stirling

What would be "adharmic" if the fabric of reality is entirely Brahman?

Gods, ghosts, demons, mind-reading, generating sparks, visions, etc. etc. are all RELATIVE events, happening in the Relative world. There is nothing wrong with them, any more than there is something wrong with death, or a flower opening its petals. Events like this are doubtless fascinating, but they AREN'T liberation, and don't lead to liberation. The deeper point of Buddhism or traditional Daoism is to achieve insight and alignment. Insight is an Absolute realization about the the nature of reality. With insight comes a whole new understanding of these wonders that is much deeper and more whole. For more on the Relative and Absolute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine Non-grasping to such phenomena actual makes them more likely to happen.

@doc benway Thank you. - There is great wisdom in the good doctor's last post, despite its seeming simplicity. These are some of the deepest practices you could find anywhere, shared cleanly and openly. It is a joy to read teaching like this. _/\_

I’m confused - shall I continue derailing?

Feel free to re-orient. _/\_

Nothing hidden or special. It's everywhere! https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rigpa

First, it is worth saying that nirodha samapatti is not necessary for complete understanding. It IS a piece of territory that we all naturally traverse, and might notice IF we have some knowledge about what it is. The most outlandish BELIEVABLE stories I have heard about nirodha samapatti recently are probably Delson Armstrong's. Sitting for weeks outside while your beard grows undiscovered by search parties? Seems far fetched, but I reserve judgement. Personally I couldn't be gone and out of contact for 2 hours without my wife freaking out. I'm not saying it is impossible, but I AM saying that it isn't important in any way whatsoever. It is not a sign of any deeper understanding about the nature of reality. What isn't clear to me is why this chap didn't take this opportunity to lay out the very real implications of permanently shifting perspective. The truth is: If someone turned a camera on ME, I'd be taking that opportunity to say the most outlandish material I could muster in an attempt to wake up every suffering being that would ever encounter it. A point that needs repeating that I might not have made as clear as I could in my previous post is that the "supernatural" trappings and experiences on the path are just noise. They happen... they are interesting, but they don't indicate anything but that you are definitely ON the path. I could tell (and have told) stories about siddhis too, but they are just distractions from the real goal of any of these practices - non-dual realization. From the perspective from THAT realization, seeing angels and demons, or talking with trees and seeing auras, etc. are not supercharged moments of REAL meaning and implications, they are just experiences like any other experience. They are part of the show, but not the core material in any way. _/\_

I expect that is true, but I have already completed all of my teacher training. Now there is only Rigpa doing the training. _/\_

Finished this a few minutes ago, out of curiosity. He describes what probably (in Buddhist terms) describes a couple of "Arising and Passing Away" moments (though with some questionable time travel stories), that do not represent real insight and then speaking about his last episode he says he realized: This isn't wrong, but is a fairly tepid and indistinct description considering the effort he put into the other experiences, but let's allow for translation and cultural differences. In his favor, he DOES seem relaxed, gently good-humored, and KIND, one of the most major characteristics of those who have lived in the world with insight for a long time. What is actually important, that almost any "awakened being" would know to point to is: --How awake are you RIGHT NOW?-- Can you see or hear "emptiness" in this moment.. even if you have to turn your attention to it? What does that mean to you? Can you see that "self" is a delusion, even if you occasionally lose sight of this for a few minutes? How about the constructs of time and space? This insight is not an experience, it is a permanent shift in perception. It would have been nice to hear him share with the world the nature of his moment-to-moment life.

Welcome to the board, BSD. Hope you can find the support and information you seek!

I saw some long load times last night, but things seem OK this AM so far.

In this case, the discussion of Indra's Net as a metaphor comes from a Buddhist sutra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra's_net#In_the_Buddhāvataṃsaka_Sūtra Seems like you have had quite a dramatic journey in your last 131 posts.

Beautiful. In Zen such experiences are called "makyo". Having crazy experiences is part of the path, and a fascinating one. Having them means that you have begun, and are moving forward toward understanding, but not much else generally. I would call most of these sorts of events "experiences". Experiences, like all other relative phenomena are impermanent. How do you know what is important or not? Ask yourself, has it created a shift toward something permanent? Is it something I can see is true in this moment, and in ALL moments? Real insight permanently and dramatically alters your understanding and world view. THESE sorts of experiences are the ones to ask about.

Ultimately, Prajna is holding NO view. The teachings are not the realization, and keeping traditions pure is nice idea from a cultural perspective, but means nothing from enlightened perspective. A good teacher will do whatever it takes to wake you up, whether it means quoting Rumi, Nisagadatta Maharaj, or Ren and Stimpy.

