Emissions

[Secret Chief]

probably not intended for responses

 

[Secret Chief]

all phenomena lack inherent existence.
all phenomena are impermanent.
all dualism is unsatisfactory.
nirvana is beyond concepts.

 

[Secret Chief]

life involves dukkha.
dukkha arises because of craving and ignorance (that we have a self, seen as separate from the world).
there is a path which means that dukkha can be ended - because our buddhanature is always available.
the path involves developing understanding, ethical living, and a meditation ptactice.

 

[Secret Chief]

expressions of the ego:
delusion - that the "I" is a separate entity.
attachment - wanting more of what the "I" likes.
aversion - wanting less of what the "I" dislikes.

 

[Secret Chief]

endeavour to refrain from being a party to deliberate killing.
endeavour to only take what is voluntarily given.
endeavour to refrain from harmful false speech.
endeavour to refrain from or minimise that which clouds the mind.
endeavour to refrain from non-consensual relationships.

 

[Secret Chief]

the eight aspects of the path of awakening are wise understanding, intention, action, speech, effort, work, mindfulness and meditation.

 

[Secret Chief]

object is object because of the subject.
subject is subject because of the object.
know that the two are originally one emptiness.

(Faith in Mind)

 

[Secret Chief]

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualised by myriad things. When actualised by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realisation remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

(Genjokoan)

 

[Secret Chief]

Form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is form. Sensation, conception, synthesis, and discrimination are also such as this. All dharmas are empty — they are neither created nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, and they neither increase nor diminish. This is because in emptiness there is no form, sensation, conception, synthesis, or discrimination. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts. There are no forms, sounds, scents, tastes, sensations, or dharmas. There is no field of vision and there is no realm of thoughts. There is no ignorance nor elimination of ignorance, even up to and including no old age and death, nor elimination of old age and death. There is no suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path.

(Heart Sutra)

 

[Secret Chief]

Like a tiny drop of dew
or a bubble floating in a stream
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud
or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom or a dream:
So is all conditioned existence to be seen.

(Diamond Sutra)

 

[Secret Chief]

accept your humanity.
redefine success.
create more balance.
reduce your to-do list.
become more flexible.
lighten up.
give self-love.

( Seven Ways to Change from a Human Doing to a Human Being )

 

[Secret Chief]

practice emotional restraint.
slow down.
breathe more deeply.
self-care.
eliminate drama, negative people and stressful situations.
be authentic.
accept what is; to not means to create the condition for negativity.
heaven and hell are but a thought away.

 

[Secret Chief]

live slowly
be slowly

 

[Secret Chief]

now only

 

[Secret Chief]

Petals of the peach blossom
Unfolding in the spring breeze,
Sweeping aside all doubts
Amid the distractions of
Leaves and branches.

(Dogen)

 

[Secret Chief]

What is valid from the standpoint of the relative truth of our everyday world is not necessarily valid from the ultimate side. In the final analysis, though, the relative and the ultimate are neither different, nor identical. Nor does one stand independently of the other. The same can be said of samsara and nirvana. In Madhyamaka, samsara represents the world of birth and death, the world of suffering, while nirvana represents realisation of the ultimate truth, without which freedom from the bondage of suffering is not possible. Neither bondage nor anything else has inherent existence and so release from bondage is not an inherently existent phenomenon either. This is important because grasping onto the false idea of inherent existence is the primary cause for suffering. Nagarjuna felt that the term “nirvana” was useful for indicating spiritual release, but only if the term did not refer to something that could be an object for clinging.

It is possible to grasp after nirvana – to reify it as a state and to crave it as a phenomenon inherently different from samsara and as highly desirable since it is indeed characterized as liberation from suffering. But this grasping onto the end of grasping is itself a grasping and so precludes the attainment of nirvana. Nirvana requires, according to Nagarjuna, a complete cessation of grasping, including that onto nirvana itself. While that might seem paradoxical, it is not: To grasp onto something in this sense requires, inter alia, that one reify it. By refusing to reify liberation, in virtue of seeing it as the correlative of bondage, which itself is not inherently existent, it is possible to pursue the path to liberation without creating at the same time a huge obstacle on that path – the root delusion with regard to nirvana itself.

.....contd...

 

[Secret Chief]

If things do not exist in themselves, then from the ultimate truth they are unreal, illusions. Nirvana, if seen as something inherently existent, is only an illusion that will perpetuate more grasping, followed by more suffering. There are no real distinctions in Madhyamaka philosophy because all things are considered empty of inherent existence or own-nature. For samsara and nirvana to be distinct from one another, they would have to be inherently existent things. But they are empty, and within this emptiness, they are without distinction. Samsara and nirvana are only different in the relative sense, because they designate entirely different things. Again, in the ultimate sense, there is no difference, because of their emptiness. Everything is empty, including emptiness. This may sound like theoretical nonsense, but it has a practical application. The aim of this thinking is to shatter all dualities and destroy all avenues for grasping. When we can get past dualistic thinking, that is, seeing only the distinctions, not recognising the parity or the correspondence between things, then the world opens up for us. This is a freedom which applies to every moment of existence, not to special moments of mystical escape.

- Nagarjuna and Emptiness and Why Nirvana is Samsara - Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia

 

[Secret Chief]

can I go home now?

 

[Secret Chief]