Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential

[steve]

Such a wonderful thread.

You find some great stuff CT.

Thank you!

[C T]

5 minutes ago, steve said:

Such a wonderful thread.

You find some great stuff CT.

Thank you!

You're most kind, Steve. 

 

This little corner of TDB flourishes on the kindness of anyone that lingers here for a moment or two to partake of the Buddha's flowing wisdom that can be entered into from wherever one is. As Buddha Purnima day (Vesak) approaches, I'm reminded of the ever-increasing compassionate activities of Buddha Shakyamuni and all the other nirmanakaya buddhas, and ever grateful for the generous, appreciative comments that have ornamented this thread like precious gems and auspicious symbols adorning the mandala it has become. 

 

Homage to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha

 

May the causes of happiness increasingly ripen for all sentient beings. 

 

[manitou]

1 hour ago, C T said:

∞ DAN LUSTHAUS ∞ 

Buddhist phenomenology

 

“A deceptive trick is built into the way consciousness operates at every moment. Consciousness projects and constructs a cognitive object in such a way that it disowns its own creation - pretending the object is "out there" - in order to render that object capable of being appropriated. Even while what we cognize is occurring within our act of cognition, we cognize it as if it were external to our consciousness. Realization of vijñapti-mātra exposes this trick intrinsic to consciousness's workings, thereby eliminating it. When that deception is removed one's mode of cognition is no longer termed vijñāna (consciousness); it has become direct cognition (jñāna). Consciousness engages in this deceptive game of projection, dissociation, and appropriation because there is no "self." According to Buddhism, the deepest, most pernicious erroneous view held by sentient beings is the view that a permanent, eternal, immutable, independent self exists. There is no such self, and deep down we know that. This makes us anxious, since it entails that no self or identity endures forever. In order to assuage that anxiety, we attempt to construct a self, to fill the anxious void, to do something enduring. The projection of cognitive objects for appropriation is consciousness's main tool for this construction. If I own things (ideas, theories, identities, material objects), then "I am." If there are eternal objects that I can possess, then I too must be eternal. To undermine this desperate and erroneous appropriative grasping, Yogācāra texts say: Refute the illusory separate object, and the fictional, perceiving self is also negated.”

 

 

It amazes me when someone can describe something as abstract as this phenomena and have it make sense.  To manufacture the 'out-thereness' when indeed it's all Mind.

[C T]

∞ BASSUI ∞

mud and water

 

There are others who eliminate all thoughts making their minds calm and composed. They think that the path of no-mind means that their minds are perfectly clear and cheerful. Still, others revel in form to the extreme, love manner and decorum far beyond the behavior of others, and seek the way to gain merit.

 

Or, not having the mind that seeks the Way, others become interested in fame. They desire proof of their attainment from a good teacher, and if they don't receive it, they scornfully denounce the teacher.

 

Or, believing in the law of cause and effect in all situations, some feel that even their failure to realize the Buddha Way is a result of past karma. They say they do not have the karmic connection with the Way and will not become enlightened in this lifetime while trying to exhaust all bad karma of previous lives by performing various practices of self-abandonment. They make pilgrimages to shrines and temples to gain spiritual merit, recite diverse incantations, count prayer beads, and make hundreds of prostrations, praying for the mind that seeks the Way. These people, in particular, are of extremely low aptitude. All these people fear life and death. They are sick in the mind - a sickness that occurs when one seeks the Way while not yet having developed correct views. Bad as they are, however, they don't compare with those who have no fear of life and death and yet do not seek the Way.

[C T]

∞ THE BARDO TEACHINGS BY GYALWA DOKHAMPA ∞ 

 

 

 

A series of 7 clips https://www.youtube.com/user/drukpakham/videos

Edited May 13, 2020 by C T

[C T]

∞ ATISA DIPAMKARA SRIJNANA ∞ 

 

 

The past mind has ceased and disappeared. The future mind has not arisen or appeared. The present mind is very hard to examine. If you analyze and investigate what can be shown through reasonings—that the present mind has no color or shape; that, like space, it does not exist; that it is neither singular nor a plurality; that it does not arise; or that it is naturally luminous—you will realize it does not exist.

