Me too! Me too!

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Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Me too! Me too!

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

From "Moonbeams of Mahamudra" by Treleg R. introduction:
(The erratic capitalization is from the book.)
It is important to understand that this Mahamudra system goes beyond Tantra. The text contains a discussion on the relationship between Tantra and Mahamudra but Mahamudra is not confined to conventional tantra practices. The goal of all higher tantric practices is to realize mahamudra, but Mahamudra meditation is a distinct meditative system. Conventional tantra practices include visualizations of deitites, mantra recitation, ritual practices, chanting, and so on. Not so in Mahamudra meditation. Mahamudra does not rely on any of these things or even regard them as important. We can practice Mahamudra without practicing Tantra or we can practice it in conjunctions with Tantra, but the Mahamudra system as presented in this manual is a complete and distinct practice in its own right.
I just wanted to make the point that Dzogchen does not monopolize this kind of approach.

(Me too! Me too!)
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
Malcolm
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Re: Me too! Me too!

Post by Malcolm »

smcj wrote:From "Moonbeams of Mahamudra" by Treleg R. introduction:
(The erratic capitalization is from the book.)
It is important to understand that this Mahamudra system goes beyond Tantra. The text contains a discussion on the relationship between Tantra and Mahamudra but Mahamudra is not confined to conventional tantra practices. The goal of all higher tantric practices is to realize mahamudra, but Mahamudra meditation is a distinct meditative system. Conventional tantra practices include visualizations of deitites, mantra recitation, ritual practices, chanting, and so on. Not so in Mahamudra meditation. Mahamudra does not rely on any of these things or even regard them as important. We can practice Mahamudra without practicing Tantra or we can practice it in conjunctions with Tantra, but the Mahamudra system as presented in this manual is a complete and distinct practice in its own right.
I just wanted to make the point that Dzogchen does not monopolize this kind of approach.

(Me too! Me too!)
Correct, but indeed, as Machig Labdron says of the dharmadhātu after going through all the yānas, including Dzogchen and Mahāmudra:
  • The ignorant and confused are deluded
    because they know and apprehend the dharmadhātu as an object [...]
    All of these knowledges (rig pa)
    are knowledges that know objects.
    Those [knowledges that] possess objects are not true.
    There is nothing to know in the mind without objects.
    Whoever knows is bound by knowledge.
Schrödinger’s Yidam
Posts: 7885
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 6:13 am

Re: Me too! Me too!

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

Upon re-reading the quote I see that when "Tantra" is used as a proper noun it is capitalized, and when used as an adjective it is spelled in lower case. So I guess that's correct.

Oops. Maybe I shoulda' finished college.
Machig Labdron wrote:The ignorant and confused are deluded..
Ya got that right.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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Astus
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Re: Me too! Me too!

Post by Astus »

Malcolm wrote:Correct, but indeed, as Machig Labdron says of the dharmadhātu after going through all the yānas, including Dzogchen and Mahāmudra:
  • The ignorant and confused are deluded
    because they know and apprehend the dharmadhātu as an object [...]
    All of these knowledges (rig pa)
    are knowledges that know objects.
    Those [knowledges that] possess objects are not true.
    There is nothing to know in the mind without objects.
    Whoever knows is bound by knowledge.
Something similar from the Platform Sutra (ch 7, BDK ed, p 62-63):

The master said, “That teacher’s explanation still allows perceptual understanding to exist, which is why you were unable to comprehend. I will now reveal a verse for you:

Not seeing a single dharma but maintaining the view of nonbeing
Is much like floating clouds blocking the face of the sun.
Not knowing a single dharma but maintaining one’s knowledge of emptiness
Is just like the great void generating lightning and thunder.

When such perceptual understanding arises for the slightest instant,
How can mistaken recognition ever understand expedient means?
You should understand the error of this yourself, in a single moment of thought,
And the numinous brilliance of the self will be constantly manifest.

When Zhichang heard this verse, his mind became suddenly expansive [in enlightenment], and he related a verse:

There is no reason to activate perceptual understanding,
To be attached to characteristics and seek for bodhi.
When one’s intelligence harbors a single thought of enlightenment,
How can one transcend the delusions of the past?

The self-nature, enlightened to the essential source,
Illuminates the crazed currents [of awareness].
Without entering the room of the patriarch,
In a daze, going about with two heads.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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