Vajrahridaya

You can apply your change of my post to yourself as well. But yes... I still suffer from flawed perception and can readily admit it. But your consideration of SYDA is wrong and also deeply flawed, and based on information mal-nourishment. You can argue until your face turns blue about your ideas of creepiness. I do know better. It's a good path with incredibly realized people on it, it's goal is just not complete in my opinion so I became Buddhist. Also, much of the issues with it aren't the fault of the individuals but the Hindu philosophy idea that there is a God to become one with, which is merely a mis-interpretation of meditative experience according to the Buddha and all educated Buddhists. This very interpretation leads beings to think they are fully enlightened and one with God, so they teach certain things that lead others to venerate this Guru in a certain way that is not so objective. The teachers of SYDA though are honorable people, contrary to what you read on internet bash sites conjured by confused Western minds. I do find Buddhism more objective though and more complete of a perspective on the Guru/Disciple relationship, which is why I left Siddha Yoga, not because I believe your or your friends perspectives on it.

Yes! That's what the practices of generation and completion do, they work with one's subconscious imagery and color. The deity practices and mudras, contemplations with images and meaning, emotional engagement through devotion, etc. all works with the subconscious thought-forms and habit patterns of limited reference to liberate. Here's some better descriptions... Generation Stage Completion Stage There are lots of practices that do such things as you are inquiring about within Tantra as it works directly with the energy of mind and body so also with subconscious imagery and color and imagination which becomes our reality.

Yes, Joseph Campbell is an interesting mind.

Generally speaking the Western mind has always only been critical of externals and except for the few mystical traditions that sprang from various places in the West most likely influenced by the East during the silk road trades of ancient times, we are suffering from the Western idea that life is somehow flawed and needs to be fixed. The error correction error. Like for instance, bugs eat fruit, so they spray fruit with anti-bug spray which has now destroyed so many eco-systems. This is a system of critical thinking that is quite flawed and very much a Western invention, kind of like the hemispheres of the brain are plastered on the planet as well, the linear minded left side or West side and the abstract thinking right side or East side. Of course Western ideas of materialism have taken over the planet and now we're kind of merging the two. There is no problem with some outer critical thinking, but in most cases, it's externalized out of self avoidance. When one experiences the deep opening of the heart on a level transcending ego and duality, you can't help but venerate the lineage that helped you get there... it's automatic and cannot be forced. So, you only believe within the condition of your thus far remembered experience. Your belief is a condition. If you want the non-dual experience directly... just question the beliefs is all. The traditions from the East come from a deep, deep space, they are not flawed, we are. Not every messenger coming from these Eastern traditions is the best messenger either... which is why they even say question a Guru for 9 years before you decide to open yourself to the person. You don't have much experience of a Guru/Disciple relationship so what your stating is coming from reading Western minds trashing Guru/Disciple relationships. Sure you can come to some insight just through living deeply, but we are not aware of our blind spots and an illumined Guru will be, only if truly illumined though. It's really about the methods that one takes into life and integrates into life that one gets from a qualified master of various methods that breed particular results which lead to self/nature realization. It's not about being a sucker for some persons subjective ideas about things. It's about receiving the tools in order to have the realization yourself and getting guidance so you know you are using the tools correctly. But something much deeper happens when there is a truly illumined teacher giving spiritual tools and initiation into using the lineage tools properly. If you have not experienced this deeply special transference and there are different types, then of course you will not understand the depth of a Guru/Disciple relationship. Not all transmissions have the same intentions or same level of fruit involved as well. But, they say... when you are ready the Master appears. If a person is still walled in by all sorts of views and beliefs, then openness cannot occur and the person is not ready for the paradigm shift that can be offered by a truly enlightened Guru of a truly enlightened lineage. I'm not talking about fake Guru's here either.

Well... the Western mind is quite flawed in it's constant projection of flaws and lack of self investigation, that's for sure. Really the majority of humanity is quite into this flawed thinking, this error correction error. When you experience directly the nature of everything through the glance of a really opened and wise one, without actually conjuring it, but just by being open and willing to learn... you know. One experiences in one elongated moment beyond time enough information to fill volumes. Should I start boasting of my experiences in meditation? I will mostly just talk sutra. I try not to share my experiences as people generally like to stomp on them or use the information against me later... Which is why Teachers say only share your experiences with people on the same path as you or the teachers. I'm pretty flawed in my being a student and I question myself more than the teacher because I'm here to work on myself, not my teacher. Of course, I've experienced enough through my Guru to know that he's very, very deeply wise, far beyond what I have realized thus far, but he never makes me think that I am lower than him... quite the contrary actually. Like I said... this anti-Guru rant is pretty egotistical. Not all Gurus are truly wise, but the vast majority of students are definitely not wise. What I have individuated is going to be hopefully at best, no different from what the great timeless teachers have spoken. I am not here to stand out, just regurgitate as you say... LOL! the truth of things which has not changed one bit. What I speak of though, I have directly intuited. If you meditate for many hours a day and give yourself fully to a path of yoga for many years, it will bare fruit to the degree that you have let yourself go into it. I am no Buddha though, but merely a wana be. So definitely take what I say with a grain of salt and investigate for yourself of course.

