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~ Paramito ~ How do we placate the self-importance of the "ego", which demands to be extraordinary, when we discover the transcendent is as perfectly ordinary and everyday as this present moment awareness?

Tibetologist Thierry Dodin provides some serious insights into this Shugden controversy. Off topic... apologies, M _/\_

@virtue There's a 3-page discussion on Dharmawheel entitled "The Tsem Tulku thread". Ended up being locked.

༄། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། ། Verses of Praise and Prayer to Medicine Buddha - Bhaiṣajyagurubuddha ༄། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཀུན་ལ་སྙོམས་པའི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས། ། tukjé kün lé nyompé chomdendé The transcendent-victor, whose compassion for all is equal, མཚན་ཙམ་ཐོས་པས་ངན་འགྲོའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ། ། tsen tsam töpé ngendrö dukngal sel Simply hearing your name dispels the suffering of lower realms, དུག་གསུམ་ནད་སེལ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ། ། duk sum né sel sangye men gyi la Buddha of Medicine, you who heal the sickness of the three poisons— བཻ་ཌཱུརྻ་ཡི་འོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། baidurya yi ö la chaktsal lo Light of Lapis Lazuli, to you, we pay homage! ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་མ་ཧཱ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་རཱ་ཛ་ས་མུདྒ་ཏེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། teyata om bhekanze bhekanze maha bhekanze radza samudgaté soha tadyathā | om bhaisajye bhaisajye mahā-bhaiṣajye rāja-samudgate svāhā དགེ་བ་འདི་ཡིས་མྱུར་དུ་བདག ། gewa di yi nyurdu dak Through this merit may I swiftly སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ་འགྲུབ་གྱུར་ནས། ། sangye men la drub gyur né Accomplish the Buddha of Medicine, འགྲོ་བ་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མ་ལུས་པ། ། drowa chik kyang malü pa And lead every single sentient being དེ་ཡི་ས་ལ་འགོད་པར་ཤོག ། dé yi sa la gö pa shok To that state of perfection too.

Some pretty weird shugden stuff happened here in Malaysia not too long ago, involving quite a prominent teacher. Sad ending. Hard to be certain if its coincidental, but i dunno... its just... weird. Anyway, he died young.

Things may not be as they should be, but nevertheless they are as they are, according to their nature. ~ Paramito ~

An ancient Egyptian model cucumber on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Circa 1850 - 1700 BC. Discovered in the Tomb of Nakht. cred. D. Arenson

Silent 'Great Schema' monks of the Russian Orthodox Church, Balaam Monastery, Russian Karelia 1888.

Opening her article, Sound and Vibration: Building Blocks of the Universe, Tilly Campbell-Allen wrote, "As the ancient mystics and sages told, and as scientists have long postulated and increasingly agreed on, our physical universe originated from the vibrational energy of sound; In the beginning was the Word." She further noted, "The chants and mantras of spiritual practice go beyond the intention of their words. Firstly, as each incarnated soul in each individuated body has a particular and unique resonance, much like a finely tuned radio station in constant transmitting communication and creating what some suggest is a tone perfect for our own bespoke expression, the specific vibrations of sounds passing through our body have a profound effect. Like correct breath work and its own effect on the brain, so does the specific and correct pronunciations of the mantra’s language, which is often more phonetic than makes intellectual sense. In ancient Hebrew, focusing on the letters that spelled the word of God was known as kavanah, in the same vein is chanting the Bija Mantras of the Vedic tradition—AUM or OM being the most widely known and considered fundamental in the creation of the universe. These seed mantras (OM, KRIM, SHRIM, HRIM, HUM) and chakra mantras (LAM, VAM, RAM, YAM, HAM, AUM, AH). Seed syllables of the buddhas in Buddhism (from the DHIH of Amitabha to the TAM of Green Tara) or the five indestructible wisdom warrior sounds of Bon (A, OM, HUNG, RAM, DZA), and so on, bring about specific vibrations and resulting effects." _____________ ______________ ____________ _____________ ______________ _____________ ________________ _________ One can apply methods similar to this to train the diaphragm and align the sound/breath frequency to facilitate proper chanting:

Have you come across this chant before? Quite likely, there's some degree of vibration that can be felt from this method of chanting. I've trained gradually to chant in a similar way for quite a while now - a natural progression from having *accumulated* quite a number of mantras as per the practice I do. Quite helpful in more ways than one.

