Leaderboard

No worries ; be patient . I shall don my robe and take up my staff and cross the river and wander in the rainforest a bit ... on my return I shall enlighten you all ( I just gotta finish scrubbing the mold out from between the bathroom tiles first ) .

I haven't seen this one before .... and never noticed a discussion here on it . Eg Ch 1 If you can talk about it, it ain’t Tao. If it has a name, it’s just another thing. Tao doesn’t have a name. Names are for ordinary things. Stop wanting stuff; it keeps you from seeing what’s real. When you want stuff, all you see are things. Those two sentences mean the same thing. Figure them out, and you’ve got it made.

P.S. there was an admod warning not to post in characters without an English translation.

Practice suggestion: Turn one-pointedness inside out: Take a moment and stare at the back of your hand. Take in it's details - notice it's skin texture, color, the dark patches, or views or musculature that lie underneath. Now, ask yourself - did you have any real consciousness of the room you were in, or any environmental factors happening outside of your hand when you were concentrating on it? Was your view narrowly focused, only having room for the small, tight reality of your hand? Was the area around, or behind, your hand in sharp focus and full of detail, or is it difficult to really remember anything about it? Next, take your arms and put them straight out to either side so the hands are out of view. Turn your hands forward so you fingers are facing forward and wiggle them, slowly moving them until you can JUST see their movement in your peripheral vision, but now further. Continue wiggling them for a moment and take in the completeness of the room. Slowly drop your hands to your sides, but hold on to the panoramic but diffuse view of the room and it's contents. Hold that view for a few seconds. Were you aware of any individual objects, or was it just a panorama of color and light? Did any of the objects have a separateness from the background, or were the homogenous? Can you clearly remember the colors and shapes of the room as you saw it? Was it surprising to see how widely your eyesight could be? This panoramic view technique isn't commonly spoken of, but is common in the teachings of Tibetan teachers, and many Zen teachers. The act of "holding the room" in your gaze keeps the mind quiet. Rather than taking in any single point in concentration, one takes in the whole dharmakaya. One can see the unlabeled emptiness of the objects in the room, and see emptiness in action, though it helps to have this aspect pointed out. The point? Practicing like this is resting in enlightened mind. The unlabeled stillness, lack of objects, etc. is how enlightened mind sees reality, and naturally becomes the primary way of experiencing.

"... Watch their mind", yes? Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving. (“Whole-Body Zazen”, Shunryu Suzuki; June 28, 1970, Tassajara [edited by Bill Redican]) The advice I plan to give my neighbor, if we ever sit together again (he's never sat, and our one attempt ended early): I don’t think I’ll advise my friend to “follow the breath”. ... I expect I will tell him to let the place where his attention goes do the sitting, and maybe even the breathing. (Just to Sit) Action, solely by virtue of the location of consciousness--look, Ma, no hands! Or in England:

To sum up, the “samādhi” of the Suttas (EBT’s) is about concentrating the mind itself, while the “samādhi” of the Visuddhimagga is about concentrating on an object. (Bhikkyu Kumara, What You Might Not Know About Jhana and Samadhi, p 35) Bhikkyu Kumara saw the different views of immersive concentration as rooted in two different interpretations of a particular Pali word: For a long time in Theravāda Buddhism, ekaggatā has been commonly translated as “one pointedness”. … “One-pointedness” has gained such wide acceptance as the translation for ekaggatā that most people don’t question it. So, people who assume it means “fixing of close, undivided attention on a spatially limited location”, and believe it’s necessary, will try to practice that. (ibid, p 42) The Pāli word has three parts: eka (one), agga, and tā (-ness). So clearly this common translation takes agga to mean “pointed”. … Actually, “agga” has another meaning, as a contracted form of “agāra”. … it’s literally “empty place”, with agāra being simply “place”. Could this other meaning of agga, i.e. “place”, be the actual meaning in “ekaggatā”? Let’s join the parts: ekaggatā = eka (one) + agga (place) + tā (ness) = “one-place-ness” or “oneplacedness” (modelling after “one-pointedness”). (ibid, pp 42, 45) From something I hope to post soon to my site: In my experience, “one-pointedness” or “oneplacedness” is a description of consciousness, when consciousness is retained with the location of self. The location of self has become a subject of study in neurobiology: A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) When consciousness is retained with the location of self, the “specific position in space” of consciousness has place, yet that place is apart from the contents of the body—that place is empty, or “agga”. Just so happens that when "self-surrender" is made the object of thought, as in the induction of the first concentration, the necessity of breath tends to place consciousness with the specific position in space of self-location--at least, that's my experience.

