Apech

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Posts posted by Apech


  1. 11 hours ago, stirling said:

     

    Nice of you to think of me so kindly, but I have seen and met a number of entities of various kinds without fear or harm. Which ones are you are concerned about? Most of what I see/meet doesn't introduce itself. 

     

    There are more things in heaven and on earth ... etc.

     

    I think genuine malevolence exists and should be avoided - whether in a person or entity.  

    • Like 1

  2. 11 hours ago, stirling said:

     

    The ones in my town are all either friends or acquaintances. The ones I have met previously, were my teachers or their peers. 

     

     

    I won't way that they are Buddhas necessarily, but arhats certainly. I think any exact criteria is somewhat muddled beyond that point. Awakening is much more common. 

     

    What would your criteria for enlightened be?

     

     

    Well of course it depends on the definition.  Our vary it seems.  I have practiced only in the Mahayana so an arhat is considered a narrow definition of the goal (or that is the impression I get as I have given it little thought).  In Mahayana we have the bhumis of the bodhisattva path - so I guess at least first Bhumi although I'm not sure even that is 'enlightened'.

     

     


  3. 6 minutes ago, stirling said:

     

    This is absolutely my experience, except the part about "harmful entities". In my opinion, though they might appear fearsome, they aren't harmful... quite the opposite, IMO. They are kind, showing us our fear, attachment, and aversion.

     

    Follow on question related to your previous post: If the very fabric of everything is itself enlightened, what makes you think that entities that represent that understanding in human form are so rare?

     

    My sweet summer child ... be careful out there won't you.

     

     


  4. 10 minutes ago, stirling said:

     

    I live in a Pure Land, of course! :) It is a small town in the Pacific Northwest that just happens to have a lot of retired former Shuryu Suzuki and Rinzai Zen teachers, as well as a well-know Zen translator and author or two. 

     

    Let's do definitions: By enlightened, I mean an Arhat. Specifically, complete realization of no-self in the Buddhist parlance.

     

    Most of the Buddhist meditation centers I have been affiliated with had at least one, some had more. Locations include San Francisco Zen Center, Hokoji Zen Center, Jikoji Zen Center, Land of Medicine Buddha, Pema Osel Ling, and Tashi Choling. 

     

    I find YOUR assertions unbelievable... how about that! ;)

     

     

    I don't mind if you find what I say unbelievable that's ok.  I think you should check out some of these arhats to see how arhat they really are though.

     

    ... and is that really enlightenment? as in awakened as a Buddha? Presumably not.

     


  5. 18 hours ago, idiot_stimpy said:

    I was reading recently whereby someone stated it was impossible to gain enlightenment without transmission from a lineage. 

     

    Is it possible to awaken without transmission? Can you wake up by reading the cheat codes in a book as opposed to learning them from a living teacher?

     

    There is also the possibility of unseen help from forces that are not of this realm. I'm in two minds about the answer to this question, some perspective would be appreciated.

     

     

     

     

    Certain systems lay great importance on transmission and empowerment.  For instance you can't really practice vajrayana without empowerment - and to study texts you need the 'lung' reading.  This is how they work.  But then you have to ask what is meant by 'work' and why the emphasis is there in the first place.  

     

    This does not mean however that it is impossible without a transmission or teacher - just that you would have to do a different system and practice self empowerment or self-initiation (which is taught by some).  Having a teacher and so on makes things easier - but to what end?  Perhaps the result is not as impressive as with the self taught?  

     

    If you accept that we exist in an infinite field of consciousness or energy then you have to accept that countless types of beings exist - some beyond the realms of our understanding (since the human perspective is necessarily narrow).  Entities exist which can and have helped practitioners in different systems - but also there are myriad harmful entities and so on - so its not an area to be entered into lightly. 

