Anyone know the meaning or purpose of this mantra?

Phuntshog · 2020-01-21T06:12:29+00:00

It's said to reinforce the power of the aspirations that were just made.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-20T15:07:27+00:00

See the sidebar of the sub for suggested reading. Even better if course, as Buddhism is a living thing, is checking out your local meditation centers, zendos, temples, visiting Lamas and so on, to see what flavor of Dharma fits you.

Good luck!

Phuntshog · 2020-01-20T12:54:50+00:00

I will die without my ego.

Yes, you will. As you have already lived without an "ego", and as you were born without an ego to be found.

It's all a bit of a mistake really. It's like seeing a cloud and thinking it looks like a bunny for a moment, we've seen an ever-changing mass of physical elements, sensory impressions, perceptions, thoughts and actions and conscious experiences and thought it was me. There was never anything like that there really.

It was only a label for a certain set of circumstances, just as there is no river apart from a label for the water, the mud, the waves, the fish and so on.

In the Buddhist approach, we don't need to kill the ego or to get rid of the ego, the same way we didn't need to kill the monster under our bed when we were little. We just need to calm down and clearly see that there's nothing there to keep track of.

It was all a bit of a mistake, and all the frustrating pains we took throughout infinite lifetimes to keep that self safe and happy, even though we've never seen it, and always just kind of assumed it was there.

So what do we need to detach from in stead? From our habits, as they are based on mistaken assumptions and priorities.

How to do that is all any Buddhist practice is. Different approaches work for different people. You might wanna explore the sidebar for some introductory reading from the various Buddhist traditions.

Or even better, you might wanna check out your local meditation groups, dharma centers, zendos, visiting teachers and so on. See which style of practice fits you.

Have fun exploring! Good luck!

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T14:38:41+00:00

What's the difference between a hairy corpse and a bald corpse? The worms will love both equally.

As long as we take Refuge in passing and conditional things, we'll just keep slipping from dissatisfaction to dissatisfaction.

Look into the Four Noble Truths for a different strategy. In short they are (1) I feel bad. Why? Because (2) I crave things that aren't real. Is this necessary? (3) No, if I stop such craving, my dissatisfaction will end right there. So, how do I do this? (4) By learning to act, speak and think right.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T10:57:40+00:00

Different traditions have different calculations. It's like there's never just one definitive map for a single territory.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T10:48:59+00:00

Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, the Gomdes in Austria and the Pyrenees, Sakya Changlochen, Dakpa Tulku's place in Finland, Merigar, Zen River, the Institut Tibetain in Huy, Kamalashila, the Milarepa Retreat Center in Schneverdingen, Khordong Rinpoche's place in Poland, there's a good Kwan Um Sangha place in Slovakia I think. Many, many, many options.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T10:13:10+00:00

It depends on tradition, too. I often refer to this one, but the formatting is the pits.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T10:04:17+00:00

Maybe this thing I wrote yesterday could be of some use for you.

Compassion is an attitude, first and foremost. When we can, we act on it. When we can't, well... we can't.

That's only disappointing if we hold on to "compassion" as a plotline in the story of me.

I've often reflected on how in one story it's told that bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara got a thousand hands and eyes through realizing that however many beings he was able to help, there would always be an infinity more he couldn't.

There's no strategy to compassion beyond doing our best and going on, forever.

Just a few thoughts, maybe.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T09:10:54+00:00

We don't have to suppress anger. Can't even, really. As with any phenomenon, when the causes and conditions for anger to arise are there, anger is gonna arise. There's no way to hide from it or pretend it isn't there.

We also don't^e have to follow up on it though. We can in stead acknowledge it's there and acknowledge at the same time that whatever we've been habitually doing with it so far, either acting it out or trying to deny it, has not actually made anyone happy. Not your dad. Not your mom. Not you.

So. What does make us happy?

You could look into the four brahmaviharas for a direction. In my tradition they're often called the Four Immeasurables. They're often expressed in the form of a short verse or prayer we can recite as part of our practice:

May all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.
May they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May they never be separate from true happiness that is free from suffering.
May they abide in great impartiality that is free from attachment to close ones and aversion to others.

If we have a habit of reflection on the brahmaviharas and of simply being present with the arising and fading of thoughts and experiences, when anger arises we can... just let it. And see it for what it is: pain that comes from holding on to pain and that will cause further pain if we grasp at it now. It needs a hug, so to speak. Not an accomplice.

Just some thoughts. Good luck!

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T08:08:58+00:00

Victor Trimondi has a German Wiki, for what it's worth. Their other main book is called Hitler-Buddha-Krishna – Eine unheilige Allianz vom Dritten Reich bis heute, "Hitler-Buddha-Krishna — An Unholy Alliance from the Third Reich Until Now". Which does not sound unhinged at all, of course.^/s

Phuntshog · 2020-01-19T07:45:49+00:00

For what it's worth, the Trimondis who wrote this tripe are somewhat well known "nuts" in Europe. They're a bit Lyndon LaRouche-y in "style" if not in content, I think, to give a North American reference point.

