Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[manitou]

Matrix is the operative word.  Of forward, afterward, then, now, when.

[doc benway]

I once had a glimpse of the nature of karma.

I saw how every interaction I'd ever had,

   with everyone I'd ever come into contact with,

   and even those I'd never met

   but were indirectly related to me through others:

   all came together perfectly, like pieces of an unfathomable puzzle.

And I was who, what, and where I was at that exact moment,

  precisely because of every event and interaction

  that touched my life in some way, large or small.

The complexity and depth of these interactions was so vast

  that I kept falling deeper and wider into this web of inter-relationship.

It reached a point where my mind could no longer grasp it all 

  and I felt as if I would explode, ripped apart

  by the sheer enormity.

Just when I felt I couldn't take anymore

  I was released by the vision

  and purified of any doubt as to the nature and workings of karma.

[doc benway]

Tenzin Rinpoche at his best:

 

http://www.lionsroar.com/the-great-perfection-of-creativity/?utm_content=bufferf4221&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=Pema+SIP

[manitou]

I once had a glimpse of the nature of karma.

I saw how every interaction I'd ever had,

   with everyone I'd ever come into contact with,

   and even those I'd never met

   but were indirectly related to me through others:

   all came together perfectly, like pieces of an unfathomable puzzle.

And I was who, what, and where I was at that exact moment,

  precisely because of every event and interaction

  that touched my life in some way, large or small.

The complexity and depth of these interactions was so vast

  that I kept falling deeper and wider into this web of inter-relationship.

It reached a point where my mind could no longer grasp it all 

  and I felt as if I would explode, ripped apart

  by the sheer enormity.

Just when I felt I couldn't take anymore

  I was released by the vision

  and purified of any doubt as to the nature and workings of karma.

 

 

 

Just to take a look at some mundane object in your house, or on your desk at work.  To think of all the people and materials, including plants and minerals, that went into making it.  To think of the families that were supported in the work.  To think of the truck drivers who delivered the object to the docks.  To think of the sailors on the ships and how it supports their families, how it puts their kids through college.  To think of their daughter going to college, perhaps inventing a new cure for a disease.

 

Oh yeah, and don't forget about the people who made the tires on the trucks that got the object to the docks; or the rubber plants and the men in the plantation there that made the tires.

 

And ad infinitum.  It's so beautiful.

[manitou]

In Tenzin Rinpoche's article, I thought it was interesting that he equated the sense of joy to a sense of warmth, and to engage creativity from that state of being.  A sense of warmth seems to be much more tangible and attainable than a sense of joy.  This can be attained by just a little reflection, stopping and dwelling in the openness for a moment.  My own recent habit of telling myself that 'this is all just a story' is good for releasing tension or anxiety; and just the releasing tension and anxiety can produce the warmth.

 

He makes the statement "every moment you spend in a state of openness is cumulative and supports your ability to be in the flow."

 

 

The fact that it's cumulative is a source of comfort to me.  I may not be able to sustain the feeling of warmth for long periods of time, but on the other hand it's nice to know that those intermittent periods of warmth are not lost once experienced.  They are stored, if the Rinpoche is correct, within our bodies, and this infers that the store of warmth is more readily available 'in the future'.  As all future is actually Now, this makes sense to me.  It's not really linear at all, our brains are just set up to think it is.  Joy is here now, and it's our choice to uncover it or not.

 

It's all just a story we tell ourselves.

[C T]

TSOKNYI RINPOCHE

 

 

Excerpt from:- ENTERING THE VAJRAYANA

 

Ego-clinging is very subtle. Everything we do seems to be another way to feed the ego. The ego bribes us into assuming a path that seems to be a genuine spiritual practice, but then our ego usurps it.

 

Even chanting Om Mani Padme Hum can be appropriated by the ego. You sit down on your meditation cushion and assume the posture, but it's because of ego. You light incense and prostrate before your statues in your little retreat room, but it's still all for your ego. We need something to break free from the ego's grip and that is the accumulation of merit and the purification of obscurations, in conjunction with devotion and compassion.

 

If we do not know how to initially motivate ourselves in the true way, dharma practice may be nothing more than another way of popping our daily vitamin pill, one to make "me" strong and healthy. When spiritual practice is a dietary supplement, you apply it when you feel a little low on energy or a little upset. You sit down and practice to feel better. You try to balance yourself through practice and later return to your normal activities.

