Posts on Buddhism ~ in all its variations from Hinyana to Mahayana, Tibetan and Zen, and so on.
From the Upajjhatthana Sutra Translated here by Thich Nhat Hanh The Five Remembrances.... I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health. I am of…
Read more…''In this dangerous and unhealthy world, it would be quite an achievement for someone who is fifty years old today to live to be eighty. The lives of most fifty-year-olds are already more than half over, and the older we get, the quicker time…
Read more…VAJRASATTVA (I read this today. I do not think it means sit back and do nothing. It is subtler. I post it because it is full of lightness and hope.) EFFORTLESSNESS You will not achieve anything By looking for me. You will not learn anything By…
Read more…The Five Slogans of Machig Labdron The Buddha prophesied: “When my teaching is thin like a tea leaf, the embodiment of the Great Mother, whose name is Labdrön will come and her activity will be far reaching. Anyone who is involved with…
Read more…Hakuin Ekaku 1686 - 1769 (Self Portrait) ''If you forget yourself, you become the Universe.'' Hakuin heard about Hell when he was a small boy and decided to become a monk to avoid it. While a young monk he heard of another monk who was murdered…
Read more…Stories about Bodhidharma can be hard to pin down as he has become a legendary figure. He brought Ch'an to China - which later became known to us as Zen, coming there it is said in 526 AD. He had been a royal Brahman Prince in Southern India who had…
Read more…This foolish man, Where did he come from? In this helpless age when the Dharma is in decay, For what did he stick out his neck? How lamentable — this noble lineage, In late autumn, hangs so precariously on a strand of hair. Casting his own affairs…
Read more…ZEN AND LEONARD COHEN LEONARD COHEN – My Zen Whisperer by John “Krishna” Bush I met Leonard again, looking like this, at two different week-long Zen sesshins with Sasaki Roshi in the early 80’s. Ram Dass and I traveled to one the year before and…
Read more…Milarepa to the Girl... “If you sincerely wish to practice the Dharma, in my tradition you don’t need to change your name. Since one can awaken to buddhahood as either a monk or layperson, you don’t need to shave your hair off or change your dress.…
Read more…(Milarepa by Roerich) Milarepa is one of the best-loved and most epic characters in the story of Tibet. The bad boy made good. When he was young his family was dispossessed after his father’s death, and all their hereditary wealth stolen by his…
Read more…One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about nonduality of self and other,…
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“Mind” is discovered to be without something outside or inside. It does not have someone that looks; it is not the act of looking. It is experienced as a great original wakefulness without center or edge, an immense all-pervasiveness that is primordially empty and free. This original wakefulness is intrinsic and self-existing. It is not made right now, but is present within yourself from the very beginning. Decide firmly that the view is to recognize just that! To “possess confidence” in this means to realize that like space, mind is spontaneously present from the beginning. Like the sun, it is free from any basis for the darkness of ignorance. Like a lotus flower, it is untainted by faults. Like gold, it doesn’t alter its own nature. Like the ocean, it is unmoving. Like a river, it is unceasing. Like Mount Sumeru, it is utterly unchanging.Once you realize that this is how it is [and stabilize it], that is called “possessing the view of realization.”
– Padmasambhava
Always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practise good-heartedness towards all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have a positive intention during the dream. This is the essential point.
~ Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Listen here,
Gyalwa Cho-yang of Nganlam!
The awakened mind of enlightenment
is not created through meditation,
So, free from thinking,
without projecting or dissolving thought,
Remain with wide-open senses,
letting your thinking subside in itself!
Within this state,
your thinking spontaneously dissolves
And the wisdoms occur by themselves
without being sought.
This is itself the discovering
of the awakened state.
PADMASAMBHAVA: Songs to the 25 Disciples.
The pathless path is the path always under our feet. And since that path is always beneath us, if we miss it, how stupid!
~ Longchenpa
SHANTIDEVA
And so let beings do to me
Whatever does not bring them injury.
Whenever they may think of me,
Let this not fail to bring them benefit.
And if in my regard they have
A thought of anger or respect,
May these states always be the cause
Whereby their good and wishes are fulfilled.
All those who slight me to my face
Or do to me some other evil,
Even if they blame or slander me,
May they attain the fortune of enlightenment!
Our mind is spinning around,
About carrying out a lot of useless projects.
It’s a waste! Give it up!
Thinking about the hundred plans you want to accomplish,
With never enough time to finish them,
Just weighs down your mind.
You are completely distracted,
By all of these projects, which never come to an end,
But keep spreading out more, like ripples in water.
Don’t be a fool. For once, just sit tight.
~ Patrul Rinpoche
YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE
"Here's another secret:
You know the real obstacle to resting meditation? It's too simple. There's no "wow" experience, there's nothing added, and there's no work to do. It's as close as the tip of your nose, meaning it's too close to see.
Sometimes teachers tell us: "Stop meditating." This does not mean to give up awareness, but rather: "Don't use a flashlight in the sunshine." Assuming that we're inherently insufficient, we use the mind's equivalent of a flashlight to improve upon the sun.
"Open awareness is like space. We speak of space and refer to it, but actually we don't recognize it. We only see what is in space. When we do talk about seeing space, we usually mean the valley, table, tree, or something that brings definition or perspective to an area, but not to space itself.
In the same way that we might not believe in the benefits of recognizing space, the practice of open awareness tends to lack credibility. We don't really believe in its benefits, like the idea that we do not value what comes free. We seem to need to pay a price to guarantee value.
With meditation, we pay this price with exercises that actually require more work than open awareness does: awareness with objects. Here the mind cannot just rest with no job to do; it must extend itself to specific sense objects for supports."
***"Turning Confusion Into Clarity,"
If we could not be bought by praise or defeated by criticism, we would have incredible strength. We would be extraordinarily free, there would be no more unnecessary hopes and fears, sweat and blood and emotional reactions. We would finally be able to practice “I don’t give a damn.” Free from chasing after, and avoiding other people’s acceptance and rejection, we would be able to appreciate what we have in the present moment.
~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
ATISHA
With few wants, be content with what you have,
And with gratitude repay any kindness you receive.
Overcome anger and arrogance,
And let humility rule your mind.
Give up any unwholesome kind of living,
And pursue a livelihood in keeping with the Dharma.
Do away with your addiction to material things,
And adorn yourself with the riches of the highly realized beings.
The wealth of faith, of discipline,
Generosity and learning,
Decency, self-control,
And wisdom—such are the seven riches.
These most sacred forms of wealth
Are seven treasures that never run out.
Do not speak of this to those who are not human.
Drop any feelings of hostility or ill will,
And be happy, wherever you choose to go.
Avoid getting attached to anything at all,
And stay free from craving and desire.
Attachment not only keeps you from happy births,
It kills the very life of liberation.
***Excerpts from: The Bodhisattva’s Garland of Jewels
MILAREPA
It is difficult to meet success in the effort to insure one's own spiritual welfare, even without seeking to benefit others. If you seek another's spiritual welfare before attaining your own, it would be like a helplessly drowning man trying to save another man in the same predicament. Therefore, one should not be too anxious and hasty in setting out to save others before one has, oneself, realized Truth in Its fullness. That would be like the blind leading the blind. As long as the sky endures, there will be no dearth of sentient beings for you to serve, and your opportunity for such service will come. Till it does, I exhort each one of you to keep but one resolve: namely, to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all living creatures.
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