The Assumption of Time...

"The assumption of time is one of humanity's greatest follies. We tell ourselves that there is always tomorrow, when we can no more predict tomorrow than we can the weather. Procrastination is the thief of dreams."
The Walk: A Novel. By Richard Paul Evans

Clearing the Bodily Sickness

Clearing the Bodily Sickness - taught by Padmasambhava

At times when practicing in retreat, the mind is pliable, there is progress in spiritual practice and the meditator bursts into long melodious song.At other times the mind is untamable, the spiritual practice wanes, the attention scatters, and the meditator feels acutely miserable.

A variety of high and low experiences arise at the time of separating samsara and nirvana.

Rather than feeling discouraged or conceited, keep to the key point of letting things spontaneously happen without attachment; thus you will be able to bring them onto the path. Perform your retreat practice unflaggingly and without straying into distraction; then everything will be an enhancement.

Second, for clearing the hindrance of bodily sickness and pain there are five points: the basis where the sickness abides, the cause for the sickness to occur, the circumstances that activate it, its matured results, and the way to cure it.

First, sickness abides latently in the all-ground, in the manner of the constitution of the channels and as habitual tendencies. It occurs due to unwholesome karma accumulated through ignorance and ego-clinging. It is activated by means of the disturbing emotions, conceptual thinking, prana-winds, or gods and demons. Its matured result are the 404 types of disease, headed by heat and cold, phlegm, aches, and swelling. In short, the disease of coemergent ignorance is the chief cause and the disease of conceptual ignorance is the chief circumstance.

All sickness possesses these five factors: the latent basis, unwholesome karma as the cause, disturbing emotions as the circumstance, conceptual thinking as the connecting link, prana-wind as the concluding assembler, and gods and demons as the supportive factor.

For instance, if a ‘coldness’ disease manifests, it is caused by the habitual tendency for desire lying present in the all-ground, and is activated by the circumstance of intense desire. The connecting link is made by the conceptual thought, “I am sick! I am disabled! What shall I do if it gets worse?” This causes the ‘downward clearing wind’ to malfunction, opening you up to attack from the female class of evil influences.

Similarly, the seed of anger as the cause is activated through the circumstance of intense anger connected with the link of conceptual thinking. This causes the fire-equalizing wind to malfunction, opening you up to attack from the male class of evil influences, resulting in the heat diseases.

The seed of stupidity as the cause is activated by the circumstance of strong stupidity, connected with the link of conceptual thinking. This causes the ‘equal-abiding wind’ to malfunction, opening you up to attack from evil ’earth spirit’. It results in the phlegm diseases.

The seed of envy as the cause is activated by the circumstance of strong jealousy, connected with the link of conceptual thinking. It causes the ‘life upholding wind’ to malfunction, opening you up to attack from the tsen class of evil influences, and resulting in the aching diseases.

The seed of pride as the cause is activated by the circumstance of strong conceit, connected with the link of conceptual thinking. It causes the ‘pervading wind’ to malfunction, opening you up for attack by the gyalpo class of evil influences and resulting in the swelling diseases.

Since the cause is ignorance, you must recognize coemergent wisdom to cure these diseases. Since the condition is disturbing emotions, you must settle your attention in evenness. Since the connector is conceptual thinking, you must cut through the ties of thought. Since the gatherer of the conclusion is wind, you must focus on the key point of wind. The black-support is the gods and demons: you must abandon the notion of a demon. By doing this you will be freed from all kinds of disease.

To cure the essence of illness there are three points: best is to leave it to be self-liberated; next-best is to abandon reference-points concerning exorcism or meditation; last is to cure it by means of visualization.

For the first, don’t even take one single does of medicine. Don’t chant one syllable of a healing ceremony. Don’t regard the illness as a fault, or see it as a virtue. Leave your mind unfabricated and spontaneous. Totally let be in the natural thought-free state of simplicity. By doing so, the flow of conceptual thinking is cut; thought-free wakefulness dawns, and the illness is cleared away. The sickness and the thought are liberated simultaneously.

That is to say, during the preliminaries, don’t pursue the sickness. During the main part, don’t cultivate the sickness. During the conclusion, don’t dwell on feeling sick. Through that, you will untie old sickness and remain unharmed by new ones.

