Joy and Sadness
When you are born you cry, but the whole world is overjoyed. When you die the whole world cries, but you may find the great liberation. Bardo ThodolKarma Lingpa
Vajrayana
General Buddhism
The Story
The other day something quite illuminating happened. I walked into a store, and saw in a distance the headline on a newspaper – “man stabbed by fork” on a local newspaper. Immediately in my mind, the following thoughts popped up …. “ah … local newspapers … always full of trivial news … like cats stuck
Mahayana
Samsara and Nirvana
Where does the unsatisfactoriness of life come from? How is it that we experience pain or sorrow, frustration or unhappiness? What is the cause of experience of life as being imperfect? It’s all just a matter of perspective! The experience of Samsara Misunderstanding the nature of things we experience suffering. This is the experience of
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General Buddhism
A Vantage Point
One of the nice things about being ill is that the circumstances of your life are rather different from ‘normal’, and as a result, it gives you a different vantage point from which to view how things are. Instead of the usual routine, you are forced into a different one, one which may well disrupt
Vajrayana
All Situations Are Workable
To use Chogyam Trungpa’s phrase – all situations are workable. After reading part of a teaching by Trungpa Rinpoche on a forum today, I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to label situations as either easy or difficult from the point of view of practice. And, beyond that, how easy to label certain situations
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Mahamudra
Suffering, Compassion and Meeting Needs
Looking at a situation with a group of people, what do you see? Suffering However you look, you see either immediate suffering, the suffering that comes from the nature of change and therefore loss of present happiness, or existential suffering – the suffering that comes simply through being embodied. Looking at beings, you see beings
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Mahamudra
2 Days Later
Outside of meditation, reflecting now, 2 days later … did those thoughts arise at all? Where are they? … Are they any different in nature from the dream I had last night? Where has that gone? They both had a sense of ‘realness’ at the time, but what substance remains of either? Both resonate, and
Mahamudra
Where Do Thoughts Come From?
Where do thoughts come from? This last evening, I’ve been watching seemingly endless thoughts appearing in mind, anger and revenge mostly, as in the midst of a family crisis, my ex-wife decided to pitch in with the ‘blame game’. It’s funny this expression – pushing the buttons. The common expression is .. ‘she knows how
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Dzogchen
Verse 4 – Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness – Karma Lingpa / Padmasambhava
Emaho! It is the single (nature of) mind which encompasses all of Samsara and Nirvana. Even though its inherent nature has existed from the very beginning, you have not recognized it; Even though its clarity and presence has been uninterrupted, you have not yet encountered its face. Even though its arising has nowhere been obstructed,
Dzogchen
Reflections on Longchenpa – The Middle Path
Since things neither exist nor don’t exist, are neither real nor unreal, are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting – one might as well burst out laughing. Longchenpa Rabjampa Tenzin Chodron’s post to the Kagyu Online Study Group reminded me of this wonderful quote from the 14th Century Nyingma master, Longchenpa Rabjampa. So often recently I’ve
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