Wendy

Summer retreat – Emerson College 6-9 June

In more recent years the Summer Retreat in Sussex has been held in a beautiful field.
Perfect if you are ‘camping hardy’ and enjoy it…but not so easy for some.
If you don’t have the gear and have to borrow or bring it with you on a plane or bus that can be a hassle…or maybe the body would not cope well.
Nearby and limited on-site accommodation bridged the gap for some.

However this year the retreat is being held back at the old venue at Emerson College, so if you’d like to come to this retreat in England… and camping in a field is not your bag… there are more options.

You’ll see on the organisers website that Huw is offering to organise luxury bell tents, all set up for when you arrive.

The college also offers three different types of ‘in house’ accommodation: 43 single rooms and 7 twin rooms – all with shared toilets and showers.  One of their student houses is fitted with a wheelchair toilet and shower. 

Huw has requested that if you are able to camp it would be kind to do as it leaves the indoor accommodation available for those who need it.

Camper-vans can also be accommodated.

For more information see the link under Events on the right of the home page here or on the Simplybeing website.

A Description of Zangdropalri…

This recording completes the series of recordings from the book…Lotus Source…
It’s number 21… at the bottom of the series, which you’ll find with other recordings under audio/video from the menu bar

The text is an arrangement by James Low, adapted for this representation as an audio-recording …

It seems very wonderful to me that those who are engaged with this aspect of dharma, and hold the wisdom of the earlier chapters in their hearts, will be able to benefit from access to this practice – treasure.

Dharma can evoke rather different responses to events … than the usual worldly ones.
Nearly twenty years ago, when the consultant in the hospital’s emergency department was trying to lower my alarmingly high heart rate… he explained that, as he was going to use a chemical to actually stop my heart, I would shortly have a feeling of impending doom!
However my very happy thought was… oh wow! Great…what a perfect opportunity for practice…

I did so…and experienced the absolute opposite of doom!
I returned… to a lot of shouting … not with more faith… as that was a given, but having tried it in earnest, with complete confidence in that practice…

This completing text is now published, on this first day of this new year… of the wood-dragon

You probably know that there are dragons of many kinds…
I saw one once – this is a ‘true-story’ – and it’s out-breath was most unusual…a little bit like steam but not hot or damp, nor dense like smoke.
More like incense… ethereal, nebulous…very light textured, soft but not bright…ungraspable….yet refined and precious in quality.
This happened many years ago… I’d see this as a wisdom-dragon…and the out-breath…the breath of dharma flowing out into this troubled world…

So wishing you a Happy New Year, Happy Losar…. and Happy new you, Happy new me, Happy new moment. May we have the blessing of many more happy new years, giving us time to deepen our practice, before it’s our time to go. And may our wise teachers…long keep breathing out…and in, the freshness of the dharma!

Aspiration for Zangdopalri

This recording, no.20 in the Lotus Source recordings, is now available for you to listen to.

The place, evoked in the mind by this text, is free of samsaric taints…it is so very beautiful and delightful …

It’s a place where all the difficulties which impede our awakening no longer function… and where all the factors which can ease our awakening are present…in infinite abundance.

As it says in the text ‘to hear of it awakens great happiness in the mind’ ‘even to think of it is to be freed from suffering’ ‘when you see it, you will wish to go there’

From whence arises this description? Some dharma travel guide?
Is the invitation to go there a casual one… just some words written by someone, in a book…?
The profound links of compassionate connectivity with the openness at their heart, are revealed within this text…

Errata: There are three small slips from the text within the reading… which I may be able to rectify later:
‘there is a GREAT wish-granting tree’; Amitabha is surrounded by ‘hosts of deities’, omit the ‘the’ currently preceding ‘hosts’; ‘there are many, many spheres of light’ not just many! : )

The evocative clip was abstracted from a painting by Stewart Edmondson a local artist…

The immediacy and freshness of his work done outside, en plein air, working in and with the elements, resonated with me when I first saw it….
And… looking at the patch of light in a relaxed way… maybe we see-envision differently…
As James points out the eyes of the heart see differently from the eyes of the intellect.

