Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[C T]

The location of the truth of the Great Perfection is the unfabricated mind of the present moment, this naked radiant awareness itself, not a hair of which has been forced into relaxation. Maintaining this at all times, just through not forgetting it even in the states of eating, sleeping, walking, and sitting, is called meditation. However, until you are free from the obscurations of cognition, it is impossible for this not to be mixed with the experiences of bliss, clarity, and nonconceptualization. Nevertheless, just by not forgetting the nature of one’s own awareness — the kind that is not a tangled mindfulness that gets more tangled in order to be mindful — at some point the unelaborated ultimate truth, transcending terms and examples, will appear.

 

~ Jigme Lingpa

[C T]

"And what is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to mindfulness & alertness? There is the case where feelings are known to the monk as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Perceptions are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. Thoughts are known to him as they arise, known as they persist, known as they subside. This is the development of concentration that, when developed & pursued, leads to mindfulness & alertness."  ~ Samadhi Sutta

[C T]

For instance, ''nāma dhamma'', feelings, thoughts, imagination, etc., are all uncertain. When anger arises, it grows and changes and finally disappears. Happiness, too, arises, grows and changes and finally disappears. They are empty. They are not any ''thing''. This is always the way of all things, both mentally and materially. Internally, there is this body and mind. Externally, there are trees, vines and all manner of things which display this universal law of uncertainty.
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Whether a tree, a mountain or an animal, it's all Dhamma, everything is Dhamma. Where is this Dhamma? Speaking simply, that which is not Dhamma doesn't exist. Dhamma is nature. This is called the ''Sacca Dhamma'', the True Dhamma. If one sees nature, one sees Dhamma; if one sees Dhamma, one sees nature. Seeing nature, one know the Dhamma.
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- Ajahn Chah -
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“Dhamma Nature" 
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[Tibetan_Ice]

Pacifying Thought

Before you pacify time, you need to pacify the thinking and wandering mind. To do this you need a subtle type of will: the deliberate will not to do. It’s the will to set up a guard at the gate of your mind, like a bouncer at a night club, saying, “There are these problems; don’t let them come in.” This sort of restraint is, at least initially, a type of willpower, a type of controlling. It’s a conscious effort to subdue the mind, to curb its unwholesome tendencies. You just draw a line and put a guard there. You’re like a gardener who, having planted many flowers and trees, guards and protects them to make sure nothing harms them. All you need to do is establish this guard with clear intention. Then, when the mind becomes still, the guard remains, protecting that stillness, valuing it, caring for it, and developing it. In this way, the moments of stillness, of peace without thinking, last longer and longer.

 

Something is lost when you stop thinking, and that something is “you.” Many people measure themselves by their intelligence and their ability to think clearly and argue convincingly. But all they’re really doing is pitting thinking patterns against each other, like two sumo wrestlers battling it out in the ring of concepts. True victory, however, comes from calming everything down. You still the mind to the point where concepts no longer arise. You have silence— you’re peaceful and free.

 

Even if you can’t pacify thinking for very long— even if it’s only for a few seconds— please get to know how it feels. If you investigate it, you realize how nice it is. You begin to see that every time you have a thought, you’re being harassed. It’s like being married to a tyrant who’s always tormenting you, or having a job where the boss is constantly haranguing you, telling you what to do, and even putting you down. It’s so nice when all that is turned off. You delight in the quiet mind and grow in faith and confidence. Initially, you may be a bit frightened that you seem to disappear. Because thinking makes you feel like you’re in control, not thinking may at first feel like taking your hands off the handlebars of a motorbike. You might wonder how you can keep your balance when thinking is not there to tell you what to do, to nudge you this way and that. But after a while, you see that it’s okay not to think and control, that it’s actually preferable to let go and disappear. In fact, it feels very good. In addition, you are getting your first insights into anattā , cessation, and fading away.

 

From The Art of Disappearing - Ajahn Brahm

[C T]

In some Buddhist circles, there is a saying, "If you have not understood Dependent Origination, feeling even a tiny pebble in one of your shoes can make you go bananas." When this basic truth is understood, then one can work with anything without getting caught up in the notion of a self that experiences.

 

Experiences, either positive, neutral, or negative, are seen exactly for what they are, as they unfold - there is no need for any affirmation or negation to take place - without any grasping to a self that experiences, the transient nature of all occurrences are seen clearly, and suffering is cut at the root... there is no one to 'suffer' any thing. Things still happen, but not happening to any 'individual self'. Instead, events unfold in tandem and in direct relationship with the contents of one's mind. Realising this, we can proceed with trainings and practices freely, and without the slightest fear or favour. 

