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.]’…
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.
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…
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
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.
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
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 …
“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… : )
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
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.’
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…
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
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.
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!
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 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…
