yabyum24

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Posts posted by yabyum24

  1. Posted

    I asked the local monk if consciousness remained upon the death of an arahant, and he said no. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around that lol. So whats left? what gets enlightened?

    This perhaps:

    "'Your question should not be phrased in this way: Where do these four great elements — the earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, and the wind property — cease without remainder? Instead, it should be phrased like this:

     

     

    Where do water, earth, fire, & wind

    have no footing?

    Where are long & short,

    coarse & fine,

    fair & foul,

    name & form

    brought to an end?

    "'And the answer to that is:

     

     

    Consciousness without feature,[1]

    without end,

    luminous all around:

    Here water, earth, fire, & wind

    have no footing.

    Here long & short

    coarse & fine

    fair & foul

    name & form

    are all brought to an end.

    With the cessation of [the activity of] consciousness

    each is here brought to an end.'"

    That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, Kevatta the householder delighted in the Blessed One's words.

    Ask your monk about Viññanam anidassanam. It looks like he's conflating the cessation of the activity of consciousness with the cessation of consciousness.

    • Like 3

  3. Posted · Edited by yabyum24

    There are different approaches to this but it's fair to say (as in the Dhammapada) that "mind is the forerunner of all actions".

    In any kind of meditation - stabilization is going to help, and this can be developed in various ways. A measure of tranquility enables a contemplative to direct (or not) his mind.

     

    Both physical and mental energy work are options - the link between mind and energy is well known.

     

    I'm not sure to what extent one can entirely transform a physical body (beyond a slight improvement) but there is also the astral body which can be developed and this is linked to development in the waking state.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    Actually, the whole point of the non-affirming negations in Madhymaka, is just that, to "drop the whole shebang". In this case, it's views stemming from "is" or "is not", especially if someone is trained in a non-buddhist tenet system.

    I know, but does it quite cut it for you personally? Non-affirming negations? It's still in some way playing the ontology game it seems. Perhaps, it genuinely does for some people but for most, it's just a "better view" than those they refute.

  6. Posted

    ontological views such as the above is what Dzogchen, Mahamudra, and Prajnaparamita seek to put an end to.

    But you can't "put an end to them" with better or even more refined views. You either engage in view-making/negating of one kind or another, or drop the whole shebang.

     

    As I understand it, the advantage of Dzogchen etc. is that they don't entertain ontological views. They have no need to.

  7. Posted

    You said you didn't like ontology, positing an undifferentiated "awareness" is an ontology, so is positing an actual state free from dualities a la Advaita Vedanta or Kashmiri Shaivism. All ontological views stem from grasping onto imputations of an entity or non-entity into sensate experience. This is what Madhyamaka seeks to cut with its expositions of the 2-truths.

    I love it. I posited an undifferentiated awareness! That bugger must have just slipped out.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    In Madhyamaka, on a conventional level, consciousness arises only if there is a meeting of a sense organ and sense object.

    That's the irrelevant bit of the whole thing. What difference does any of that make at all.

     

    If you don't like ontology, then you should have no problem, with the basic premise of Madhyamaka. Anyways, I think I can safely conclude that you're a realist (Buddhist definition).

    I don't understand any of that but if I fit neatly into one of your conceptual boxes, then good for you. It's one less loose-end to resolve.

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    I owe a lot to wooly new-agers and back-dated hippies. When I was a kid there was no alternative to the working class lifestyle which surrounded me and everyone I knew was unquestioningly signed up to it. You're at school only as long as necessary before you got a "proper" job. You find a girlfriend, get her pregnant, marry her, watch football and a few years (and marriages) later die of smoke, alcohol & lifestyle induced misuse.

     

    That was it. But I always had a deep feeling that there had to be more to it than that. When I finally drifted into further education (the first in my family) it was an eye-opener. Here were young people (and lecturers) doing things, believing things and discussing stuff I'd never heard of and I wanted to know a lot more.

     

    Nowadays 'alternative' is mainstream - everyone has heard of some kind of stuff, and there's the internet for the curious. Back then it was a mysterious door, opening on a whole new world. Rare books passed from hand-to-hand, small, informal groups meeting in flats.

     

    So, no - give a new-ager a hug. They're courageous in their own way. The young ones get abuse from their trendy "clone" peers. The old ones just get scoffed at. I'd share my muesli bar with any of them, even if "$$alternative-plc.ÂŁÂŁ" is a mass product and not what it used to be.

    • Like 4

  16. Posted · Edited by yabyum24

     

     

    RongzomFan Tantric Approach to Attaining Tummo

     

    Reading a book

     

     

    ...as per the OP.

    • Like 4

  19. Posted

    For those wondering why tummo is practiced.....

     

    Dzogchen is a tantric system with winds, drops, channels etc.

     

    Why tummo wouldn't be practiced?

    Well, tummo along with the 6 yogas and various deities belong to the Anuttarayoga class of tantras.

     

    Dzogchen belongs to the Nyingma system. I'd always believed that they had their own unique tantric practices, which differentiated them from the Anuttarayoga. Rushan, tregchöd, Thödgal, Rigpa, Rainbow Body etc.

     

    Look at this link

    Dzogchen is considered a tantric system as opposed to sutra systems such as Zen. This is not to say that Dzogchen is a part of general Vajrayana. Vajrayana is a path of transformation. Dzogchen, an independent vehicle in its own right, is a path of self-liberation.

    See? That's what I mean. Where's the mention of tummo or karmamudra?

     

    And:

    Chögyal Namkhai Norbu relates that once someone asked the famous Dzogchen Master, Yungtön Dorje Pel, what his practice consisted of, and he replied with the negative “mepa” or “there isn’t.” Then his startled questioner asked again, “Then you don’t meditate?,” to which the Master replied, “And when am I ever distracted?” This is the essence of samaya in Dzogchen teaching: not to meditate or to practice something with the mind and yet never to be distracted, for one remains uninterruptedly in the self-perfection of the single state of rigpa or Truth.