 

If both material and nonmaterial entities are things that have no essence at all and are simply empty, discerning prajñā also does not exist. An analogy is fire: the fire that arises from rubbing two sticks together will burn up the sticks and, when the sticks no longer exist as sticks, the fire that consumed them will go out on its own.

 

Similarly, when prajñā has proven that all phenomena—both specifically characterized and generally characterized—do not exist, that prajñā disappears and that which remains is sheer luminosity, which has no essence at all. Thus, everything that could be a flaw (such as dullness or agitation) is cleared away.

 

At this point, mind does not think about anything, it does not grasp at anything. Mindfulness and attentiveness are cast aside. At that point, as long as the enemy, or thief, in the form of habitual characterization or conceptualization does not arise, rest mind in that.

[manitou]

4 hours ago, C T said:

∞ ATISA DIPAMKARA SRIJNANA ∞ 

 

 

The past mind has ceased and disappeared. The future mind has not arisen or appeared. The present mind is very hard to examine. If you analyze and investigate what can be shown through reasonings—that the present mind has no color or shape; that, like space, it does not exist; that it is neither singular nor a plurality; that it does not arise; or that it is naturally luminous—you will realize it does not exist.

 

 

 

This is wonderful.

 

Who is it that is thinking the thought?  It is not my earthly self.  The urge to express, to feel, to take in everything must be the reason for our existence.  The thoughts and ideas are expressed within the confines of conditioning and genetics.  And because we all have different conditioning, I think it's pretty much impossible for two people to see anything exactly the same way.

 

I think that analyzing and investigating what can be shown through reasonings will only take you up one side of the hill.  It's the inner journey that joins it all together - and when that inner knowledge, once attained, is used as the basis for understanding the analysis and investigation, then the Aha! occurs.  It all clicks.  Like tumblers in a lock.

 

On this forum, it is not difficult to see who concerns themselves with inner development and who does not.

[C T]

∞ CHAGDUD TULKU RINPOCHE ∞ 

 

Desire and attachment won’t change overnight, but desire becomes less ordinary as we redirect our worldly yearning toward the aspiration to become enlightened for the benefit of others. At the same time, we don’t abandon the ordinary objects of our desires – relationships, wealth, fame – but our attachment to them lessens as we contemplate their impermanence. Not rejecting them, rejoicing in our fortune when they arise, yet recognizing that they won’t last, we begin to build qualities of spiritual maturity. As our attachment slowly decreases, harmful actions that would normally result from attachment are reduced. We create less negative karma, more fortunate karma, and the mind’s positive qualities gradually increase.

 

[C T]

∞ AVATAMSAKA SUTRA ∞ 

8 8 4 

 

Just as reflections on water
Are not inside or outside,
Bodhisattvas seeking enlightenment
Know the world is not the world:
They do not dwell in or leave the world,
Because the world is inexplicable;
And they are not inside or outside,
Appearing in the world like reflections.

[C T]

https://www.lionsroar.com/investigating-the-rainbow-body/

[C T]

∞ KEITH DOWMAN ∞ 

The Six Lines of the Cuckoo's Song

 

Also known as the Six Vajra Verses. They are considered to be the root text of the Dzogchen Mind Series tradition out of which the entire view, meditation and action of Dzogchen may be extrapolated. 

 

The nature of multiplicity is nondual

and things in themselves are pure and simple;

 

Being here and now is thought-free

and it shines out in all forms, 

always all good. 

 

It is already perfect, so the striving sickness 

is avoided and spontaneity is constantly present. 

 

 

 

Turned into prose....

 

All experiences, the entire phantasmagoria of the six senses, the diverse multiplicity of existence, 

in reality is without duality. Even if we examine the parts of the bodhi-matrix in the laboratory of 

the mind, such specifics are seen to be illusive and indeterminate. There is nothing to grasp and there

is no true way to express it. 

 

The suchness of things, their actuality, left just as it is, is beyond thought and inconceivable, and that

is the here and now. Yet diversity is manifestly apparent and that is the undiscriminating, all-inclusive

sphere of the all-good buddha, Samantabhadra. 