And what… is the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations, with the accompaniments? It is right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right mode of livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness. Whatever one-pointedness of mind is accompanied by these seven components , this… is called the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations and the accompaniments. (MN 117, tr. Pali Text Society vol III p 114; “noble” substituted for Ariyan; emphasis added) Bhikkyu Thanissaro references the above passage in his introduction to How Pointy is One-Pointedness?: A Pali sutta, MN 44, defines concentration as cittass’ek’aggatā, which is often translated as “one-pointedness of mind”: cittassa = “of the mind” or “of the heart,” eka = one, agga = point, -tā = -ness. MN 117 defines noble right concentration as any one-pointedness of mind supported by the first seven factors of the noble path, from right view through right mindfulness. MN 43 states further that one-pointedness is a factor of the first jhāna, the beginning level of right concentration. Thanissaro concludes the "one-pointedness of mind" means focus on a single object, and he recommends doubling-down on that. Here's Gautama's definition of "wrong view": There is no (result of) gift … no (result of) offering … no (result of) sacrifice; there is no fruit or ripening of deeds well done or ill done; there is not this world, there is not a world beyond; there is no (benefit from serving) mother and father; there are no beings of spontaneous uprising; there are not in the world recluses and brahmans… who are faring rightly, proceeding rightly, and who proclaim this world and the world beyond having realized them by their own super-knowledge. (MN 117, tr. Pali Text Society vol III pp 113-121) "Beings of spontaneous uprising" appears to be a reference to fairy-like beings that spring into existence without parents. According to the notes on the Pali Text Society translation of SN (vol III p 197), such beings were common in Vedic folklore. His definition of mundane right view was the view that is the opposite of wrong view, but he qualified that by saying that such "right view" is the right view that "has cankers, that is on the side of merit, that ripens unto cleaving (to new birth)". The right view which is “[noble], supermundane, cankerless and a component of the way” was: Whatever … is wisdom, the cardinal faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the component of enlightenment which is investigation into things, the right view that is a component of the Way in one who, by developing the [noble] Way, is of [noble] thought, conversant with the [noble] Way–this… is a right view that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way. (Ibid) Here's "right effort": As to this… right view comes first. And how… does right view come first? If one comprehends that wrong purpose is wrong purpose and comprehends that right purpose is right purpose, that is… right view. And what… is wrong purpose? Purpose for sense-pleasures, purpose for ill-will, purpose for harming. This… is wrong purpose. And what… is right purpose? Now I… say that right purpose is twofold. There is… the right purpose that has cankers, is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving (to new birth). There is… the right purpose which is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a factor of the Way. And what… is the purpose which is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving? Purpose for renunciation, purpose for non-ill-will, purpose for non-harming. This… is right purpose that… ripens unto cleaving. And what… is the right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way? Whatever… is reasoning, initial thought, purpose, an activity of speech through the complete focussing and application of the mind in one who, by developing the [noble] Way, is of [noble] thought, of cankerless thought, and is conversant with the [noble] Way–this… is right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way. (ibid; "noble" substituted for "Ariyan") The fundamental method for attaining the jhanas, according to Gautama, is "lack of desire". Here's his description of the induction of the first concentration: Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, © Pali Text Society vol V p 174; parentheticals para­phrase original; Horner’s “initial” (MN 119) substituted for Woodward’s “di­rected”; emphasis added) Did I mention my take? In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. (Just to Sit) Cowboy Buddhist...

One of the ways is to look at the Chinese words frequently. Don't read them for meaning, don't try to understand them. Just look at them like looking at pictures. The material is better to be light, with photos, or something you familiar, like on IG, but definitely not DDJ. It helps.

Hey just a heads up you should be very careful with any books written by geshe kelsang as he's affiliated with the new kadampa tradition which is pretty heavily discouraged by the entire vajrayana community (like orthodox teachers saying destroy the materials ritualistically, discouraged) Namkhai norbu was great though, wish I had a chance to attend his teachings while he was still alive

Where? 你是不是要我海底撈針？ Are you asking me to find a needle in a hay stack?

The writer is comparing a visual language vs. an auditory languages. People tend to find one is better over the others from their inherent dispositions. Chinese do have some advantages: - grammar: no tenses, no cases, no gender, no be/have, no predicates/modifiers etc... - reading: visual presentation is much faster in reading than auditory origin. People seldom need to read the sentences in silence. And it is more concise in wording (lesser vocabularies), also occupies much less visual space than English. - speaking: somehow I watched many video of foreigners speaking very good mandarins, less use of intonations. The drawback of Chinese - need to memorize few thousand pictograms, their properties, usage, variation in sounds. - tonal language means the speaker must be very exact in pronunciation.

