deci belle

haha!!❤ Ya, i stole the very last bit from Master Lu~ he winked!!

haha!! One already knows (that nothing knowing is the shining open nonpsychological awareness). One is amazed at others' incredulity (or worse), though. Situations just come and go. What of it all matters to the functional aspect? Nondoing is detachment. And thank you, Brian.❤ The recognition is oneself's nondoing perfectly appropriate in terms of the context of the situation. One has no feelings of result done relative to the personality. It has nothing to do with good or bad. This appropriateness utterly transcends social convention. The propriety of nondoing has no reflection on the person. Reality is the stability of presence being the result in perpetuity— not by one's own power nor anything existing. The situation itself is just the expression of one's own presence. Abiding in the knowledge of reality as is, is resting in the highest good. Impersonal response is a process of maintaining clarity inherent in karmically polluted circumstances (some more or less polluted than others). It really can be hard work, after all …even so, nothing is really done. It is all a matter of floating around in the center of the compass. When one recognizes the immediate stability of reality independent of self and other, there is just no before or after relative to the person. This is a continuity without beginning or destination. The result is perpetual. There is nothing to do. Why would one therefore incur karmic retribution on account of delusional circumstances that are passing one by due to their own momentum. One simply does not go along. Reality has never moved. The entirety of what goes on here is pure folly— some controlled folly (per Don Juan Matus' description of a warrior's controlled folly), and the rest, yes… quite silly. Deaf ears, scaly eyes. I cannot pick my audience. ed note: add "due to their own momentum" at end of 2nd paragraph

That isn't possible for enlightening beings. But since you are in performance mode (again) mr P, why don't you book your own lighting, hmmmm? Please stop making doubt-based insinuations (supposedly for the sake of argument) that there are issues that you are obviously grappling with yourself that you would presume to project onto me to put on a nice show. Let's analyze what you might be flirting with here, shall we? Doing is the problem. Non-doing is the matter of birth and death reverting to unity. Carrying this out is self-refinement. Nihilism is relative to eternalism. The Supreme Vehicle is neither. The last line of the OP distinctly states: But mr P wants to dabble in conventional arguments because he can't address the profound. That mr P could conceive of nihilism in what is recognition of reality as is, is indicative of an inability to see reality as is. It is what it is already, mr P. That is the point. Read what I say and understand it. If you doubt it, then qualify it on the level I make the statement you doubt. If you can't, then you aren't qualified to call it into doubt on your own terms. Why? Because they aren't your terms. They are my terms used as only I can use them. Use my terms as I do and you can learn. You can't do anything else at this point (except pretend) — you certainly don't know yourself. Perhaps you need to stand down and instead of perpetuating your professional self-image of (grandmaster of showmanship), perhaps you aught to endeavor to ask an authority before shooting your big mouth off for effect. If you could get to the point yourself, you would, but you can't, so you flirt with doubt and "reasoning". Refrain from calling into doubt anything I say to make a point because any point you might make based on doubts relative to anyone other than yourself is not only not immediate knowledge, it is deluded conjecture. If you don't know, don't make a business of projecting doubts on others to appear knowledgable yourself. I write here on this forum because I know the basis, not because I'm a showgirl. Is it nihilism or not? If you don't know then shut the fuck up. If you do know then say so and say why. Don't make me express this tone on your account again. DO YOU INDERSTAND mr P(ERFORMANCE ARTIST)? ENLIGHTENING ACTIVITY IS NOT A MATTER OF REASON. MY EXPRESSIONS ARE TANTAMOUNT TO ENTRY INTO INCONCEIVABILITY. Now, if you are not qualified to understand what I say on that level, do not presume to analyze what I say on your level of conventional logic. I AM NOT THE SUBJECT OF THIS THREAD. MY WORDS ARE NOT THE SUBJECT OF THIS THREAD. YOU ADDRESS THE OP TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY AND DON'T RIDE MY COATTAILS, mr sage on the stage. Since it is obvious (to me) that you actually don't know the basis of my treatment of this topic, cease from analyzing my contribution. NIHILISM, INDEED. ed note: add "If you could get to the point yourself, you would, but you don't, so you flirt with doubt and "reasoning"

