I take my hat off to the translators of James talks. They have to keep remembering everything he has said… which can be a lot… until he stops speaking and then they have to correctly re-present all this to the audience. To express this in a manner which is ‘simpatico’ is a joy to behold. So I hope you enjoy this video in ten parts – Emptiness and Dzogchen – from Grenada, translated by Juan.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Dancing in the rain
by Wendy
I have worked in hospitals and come across the word invalid many times before but recently was shocked when i looked at it in a different light – ‘in-valid’ and all the feelings that go with a sense of being ‘less than’ or discounted.
This poem is for Jo … and everyone who is trying to be at ease, finding a different way of being in the world, as their ability to function in the way in the way they, and others, have expected is impaired (in her case by a brain tumour)
Please don’t join the dots to make me,
I’m still here – but different lately.
Not just as i was before, and nor are you…
but what is more, there’s not one thing that we can see
that stays the same eternally.
We can’t go back; we can go on –
breathing each breath of this life’s song.
As our lives shift so poignantly,
will you stay in the dance with me?
Will tenderness move through your heart
and help me feel i am a part –
and not apart from,
life?
with love, wendy
An invitation to swim… in an ocean of dharma!
by Wendy
‘The interplay of the primordial purity and the immediacy of the spontaneous experience is the basis of Dzogchen understanding.’
‘All that I know myself to be is the content of the mind — patterns of experience and interpretation.’
‘The one who gets angry or sad is the radiance of the openness spiralling into itself and creating the illusion of an entrapped world – which then releases itself.’
These quotes are taken from talks James Low has given in Macclesfield over the last decade or so. They are a series which starts with the ‘view of Dzogchen’ and approaches the heart of the dharma in many different ways which relate to our lived existence with great clarity and and a sense of humour. The talks are multi-layered, accessible to all who are interested, you don’t need any prior knowledge or expertise. They reveal their richness though repeated listening, reflecting and engaging, and are are free to listen to or download. For me they were a revelation and i hope you share my delight in the explanations.
[N.B. At present there are sixteen talks posted so, if you want to start at the beginning, scroll down to “older posts” to get to number 1 ]NO PROBLEM
by Wendy
Mind and its projections are innocent. They are very ordinary, very natural, and very simple. Red is not evil, and white is not divine; blue is not evil, and green is not divine. Sky is sky; rock is rock; earth is earth; mountains are mountains. I am what I am, and you are what you are. There are no obstacles to experiencing our world properly, and nothing is regarded as problematic.
From “Ground Mahamudra” in The Tantric Path of Indestructible Wakefulness, Volume Three of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma, Chögyam Trungpa, page 594
May – the dawn chorus!
by Wendy
This is a delightful set of videos of talks James gave last year in Grenada with English – Spanish translation.
The thought of watching a translated talk might be offputting but perhaps give it a try because I find that, apart from enjoying the interaction between James the translator and the audience, the space given while the dharma is put into another language gives me extra time for the words to percolate and be absorbed.