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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 07 2009 : 2:09:02 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by manig
quote:
Originally posted by chinna
Dear Mani
Thank you, but my teaching is about you, not about me. If you have read what I have been saying, you will know that I have no interest but in encouraging you to go into your own experience very deeply, until you are beyond all conditioned concepts, including the concept I-Am. I can only teach the path that I have followed. For this path, the principal requirement is sincerity. You will progress in direct proportion to your sincerity. And that means eschewing any suggestion that someone else can give you what you seek for free. You must find it for yourself. This is the jnana path.
Chinnamasta doesn't chop your head off for you (metaphorically), she chops off her own, to show you how to do it, and that you do not need to fear.
chinna
Chinnamasta
I just want to look into your eyes.
I don't want you to show or teach me anything.
Please!?
Abandon such quixotic desires and look into yourself.
Or, if you must, go to Thalheim and look into Mother Meera's eyes. That is what she offers and many have found it fulfills their heart's desire.
chinna |
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Konchok Ösel Dorje
USA
545 Posts |
Posted - Sep 07 2009 : 3:10:39 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by chinna
quote:
Originally posted by Konchok Ösel Dorje
I bow down to the Precious Guru Buddha. I ask for the blessings of my teacher and the protections of my protectors.
I see. You have received validation for your experiences. It is wonderful when that happens. I have also had my own personal experiences with truth. Too many to list. I was brought up on Hindu Tantra and Advaita. For 20 years I did nothing but recite AUM. My own habit energy just guided me to visualize my body as the universe expanding, abiding and contracting with every A, U, M, and silence, beginning when I was five years old. My kundalini experiences is one of my earliest memories.
Before I ever read a buddhist sutra, when I was about 17, I had an out of body experience of traveling out of the universe and seeing the true state of the many universes arising from pure will, shakti/shiva. I also worshipped Shivaji. I still have a Shiva deity next to my bed. Shivaji gave me many teachings, by appearing as the infinite faces of all beings and as the energy of life.
Visionary experiences of seeing living rainbow lights who, when I asked the question "what does it mean?" showed me the universe being burned up by time and all beings minds dispersing in misery, not knowing the point of awakening, ultimately dissolving all into emptiness with no remainder of being. Yet an abiding compassion remained as just potential, not deity. Avalokiteshvara appeared and gave me teachings using only mudras. I had to research for a long time to know who had appeared to me. I still did not know anything about sutras.
Then I started studying buddhist tantra. My meditation was accompanied by miracles of a strange flower, that blooms only once per year for twenty minutes opening at the moment of my realizing a stage on the path, and miraculously blooming and opening a second time I realized another. This second time happened last week. My teacher took many pictures of it.
There are many other signs I could mention, but they are a bit terrifying... In this life I have exhausted all my karma from the three realms, demon, human and deva/formless Self.
My realization is beyond being and not-being, that or not that. Ultimately, I recognize and pay homage to the buddhas, the awakened teachers who showed me an unexcelled state of grace beyond any impermanent god or impermanent samadhi (permanent though they may seem). I prefer not to make strong proclamations about who I am, and just dedicate myself to all beings suffering in the three realms, whatever that may mean. I offer my body, speech and mind to all. May all beings be happy and be separate from suffering...
I bow down to the Dharmakaya Buddha, the absolute nature of mind itself, just the pure unborn potential of compassion... in any event. I bow down.
Thank you Osel for sharing something of your dramatic story. One day your story will be known much more widely, I feel sure.
chinna
Kind of you to say. My story is not important. I merely illustrate direct experience of the Dharma. What's important is the body dedicated to the liberation of beings, the supreme refuge. Until I manifest that body, it is my guru. |
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miguel
Spain
1197 Posts |
Posted - Sep 07 2009 : 4:28:31 PM
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Thanks for sharing, chinna and osel.