In terms of the OP… if nobody objects~ It's not just these irrelevancies, cultivation is itself peripheral. There is nothing to cultivate. I can only go by what I know, and that is the unequivocality that nothing can be done about it (arriving at harmony in the tao). I can't help but notice the big disclaimer at the heart of your question… that is, "IF one was in total harmony…" You say with the tao, but I am correcting your presumption as there is no "with". There is no separation, which is why it cannot be grasped. It is already your nature. You just need to see that yourself. And to do that, you must stop. Learning to stop action based on views of self and other relative to a false separate imaginary self is self-refinement. THAT'S CULTIVATION. So all the BS you mentioned in the OP is frivolity in the extreme. Self-refinement is adapting impersonally to ordinary situations. That's all enlightening activity is anyway. You don't need to do anything first. Selfless adaption is inconceivable to anyone else. Nobody knows. You do it in broad daylight unbeknownst to anyone. Why shouldn't it be inconceivable to you too? It is inconceivable. When you do it, it's non-doing. If it were conceivable, it would be doing. This is using the world to refine the self in order to arrive at entry into the tao in reality. Buddhism calls this entry into inconceivability. Google it. Not that unified enlightening function isn't already established~ yet its expression is haphazard and only very occasionally activated. Why can't people tell when enlightened mind is activated? Because delusion and enlightenment is the same mind. There are no two minds. The second reason is because people do not maintain a continuous subtle concentration observing mind, so they do not recognize when yang arises occasionally from within stillness. This is celestial movement. Self refinement is selfless response to ordinary affairs while sustaining subtle observation simultaneously awaiting the time of the spontaneous arising of the immaterial celestial yang energy from within nothingness. "Cultivation" is really about establishing the foundation for and solidifying the basis of continuous enlightening function AS the tao in terms of onself in the world. There is nothing to do about it other than see reality as is. Pineal glands and other such nonsense are for ignoramuses. Real human beings experience these things in their sleep without even so much as knowing that the word referring to the anatomical organ has letters. Just the approach that considers "things to do" is not only arbitrarily compensatory and erroneous in terms of harmony in the tao, it is totally barring oneself from that very inherent harmony in the tao where there is ONLY harmony in the tao before the first thought without beginning. These programs and extraneous things are just commodities themselves constituting spiritual materialism. Google that. I see most people doing the pursuit of all kinds of things to arrive at this nondoing of entry into the tao in reality. Actually, imitating tao is being empty of oneself in the midst of ordinary affairs. Just this is using the world to refine the self. Just this is refining the self and simultaneously awaiting the time(s) of celestial movement. Don't bother to Google celestial movement.❤ ed note: split up paragraph three and four; typo p.4

This stuff isn't new. How about getting on topic, Nungali and stop your ranting. Get to the point, hmmmm?

Good question, daojones! It is entirely psychological. Though the body has knowledge it does not initiate action, nor does it have preferences for harmful action. The body is nonpsychological. I have found that changes resulting in elimination of destructive craving that you have described are those that can be typified as the manifestation of a desire and having the will to stop~ that and an unbending intent, to sustain that desire and will is what eliminates the reasoning behind self-destructive behavior. Bottom line: It's not your body that wants, it's the psychological identity that wants and reasons. And the only way to stop one's psychological momentum is to want to stop the behavior altogether. Good luck with that issue, daojones.❤ ed note: re-write content leaving out hun and po references

Thank you, Horus.❤ Horus said: This is buddhahood, wizardry, enlightening being— the active expression of complete reality with no inside or outside. This is precisely the highest realization of the Supreme Vehicle of buddhist and the nonresistant Virtue of Receptivity of taoist traditions. This is why I say that sudden enlightenment is entry-level. Horus' statement is the application of enlightened mind in the midst of delusion. This is shattering the polar mountain (duality) and entering into the Tao in reality because the realization of enlightening qualities in the midst of the killing energy of karmic evolution is the knowledge of delusion and enlightenment is the same mind. In terms of the OP… I find Horus' story interesting in that it has in it a hint of an idea expressed in Chinese shepherding folk-tales. But the story I am referring to is much less dramatic and a bit more focused in that it really concerns itself (the tale) with how to arrive at one's relationship with one's sheep in order to not be required to maintain them (the responsibility of one's conditional aspect of worldly involvements). The reason for this is to free oneself for spontaneous living in the world without engendering cloying personal evolutionary recensions (going along with the conditioned flow of creative evolution), because this is unconscious deviation from floating around in the center of the compass of the immediate pristine pivot of awareness at the incipience of unconditional unity as it manifests as delusion for those ignorant of their nature and as "knowing thyself" as the world itself, for those who are able to see reality and express enlightened mind without being limited by creation. As one's destiny is arrived at by virtue of fulfilling one's particular strain of karmic DNA, cloying deviations (personal evolutionary recensions), are unnecessary if one can see reality at its incipience thereby avoiding floating off into arbitrary involvements, i.e.: unwittingly "rewriting" ones true destiny. In the truest sense, one's destiny is to realize the totality of oneself. In seeing complete reality, the conditional ramifications of one's circumstantial existence is insignificant. In other words, it doesn't matter what you do, because arrival at enlightening awareness is the expression of ones unity as the world. There is no right or wrong in terms of seeing reality. Enlightening activity makes everything real. But people's inverted awareness is not an idea, it is unconscious. The inversion of awareness (taoism calls this "turning the light around"), is the basis of self-refinement. ed note: remember to thank Horus, and add 6th and 7th paragraphs

