yabyum24

The next in my mini series of esoteric medieval German music. This one is sung in Mittelhochdeutsch.

I have hacked my way through the dense jungle of various spiritual teachings and am now standing here, unsure of where I should go next. Please point me in the right direction if you can.

The only way is inward, to inner understanding/gnosis. All higher teachings point the seeker in this direction. The more you search for the truth in the detritus of the conceptual mind, the more you will miss it.

They are also the most open and sympathetic to others who suffer.

"The current state of your mind is the basic foundation of the practice".

Fantastic. A brilliant teacher. Really telling it as it is.

i am kundalini i know all see all and be all

Which will be of real help with working out which plants are likely to do well in your planned garden project.

Well I'm not sure if this book has the same quantity or quality of debating MSG, but it's a lot cheaper and covers pretty much all you need to know in order to set yourself up as in internet debating jihadi. So, read it and come back here to kick some some serious butt. You know the infidel deserve it, and it's all because you're *ahem* (cough) compassionate!!! Don't forget to remind them it's for their own good.

The juicy review:

The Cornerstone of All Subsequent Madhyamaka Research
his encyclopedic and gound-breaking work inaugurated a new era of Buddhist scholarship in the West and significantly raised the standard for the study of Buddhism. This book is based on Professor Hopkins' Ph.D. dissertation of the same name. Since writing this book he has gone on to supervise the scholarship of numerous leaders in the field of Tibetan Buddhist studies at the University of Virginia, such as Elizabeth Napper, Anne Klein, Joe Wilson, Daniel Perdue, Donald Lopez, Guy Newland, and Georges Dreyfus among others. Together these scholars have produced a body of work which gives us a context and a philosophical vocabulary with which we can plunge into the world of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. This is of immense benefit not only to scholars but to Buddhist practitioners as well. This book started it all. It is a work of amazing depth which plunges into the Tibetan exegesis of the Indian Madhyamaka meditation. This analytical meditation tradition is designed to induce, through meticulous analysis, a direct perception of the absence of the mental and perceptual distortions which are at the root of suffering. The core delusion under which all mind-posessing beings suffer is the belief that phenomena exist inherently, or independently of their causes and conditions, their parts, and their designation by a valid consciousness. The fact that they do not exist in this way is called emptiness. Indian Madhyamaka masters Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Chandrakirti, and Shantideva express this view in their works. Their analysis is picked up by great luminaries of the Ge-lug-ba tradition in Tibet, such as Dzong-ka-ba and his disciples. Professor Hopkins primarily focuses his exegesis on the practical instructions of Chandrakirti as they are espoused by Tibetan masters Jam-yang-shay-ba, Nga-wang-bel-den, and Jang-gya. It is said by some that an analytic approach to meditation is contrary to the non-dual nature of realization in the Buddhist tradition. Such a view loses sight of the fact that all of these reasonings are aimed precisely at giving rise to such a direct experience. Putting these reasonings into practice can be the basis of profound and transformative growth, but it is up to the reader to breath life into the tradition by bringing these reasonings alive for one's self. Professor Hopkins here gives us a monumental collection of reasonings as well as a supportive analysis of pertinent aspects of Buddhist philosophy and the philosophical history of the Prasangika-Madhyamaka position which can be a cornerstone of our practice as well as future scholarship. Few works before, or even since, can begin to match the ambitious nature of this work which, in my opinion, is fully realized. In this book we see the serious engagement with some questions of fundamental import continued in the West.

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I've found them easier to look after. Especially Peruvian ground apple or yacon ... its sweet and crunchy and can be eaten raw. I just leave em in the ground ( carrots potatoes beets) and they look after themselves.

Where I live, the Slug is king!

 

Now I do. Thanks for mentioning!

 

From wikipedia:

"Young plants may be used as scallions in the spring."

 

Do you find this to be true? (BTW, Scallions are super easy to "regrow" once you put the roots of a cut plant in water.)

Well, sort of. What I do is remove the leaves, down to the base and chop them into salads. I don't dig up the onion itself, as there is no need. When the small onions sprout on top, then they can also be eaten in salads or planted.

What I do at the end of every season, is dig them up and replant them in another spot. This stops them getting too crowded and they grow much better in the following year.

I always plant my weakest garlic cloves into pots and treat them like spring onions. They can be harvested in their entirety and eaten when they look about the size of a spring onion. Very tasty with a fresh mild flavour.

Tried to sign in but it was just as odd. Just checked on the tablet and laptop, all the same HTML nasty. I've never heard of Thunderbird. I'll have to check that out.

I must apologise again to yabyum24 I didn't mean to imply that he had a malign eye.

Just as well, as I've already got Gollum on ignore

Nope, problem's back again. It was okay briefly yesterday afternoon but it's gone funny again...

Well yesterday it was because I was wearing shorts while it was snowing. What is wrong with that?

You need a T-Shirt that says "I'm a Canadian you wimps!"

Oddly enough, the same thought came to my mind as I watched the vid. I do Tai Chi now but I've also done hatha yoga in the past and I don't see anything that wouldn't be covered by either?

