Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[stirling]

On 7/11/2021 at 11:16 AM, manitou said:

I see what you're saying here, but I have to take issue with a little something.

 

When someone goes through a recovery program, they have to walk through themselves to see themselves as they really are.  The true suffering was the time before sobriety, the blackouts, the humiliations.  Improving ourselves through the steps of recovery was brutal, agreed - but most necessary.  Some suffering was definitely experienced during the amends process, but those very sufferings were the things that made us whole.  It's all perspective, I guess.

 

Manitou,

 

I have great respect for your wisdom and posts here. Thank you for bringing this up. _/\_

 

I agree that the suffering is absolutely part of the path. There is no way to bypass what is happening, or skip past what covers our behavior. In our story there is always seeing what obscures us, what we attach to or try to avoid... the seeming lifetime of doing what we thought was best, or trying to hide from what feels painful and failing over and over instead of accepting the reality of what is right in front of us, as it is. 

 

Seen from enlightened mind we realize that the struggle is a story, and the story is always happening right now. 

 

It IS perspective, I agree. Jumping right to the idea of enlightened mind doesn't help us when we are in the trenches, nursing our guilt, or self-hatred, or attempts to blame anyone but ourselves for how things are. Having said that, learning to recognize enlightened mind, and using the "medicine" of just being present in this moment is IMHO possibly the most potent tool we have for taking apart our suffering. 

 

Deep Bows.

[TranquilTurmoil]

On 7/7/2021 at 12:58 PM, steve said:

 

I appreciate your perspective.

 

I was fortunate enough to have a profound heart opening experience elicited by simply being in the presence of my teacher the first time I met him. It was nothing he said, rather simply his presence, his body language, interest, connection with me - it was shockingly powerful, although it didn't hit me until a few minutes after our brief meeting was over. He is extremely warm, engaging, and joyful but also knows how to establish clear and healthy boundaries. I once listened to a long talk he gave about selecting a teacher and it helped me understand the complexity of the relationship and his position and approach to the issue. It can be a slippery slope to expand the role of teacher/spiritual guide to include friendship on multiple levels, especially in the West where the relationship is profoundly different than that in Asia.

 

I often listen to talks by Anthony DeMello who was a Jesuit, an awakened being, and psychologist who provided psychological and spiritual support to clergy in India. He spoke about his own inner conflict in dealing with the priests and nuns. As a therapist, he was trained to employ measures which would ease their pain and suffering. As a spiritual guide, he would often recognize the value in allowing, even encouraging, them to go through deeper and more destructive experiences in order to help them to open. 

 

I think it is a very difficult role to play, a spiritual guide and teacher. Far easier to be a spiritual friend as there are far fewer expectations. One needs to be open and warm enough to help others to open their own hearts, yet discriminating enough not to allow the student, who is often in pain, maybe desperate and looking for a life raft, to become too attached or to have unrealistic expectations. The wrong relationship can actually become an obstacle or turn someone away from the path entirely. Not everyone is cut out for it and each of us needs very different things at any given point along our path. 

 

Good luck with your own search for more community. You'll find at least a little of that here. 

 

Stumbled upon this re-reading Chogyam Trungpa: 

I realize there is an inherent danger to Shantideva’s instruction here as you don’t want to enable the students negative tendencies…. But if used skillfully in the world it is so admirable, inspiring, and touching. 🙏🏼

[doc benway]

"One will not understand the bön essence conceptually. When you don't understand, abide in not understanding. There is no cause, no condition. If you do find it, what you will find is like essence. It is not something that you can grasp. If you are looking for something, when you don't find it, abide there. The practice is already there. That is the point. There is an aspect of the bön essence that is changeless. Try to realize that and abide in the changeless."

 

~ excerpted from teachings on The Four Excellences of Tapihritsa from  Living Wisdom: Dzogchen Teachings from the 33rd Menri Trizin, His Holiness Luntok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche

[C T]

 

[C T]

 

[doc benway]

ONE WITH THE SKY
~Longchenpa
"In the absence of an objective field, everything equalized,
No discernable point of reference, no object and no order, can exist;
The ground collapses, the path collapses and the goal collapses,
And thoughts of good or bad, deviation and error, are inconceivable;
...
"Committed to equalization, bound in the now, the universe resolved,
Samsara and nirvana have reverted to ubiquitous spaciousness.
The questions, 'What is it?' 'How is it?' lie unanswered.
'What can I do?' 'Who am I?' likewise, unanswerable!
What can we do when all our certainties have vanished?
We can only laugh outright at the absurdity of it.
...
"The entire galaxy of delusory constructs, inner and outer, collapses
And linear time melts in the now, self-dissolving, fading into space;
Days and dates fade away; months, years and eons dissolve;
The one and the many vanished, sacred and profane both clarified;
The delusive ground of samsara and nirvana clarified in its innate spaciousness.
...
"Even 'spaciousness', as an intellectually contrived entity, dissolves.
Whatever we have practiced, however we strive, is useless now,
And intellectual gall exhausted, what a great marvel is the sky—
The pathless vagrant is one with the sky!"
.....
"Within the one sole sphere without edges or corners
The deluded mind holds ideas of unity and differentiation;
Within the self-sprung awareness in the now without causes or conditions,
What holds to the samsaric process is a luminous obstructing spirit;
Within unlimited, nonspatial, spontaneity,
Attachment to a determinate view is the devil of conceit;
Within noncrystallizing emptiness free of substance and attribute
Perverse intellect infers presence or absence, appearance or emptiness:
Abandon the cage of determinacy and bias
And know the nonspatial spontaneity that is like the sky!"
..
~"Spaciousness: The Radical. Dzogchen of the Vajra-Heart. Longchenpa’s Precious Treasury of the Dharmadhatu." Translation by Keith Dowman.

