NeiChuan

Meditating in a graveyard

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They have events there year round, and they are run by the local artist community. Well the ones who also feel drawn to making the cemetery home for the community. Their view is that no one should be left out. If there are obvious religious displays, then folks of other religions would be left out is how they view it.

 

Some of the events are quite popular and a few hundred people show up throughout the evening! They are also accepting of candle and food offerings. It is owned by the city instead of privately owned, which is why they are so open minded. There is also a giant all souls parade they have here each year.

 

Needless to say it has a much better feel (in most parts of it) then most other cemeteries :).

This is lovely...

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As a youth I worked at Rookwood cemetery - a LARGE one ... it had wild dogs there that lived off offerings left in the Chinese Section.

 

This guy, that was supposed to be showing me how to do the job, gets excited when firecrackers go off; "Chinese for lunch today!"

 

I am young new guy and a bit shocked.

 

He sneaks off ... but comes back looking freaked out.

 

"Where's ya lunch'" another worker asks.

 

" Those f***ing dogs saw me and chased me! "

 

"Serves ya right! " from the other.

 

(I did enjoy the occasional waft of incense through the fields - I worked in the 'wild part' ).

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Indian Esoteric Buddhism by Ronald Davidson talks alot about funerary ground subculture of both Hinduism and Buddhism.

 

New and uneducated I am ...please forgive lack of etiquette but curiosity got the better of me;

 

Why is the pathway to you Deity blocked with the international symbol for 'not allowed' ?

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Why is the pathway to you Deity blocked with the international symbol for 'not allowed' ?

 

That's just Tsongkhapa in my profile picture.

Edited by RongzomFan

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That's just Tsongkhapa in my profile picture.

Okay ... excuse me again ... may I ask another question?

 

Why is Tsongkhapa in you profile picture blocked with the international symbol for 'not allowed' ?

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Okay ... excuse me again ... may I ask another question?

 

Why is Tsongkhapa in you profile picture blocked with the international symbol for 'not allowed' ?

 

Reading his "signature" might help to explain it (didn't really help ME to understand but I'm not trying to...) ;)

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Okay ... excuse me again ... may I ask another question?

 

Why is Tsongkhapa in you profile picture blocked with the international symbol for 'not allowed' ?

 

 

I don't believe in Tsongkhapa.

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He has his own unique and different views on things, apart from the mainstream.

 

Oh .... my ..... god .... ! How ..... shocking! The terrible man ... he sounds like a Tibetan 'A lie ster Crow ley' :wacko:

Edited by Nungali

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He mentioned being a bit afraid and nervous at first.... it is amazing how a need can sometimes overcome all fear (whether the fear is founded or not). Then over time he's comfortable there, I mean in the being in a cemetery sense.

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Oh .... my ..... god .... ! How ..... shocking! The terrible man ... he sounds like a Tibetan 'A lie ster Crow ley' :wacko:

humor is such great medicine... thank you I needed that! :)

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He has his own unique and different views on things, apart from the mainstream.

 

Yes, but "how" different?

Can you give me an idea of the extent to which Tsongkhapa produced a new philosophy?

Just to save me hours of study. How much his idea of emptiness differs?

 

He mentioned being a bit afraid and nervous at first.... it is amazing how a need can sometimes overcome all fear (whether the fear is founded or not). Then over time he's comfortable there, I mean in the being in a cemetery sense.

 

Yes, I have the impression that our graveyards full of statues and well-cutted grass are very good for the dead... all this makes the spirits of our deceased particularly pleased as they are organized in "their own city", with their own houses, ect...

 

So, they are not particularly "aggressive" or destructive like bhutas, pisachas and pretas produced in the cremation grounds.

They are -to a certain extent- pacified. I think that our westerner graveyards generally don't present any risk for those who decide to live there for a while with a humble heart.

 

In fact, only mad people or extreme ascetics take home in the charnel grounds ... and then they become like ghosts (see the monk in the video...).

There's so much suffering in the cremation grounds :(

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If it's Tuesday it must be Lobsang Rampa, or is that if its tea time it must lapsang souchong?

Tastes like a burned-out campfire doused in turpentine...

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I drink it, too! Grows on you, doesn't it?

 

:)

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Padmasambhava did a lot of tantric practices with Mandarava on charnel grounds.

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First time I've heard about her. Thanks, C T. :)

 

Mandarava-ed.jpg

 

From wikipedia:

Ooo lala, nice image! Thanks RV! :)

 

 

The story goes that one day, while practicing with Mandarava at his cemetery retreat (!) a friend paid Padmasambhava a visit. He goes on to admonish Padmasambhava for being a 'fine example' having left his lawful wife (i'm thinking Yeshe Tsogyal) back at Urgyen coutry and now fooling around with other women in discrete places for fear of being seen.

 

The account went on to say that Padmasambhava thought to himself: "Inasmuch as this fellow is ignorant of the inner significance of the Tantrayana and of the yogic practices pertaining to the three chief psychic channels, I should pardon him."

 

(3 channels being the central one, the avadhuti, the left, rasana, and the right, lalana).

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If it's Tuesday it must be Lobsang Rampa, or is that if its tea time it must lapsang souchong?

 

Tastes like a burned-out campfire doused in turpentine...

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I drink it, too! Grows on you, doesn't it?

 

:)

 

Not recently, but I have. Tea drinking kind of comes and goes in my life, but I do like smokey flavors, like Islay single malts. Both are kind of like receiving a 'burnt offering'. Very suitable for a thread on graveyard meditation I suppose.

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As you will , my potential friend who does not share my desire to bond ... unfortunately you are not going to clear up my flawed terminology (I even tried to use Arabic to get my point across as I thought the problem might be a language barrier).

 

It is probably pointless to agree with you and seek clairification.

 

< Both leave the shade of the tree and continue along the road in opposite directions, one looking angry, the other sad. .... The End.>

 

Thank you.

 

I have no objection to potential friendship. I simply do not know how to start it if you reply to points that I did not say at all.

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I have no objection to potential friendship. I simply do not know how to start it if you reply to points that I did not say at all.

 

That's is right ... but how can I be replying if you did not say it. I did not reply .. I implied ... I implied you are smarter than you were pretending to be, ;)

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That's is right ... but how can I be replying if you did not say it. I did not reply .. I implied ... I implied you are smarter than you were pretending to be, ;)

 

Look, whether I am smart or not is not the subject. I told a very very simple thing: Do not do whatever you are doing in that graveyard. The topic is that. If you want to speak about it, fine. Do not mix the subjects of other threads.

Edited by Isimsiz Biri

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