Misunderstanding of Buddhism is extremely common amongst people I come into contact with.

First of all language itself is a problem and will always be limited. Language is symbolism and symbolism is for communicating deeper meanings that cannot be conveyed explicitly. Symbols implicitly convey meanings. Symbols are the finger pointing at the moon. The finger is not the moon.

👉🏻 🌚

Things must be directly experienced. Real spirituality is about direct experience, not intellectualization - which does operate within the bounds of language. Reality itself cannot be limited to language or the mind's ability to conceptualize. Imagine thinking you could "think about" or intellectually pin down Dharmakaya. Is the Ineffable effable?

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

There's a reason this is literally the first verse of the Tao Te Ching.

So besides just the inherent limitation of language, a lot of Buddhist terms really get fucked in translation.

Once I had a chick tell me I was a psychopath when I was explaining detachment because she thought the word means to be cold hearted or callous. Others think it means aloof, life denying, or removed from the world - space cadet, absent minded professor or zoned out druggie. People just have all sorts of negative associations with the word detachment that are not what is meant by the term in Buddhism.

Detachment is a means towards transcendence. It is to go beyond attachment and aversion, beyond grasping and shoving. So you can see it's not actually about the word itself; the word is just to point you to where you should be going.

Everything in Buddhism is in relation to aiding an individual towards enlightenment. This is what the system is designed for. The Bodhisattvas are trying to extract you from samsara and you're geeking out over the word nothingness because it sounds fucked up to you.

Nothingness is not nothing in the sense that we think of it in the West. Really when we think of nothingness we are already messing up because nothingness is supposed to be an aid in getting beyond thinking and conceptualizations so that we experience reality directly. Instead, being the spiritual plebs that we are, we decide to keep thinking about that which is supposed to help us get beyond the limitation of thinking.

Nothingness is Dharmakaya which is the seed of all manifestation, the infinite, inconceivable reservoir of pure potentiality. Words cannot actually describe Dharmakaya though and any idea of it is wrong. So the point of me characterizing it how I just did was to break out the ole 👉🏻 and see if we can possibly get just a bit closer to "it".

Nothingness is meant to be used like - empty your mind because all of your conceptual frameworks trap you. Nothingness is supposed to help navigate the labyrinth of the mind.

Another way to think of it is like no-thingness. Interdependence and the lack of distinction between "things". Understanding this, again, helps us to go beyond the mind. The mind likes to break everything down into tidy, neat little boxes - but remember folks, boxes are gay and keep you stuck in samsara. Boxes are fabrications because reality is NOT actually broken down like this - (later I will write about the doctrine of 2 truths and the relative truth of the distinctions between things). It is our minds that break things down and make distinctions and form attachments to the distinctions and identify with the distinctions and... fuck... forget about our innate Buddhanature.

But the moral of the story is always remember Buddhism is fundamentally about liberating us from samsara and making us aware of our innate Buddhanature - so terms are tools to strike down obscurations, attachments, identifications that hold us in ignorance and that lock us out of nirvana. The moment terms become something other than that we have missed the whole point and fallen into the trap of language and ultimately the trap of our own minds.

We should really kill the banks. It is the only thing I can think of in the worldly, that is truly meaningful.
fightclub is a good script

Let me tell you about my personal experience with smoking Marlboros... I don't find it particularly detrimental to my health. When I do smoke, I do it. The cigarette ends, I put it down, and watch throughout the process. And you have accomplished another occupation in your life, as much as your toilet flushing down.

Chogyam Trungpa

Eternity is in love with the productions of time

William Blake

Mecca, 26/11

"I understood clearly that nothing dies. Citta certainly doesn't die; in fact, it becomes more pronounced. The more fully we investigate the four elements, dividing them into their original properties, the more distinctly pronounced citta appears. So where can death be found? And what is it that dies? The four elements - earth, water, wind and fire - they do not die. As for citta, how can it die? It becomes more visible, more aware and more insightful. This essential knowing nature never dies, so why is citta so afraid of death? Because it deceives itself. For ages and ages it has been deceiving itself into believing in death, when in fact nothing ever dies."

