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reverberation ageless, timeless, gentle tales linger for a while...

its nothing, please dont mention it. i share when i can, what little i know. peace to you, sir.

when you speak in such a manner, its like a deity has spoken. some deities issue warnings to village folk so that omens and disasters can be avoided, just the way you are doing now. maybe you are a deity, and we have been warned...

no, i should thank you for sharing your realizations. its great!

I remember when i met Dzogchen Rinpoche (in 96) he was already the head of Dzogchen Monastery, but single then. At that time he did not give much teachings in the West because of the language barrier. Then he got married, improved his English, and started to properly teach. To be honest, i think he was already 'highly realized' prior to getting married. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche whom i see as being highly realized had already been teaching and giving empowerments before he married Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel. A most inspiring account i have heard was of Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, one of the most revered Nyingma lineage holders. He became very ill when he was 56 years old. According to divinations and prophecies which foretold this, it was said that in order to remove the obstacles which will prevent him from living longer and continue teaching the Dharma, he is to get married, which he promptly did. His health returned immediately after that. He lived and taught for another 11 years. As a side note, the funny thing is, among the Tibetan masters, they do not actually say anything at all about their realizations or levels. To them, its not very significant. When they are teaching they are very serious. Away from that setting, they are just very simple individuals with very profound auras. And most of them like nothing more than watching Looney Tunes or The 3 Stooges during teaching breaks. Seriously. Thats why they laugh so much.

That is quite a realization, Hundun. I am wondering, though, since its non-local, does that not indicate somehow that it might be beyond experience, in other words, there is only Bliss-Fullness, there is no 'me' to experience it as such. If we already are the essence (and we are, since we already realize the fundamental nature of Reality is but vibrational frequencies), is there a need to bring the experience to light? To do so, in my view, sets (or potentially incurs) karmic limitations and residues which will impede (maybe impede is not the best descriptive term -- more like a potential impediment), the 'resting' or 'relaxing' into the essence itself. As long as the experience is not limited to a 'me who is experiencing...", i think that is ok. There are experiences, but at the same time, there are the causes which float them (brings them to the surface). To fully unite the causes and the experiences/results of causes, the 'me' has to drop, otherwise the depths cannot be plumbed. Once the depths have been reached, is there more that needs to be done? From where i stand, not really much else to do but ease into, and remain there, as the nondescript (that which you call God). Your thoughts?

A number of Tibetan Vajrayana masters and teachers are married. Many fellow practitioners i know prefer their guidance more. I think it widens their scope a little. Therefore, i'd say it should be a non-issue for a 'real' cultivator.

its hard enough to have a decent conversation with my neighbors, let alone with nameless, faceless entities. i'd leave it to the folks at Mensa to conduct a meaningful dialogue with them. That would be a howl to watch, wouldn't it?

its a fine line 'tween 'nearly' and 'did'. Glad it wasn't the latter, Brian. (whew!)

"Nosey bunch", he says minding other peeps' business looking to gossip...

Pleeeze dont do that. Please, do not. i beg of you....

and then, Eureka! all hope and fear disbanded like steam from hot tea...

unconditional love is the same as selfless love. when the 'self' is removed permanently, that which remains is wisdom and unconditional love. its all-pervasive, like the rays of the sun. the essence of the sun is heat and light. hence, the essence of unconditional love is boundless wisdom and compassion. why boundless? because the limited 'self' has been dropped, thats why. when the self dissolves, that which remains manifests as wisdom and compassion. spontaneously. and without reflection, meaning that one cannot hope to peer into one's thoughts, words and actions to weigh out and distribute one's gifts. It just happens, like a rose giving off scent, or the rain quenching nature's thirst. one who is still caught up in thinking about what it means to love unconditionally does not have the necessary and full understanding yet of what unconditional love entails. where there is a self, there will always arise conditions.

let them have their fun for eternity eludes the fervent seekers...

(its a little slow alright...) stop trying so hard said the hammer to itself they are just straw men...

fascinated with Agnes Obel's tunes of late... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk-zGG3_Rno

rest in the wave crest watch the foamy swells and pray spare the tiny crabs...

half hour video.

