Monthly Archives: December 2014

A Shamanistic Dimension

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Vajragoni

Just finished reading the Zennist’s post entitled Restoring our spiritual senses. It evokes a shamanistic-dimension to destabilize our “despiritualized culture.” Reading this for me was one of those synchronistic moments as my blog from this past summer, Notes from the Iron Stupa , had as its salient theme a Shamanistic-Dimension. As the Zennist states it may indeed take a “modern form of shamanism” accompanied with “spiritual artifacts” that include special forms of incense and ritualized techniques to help remedy the despiritualized material malaise. If one were to read from the blog category here, The Divine Liturgy of Vajrasattva, then one would be privy to a mystically-charged form of Spiritual Liturgy that I conduct alone once a week—accompanied with my monk’s robe and the ritual tools required. From reading the “About Us” tab above I have now totally devoted my life like a spiritual anchorite “choosing to withdraw from the mundane affairs of samsara in order to devote myself to lead a life of intense meditation/contemplation and dharma-study in Light of the Buddhadharma.” The very creation of this website was done in the spirit of creating an online-monastery, where one is free to withdraw for a while from the hustle and bustle and just savor the sweetness of the Buddhadharma.  It has become obvious to me for many years now that the monastic-hermetic route is a viable option in today’s increasingly dharma-ending age. read more

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White Lotus on blue water

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Tozen

There is no-thing in the Unborn Mind, but its own pure light.

Though this truth shines freely with its own auspicious luminosity, there for anyone to see, vast amounts of defilements hinders the everyday worldling from perceiving this truth as self-verifiable. read more

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Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Vajragoni

The Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra can be likened unto an ancient repository of forty-nine texts of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras. As such it is also known in its abbreviated title, the Ratnakūṭa Sūtra, or a heap containing some precious jewels of the Mahāyāna. There are indeed some great Dharma-Jewels contained within it. Our primary resource that houses excellent translations of these texts is A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra, Translated from the Chinese by The Buddhist Association of the United States—Garma C.C. Chang, General Editor. As it states in the introduction: read more

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Update on Blog

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Vajragoni

Just a little update on our blog. The new 4.1 version of WordPress is still in the process of trying to work out some incompatibility issues. For instance, you may be noticing that our “categories” feature keeps appearing and disappearing. Also, our fine library keeps disappearing as well. Our hope is that these issues will work themselves out soon, so we kindly ask for your understanding. Thank-you. read more

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Praxis: Part II

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

The Practice of Cessation

Should there be a man who desires to practice “cessation,” he should stay in a quiet place and sit erect in an even temper. [His attention should be focused] neither on breathing nor on any form or color, nor on empty space, earth, water, fire, wind, nor even on what has been seen, heard, remembered, or conceived. All thoughts, as soon as they are conjured up, are to be discarded, and even the thought of discarding them is to be put away, for all things are essentially [in the state of] transcending thoughts, and are not to be created from moment to moment nor to be extinguished from moment to moment; [thus one is to conform to the essential nature of Reality (dharmatā) through this practice of cessation]. And it is not that he should first meditate on the objects of the senses in the external world and then negate them with his mind, the mind that has meditated on them. If the mind wanders away, it should be brought back and fixed in “correct thought.” It should be understood that this “correct thought” is [the thought that] whatever is, is mind only and that there is no external world of objects [as conceived]; even this mind is devoid of any marks of its own [which would indicate its substantiality] and therefore is not substantially conceivable as such at any moment.  read more

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Praxis: Part I

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

Part 4 

On Faith and Practice 

Having already discussed interpretation, we will now present a discussion of faith and practice. This discussion is intended for those who have not yet joined the group of beings who are determined to attain enlightenment.  read more

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Seeds of Faith

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

CHAPTER THREE

Analysis of the Types of Aspiration for Enlightenment, or The Meanings of Yāna  read more

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The Tathagata’s Womb

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Vajragoni


Carl Van Brunt

(Hakeda)

CHAPTER TWO

The Correction of Evil Attachments

I.THE BIASED VIEWS HELD BY ORDINARY MEN read more

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The Realm of Suchness

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

  1. THE ESSENCE ITSELF AND THE ATTRIUBUTES OF SUCHNESS, OR THE MEANING OF MAHĀ

A.The Greatness of the Essence of Suchness 

[The essence of Suchness] knows no increase or decrease in ordinary men, the Hīnayānists, the bodhisattvas, or the buddhas. It was not brought into existence in the beginning nor will it cease to be at the end of time; it is eternal through and through.  read more

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raison d’être

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Vajragoni

(Hakeda)

  1. The Characteristics of Beings in Saṃsāra 

In analyzing the characteristics of beings in saṃāra, two categories may be distinguished. The one is “crude,” for [those who belong to this category are] united with the [crude activities of the defiled] mind; the other is “subtle,” for [those who belong to this category are] disunited from the [subtle activities of the defiled] mind. [Again, each category may in turn be subdivided into the cruder and the subtler.] The cruder of the crude belongs to the range of mental activity of ordinary men; the subtler of the crude and the cruder of the subtle belong to that of bodhisattvas; and the subtler of the subtle belongs to that of buddhas.  read more

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