Jetsun

Shy FX have made a Reggae tune

The main difference between a human and most other things in nature is that say for example a tree grows under the shade of a larger tree and never gets to grow up as impressive or beautiful, that tree then doesn't spend it's life cursing the other tree or being jealous of it, or cursing god for its misfortune, or damning or hating itself for being inadequate. Humans on the other hand have the mind which creates all these thoughts and ideas and beliefs when it tries to compare its idea of itself with other things, which is what creates all the ugliness and resistance of the flow of nature in humanity. Humans are part of nature but when they are dominated by the comparing mind then they often resist and go against it. Buddhism and Taoism both should bring your identity out of being dominated by that aspect of mind and out of resistance to nature, which is compassion both for yourself and everyone else you come in contact with as you no longer insist that they should be any different than they are or insist that you yourself be any different in comparison to them.

Who cares about Loppon Namdrol?

People talk about "the expansion of consciousness" but can you find the limits even right now? where does it begin or end? maybe it is already expanded .

"One day in Mino province I observed a cicada casting its skin in the shade. It managed to get its head free, and then its hands and its feet emerged one after the other. Only its left wing remained inside, still caught to the old skin. It didn't look as though it would ever get that wing unstuck. Watching it struggling to free itself, I was moved by feelings of compassion to assist it with my fingernail. Excellent, I thought, now you are free to go on your way. But the wing that I had touched remained shut and would not open. That cicada never was able to fly as it should have. Looking at it, I felt ashamed of myself and regretted deeply what I had done." - Master Hakuin

Tsoknyi Rinpoche says that other teachers should have more "guts" and introduce rigpa sooner without as many preliminaries, (when he talks about guts he means having your winds settled below the navel) my interpretation of his reason is that he thinks they rely more on tradition rather than what works or is essential, so it is about skillful means. Obviously if it works it is better because then you cut out a lot of unnecessary practice, the Dharma should be alive and a living changing way so even if preliminaries were important at one point it doesn't mean that they are as important now, so referencing a few hundred year old text or teacher is not necessarily the best way to proceed, the teacher has to decide for themselves. Alan Wallace had the time and dedication to spend many years working through the whole traditional training, yet most others do not, so it is difficult to replicate his level of training without taking many years out from your day to day life. I don't know if Tsoknyi Rinpoche is correct but I like his spirit and I hope to one day get some teachings from him.

Buddhism works as a religion as well as a path to liberation so it includes the morality side as a means of conditioning people in the right direction socially, but most of us in the West have been heavily conditioned already by Christian based morality so in my opinion that religious aspect is not really of great importance for a lot if us. Most people are so sick of the way it is done in Christian culture with guilt instead of reason that they are more likely to rebel against another lecture on morality than absorb it as useful. But the other level of compassion in Buddhism is the liberation aspect or Bodhicitta which is unlimited non discriminatory compassion, which is probably what the Buddha was referring to when saying you need compassion to achieve enlightenment.

Only you can decide what is the best way for you but it might be a mistake to think it is all about leaving regular life behind, that is just an idea often perpetuated by those who are trying to escape life rather than embrace it. In the Chan and Zen traditions one of the highest regarded masters was a guy called Layman Pang who was just a regular working guy with a normal life but could run rings around most of the masters who spent half their lives meditating in solitude. The highest realization is that nirvana is samsara and samsara is nirvana, so on the fundamental level your working and family life is just as much the pinnacle of spiritually as the highest meditation state.

Yeah I agree with you, the stages of ego formation are needed up to a point, I am not one of those against ego I recognise it has its place and function. A child is one but they are not aware that they are one which is the difference between them and an awakened adult, which is why the process isn't a regression like Freud suggested it was as there is a different clarity of openness rather than an attempted retreat from life.

Good questions. On the ultimate level the observer and observed are the same thing, yet the mind makes the distinction of this and that in duality, this is the minds job in order to navigate life more effectively, yet the mind is a tool it isn't a direct interpretation of reality because it consists of thoughts and beliefs about life rather than direct perception of life right now. Some teachers teach to separate life further so you create a witness or observer consciousness, I have questioned this myself for some time and my conclusions are that some of them don't know what they are really doing and the others create the observer as a tool in order for you to create some distance from your conditioning and personality structures in order that you can gain some freedom from them and see that the don't define you. But at some point that witness or observer has to be let go of too in order for you to see reality directly. So the teachers who separate things want to eventually bring you to see that the observer and the observed are the same thing, but they don't do it directly they work at loosening your conditioning first. When you were born you were one with everything, even the psychologists admit this is true, then you separated yourself and the world into two, so there is you and the world. Some teachers will then separate you into three: you, the world and the observer of both, to loosen the bonds you created with the ultimate aim to bring you back to one, other teachers will directly introduce you back into one.