The Middle Way is not the way of the renunciate. We are not giving away all of our belongings or wealth, we are renouncing clinging and aversion to wealth and belongings. We won't solve suffering by giving people our wealth, or food, or it would already have happened. The source of all suffering is a lack of Prajna (Wisdom) which is insight into "emptiness". Our instruction as bodhisattvas is to be WITH suffering where it happens. Be kind. Be present with those that are suffering, when you encounter them. Be generous when the opportunity presents itself, but not at the expense of your personal security. Taking care of your finances, as long as it is not at the expense of others is fine. Where "self" has dropped away bodhisattvas will find that what they need is taken care of. They are free to be of benefit when and where they encounter suffering. -

The best way to clarify this is probably to say that it is anger arising from "SELF" view that no longer arises. Most people are not going to get this distinction. Following on from my point above, if the Buddha does act out of anger, that anger is really frustration that he couldn't help others with their self-imposed suffering. Most people are not going to get this distinction either. I only use the Pali Canon for examples because it was mentioned early and there is a popular current belief that somehow the Pali Canon teachings are somehow more pure than other Buddhism - a view I do not hold. There are many teachings in the Mahayana and Vajrayana from the enlightened perspective that must come from OTHER, albeit enlightened, teachers. There are enlightened teachers almost everywhere, even today, so no issue for me there. Agreed... it is just one lens amongst many, but an effective one. Enlightenment is, however, not truly definable be any set of definitions, but can only be triangulated by them.

Most of us walking the world identify our "self" as a narrow selection of all of the the perceptions and phenomena in the world. So, this itching sensation is on my "foot", when I look in the world, what I see is from MY perspective, but it can be seen, even logically, that these are arbitrary. When you drive the car, is the CAR also "I"? What about when you are in dreamless sleep... when does the sense of "I" go? When one "awakens" they realize that they have been living in a created story about the nature of the reality they live in. For the most part this doesn't change the behavior of our experience of the world, just how it is understood. If someone says, "Hi John" you smile and greet them. If someone asks which kind of ice cream you prefer, you respond. The difference is that you now realize that it isn't the imagined separate entity that responds, it is EVERYTHING... or, to look at it another way no-thing. The cause of your response is the entire perceivable fabric of reality. For it to be anything truly separate from that would be impossible. To insist that people shift into addressing you in some arcane way is disingenuous and lacks compassion. Some do it, but eventually grow out of it.

The Guru Viking podcasts are often very good. A surprising portion of the guests are awakened, or even at the point of having completely dropped "self", but not ALL of them. Why renounce the claim of being an arhat? Claiming the title implies a belief in being a separate, but special enlightened "being". In reality there ARE no beings to enlighten. Dogen points to this in his piece "Actualizing the Fundamental Point": The Buddha also got angry, got sick and died. He was a man like all other men, but one that realized that there WERE no men, just an enlightened, perpetual buddha-field. With this knowledge he still lived in the world like anyone else. I've never met anyone that would meet some of the criteria that might define a "Buddha" or Arhat from some of the tripitaka, but HAVE met beings, monastics, lay-people and non-Buddhists, that are and embody great realization, and no longer identify as "self" - this is "enlightenment with residue", which is what all enlightened "beings" that are still here in the world are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhat#In_Theravāda_Buddhism In my opinion, the salient characteristic of an arhat is having completely dropped the "self". This means that they no longer identify as one, NOT that their behavior is entirely perfected. There are countless arhats and "Buddhas" all over world, quietly just "being". They sometimes get angry, get sick and die, but with the realization that what they are isn't the "self" or world but the awareness that witnesses it. The primary way to tell the most realized is by how KIND they are. Consistently grumpy, impatient, argumentative teachers have work to do. One of the most helpful documents at my disposal as I dropped the last of the fetters was a something Daniel posted and shared, a fantastic lean, modern, phenomenological description of experience with no-self. When I first read it some time after awakening there was much of it that I didn't get, or that wasn't clear to me, but as dualities continued to drop away I would re-read it the points and they would clarify. I think becoming the enlightened "self", then realizing the error is simply a natural progression and realization on the path. Even after enlightenment and "arhatship"", the path, and the continued dissolving of dualities, never ends.

Welcome to the board, Krenx!

