Vajrahridaya

Wow, what a sweet and humble exchange! I'm happy my ostentatiousness could amount to some positive outcome!

Doing so right now! What a unique opportunity for deep transformation! I hope it all goes towards wisdom... for everyone involved.

Thumbs up insight! Your language here also very cleverly plays the middle ground politically, without revealing any sort of possible support for my possibly neurotic, subconscious reasons for sharing such a powerful experience as a direct review of a past life on a public forum.

No, tulku just means re-incarnate lama, not necessarily a Rinpoche, or even highly enlightened being. So, a lama or even low level bodhisattva can re-incarnate without having full power or control into conditions reflective of negative karmas not fully worked out. These conditions could be reflective of even older past lives that did not have the secondary conditions to arise in a subsequent more enlightened lifetime with secondary conditions to manifest those more enlightened tendencies latent in the unconscious or alayavijnana of an individual. I was basically just admitting that I was more enlightened in my past life than I am in this life. Showing that progression is not linear and is full of peeks and valley's that extend into past lives, even eons. The fact of my more enlightened state of mind in my last life was due to causes and conditions both reflected internally and externally as my environment, as they are inter-dependent. Ye of little faith in your own Rinpoche you claim to be a student of? You have revealed none of the qualities of having experienced even a touch of Rigpa. You are just too mean! As well as reductionistic in a deeply negative and pessimistic way towards all the things that ChNNR believes and experiences to be true with the aim of complete eradication. p.s. My memory of my immediate past life as a Lama is reflected in this life. Chinese stepmom, of very overbearing nature, indoctrinating in a volatile and totalitarian way... at first... as our relationship has changed over the years. My birth into a spiritual tradition that teaches one of the fastest ways to perfect or experience the 4 immeasurables (devotional non-dual theism with deep and influenced ties with Buddhism). The 4 immeasurables being the pre-requisite for having any sort of depth in penetrating and experiential insight into dependent origination/emptiness. Also the speed in which all this Vajrayana information came to me in a very lucid and visceral series of meditation experiences, lucid dreams, etc., etc., including fast access to information that was so easy to understand in a direct way which many people seem to find difficult, including you. You mostly revert to scar tissue left over from your angst towards Christianity when it comes to not understanding Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism. Oh yes... another. I also have a memory from much earlier on of being Chinese, and having killed someone out of intense jealousy and rage. Both people part of this triangle I met recently in NYC, with some of the feelings still involved with much of the same outcome, except the murder part. I was thankfully too deeply involved and committed to positive transformation to enact any such residual feelings in this lifetime. Anyway... that's not very enlightened of me and not very self aggrandizing of me to share. I also remember being a stork, triceratops and a saber-toothed tiger. Also I remember being in a space ship, making and disposing of work clones... long before this galaxy ever took birth. The progression of an individuals mind stream towards ultimate Buddhahood is generally very staggered, and filled with complex variations of karmic manifestations. Nothing is as simple or as dismissive as you always attempt to make them seem. Everything of the past is revealed clearly by understanding the now, and vice versa.... if necessary.

The rock says to the water.

Nope... as in yep, I agree! Yea man... lovin' this insight. Huge thumbs up!! Also, since both dharma and buddha are interdependent, they... well... to conceptualize here would be a waste of space. But yeah... The Buddhadharma is considered the Eternal Dharma or Sanatanadharma, and this is before that concept was used in later Upanishads in reference to theism and it's ever so slight dualism disguised as non-dualism.

The experience should reveal a blue bindu/tigle or a cobalt blue pervading light, as well as a open sense of body/brain/mind, filled with grounded and blissful/compassionate sensitivity.

I have memories of Tibet as a Lama... I don't know what position I held but I was completely absorbed in the practice without the conditions for distraction that delude me here in the USA. I think what you said about not recognizing itself in this new environment has been a huge problem for me. Growing up around bullies and telling them in Elementary school to "think of yourself as the ant that you are abusing, or the other kid that you are bullying." This would turn the bully onto me more times than I care to remember. There were natural tendencies for spontaneous meditation and compassion that was not "normal" in my new environment in chicano land New Mexico or inner city San Francisco.... or inner city NYC for that matter. It's been a hard life. In the book Mipham, this is addressed by the author. Basically he asks, what would happen if a bodhisattva practitioner or tulku took birth in the USA with the right intentions but not the right tools to balance with the environment? I in all humility to try to learn the tools has become more of a victim here in the USA... because I "love too much", or "hear too much." But, my wisdom is not deep enough.

Contemplating dependent origination empties self looping attachment.

There is at 151 30th st. floor 4 in Manhattan at Kundroling.

That concept of going directly to the source doesn't work in Buddhism, because the source is the enlightened lineage, the Buddhas. Other than that, there is no inherent source in Buddhism to take refuge in and the Buddha mentions this in the Pali Suttas. He said, "If there was a self to take refuge in, I would teach that, but since there is no self to take refuge in, I do not teach that." That idea of taking refuge in a supreme source of all works in theistic approaches, but not in atheistic approaches such as Buddhism as there is an entirely different understanding of how enlightenment manifests, and there is actually a different goal in mind, and it manifests through causes and conditions which are manifested by Buddhas since time without beginning. So, in Buddhism, Buddhas are the source of your enlightenment, as they are the influence that sets up the inner causes and conditions for understanding the methods for self liberation.