_/\_ |
Edited by - miguel on Sep 07 2009 4:49:34 PM |
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 07 2009 : 4:46:39 PM
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Dear Osel
I can't help feeling that one manifests the liberation of beings when one no longer seeks it? However subtle, surely this waiting/practising to be different is a desire, and as a desire is an obscuration of WHAT IS, which includes us all just as we are, completely and always already free even if we do not know it? When we accept to be nothing going nowhere, and therefore accept/include in ourselves everything changing just as it must, then those who are still imagining their separation within the non-dual field we have consciously become, will see and seek what they need in us.
chinna |
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Konchok Ösel Dorje
USA
545 Posts |
Posted - Sep 07 2009 : 6:03:26 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by chinna
Dear Osel
I can't help feeling that one manifests the liberation of beings when one no longer seeks it? However subtle, surely this waiting/practising to be different is a desire, and as a desire is an obscuration of WHAT IS, which includes us all just as we are, completely and always already free even if we do not know it? When we accept to be nothing going nowhere, and therefore accept/include in ourselves everything changing just as it must, then those who are still imagining their separation within the non-dual field we have consciously become, will see and seek what they need in us.
chinna
You are right.
The method of becoming a buddha takes into account causation. Nothing is not caused or doesn't arise depending on conditions.
The condition which causes the interdependent event of a being seeking liberation from a guru is a wish to be liberated and to spontaneously liberate any being of any sort.
The methods which lead to liberation of any being of all different sorts of minds is the great compassion which knows those minds, knows liberation and is beyond all the conceptions of any being.
The realization which leads to that knowledge of great compassion is free of any obscuration, is desireless, is completely free, without center or boundary, open, unmanifest.
So the Buddha who has the desire to liberate all beings does not desire to liberate any beings. The being who wishes to be liberated, wishes to liberate all beings as the essence of awakening.
In this dynamic the awakening mind drops all fetters and expectations. From faith, develops blessings and direct experience. |
Edited by - Konchok Ösel Dorje on Sep 07 2009 6:14:30 PM |
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manig
India
88 Posts |
Posted - Sep 08 2009 : 02:11:15 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by chinna
Abandon such quixotic desires and look into yourself.
Or, if you must, go to Thalheim and look into Mother Meera's eyes. That is what she offers and many have found it fulfills their heart's desire.
chinna
I just wanted to look. Without any desire.
Not in your eyes. But mine. |
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beetsmyth
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2009 : 4:05:03 PM
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I think there is a major point being missed here. Ramana always said that the most powerful practice is to seek out the thought/feeling of 'I'.
Meditation is more of a object/subject practice. Yes it stills the mind, but then when meditation is finished, guess who comes back to the fore-front? The ego/mind.
By constantly looking for the source of 'I' even in the midst of work, play, and even sleep ...the 'I' will sink down into the heart, disappear, and leave Union only.
The constant seeking out of the 'I' and ignoring everything else is the most powerful practice is what has always been said by Ramana, Nisargadatta, Advaita Vedanta, Yoga Vasistha, and countless others.
As a result of this, you will come to automatic and permanent stillness of mind and constant meditation will become the only state. |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2009 : 4:28:28 PM
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Hi beetsmyth....
It is my experience that without a solid grounding in inner silence (which is achieved through daily deep meditation), self inquiry practices like these just leave the mind spinning in circles....chasing it's tail forever. With a core of inner silence, self inquiry will be "Relational" as you are coming to inquiry from a place of Stillness. If you are coming to inquiry from a place of mind, it will be "non-relational" and will be mind inquiring into mind, which is futile.
I agree that looking for the "I-ness" in all our actions is a very powerful practice, but only after well established in inner silence.
Good luck!
Love,
Carson |
Edited by - CarsonZi on Sep 22 2009 4:29:11 PM |
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beetsmyth
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2009 : 4:41:47 PM
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Carson,
True you got a point there. I shall oblige to it. In my case I have no choice in the manner .....there is in the background constant silence, the now, timelessness, stillness, transcendence, etc .....of course it all comes from years of meditative practice, spiritual work, and God's grace.
Forgot my roots there for a second. |
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2009 : 4:57:54 PM
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Hi beetsmyth......
No worries , it happens to us all....well, it happens to me anyways .
You are lucky to be filled with Silence, but it is good to remember our roots and that everyone is at a different point in their journey.
Meditation and the resulting Silence is home.
Good to have you here!
Love,
Carson |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2009 : 5:11:38 PM
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Hi Beetsmyth:
Do you think refining the I-thought is not an object/subject practice?
Non-duality teachers so often dismiss meditation as an object/subject practice, while tying their students up in endless loops of mental gymnastics and call it "self-inquiry." Often it is an object/object (mind/mind) practice, which is much worse. That's not real self-inquiry.
There is an important point being missed all right. The process of self-inquiry you are describing cannot be undertaken with any degree of success until the witness quality is already present. We cannot transcend the witness in self-inquiry until we have the abiding stillness to do it in.
True meditation is not about object and subject. It is about refining object into subject, until only subject remains (stillness). This is how the witness is cultivated.
The process of refining the I-thought (object) in stillness is actually meditation. It is what Ramana Maharshi taught, and it is an excellent practice for those who are ready for it.
The difference between Ramana's practice and AYP deep meditation is that it has a "meaning component," the concepts of "I" and inquiring as to who or what that is. The Ramana practice is attempting to do several things at the same time:
1. Cultivating stillness through meditation on the I-thought.
2. Inquiring as to who or what that is, to its source.
3. Attempting to do that all day long in the midst of daily activity.
It is a bit much to take on for those who are beginning without significant spiritual background, for those who are not already "ripe." See this lesson.
AYP breaks this up into digestible components which can be incorporated into the daily routine one step at a time:
1. Cultivation of abiding inner silence in deep meditation with a mantra having no meaning, in two short daily sessions. Much more efficient than attempting to use an object with meaning all day long. Reminder: This is no more an object/subject practice than using the I-thought in the Ramana technique. Actually less so, because meaning is not included.
2. Developing skill in samyama, which is the ability to release intentions and inquiries (meaning) in stillness, both in structured practice and ad-hoc during the day. This integrates all thinking and activity in stillness, making life "stillness in action."
3. Incorporate structured self-inquiry into samyama practice with a sutra such as: "I-Thought - Who am I?" Equivalents can be derived, but it is important to settle on one for structured practice, so the inquiry can be "baked in." This has a profound effect on #4.
4. Inquire ad-hoc during the day as so inclined, based on a strong foundation in both abiding inner silence (witness) and deep self-inquiry cultivated in structured practices.
If you are interested in more detail on this, see these two lessons:
Self-inquiry practices for transcending the witness: http://www.aypsite.org/350.html
Structured self-inquiry samyama: http://www.aypsite.org/351.html
Both Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj were well aware of the importance of "ripeness," and were supportive of practitioners undertaking whatever means necessary to become ripe. Their successors have not been nearly as understanding, and that is why the field of non-dual self-inquiry has remained esoteric and problematic. There is no need for this. Only an understanding of the means for becoming ripe should be added. Then non-dual self-inquiry will become a rich field of realization for everyone.
None of this need alter anything you are doing now, assuming you are ripe and happily dissolving the "I" in the heart of non-duality. This has been posted for everyone else. 
The guru is in you.
PS: Carson, you beat me to the punch.
Beetsmyth, you see where we are coming from? Ultimately, it is not about our own experience. It is about everyone else. 
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 05:09:34 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by CarsonZi
Hi beetsmyth....
It is my experience that without a solid grounding in inner silence (which is achieved through daily deep meditation), self inquiry practices like these just leave the mind spinning in circles....chasing it's tail forever. With a core of inner silence, self inquiry will be "Relational" as you are coming to inquiry from a place of Stillness. If you are coming to inquiry from a place of mind, it will be "non-relational" and will be mind inquiring into mind, which is futile.
I agree that looking for the "I-ness" in all our actions is a very powerful practice, but only after well established in inner silence.
Good luck!
Love,
Carson
Dear Carson and Yogani
The very futility of mind inquiring into mind can generate the insight that this is just a futile exercise of mind inquiring into mind, and that insight is the beginnings of the witness experience.
Even the unconscious drive for the mind to inquire into mind, futilely, is generated by THAT which AYP calls Inner Silence.
Nisargadatta said struggle with this enquiry constantly, any which way you can, at whatever level you are capable of, and in the end something will click. None of us know what it is - the descriptions are all just more concepts. The key to success for Nisargadatta is sincerity. But I would say that even this says too much - insincerity reflecting eventually finds sincerity.
This is a different viewpoint to AYP, but a valid one for the jnana yogi.
