konchog uma

not to wax on trungpa, and yes he's dead too, but he was a recognized mahasiddha his son (sakyong mipham rinpoche) is a deity emanation and a siddha and there are lots of people alive with siddhi powers they just dont advertise

i agree the first turning is in many ways a "higher" set of teachings than much that comes later... the rest of mahayana seems at times to be commentary on the noble truths and path. Many people think themselves realized because they can intellectually comprehend mahayana and vajrayana teachings, but they have a hard time manifesting the eightfold path . I know many people in vajrayana sanghas i belong to, and lol here on TTB that struggle with right speech. i think getting back to basics is amazing, and beyond that, i think the six paramitas are worth noting, and also the practice of metta using all four immeasurables. I second the notion that it all boils down to shamatha and vipashyana, the whole foundation is that basic. For all the neurosis of buddhists, and their overintellectualization and propensity for words and lists, its pretty simple at its core. i think that without the foundation in basics that you are after, practicing tantra and dzogchen is going to be a matter of learning the view but perhaps not having the capacity for the path. Its so common to see this, its everywhere. Part of the problem itself is the idea that those practices are higher... they require greater capacity than to contemplate suffering or its cessation, but the real problem is just as jetsun notes: that people progress on the path without laying a solid foundation for themselves in basics: loving-kindness, compassion, and basic wisdom. Without those, its just an exercise in intellectual masturbation "Never forget the hinayana" -Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

adept, as far as books go, francois lepine writes some interesting books about it. its part of japanese vajrayana but there isnt much literature out there, its pretty closely guarded. theres some ninja lit but lepines is the best imo... he uses what i call a watered down set of hand seals. the traditional hand seals can be found on the wiki page and elsewhere, and can be used with the japanese or sanskrit mantras that lepine provides in his books. his books tend to sell for hundreds of dollars and i dont know why. PM me. i can also share my practice notes with you, they are a mix of distilled lepine info and my ninja teacher's guidance.. so send me your email address adept and i will send you some things.

Hi, I would like to change my name from anamatva, but can't find the option to do so. Can anyone help? Thank you

lol point taken i was just having a moment

you are always going on about how horrible kundalini is but how seriously have you worked with it? what steps have you taken to integrate the energy and move it in the central channel, ida and pingala, and the chakras, and through your body? if you worked with it instead of just complaining about it you might get somewhere. sorry to the OP, i dont mean to derail the thread and won't continue in this vein, just wanted to make one comment because mike 134s complaining is like a bad broken record. a lot of people have it worse and have good attitudes in spite of having actual problems.

lol owledge

i have made great progress in the last year and a half, and i owe a lot of that to having an outlet for my spirituality in social form. Buddhist forums are both more civilized and more fraught with arguments, so while there is less personal attack there than there is here, there is more nitpicking and hairsplitting, and while i took refuge 13 years ago, i never felt comfortable talking on buddhist forums. So i am really grateful for the presence of TTB, which is a nice balance between scholarly masturbation and friendly exchange, usually leaning towards friendly exchange. As i've expressed before, i feel a lot more comfortable asking questions and learning here, and as a result of that, i have met some great people and learned some interesting things. Fortunately there are always books for buddhist learning, and i have 2 awesome buddhist teachers so i don't really feel like i am missing out on those forums. someone else has almost always asked my questions in the past too so i just search for them TTB really keeps me in check to not take myself to seriously, which is something that daoists are great at, and an area i have always had a little bit of a hard time in. I am really grateful for many reasons to have joined this community, and i can only hope that i have added more to it than my presence has detracted for other users

you may have gotten me mixed up with myself. i do that all the time. firstly, i think i saw his response in a quote from a member who im not ignoring, secondly, the dialogue that shows in place of a member's post when they are being ignored gives the option to read it anyway, thirdly it wasn't a response to him in a conversational way. Just a notice that i found the post offensive and reported it.

