Wendy

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 …

Spending the time of my life!

“Beauty feeds devotion and devotion dissolves difficulties.” James Low

Given that no more new coins will be put into my life-time purse what will I choose to spend my money-time on this week?

I could spend it ‘Under the board-walk down by the sea’…I could spend it arguing with people who wish to argue about everything…side with the hyenas and cackle on the side-lines laughing at the non-sense…weep…do good works… or just enjoy doing whatever else seems pleasurable or a good idea to me just now…

The possibilities which seem available to me are karmically derived… and some will shine more than others with apparently inherent value… These are the ones which fit my conceptual notions of the world, myself, and what’s fitting for ‘me’ as I take myself to be.

Ok!… I’ve made some choices… on Wednesday evening I’ll do this… and at the weekend I’ll do that…I’ve got plans… Happy Days! : )

But just a quick rain check…

There’s a saying which isn’t exactly true, but you’ll get the drift…’if you always do what you alway do you’ll get what you always get’…repetition strengths the identification, makes it ‘feel like me, my kind of thing ‘

Alright…ok… ill take a look at my patterns of behaviour… I’ll also check out the prayer mentioned below.
‘It’s very important….’ ….apparently (🙏 It truly is ) …but I really need to check and see… how does it apply it to me?

With that in mind let’s see…how many coins do I have left in this lifetime’s purse?

Ans. Absolutely no idea! Maybe lots maybe a few, maybe just two or only one…maybe all gone by tonight…eek!

Well, I’m not completely compelled by karma, I’ve some sense of the problems and limitations of samsara…maybe a dharma breeze is stirring… I’m having second thoughts…
Reflecting that samsara’s gales are cooking up…what’s ahead? Which winds will I catch, in my sail of freedoms and opportunities, to help return me safely home?

Consider how many chances will there be to take the Padmasambhava/Medicine Buddha initiation…or to hear the second half of Radiant Aspiration expounded by a teacher who can reveal the true meaning underlying the words

The dharma as I’ve understood it is not at all ‘hair-shirty’*…and getting out into the fresh air is wonderful and may be what we really need just now…but it’s a very rare concatenation of circumstances which bring us and the teachings together…

It won’t happen again like this in this lifetime, so for myself I’ll be inside whatever the weather and so effing grateful for the opportunity…

So… May those who are able to connect with James teachings this week benefit deeply… and also all those who are unable also benefit through our inherent connection.

My little Thursday group is cancelled this week so people have as much time as possible both to attend and prepare – reading the book and the prayer that goes with the initiation. Juggling life’s constraints is not easy I know…and the prayer linked above and below, by Yigdral Yeshe Dorje may help revise priorities!

*If you check the simplybeing.co.uk website recent entries show some of many other beautiful and enriching ways to spend the time…to enjoy.. including music inspired by William Blake words, which I also took to heart through James …. and the making and distribution of tsatsas across the world…and and also..of course… studying and taking to heart this prayer

Thanks to Sean for the beautiful blossom picture… : )


Practice blossoms with times and forms to suit…

The big weekly group Padmasambhava practice is on Thursday evenings. So this was problematic for some students in the group I facilitate on Thursdays who wished to do some group practice in the following their initiation.

I had a chat with James about what’s appropriate and have changed what we do on Tuesday evenings at 6.30 pm.
To give them a chance to do that, and anyone else whom that timing suits…
On one week there is half an hour of mediation…
the next is there is Padmasambhava group practice lasting for about an hour.
If anyone would like to join in… just let me know. The next practice will be 25th April.

James is giving a medicine Buddha initiation teaching and practice permission on May 17th.
Along with many others I did many of the associated mantras when C.R. Lama was leaving this life…

A little before that time James’ advice to some of C.R. Lama’s students had been not to depend too heavily for support on the continuity of the inevitably vanishing life of the guru/teacher… but to rely on their and his connection with Padmasambhava…
…this profound energetic connection which is, of course, not separate from its origin – the unchanging ground we share.

