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Excellent discussion point. I remember J. Krishnamurti spoke quite extensively on this subject. Something he said struck me as totally logical - "Order is not conformity to a pattern; it is a deepened understanding of disorder." Perhaps one way to allow the seed of order to flower is to become totally exhausted, fed up, exasperated, sapped, to the point of giving up on fear and endless chores, both mental and physical. At that point, its quite probable that for some, the brilliance of innate compassion and wisdom floods the being, and coupled with this arises a profound revelation of what order means in the true sense. Its certainly far removed from the shallowness of a mere adaptation of minimalist choices and then exercising them in one's environment. This tends to exacerbate subconscious fears of not being enough, and actually drives disorder deeper into the subtle alaya.

"The reason why Buddhism expanded in East/south-east Asian countries is because it had state patronage in those regions." (Dwai) Not entirely accurate. Of the estimated 500 mil Buddhist adherents worldwide, the biggest growth in numbers occured in Communist China (reported to have 250 mil followers). It's widely practiced in Malaysia, a Muslim country.

Love one another Rusty winter affection Klik klok... Chinese clogs

These days I'm unproned to say much, think much, listen much, taste much, feel much, and much less read. Much of most, if not all that come into view vanish in the same instant, so there's really nothing to do. Sickness of effort uprooted. But I really wanted to express heartfelt condolences to Apech John. Dont be sad. Our time will come. Let's see, with the time left, if we really have the knack to resolve dualistic mind. If we make it, then we will have captured the deathless spirit. The op helped resurface this long forgotten tune from somewhere. Seems to belong here. Take good care, everyone.

Where Buddhist vipassana is concerned, the practitioner investigates the notion of no-thingness, not 'nothingness'. Understanding the vast difference between the two is a worthwhile endeavour. As my friend Paramito observed, "The prospect of nothingness is bleak, whereas the reality of no-thingness is liberating."

In everyday Buddhist practice, the encouragement is 99% about making effort to end being duped and battered by layers of delusion and 1% on dreamy wishes about enlightenment. We live in a harsh world, and Enlightenment means this harshness comes into full focus as practice matures, gradually peeling off all the buffers that somewhat serve as cushions for those that'd rather not deal with too much reality. Not many actually want to walk this path, hence why some Buddhist masters call it the Warrior's Journey.

Extensive and detailed information on Buddha Amitabha https://buddhaweekly.com/amitabha-buddha-infinite-light-whats-name-merits-vast-name-amitabha-practice-synonymous-compassion-happiness/?fbclid=IwAR3XkVoXlL3Dc9ozoMY3BwAG30xNX31cqzO8520rOZD66z8ATB3mxfWlRno

"The Tibetan Goddess TARA Closely allied with Kuan Yin is Tara (Star), goddess of protection and compassion, worshipped by Tibetan, Mongolian, and Nepali Buddhists. According to "Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment" by Denise Patry Leidy & Robert A. F. Thurman (Shambhala 1997): "Tara is the archangelic and archetype-deity bodhisattva representing the miraculous activities of all buddhas. In myth she is born from Avalokitesvara's tears of compassion or from her own vow to be enlightened and stay a woman... There are innumerable manifestations of Tara, as many as beings require,* but her most famous are the peaceful White Tara, who brings protection, long life and peace; and the dynamic Green Tara, who overcomes obstacles and saves beings in dangerous situations." They both share similar attributes and enlightening activities.

As far as I know, there are a number of 'wealth' mantras in Vajrayana, but none specifically for money because the 'wealth' is more a reference to the merits of virtue, equanimity, wisdom and compassion. One is indeed wealthy beyond measure when these qualities begin to bear fruit thru disciplined & joyful cultivation. Chief among the above-mentioned mantras is the Yellow Dzambhala (also spelled Jambhala). Its my understanding that no empowerment is required to practice it, although a faithful adherence to ritual adds depth. This PDF https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/education/teachings/texts/water_charity_pretas_c5.pdf sheds light on the significance of ritual (offerings) and how mantras are traditionally practiced in Vajrayana, specifically in relation to the generation of supreme bodhicitta, equated with that of a fearless heart in taking on sentient beings' dukkha. Fearlessness, the mark of all bodhisattvas, is seen as the ultimate wealth blessing because it can only be born in one who's overcome all notions of self/other duality.