 

Total perfection has always been a fact and there has never been anything to do to actuate this 

immaculate completion. All endeavour is redundant. What remains is spontaneity, and that is always

present as our natural condition. 

 

 

*Where confidence in the View reveals the unmistakable clarity of Sunya, non-self is realized as the effortless, unimpeded & indefatigable action arising from space, and thereupon, instantaneously liberated from whence it arose. 

[C T]

 

Dwelling of Mahasiddha Gotsangpa, believed to have been one of Padmasambhava's many retreat abodes.

 

Appearing starkly on the backbone of a barren mountain, this 4-storey high structure, made from tons of rocks, is said to be constructed by dakas and dakinis at the behest of the great mahasiddha himself. 

 

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche recounted the moment Gyalwa Gotsangpa entered parinirvana, "When Gyalwa Gotsangpa was lying on his deathbed, he summoned his students, who cried. He opened his eyes, sang a song, laughed , and then passed away into nirvana." Khenpo added, "So, if we can go like that, it would be great".

Edited May 29, 2020 by C T

[C T]

∞ GURU PADMASAMBHAVA ∞

 

As for this apparent and distinct phenomenon which is called 'mind':
In terms of existence, it has no inherent existence whatsoever.
In terms of origination, it is the source of the diverse joys and sorrows of cyclic existence and nirvāṇa,
In terms of philosophical opinion, it is subject to opinions in accordance with the eleven vehicles.
In terms of designation, it has an inconceivable number of distinct names:
Some call it 'the nature of mind', the 'nature of mind itself',
Some eternalists give it the name 'self',
Pious attendants call it 'selflessness of the individual',
Cittamatrins call it 'mind',
Some call it the 'Perfection of Discriminative Awareness',
Some call it the 'Nucleus of the Sugata',
Some call it the 'Great Seal',
Some call it the 'Unique Seminal Point',
Some call it the 'Expanse of Reality',
Some call it the 'Ground-of-all',
And some call it 'ordinary unfabricated consciousness'.

 

 

 

*The classification of the 11 vehicles begins with the teachings of human and heavenly beings, followed by the nine significant Buddhist vehicles https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/alak-zenkar/nine-yanas, and culminating in Ekayana, or the path of manifesting nature. 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by C T

[forestofemptiness]

From the Sutra of Hui Neng, trans. Red Pine:

 

What do we mean by a form that is ‘no form’? To be free of form in the presence of forms. And ‘no thought’? Not to think about thoughts. And ‘no attachment,’ which is everyone’s basic nature? Thought after thought, not to become attached. Whether it’s a past thought, a present thought, or a future thought, let one thought follow another without interruption. Once a thought is interrupted, the dharma body becomes separated from the material body. When you go from one thought to another, don’t become attached to any dharma. Once one thought becomes attached, every thought becomes attached, which is what we call ‘bondage.’ But when you go from one thought to another without becoming attached to any dharma, there’s no bondage. This is why ‘no attachment’ is our foundation. Good friends, ‘no form’ means externally

 

[manitou]

2 hours ago, forestofemptiness said:

From the Sutra of Hui Neng, trans. Red Pine:

 

What do we mean by a form that is ‘no form’? To be free of form in the presence of forms. And ‘no thought’? Not to think about thoughts. And ‘no attachment,’ which is everyone’s basic nature? Thought after thought, not to become attached. Whether it’s a past thought, a present thought, or a future thought, let one thought follow another without interruption. Once a thought is interrupted, the dharma body becomes separated from the material body. When you go from one thought to another, don’t become attached to any dharma. Once one thought becomes attached, every thought becomes attached, which is what we call ‘bondage.’ But when you go from one thought to another without becoming attached to any dharma, there’s no bondage. This is why ‘no attachment’ is our foundation. Good friends, ‘no form’ means externally

 

 

 

I think 'no form' means internally too.  External and internal are the same thing.  No Form in thought would be to maintain the consciousness of no opinion, no good, no bad, no before, no after - just acceptance of what Is.  I have little inner dialog any more.  If it does come up and in a negative fashion, it is immediately corrected.  This comes after many years of practice.  But remembering the Wholeness of Everything in our everyday thoughts will magically remove any judgment at all.

