Saturday, 29 June 2013
Zen Essence
Zen Master Dahui on The science of Freedom. He explained:
The realm of the enlightened is not an external realm with manifest characteristics;
buddhahood is the realm of the sacred knowledge found in oneself.You do not
need paraphernalia, practices, or realizations to attain to it.
What you need is to clean out the influences of the psychological afflictions
connected with the external world, that have been accumulating in your
psyche since the beginning of time.
Japanese Zen Master Bunan said;
People think it is hard to perceive the essential human nature, but in reality,
it is neither difficult nor easy.Nothing at all can adhere to this essential nature.
It is a matter of responding to right and wrong, while remaining detached
from right and wrong, living in the midst of passions yet being detached from
passions, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, acting without acting
and seeking without seeking.
Zen Master Foyan on Nonsubjectivity;
When you see, let there be no seer or seen; When you hear, let there be no hearer or heard.
When you think, let there be no thinker or thought,
Buddhism is extremely easy, and saves the most energy. Its just that you
yourself waste energy and cause yourself trouble.
Zen Master Dahui on The natural state;
If you want to empty all things, first clean your own mind. When your mind
is clear and clean, all entanglements cease.
Once entanglements cease, both substance and functions are in there natural state.
"Substance" means the clear pure original source of your own mind.
The "function" is your own minds marvelous functions of change and creation,
which enters into both purity and defilement, without being affected
by or attached to either purity or defilement.
Zen Master Dahui on Past, present and future.
Buddha said that when the mind does not grasp things of the past,does not long
for things of the future, and does not dwell on things of the present, then one
realizes that past, present, and future are empty.
Don't think about past events, whether good or bad, for if you think about them,
this impedes the Way. Don't calculate future matters, for if you calculate, you go mad.
Don't fix your attention on present affairs, whether unpleasant or pleasant,for if you
fix your attention on them they will disturb your mind. Just deal with situations
as they happen, and you will spontaneously accord with these principles.
Zen Master Ying-an on Nothing to grab.
Zen has nothing to grab on to. When people who study Zen don't see it, that
is because they approach too eagerly. If you want to understand Zen easily,
just be mindless, wherever you are, twenty four hours a day, until you spontaneously
merge with the Way.Once you merge with the way, inside, outside, or in between
cannot be found at all, you experience a frozen emptiness,totally independent.
This is what an ancient worthy called " The mind not touching things, the steps not placed anywhere"
If you want to see the subtle mind of Zen, that is very easy. Just step back and pick it up.
with intense strength during all of your activities, whatever you are doing, even as you eat,
drink, and talk. Even as you experience the stress of attending to the world.
Zen Master Yuansou on Liberation.
This inconceivable door of great liberation is in everyone. It has never been blocked,
it has never been defective. Buddhas and Zen Masters have appeared in the world
and provided expedient methods, with many different devices, using illusory medicines
to cure illusory illnesses, just because your faculties are unequal, your knowledge is
unclear, you do not transcend what you see,and hear, as you see and hear it.
You are tumbled about endlessly in an ocean of misery by afflictions due to ignorance
by emotional views and habitual conceptions of others and self, right and wrong.
The various teachings and techniques of buddhas and Zen Masters are only
set forth as that you will individually step back into yourself, understand your
original mind, and see your own original nature, so that you can reach a state
of great rest, peace, and happiness.
The realm of the enlightened is not an external realm with manifest characteristics;
buddhahood is the realm of the sacred knowledge found in oneself.You do not
need paraphernalia, practices, or realizations to attain to it.
What you need is to clean out the influences of the psychological afflictions
connected with the external world, that have been accumulating in your
psyche since the beginning of time.
Japanese Zen Master Bunan said;
People think it is hard to perceive the essential human nature, but in reality,
it is neither difficult nor easy.Nothing at all can adhere to this essential nature.
It is a matter of responding to right and wrong, while remaining detached
from right and wrong, living in the midst of passions yet being detached from
passions, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing, acting without acting
and seeking without seeking.
Zen Master Foyan on Nonsubjectivity;
When you see, let there be no seer or seen; When you hear, let there be no hearer or heard.
When you think, let there be no thinker or thought,
Buddhism is extremely easy, and saves the most energy. Its just that you
yourself waste energy and cause yourself trouble.
Zen Master Dahui on The natural state;
If you want to empty all things, first clean your own mind. When your mind
is clear and clean, all entanglements cease.
Once entanglements cease, both substance and functions are in there natural state.
"Substance" means the clear pure original source of your own mind.
The "function" is your own minds marvelous functions of change and creation,
which enters into both purity and defilement, without being affected
by or attached to either purity or defilement.
Zen Master Dahui on Past, present and future.
Buddha said that when the mind does not grasp things of the past,does not long
for things of the future, and does not dwell on things of the present, then one
realizes that past, present, and future are empty.
Don't think about past events, whether good or bad, for if you think about them,
this impedes the Way. Don't calculate future matters, for if you calculate, you go mad.