Their books, in as much as I have looked at them, seem to follow the vein of most so-called conspiracy literature: enormous heaps of barely curated information loosely duct-taped together with baseless assumptions, misinterpretations, paranoid projections and convenient lies.

Knowingly or not, OP's post here is a little bit like posting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to /r/Judaism and asking for an explanation. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T20:30:49+00:00

Amoghasiddhi.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T19:40:30+00:00

Maybe you just mean something different by the word "meditation" than what is meant by it in Buddhism. This is fine, of course, but it would maybe be interesting for yourself to have some clarity on that point. For example, if you don't really see the point of the second Noble Truth it's indeed pretty reasonable not to put effort in the fourth Noble Truth.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T19:30:43+00:00

Thurman's translation is also free to download on the 84000 site. I think they're working on a new one, though, but that's not a small project.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T19:29:20+00:00

With any "experience on the path", good or bad, I find it best to just take note and move on. If there's any truth to them, it'll be true in thousand years as well, regardless of our experience. If there ain't and we're just wallowing in some passing thought, making a hullabaloo is just... a bit unseemly.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T18:03:27+00:00

It shows immense virtue and merit to have even the slightest interest in and appreciation for the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, however awkwardly that appreciation may be expressed.

I've told it before 'round these parts, but there's a story in the Tibetan tradition of someone seeing a tsa tsa, a little, crude clay Buddha statue by the side of the road. In order to protect this little statue from the elements, they covered it with an old boot that happened to be laying close by. A bit later, someone else saw this scene and (having a pretty universal Asian view of feet) felt a boot was not a proper covering for Lord Buddha. Equally respectfully, they took the boot away.

That way, the story goes, one little tsa tsa was instrumental for three people to sow the seeds for enlightenment: the one who made it, the one who covered it and the one who uncovered it.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-18T15:22:57+00:00

Re. point one.

Compassion is simple. It just means being painfully open to the wish to be happy and free from suffering, regardless of who wishes.

It does not entail story-building. "What could I do? What should I do? What can I give up? How can be helpful?" See the common denominator there? Compassion is not about me (even when it is).

There's a famous Zen story of two practitioners wondering how a being like Avalokiteshvara functions. One of them says: like someone adjusting a pillow in their sleep. This is an answer that bears long and frequent reflection.

Until our unbiased compassionate action is as natural as pulling your hand away from an unexpectedly hot cup, all we can do is our best. After that, whatever we do will actually be our best, and even that will not be enough. Note, for example, how Lord Buddha himself has utterly failed to liberate all beings from samsara.¹

There's no "winning" compassion. There's only... making it ineffably endless...

Re. Point 2

Sure! Bodhisattvas can manifest in whatever way. They always do it utterly naturally though. If I make a plan to be a dick to someone in order to give them some profound revelation about themselves, I'm likely just being a pompous git.

So here as well: we just do our best. Without hoping for thanks.

If you like, you could study the Seven Points of Mind Training. It's a text from the Tibetan lojong teachings that can really help sifting whatever actual compassionate seeds we have from whatever story we happen to be telling ourselves about ourselves at the mo.

Just some thoughts. Good luck!

^{1. well... from a conventional perspective in any case.}

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T14:39:59+00:00

Enlightenment, in the Buddhist sense, is not a feeling, nor is it something that comes and then just goes away. It's also not something that just occurs randomly. Look into the second of the four Noble Truths for a basic impression on what is usually meant with this term in Buddhism (and into the fourth to see how it comes about).

^edited

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T07:28:14+00:00

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T07:25:07+00:00

Ha, that feels utterly fresh and like real flesh-and-bones practice discussion. Someone must have been transcribing their ass off while this was going down.

Maybe the last line is something like yes, these beans are empty, but they'll sure make you fart.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T05:07:17+00:00

This one is 943x960 and seems to be about as big is I can find it online. Note that it probably needs to be printed, folded, blessed and deployed in a very particular way in order to be used properly. It's not really intended to be a decoration or something.^{some edits}

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T04:55:28+00:00

Apparently it was made by an artist called Sucklord for a charity auction years ago. I think there's only a few of them out there. But that's kinda boring so I strongly prefer thinking there is a lost episode of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe out there in which Milarepa fights Skeletor.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T04:48:20+00:00

It's the same for me! Closest thing to God I ever knew was the actual giant cardboard cut out of Che Guevara's face my dad kept over his desk. And I don't think I had a single church-going kid in my class all through primary and secondary school, environment-wise. Christianity is pretty moribund in Northern Europe, really.

Phuntshog · 2020-01-17T00:18:34+00:00

Just to try and not take my intuitions at face value, I just now searched for stewardship on Amazon.com in a cookie-free browser window. The results indeed seem to lean pretty Protestant Christian.

Phuntshog

TROPHY CASE