[C T]

http://www.washington.edu/wholeu/2015/04/30/dr-bonnie-duran-on-race-racism-and-the-dharma/

[C T]

"Dear friend, when reading this text,
Resolve your mind on this in a free and easy state.

 

Right here, relax your striving and restless mind.

 

Right here, cut your striving for many other teachings.

 

What is the use of so many interesting philosophies?
What is the use of so many profound instructions?
What is the use of so many elaborate practices?
What is the use of so many dry explanations?

 

This itself is the free meditation of simple rest!
This itself is the carefree happiness of self-liberation!
This itself is the good book of 'knowing one that frees all'!
This itself is the instruction of 'one bridge to cross a hundred rivers'!

 

Don't leave this at home and search for it elsewhere!
Don't throw away the core and gather the peels!
Don't abandon the effortless to accomplish it through striving!
Don't cast away nonaction to busy yourself with activity!"

 

~ from "Song of Encouragement to Read the Seven Treasures," in THE EXCELLENT WORDS OF LONGCHEN RABJAMPA, by Paltrul Rinpoche

[C T]

The notion of enlightenment means, "not bound". Not bound to what? Not bound to one's own mind in ordinary ways; not bound in confusion to all the suffering that one's mind has produced and is experiencing. So the notion of enlightenment is not something outside of one's own mind.

 

We cannot imagine achieving enlightenment, let alone perfecting any of the qualities of buddhahood, if we hold to ourselves as who we think we are right now — with the way we think and the validity that we give to our own mind and its existence.

 

~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

[doc benway]

"Do not think much about demons, spirits and the like. In reality, there are no gods and demons. A god is compassion and a demon is self-grasping. From self-grasping, the negative emotions arise, and they are the cause of all suffering, for others and yourself. This is the actual demon, there is no other demon apart from that. If you want to eliminate that demon, you have to cultivate love and compassion.

 

Ultimately, gods and demons are the same, as all beings have a single ground of mind. If from this mind temporarily self-grasping arises, you can label it a demon. It is very important to understand the levels of becoming a bodhisattva. For this, you must first understand the suffering nature of samsara. Everything in samsara has the nature of suffering, only when one realizes the nature of mind, attains enlightenment, one will be free from suffering. If you want to be free from suffering, you must be free from self-grasping, as all suffering comes from wishing for one's own happiness. The only way to be free from self-grasping is to cultivate compassion. This is the root of all happiness.

 

It is most important that you develop love for all beings. If you have cultivated love, you will have the power to overcome suffering. Even if you experience some temporary suffering circumstance, you will understand that this is the result of your own actions of self-grasping and you are now purifying this negative karma. If you now cultivate bodhicitta, you will not suffer again in the future. So if you experience some suffering now, you must understand that this is the result of your own actions, and is not caused by anyone else. If you understand this, you will accept your suffering and avoid negative actions to avoid future suffering.

 

For example, the cause of the hell realms is anger, the cause of the hungry spirit realm is greed, each of the six negative emotions is the seed for the six realms of samsara. If you find these seeds inside your mind, you must work hard to eliminate them each and every day through sustaining mindfulness. You must recognize the emotions upon arising and see its fault. Then, you must sustain mindfulness and not fall under the power of the emotion, not act out on it. Then gradually, the negative emotions will disappear. Always remember this. This is the root of all practice."

 

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche

 

Translation Ina Bieler

Edited May 11, 2015 by steve

[C T]

The Buddha said, “Mañjuśrī, have you attained unimpeded wisdom?”

Mañjuśrī said, “I am the unimpeded itself. How could the unimpeded attain non-obstruction?” 

 

The Buddha said, “Have you sat at the bodhimaṇḍa?”

Mañjuśrī said, “All the tathāgatas do not sit at bodhimaṇḍas, so why should I alone now sit at a bodhimaṇḍa, and for what purpose? I now see that all dharmas abide in the realm of reality.”

 

The Buddha said, “What is it that you call the realm of reality?”

Mañjuśrī said, “The body of the manifestation of equality is the realm of reality.”

 

The Buddha said, “Of what bodily appearance is the realm of reality?”

Mañjuśrī said, “The body which neither comes nor goes, the body that is not a body, is called the realm of reality.”

 

Śāriputra addressed the Buddha, saying, “Bhagavān, if one understands the meaning of this principle decisively, then this is one to be called a bodhisattva-mahāsattva. Why? Being able to hear the characteristics of the extremely profound Prajñāpāramitā thusly, the mind is unshaken and unafraid, neither turning back nor in regret.” 

 

~ Mahāprajñāpāramitā Mañjuśrīparivarta Sūtra

[johndoe2012]

Steve,

 

So far what I have seen and heard even awakened beings get angry so elimination of anger is not the key.