Heartiest CONGRATS, Vajra Fist! Exciting times ahead! All the very best to you and yours in the new house eh! Here's a few tips on what generally one needs to be aware of, Feng Shui wise, with regards to property. Its very basic, but to my knowledge, worthy of note - https://www.mydomaine.com/feng-shui-home-tips https://www.thespruce.com/top-bad-feng-shui-house-features-1274491 Anyway, I'll leave the FS aspect to the more knowledgeable bums. As a practicing Buddhist, this is what I did prior to moving into my house: - Thoroughly cleaned the house from top to bottom with plenty of elbow grease and some blessed water from the temple. - Maximized strategic usage of mirrors to enhance greater natural lighting in various places around the house. - Once the mirrors were up, the whole space was given a 'spiritual' cleanse with burning of Nepalese white sage incense for 7 days. - Finding an auspicious date on the Tibetan calendar, the altar was set up, followed by making offerings (7 cups of water, sandalwood, fresh flowers, fresh fruits, all arranged accordingly on the altar), chanting and prayers to welcome the 3 Jewels into the space. - Put up prayer flags in the rear garden, and did a fire puja after. - Only after did the more mundane side of things gradually unfold. The biggie for me is house plants, so I splurged some in this regard to ensure there were more than a few nice ones elegantly (and some, boldly) placed in all the different nooks and corners around the place. For some, their main interest could be music, art, or books... whichever it is, then its worth investing more in one particular thing and blending that in to create potential for a joyful, contented & harmonious environment for oneself and the fam. I think the best thing to note for creating an overall healthy, balanced living space is that less is always more. Cheers, man!

There may be some who'd not like to invest their time on a teacher whose attitude and views are similarly inclined, in such a manner as to suggest self-aggrandizement, even tones nearing condescension. Perhaps its just me and my burden of aversion towards boastful tones. Apologies for the lack of courtesy in my words.

Rather curious. How logical is it that an endless something has a beginning?

~ Paramito ~ Karma is a nonlinear system, and thus to describe it in linear cause-condition-consequence terms would be a mistaken simplification.

"People want karma to explain everything, but the Buddha did not want karma to explain everything. What the Buddha was trying to do was to point to the tremendous impact that our motivations, our intentions, have on our lives. In looking at the choices that we have to make, the Buddha said that it is very important to look at what motivates those choices, what intentions fuel those choices. To be somewhat simplistic about Buddhist karmic theory, it might go something like this: in whatever fuels an action, the fuel of an action produces more of itself. If your action is fueled by hate, it somehow produces more of itself. In different words, if our intentions are unhealthy, that unhealthy fuel produces more unhealthy intentions. If our intentions are healthy, it produces more health. If the intentions which fuel our actions are healthy, they tend to produce more health. If the intentions which produce our actions are unhealthy, it tends to produce something unhealthy." - Gil Fronsdal Full article: https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/transcribed-talks/karma-and-intention/

One of the biggest threats to pristine health is the accumulation of phlegm in the body. This build-up is caused by many of the common foods consumed on a daily basis, for eg dairy products, fried products, cold drinks, carbonated drinks, foods of a damp nature, etc. Many people unconsciously or reflexively ingest phlegm - this is very bad. Phlegm is gunk that inadvertently chokes up the subtle channels too, with many harmful repercussions. One of the simplest ways to assist the natural dispersion of phlegm is the regular inclusion of monk fruit (lohan fruit) in one's diet. "According to a 2011 study, monk fruit has been used in TCM for centuries to make hot drinks that relieve sore throats and reduce phlegm. The fruit's mogrosides are said to be anti-inflammatory, and may help prevent cancer and keep blood sugar levels stable."

when the rental ends visiting next door, this cat... heedless of manners

Vajrayana associates bliss with heartmind activity, believing the source or seat of Bliss is at the heart centre, and not the brain. Hence the reason for asserting compassion, in union with wisdom, as central to the very fabric of Buddhism, from the lowest to the highest Yanas (vehicles), and also why the Heart Sutra, a distillation of all the major Prajnaparamita texts, is the most recited across the whole Mahayana tradition.

I personally align with the view that the primordial nature of emotions, or the actual ground/basis of emotions, is bliss, and the simplest spiritual approach towards allowing bliss to rise and gradually replace emotions, which I believe tend to be associated with misguided and confused states of mind, is to adopt certain basic spiritual values, and persevere with these values once found. The Noble Eightfold Path, or the Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga comes to mind. In the more direct, but riskier approach of tantra, tapping into the energetic source of emotions is the method to connect with ananda (bliss). In Vajrayana tantra, or mantrayana, this is guided (by means of association with Buddha, yidam & khandro) by rote practice of various higher tantra sadhanas, which include yantra yoga (to release subtle blockages and knots), karmamudra (to activate and unite with subtle energetic flows perpetuated by the loosening of said blocks & knots), and mantra yoga (for refining tapped spiritual energies congruent with yantra and karmamudra). There are various ancillary practices which meander out from these three main bodies of cultivation, but ultimately lead back to the goal of attaining the three Kayas, the highest level of realization... Buddhahood... enlightenment, etc. The triKayas as Ground relates to essence, nature and capacity; as Path, it manifests as bliss, clarity & non thought. As fruition it dawns as Dharmakaya (essence/bliss), Sambhogakaya (nature/clarity), and Nirmanakaya (capacity/non-thought). In mantrayana, one enters the Practice by first tending to the Ground.

