Buddhism

BUDDHISMS 4 NOBLE TRUTHS

8 FOLD PATH

Different schools

AWAKING THE BUDDHA WITHIN

8 worldly winds

2 kinds of meditation

4 great efforts

4 divine abodes

3 stages of meditation

6 bardo's

4 Dzogchen meditations

Buddha never said there is no god, he just avoided answering the question because at the time people would have welcomed God as their and practiced too much idol worship. The Buddha stressed meditation it was his successors that brought the various Gods into the picture. Hinduism believed in Gods too much and Buddha taught that all you need is you self because you have God in you. But now we are ready to think about God and how to integrate Buddhism with the other religions. Lets examine how it was christianity and not Buddhism that brought us the present world. It is a Christian concept that says we can make the world a better place and aught to fight for what we believe, while in the Buddhist world you solve problems by going within and encouraged blindly letting the head lama make all the decisions. Not pooling together knowledge isn't good for creativity. They were leaving the greater community out of the picture too much. This is evidenced by Tibet's refusal to accept western technology they tore down the phone lines the British put up. Only after their exile did they realize they needed to modernize, in this way they are much less enlightened than christianity. Buddhism must not dismiss vision of hereafter world of heaven and transcendence just like christianity must believe in reincarnation

Notes on Dhammapada

I liked it it was written third century BC, inspired by Buddha. It is a code for living. Something I would like to read to a young child. The introduction reminded me ancient european monks had very Buddhist views regarding mindlessness notes:

241, dull repetition is bad

243- ignorance is biggest sin. This arouses the question of the balance of mindlessness verses learning

339- there are 36 streams of desire the

5 sins

5 strengths

Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

-Early Christians believed in reincarnations as did Blake, Shelly, and Balzac. p 82
-Think of past live as last week or your childhood, only go back even farther.
-If you don't believe in reincarnation, how do you believe in the existence of Tibet?
-p89 Dalai Lama "...So there is a constant cycle in which the universe evolves and disintegrates, and then
comes back into being". = big bang
- P 89 Dalai Lama".."mind or consciousness" is something which is subject to change when it is exposed to different conditions and circumstances, this shows us its moment to moment nature, its susceptibility to change".
-P. 90 Dalai Lama "Mind or consciousness are intimately linked with physiological states of the body, are in
fact dependant on them".
-P. 90 Dalai Lama- "If you trace our present mind or consciousness back, you will find that you are tracing the origin of the continuity of mind, just like the origin of the material universe into an infinite dimension; it is as you will see, beginning less".
-P 90 DL "Everything comes from precious causes, so to your mind does."
-Mind and matter are opposites
-P 90 DL "In the field of matter, that is the space particles, in the field of consciousness, it is the clear light".
= mind is in space, that is why there is space in atoms. 219 your suffering can help other people, how?
-225 you can see the world lucidly after death= so what is this about unconscious death bardo?
-235 Animal skins and drugs blocks the central channel in the phowa practice.
-245 Giving like will lengthen it and taking life will worsen it.
-249 "When the knot (chakra's) in the channels are released, the winds flow into the central channel, and enlightenment is momentarily experienced"

-The Five "Skandas" that make up our existence

*they all dissolve when we die.

-251 People die in the order of earth, water, fire, and the air. Even insects die like this.
-253 The last heartbeat and the exit of the soul is roughly 20 minutes.
-254 40 thoughts result from desire.
-255 Three poisons, Anger, desire, and ignorance
-265 "Ground luminosity" is the realization at death just before consciousness leaves- some times consciousness
stays for up to three days.
-277 When you die there are 47 peaceful and 58 wrathful deities. Everyone is joined by a thin string of light
coming from your mind.

