stirling

Someone who says things like "all is perfect" but doesn't have that as their lived experience is actually creating MORE suffering for themselves and deserves compassion. In reality the "transcendent" doesn't exist. There is nothing to transcend. What one might think of the transcendent is always RIGHT HERE. When someone with this understanding says that things are "perfect", they don't mean "ideal" they mean that they can't be any other way in this moment. The causes and conditions of this moment have come together to create things as they are right now. This isn't ever a denial of suffering, it is a statement of how things are. The only reason for a person to continue speaking teachings is to benefit others, and compassion for the suffering of others is generally what drives that. Parroting teachings even by someone who doesn't have the realization to go with it can be beneficial, but denying the reality of someone's experience of suffering isn't kind, it's true. Someone with "attainment" would want to be of benefit to those who are suffering.

It depends on which Buddhism you mean, and what you mean by reincarnation? While there might be some believe in the idea of being being transmitted into new bodies, certainly from a Mahayana perspective this does not happen. From a famous and respected Theravada priests perspective: From the perspective of the Buddha's Diamond Sutra, well-known as a touchstone of the Mahayana tradition: Enlightened beings are not exclusive, or truly part of ANY religion or philosophy, hierarchy, or belief system. They realize that all such constructs only exist in the thinking mind. What they are not subject to birth or death. What YOU are is the same.

Imagination.

I think it's more of a joust. Or maybe a drinking game...

It's true!

If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions. - Padmasambhava

Sounds like you weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

That guy is NEVER going to survive, unless he gets a little crazy.

Not that I have pursued ALL of 1 - 8 but it is obvious how this is undoubtedly true when seen from 9. _/\_

I liked my office job, but I definitely like this priest gig more.

Anyone who can show me at least one of your 9 souls gets a free lollipop.

From my perspective, considered as a non-dual/no-self koan, this looks like a trick question.

Informally, this is also a technique in Soto Zen (all Zen?). The student is instructed to just sit, with no technique or instruction. What naturally happens (of course!) is that the mind runs riot making the sitter feel crazy. With practice the student eventually finds that the mind runs out of material and becomes still for brief periods of time. I have never recommended this practice, or met a student I thought would benefit from it, though I have met other teachers who have. I prefer the Bönpo version.

Sounds like you are doing great, to me. How fortunate. Practice allows you to see how the "second arrow" turns reality into a much greater, longing struggle/suffering. There is the event that causes pain and discomfort, then there is our story about the pain and discomfort which is MUCH worse. That is what can be changed.

My experience is that precisely the opposite is true. Realizing that "you" have never HAD control is the way forward. Mastering stillness from a Zen perspective is very much similar to the classic Tao model - you simply stop pushing against reality with your thinking mind. You stop feeding the cycle of thoughts and eventually the thinking mind tires and stillness arises naturally.

It isn't a cognitive skill or conceptual understanding. What you really need to know is fairly simple, and in fact, too much reading on the topic can cause more damage than good. As far as phases, it depends on your intention for your practice. 20 minutes of sitting a day will improve the quality of your life, make you less reactive, calmer and often more joyful and accepting. This is the beginning benefit - it improves your life as a "self". Some never go beyond that... which is fine. Beyond that, if you keep up or better still intensify your practice, work on your attachment and aversion, sit for 40 minutes (ish) a day, those benefits deepen. If you are fortunate a teacher will help you use your meditation to demonstrate "emptiness" to you, and you can then learn to allow it to well up during your day, and recognize that it does so naturally and always has. Perhaps one day there is the simple recognition that "self" and all other appearances are "empty" and always have been. This is "awakening", or "stream entry". This is the part where you are in college, but what you must come to study is where you are stuck... what you are clinging or averse to, and how you construct your own reality. You must learn to become adept at dropping how you contrive the events in your life and become an expert at how to surrender to the reality of how things are. This practice deepens your understanding of the emptiness. Eventually this way of seeing becomes predominate and you are never again fooled by your delusions. Some aren't interested don't care to try. That's fine - it's not important that anyone wake up. Others will want understand the nature of reality, or even stop the suffering that their mind causes them. They will take this pursuit quite seriously. Either way, practice creates results, and having a teacher who can help you understand what happens is VERY beneficial. Yes, seekers come in different flavors. Some are confused and lost conceptual ideas about how they think it all works. Some might think it is some kind of competition, but there is only one metric - are you awakened or not. Can you see emptiness in all appearances in this moment, always. Rest assured that there is no greater suffering than lying or exaggerating your understanding.