Lotus Source Practice

Blossoms opening…sky to sky..

Happily the next audio recording (19) from the book Lotus Source, is now available…
It is of James Low’s introduction and translation of the practice treasure-text…

Once, when talking with James, I went into a bit of a riff of gratitude…
He listened and responded with… ‘Merry Christmas!!!’
It wasn’t Christmas time : )… but humility that spoke to me.

So many beneficial interactions have occurred to bring this book into our hands and facilitated our ability to appreciate and make use of its contents…
If this is our path then in time …through open-heartedly engaging with the practice… the profound truth, of which this is a direct expression, can reveal itself…like the moon coming out from behind the clouds. So our appreciation widens and deeps…as tension resolves in openness.

The beautiful flowers in the photo have brought delight each year since Sarah Allen ( whose input you’ll come across in connection with books and on the web-site) gave me some seeds from her ‘Morning Glory’ plant.

Opening from a cream furled-umbrella shaped bud, each flower last for just one day before changing shape and colour – from blue to mauve – and falling from the vine….
But there are many flowers even, this year, in December…

So may our Christmas-time be fruitful…maybe if you haven’t yet read James last two posts perhaps there’ll be time… to metabolise them, taking their wisdom deeper… as I will.
And may we flourish and flower in the New Year and on…inseparable from the dharma-vine, with it’s root of truth… until the end of time

P.S. Cracking two audio Christmas Crackers with you!

– of sound and silence…there was both, with dharma surprise and enjoyment in performance artist Marina Abramović’s selection Desert Island Discs on BBC radio 4 on 3rd December
– and movement and silence…in Marcel Marceau’s story told by his daughters…on Saturday 9th December

(you’d need to access BBC Sounds to find these)

image (wikipedia)

A Great Cloud of Blessing…. and Imploring Padmasambhava…


James Low

A month or so ago I was working on the recording of the prayer by Padmasambhava ‘Removing Obstacles’ … it’s no. 12 in the Lotus source series of recordings.
James explained that the Tibetan word ‘jamtrin’ on P.153 meant soft clouds… and I thought
‘Oh how beautiful.. and light.. and like that……… is this dharma’s-lamas blessing!’

So called ‘precious stones’ are more dense and more highly valued by many in this world.
All that may go along with them… in the lives of the miners, and those who employ them…the pride desire and the envy and the deals that are done …are like unseen shadows to their brilliance.

But these prayers, are part of our inheritance … and are jewels untainted by any of those shading factors.
They come down to us through the lineage as A Great Cloud of Blessing from the Fifth Dalai Lama… and Imploring Padmasambhava by Dudjom Rinpoche…with an explanatory orientation, facilitating our connection with them, from James Low
…and arrive on the page for us as a gift, freely given for our use.
Many beings and much beneficial effort is connected with their current availability.

Even prayers such as these may evoke consternation, a shadowing, in some…but their source is pure, as are our intentions.
As we engage with them, their profound energetic heritage can flow though us…and the value of our inheritance reveals itself.
They connect us in time with profound expressions of realisation, offering highly effective ways of understanding, responding to, or working with the energetic movements of the world/our mind.

I was recently asked whether reading the prayers silently is as beneficial as saying them out loud.
As I have learned from our teacher ‘it depends’ is often the most helpful answer.
I used to wonder ‘depends on what ???’… trusting that the answer would eventually arise.
‘The circumstances’… I realised eventually, was the unspoken answer… : )

Recently I’ve had to read, rather than say aloud …and so I noticed that for me, there is a deeper quality of engagement as I speak them …
And this quality deepens, not necessarily by repetition, but by slowly savouring words and lines so that their meaning and impact sinks deeper…
The words put onto the page by the love and hard work of others through time, flows though my eyes into my heart… then out into the world…
So as I say it I become more fully aligned with it….when reading silently I can just be reading… or not.
However we engage, may it be beneficial

Pure White Lotus

The recording of this text was added to the series a couple of weeks ago but some repair work to the aging skeleton means I am only now flagging it up!