[forestofemptiness]

I think there is no division between internal and external, but I would not call them the same thing. Why? Function. I can sit on a chair, but I cannot sit on the thought or visualization of a chair. 

 

6 hours ago, manitou said:

 

 

I think 'no form' means internally too.  External and internal are the same thing.  No Form in thought would be to maintain the consciousness of no opinion, no good, no bad, no before, no after - just acceptance of what Is.  I have little inner dialog any more.  If it does come up and in a negative fashion, it is immediately corrected.  This comes after many years of practice.  But remembering the Wholeness of Everything in our everyday thoughts will magically remove any judgment at all.

 

[C T]

[C T]

The Nyingma and Kagyu Explanations of Tantra. 

 

All four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism – Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug – accept as a meaning of tantra the everlasting successions of moments of interwoven Buddha-nature factors. The special explanations of each tradition shed further light on the topic and complement each other. Let us look first at the general presentation common to Nyingma and Kagyu, since it specializes in discussing tantra in terms of Buddha-nature in general. Their presentations derive from Maitreya's Furthest Everlasting Continuum.

 

Maitreya explained that although successions of moments of Buddha-nature factors continue forever, they may be unrefined, partially refined, or totally refined. The distinction derives from whether successions of moments of all levels of confusion and their habits accompany the mental continuum without a break, only some of them do for some of the time, or none of them accompany it ever again. These three conditions of the everlasting continuities of Buddha-nature factors are the basis, pathway, and resultant tantras.

 

As basis tantras, the always-available continuities of Buddha-nature factors are the working materials for achieving enlightenment. From this perspective, the factors are unrefined or "impure" in the sense that successions of moments of all levels of confusion and their habits interlace with the factors at all times, limiting their functioning to varying extents. 

 

On the path to enlightenment, practitioners work to remove the limitations by stopping, in stages, the continuities of the various levels of confusion and their habits that interweave with their bodies, communication, minds, good qualities, and actions. Consequently, during the purification process, the continuities of Buddha-nature factors, as pathway tantras, are partially refined and partly unrefined. Sometimes, periods of full understanding accompany the factors; at other times, periods with merely the momentum of understanding ensue.

 

Occasionally, successions of moments of confusion temporarily cease. Afterwards, continuities of some levels resume, but gradually none of them ever return. Similarly, the habits of confusion occasionally stop giving rise to moments of confusion; but eventually, the continuities of the habits cease forever.

 

On the resultant level of Buddhahood, the continuities of Buddha-nature factors, as resultant tantras, are totally refined in the sense that they are completely free, forever, of accompanying periods of any levels of confusion or their habits. Thus, the Buddha-nature factors function everlastingly at their full capacities as the interwoven enlightening facets of a Buddha, for example as a Buddha's enlightening physical, communicative, and mental faculties, good qualities, and activities.

 

The Role of Buddha-Figures in Tantra

 

Buddha-figures represent the Buddha-nature factors during refined or "pure" phases when successions of moments of full understanding accompany their continuities. Because Buddha-figures have bodies, communication, minds, good qualities, and actions that work together like an integrated network, they are fit to represent these Buddha-nature factors. Moreover, the figures often have multiple faces, arms, and legs. The array of faces and limbs represent themes from sutra, many of which are also among the Buddha-nature factors. Tantra practitioners use the figures in meditation to further the purification process.

 

The Sanskrit term for Buddha-figures, ishtadevata, means chosen deities, namely deities chosen for practice to become a Buddha. They are "deities" in the sense that their abilities transcend those of ordinary beings, yet they neither control people's lives nor require worship. Thus, the Tibetan scholars translated the term as lhagpay lha (lhag-pa'i lha), special deities, to differentiate them from worldly gods or from a Creator god. 

