To begin… here’s a welcome to this, a post with Greetings from the Home page which you may miss – if you didn’t get here from there! : )
In James’ introduction to this book he explains that one of its purposes is to give a glimpse into the range of interests and styles of one of the first lamas to freely communicate with the modern world.
As you will discover there is a treasury of wisdom in these Collected Works. James suggested this chapter would be particularly useful to record. In the book he says…
‘This chapter comprises a range of short notes made while C.R. Lama was explaining texts.
He talked very quickly and demanded full attention.
These notes give a sense of the condensed and direct way he made his points.
They have meanings which are revealed by calm reflection on one’s own existence.’ J.L.
From my own experience can say that I had read this book though on a number of occasions, and dipped into it from time to time. But it was only in the process of working on these recordings – not a quick job but one which requires a lot of reviewing and revising until the meaning and words come through easily – that their profundity really became impactful.
James has, in the past, suggested that we copy out the texts we are studying. Although this might seem to evoke a sense of ‘writing lines’ at school or ‘more homework – duh!’ … instead it can be a beautiful and very helpful thing for us to do…bringing us closer to the meaning.
From being writing on a page ‘out there’… said by someone a long time ago, recorded, kept, treasured and translated by ‘others’…as you write the text flows through you, and out onto another page. Paying attention to the process of accurate copying slows down our rapid processing and evens out our habitually selective attention…allowing for a deeper incorporation and engagement.
Reading the words out loud, words which might seem strange at first … giving voice to them, also works… I believe, in a similar way.
Both may perhaps help to bracket off the egoic conceptual analysing and the comparing and contrasting encouraged by our contemporary education – which serve to diminish our receptivity, acting as a grid to accessibility and a gatekeeper of ignorance.
With audio recordings of very rich material like this i’d suggest just listening to one teaching at a time in order to avoid indigestion…giving time and space for that to settle…re-listening …then returning until, like a Hunza apricot which feels like a rock in the mouth to begin with, it gradually softens more and more, until all the flavour is released and enjoyed.
Each teaching may be played, in situ, below…
or if you would like to download a single teaching just go to the mp3 link just below each player and Right-click ‘Save Link As’ [PC] or Option/Alt Click [Mac].
Alternatively all the teachings are available in the following compressed file: Brief Teachings of C.R. Lama audio.zip (the same download instructions apply).
The Dhammapada audio recordings are also found here or from the Audio/Video tab.
The recordings of James’ teachings in Macclesfield on the Simplybeing.co.uk website – mentioned in the welcome – introduction to this site – can easily be overviewed, explored and accessed from this Index.