[manitou]

2 hours ago, steve said:

The pathless vagrant is one with the sky!"

 

 

 

i was driving down a freeway a couple weeks ago, and although I was driving maybe 60 mph, there was an awareness of something in my chest that wasn't moving at all.  Once felt, it repeats and can be felt at will.  It was/is a comforting feeling.  Warm, friendly, familiar.

[C T]

~ Paramito ~

 

The wellspring of health and well-being is the awareness of body and mind; aside from this awareness,

there is no real health or well-being to be found in the body and/or mind.

[manitou]

On 8/18/2021 at 7:01 PM, steve said:

Attachment to a determinate view is the devil of conceit;

 

So excellent.  When an opinion is formed, all other possibilities are ignored.

[C T]

Amrita, the liquid of immortality is like nectar…
It exudes from the Chandra center
in the center of the head, deep behind the eyebrows…
The juice is saltish, similar to ghee,
with the consistency of honey.

Who swallows this clear liquor
dripping from the brain into the heart
and obtained by means of meditation,
becomes free from disease
and tender in body like the stalk of a lotus,
and will live a very long life.

 

~ Hatha Yoga Pradipika ~

[C T]

~ Paramito ~

 

Superbly ordinary,

Sublime in its naturalness:

The very heart of awakening,

What is often termed "Bodhicitta",

But, as experience, is just this moment.

 

[silent thunder]

On 8/26/2021 at 9:32 AM, manitou said:

 

So excellent.  When an opinion is formed, all other possibilities are ignored.

Seems similar to the nature of local awareness and focus.

When my flashlight awareness shines and focuses on 'one thing' or point, the rest of the universe goes out of focus and recedes.

[manitou]

6 hours ago, C T said:

~ Paramito ~

 

Superbly ordinary,

Sublime in its naturalness:

The very heart of awakening,

What is often termed "Bodhicitta",

But, as experience, is just this moment.

 

 

 

I dunno about this picture.  The Dalai Lama looks like he's thinking about something long, long ago.  I don't think he's here now.  Nary a light in those eyes -

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by manitou

[C T]

 

Things may not be as they should be, but nevertheless they are as they are, according to their nature.

 

~ Paramito ~

[C T]

 

 

༄། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། །

Verses of Praise and Prayer to Medicine Buddha - Bhaiṣajyagurubuddha

༄། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཀུན་ལ་སྙོམས་པའི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས། །

tukjé kün lé nyompé chomdendé

The transcendent-victor, whose compassion for all is equal,

མཚན་ཙམ་ཐོས་པས་ངན་འགྲོའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ། །

tsen tsam töpé ngendrö dukngal sel

Simply hearing your name dispels the suffering of lower realms,

དུག་གསུམ་ནད་སེལ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ། །

duk sum né sel sangye men gyi la

Buddha of Medicine, you who heal the sickness of the three poisons—

བཻ་ཌཱུརྻ་ཡི་འོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

baidurya yi ö la chaktsal lo

Light of Lapis Lazuli, to you, we pay homage!

ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་མ་ཧཱ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་རཱ་ཛ་ས་མུདྒ་ཏེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

teyata om bhekanze bhekanze maha bhekanze radza samudgaté soha

tadyathā | om bhaisajye bhaisajye mahā-bhaiṣajye rāja-samudgate svāhā

དགེ་བ་འདི་ཡིས་མྱུར་དུ་བདག །

gewa di yi nyurdu dak

Through this merit may I swiftly

སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ་འགྲུབ་གྱུར་ནས། །

sangye men la drub gyur né

Accomplish the Buddha of Medicine,

འགྲོ་བ་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མ་ལུས་པ། །

drowa chik kyang malü pa

And lead every single sentient being

དེ་ཡི་ས་ལ་འགོད་པར་ཤོག །

dé yi sa la gö pa shok

To that state of perfection too.

 

 

[C T]

~ Paramito ~

 

How do we placate the self-importance of the "ego", which demands to be extraordinary, when we discover the transcendent is as perfectly ordinary and everyday as this present moment awareness?

