C T

Sanguine..

Oh, its you!! How odd, i swear i was just talking to you on the phone.

hot off the press http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/22/world/europe/europe-right-wing-austria-hungary.html?_r=0

If i have given up all modes of cherishing, of what shall i fear?

Glenn Mullin - Death, Bardo & Enlightenment: Considerations from the Tibetan Book of the Dead Insightful video.

dont know about you, but i'd rather see myself as a 'work in progress' rather than a god.

A Noble Truth is one that ennobles the person who truly understand it. 'There is suffering' is a Noble Truth. 'I am suffering' is not. Enlightenment occurs only after we have seen suffering as a conditional phenomena. Only depression, self-aversion and self-pity result from taking it personally. The understanding that 'there is suffering' arises from observation of experience. The assumption that there is an 'I' that is suffering arises from a lack of observation of experience. Whenever we don't pay attention to the reality of our body and mind, we create the sense of 'I'. In Dhamma practice we learn how to stop taking this 'I' so seriously, and ultimately how to let it go. ~ Ajahn Jayasaro ~

It has been mentioned that when confronted with imminent death the mind intuitively shifts to another state altogether. The habits that are plugged by fear die first - they all vanish instantaneously, like a candle flame suddenly blown out. Then follows some sort of wonderment that words cannot describe. We can only make tentative guesses as to what this transcended state entails, although some here might have tasted it at one point or another. Look at the way he laughed. It didn't seem to fit the situation imo. I know that it can be cultivated though.

Find a Donald Trunk and we'd probably get a remake of the 3 Stooges.

how fast they grow up those snails that eat broccoli as Spring comes to pass...

The possible health & healing properties of the humble papaya leaf... (In Malaysia, papaya leaves have been used successfully to treat dengue fever and various other ailments)

Here's one who somehow managed to slip the net.

Jesus is a buddha. Where is the difference?

http://rubinmuseum.org/collection/artoftheweek http://dakiniasart.org/

Rather than proposing there is a link, which i doubt very much btw, it might be a good idea to investigate each separately based on their own merit. Doing so might eke out some possibility of seeing how each have the potential to support the other, and parameters among the various practices can then be put in place so that some sort of integration might occur. I know a number of Vipassana dudes who can be considered pretty consistent Qigong practitioners, and who are neither Buddhist nor Taoist. A couple of them are quite staunch Christians in fact. Good thing they know better than to attempt looking for links between Vipassana, Buddhism, Taoism, Qigong, Neidan, Weidan, Pey Dan and the New Testament. Its totally unnecessary unless... Unless... unless one desires nothing more than mental entertainment with a big dollop of new age confusion to top it all off.

this!

"Many people have taken action, but if their state of being is not peaceful or happy, the actions they undertake only sow more troubles and anger and make the situation worse. So instead of saying, 'Don't just sit there; do something," we should say the opposite, 'Don't just do something; sit there.' We sit there and we get more lucid, more peaceful, and more compassionate. With that state of being our actions can become meaningful to the world." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

Include whatever you are feeling into this basic mindfulness you are developing. If analysis is done of fleeting feelings, emotions, perceptions, then mindfulness is lost. The purpose of the practice is defeated. Back to square one again. Mindfulness simply means being more aware than usual. What does 'being more aware' means? It means you will gradually observe and note things you have missed before. If we are to pause for analysing and deliberating every new observation, we might as well give up the practice altogether.

DZONGSAR JAMYANG KHYENTSE RINPOCHE If you’re practising Buddhadharma, you practise it for enlightenment. Not for rights, not for freedom, not for justice, not for healing, not for getting anything better in a worldly way.

https://www.edx.org/course/buddhism-through-its-scriptures-harvardx-hds3221-3x Optional certification fee of $50 to help EdX continue to fund free education worldwide.

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Why odd? Its not a term limited to the Western mind and psyche only.

Mipham Rinpoche's Profound Instruction on the View of the Middle Way Namo Mañjuśrīye! Once you have gone through the training in analysis and developed confidence in the crucial point of how the individual is devoid of self, then consider how just as the so-called “I” is an unexamined conceptual imputation, all phenomena included within the five skandhas and the unconditioned are just the same, labeled conceptually as this or that. Although we cling to all these various phenomena, when we investigate and search for them they cannot be found. And when we reach the ultimate two indivisibles, even the most subtle and infinitesimal cannot be established. It is the same for all that appears through dependent origination. Entities themselves arise dependently, Whereas ‘non-entities’ are dependently imputed. So whether an entity or a non-entity, whatever is conceived of uncritically, once it is analyzed and investigated, it is found to be without basis or origin, appearing yet unreal, like an illusion, a dream, the moon’s reflection, an echo, or city in the clouds, a hallucination, a mirage and the like. Appearing yet empty, empty yet appearing— Meditate on the way empty appearances resemble illusions. This is the ultimate that is categorized conceptually. It has the confidence of a mind of understanding, and it is indeed the stainless wisdom of seeing the illusory nature of post-meditative experience. Yet it has not gone beyond focus on apprehended objects, nor have the features of a subjective mind been overcome, and so since it has not gone beyond conceptuality the true reality of natural simplicity is not seen. When this kind of certainty has arisen, then even the clinging to mere illusion can be understood as conceptual imputation. 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’. 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. Those who wish to realize this swiftly and make evident non-dual primordial wisdom beyond the domain of the ordinary mind, should meditate on the pith instructions of secret mantra. This is the ultimate profound and crucial point of the progressive meditations on the Middle Way. So begin by thoroughly refining your conduct, and then arrive at certainty, experientially and in stages. With confidence in the illusory nature of empty appearance, there is nothing to be eliminated or enhanced upon the path, and within the equality of the all-pervading space of perfect wisdom, you will come to find complete liberation. In a place where people suffer drought and dehydration, hearing about water will not be enough to quench their thirst. It is only by drinking that they will find relief. The sūtras say this is how it is for learning and experience. Someone with only dry and theoretical understanding, who is worn out by all kinds of reasoning and ideas, does not need sporadic practice, but meditation in proper stages. This is how to swiftly gain acceptance of the profound. Jampal Gyepe Dorje wrote down whatever came to mind, On the twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month of the Water Dragon year (1892). May all beings realize the meaning of the profound Middle Way! Mangalam! [Translated by Adam Pearcey]

Very important to note also is that we need not have to hold on to the idea that we are in some way transfixed by past folly. Then some might proclaim, "but its so difficult to let go".... Therein lies the solution, in that very difficulty itself. Of course the solution will only clearly present itself only if one is fully immersed in the difficulty, that the difficulty is allowed to penetrate deep into the very heart of being, and not simply saying it out of habit.