Dharma Wheel

Malcolm wrote:A promise of happiness underlies all successful marketing.

dharmagoat wrote:

Malcolm wrote:A promise of happiness underlies all successful marketing.

Doesn't the Buddha promise happiness too?

dzogchungpa wrote:Well, I know this is a Mahayana board, but there's a whole section of the book of the twos in the Anguttara Nikaya about happiness or sukhaṃ in Pali. It might just be marketing though.

Crazywisdom wrote:Sukh means relaxed and at ease. No tension. Happiness is Piti. It's a sharp and transient state among the jhana.

dzogchungpa wrote:

Crazywisdom wrote:Sukh means relaxed and at ease. No tension. Happiness is Piti. It's a sharp and transient state among the jhana.

Well, somebody better let Bhikkhu Bodhi know, pronto.

Crazywisdom wrote:Sukh means relaxed and at ease. No tension. Happiness is Piti. It's a sharp and transient state among the jhana.

Simon E. wrote:The content of [Chogyam Trungpa's] Vajrayana teaching was completely traditional..he saw Shambala as a useful introduction for those not ready for commitment to Dharma.

The spiritual journey outlined by Trungpa Rinpoche included five stages of development. The first stage in fact precedes the official entry onto the Buddhist path; in Rinpoche’s presentation, it involved discovering and connecting with our basic human situation and becoming healthy, grounded, and decent people. He called this stage introducing the world to the basic Shambhala principles, and he believed that it can be presented to anyone, regardless of whether or not they ever become a Buddhist. The next three stages are traditionally called the three yanas: the Hinayana, focusing on the development of discipline and a sustained meditation practice; the Mahayana, focusing on awakening the compassion of the heart and the realization of the interconnection of all beings; and the Vajrayana, through uniquely powerful practices and methods, focusing on fully transforming the two veils of emotional upheavals and deeper unconscious obscurations that get between us and our true self. The fifth stage taught by Rinpoche (roughly corresponding to the fruition stage of Dzogchen) revisited the Shambhala teachings, but at a deep post-Vajrayana and post-Buddhist level. In this stage, the basic Shambhala principles—the fundamental openness of reality, the perfection of the unfolding of the universe, and the utter sacredness of our incarnation—become matters of direct and personal experience and an actual way of being in the world, rather than being mainly an intellectual understanding.

dharmagoat wrote:

Simon E. wrote:The content of [Chogyam Trungpa's] Vajrayana teaching was completely traditional..he saw Shambala as a useful introduction for those not ready for commitment to Dharma.

Reginald A. Ray, in the Dharma Ocean Foundation Path Structure & Requirements writes:

The spiritual journey outlined by Trungpa Rinpoche included five stages of development. The first stage in fact precedes the official entry onto the Buddhist path; in Rinpoche’s presentation, it involved discovering and connecting with our basic human situation and becoming healthy, grounded, and decent people. He called this stage introducing the world to the basic Shambhala principles, and he believed that it can be presented to anyone, regardless of whether or not they ever become a Buddhist. The next three stages are traditionally called the three yanas: the Hinayana, focusing on the development of discipline and a sustained meditation practice; the Mahayana, focusing on awakening the compassion of the heart and the realization of the interconnection of all beings; and the Vajrayana, through uniquely powerful practices and methods, focusing on fully transforming the two veils of emotional upheavals and deeper unconscious obscurations that get between us and our true self. The fifth stage taught by Rinpoche (roughly corresponding to the fruition stage of Dzogchen) revisited the Shambhala teachings, but at a deep post-Vajrayana and post-Buddhist level. In this stage, the basic Shambhala principles—the fundamental openness of reality, the perfection of the unfolding of the universe, and the utter sacredness of our incarnation—become matters of direct and personal experience and an actual way of being in the world, rather than being mainly an intellectual understanding.

dzogchungpa wrote:Are you implying that Ray might know more about CTR's teaching than our very own Simon E.?

dzogchungpa wrote:For an interesting example of some of CTR's completely traditional teachings, check out "The Highest Maha Ati Teachings: Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Great Britain" by RIgdzin Shikpo from the book "Recalling Chögyam Trungpa". It can be read online, for example here.

Sherlock wrote:Why are you so enamoured with Chogyam Trungpa when you have no possibility of receiving teachings from him?

Wayfarer wrote:I had the idea that tantric practices generally were often transgressive of tradition - that was part of their rationale, whereas the Theravadin approach is conservative and traditionlist. They put a lot of emphasis on the letter, i.e. the word of the teaching, whereas the emphasis on guru devotion in tantric practice is due to the esoteric nature of transmission in those lineages.

• Monasteries are like collecting-stations
  For hollow driftwood –
  Though they claim
  That the priestly life is divine and pure,
  It is deceptive and illusory to me;
  Of such companions I have no need!

dharmagoat wrote: Milarepa was a devoted disciple of his teacher Marpa and a faithful adherent of the Mahāmudrā tradition of his time.

Mind without projection is mahamudra.
Train and develop this and you will come to the deepest awakening.

Bakmoon wrote:

Crazywisdom wrote:Sukh means relaxed and at ease. No tension. Happiness is Piti. It's a sharp and transient state among the jhana.

I think for most people, a pleasurable state of relaxation and ease matches up with the word happiness pretty well.

Sherlock wrote:Why are you so enamoured with Chogyam Trungpa when you have no possibility of receiving teachings from him? Did he authorize any of these students to teach Mahamudra or Dzogchen in their entirety?

Tony Duff is also a student of Trungpa and presents himself and Trungpa as very traditional BTW.