For the second, exorcising or meditating, there are three parts: transmuting adversity, cutting directly, and equalizing.

For the first, regard the sickness with gratitude, thinking again and again, “How wonderful that by means of you, sickness, I can cut through the conceptual demon!” Let your mind be jubilant; eat food that harms the illness and act in adverse ways towards it. Next, eat some fresh ‘solid fragrance,’ still warm but not steaming. Drink some warm reeking ‘liquid fragrance.’ By meditating on the prana-wind, the disease in the upper part of the body is vomited out, and the disease in the lower part is purged out. This process of the illness vacating is the medicine of cutting through.

Second, for cutting directly, bring forth a radiant facial expression and stop whimpering. Mentally, directly cut through the worries, hopes and fears of thinking, “When I am sick and weak, or if I die, what shall I do?” With total disregard, cast these worries far away.

Third, to equalize, you must utilize misfortune as your path as soon as it arises. Brighten your awareness and remind yourself of spiritual practice. Don’t meditate on a visualization to counteract the illness, and don’t apply any healing ritual or medical cure, but look into the identity of who feels sick! By resting in that continuous state, when an experience occurs, it vanishes by itself, and when realization occurs, it dawns as empty cognizance. At least you will not have to suffer with the thought of feeling sick.

Lastly, for curing by means of visualization, generate bodhicitta, assume the cross-legged position and visualize as the yidam deity. Imagine a dark blue HUNG in you heart center, the size of a barley grain. If it is a heat disease, imagine that a white HUNG the size of a barley grain emerges from the HUNG in your heart center and circles throughout the upper part of your torso. It completely draws out all the sickness, just like a magnet collecting needles. Emerging from the top of your head it vanishes into space. Imagining this, draw the winds upward.

If it is a ‘coldness’ disease, imagine a red HUNG the size of a barley grain appearing from the HUNG in the heart center and circling throughout the lower part of your body. Emerging through the lower opening, imagine that it disappears into the center of the earth.

If you suffer sickness in your arms and legs such as boils or swelling, visualize a black HUNG at the location of the disease. Imagine that it gathers up the sickness and leaves through the boil or out through your fingertips.

For diseases that have not been diagnosed, imagine that a dark blue HUNG appears from the HUNG in your heart center. It gathers all the sickness throughout your body and vanishes into mid-air after emerging through whichever nostril the breath moves.

In general, when resting in equanimity, your mind should completely become the essence of non-thought. You must cast all concerns far away, and be free from doubt and hesitation about what is exorcised or visualized. The visualization and your mind should become unified. It is important to rely and concentrate upon these three points.

Here is how to dispel the hindrance of a mentality that harbours thoughts of gods and demons. When you have frequent experiences, due to the link between the structuring of your channels and the shifting of the thought flow, you will be attacked by the magical displays of so-called demonic forces and feel doubt. When thoughts of fear and dread arise, identify them quickly and bring them onto the path. If you let them run wild or fall under their power, they will become an obstacle for your practice.

Moreover, unless you put any kind of hindrance, high or low, to use as your path, it will return with developed force and become an obstacle to your practice. It is essential to use hindrances as the path.

Basically, to cross the dangerous defilement of your own thinking, is to bring hindrances onto the path. The experiences of evil forces and magical displays are experienced within your own mistaken mind. There are definitely no ‘gods’ or ‘demons’ outside of yourself. The very moment you experience evil forces and magical displays, apply the vital point of understanding that they do not possess any true existence, as they are devoid of arising, dwelling and ceasing. Whenever a magical attack occurs, assume your yogi posture, keep the gaze and look into its identity. The thought then dawns as empty cognizance. As soon as your thinking turns into empty cognizance, you possess the confident courage that thoroughly cuts through fear and dread.

Even if the hordes of Mara surround you like an army, they will not be able to move one hair on your body; nor will they be able to create any obstacles. Keep the self-assurance of thinking, “I cannot be harmed by obstacles! To faintheartedly think “I wonder if I will meet with some obstacles!” merely creates a welcome for demons. All experiences of gods and demons are just your own conceptual thinking taking form. They do not possess even an atom of existence outside [your own mind]. Cut the stream of conceptual thinking!

Offer your aggregates as a feast.