Reciting the seven line prayer is seen as a very direct way of deepening this connection…and, if you wish, here is a wonderful opportunity to do this with others…as Milton and João are hosting recitation of the Seven Line Prayer…dedicating the merit to the long-life of James Low.
If you’re thinking you’d like to recite the Long Life prayer for James then you’ll find the words and a translation from that link.

Knowing that the openness of the heart is more important than precision in delivery….if you’d like to sing it here’s a link which might help … along with a modified translation of the prayer which James gave me when I requested it in 2009 …

May all our practices be fruitful…and aspirations be fulfilled…so may the healing balm of wisdom soften and assuage all tensions… in ourselves and in the world

Longing for limitless light –CR Lama and James Low… three new recordings…and a wick-stick or two

Three prayers –The Flower of Faith, The Ten Directions and the Four Times, and The Aspiration for Birth in Dewachen are now available to listen to from Audio/Video in the dropdown menu on the home page where you’ll find the other recordings …or directly here.

Butterlamps – James is teaching on the butter-lamp prayer on the 18th/19th March and suggested everyone burn one …to connect with the meaning in the text

Wicks for traditional Butterlamps – bamboo slivers, teased out cotton wool, twisted tightly around stick then dip in oil.

Extracts from the book Radiant Aspiration containing the Butterlamp prayer and James’ commentary:

‘Wonderful! In the pot of knowing all beings to be my parents swirls the oil of remembrance of the kindness with which they have held me. On the stick of the desire to repay their kindness the cotton of very beautiful love is wound well with the power of tender compassion.’

‘On the stick of very pure concentration, with the very pure attitude of diligence, the cotton of very pure patience is tied’

‘….in this pot you have a stick, the wick, which here is said to be composed of absorbed contemplation, ting nge dzin, in Tibetan. Ting nge means deep, undisturbed and dzin, which usually means to hold here means aligned with. So ting nge dzin means just calm and clear, going deep, not being disturbed, without attachment to thoughts, so that whatever arises just passes through.’

Radiant Aspiration – pleasureful preparation for 18th/19th March and 20th/21st May

Does the light shine brighter in the darkness…?
Is it really dark in a dark retreat?
What is not the radiance of the mind?

It says in the book Radiant Aspiration that butterlamps are ‘offerings which can awaken us to the radiance of our own natural condition’

How is this possible?
James will be explaining how on the 18th March and if you’ve read the book beforehand then that explanation will land on soil which has been prepared…so that which is sown takes root more easily and the roots go deeper…

So if you’re coming to this teaching but haven’t yet got the book there’s still time …and if funds are too tight do please use the book fund (top of that page) for some help, it’s what it’s there for.

The other item to become familiar with… so that the symbolism in the text makes more sense… is of course….a butterlamp : )
These can range from antique and very expensive, through more or less reasonably priced and traditionally shaped, or as simple and economical as the one above.
I lit that at 5.30pm it’s now 10.00 pm and still burning brightly…

The bowl was a gift…but a small glass tea light holder or little glass jar or small tin would work just as well.
I would always use a metal tray or heat proof dish underneath. Although little heat is given out… a glass container just might crack… drips from refuelling make a mess…and anyway oil has an ability to creep everywhere!
If you don’t have enough fuel and need to get the flame higher up the container you can add some water to raise the oil level. A little water in the bottom may also help prevent cracking or smoky burning as the wick burns down.

I made my wicks from twisted cotton wool pulled from a face pad…happy to let you know how… otherwise see Youtube for that …and other ideas. You can stabilise the base of the wick with sand… salt…rice…
James explained that, to make the wick for traditional butterlamps, cotton wool would be wrapped around a splicing of bamboo, then poked into the hole at the bottom of the lamp. Then the wick would be soaked in oil before lighting.
I’ve had mine for nearly twenty years but didn’t know this and so have used a floating wick in a little glass bowl placed inside instead… to avoid the oil leaking out through the hole! Ah well……it worked : )
Tonight, trying it out as designed, it was a bit late for finding a bamboo splicing. So I tried using just a long twisted cotton wool wick and twisting that into the hole in the base. It’s worked ok so far but clearly the bamboo slicing would help keep the wick central and upright…

The fuel in the little lamp above is a good quality olive oil which burns with a clean bright white light. Traditionally the fuel used would be ghee – unsalted butter gently boiled for about twenty minutes, until the milk solids separate and settle to the bottom of the pan, and then strained. I used that in the traditional lamp below, and as you can see it also burns clean and bright.

