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Its a fallacy - no authentic Tibetan/Mahayana teaching or teacher has ever uttered such a thing as needing empowerment or transmission to gain buddhahood. Empowerments are given traditionally to acknowledge that a practitioner has completed a particular sadhana and is thus ready to move up/on to the next stage of practice. Transmission, as far as the Nyingma tradition goes, occurs when the student's mind is ripe for the guru to reveal what the true nature of mind is so that there will be no mistaking it in future. It does not promise or impart to the recipient anything other than an unmistaken view of mind essence.

Credible citation needed

twice, then it is wrong Taiwanese wice... always nice how could it be wrong

Some would say faith, others seem inclined towards devotion. I think its a 30/70 mix. Its no different in the Eastern traditions, in essence.

that's your heart bypass a ticker knickerbocker ice cream... anyone?

It might be of interest to read up on the Tibetan practice of Tulpa.

http://www.khandro.net/deities.htm Vajrayana practitioners work with different deities depending on affinity and types of obstacles encountered.

the power of belief can yield many strange and wonderful things, and can easily be perceived as 'miraculous' when such are nothing more than mere displays of devotional callings, to which some Western eyes might even regard as slightly perverted and unnecessary. Perhaps a stay in India or some parts of SE Asia will further enhance/pacify one's curious nature, to which the depth is fathomless

Yes, compassion is indivisible from all aspects of the path, from the stages of generation thru to completion, just as wetness cannot be separated from water. The seed of wisdom is compassion, and the flower of compassion is wisdom.

In the main, the Buddhist path is one where, if penetrated with wisdom, allows the practitioner to be fully and firmly removed from entertaining extreme ideas of birth and death. Hence the notion of the Middle Way. On a subtler scale, the buddhist adept penetrates with wisdom the empty yet cognizant nature of phenomenon, seeing clearly the absolute in the relative, and thus enjoy freedom from confusion. At the secret level, all dualities are reconciled back to the mandala of pervasive great bliss, beyond all conceptual notions of is and is nots, beyond hope and fear... beyond clinging and aversion, as expounded in the Prajnaparamita sutra.

on the contrary

If God had to become man in order to reconcile humans back to God, any wretched being could feign their realization through all sorts of mundane mischief - if nothing, at the very least this very consideration in itself succeeded in bringing out the cynic in you

the centre will reveal itself with the gradual cessation of craving and desire brought on by correct insight practices.

.Hokkaido, a city in Japan, means 'Fragrance of the North'. .In Japan, there are over 600 varieties of cherry blossom trees. Someiyoshino, from Kyushu, is one among these. .this is Koto music, dedicated to the cherry blossom season... live koto performance of the same tune .Deep fried salmon skin, marinated in umami flavours and coated in egg & tempura flour, is a delicacy in Asia.

Dzogchen adepts in meditation huts practicing in snow-bound Kham, Eastern Tibet. Temperatures hover around the -20c mark.

