this last line with some forte

I'll take some nirvikalpa samadhi anytime! but I only get espresso, and then you know, I like espresso and all, much easier to get espresso then nirvikalpa samadhi too (what ever nirvikalpa samadhi might be - I think it must be glorious). Why do I always end up with espresso...? I even know its not good for my health and energy levels yet I always end up with espresso and never with samadhi I met those great sri lankan forest monks, living on a little island in hte middle of a lagoon, called polgasdue (coconut island), they had attained all sorts of samadhi based on well - the energy of the place and how easy it was to meditate there and go deeeeeeeep and also based on their smile - it was beyond happy, totally blissed out and relaxed beings next day I went for espresso - end of story

People speak about many amazing things happening around enlightened beings, and how amazing those beings are (and they are amazing...) - I just wanted to say these experiences, feelings etc. are all different kinds of karmic vision, not reality as such. That's just the aspirants karmic PoV or neurotic approach to a teacher, they look at one of the walls of their samsaric cage that's all, nothing fancy. Regarding simply a fake teacher I wrote more about that later in my first post and some more also here. The more the meditator wakes up - the more the teacher is perceived as awake as well. the more the students manifests their enlightened qualities the more qualitites can be perceived in the teacher etc. The student has to do the work, the teacher serves as a well polished mirror (hopefully well polished-this the student needs to check first. The easiest way? Does the teacher have bodhicitta? Does he/she want me to wake up or does he/she need another soldier, cook etc. in their empire?) Read Mr.bud jetsun up there for more in the same vain (I think at least that he says something similar) I guess my first message was a bit cryptic, could I clarify more for you what I wanted to say?

If I am fake, the teacher is fake If I am awake the teacher is equally awake - If I wake up more the teacher is even more awake &c. usually they are mirrors, but yes in the tradition I come from it is several years of investigating and working with a guru until you commit to look into that kind of mirror - but then there is no turning back, you'll be forced to look straight at your reflection, no matter how unpleasant it might be for the ego to have this kind of relationship with a mirror a more advanced stage is that everything appears as the mirror, all circumstances become the guru and because of that appear as a rich field of exploration and growth, by then one doesn't take it personal anymore - whatever it might be may we all see the true wisdom teacher our innate indestructible wakefulness face to face without running away or looking for a better way to spend our time

I like alot of butter on my toast - I mean personaly speaking you know - that kind of BF (Edit: Breakfast I mean) gives me the giggles when mixed with espresso and a woman in labour next door I can highly recommend it!!!