haha!! How wonderful!! "Cultivation" is itself peripheral. There is nothing to cultivate. I can only go by what I know, and that is the unequivocality that nothing can be done about it (arriving at harmony in the tao). I see most people doing the pursuit of all kinds of things to arrive at this nondoing of entry into the tao in reality. Actually, imitating tao is being empty of oneself in the midst of ordinary affairs. Just this is using the world to refine the self. Just this is refining the self and simultaneously awaiting the time(s) of celestial movement. After a long time of abiding in sincere open intent, therein is long life and eternal vision. All kinds of spontaneous inner and outer phenomena supposedly arrived at by the deliberate "cultivation" of self-reifying practice is awakened to without even knowing there were such phenomena to experience by virtue of having a body. People are absolutely backwards. The overall discipline described in the ancient manuals is called "reversal". Gee, I wonder why… New age stuff isn't new. There is nothing to concern oneself in terms of arriving at the essence of one's nature. Not doing is not following habitual consciousness unawares. Reality is just the world without your personal views based on self and other, before and after, good and bad. ed note: change "stiff" to "stuff" in penultimate paragraph~ what could i have been thinking?!!

haha!! Sounds like one of my thread titles~ hi Kitty!!❤

My barista's girlfriend's dad is with the CDC. CDC had a big meeting. Individuals with ebola has been reported in NYC and Philadelphia. lalalala…

Who's we, paleface? Since you do not now nothing as it is, you do not know my comment is precise. There is no comparison to nothing you nor any buddhas can make about it. For one who is unaware of the buddha himself~ mr P sure seems to be shoveling it thickly for the benefit of the punters…❤ hahahhahahaaa!! ed note… spice up the last line… heehee!!

hi picklepadma~ If you are interested in energy work… that is one thing a lot of people will throw around as internal alchemy. If you have a natural affinity for spiritual alchemy, working with essence directly, this is another matter entirely.

Your inability to carry on in terms of this thread has nothing to do with your alcohol intake. Thanks for sharing that. This is the source of delusion. Human intent is the road to hell on earth. Hell isn't some other place, some other time. Impersonal intent of the immaterial body of awareness which is the same as the nonexistence of karma is not yours. There is no increasing this. One awakens to this as one's essential inherent nature no different than your own mind right now. Little horse, dear~ this is not within your grasp to comprehend. It is not relative to any one watched or watching, ok?

Zoom said: Reality is independent of Dzogchen. Theory is not it. Objectivity is selfless open aware perception of thusness as is. The tao isn't taoist. Suchness isn't buddhist. Mental concepts aren't necessary to seeing reality. This much doesn't require an awakening to the absolute; this much results in awakening to the absolute. Objective reality is delusion without you identifying with your selfish personalistic views of self and other, good and bad. Reality does not look any different to a buddha than it does to an ignoramus. Buddhas just don't know anything. What theory is there in that?

Welcome to your administratively moribund, cluelessly we-try-harder politically motivated nanny-state, dear Buttercup!❤ I wanna have the US be like Switzerland (for those whose ideal is a European style USA): everybody is required to be an expert marksman AND maintain and own firearms; their borders are sacrosanct in terms of citizenship and medical requirements. Qualified and productive non-citizen residents PAY more for utilities. There are the Swiss-German, Swiss-Italian and Swiss-French bathrooms to consider… some in the same building… Not to mention an abundance of glaciated mountains AND sexy swiss guides for mountain-travellers such as moi!!❤❤

hahahahhahahhaa!! Me toozez!!! hahaha!!