Important not to judge contemporary neo-advaita devotees, chasing their tails in the apparent futility of their practice, any more than the jnani should judge the apparent futility of others in the midst of their journey to nowhere, to all that is, was and always will be, via very different yoga practices.
Only those ripe for jnana yoga will find it and persevere with it, and for them what I say will be helpful. For others, for whom self-enquiry is a support to other practices which are the focus of their heart's desire, what I say may not be helpful.
chinna |
Edited by - chinna on Sep 23 2009 05:25:33 AM |
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manig
India
88 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 06:37:32 AM
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Where am I?
I am in the flowers.
No!
I am Love.
No!
What am I?
I am this pleasure you are receiving.
(receiving pleasure)
I don't want it. I want the truth!!!
You will be destroyed!
Impossible!
Ground yourself.
No!
Where am I?
You will go out of mind!
Mind will, I can not!
....
I want the truth!!! Nothing else!!!
I am Shiva and Buddha.
I don't care. When I die, Shiva/Buddha will exist no longer for me.
I didn't knew about Shiva/Buddha before I came out from the womb.
Where was I before birth and where will I go after death?
(No answer)
........
(grounded by force, out from the witness state, back to work) |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 10:44:40 AM
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Hi Chinna:
I hung a sign in front of the house:
"Inquire within for the path to enlightenment based on cultivating futility."
So far, no one showed up. 
Like I said: "esoteric and problematic" ... and also unnecessary. Earnest bhakti can be utilized in much more effective ways, by many many more people.
This isn't for you who may already be ripe. It is for everyone else.
The guru is in you.
PS: Perhaps the sign needs an addition, in fine print: "Only the ripe need apply."
AYP is mainly concerned with helping all people become ripe. Once that is being accomplished, the harvest is inevitable. Jnana/advaita is a good harvesting tool. We are on the same team.
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 10:52:00 AM
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Hi Chinna....
quote:
Even the unconscious drive for the mind to inquire into mind, futilely, is generated by THAT which AYP calls Inner Silence.
Yes, everything happens for a reason, but I think the point trying to be made here is basically in "effectiveness". AYP is extremely effective because as Yogani says above, "AYP breaks.....up into digestible components which can be incorporated into the daily routine one step at a time". The "Self Inquiry from start to finish" approach is going to take MUCH longer without cultivating abiding Inner Silence first. First we learn to sit up, then we learn to crawl, then we learn to walk, then we learn to run, jump etc etc. We don't go straight to jumping right from birth...there are some prerequisite steps involved. "They" say that if a child learns to walk before they crawl they will have some pretty severe learning disabilities....I don't know how true this is in general, but it seems to me that the most effective Path is to do things one step at a time. Just my opinion.
Love,
Carson
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Edited by - CarsonZi on Sep 23 2009 10:53:32 AM |
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 5:03:09 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by yogani
Hi Chinna:
I hung a sign in front of the house:
"Inquire within for the path to enlightenment based on cultivating futility."
So far, no one showed up.
Like I said: "esoteric and problematic" ... and also unnecessary. Earnest bhakti can be utilized in much more effective ways, by many many more people.
This isn't for you who may already be ripe. It is for everyone else.
The guru is in you.
PS: Perhaps the sign needs an addition, in fine print: "Only the ripe need apply."
AYP is mainly concerned with helping all people become ripe. Once that is being accomplished, the harvest is inevitable. Jnana/advaita is a good harvesting tool. We are on the same team.
Hmm, seems I touched a nerve there.
I have always been careful to point out that what I say is for the relatively few who are destined for jnana yoga, and to be clear that this group is not those who have found their path in AYP. I have also recommended, on this forum, others to follow AYP diligently where it is clear they would benefit from it.
I don't agree if you are suggesting that for jnana you need to be more 'advanced' than for other paths. It's about a type of person. It is for those drawn to intellectual and philosophical rather than physical or esoteric interests. I understand the word 'esoteric' in a different way to you, perhaps. I would have thought some of the AYP practices might be regarded as much more 'esoteric' than philosophical self-enquiry.
Neither, for those who are appropriately drawn to jnana, is it 'problematic', it is in fact totally natural, and arises naturally.
Ripeness is just as much an issue with every other path.
Jnana/advaita will be just as much a preparatory tool as a harvesting tool for those for whom it is the appropriate path.
