Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[C T]

Ignorance expresses itself as those tired, old habit forms, imbued with desire, aversion or indifference. Wisdom, on the other hand, expresses itself as vibrant, fresh and creative forms, imbued with compassion, power and purity.

 

~ Paramito Ladakh ~ 

[C T]

Wonder,
Who has the magic to make the sun
appear every morning?
Who makes that bird on the elegant tree chirp?
Breath, pulse, music, dew, sunset,
The burning ambers of the fall.
There is unfathomable joy in all that.
Life is a stream,
It flows on its own.
No one knows why we are here.
Stop trying to figure out the great mystery.
The tea in front of you is getting cold.
Drink it.
Enjoy every drop of it.
And dance.
Dance until there is no more dancer,
It is the dance without dancer.
This is how great mystics dance.

 

~ Anam Thubten Rinpoche ~

[C T]

The capacity of the mind is broad and huge, like the vast sky. Do not sit with a mind fixed on emptiness. If you do, you will fall into a dulled kind of emptiness.
 

Emptiness includes the sun, moon, stars, and planets, the great earth, mountains and rivers, all trees and grasses, bad people and good people, bad things and good things, heaven and hell; they are all in the midst of emptiness. 
 

The emptiness of human nature is also like this.

 

~ Hui Neng ~ 

[C T]

Eight Kinds of Silences in Dharma Practice 

 

With silence of the body, without fanatical fixation, you will avoid the allurement of violation.

 

With silence of the speech, you will keep your practice free from mindless rhetorical diversion.

 

With silence of the mind, you will not be affected by mindless deliberation, thus enabling you to reside in the pure consciousness of dharmakaya (the non-dualistic primordial mind) without the hindrance of ordinary cognisance.

 

With silence of sense-gratification, you will set yourself free from the conceptual fixation of pure and impure experiences, thus enabling you to be blessed with an existence devoid of conflict, and bring about the protective influences of the Tantric Assembly.

 

With silence of transmission, do not offer instruction to people who are unsuited for such teaching, thus enabling you to receive the blessing of the lineage.

 

With silence of behaviour, act unpretentiously and without deceit, thus enabling you to make advancement and protect the mind from afflictive influences.

 

With silence of experience, do not form attachment with your experience, and do not elaborate your encounter to others, thus enabling you to attain full enlightenment in this lifetime.

 

With silence of realisation, do not cling to mundane longing and reside in the calm abiding of non-duality, thus enabling you to be free from the bondage of samsara in the moment of realisation.

 

~ Guru Padmasambhava ~ 

[blue eyed snake]

another nudge in the right direction  

[C T]

 

[C T]

 

 

 

[C T]

 

[C T]

SELF-ARISING / SELF-ORIGINATED AWARENESS

 

The best seeing is the way of "non-seeing",
the essence of mind, self-luminous;

The best prize is what cannot be seeked -
the priceless treasure of the self-radiant mind.

 

The most nourishing food is "non-eating"
the transcendent food of samadhi.
The most thirst-quenching drink is "non-drinking"

the nectar of heartfelt compassion.

 

Oh, this self-realizing awareness
is beyond words and description!

 

The mind is not the world of children,
nor is it that of logicians.

 

Attaining the truth of "non-attainment,"
you receive the highest initiation.

 

Perceiving the void of high and low,
you reach the sublime stage.

 

Approaching the truth of "non-movement,"
you follow the supreme path.

 

Knowing the end of birth and death,
the ultimate purpose is fulfilled.

 

Seeing the emptiness of reason,
supreme logic is perfected.
When you know that great and small are groundless,

you have entered the highest gateway.

 

Comprehending beyond good and evil
opens the way to perfect skill.

 

Experiencing the dissolution of duality,
you embrace the highest view.

 

Observing the truth of "nonobservation"
opens the way to meditating.

 

Comprehending beyond "should" and "should not"
opens the way to perfect action.