 

The more common Tibetan equivalent, yidam (yi-dam), denotes the intended meaning more clearly. Yi means mind and dam stands for damtsig (dam-tshig, Skt. samaya), a close bond. Tantra practitioners bond with male and female Buddha-figures, such as Avalokiteshvara and Tara, by imagining themselves as having the enlightening facets of physical appearance, communication, mental functioning, good qualities, and activities of these figures. More precisely, while the continuities of their Buddha-nature factors are still partly unrefined as pathway tantras, practitioners bond or mesh them with continuities of the factors imagined as the totally refined facets of Buddha-figures. Even when practitioners have gained only incomplete understandings of how things exist, imagining their partially unrefined Buddha-nature factors functioning as totally refined Buddha-figure facets is the general tantra method for removing the fleeting stains of periods of confusion and its habits from everlasting continuities of Buddha-nature factors.

In short, the Buddha-nature factors remain the same factors whether they function as basis, pathway, or resultant tantras. The mental continuum always manifests some form of physical appearance, communication of something, and mental functioning, as well as some level of operation of good qualities and some activity. The only difference is the extent to which successions of moments of different levels of confusion and their habits accompany the continuities of the factors and limit their functioning.

 

According to the Nyingma and Kagyu presentations, then, the subject matter of tantra is the intertwining of the basis, pathway, and resultant conditions of everlasting continuities of Buddha-nature factors to weave a method for achieving enlightenment. Specifically, tantra concerns methods for working with periods of the Buddha-nature factors as pathway tantras to purify successions of the factors as basis tantras so that they ultimately function as the everlasting continuities of resultant tantras.

 

Tantra practice effects this transformation by bonding continuities of unrefined Buddha-nature factors with successions of moments of their refined situation as represented by the enlightening facets of Buddha-figures.

 

The Sakya Presentation

 

The Sakya presentation of the meaning of tantra derives from The Hevajra Tantra, a text from the highest class of tantra. This presentation elucidates the relation between Buddha-figures and everyday beings that allows for a bonding of corresponding facets of the two in tantra practice.

 

An exclusive topic of highest tantra is the clear light continuum (clear light mind), the subtlest level of everyone's mental continuum. All mental continuums have clear light levels of experiencing things, which, as the ultimate Buddha-nature, provide them with deepest everlasting continuity. Coarser levels of experiencing things, such as those at which sense perception and conceptual thought occur, do not actually continue without a break from one lifetime to the next. Moreover, they stop forever with the attainment of enlightenment. Only successions of clear light levels continue without interruption, even after becoming a Buddha. If individual beings are analogous to radios, then the coarser levels of their mental continuums are similar to the radios' playing on different stations, while their clear light levels resemble the radios' simply being on. The analogy, however, is not exact. Radios can stop playing, whereas mental continuums never cease their flow.

 

Regardless of the level at which it occurs, the mere, individual, subjective experiencing of things entails giving rise to appearances of things (clarity) and mentally engaging with them (awareness). In other words, one does not directly perceive external objects, but merely appearances or mental representations of them that arise as part of the act of perceiving.

 

Appearances, here, include not only the sights of things, but also their sounds, smells, tastes, and physical sensations, as well as thoughts about them. Western science describes the same point from a physical perspective. In perceiving things, one does not actually cognize external objects, but only complexes of electrochemical impulses that represent the objects in the nervous system and brain.

 

Although all levels of experiencing things entail the arising of appearances of them, the clear light continuum is the actual source that gives rise to all appearances.

 

Mentally engaging with appearances means to see, hear, smell, taste, physically sense, or think them, or to emotionally feel something about them. The mental engagement may be subliminal or even unconscious. Further, giving rise to appearances of things and mentally engaging with them are two ways of describing the same phenomenon.

 

The arising of a thought and the thinking of a thought are actually the same mental event. A thought does not arise and then one thinks it: the two mental actions occur simultaneously because they describe the same event.

 

The Sakya discussion of tantra focuses on a specific Buddha-nature factor, namely the everlasting succession of moments of the clear light continuum's innate activity of giving rise to appearances from itself. The appearance-making is automatic, nondeliberate, and unconscious. One may deliberately look at something; but when one sees it, one's clear light continuum does not deliberately construct an appearance of it. Moreover, the appearances that arise from the clear light continuum may be of the continuum's physical basis – one's body – or of any other objects that it perceives.

