Apech

in nightly trash bin. rummages the F.B.I. looking for secrets.

OK ... I didn't know it was that large ...

Thank you for the OM Shanti at the end which is very pleasing. I can see you have had a varied social life amongst addicts and heavy drinkers, moulded as they are by circumstance and conditioning. What tales you could tell I am sure. That you distinguish selfishness from selflessness is admirable and also perspicacious indeed. Well done I say. To have a self or not to have a self is a choice we all must make. I personally find that I am less selfish at the weekends. Perhaps weekdays are more taxing, I am not sure. Perhaps I will never know. Peace, pax, many, many times over.

the more I read the more I want this book ... but its £54 on amazon.co.uk ....

yes it says tantric Buddhahood 'incorporates' sutric buddhahood ...(page 62) ... so one supercedes and yet incorporates the other ... so the sutric view is not wrong or incompatible but only lesser or incomplete somehow. PS. is this book worth buying? I am thinking of getting it.

I think there are problems with what Gampopa attempted in fusing the teachings of the mahasiddhis and monastic buddhism. But I think the idea that one refutes the other is equally problematic. the buddhist tantras did not emerge from nowhere ... they are buddhist ... and as such are part of the whole vehicle of dharma surely.

holds her small frame. Yikes! you are tiny yet perfect! can I take you home?

gimme that damn thing! cos the green light has gone on and it's jumping time.

to jump off with me is ok, but remember just one parachute.

i would fly briefly which in that falling moment might just be enough.

walls or a railing I say - please don't fence me in, freedom is my goal.

Yes my lama also (and great teachers in the past like Gampopa) see the vehicles as being complementary views which build on each other. The views of the vajrayana and ati-yoga and so on are 'superior' in the sense of more highly developed ... but this does not negate the Mahayana view for instance but clarifies it. The sangha in which one takes refuge is not the collection of people who turn up to the dharma centre but the assembly of bodhisattvas. It doesn't matter that other practitioners are confused and egotistical ... its irrelevant. the original sanghas as communities of monks were set up to give seekers a life style removed from the obligations of a householder ... that's all really ... a way of life that gave you time to study and meditate. Life was harder in those days and the obligations of people engaged in society were onerous such as would leave you no time for dharma.

my cat died ... so ...

I wanted to go to the University of Life but I failed the entrance exam.

Look you're going to have to accept that this whole independence thing has been an experiment gone wrong. You need to fess up about this and return to colony status as part of the British Empire. You will feel happier and won't have to think for yourselves anymore. We can even send our ex-primeminister Tony Blair to run things for you for a while ... get things straightened out and put you back on your feet again. problems like Mexicans mowing lawns will seem like nothing in a vey short time and you can go back to chewing burgers and slurping coke without a care in the world.

@songstan ... take it easy ... I don't agree with you ... that's it ... we don't have to agree .. no problem. Good luck.

Buddha was not focussing on the negative he was pointing out the problem. Dukkha = unsatisfactory or similar ... in other words don't look for answers in samsara cos it doesn't have any. he was moved by compassion ... sadness I guess ... and through kindness to formulate what he at first thought was impossible to formulate to try to help people who were up to their eyeballs in ignorance and confusion.

I'm not offended but you did call the Buddha an asshole. if you think this then you have no connection with Buddhism. I am not suggesting that we should be creepily servile or anything but basic respect is required I think. or if you don't feel it then just leave it alone and do something else.

In the vajrayana the Sangha is specifically the assembly of Bodhisattvas (Chenrezig and co.) and not the people who happen to attend a dharma centre. So for instance in the ngondro you address the Lama, Buddhas, dharma, sangha, yiddam and dharmapalas ... here you mean Bidhisattvas by sangha. I have to admit, and this is in no way a criticism of other dharma practitioners that I find myself un-sympatico with collections of buddhists. I suppose people are at very mixed levels of development and with lots of different motives and as such hardly a shining example all the time ... with this you have to accept how political such organisations such as dharma communities become. For this reason I remain a lone practitioner even though I have a lama who is my teacher.

I think even the negative figures that we a presented with are misleading. Debt for instance is always there for economies which work in the way that ours do. The British Empire at the height of its power was in debt. There are a lot of other factors which have to be taken into account at the same time.

You are blessed as in he/she is treating you as an equal ... its more of a greeting I think.

ah Elbereth Gilthoniel ... that's all I have to say at this point

the translation dukkha = suffering is a bad one ... or perhaps only partly true.

That is true and also I would say that if you feel no connection with Buddhism then do something else. It is supposed to make you happier and to understand things better not get more confused.

I think you are a bit confused about Buddhism.