Sorted now. Just one of those things.

I don't bother much with root veg, as it's cheap enough to buy and quite a lot of work to look after. I stick with herbs and garlic, it's easy and tasty. Sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano look after themselves once planted. Basil is good indoors in pots in spring but then if you put it outside the leaves change and the flavour becomes more intense.

Peas grow in pots with sticks and netting to climb up. I also have tree onions (not many people know about them). All easy to look after and good for adding to food.

I'd start with easy stuff in pots and get more adventurous if the mood takes you.

Anyone else getting this when they hit yahoo's page? It could be a UK thing. I've tried on computer, laptop and tablet, same result. Can't find server.

It all comes down to the situation you find yourself in personally, and being realistic about it. I had some good teachers in the early years but none of them could ever be construed as gurus. Now I have a few associates but no physical teacher, so direct experience in and out of meditation is (by default) my actual guide/refuge.

... in reality it was not just porn, not just masturbation. But an addiction to quick fixes.

It's the release of stress co-joined with the enjoyment of bodily bliss which delivers a quick-fix relief.

This is weighed up against the effect you have noticed, which it's having on your energy/mind.

But a quick-fix from what? Well, it's stress, if you look closely. A kind a tightness and tension, combined with a desire for the bliss. A potent mix.

Energy work of some kind can deliver results and there are people here who know their stuff around Chinese/Taoist systems, which are akin to martial arts but very different, as they work on the body's internal energy.

I'm a beginner at Tai Chi and can't praise it highly enough. So read around and ask these guys. Some of them have years of experience behind them.

I believe its the apotheosis of all vehicles. There is the myth of Atiyoga been taught in other world systems and the lineage founder himself is mythic but these things are outside my concern and understanding.

 

I would defer to the knowledge of Malcolm a translator of Dzogchen tantras http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=8565&start=0

 

Dzogchen includes the meaning of all Buddhadharma, so one cannot say that by practicing Dzogchen as an independent path, one is dismissing Buddhadharma as unnecessary. One can dismiss the organized religion that has accreted around Buddhadharma i.e. "Buddhism", the corresponding socio/political/economic institutions, as unnecessary for Dzogchen practitioners.

 

Some people are very attached to the Buddhist clothes in which they find Dzogchen. Those clothes are not so important. Dzogchen texts are relative so they reflect the culture of those they find themselves in. The principle of the three kāyas is beyond language, so it does not matter at all what you call your three kāyas. The three kāyas just express aspects of the wisdom of the basis.

 

If we want to understand emptiness in Dzogchen, we do not need to engage in any analysis at all -- we need to merely reflect on the examples of illusion -- that is sufficient for understanding everything is unreal -- no analysis required, no fancy Madyamaka analysis, we don't even have to use the word "emptiness", "Life is but a dream...." In this way we penetrate to the real essence of the teachings.

One of the finest posts I've read in a long time on this topic. Very clear and gets to the heart of the matter.

There are no easy answers to this problem but at least the OP has seen the suffering in his life which it engenders and wishes to make a change. As such, it's a very good first step.

Martial arts are largely about controlling the situation, which he can do in the dojo no doubt, but perhaps this makes the contrast between that control and the way his addiction is controlling him, even more obvious.

You make a good point there. Sex and Porn are not the same thing by a long shot. On reprogramming my TV a few days ago I spotted a phone sex channel. On it was a lady with artificially round silicone-filled breasts + pierced nipples. She had various tattoos and other piercings and was compulsively jiggling up and down like a plastic zombie whilst babbling into a smartphone.

All in a effort to get some suckers to call the premium rate phone line which was flashing up on the screen.

I thought, is this what it has come down to? Is this the goddess towards which young men nowadays direct their desire and an empowering role model for girls to aspire to?

I may have lead a sheltered life but I've never had a partner who ever spat on my c**k, wanted it up the a** or wanted me to j*** on her face.

... I'd be disturbed if she did.

But when you upload from your harddrive, it'll display as a (too small, in my opinion) thumbnail. May question above is about this 'feature'.

 

Would be nice if the thumbs were at about double the size they are now.

Genau! It's a pain in the tushita to have to do the URL thing and images you upload from your computer look tiny and are likely to be overlooked and ignored, as people may not think to click on them.

Well, if there is another way, I'm all for it.

The only way I've found to get around that is to use an external image hoster like tumblr.com. Get an account and put some piccies onto it. Then copy the image location and paste it into your post. Best done in HTML view (top left hand switch) to see if the code is correct.

There may be other (more direct) ways but I'm not aware of them.

Bump!

Or...

When uploading a picture make sure there is no attachment to self.

That's a doctrine!

Interesting book. I've just located a free pdf.

Right on page 7 he says:

Often we hear people discussing spiritual truth from the objective standpoint, and resting content with theoretical or mental knowledge. This is the result of pursuing dry or fruitless lines of thinking. An aspirant has nothing to gain from mere appreciatory or depreciatory discussion of the truths set forth in philosophical works.

Very well said.