Maybe you don't drink enough? This whole anti-teacher culture is a very sad one... quite egotistical. Yes, some Gurus are fake and need to be stripped, some are only half fake and half true, and many mean well and have many realizations worthy of being heard or felt, but still have some issues, and others are quite worthy of veneration as they have trotted the path to the end of their neurosis and have much, much to offer those of us who are still struggling with our neurotic envelopments. Those that think no one could be worthy enough to teach the masses something valuable or even highly enlightening are quite caught up in themselves and don't know much about the path to liberation. It is quite natural for a genuine seeker to want to sit at the feet of someone who has realized the nature of everything, and not just say he or she has, as they generally don't, but actually does have direct cognizance of the nature of mind and phenomena. There wouldn't be any fake Gurus if there weren't any real ones. The Guru disciple relationship is an incredible one, very deep. The vast majority of enlightened beings realize what they know through humility to a teacher who equally humbled themselves to a teacher, and so on and so forth. About 99.9 percent in fact. If we had a planet of enlightened beings, we wouldn't need any Guru's, but we don't so we need them. ..................................................................... May they fulfill their promise to help us who are wallowing in the mud of pride and egoism and keep taking re-birth in order to teach and clarify the dharma! May the bitter hearts who spite you great and venerable masters of the dharma be opened up by the rays of your realizations!

It takes humility to really learn from a teacher and good karma to have a good one. Some people are worthy of veneration. The ones that are, are generally unassuming and very humble themselves.

Language is only as limited as your mind is about it. I can read one line from a well placed and maybe abstract seeming poetic interlude by a realized being and get a meaning that speaks volumes more than what "appears" to be on the page. The beauty of language is that it is self transcendent through meaning. It seems mostly poets see this...

Ah... more venomous sarcasm from Silar.... the Joker! If you could look into yourself a bit deeper and find a soft and open heart, maybe the right side of your brain will open?

Have you read "old man basking in the sun"? Anyway... generally it takes having had direct transmission and experience to even read between the lines of any sort. Your left side of the brain eats your right side potential. You could use some balancing in the abstract thinking of your right side. Oh well...

Many times they actually are, but not in an absolute sense like the Adi Da liked to claim about himself, but only in a relative sense, more like what the Buddha said.

Indeed. This self is relative to every arising from previous arisings endlessly, but when aware of it's empty interconnectivity, the space originating dependent upon this realization is filled with the illuminated consciousness that originates relative to the experiential cognition of inter-dependent origination/emptiness which consciousness is a dependent arising of as well. Here's some empty circular logic for ya! p.s. Samsara rightly understood is Nirvana HAHA!

Actually Dzogchen disagrees which is why both conceptualizing and non-conceptualizing is non-dual. There is not a non-conceptual ground of being, this is a mistaken cognition and interpretation of the various formless samadhi's which Hinduism does as a basis for it's explanations. So, non-dual is dual to duality? Only non-duality is real and duality is not? Sounds like the idea that Brahman is real and maya is illusion. There is a subtle duality in your interpretation of non-duality because it's a substantialist version of interpretation. Nah... his explanation was more clear than your interpretation here, there is no attachment to non-being or being. It's easily discernible if Nagarjuna is understood as well as the huge amount of Buddhas that come after the Buddha. Including the Buddhas that headed up the written version of his words some years after his death. Even of different types of Buddhist paths like the Theravada and Mahayana. We are in a Buddhadharma destroying age. Indeed. Since everything is relative though, it could go either way.

HAHA!! Oh you...

The connected arisings of and rebirths of consciousness through endless connections remembers it's particular stream, even if it breaks apart multidimensionally. There is no static I. You might like to read some Abhidharma. There is not no-self absolutely, that's relative, but there is also not an absolute self except as absolutely relative. There are connecting moments and sub-moments within infinite spectrum which the personal mind stream arises through as relativity itself... sort of speak. Thus remembrance and forgetfulness is so easily inter-changeable. Because there is no static consciousness. You either recognize the connections of moments or forget them. Meditation and "right view" helps you remember them, even beyond the beginning of this universe... thus a Buddha can remember who his/her mind stream was even thousands of universes ago. LOL! Only if you had of been more dense in your argument, but you allowed me some room to work with and have a good argument with. So no. Not this time. Maybe if you had of come accross more dense... then maybe. But, your argument was intelligent. So, thanks!