Ācariya Mahā Boowa Ñāṇasampanno Thera

Will the Brahmins recover from this? Let's find out 👹🙏🏻🔱

To innermost bliss, I pay homage!
Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say

—

All phenomena? Your own mind!
If you look outside for meaning, you’ll get confused.
Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,

And mind is merely the flux of awareness,
No self nature: just energy flow.
No true nature: just like the sky.
All phenomena are alike, sky-like.

That’s Mahamudra, as we call it.
It doesn’t have an identity to show;
For that reason, the nature of mind
Is itself the very state of Mahamudra
(Which is not made up, and does not change).
If you realize this basic reality
You recognize all that comes up, all that goes on, as Mahamudra,
The all-pervading dharma-body.

Rest in the true nature, free of fabrication.
Meditate without searching for dharma-body

—

It is devoid of thought.
If your mind searches, your meditation will be confused.

Because it’s like space, or like a magical show,
There is neither meditation or non-meditation,
How could you be separate or inseparable?
That’s how a yogi sees it!

Then, aware of all good and bad stuff as the basic reality,
You become liberated.
Neurotic emotions are great awareness,
They’re to a yogi as trees are to a fire— FUEL!

What are notions of going or staying?
Or, for that matter, “meditating” in solitude?
If you don’t get this,
You free yourself only on the surface.

But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you?
Abide in an undistracted state.
Trying to adjust body and mind won’t produce meditation.
Trying to apply techniques won’t produce meditation either.

See, nothing is ultimately established.
Know what appears to have no intrinsic nature.
Appearances perceived: reality’s realm, self-liberated.
Thought that perceives: spacious awareness, self-liberated.
Non-duality, sameness [of perceiver and perceived]: the dharma-body.

Like a wide stream flowing non-stop,
Whatever the phase, it has meaning
And is forever the awakened state
—
Great bliss without samsaric reference.

All phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature
And the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground.
Freedom from conceptual activity
Is the path of all the Buddhas.

I’ve put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come.
By this virtue, may all beings without exception

Abide in the great state of Mahamudra!

Essential Mahamudra Verses

by Mahasiddha Maitripa

Mahayana bodhisattvas are needed everywhere. Especially in the underworld. A genuinely good and real person is welcome everywhere, can stand blameless beside the wicked. A selfless presence is a sanctuary, it protects and is protected by all. To share wisdom amongst the righteous is like bringing a lamp into the light of day. Imagine the light being received by those whose ignorance literally gets people killed.
If you have grown out of muddy waters, others can to. What makes the environment in the underworlds so dangerous is not poverty, it is the darkness of ignorance. Emerge.

Notes: awareness of awareness. Sharing thoughts on the path to realising Mahamudra. Feel free to join the discussion.

When you perceives sensory stimuli. Skin, hearing or seeing for instancing. Starting with the closest perception like skin and then moving to the further senses. Contemplate the following questions.

What and where is the observer and what and where is the observed?

Is there any distinct subject and object, are there more than one?

Is it possible to draw any boundary between the observation and the observatory/observer?

Notes 2: sharing thoughts on the path to realising mahamudra.

Any fetters and dualistic obscuration is released by pristine awareness. Awareness is completely fresh, a completely new experience. All we need to do is open up to the present and just see the unfolding, without grasping.

Everything is changing and transforming all the time, the delusions come from grasping and holding on to views and ideas. Observe, witness how everything is completely new and fresh.

Talk and description is just a tainted echo. An attempt to capture the present moment. Like this text.

When we think, we often fail to realise the unreality of those thoughts. The vast openness of space and phenomena is constantly self liberated.
This is realised in the moment, simply by applying gentle attention to the freshness of your present experience.