Dried Shit Zen - 460 quotes

Long Version - 460 tweets

Chronological order 8/13/2009 through 9/26/2009

Talk a lot about the luminosity of emptiness. It means nothing, but it sounds so FUCKING good!
Actually, that last item in and of itself is chapters 3-26 of The Art of Buddhist One-Upmanship.
@dragonheartsong. "Tasting a plum is lightning that shatters the dark sky."
@BarkingUnicorn Tibetans do seem to crack up a lot more. Who knows why? Maybe they just find my shit amusing.
it's because the essence of life is activity that it is void
a boy washing an elephant
fine bird tracks in the wet sand
form isn't emptiness and emptiness isn't form
where in the body is this sharp feeling of self lodged like a poisoned arrowhead
Desire is pure.
All this that never was. All this that never is not.
All this that isn't anywhere in the future. All this that thinks it suffers from the past. All this that dreams it was ever present.
"This" isn't apart from the Five Great Elements, but nor is it bounded by them.
do you think the stars are suffering
Like a lion made out of gold there's the mane the claws the teeth the feet the tail but it's all just the same shining gold.
shiki soku ze ku ku soku ze shiki
Look around you and in you. This is Tathata. This. Where else would it be?
the big pine tree makes a hissing sound for as long as the wind is blowing, but when the wind stops, what?
"the hissing of summer lawns"
There is and ever has been only one enlightened being and that is your own mind.
What do you really think you have to prove?
You were never born. So it is unlikely that you will die.
Everything you "believe" and were "taught" is probably wrong. Why not try some direct perception?
When @mujaku speaks of the unborn luminosity of mind, he's "right" -- but if I didn't experience this "myself", I wouldn't believe him.
What's the point of Non-Duality if you're going to divide up people "realized beings" and those who are still "on the path"?
I like to read this man's brief and potent essays: http://www.thespiritworks.com/
"Dr. Gregory Tucker" intrigues me in some ways even more than "Wei Wu Wei." http://www.thespiritworks.com/
@praybob Actually I don't know the meaning of it at all. Because, obviously, it's both pretentious and ridiculous.
@praybob. Which is why I usually just go with "Dried shit."
Still, "luminous" is a figurative adjective based on vision. How could the original mind be luminous if it's what's before there are eyes?
"There are many kinds of eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes. There are many truths -- therefore there is no Truth." -Zen Master Nietzsche.
Though Zen people often speak of Mind, there is really no Mind to speak of.
You have hands, feet, eyes, nose, ears -- all, presumably, like other people. Your eyebrows are above your eyes, your nose above your mouth
Wanting Truth on top of all that is sheer presumption! You should be doused with cold water like a misbehaving rooster.
For "Follow Friday," I have to confess to a special fondness for @garabdorje. Starting with his handle.
I also like @lux1008 -- sort of crush on her -- but I wish she'd stay off the politics. (Yawn!)
Feeling that if I ever met @Ogmin in person he'd "box my ears" for talking such shit. Or maybe just give me the silent Dharma treatment.
Here's an interesting "walking" Dharma gate: while walking, just note how your field of vision bounces up and down and from side to side.
That's interesting, isn't it? Why? Because usually your mind edits this subtle bouncing motion out.
In fact, the closer you get to the "Now" and the "Here" -- the more you realize the world looks nothing like you thought it did.
Replacing your usual cliched ideas about the world with Buddhist cliches is pretty pointless.
The so-called Dharma was devised to awaken, not comfort you.
Follow @Taoteaking for the monkeymind monkeying.
Follow @ryderjaphy for some crusty and occasionally cranky Buddhism.
Duality is maintained, in essence, to reinforce the myth that one is a distinguished and special person.
Getting rid of philosophical Duality is easy, but getting rid of the myth that one is distinguished and special for one's "insight" -- hard.
"Duality" and "me" are evil twins,
but they're nothing without each other. "Mini-Me, you complete me."
People starting to practice Buddhism often fear it's death for the ego. Be comforted: as a Buddhist, ego will flourish as never before.
It's because he had what is now sometimes called a "strong ego" that Guatama was able to reach Mind-Realization.
@lux1008 Really? Because "I" *can't* get no satisfaction.
Follow @BarkingUnicorn for fun.
Follow @ArielBravy for love.
Follow @ZenDirtZenDust to see him dust it up with @mujaku.
Follow @dragonheartsong because she's sweet.
@lux1008 If no+no = yes, does no+no+no = maybe? Maybe it would be "I" cannot not get no satisfaction?
"The Dude abides" -- but Mind abides nowhere.
Mind is homeless.
Hey buddy can you spare a quarter? I've got get on a bus to visit my sick grandmother in Amarillo.
Buddha once claimed that to be a good Dharma practicer you need to have all the qualities of a boy who takes care of an elephant.
It's a good week for me when I'm only accused of "clinging to apparent words," being "unripe," "wandering like a blind ghost" --
"barking like a mad dog," and merely having had "a short experience of emptiness" that I "could not comprehend."
Even though, not a week before, I was a "real practitioner." So "namaste" to you, too, my good Dharma friend @garabdorje!
