Leave the body at rest, like an unmovable mountain.
Leave the speech at rest, like an unstrung guitar.
Live the mind at rest like a shepherd after dusk who has brought his flock home and sits content by the warm fire.
”Another complication brought by modern way of life is monasteries. Still being a very respective institute, the differences between monastery life and worldly life are way bigger now than, let’s say, 1000 years ago. For that time, going to the monastery was not uncommon, good and respectable move. For our time, going to the monastery is something in between crazy and heroic.
Ages ago, monasteries has played a big role in the life of the society. Nowadays, they’re existing very much on their own, decreasing influence of Buddhism on the society greatly.
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep prajna paramita
Clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty, transforming all suffering and distress.
Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form;
Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form; sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness are also like this.
All things are marked by emptiness — not born, not destroyed;
not stained, not pure; without gain, without loss.
Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought;
no realm of sight to no realm of thought;
no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance
to no old age and death and also no ending of old age and death;
no suffering, also no source of suffering, no annihilation, no path;
no wisdom, also no attainment. Having nothing to attain, Bodhisattvas live prajna paramita with no hindrance in the mind. No hindrance, thus no fear. Far beyond delusive thinking, they attain complete Nirvana.
All Buddhas past, present, and future live prajna paramita and thus attain perfect awakened enlightenment.
Therefore, know that prajna paramita is the great mantra, the wisdom mantra, the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra, which completely removes all suffering.
This is truth, not deception. Therefore, set forth the prajna paramita mantra, set forth this mantra and say:
Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi Svaha.
” The Heart Sutra“Om” is sound of the universe. “Mani” means jewel, “Pedmé” means lotus, so together its jewel in the lotus.
And the funny part - “Hung” has no specific meaning here, its not for its meaning, but for the completeness of the vibrational tone. “Hung” is the consort of “Om.”
Its very important to be honest to yourself. Being honest means paying attention to your own thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Awareness of self and honesty to self are interlinked, there’s no one thing without another. Being honest to self, you’re moving closer to the enlightenment.
Concentration (attention, focus, whatever) is tricky. Its hard to practice properly.
When meditation, I’m often falling into “possessing” kind of concentration. You can compare it with watching movie, when your mind moves with object of concentration.
Proper way to concentrate is “observing”. Let everything go. No regrets, no worries. Do not care of anything at all. After then, start noticing object of concentration. Do not allow it to move your mind, just observe. If you feel it starts to enter into your mind, let everything go again, and start over.
upd: Its called nyon-yid (deluded awareness) in Dzogchen. Gotta dig Nyingma stuff a lil bit deeper.
My studies on Buddhism are like small pictures, clicking in their places. Its not like discovering something new, or proving theorems. Its more like gathering small pieces, making the whole picture.
In Nov 09 I’ve stumbled upon cold showers. I’m practicing contrast shower in the morning (waking up at 0500) for, and despite being very helpful to wake up, for some reason it’s also helpful for meditation.
Cold showers were applied in the psychotherapy since its very beginning. There’s also Shinto “water Misogi” practice of lustration, when practitioner was standing under the cold waterfall. With my own positive experience, this combination has attracted my attention.
The answer to “what is cold shower and what is it doing” turned out to be simple and obvious. Misogi is considered to be a kind of meditation, and it is exactly so.
In the morning, after the sleep, our mind is clouded even more than during the day. It lacks awareness badly. Cold shower brings that “here and now” feeling to us, awakening and momentarily concentrating on our skin sensations. Brings us to very current moment.
To use cold shower more effectively, when turning it on, release everything. Let everything go. Just feel it. For a moment, just be there.
Eventually, you’ll find this moment amazing.
Attending at Vipassana retreat (in S.N.Goenka tradition), I saw a lot of ironic smiles when translator was speaking about “non-sectarian” nature of S.N. Goenka teachings. In Western monotheistic cultures, “sect” usually have a negative meaning - small group of people with their own religion, brainwashed and dangerous. At the East, though, “sect” means just a branch of some religion. Like, Soto, Rinzai and Obaku are considered sects of Zen Buddhism. (Just to note: Goenka’s school is cultist one itself.)
When Goenka was speaking of elements everything consist of - air, water, etc, most people were also amazed and after meditation retreat has started to ask, how it come. According to their knowledge everything consists of atoms, subatom particles, etc. Answer was “those elements are given by S.N.Goenka in metaphorical sense”, leaving people wondering what metaphor is. Concept of 4 elements, which are describing not materials, but more “behavioral nature” (like frozen water is more like “earth” than “water”) has remained unknown for many.
Another less obvious but way more dangerous misunderstanding is about the statement “its the hard work”. Being sure that “work” means “doing something”, many has started to work with “posessing attention” rather than with “observing attention”. Despite constant calls by S.N.Goenka for doing things mindfully, with “equanimity”, many has became captured in playing with their minds, opening chakras, seeing dead relatives, etc.
Cultural differences may cause more serious impact, probably. I’m sure proper practicing of visualization techniques is tricky in our overvisualized and overvirtualized world.
So, practice mindfully. Mind the context. Always be critical to yourself and to. Try to see the influence your mind and your context is making to your practice. It’s important for clear understanding.