May the full potential of our offerings be realised…


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 : )

Finding Refuge and Spreading light

You can access the video of the latest Macclesfield Talk here…. the audio will be available shortly.

So many people were maybe invisibly but beautifully involved in this arriving on your viewing plate.
The organisers… finding suitable locations for teaching and eating, also co-ordinating travel arrangements and answering emails. Those who helped on the days…collecting booking and food payments and ensuring hot drinks were available and the place was set up with tables and chairs all laid out…then packed away. Those offering lifts, places to stay etc.
James who travelled up although unwell, Barbara co-ordinating in London. Chris recording…Pedro producing…web-site managers maintaining availability… all those who travelled to and evoked the teachings…
Some of us met for the first time… others meet rarely, some more frequently… but the given connectivity without demand or expectation was illuminated… and heart-warming.

So so many factors came together for the time we were together…then shifted and dissolved…but the ceaseless sweep of the beams of the dharma lighthouse radiate a reminder…which happily, we can share in.

Refuge, BodhosattvaVows, Initiation

Through the vows and initiation we gain the supportive connection with those practising in the same way, and  strengthen the connection with the teachings of those with realisation and the commitment to work for the benefit of all beings through time.

The Buddhist teachings offer many different, beautiful methods for supporting us in shifting our view of our selves and the world… 

…all leading (slowly or more quickly) towards the realisation of the currently unrecognised givenness of non-duality of what we currently take to be ‘self’ and ‘others’… and the ground of our being.
They have been used effectively through thousands of years.

Clearly this realisation is not itself  ‘Buddhist’… but the teachings of the tradition offer tools to be used skilfully to help us relax out of our deluded confusion into our integrity.

Some methods are openly available… others need prior preparation training and commitment for them to be used effectively.

What my ego might want (or not)… and what I actually need don’t always coincide…the teachings and teachers help with resolving this issue

James referred to Buddhism as being like a hospital where you where you make the transition from being sick as a dog to becoming invisibly healthy – a lot of Buddhism to start with, but less and less at the end…( as the medicines takes effect! ) 

So, for sure, you don’t want to become a ‘patient’ for life… but when you realise you are really ill you do need to become a patient for a while and have treatment until you recover… 
maybe visiting .. A&E .. Intensive care…Recovery…then back to the ward…then maybe a Convalescent hospital…but anyway – eventually no longer a patient. 
Looking pretty much the same outwardly  but  functioning optimally… free from tension and limiting beliefs.

I hope you enjoy connecting with what you can, as it becomes available (you can always request)…and find it helpful.

Thanks to whoever took this image of the illusory Padmasambhava (Pembrokeshire) express!


No barrier to openness…

Sunrise, New Year’s Day 2023*

I’m writing this now as, on Sunday 8th there is an opportunity to take the vows which will be needed if you wish to take the Padmasambhava initiation later in the month…

…and having come across the fresh clarity of Dzogchen teachings, the question is arising for some… why bother with taking Refuge, Bodhisattva vows, Initiations and other such-like ‘buddhist stuff’?

Dzogchen practice involves realising directly the nature of the ground … and thus the illusory nature of appearances…and increasingly not deviating from that unconstructed view of ‘as it is’.
[This is very different from resting in the usual dualistic throw away line ‘well… it is what it is’… meaning ‘it is as it seems to me’…a miss is as good as a mile here!]
With this, through realising the middle-way between ‘something as such’ and ‘nothing at all’, ultimate compassion arises naturally…

And if that’s the case for you then you won’t be asking the question!

The question may be more about… If I listen to and study James’ teachings and meditate as he suggests won’t I get ‘there’ without all this other weird stuff??

I can’t answer that for sure but I think it’s very risky approach…

Although actually there is no big barrier to climb over in order to escape from the apparent limitations and confusions of our usual situation in this world… a state of dis-ease, of ‘not ok-ness’ (even though I might believe, say… or even squeak… ‘i’m fine!’) … there is a big illusory barrier for the illusory ego to climb over to ‘get over itself’ and find itself in an appropriate relationship to awareness.

