xabir2005

Having a diamond in your pocket but not realizing it is as good as useless. The poor man will still live a life of poverty. Consider this: http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/self-liberation-through-seeing-with.html Just as is the case with the sesame seed being the cause of the oil and the milk being the cause of butter, But where the oil is not obtained without pressing and the butter is not obtained without churning, So all sentient beings, even though they possess the actual essence of Buddhahood, Will not realize Buddhahood without engaging in practice. If he practices, then even a cowherd can realize liberation. Even though he does not know the explanation, he can systematically establish himself in the experience of it. (For example) when one has had the experience of actually tasting sugar in one's own mouth, one does not need to have that taste explained by someone else. Not understanding this (intrinsic awareness), even Panditas can fall into error. Even though they are exceedingly learned and knowledgeable in explaining the nine vehicles, it will only be like spreading rumors of places, which they have not seen personally. And with respect to Buddhahood, they will not even approach it for a moment.

six or seven billion people walking their own ways some to ruin some to (worldly) success few towards spiritual enlightenment much fewer found a direct and quickest path to enlightenment. to short cut this path, here's a direct path that i and many (perhaps countless) others have walked and can testify is a direct, quickest path to enlightenment, starting but not ending with the practice of self-inquiry: http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-e-booke-journal.html “Not all spiritual paths lead to the Harmonious Oneness. Indeed, most are detours and distractions, nothing more.” - Lao Tzu from the Hua Hu Ching p.s. not trying to 'sell' a method here, just sharing what worked for me, I'm sure there are many other direct paths that works for others. Dzogchen (Vajrahridaya just mentioned) and Mahamudra and Zen are great direct teachings too, all of which I had personally learnt a lot from (and still learning).

I see. I don't mean that everything is falsely apprehended in the relative sense. What I mean is that everything is really just like an illusion. For example a red rose to a human is a black flower to a dog is a 99.999 percent formless space to a quantum physicist - all that we see are merely a dependently originated appearance that appears solid but is really all just dream-like mental visions.

Just this sound, this sight Is the inseperability of appearance, luminosity, and emptiness The nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, dharmakaya is fully manifested and spontaneously perfected Seeing form is witnessing mind's nature, hearing sound is the path Anything else is extra and contrived

if I said I had realized something then something is wrong yet to speak nothing of it is not right either I just got reminded of my teacher's letter to me (in response to two other articles I wrote to him earlier): "Because all dharmas are quiescent cessation (Nirvana), always already without self, and since one realizes No-Self, how can there be dharmas, and since there are no dharmas whatsoever, how can there be realization, therefore realize that there is nothing that can be realized, originally it is complete. This, then, is truly seeing true thusness." 因为诸法寂灭，本来无我，即见无我，何来有法，既然无一法，何来可悟。所以悟无可悟，本来具足，这样才是真正的见真如。

I would not say thoughts are "manifestations of the awareness" as awareness has no inherent existence. But the appearance of thoughts and everything is itself mind, luminous emptiness. Mind has no existence apart from the display, yet although empty, it vividly and magically appears as the myriad of phenomena. Awareness is the illusion-like, magical, luminous and empty display.

yes indeed how can scenery be aware of itself That is just a figure of speech. It is a description of anatta but not shunyata. Everything is mind, everything is like a dream - just like dream is only mind-vision, vividly shown yet nowhere solid or locatable. Scenery, sounds, thoughts are also mind, luminous yet empty, magical, dream-like, like a magician's trick. (I don't mean everything is one mind like substantial nonduality, you can exchange "mind" here for "experience")

Looking back I think I did go through your frustrations.

you should ask loppon namdrol as it is not so simple. If memory serves, he said that recognizing rigpa is not realizing emptiness, realizing emptiness is harder, and realizing rigpa is different from recognition. I cannot explain further cos I'm not an expert in dzogchen and don't want to impart incomplete or false understandings. Though I have my own understandings on the difference between recognition and realization, I digress.

my master often say with regards to practice, you can relax （放松） but don't be self-indulgent or undisciplined (放纵） You don't have to sit in a cave all day, just don't get lost in attachments in daily life, whatever they are. Indeed, the nature of everything is not rendered so by looking or clinging to a view. It is already empty and luminous whether we realize it or not. The total conviction of this - that there is nothing we can do or not do that can affect the nature of mind, the clinging and seeking after states, view, etc simply dissolve. There is simply a deep (experiential) conviction that whatever is, is already luminous and empty, so there is a natural unreserved opening to whatever arises. There is just a magical display of empty luminosity that transcends description.