Karma is created (creative) process. It is the matrix of eternity comprised of the three times and the two extremes. But backing up a little, awareness is not action. It has never moved. Awareness is uncreated. Lets work on that basis as it is essential to work with the real in order to clarify it in ourselves to transcend our delusional existence. Being is sentience relative to a self that thinks it exists. This is the conditional. This is the basis of delusion. Why? Most importantly it is because the delude are unaware they are deluded. Secondly, delusion is going along with created energy and your assumption that that means self and other is bound with no other alternative other than to go helplessly through the rounds of birth and death forever. Now ask yourself what even the most immature understanding of Christianity promises? Now ask yourself what the Supreme Vehicle of Buddhas is? Now ponder for a moment that you yourself are a buddha right now but you don't know it. Do you know what a buddha is? What is the basic teaching of buddhism? The basic teaching of buddhism is the entire buddhist canon covering the vast wisdom teachings of the ancients spoken and wordless, and it amounts to just activating the mind without dwelling on its contents. This is not the slightest bit concerned with good or bad. Mind is your nature. Your nature is selflessly aware. Awareness is itself nonbeing. Karma is being. Complete reality is nonbeing within being. The enlightening expression of complete reality is one's own natural aware function transcending ordinary and holy, that is neither nonbeing nor being. Your own aware nature is the impersonal intent transcending karma without beginning. This is the topic of this thread. Now, getting back to your statement based on conventional attributes which states that "sentient being creates…" OK, I know what you mean, but not only is the statement absurd ("being sentient creates reality") Oh really? Really it is saying that sentient being is responsible for its own conditions. But who is? Buddhas are, and that's about it. I say this much because the reality is that sentient being is not solid. It is flux. You can get all scientific, but that is not the import of the wisdom teachings based on the nature of awareness. Furthermore, since you don't even know your own mind which is selfless and uncreated and is prior to the evolutions of karmic existence of birth and death, until you can quiet and concentrate your mind, all these mental rambling half-baked projections can never clarify the basis of your own aware nature that you have never even considered before. Unawareness of karma and the fundamental nature of the selfless intent of the immaterial body of awareness that has no location would seem to me a limiting factor in even learning that this thread isn't really the place for you to go off proclaiming what reality, being, sentience, physics, action, fear and love are. If you can't clear your mind, empty it, how are you going to make room for the very space which is already your own aware nature? Of course, it is immaterial, so it doesn't take up space, but until you empty out your own mental junk, the Way cannot accrue of its own accord. The Way is empty. It is a void which consists of no such void. One must harmonize with its reality to arrive at its virtue. Little horse. Please. Get ahold of some books and study them and begin to learn to discern how your fundamental nature has nothing to do with physics and philosophical discussion based on intellectualism— and that goes for silent thunder and nine tailed fox. THE TOPIC OF THIS THREAD IS: "Is there a known practice on how to increase the Energy of Intention? ..and how a similar technique apparently bypasses all Karma." If you don't even know what karma is, little horse, what are you doing on this thread? Study the buddhist canon for five to ten years and come back, by all means! Now, please go back and STUDY the posts from the beginning of this thread… or just derail and pirate the thread if you want. I've said enough.❤ ed note: typos

Neither enlightening intent nor karmic bondage are attached to, mitigated, or fused by energy work. Chi is created. Channels are created. Reality is not within the realm of more. Intent is not in any manner increasable and karma is not different that reality. It is up to oneself to see reality as is. One must awaken to this as oneself, inconceivable. There is no trick to it as YOU DO NOT DO IT. Both nine tailed fox and silent thunder have missed the critical aspect of working with the real. If you want to arrive at the uncreated, it is crucial to work with the uncreated essence from the start. As I stated just prior, if this topic is beyond your current ability to penetrate, it is best not to advance blindly. But if you insist, then be my guest.

oh joy!!❤ I hope that is cool with Silent Thunder~ …works for me~ especially the end part!! merciiiiiiiiiii, Brian!!❤❤