Makes you wonder which is the purest transmission of what the Buddha was getting at, so many Buddhists get stuck in the trappings and religion and miss what he was really pointing at, yet that's not really possible with Vedanta (unless you try really hard)

I had an experience of recognising "I" when looking at a non-dual teacher I was working with for a couple of seconds, I haven't spoken about it to anyone except the person I was working with because I don't think it is possible to understand without experiencing it as it is a non personal experience, it is recognising the collective identity so it goes beyond regular mind. In a certain sense it was actually quite weird and depressing rather than amazing, at least to my usual sense of self it was because it meant that I saw that I as an limited individual will never be uniquely special because my identity is not limited to my individual self. Just a second or two of such an experience changes everything though as you see that all other experiences which are not that are personal experiences and thus limited, it is only when you have the impersonal that real freedom is possible, but it isn't your regular self having it, rather it can be perceived as annhilatory to it so if you really knew what awakening meant you probably wouldnt bother with it at all as it is death. So I see clearly now that when people focus on the personal that they are not awakened, it becomes quite easy to tell for the most part which teachers and people have had such experience.

Interesting, do you know what form of Qigong she practices?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines This is a pretty good summary of the real motivations behind it all, its all about gas and oil pipelines and trying to strategically cut out Iranian and Russian influence by creating an alternative pipeline into Europe which Assad had declined to build.

Whatever expectations you have are a barrier to you having further experiences, and trying to recreate spiritual experiences is another barrier, so you are better off letting it all go.

Is it something to do with the Nazi's hiding on the dark side of the moon ?

Yeah I guess. But I wonder how much ego comes into it, people say Obama and the US will look weak if they don't do anything and if they lose out to Iran and Russia so they might want to come out on top just so they win for ego sake ,to project strength rather than because the outcome is particularly favourable for them. I don't see how setting up an extreme Islamic state in Syria beneficial for the US long term even if there are the other benefits mentioned. It's more beneficial for Europe because then we can be less reliant on Russian gas if they can build another pipe line, which is why France want to get involved and why Russia are so angry.

From one perspective its strange that the US wants to get rid of Assad because he had maintained Israel's borders in the Golan heights, whereas if the rebels get in then there is a good chance that Syria could become an extreme Islamic republic on Israel's northern border, which can't be good for them.

If it doesn't help don't do it, listen to your body not what other people tell you

Hehe yeah you are right, yet the mind can create some of the most fantastic dramas about that question.

To be or not to be, that is the question

How come there is a difference between Stillness Movement and the Qigong of Hu Yaozhen shown in that video if they are the same lineage?

How did you find this out ?

Yeah the Small Universe by Chunyi Lin is great, I could see how you could have problems with the microcosmic orbit if you are trying to do too much with it without the proper guidance. With the Spring Forest version you do it to a recording which harmonises your breathing, sounds, pace of practice and gives you access to the masters energy to help you, I have not heard of it causing anyone problems if done in this way. https://soundcloud.com/rolf-h-corneliussen/01-sitting-meditation-small I think without the recording I would probably do it at the same pace and breathing as my regular work rhythm which may just agitate whatever stress or whatever was going on inside of me rather than calm it down. Also I have learned through other practices that doing less is more effective than more, so you just lightly casually move your awareness around the orbit without concern rather than try to forcefully move the energy. I have read about people trying to add all sorts of thing like inner smile and trying too hard to feel or move energy, so their ego or minds try too own or add to the practice, but that wont help.

Some people's way is that of suffering and hardship, an old example is that of Milerepa who went the way of mass murderer to enlightenment. A modern example is someone like Byron Katie who was angry and mentally ill, but awoke out of that through realizing she isn't her mind. Ekhart Tolles way was that of depression then waking up. The Chinese Sage Xu Yin's way was to do a prostration every three steps walking across the entire length of China and into Tibet, which almost killed him on a number of occasions and ruined his health but in the end led to enlightenment. How do you know if someone's way isn't the right way? You don't