Here, the main point is that appearance-making occurs inseparably on two levels: coarse and subtle. Inseparably (yermey, dbyer-med) means that if one level validly occurs, the other level validly occurs as well. In this context, coarse appearances are of everyday beings and their environments; subtle appearances are of Buddha-figures and their surroundings.

 

Everyday beings and Buddha-figures are like quantum levels of clear light continuums. Subatomic particles have several quantum levels of energy at which they resonate equally validly. At any moment, the level at which a particle is resonating is a function of probability: one cannot say for sure that the particle is resonating at only one level and not the other. In fact, according to quantum mechanics, a particle may resonate at several levels simultaneously. Similarly, because the level at which a clear light continuum is appearing at any moment is a function of probability, one cannot say that at a particular moment an individual being has only one appearance and not another.

 

The everlasting continuity of mental activity producing this innately bonded pair of appearances may be unrefined, partially refined, or totally refined, depending on the successions of moments of confusion and its habits that accompany it. The process whereby a continuity of practice with Buddha-figures purifies this factor of Buddha-nature so that it produces an everlasting succession of appearances completely free of accompanying periods of confusion and its habits is the primary subject matter of tantra as discussed in the Sakya school.

 

The Gelug Explanation

 

The Gelug tradition follows The Guhyasamaja Appendix Tantra in explaining the meaning of tantra as an everlasting continuity. The main aspect of Buddha-nature emphasized here is the voidness (emptiness) of the mental continuum – its absence of existing in impossible ways.

 

Mental continuums do not exist as inherently flawed and impure by nature. They never have and never will. No everlasting continuities of innate features accompany them that, by their own powers, make them exist in that impossible manner. Because this total absence is always the case, when practitioners fully understand this fact, they can stop continuities of confusion and its habits from accompanying their mental continuums so that their Buddha-nature factors may function fully as the enlightening facets of a Buddha.

 

Since mental continuums go on forever as everlasting continuities, their voidness remains always a fact enabling purification and transformation.

 

The purification method refers to the stages of practice with Buddha-figures. Unlike ordinary people, Buddha-figures do not grow from fetuses, age, or die. Because they are always available in the same form, meditation with them may form an everlasting continuity. The result of the purification process is the everlasting continuity of Buddhahood.

 

In short, through an everlasting continuity of meditation practice of bonding with Buddha-figures, tantra practitioners attain the everlasting continuity of Buddhahood, based on the everlasting fact of the voidness of their mental continuums. Because tantra practice entails producing appearances of oneself as Buddha-figures that resemble the resultant state of enlightenment, tantra is called the resultant vehicle.

 

Summary

 

The subject matter of tantra concerns everlasting continuities connected with the mental continuum. The continuities include such Buddha-nature factors as basic good qualities, a clear light level of experiencing things, its activity of producing self-appearances, and its voidness. The continuities also include Buddha-figures and the enlightened state.

 

The four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism explain varied ways in which successions of moments of these everlasting continuities intertwine as bases, pathways, and results. They share the feature that tantra involves a pathway of practice with Buddha-figures to purify a basis in order to achieve enlightenment as the result. They also agree that the physical features of the Buddha-figures serve as multivalent representations and provide the warps for interweaving the various themes of sutra practice.

 

The term tantra refers to this intricately interwoven subject matter and the texts that discuss it.

[C T]

SAMADHI AND INSIGHT

 

NO MATTER HOW DEEP OR CONTINUOUS, samãdhi is not an end in itself. Samãdhi does not bring about an end to all suffering. But samãdhi does constitute an ideal platform from which to launch an all-out assault on the kleshas that cause all suffering.

 

The profound calm and concentration generated by samãdhi form an excellent basis for the development of wisdom. 

The problem is that samãdhi is so peaceful and satisfying that the meditator inadvertently becomes addicted to it. This happened to me: for five years I was addicted to the tranquility of samãdhi; so much so that I came to believe that this very tranquility was the essence of Nibbãna. Only when my teacher, Ãcariya Mun, forced me to confront this misconception, was I able to move on to the practice of wisdom. 

