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 …