At different times over the last twenty years I have found all the dharma teachings that I have come across helpful and supportive in this gradual deconstruction process.

Taking refuge from my egoic/karmically distorted view of reality into the different more and ultimately reliable refuges offered in the dharma was a process critical to my ‘recovery’.
Simply ‘relax and release’ wouldn’t have cut the mustard!!! I didn’t even realise that I was not relaxed … or what I was holding onto…

…or who ‘I’ was beyond my assumptions.
The openhearted connection with the openness at the heart of Padmasambhava was profoundly helpful with that!

I remember about twenty years ago hearing James say in the first Macclesfield talk ‘You will never get enlightenment’…’The way out is through with and as everyone’.

What??? !!!

Many phrases in James’ teachings functioned like Koans for me – ‘I’m in the plane and the plane is in my mind’ – I spent years with that one as my companion on walks…
Then, like those little metal puzzles where two shapes seem inextricably interlocked, then suddenly you get it… and from then on that configuration is easy to release… and you have a better sense of how the others might come un-done.

To be free we firstly need to realise that our Operating System is infected with a virus….mistakenly identifying as a knowable some’thing’ who knows the truth… we relate to all phenomena as self-existing other ‘things’ – like cans of beans defined by their apparent qualities – or apparent lack of them…
and this delusion brings us into an overloaded, vulnerable, reactive, and diminished state…

How this comes about, how it is maintained…how to be free of it…all this is encompassed within many teachings of the Buddha you’ll find expressed in James’ Macclesfield teachings and many others.
Diverse teachings for diverse situations… different methods to help us …

The ego may be saying ‘you don’t need this… you can manage without’… but I’d be very suspicious of the wobbly ego’s capacity for wise discernment! These methods are for us, for our freedom from the not so merry-go-round…

Addressing this James said:
‘Many people just wish to mediate and don’t want to engage with belief and devotion but this is not advisable… never doubt the power of the ego! Devotion leads to humility…which leads to an evenness of regard to all sentient beings. It is a profound preparation for the practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.’

The extracts below, from the talk The Illusory Nature of Phenomena: Six Bardos (Transcript) • Eifel Retreat, Spring 2008 – Simply Being may be helpful… and also reading this – James’ commentary on the dokpa practice text What more reading?! Well you matter…your choices matter to the world… and you have a few days in which to decide. This is a wide-ranging commentary in just 29 pages covering Refuge Bodhicitta the Form and Emptiness of the Heart Sutra and more…including a very beautiful prayer for the world in these troubled times.

…The power of a tantric deity lies in their being absolutely free of solidity. The blessing of the deity is to free us from any sense of solidity. Faith is important in order to do their practice but to have faith in the forms of emptiness is very different from having faith in substantial forms. The goal is always to deconstruct, to dissolve, to let go of the object of fixation… 
…In our preparation for death, it’s very important to do a kind of spring cleaning: to go through what we have in our mental house and ask ourselves what use it is to us. Imagine wakening up and thinking, ‘This is the last day of my life.’ — looking at everything we do with fresh eyes, but also saying goodbye to it. Every saying ‘hello’ is also a saying ‘goodbye’. This brings an immediacy and a freshness, but it also prepares us for saying the big goodbyes later…
…Who knows whether we go to a pure land or not? Inside of the tradition, we say that this is definitely possible. By practicing, by praying to Padmasambhava, we gather ourselves together to go on our journey. We might leave our packing till the last moment but a good buddhist will have their bag packed ready to go. What’s inside my bag? My faith, my good karma, my hope, and my meditation. What else are we going to take with us? Nothing else gets through the customs—it’s all taken away…
…Remembering with gratitude and respect that the teachings have come to us because of the practice of other people, and that we are dependent on other people for our liberation—people from the past and people in the present—this is enormously important in the whole tradition of buddhism…

* Thanks to Sean for the photo

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!

Preparatory reading…helpful for those taking vows in this weekend’s teaching and for January.

