doc benway

Do you care to elaborate? It’s an interesting suggestion.

I think the mindset is that know one can really know who will connect with the teachings and who will not. As a result, given the difficult state of current affairs he has decided to share the teachings with little reservation in hopes they will germinate and blossom in a few blessed individuals. True I do limit what I share to a considerable degree.

I've never been encouraged to discuss dzogchen publicly by my teachers. On the other hand, my teacher does encourage us to share our personal experiences with other practitioners to whatever degree we feel comfortable. The teachings themselves do offer warnings against sharing teachings with those who are not karmically connected. They also describe the problems that can arise from unsuitable practitioners encountering the teachings. Consequently, I use caution when discussing the teachings and generally limit discussion to my own personal experience. I share here as I consider this a relatively small community of variably dedicated practitioners, among whom are some quite experienced and knowledgable folks.

Sure Our current world is deeply suffering. The people, all of the living creatures, the very Earth herself. Furthermore, the home and heart of these teachings has been under attack and occupation for decades. I think these are the fundamental motivating factors for the masters that are making the teachings public. If they have something that can help us as well as protect the teachings from extinction, it seems they feel an obligation and opportunity to share. The nature of the teachings is their simplicity and practicality. No complicated concepts or visualizations, no need for specialized equipment or a knowledge of exotic languages, no need for years and decades of study, no dependence on cultural subtleties. Certainly all of these things can support the practice but none are necessary if the practice is understood and done correctly. I’ve heard it said that this is exactly the practice needed for the modern era, I tend to think along those lines.

Yes, I do

True I don't mean this to be a criticism of energy practice or its advocates but sometimes I find that working on the body and working with "energy" can be an easy way to bypass lots of real stuff that needs to be addressed. The idea is that working on the body and with "energy" are an indirect way to address the mind. Unfortunately, it doesn't always seem to be effective, even among experienced practitioners.

I've had a similar experience since beginning meditation practice about 17 years ago. There seem to be always more things to come up. Not surprising given how full of stuff my day to day life is - work, relationships, habits, hobbies, "news," etc... There are also things that come up that are not at all new, things I thought I'd let go or transformed. These persistent patterns that are resistant to change are the more frustrating for me currently.

This is very natural and will go on for a long time if you continue to practice. Methods like meditation (of which there are many) and mantra help us to quiet and rest the active mind. When that very familiar mind and its content rest and begin to open up all sorts of new, unexpected, and unfamiliar territory makes itself accessible. This is the proverbial "peeling the onion."

Sure, that's part. Another way to look at it is simply that the mind tends to grasp things - complex activities and tasks, memories, fears, desires, shapes, colors, sounds - anything and everything. More than anything it grasps at a "self," a permanent entity that is the narrator, the doer, our very own frame of reference. But even that frame of reference is a movable, temporary construct. The one thing the mind does not know how to do is simply rest. That's not at all in its wheelhouse. Partly that is because the mind is specifically that aspect of us which does anything other than rest. So we must show it what a resting mind looks like and then give it the opportunity to see value and develop some familiarity with that. In the Tibetan Buddhist and Bön traditions, this method of "leaving it as it is" was the single most inaccessible and secretive of all practices. It was considered very radical and even heresy by some, such is the power of the mind that does not understand or value rest.

The peril of meditation is simply that we will get to know ourselves as we truly are. What we find can be very beautiful and liberating but along the way can be very ugly and frightening. One of my favorite teachers is Anthony Demello who was both a spiritual teacher and a psychologist. He talked about his struggles finding balance between the two. As a psychologist, the goal is often to ease suffering. As a spiritual guide, the goal often must lead through that very suffering. Regarding uncharacteristic thoughts, they are all a part of you. We collect so much along the way from birth to the grave. Much of that is suppressed or repressed, we often don't even realize it's something we've collected. When it expresses itself it can be quite surprising, even unwelcome. Our work as practitioners is to honor its presence without hanging on, just to allow it to do its dance and carry on.

The core practice of the tradition I follow is just this - resting in one's own nature. We refer to it as resting in the Nature of Mind and the proverbial pith instruction is - leave it as it is. It is interesting that something so simple, so mundane, can be the source of so much disagreement and secrecy. The reason is that to do this practice properly requires a great deal of precision. It is extremely easy to miss the mark and getting it wrong often leads to significant problems. Missing by a hair is just as bad as missing by a mile, in some ways worse because the practitioner doesn't know they've missed and follows a mistaken direction of their own creation moving every farther form the truth. So while I resonate deeply with this practice and have a sense of its value, I also have a solemn respect for it. I recognize that it is not something anyone can simply access and yet it seems so simple on the surface. So when one does encounter challenges they are magnified by the apparent simplicity, leading to frustration, anger, even bitterness.

Brilliant

I think it is a large and interesting topic. I see trance more as an alteration of mundane consciousness, often requiring stimulation through sound or psychotropics, used to connect to spirits, entities, or beings that are not readily accessible otherwise. Meditation is more related to the purification and clarification of mundane consciousness itself. Of course there are many exceptions, variations, and overlap, and our definitions have quite a bit of flexibility.

They will come and they will go...

@VonKrankenhaus2 If you want to access your old account send me a PM and we should be able to get that back and delete the new one.

@Giles Your personal practice discussion forum has come into existence. Let me know if you have any questions

@Knowthing Your PPD is set up here - https://www.thedaobums.com/forum/616-knowthing/ Please let me know if there are any questions.

The causal paths which include the shamanic practices have a view rooted in cause and effect. The sutric path has a view of emptiness. The tantric view is that of the divine. The dzogchen view is generally referred to as the open view.

What is the relationship between trance and meditation in your opinion? For me they are not equivalent.

From a Bön perspective (quite consistent with Buddhism and with which I'm most familiar), there are several ways or paths each of which has a unique perspective and paradigm - causal paths (shamanism would fit here best but overlaps with others), sutric, tantric, and dzogchen paths. Each has a unique view, practice, conduct, and fruition with unique characteristics.

We are awash in lies, innuendo, misinformation, and disinformation at a time when so many are so desperate for something they can hold onto to keep from drowning. It’s painful to watch.

I feel that the two, one's natural aptitude for healing and an inclination to escape society and contemplate spiritual things, go hand in hand. Furthermore, one need not escape society to engage in spiritual practice and transformation. It is far easier, and therefore recommended in many traditions, for many of us to escape to solitude than it is to transform oneself in the thick of samsara but it's not the only way. If you are called in that direction by all means follow that calling, but don't shy away from spiritual investigation simply because you cannot escape from society. In my own tradition, that very practice and transformation we seek is found by going directly through samsara, not around it. There is nothing that makes one a better healer than to first heal oneself. The last line of a dedication prayer that my teacher wrote for his Western students is - In liberating my own being may I benefit others. Connecting with one's own dharma, the truth of one's nature, is liberation from suffering. Liberation is the ultimate healing. If you are called to look for that, regardless of the circumstances, I highly recommend you heed the call.

I practice whenever possible outside, often in my yard below. I often practice indoors in a small meditation room. My dogs frequently sit in the meditation room, with or without me.

I’ve been largely disengaged from news since 9/11. At the time I was absorbing news voraciously. I began looking at multiple sources from around the world and realized that news is largely propaganda or, at best, stories told through the limited geographical, cultural, and political filter of the reporter, producer, and publisher. Much distortion is intentional, much is not. Since last Wednesday I’ve been looking at some reporting and find PBS and BBC to be fairly neutral and intelligent.

Be equally careful with "news" about Covid, or anything else, coming out of China.