They are all inseperable but distinguishable, that is why they can be discovered one by one. Otherwise you wouldn't be describing them that way (as "distinguishable" aspects of reality).

yes it is truly a non referencing flow of spontaneity. Any form of referencing is "joint", be it to a previous moment, or to a continuous self or awareness.

Pce is a peak experience that everyone has some point at their life, usually in childhood. They are temporary. Thusness seven stages are permanent realizations, not temporary experiences. But when second stanza anatta insight arises, pce becomes effortless and ordinary. Mctb only focus on first stanza anatta and missed out the second stanza. Daniel experienced a few hours long pce after his so called arhatship but faded and his emphasis is on first stanza and his book does not teach much about the second stanza, the clear luminosity in terms of anatta. That is why he practices af now. Here is a comparison between af and buddhism I wrote many months ago: http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/search/label/Actual%20Freedom?m=0

You are describing maha, unlocatability of shunyata, and disjoint as if a single experience. In my experience they are distinct experiences and insights but complement each other. I discovered them one by one over the months. Also the ungraspability and unlocatibility is not just an experience. There must be a realization about a basic fact of reality like anatta.

the disjointed aspect of anatta is also important. It is thusness first stanza. You may want to reread that. You are absolutely right about actualism, they drop the self by reify an inherent objective universe. Their experiences are all precious and important though.

If you cling to notions of wisdom and ignorance then obviously you haven't realized shunyata, once shunyata is realized you'll see that even wisdom and ignorance is ungraspable and unlocatable like a dream. Heart sutra: ...no ignorance, no cessation of ignorance... no attainment, no wisdom...

1) metaphysical 1. pertaining to or of the nature of underlying theoretical principles 2. concerned with abstract thought or subjects or of first principles like being or time 3. highly abstract or abstruse 4. pertaining to the philosophical poetry of an early group of 17th-century English poets Shunyata and anatta is obviously not metaphysical unless people are studying it like a theory. It is plain, ordinary and obvious for me. 2) Attachment "To anything -- situations, people, mentalities, places. And views -- of self, no self, all self, both self and no self." The basic fundamental cause is ignorance, thereby clinging to self and things inherently. Even the view "self never exists or self stops existing" is a form of self-view, the view of annihilation (become non-existent) or nihilism (non-existence) Once you wake up from the dream, the view of self, or self is non-existent, or self becomes non-existent, no longer applies. As Buddha said, you can't even pin down a reality or truth of tathagata (self) in this life, how do the four extremes apply to him after death? When this realization occurs, you will always be beyond extremes. Otherwise it is still one of the views of the four extremes, or a view of "no view", which are still all views pertaining to a dream monster, dream self, and those views have no basis once you wake up and realize the basic fact about reality. Then there can never be speculation anymore. In seeing just the seen is a plain fact. When realized the delusion of a seer seeing seen just drops out of the equation forever. It is a direct and irrefutible realization. Words like "self" is an empty convention, label that does not point to a findable entity. For there is in hearing just the heard, in seeing just the seen, go read bahiya sutta and kalaka sutta if you haven't. Self, no self, etc becomes irrelevant. I guess you have not experienced how talking without delusion of self is like. I do. The universe is speaking as this body, then the universe is speaking as the other body, on the same level (not me talking to him) in a single selfless and otherless process of interconnectedness.