 

When you realize the truth of "non-effort,"
you are approaching the highest fruition.
Ignorant are those who lack this truth:
Arrogant teachers, inflated by learning,
Scholars bewitched by mere words,
And yogis seduced by prejudice.

For though they yearn for freedom,
they find only enslavement.

 

~ Milarepa ~ 

Edited November 28, 2017 by C T

[Gunther]

17 minutes ago, C T said:

SELF-ARISING / SELF-ORIGINATED AWARENESS

 

The best seeing is the way of "non-seeing",
the essence of mind, self-luminous;

The best prize is what cannot be seeked -
the priceless treasure of the self-radiant mind.

 

The most nourishing food is "non-eating"
the transcendent food of samadhi.
The most thirst-quenching drink is "non-drinking"

the nectar of heartfelt compassion.

 

Oh, this self-realizing awareness
is beyond words and description!

 

The mind is not the world of children,
nor is it that of logicians.

 

Attaining the truth of "non-attainment,"
you receive the highest initiation.

 

Perceiving the void of high and low,
you reach the sublime stage.

 

Approaching the truth of "non-movement,"
you follow the supreme path.

 

Knowing the end of birth and death,
the ultimate purpose is fulfilled.

 

Seeing the emptiness of reason,
supreme logic is perfected.
When you know that great and small are groundless,

you have entered the highest gateway.

 

Comprehending beyond good and evil
opens the way to perfect skill.

 

Experiencing the dissolution of duality,
you embrace the highest view.

 

Observing the truth of "nonobservation"
opens the way to meditating.

 

Comprehending beyond "should" and "should not"
opens the way to perfect action.

 

When you realize the truth of "non-effort,"
you are approaching the highest fruition.
Ignorant are those who lack this truth:
Arrogant teachers, inflated by learning,
Scholars bewitched by mere words,
And yogis seduced by prejudice.

For though they yearn for freedom,
they find only enslavement.

 

~ Milarepa ~ 

Lovely job _/\_

[manitou]

Nice Daoist infusion on that one.

[C T]

It is important to realize that there is nobody else who can wake us up and save us from samsara. There is no such thing in Buddhism. That may be Buddhism’s biggest drawback, and at the same time its greatest advantage. This view shows us that there is nobody else in control of our lives, our experiences, our freedom or our bondage. Who is responsible? Who is in control? It is us. We are in control. We can bind ourselves further in samsara or we can free ourselves from it right now. It is all up to us. We are the ones who have to keep looking at our thoughts, looking for the nature of our mind. There is no guru, deity, buddha or bodhisattva out there to look for it for us. Although they would happily do this, it would not help us; it would only help them. We have to do it for ourselves. That is the key point.

 

~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche ~ 

[Bud Jetsun]

All that a being researches about the nature, bond structure, and composition of water, no matter the sincerity or duration of effort applied to remembering, reading, chanting, or sitting pondering the aspects of water leaves one's throat quenched of thrist.  The options are to drink the water or die having wasted the always present opportunity in this moment. 

 

Human body experience lasts only one moment, with no extra moments or trial-run or do-over moments possible. It is a fly flapping it's wings once between womb departure to grave arrival.

 

This moment which incorporates the whole of the human phenomenonal reality offers each being at all times the optional capacity to appreciate the real and lay down the constructed indoctrinated preferencing and embrace what is with genuine appreciation. 

 

This lays down the unnecessary and incompassionate burdens of preference, worry, and delusion (beliefs) separating a being from the natural state. 

 

Anything which is not re-linking the being to the natural-state, no matter the tradition, no matter the intent, no matter if someone else had success previously, the portions of the moment consumed by it only serve as an added barrier between the being and the real. 

 

Ones consciousness is never the same twice, and the same lesson is never optimal to receive or practice twice if one's objective is to always ratchet forward towards embracing into embracing the real.  