Agree. It's the experience of the Tao/Emptiness that matters. Once one can identify it one can rest in it. All other methods of practice can be dropped in my experience. So the path, at its simplest might be: Learn to recognize -> Keep diligently recognizing.

Nah. You could become a kindly chartered accountant and that path might enlighten you. You can't make a mistake, but you can definitely lengthen your voyage if you have attachment to belief or opinion. What is required is actually very simple. When the mind is still, what is missing? What is interpreted? What path or teacher are you following?

It is the adoption of a quasi non-dual view that makes Liber Null of interest to me as a workable system. Insight into non-duality clarifies the difference between the dream-like world of duality, and the sharp clarity of the non-dual. With an appreciation of the difference between these two it isn't difficult to choose almost any model of reality (all of which are necessarily "dual") and carry a "soft-belief" (or "hold reality lightly", as my late Tibetan teacher would say) about the world that makes working within that belief system possible. The other aspect is that there must be an avenue for a particular working to appear in the world for you, so if you want a visit from a god, or ancestor, a dream is a common way for them to appear. Another way might be as an entry in a book you are randomly looking at or, in my case, in a vision, since I already have visions regularly. Being able to summon the HGA already connected with a dream I recall having as a teen about meeting a "Guardian Angel", so it seemed somewhat possible already. The stack as I look at it is a s simple as: Choose a working of some sort, with emphasis on it being something that has a place to come to fruition. My experience is that requests that ask for insight, or benefit large groups of people as well as yourself tend to get more traction tha purely selfish motives. I have never requested anything with dark motives. Devise a way to symbolically connect to it, or at its most simple just ASK genuinely, or from a place of surrender what you want to appear. Adopt a belief system that you can at least partially accept that would make the vehicle, space where it appears and outcome seem actually possible. Invoke without attachment to outcome. Refrain from dwelling on the request or outcome in your daily life going forward. Long before I tried the HGA working, I was already doing this- asking for a certain kind of place to live, or the financial reality that would allow me to relax, or certain kinds of relationships, or jobs... probably not always without attachment. In all cases these requests MOSTLY materialized, but this relative reality has a sense of humor. You might imagine that you want a house with a fireplace, but get one with a GAS fireplace. You might as for a certain type of car to appear, but find it isn't in a color you think you want. This sort of magic has nothing to do with beliefs or traditions, etc. in my opinion. I find that ALL of my students that adopt a "bodhisattva" attitude, and regular meditation practice tend to have an easier, more bountiful and more relaxed/happy life to the degree that they keep it up, work to drop their attachments and aversions, and BELIEVE that they can actively be of benefit to the happiness of others in the world. Recommended.

Jenny Lamb if this is the right person appears to have abandoned her previous practice(s) and has taken refuge in Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh's "Plum Village Tradition". She is not a ordained teacher in the Plum Village lineage as far as I can tell. I would look at what her current practice aspiration is and see if it aligns with yours before following her as a student. https://buddhism.jenniellamb.com/about/

Every non-dual religion/philosophy points the same understanding - Taoism, Sufism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, etc., etc., and generation after generation of teachers have had this insight and complete revision of understanding and shared it with the world. It isn't mysterious or secret, it is right here, right now, all of the time. Anyone who is interested in seeing this deeper more salient quality of reality should seek an enlightened teacher. They are all over the place in most medium or large cities or towns, but often even in small ones. There are at least 3 that I am aware of even in my little town of just over 10,000 people. It doesn't require secret techniques, asceticism, money, books, or anything like that, but it DOES require dedication, effort, and daily practice. I'll share a little document that I really love, a message from a Tibetan teacher along these lines:

Agreed. I think most people FIRST encounter this kind of thing from a book or online now, and might take texts and teachings out of context, in an illogical order, or interpret them incorrectly and waste vast amounts of time. In my opinion there is also this addiction and attachment that people have to exclusivity, rarity, or how "secret" a teaching is that can derail progress. What is needed to practice and find some success is in fact very simple... and there is a reason that many of the most popular teachings REMAIN popular.

Not what I thought you might say. Huh. Seems an complex reason, when rites and rituals are absolutely part of many Christian ceremonies but, I'm no expert.

Of course, probably almost no-one encountered these ideas first in written text, if they could read at all. They would have encountered these ideas after seeking a teacher, who would have had a reputation OR have been recommended by someone with a reputation. The teacher they found wouldn't have given the student an impossible to find or buy text, they would have shown them what they were talking about directly. The concepts ARE abstract, but the reality of them can be demonstrated to be omni-present and real with practice and guidance.