And here's a three bark-salute (one yip for each of the Three Jewels) for you from the "blind ghost of a mad dog." Wu! Wu! Wu!
A page with some fine religious reading material on it. I'd like to get some of these etched on stone. "Zen Assholes": http://bit.ly/F6Wu3
What is Buddha? . . . "Dry shit on a stick." I don't understand these words. The infant is sucking on his toes. -Master Seung Sahn
Here is a tweet for you. This tweet contains no information, and does absolutely nothing. I've wasted the time you spent reading it. Sorry.
As you begin to read this tweet, you have no concept of how it might or might not change your life.
This tweet is hardly even worth the attention of a high-level realized being such as yourself. Still, there might be something to it.
This tweet needs a good cry. It's dejected. It just wants to slink off into some god-forsaken hole, or desert cave, and practice Zen.
This tweet is fresh, young and exuberant! It wants to get to know you in the most intimate possible way. Will you let it?
This tweet is way beyond your stunted capacities. It is too rich even for devas, nagas, and most Dzogchen masters in other star-systems.
This tweet could change your life, bore you, or set off a prolonged "dark night of the soul." It really all depends.
This tweet is happening RIGHT NOW. Amazing. Can you believe it? Is that shit even possible? Don't forget this most amazing moment.
There is no possible way of imagining what you might realize about the whole universe if you plumb the hidden depths of THIS tweet.
When you're sitting in meditation, you're one less "person" out there adding to the world's suffering. This is a great accomplishment.
But you could accomplish the same end by taking a nap.
@lux1008 Truth is, we're all the whore. Except for you.
This tweet would gladly sell her body to pay for your drugs.
This tweet is angry and amazed at you for being so damned obtuse.
This tweet is highly suspicious -- the kind of character you don't really want in your neighborhood, but in a jazz club might be intriguing.
This tweet feels you are a genuine practitioner. Congratulations!
This tweet has nothing but contempt for you and your silly religious pursuits, on all possible levels. Enough said.
Someone recently claimed that the Internet is a vast self-emerging artificial intelligence using us Twitter users to test neural pathways.
Here's some unconditional love. Accept it, or go to Hell.
This Dzogchen tweet insists that you possess all the radiant virtues of Buddhahood perfectly, right now. Always have, always will.
This scary Buddhist tweet suggests you try meditating at night in a burial ground. Oh yes.
Did you know that two people you were in third grade with have already attained Highest Complete Enlightenment?
One Dzogchen master suggests that you concentrate your mind by staring at the sky until your eyes sort of feel absorbed into it.
In dreams you can grieve.
Let one not wish another's suffering.
What arises from no-root is known as miraculous.
No arising, no staying, no cessation.
It just appears in the empty sky of the mind. There it is.
Just let the yellowjackets crawl on you and drink your sweat if they want.
"You ask me a question. That is Mind in you. I answer. That is Mind in me." -Bodhidharma.
Admittedly, it's not possible to pin this Mind down. Maybe it would be better to just refer to the Hua T'ou -- the "before thoughts" state.
It's what makes the bamboo green, the heron step carefully into its own reflection, and clouds "soar to heaven."
That's why in Japanese Zen it's also called munen and mushin -- no thoughts, no mind. Why not?
In Zen this is called "wandering hungry and bare-assed in samsara."
Originally, Mind is non-locality itself. It's just a clear and empty readiness. Ready for anything. "Ready or not, here I come!"
It's poised, but it doesn't exist yet. It's like the instant before diving into a cold lake, when your toes are still gripping the dock.
This is a Great Function that has no root, because its Great Essence is beyond description: majestic, potent, clear, and sublime.
This is a tweet about how confused you were at first when your parents didn't recognize you as who you were before you died last time.
"What the hell? It's all just Mind playing tricks anyway."
Ikkyu: I know I shouldn't/because I'm a follower of Buddha/But what the fuck, this octopus sushi is really tasty! (my translation)
If you want to be in Samsara and enjoy all the nice shit we have here, please don't complain about the "suffering."
"You ask me a question. That is Mind in you. I answer. That is Mind in me." -Bodhidharma.
Your "experiences" are a direct consequence of locating Mind somewhere. "Remember that summer we went to Spain"?
"Everything is just Mind. This is the Buddha of Supreme Enlightenment." -Zen Master Huang Po.
"Unfortunately, no one can tell you what the Matrix is. You have to experience it for yourself." -Morpheus, in The Matrix.
"It" ain't "there."
"Open your mind, Neo."
This tweet is about how you think you're made up of carbon atoms or water or skin teeth hair nails eyes mucous piss shit or whatever.
"Yes, but dreams aren't real. This is." "So you say. But even if you said the same thing in a dream, I still wouldn't believe you."
"If by reality you mean what you can see, hear, and taste, all these are just electrical signals interpreted by your brain." - Morpheus.
Welcome to my "Silent Treatment" school of Zen.
"If you open your eyes while asleep, you see reality." -Ramon
The shortest Prajnaparamita Sutra reads: "Then Buddha said: Ananda, here is the letter 'A' for the relief and enlightenment of all beings."
The practice of a true yogi or yogini is cheerfully not to care whether you are distracted or not.