Hi LS! Long time no hear! It's only relatively infinite streams of consciousness. The one taste of a Buddha is just the ongoing experience of seeing directly the luminous emptiness of all streams simultaneous with his/her own. Luminous as in conscious awareness of emptiness. The fact of emptiness is basically cognized by a Buddha, as free from concepts. So, really there is no ultimate consciousness either, just ultimate insight into the nature of all moments of consciousness' (plural). The Alayavijana now turns into the basis for the experience of the Dharmakaya and all impressions have been freed and turned into moments of service to the all, now experienced as self liberated. Your insight Luckystrikes is very good!

Sweet... I hear that. I know I'm guilty of any one of those at one point or another. Thanks for the vote of confidence cat!

Cool.

I haven't actually read a book for a number of years, not a single book, and the last book I read was a fantasy book called Mipham, the first Tibetan novel and that was in 2007. Before that I read a number of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche books, while practicing and having incredible awakening experiences while walking the streets of Manhattan after my transmission from him in 04'. Having various lucid dream experiences with him or other Tibetan Masters including the Dalai Lama who I never felt connected to before my transmission from Namkhai Norbu. These experiences were clarifying the view of Buddhism, as well as spontaneous occurrences of serendipity in all sorts of places around NYC, revealing the subtlety of dependent origination/emptiness. All the while I was learning how to do the various terma practices taught by Namkhai Norbu involving visualization, mantra and mudra, as I was used to just doing relatively easy bhakti chanting, in the traditional Namasankirtana style of Hinduism, as well as Swadyaya chanting of Hindu Gitas which is quite simple in comparison. The Buddhist Vajrayana and Dzogchen practices are more engaging, involving more focus from the individual who is doing the practice. The Yantra Yoga is also more refined than traditional forms of Hatha Yoga, both Iyangar derivatives and Ashtanga derivatives, as the postures are conjoined with particular breathing exercises as in pranayama is performed during the flow of yogic movements that is very specific as far as where to place the inbreath and outbreath as well as the different breath holds in line with particular postures and some involve particular visualizations for specific results. All in all the practices of Vajrayana and Dzogchen are very clean, not messy and very specific in intentionality and require more engaging energy from the practitioner than most forms of Indian Yogic practice derived from Vedic understanding. Of which I still enjoy doing though. Sometimes I still go to Hindu Kirtans and practice Hatha Yoga and enjoy it. During my first meeting with Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in 04', I experienced so many visions and spontaneous surges of a variety of different levels of energy going through different rapture states and correlating realizations as well as visions of the 6 realms and 31 planes of existence and their meaning both mundane and super-mundane. These experiences re-contextualized my previous experiences doing heavy practice in a kundalini tantra tradition and brought a different kind of clarity to these experiences I had previous to my Dzogchen transmission. As well I was having clarity of vision with correlating psychic phenomena revealing information that contradicted my previous understanding based upon Eternalistic interpretations of reality and meditative experiences that supported the Eternalist view during my years as a Shaivite Yogi. Basically, all my previous assumptions based upon supposedly deep level Kundalini Yoga experiences were being contradicted and re-contextualized, and completely re-understood. My whole mind and brain was going through changes. So I read books by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, the person who gave me transmission. So, your truths that you seem to think are real, are really a figment of your imagination. I have ideas of why this happened for you, but I won't share these ideas as I think it's up to you to figure out why for yourself. If you were to sit in practice with me, during my Dzogchen "Tun" or in a group session, lets say a "Ganapuja" or "Chod"... you would change your mind. You think, much like ralis, that you are being intuitive, but your really showing how deep subjective thinking and feeling clouds intuition or actually is the experience of intuition, as there is no inherent "intuition" really, just causes and conditions within the many dimensions as mind. This is a good and humbling insight. I have friends that tell me, "you should be a psychic for hire and make money with it." Or... "You should read auras and tell people their past lives." Because these things spontaneously happen for me. I've read peoples minds, sure, and told them what I read and I'm not talking about general things, but specific things that these people said in their minds with reactions from these people, sometimes in shock, "that's exactly what I was thinking, word for word." But, I am not sure about the validity of any of these things because I understand how deep subjectivity goes within an individual, as well as inter-subjectivity within a group of karmically connected individuals. What people call intuition, is generally just deep subconscious conditioning based upon lifetimes of habit patterning both individually and in groups, as well as left overs from lives as an animal running in a pack. I hope this information was clear enough and not misunderstood. Life is actually pretty complicated in all it's expressions, and sometimes it takes some unpacking of detail to get to the heart of things. Theists say, "God is in the details." Well... for a Buddhist, "Buddhahood is in the details." p.s. I probably should apply more energy to my private practice at home than I do here. Even though I consider all things and every aspect of my day as part of the practice.

Your opinion was unwarranted and comes from somewhere within you that needs checking. Not only is your opinion untrue, it carries an intentionality that you should look at as you are the source of it.

Your experience of his books really has nothing to do with Castanedas' merit and everything to do with your own. He did elaborate on some very true and important concepts in his books that are valid on their own and I think you connected to these truths due to your own openness to do so. This really has nothing to do with Castanedas though. As one Guru said, "A true disciple can have true awakening from a false Guru who says true things."

What amazes me is how this thread descended into a topic about me personally? I came in here, shared my experience and view of my experience, had a little but I think important debate with Alwayson. I answered some sincere questions concerning the Buddhist view on various things, not everyone agreed, which is fine. But, Ralis comes in here and turns it to all to shyte, making it all about me personally, which stirs up all his supporters like a mob. People who hardly post, all of a sudden turn up to post negative remarks about me, on a personal level? WTF??

I agree, I am no great teacher, but merely a reader... definitely not! Thank goodness for that.