idiot_stimpy

I would like to hear peoples ideas as to why the highest spiritual teachings were kept hidden/secret from the masses? Then there are those teachings that even if you had access to, they conceal their true meaning unless it is shown to you directly.

Why do they say the highest spiritual teachings are self concealing/self hidden? Meaning its a secret that hides itself, no hiding needed from anything else.

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.

Thanks for sharing Lairg, care to go into the various means of it concealing itself if not too much trouble? This area interests me.

Was getting a bad gateway error.

1 - Resting in awareness. 2 - I feels the most natural to me. 3 - I trust my intuition. If I see no benefit I will stop it.

Rest your mind in the effortless aspect of existing. The effortless aspect of being or existing needs nothing and depends on nothing. When you dream at night that effortless aspect remains, see it, rest in it.

Its always here and effortless, So let things go their own way. Nothing needs to be understood, As everything has already been accomplished. The mind cannot bring you there, As it can't be improved upon. Relaxing through not doing anything, Nothing needs to be done. Unchanging stillness that contains the changing movement, If effort is needed to maintain it, it's not it. It is dependant on no thing, Yet is in itself every thing. Awareness of the totality of the NOW, it 'just is', The 'just is', always is, effortlessly is, right now. Recognising the unchanging nature of mind, That has always been and always will be, You just sit.

I don't mean to advertise however I have found a great teacher Lama Dawai Gocha, a Nyingma Dzogchen Yogi from New Mexico USA. He offers completely free online meditation sessions with no prerequisites everyday at 9AM ET and 9PM ET. Sessions go for around an hour with a short meditation and text review. The reason I am sharing is this may be great for those who don't have access to a Dzogchen teacher. I first found him through Youtube where he posts videos about Dzogchen. I have found the sessions great as it has reminded me to practice, even just for a short time everyday. https://www.youtube.com/@JoinMeditationOnline Link to online sessions - https://www.meditationonline.org/

Everything is Dharmakaya, Therefore everything is already perfect. If everything is perfect, Nothing needs to be changed. Seeing the whole as it is, Emptiness and form are the same.

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.

Question for discussion, is a nondual realisation equivalent to a kundalini activation? Are they both a means to the same end? A nondual seeing simulating the kundalini, or energetically stimulating the kundalini leading to a nondual seeing?

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

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.

When we think of both dream and supposed waking life, we think they are completely different. However they are different in stability but in actuality they are quite similar. I think analysing dream reality and uncovering it's rules helps us better understand waking reality. Those could say that waking reality is also dream reality just more stable. When we dream our minds projects a reality. Our 5 senses still work, we have a dream body. In most cases when we dream we treat the dream as real and experience suffering due to attachment as similar in waking reality. What's interesting is within a dream, when we come to the realisation we are just dreaming and all experience is unreal/illusion, our attachment to our situation is greatly reduced including our suffering. Looking into Dzogchen togal recently I couldn't help but question the current waking reality we exist in. Maybe just like in a dream, our bodies and dream is just a projection, in waking reality maybe it is no different. We are experiencing projections of our own mind, our body and senses are also projections. Maybe reality like a dream will have less of a hold on us if we start to believe it might not be as real as it seems.

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