"The luminous clear nature of the mind is basically washing sweat off yourself and going to sit in the shade." -Master T'ang Po
Here is a Zen tweet pointing at your clear original nature which isn't troubled by anything that ever "exists" or happens.
Why not take a few minutes today to cheerfully get rid of every "friend" in your life who wants to change you?
This clear Mind nature of yours was originally quite excited to be "reborn" here, to see starry night sky again from this particular angle.
The Earth has a special character "all its own" that makes it precious. It's renowned in some ways, and much prized; infamous in others.
The wise sadhus and yogis and mahasiddhi know it's all a Show -- a wonderful show. "A fucking awesome spectacle." Wonderful and horrific.
You are just Yourself being Itself.
Unfortunately, the Earth has a special cosmic reputation for stupidity. We can't get it together. Even our religions suck.
"Extraterrestials" generally regard Earth with the same combination of distaste and boredom you feel when you think of Chad, or the Sudan.
Also, some of the worst "reborn mindstreams" get attracted to Earth, because here they can not only fuck people over, but prosper doing it.
Here on Earth you can even boast and chortle publicly about fucking people over -- and they'll reward and adore you for it!
However, this luckless and insane Earth did have a Buddha who is extremely respected on other planets in various star-systems.
Even before the Buddha, there was Lao Tzu, who is regarded as maybe even greater, but who doesn't give interviews. "It's all in my book."
"Aliens" regard the Buddha with awe. "You went THERE to help THEM? Either you're the greatest yogi ever or a masochist like Jesus!"
If you truly believe Consciousness is bounded by "this" body and brain, then this one life is everything. Don't "argue" this; go enjoy it!
"This one life is everything." Not a bad credo -- if you decide to live it out fully, rather than exhaust it in intellectual debates.
"Have you found God?" "I AM God!" (That one always gets rid of the Pentacostalists quick.)
"This one life is everything." It is one, and it is everything. You're right.
Scratching these balls, farting, stretching out my legs in the sunlight -- I call this the True Yoga.
"In the Dzogchen context, 'not being distracted' means being aware." -Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.
"It [ma yengs] does not mean that some mental policeman keeps popping up inside the mind, saying, 'Now pay attention!" (ibid) for @Ogmin
@mujaku My feel on this question you raise is that Buddha thought up all that cool shit Himself. Reform Brahmanism? Why even bother?
Don't think of a three-legged dog.
Don't think of a green plastic buddha.
Don't think of a bouquet of roses in a crystal vase.
Why not take time to try some "open focus" Zen meditation? You begin by concentrating on a fixed point until "absorbed." Then, let go.
Concentrating on a fixed point eliminates "distractions" (e.g. thoughts, internal chatter). Letting go spontaneously perfects you.
If you do this right -- it's a cool trick -- you effortlessly surpass space and time. You aren't meditating anymore. You aren't even you.
I am not asking you to "believe" that this works or bring you over to my crazy opinions. I'm just saying try -- it might work for you.
"The universal mind is no mind [in the ordinary sense of the word] and is completely detached from form. " - Venerable Master Hsi Yun
"Only study how to avoid seeking for or clinging to anything. If nothing is sought, the mind will remain in its 'unborn' state."
"If nothing is clung to, the mind will not go through the process of destruction. That which is neither born nor destroyed is the Buddha."
Master Hsi Yun's is a compressed and often considered unsurpassable statement of Chan. It comes down to "no mental grasping."
No mental grasping means no delusions, settling into the clear natural unborn state, and realizing Buddhahood "between two breaths."
Though in fact such Buddhahood goes beyond time and space. "Listen to that fucking DriedShit asshole talking Zen again! What a moron!"
Not my words, though. The words of Venerable Master Hsi Yun. The essence of Zen, insofar as it can be explained in words.
This Yeshua Ben Joseph was so quick with the siddhis as a child that the good people of Nazareth were terrified of his ass.
He even used to kill other children just to bring them back to life -- sounds like an odd twist on a Johnny Cash lyric, right?
He'd make birds out of mud and they'd fly off. His mother was "driven to distraction." His father, Joseph, became a drunk because of it.
When he was about thirteen, this kid lit out on the Silk Road for India. He wanted to see his home again. The cave he used to meditate in.
It was all there. He sat in the cave, in almost total darkness, and became very nostalgic. He even cried a little. He was happy, too.
He'd never been comfortable with the Judaic religion, which was one of those paternalistic nightmares dreamt up by polygamist shepherds.
He sat in the cave for a long time, had all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant visions, and tried to work out what to do.
This is a tweet about a great but showoffy yogin living in the Kashmir area who died and was reborn in the Roman province of Judea.
Especially strange given that I'm an atheistic Vajrayana Buddhist who happens to do Zen as a hobby!
"When you diss me, you are dissing your own primordial life-force." -Master Yoda.
Sitting in that dark cave, thinking about the bloodthirsty Judaic religion and the Roman Mithra and all that, Ben Joseph suddenly thought:
Eureka! I'll go back and try to teach them Yoga, and if they want to crucify me, fine -- maybe it'll get the sadism out of their systems!
Well, you can pretty much guess the rest. They did crucify him, he let them, but he raised himself from the dead and walked home to India.
My commentary: Yeshua Ben Joseph was a great yogi whose major error was a belief in the efficacy of dramatic shortcuts.
Changing water into wine, raising the dead, walking on water. That may play in Peoria, but it doesn't short-circuit karma.
@majidrazvi Did the Buddha ever take care of a cat?
In the old days in elsewhere, you were considered rather stupid if you couldn't remember anything at all from a past life.
Once upon a time in China, they'd make you kneel at the gate for a few days in the snow before letting you into a temple to study Chan.
When little children start talking about their past lives, parents first get confused and then fall ominously silent.
So you're a bio-mechanical entity with neural circuits giving rise to a "consciousness" that helps you "look out for N1." Inspiring!
This tweet is about the interesting difference between statements and meta-statements.
You're meditating -- Om Ah Hung -- and a sexy woman walks in naked, hands you a bar of soap, and says, "soap me." What do you do?
You're sitting in zazen when demon walks into the room with a sword dripping blood. He says: "No, no. Finish up. Then I take your head."
"Don't mind me at all," the demon says. "Concentrate. Shut out the distraction. Maybe you can still get enlightened in this life."
What do you do?
You're meditating and it's going splendidly. What depth! What radiance! The Buddha walks in and says: "Your samadhi is shit."
You're meditating. A demon walks in with a bloody sword. "Nice," he says. "Beheading you is so easy when you sit still like that."
"You ask me a question. That is Mind in you. I answer. That is Mind in me." -Bodhidharma.
No arising, no staying, no cessation.
It just appears, baseless, shining, in the empty sky of the mind. There it is.
Grieving and rebirth are inseparable. That's why we're here.
Afflictions are Buddha.
Distractions are Great Mind Realization.
If you get rid of the Ego-delusion, thoughts are just empty appearances, clouds drifting across the vast expanse of sky.
This is why Master Hsi Yun said: "Just rid yourself of analytically thinking about past, present, and future, and you will be Buddha."
"When it rained in his face he shot arrows into the sky, laughing at the thunderbolts."
"He knew everything was temporary; he didn't need a buddha to tell him that. -What are you, crazy? That's what's so great about everything!"
"Impermanence? I wouldn't have it any other way. If that shit makes you sad, you're helpless. Better to kill you."
Can you even imagine that?
May I use your skull for a begging bowl?
But what makes any of this yours and mine, inside or outside, objective or subjective? Mind. Which is to say, no-thing.
It all just appears, baseless, shining, in the empty sky of Clear Mind. "There it is."
"Dear Mom: First day at Zen camp. Sucks. Miss my friends. Ate some pizza. Went up through the 4 jhanas. Boring, boring, boring.! -Chip."
"Dear Chip: Keep it up! Beyond the Rupa jhanas there are supramundane ones that will open your third eye. Dad's brbqing 2-night! -hugs,Mom"
In #Zen we say that Shakyamuni was a slippery old con man and Manjusri made a living scraping up donkey shit.
pine trees are the original void
I could tell you that your mind is "pure and luminous," but then all I am doing is putting my images and words in place of your experience
Try listening intensely to trickling water.
It's the dream of love and the dream of life it's the wound opened in you at birth it's a cigar box full of old family snapshots
Everything gone into the sky who were you?
The dream was grief
"All is empty of inherent self-nature" because "From this comes that; lacking this that disappears."
RAWK RAWK RAWK
That's why Avalokitesvara "saw the five skandhas as empty." "Iha, Shariputra."
Empty means infinite.
Deer fawns have enormous ears.
In the Diamond Sutra, Buddha claims that in a previous life he was hacked to pieces, and yet he felt no anger.
"All things return to the one. To what does the one return?"
"Subhuti, what do you say? Has the Tathagata said that is the moon, or not?" -"Yes, according to my understanding; it is."
"And why? Because it is not the moon, therefore the Tathagata says it is the moon." "Excellent, Subhuti! You understand me completely!"
"Subhuti, has the Tathagata said anything about stopping conceptual thought?" -"No, World Honored One, never once in my hearing."
"Subhuti, that is because stopping conceptual thought is for people who think that anything like conceptual thought 'exists,' not for us."
"What do you think, Subhuti. Has the Tathagata ever said that living beings have minds?" "Yes, Realized One -- but only because they don't."
"Wonderful, Subhuti, wonderful! I, the World Honored One, salute you! You are really getting into the spirit of this!"
"What do you say, Subhuti? Does the mind actually exist?" "So far as I personally can see, O World Honored One, it absolutely does not."
"And that is why the Tathagata says, 'Purify your mind.'" "Excellent, Subhuti! You amaze me again!"
"Subhuti, what are your thoughts? Is there any path, any realization, any attainment of Buddhahood?" "No, never; not anytime or anywhere."
"Subhuti, hold up one finger in front of your face." "There, Venerable One." "Shut one eye, then the other, quickly." "Yes."
"Subhuti, does your finger appear to be jumping back and forth in space?" "Absolutely, World Honored One."
"Yet, has it really moved?" "Not a bit, O Sugata." "Subhuti, everything is like this -- karma, samsara, trees, clouds. Just like this."
I like this Khenpo Karthar.
