Tag Archives: Suchness

Cultivating Śamatha and Vipaśyanā

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Vajragoni

The main emphasis in this chapter of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is the cultivation of Śamatha and Vipaśyanā. Śamatha is contemplative tranquility, or in Keenan’s translation, quietude (which we prefer since it establishes the very essence of quietude). Vipaśyanā is insight-meditation or in Cleary’s translation, observation; hence, it’s a form of meditation that mindfully and insightfully assesses different forms of dharmata and can articulate as such verbally or in writing—this present sutra is a form of Vipaśyanā. As John Powers has stated, “This chapter is one of the great scriptural locus classici for śamatha and vipaśyanā in the Mahāyāna tradition.” read more

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Who Is Worthy?

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Vajragoni

The Samantabhadrī Discourse continues:

[Chapter 13]

Listen, great Bodhi-Being! I teach only the Root Source. Outside of this supernal rootedness whatever is taught to be revealed is surface chatter minus the Root. My Suchness is the Root. If one discerns one’s own Pure Mindfulness to be this Perfect Suchness, one will no longer mindlessly dwell in a stage where just clinging to the words of a Buddha is apparently sufficient. It is not. By virtue of this insight one will come to master the Atiyoga. Yet, those of a lesser-mind vintage will never come to experience the Single Taste. For those few fortunate ones, they who have transcended their karmic-baggage, will come to Self-realize how insufficient all manner of teachings and doctrinal viewpoints, all stages of Bodhisattvahood, and even the generation of Bodhicitta is in Light of the Such.  In such manner, one will discern that in Actuality there is no difference between the conventional and absolute, for one now directly and undividedly sees the all in Light of Perfect Suchness, the Supernal Mindfulness Itself. read more

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The Four Tantric Yogas

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Vajragoni

8. The Four Tantric Yogas

The Samantabhadrī Discourse continues:

“Suchness is devoid of one in the All of no-oneness. My Unborn Beingness is the Such that reflects through objectified dharmata. As such, each apparent separate object contains the seedness of the Such in unison with ITs undivided nature. Contemplating this empowers one to gaze inwardly into the Core-Such. As My Beingness is the Core-Such in Its Self-Actualization of non-dualness, there are four yogas that emanate from this inner-tranquility as drawn from the experience and differing modes and qualities of practitioners: Sattvayoga, Mahāyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga.” read more

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A Matter of the Philosophers

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Vajragoni
  1. As long as those philosophers who get confused in their reasonings and who are unable to go beyond the realm of words, distinguish the discriminating from the discriminated – so long they do not see [the truth] of suchness.

A recurring motif throughout the Lanka concerns the Philosophers. Who are they? Are they members of a particular branch of philosophy, or are they part of a larger spectrum? Suzuki in one of his footnotes to his Studies in the Lanka asserts they are as follows: read more

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The Zen of your own-being

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Tozen

Om svabhava suddha sarva dharma svabhava suddho’ham. [1]

Character is nothing, own-being is everything. Thus, such is the path of enlightenment  that a being of good merit should choose not to foster character but unveil the clear light of their own-being to themselves. 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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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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