“The colonialist idea that Buddhism had become corrupt and now fell short of the Buddha’s original ideal resonated with indigenous Buddhist beliefs about the inevitable decline over the centuries of the Buddha’s teachings and institutions. The collective term for these is sāsana, “teaching,” in a broader sense than that conveyed by the term dhamma, “truth,” “reality.” The decline of the sāsana would be marked by devastating warfare, disease, and other hardships, exactly what people were witnessing with the arrival of European colonialism. Whereas previous reforms throughout the history of Buddhism had emphasized the continued preservation of the texts and a pure monastic lineage, and these concerns continued in reforms of the modern period, the modern approach to reform also discarded or marginalized “accretions” regarded as not conforming to “pure,” “original” Buddhism.”

Esoteric Theravada
Kate Crosby

“Another taxonomic division being negotiated and explored during this period of Western discourse was the axiomatic separation of body and mind, or between physis and psyche, reflected in Draper’s division between materiality and spirituality.

For modernist Christians, religion concerned only the latter. This approach was reflected in the increasing acceptability among Christians of non-literal interpretations of biblical statements on the material world, such as the creation myth in the book of Genesis.

Theravada Buddhism, however, teaches the interdependence of materiality and consciousness in a well-known analysis of the individual into a set of five aggregates that coexist interdependently in an ever-changing flux.

These five aggregates (khandha) are (1) rūpa, materiality; (2) vedanā, sensation; (3) saññā, apperception; (4) saṅkhārā, volitional responses; and (5) viññāṇa, consciousness.

This list can be further analyzed under three main headings. The first is still rūpa, materiality, the first of the five khandha, which consists of the material elements and matter derived from them. The other four khandha are divided into two: aspects of consciousness, cetasika, and states of consciousness, citta.

An important function of Abhidhamma, which Alabaster and the challenged contributor to the Journal of Sacred Literature had found so objectionable, was to explain how these different categories combine and mutually cause one another. The result is a highly complex analysis of the human condition.

Abhidhamma underpins Buddhism’s practical path of ethics and self-transformation, but was dismissed by external observers as a form of unnecessary scholasticism, secondary to Buddhism.

Despite similarities in the overall recognition of materiality and consciousness, Buddhism does not, therefore, share the Cartesian mind-body distinction.

Nevertheless, the dominance of the latter in European thinking meant that the resonances that can be found, particularly in Buddhist teachings on the primacy of the mind, would be influential in forming new emphases in Buddhism itself. It influenced meditation, which came to be seen more as a mind-science and less concerned with the physical realm.

Those meditation practices that were associated with cognitive change from realizing Buddhist truths such as impermanence, suffering, and no-self were emphasized, while those more associated with physical transformation and material power were marginalized.

The resulting perception that meditation was primarily concerned with the mind and psyche to some extent protected it from colonial scrutiny, since scientific research of the period on the whole ignored the psyche, choosing the physical world as the focus of research.”

Esoteric Theravada
Kate Crosby

"The tradition of Nath, the tradition of Aghori, actually it is not Hinduism, it is actually ancient tantric practice. It is the [same] origin of the Tibetan Vajrayana.

"As you know, the Tibetan Vajrayana became a little bit diluted, or watered down, in some sense because of the background of Tibetan culture, Tibetan language, Tibetan tradition. Things were a little bit different, but the root is all the same as what we see with the ancient tantric practices. The same as the Aghori tradition..."

Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche

https://fb.watch/pdtJ8YJcEz/

At that time the bodhisattvas joined their voices together and addressed the Buddha in verse form, saying:

We beg you not to worry.
After the Buddha has passed into extinction,
in an age of fear and evil
we will preach far and wide.

There will be many ignorant people
who will curse and speak ill of us
and will attack us with swords and staves,
but we will endure all these things.

In that evil age there will be monks
with perverse wisdom and hearts that are fawning and crooked
who will suppose they have attained what they have not attained,
being proud and boastful in heart.

Or there will be forest-dwelling monks
wearing clothing of patched rags and living in retirement,
who will claim they are practicing the true way,
despising and looking down on all humankind.

Greedy for profit and support,
they will preach the Law to white-robed laymen
and will be respected and revered by the world
as though they were arhats who possess the six transcendental powers.