Buddhist teachers who reply to questions in high-handed and contemptuous ways are like squirrels hoarding up bad-karma nuts.
"Don't be like this, Subhuti. Always answer to the best of your ability: rely on inspiration. But If you're stumped, just say 'Don't know.'"
Dreamt vividly of shouting and kicking in a karate dojo. Woke suddenly to daylight: calm. Mist clinging to the pine trees.
The dream didn't happen elsewhere than right here where I woke up.
RT @kyotoghosts Guatama laughing at the stupid poem:/Mahākāśyapa goes away tearfully, shoulders bowed --/This is the "Zen" of Hell-realms!
!
RT @DokuzaOokami It is bright just at midnight. It doesn't appear at dawn. -Tozan.
Everybody has to suffer -- physically, at least -- and one day, die. Knowing this clearly is the source of compassion.
Reincarnation isn't what most people think; only karma gets reborn. "You" can't hold onto anything.
This clear mind now is the same clear mind as anywhere or any other "time," including ancient India or China. Or beyond Andromeda.
"This" is just "This" and it can't be broken up except in a highly questionable and dreamlike way.
It's like the sky not being independent of its dust, clouds, even "sky-flowers": sky depends on not-sky. You can't separate is from is not.
It's everything one is not that makes one what one is. Thus, we are all dependent for very life on foreigners and enemies.
This is all just true beyond being true or not-true. Speaking about it shatters it.
Incidentally, I'm rolling out a line of women's shoes soon. I'd appreciate your support. Tell your friends.
Every bit of the most ambitious possible universal health care plan could be funded by suspending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 1 week.
"Starry sky" meditation is very challenging for almost any adult, because you must be able to maintain "open focus" --
i.e. not start examining sections or parts of the starry sky in conscious detail, but simply let your gaze merge with it "as a whole."
When your "thinking mind" kicks in (focusing mechanistically on a "part," which starts up a subject/object dynamic), Awareness blips out.
I'm not telling you anything you can't experience for yourself in the clearest and most immediate way.
But to really let go of the thinking process, and to *be* the shocking Reality of "starry sky" Awareness -- this is the shit.
When your whole "self" disappears into "Don't know" you are the Vajra body, the diamond-cutter. Everything is laid bare.
This is "starry sky" meditation and I am sharing it with you merely in the hopes one person will practice it, master it, and go beyond.
It is quite possible that those last few "tweets" were the most important and consequential for you that you have ever read.
It is quite possible that you will realize your true nature (Buddhahood, Shiva Awareness whatever), merely by doing "starry sky" meditation.
Hold up one finger before your face. Shut one eye, then open it quickly while shutting the other. Do this about twenty times.
Doesn't your finger appear to be jumping back and forth in space?
Interestingly, quantum mechanics theorizers were upset at first that in quantum experiments particles can "jump" between two points --
without even crossing any space from A to B.
In the General Theory of Relativity, it seems, "motion" and "position in space" are not absolute, but relative to an observer.
You had a dream. You woke up. ("You" here means just your consciousness.) Has anything essential changed?
Zen would say that what's unchanging is the underlying nature of "you." Which appears to be "empty." Dreams come and go, but mind remains.
"Thinking mind" just means "grasping mind." "Grasping at this, grasping at that."
Shatter the thinking mind. Go completely beyond thoughts.
Dust, clouds, and hallucinatory sky-flowers are ultimately not different from the sky. "Not two, not one either."
"Shatter the thinking mind" means stop grasping at "this" or "that" long enough to go beyond thoughts to the original basis of the mind.
Those who *grasp* at a "Luminous Mind" in the form of a thought, an object, a dream, an ideal, will stumble in the dust for many aeons.
Such a Mind doesn't exist at all.
such teachers might as well be locked in an iron box at the bottom of the sea, dreaming about the full moon.
Here the problem isn't "getting rid of thinking" or not, it's that you aren't "going beyond thoughts" far enough to realize you're dreaming.
Going beyond words to the thought. Going beyond the thought to -- what?
Motion is a manifestation of stillness, but it is also a limiting factor for stillness -- both manifesting stillness and destroying it.
Though only in an imaginary, dreamlike way.
Furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizo no oto
"It"? What's there to destroy, if only through motion can stillness be apprehended at all, as what's "not"?
How can it be that what's "not" is much more serene, great, clear, and powerful than what "is"?
Then Buddha says: You are dreaming falsehoods onto the "unborn." "Is" cannot ever be found by itself, so who can speak of "is not"?
Perceived reality is quite baseless. It is not different from what it is not.
"It is hidden, it is hidden, it is hidden," says Rumi. Yes, it is. Right out in the open.
Orange robes, smiles, chanting, drums, incense, Madhyamika, Zen, luminous Mind, talk, worry, even Tathata -- these are all "straw dogs."
When you're done with the straw dog, Lao Tzu noted, you burn it or toss it into the river. Without regrets.
"Starry sky" meditation is applicable to one's whole life. If you master this, you are the master of everything.
Unthought cannot be moved.
"Everything" isn't going anywhere.
Buddha did not teach that listening to a bird sing, or looking at a field of red poppies, is inherently "suffering." Let's not be absurd.
