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KIROKAZE
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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@vajratantrika
Ignorance, Attachment, Aversion
“All types of karma are tainted by the ignorance of not realizing the natural state. Ignorance leads to self-cherishing. Action that is motivated by self-cherishing becomes the cause of cyclic existence. If I wonder whether I have this affliction of ignorance, I need only examine my mind. I do not know the nature of cyclic existence, nor when or how it began. I do not know the nature of…
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Continually Practice Dharma The circumstance of death are many. Those that sustain life are few; Those very things, too, may cause death. Therefore, continually practice Dharma.
Calm Abiding
I’ve been continuing my close reading of Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. This is the root text for the many lamrim texts that followed. The copy I have includes the root text in both English and Tibetan, and a commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen (translated by Ruth Sonam). Last night’s reading included verse 38 38. Without the attainment of calm abiding, Higher perception will not…
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The Five Skandhas, or, Sometimes you can't see the Trees for the Forest
The Five Skandhas, or, Sometimes you can’t see the Trees for the Forest
There is the argument of conventional wisdom; over yonder is the forest. Don’t get caught up in seeing the trees, or you’ll miss the forest! One of the challenges of Buddhism is to turn this around, to point to the forest and ask, “What is that?”, and not cease until we arrive at a conclusive answer. There is a spirit of vigorous and unrelenting inquiry involved in Buddhist phenomenology. One…
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Mahasiddhas
“According to the great Tibetan scholar Lama Taranatha (sixteenth to seventeenth century) in his ‘History of Buddhism in India’, Vajrayana Buddhism can already be located in the time of Nagarjuna (first to second century) in the jungles of India, among a small group of isolated and anonymous meditators who followed this path to realization. These masters, known as siddhas (“perfected ones”), were…
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Attending to our Karma "Buddhism, particularly in its Tibetan form, often contains ritual ceremonies, or pujas, directed toward various Buddha-figures or fierce protectors in order to help dispel obstacles and accomplish constructive purposes.
Children of the Victorious One "Those whose seed is devotion towards the supreme vehicle, whose mother is analytical wisdom generating the buddha qualities, whose abode is the blissful womb of meditative stability, and whose nurse is compassion, are heirs born to succeed the Muni."
Teacher of Gods and Humanity
Teacher of Gods and Humanity
Buddha, Indra, Brahma Śāsta deva-manusyānam – “teacher of gods and men (i.e. humanity)”. This is one of the titles of Buddha Shakyamuni. While many may be familiar with Buddha Shakyamuni’s role as a teacher for human beings, it is interesting to note that in traditional Buddhist cosmology, many of the the gods and goddesses (i.e. devas and devis) are themselves not fully liberated…
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Jamgön Mipham Gyatso "The teachings of the profound vajra vehicle are also sealed By means of the six limits and four modes.
Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi “Bhikṣus, in regard to these three turnings and twelve motions of the Four Noble Truths, if they had not given birth to vision, wisdom, understanding, and Bodhi, then amongst all the devas, māras, brahmās, śramaṇas, and brāhmaṇas who hear the Dharma, I could not have achieved liberation, gone beyond, and departed.
The Six Paramitas "One fulfills one's bodhisattva vow through acting to benefit beings. Since this kind of activity runs against the deeply engrained habitual patterns of our usual approach, practices need to be given that unlock our compassion.
The Four Reliances
Guidelines for learning the Dharma: 1) Rely on the Dharma, rather than on the person teaching the Dharma. 2) Rely on the meaning or point (artha), rather than on the literal words. 3) Rely on sutras (texts) that are definitive (nitartha), rather than those that are provisional (neyartha) and require further interpretation. 4) Rely on gnosis (jñana ), rather than on discursive, everyday awareness…
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Karma, Part 1
“Kamma should be known. The cause by which kamma comes into play should be known. The diversity in kamma should be known. The result of kamma should be known. The cessation of kamma should be known. The path of practice for the cessation of kamma should be known.” [From the Nibbedhika Sutta – Penetrative Insight. AN 6.63] Despite its popularity as a term in contemporary language and conversation,…
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Diversity in the Dharma
Diversity in the Dharma
“There is a Tibetan saying that just as every valley has its own language so every teacher has his own doctrine. This is an exaggeration on both counts, but it does indicate the diversity to be found within Buddhism and the important role of a teacher in mediating a received tradition and adapting it to the needs, the personal transformation, of the pupil. This diversity prevents, or strongly…
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The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path is sometimes represented symbolically as the eight spokes of the Dharma Wheel. And just like each spoke of a wheel does not work on its own, completely independently and in isolation from the rest, but rather they all act together as a support for the entire wheel, so too, each step on the Noble Eightfold Path acts in conjunction with the rest as a support in ones life…
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The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths
Buddha Shakyamuni It was Siddhartha Gautama, a young prince of the Shakya clan, child of King Shuddhodana and Queen Mayadevi, who became the Buddha, the Awakened One. There were many spiritual teachers before him and there have been many spiritual teachers that have come since. So what makes Gautama special? What makes him the Awakened One? To know this, one can examine the nature of the Buddha’s…
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Renunciation - Determination to be Free
Renunciation – Determination to be Free
Renunciation is the root of liberation. It is the decision to be free from the repeating cycles of rebirth, sickness, old-age and death, to be free from the uncontrollably spinning wheel, to be free from samsara. Liberation becomes possible when renunciation has arisen in your awareness. I learned from my teachers that one possible translation into English of the Tibetan word for renunciation is…
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