konchog uma

i think its important to realize that we all carry an ocean of karmic imprints which go back to the beginning-less dawn of our soul or mindstream, depending on how you view things. While tummo, kundalini, and other practices, including activities that generate merit, have been seen by the open inner eyes of many great visionaries to dissolve the samskaras and karmic traces within ones energy body, everything in the relative sphere of existance is conditioned by karma. If and when a being had exhausted their personal karma, they would cease to exist as a being according to the buddhist view. This is the primary reason for taking bodhisattva vows, it is a vow to remain and help sentient beings achieve liberation from suffering in spite of the fact that when you are reabsorbed into the light at the time of death there is nothing to spit out, nothing to be recycled. At that point, there is only the will to help beings, so one can live on the cusp of nirvana. I have read about three masters choosing to reincarnate as one being (and being recognized as such by h.h.karmapa) and i have read about a realized being taking five rebirths as manifestations of body speech mind qualities and activities.. so once a person steps away from an overly logical approach to reincarnation, where one always equals one, and into a less sensible way of viewing things, an infinite array of possibilities begins to come into focus, especially where realized beings are concerned. I venture to guess that this applies to the realizations of all traditions, hindu daoist buddhist christian et al. I venture further to guess that this has more to do with the state of someone's energy body and the integrated (in the sense of being holistic) nature of their mind than it does with which -ism has spoken to them in that particular lifetime. so without speculating further, i just wanted to add those comments to the thread.. owledge, i don't think that seeing a past life experience dissolves the karmic traces that it leaves with a person. lol look out for those mediums.

@peaceful: quite so @vmarco: if your posts are addressed to me, you should be advised not to put too much effort into them. i don't read them. thanks

one who speaks does not know one who knows does not speak

really beautiful, thank you! never heard to mustang, nepal, glad to learn

reading Keith Dowman's Natural Perfection: Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen, i was struck by the similarities between the dzogchen rhetoric and daoist rhetoric. "DZOGCHEN was a secret tradition in Tibet. [...] Its popularity may be attributed to a single basic tenet, which is contained in the notion “nonaction.” The buddha-nature is immanent in every moment of experience and simply by recognizing the moment and relaxing into it that realization is achieved. Relaxation is the imperative need of our stressed-out culture and relaxation is the key to buddhahood here-and-now. The materialism, rationalism, and goal-oriented ambition that mark our contemporary societies is undermined by Dzogchen with its promise of optimal awareness and recognition of a natural state of perfection. Tangentially, the message of Dzogchen provides a functional approach to the medical ills of the age, a redemptive approach to sexuality, and a positive, joyful vision of death and dying. These popular effects of Dzogchen, however, should not obscure its fundamental purpose - to recognize the unity of all things in a nondual universe of full awareness, harmony, and compassion. It is unfortunately true that a heavy seriousness tends to pervade texts on the Dzogchen view; but perhaps that is inevitable in works that purport to resolve our every existential quandary. Yet evidently in the work of providing meaningful commentary and translation of Dzogchen texts something crucial in the heart of Dzogchen is being forfeited. This essence of Dzogchen may be characterized as a lightness of being, humor, and laid back detachment, spontaneous joy and an uninhibited freedom of expression. Perhaps these qualities will emerge here in this work through an understanding of Longchenpa’s intent, but we need to apologize, immediately, for any failure to uphold the cosmic joke, full of joyful laughter, or to induce a dance of cosmic energy involving all life and work, and a pacific play of light that is free of all pain and anxiety. The exemplar of Dzogchen may be anonymous, but he is also the divine madman—or the urban yogi—jumping through decisive moments in life as easily as through the most trivial dilemma, gleefully shouting the absurdity of existence from the rooftops, and asserting the essential beauty of the human predicament." one of the preliminaries of dzogchen is rushan, the practice of going to a place all by yourself where nobody is watching you and spontaneously acting out whatever arises in your mind or energies. It reminded me from the very beginning of the general who was flapping his arms like a chicken from the later chapters of Chuang Tzu... i have always intuitively known that daoism and buddhism were two sides of the same coin, but at times they seem so different, and the egregious contentiousness of some daoists and buddhists when this sameness is implied has led me to wonder at times if this feeling in my bones was correct. I feel upon reading Dowman's introduction to the text that something has been rekindled in my heart, some non-sectarian sensibility that is beyond mundane boundaries like this-ism or that-ism. Something that strikes to the heart of experience, the experience we all share whether we are on this side of the fence or that. The experience of being human on planet earth, of having a body and a mind and trying to make sense of that. I hope others take delight in finding this similarity or reading the above-quoted passage. May we all remember that we share far more similarities than differences!

when the nyingma and kagyu lineages are referred to as "practice" lineages, what do you think they are practicing? its not cross stitch, its meditation.

lol

thanks for clearing that up

doesn't change the fact that meditation is part of the general vajrayana view and practice.