To tell people they must "escape" this "impermanent, suffering" world into a realm of luminous Mind -- crazed delusional ignorance.
This world IS luminous Mind.
This cosmos IS the flower Buddha held up on Vulture Peak, the very one that made his Zen student smile.
The perceived physical world isn't just found "out there" -- it has to be assembled.
This lightning-like "assembling" of a more or less consistent physical world out of bits and pieces is quite amazing.
Master Keizan arrived by leaky boat./Manjusri rides in on a golden lion./Sujata is smiling in the river, wringing out her wet hair.
"A pure breeze rises above the eyebrows."
"Scent of the pine, you know how I feel."
When this isn't, that isn't. From the cessation of this comes the cessation of that.
To experience "it" is not to grasp it at all. That's why Master Yungmen said, "I don't know what the essence of Buddhism is."
One breath, one life. Ichigo Ichi-e.
@lux1008 Or just be the Lion, Androcles' lion, and you get the thorn pulled out of your great paw by a very kind man who knows suffering.
What is it? You don't know. I don't know.
Lambs think the wolf is evil; the wolf thinks lambs are good (tasting).
"Subhuti, when I experienced boundless complete enlightenment, I saw that all suffering beings originated in my own Heart."
"Furthermore, I saw that all Universes existing at all times were also spun out of this Heart, the way a spider spins a glistening web."
"Subhuti, I saw precisely how it works; I saw precisely how grasping at such illusions as truly existing causes mental anguish -"
"and I saw how to stop the whole dreamlike process and to rest inside the Heart. All this in a flash."
"Wow, Tathagata. May I just say to you: wow."
"Don't be so dazzled by it, Subhuti. Your experiences are all spun out of exactly the same Heart (or, some might say, Mind)."
"All that you have to do is stop being impressed, stop grasping at Mind-stuff as if it had any 'reality' outside your Heart."
"Okay, Subhuti?" "For shizzle, World Honored One."
"But might I ask, O Tathagata: Is this Heart you speak of the same as this Sunyata, this Voidness that Avalokitesvara won't shut up about?"
"It is."
"This arises here, that arises there." Suffering arises simultaneously with desire (mental and emotional grasping).
"This ceasing here, that ceases there." Suffering stops simultaneously with the cessation of desire (mental and emotional grasping).
The ungraspable Heart of Reality manifests as a dream about grasping for the ungraspable.
This dream is, of course, "itself" ungraspable.
So if you make a problem for yourself in the dream, you'll suffer the consequences -- in the dream. Nowhere and notime else.
RT @kyotoghosts Dreaming doesn't exist at the subatomic level.
RT @kyotoghosts In the year 2091, a robot will attain Annutara Samyak Sambodhi.
@TianMind No, you the wonderful.
Luckily I'm not your "life-coach" or "nonduality teacher" because you'd have to demand your money back. And I'd have to give it.
Because all I am showing is you No-thing. Dried shit on a stick.
The fact that I find it wonderful, supremely wonderful, justifiably leaves you wondering.
I think the best thing for you to do would be to just dismiss me and go on your way. Nothing to see here.
Transitory collection of tweets.
Perception is actually bigger than what most people regard as mind. Can't you realize at least that?
Perceiving is behind it all. What's in front?
I can't say I'm not bothered by desire. For example, I'd really like to spend the rest of my day watching Spaghetti Westerns.
"Listen to this poem I've just composed, Subhuti: 'Nothing to hold, nothing to grasp' --/This is the Instantaneous Light of Prajna.
All beings achieved perfect enlightenment ten billion aeons ago:/Nothing to do but play your flute and relax in the grass."
"Wonderful, O Tathagata. Hey, some of the guys are putting together a croquet game on Annapurna. Would you like to join us?"
"No, thanks, Subhuti. Enjoy it! I'm going to sit under this tree for a little while and soak in the afternoon calm."
Nobody.
RT @kyotoghosts Daytime stars' light mingled with the blue sky
RT @jellykish Everybody.
RT @kyotoghosts I'm not a poet/don't be crazy/I just like getting sweaty in the grass
RT @kyotoghosts I think I died this afternoon.
"Starry sky" practice naturally leads to absorption in Clear Light.
"Starry sky" meditation is similar to the Dzogchen "sky-gazing" but it is always done alone, never in a group.
Dried shit, as any Tibetan nomad will tell you, is a priceless and versatile fuel.
The Primordial Yogin or Yogini is just you in the clear "empty" and natural state.
But most people have strayed so far from this state that they don't even have a glimmer about what it "is," except sometimes in deep sleep.
In no way does "absorption in Clear Light" prevent you from enjoying the objects of the senses with blissful, yes blissful awareness.
It's as if the Dream lights up. It's still the Dream, but brilliant and moving, not sad and cramped.
The important point is not to invent or imagine a mental picture of the Clear Light and say "I've found it," then claim to be a yogin.
That's why the "starry sky" meditation, or some other form of perception that relies on "letting go" of the thinking mind, is so important.
Don't read Rumi; be Rumi.
As soon as you start to get away from thinking-mind and have a glimmer of Clear Light, people are likely to intensify their demands on you.