These men with evil in their hearts,
constantly thinking of worldly affairs,
will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks
and take delight in proclaiming our faults,
saying things like this:

“These monks are greedy
for profit and support
and therefore they preach non-Buddhist doctrines
and fabricate their own scriptures
to delude the people of the world.
Because they hope to gain fame and renown thereby
they make distinctions when preaching this sutra.”

Because in the midst of great assemblies
they constantly try to defame us,
they will address the rulers, high ministers,
Brahmans, and householders,
as well as the other monks,
slandering and speaking evil of us,
saying, “These are men of perverted views
who preach non-Buddhist doctrines!”

But because we revere the Buddha
we will bear all these evils.

Though they treat us with contempt, saying,
“You are all no doubt buddhas!”
all such words of arrogance and contempt
we will endure and accept.

In a muddied kalpa, in an evil age,
there will be many things to fear.

Evil demons will take possession of others
and through them curse, revile, and heap shame on us.

But we, reverently trusting in the Buddha,
will put on the armor of perseverance.

In order to preach this sutra
we will bear these difficult things.

We care nothing for our bodies or lives
but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way.
In ages to come we will protect and uphold
what the Buddha has entrusted to us.

This the world-honored one must know.

The evil monks of that muddied age,
failing to understand the Buddha’s expedient means,
how he preaches the Law in accordance with what is appropriate,
will confront us with foul language and angry frowns;
again and again we will be banished
to a place far removed from towers and temples.

All these various evils,
because we keep in mind the Buddha’s orders,
we will endure.

If in the settlements and towns
there are those who seek the Law,
we will go to wherever they are
and preach the Law entrusted to us by the Buddha.

We will be envoys of the world-honored one,
facing the assemblies without fear.
We will preach the Law with skill,
for we desire the Buddha to rest in tranquillity.

In the presence of the world-honored one
and of the buddhas who have gathered from the ten directions
we proclaim this vow.

The Buddha must know what is in our hearts.

— The Lotus Sutra

PRAYER FOR CYBERSPACE
by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

NAMO ĀKĀŚAGARBHĀYA
OṂ ĀRYA KAMARI MAULI SVĀHĀ
Oh bodhisattva mahasattva!
As I prostrate at your lotus feet,
I offer everything I can name and understand,
And all my mind’s conjurings,
As well as everything that exists, inconceivable and undreamed of,
Throughout immeasurable space.
To you, who are the very essence of space,
I offer praise.
Bless this cyber-space with comfort, bliss and enlightenment—
May it be of benefit to myself and others.
Unburden our misgivings;
Purify all that sullies and despoils us,
And the profligate displays,
That throng and colour this space.

Advice on preventing catastrophe in 2030

The spiritual path relies on the teacher, there is no other way, but he relies on you to seek him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llYCveHkpdk&t=785s

One of the best meditation instructions I have heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWpuA08ues

Q: Do you think it is possible to begin to see what is, to see yourself as you are, without a teacher?
A: I do not think it is possible at all. You have to have a spiritual friend in order to surrender and completely open yourself.

Q: Is it absolutely necessary that the spiritual friend be a living human being?
A : Yes. Any other "being" with whom you might think yourself communicating would be imaginary.

Q: Would the teachings of Christ in themselves be a spiritual friend?
A: I would not say so. That is an imaginary situation. It is the same with any teachings; they do not have to be the teachings of Christ necessarily. The problem is that we can interpret them ourselves. That is the whole point: written teachings are always open to the interpretation of ego.

— Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

I have not written much here of late because I have very little I want to say. My time and thoughts are more and more spent on practice.

I have never wished for Telegram clout, and I only really started this channel to dialogue with my friends. I certainly have no desire to present my own ideas or project anymore.

Realising how little I know has created in me the firm determination to look inwards. As such, things like politics have become much less interesting to me.

However, for those who are politically minded, I think it is important to realise that we deserve everything we go through. There is not a single thing happening to our countries, or ourselves, that we did not create the causes for in the past.

It's your fault. You made this for yourself.

That is the inviolable Law of Karma manifesting through dependent origination.

When Shariputra asked Ashvajit what it was the Buddha taught, Ashvajit said:

ye dharmā hetu-prabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ

"All phenomena arise from causes, the Tathagata has taught these causes, and the means of their cessation, thus teaches the great ascetic."

This is so profound that it became a mantra used by all Buddhist schools to understand the essence of the Buddha's teaching.

Therefore, if you wish to put an end to the suffering of yourself, your family, nation and the world, you have no choice but to work on your own mind.

