forestofclarity
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Everything posted by forestofclarity
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Personally, I think the only ones who can confirm or deny whether something is rigpa are Dzogchen masters. If we want to know, we have to go to the source.
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Here is an interesting article on energy leaks from Christopher Wallis. I've been listening to his audio on Kashmir Shaivism (which is fantastic). What do the "experts" think? My line of thinking has been that all spiritual practice has an energetic component, even when that component is not emphasized. Understanding energy leaks; or, Seven Ways to keep your Mojo Summary for the Lazy: 1. Exhaustion due to overdoing/multi-tasking 2. Dis-ease of the physical body 3. Excess emotional reactivity 4. Losing contact with natural Presence through thought/fantasy/reverie 5. Strongly held beliefs or opinions 6. Unclear relationships / unclear boundaries 7. Unconscious speech / excessive speech / gossip Full link: http://www.tantrikstudies.org/blog/2016/2/20/understanding-energy-leaks
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The point is to inform one's practice.
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If the above is right, then there are a few conclusions that are likely to ruffle some feathers: 1. Physical/energetic practices can, at best, be secondary practices. Without a primary spiritual practice aimed at bringing about non-attachment, these practices won't work and may actually be harmful. 2. Primary spiritual practices should automatically have physical or energetic side-effects, and if they don't, they probably aren't being done properly. I think that's right.
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And that's where ongoing spiritual practice comes in.
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When I feel like I have problems, I like to watch documentaries about other parts of the world. I was watching about this Tibetan guy who was happy to come to the US and work 12 hour days in a restaurant to escape his hardscrabble life. Or look at North Korea. They'll never have the opportunity to practice any spirituality other than worshipping their leader.
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If you think about it, all the positive virtues tend to arise naturally in a state of happiness. When you're really, truly happy, you are so nice to everyone you meet. You feel connected with everyone and everything. No obstacle seems insurmountable. Similarly, when one isn't happy, this is when problems arise. I mean, even non-spiritual practitioners get this:
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What's the alternative? May all beings choke on suffering? Eat pain, suckers!
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Personally, I think the closest to what the Buddha taught is contained in the Pali Suttas, prior to the Abhidhamma. In my opinion, the Mahayana is not what the original Buddha taught, but an expansion, deepening, and evolving of the Buddha's original insights into something even more powerful. And so it had to be: early Buddhists were quasi-hermetic monastics in a non-industrial civilization. As a modern lay person in a civilization with extremely advanced technology, I find myself in a different position than the early Buddhists. Given my low capacity, I need something more powerful. I don't think it's a free-for-all--- different paths evolve for different people. What's good for one may not be good for the other. The more pressing question is which path is the most effective for each of us.
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Actually, the status of relative truth is a large point of disagreement between the Gelug and non-Gelug schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
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Relative truth is samvrti, which means obscuring or concealed. In other words, conventional truth is fictional, like you say. Lama Tony Duff calls it "fictional truth." It isn't really true, but it appears true to those who see it, like the rope that is mistaken for the snake.
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The whole division of mind is interesting. In Vedanta, you have the five koshas: physical, pranic, lower mental, higher mental, and bliss. The lower mental, or manomaya kosha, is usually glossed as either the bare sensory mind or memory. The higher mental, or vijnanamaya kosha involves division and mental categories. Citta or cit can refer to mind-stuff as in the Yoga Sutras (as in thoughts are whirlpools or vrittis in citta), or as the highest form of awareness as in the sat-cit-ananda formulation of Advaita. Intelligence would be buddhi, which is the root from which Buddha comes. The early suttas more or less lump citta, manas, and vijnana together into a mass and often use the terms as synonyms, but the divisions are still found at least in the Vissudhimagga literature. In the Vissudhimagga literature, there is a parable about a child, an adult, and a money changer seeing a pile of gold. The child just sees it as it is, akin to perception (samjna); the adult overlays concepts on it, akin to consciousness (vijnana), while the money changer, as an expert, sees its actual value, representing prajna.
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I like to see how everyone gets something different out of this quote. What strikes me first is that nirvana is not something to be built or created. It is not a matter of "adding to" but "subtracting from".
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There may be a dichotomy in some forms of Buddhism, but this is hardly universal among the non-dual Mahayana forms. As for the dream, I would forward that the dream is the Buddhist metaphor par excellence. In fact, Buddhism has developed dream yoga to further explore the dream like nature of reality.
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Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
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Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
According to who? -
I actually think that, to a large extent, the ancients made it too difficult. They make it seem like it is so hard. A lot of the old school yogis weren't professional monastics, they were ordinary lay people with families and jobs. Consider the traditional lines: trans Ken McLeod
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Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Well, he does tell the cautionary tale of the man who got sick and died while doing Ngondro... : -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Well, what do you mean by passes on? I thought you meant passes on like "passes by", but now I look it again, it can also mean "dies." So is the question what is the use of accumulating merit and developing capacity if one dies without recognizing one's true nature? Or ???? -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Per the Crystal and the Way of Light: -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
I should also point out that I haven't heard NN or any Dzogchen teacher say that Ngondro is worthless or anything other than beneficial. For example, eating healthy and working out is not essential, but it can make you strong and able. Ngondro is used in certain ways in his teaching. It really depends on the student, the student's needs and many other things. Different teachers have different approaches, and I don't see anything wrong with that. -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
I would also point out that Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his sons gave/give Direct Introduction without first requiring Ngondro, as does Lama Surya Das. -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Well, NN certainly didn't invent the 3 statements of Garab Dorje. -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is going with Garab Dorje. YMMV. -
Dzogchen, superior to Tantra. Really...?
forestofclarity replied to Wells's topic in Buddhist Discussion
Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche doesn't follow the same pattern as other teachers with Ngondro. In the Crystal and the Way of Light, p.116-118, he discusses his view in depth. He writes:
