Audio/Video

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!

The Heart Sutra audios… longing for limitless light 19+20 audios

Form is not other than…

On a day when a romantic kind of love is in the air for some … the deep heart-healing message of the Heart Sutra – from the book longing for Limitless Light – can now be found under Audio/Video.

The wisdom of this sutra is the basis for a different kind of love – one with enduring truth as its basis. As the inherent nature and common denominator of all phenomena is realised through the wisdom of this sutra…the potential for love as an attuned responsivity, an all-inclusive love arising from openness through connectivity may be awakened.

What is my nature?…what is yours?…
‘All phenomena have very pure nature’
…this is expressed in the mantra which purifies all suffering.

Reading or hearing… reflecting, practising…. relying on transcendental wise discerning… we can enjoy chocolates flowers or cards or none….

I may be paraphrasing but James once said in Macclesfield …
‘If you put out your hand you may get a handful…
if you put out your heart you may get a heartfull…
but if you put out your mind you get everything.

Everything is not other than…? see the sutra for details

Happy Valentine’s Day : )

Summer Retreat blossoms in the winter-time !

A link to the recordings of James Low teaching at this summers retreat is tucked into your metaphorical Christmas stocking…for you to enjoy over the holiday period and beyond.
Have a look here….

Oh…Okay…What’s the title?

Finding the source of infinite love

Wow! I didn’t ask for that, I never thought to ask for anything so big!

What a gift! I’m on my way… May all beings find it !

A bit of a back-story: the retreat was held in a field where the electricity supply was limited and variable. Gareth wasn’t well enough to come and record using his battery powered device… so with some trepidation I recorded this on my phone.
Later, now fully recovered, Gareth ‘polished it up’ for us to enjoy. So the recordings are ‘audio only’ but no less precious for that!

Collected Works of C. R. Lama by James Low – Chapter 10 ‘Brief Teachings’ audio

This comes with love… at the turning of the year, towards light and joy…
and with gratitude for the innumerable gestures of wisdom and connectivity through time which are linked with
this chapter of brief teachings. You can now listen to the audio recording of this chapter from the book here
or via the drop-down menu under Audio/Video.

When an oyster finds a piece of grit inside its shell-house it is stimulated to produce an exudate called nacre as protection from the irritation. This covers the grit , softening its sharpness and gradually enclosing it.
So pearls are formed from a build up of these layers around a tiny piece of grit – or some other particle which has been artificially introduced.
Pearls come in different sizes and, to our human eyes in the light of day, they may seem to have an alluring lustre and colouration… and corresponding, perhaps enduring, value…

But the ‘pearl’ is a construct and is soft and liable to change… Degradation occurs quickly if there is insufficient humidity… if conditions are not right they lose their lustre or may even disintegrate.

Our bodies are similarly unstable… and our thoughts are inherently unreliable…nothing reliable there!
We can check this out…
There is a saying in English ‘nothing ever is or was but thinking makes it so’. Yet although thinking can make something seem so… it does not make it truly so.

Thankfully the buddha taught… teachings which lead and gesture, as all roads once led to Rome, towards the realisation our true nature… the unchanging basis of our existence – uncompounded, unconstructed
– and encouraged awakening to this.
But this true nature is not to be found in the ‘obvious’ places where we usually seek stability…not in self, others, control, riches, the world, not in any thing…

So while the rarest most lustrous of pearls has a high material value, teachings which help us wake up from the confusion of duality are priceless.

Some teachings gently help to see more clearly… encouraging curiosity, others come as a blast of wisdom which blows holes in the ephemeral shaky cover-up of our egoic constraints and certainties, exposing the lack of self-nature of the ‘grit’, of the grasper.
With grasping released, the residual tatters fall away and with them the suffering and irritation which arose from the mistaken belief in duality.

Hoping you enjoy the teachings in the recording… and life : )

Winter solstice 2021

Introduction to the Dhammapada by James Low

from the book ‘Finding Freedom’.

This recording invites engagement with… and complements…the earlier audio recordings, of the text.