Perhaps you found it anyway… but if not then listening to this treasure text regarding the truth of phenomena – no.15 in the series– may resonate with your intrinsic wisdom.

In his introduction James indicates that text this offers a description of how Padmasambhava’s potential manifested – how he responded to different situations …including when he encountered an interest (or disinterest) in the pure dharma.

The text was revealed not so long ago by Sera Khandro, an emanation of one of his close disciples.
It is not simply a biography of Padmadsambhava. As a revelation of his apparitional speech, what we encounter here is part of his legacy to us.

It includes instructions on behaviour … as with the earlier recording of Dudjom Rinpoche’s prayer ‘Pure Discernment’, enjoining us to make no mistake about what is to be adopted and what is to be abandoned. Also a prayer of aspiration …with which we can engage.

In the book there are seventy ‘note-worthy’ notes which James has offered to assist us in unpacking and engaging with the text, including the nature of the obstacles mentioned in those prayers. So if you are following this path it would be very helpful for study and practice if you are able to access the book.

Some notes are deeply telling…’Profound dharma is not a set of standard issue practices to be followed but an invitation into a deeper relationship with the ground of one’s own presence. There are many paths, all helpful, but we each must find our way.’ JL

Prayers for pray-ers ~ Purifying Obscurations, Effortless Fulfilment, Removing Obstacles, Wishes Quickly Fulfilled and The Stainless Biography ~ recordings 10-14


Since early August a bumper crop of new prayers have been added to the Lotus Source recordings.
You’ll find them under Audio/Video> Lotus Source.

When H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche was doubtful about the benefit of writing yet another prayer, as had been requested, his concern was that there were already many prayers…. but there were so few pray-ers!

The image above shows prayers and pears together…
The prayer and the pray-er form a pair which bears fruit.
These prayers may sit un-tasted by you – on a branch/server somewhere – or you are free to pick them, use them… engaging with and becoming one with their expression… being ripened softened and transformed.

As the sun ripens the pears so the prayers may ripen us to manifest radiance.
The value of the Stainless Biography, as with the other prayers, is gestured to by James in his introduction and may well deepen our connectivity with the practice.

May fortunate pray-ers pray these profound prayers and their benefit resound!

Do we know what to adopt and what to reject? Pure Discernment ~ Lotus Source recording

the clear illuminating
light of wisdom

There is no way to navigate across the river to the ‘Further Shore’… or cross the ‘Ocean of Samsara’… using the map we found in our hands when we first started out on this journey.
That map only shows the land-locked features which are taken to be significant in samsara…and the routes which our habits, inflected by our conditioning, might take either towards or away from them.

These are routes and features which are personalised, individually highlighted…seemingly ‘for us’.
So to find and take other routes which don’t feel familiar… where we feel incompetent, where there are no star charts to indicate progress, where the destination is not another place… is not easy.

However although it’s far easier to continue with the old map we’ve been using for years, lifetime after lifetime…you know – the one with ‘me’ at the centre – as with the geographical world-map we’re most used to…the reference point and intention affect the projection … and distortion is the inevitable result . With distortion there is tension… and thus we keep wandering in samsara.

Latterly new projections of the world-map have emerged. Each shifts the reference points and the perception offered…just as when we engage with different dharma teachings we alter the lenses and the perspective with which we view our world.

Although they are vital and helpful, no dharma teacher can download and replace the out of date maps we’re using…they can show us it’s possible, give us methods and much more…but it we who have to engage reflect and apply, working with our tendencies and what we can access of what’s offered to us.

Being recovering samsaraholics our efforts and success in this are a bit variable to say the least.
It’s a bit like the first time I had too much to drink, when I could clearly see that the tables on one side of the pub were taller than on the other side…so best thing to do in such an unusual situation seemed to be to walk at an inclination between the two… : ) …not exactly a position of equipoise!

What we have in this next sutra, the Aspiration for Pure Discernment, is a dharma transmission directly from the openness, through one manifestation of Padmasambhava to another…and another… to us – to help us to navigate in as a straight a line as we may… in the direction ‘Home’…

It highlights the wrong turns and cul-de sacs we are likely to encounter en-route…and the consequences of falling asleep at the wheel.
The pot-holes and pit-falls which will inhibit us from realising our inherent potential are illuminated… and the straight ways and good surfaces which will help us… are clearly laid out.

These dharma reference points are so valuable…without the reliable route…and the bogs… being marked for us on our dharma route map…we would be hopeless lost.
The title of this prayer says it all….it’s The Prayer by which one Recognises ones own Faults and Remembers one’s Refuge together with a Repentant Confession and Rectification and a Very Pure Aspiration to be very clear about what is to be Adopted and what is to be Abandoned.

The Colophon should make us sit bolt upright with full attention …
The urgency of the lady’s request for this prayer arises from a profound sense of its necessity for the welfare of we dharma-practitioners…
and it’s from our requests, and to our need …that the dharma responds so clearly



The recording was completed during the night of the full moon… 1st August 2023

Thanks to Sean for the photo from which this was taken

Sutra of King Golden Hand – additional reflection and James’ advice

I was reflecting on how often there are difficulties with family relationships in life…and death.
I worked in a hospice for some time and so experienced first-hand how variable the attitudes of the dying and their family members can be… to the the process of dying…to death…and to each other.

Death and funerals are often far from easy times… and although there may be healing around these events, emotional turbulence is likely and feelings of disconnection and judgment often persist.

My mother died last year, in Thailand. I only learned of her final illness after her death… and to me the circumstances in which she died were heart-breaking.
For the second time in my life, like many during covid times…and others…with a similar sadness, hearing belatedly of this, I was not able to say goodbye… nor take part in or attend the funeral.

Although I didn’t recite this sutra until well after her death it felt helpful and good to do this.
James’ advice about this was:

‘…reciting the golden hand sutra should be useful…and indeed any sutra that emphasises concern for others…a quality often lacking between family members.’


Our ideas about who is family and who is not… can widen in scope to an infinite inclusivity…
and softening, moving towards healing these apparent rifts is possible at any time
as the dharma… with this practice and others, offers the opportunity to reduce ‘The hatred implicit in duality [which] seems to be more manifest in the world [J.L.]’…


with love…

Thanks to my brother Sean for the gorgeous photo…

The Sutra of King Goldenhand and his Aspiration

The recording of this amazing sutra is now published under audio/video.

As we are alway including all beings in our prayers this sutra is wonderfully helpful in expanding our imagination …from the restrictions of our conditioning with its habitually ego-human-centred view of the world…to include of all the different states and realms in which which sentient beings may find themselves.

Not forgetting ourselves! In the past…in the future… who knows in which direction the winds of karma will take us?
So we offer and connect as best we can, while we can… while we have this precious opportunity to fulfil our potential and be released from self-absorbtion, at this level of practice, into the most profound intention to benefit others

…and follow through with that….

So as we recite it… the power of our aspiration also expands the brilliance and intensity of the rays of light emanating from a candle, a butterlamp… as from our hearts… so that the different darknesses of each of the differently envisioned realms is removed.

All the occlusions or opacities arising from all delusions are lightened and vanish… resolving entrapment into the ineffable brilliance of its ground.

The sutra is short and poetically graphic, it can engage the whole of our being in beneficial activity if we allow it to…

~

Many years ago someone who was very unbalanced sent me an email full of different distresses… one of which was ‘what’s the the point of sending light to someone?’ I was happy to respond, in some way, to what seemed most pressing but dodged that one. I wasn’t too sure myself.

Although, at that point I’d had the luck to ‘be not other than what is to be known’… how to relate the truth of ‘what is’ to what ordinarily seems to be the truth was a mystery yet to be fathomed…
The ‘two truths’ seemed very separate.