 

Buddha was not a Buddhist, he was a man who wasted decades of ascetic life until finally deciding to commit to jump when he sat down under the tree and decided to shed the constructed delusions or perish trying. After success, he advised his fellow acetics to find food to cook a nice big meal for everyone. They called him nuts and left him due to attachment to acetic dogma preventing them from recognizing the goal had been reached and that it's was always just a choice available Now alone, and not something created as a result of being hungry while walking or sitting in special ways. 

 

Every being already has exactly what they need to make the jump if they accept they singularly create, and control their minds over their whole lives, and are free to mindfully choose to never trade their peace and respect for the Daos inherent perfection in all aspects.  

 

Our role is to surrender our delusions of knowledge and suffered choice in preferences and labels used to disrespect the Dao which can not be good/bad/imbalanced or human expressable. 

 

Unlimited Love, 

-Bud

[C T]

 

[manitou]

On 12/19/2017 at 4:45 PM, C T said:

 

 

 

Full mastery of the moment.

[C T]

It is important to emphasize the role of the teacher. Do-it-yourself Dzogchen is impossible. You need the lineage, and since everything is interdependent, you also need many other causes and conditions. We must rely on this power of interdependence, not simply our own power.

 

However, when you practice Dzogchen, you do not get the rigpa from someone else, or from somewhere else. It exists within all sentient beings; it’s already present within us. We are buddha, but we are obscured by bad karma, by the negative causes and conditions that give us the illusion of subject and object, that cause us to experience impure body, speech, mind, and an impure world.

 

The power of interdependence is what makes it possible to remove the illusion. If we want to plant a flower in our garden, we need soil, water, air, sun, and seed. If we’re missing one of them, the flower will not grow. The seed alone cannot grow the flower. The sun alone cannot grow the flower. The power of interdependence is the general rule of phenomena. It is also the general rule of Dzogchen. The teacher and the lineage are the soil and the water. When that lineage blessing combines with a very strong effort from ourselves, we can become enlightened. We can recognize natural mind.

 

The teacher’s role is to point out. There are many stages of development and many experiences that can be quite similar to or confused with rigpa. For example, the practice of formless or objectless shamatha – resting the mind without an object of meditation – can be similar to Dzogchen practice, to rigpa, but it is not the same. Similarly, one may experience a kind of dullness of mind that has very little conceptualization, which we call alaya, the base consciousness. Many people think that alaya is the essence of the mind, but that’s not really Dzogchen. So the teacher keeps pointing out the natural mind, so you can see very clearly the difference between conceptual mind and natural mind, between alaya and rigpa, between objectless shamatha and rigpa.

 

~ Mingyur Rinpoche ~

[blue eyed snake]

14 hours ago, C T said:

The teacher and the lineage are the soil and the water. When that lineage blessing combines with a very strong effort from ourselves, we can become enlightened. We can recognize natural mind.

 

even though I do not do that practice, this quote remains true.

I'll keep on trusting Sifu and his lineage and will go on in the ways he showed me.

 

thanks for another nudge

[C T]

 

with each breath there is potential for celebrating life

breath is the spark that ignites creation, sustains existence, imbibes awareness

it is the gold that restores wholeness, faithfully and effortlessly

it completes what is deemed fragmented in each moment

 the teacher of non-doing

self-perfected

immaculate

 

 

Best wishes for 2018 to all

[Spotless]

Give us this day our daily bread

 

It is not a part in a prayer asking for food or money

 

it is stating "i am open - flow through me - I trust in Divine Guidance - for all that might close me off please bestow the grace to grow"

[C T]

“All the various types of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that different individuals have. There does not exist, from an absolute point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or effective than another. A teaching's value lies solely in the inner awakening which an individual can arrive at through it. If a person benefits from a given teaching, for that person that teaching is the supreme path, because it is suited to his or her nature and capacities. There's no sense in trying to judge it as more or less elevated in relation to other paths to realization.”

