Tag Archives: Truth

Expedient Revelations

“O Śāriputra! After attaining buddhahood I expounded the teaching extensively with various explanations and illustrations, and with skillful means (upāya) led sentient beings to rid themselves of their attachments. Why is this? Because all the Tathāgatas have attained perfect mastery of skillful means, wisdom, and insight. read more

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The Real-In-Truth

If it were not this way,
The Truth would not be worth preserving.
The All IS All,
In the All you see AS ALL read more

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Impermanence

Incessant change is the product of a Self-empty World,
All arising and cessating out of sheer ignorance. read more

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Coming Soon: The Bhagavad Gita

Why begin a series on a Hindu Scripture in Unborn Mind Zen? Firstly, the inspiration presented itself to me while reading a dialog between Methexis and N. Yeti sparked by their mention of the Gita on the Zennist’s blog. Secondly, because it’s a colossal and classic epic, one that transcends any sectarian boundaries; its theme encompasses both Transcendent and Immanent elements that take place on the Cosmic Battlefield of one’s own Consciousness as one seeks to aspire beyond the confines of the broken human condition. The Gita expands upon the Yogic Enterprise that we just covered in our series on Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras and completes it as only an ageless epic can: read more

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Seedless Contemplation

Completion of Book I

Seedless (Nirbīja) Contemplation

The prior sutras all bore merit in disabling the cognitive functions of mind and simultaneously planting rich bodhi-seeds of awareness, thus empowering the yogin to transcend all spheres of samsara and rest in the tranquility of the un-bifurcated (undivided) Unborn Mind. However, the exercises are not yet complete since there is, however subtle, a need to supersede all forms of the slightest objective-semblance that one yearns to meditate on. Seedless Contemplation is when the yogin is so totally AT-ONE with the Unborn that there is no longer any maturation of discursive thought patterns; it is the ultimate prajñā that is Self-Realized without any outflows of intellectual interference. In effect, all becomes sublimated within the Amala-consciousness of the Tathagatas. read more

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Songs of Renunciation

From the Songs of Milarepa (Dover Thrift Editions):

The way of the world is illusion:
I strive after true reality.
To be moved by earthly possessions is illusion :
I endeavour to rise above duality.
To be the world’s servant is illusion:
I wander in the mountains alone.
Wealth and possessions are illusion:
I renounce for the sake of the faith any I may have.
External things are illusion:
I contemplate the mind.
Distinctive thought is illusion:
I follow after sapience.
Conditional truth is illusion:
I dispose the absolute truth.
The printed book is illusion:
I meditate upon the counsels of the ear-whispered tradition.
Philosophical argument is illusion:
I study at length that which is unfeigned.
Both birth and death are illusion:
I contemplate the deathless truth.
Ordinary knowledge is illusion:
I exercise myself in wisdom.
The delight of mental thought is illusion:
I dwell in the state of reality.
read more

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Liturgy of Light

(C) Liturgy of Light

After the time of silent reflection, an acolyte approaches the altar carrying a Ceremonial Crown which is then placed on the head of the priest after the acolyte removes the former Dhyanī Buddha Crown: read more

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Go Beyond the Beyond

“Therefore, Shariputra, because there is no attainment, Bodhisattvas abide relying on the Perfection of Wisdom, without obscuration of thought, and so they are unafraid. Transcending perverted views, they attain the end, Nirvana.” read more

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Turn, Turn, Turn: Bardo 3, Vairocana

The Transformational Mandala of the Five Tathagatas or Dhyani Buddhas is a wonderful expedient vehicle in which to partake, embody and actualize the Higher Wisdom Sambhokayic Planes contained therein. If one diligently meditates with these Dharmadhatu Wisdom-Bodies then the influence of the karmadhatu will begin to wane and will not hinder one from making a smooth Bardo Transition into the Luminosity of the Dharmāta. Adibuddha Samantabhadra is the Wisdom-Buddha-Supreme as he is the Primordial-Dharmakayic Source from which the Five Tathagatas emanate; in light of this Samantabhadra also emanates from the Dharmamegha Chakra (located on top of the crown)—the Dharma Cloud and the place of Right Release of Noble Wisdom from the Nirvanic Kingdom of Self, the Dharmakaya. We have been circumabulating round and meditating on the Four-Fold Wisdom Bodies whose center is Vairocana. Vairocana is a composite of the other Four Wisdom-Dhyani Buddhas and is the Illuminating Source and Center of them all. Yet, within himself Vairocana is truly panoramic in stature; his center is actually here, there, everywhere and yet nowhere simultaneously; in this sense, Vairocana transcends the Skandha of Form. Vairocana’s color is White, symbolic of the illuminating center of a prism from which the other Wisdom-colors emerge. He is a perfect embodiment of the Dharmadhatu’s Element of Truth. Vairocana’s Sacred Symbol is the Dharmachakra—signifying his central-role as Advocator and Progenitor of the Sacred Dharma. His Dharmachakra Mudra seals this teaching-position for all time. All ignorance (avidya) is purged and incinerated under Vairocana’s Illuminating Gaze; in this vein he is associated with the Dragon Eye of Tathata Chakra (center of the forehead) that sees the difference between Truth and Illusion—this is the Blessed Dharma Seat of Wisdom Itself. He is the very hub of the Tathagata-family and his beloved Dharma-Wheel forever turns as a beacon of Unborn Light that forever enlightens the way for those who follow wholeheartedly the Noble Path of the Buddhadharma. read more

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And the Truth shall set you free

After inundating the Blessed One (Buddha), as well as the reader, with an incessantly long litany (108 questions) concerning literally everything under the Buddhist sun, Red Pine states that the Buddha “mercifully” (for both Mahamati and the reader) attempts to put to rest the obsessive workings of the meandering mind. It’s all “mind-stuff”—projections of an overly active cognitive apparatus (conceptual consciousness) trying to appease its voracious habit-energy since beginningless time. Rather than pursuing this futile and inadequate mind-game, one should focus on the highest reality—or paramartha: “It is by means of this…higher truth that the transcendental teachings of tathagatas are formed…by means of their wisdom eye…” This wisdom eye—the Eye of Tathata—transcends all phenomena by remaining “detached” from it; it sees Reality As It Is—Yathabhutam. In light of this, the Buddha is not concerned with “philosophical arguments as he is putting an end to suffering, which arises from projection and which ceases upon understanding the true nature of one’s perceptions.” The main cause of all dukkha (suffering) is that people, through avidya (ignorance) are constantly being led by their own “disordered beliefs”. As the Lanka states: “once the perceptions of their own minds are free of projections, they are able to dwell in the perfection of wisdom and to let go of their life and their practice and to enter the Diamond Samadhi that accompanies a tathagata’s body and that accompanies the transformation of suchness…thus transcending the mind, the will, and conceptual consciousness, these bodhisattvas gradually transform their body into the body of a tathagata.” read more

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