 

Key is seeing that karma and thought-story keeps getting generated as long as one thinks oneself as an 'I' walking around where things happen to 'you'.

 

But mind likes to grasp and thus suffering occurs.

[C T]

"The question is 'What does one have to wake up to?' And the answer is... life. We wake up to life itself. Life is infinite. It is oneness. It is emptiness. It is the wonder of wonders. When I say 'life', I am not speaking about the life in our heads. That life is simply an accumulation of story lines, so we are not referring to that life.

 

Whenever we say that we have a great life, we are speaking about the life in our head. And whenever we say that my life sucks, we are definitely speaking about the life in our head. There is life that exists in our head. It is nothing more than reading a story about the life of a character in a novel. It's fiction, made up stories. None of it is real. That life in our head, the one we grasp and believe to be true, is actually only happening like a movie, like a novel in our head, in our deluded mind. Its not really happening.

 

The life we are talking about waking up to is not this usual life that has all of these remembered stories. It is life that in some sense is actually quite mysterious. It is not your life or my life; it is the totality of life. It does not exclude anything, it encompasses everything - the clouds in the sky as well as the birds flying above us. It includes the breath we are taking in as well as the insect crawling on the ground. It includes the dew on the grass in the morning as well as the traffic on the highway. It includes the bliss in our hearts and the pain in our joints, everything we are glimpsing when we are no longer lost in the troubled mind. That is life.

 

Life is actually big, It is infinite. It is boundless. "

 

~ Anam Thubten, The Magic of Awareness

Edited May 13, 2015 by C T

[C T]

We cannot get rid of suffering by saying, "I will not suffer." 

 

We cannot eliminate attachment by saying, "I will not be attached to anything," nor eliminate aggression by saying, "I will never become angry."

 

Yet, we do want to get rid of suffering and the disturbing emotions that are the immediate cause of suffering. The Buddha taught that to eliminate these states, which are really the results of the primary confusion of our belief in a personal self, we must get rid of the fundamental cause. But we cannot simply say, "I will not believe in the personal self." The only way to eliminate suffering is to actually recognize the experience of a self as a misconception, which we do by proving directly to ourselves that there is no such personal self. We must actually realize this.

 

Once we do, then automatically the misconception of a self and our fixation on that "self" will disappear. Only by directly experiencing selflessness can we end the process of confused projection. This is why the Buddha emphasized meditation on selflessness or egolessness.

 

However, to meditate on egolessness, we must undertake a process that begins with a conceptual understanding of egolessness; then, based on that understanding, there can be meditation, and finally realization.

 

~ Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, from Pointing Out the Dharmakaya

[idiot_stimpy]

Thank you for this thread.

[C T]

The Buddha realized that different beings had various capacities, so out of his great compassion and skillful means, he gave teachings that were right for different individuals. Although the essence of the teachings is to simply let be in recognition of ones own nature, the Buddha taught a lot of complex instructions to satisfy people on all different levels. Another reason why there are the nine vehicles is because people couldnt leave well enough alone. It seems to be human nature to love complications, to want to build up a lot of stuff. Later on, of course, they must allow room for all that has been gathered to disperse again. 

 

~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

[doc benway]

Steve,

 

So far what I have seen and heard even awakened beings get angry so elimination of anger is not the key.

 

Key is seeing that karma and thought-story keeps getting generated as long as one thinks oneself as an 'I' walking around where things happen to 'you'.

 

But mind likes to grasp and thus suffering occurs.

 

I agree and disagree with you.

Fully awakened beings manifest the perfection of body, speech, and mind.

Any "anger" that you project onto them is yours.

If they appear angry, perhaps it is wrathful compassion you see.

If it is truly anger, then they have work left to do.

Clearly the way to deal with anger and other poisons is not to deal with the poison but with the one who is manifesting the effects.

The reason I posted that quote was for the commentary on our perception of gods and demons. 

[johndoe2012]

I agree and disagree with you.

Fully awakened beings manifest the perfection of body, speech, and mind.

Any "anger" that you project onto them is yours.

If they appear angry, perhaps it is wrathful compassion you see.

If it is truly anger, then they have work left to do.

Clearly the way to deal with anger and other poisons is not to deal with the poison but with the one who is manifesting the effects.

The reason I posted that quote was for the commentary on our perception of gods and demons.

Hey steve,

 

I completely agree with you.

 

The anger seen is not ordinary anger but spontaneous action with no doer. So basically pure divinity in disguise.

 

I wouldn't even label it because it seems to require thinking or self-reflection.

[C T]

In each moment of life, in each meeting with another person, in each meeting with ourselves, everything is complete. There are no loose ends of excess or deficit. This completeness, this simple perfection, doesn't mean that everything is all stitched up according to some master-plan. Rather, it is the completeness of infinity, in which each moment is infinite. However things are, they will reveal their completion when we cease striving to create something, control something, become something, and allow the presence of ourselves within the becoming of the world. This is the essential view of dzogchen.