 

***Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State ~ Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche 

[manitou]

I'm guessing even some form of so-called devil worship, if followed all the way, could lead to self-realization.

[senseless virtue]

9 minutes ago, manitou said:

I'm guessing even some form of so-called devil worship, if followed all the way, could lead to self-realization.

That depends on what you are willing to shoehorn as spiritual teaching. It's true though that in some cases bad karma may take to odd side paths that bring valuable lessons and eventual resolutions to avoid further discomforts and distractions.

 

In my humble opinion what Buddha taught is a necessary and sufficient litmus test for identifying what is a proper spiritual teaching: "To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one's mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas."

 

Is spreading marmelade on a toast a spirtual teaching in this view? That depends whether you skillfully attend to your hunger, or abuse the innocent nourishment for other purposes that have no connection to your natural awareness and function as a healthy human being.

[C T]

Guru Yoga is the Heart of the Practice ~ Tulku Sherab Dorje 

 

 

 

 

[C T]

Homage to the glorious Samantabhadra!

 

The natural state of the ground is free from complexity,
And ground-appearances are rigpa-dharmakāya.
The path has always been clear of effort, from the very beginning.
When this nature itself is made manifest, it is the great source of freedom.
The fruition is not something separate and set apart.

 

When the result itself is present as cause,
Settling completely is calm abiding (śamatha).
Any sudden rising is rigpa's own radiance,
And vivid awareness is insight (vipaśyanā).

Directly, upon fading, there's primordial experience.

 

Remaining genuinely is the dharmakāya,
Accompanying awareness is the sambhogakāya,
And the non-duality of stillness and movement is the nirmāṇakāya.
This is what we call the “three-kāya rigpa.”

 

While remaining at ease, there's no clinging to experience.
Vivid movements of mind are freed, ungraspable.
Liberated in vivid clarity, there's no post-meditative state of mind.
This is what we call the “spontaneously present three kāyas.”

 

Without any deliberate view, it is beyond dullness and agitation.
Without deliberate meditation, it is entering the original 'womb'.
Without deliberate conduct, it is free from rigid notions or ideas.
One who has mastered this is a “lord among yogis.”

 

Rigpa has always been free from conceptual elaboration.
Conventions such as 'view', 'meditation' or 'conduct' and
Any clinging to them is cleared, without basis or origin.
Good thoughts, bad thoughts, and those in between,
Without slipping into any such categorization,
Are freed upon arising, without any agent to make distinctions.
As long as awareness does not lose its own ground,
There is no need for anything more than this.

 

~ Jigme Lingpa ~

 

[C T]

Being wise, compassionate and extremely ingenious, a buddha teaches in a manner that is practical for people to understand, which means he teaches in a gradual way. Very few of us are able to grasp the nature of things instantaneously. Therefore, Buddha Shakyamuni turned the Wheel of the Dharma in three consecutive ways. The first set of teachings focused on the Four Noble Truths, and the second set concentrated on the Absence of Characteristics — a synonym for emptiness. His third Dharma Wheel fully reveals the nature of things, and is therefore known as the Total Uncovering. The first set of teachings is clear, the second very clear and the third extremely clear!

 

Simply put, the Buddha’s message in the first turning of the Wheel of Dharma is that anyone with a dualistic frame of mind suffers. The dualistic mind entertains selfish emotions, creates karma, has worries, hope, fear and pain. Dualistic mind seems to have built-in suffering. There is an immense variety of suffering, but all of these can be included within three types: the suffering of change, the double suffering of unpleasantness piled on unpleasantness, and the all-pervasive suffering of being conditioned. This is not a matter of mere philosophy; it is very real. We can and do experience suffering, discomfort, distress, and worry throughout our lives. Dualistic mind is always ready to be upset, to feel uneasy. An input from the senses, a memory or anticipation that is either a little pleasant or a little unpleasant always has the power to disturb us. In addition, there is one suffering which we can never ultimately sidestep: death.

 

~ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche ~