Today I came across a rather beautiful metaphor for roles in the guru-student relationship: The teacher is the mirror in which you see your own face. The mirror shows you your face, and the guru therefore helps you see the nature of your mind. So you are able to see the nature of your mind […]
A Beautiful Guru Student Relationship Metaphor – Dorje Chang Thung prayer Read Post »
Isn’t Light a metaphor for Wisdom, rather than Devotion? I thought it was interesting to reflect on why devotion was likened to the light in this metaphor. Common metaphors for devotion are in terms of energy to empower something, in terms of receptivity, or openness to the teachings. So why is devotion likened to light
A Beautiful Guru Student Relationship Metaphor – Devotion and Openness Read Post »
In response to a reply saying that: The dust does not come from teacher – it means it comes from you; which means the mirror itself – more exactly its ability to reflect, is part of your mind, not something “outer”. Absolutely! The guru is the mirror with which you are able to see your
A Beautiful Guru Student Relationship Metaphor – Guru is the Mirror Read Post »
Hi, many thanks for your considered response. I certainly agree with you on the role of words in teachings as skilful means which are used like fingers pointing to the moon – in order to get us to directly perceive that which cannot be captured by words alone. However, I would take issue with an
Mantras, Relative and Ultimate Truth – Views Read Post »
As I’m substantially in agreement with you, with only differing emphasis (due to perhaps wishing to emphasise a different aspect of view and method), then I’ll only briefly comment on a couple of points ….. So my point here was that in fact there is not much difference between saying specifically “my body” or generally
Mantras, Relative and Ultimate Truth – Emptiness of Forms Read Post »
I must confess that I didn’t see what you were getting at in your first mail. It’s a very interesting distinction. Can I comment on it using a conventional Kagyu approach, and see where it leads? When we put a possessive adverb like “my”, “our”, etc. in front obviously (or maybe, not so obviously, sorry
Mantras, Relative and Ultimate Truth – Possessing Things Read Post »
Ah! one more reflection regarding visualisations and mantras *operating* at a relative level … something which I think if very important from a point of view of practice … In my limited understanding, both visualizations and mantras do operate on relative level. When you say ‘they operate’ it sounds like ‘they’ are doing the ‘operating’
Mantras, Relative and Ultimate Truth – Appearance and Emptiness Read Post »
In response to the notion that: whenever we use words, we already operate on relative level 🙂 Words are just fingers pointing to experiential meaning in both cases. I’d entirely agree with you in the sense that the word itself, i.e. the concept, can only be a relative truth, from the two truths perspective of
Mantras and Sambhogakaya Read Post »
From an online discussion forum: Hi, can I take issue with you in the way you’ve described relative and ultimate reality? You seem to say that our bodies are at the level of relative reality and our minds are at the level of ultimate reality, if I’ve understood your implication correctly? Mantras provide a deep
Mantras, Relative and Ultimate Truth Read Post »
Following on from the post: Is Zen Vajrayana? I believe there are various tradtions in Zen. Some of them may use result as a path. This is a really interesting question. I don’t think that any of the traditions practice result as path in the sense that Vajrayana teachings teach it. However, interestingly enough, Soto
Soto and Rinzai Zen – Sutra, Tantra and Essence Mahamudra Read Post »