ahhahahaa!!❤❤

This post is the result of what was initially my response to a thread on the International Zen Forum (though it seems to have taken on a life of its own). Its original length was eighty percent shorter. There is an overt concern on the IZF website with “authenticity” (in terms of buddhist teaching tradition) with respect to an individual’s certifiable capacity to teach in acceptably formatted buddhist communities. A veneer of gossip and “looking over one’s shoulder” on the part of the resident northern European and North American (clerical?) organizational hierarchy in terms of who’s real enough, or not, i.e.: who may or may not be justifiably (judged as credible in terms of) making money facilitating buddhist ministries (comparable to them)— not to mention (however it is deemed quantifiable) who’s really qualified to do it “correctly”. There is a twang of complicity in this regard on the part of a few …politics as usual— and that’s a fact. The rank and file is no different than which comprises the Tao Bums forum— seeing as how it is made up of (at least) a few taobums, replete with the usual concerns, issues, attitudes and problems. It seems to me to be set up as a typical discussion forum as well as an organized practical venue for “professionally indoctrinated” buddhist teaching candidates (that’s a good thing, for religious buddhism). The website has its own (doctrinaire) flavor, which I find upright, friendly, compassionate and sincere— with a quality certainly a bit more disciplined than The Tao Bums, given its focused application (and a bit more open, regarding the certainty of that focus within its discipline). By "open", I do not mean a permissiveness in terms of tolerance. That means they are actually sure of themselves, and they know why~ BRAVO!!! Whereas the Tao Bums are inclined to stand (hide) behind a veneer of laissez-faire leadership, because they don't know why. I have no inclination to be allied with any idea of what IZF's mission means, and they (IZF) are quite sure of their premise themselves though (concerning “real” teachers), at least. I’ve only posted twice outside of my introductory thread (where I was not shy). I have also noticed a degree of “good-natured” (passive-agressive) guilt-tripping dripping from the hoi polloi responding to my presence there, which might be more of a case of the sangha policing themselves by peers, which is also a good thing for religious buddhism. From the administration, my response to a question was dis-allowed (rejected, actually, because I’m not a “teacher”). Hey, it’s not my religion. I can respect that. Anyway… the expanded text of 仙's response to (you can view the thread yourself on the International Zen Forum by the same title): WHO IS A ZEN TEACHER? Real teachers are the power of real recognition. Universal good is the virtue of real power. One’s own recognition, to the extent its activation is impersonally real immediate knowledge, is experience of real teaching. Seeing this is zen without beginning to have seen this as zen. So where is the teacher? It seems reality does not depend on “who”. It is who. Ultimately, one must endeavor to see realization of recognition in terms of the self that is the source of recognition, not the idea of one’s thoughts relative to real experience (which is defined as immediate knowledge). The ideas relative to one's thoughts is an impostor, false, delusional. Mind "referring everything to the self" is not indicative of the self who reflects essence …it is essence. Purity directly penetrating is "who". Reflectivity is inability to penetrate essence. "Who" is one’s own knowing unborn reality, in terms of presence beyond not just reflection but also action— this is selfless action of seeing through situations as spontaneous response. There has never been any other zen teacher. This is zen teaching by virtue of your own recognition of reality pervading situations. This is indicative of Suchness. This is the teacher whose recognition is potential awaiting subsequent illumination on the well-trod path rising gradually. Teaching being sudden as well as gradual is one without beginning. "Who" is perennially awaiting you. Zen isn't a matter of premonition, it is readiness incarnate at the pivot of awareness, incipiently inevitable. Joe wrote: "Although those things may be true, it’s good to have a HUMAN teacher, and sangha, who will definitely put the challenge to you in all those vanities (maybe you know). Take the test?" —Joe Yes Joe, always ready according to the time and circumstances~ but wouldn’t that be up to the bigger fish— not to mention everyday ordinary situations, hmmmmm? In terms of enlightening function, what teaches is the same as what recognizes— and responds; neither of which is the person’s own (intelllectual) power. The issue is “who is the zen teacher”, not “who thinks they have a zen teacher and deems that "good”. I speak of the reality, and reality is in terms of potential: not the relative/karmic perspective of the student/social milieu. Perhaps the OP is more mundane than I assume, but the treatment I’m providing on this post is commensurate with the scope of my task. Let us not avoid the specificity of "who", by getting side-tracked into your preferences for clinging to a community-based religious attachment. It is not at all about what’s “good”. It is about what (who) the zen teacher is. It is mind to mind itself. It is empty— even in conventional terms relative to student and teacher. The teaching is specifically about freedom, a freedom to actually see reality as is (in terms of ordinary affairs), which is not dependent on a matter of a sudden glimpse of one’s impersonal buddha-nature (the witnessing of which is not by virtue of the person, to boot). "Freedom" is actually being able to realize the inconceivable function of awareness INDEPENDENTLY— not one’s relative aspect to the substance, which is the absolute. Nor is it pertinent to the conditional aspect, an utterly circumstantial illusion, both for those ignorant of the nature of reality and for those whose accomplishment enables seeing it. I must therefore be concerned with Suchness, which is neither. And there are plenty of so-called zen teachers who aren’t even remotely “who”, in this sense, able to address completely the real transcendent capacity in terms of the Great Vehicle effectively responding selflessly in ordinary situations by virtue of the karmic energy itself inherently comprised seamlessly within, or rather, as, potential. The relative