STUCK IN NEUTRAL In the West, there are many who approach Buddhism primarily intellectually. In the East, many approach it primarily as a tradition — part of their cultural heritage. Yes, Buddhism contains immensely profound and complex intellectual information. Yes, it is an important cultural tradition in many Eastern civilisations. However, Buddhism’s true gift is that it teaches us to learn and experience the true characteristics and the nature of our mind and the world, as they are. Through meditations like those on lovingkindness, compassion, devotion, and wisdom, Buddhism trains us to improve our mind in how we think, communicate, and act with others and the external world. If our mind becomes wholesome, then our vocal and physical activities will become sources of peace and benefit for ourselves and others. This life will be happier, as will the next. Ultimately, through proper meditation, we will be liberated from the suffering of samsara. No matter how much we study the texts, we need to be mindful of our karma in order to progress. We must stay away from unvirtuous acts and thoughts. But we shouldn’t fritter away our lives by engaging only in neutral karmas. Instead, we should exert ourselves in virtuous karmas such as prayer and service. Some meditators choose to remain in the absence of awareness. In my experience, these are usually well-educated, high-status achievers. They are often so busy burning both ends of the candle in order to advance their worldly position that they even dream about earning at night. So, understandably, they feel a tremendous sense of relief when someone instructs them, “Just rest in the absence of thoughts.” At last, they can quiet down and let go of their busyness! And since the instruction to do so is given to them by someone whom they consider to be an authority on meditation, they don’t have to feel guilty about slowing down. They are told that doing this is good for their health and mental state. So for these fatigued individuals, having permission to rest without thoughts is new and exciting, something they have rarely tasted. In reality, however, this meditation experience is a neutral state. Most of these people are simply taking a break while still in the middle of mundane traffic, still in the hub of ordinary karmic and mental habitual settings — without having purified, refined, or transcended their mental and emotional afflictions. So when they come out of that break, that trance, they find themselves back at square one, with the same old mundane dilemmas and habits awaiting them. It is like waking up from a wonderful dream only to find oneself back in reality. Nevertheless, remaining in neutral thoughts and activities is better than spending one’s life in evil thoughts and deeds, which will cause grave pain. However, spending one’s life in a neutral state is a big waste of the great potential of our most precious human life. According to Buddhist teachings, the karmic result of remaining in a neutral state, the mere absence of thoughts, is rebirth in the animal, form, or formless realms. We go to the animal realm if our mental habit was ignorance and stupidity. This realm is marked by violence and fear. We take rebirth in the formless realms if our habitual thought patterns were marked by ideas like “Space is infinite,” “Consciousness is infinite,” “There is nothing,” or “There is no perception and no absence of perception.” Each of these four thought patterns leads to rebirth in a different subdivision of the formless realms, depending on which subdivision best reflects our habits. For instance, having a habit of thinking “Space is infinite” lands us in the subdivision called “infinite space.” In the formless realm, we don’t have gross bodies or forms. We don’t have gross thoughts or emotions. This is due to the past experience of remaining in the absence of thoughts and absence of awareness. Absorption in the formless realm can last for eons. Eventually, however, it ends. And when it does, we continue from where we left off — returning to our old thoughts and emotions, and experiencing the results of our other positive or negative past karmas. So taking rebirth in the formless realms is a break, a limbo, but with no merits. It is a diversion from the path of liberation, as there is no awakening of the wisdom of intrinsic awareness or discriminative wisdom. That is why Longchen Rabjam laments for those meditators who value remaining in the absence of thoughts: Alas! These animal-like meditators, By stopping the perceptions, they remain without any thought. Calling this the absolute nature, they become proud. If they gain experience in such a state, they will take rebirth in the animal realm. Even if they don’t gain much experience in it, they will take rebirth in the form or formless realms. They will have no opportunity to get liberation from samsara. As long as we make no effort to transform the mind, we cannot escape the ordinary state of grasping tightly at mental objects — dualistically, emotionally, and sensorily. A merely neutral state in which concepts are temporarily suspended won’t help us progress. As soon as we go back to having concepts again, we will return to the ordinary state of grasping we had before. It is like waking up from the escapism of deep sleep, only to find that the same mundane problems await us. ~ Tulku Thondup Rinpoche ~

Very well observed, Roger. From the recognition of impermanence the seeds of bodhicitta are sown. The sprouting of the seeds of bodhicitta gives rise to the gradual insight into knowledge of the whole path of what Buddha Dharma is about.

Ego arises where duality resides.

The Bodhisattva posture (or some would call the half lotus). Spine straight but not rigid. Neck should align correctly and comfortably with the spine, shoulders untensed always. Palms on knees, eyes opened but held in a soft, relaxed, open gaze but not at anything in particular. Breathing from the abdomen. Some call this the mountain posture. Suzuki Roshi encouraged practitioners to sit as though supporting the sky with one's head, and a Tibetan master said when one sits, sit with the feel of being like a majestic mountain. Both of these are apt descriptors for getting to the optimum posture where sitting meditation is concerned. In truth, there is no one ideal posture or adoptive style of meditation conduct. Comfort and ease is the primary objective. If not, even the subtlest muscular tension will lock itself in, compress, and invariably find a way out. Because body and mind are conjoined, that tension will seek expression via the mind, taking the mental route. Each time there is sitting practice, its helpful to develop some awareness of this and gradually learn to diffuse any and all tenseness where noted. In Tibetan meditation practices, it is said that for some practitioners, being in the comfort zone for extended periods of time can sometimes lead to stupor. It becomes addictive. The advice given so as to avoid that unfortunate state is to suffuse the ease with keen awakeness - thats why, in that tradition, there is little encouragement to close the eyes. Also, its good to alternate sitting stretches with short breaks, yet without losing the continuum of meditative state of body-mind already achieved. Generally, any contrivance or force is a sign that some basic guideline has been neglected - and if the basics are ignored, it follows usually that there will be no positive yield.

Im learning!

Thank you for the info, Taomeow. Apparently Chaga is unique because of this: Apparently the ideal way to draw out the goodness of chaga is through a complex process of alcohol/hot water extraction because of the immense hardness of the chitin.

"Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will be- come unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable." ~ C. S. Lewis

Best not to for the more complex chants. However, where Buddhist ones are concerned, there are a handful of mantras that are quite helpful and can be used/chanted even minus the accompaniment of empowerments/blessings from the guru. Of these, the most well-known and widely chanted is the Mani mantra.