Ten Seconds to Peace Review

 "I don’t have time for anything, or so I often convince myself- perhaps out of a ridiculous drive to procrastinate or otherwise simply avoid doing anything that may present opportunity to up-end the apple cart. I’m not original in this- many (most?) of us are quite good at putting off doing what’s good or best for us. Why change? Who has time? Besides, isn’t it just easier to keep trudging along with the old patterns of our own status quo?

When I first saw the title, Ten Seconds to Peace: An Everyday Approach to Mindful Living, I didn’t give much thought to the idea of mindful living (what was that, anyway?) –but: ten seconds and peace? I was all for it. I certainly had ten seconds, and any suggestion it might bring me ten seconds of peace was intriguing enough. Clearly, I wasn’t quite prepared for the treasures that I would discover within this unassuming volume.

Each page unfolds a clear and steady path with each line and verse, all carefully chosen and meticulously placed with the skillful precision that only a well-seasoned teacher could master- and Beach is just that: with 40 years of Buddhist experience under his belt, this initiate of Qigong (he became the first Western initiate in 1986) presents each of the meditations found within Ten Seconds with a (seeming) simplicity and utter clarity that only someone so well learned could accomplish. In so doing, he reaches through to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists (such as me, at the time I had initially read the book) alike, and throws wide open the gate to true and deep comprehension and (most) importantly, peace.

Beach’s meditations are succinct and many are easy enough to memorize- others, are a bit more challenging in that regard (but short enough to commit them to a quick note). Ten seconds is all it takes to read any of the pieces, perhaps, but their effect is far more lasting…especially, if we are mindful to revisit those words throughout our day. Mindful- and that’s the secret of it all. These verses aren’t something gleaned from some New Age utopia…they are practical guides drawn from ageless wisdoms that point us toward a mindful awareness, and mindful living. We take a necessary moment to read the words, contemplate and internalize- a bit of a re-set in the “normal” course of our over-regimented lives, and move forward with a honed awareness that allows us to live each moment more fully, without so much mental clutter and distraction (this is especially true through re-visiting the meditations and continued application).

We can have peace in our daily, hectic lives. It takes just a bit of effort on our part- there’s no need to pore over extraneous texts or complicated studies. In Ten Seconds to Peace, Jeffery Beach points the way to what is unexpectedly quite easy to attain."

Prayer to my Guru

Prayer to my Guru

Oh Gyalwang Drigungpa heed me!

Oh Gyalwang Drigungpa heed me!

Oh Gyalwang Drigungpa heed me! 

I prostrate at your lotus feet

With a devotion concerned with liberation.

I confess to you all my sins and downfalls

And rejoice in my realizations from your instructions.

May your life be long and steadfast!

May you not go into parinirvana,

But remain here

And grant me all the teachings

With nothing held back.

So I may attain enlightenment

In this very lifetime

for the sake of all sentient beings.

May all sentient beings have peace and happiness.

May they have the abundance of food, clothing, and shelter.

May they have the freedom

From fear, anger, ignorance, self-grasping.

Arrogance, pride, and jealousy.

Om Ah Ratna Shri Ratna Karma Hum!