There was a pointer in the book ‘Being Guru Rinpoche….’

and then many more came in the teachings and as more books became available…

There’s an early post on this website written around James’ words – ‘light plus concept equals pseudo-identity’…that was/ is a good low-calorie sweet to suck on!

We can become softer
~ through study…. by applying what we learn from the teachings to our lived existence. For as we examine the nature of, and our attachments to, concepts as if they had an inherent validity…we begin to appreciate how solidification and rigidity occurs, become alive to it’s occurrence and loosen out of that

and lighter
~ through different practises, engaging with light as if it was other… until it is not.

~

Thanks again to Pedro for the image!

Introductions to the Vajra Knot and Wish-Fulfilling Jewel

Is the light of our mind blocked by the net of illusion…? or…. is the illusion the light of our mind?

Does how you look influence what you see, what seems to be so to you?

Well, I have a loosely woven cardigan…is this cardigan opaque or translucent?
Lying on the chair it looks opaque…
and if I hold it at a distance and try to look through it I can’t see the flowers in the sink outside.
So, as I cannot see through it – my cardigan is opaque.

However if bring it close to my eyes… the sink and flowers clearly appear.
I can see through it – so my cardigan is translucent.

Which is it… opaque or translucent?
As it can seem both it is neither… but can seem either, depending on your point of view

Sri Nisgargadatta said:
‘The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desire, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net.
It is not hard to do, for the net is full of holes.’

William Blake wrote of ‘mind-forged manacles’….
and the realisation of the historical Buddha, as expressed in the Dhammapada, was:
‘Mind is the forerunner of all experience. Mind is their chief and they are mind-made’

Seeing this, its clear that our lack of freedom arises from substantialising both the ‘self’ and our ‘obstacles to freedom’…and it is from this ‘self-ish’ mental activity that we need to desist on order to realise the truth of who we are… beyond the stories we weave about ourselves.

Stretching the metaphor a bit … similar to stretching the cardigan… compassionate views and activity stretch the self-net…so that the holes become bigger and bigger – more light permeates both ways, and our view of the world changes becoming clearer and more luminous…

…and with the clearest view there is no need to stretch… for compassion arises naturally from the un-deluded mind. Arising from wisdom, the net is insubstantial and there is nothing to escape

From the Vajra Knot:
‘Whatever appears is forever inseparable from the ever-changing net of illusion….’

Linked with this prayer, in one of the Macclesfield Talks, James described the Great Net of Indra …where from each of the myriad interstices of this inconceivably vast net… a multifaceted and brilliant crystal hangs.
Each facet of each crystal shows reflections from all of the other facets…resulting in an entrancing, ever-changing mutually influencing illusion.
This display of the energy of the mind needs no interference, it is not a problem to be solved…

However if we are bedazzled by and fuse with display, as if it were real, our perspective narrows and excludes the on-going un-changing stillness and spaciousness within which these movements are occurring, forgetful of the source of the creativity.
In fusing into the movements as if they showed the actual truth of our situation … we forget our non-dual freedom, and take on the dualistic beliefs of a suffering sentient being wandering in samsara.

The introductions are now included in the recordings of The Aspiration of the Vajra knot and the Prayer of Aspiration which is a Wish-Fulfilling Jewel. The option to download or listen to them is now available.
I’d be glad if you would delete the earlier version, lacking the introduction… as they belong together, the introduction influencing the connection.
For these are not ‘just prayers to be said as a duty’ but can be a profound education, in the truest sense of the word…
…as we take in these words, their words… into our hearts, and release them out into the world on our breath…this brings us very close to the hearts vision and aspiration of those who have realised the deepest truth….from which the words arose…

‘Vajra Knot’ and ‘Wish-fulfilling Jewel’ – with introductions to these prayers…

These prayers are now available to listen to under the Audio/ Video tab… and now include the introductions you’ll find below.

If we’re trying to join two pieces of wood together… then hammering a screw into them is not likely to be effective…and likewise, we’d use a different approach and tools if joining steel plates.
The more we learn about the nature of the material … alongside that which tools to use and how to use them, the easier the task becomes.

