idiot_stimpy

Its interesting that much of our internal world is built up of various ideas and beliefs. Our hopes, dreams, preferences, likes and dislikes, our fears, build on a ball of ideas of who we are. Understanding the idea of a dream, when something is seen to be real but then becomes unreal, the power of these balls of ideas begin to weaken. When the dream is understood to be a dream, is the waking up from following an illusion and holding onto something that wasn't even real to begin with.

Thank you for both your responses. Integration is a great topic of turning towards and embracing. It seems healing and unifying. Unification vs division.

Much is spoken about the guardian of the threshold. Some say it appears as a supernatural spectre, others a manifestation of one's past karma trying to pull the soul down. I'm interested in this subject as the dweller of the threshold has held many questions and interest for many years. The direction I am seeing right now is the dwellers esoteric meaning is man's lower nature which must be overcome in order to bridge the gap to the divine. Without conquering the lower nature in man one is held down and not allowed to cross over. Hopefully others have a different point of view they can share to add to this discussion.

I disagree with the above. A Zen Monk is under rules, precepts, vows and dogma also. Both look into the nature of mind. If you feel more attracted by Zen by all means follow that path if you think it fits better.

It is a good point to raise. There may be confusion between resting in the nature of mind and spacing out, or having trouble seeing the difference between the two. Highlighted the above that the mind can feel dull. I have heard in Zen someone call it dead tree Zen, whereby the mind becomes ridged and inflexible, devoid of anything. In contrast a mind that is supple, awake, focused and fresh is found when the spaceout state is cleared.

When someone talks about a soul, my personal guess is it relates to the Buddhist concept of alaya consciousness.

Satan is the moral prosecutor. I hope you have a good defence lawyer.

You don't understand, but you're trying to understand. By trying to understand, you are exerting effort to understand. Doing without doing or accomplishing everything without doing anything, means to do something without exerting any effort at all. Effortless action. An action that does not require or need effort in any direction.

Its true and in some cases there is multiple layers of meaning. A classic example is using a story to convey a certain idea. The idea can be taken exoterically or esoterically depending on the viewpoint. The exoteric view was given to the lay people, the esoteric was reserved for the priesthood.

The one taste of all things good or bad, the great seal of Mahamudra.

We may be using the same terms and using different descriptions here. It's very hard for me to explain. For me, when one rests in awareness, I mean resting in the 5 sense organs, but being undifferentiated so it remains whole. It is effortless to exists and rest in this nature and is what I believe the main practice of the cutting through our trekcho. We see through the fiction of the mind but still see the information provided by the 5 sense organs are being real. I believe the Buddha went beyond the 5 sense organs and saw them as Maya, illusion. The body and all that you are experiencing right now is not real. You are dreaming and don't realise you are dreaming. Your body is just a dream body, your thoughts are made up of dream language and the food and drink you consume including the taste is all part of the dream. In my opinion, seeing through the illusion of the 5 sense organs is what is seen in the leep over teachings of Togal.

Garab Dorje states - The second part whereby one decides upon the one thing and one thing only is whereby self identity starts to transfer from the conditioned to the unconditioned. The decision is like an intent, no words are needed, a bit like an understanding or a knowing.