If you try to get retribution without cultivating universal love within yourself, you simply perpetuate the cycle of samsara. When you understand that all beings are seeking happiness, you can successfully forgive them for the horrific mistakes they make, and therefore overcome the delusion of inherent self that causes suffering for yourself and everyone around you.

To rise above the cycle is the only way to end it.

This is true for you, as well as everyone you wish to protect.

"Generally, in Buddhism, gods are considered not ultimate but temporary because gods themselves cannot give up a self. That is why Kunkhyen Rongzompa identifies eternalist gods as worldly deities.

"As long as there is a self, there are always passions, there is always karma, and there is always change. There is nothing absolute. There is no view of how to reach the fully enlightened state that is connected with eternalist gods, whose histories occur within different times and places.

"Whether time is brief, long-lasting, or many eons, it is a temporary appearance that belongs to beings, depending on beings’ habit or manifesting from Buddhas according to beings’ faculties.

"Even though time and place do not exist and are just conception, whoever has not realized the fully enlightened state believes in a reality of time and place.

"Buddhas have no time or place, but Buddhas manifest within time and place for the benefit of beings. They are called fully enlightened because there is nothing trapped in time. Buddhas’ inconceivable wisdom is forever abiding in unwavering stainless Dharmakaya, never remaining in the habit of a certain place.

"Buddha has purified self, so that is why Buddha is fully enlightened. Because eternalism does not give up the view of an existing self, whether a god is considered intermediate or supreme, there is still the cause of passions and karma, even though the way the appearances of gods arise seems positive according to history or an individual’s experience and excels beyond the appearances of ordinary human beings.

"Since self is not purified, self produces cause and effect. Whenever there is cause and effect, a possessor comes, and there is samsara no matter what aspect of gods arises.

"This is the basic Buddhist view about the characteristics of gods.

"The contrast between eternalist and Buddhist views of gods is comparable to the contrast between the Western geographical system, which from a Buddhist perspective only concerns one small part of the phenomena of this world, and the Buddhist geographical system, which is about all phenomena and is related to sentient beings according to time and place.

"In the Buddhist view, one cannot make anything certain and sure. It is actually not good to try to make any kind of doctrine into something certain and sure, because if something is thought to exist only in a definite way, its reliability will eventually fail.

"It is important not to compare eternalist gods, but to differentiate between the characteristics of wisdom, and then it will not be necessary to deny any gods’ doctrines, which are infinite. They have existed before, they exist now, and they will exist in the future because of beings’ phenomena, which are the general source of eternalist beliefs, and what arises is believed depending on beings’ time and place.

"The eternalist belief that a god is absolute is only conceptual within time and place. Even if one tries to determine what is absolute according to an eternalist view, whatever is found will be conditional, compounded, and temporary because it is conceptual. Even though there is belief in permanence, where does anything exist permanently? If something exists permanently, it cannot manifest anything because it is frozen, without mind, spirit, or wisdom.

"Even when considering absolute truth, by excessively concretizing absolute truth due to inflexibility, it will become diminishable and will not turn to a pivotal state or quality."

— Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar, Shambhala Publications.

"First, if you want to practice the teachings, but have not done so, you have not yet made a deep enough commitment. With the recklessness of a lunatic, you must make a radical decision: to listen to the advice of a qualified spiritual master and to no one else.

"Having made this deep commitment, begin the preliminary practices, using the “four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma” in order to tame your mind.

"Next, no matter what happens to you, good or bad, recognize that ordinary worldly preoccupations do not have the slightest meaning whatsoever, not even so much as a tiny seed of sesame.

"Until you are able to regard the ordinary affairs of samsara with a kind of natural revulsion—like someone sick with hepatitis served a pile of greasy food—you are likely to turn into a hyperactive renunciant, like an ox with its tail caught in a door.

"If you’re motivated to give up ordinary activities just from a fleeting impulse of renunciation, you’ll wind up a failed “realized yogi,” a jaded “great meditator,” like someone who wastes his time soaking hard, ruined boots in water, hoping someday they’ll soften again.

"Until you have completely come to understand the “four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma” and have created a real capacity to renounce ordinary life, don’t even bother mouthing mantras and giving up ordinary activities to do practice. This is important.

"Conversely, once you begin to experience an unwavering weariness with samsara, an authentic sense of renunciation, immutable devotion and strong sense of self-confidence, you have taken the first step: adamantine freedom from the opinions of others.