And just as with the tangible tools of the world, each dharma tool or method we use has a particular function and an effective way to use it.

These prayers are like tools for opening… to the open…
The introductions James has written for them explains their function, their meaning, maybe their provenance…and so are invaluable for their effective use.
Some introductions, like these two, are like prayers in themselves …

The Aspiration of the Vajra Knot

This prayer is a brief summary of the path…emphasising our wish never to be separated from the dharma.

The fourth stanza points to the heart of our tantric practice:
Whatever appears is forever inseparable from the ever-changing net of illusion.
All sounds are the ungraspable sound of mantra.
The movements of our mind are actually our own uncreated awareness.
May we fully open to the infinite happiness which is neither gained nor lost.

The more frequently we can recite the precious words of this aspiration written by the great Mingling Terchen, the more the mutually collaborative aspects of our practices will become clear.

Through this aspiration the blessing of the path is absorbed through our body, voice and mind preparing us to meet the Lotus Born.

The Prayer of Aspiration Which is a Wish-Fulfilling Jewel

This is a treasure terma spoken by Padmasambhava, then hidden, and later revealed by Rigdzin Godem. It begins with the confessing of mistake made during practice.

When you recite it you can also add any other errors that you are conscious of in your practice.

The root of the many different ways we cannot fulfil our intention to practise correctly is set out in the seventh stanza:
“I and all sentient beings without exception, from the beginning of this great aeon until now have been drawn to the karmic activity of grasping at appearances as if they were substantial entities.
Due to this we have gone under the power of the five poisons, have broken our vows and insulted the Dharma.
We humbly confess these actions which have become obstacles to our liberation.”

All merit and demerit arises from the orientations of our mind.
Once we turn away from the actual, delusion corrupts our intention like sewage released into a river.
Until we are fully enlightened we need to be vigilant in purifying the errors and stains arising from reification and attachment.
Then, as Buddhas, the purification of all will be our ceaseless activity.
May we gain the merit and wisdom that will let us benefit others by our mere presence, just as Padmasambhava is able to do.

It comes to an end with the aspiration that we will purify the five poisons so that their true qualities of great happiness, great love, benign control, great peace, and helpful activity become effortlessly apparent.
By frequently reciting this prayer we immerse ourselves in the tantric Buddhist tradition and thereby soften our self-affirming ego-structure… so that we become sensitive, pliable and responsive in the service of others.

Once as a young child at school, one break-time as a punishment, I had to write out the lines…’I must not skip in line’ one hundred times. The line was a crocodile of children walking in pairs from the school to the church hall where we eat our lunch.
Though my typing is so much slower than my writing…typing this out was another good reminder…and writing it out or saying-praying it a hundred times, could be a good use of time…
Thanks to the dharma we may skip down the road… metaphorically if not physically, perhaps enjoying both…working with circumstances and easing out of fusion with constricting karmic knots…

Image…thanks to Pedro…an edited screen shot from one of his video introductions



Profound Prayers – Lotus Source

Three new recordings published

I have heard that ‘Offering Salutation and Praise’ was a favourite prayer of C.R. Lama and also that he encouraged his students to do many recitations of the famous ‘Seven Line Prayer’.
Both of these are included in the three newly published recordings.

It seemed both auspicious and a privilege to be able to record these prayers on the anniversary of his death…in a week when many of us were repeatedly reciting the Seven Line Prayer.

190,000 repetitions were recorded …but the actual number would be higher as, due to causes and conditions (e.g for me, forgetting to report back!) … many accumulations were not included in the total

Why would anyone bother do these recitations?
Those who have engaged this will have their own reasons, understanding and intention… but certainly those with whom I have spoken who participated in this, found it to be experientially impactful and beneficial – deepening and re-orientating their relationship with themselves and their practice…for this prayer opens to us as we open to its invitations…as wisdom’s radiance
– like lotus-buds growing up towards the sunlight from the murky darkness at the bottom of the pool

and just as the bud which reaches the surface in the shade opens, maybe just a little, as sunlight glances upon it… then closes again as the shadows deepen…
so the wisdom of these words can begin to open us on an outer level as we engage with and repeat them, deepening our connection and appreciation, trusting the givenness…

and in this way, like the bud and stem reaching from the shadows towards the light and opening more and more fully – our shading and obscurations thin.