and the absolute are not two. Buddhism’s Suchness is the taoist’s Complete Reality. These two terms refer to the same totality of holistic being functionally unlimited by notions of separate identities defining rationals of action. Enlightening being is the response-body according to the time, not seeking honor nor avoiding censure. Again, independence is not relative to the person. It is the nature of enlightening being, which is an impersonally natural function. So let us not also get side-tracked into the individual vs society rut, which is made an issue by not sticking to the import of this thread, Joe— even if I must clarify it on my own. “Who” won’t be holding your hand upon entry into inconceivability because it’s not even you (and never has been). It has never been other than “who” all the while. At this juncture, if “who” is full of seeing its selfless nonoriginated inconceivable unity for the first time, how could there be the slightest smidgeon of vanity in that? It is simply experiencing the totality of one’s self. Going on to tread the gradual path of realizing the totality of one’s self is integrating the function of enlightening qualities in the midst of ordinary situations. This is precisely the kind of activity that "self-refinement" before the sudden alludes to: that which comprises self-sublimating harmonization within one's primal essence of Tao before sudden enlightenment occurs. This is why I say that enlightening being is not dependent on the sudden. One might still consider this as referencing the sudden, but in actuality, this is the seeing of reality in terms of sages, saints, buddhas and immortals transcending ordinary situations in the midst of ordinary situations inconceivably. Enlightening activity is naturally so. Those who have the affinity simply accept their function independently without prior arrangements. There is no thing. Ultimately, we cannot rely on anything in order to realize essence, much less to carry out the function of tathagatas in the aftermath of the sudden and its subsequent maturation. What of arrow-points meeting, Joe? And when aren’t they? It is a matter of seeing it oneself. Need isn’t teaching, need is ignorance of teaching. One cannot hide behind a tradition in order to see reality. One must charge straight into an army of a million enemy troops without a prayer. Reality IS. The tao isn’t taoist; bodhi isn’t buddhist. Those are just words, fine words though they may be. It’s Mind— your own mind right now, the mystery of which is unknowable. The sword of authentic wonder …I recommend it highly. The energy of fascination with objects becomes authentic wonder on the spot when one forgets ageless patterns of self-reifying thought. The point is, the teachers and teachings and traditions of zen is itself zen through and through— it does not matter the context or cultural milieu in which it occurs. Otherwise, it’s not zen, it’s baby-sitting. It is conventional to pair teacher and (whatever you want to call the relative aspect). If you want to discuss that, Joe, then do so. But avoid cleaving to what I have written because what I have written here has no correlate in terms of a myopic, social-centric method of comfort. Zen's activation is not relative to culture. That certain cultures have come to harbor varied authentic traditions that would keep the knowledge alive is perennial. Universal good is not by a country. Universal good is the source of civilizations— not the other way around. People become buddhas and buddhas become people is indicative of sameness within difference in terms of enlightening activity in the world. The authentic sangha is not so exclusive as you would make it out to be. There have always been those who are born knowing and there have been numberless teachers, known and anonymous, who have not taught in the conventional sense (much less at all), and here I am referring to the enlightened individual— acknowledgeable or not. What you are referring to (in the cultural sense of your response to my post above), is the teaching of provisional and formative disciplines. Well, I don’t do that, so please don’t hold me to that criteria. It simply doesn’t apply for those who have seen their nature— especially when it is voiced by one who hasn’t. Your comment does not meet what I have addressed in response to the OP. As for the challenge of taking the test you mentioned, those come and go~ as if there were only one… as I have said elsewhere, in terms of one’s knowledge and experience, one is always surrounded by a 360˚ spherical mystery expanding endlessly. Furthermore, enlightening qualities are not dependent on cultural definitions for the benefit of buddhists. It is mind, not a person. People are limited only by their views. We are inconceivable, without solidity. In other words, in terms of awareness, that the small frequency within its vast, unfathomable function capably facilitated by a relative few realized human beings isn’t definable nor dependent on the effect of a teaching, much less an orthodoxy, not to mention categories of puny moral “precepts” for the benefit of the deluded is the good news. Inconceivable mystery of mysteries! How wonderful! Your essential nature has no limit! Nevertheless, this open secret is complete reality itself in terms of people’s aware nature comprising ordinary situations, not by a culture, tradition or teacher. No one knows why it is so. NO ONE KNOWS. Reality isn’t buddhist, even by virtue of the stolid pointing of all the buddhas, immortals and patriarchs. Even the Nagual Shamanism of the Americas is older still by eons than the liturgies of the historical cultures of Kashmir and Sanskrit spinoffs. As for its sources, it is mind itself, not by a country. Cultural conceits are moot. Awareness isn't attributable to people's experiences. Knowledge is attributable to inherent aware nature awakened in oneself. The adage is, “See essence on your own, then see a teacher”. In this sense of tradition, it is using teacher AND sangha to mature the forgoing achievement, i.e.: seeing your essential nature. Perhaps there is not a vanity you yourself, at present, are able to work with? Here’s a clue: there is nothing else to work with other than the vanity of the false self. Self-refinement is refining away precisely the vanity of the source of one's existential ignorance. When the final subtle vanity ceases to exist, essence is exposed naturally, and the seed of one’s potential buddha-nature is then planted in the homeland of nothing