I think you are asking if fear is necessary for us to avoid danger and function safely in life. From my experience, it is possible to live life free of fear, anxieties, delusion of self, and other sufferings and afflictions, while still being able to function completely spontaneously and wisely in reponse to the situation. I wrote this more than three months ago after noticing that emotional afflictions have noticeably faded out of my life: there is a quote from garab dorje, and i am reciting it from memory so it might not be accurate by the word, but it goes like this: "even the buddha, vested with the five wisdoms, is unable to find happiness in samsara." yet the buddha also said this: "nirvana is the highest bliss" people reading this may have the misconception thus that true happiness can only be found in an afterlife, or in an otherworldly state of altered consciousness. this is not the case. samsara, literally meaning the world of suffering, consists of craving and grasping after phenomenal existence, consists of delusion and holding on to an identity or sense of self nirvana on the other hand is the cessation of craving, anger and ignorance, including the delusion of self. The cessation of suffering and clinging. even in the midst of this earthly existence, nirvana can be directly experienced, and this earthly existence reveals itself to be a delightful, magical fairy-tale like wonderland. Therefore, like my master says, pure land is right in front of your eyes after the initial realisation, while i cannot at this point claim complete enlightenment (of which there are many subtle levels where layers of emotional and knowledge obscurations are progressively removed), i can report a gradual transformation such that situations that once called for fear, nervousness, irritation, anger, etc now only manifest as some bodily sensations that self liberates upon inception. for example if a loud explosion is heard there can be a surge of adrenaline just for a moment but no psychological fear surfaces.

Insight of emptiness and anatta is fundamental because the root cause of all suffering and clinging is ignorance thereby clinging to self and things as if they inherently exist. It is like the only real way to make someone dreaming a monster stop their suffering, or someone projecting a rope as a snake and thereby fearing it, is to wake them up. All other methods fall short or are superficial. This includes psychology. They try to treat the problem without removing the root cause of suffering. It is impossible to not cling when you are deluded. If there is no realization of anatta and emptiness, you can never be a sotapanna, or bodhisattva, much less arhat or buddha. You can never be liberated. When anatta and emptiness is realized, it is also naturally realized that no one state liberates but rather all experiences and states turn out to be self-liberating: they simply self-releases upon inception.

oh I can't at the moment as I am replying you from phone in the forest (outfield training) and difficult to navigate the net, but it wouldnt be too difficult as there are many threads by daniel about his actual freedom practice and how it frees one from affects (craving, anger, fear, etc) In short what he understands and experiences is possible now no longer reflects what he thought was possible

The removal of ten fetters are irreversible. You cannot become a sentient being again if you are arhat. You cannot get lost again if you are buddha.

Even Daniel has this much to say about his "arhatship" under his old understanding: End of self-view: not something to maintain, but something that stopped http://www.interactivebuddha.com/arahats.shtml Arahatship designates an understanding that has the following characteristics: The arahat has seen through the sense that there is a continuous, separate, or special controller, doer, observer, or centerpoint that is "who they are" in a very direct perceptual way that is not merely an intellectual or conceptual understanding. They know the sensations that seemed to imply these to be just more sensations arising and vanishing according to conditions as they always have been. This is not something they have to work to maintain, but instead is something that has stopped. The arahat knows in real time and directly what is meant by such phrases and concepts as: "in the thinking is only the thought, in the seeing is only the seen, etc." intrinsic luminosity the emptiness of phenomena that Nibbana is found in Samsara and a whole host of other poetic metaphors and attempts as description.

daniel's mctb arhatship is clearly only buddha's sotapanna, and dho people are starting to understand this. Daniel is also starting to experience the removal of emotion obscuration, starting to understand how living life free of craving, anger, fear, etc is completely possible. I have known this long before he does. His model is outdated.

What I am saying is that wisdom is non conceptual direct seeing, not a concept we try to cling. Realization of anatta permanently ends self view. It is not something you try to maintain but something that has stopped. Clinging still persists but you cannot believe in a self. In other words until you attain arhatship, clinging, fabrication, sense of self can still arise even though you no longer have self-view (the belief in self). When you attain first bhumi bodhisattva, you not only end self view but the view of object inherency.