Guru Rinpoche

NAMO ༔

NAMO ༔
Homage !
LU MÉ TEN GYI GÖNPO LAMA KHYEN ༔
O Lama, my unfailing and constant protector !
DAL JOR DI NI SHIN TU NYÉ PAR KA ༔
This free and endowed human birth is very rare
KYÉ TSÉ MI TAK CHI WÉ CHÖCHEN YIN ༔
All beings are impermanent and bound to die
GÉ DIK LÉ KYI GYU DRÉ LU WA MÉ ༔
Beneficial and harmful actions bring their results.
KHAM SUM KHOR WA DUKNGAL GYA TSÖ NGANG ༔
3 Realms of samsara are an ocean of suffering.
DREN NÉ DAK LO CHÖ LA GYUR WAR SHOK ༔
Recognising this, may my mind turn towards e~

Morning Fog

Morning Fog

Dharma Talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcreHtR3GbI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Into the Mind’s Eye

http://www.lifepositive.com/spirit/meditation/Into_minds_eye.asp

How Buddhist teachings help me with transcendental meditation

How Buddhist teachings help me with transcendental meditation.

Transcendental meditation is a quiet deep eyes – closed very relaxing, Inward meditation. Sometimes the silent inner experience is too quiet and the outer is too loud.

Maharishi's words of wisdom Were calming but not useful in extreme cases of stress When the outer noise was too loud and the desire to retreat back to the inner quiet was too strong to bear.

Maybe I was trapped in a car on a long tiring trip - forced to listen to someone else's chater - twangy, drippy, shallow country music playing too loudly; kids arguing and complaining; curves and bumps in the road too jarring to support a much needed relaxing retreat into a deep meditation.

This is where meditations like Thich Nhat Hanh's "breathing in - breathing out" helped immensely. I could ride in a car and practice smiling and breathing and even visualize myself as a strong and silent mountain. And this might help get me to my next deep, silent meditation. But I could never choose one over the other.

I Wish

I wish I could say something wonderful. I wish I could say something cool. I wish I could make it all better . But I never studied this in school .

I wish I had some answers. I wish I knew the right questions .

Ego - Thich Nhat Hanh PL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoVuPTqj7gk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

What is Nirvana ?

What is Nirvana ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odWIPhj-ivo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thich Nhat Hanh

Wrong views. Perception. Your view. My view. Our view. Our conflict. Our agreement. Changing views. Changing perspective. Perception. Views.

How meditation can help you see another point of view and help you understand that another person may not be as capable of seeing multiple views. So it is important to practice patience and understanding. Meditation allows you to touch a peaceful state where this patience and understanding is possible

Meditation helps

Who am I?

Who am I?
Who am I?
Am I a boss?
If I ask my peeps for a list?
Who am I?
If my peeps say they already turned that list into my boss?
Am I necessary ?

Useful?
In. The. Way?

Who am I?

Fading away...

:-)

Meditation

... Is not about figuring things out

It's about letting go
& relaxing ...

Sacred Geometry

Walking through the valley of doubt.

Walking through the valley of doubt.

Walking through the valley of doubt
I can't believe I ever thought this or said that
Who is my shepherd now?
I am alone. All alone.
Others can walk beside me
But they cannot walk for me
I have to fight (or befriend) this doubt myself.
I must find my own truth before trying on another.
How can I believe that the moon has any effect
Before I admit that I am on this Earth?
How can I pretend to prepare for death
While I ignore my commitment to life?
How did I get here?
Did I not make promises to others?
:..to myself?
Which do I keep?
How do I measure?
How deep does doubt dwell?

paradise

Who am I really.
What am I doing here.
Why do I ask these ridiculous questions hundreds of times -- even thousands -- and I know I am no closer to an answer. I guess teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh and H. H. the Dalai Lama have helped me see my anger, but how long do I have to sit with it? I'd love to move on, but to what? Is there really this elusive inner peace that, if I work regularly and diligently (as diligently as a concert pianist or a world class surgeon, says Geshe Michael Roach) then this anger ....... Does what??? Goes away? I'm magically no longer offended by ignorant drivers swerving all over while texting? I'm no longer angered by selfish family members and co-workers who break their promise to be at a specific place at a specific time because their own need to feed their greed and selfish desires first?

But how can I fault them when I am exactly the same. I took a peek at a text once on a long stretch of road with no cars around -- then, all of a sudden, there is a car, or a bike, or a child. I have cut in front of people going "too slow," and I have missed a dinner or meeting because something else is too important.

So, what is the deal? Why do I have to suffer? Did I kill people in my last life? Am I causing too much suffering in this life? How can I improve? Just watching and meditating and occasionally writing in this blog is not doing it. I'm still an angry, bitter and selfish person deep down inside. The more I write and meditate, the more I see it, but my results do not convince me that I am any closer to paradise.

~~~

PS. Please comment if you have any thoughts that may help. I hope I am open to hearing them and maybe even embracing them.

Warning from Sogyal Rinpoche

I have come to realize that the disastrous effects of the denial of death go far beyond individual they affect the whole planet believing fundamentally that this life is only one modern people have developed no long-term vision so there is nothing to restrain them from plundering the planet for their own immediate ends and from living in a selfish way that can prove fatal for the future. How many more warnings do we need like this one from the former Brazilian minister for the environment responsible for the Amazon rainforest

Modern industrial society is a fanatical religion we are demolishing poisoning destroying all life systems on the planet. We are signing IOUs are children will not be able to pay… We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without a radical change in heart, in mind, InVision, the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead.

Guru

You need to feel free to leave at anytime.

A guru cannot hold you against your will. at least not a true one.

Death and Dying

The Ego

The ego is necessary no matter what. If you want to be a monk or a doctor you need an ego. Where does the desire come from to feed your hunger if not from your ego? Who says one is better than the other?

So maybe meditation is learning to work with the ego rather than trying to diminish it. And maybe self reflection is the process of watching the ego to see that it plays nicely with other egos.

Not Enlightened Yet???

The meditation bell just sounded. I feel ... better ... ? maybe ...
But I don't feel enlightened. Permanently wise. Infinitely calm. Blissfully relaxed. And all that jumbo. I don't even know what it means really - enlightenment. But I sit and try to meditate daily. But fir what? I often feel sadness that I don't seem to be enlightened - even though I don't know what it is. But then, almost as often as I feel sadness, I feel deeply relaxed, calm, content, and maybe even wise at the end of the fifteen or twenty minutes meditation. Why do I have to keep doing it over and over? Why can't it just stick? I guess it's just like cleaning, sleeping, exercising, working, friending, loving, explaining, thinking, speaking... We have to repeat the process over and over. That's the life we have chosen.

Jinpa L~

Sitting in the Great Beyond

Comparing Thangkas

Comparing thangkas

Maybe we are ....

... all dreaming and one day we'll all wake up and this (no matter how good it is for you now) will be like a bad dream, and the waking will be so bright.

... in prison and one day we get out.  But, for now, we are serving our sentences.  Different sentences for different reasons.  Actions which happened so long ago we don't even remember how we got here.  But we are each responsible for where we are and have to learn to accept that as our "punishment." (or reward)

... in hell.

... in heaven.

... in heaven and hell at the same time.  

... acting in a play -- just acting a part based on our circumstances like impromptu role-playing.  One day we are this character, one day we are not. 

... in an exam.  This is it.  If we fail this test, we are doomed forever.  If we pass.... (but what happens to the little babies who die before they can read?)

... evolving.  This is just one step toward the next, and the next, and the next, and the next.  each unfolding yielding more awareness, but more responsibility --- and then more challenges and then --- the next level...

... lost.

... excrement from a mad-scientist's experiment. Just waste, but making the best of it. 

... nothing.  absolutely nothing. 

... pure potential.  everything possible, bottled up in our being, just being, but we have to learn how to tap into the energy.  ~~~ meditate?

I Disagree

I met a great teacher who advocated eating meat. He said it is a way for us to connect with the balance between life and death. For me to live, something must die. Bugs, worms, and small animals like rabbits are killed by the large machines that pick our corn and wheat. If we don't meditate deeply on that cycle, we loose an opportunity to connect with the death of all beings. In addition, he says, eating that flesh can help that animal connect to a higher realm.

I disagree.

It seems much more sane or humane to connect with prayer and meditation rather than the violence of eating meat. Why eat the flesh of another animal to get the second-hand nutrition from that meat? Do you really need that much protein? How do you know how much you really need?

All this said, I have to admit that there are huge people who are good in spirit and use their powerful bodies to help those of us who don't have that strength. They may need to eat meat. For me to grow spiritually, however, I don't think meat helps.

See the Sivananda Companion to Yoga section on food.

Who are you to say that?

A preacher once pointed to Job and asked, "Who are you to question the mind of God?"

But that question makes me ask, "Who has the authority or the responsiblity to ask that question?"