Don't fix your attention on present affairs, whether unpleasant or pleasant,for if you
fix your attention on them they will disturb your mind. Just deal with situations
as they happen, and you will spontaneously accord with these principles.
Zen Master Ying-an on Nothing to grab.
Zen has nothing to grab on to. When people who study Zen don't see it, that
is because they approach too eagerly. If you want to understand Zen easily,
just be mindless, wherever you are, twenty four hours a day, until you spontaneously
merge with the Way.Once you merge with the way, inside, outside, or in between
cannot be found at all, you experience a frozen emptiness,totally independent.
This is what an ancient worthy called " The mind not touching things, the steps not placed anywhere"
If you want to see the subtle mind of Zen, that is very easy. Just step back and pick it up.
with intense strength during all of your activities, whatever you are doing, even as you eat,
drink, and talk. Even as you experience the stress of attending to the world.
Zen Master Yuansou on Liberation.
This inconceivable door of great liberation is in everyone. It has never been blocked,
it has never been defective. Buddhas and Zen Masters have appeared in the world
and provided expedient methods, with many different devices, using illusory medicines
to cure illusory illnesses, just because your faculties are unequal, your knowledge is
unclear, you do not transcend what you see,and hear, as you see and hear it.
You are tumbled about endlessly in an ocean of misery by afflictions due to ignorance
by emotional views and habitual conceptions of others and self, right and wrong.
The various teachings and techniques of buddhas and Zen Masters are only
set forth as that you will individually step back into yourself, understand your
original mind, and see your own original nature, so that you can reach a state
of great rest, peace, and happiness.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Notes from A Graceful Passage. Arnold R. Beisser M .D.
To live fully, we cannot remain blind to the important parts of life. We must make peace with Death.
Death is a wonder we must examine. Death is as intimate as birth, and must be a shared experience.
Death is part of the right to life and happiness.
Hazards of Immortality; Death speaks:
There was a merchant in Baghdad, who sent his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little
while the servant came back white and trembling, and said, " Master, just now when I was in the
market place, I was jostled by a women in the crowd, and when I turned I saw it was Death that
jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now lend me your horse, and I will
ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra, and there Death will not find me"
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks
and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the market place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he
came to me and said, " why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when yo saw him
this morning?" " That was not a threatening gesture," I said. "It was only a start of surprise.
I was astonished to see him i Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him to-night in Samarra.
John O' Hara.
Fear of Death, is no more or less than fear of life. Death is the unknown, and to fear the
unknown is only to fear what you have learned from life.
That is what immortality would be, life without risk or fear. It would feel like Death.
Without Death life would have no worth or meaning. The polarity to life is not death:
it is immortality. Hold nothing back, go all the way with life accepting that this is life,
and by its very definition, it means that we must die. The cause of death, is life!
You cannot have one without the other.
To be, or not to be, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing,end them. To die- to sleep,
No more...... Shakespeare Hamlet.
Seeker; "What is the grand scheme of life?"
Wise man: "You're born, you live, and you die."
Seeker: "You call that a scheme?"
Wise man: "Actually, most of the scheming comes
in during the middle part." John Hart.
Love conquers all. Virgil, Eclogues.
I don't know anybody who can contemplate death
and hum a tune at the same time. Woody Allen.
Death is Natures way of telling you
it is time to slow down.
And now I see with eye serene
the very pulse of the machine. Wordsworth, "She was a phantom of delight."
For everything there is a season, and a time
for every matter under the Heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die,a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal, A time to break down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh, A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.
A time to embrace,and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to seek, and a time to lose, A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to to sew, A time to keep silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate, A time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil? Ecclesiastes 3; 1-9
No wind favors him, who has no destined port. Montaigne essays.
Death may not be funny, but it is not the end of the world
B ud Blitzer.
This too, shall pass; To live and die with grace.
We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Death is a wonder we must examine. Death is as intimate as birth, and must be a shared experience.
Death is part of the right to life and happiness.
Hazards of Immortality; Death speaks:
There was a merchant in Baghdad, who sent his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little
while the servant came back white and trembling, and said, " Master, just now when I was in the
market place, I was jostled by a women in the crowd, and when I turned I saw it was Death that
jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now lend me your horse, and I will
ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra, and there Death will not find me"
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks
and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the market place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he
came to me and said, " why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when yo saw him
this morning?" " That was not a threatening gesture," I said. "It was only a start of surprise.
I was astonished to see him i Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him to-night in Samarra.
John O' Hara.
Fear of Death, is no more or less than fear of life. Death is the unknown, and to fear the
unknown is only to fear what you have learned from life.
That is what immortality would be, life without risk or fear. It would feel like Death.
Without Death life would have no worth or meaning. The polarity to life is not death:
it is immortality. Hold nothing back, go all the way with life accepting that this is life,
and by its very definition, it means that we must die. The cause of death, is life!
You cannot have one without the other.
To be, or not to be, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing,end them. To die- to sleep,
No more...... Shakespeare Hamlet.