Dzogchen equipoise, the ultimate state of vastly effortless, immovable resting in ordinary awareness requires some extraordinary initial effort and practice to ground, and meditation is indeed part of the path, though its not the kind of meditation that is commonly understood. One way of looking at Non-doing (non-contrivance) in Dzogchen is simply the allowance of the mind to settle into its own natural brilliance. But initially, this can only happen, for example, at the end of chanting 20 reps of the 100 syllable mantra, or after 50 rounds of prostrations, where a momentary gap (of cognitive absoluteness, or sems nyid) may occur before ordinary mind (sems) takes over again. Average practitioners like myself may only get to rest in this space (or View) for a few seconds each time, but thats par for the course, I guess. In fact, most ordinary people have these moments too, recurring even on a daily basis, but then they have no recognition of it, and therefore, it becomes wasted potential. The hope is that with time, patience and perseverance, this gap, once recognized, gradually widens, and whenever it surfaces, remains for longer. As mentioned by Virtue, the non-meditation aspect is exactly that... the period post-practice where no effort is necessary to allow the mind to find its own equilibrium - its a stateless state where nothing needs to be taken away or added to make it more natural. Talk has it that siddhas & masters like Patrul Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen et al maintain resting in this all-pervasive space of equipoise permanently.

Visualizations are useful to gauge one's progress working with mantras. One of the practical reasons for working with mantras is the dismantling of old layers of conditioning. As the layers are peeled, gradually the appearance of the image of whichever deity (or buddha) one is working with becomes clearer, and the intricate details arising in the mind, initially needing effort, but over time, it eases, until a point where, the moment a particular mantra is chanted (for eg the Mani mantra), spontaneously a 3D Avalokitesvara will appear, resplendent, radiant, and adorned with all the attributes which the mind, in time, should be picturing very clearly. So, one of the main reasons this is done (by Mahayana practitioners) is to embed a habit of spontaneous arising of the yidam (one's personal energetic guide & protector). Its helpful when one's life is in imminent danger, or at the time of death - Mahayana schools traditionally believe that at the time of entering the intermediate bardo (between death and rebirth) the ability to spontaneously recall one's yidam will ensure a smooth and virtuous path towards one's ultimate aim as a practitioner. They believe also the transitional journey in the bardo can be a bewildering one if one lacks that recollective ability. Visualization practices are mainly focused towards this end. And a happy beginning, so to speak.

The Real Chöd Practice Machig Labdron, originator of the Chöd practice http://levekunst.com/machig-labdron-and-the-chod-tradition/ The Tibetan word “chöd” means “to cut off” or “to slay.” The traditional practice of Chöd cuts off self-cherishing and grasping at a truly existent “I.” It creates the conditions under which one can develop the mind of conventional bodhichitta, which holds others as more dear than oneself, and the mind of ultimate bodhichitta, which sees reality as it truly is. Attributed to the great Tibetan yogini Machig Labdron, and the only practice that made its way back to India from Tibet, it is an extremely effective and quick tantric method for attaining realizations of the path to enlightenment. Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the essence of Chöd, the “real Chöd” that everyone can practice in everyday life. See full: https://fpmt.org/.../mandala.../june/the-real-chod-practice/ When somebody tells you something that really hurts your mind, that is the most beneficial thing for your mind because it goes straight in your heart and touches your ego. This is what shows you, like a mirror, like a teaching from the Buddha, one’s own mistaken thoughts, especially the ego; it shows that there is ego, and because there is ego, it hurts. If there is no ego, then it would never hurt. When people say what your mistakes are, or say words which hurt you, that is the real Chöd practice. This is what makes you see your “I,” the emotional “I” – in Western psychological terms – the object of ignorance, the root of samsara, which is holding this “I” as truly existent. Normally one is not aware of this, but by doing the practice of Chöd, inviting the spirits, they create violence and it makes you see the “I,” the object of ignorance, the object to be refuted – the truly existent “I” – clearly. They show the “I” to you very clearly and then you are able to recognize that it is false, an object of ignorance; you are able to use your reasoning, logical reasoning, that the “I” doesn’t exist because it is a dependant arising, or merely imputed. It is merely imputed relating to the aggregates, the base, etc. There are so many other reasonings you can use. You recognize the object to be refuted at that minute. That it is what doesn’t exist at all; it is totally non-existent. The practice of Chöd is a powerful method for developing compassion and cutting away the self-grasping of the non-existent ‘I’. When properly engaged in, Chöd harnesses our fears, teaching us how to transform them into energy to propel us towards enlightenment. Chöd melodies (see video clip) are chanted on the basis of liturgies known as: - Cutting Through Self-Grasping; - Dedicating the Illusory Body as Ganachakra (Feast Offering) - Offering Ganachakra in Connection with the Yoga of the Profound Path of Chöd

Just as reflections on water Are not inside or outside, Bodhisattvas seeking enlightenment Know the world is not the world: They do not dwell in or leave the world, Because the world is inexplicable; And they are not inside or outside, Appearing in the world like reflections. ~ Avatamsaka Sutra - Flower Ornament Scripture 884, 885