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8 manifestations of Guru Rinpoche

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Indeed!

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When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick - every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. But if instead you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without giving rise to other thoughts. Be like a lion, who rather than chases after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.

~ Milarepa

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Five Dhyani Buddhas

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Craving (tanha) in

Theravada Buddhism - 01

In Gautama Buddha's very first sermon called "Dhamma Chakkappavattana Sutta", the Buddha expounded the four Noble Truths that He realised during the process of enlightenment.

The four Noble Truths

The Truth of universal suffering (dukkha sacca)

The Truth of the origin of suffering (samudaya sacca)

The Truth of the cessation of suffering (nirodha sacca)

The Truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering (magga sacca)

The first Noble Truth is the fact that all forms of existence are subject to unavoidable and inevitable suffering or dukkha. Suffering can be both physical suffering and mental suffering as declared by the Buddha.

- Birth is suffering

- Ageing is suffering

- Illness is suffering

- Death is suffering

- Sorrow, lamentation, grief, pain, and despair are suffering

- To be connected with what one dislikes is suffering

- To be separated from what one likes is suffering

- Not getting what one desires is suffering

- In short, the five aggregates of clinging are suffering

The five aggregates of clinging are material form (rupa), feeling (vedana), perception (sanna), mental formations (sankhara) and consciousness (vinnana) that constitute the Psycho-physical complex (nama-rupa) known as a being or personality.

The second Truth of the origin or arising of suffering was declared by the Buddha as craving (tanha). The Buddha described craving as having the following characteristics in terms of it's functioning;

"Ponobhavika"

"Producing re-existence and re-becoming"

"Nandiragasahagata"

"Bound up with passionate greed"

"Tatra tatrabhinandini"

"Finding fresh delight now here, now there"

In this sermon the Buddha described three types of craving.

Craving for sense pleasures (kama-tanha)

Craving for becoming or existence (bhava-tanha)

Craving for non - becoming or non - existence (vibhava-tanha)

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The fool waits For conditions To be right before

Being happy.

And even then, it is fleeting

Maintain a joyous

Attitude, always....

An open heart is the best medicine, Open it a little more Wth every breath.

Approach every act

As if it were your Last on Earth.

Think,

If my next birth were

Determined by this act alone,

What karmic impact

Will be left on my loved ones and The world in general.

By this word, thought, or deed?"

Seek to make

Peace without

Judging who is Right or wrong.

Walk away From argument.

Heal old and new

Wounds before

They get infected.

Do not talk about people behind their back, Quickly over look their mistakes,

As well as your own.

If you stop from doing just these things, you will

Have produced more positive karmic seeds, than are atoms

Scattered though-out the entire Universe!

At various times and various places, There will be earthquakes, Floods, famine, fire, disease, And even collisions with astral bodies.

Such things are not to be feared...

If you are living with the thought,

"Like me all that live want to be protected, Loved and accepted I will help them"

During troubled Times, if someone Says, "Pray to my God Or lose your head!"

Better to live without

A head then to live With one owned By another.

Find your own truth, Question everything.

Do the next right thing,

And your life will be like sweet incense...

Be sincere,

Live according to your true nature.

It's better to be a sincere fool, Than to fake that you are wise.

People can be helped

By the truth of your brokenness, But not by the lie of your wholeness.

When you do these practices

Stress and worry cannot

Find you.

from "Stones To Shatter The Mirror:

The Fearless Teachings of Tilopa To Naropa

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At the moment of not recollecting anything from the past, not being involved in contemplating the future and not being preoccupied with something else in the present; let your present wakefulness gently recognize itself. When you allow this, there is an immediate and vividly awake moment. Do not try to modify or improve upon this moment of present wakefulness. Leave it open and free as it is!

-Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

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Holding On and Letting Go

Your life might be very different if you let go of the things that have already let go of you. Perhaps it's time to free yourself of the burden of a past that cannot be changed. It doesn't mean that you're giving up, but rather accepting things that cannot be.

In Loving Kindness

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How we can liberate ourselves - and what is to be adopted and what discarded in Dharma (practice)

Verse 15

Emptiness and dependent arising

Eliminate all faults. Therefore this is the refuge in the authentic teaching.

Through this the Buddha (as a teacher) and the Sangha (as an example)

Also become a refuge for those seeking liberation.

This is how he taught.

[mahayanapilgrim]

Life is simple when you accept that it is complicated

Life is complicated when you believe it should be simple

- James Low

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The Difference Between Compassion and Bodhicitta &

Bodhichitta is peace. Sometimes I feel people misunderstand, or do not understand clearly, the difference between basic compassion and Bodhichitta.

If you are able to spend a few hours doing something for somebody you don't even know people might call you a bodhisattva. They may say, "Oh, he or she is so kind, they are a Bodhisattva." This is not necessarily so. A kind person is not necessarily a Bodhisattva. Being kind is very good, being a compassionate person is very good, but it does not necessarily make us a bodhisattva.

A bodhisattva has to be kind and compassionate for a reason.

A bodhisattva is kind and compassionate in that they are working to establish all beings as Buddhas. In this way Bodhichitta is very specific.

~ Tai Situ Rinpoche

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GURU IN THE BARDO

You will find your guru devotion to be the most practical, hands-on, easy-to-remember tool during the most crucial time of your life: when you are dying and after you die — when you are in the bardo.

If you haven't managed to practice enough or don't have adequate wisdom and merit to become enlightened within this lifetime before abandoning this body, then you must continue the thread of practice and try to achieve liberation at the very moment of death.

However, when all the elements and gross consciousnesses dissolve into the state of dharmata, if your weak practice does not allow you to recognize dharmata, then naturally, you will bounce.

The perception of subject and object will begin to arise, discursive thoughts will begin to spin, and once again you will begin to experience all the visions and sounds and attributes of the bardo.

If you as a practitioner are steady and confident enough, you may still have the opportunity to realize enlightenment. But as bardo beings, it will be difficult to resist looking for hideouts, clamoring for rebirth and for the comfort of reference points.

But even then, by the strength of remembering a little practice you have done, you may still have some hope of attaining a higher rebirth, or of reaching a better hideout.

In the bardo, if you can't remember all the wisdom and methods you have been familiarizing yourself with during this lifetime, at least try to remember the view, the deity, and the guru. But the chances of you remembering the view and the intricate details of the deity in the midst of the uncertain turbulence of the bardo are as slim as seeing stars in daylight.

It is the guru, again, that will be the easiest reference point to remember. By remembering the guru, you can grab hold of the state of enlightenment or any one of the other stages of the bardo. Even failing all those stages, as you enter into your next life's mother's womb, by remembering the guru, you can reclaim the right aspiration, the right family, the right vessel for Dharma.

~Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse~

The Guru Drinks Bourbon

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'The Buddha always told his disciples not to waste their time and energy in metaphysical speculation.

Whenever he was asked a metaphysical question, he remained silent.

Instead, he directed his disciples toward practical efforts.

Questioned one day about the problem of the infinity of the world, the Buddha said, "Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same."

Another time he said, "Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it.

What would happen?

If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first."

Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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When Others Blame You

When others blame you, they cannot add a fault to you that you do not possess. When others praise you, you are not becoming a greater person because of that. Whatever others say about you does not affect your faults and qualities. Only you can see whether you have this fault or not. If you do not have the fault for which you have been accused, there is no need to be upset, since criticism does not make you have the fault. If you do have that fault for which you have been accused, the person pointing it out to you becomes your kind teacher helping you to improve.

Always look at your own faults, but never look at other's faults.

~ HE Garchen Rinpoche