whatsoever simply by virtue of seeing it. Real knowledge is by virtue of selfless experience of potential, not thoughts relative to the endless flow of after-the-fact reflections. To suggest (however good-naturedly) that I am entertaining the expression of a certain vanity is to be expected, Joe. Just don’t make it a habit, ok? It’s not my problem. That’s just my style (and my ability) you are reacting to, so try not to hold it against me just because you do not know the specifics of what I am saying might be applicable to you…❤ I hope I don’t reek too much of the scandalized, self-flagellators I can’t be there for, not to mention the few who delight in my message. A lifetime is very short, so please don’t waste a moment of it chiding me on account of what you are inclined call vanity. I assure you, ones greater than yourself have tried and failed for naught on account of their own vanity. Enlightenment is entry-level. Buddhahood is another matter entirely. “Who is a zen teacher” cannot be a specificity in terms of accord within a certain tradition per se. Awareness isn’t created— it isn’t people. Human being is our link with essence; it’s not pus and blood and the organism’s psychological apparatus. The Virtue of Reception of enlightening qualities requires one’s thorough harmonization in the nature of impersonal nonpsychological (spiritual) accord’s applicable expression in terms of the essential unity of ordinary affairs themselves, unbeknownst to anyone, according to the time. This is because ordinary affairs IS reality for those who see it as is. Without entertaining views of self and other while simultaneously responding selflessly as self and other, one stands outside of creation to spontaneously absorb its potential. One doesn’t do this oneself, nor does one do this for oneself— it’s just how it is. Virtuous accord doesn’t have a moral implication, it’s just real. Resting in the highest good, potential naturally accrues. Where spirit is open, the Way naturally alights. Buddhism calls this gaining power by saving power. Reality is its power; illusion is its karma. These are not two. The only difference is in one’s effective virtuous harmony with reality as is, or not. If it is not enlightening activity, it is self-reflective ignorance bound to karmic retribution. Either one sees one’s own state of being as impersonal inherently unified essence or as an original separately identifiable self. One thereby endeavors to reap the consequences of assertion and adaption alone— this is the condition of the matter of birth and death. Why not endeavor to penetrate the mystery independently during the interval in between? Neither relative nor absolute, one assumes the Great Vehicle. Selfless adaption is an incipient transcendent movement inherent in the karmic situation itself, and does not admit of one’s own power. The matter of non-resistance is only in terms of the relative aspect likened to ice melting: so there is no capitulation relative to situations experienced by an enlightening being because its basis is perpetually causeless, therefore never having entered into the created is its nature. I will bring up potential’s “release” in passing, as it is the critical juncture in the overall timing of the celestial mechanism. This is because one’s psychic clarity is paramount in recognizing the celestial timing in order to respond in human time. It is the meaning of the phrase, “If you know but cannot act on that knowledge, it is the same as not knowing”. It is also the secret of “Refine the self and await the time”. Using ordinary affairs to refine the self, one uses the polluted to arrive at the true. This is the same as “Watching over the medicines, refine the elixir, withdrawing the cauldron from the furnace at the right time”. It is a matter of following the course of events until yang peaks and the killing energy of the yin convergence is about to go into action. At the peak of interaction, you withdraw the medicines from the alchemical fire and seal up the unrefined elixir in the empty vessel, allowing nothing outside to enter inside and nothing inside to escape outside. The situation itself melts by degree releasing potential as the radiance of enlightening activity. Selfless response is as natural as it is audacious in its precisely measured accord relative to the situation, executed with selfless abandon. This is “matching creation”. It is a fluid yet inexorable process of inevitability which dictates the degree of release of potential. It isn’t up to anyone per se. The benefit of enlightening activity is the absorption of potential as it is released, that’s all. Petty individuality can only work effectively, relative to a self-reflective psychologically created mechanical motivation— its logic is ultimately in terms of degrees of insanity (intellectualism) utterly bound by creation to a relativity of artificial cause. The karmic bondage of ratio-synchretic activity is a LAW of relativity. Selfless awareness is the source of sane energy. Enlightening being is an inconceivable, nonlinear phenomena, whose subtle adaption arises incipiently within the potential of the situation itself. This is proof of the essential sameness of relative and absolute realized by enlightening activity in ordinary situations and seen as such by enlightening beings. In terms of the subtle operation of spiritual transformation, one’s nonresistance is the working definition of spontaneity in terms of spiritual movement of the response-body, selflessly aware, when it releases (detaches in the midst of situations) after holding firmly through the course of events. When potential is released, it is spontaneously absorbed by those who see it simply by virtue of one's having worked directly with essence from the start. In terms of alchemic process, this is precisely the time when one withdraws from yin (creation) and seals the unrefined potential (of the experiential situation) in secrecy, void of intellectualism. Absorption in the gradual sense is analogous with sudden realization (all-at-once): it is not relative to oneself, nor is it accomplished as oneself’s person. Either way, the event is an acute phase, as the real work subsequently follows, and is, indeed, up to oneself alone. Finally, “who is a zen teacher” is a predilection to effect that functional inherent capacity in others who are ready, according to the time, whereby enlightening qualities are recognized and cultivated. As for Zen, where is the expression of the power of causeless enlightenment?

