I have been thinking a lot this last few days about how pretty much any statement you make about approaches to Dharma can be contradicted. I was reflecting on Al’s post the other day: Seated meditation is the arena in which the meditator practices his own fundamental skills. The game the meditator is playing is […]
Never Absolutely So … Read Post »
In response to a scenario on a List, where a person was confused as to how it is said that mind has no qualities, and yet it is said to have compassion, fearlessness, in-destruction etc. There are a couple of layers in response to this. As a Shentongpa, I cannot help responding from a Kagyu
Qualities of Mind – Shentong and Rangtong Read Post »
Hi, I just wanted to add one thing to your very beautiful email, which detailed why people act the way that they do, and the various ways in which you can work with the situation you find yourself in. Your present is a reflection of your past mind The teachings say that what we experience
Wicked People and Buddhist View 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 »
