Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register. Dec 26, 2009, 4:26am
Licchavi Vimalakirti came to the foot of that tree and said to me, ’Reverend Sariputra, this is not the way to absorb yourself in contemplation. You should absorb yourself in contemplation so that neither body nor mind appear anywhere in the triple world. You should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that you can manifest all ordinary behavior without forsaking cessation. You should absorb yourself in contemplation in such a way that you can manifest the nature of an ordinary person without abandoning your cultivated spiritual nature.
shidadao Administrator Ch'an Adept. member is offline
Richard Hunn (Upasaka Wen Shu) sat to the right (taken 2004).
Joined: Sept 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 515 Location: London, UK
Re: Overcoming Barriers « Result #3 on Nov 1, 2009, 10:24pm »
Exactly. When lookiing at it all, I have seen, and been part of a number of human organisational patterns. This patterns, although apparently external, actually originate within the mind. We create the patterns internally, and often get lost in our own projections - as if they really are 'external' to our minds.
In a very real way, we follow the patterns of our minds, and attribute them to all sorts of varying originations - external to ourselves. The various societies we live in, are our mind patterns unfolding. Usually, in my experience, we often start our spiritual journey by embracing the exact opposite to where we are at in our minds, at the beginning of our journey.
We follow, explore, commit, convert, doubt, embrace, distinguish, re-arrange, turn around, develop, regress, pick ourselves up, help some, ignore others, and go about our day. We move 'this' from 'here', to 'there'. For many, and certainly for myself, this has been the model. The varying twists and turns all ways 'spiritualised', to give them a meaning beyond their material limitation. Eventually however, a crisis is reached. We either give-up the endless circles and see the barriers dissolve, or just carrying on the same, without direction or hope.
The good news is that compassion and thoughts toward our fellow beings, as well as ourselves, is the essence.
Re: The Chan Way « Result #4 on Oct 29, 2009, 5:51pm »
You ask with such passion, forestofsouls!...I feel compelled to honour that very focused searching.
I would relax...completely relax as your enquiries arise. I would do nothing with them...I would not question how worthy or unworthy they are...for they are the gate to a great discovery, I would suggest.
That is, the discovery of the one who seeks...the one who asks these questions.
So...when next you catch yourself asking a question...you might try...just for a tiny moment...that's all that it takes...to stop and put feelers out for that presence that is curious.
Find out 'who'...or more accurately perhaps, 'what' wants to know?
I will say no more...because this adventure is far too precious to spoil with words from me.
Overcoming Barriers « Result #5 on Oct 29, 2009, 5:35pm »
At the end of your article on Overcoming Barriers that you kindly emailed to us (I thank you) shidado, you wrote:
"Seeing the transparency of all states appears the only real salvation. Together with the understanding of the nature of that which 'sees'."
I heard myself saying out loud, "Brilliant!"...
...not without some relief, I must add. :grin: I have read much of what you have sent via email and follow it closely...for I am woefully ignorant in such things.
Yet, at the same time, I have always felt that there comes a time when all learning stops...everything just hangs...hangs there in ridiculous cessation...
...nothing left to do, say or think...but just hang.
I sense that this can happen at any time...to any of us...no matter what our path. It seems to me, that we cannot know when or by what means it will occur. It's pure grace.
Then...then...there is that which cannot be described at all...that which is unlike anything that we can know or word-up....
...a free fall in timeless spaciousness...that generous, ever present, total still impulse of beingness. Feels to me almost like a blanket of creeping, silent, discrete mist...imbuing, birthing, being everything...
shidadao Administrator Ch'an Adept. member is offline
Richard Hunn (Upasaka Wen Shu) sat to the right (taken 2004).
Joined: Sept 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 515 Location: London, UK
Re: An Introduction to the Yogacara. « Result #7 on Oct 28, 2009, 1:03pm »
'Hitherto it has usually been thought that the founder of the Yogacara school was Asanga or Aryasanga. Considerable evidence has, however, been accumulating in favour of the view, gradually forcing itself into acceptance, that the real founder of the system was Maitreya or Maitreyanatha. The tradition is that five of his works were revealed to Asanga by Maitreya in the Tusita heaven and this would imply that Maitreya was a mythical character, rather than a historical personage. It now appears however, that he was a historical person, the teacher of Asanga, and real founder of the Yogacara school.'
shidadao Administrator Ch'an Adept. member is offline
Richard Hunn (Upasaka Wen Shu) sat to the right (taken 2004).
Joined: Sept 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 515 Location: London, UK
CH'AN DIGEST: 40 Over-coming Barriers. « Result #8 on Oct 28, 2009, 1:01pm »
Dear Members
Whilst researching the Yogacara tradition, I came across the following quote;
'Hitherto it has usually been thought that the founder of the Yogacara school was Asanga or Aryasanga. Considerable evidence has, however, been accumulating in favour of the view, gradually forcing itself into acceptance, that the real founder of the system was Maitreya or Maitreyanatha. The tradition is that five of his works were revealed to Asanga by Maitreya in the Tusita heaven and this would imply that Maitreya was a mythical character, rather than a historical personage. It now appears however, that he was a historical person, the teacher of Asanga, and real founder of the Yogacara school.'
(Yogacara Idealism: By AS Chatterjee - Page 31.)
This means that the historical person named 'Maitreya', has been muddled with the idea of 'Maitreya', the Buddha yet to come. This may have occured by accident, due primarily to a lack of knowledge. But it could have equally been a deliberate mistake, in an attempt to give the Yogacara an apparent 'divine' origination.
Of course, such divine intervention, although helpful to those who happen to receive, is not required in the assessment of the mind, its functions, or its apparent interaction with the objects of the physical world. The myth of the origination however, should not distract the meditator from the cold analysis of personal experience.
The real issue is to educate ourselves in every way that is possible. Buddhist philosophy should not be static or final, but dynamic and newly discovering. It might already be written somewhere, but if it has not been discovered by our own efforts, we can not be sure what is 'true' and 'helpful', and what is not. Truth, of course, is contingent upon circumstance.
Sometimes, a word, phrase or action can serve as a stimulus to inner work and inner development. The journey to inner and outer unification is complex. One moment it is smooth, the next it is difficult. Seeing the transparency of all states appears the only real salvation. Together with the understanding of the nature of that which 'sees'.
Compassion in this journey is the removal of barriers and false constructs that hinder or block the traveller on their path. The mind essence does not know economics, class, race or gender. These entanglements must be over-come for mind to manifest brightly.
shidadao Administrator Ch'an Adept. member is offline
Richard Hunn (Upasaka Wen Shu) sat to the right (taken 2004).
Joined: Sept 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 515 Location: London, UK
Yogacara Origins - More Information. « Result #9 on Oct 28, 2009, 12:28pm »
'Hitherto it has usually been thought that the founder of the Yogacara school was Asanga or Aryasanga. Considerable evidence has, however, been accumulating in favour of the view, gradually forcing itself into acceptance, that the real founder of the system was Maitreya or Maitreyanatha. The tradition is that five of his works were revealed to Asanga by Maitreya in the Tusita heaven and this would imply that Maitreya was a mythical character, rather than a historical personage. It now appears however, that he was a historical person, the teacher of Asanga, and real founder of the Yogacara school.'
In striving to perform one's religious duty, the first thing is to observe the rules of discipline. For discipline is the fundamental of the Supreme Bodhi; discipline begets immutability abd immutability begets wisdom. Master Xu Yun.
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