Awakening to Reality The Song of Mahamudra Tilopa’s Song to Naropa

Mahamudra, the royal way, is free
from every word and sacred symbol.
For you alone, beloved Naropa,
this wonderful song springs forth from Tilopa
as spontaneous friendship that never ends.
The completely open nature
of all dimensions and events
is a rainbow always occurring
yet never grasped.
The way of Mahamudra
creates no closure.
No strenuous mental effort
can encounter this wide open way.
The effortless freedom of awareness
moves naturally along it.
As space is always freshly appearing
and never filled,
so the mind is without limits
and ever aware.
Gazing with sheer awareness
into sheer awareness,
habitual, abstract structures melt
into the fruitful springtime of Buddhahood.
White clouds that drift through blue sky,
changing shape constantly,
have no root, no foundation, no dwelling;
nor do changing patterns of thought
that float through the sky of mind.
When the formless expanse of awareness
comes clearly into view,
obsession with thought forms
ceases easily and naturally.
As within the openness of universal space
shapes and colors are spontaneously forming,
although space has no color or form,
so within the expanse of awareness
realms, relations and values are arising,
although awareness possesses
no positive or negative characteristics.
As the darkness of night,
even were it to last a thousand years,
could not conceal the rising sun,
so countless ages of conflict and suffering
cannot conceal the innate radiance of Mind.
Although philosophers explain
the transparent openness of appearances
as empty of permanent characteristics
and completely indeterminable,
this universal indeterminacy
can itself never be determined.
Although sages report
the nature of awareness to be luminosity,
this limitless radiance cannot be contained
within any language or sacramental system.
Although the very essence of Mind
is to be void of either subjects or objects,
it tenderly embraces all life within its womb.
To realize this inexpressible truth,
do not manipulate mind or body
but simply open into transparency
with relaxed, natural grace
intellect at ease in silence,
limbs at rest in stillness
like hollow bamboos.
Neither breathing in nor breathing out
with the breath of habitual thinking,
allow the mind to be at peace
in brilliant wakefulness.
This is the royal wealth of Mahamudra,
no common coin of any realm.
Beloved Naropa, this treasure of Buddhahood
belongs to you and to all beings.
Obsessive use of meditative disciplines
or perennial study of scripture and philosophy
will never bring forth this wonderful realization,
this truth which is natural to awareness,
because the mind that desperately desires
to reach another realm or level of experience
inadvertently ignores the basic light
that constitutes all experience.
The one who fabricates
any division in consciousness
betrays the friendship of Mahamudra.
Cease all activity that separates,
abandon even the desire to be free from desires
and allow the thinking process to rise and fall
smoothly as waves on a shoreless ocean.
The one who never dwells in abstraction
and whose only principle
is never to divide or separate
upholds the trust of Mahamudra.
The one who abandons craving
for authority and definition,
and never becomes one-sided
in argument or understanding,
alone perceives the authentic meaning
hidden in the ancient scriptures.
In the blissful embrace of Mahamudra,
negative viewpoints and their instincts
are burned without remainder, like camphor.
Through the open door of Mahamudra,
the deluded state of self-imprisonment
is easily left behind forever.
Mahamudra is the torch of supreme liberty
shining forth through all conscious beings.
Those beings constituted by awareness
who try to ignore, reject or grasp awareness
inflict sorrow and confusion upon themselves
like those who are insane.
To be awakened from this madness,
cultivate the gracious friendship
of a sublime sage of Mahamudra,
who may appear to the world as mad.
When the limited mind
enters blessed companionship
with limitless Mind,
indescribable freedom dawns.
Selfish or limited motivations
create the illusory sense of imprisonment
and scatter seeds of further delusion.
Even genuine religious teaching
can generate narrowness of vision.
Trust only the approach
that is utterly vast and profound.
The noble way of Mahamudra
never engages in the drama of
imprisonment and release.
The sage of Mahamudra
has absolutely no distractions,
because no war against distractions has ever been declared.
This nobility and gentleness alone,
this nonviolence of thought and action ,
is the traceless path of all Buddhas.
To walk this all-embracing way
is the bliss of Buddhahood.
Phenomena on every plane of being
are constantly arising and disappearing.
Thus they are forever fresh,
always new and inexhaustible.
Like dreams without solid substance,
they can never become rigid or binding.
The universe exists in a deep, elusive way
that can never be grasped or frozen.
Why feel obsessive desire or hatred for it,
thereby creating illusory bonds?
Renounce arbitrary, habitual views.
Go forth courageously to meditate
in the real mountain wilderness,
the wide open Mahamudra.
Transcend boundaries of kinship
by embracing all living beings
as one family of consciousness.
Remain without any compulsion
in the landscape of natural freedom:
spontaneous, generous, joyful.
When you receive the crown of Mahamudra,
all sense of rank or attainment
will quietly disappear.
Cut the root of the vine that chokes the tree,
and its clinging tendrils wither away entirely.
Sever the conventionally grasping mind,
and all bondage and desperation dissolve.

