Tag Archives: dark principle

Ḍākiṇī: Dark Mistress of the Unborn

In her monumental work, Dakini’s Warm Breath, Judith Simmer Brown describes the nature of the Ḍākiṇī as, “In this her most essential aspect, she is called the formless wisdom nature of the mind itself. On an inner, ritual level, she is a meditational deity, visualized as the personification of qualities of buddhahood. On an outer, subtle-body level, she is the energetic network of the embodied mind in the subtle channels and vital breath of tantric yoga. She is also spoken of as a living woman: she may be a guru on a brocaded throne or a yogini meditating in a remote cave, a powerful teacher of meditation or a guru’s consort teaching directly through her life example. Finally, all women are seen as some kind of dakini manifestation.” (ibid, pg.9) Brown’s marvelous work will be utilized as the primary reference for this series. read more

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The Living Midnight

VII. The Living Midnight

It is said that Great beings are born at the midnight hour. In ancient China there was talk of the “Living Midnight” that promoted the dark principle which instantly could dispel the false light of any day or night, symbolizing that it is in the minds perfect silence that your spirit is ready to meet its own true self– Tozen read more

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Ascesis as Liberative Technique

For Evola ascesis was disassociated from morbid religious connotations, those negative self-afflictions that Nietzsche found so revolting—a sickness of the soul. What is needed is a return to its original impetus: read more

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(35) A Capricious Ghost

What is this nirvanic Mind possessing the auspicious ability to instantly illuminate anything whatsoever flawlessly, as a source of utter satisfaction, and yet, what is this mind that stands in its way, praying upon the reflections of its divine presence, like a capricious ghost, with nothing to offer but dead, dry bones, filled with empty promises of a better tomorrow? read more

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Tārā as Our Lady of the Void

SIX: TĀRĀ AS OUR LADY OF THE VOID

Emerging from the vajropama-samādhi Mahasiddha Acintapa discerned all that just came before him, the Scrutinies and the Divine Liturgy of Vajrasattva, were all Sacred Events conveyed to his Mind’s Eye. He found himself sitting and holding the mysterious sphere that was the mystic-source of his epiphany: read more

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Doing Nothing

Master Yaoshan Weiyan (751-834)

One day Yaoshan was sitting on a rock. Master Shitou asked, “What are you doing here?”
Yaoshan replied, “Doing nothing (wu-wei)”
“Then you’re sitting idly.”
“To sit idly would be doing something.”
“You said doing nothing, what is it that you’re not doing?”
“What a thousand sages cannot recognize.”
Master Shitou praised him with a poem,
Always lived together with that which is nameless,
Getting by effortlessly, acting in suchness.
Not even the ancient sages recognize it,
How can a mere mortal understand it?
read more

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Listen carefully

(Haskel)

The Master addressed the assembly: “Among all you people here today there’s not a single one who’s an unenlightened being. Everyone here is a buddha. So listen carefully! What you all have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone. There’s nothing else you have innately. This Buddha Mind you have from your parents innately is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. That which is unborn is the Buddha Mind; the Buddha Mind is unborn and marvelously illuminating, and, what’s more, with this Unborn, everything is perfectly managed. The actual proof of this Unborn which perfectly manages [everything] is that, as you’re all turned this way listening to me talk, if out back there’s the cawing of crows, the chirping of sparrows or the rustling of the wind, even though you’re not deliberately trying to hear each of these sounds, you recognize and distinguish each one. The voices of the crows and sparrows, the rustling of the wind—you hear them without making any mistake about them, and that’s what’s called hearing with the Unborn. In this way, all things are perfectly managed with the Unborn. This is the actual proof of the Unborn. Conclusively realize that what’s unborn and marvelously illuminating is truly the Buddha Mind, straightaway abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind just as it is, and you’re a living tathagata from today forever after. Since, when you realize conclusively, you abide like this in the Buddha Mind from today on, my school is called the School of Buddha Mind.   read more

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A Halloween Treat: A Capricious Ghost

This Dragon Mind of Zen video nicely dovetails on Tozen’s recent post on the Pure Light of Mahayana; a nice “treat” for Halloween but certainly no “trick” in light of this sober Mind realization that empowers one to overcome the antics of the Trickster himself. read more

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Spiritual Distress

The incessant craving for remaining in ecstatic spiritual experiences that oftentimes afflicts the unwary adept can open the door to extreme states of spiritual distress. After the grand phenomenal and kaleidoscopic episodes have subsided, the self-absorbed soul will naturally find itself becoming embittered for its apparent loss. Accompanied with this collapse of grandiosity, the resulting void produces tension that is mired in incessant modes of irritability—so much so that after a while, it becomes nearly impossible for others to remain in any form of association with such a soiled mind. read more

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The Bodhisoul

Being bestowed with the dark principle of the Unborn Buddha Mind opens the secret entrance to the Bodhisoul. This is truly a state of buddhaic bliss whose divine darkness blinds the obtuse body consciousness, rendering the reliance on its tired old tricks of maintaining a false sense of separation ineffectual and void in the face of this deathless love. The Bodhisoul is boundless and can only be realized when one discovers that all former spiritual experiences are pale and self-empty when compared to this dark contemplation of the imageless mind. Absolutely nothing is left now that can prevent one from passing safely through the gateless gate into the noble embrace of the Shining Ones who await those who have crossed-over from samsara, beckoning them to partake in the choicest wine of pari-nirvana. read more

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