"Those who realize on their own do not need to seek outside. If you insist absolutely that a teacher is necessary in order to attain liberation, that is not right. Why? Because there is a teacher within one's own mind that understands spontaneously. If you create falsehood, confusion, erroneous thought and delusion, then even if a teacher gives you instruction, it cannot help you. If you activate the insight of genuine prajna, in an instant erroneous thoughts all vanish. If you knew your own nature, with one realization you immediately reach buddhahood. Insight sees through inside and out, clearly penetrating, discerning your own original mind. If you know your original mind, you are fundamentally liberated. If you attain liberation, this is prajna samadhi, which is freedom from thought. What is freedom from thought? If you see all things without the mind being affected or attached, this is freedom from thought. Its function pervades everywhere, without being attached anywhere. Just purify the basic mind…" —from the second section of The Sutra of Hui-Neng. Translated by Thomas Clearly 1998. ISBN 1-57062-348-1 Hui-Neng was the 6th Chan patriarch and the last to receive the robe and bowl signifying the seal of transmission imparting the teaching of the direct lineage from Bodhidharma, himself the 27th Venerable teacher of the Supreme Vehicle passed on from Shakyamuni Buddha.

Haha!! I just smile on those pesky hopes and desires.❤❤ Yes, I went and returned. I left home at 6:00 am and reached the cirque as the sun was peeking over the highest point to the east. The sun took its time coming out of the clouds and the mosquitos took their time (with me). Instead of hanging out by the water, I picked my way up through 300m of rock on the inclined talus slope comprised of jumbled-up small, large and monolithic granite formations to a little section of steep solid rock (with biG holds) for about 10m to reach the knife-edged ridge about 150m shy of the highest peak overlooking the alpine cirque. I scampered south away from the peak along a particularly thin section called the Catwalk. I've also crawled on hands and knees during blizzards over that same section with skis strapped to my pack… sometimes clients (I guide) refuse to go across that part (there's a mellower way that traverses a little below the Catwalk). At any rate, thunder rang out once at that point while on the ridge. I got off the steep part of the ridge by 10:30 am. Half way down the mountain, it pealed again. As I reached my car an hour after the 1st rumble, a thunderclap boomed a third time, and as I drove from the trailhead, the mountain was very dark. The drive home was heinous! I had never seen the likes of the downpour. Many cars were pulled off the freeway, but I just left it in 5th gear and kept going even though it was impossible to see on occasion. It ended up raining about 4" over the course of the afternoon where I live! I'm praying for El Niño to bury my mountains with snow this winter!! ed note: add the part about "jumbled-up small, large and monolithic granite formations" in the 2nd paragraph

ya, ok! It is not smart people who "get this". I don't get this too. But there are those who are born knowing (not me). In finding out for myself, it wasn't a me who has always known this selfless identity— that's how I know nonbeing is real being. Our essential nature is knowing itself: this is our real identity, a knowing open awareness. The hard part though is returning to the world of everyday ordinary situations and starting over again and somehow using the power of nonbeing within being to accord with reality in the midst of delusional conformity with phenomena. When the path opens up, it has no end. Even delusion is a mystery— how much the more so is the fact that delusion and reality are the same. The thing I talk about here is seeing reality and dealing with illusion. What I mean by that is the truth is there is nothing to get …it's already your own mind. The reason ordinary people don't have access to this naturally open aware nature and its power to pass through karmic evolution without being dragged away with it is because you are already being perpetually dragged away along with creation without your knowing it. Ways to arrive at one's inherent virtue so to not be dragged away in complete ignorance is the secret left behind by many, many authentic traditions through the ages. It's already inherent in you, so no, you are correct to say that some people do not need a practice or teachers of a certain ethnic origin to arrive at complete reality. I don't practice and I never had a teacher, so maybe you are like me in that regard. The part about understanding is the nature of your mind. I swear to you that there is nothing at all to understand. This is because it is beyond the intellectual faculties. It is inconceivability itself. It is found within yourself— and nowhere else. The whole world is each our own totality of being. Ultimately, there are those who not only arrive at this truth, they learn to enter it completely without remainder. The man who walks backwards is the one who would arrive at just this nonpsychological basis as is. I'm not referring to enlightenment. Forget that for all time if you are really the one who walks backwards. If what you say is true, enlightenment will have to catch up with you— and it never will. So forget about all that shit— you already know that much. The nonpsychological is just not thinking. When you know something without deliberation, knowledge is immediate. Just abide here without focusing on the contents. This specific place is very much a practice you, in fact, do need to arrive at in order to realize the totality of yourself, which is inconceivable. Recognize this place and keep a subtle continuous level of accord (concentration) with it at all times. There is no better practice as it is your own mind already. I walk backward too.❤ After a long long time, clarification will come of itself. ed note: add 2nd and 3rd paragraphs

haha!! No, little horse!! I didn't know what you would prefer to call me …I'm just wizened, but I'm not Chinese! You have no idea what constitutes need or not in terms of arriving at your impersonal identity. That fact is neither good nor bad. The topic is a little beyond you right now. That's cool with me… but you probably resent my saying so. Sorry. I use stairs and ladders and elevators to go from floor to floor, silent thunder. I'll bet you do too… unless you want to be a baby about the depth of this matter. Change your attitude and you might make some discoveries into the nature of the being you consider yourself that is going to die. Clear your mind and get real, for starters, before posting on my account~ unless it is fine with you to be a smart-ass about the matter of life and death. If so, be my guest. I'm already the host.