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An excerpt from Mipham's Profound Instruction on the View of the Middle Way There is apprehension, but no essential nature to the perceived, And even the perceiving mind can not be found, So without clinging, one is brought to rest in natural ease. When you remain like this, all experiences, Both external and internal, are not interrupted. Within this fundamental nature free from grasping, All the projections imposed upon phenomena, Have never arisen and never ceased to be, And, free from the duality of perceiver and perceived, One rests in the all-pervading space of equality. This is beyond any assertions such as ‘is’ or ‘is not’. And within this inexpressible state of true and natural rest An experience dawns that is free from the slightest trace of doubt. This is the actual nature of all things, The ultimate that can not be conceptualized, And which can only be known individually, The non-conceptual wisdom of meditative equipoise. When you become familiar with this state, In which emptiness and dependent arising are an inseparable unity, The ultimate condition in which the two truths can not be separated, Then that is the yoga of the great Middle Way.

In Buddhist tantra one can train/learn to transform passions into enlightened energies. This is a simplified representation of how it is taught: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Five_buddha_families

Hate is a very expensive emotion. Resentment could be more reasonably priced. Cheapest of all - Love as affirmative action (aka compassion) is free!! At the point where you lose your self in the act of genuine giving, sharing and/or helping, that is the point of enlightenment. As the saying goes... no one gets enlightened; there is only the activity of enlightenment. If not for this, of what use is enlightenment? In Buddhism, its often said that enlightenment needs 2 wings to take flight: One is wisdom, the other... compassion. Understanding dependent origination is the wind beneath the wings.

So, what motivates you to keep going? Do you at times feel exhausted.. anxious... dejected? Any subtle/gross sensations of a knotted solar plexus?

Khandro-La chanting the 100 Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva

If you have truly relinquished your fear of dying thru abandoning common attachments, then this OP makes no sense at all. Instead of pain, you would have started a thread called "Energy Feeling and Total Joy around the Heart". This will tie in neatly to your assertion, otherwise it just seems cross-grained.

Do you perhaps have some intuitive sense of what this 'something different' might be, and if you do, what sort of imagery does reflecting on it conjure, or are you merely anticipating that more barriers lie in wait?

China is seriously considering granting residency (even citizenship) to all Chinese who weren't born in China. There's approximately 600 million Chinese non-nationals across the globe, a significant number of whom are loyalists. If this were to materialise, she will be one step closer to world dominance.

Devotion Remembering Khandro

so in your understanding, those who fall short of the criteria (of meditating at least once a day) are lazy and weak-willed, a sloth to be condemned to eternal non-enlightenment?

http://patient.info/health/shingles-herpes-zoster-leaflet

Im saying you had better get it checked in case its shingles, aka hepatitis herpes (zoster). A very painful infection which often starts as a rash around the midsection of the body, and ends up forming like a ring around it. late edit - not hepatitis, but can lead to acute forms of it if treatment is delayed.

Rely on timeless awareness, which is free of elaboration, without identity, and the very essence of being; do not rely on ordinary consciousness, which is a mind fixated on characteristics and concepts. Timeless awareness entails (1) understanding that the way in which phenomena actually abide is, from the ultimate perspective, free of all limitations imposed by elaborations of origination, cessation, and so forth; (2) realization of the nonexistence of the *two kinds of identity; and (3) unerring knowledge of sugatagarbha as utter lucidity, the way in which things actually abide, beyond any context of speculative value judgments. It is on this awareness that one should rely. Ordinary consciousness entails (1) belief that what one immediately perceives constitutes something truly existent; (2) conceptualization in terms of characteristics, such as the sense of personal identity and the mind-body aggregates; and (3) mental states that are conditioned, for example, by attitudes of naively fixating on the pleasures of the senses. One should not rely on such consciousness. ~ Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche ~ *the 2 kinds of identity are the 'self' of the individual, and the 'self' of phenomena - both of which are negated within the mind that recognises sunyata.

To see if you’re aware of impermanence or not, check whether your plans are long or short term. To see if you perceive samsara as flawed or not, check how strong is your attachments. To see if you’ll attain liberation in the future or not, check whether your conduct is good or bad. To see if you’ve given rise to loving kindness and compassion or not, check how you take care of those in need. To see if you’ve tamed the demon of anger or not, check how much hatred you feel towards your enemies. To see if you’ve dispelled the obscuring demon of ignorance or not, check how much you cling in hope and fear. To see if you’ve purified the three poisons or not, check how free from grasping you’ve become. You’ll know your Dharma practice has become the path or not by thoroughly examining your own mind. ~ Chokgyur Lingpa ~

Calm and self-control are signs of listening to the Dharma; Few passions, signs of meditation; Harmony with everyone is the sign of a practitioner; Your mind at ease, the sign of accomplishment. ~ Dudjom Rinpoche ~

better rule out shingles!

at this juncture, what do you see as a significant difference/s between one who knows that they are one with source, and one whose knowledge of this is absent? In the matter of the embodiment of one's divine self, where do you most notice the separation, for example, at which level? Is it more so on the physical level? Psychological? Subconscious level? Perhaps a dynamic interplay of all these at various points of being seen in the ebbs and flows of awareness?

That admission alone is worthy of commendation. Some who are presumed to have been in the spiritual game for numbers of ears cant yet tell the difference between distraction and non-distraction, nor willing to openly declare that they are prone to bouts of mindless wanderings even when they are assumed to be in deep meditative states. Which is why i think its not what happens during meditation, but after one concludes the practice that progress is gauged with some sort of accuracy. Do you ask yourself, btw, the question whether a strong-will is a prerequisite for being an impeccable meditator? If so, what are other associated traits you can think of? Also, do you believe mightily that a weak will actually obstructs spiritual growth, or is it your designated interpretation of what constitutes 'weak will' that is the probable obstacle? Assuming that you were to enlarge the definition to perhaps include motive, causes and inclinations, and ways to become more aware of these as and when they arise, or when you notice that your perception takes on a negative feel whenever that thought or associated terminologies comes to mind, similar, for example, to your assessment above, will you perhaps rethink the image you have of yourself in this particular regard?

there's a flower in Asia called Bunga Telang. Its blue is a one of a kind blue never seen in any other flowers. Locals would pick & use these flowers to make a natural food colour for desserts. And also as ornamental offerings to Hindu gods & deities. There are currently studies being made on it being a cure for diabetes.

What would be a likely destination then, in your view?

happy crispmas!

and how/why is waking up crucial and helpful to a person? So a person who wakes up enlarges identification at the same time realises or remembers the reality that he or she is consciousness itself - what does this actually mean?

Woke up to what? I hope it was to something nobler than just good feelings.

one lifetime. No shorter.