 

The view of dzogchen is that the pursuit of control in this sense is an illusion not worth pursuing for one can experience an open awareness free of the dilemma of either controlling or being controlled. Through the paradoxical protection of being open to whatever arises we will be less likely to be provoked into dangerous, selfish and confused behaviour.

 

The view of dzogchen points out that by relaxation we can reframe the situation, see it in a different way, so that we no longer need to fearfully protect our own identity. This view shows us how to integrate our ordinary experience of daily life into the open dimension of awareness by recognising that all these phenomena, whether they appear to be external or internal, are in fact emerging in a ceaseless flow from and within awareness itself.

 

~ James Low

[C T]

The unity of wisdom and compassion is inherent in all sentient beings 

 

[C T]

"Arguments as to whether or not ghosts are the figments of over-stimulated imaginations or something more have abounded for centuries.

 

Zen, along with the necessary ceremonies, has the following explanation: Any violent acts that cause persons to die in states of fear or terror are likely to leave behind in the places where they were perpetrated such colossal karmic jangles that years later even spiritually coarse persons will at least sense that something is wrong in those particular areas. I dislike using the term "negative karma" to describe such jangles but it is the only apt description of which I can think.

 

Simple delusion, doubt, fear, or terror that is non-volitional at the time of death will cause karmic jangles resulting in catchable sparks and past-life experiences. Acts of violence, doubt, fear or terror that are *deliberately* (i.e. volitionally) created, as well as delusion that is deliberately spread, will leave behind such huge jangles that "haunting" of certain places may result from both the terror of the victims, who understood nothing else at the time of death and then meeting the Cosmic Buddha, and the evil of the perpetrators who were directing that terror.

 

As far as Zen is concerned such "hauntings" are no more real than is the ego of the average person. However, like the ego, they produce some very real-seeming effects and therefor must be dealt with in a real manner for, just as with past lives, which are ghosts that we carry about with us, so also hauntings are a reenactment of past karma manifesting as ghosts of past persons and activities that are rooted in a particular place."

 

~ Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett

[C T]

All perceptions are similar to a dream ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

 

At present we perceive samsara as something we have to reject and nirvana as something we have to attain. Now while this is correct according to relative truth, according to absolute truth the nature of the afflictive emotions and actions that we are supposed to reject is nothing other than emptiness. When we realize the dharmakaya, which is free from true existence, we will know that all perceptions are similar to a dream or an illusion and we will no longer crave these phenomena. As it is said, 'While there is attachment, there is no view.' And the absence of attachment is the supreme view.

[C T]

A bubble bursts soon after it has been formed. A mirage conjures up an image of reality which disappears on close examination. There is absolutely no substance in either of them. This is common knowledge. As we know their true nature, so also must we know the true nature of the phenomena. When a meditator acquires knowledge of concentration through the observance of the dissolution of the aggregates (khandha), he will discover that the known object and the knowing mind are all in a state of flux, now appearing, now vanishing. They are transitory. There is no essence or substance worthy to be named "mine" in them. They signify only the processes of becoming and dissolution.  ~ Mahasi Sayadaw

[C T]

All suffering beings are caught in a vortex of deep confusion regarding their true identity and will arise in one perceptual realm or another. This will be dependent on how similar they are in their confusion to others in that place and will experience a shared world, even though personal points of view can be very different from each other. This is how the separation of the six samsaric realms exist; living beings arising in varieties of misunderstandings regarding how they actually exist, will enter into generalized causes and effects that will continue to hold them to a particular realm, such as the human realm. Awakening from that confusion immediately exhausts their capacity to live in that realm, which is now closed to them for future rebirths caused by confusion. This is an evolutionary perceptual journey. ~ Domo Geshe Rinpoche ~~ 

[C T]

Seeing  Clearly  What  is  Genuine  and  What  is  False 

 

All we really need to do for practice is to study, reflect, and meditate. However, these days it is common in the East and West that desire for honor and gain creates problems. Imitation monks, phony lamas, fake tulkus, and false gods turn up, and because of this, it is difficult to find the right kind of study, reflection, and meditation. It is very important for everyone to be careful about this and try to see clearly what is genuine and what is false. If someone says, “I am a lama,” or “I am a tulku,” or “I am a god,” we do not have to immediately follow them. First, investigate to see whether they are genuine or not and whether we should make a connection with them. It is important to use our critical faculties along with giving up attachments.

 

~ His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje

 

[C T]

In celebration of Lord Buddha's Enlightenment...

01 June 2015

 

Namo tassa baghavato arahato samma sambudhasa