C T

The Dao Bums
  • Content count

    10,542
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    100

Everything posted by C T

  1. Haiku Chain

    detachment's flower manure-fed cultivation a bonsai ritual
  2. Side effects

    Sometimes 'wrong' practices and what not are helpful, even necessary. If winds only blew in one direction, why would sails be made adjustable?
  3. Vajrayana Discussion

    Time flies like an arrow. Meanwhile.... Fruit flies like a banana.
  4. Haiku Chain

    dollhouse teaparty farewell do for Pikachu sayonara, dude
  5. To be a hermit doesn't just mean to live in the deep forest; it means that one's mind is free from dualistic constructs. ~ Padmasambhava
  6. Haiku Chain

    dreams of swimming there 'neath this starry canopy a campfire glows
  7. The sense of 'self' is that which painfully calcifies around fluid sense experience. ~ Paramito
  8. The episodic nature of life gives the impression of personal continuity, when in fact, the only continuity is a consciousness that is entirely impersonal yet radiant. ~ Paramito
  9. Everyone post some favorite quotes!

    The mountains whisper for me to wander; my soul hikes to the call. ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby
  10. Haiku Chain

    icy seas warming the French Alps devoid of snow reversive yin/yang
  11. Haiku Chain

    Bon appetit, thief may your liver turn fatty no last laughs for you
  12. Haiku Chain

    sea spray on my face gull droppings on the windscreen sand between my toes
  13. The earliest Ghandara scrolls mentioning the Medicine Buddha were part of a larger body of Mahayana texts found. The bodhisattva ideal is central to Mahayana, and compassion is the hub of that ideal. Alluding to Hinduism, or more specifically, that the Sanatana Dharma contains teachings that cover numerous aspects of virtuous conduct, including the cultivation of compassion, is just not the same. Christianity and other religions also feature teachings on compassion, but the emphasis in each varies.
  14. The claims are that Bhaisajyaguru scripts were first discovered around the regions of the Swat Valley, in Ghandara, at the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Maybe around the 6th century or thereabouts. Quite certain its origin isn't Hindu because the concept of compassion isn't central to that tradition.
  15. Visualisation - any good?

    Non Zen entity here šŸ˜„ My assumption had always been that dhyana, jhana, zen and ch'an means exactly the same, and, given the right application of methods, that different types of samadhi remain/arise, depending on which jhana is dropped/released. My other assumption is that, compared to jhannic states, which are in a sense contractive, samadhi on the other hand is supposedly expansive, and is therefore a fruit of practice (and not the path... jhannas are), although some would assert that, viewed with greater subtlety, the path IS the fruit, which isn't incorrect in the least. Open to correction always.
  16. Visualisation - any good?

    Kinda lost interest when it became clear Mizner attempted to sway opinion by associating (indifferentiating) two very distinct modes... that of imagination and fantasy, and that of visualisation. Or maybe he carelessly assumed a certain audience disposition to aid his cause, or lack of one. If he was meticulous and exercised his awareness in a broader sense, this debate may not even have taken wing. He also made the fundamental error of failing to address that resting in meditation is a core aspiration of all contemplative traditions. Maybe it was a convenience. Thru such an omission, whether intentional or not, he avoids having to explain what resting in meditation means to contemplatives, what's involved, and what the fruits will be. So we end having a debate between ones initiated in one or the other contemplative traditions, against ones who, like Mizner, assume that contemplation means exercising the imagination. See where it gets bothersome, and even cumbersome? He should read up on some of Plotinus' works. Plotinus regards the highest contemplation was to experience the vision of God. This is a profound statement. Probably beyond Mizner's scope.
  17. Haiku Chain

    swallowing one bite lands any fish in trouble hook, line and sinker
  18. Visualisation - any good?

    The general view of meditation is that the one who engages with/in meditation withdraws engagement with the very limited range offered by the six sense faculties and takes on an inner path or journey.... a flighty, limitless vista as vast as space unfolds before the meditator... Buddafields, pure lands, bejewelled heavenly realms where tutelary deities and spiritual guides await to offer blessings and to reveal spiritual maps and treasures, to offer sacred union.... an endless array of delights for the spirit that can be accessed for the purpose of inner fulfillment and progress. The opposite of this, in some instances, and for some seekers and practitioners, is to sit in blankness, like drudgily walking in circles in an acrid, arid desert desirous of arrival upon an oasis. There's always a choice. I voted yes.
  19. Dhammakya meditation

    I think it'd help to wiki the spelling first.
  20. Dhammakya meditation

    What exactly is dhammakya?
  21. The distinguishing factor between Buddhas, up to and including Gautama, and other awakened beings, is that only when the wheel of (Buddha)Dharma has been turned is the epithet meaningful. There have been arhats and other non-returners who followed the purānamārga (path of the ancients, the same path taken by all Buddhas) who, for various reasons, did not turn the Dhamma wheel hence were not acknowledged as Buddhas. The chief criteria concerning the turning of the wheel of Dharma relates to the transmission of knowledge of awakening. So when Gautama referred to himself as Buddha, there is a direct and specific reference to the continuity of his role as Teacher and disseminator of the purānamārga.
  22. Haiku Chain

    Which is illusion One who dreams he is awake Eating cherry pie
  23. Haiku Chain

    I brim with great joy Sinking into deepest dreams Summer flowers fade
  24. Compassion MINDROLING KHANDRO RINPOCHE COMPASSION IS INTRINSIC We have a confused society, in which everybody struggles to protect himself or herself, and where genuine, basic kindness itself seems so very difficult. But if we sit down and think about it, compassion and kindness aren't something that we have to learn from someone else. Kindness is the intrinsic nature; it is an intrinsic feeling that we all appreciate, and one really doesn't need especially to meditate or practice how to become a good person, how to refrain from harming another person, or to realize that killing, stealing, lying, and so on are negative. All of us [already] understand that. SHABKAR reiterates.... If someone has compassion, he is a Buddha; Without compassion, he is Yama (Lord of Death). With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted; Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten. One with compassion is kind even when angry, one without compassion will kill even as he smiles. For one with compassion, even his enemies will turn into friends, Without compassion, even his friends turn into enemies. With compassion, one has all Dharmas, without compassion, one has no Dharma at all. With compassion, one is a Buddhist, without compassion, one is worse than a heretic. Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence. A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature. Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism. Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma. Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem. Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others. Therefore, all of you, practitioners and laypeople, cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood. May all men and women who hear this song, with great compassion, benefit all beings! - from the book "The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin"
  25. BUDDHA SPEAKS All those who clearly understand the fact that enlightenment is everywhere come to the perfect wisdom with a marvelous insight that all objects and structures, just as they are in the present moment, are themselves enlightenment, both the way and the goal, being perfectly transparent to the ineffable. Those who experience the ineffable, known as Suchness, recognise that all structures are radiantly empty of self-existence. Those who attain perfect wisdom are forever inspired by the conviction that the infinitely varied forms of this world, in all their relativity, far from being a hindrance and a dangerous distraction to the spiritual path, are really a healing medicine. Why? Because by the very fact that they are interdependent on each other and therefore have no separate self, they express the mystery and the energy of all embracing love. Not just illumined wise ones but every single being in the interconnected world is a dweller in the boundless infinity of love. ***Prajnaparamita