There is a deeper issue than differing yoga paths. It is the divide represented in many traditions, one way or another, between schools which advocate effort and progress, and schools which advocate faith, or sudden insight, and which eschew the idea of progress. Neither perspective, and its share of truth, will be eluded by caricature.
chinna
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Edited by - chinna on Sep 23 2009 5:11:24 PM |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2009 : 8:40:35 PM
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Hi Chinna:
I don't think we have any disagreement on the value of non-dual self-inquiry. Only on how and when it might be applied. With the multiple points of view expressed here, anyone reading can find some assistance for making decisions about it according to their own inclination and need.
Many thanks for sharing!
The guru is in you.
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Ananda
3115 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 02:15:47 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by beetsmyth
I think there is a major point being missed here. Ramana always said that the most powerful practice is to seek out the thought/feeling of 'I'.
Meditation is more of a object/subject practice. Yes it stills the mind, but then when meditation is finished, guess who comes back to the fore-front? The ego/mind.
By constantly looking for the source of 'I' even in the midst of work, play, and even sleep ...the 'I' will sink down into the heart, disappear, and leave Union only.
The constant seeking out of the 'I' and ignoring everything else is the most powerful practice is what has always been said by Ramana, Nisargadatta, Advaita Vedanta, Yoga Vasistha, and countless others.
As a result of this, you will come to automatic and permanent stillness of mind and constant meditation will become the only state.
beautiful post brother; i have a few inquiries from you if you don't mind and from dear Kirtanman on Adyashanti in case he is reading this post.
if anyone else can give some good advise plz do that would be very appreciated.
on the way i would like to add Father Anthony de Mello to that list... of sages.
okay so i've been doing what you shared with us here for a few months now and i might've been doing it a little bit wrong as it seems...
i was sort of feeling the I and enquiring on it but while at it i was meddling with mind thoughts and not letting things be as they are; not letting go of things while being aware of the I "being the witness of it all."
the point is that this practice has led me into having one hell of a one mind pointedness and thoughts control and i can burn thoughts now the moment they rise... a thoughtless state which is becoming automatic you may say... and in turn this is bringing more clarity more emptiness more loneliness... and the witness is automatic but not to the total point of abiding and that's from AYP'S deep meditation.
but as i was hearing an audio session named "true meditation" by Adyashanti he spoke of people like myself and pointed out that this kind of practice is like putting a doc tape on the lips of the mind\ego and that once we let go of our guard it will all break loose...
and he advised letting go of things and sort of being in the state of witness...
now i hope i am not mistaken but i remember reading an interaction between Sri Annamalai swami and Bhagavan Sri Ramana and within it Bhagavan spoke of the parable of the fortress and concerning burning thoughts the moment they rise and that you should hold on... the point is that what i was doing and i hope i didn't misunderstand it was right according to the Maharshi but wrong according to Adyashanti and father Anthony de Mello who sort of advises the same thing as Adyashanti just being aware of what's out and in and not interfering...
or maybe i misunderstood all of these guys + the whole thing...
hope if you or anyone else could clear this whole thing out...
btw not to worries i am not too confused from it all, and i have Yogani to thank for that i am using his teachings on letting go into samyama and melting it all in the witness in unity... but this is a practice which cannot be done on a steady basis and it can bring energy overload...
but i would like to do inquiry and be mindful the right way and i would appreciate any help from the Adyashanti or the Sri Ramana people...
light and love,
Ananda |
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 02:59:22 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by yogani
Hi Chinna:
I don't think we have any disagreement on the value of non-dual self-inquiry. Only on how and when it might be applied. With the multiple points of view expressed here, anyone reading can find some assistance for making decisions about it according to their own inclination and need.
Many thanks for sharing!
The guru is in you.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." |
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 03:59:39 AM
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Dear Ananda
It's easy to misunderstand advaita teachers, who say different things to different people at different times, depending on the need.
The simplicity of some of Ramana's prescriptions can also be deceptive, and sometimes misleading, especially translated into different languages and cultures.
The 'fortress' analogy could be very misleading in the context of self-enquiry. Self-enquiry practices should not be used as a battering ram, which will only lead to pain and instability.