If you fall unwisely into trying to help and "save" other people rather than continuing with your solitary practice, the Way is blocked.
Everybody speaks of the great loving heart of the Bodhisattva, but what Shakyamuni did -- abandoning his wife and baby -- was quite harsh.
Some would even say that future Buddha behaved like a selfish monster, a man lacking all compassion or sense of duty.
In fact, if you pursue the path of the solitary Yogin realizing the Primordial Clear Light, this is what some people will say about you.
I am just tossing you my notes. Do with them you like. With a "blue-eyed coyote" now sitting in the house, I feel little need to continue.
There is really no "progress" on the path of Clear Light. You don't go toward it; it's already "in" you and also "is" you. Wake up, or not.
Chasing after external objects obscures It. Finally, you complain that you are lost -- "wandering bare-assed and hungry in samsara."
If you dream that you're drowning in a river, I'd say it is of the utmost importance -- to "you" at least -- that You wake up.
Thinking-mind sifts, judges, compares, and evaluates; Clear Mind wakes up.
Suppose you found, in the wilderness, an old, warped and waterstained notebook titled: "Notes on My Solitary Practice of Primordial Yoga."
Would you read it, or toss it away? This is that notebook.
"Ah, by DriedShitZen, huh? Yet another perverse charlatan flaunting knowledge he doesn't have. Shit-filled fortune cookies. I'll pass."
The cherry tree teaches with its blossoms. Mountains instruct with their shoulders. Clouds propagate the Dharma with lightning and rain.
As Master Suzuki said, it's all "letters from Emptiness."
RT @kyotoghosts The "postmodern world" requires that we all exist at the precise same level of dull-wittedness, shallowness, and stupidity.
The Master is a necessary evil on the "path"; when the path dissolves into "stars' light mingled with the blue sky" (@kyotoghosts) --
that's when the real Master, the inner Master, the Clear Light Master, wakes up with a jolt.
@RT lux1008 the no-thing of the thing is that What Ever >>Ah! "the no-thing of the thing" Beautiful!
"Nobody saying a thing to hear; no one listening; it's all just a starry sky, crazy Shakti shattering the rain, shattering the lightning."
RT @lux1008 the no-thing of the thing is that What Ever >>Ah! "the no-thing of the thing" Beautiful!
Thankful to @thalgyur
1008 forehead bruising prostrations to the wonderful @lux1008
lovingkindness fixation on @ArielBravy
RT @kyotoghosts rain falling in space: the Hubble telescope sprouts wildflowers
greetings to the solitary and manly @sonrivers
that sneaky @jellykish
light us up @TianMind
hear the @blueeyedcoyote
dust and skyflower it up with @mujaku: "I" don't follow him anymore, but that doesn't mean "you" shouldn't
don'twanttoleaveanyoneoutsoI'llhurryitupnow @BarkingUnicorn, @ZenStorm, @majidrazvi, @qjohn
then there's @Gus2012 who is truly a sweet person
and @ZenDirtZenDust who gets a little sarcastic sometimes
and the radiant Roman beauty @aimapeintar: wish I could afford to buy her art
it was also the radiant beauty @aimapeintar who "cracked" me up one recent morning with this tweet: "good morning, eggoists"
then there's @kyotoghost who scares the living shit out of me
If you think I'm a Master I find you ridiculous. My karma is far worse than yours. I'll still be stumbling in dust when you're on a lotus.
As for the reason I don't follow @mujaku anymore: it's because I find him totally ridiculous, and he doesn't.
talk @Chonnymo out of going to Kabul: Hootie needs you, dude
send @fauxshizzle some love: what a sharp mind, what intensity, what a heart, but she suffers a lot sometimes
That @sonrivers is a man of steel endowed with the right stuff. You cannot break a good Texan down. I am proud to know that cowboy.
I called @sonrivers "the pint-sized Rumi," but I should have said "the hayseed Hafiz." For that I am sorry. Okay, scowly @qjohn?
Keep in mind that my perspective is as narrow as a rat's ass.
When negative emotions arise, look intensely at them. Ask: who's looking? Get engrossed in that question and it's a beautiful, loving game.
As long as there is a you, the Three Poisons have you by the balls. When there's no you, that's "shattering the empty sky, knowing mind."
Such is my personal and rather wearying pseudo-stance against my social conditioning, as @sonrivers so sagely pointed out.
Those who demand apologies and repentance are quite angry. They just don't see the anger itself. They see a "social rule" and cling to it.
Don't ever demand an apology. Not from anyone. Don't ever insist on confession and repentance. Not even from yourself.
Anyone who offends you, arouses a searing flash of blind rage, is your great benefactor. Will you demand an apology for this precious gift?
Produce for me, right here right now, the "you" that "I" so grievously offended, and I will both apologize and take your place in Hell.
It's like dream-jackals stealing the kills of dream-lions.
It's like walking uphill on a steep cobblestoned street in Montmartre wearing a brand new wool scarf.
Most people when they're happy grasp at being happy, or when sad cling to being sad. It becomes "who I am." Hey. It's not.
Never is. Never was. Never will be.
Initial 5 Stages of the Clear Light Yoga: Commitment, Purification, Focus, Cutting Through, and Absorption. Why not try?