ASPECTS OF WISDOM

when you die you see carpets of light; each having clusters of 5 tingles throughout it:
-Fire element, Red ruby tickles for discernment.
-Earth element. Yellow. Golden tickles equaling wisdom
-Water element, white, crystal white tickles Mirror like wisdom
-Air element, blue carpet. sapphire blue tingles wisdom of all encompassing space

-279 The bardo days of dharmata are not days but periods of thoughtlessness, stages of consciousness.
-280 There are five Buddha families mantle and female bodhisattvas, we experience as impure elements of our physical body and environment. they are aspects of 5 elements of mind-female. Pure aspect of 5 aggregates of ego- the male, and pure aspects of different kinds of male-male and object of these consciousness- female. and Buddha's of six realms, and wrathful and protective deities. These emotions when realized are: Pride-- Non duality and equality "neutralizing wisdom"
Jealousy- "All accomplishing" wisdom.

*Five emotions from the five wisdom's., the five wisdom's are a pure aspect of the five negative emotions.

-284-5 * Whatever color attracts you the most you go to
-285- You and deities you see are not separate
-286- In dharmata you see duality in its mot pure form
-3rd Bardo- "Spa" bardo. conception to birth mental bardo
-288- In this mental body of the fetus you have clairvoyance, awareness is 7 times clearer. Comparable to 8-10 yr. old, you can remember past lives.
-289 A lot of the time we don't realize we are dead every 7 days we go through death again
-291 In "life-review" we can experience all the suffering or reward that we indirectly and directly caused.
-291 Bardo of 49 days usually is first 21 days connected to previous life
-292 ultimately all judgment takes place within our own mind, we are the judge and judged".
-296 "Attraction and desire for your mother and aversion or jealousy for your father will make you male, the other way around for females.
-298 If the goal is to not be reborn, then you can do more good for the universe as a spirit?
-298 Ground luminosity happens again when you enter the womb.
-300 It is never too late to help someone who died
Kaya-being
Darmakaya- Absolute nature uncovered at moment of death.
Sambaghakaya- Energy and light you see after death
Nirmanakaya- Sphere of crystallization in the bardo of becoming.
-p 351 "I think of a great work of art as like a moon shining in the night sky; it illuminates the world, yet
its light is not its own but borrowed from the hidden sun of the absolute" = related to Plato's theory of the
fire and shadows in the cave.
-p. 91 "The successive existences in a series of rebirths are like dice stacked on top of each other between the
dice there is no identity, but conditionality". Bardo means nothing
Mine- If someone asks or tells you something and you don't answer, it means you are thinking about it and not
have an answer.
-P 92 Buddha- "Do not overlook tiny negative actions because they are small, however small the spark my be, it
can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain". If I get stoned once, I will get addicted.
-Karma can take a long time to catch up
-P 93 Buddha- "What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now".
-Beginning in India is cultural p 93-94
-P 95 DL- "No need for temples and complicates philosophies"
-Near death experience: I saw...the effect of each thought, word, and deed on weather, plants, animals, soil,
trees, water, and air".
-P 102 "In Tibet there are said to be five ways of achieving enlightenment without meditation. On seeing a
great master or sacred object, on wearing specially blessed drawings of mandalas with sacred mantras; on
tasting sacred nectars, consecrated by the masters through special intensive practice; on remembering the
transference of consciousness, the phown, at the moment of death; and on hearing certain profound teachings".
-p 103 bardo's: 1) Natural bardo of life, 2) a painful death, 3) luminous of Dharmata, and 4), Karmic of becoming.
-P 106 "qualities of Buddha hood are veiled by the body so when it dies, they will be radiantly displayed".
I wish to now my individual karma, what I was, how I became me. To trace back who I was by judging my
circumstances, and then think about the future.
-P 109 The bardo of dying is like the bardo between the beginning of dreams and the beginning of dreams;
very hard to notice. You most people are just reborn again.
-P 112 Six realms of existence, each with a negative emotion:
1) Gods- pride, 2) Demigods, jealousy, 3) Humans, desire, 4) Animals, ignorance, 5) Hungry ghosts, greed, 6)