Word em up!!! Here here!!!

Nah... you still don't understand the meaning of my words. The cosmos does only work a particular way... as more chaotic than other traditions propose. My simplicity involves more information... Try again ralis. I only promote Buddhism on a traditional level as a strong living tradition that has working methodology in many different ways of approach that work succinctly. Buddhism non-traditionally as available to anyone who questions and explores deeply enough. But, I use a language that is traditionally Buddhist because it's a clear approach. You ralis keep projecting limiting interpretations onto me and sometimes it feels like dark knotted energy. Traditional Taoist cosmology sees the universe differently, as Christian does, and Islam does, and Hindus do... Buddhist sees these cosmologies as not all together wrong, just not complete because they end at a primal cause. Buddhist Cosmology within the tradition of the spoken and written does not end at a primal source of all things. Even the concept of Samantabhadra is treated with an entirely different subtlety in Vajrayana and Dzogchen. It's quite clear that even though you reject Buddhist cosmology, you do it for ignorant reasons.

Hey! Maybe Harris is more intelligent in bed than on paper!! LOL!!

Which is really what all those tantric practices are about when doing the mandala and the deity yogas. The mind becomes like that which is focuses upon endowed with all the virtues of Buddhahood. You become a Buddha if you focus on a Buddha intimately with deep contemplation and integration. It's an intuitive thang!

CowTao! Have you read, "Blazing Splendor"? Tulku's autobiography?

Your world view has to do with identifying with a prevailing self existing Absolute Truth. It's very Hindu... thus limited by the cryteria that the Buddha subverted when he said that there is no substratum reality that transcends all things and is simultaneously eminent as them. Buddha (awake) cosmology discusses deeper. Not all concepts about the universe are compatible with the liberated view. Though the liberated transcends all concepts, including the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi or sahaja samadhi that identifies with a concept-less abstract overlord. The traditional Vedantin view is still slightly dualistic on a very subtle level.

Can you interpret me outside of yours? Buddhism doesn't think Christianity or Islam is wrong all the way, just incomplete and at best leads to higher rebirth. Unless it's a secret branch of the path influenced by a Bodhisattva that teaches all the way to the Jalus... which might still exist. Basically... Buddhism isn't merely the dressing of what is popularly considered Buddhism. Islam and Christianity on a traditional level preach that all other paths are evil and will lead to hell. They think Buddhism is merely icon worship and Hinduism is too and Taoism is a path of the devil. Buddhism never preaches this. So is very, very different of a cosmic view from the traditions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Buddhism is different from Hinduism in the sense that it doesn't equate everything with an all encompassing transcendent reality. I've said this many times in many ways. If the realization comes to the realization of a non-staticness, of complete malleability, and complete realization of the nature of the self not to be equated with an all encompassing Self of all, which Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche has said many times. Then, it's Buddhism, no matter what language, it's awake-ism. As far as a clear lineage that is available to the masses and that is clearly accessible, Buddhism as it's traditionally known to be is the clearest and integratabtle with any living tradition, but not all traditional concepts, including the concept of a universal Overlord. Though the Buddhas Bodhisattvas have taken rebirth into other traditions in order to bring them closer to the truth of the nature of things. I'm far less dogmatic than you ralis. You keep equating what I'm saying with your hate for Christian dogmatists or Islamic extremists. My message is deeply different. Do you get it ralis? You don't actually read the meaning of my posts, you just read your projection. Plenty of others get the meaning of my posts... but you don't.

Ah, Silar-ralis... famed Hero cereal killer on the TV show Heros... who is actually having a change of heart as of late! With his demonic entity "The Joker" as an Avatar... speaks to us all! But yes, as of right now on Earth... this is the medicine for not knowing the nature of your own self. Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche believes in past lives, Buddha realms, that the lineage of Buddhism as it stands right now is pure for the most part. That there might be secret lineages that are not that accessible to people hidden in mountains or whatever... but what's the point? You claim to be a Dzogchen practitioner or receiver of the transmission? But you don't believe anything he teaches.

He is trying his best, but he's not as smart as he thinks he is.

Buddhism is the path to realizing non-static consciousness most clearly on Earth right now, Dzogchen being the highest aspect of this path. Most all other paths promote some sort of idea of a static substratum behind things that all things are in reality. This is opposed to full awakening.