Jetsun

All tips are good and helpful, I shouldn't have suggested there is a wrong way of doing it because all that is really required is that you are sincere. I was trying to highlight that the answer to the enquiry is already here, already present, yet it isn't an answer that can be grasped with the regular mind. What the master does is "point out" something, so it isn't about creating something or even figuring something out for an attainment or achievement, it is about recognizing what is already present but we somehow miss. Its not only about Ramana there are other methods and questions of enquiry, one of the most powerful questions for me at the moment is "who is it that wants to wake up?" Because it isn't your ego patterns and conflicts that want to wake up, they aren't concerned with anything except their own agenda. So if there is a part of you who wants to wake up not dominated by the ego then instead of looking outwards to try to fund the answer turn it around to try see who is asking the question.

Realising the natural state does not equate with the rainbow body. The Buddha did not show signs of the rainbow body

This post by Geoff about Vedanta and Dzogchen sums it all up

Buddhahood isn't defined by the rainbow body, as the Dalai Lama points out it isn't even defined by the rainbow body within Tibetan Buddhism "While on the path, to create an imprint of putting emphasis on both the wind and the mind with respect to the mode of achieving Buddahhood, one develops a pure illusory body together with the mind of clear light. Now I mentioned earlier a system which empahasizes just the mind. In the Kalachakra system, in dependence upon achieving a union of a body which is empty form and immutable bliss, Buddhahood is achieved. Then there is another, third mode, a rainbow body." The Dalai Lama-"The end of suffering and the discovery of happiness" p.254 So there are numerous ways

Interesting passage, perhaps it is about conquering your power and animal side. It is possible to become dominated by your animal instincts and anger and it can seem to take a life of its own and become very destructive, or it is possible to channel that energy and power towards productive aims and not allow it to control your life.

No need for the sarcasm

Depends who you read, some say that they were prepared to fight to the last man even in the face of absolute defeat. There were occasions during the war where the US troops would go to try liberate a small island and come under extreme resistance and suffer large casualties only to find out that there were just a small handful of Japanese soldiers defending it, such was their determination not to give in and fight to the end. There is a film about this but I have forgotten what its called. So the continuation of the war would have probably cost thousands of lives on both sides. I think at the time there wouldn't even have been that much of a debate whether they should have used the bomb, maybe they could have used it on a rural area as a demonstration, but I guess they were extreme times and if offered a knockout blow to end the war they would take it.

Yup, if you go around commanding people to do anything even if it is for their benefit they will end up rebelling, this is the law of the universe in that all people want to be free and not rigidly confined because freedom is their nature. If you suggest to people that it isn't good to do stuff for their own benefit and for the benefit if others it is far more successful than commanding.

Saying that Vedanta and Zen only recognise "unfabricated presence" is just an attempt to categorise and conceptualise that which is beyond the conceptual mind, in other words its a load of crap. You should look at what Tsoknyi Rinpoche has been doing recently as he has been having conferences with Zen Master Joan Halifax and they agree that what Dzogchen points at is the same as what they call in Zen "your original face", and he is a master far more qualified, regarded and experienced than Malcolm.

We had to discuss this on one of my courses at Uni, basically the Japanese were so heavily indoctrinated that they would never surrender unless under extreme circumstances as they had been so heavily brain washed that many would rather fall on their swords or become kamikaze than give in. So the US were faced with a long protracted war in Asia which would most probably result in a lot more death than dropping a nuke, so the nuke was a better option. They dropped leaflets warning the city was going to be obliterated so people had a chance to leave, the real issue was whether the second bomb was necessary as that was more to send a message than anything else, which wasn't really required.

It's not that confusing, you ask the question "Who am I?"

This seems to happen all the time with these guys, they get obsessed with the words rather than what the words are pointing at. Basically there is a state which isn't defined by being or non-being, but in order to try communicate that state you have to use words which means you end up having to assert a position. The Buddha often came out more in negation saying that there is no self, yet Ramana sometimes asserts the supreme absolute being, but they are both sides of the same coin when attempting to communicate what is beyond words. Ramana even negates his last affirmative sentence with those before him by saying any position is a mind concept, which is why it is such a good quote as he doesn't come out of it on either side, yet those guys are so fixated on the last sentence with tunnel vision they miss the whole point.

Ramana discovered the same thing as the Dzogchen masters, but using words to describe the ineffable is always going to cause problem and Ramana has his own framework when trying to communicate it, usually when people asked him questions he would just remain in silence as words can just confuse things. The internet Dzogchen Buddhists just don't like to admit that Vedanta and Zen are talking about the same thing because they want to feel special and unique, so its their own ego problem.