     

     

     


  6. 6 hours ago, stirling said:

     

     

    As for finding a teacher, enlightened beings are available almost everywhere. I am aware of 3 in my little town of 10k people. Any decent sized meditation center will probably have at least one, with some exceptions. Get out and meet some teachers and TELL them what you want to do. The more open and genuine you are when meeting them, the better. Most teachers will MAKE space for a student who is truly motivated. 

     

    What kind of shangri-la do you live in?  I have met two people in my life who I thought might be 'enlightened' and I am not sure about one and the other is only a kind of work in progress yet impressive kind.  I have never met anyone in a meditation centre who is anywhere near basic realisation never mind enlightened.

     

    Perhaps we have divergent ideas about what this means - but your idea that is common 'almost everywhere' is bizarre.

     

    Sorry but this is my experience and I find your assertions unbelievable.

     

     


  7. 1 hour ago, dwai said:

    There was an interesting development in the past two days with an old friend (also a former TDB - which I guess is a misnomer because "once a Dao bum, always a dao bum") wrote to me about his realization and the falling away of the sense of self which he described as "a dissolving into everything,  which can be interpreted as losing oneself).

    I asked him, "Are YOU disappearing or is the personality who answers to the name 'Former TDB' disappearing?"

     

    Because the original YOU has never not been there (or is always present, ever-shining). Only that it was clouded by the layers of personality that identify as this and that. Once there is a sufficient stillness developed, that One becomes apparent for what it has always/already been - Existence, Consciousness, Joy/Bliss (Sat, Chit, Ananda). 

     

    I shared with him this snippet from James Swartz --

     

      Reveal hidden contents
    Question: Will there be suffering, as long as I have an ego?
     
    You have an ego until the day the body dies. Vedanta, however, says the problem isn't ego but the "sense of doership" that the ego, which is a conscious entity, entertains. The feeling that I am doing something disappears when you see clearly that action requires many factors working together, the senses, mind, intellect, autonomic nervous system, etc. not to mention macrocosmic factors. At that point the anxiety the ego feels as it works out its karma disappears and it becomes a very relaxed ego. It doesn't suffer. Suffering is just the mental emotional load that comes with taking responsibility for what is happening in the field of karma. Anyway, when it realizes that stress is gratuitous, it does action happily, not for happiness, without the feeling that it is doing anything.
    ❤️

     


    How is Jeff these days?

    • Haha 1

  8. On 3/18/2024 at 3:48 PM, thelerner said:

    This is probably a naive question.  

    Do people end up eating the fruit and food they put out on a shrine?  

     

     

     

    In Ancient Egypt there was something called the 'Reversion of Offerings' - which meant that the food offerings made to the god in the daily temple ritual were then first offered to the priests, then to the hemu-ka (the officiants in the funerary rights), and then to the people at the temple entrance.  Thus all the offerings were eaten by someone in a hierarchical order of god - priest - officiants - common folk.

     

    In fact much of the local economy of a locale would also operate much in this way - local temples acting as kind of resource centres.

     

     

    • Like 2

  9. 14 hours ago, Mark Foote said:


     

    I don't know what Apech means by "look at your mind", but that's what I'm doing--looking at the location of my awareness, instead of the contents.


     

     

     

    My post above is what happened when I was 19.  It was much later in my 40's that I discovered that what I had been doing accorded with the Mahamudra meditation approach.  It was either good karma or a happy accident.

     

    If you are not familiar with Mahamudra I can recommend this book, which explains everything about how to do this.