Self-enquiry is the pursuit of your natural curiosity about who or what you are, what is this I-experience, what is this self, where are its boundaries, who or what is it, how deep does it go, etc.
Stopping thoughts directly will not really help this enquiry, except perhaps in a curious, exploratory way, trying to see what's beyond them. It's about finding the thinker, not about no-thoughts.
The problem is when self-enquiry becomes confused with a kind of obsessionality, and its ideas of progress and effort. "I'm gonna do this till I've realised". The journey of jnana, at least, is much subtler than that. Indeed, it is a journey into subtlety, until infinite subtlety is realised. Battering ram practice has no place in it.
The gradual training in subtlety is paradoxical - we find a reality which is the antithesis of 'getting something', 'making progress', having 'signs of progress'. In fact, we lose everything, and get it back in a different way 'a hundredfold....your cup running over' (as Jesus promised).
When you have found, by gently persistent curiosity and exploration, your true nature, you will find that it is beyond thoughts and indeed thinker. Stopping thoughts by force or indeed by a consistent mental trick, is wide of the mark.
Adyashanti's is the the right advice for you, at the moment.
chinna
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Edited by - chinna on Sep 24 2009 04:15:04 AM |
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atena
113 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 06:39:24 AM
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Years ago I wasted a lot of time to trying to get De mello's, Krishnamurti's, etc teachings in various ways. Didn't learn a thing about awareness or enlightenment, expect how gullible I became when I saw 'a invaluable' teaching. I think the paradox is the more dependent we become of a teaching or a thing, the less we are able to see the big picture of it, but maybe being able to truly trust something would also bring good stuff like confidence, etc.
Even that isn't black & white thing. I feel strongly that I've been able to develop independent, creative thinking with flexibility and persistence in the face of difficulties, even if I haven't found a teaching I could completely rely on. To me that is freedom. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't want to develop other qualities of freedom, like the positive side of confidence and trust, I do, but who knows how, as our paths can be so different from each other.
Trusting oneself as (individual, seeker, philosopher) <--> Trusting a thing (teacher,teaching,solution,suggested way(s) to attain wisdom)
Hmm, I don't remember anymore why I felt the urge to write this... oh well |
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yogani
USA
5201 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 10:56:10 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by chinna
quote:
Originally posted by yogani
Hi Chinna:
I don't think we have any disagreement on the value of non-dual self-inquiry. Only on how and when it might be applied. With the multiple points of view expressed here, anyone reading can find some assistance for making decisions about it according to their own inclination and need.
Many thanks for sharing!
The guru is in you.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Hi Chinna:
AYP is more concerned with helping everyone find their ears.
The guru is in you.
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Konchok Ösel Dorje
USA
545 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 12:18:40 PM
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| One thing that I find helpful is that the consciousness is already a unity, and is already free. While thoughts and issues arises constantly, they have no essence, and their destiny is dissolution. That is just a fact of the mind's nature. So letting go is no problem. Just relax and watch the radiance of the mind. When I'm being attacked or on the attack, in my role as a warrior, I watch the radiance of my mind while stresses are at one moment present, and in the moment, not present. This is not a suppression, but a realization of the truth: there is no pain. It is only when my mind reaches out to the past or the future that pain appears like a mirage. Looking directly at the pain in the moment reveals the mirage like nature, the waviness of it on the surface of the mind's "eye," seeing how truly unreal the image is, it simply vanishes. And my mind appears as it is, clear, free, stable. |
Edited by - Konchok Ösel Dorje on Sep 24 2009 12:32:33 PM |
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manig
India
88 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 12:43:31 PM
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QUESTION: WHAT IS BUDDHA-MIND?
ANSWER: YOUR MIND IS IT. WHEN YOU SEE THE SELFSAME ESSENCE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT SUCHNESS. WHEN YOU SEE THE CHANGELESS NATURE OF IT, YOU CAN CALL IT DHARMAKAYA. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED EMANCIPATION. IT WORKS EASILY AND FREELY, NEVER BEING DISTURBED BY OTHERS; THEREFORE, IT IS CALLED THE TRUE PATH. IT WAS NOT BORN AND, THEREFORE, IT IS NOT GOING TO PERISH, SO IT IS CALLED NIRVANA.