"This is the time to distance yourself from friends and from enemies, to give up plans, to ignore everything that you were supposed to get done, unswayed by the opinions of your friends or partners. This is the time to turn a deaf ear to both your superiors and your subordinates. This is the time to decide, on your own, to take up the reins of your destiny and make your escape, like a wild animal caught in a trap, working to set itself free...

"...Also, unless you are propelled along the path by the life force of constant diligence and relentless perseverance, even though you are knowledgeable about the scriptures of the nine vehicles, this will not result in attaining buddhahood in a single lifetime.

"However, take confidence in knowing that, one day, merely by having heard the words the Three Jewels, you will attain the enlightened state."

— Patrul Rinpoche, Enlightened Vagabond

IN A DREAM AT NIGHT on the twenty-fifth day, a holy individual appeared saying he was the
Buddhist king Trisong Deutsen. He told me,

Kyé Ho! Fortunate child of my spiritual family,
There are countless sentient beings in cyclic existence,
Yet look at how few gain a human body.
Many gain a human body,
Yet look at how few are endowed with the freedoms and resources [of a precious human birth].
Although many have gained the freedoms and resources,
Look at how few make them meaningful.
Since it’s as if none make them meaningful,
Look at how few attain liberation.

These days, like appearances in a dream,
Look at how even those who gain this precious human body
Waste their human life
Over the course of years, months, days, and moments.
Of those early years of life,
Look at how many are spent practicing the holy Dharma.
Among the activities in that human life,
Look at what point they have.
The human beings who lived in the past
Busied themselves with activities concerned with this life;
Now that they’re on the road toward death,
Look at what sort of help these tasks are to them.
For the welfare of children, grandchildren, dear ones, and family,
They defeated enemies, protected friends,
Farmed crops, stockpiled, and swindled,
Yet now when they’re on the road toward death,
Look at the value and result of what they’ve done.
Although ancestors and those before them,
Wore out their human lives in suffering
Thinking of future generations of children and grandchildren,
Is there anyone who remembers their kindness? Look at that.

Entirely everything you do
Is just the same as that, and since it’s the same,
Concentrate on becoming self-sufficient.
From a universal monarch on high
To a little child born yesterday,
One hundred years from now,
The human beings now alive on this earth
Won’t be anything but ashen corpses:
Everything is nothing more than appearances in a dream.

After a year has passed,
It’s as if it was no longer than a mere instant;
Even if you manage to live one hundred years, it still feels like merely a moment.
At the time of death, the life you led seems like a dreamscape.
When the time arrives for the aeon of destruction,
Everything animate and inanimate in this world throughout the three-thousandfold
cosmos
Will vanish into emptiness without a trace.

All the people who died in the past
And the dead you’ve actually seen all had the same attitude:
They strived and strategized to remain for many years;
Unsuccessful in those wishes,
They fell under the power of impermanence and death.
They left behind their wealth like dirt and rocks,
Lost their illusory body like tattered clothes,
And were divided from friends and family like people in a crowded marketplace.
They woke up from their lives’ events as if from a dream
And wandered like a stray dog into the next world.
Without any control over where they’re going,
They’re driven from behind by the strong gale of karma.
Led helplessly by the Lord of Death’s minions,
They plunge into what they don’t want — the abodes of the miserable existences —
To experience their sufferings all alone.
They wail in agony, crying out,
Yet apart from themselves, no one sees or hears them.
Think of that, and apply yourself to your own quest for enlightenment.
If hardship, hunger, cold, sickness, and suffering occur
For the sake of your spiritual practice,
And you find yourself exasperated,
Why aren’t you fed up with experiencing the endless suffering
Of the agony of cold and heat known by hell beings,
The exhaustion, hunger, and thirst of starving spirits,
Or the mute foolishness,
Butchery, forced labor, and the like that animals must undergo?
If dismay with those states has arisen,
How can you possibly be annoyed with hardship in your spiritual practice?

Don’t forget these key points. Instill them in your mind.
Don’t forget these key points. Hold them in your heart.
Take these as foremost among all profound pith instructions.
Don’t forget! Don’t forget! Don’t forget death!
Don’t be distracted! Don’t be distracted! Don’t be distracted in this human life!
Don’t give up! Don’t give up! Don’t give up what’s helpful for your next life!
Think about it! Think about it! Think about the suffering of cyclic existence!
Concentrate! Concentrate! Concentrate on the holy Buddhist path!
Escape! Escape! Escape from the abodes of cyclic existence!
Pursue! Pursue! Pursue the trailhead of freedom.

