Apech

I heard one Rinpoche say that once you get to Ist Bhumi all the problems about rangtong/Zhentong evaporate. But as you say - it's emptiness first and then tantra otherwise you get caught up in your own fantastical creations (or something).

Earth is square , Heaven is round. On the earth we orientate ourselves using compass points - essentially a square. In the heaven we orientate ourselves with arcs and circles - orbits of sun and moon and stars. In terms of the square earth - there is a qualitative difference between the directions. North and South form a pair based on (for the northern hemisphere) North being the 'fixed point' (ignoring precessional wobble) around which everything turns - and South being the area of maximum brilliance ( Sirius and Orion). For the Southern hemisphere this is reversed which is one proof for the spherical earth of course East and West form a pair as they have a different relation to the background sky - and are orientated principally as the beginning and end of the plane of the ecliptic (the arc of the sun and planets). For instance West astronomically has no real meaning as in 12 hours the direction of west in terms of stars about by 180 degrees. So North and South - stellar background. East and West - sun, moon, planets. Squaring the circle or circling the square.

Time to rearrange the deck chairs and play Abide with Me.

@T_I That's an excellent quote and summary, thanks! @Rigdzin Trinley The teachings I have received are Kagyu and Sakya - I really don't know about Dzogchen (which seems to me has become something of an obsession with non-Buddhists). The Mahamudra teachings are similar of course. My teacher holds also a Zhentong lineage (originating I think with the 3rd Karmapa) which is the 'empty of other' version of madhyamaka. This also affirms the positive qualities of emptiness or Buddha nature. I think also Mikyo Dorje compares this with Yogacara - in that a truly existent 'mind' is affirmed. What has been suggested in the teachings I have received is that while Prasangika is intellectually a complete and consistent philosophy - practitioners of tantra do in their sadhanas and so on automatically affirm the positive qualities of sunyata and thus are in a sense being Zhentong/Yogacara in their approach. Of course ultimately any inner realisation of emptiness supercedes any intellectual understanding of it.

Am I right to be paranoid? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/theresa-may-surveillance-measures-edward-snowden

here's another version then ...

TALOCPODBs - There's A Lot Of Crazy People On DaoBums

Oh you made me look and I wish I hadn't

What do we mean by zapping? I'm lost.

You seem a little obsessed to be honest.

US exported junk food costs too much shock story.

Relax - I just thought it was funny.

Jeff, That's a bit rich coming from you. I seem to recall quite a lot of mixing Buddhism with Bible quotes in your posts. Or have I been dreaming.

Not sure we are talking about the same thing ... this is what I meant by eight worldly dharmas: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Eight_worldly_preoccupations

What do you mean?

You need to try to understand what 'mind' means in yogacara systems.

Even in the vajrayana you renounce the eight worldly dharmas.

Had to look up Pico de Gallo cos I thought maybe you were eating a capon, and nobody says capon anymore not since Shakespeare - but it seems to have nothing to do with Gallo as per ingredients. (capon = castrated cock - which will give most DaoBums nightmares ha ha). and this is a gallo

I agree with you. But the issue is not that I think. The issue is that the behaviour of actual light as observed cannot be adequately described by either particle or wave. And so it must be something else which sometimes looks a bit like a particle and at other times like a wave. When we realise what exactly it is it will be a facepalm moment because it's so obvious that we have been staring it in the face without seeing it. It will not be something weird it will be logical and make sense. A bit like Newton and the apple it will be a 'of course!' moment. And your chair will not be an airplane.

More stuff on Gobekli Tepe and other sites:

No problem

Chestnuts this time of year and also walnuts.

Dear Homeland Security, Please could you move the unmarked surveillance van parked across the street from my safe house. It is blocking my view of the naval yard which I am monitoring for the Russians. Mr. Putin is very demanding and failure to report the movement of NATO warships could result in the termination of my contract i.e. me. Thank you, A. Pechov