Then, just as the bud grows to its full potential then opens layer after layer of petals… finally revealing the the stamens and stigma at it’s centre…
so this prayer gradually reveals it’s multilayered depths of truth…which ripen and lighten us as we ripen and lighten
until in time… its centre, heart, the openness of the source is obvious…
and delusions clear.

In the book Lotus source you’ll find the prayer in Tibetan and English… both close to the Tibetan and also close to the meaning in English… with notes. The depth of the prayer is explained further in Being Guru Rinpoche… and other sources no doubt may be helpful. I was thankful that the multilayered revelations in the book White Lotus by Jamgon Mipham landed in my lap.

In one of the Macclesfield Talks James remarked on how the impactful effectiveness of Padmasambhava’s teachings can induce rapid growth and maturation… as quickly growing as an Amaryllis – shooting up with these big dharma horns/ trumpets in full flower!
May it be so for us all…

The bulb below was given to me by a friend who left this country two years ago. The following year it did not flower, but this year suddenly a big shoot shot up. Within a few weeks it had grown a couple of feet and then there were two buds at the top…then the next day…blooms!


P.s Honourable mention to Peter F. who looks after this website and improves and adds the recordings to the site when ready. He also is beginning further treatment for a type of cancer at the moment. Appreciating his willingness to continue posting the recordings as he is able…we’ll keep them flowing out as often as we may… and wish him and all well.


Lotus Source – by C.R. Lama and James Low new recordings

In the preface and introduction to this book, with all the sparkling and arresting freshness of a dew-drop on an newly opened lotus bud catching the early-morning light, James Low clearly explains the truth how we all are actually. Also how it is that we become shadows of ‘ourselves’…

Hearing or reading about the actual ‘truth of ourselves’ is something rare… and hard to fathom whilst wearing our shades! However, with this guidance we can follow along, and see how the difference between how we think we are and the truth arose … intellectually.

James continues to explain… condensing lifetimes of learning into about forty minutes of audio… how, by engaging with the view that’s offered and the prayers and practice contained within this book… we can be re-sourced from the source and returned to the openness and fullness of life.
Inseparable from the truth…there is then embodied integrity – seeing and acting, manifesting ‘as light with light.’

Q. Who can bring the vitality of the living truth of this into hearts of suffering beings?
A. Padmasambhava is one who has that capacity…

Q. But…who is Padmasambhava? Who are we?
A. As words the answers are available…in the teachings in this book : ) … to listen and to read.

I hope that these recordings are a useful adjunct to the book…
However there are more helpful notes than I can usefully include in an audio recording… and, for study and practice, having the texts in front of us is best…
For the full value of the words to shine they need an ongoing connection with our eyes ears and open hearts.

It was a pleasure to publish this first recording on the day of the 21st Anniversary of C.R.Lama’s Parinirvana… with profound gratitude for his teachings, for those of James Low… and all our teachers and helpers along the way…
and to complete this series on New Year’s Day, February 2024

[Image ‘Not a lotus flower…’ … Thanks to Sarah Allen for the morning glories …and to Peter Farrie for his kindly collaboration and skilful improvement of the sound quality : ) : )]

1: Preface ~ Lotus Source by C.R.Lama and James Low

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2: Introduction ~ Lotus Source by C.R.Lama and James Low

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3: Introductory Prayer to Buddha Shakyamuni ~ Lotus Source by C.R.Lama and James Low