Until God has made it clear which book has the answers, which book do I use? The Koran? The Bible ? The Bhagavad Gita?

It has taken me a long time to get here, but it seems clear that it is up to us to decide for ourselves. And that makes it my responsiblity to question everything until the question is answered.

Jinpa

PS. God, if you are listening and have time to weigh in. I'd love a clearer answer. But for now, I'm ok searching.

Finding truth.

You are here to find truth.

For yourself primarily.

Then, if they ask for your wisdom and your secrets to success,

For your family,
Your friends,
and your community.

Om Nama Shivaya

Roses

Red robes

Spiritual Master

I was taking an evening stroll and hoping (even praying) a spiritual master would appear. Then I got scared. What would I do if one did? Quit my day job? Walk away from everything and follow? What would I be asked to do? What am I called to do right now that I am not doing?

Guru Rinpoche

How does Guru Rinpoche negate or further the work of the Buddha?

DoGuru Rinpoche's teachings alienate some hinayana or Mahayana practices which do not embrace or recognize tantra as a vehicle?

Is this like saying BMW drivers don't recognize Ford as a vehicle?

Prayer Flag

2012

What if it is all up to you?

You have to visualize world peace?

You have to see your boss, family, political leaders as great sages.

You have to define success.

You have to forgive everyone for everything.

You have to give money away to begin rebuilding damaged communities.

You have to choose what is most important and when to start.

It's all up to you.

Spiritual Journey

She met me where civilization ends and the path begins.
Her perfect body seduced and lured me far into the wilderness.
Far along the path she turned into a panther and attacked me.
She tore flesh from my left arm.
With the adrenalin rush from fear I reached and seized her throat hard.
She vanished.
And I was left all alone in the wild, injured, to begin my spiritual journey.

A passage from 'Autobiography of a Yogi'

"Years ago, before you were born, I asked my superior officer-your father-to give me a week's leave from my Gorakhpur duties in order to visit my guru in Benares. Your father ridiculed my plan.

"'Are you going to become a religious fanatic?' he inquired.
'Concentrate on your office work if you want to forge ahead.'

"Sadly walking home along a woodland path that day, I met your father in a palanquin. He dismissed his servants and conveyance, and fell into step beside me. Seeking to console me, he pointed out the advantages of striving for worldly success. But I heard him listlessly. My heart was repeating: 'Lahiri Mahasaya! I cannot live without seeing you!'

"Our path took us to the edge of a tranquil field, where the rays of the late afternoon sun were still crowning the tall ripple of the wild grass. We paused in admiration. There in the field, only a few yards from us, the form of my great guru suddenly appeared! 

"'Bhagabati, you are too hard on your employee!' His voice was resonant in our astounded ears. He vanished as mysteriously as he had come.

...

I love the idea that this kind of saint can walk the earth, but why haven't I met one in such a dramatic way? Am I really not ready?  How many years of meditation will it take?

JinpaLight

Do more yoga!

Wisdom

Sometimes I want to cry
Poor me.
It's my job.
It's my finances.
It's my family.
It's my friends.

But what is the common thread?
Is it me?

What good does it do to mope?
But is it any better to beat myself into a fuzzy "happines" stupor by walking around pretending to be positive? Maybe pretending is the wrong word.

Maybe it is really more appropriate to say that I am creating positive energy by actively looking deeper at all things and all situations for the positive and engaging them or choosing to participate in a positive way.

I'll try that on for a day or so.

God

It's all me.

It's all up to me.
Look at this blog.
No followers, but me. No comments. Who would know if my light stops shining tomorrow?

It's only me and me. I'm just here for me right now and that has to be OK.

How can I talk with God?

How can I talk with God?

I pray or meditate daily.
I still can't hear.

I think I am looking
But I still can't see.

Am I looking for the wrong thing?
Something that doesn't exist?

How can I find out?
How can I learn?

How to Meditate

Thich Nhat Hanh

The Miracle of Mindfulness

Alone

Meditation, Visualization, & Community Building (Online)

Just posted this note to Craigslist (Date: 2011-05-02, 2:30PM EDT Reply to: comm-phhqy-2358376233@craigslist.org)

... Seeking others interested in starting an exchange of ideas about how to increase harmony, happiness, and health. If any of the ideas on my blog (http://jinpalight.blogspot.com/) (jinpalight - dot - blogspot - dot com ) seem to resonate with you, please let me know. Maybe we can build a community of strength which helps grow the good we want to see in the area. We can start online and, if it makes sense, explore the benefits of building a physical community.

Jinpa ~

Nirvana Storm

Programmers and animators wanted...

I demand new video games with socially redeeming value, like a game called "NirvanaStorm," in which players negotiate eight levels of Buddhist revelation with a character who resembles the Dalai Lama.

 pg. 186 -- excerpt from "Pronioa," by Rob Breszney (http://www.freewillastrology.com/)

How pronoia works

...

excerpt from "Pronioa," by Rob Breszney (http://www.freewillastrology.com/)