 

Unless it supports the development of wisdom, samãdhi can sidetrack a meditator from the path to the end of all suffering. All meditators who intensify their efforts to develop samãdhi should be aware of this pitfall. Samãdhi’s main function on the path of practice is to support and sustain the development of wisdom. It is well suited to this task because a mind that is calm and concentrated is fully satisfied, and does not seek external distractions. Thoughts about sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations no longer impinge upon an awareness that is firmly fixed in samãdhi. 

 

Calm and concentration are the mind’s natural sustenance. Once it becomes satiated with its favorite nourishment, it does not wander off where it strays into idle thinking. It is now fully prepared to undertake the kind of purposeful thinking, investigation and reflection that constitute the practice of wisdom. If the mind has yet to settle down—if it still hankers after sense impressions, if it still wants to chase after thoughts and emotions—its investigations will never lead to true wisdom. They will lead only to discursive thought, guesswork and speculation—unfounded interpretations of reality based simply on what has been learned and remembered. Instead of leading to wisdom, and the cessation of suffering, such directionless thinking becomes samudaya—the primary cause of suffering. 

 

[C T]

∞ THE 14TH. DALAI LAMA ∞

 

The reason why we find so much discussion of epistemology, or how, in Buddhist writings, to define something as a valid cognition is because all our problems, suffering, and confusion derive from a misconceived way of perceiving things. This explains why it is so important for a practitioner to determine whether a cognitive event is a misconception or true knowledge. For it is only by generating insight which sees through delusion that we can become liberated.

 

Even in our own experience we can see how our state of mind passes through different stages, eventually leading to a state of true knowledge. For instance, our initial attitude or standpoint on any given topic might be a very hardened misconception, thinking and grasping at a totally mistaken notion. But when that strong grasping at the wrong notion is countered with reasoning, it can then turn into a kind of lingering doubt, an uncertainty where we wonder: "Maybe it is the case, but then again maybe it is not". That would represent a second stage.

 

When further exposed to reason or evidence, this doubt of ours can turn into an assumption, tending towards the right decision. However, it is still just a presumption, just a belief. When that belief is yet further exposed to reason and reflection, eventually we could arrive at what is called 'inference generated through a reasoning process'. Yet that inference remains conceptual, and it is not a direct knowledge of the object.

 

Finally, when we have developed this inference and constantly familiarized ourselves with it, it could turn into an intuitive and direct realization -- a direct experience of the event. So we can see through our own experience how our mind, as a result of being exposed to reason and reflection, goes through different stages, eventually leading to a direct experience of a phenomenon or event.

[C T]

∞ SHIQIN ∞

In fact, everything we encounter in this world with our six senses is an inkblot test.
You see what you are thinking and feeling, seldom what you are looking at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[manitou]

 

Wonderful observations, and the ability to put it into words is pretty awesome.  I've discovered that there is a place of Gnowledge which manifests when the mind is totally stilled.  There is one anchor that is always connected to the Gnowledge - the other points of triangulation will come together and be seen for what it really is.  IMO, it goes back to our conditioning.  We see what we want to see, and our brains will cherry pick information to make it align with our previous beliefs.  Once the conditioning has come into Awareness, and the unconscious tendencies (from conditioning) have been removed, the coast is clear.

[senseless virtue]

Faith in Mind (Xìnxīn Míng 信心銘)

by 3rd Ch'an Patriarch Jianzhi Sengcan

 

 