Hell, anger
-P. 114 It is more difficult to be born a human than for a turtle in the ocean who comes up once every hundred
years to stick its head through a circular ring floating on top"- I don't like this
-P 121 "...Both the noblest and the wisest thing to do is to cherish others instead of cherishing yourself".
-P. 121 "Ego doesn't exist"=NO
-P 122 "In beginners mind many possibilities, in experts few" = The farther you go in one direction of thought the
harder it is to find a middle ground.
-p 123 "We have become so falsely sophisticated and neurotic that we take doubt itself for truth, and the doubt
that is nothing more than egos separate attempt to defend itself from wisdom". = Believing is better
-P 124 "...To point to what's wrong and really what is right are good".
-P 126 "Do not mistake understanding for realization and do not mistake realization for liberation"
-P 126 Milarpa "Do not entertain hopes for realization but practice all you life"
Rumis table talk, Upanishads
-P 128 The west knows science so they can test each other and no one is unauthentic but that system is not
there for spirituality so there are charlatans.
-P 130 "...True teachers are kind, compassionate, tireless, in their desire to share whatever wisdom they
have acquired, never abuse or manipulate their students under any circumstances, never abandon them, serve
no their own ends but the teachings, and remain humble".
-P 130 Four reliance's. On the message of teacher, not personality on meaning, not just words on real meaning,
not just provisional, and 4) on wisdom mind, not ordinary judgmental mind.
-P 131 "Nearly all the great spiritual masters of all traditions agree that the essential thing is to master
one way, one path to the truth.."= Do one thing at a time wile remake open to all others". Other wise you:
"Leave your elephant at home and look for its footprints in the forest".
-P 137 Padmasambava- "If you relate to your teacher as a Buddha, you will attain the blessings of a Buddha, if
you relate to them as a human, you will get the blessings of a human".
-P 143 "The moment help can come for us is when we admit our addiction and simply ask".
Guru Yoga- Meditating on a master. four phases: 1) Invocation, 2) Merging your mind with your master through
his heart essence, and doing the mantra. 3) Receiving the blessing of empowerment, forehead to forehead. 4)
Uniting your mind with the master and resting in the nature of Rigpa.
I had a dream last night that I was visiting on old battlefield or something with a bunch of jolly young
tourists, the area looked like Lebanon, then I was walking with a group of kids my age up a hill to something
and I was behind two girls and both of them were Rebecca and I was just talking to throne on the left who was
slightly overweight and I was afraid to talk to the one on the right who was perfectly beautiful.
Empowerment- Third eye chakra is white, crystal light that cleanses the karma from visualization. Through
chakra is red ruby light, and blesses speech. Lapis Lazuli color for the heart chakra stimulating creative
essence for your minds karma.
-P 167 Dzogchen- The effective thoughtless meditation.
Rigpa- The thoughtless state
Togal and Trekcho- Immediate realization practice, very advanced.
Rainbow body- At death, the body dissolves except for the impure hair and nails, dissolves in rainbow color.
-P.174 Dying people are in the most vulnerable position of their lives,
-175 show them unconditional love
-177 don't try to be too wise
-193 "Give all profits and gain to others, take all loss and defeat on yourself".
-194 "Geshe Chehawa had to face any different kinds of ordeals. all sorts of difficulties, criticism, hardships,
and abuse. and the teaching was so effective, and his perseverance in its practice so intense, that after six
years he had completely eradicated any self grasping and self cherishing The practice of Tonglen had transformed
him into a master of compassion".
-197 To gain more compassion for a dying person, imagine your friend in their position , and you will also give merit
to your friend because they helped you give compassion for the dying person.
-200 When you fear touches someone's pain it is pity, when your life does, it is compassion- Steven Levine
Bohdichita- compassionate wish

How to awaken love and compassion:

1) Remember times when someone was compassionate to you.
2) Consider everyone the same
3) Put yourself in other peoples shoes
4) Pretend the person who needs compassion is your friend
5) Meditate on compassion
6) Direct compassion
Tonglen- Taking others pain and giving them love