inner knowledge
Just as we experience the fear, love, and humor of the characters in a movie, so do we experience the enlightened mind of the entities that we visualize. When we visualize an enlightened entity, we are able to recognize its enlightened mind because it is our own – it is inherent within us and it is the basis of our consciousness – so when we call upon it, we find it to be there.
Shariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.
The thought of extraordinary individuals has the power to shift what we conceive of as possible in this human realm. It also changes what we think of our teachers, ourselves, and our brothers and sisters. A saint, both in the East and in Western traditions, is something more than a good person, or someone of exemplary character. Moving past this mundane conception, we enter into a supernatural framework for understanding the lives and influence of a saintly person.
Every day we see people hiding their true feelings and living to fit in with external demands. People bury what really matters to them, their deepest values in exchange for meeting the expectations of others, to be accepted and to feel superior in some way. So they miss the core of life: creating authentic and true connections.
Who is this that suffers now? A me that never was, or ever meant to be? So what is this you suffer? That you exist,… Read More »WHO
The transmission of the Kriyayoga Tantra, part of the esoteric Buddhist teachings that came directly from India to China. The transmission took a while. At the end his lama gave him all the ritual objects, crowns, tangkhas, vajras, bells, mandalas, his kashira (robe), and at that point Kukai became a vajra master. Of all these objects nothing was more sacred than the anointment, the transmission of the secret teacher-to-disciple teachings of the ancient Kriyayoga.
One mahatma asked Swami Muktananda for a certificate of enlightenment. Swami Muktananda just laughed. When you live in integrity and your heart and soul are stable in that integrity, that’s what you cherish more than anything in the world. These are poetic terms and it’s not necessarily like that, but we have to use words. When you reach an awareness within yourself that is undeluded, there is no reason that you want to put a rock in your heart or dualistically split anything through an idea, because it’s not possible.
All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing. All things that are conglomerations of the five elements, of earth, air, fire, water, and space; All things that are the phenomena of consciousness, thought, emotion, concept, interpretation, understanding, and misunderstanding; Even consciousness itself arises and then ceases. In this way, everything is the same.
The Tibetan master Gampopa is famous for being the foremost student of Milarepa, the great yogi. He is unique in that he fused and combined the practice of mind training, which many of you know from the Dalai Lama’s lectures, with realization of the nature of mind. His writing style is very much down to earth, advice for simple living and easy to understand guidelines for making sure that we are on the right track. Some of his advice takes form of small handy lists to memorize, ponder and measure oneself against.
This is Part Three and the end, which concludes The Lotus-Garden, the wonderful story of the previous lives of His Holiness the XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa as Dzalendara and Sun Moon. This wonderful story of Dzalendara is the precious nectar flowing from the lips of His Holiness the XVIth Karmapa, who told this story of his previous lives without any distortion or falsity. When he told the story, he made the wish that it may be the cause for reaching buddhahood for all those who read it, not only for those who feel faith and devotion but also for those who feel dislike or disbelief.
Enlightenment is like awakening from sleep. The thinking mind creates all the perceptions and phenomena of daily life, just as whatever you experience at night is created by sleep. When awakening from sleep, the dream disappears, likewise nothing remains of this present confusion when the distorted experience and thinking are completely cleared away.
Psychologist Vagn Palle Rasch aligns mindfulness and acceptance as preludes for personal change.
“We have to recognize what is present right now, but often it’s difficult to accept, because there may be unhappiness and dissatisfaction related to it.”
Interview with Drubgyu Rinpoche of Surmang Monastery in Nangchen, China by Lee Weingrad about the treasure revelations of Chogyam Trungpa: In Drubgyu Rinpoche I discovered an unexpected treasure, a spokesman for an era, a world that we can only imagine or dream about. But the monastery lay basically in dust and ruins, which dispelled any sense of romance about the meeting.
For the dying process to not be painful and confusing, there must be preparation. Though we apply this common sense in most every area, death must be approached as natural, not eschewed as distasteful taboo. Masters of meditation experience death’s transition as a mere change of clothes, and have described it as best they can, motivated by great compassion. Yet crossing over is a solo journey, one we must each traverse alone.
The word root guru has a sacred meaning, that my teachers define in a very specific way: the person who not only tries, but succeeds in bringing about a complete change in your mind to such an extend that the grip of duality is loosened and that the nature of mind is totally laid bare in its naked state and can be accessed whenever remembered for the rest of your life. Perhaps the meditator only finds out many years later who the primary guru was.
The radical notion of allowing ourselves to be nourished by the hunger of desire is a turning towards the desire, rather than our automatic turning away from desire. We turn away from our desire by chasing the object of our desire.
A continuation from, A Story From the Infinite Mind of the Gyalwang Karmapa: The two princes built a grass hut in the forest and lived there together. During the daytime they taught the dharma to animals and at night they meditated. One day, while meditating, the younger prince, Sun Moon, saw that the time had come for them to go and spread the dharma in their own country and in other places where it was still unknown…
We may like to think that we know what the mind is – we speak of it so casually, but how well do we really know this mind of ours? For some of us at times, our inner state can change, and moods can appear as if out of nowhere, but is it destined to be as random as that? What control can we have over our own experience? When it comes to the mind, I’m thinking now, some things should not be a complete mystery.
Touch is such an important element in healing and also in our daily life. But how do we touch? One of the most important elements to touch in the right way is our mind, because if our mind is not in the right space, touch can become very different, even hurtful. Let’s look first at touching ourselves because if we do not know how to touch ourselves, then how can we touch others in the right way?
We trade one rigid, constricting way of being for another rigid, constricting way of being. And because we call the new way spiritual practice, we may tell ourselves and others that this is great, this is better, this is how and who we want to be in our practice and in our life.
We usually find our orientation exclusively among designations and objects, considering that as reality, but eventually discover that such interaction doesn’t hold the key to real realization. It is the greatest paradox, because it is the mystery itself, as if moving, dancing, projecting light through a liquid. There is nothing that we have ever known, or ever been that is other that this mystery.