Books that I keep rereading, and will not hesitate to recommend include works by Alan Watts, notably, The Meaning of Happiness. Rainbow Painting by Tulku Urgyen is excellent. Ken Wilber's Integral Psychology and A Theory of Everything. Some of J. Krishnamurti's works are good, but can get repetitive. Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, a profoundly poignant autobiography of an Irish Zen nun. All of Dilgo Khyentse's and Keith Dowman's books are worthwhile reading. Definitely recommend commentaries on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Too many to list.

Sometimes its not just about the price, but the deeply ingrained impressions and fascinations of mystical & mysterious faraway places in stories read to us as toddlers, and then we read ourselves later on that lead us by the nose towards similar fascinations as adults. Some of these mantric gurus, and *spiritual* teachers in general, they know this. As an example, the Bacon Guy's "We make em, you eat em" could well be accepted as a mantra should it be taught in some obscure non-English speaking village in Laos. Anyway, for mantras to be efficacious, I believe there are a few important factors to take into consideration other than the mere chanting of such. Personally, I think affinity (with a particular mantra) plays a crucial role. Intention is another one. And it needs the integration of visualizations too, afaik.

Saw a mantra on the internet yesterday from some bacon guru - "We smoke em, you eat em". Sounds good to me.

~ Paramito ~ Superbly ordinary, Sublime in its naturalness: The very heart of awakening, What is often termed "Bodhicitta", But, as experience, is just this moment.

Amrita, the liquid of immortality is like nectar… It exudes from the Chandra center in the center of the head, deep behind the eyebrows… The juice is saltish, similar to ghee, with the consistency of honey. Who swallows this clear liquor dripping from the brain into the heart and obtained by means of meditation, becomes free from disease and tender in body like the stalk of a lotus, and will live a very long life. ~ Hatha Yoga Pradipika ~

~ Paramito ~ The wellspring of health and well-being is the awareness of body and mind; aside from this awareness, there is no real health or well-being to be found in the body and/or mind.

Lately I've been playing around with Chinese mugwort as its growing quite profusely in my garden. Seems to be working quite nicely. Not sure if I'm saying this right, but I've managed to hack around a feeling of lethargy after each meal. And I'm a very light eater, like 3 spoons of rice (as a base) for dinner sort of light. So I realised maybe my digestive system is on the wane and some perking up was in order. Apparently the whole plant is edible, and its claimed to have a number of health benefits. The roots are meant to be great as an energy booster as it inhibits the build-up of lactic acid and also the ridding of it. Its also a potent inclusion in most moxibustion treatment. Artemisia absinthium, or wormwood, a close relative of mugwort, is used in the production of absinthe. Good stuff when taken in moderation.

In my experience in both Europe and Asia, those that make an ass of themselves in public are usually either inebriated or drugged. As a result, trying to connect with such altered states wasn't/seldom is a workable option. Recalling a nasty incident that happened to a pal in Ireland a few years ago: He finished late shift at a hotel and was walking thru the city back to his apartment. This was about 11.30 pm. Two guys passed him, and asked him for smokes (cigarettes). "Sorry I dont smoke" he said, and kept on walking. One of them went at him from behind, and stabbed him in the back. Just like that. No rhyme nor reason to it.

Adhering to the notion of ahimsa (non-violence) does not mean one must abstain from applying physical force to de-escalate a situation. In today's world, I think its okay if the need arises to drop a guy or two when the situation turns dire, yet without the prospect of post-act leaving seeds of violence, anger etc on the mindstream. This is why a fundamental point in Buddhism stresses awareness of intent more than action, in fact. With this, its believed karma begins to roll at the level of intent and not from the commonly held idea that it starts with action.

dancing on raindrops drawing on a grain of rice Temple Street, Hong Kong

calm before the storm henri smacks New York city washing off the blues

stars above, speak now or forever hold your peace your peace, not your piece