Seeker; "What is the grand scheme of life?"
Wise man: "You're born, you live, and you die."
Seeker: "You call that a scheme?"
Wise man: "Actually, most of the scheming comes
in during the middle part." John Hart.
Love conquers all. Virgil, Eclogues.
I don't know anybody who can contemplate death
and hum a tune at the same time. Woody Allen.
Death is Natures way of telling you
it is time to slow down.
And now I see with eye serene
the very pulse of the machine. Wordsworth, "She was a phantom of delight."
For everything there is a season, and a time
for every matter under the Heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die,a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal, A time to break down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh, A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.
A time to embrace,and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to seek, and a time to lose, A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to to sew, A time to keep silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate, A time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil? Ecclesiastes 3; 1-9
No wind favors him, who has no destined port. Montaigne essays.
Death may not be funny, but it is not the end of the world
B ud Blitzer.
This too, shall pass; To live and die with grace.
We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Foreword from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
The Bardo Thotrol ( Bar-do-i-thos-grol) is one of a series of instructions on six types of liberation.
Liberation through hearing, liberation through wearing, liberation through seeing, liberation through
remembering, liberation through tasting and liberation through touching.
They were composed bu Padmasambhava and written down by his wife, Yeshe Tsogyal, along
with the sadhana of the two mandalas of forty two peaceful, and fifty eight wrathful deities.
Padmasambhava buried these texts in the Gampo hills in central Tibet, where later the
great teacher Gampopa established his monastery.
Many other texts and sacred objects were buried in this way in different places through-
out Tibet, and were known as terma, " hidden treasures ."
Padmasambhava gave the transmission of power to discover the termas to his twenty five
chief disciples. The Bardo texts were later discovered by Karma- Lingpa who was an
incarnation of one of these disciples.
Liberation in this case means that whoever comes into contact with this teaching,
even in the form of doubt, or with an open mind receives a sudden glimpse of
enlightenment through the power of transmission contained in these treasures.
Karma- Lingpa belonged to the Nyingma tradition but his students were all of the
Kagyu tradition. He gave the first transmission of the six liberation teaching,to
Dodul _Dorje, the thirteenth Karmapa, who in turn gave it to Gyurme- Temphel,
the eighth Trungpa,
This transmission was kept alive in the Surmang monasteries of the Trungpa lineage,
and there it spread back into the Nyingma tradition. The student of this teaching,
practices the sadhana and studies the texts so as to become completely familiar
with the two mandalas as part of his own experience.
I received this transmission at the age of eight, and was trained in this teaching by
my tutors, who also guided me in dealing with dying people. Consequently I visited
dying or dead people about four times a week from then onwards. Such continual
contact with the process of death particularly watching one's close friends and
relatives, is considered extremely important for students of this tradition, so that
the notion of impermanence becomes a living experience rather than a philosophical view.
This book is a further attempt to make this teaching applicable to students in the west.
I hope that the sadhana may also be translated in the near future, so that this
tradition may be fully carried out.
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
Liberation through hearing, liberation through wearing, liberation through seeing, liberation through
remembering, liberation through tasting and liberation through touching.
They were composed bu Padmasambhava and written down by his wife, Yeshe Tsogyal, along
with the sadhana of the two mandalas of forty two peaceful, and fifty eight wrathful deities.
Padmasambhava buried these texts in the Gampo hills in central Tibet, where later the
great teacher Gampopa established his monastery.
Many other texts and sacred objects were buried in this way in different places through-
out Tibet, and were known as terma, " hidden treasures ."
Padmasambhava gave the transmission of power to discover the termas to his twenty five
chief disciples. The Bardo texts were later discovered by Karma- Lingpa who was an
incarnation of one of these disciples.
Liberation in this case means that whoever comes into contact with this teaching,
even in the form of doubt, or with an open mind receives a sudden glimpse of
enlightenment through the power of transmission contained in these treasures.
Karma- Lingpa belonged to the Nyingma tradition but his students were all of the
Kagyu tradition. He gave the first transmission of the six liberation teaching,to
Dodul _Dorje, the thirteenth Karmapa, who in turn gave it to Gyurme- Temphel,
the eighth Trungpa,
This transmission was kept alive in the Surmang monasteries of the Trungpa lineage,
and there it spread back into the Nyingma tradition. The student of this teaching,
practices the sadhana and studies the texts so as to become completely familiar
with the two mandalas as part of his own experience.
I received this transmission at the age of eight, and was trained in this teaching by
my tutors, who also guided me in dealing with dying people. Consequently I visited
dying or dead people about four times a week from then onwards. Such continual
contact with the process of death particularly watching one's close friends and
relatives, is considered extremely important for students of this tradition, so that
the notion of impermanence becomes a living experience rather than a philosophical view.
This book is a further attempt to make this teaching applicable to students in the west.
I hope that the sadhana may also be translated in the near future, so that this
tradition may be fully carried out.
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
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