 

Some people have this attitude, believe me! They tell themselves that they need spirituality in their lives; after all, it is not politically correct to be totally materialistic. So they give themselves a little dose in the morning and another in the evening. They apply the gloss of spirituality to put a shine on their normal lives. This is a particular trend and some so-called teachers teach in this way. They tell their students that if they sit and meditate for a few minutes, they will be much happier. They are trying to make spiritual practice easier, more appetizing, more palatable; trying to bend the dharma to fit people's attitudes. But that is not the true dharma, so don't make the mistake of confusing this type of practice for the real thing.

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2016 by C T

[C T]

One of the lessons repeated again and again by my teacher Saljay Rinpoche was that if I wanted to be happy, I had to learn to recognize and work with the conditioning factors that produce compulsive or trait-bound reactions. The essence of his teaching was that any factor can be understood as compulsive to the degree that it obscures our ability to see things as they are, without judgment. For example, if someone is yelling at us, we rarely take the time to distinguish between the bare recognition 'Oh, this person is raising his voice and saying such and such words' and the emotional response 'this person is a jerk.' Instead, we tend to combine bare perception and our emotional response into a single package: 'This person is screaming at me BECAUSE he's a jerk.'

 

But if we could step back to look at the situation more objectively, we might see that people who yell at us are upset over something that may have nothing to do with us. Maybe they just got criticized by someone higher up and are afraid of getting fired. Maybe they just found out that someone close to them is very sick. Or maybe they had an argument with a friend or a partner and didn't sleep well afterward. Sadly, the influence of conditioning is so strong that we rarely remember that we CAN step back. And because our understanding is limited, we mistake the little part we do see for the whole truth.

 

How can we respond appropriately when our vision is so limited, when we don't have all the facts? If we apply the standard of American courts to tell 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth' about our everyday experience, we must recognize that the 'whole truth' is that everyone just wants to be happy. The truly sad thing is that most people seek happiness in ways that actually sabotage their attempts. If we could see the whole truth of any situation, our only response would be one of compassion.

 

~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche ~ 

[C T]

The Buddha said people are deluded. This is why when they act they fall into the River of Endless Rebirth. And when they try to get out, they only sink deeper. And all because they don't see their nature. If people weren't deluded, why would they ask about something right in front of them? Not one of them understands the movement of his own hands and feet. The Buddha wasn't mistaken. Deluded people don't know who they are. Something so hard to fathom is known by a buddha and no one else. Only the wise know this mind, this mind called dharma-nature, this mind called liberation. Neither life nor death can restrain this mind. Nothing can. It's also called the Unstoppable Tathagata, the Incomprehensible, the Sacred Self, the Immortal, the Great Sage. Its names vary but not its essence. Buddhas vary too, but none leaves his own mind.

 

The mind's capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is all your mind. At every moment, where language can't go, that's your mind.

 

The sutras say, "A tathagata's forms are endless. And so is his awareness." The endless variety of forms is due to the mind. Its ability to distinguish things, whatever their movement or state, is the mind's awareness. But the mind has no form and its awareness no limit. Hence it's said, "A tathagata's form is endless. And so is his awareness."

 

 

~ Bodhidharma ~ 

[C T]

Do not hold onto the notion that mind is empty. To hold an idea, ‘Now it is empty; now it is not empty,’ is a conceptual construct that we keep in mind. That is not necessary. In the moment of recognising, you see that mind is empty. At that point allow it to be naturally as it is, without applying any technique whatsoever. That is naturalness with­out technique. That will last for a little while. Your attention will then stray, and you will at some point notice that your attention wandered off.

 

Our mind is not completely beyond us—we know when we get distracted. Simply recognise what was distracted. Again, the moment you do so, you see that there is no thing to see; and the moment of seeing that there is nothing to see, it is free of thought. And again leave it in uncontrived naturalness for a short while. The mind of all sentient beings is already empty; it is not something that we have to create.

 

When a thought moves, simply recognise the thinker. The thinking then dissolves. No matter what the thought is about, the thinking and the thinker are empty. A thought in itself is not made of any concrete substance; it is simply an empty thought movement. By recognising the empty essence in a thought, it vanishes like a bubble in water. That is how to deal with any particular present thought at hand. Once you know how to let the present thought dissolve, any subsequent thought can be dealt with in exactly the same way, as simply another present thought. But if we get involved in the thought, thinking of what is being thought of, and continue it, then there is no end.

