Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[Daniel]

@C T

 

In buddhism is there a concept of being attached-to-detachment?  finding the release from sense-pleasure-pleasurable?  abandoning dogma becoming dogmatic?

 

in your opinion are these concepts important for maintaining enlightenment potential?

[C T]

[blue eyed snake]

Bump,

 

I am missing CT

 

anybody knows something about him?

[silent thunder]

He is missed indeed.

Hope you are thriving

@C T

 

 

[Apech]

Hope all is ok with him.

[manitou]

Sometimes ya' just gotta take a little break....

[blue eyed snake]

yes, maybe a long retraite

 

i've had so much learning moments from this thread

 

[Mark Foote]

On 2/26/2023 at 5:07 AM, C T said:

BODHIDHARMA 

 

"... So many are looking for this mind, yet it already animates their bodies. It is theirs, yet they don’t realize it."

That's key for me, the part about "it already animates their bodies". 

 

There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence.
 

(Common Ground)

 

When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration:
 

… there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen.
 

(Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

 

(Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages)
 

I practice now to experience the free placement of attention as the sole source of activity in the body in the movement of breath, and in my “complicated, difficult” daily life, I look for the mindfulness that allows me to touch on that freedom.

("To Enjoy Our Life", emphasis added)

 

 

Edited January 29 by Mark Foote

[Mark Foote]

On 5/6/2023 at 11:57 AM, steve said:

Dzogchen could be defined as a way to relax completely. This can be clearly understood from the terms used to denote the state of contemplation, such as "leave it just as it is" (cog bzhag), "cutting loose one's tension" (khregs chod), beyond effort" (rtsol bral), and so on.

Some scholars have classified Dzogchen as a "direct path," comparing it to teachings such as Zen, where this expression is often used. In Dzogchen texts, however, the phrases "direct path" and "nongradual path" (cig car) are never used, because the concept of a "direct path" implies necessarily that there must be, on the one hand, a place from which one departs, and on the other, a place where one arrives.

But in Dzogchen there is a single principle of the state of knowledge, and if one possesses this state one discovers that right from the beginning one is already there where one wants to arrive. For this reason the state is said to be "self-perfected" (lhun grub).

~ Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

from 'Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State'

 

... Famous saying attributed to the Sixth Patriarch's disciple Nan-yüeh Huai-jang (667-744):
 

The [Sixth] Patriarch asked [Nan-yüeh], "Where do you come from?" Nan-yüeh answered, "From Mt. Sung." The Patriarch said, ''What is it that comes like this''' Nan-yueh replied, "To say anything would be wrong." The Patriarch said, "Then is it contingent on practice and verification (hsiu-cheng)?" Nan-yüeh said, "Practice and verification are not nonexistent; they are not to be defiled."

 

("Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation", Carl Bielefeldt, p 138)

 

 

 

[Mark Foote]

On 7/12/2023 at 1:34 PM, Cobie said:

.

I liked your post, Cobie, even though I couldn't read it.  I've grown accustomed to your absences, at least I know you're present on the conversation!

 

 

[Cobie]

1 hour ago, Mark Foote said:

I liked your post, Cobie, even though I couldn't read it.  I've grown accustomed to your absences, at least I know you're present on the conversation! 

You’re the best  - you see the usefulness of what’s not there. 
 

DDJ Ch 11 
1. Thirty spokes unite in one hub; 
2. It is precisely where there is nothing, that we find the usefulness of the wheel. 
…
7. Therefore, we regard having something as beneficial; 
8. But having nothing as useful. (Henricks)

 

 

Edited January 29 by Cobie

[Mark Foote]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:30 AM, Daniel said:

 

... which confirms that everything that exists has an inner-essence which is concealed by the "reflective" surface observed by the senses?

 

Daniel, here's Gautama's description of the final attainment in his concentration, "the cessation of ('determinate thought' in) feeling and perceiving"--check out the "disturbance that remains":
 

…[an individual] comprehends thus, ‘This concentration of mind … is effected and thought out. But whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping.’ When [the individual] knows this thus, sees this thus, [their] mind is freed from the canker of sense-pleasures and [their] mind is freed from the canker of becoming and [their] mind is freed from the canker of ignorance. In freedom is the knowledge that [one] is freed and [one] comprehends: “Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the (holy)-faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more of being such or so’. [They] comprehend thus: “The disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of sense-pleasures do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of becoming do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of ignorance do not exist here. And there is only this degree of disturbance, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself.”

(MN III 108-109, Pali Text Society Vol III p 151-152)

 

 

Six sensory fields, including the mind.

 

The absence of the three cankers, no mention of any inner essence, no mention of any "doer" of action (action of speech, of the body in inhaling and exhaling, of the mind in feeling and perceiving).

No actor that stands apart, no essence underlying.  The thing itself.

(I always forget that a particular combination of characters, left bracket s right bracket, will cause the Dao Bums mini-editor to score through all succeeding text, sorry about that in the initial post.)

 

 

Edited January 29 by Mark Foote

[Mark Foote]

On 8/1/2023 at 8:39 AM, Daniel said:

 

In buddhism is there a concept of being attached-to-detachment?  finding the release from sense-pleasure-pleasurable?  abandoning dogma becoming dogmatic?

 

in your opinion are these concepts important for maintaining enlightenment potential?
 

Not-CT-but-rather-MF-sez:  Gautama did speak of monks longing for the states of further-men, for the states of concentration, as a form of suffering.

 

 

[C T]

CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU RINPOCHE 

 

Karma 

 

“But karma is not in fact a material accumulation, and does not depend on externals; rather its power to condition us depends on the obstacles that impede our knowledge. If we compare our karma and the ignorance that creates it to a dark room, knowledge of the primordial state would be like a lamp, which, when lit in the room, at once causes the darkness to disappear, enlightening everything. In the same way, if one has the presence of the primordial state, one can overcome all hindrances in an instant.” 

 

~ Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State

[C T]

Greetings to all friends, old and new. 

Trust all of you are well, and present. I was absent, though lol 

 

Who has gone thru transformation and changed their handle? Forestofemptiness > Forestofclarity? 

Just curious. And btw, thank you for keeping alive the spirit of this thread, regardless if its part 2, or 3, or 4 ○○○•°○ can't believe it began in 2014 😊

 

Silent Thunder, BES, Apech, Steve, M. Foote, Manitou, Taomeow, and all the rest of the TDB vintagers - thank you for remaining steadfast torch bearers. The world needs more folks like y'all. 

 

May peace guide your every step. 

 

Take care, everyone 🌈💌

 

 

Edited October 10 by C T

[blue eyed snake]

glad to see you after your absence

[manitou]

Evolutions have continued.  I feel a different presence with your current you.

[silent thunder]

Warm and welcome return Wise Sir!