Yes, I have seen this a few times in my life. Once, age 19 in the broad daylight while simply walking across my college campus this appeared slowly as very gossamer prismatic lines like vertices, seemingly stretching between every object you could name or call a separate "thing". It came with it the ability to seemingly know anything I wanted about those objects, but it was actually impossible to ask any questions, which I now realize, was because this visualization (for want of a better word) was only a relative representation of the deeper reality of unity/"emptiness". The next time I saw it, I had taken a low dose of MDMA and out walking by the ocean in the evening. It was most visible in the connections of the stars to each other. I would agree that this experience is where our contemporary stories of "Indra's Net" come from, and that such experiences are universally available, though still rare or possibly commonly dismissed as hallucination or mental illness. In the Buddhist model I would put this phenomena (like most "supernatural" events) squarely in the "Arising and Passing" category of the "Progress of Insight". These phenomena don't MEAN anything, except that your practice is exceptionally deep in the moment you are experiencing it, IMHO. That's good! More on the "Arising and Passing": https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iv-insight/30-the-progress-of-insight/4-the-arising-and-passing-away/ More on the Progress of Insight (this is unlikely to benefit most casual practitioners): https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-iv-insight/30-the-progress-of-insight/ I include the links above NOT because the "Progress of Insight" or "Arising and Passing" represent that ABSOLUTE TRUTH about these experiences and are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about what they are, but because, as a description and working theory it expresses much of what I would say about this phenomena. Like ALL theories, religions, and stories about phenomena there just ISN'T a right answer about what they are, except to say that they aren't the full depth of understanding because they are impermanent and they DON'T mean anything specific except that you are "getting there". Of course, such things continue to show up even after you believe you have "arrived". (Hint: You never completely arrive! There is nowhere to GO! Just this is IT! ) Some other experiences I have had that fit this category: A whispy "fog" (seen with eyes open OR closed) that starts to form and not quite envelope the visual boundaries seeming to come from behind, and then almost closing the visual space. This usually happens when concentration/absorbtion is very deep but not concentrated on a particular object, as evidenced by intense "Nada Sound"/Celestial Chorus/Ear Ringing. A nice discussion on this predating my time here: A toroidal distortion in the shape of visual space, where the horizon is slightly curved to the right and left, and the sky and ground are turned under slightly. The perspective seems to be from the empty center. The same conditions apply - deep concentration, no object, Nada Sound. I first saw this during my "awakening" when the first taste of center-less, complete "no-self" occurred with it. I have seen it a couple of other times since then - once on the cushion and a few times when walking in meditation in the forest. It has no "meaning" really, beyond being a representation of the underlying non-dual reality. My teacher says that this one (to paraphrase), "Probably represents the limit at which "emptiness" can be seen by "beings" "with remainder". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(Buddhism)#Nirvana_with_and_without_remainder_of_fuel

It is actually very simple. Karma is your story about the world, and the character that you believe you are that inhabits it. Your story is constructed out of events that have already happened and whether you decided you liked them or not. Your story can be about failure, triumph, being wronged, or being right. It is the story of your player-character in the world, and your struggle for the past or the future to be somehow different. This is obviously insanity, and a waste of time, since you cannot change the past, or ever inhabit the future in this moment. If, in this moment, you decided to STOP telling the story of "self" and other, STOP the action of struggling with things that have already happened and are impossible to change, STOP telling yourself the story of a future that you cling to, you could stop generating karma. In meditation, I don't mean a technique like watching the breath here but rather where the mind is still and silent, does not generate karma - there is no-self present in meditation to generate it.

I don't know it so much as gnow it, as in gnosis. There was an "event" in the past (or non-event, really) where my separateness as a person, the separateness of all things, the separateness of time, and of space winked out briefly, and when it came back I knew it was illusory, and always had been. Over time that separateness became more and more gossamer and then was eventually non-existent, now existing as a permanent insight, and the most salient "quality" of anything perceived. You say: It's interesting, but tell me, can YOU experience all of this yourself in this moment, or is this a story you were told or constructed yourself? Things like this might be a story we tell ourselves about our universe, and might even be "true" where we believe in a universe of separate objects with relative relationships to each other, but underneath I know that it is ultimately impossible. Gods, demons, dark matter, UFOs, etc. all have a certain reality as things existing relative to each other in a universe of relative things, but the deeper nature of all of these things is that they don't exist as relative things. It isn't my invention, documents like the Buddha's Heart Sutra, or the teachings of Meister Eckhardt, or Rumi amongst countless others are ALL about this.

Welcome to the board JavToo!

We are simultaneously an almost insignificant element in what happens in every moment, but ALSO inextricably linked at the deepest and most subtle level to everything that happens. Will has nothing to do with it, BUT what we are IS the awareness of what occurs. Something like this: https://scienceandnonduality.com/article/the-indras-net/

One kind act can transform the universe.