Apech

you know very well that I only exist as a figment of your imagination.

do you delete because you think your thoughts are not worth posting? Cos I think this place thrives on everyone sharing their ideas freely.

You know I’ve been on here since 2007 and I don’t think people here were ever as nice as they are now. It’s quite a lovely atmosphere sometimes. I know there are still spats occasionally but nothing compared to the old days. Perhaps we had to go through all that to get here but which ever way it’s quite an achievement I think.

sorry for asking I was just intrigued ….

Monday - haunt Tuesday - more haunting Wednesday - scare an old lady by going brrrrrr Thursday - extra haunting Friday - open doors in a creaky way Saturday - spooky night out Sunday - hang around graveyard wearing white sheet

I hope @liminal_luke will tell us what a spirit calendar is !

Ah I see

you love to delete - she person

What did you say?

impressive calendars

Brother Luke just draw down the hood of your magenta cassock.

Tykes like dykes, Dykes like tykes, Tykes, bikes, Dykes, No anomaly, It’s a family, They’re in harmony, Biking, Dyking, Tykes.

Big ole dykes, On mountain bikes.

Welcome and happy birthday.

I read somewhere, possibly on here, that the difference in Latitude (i.e. North- South position relative to the equator) affects the position of the LDT - and therefor by extension the configuration of our subtle bodies. Not perhaps a fundamental difference because we are all more or less the same in that respect, but perhaps in the more subtle tensions and flows etc. which occur. I have long held the thought that the same is true of East - West location but in a different way. There are difficulties with this because of course East and West are relative directions and not polar ones. The further West you go - you end up in the East (like Christopher Columbus travelling West to try to find the East). The best conclusion I can come to is that it is to do with the inner or outer focus of attention. A more Eastern position is more inner and more 'mental'; while a Western position is more outer and more body focussed. Of course one would have to debate where exactly is the most Eastern and where is the most Western - and I would suggest India and America respectively. With respect to empires and colonisation etc. there is no doubt that these things bring harm to some, but on the other hand without the movement to a global perspective we wouldn't have the ideas and insights that we do have at our disposal. DaoBums would not exist for instance - or its hard to see how it could. Unless you are an ethno-nationalist then you have to accept that all cultures involve some mixing and interaction. Without that we would all exist in our own little domains knowing little of each other. Westerners doing yoga and Tai Chi are culturally appropriating something not natural to them - but surely we would argue that this is all to the good - other wise give up now

To me it's just the French for bread.

The First Law Determines the Rest

TFLD;R

Yes, that's what I did - talk about them. Eh? There is no political oversight - it doesn't exist. Mostly good - with a few worrying cases of abuse. That's what we read.

In my experience of actual dharma centres a great deal of kindness and care is extended to all. It is a Mahayana practice (lojong) to place others needs before your own. And ok there's a mixture of all sorts involved but I personally saw this idea generally respected. Again in the centres I am linked to they have adopted various codes of conduct and so - a bit superfluous in my opinion as dharma is in itself such a code - but for better or worse they have modern type policy documents and a system for reportiing abuse and harassment etc. I think most of it can be attributed to the over consumption of saki. Not really. This is a big subject (and I'm not sure what abuse you are accusing Marpa of anyway) but properly understood the stories about Tilopa and Naropa are not about abuse - it is that some disreputable Lamas misrepresent them this way in order to gain power over others. I think this is true in the monastic orders. Rather like the Catholic Church there are internal cultural problems. Rinpoche (lit. precious one) signifies like the term tulku that the person has been recognised as a reincarnate lama. I don't see how once given anyone would be able to revoke it - 'you've been a naughty boy and now you are no longer reincarnate'. Teaching authority would come with a lineage transmission which someone holds and this could be from a long dead lama - so unless the lama still lives and decides to act I don't see what authority could take away teaching authority. The Dalai Lama is a political head and also the head of only one of the four main schools. In the Nyingmapa school I believe there is no head as such and therefore no such authority structure.

Well as I said before if these Lamas actually taught a curicullum of vajrayana Buddhism (or actually Mahayana Buddhism first) as they should - including Tsarchen Losal Gyamtso's "Opening the Door to the Precious Siddhis" this would not have happened. In terms of those who show up at Dharma centres there's a kind of weird two way problem. Firstly 'fringe' religions attract a lot of weak and damaged people who are understandably looking for help or a way out of the unhelpful circumstances they have been born into. The last thing such people should take on is the strong medicine of vajrayana. They need a long period of gentle settling down and sorting their life out ('clean their room' to quote a certain popular gentleman) - but this can appear rather boring and unlikely to help the desperate. The other 'problem' is that turning away or abandoning sentient beings is not allowed for a bodhisattva - so you really can't say - sorry but come back when you're sorted. Dharma isn't therapy, not to say that Buddhists can't offer therapy. But this means that many Dharma centres are full of weak and vulnerable people. Whereas they should be full of high flying top minds looking for a great challenge. There is another issue of a tradition of mahasiddha transgressiveness - which has a long history both in India and Tibet (and in Hindu schools also) - where rather like the Greek Diogenes their is an idea of kind of testing out the 'one flavour' of shunyata by performing antinomian acts , often in public, such as having sex with prostitutes (I won't go on), to break any attachment to worldly concerns. This has caused a lot of head scratching in the west - it was termed Crazy Wisdom by one Tulku. The answer is simple actually. Normal rules of society apply and if such yogis do something illegal then they should be prosecuted and imprisoned like anyone else. If they are truly non-attached then this should mean nothing to them. If they are not then they will find out quite quickly that their 'enlightenment' was illusory.

well exactly as in a marriage for instance not to be entered into lightly!

i am not sure what you mean by goodwill - can you expand that point a little?

Yes indeed and it goes deeper than this. The teachings in vajrayana specifically deal with interaction with the Lama in a number of ways - there are specific texts on this - and just to give a feel there should be a 12 years period where the student assess the Lama to see if he is genuine in knowledge and conduct and so on. And specifically it is stated that if a Lama asks a student to do something un-dharmic (like sexual misconduct) one must refuse and walk away. Clearly the teaching of these things was deliberately neglected and naive westerners left to become victims. Cultish behaviour with cover ups and so on compounded the damage. It is all quite reprehensible. But the vajrayana is a dangerous path - because it is potent. This is why the samaya vows in vajrayana are very strict. For instance it is a root downfall to 'disparage women' - and I wonder if Kalu Rinpoche (senior) had forgotten this!!! When it is properly taught - it is very respectful, calm, gentle and kind. Because it is known that misdirecting psycho-spiritual energies can be very destructive.