Maybe you’ve already noticed the supportive reading which has been suggested on this page of Simplybeing.co.uk …but I’m signposting it here just in case you’ve missed it…or like me have a tendency to leave things ’til the last minute!

There is quite a bit to engage with and digest offered on that page… and, for me anyway, a quick read though is not going to be satisfying. Slow reading with a cup or two of tea and time for meditation on the meaning will be more illuminating of the profundity of the practice.
And, if you like to listen… vows and supplementary commentary are available from the book and in the audios of the book Longing for Limitless Light.

So hopefully you’ll have time to ‘take your time’… as the lovely Irish saying goes…

P.S. If it’s new to you… the beautiful first section of Refuge and Bodhicitta is found in Santideva’s writing – The Bodhicaryavatara.

Longing for Limitless Light – C.R.Lama and James Low. New audio recordings 11-18

Sun-setting Dartmoor

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to find the additional recordings from the book…or find them from audio/video in the headers on the front page of the site.

If you are interested, these recordings may speak for themselves… but James’ explanations, in this video which you might have missed, expand their depth.
Video of the book launch of The Healing Power of Emptiness translated into Portuguese.

If you are interested in the Refuge and Bohicitta vows more information will be available on the simplybeing.co.uk website shortly.
In the meantime you may find this video and the recordings from Longing for Limitless Light helpful in seeing how they fit with the view and practice in every day life…as James further elucidates the relationship between the Bodhisattva intention, emptiness, and the Repelling all troubles practice which you can find from this page.

The photo above was taken on the afternoon of completing a contribution to the Earth Healing Groups’ lovely activities. If you’d like to know more about check this link. There’s also information on making Tsa-tsa on the main website…

Let me know if you can’t find it…no doubt you’ll find something else interesting along the way : )

…maybe the upcoming interesting events
23 Nov Q&A Dec 3&4 weekend teaching Jan 27&28 Macclesfield
check Events on Simplybeing.co.uk.

From the Archives…and for the Archives

I’ve been meaning to mention this for awhile… and maybe now it’s time to put pen to paper… or something like that 🙂

The buddha images above are clearly symbolic, they don’t speak words (as far as I can tell!)…while others do…
and listening to words arising from openness rather than conditioning is a rare treat in this world.

These days, as you have probably noticed… karmic glitches and gremlins abound…interrupting and distorting easy connectivity… and at the moment they are bounding about much more rapidly !!!

Yet how much do we still take for granted in the face of impermanence? Perhaps quite a lot…

For us, one of the likely things would be to have access to all of James’ audio and video teachings… these dharma transmission through words… available via the internet whenever we want to access them.

As you may know, in the Zen tradition, there are stories of teachers who once held their precious sutras so close to their hearts – but eventually discarded them… and those happy to burn a wooden statue of the Buddha in order to keep warm.

The point here is that when the teaching is integrated and sings as the basis of every movement there is no longer any need to hold onto an outer form or expression of the teachings…until then we need help.
Introductions to the view, explanations of the view… of different views and mediations….

As we hear these teachings the first listening or viewing gives so much, is so rich… and later we discover more as we review them having grown in the dharma…
I have often been so surprised, as I listen again, that James actually said something ‘way back then’ that had just struck home… .
Sure I heard but didn’t notice it, it didn’t register when I first listened… either because I already had so much on my plate that it slipped off… or I already had my mouth full, was chewing on something else…or perhaps my teeth weren’t sharp enough!

Whatever the veil of obscuration… re-listening and re-viewing has been a principal way of learning for me… letting it sink in… and sink in deeper….working it around, so it is assimilated… thinning and dissolving the obscurations to full receptivity.

My suggestion is that if there are some talks or videos or prayers on the website that are particularly meaningful to you, it may well be worth while downloading them now and keeping them as a resource on an external hard drive or some other device. The apparent stability of internet accessibility and cloud storage is imagined…it will change.

If we have the teachings in our heart that’s best for sure, but in the meantime at this juncture taking steps to create our own readily accessible back-up may be very wise.

In case you missed it here’s an archive  video from 1992 of James teaching the basis of what, ten years later, had developed the ‘View of Dzogchen’ audio … the first of the Macclesfield talks, mentioned in the introduction to this site.