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4: Offering Salutation and Praise to Padmasambhava (i) Prayer ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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5: (ii) Seven Line Prayer from Offering Salutation and Praise to Padmasambhava~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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6: Aspiration of the Vajra Knot ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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7: The Prayer of Aspiration which is a Wish-Fulfilling Jewel ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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8: The Sutra of the Story of the Lamp of King Golden Hand and His Aspiration ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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9: The Aspiration for Pure Discernment ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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10: If you Wish to Purify your Sins and Obscurations ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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11: The Prayer Which Effortlessly Fulfils Our Wishes ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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12. The Prayer Which Removes Obstacles From the Path ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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13. The Prayer Which Quickly Fulfils Our Wishes ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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14. The Prayer of the Stainless Biography ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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15. Pure White Lotus – The Life of the Lotus-born From Oddiyana ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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16. Cloud of Blessing ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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17. Imploring Padmasambhava ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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18. The Precious Guru ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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19. Lotus Source Practice ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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20. Aspiration for Zangdopalri ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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21. A Description of Zangdopalri ~ Lotus Source C.R.Lama and James Low

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Longing for Limitless Light – final recordings published.

The prayers in the last sections of this book are now available for you to listen to here.

When I was first discussing the recording of this book with James back in 2021 he said …’the recording is an immersive experience…the book is for study and personal practice…people who are interested will hopefully find their way to both.’

The value of both reading and listening to a text has become clearer to me through time.
I have listened to the Macclesfield Talks… which were recorded initially on CDs… for a couple of decades now… and going back over them, through the years, I have been surprised to hear words and explanations that I did not remember hearing ever before.

Now it’s clear to me that what sinks as we listen… depends on our availability. This is limited both energetically, due to distractions and sleepiness but also as we try to digest unfamiliar concepts, or look through a different lens at what’s just been said, we miss the next bit.

Listening to a live talk, or a recording, can evoke different moods through the dynamic connection… but it proceeds at its own pace and although these days it’s much easier to pause a recording and reflect… we may well not do that.
So although we have heard all the words… some went right in, some sank in a bit…others are as if unspoken until we listen again and maybe our understanding has deepened.

This ‘sliding over the gaps’ can also happen with reading books…I’m sure we’ve all thought ‘well I’ll just keep reading and maybe it’ll become clearer’…and maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t…but anyway we’ve moved past the obstacle. However, with a book, there is more likelihood of stopping at a difficult part or at the end of a paragraph or sentence to allow for digestion, reflection, and the meaning to settle in. That’s hard for compulsive readers like myself but I have learned it’s value…

When I first looked at this book, Longing For Limitless Light, I thought ‘hmm a lot of prayers’…sub-text – ‘no story – maybe not very interesting to me’
But gradually, through engagement – through saying them out loud…studying the notes…noticing how I felt after reading the Dechen Monlam for example… I realised that these are the words and language of connectivity with most profound aspiration… with great beings, great teachers of the past with realisation…and these are the words of their hearts…
They were offered by them, and through time by others… and thanks to the great efforts of so many to preserve and pass these on…they are available for us here, right now…for us to use, so that our own hearts can fully open and our limited vision expand equally.

James had suggested I read pages 329 to 333 of Longing for Limitless Light ‘when you are filling and burying the pots or tsa tsa. It is a beautiful prayer that addresses our current disturbances.’ This is the Prayer of Aspiration for Happiness in the world…no 32 in the recordings. So I read it … memorised it… and recite it six times a day.

It takes a bit of time to memorise, that’s true even for four pages like that prayer …we’re not so used to doing that as people were in the past.
However whatever is memorised is with you until the memory fails – no matter what the external circumstances. Forgotten the book or can’t find your glasses or too ill to read? No problem…
Also, as you recite it, you and the prayer become one … perhaps more readily than when reading the words off the page.
Time spent becoming familiar with and embedding a string of dharma pearls in the heart, pearls which become more lustrous with regular use… or just one…could be more heart-softening and opening than time spent on Sudoku or the crossword or… ? ; )

N.b. There is a new publication…. ‘The Open Door of Emptiness’ which is currently available in paperback and kindle book editions.

The book fund to support the purchase of James’ books is still available …