‘Question and answer’ oral instructions of the Wisdom Ḍākinī to Tilopa Shrī vajraḍākinī namo! Tilopa asked the wisdom Ḍākinī: what is awakening [Buddha]? The wisdom Ḍākinī responded: Tilopa! When the mind looks at mind, the ‘looker’ is mind, the ‘looked at’ is also mind. Like space gazing at space, both the ‘gazer’ and the ‘gazed […]
Severing the Bardo ‘Once and for All’ Read Post »
To innermost bliss, I pay homage! Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say—All phenomena? Your own mind!If you look outside for meaning, you’ll get confused.Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,And mind is merely the flux of awareness,No self nature: just energy flow.No true nature: just like the sky.All phenomena are alike,
Reflections on Maitripa – Essential Mahamudra Verses Read Post »
I remember very clearly my new boss at a company telling me (upon my finding out that he was a Buddhist and asking him what practices he does), that he doesn’t practice, that he’s taking a ‘holiday’ in this life, and that he’ll practice in the next life. It struck me at the time that
How hard it can be to leave things are they are! How hard it can be to not try to do something in meditation, and to not try to have an object. How hard to not contaminate your meditation by trying to find something, to correct something, or to judge it as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Nothing to Meditate On Read Post »
In reply to a question from her son, Gangpa Muksang, as to what is the meaning of ‘devil’ Machig Labdron replied: That which is called devil is not some actual great big black thing that scares and petrifies whomever sees it. A devil is anything that obstructs the achievement of freedom. … Most of all,
Reflections on Machig Labdron – The Material Devil Read Post »
When it really gets down to it, how much of our activity is quite simply ‘useless’? I don’t mean that it has no use at all on a mundane level, but that it is so conditioned, so led by instinct or habit, so unconscious or below awareness or choice, or simply so trivial, superficial and
I thought I’d post on the nature of mantras and how they work, as I’ve recently responded to a question asking this on a Dharma list …. Firstly though, I’d like to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestions already made that the way to truly find out what mantras are and how they
Compassion and emptiness are inseparable. This uninterrupted flowing innate mind Is suchness, primordially pure. Space is seen in intercourse with space. Because the root resides at home, Mind consciousness is imprisoned. Meditating on this, subsequent thoughts Are not patched together in the mind. Knowing the phenomenal world is the nature of mind, Meditation requires no
Marpa’s Teaching from Saraha in a Dream Read Post »
Seems like we often feel that we need to get into certain circumstances in order for our ‘practice’ to blossom. That we need to change the conditions in our lives to somehow support our practice. That we would be able to somehow do it ‘better’ if things were other than how they are now. But,
Right Where You Are …. Read Post »