The illumination from an oil lamp
lights the room instantly,
even if it has been dark for aeons.
Mind is boundless radiance.
How can the slightest darkness
remain in the room of daily perception?
But one who clings to mental processes
cannot awaken to the radiance of Mind.
Strenuously seeking truth
by investigation and concentration,
one will never appreciate
the unthinkable simplicity and bliss
that abide at the core.
To uncover this fertile ground,
cut through the roots of complexity
with the sharp gaze of naked awareness,
remaining entirely at peace,
transparent and content.
You need not expend great effort
nor store up extensive spirtual power.
Remain in the flow of sheer awareness.
Mahamudra neither accepts nor rejects
any current of energy, internal or external.
Since the ground consciousness
is never born into any realm of being,
nothing can add to or subtract from it.
Nothing can obstruct or stain it.
When awareness rests here,
the appearance of division and conflict
disappears into original reality.
The twin emotions of anxiety and arrogance
vanish into the void from which they came.
Supreme knowing knows
no separate subject or object.
Supreme action acts resourcefully
without any array of instruments.
Supreme attainment attains the goal
without past, future or present.
The dedicated practitioner
experiences the spiritual way
as a turbulent mountain stream,
tumbling dangerously among boulders.
When maturity is reached,
the river flows smoothly and patiently
with the powerful sweep of the Ganges.
Emptying into the ocean of Mahamudra,
the water becomes ever-expanding light
that pours into great Clear Light
without direction, destination,
division, distinction or description. Mahamudra, the royal way, is free
from every word and sacred symbol.
For you alone, beloved Naropa,
this wonderful song springs forth from Tilopa
as spontaneous friendship that never ends.
The completely open nature
of all dimensions and events
is a rainbow always occurring
yet never grasped.
The way of Mahamudra
creates no closure.
No strenuous mental effort
can encounter this wide open way.
The effortless freedom of awareness
moves naturally along it.
As space is always freshly appearing
and never filled,
so the mind is without limits
and ever aware.
Gazing with sheer awareness
into sheer awareness,
habitual, abstract structures melt
into the fruitful springtime of Buddhahood.
White clouds that drift through blue sky,
changing shape constantly,
have no root, no foundation, no dwelling;
nor do changing patterns of thought
that float through the sky of mind.
When the formless expanse of awareness
comes clearly into view,
obsession with thought forms
ceases easily and naturally.
As within the openness of universal space
shapes and colors are spontaneously forming,
although space has no color or form,
so within the expanse of awareness
realms, relations and values are arising,
although awareness possesses
no positive or negative characteristics.
As the darkness of night,
even were it to last a thousand years,
could not conceal the rising sun,
so countless ages of conflict and suffering
cannot conceal the innate radiance of Mind.
Although philosophers explain
the transparent openness of appearances
as empty of permanent characteristics
and completely indeterminable,
this universal indeterminacy
can itself never be determined.
Although sages report
the nature of awareness to be luminosity,
this limitless radiance cannot be contained
within any language or sacramental system.
Although the very essence of Mind
is to be void of either subjects or objects,
it tenderly embraces all life within its womb.
To realize this inexpressible truth,
do not manipulate mind or body
but simply open into transparency
with relaxed, natural grace
intellect at ease in silence,
limbs at rest in stillness
like hollow bamboos.
Neither breathing in nor breathing out
with the breath of habitual thinking,
allow the mind to be at peace
in brilliant wakefulness.
This is the royal wealth of Mahamudra,
no common coin of any realm.
Beloved Naropa, this treasure of Buddhahood
belongs to you and to all beings.
Obsessive use of meditative disciplines
or perennial study of scripture and philosophy
will never bring forth this wonderful realization,
this truth which is natural to awareness,
because the mind that desperately desires
to reach another realm or level of experience
inadvertently ignores the basic light
that constitutes all experience.
The one who fabricates
any division in consciousness
betrays the friendship of Mahamudra.
Cease all activity that separates,
abandon even the desire to be free from desires
and allow the thinking process to rise and fall
smoothly as waves on a shoreless ocean.
The one who never dwells in abstraction
and whose only principle
is never to divide or separate
upholds the trust of Mahamudra.
The one who abandons craving
for authority and definition,
and never becomes one-sided
in argument or understanding,
alone perceives the authentic meaning
hidden in the ancient scriptures.
In the blissful embrace of Mahamudra,
negative viewpoints and their instincts
are burned without remainder, like camphor.
Through the open door of Mahamudra,
the deluded state of self-imprisonment
is easily left behind forever.
Mahamudra is the torch of supreme liberty
shining forth through all conscious beings.
Those beings constituted by awareness
who try to ignore, reject or grasp awareness
inflict sorrow and confusion upon themselves
like those who are insane.
To be awakened from this madness,
cultivate the gracious friendship
of a sublime sage of Mahamudra,
who may appear to the world as mad.
When the limited mind
enters blessed companionship
with limitless Mind,
indescribable freedom dawns.
Selfish or limited motivations
create the illusory sense of imprisonment
and scatter seeds of further delusion.
Even genuine religious teaching
can generate narrowness of vision.
Trust only the approach
that is utterly vast and profound.
The noble way of Mahamudra
never engages in the drama of
imprisonment and release.
The sage of Mahamudra
has absolutely no distractions,
because no war against distractions has ever been declared.
This nobility and gentleness alone,
this nonviolence of thought and action ,
is the traceless path of all Buddhas.
To walk this all-embracing way
is the bliss of Buddhahood.
Phenomena on every plane of being
are constantly arising and disappearing.
Thus they are forever fresh,
always new and inexhaustible.
Like dreams without solid substance,
they can never become rigid or binding.
The universe exists in a deep, elusive way
that can never be grasped or frozen.
Why feel obsessive desire or hatred for it,
thereby creating illusory bonds?
Renounce arbitrary, habitual views.
Go forth courageously to meditate
in the real mountain wilderness,
the wide open Mahamudra.
Transcend boundaries of kinship
by embracing all living beings
as one family of consciousness.
Remain without any compulsion
in the landscape of natural freedom:
spontaneous, generous, joyful.
When you receive the crown of Mahamudra,
all sense of rank or attainment
will quietly disappear.
Cut the root of the vine that chokes the tree,
and its clinging tendrils wither away entirely.
Sever the conventionally grasping mind,
and all bondage and desperation dissolve.