This sovereign king’s wisdom midstream shifts to you.
In the past, when I was Rikzin Jikmé Lingpa,
You were my maternal uncle renowned as a great meditator,
And you were unsurpassably kind to me.
Therefore, the fruition of that is my encounter here with you.
In this lifetime, we will be father and son.
In the future, in the northern land of Shambala,
You and I will accompany one another as king and official.

Then he vanished into the arena of intangible space.

— Dudjom Lingpa

It's important to be sane. Mentally stable and reliable.

Look rationally at the qualities of samsara, and the qualities of the Buddha.

If you meet an authentic guru (check up as thoroughly as you can) be simple, sincere and humble. Be prepared to do what you're told. Not without question, but once you start, see it through.

If you can't do these simple, but sometimes challenging things, you won't be given deep teachings. You might be given something that seems deep, but you'll only end up going in circles.

Remember, when you go to a guru you are asking them to help you get over your own deluded perspectives, not for them to help you with your personal ego projects.

Drop your expectations and just learn.

If you knew what was good for you, you wouldn't need the guru.

You do need the guru.

Hūm
In Orgyen’s land, upon its northwest rim,
On lotus, pistil-cup, and stem,
Wondrous, supreme mastery you found
And as the Lotus-Born you are renowned.
A ring of many dakinis encircles you,
And in your footsteps practicing we follow you.
To grant your blessings, come, we pray.
Guru Padma Siddhi Hūm

"Through this may all behold
Primordial wisdom, self-arisen Lotus King,
At play within the spacelike reaches of their minds.
May I and all who have connections with this prayer
Be taken into Padma’s care for all our lives.
May we receive, reflect, and meditate
Upon the teachings without let or obstacle,
And gain with ease our own and others’ good.
And may the general teachings of the Conqueror,
The yogas of the threefold inner tantras,
Especially the precious teachings of the light of vajra-essence,
Be strongly spread in all the ten directions.
May every being’s joy and wealth of Dharma powerfully increase!"

— Jamgon Mipham, the dedication to his commentary on the seven line prayer.

Modern Westerners are unknowing experts at breaking spells. Or rather, perhaps, our culture is in possession of one of the most powerful spells ever to have existed: secular materialism.

This one spell has had the power to display almost all of the magic of the millennia preceding the industrial revolution. Under the auspices of this spell lines of iron, the metal of wrath, were laid across the previously enchanted land.

If we now wish to reconnect to the magic of the past, we must break the spell of materialism in our own minds.

Without doing this we will only weaken any surviving tradition we hope to learn from.

I pray with respect at the feet
Of the one who has perfected all qualities,
Dharma King Ngakyi Wangpo:
Bless me with death--death to ego-clinging.

I, the renunciate Tsogdruk Rangdrol,
Am a yogin of the Great Perfection.
Not only sickness, but even death is fine with me.

Listen, I shall tell you all
About my sickness, death, and cremation.

The aggregate body stemming from clinging to "ego"
Caught the sickness of the lama's blessing
And was possessed by the demon of unchanging awareness.
When the agonizing pain of spiritual experience
And realization struck me down,
Spiritual songs escaped from my mouth like moans.
Unable to eat the food of the eight worldly concerns,
I collapsed on the bed of the sublime Dzogchen teaching.

Not just sickness, but even death is fine with me:
The demon of natural awareness
Caught me with the lasso of unwavering samadhi.
He murdered clinging to the skandhas as real,
With the weapon of perfect view:
From the extremities escaped the bodily warmth of hatred;
From the nose and mouth came the water of attachment;
The head of ignorance fell forward;
At The Heart of the Lake
The limbs of pride collapsed;
The breathing of jealousy came to an end,
And I died in the expanse of the unborn dharmakaya.

Not just death, but even cremation is fine with me:
The helpers "freed as they arise"
Built the funeral pyre of the dharmadhatu.
The firewood of firm shamatha was arrayed Upon the even plain of pristine simplicity.
The cremation fire -the five wisdoms-
Consumed the corpse of ignorance and the other poisons.
Then the remains were scattered on the ground of the unborn
And buried in the charnel ground of Samantabhadra.

— Shabkar