@DynamicEquilibrium Line 7 此兩者是指兩名無和有,而不是指"無名"或"有名" Line 7 was referring to two names 'Wu' and 'you'. However, it was not referring to "has no name" or "has a name"

Caring about craft more than money is always dangerous, but in the best way.

A strange and dangerous Russian just delivered some food to my home. He owns a fishing boat. He fishes, and then he sells his catch to the Russian, Ukrainian, etc. local community, some of it freshly caught (not frozen) and some of it smoked. He does the smoking (cold and hot) himself too. His prices are very competitive and he charges nothing for delivery. He also makes some foods at home that only Russians and Ukrainians eat (and can't live without), and delivers those too. The ordering process is a mess, timing of arrival more on the "whatever" side, I wound up buying something I didn't order and not getting what I did order. Doesn't matter, it's all delicious and either can't be bought elsewhere, would take me hours of work if I were to make it myself, or very competitively priced. Dangerous because I am inclined to buy more for his trouble than I was planning on, strange because nothing about the operation is business-like, it's so informal and haphazard -- yet convenient and delicious. I remember things being done this way, old country old school... Now it's almost exotic.

The contextual meaning of Wu was defined under a set of condition by Laotze in Chapter 1. However, Tao may be called Wu, but in other texts Wu is not Tao.

The more of it I read, the more I enjoy it . Chapter 42 starts out with some cosmic mumbo-jumbo about Tao making one, one making two, two making three, and three making everything else. I don’t know what it means, and, frankly, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

I appreciate @bradley's weird thought... mine is similar. Karma to me is simply the causal connection between actions and outcomes. I once had a deep insight into karma in my own life and experience that informed my understanding of the concept. I could see very deeply and clearly how every action and interaction throughout my life have come together to bring me to precisely where I am at that very moment. I could see how different choices on my part, or that of others, and my situation would be completely different. I could see the pattern of cause and effect extending back before my birth and beyond my death. I could see the web of interaction extending out in all directions, across vast distances without boundary. Most of all I could see the sheer scale and complexity of this intricate web of activity and how this makes it so difficult to always appreciate the direct connection between a given action and its effects. Dharma has many meanings in a variety of religions and contexts. It can mean something that is firm and stable, suggesting a foundational or organizing principle or law of existence. It can refer to the way we, as individuals, relate to the world and to others and varies at different stages of life. It is often used to refer to the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni. For me, the most meaningful and useful interpretation relates more to the truth or the absolute nature of being. In the tradition I practice, the ground of being is considered the source of all teachings and all possible manifestations; so that coming into relationship with this fundamental experience of our nature opens us to our full potential as human beings.

Prepare yourself for a shock oldbob ..... there are people like that all over the world in all sorts of countries ! Now, who is trying to convince us that 'they' are strange and dangerous ? The ones that are strange and dangerous in their own countries !

If I have this right then one pointed concentration is not samadhi and samadhi is necessary for realizing the true nature of oneself?? Yeah, all too complicated for me. Can't I just sit and do my regular practice without expectations. And if I have difficulties to ask questions about what I can do to find resolutions? Lately, I find myself eating more and more. Must have put on a few pounds. I notice my breathing has changed because of this. Will have to think about something else other than food?? Sorry, drifting off again.

When I first learned about "ONE POINTED CONCENTRATION", I had thought it meant a special state of mind that would transform one's outlook on life. Of course those ideas quickly changed. It seems to me that it is only a stage one goes thru as one progresses in their practice of meditation. I have heard of others saying meditation is easy. You just sit there and let your mind wander. Which I know is not true. Letting the mind wander is daydreaming. And as far as I know, daydreams are desires and wishes made into images. Then another person said he found the key. That it was to stop thought. Having no thoughts at all. Which was the same as hitting one over the head with an iron rod. It won't work. There is no enlightenment by bashing brain cells. When meditating, one is not stopping thoughts or letting the mind wander. But actually following rules or guide lines. Along the way, one pointed concentration happens. Well, this is the way I see it. But, I do have my own misconceptions. So, I try not to listen to myself so much. Just sit, pay attention and be quiet. One might think that is such an easy thing to do??? Crap, lost in a daydream. Now, I forgot what I wanted to say. Nevrmind.