I suspect that's the big joke, why the Dalai Lama is always laughing especially to questions like that.

“Don’t you see that your very search for happiness is what makes you feel miserable?” - Nisargadatta Maharaj Searching for happiness reinforces the idea which is rampant in our self-improvement culture that there’s something wrong with you as you are, and you need to become a better you before you can be the real happy you.

One exchange I heard recently was a student asked their teacher "I hear everyone talking about the heart and aligning with the heart but I don't really understand how to do it" the teacher replied "how do you align with the heart?" Student: "I don't know!!!" Teacher: "that is how" So it changes and grows, that's interesting. One tip I heard is that if you want to align with a teacher look beyond their personality and look for the freedom behind their heart, which can be done with a photo and even with some dead people

I also heard if you focus on the physical organ or area it can cause bad health problems, yet often when people talk of the heart they don't mean the organ. I have heard a lot of people talk about there being an opening or portal behind the heart, which might be worth investigating energetically or with enquiry.

It appears to me that form is a creation of the mind created to navigate the world more efficiently, so form is a tool or trick of the mind, but ultimately it doesn't exist independently therefore form is emptiness. But why emptiness is form I don't understand, it seems like a Koan and as such it can't be understood by the mind and can only be experienced directly.

The Zen Master Hakuin talks about a theme similar to this in his collected works when he attacks many of the other Zen masters of his time for taking away the suffering of their students as that suffering is exactly the thing which is going to push them out of their sleep. Personally I think to not find all that success in life satisfying is healthy as you have not found what you are really seeking, deep down i don't think It will satisfy anyone as that success is still limited and what people really want is freedom. I heard one teacher describing it as decorating your prison walls really nicely, which is better than living in a dark dungeon but still not as good as breaking out.

I read Karl Brunnhoelzl say that traditionally the wisdom aspect is considered the feminine and the compassion aspect is considered the masculine, and it is the union of wisdom and compassion which produces enlightenment. For some reason I always thought it would be the other way around.

There is lots going on in London check out Watkins book shop at Leicester Square which is probably one of the best esoteric book shops in the world, there you will find many books and they have leaflets by the side of the door for groups and teachers. My recommendation for books depends on what area you are into, Taoism: probably Chunyi Lin who teaches Spring Forest Qigong, or Bruce Frantzis, or Dr Yang Jwing Ming For strictly meditation without energy work you are probably better off looking at Buddhism and the books by The Dalai Lama and Allan Wallace. For fast track awakening I would look at Ramana Maharshi, Nisrigatta Maharaj, Adyashshanti, Gangaji

Maybe, but if the all is one being then there is only one king ruling over the all

Yeah I think "thy will be done" is the same thing as going with the flow of Tao, yet there is a sort of paradox in that if you give up what you think is your individual will what you really give up is the conditioning and beliefs imposed upon you, and what you gain through submitting to God or Tao is will in line with the truth of your individual life and situation, whose power comes from being aligned with the flow of Tao or truth. So through submission you actually gain a more authentic individuality, its just not the individuality of your own choosing. Back to Thomas, to "rule over the All" could be a strong way to describe being identified with the all, not everyone can become a ruler over the All in the sense of power like a king has over his subjects so he can't be talking about that sort of power over others otherwise what would happen if a whole load of people got the power to rule over the all? in that domain there can only be one king and in this quote what Jesus says seems to be a universal statement.

Free will is something I always used to believe in, yet it is confusing to me at the moment. In the Christian context the highest prayer is "thy will be done" so it is all about relinquishing your individual will, so we seem to have the ability to resist or submit to what life throws at us, but in resistance we always lose and suffer.. so it seems like we have the choice to suffer.

Its largely just an investigation into what is really true. For example say it was true twenty years ago that there were only 10 high level masters in the world, if you really honestly question this thought then you don't know for sure that now that is true, there could be hundreds of thousands for all you know, no matter what you say you honestly don't know. Examine all your thoughts and beliefs in this way and you find it is hard to say that any of them are really true Then Zen takes this investigation further, what it is that these thoughts arises in, where do they come from where do they go? is what they arise in any less you than the content of your thoughts? so it takes the investigation beyond the regular thinking mind altogether. If you don't think the enquiry into what is really true is important then it is up to you, it is the regular mentality to try to get life to fit into your existing beliefs rather than adjust your beliefs to what is really going on in life. But you are right about one thing, it may not go anywhere or achieve anything, because those notions come from the regular thinking mind.