The ineffable tale of that final simple state: it’s utterly different. It can’t be weighed on a scale, can’t be whittled down. It doesn’t feel heavy and doesn’t feel light. It has no rain, no sea, no sun or shade. It doesn’t contain creation or destruction. No life, no death exist in it, no grief, […]
Kabir – The Final Simple State Read Post »
This post is an exploration of Natural Perfection or Lhungrub in Tibetan (ཀ་དག་) – the third of a series of posts on Dzogchen key terms. Natural Perfection is pointing to the natural, effortless manifestation of phenomena from the ground of being (Gzhi). It is the dynamic aspect of the mind that allows for the continuous arising of
In Dzogchen, what is Natural Perfection / Spontaneous Presence (Lhungrub)? 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 »
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
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 »
I love this quotation from Franz Kafka – it really speaks to me about how easy it is to do something in meditation, to try to fabricate experience. It speaks so well of how I can let go of a sense of effort, of a sense of goal, or even of something to evaluate the
Simply Wait – Franz Kafka Read Post »
All experience is mind is probably a misleading title for this post. It seems to suggest that experiences are ‘something’, and that this something is ‘mind’ – a thing. It’s as if there is this thing called mind which exists, and our job is to discover it, to reveal it. But actually, it doesn’t! Instead,
All Experience is Mind Read Post »
Some drowsy reflections on Niutou Farong’s Song of Mind (Xin Ming) when unable to sleep whilst ill … The nature of the mind is non-arising,What need is there of knowledge and views?Originally there is not a single dharma;Why discuss inspiration and training? Niutou Farong begins with the view, a view which includes the need to
Reflections on Niutou Farong – Song of Mind (Xin Ming) Read Post »
One thing that’s been coming into view lately in meditation is how my common sense notions that ‘I’ am somehow taking the decisions and choices and thereby the active agent of my life is not actually backed up by experience. My conventional notion is that, for example, when I decide to switch my focus in
Nobody is Running this Show Read Post »
The birds have vanished into the sky,and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me,until only the mountain remains. from Endless River: Li Po and Tu Fu: A Friendship in Poetry, Translated by Sam Hami. This is so evocative. A truly beautiful image, of Li Po sitting *with* the mountain,
Li Bai / Li Po – The Birds Have Vanished Into The Sky Read Post »