Attaining the Way is not difficult,
Just avoid picking and choosing.
If you have neither aversion nor desire,
You’ll thoroughly understand.
A hair’s breadth difference
Is the gap between heaven and earth.
If you want it to come forth
Let there be no positive and negative.
For such comparisons
Are a sickness of the mind.
Without knowing the Great Mystery
Quiet practice is useless.
The great perfection is the same as vast space,
Lacking nothing, nothing extra.
Due to picking up and discarding
You will not know it.
Don’t chase the conditioned
Nor abide in forbearing emptiness.
In singular equanimity
The self is extinguished.
Ceasing movement and returning to stillness,
This is complete movement.
But only suppress the two aspects
How can you realize unity?
Not penetrating the one,
The two lose their life.
Reject existence and you fall into it,
Pursue emptiness and you move away from it.
With many words and thoughts
You miss what is right before you.
Cutting off words and thought
Nothing remains unpenetrated.
Return to the root and attain the essence,
For if you chase the light you’ll lose the Way.
But if you reflect the light for but a moment,
All previous shadows are dispelled.
All previous shadows are transformed
Because they were all due to delusive views.
It’s no use to seek truth,
Just let false views cease.
Don’t abide in duality
And take care not to seek,
For as soon as there is yes and no,
The mind is lost in confusion.
Two comes forth from one,
But don’t hold even the one,
For when even the one mind is unborn,
The myriad things are flawless.
Without flaws, without things,
With no birth, no mind,
Function is lost to conditions,
Conditions perish in function,
Conditions arise from function,
Function is actualized from conditions.
You should know that duality
Is originally one emptiness,
And one emptiness unifies duality,
Encompassing the myriad forms.
Not perceiving refined or vulgar
Is there any prejudice?
The Great Tao is vast,
With neither ease nor difficulty,
If you have biased views and doubts,
And move too fast or slow
Grasping the world without measure,
Then your mind has taken a Wayward path,
Let it all naturally drop away
And embody no coming or going,
In accord with your fundamental nature unite with Tao
And wander the world without cares,
Being tied by thought runs counter to Truth,
But sinking into a daze is not good,
Don’t belabor the spirit,
Why adhere to intimate or distant?
If you want to experience the one vehicle,
Don’t malign the senses.
For when the senses are not maligned
That itself is perfect awakening,
The wise do not move,
But the ignorant bind themselves.
Though one dharma differs not from another
The deluded self desires each,
Objectifying the mind to realize mind,
Is this not a great error?
Delusion gives rise to quietness or chaos,
But enlightenment has no positive and negative,
The duality of existence
Is born from false discrimination,
Flourishing dreams and empty illusions,
Why try to grab them?
Gain and loss, true and false,
Drop them all in one moment.
If the eyes don’t sleep
All dreams disappear.
If the mind does not go astray
The myriad dharmas are but One,
And the One encompasses the Mystery.
In stillness, conditioned existence is forgotten,
And the myriad things are seen equally,
Naturally returning to each one’s own nature.
When all dharmas are extinguished
It is immeasurable.
Cease movement and no movement exists,
When movement stops there is no cessation.
Since two are not manifest
How is there even one?
Finally, ultimately,
Principles do not exist,
Bring forth the mind of equanimity
And all activities will be put to rest,
All doubts extinguished.
True faith is upright,
And nothing then remains,
Nothing is remembered,
And the empty brightness shines naturally
Without effort of mind.
There, not a thought can be measured,
Reason and emotion can’t conceive it.
In the dharma realm of true thusness
There is neither other, nor self,
One should hasten to behold it.
Just say, “Not two,”
For in “not two” all things are united,
And there is nothing not included.
The wise ones of the ten directions,
Have entered this great understanding,
An understanding which neither hastens nor tarries.
In ten thousand years, a single thought,
Not to be found within “existence and non-existence,”
But meeting the eye in the ten directions.
The smallest is no different from the largest,
Eliminating boundaries,
The largest is the same as the smallest
Not seeing divisions
Existence is but emptiness,
Emptiness, existence.
That not of this principle
Must not be preserved.
The one is everything,
Everything, the one.
If your understanding is thus,
What is left to accomplish?
Faith and mind are undivided,
Non-duality is both faith and mind.
The way of words is cut off,
Leaving no past, no future, no present.

 

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/faith-mind/

 

Trans. Andrew Ferguson. From Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications, Inc., wisdompubs.org.

[forestofemptiness]

15 hours ago, virtue said:

Faith in Mind (Xìnxīn Míng 信心銘

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/faith-mind/

 

 

One of my favorites. I've not been able to find a good commentary--- has anyone here?

[senseless virtue]

6 hours ago, forestofemptiness said:

One of my favorites. I've not been able to find a good commentary--- has anyone here?

 

I haven't read any commentaries, but I quickly looked up some resources:

 

https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/fm/fm.htm

https://terebess.hu/english/hsin.html

 

In the last link you may have to look around to find some commentaries that aren't mentioned on the front page.