     

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boundless-Wisdom-Mahamudra-Practice-Manual-ebook/dp/B07YVGT9X9?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j5nHXepjdJFh0TqP-5jcAm-whLwvFNqpjehrSqJxLX7bvrYt5sCiuOYANJsJgCb5aCpHyJKzPrPMAGAJeWIm03peoIvoyVbKVuZyfYP19JlOxLVPFsjTRHCYK-V4zNtNGVbbsXTOYo0sNtMSNRnWwQPEI8FWjaCHjiyZDSxESPlgGkP3MLLBHPOdS_CKTkKns_6ya2ucsmYB487PENRtyB6dd9OEHR3RNw6OCdk8600.6BG6t6u8TnJcKHgzcFV87xMhlcQzMfSr7fC-mPZw788&dib_tag=AUTHOR

    • Like 1

  10. The best beginning advice I got was almost accidental from a friend and not a teacher.  I had been mediating for a few years and tried everything, mantras, visualisation, breath counting and so on - and I felt very frustrated that nothing happened.  I was chatting to a friend who also meditated and told them what was (not) happening and they said 'why don't you stop all that and just look at your mind'.  So I tried this with immediate effect, like a dam bursting my mind opened up to a profound experience.

     

     

    • Like 3

  11. 8 hours ago, idiot_stimpy said:

     

    Is this your final unpopular opinion? 

     

    Slightly flippant version.  The longer version is this:

     

    I think you can raise K without a non-dual realisation.  Awakening the energy coiled at the base of your spine has several results.  One is access to additional 'mental' energy.  Another is the flushing out of stored recorded material - emotional memories and trauma and so on - which is very difficult to deal with - so beware.  Another is the energisation of the 'snake brain' - so that things are seen as pure appetival power dynamics - which can be shocking and revealing at the same time.  So an awareness which is normally fuzzed over by societal and moral blankets is accessed.  Another is potential sexual dysfunction - and/or loss/distortion of sexual desires.  So it's a mixed bag really.

     

    In Buddhism the non-dual realisation is usually defined as either the union of luminosity and emptiness or the union of energy (prana) and mind (citta).  Luminosity doesn't really mean seeing light but the awareness itself - the naturally occurring awareness which is self luminous.  While emptiness can be seen as the basic nature of everything which is formless in itself but able to assume the infinite formal expression of everything.  At rest it is the sky-like empty nature of mind itself.  Like yin and yang in the taichi diagram awareness and emptiness are two sides of the 'same' coin - they are not the same as each other yet arise in mutual dependence.

     

    If you look at your mind - then you tend to see it as an object while you the subject are the observer.  The basic nature of the object is emptiness because it has no fixed form.  If it did have it would have a colour, shape, location and name like all the 10,000 things.  But it doesn't, it is 'beyond' and behind them all but not fixed by any one of them.  We then tend to identify with the luminous because we see ourselves as the observer.  But as we become aware that we are not the egoically defined separate self we thought we were - this steps aside so to speak - we can realise 'Self' as the luminous (or just say that this is non-self i.e. not ego) - then the trick is to realise the 'not twoness' of the emptiness of the object mind and the self-luminous observer.  This, I think is the non-dual realisation.  

     

    Further, it is possible to 'see' this without fully entering it.  So although you see this non-duality there still remains a sense of separate self.  This is why the alchemical process is needed to transform the being into a functioning entity which is independent of the usual identification with collections of thoughts, feeling, body and so on.  Beyond death and change in the normal sense this new being is immortal because it depends entirely on the luminous and the empty - which themselves are indestructible.  You could say it is a being of Spirit and not of matter.  The work for this is done with the subtle body.  To do this would require the marshalling of all available energy since it is a rare and difficult task.  So it would require the energy represented as K to complete the work.

     

    So while the first seeing of the non-dual might be accessible to people in which K is not activated (possibly) - the alchemical work is not complete and so it remains as a kind of vision without real substance.  Some people mistake an emotional release and a feeling of unity or not really being there as the non-dual.  This is a common thing to be avoided in my opinion.

     

    Strange though it may sound, I think the correct stance is to dedicate yourself to the alchemical work while knowing it is probably impossible or at least very, very difficult to achieve.  To do this with all the energy and effort you can muster - but without urgency - but with faith that this is what we are supposed to be doing - and that doing it is noble.

     

    Just my rambling thoughts as ever :)

     

     

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