Today I came across Longchenpa’s final testament – The Immaculate Radiance. I found it profoundly moving, reading the words of this incomparable Dzogchen master who was giving his final teaching, just before he died. What a life he led. How could you begin to estimate his contribution, perhaps unlike that of any other? At the […]
Immaculate Radiance: A Testament – Longchenpa Read Post »
I’ve been reflecting back quite a bit recently about my journey, and how I’ve taken many approaches at different times – I believe because they’ve each been appropriate at the time. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a ‘one size fits all’ type attitude when it comes to whatever this strange thing that we
A Dzogchen Guide to Buddhist Yanas Read Post »
The Terton Karma Lingpa discovered the Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness on top of Mount Gampodar when aged 15, together with the text commonly known in the west as the Tibetan Book of the Dead – more correctly called Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State The Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness is
Reflections on Verse 13 – Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness Read Post »
I thought I’d share a few reflections on a very beautiful poem by Mansur Hallaj. A brief biography of Mansour al-Hallaj Mansour al-Hallaj or Mansour Hallaj was a Persian mystic, poet, and teacher of Sufism. He was born 858 CE in Iran and died in 922 in Baghdad, Iraq. He is best known for his
Sufi Mystic Al-Hallaj’s Beautiful Poem: Stillness Read Post »
I thought I’d write a guide to the The Three Statements of Garab Dorje. This teaching has been so fundamental for me in relation to Dzogchen. It’s extraordinarily concise, but in a way all of Dzogchen is contained there in essence. The whole Dzogchen path opens out from these statements. The Three Statements of Garab
Guide to the Three Statements of Garab Dorje Read Post »
Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean – the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –
Mary Oliver’s Profound Poem ‘The Summer Day’ Read Post »
I thought I’d reflect on Patrul Rinpoche’s profound Dzogchen teaching on the nature of mind, awareness, and emptiness. The wisdom of inseparable emptiness and clarity is so clearly and directly pointed out here in his ‘The Life and Liberation of the Mind’. Emaho!Mind itself has always been without substance.It is not seen by looking, but
The Life and Liberation of the Mind – Patrul Rinpoche Read Post »
These verses from Self-Liberation: Through Seeing with Naked Awareness are as if directly spoken face to face with me by Karma Lingpa. How potent! Mind’s nature is empty It is certain that the nature of the mind is empty and without any foundation whatsoever. Your own mind is insubstantial like the empty sky. You should
The fourfold resting is: Rest your body like a corpse in a charnel ground, without preference or fixed arrangement. Rest your voice like a broken waterwheel, in a state of stillness. Rest your eyes like a statue in a shrine room, without blinking, in a continuous, focused gaze. Rest your mind like a sea free
The Fourfold Resting – Chokgyur Lingpa Read Post »
This Jisei, or death poem by the 19th century Japanese poet Kiba captures so poignantly the ephemeral effervescence that is a human life. Life is so fleeting. My old body: a drop of dew grown heavy at the leaf tip Kiba, 1868Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of DeathYoel
Life’s Fleeting Nature: Kiba’s Poignant Jisei Death Poem Read Post »