Certainly it is wonderful to be free and unfixated, but this is not really the easiest when it comes to application. Some students asked Tsoknyi Rinpoche whether shamatha training, visualizations, recitation of mantras, cultivating loving-kindness and the whole host of other non-Dzogchen practices are distractions, and he replied thus: "When one is explaining the Dzogchen teachings on their own terms, the answer is yes, those are states of distraction. But one must add that these are first-class states of distraction, especially loving-kindness. For most people it is actually quite difficult to be distracted in those noble ways even when they try. Isn't it true that most people find it difficult to be continuously loving and kind? To have very clear visualization in the development stage is also not easy. To have one-pointed concentration in shamatha is easier said than done, isn't it? So from time to time it is perfectly alright to make the wish "May i attain that type of distraction." In terms of the teaching of the Great Perfection, we have to agree that those states are still dualistic mind, albeit a very fine type of dualistic mind, one that we sometimes need. Nevertheless, the states of distraction are distracted states. Occasionally people blunder at exactly this point and lose interest in cultivating any dualistic practices such as loving-kindness, one-pointedness of shamatha, or development stages. This is surely a mistake. From time to time we should certainly cultivate those. The real problem is if one frowns upon dualistic practices because of hearing that the non-dual state of rigpa is the real thing. One might incorrectly feel that trying to be compassionate and cultivating noble qualities are inferior types of practices, so why bother? Unfortunately, the loving-kindness and compassion that should be spontaneously present within the awakened state haven't manifested yet. One is in a vacant and dry blankness where nothing much happens. To fixate one's mind on the unconditioned while rejecting (the cultivation of) noble qualities is an obstacle. It is a self-created hindrance for practitioners of particularly this type of practice. This obstacle is called the demon view of black dissipation, a view that gives credence to neither good nor evil. One feels no interest in cultivating good qualities because such practices are 'too conceptual', but one does not naturally have any good qualities either, so nothing happens. This is a big obstacle, and one of the main reasons why Dzogchen teachings are kept secret. One can also misunderstand at the outset of the practice how rigpa really is. Yes, it is spacious and open, but its not simply an extroverted spacious ego. In this distortion, ego is not dissolved, it just makes itself outwardly spacious. "There is so much space there, I am so open. I am so open." And then one stays like that, vacant and frozen. One trains again and again in keeping this open, vacant, frozen state that is definitely not rigpa. If it were truly rigpa, the compassionate qualities and devotion would naturally appear. True practitioners understand the futility of samsaric aims, and renunciation genuinely arise within their mind. But since it isn't really rigpa, these qualities are not allowed to unfold. A specific psychological problem accompanies this particular distortion of rigpa, arising as a sort of side-effect. It reveals itself whenever one is confronted with doing something noble or meaningful. The misguided Dzogchen yogi tells himself, "I shouldn't do this, because its dualistic". Taking part in dualistic practices then becomes a guilt-ridden act, as if one has been forced to betray the vacant, spacious ego. Ego is not self-liberated at this point, not at all, because the knowing of its empty essence is missing". (excerpted from Quintessential Dzogchen) As the OP suggested, it is quite easy to over-engineer one's View and Conduct. This sort of distortion can be observed quite clearly during the preliminary practices, but if the prelims were to be set aside, then the corrective measures can never be taken for reasons made absolutely clear in the above sublime advice and encouragement from Tsoknyi Rinpoche.

If you think its a separated thing then you are mistaken. The fundamental practice is liberation. The key is training in stability so that lapses in recognizing essence get seen, and in that seeing, it dissolves spontaneously. What happens to those who lack stability in the fundamentals is that these moments of distractive delusional states go unnoticed most of the time, and this is the cause for samsara. As recognition becomes more stable, tastes of open mind, free of grasping become more tangible, and clinging become less problematic. Towards the culmination of this, distractions and obstacles become fuel for enhancing the awakening process. Compelled thus, the result and fruition is swift and sure. Tsoknyi Rinpoche has stressed in the same manner many times, encouraging students to remember the inseparability of the preliminary practices and Togal. He said its a common problem with practitioners to relinquish the prelims in favor of 'higher' practices because that enhances the ego in desirable ways. (ref. chapter 29 -- Quintessential Dzogchen)

Yes, but organic does not always mean ethical. Not sure where you are, but here, real organic produce is double, sometimes double and a bit, the price of supermarket foodstuffs. Therefore, you can support organic all you want, but does organic support those who can barely earn enough to eat decent and healthy meals, i wonder. It seems that only those who are in the upper echelons of the income bracket can afford real organic foods, and this, afraid to say, is just full of hot air. a lot of folks are caught by the bollocks because they know eating well is necessary, and they do sincerely want to give to their children, and themselves, clean, healthy, pure foods, but how in heaven's name can they continuously afford a piece of grass-fed rump steak for 20 euro, or an organically-farmed chicken for 17 euro a pop? Maybe once or twice a year, perhaps. Its ridiculous.

Has anyone come across this most interesting article before? 22 Reasons Not To Go Vegetarian.... thats the title. Its well-written, and where possible, provides enough factual notes to be of interest to both sides of the camp. http://www.westonaprice.org/vegetarianism-and-plant-foods/not-to-go-vegetarian

up on the downside the Morning Glory has opened yielding forth nectar...