reported

ice water closes the pores in the stomach that secrete digestive juices. i dont drink cold liquids either.. tea or water w/o ice

i love pit bulls, beautiful creatures

now i will say something completely indisputable, undisputable, and nondisputable. if you talk long enough on the internet, it turns into an argument! i didn't think i had one in me, but if you dispute it, you've proved me right! HA ftw

yeah i usually drink local kombucha too but today i didnt feel like driving to the store and i was at whole foods anyway so it was GT daves gingerberry (our local has to be sold as a beer its alcohol content is too high for the FDA lol) i feel noticably better eating local organic meats yes. in fact its about all i eat, except for example when i was at the indian restaraunt the other day and had some chicken.. i can't feel immediately the growth hormones and antibiotics and crap in factory farm chicken, except mildly on some occaisions of eating too much.. but i almost always have a reaction later when i brush the back of my tongue, that i expell air (like a yogic burb, i dunno what they are called sorry). I have read in books on yoga and fasting that making yourself burp air is a way of getting bad energy out of the body, and that you actually won't burp if you don't have bad energy. Most times i can't make myself burp, but if i have had dirty meat, i will almost always burp up some air. So that might sound really weird and unscientific, but there is a definite correlation tested over time. I doubt that it is coincidence, but i leave everyone to come to their own conclusions about it. if i eat dirty meats over a course of a couple days, i definitely feel it in my body, a physical sluggishness of feeling crappy and tired. Its tough in the winter when my body craves more meat and i find myself eating out instead of driving the considerable distance back home once im in the city (hence my chicken at indian buffet the other day).. but in the spring through fall i am mostly veg, so no biggie. never tried eating seasonal local to the fullest extent, but as i buy lots from farmers markets and food co-op from local farmers, i end up eating that way a lot anyway. but never made a practice out of it.. anyways yes i notice the difference more with local organic meats than with veggies, but that stands to reason.

great song RV my favorite thing about tom waits is thats not his natural voice.. have you ever heard his first album? i think its called closing time.. he sings kinda normally!

The Six Vajra Verses the nature of phenomena is non-dual, but each one, its own state, is beyond the limits of the mind. there is no concept that can define the condition of "what is" but vision nevertheless manifests: all is good. everything has already been accomplished, and so, having overcome the sickness of effort, one finds oneself in the self-perfected state. this is contemplation. -Vairocana just wanted to share this short dzogchen poem here, as i found it very daoist in essence. Norbu Rinpoche, in The Supreme Source draws parallels between zen and ch'an and dzogchen, but none with daoism. he goes on to say The true path of the Dzogchen practitioner is contemplation. In fact, it is only when we are in contemplation that all the tensions of body, voice, and mind are finally effortlessly released; until we discover and abide stably in this state, our experience of "relaxation" will be incomplete. Contemplation can be tied to an experience of clarity, or of bliss, but its state is one alone: the instant presence of rigpa.

it is my understanding that "contemplation" here is what most people think of as "meditation" and not the western idea of contemplation which involves working with a concept or passage of text. i think the latter is a new world thing because even in the catholic tradition contemplatio as i understand it is actually aimed at apprehending god directly, so in many ways im sure that that is the same as the nondual state, except that it is deified. same in early christianity with theoria, the point was not to think about god it was to actually have a vision of god or experience a state of mind which was divine. "In Christianity, contemplation refers to a content-free mind directed towards the awareness of God as a living reality. This corresponds, in some ways, to what in Eastern religion is called samadhi." -from wikipedia page on contemplation

indian food is my trophological exception too other than that, yes i have a chart on my fridge and eat according to daoist food combination rules. it makes a big difference, noticable in how i feel and also the smell of my poo also gluten free, 90% organic, primarily veggie but eat fish and a little chicken lamb or goat now and then. As much local as i can. diet make a huge difference in how i feel, think, act, etc... so i do the best i can (except when i go out for indian!)

yeah sweet vid

who else which is funny because his root lama (Norbu Rinpoche) sells a ton of restricted books but i agree with that sentiment, and pretty much believe in the idea of self-secrecy

neat! thank you

speaking without words understanding without thought we are animals

i can ship to US mailing addresses (its only like 3usd to ship a book media mail so i encourage anyone who has books that are collecting dust to share the love with your fellow bums on this thread!) but i am basically very poor, so if you want to paypal me the postage, that is awesome but its up to you. i am doing this for the merit and to make space on my bookshelves. PM me with info if you want me to ship you a book. The Shambhala Dictionary of Taoism by Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber T'ai Chi Classics by Waysun Liao Xing Yi Nei Gong by Dan Miller and Tim Cartmell Daoist Nei Gong by Damo Mitchell Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body by Bruce Frantzis

my tea water boils leaves rattle in winter winds warmth is a treasure

i like ekman's research, he is a genius. not surprising that he has anger issues, he is one of the keenest observers of human behavior i know. he can look at a picture of someone and tell all about them by their facial muscles. people that sensitive tend to have issues being overwhelmed by reality in some way or another. beautiful story thank you so much for sharing.. "not for scientists, thats my business" go HHDL set it straight