To find it you could ‘Follow the yellow brick road’ …

or for those with better luck…click this link or use Audio/Video at the top of the page.

Picture by Sarah Delia
email contact didn’t work but hope you are ok with this Sarah

Finding Freedom: Audio recordings of Part 1. The Dhammapada – translation and commentary by James Low

James has written an introduction inviting you to these recordings:

‘The Dhammapada is a book of excellent advice on how to manage the many trials and tribulations of life. Taught by the Buddha this is an ethical guide to disciplined and compassionate existence. The consequences of blind self-indulgence are revealed in wars, pandemics and the impending catastrophe of climate change. The word discipline is not very popular in current culture and seems to imply an unwelcome imposition. However for most of us, when we stop and review our life we find that our ego-self is frequently wild and untamed. When this is replicated in the billions of inhabitants of the earth it is not surprising that chaos is pervasive. However here we have a chance to listen to the deep and soothing words of the Buddha offering support and guidance for those who wish to live in harmony with others and with the world we all inhabit. May it bring happiness to all!’

These recordings which cover the first section of the book ‘Finding Freedom’ are now available for you to listen to or download here under ‘audios and videos’.

James translation and elucidation in the commentary invites a deeper engagement with this text…unpacking it so that it’s value may more easily shine and resonate with and for us..

I hope you find this format useful…it was a pleasure to make and to enjoy the beauty of its harmony, spoken through thousands of years by so many thousands wishing to follow a way to truth.


Front cover of the book including revised translation and commentary to the Dhammapada (2019)*

*Link to information on the 2019 publication of Finding Freedom with revised Dhammapada translation and commentary

Front cover of the book with original translations of the Dhammapada into Pali, Sanskrit,
Hindi, Tibetan and English (1982)*

*Link to read or download the 1982 Dhammapada publication

Links to Lama Chetsangpa videos

I have had a few emails about finding the videos relating to these talks so have updated the previous post about them (below) to include the link which worked for me…but if you’re in a hurry to get straight there.. here’s the  link to the third video ( most recent, March 13/14) in the series of four Lama Chetsangpa talks.

If you scroll down below that you will find the previous two.

Brief stress releasing meditations

I have been speaking with a couple of people recently who are going to make use of the recordings of some short guided meditation sessions which James made last year. They were made, on request, for people working in the caring professions – under great pressure with very little time to practice.

They are to be found here on the simplybeing.co.uk website. I am ‘re-tweeting’ them now to bring them back to the foreground as the need escalates in case you missed them when first published and would like to use them, or would like to share them with someone who might benefit.

No room for hatred….

 

Some years ago i wrote this post…

world holocaust day

and on that day this year i watched this moving little half hour video…(it’s not about William and Kate lighting candles!) so hang on in there, if you will, to the end…it’s very beautiful, i think.

 

 

‘I have no room for hatred in my heart’ …no matter what has happened to me and those close to me…

…brings tears to the eyes just writing the words.

 

A few days after the memorial day   but memorable every day…

as it says in the Dhammapada:

‘In this world hatred is never pacified by hatred. It is by the absence of hatred that hatred is pacified.’

The words that follow are “This is the ancient truth”.

A truth which was ancient even at the time these words of the historical buddha were spoken…how deep is that?

…and how blind the multifarious, shifting sands of justifications for hatred arising from fundamental ignorance and leading to ignorance of that truth’s validity. Deludedly projecting… and so dividing, partitioning… protecting, and rejecting to the point of annihilation, aspects of the heart-mind, of the undivided whole.

 

Update…for smart-phones

Some of the people I speak with had not yet discovered the treasure trove of audios and videos on the simplybeing.co.uk website which are accessible under the heading ‘Publications Audio and Video’ from the homepage as displayed on a computer or laptop.

Many people are accessing the site now through their phones so just to let you know that a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to update the website for the phone and consequently there are differences to the layout.

As you may have gathered from some of my mutterings I don’t have a smart phone… but thanks to Chris in Germany  you’ll find the treasure easily… !!!!