QUESTION: ARE THERE FAST AND SLOW WAYS OF ATTAINMENT?
ANSWER: IF ONE SEES THAT ENDLESS TIME IS THE MIND, HE WILL ATTAIN QUICKLY, BUT IF HE MAKES A POINT IN HIS MIND AND AIMS AT HIS DESTINATION, HE WILL ATTAIN SLOWLY. THE WISE ONE KNOWS HIS MIND IS THE PATH; THE STUPID ONE MAKES A PATH BEYOND HIS MIND. HE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE THE PATH IS NOR DOES HE KNOW THAT MIND ITSELF IS THE PATH.
QUESTION: WHAT IS THE NATURAL, SIMPLE MIND, AND WHAT IS THE ARTIFICIAL, COMPLICATED MIND?
ANSWER: LETTERS AND SPEECHES COME FROM THE ARTIFICIAL, COMPLICATED MIND. BOTH IN THE MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL WORLD A PERSON STAYS OR GOES, SITS OR LIES DOWN, AND MOVES INNOCENTLY, OR, IT CAN BE SAID, IN THE NATURAL, SIMPLE MIND. WHEN ONE REMAINS UNMOVED BY PLEASURE OR SUFFERING, HIS MIND MAY BE CALLED THE NATURAL, SIMPLE MIND.
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manig
India
88 Posts |
Posted - Sep 24 2009 : 12:51:50 PM
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QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CALL THE MIND WHICH HAS NOTHING TO KNOW AND ALSO NOTHING TO REALIZE?
ANSWER: NO ANSWER FROM BODHIDHARMA.
BODHIDHARMA SAID, "DHARMAKAYA HAS NO FORM, THEREFORE ONE SEES IT WITHOUT SEEING. DHARMA HAS NO VOICE, THEREFORE ONE HEARS IT WITHOUT HEARING. PRAJNA HAS NOTHING TO BE KNOWN, THEREFORE ONE KNOWS IT WITHOUT KNOWING. IF HE THINKS THAT HE IS SEEING, HE SEES IT INCOMPLETELY. IF HE THINKS THAT HE KNOWS IT, HE DOES NOT KNOW IT THOROUGHLY. WHEN HE KNOWS IT WITHOUT KNOWING, HE KNOWS IT COMPLETELY. IF ONE DOES NOT KNOW THIS, HE IS NOT A TRUE KNOWER. IF ONE THINKS THAT HE IS GAINING, HE IS NOT GAINING ENTIRELY. WHEN HE GAINS NONGAINING, HE OWNS EVERYTHING. IF ONE THINKS THAT HE IS RIGHT, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT PERFECT. WHEN HE TRANSCENDS RIGHT AND WRONG, HIS VIRTUES ARE ACCOMPLISHED. SUCH WISDOM IS THE GATE-OPENER TO A HUNDRED THOUSAND GATES OF THE HIGHER WISDOM."
SAID BODHIDHARMA, "ALL BUDDHAS PREACH EMPTINESS. WHY? BECAUSE THEY WISH TO CRUSH THE CONCRETE IDEAS OF THE STUDENTS. IF A STUDENT EVEN CLINGS TO AN IDEA OF EMPTINESS, HE BETRAYS ALL BUDDHAS. ONE CLINGS TO LIFE ALTHOUGH THERE IS NOTHING TO BE CALLED LIFE; ANOTHER CLINGS TO DEATH ALTHOUGH THERE IS NOTHING TO BE CALLED DEATH. IN REALITY THERE IS NOTHING TO BE BORN, CONSEQUENTLY THERE IS NOTHING TO PERISH.
"BY CLINGING ONE RECOGNIZES A THING OR AN IDEA. REALITY HAS NEITHER INSIDE, OUTSIDE, NOR MIDDLE PART. AN IGNORANT PERSON CREATES DELUSIONS AND SUFFERS FROM DISCRIMINATION. RIGHT AND WRONG DO NOT EXIST IN REALITY. AN IGNORANT PERSON CREATES THEM, RECOGNIZES THEM, NEAR OR FAR, INWARD OR OUTWARD. HE THEN SUFFERS FROM DISCRIMINATION. THIS IS THE GENERAL WAY OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD."
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Ramana Maharshi on Meditation Experiences