 

[C T]

 

[manitou]

49 minutes ago, C T said:

 

 

 

What a beautiful verse:    "Because there is no impediment, he is not afraid

                                              And leaves the distorted illusion far behind;

                                              Ultimately Nirvana"

[silent thunder]

10 hours ago, C T said:

 

Things may not be as they should be, but nevertheless they are as they are, according to their nature.

 

~ Paramito ~

wabi sabi

[C T]

Just as reflections on water

Are not inside or outside,

Bodhisattvas seeking enlightenment

Know the world is not the world:

They do not dwell in or leave the world,

Because the world is inexplicable;

And they are not inside or outside,

Appearing in the world like reflections.

 

~ Avatamsaka Sutra - Flower Ornament Scripture 884, 885

[manitou]

15 minutes ago, C T said:

Just as reflections on water

Are not inside or outside,

Bodhisattvas seeking enlightenment

Know the world is not the world:

They do not dwell in or leave the world,

Because the world is inexplicable;

And they are not inside or outside,

Appearing in the world like reflections.

 

~ Avatamsaka Sutra - Flower Ornament Scripture 884, 885

 

 

Is it the Avatamsaka Sutra that makes chronic mention of the crow landing on a palm tree, and the coconut falls off at the same time, but is not the cause of the coconut falling?  I could be thinking of Vasistha's Yoga.

[C T]

 

The Real Chöd Practice

 

Machig Labdron, originator of the Chöd practice

http://levekunst.com/machig-labdron-and-the-chod-tradition/

 

The Tibetan word “chöd” means “to cut off” or “to slay.” The traditional practice of Chöd cuts off self-cherishing and grasping at a truly existent “I.” It creates the conditions under which one can develop the mind of conventional bodhichitta, which holds others as more dear than oneself, and the mind of ultimate bodhichitta, which sees reality as it truly is. Attributed to the great Tibetan yogini Machig Labdron, and the only practice that made its way back to India from Tibet, it is an extremely effective and quick tantric method for attaining realizations of the path to enlightenment.

 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the essence of Chöd, the “real Chöd” that everyone can practice in everyday life.

See full: https://fpmt.org/.../mandala.../june/the-real-chod-practice/

 

When somebody tells you something that really hurts your mind, that is the most beneficial thing for your mind because it goes straight in your heart and touches your ego. This is what shows you, like a mirror, like a teaching from the Buddha, one’s own mistaken thoughts, especially the ego; it shows that there is ego, and because there is ego, it hurts. If there is no ego, then it would never hurt. When people say what your mistakes are, or say words which hurt you, that is the real Chöd practice. This is what makes you see your “I,” the emotional “I” – in Western psychological terms – the object of ignorance, the root of samsara, which is holding this “I” as truly existent.

 

Normally one is not aware of this, but by doing the practice of Chöd, inviting the spirits, they create violence and it makes you see the “I,” the object of ignorance, the object to be refuted – the truly existent “I” – clearly. They show the “I” to you very clearly and then you are able to recognize that it is false, an object of ignorance; you are able to use your reasoning, logical reasoning, that the “I” doesn’t exist because it is a dependant arising, or merely imputed. It is merely imputed relating to the aggregates, the base, etc. There are so many other reasonings you can use. You recognize the object to be refuted at that minute. That it is what doesn’t exist at all; it is totally non-existent.

 

The practice of Chöd is a powerful method for developing compassion and cutting away the self-grasping of the non-existent ‘I’. When properly engaged in, Chöd harnesses our fears, teaching us how to transform them into energy to propel us towards enlightenment.

 

Chöd melodies (see video clip) are chanted on the basis of liturgies known as:

- Cutting Through Self-Grasping;

- Dedicating the Illusory Body as Ganachakra (Feast Offering)

- Offering Ganachakra in Connection with the Yoga of the Profound Path of Chöd

[doc benway]

In Dzogchen one learns to become responsible for oneself without following rules. A person who follows rules is like a blind person who needs someone to guide them in order to be able to walk.

For this reason it is said that a Dzogchen practitioner must open his or her eyes to discover their condition, so that they will no longer be dependent on anyone or anything.

~ Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

 

[silent thunder]

@steve if only there were the option to like, thank and love a post all at once.

 

[manitou]

On 9/25/2021 at 10:44 AM, steve said:

n Dzogchen one learns to become responsible for oneself without following rules. A person who follows rules is like a blind person who needs someone to guide them in order to be able to walk.

For this reason it is said that a Dzogchen practitioner must open his or her eyes to discover their condition, so that they will no longer be dependent on anyone or anything.

~ Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

 

 

I like this, Steve.  That seems to be what it's all about!  To understand one's own conditioning so that one's reactions can be studied.  Once the conditioning is understood, clarity is achieved because there are no further obstacles.  They have been removed by one's attention and consciousness of when and where the reaction started.  This is the essence of the 'inner work' that is required of self-realization.  That's it, exactly.  To 'realize' (make real) who we really are.  And 'Who we Really Are' is fairly non-reactive.