 

~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche ~ 

[manitou]

And to think introduces time.  Observation alone is timeless.

 

This morning I stepped out into the sunroom and gazed out the window at a series of Colorado blue pines that are standing very close together in one clump.  For a moment I noticed in amazement that there was a sugar maple superimposed within the image of the pines.  For that moment, I was amazed; breath stopped, thought stopped.

 

And then the mind started.  First, it explained to me that it was a reflection of the view out of the windows behind me, giving an image of superimposition.  And then the mind went metaphysical and equated it to the dual existence we are in.  The one of observation with no thought, the one of Time which involves thought.

 

By the mere fact that we are on these threads, we still seek.  Better, apparently, we should observe.

[C T]

Untouched, undisturbed, This life is perfect just as it is, but still we try to change the world.

 

~ JETSUN KHANDRO RINPOCHE ~

[C T]

 

 

 

 

Relatively, it is said the source of a stream or river begins at the top of the mountain

and makes its way to the one ocean

but upon understanding the deeper meaning of infinite cyclical processes

its apparent that, ultimately, this source is merely relative to that cycle. 

Immaculate. Perfect. Timeless.

selfless transcendence

 

~ ananda ~

Edited January 21, 2019 by C T

[manitou]

Ananda Giri.  Priceless.

 

the eternal continuity of the underlying drone, the ouroboros.  A wheel, upon which 'my' consciousness is a part of the collective consciousness.  The visualization of the wheel, each of us sitting at the outward extension of a spoke, connecting in the centre.  Our thoughts being in the same place at the same time, all three times being Now.  It matters not whether you listen to it at 3:00 and I at 5:00.  We are of one mind, focused and not-focused at the same time.

 

to hear the subtleties of the echos, the overtones, the undertones, the wavelengths.  The occasional itinerant thought interrupting the flow of the empty mind as represented by a dissonant and seldom heard series of wayward notes.  to hear the fleshiness of the human finger, her finger, playing the citar; knowing that the human entity is the other half of the instrument, the movement of the human, the string, the voice, the space, working together in concert to create the beauty, the life.

 

to listen without thought, without comment, without criticism or acclaim.  just to listen, to hear.  To become the phenomena.

 

what a gift.  thank you, CT.

[doc benway]

Awakened mind is the fruition resulting from no cause.
Awakened mind is the instruction that does not come from words.
Awakened mind is the buddha who does not stem from thought.
Like space, awakened mind is not a thing that can be seen.
Devoid of color, it is not a thing to be singled out as this.

 

- Lady Purasati, courtesan and lineage holder of the Mahasandhi teachings

[manitou]

Perhaps it could be said as well -

 

Awakened mind is patient, awakened mind is kind.

 

Awakened mind does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

 

Awakened mind does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

 

Awakened mind is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

 

Awakened mind always perseveres.

 

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; 

 

When mind awakens, we shall see face to face.

 

Now I know in part;

 

When mind awakens, I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 

Awakened mind is Love.

 

 

 

(modification of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-13)

[gatito]

.

Edited October 2, 2016 by gatito

[C T]

This supposed 'self', an elemental concoction, fabricated out of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness, the insubstantial flux of five aggregates – form, feelings, perceptions, thought formations, and sense impressions – all conditionally arising, fleetingly abiding, and inevitably ceasing within consciousness – transient, time-bound apparitions of an ever creative mind; but what then of consciousness itself — unborn, unceasing, non-abiding, and timeless, “that which knows”, but is nowhere located.

 

~ P. Ladakh ~ 

[silent thunder]

Wow... again!  Such resonance!

 

This thread has been such a potent source of unifying resonance in my awareness.

Thank you to all who contribute and sustain!

[blue eyed snake]

Bump,

I miss this threads wisdom coming up regularly

I miss CT

 

There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being.

[C T]

I missed C T too 

[manitou]

Manitou's been MIA as well.  Absolutely nothing further to say.  About anything.  I know nothing, that's all I know....

[Brian]

Manitou's been MIA as well. Absolutely nothing further to say. About anything. I know nothing, that's all I know....

Missed her, too.

[doc benway]

Hi, friends!

[blue eyed snake]

I missed C T too 

 

welcome back

[C T]

The root of Dharma is your mind.
Tame it, and you’re practicing Dharma.
To practice Dharma is to tame your mind,
And when you tame it, then you will be free!

 

~ Dudjom Rinpoche ~

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by C T