I’m about to check all the links in the Index to these talks…some no longer function as videos have moved home or because of other issues.
Please let me know if you come across a problem and hopefully between us we (Barbara, Chris, Pedro and I) will be able to restore them for you.

Longing for Limitless Light – C.R.Lama and James Low. New audio recordings 8, 9, 10, 11

The Elephant’s child …is the title of both a poem and a story by Rudyard Kipling.
This particular elephant’s child … is full of (in)’satiable curiosity.
The poem begins
‘I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew);
their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.’

My mother taught me those lines when I was little girl… and I, who knew so little by comparison, believed that employing these honest ‘serving-men’ would give me the true answers to so many important questions….
After all, as you’ll know if you read the story…you can find it on-line …they explain how the Elephant got it’s trunk!


However….in my life, the answers glibly provided by Which, When, How and Where never seemed very satisfying…and for me, most often, ‘Why’ was a problematic rather than honest servant! Coming up with some temporary or superficial non-sense of an answer, the deeper aspects of ‘why’ seemed unanswerable. Why would people do? believe? say? what they do…it was an unfathomable mystery.

So I breathed a huge sigh of relief when James explained how relative reality operates back in 2003 in ‘The view of Dzogchen’. The big question mark above my head began to dissolve… ‘because they are them’ was a surprisingly helpful answer early on! One which deepened and expanded as he expounded!
Discovering that the answers to these questions … offered by dualistic relative truth…may not serve us so well. How our search for the salve of truth within the paradigm of illusion is a fools errand…one which obscures the heart-easing satisfaction of simply being.

In the poem, Kipling goes on to explain how he gave these ‘serving-men’ a lot of rest…. during the day-time and at meal times! That was interesting news to me!
Whether he really did or not we don’t need to know… but we certainly could try ‘giving them a rest’ when faced, as ever, with freshness…in meditation, in daily life.
Maybe, if you were looking at the view above, you would like to see more… beyond knowing ‘where is that’ or ‘what you can see in the distance’?

Given that ‘this is not other than that’ – ‘form is not other than emptiness’– as per the wisdom of the Heart Sutra… rather than throwing our opaque mantle of knowledge, answers to the questions, over the view in our usual way…with a flourish~ swoosh~’There’s the road to …’ ‘You can see…from here’ ‘That’s a buzzard…up there’ ‘They must be growing…maize / wheat/ vines/whatever’ ‘I can see…from here’ we could relax a bit more, and a bit more, and allow this tendency to release as it arises… and look more lightly, just seeing what’s there – in receptive mode.

Our usual egoically driven, rather desperate, determination to identify, locate, and fix in place whatever ‘this’ is – according to the templates and reference points of our conditioning – is an interposition, interrupting the view, distorting it, apparently ‘breaking’ it into bits. Relaxing out of that habit or ‘mantle’ frees us to experience the this-ness of this display…it’s luminous perfection…wherever and however it seems.

So the less we give ‘this’ an illusory solidity via our ‘knowledge’, our labelling , categorising, comparing and contrasting… the more likely we are to rest lightly as awareness, as ‘that’ for which ‘this’ is not other….

‘the ungraspable view…the ungraspable you…nothing to do just free to be’

As a way into this James explained that the essential point is the relationship with yourself. He suggested some different questions which can be usefully employed at all times under all circumstances. These begin with Who and Where and What and What…
So now we have just four serving men, two with the same first name, who are truly honest and can be employed for free, to remind us not to get lost, not to fuse with the transient… but stay present as presence
They are:
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
What is occurring?

These new recordings 8, 9, 10, and 11 from Longing for Limitless Light and others in this series, link our practice, our existence, through sound and openness, intention and devotion, with those with the most profound vision who have led the way…with all beings.
After a while, by repeating out-loud these prayers with names which at first, to me anyway, felt ‘out-there’ strange, comes the possibility of softening and relaxing…becoming at at ease, at home with the energy of the arising sounds and feeling the connection through the words…

Photo thanks to Peter Farrie who looks after this web-site.