i don't know about you not being so far along serene, i think your example and the advice you give on all this is really right on. Maybe i have achieved this meditational milestone or that energetic awakening or such and such realization, but i still have to haul off and tell vmarco what i think of him lol in spite of the fact that of course he doesn't listen or change his nasty ways. Its childish, and it crept into my meditation this morning like an itch i couldn't scratch. You're completely right, its just worthless, the manifestation of my own egotism, my own dark reflection of the very obscurations i point out in his behavior. I have resolved to use ignore as much as i feel compelled to instead of engaging incendiary people in conversation, and in the spirit of the 27th practice of bodhisattvas i am working to develop patience devoid of hostility. Stubborn ignorant holier-than-thou people have caused me a lot of pain in life, and i need to let it go instead of feeding the fire of those people's egos by even responding to them in the first place. Thank you for your reminder and your example serene

its folk rock/metal from mongolia with elements of traditional instrumentation and throat singing thats their page

i knew what you meant steve. All that semantic nitpicking bothers me too, and i don't usually discuss buddhist philosophy except with my teacher.. lol i have never posted once on dharmawheel. the hairsplitting and the know-it-all-ism that goes on just aren't for me. I would rather practice meditation!

okay. i'm going by actual teachers, lamas, monks etc, and the fact that they teach shamatha, vipashyana, mahamudra, etc. malcolm is a dzogchenpa and doesn't represent the vajrayana view as a whole.

interesting, thank you gerard!

thank dawei. its a quote from his link. i asked you for an example and you didnt give one.

we arent talking about the differences. of course there are differences we're talking about the similarities. So if you want to take your usual boring argumentative stance, you would have to tell us (without any explanation of course) why there are no similarities between the two. Which would be stupid, because i just opened this thread with a post about the obvious similarities. So im not really sure what youre posting about. Maybe you should send Keith Dowman an email lol

"It's not enough just to know the definition of bodhisattva. What's much more important is to study the actions of a bodhisattva and then to behave like one yourself." nice article thanks CT

can you cite a source for that statement? (that the vajrayana view sees meditation as contrived and conceptual) all the vajrayana practitioners i know meditate, and all the teachers teach meditation, so im curious why you say that.

on second thought that should go in the 'what made you laugh today' thread. sorry, next time.

stanford As a verb, perhaps on account of the directionality involved, dao also conveys the sense of “speaking.” Thus, the opening phrase of chapter 1, dao ke dao, literally “Dao that can be dao-ed,” is often rendered, “The Way that can be spoken of.” Because dao is paired with “name” (ming) in the next line—“ming ke ming,” “the name that can be named”—forming a parallel couplet construction, there is thus reason to interpret the verbal usage in the sense of something verbalized, as opposed to a pathway that is travelled on, trodden, or followed. This is also how most commentators in traditional China have understood it: the many normative discourses that clamor to represent the right way are seen to be fickle, partial and misleading. In most English translations, the capitalized form—“Way” or “Dao” (or “Tao”)—is used, to distinguish it from other usages of the term. internet encyclopedia of philosophy The term Dao means a road, and is often translated as “the Way”. This is because sometimes dao is used as a nominative (that is, “the dao”) and other times as a verb (i.e. daoing). Dao is the process of reality itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. All this reflects the deep seated Chinese belief that change is the most basic character of things. In the Yi jing (Classic of Change) the patterns of this change are symbolized by figures standing for 64 relations of correlative forces and known as the hexagrams. Dao is the alteration of these forces, most often simply stated as yin and yang. just for everyone who doesnt feel like digging.. helpful, thanks dawei

i need a llama by tomorrow morning, do you airmail?!

can you cite some examples of "dao" being used as a verb? i cant recall any. big up what steve said

Ajahn Brahm, in Mindfulness Bliss and Beyond, says that originally (in the suttas) the 8fold path was a 10fold path i forget what the other two are... something like right wisdom and right liberation anyone else have information on this?

lol it certainly prepared you well for "conversations" on taobums lol ... ladies and gentleman, for my next trick, i am going to focus on one tiny glimmer of dharma that i intellectually grasp (although admittedly i have no realization of it) and bombard you with QUOTE after QUOTE after QUOTE reinforcing my own personal agenda (maintaining plausible deniability that its actually *my* agenda) and when the audience becomes weary of seeing through the thin veneer of my egotistical posturing, i will proceed to label all who disagree with me or cite DIFFERENT sources as Spoilers (capital S!) Believers (which, while i use it as a pejorative, allows me the out of saying that i never belittle or demean anyone on this forum!) and Sheeple. Once i have nauseated everyone in the room i will proceed, as a fantastic finale, to declare myself the ONE and ONLY realized member on the forum, in a vainglorious attempt to negate the realization and accomplishments of EACH and EVERY other member of this spiritual community in ONE SINGLE DECISIVE display of my own arrogance and conceit! ladies and gentleman, ARE... YOU... READY..... wait what do you mean someone just did that earlier this week? what? you'd rather see meekness and integrity what are those? thats the last time i play this stupid club... im outta here suckers! [*dodges tomatoes and various rotten vegatables in beeline for stage door left*]

quite so