The illumination from an oil lamp
lights the room instantly,
even if it has been dark for aeons.
Mind is boundless radiance.
How can the slightest darkness
remain in the room of daily perception?
But one who clings to mental processes
cannot awaken to the radiance of Mind.
Strenuously seeking truth
by investigation and concentration,
one will never appreciate
the unthinkable simplicity and bliss
that abide at the core.
To uncover this fertile ground,
cut through the roots of complexity
with the sharp gaze of naked awareness,
remaining entirely at peace,
transparent and content.
You need not expend great effort
nor store up extensive spirtual power.
Remain in the flow of sheer awareness.
Mahamudra neither accepts nor rejects
any current of energy, internal or external.
Since the ground consciousness
is never born into any realm of being,
nothing can add to or subtract from it.
Nothing can obstruct or stain it.
When awareness rests here,
the appearance of division and conflict
disappears into original reality.
The twin emotions of anxiety and arrogance
vanish into the void from which they came.
Supreme knowing knows
no separate subject or object.
Supreme action acts resourcefully
without any array of instruments.
Supreme attainment attains the goal
without past, future or present.
The dedicated practitioner
experiences the spiritual way
as a turbulent mountain stream,
tumbling dangerously among boulders.
When maturity is reached,
the river flows smoothly and patiently
with the powerful sweep of the Ganges.
Emptying into the ocean of Mahamudra,
the water becomes ever-expanding light
that pours into great Clear Light
without direction, destination,
division, distinction or description.

A Large Cockroach Was My Teacher Today

I was sitting in practice this morning when a 2 inch long cockroach rushed up to me and ran across my texts. I thought I was in a stable state of mind but it startled me. Then he came closer and I brusquely brushed it away throwing the helpless creature a few feet away where it scampered away, no doubt in fear. Needless to say I was not calm and my behavior did not exhibit the virtue of patience and gentility. This gave me pause to look at myself in a more objective way.

Han Shan's Maxim

In the ego's world of illusion, all things are in flux. But continuous change is constant chaos.
When the ego sees itself as the center of so much swirling activity, it cannot experience
cosmic harmony.

 For example, what the ego considers to be a devastating hurricane is, as far as the universe is
concerned, a perfectly natural event, a link in the endless chain of cause and effect. The
universe, having no ego, continues its existence without rendering judgments about
hurricanes or ocean breezes.

When we are empty of ego we, too, can carry on in calm acceptance of life's varying events.
When we cease making prejudicial distinctions - gentle or harsh, beautiful or ugly, good or
bad - a peaceful stillness will permeate our mind. If there is no ego, there is no agitation.