A Clear Light yogin uses social rules and graces merely as "cover." He's like an insect that can resemble a twig.
I intend to devote the rest of my tweets to outrageous and deeply offensive personal attacks, on every last one of you.
I'd like to start with that sneaky @jellykish.
No it isn't, @nickmattos2; I know Tantric when I see it, and you are.
You, @kyotoghosts, are far too kind to me. You remind me of my sainted grandmother.
dried tiger-scrotum for you, @TerrorTV, served on a sparkling white lotus blossom. That's what I calls some good eatin'.
The only Buddha I ever knew died a few years ago. And it was my fault.
I received Mind to Mind transmission -- totally unasked for -- courtesy of a homeless Mahasiddha who wore a rope for a belt.
This Clear Sky charlatan had to gaze into my eyes only once, for an instant, to make his point.
He didn't even stick around long enough for me to shower him with flowers, wash his dirty, sunburnt feet, or give him my clean shirt.
I was working on a ridiculous koan at the time. My mind was totally intent on it. Who knew the answer would be a man? Ecce homo.
When it hits you, it hits you out of the blue, and you can't stop it. The Lifegiving Sword cuts you in two before you can murmur Om.
"When the wind stops blowing in the big pine tree, where does the sound go?" That was the koan.
There is an obvious intellectual answer. But an intellectual answer isn't an answer from your whole being.
This was the very koan that drove Friedrich Nietzsche crazy in Turin around the Christmas-New Year season of 1888-89.
The koan had personal meaning for me because I saw that the "sound" was me, and the wind and the pine tree were my "causes."
Causes and conditions like my parents ever meeting, there being food for me to eat and air to breathe, and so on.
Like a spoiled brat, I was trying to resolve the whole question of life and death. What lives? What dies? Where does the sound go?
That's the koan. "When wind stops blowing in the big pine tree, where does the sound go?"
That last string of "notes" was directed at the few people who are interested in that wild kind of stuff. And now, back to your local news.
In late-breaking news, a Bengal tiger ate a child at the local zoo. Ouch! That's got to hurt. And now to the weather. Beverly?
Dan, I think the tiger is going to be very happy with tomorrow's weather. It's going to balmy, just like India. Same through the weekend.
In the extended forecast, a big asteroid is going to smack into the earth, but not before the next solar flare fries us like chitlins. Dan?
Well, Beverly, it looks like the little tyke that got eaten today won't miss anything special! Just kidding. Stay tuned for "Nash Bridges."
May I clear up a little problem for you? It has to do with Dependent Arising, the Buddhist teaching.
Hold a finger up in front of your face. Shut one eye, then open it while shutting the other. Do this quickly about twenty times.
The logic of Dependent Arising is that the cause of your finger "moving" is opening and shutting your eyes.
But this is the "relative" teaching. The absolute teaching is that your finger didn't move, not at all. Apply that principle to everything.
A Chinese fortune teller once told me I was going to fuck up bigtime. "You fuck up bigtime, Dryshitzen!"
All beings are intrinsically enlightened just as all stars are in the sky.
Pour ice-water on your head every morning. Shout.
Sit in a cemetery at night and do Zen.
Eat the banana, toss the peel. Attain the boundless clear light mind, throw away words.
Try getting some energy in your body before you do Zen. Otherwise you're just another blank-minded corpse on a cushion.
Zafu zombies.
Fear energy, desire energy, anything. Feel it. Direct it. Intensify it. Make it a whirling torrent.
Thought is energy. But it is very weak energy. It's a wavering shadow of ki. People who get too engrossed in thoughts become sad.
Thoughts are twilight. Then the starry sky appears, naked, shining in all directions. Why were you born if not to behold This?
Shakti wants to leap to your forehead and light up your sky with suns.
Shiva is Shakti's adoring slave. Do anything for that seductress, even forget his clear true nature.
Today is the only day. Every other day is but a distant dream. Resolve the great matter today. Do you proud. Make Shakti smile. Okay?
Today is the day to shatter all doubts. To go beyond thoughts. To attain unexcelled direct mind realization of your original state.
It's easy. It could not possibly be easier. It's so simple it's laughable. Just try to find anything at all that could be called "mind."
You can sit, stand, walk, lie down, do qi gong, fuck -- whatever helps you in this all-out hunt for the real essence of your awareness.
But the Mind-hunt has to be intense, total, with nothing held back, not fearing that you are "ridiculous" nor losing yourself in thoughts.
Your attitude has to single-minded, like a samurai hunting through a chaotic battlefield for the enemy general.
Or like a cat in the middle of the night, crouched low, waiting for a mouse to venture out of its hole.
Don't think you're enlightened when you have a concept in mind. Pursue it to the end. It isn't touchy-feely and fuzzy. It IS shattering.
The very thought of "nonduality" can be a supremely frustrating and difficult obstacle to real direct mind realization.
As long as you're thinking "but is this nondual? would my teacher approve?" you can't possibly break through. No way.
Be "dualistic" if you feel it will help in your Mind-hunt. Try it. Go all the way through. At least you can shatter duality.
Nonduality has nothing in it to shatter, so you're likely to just slip into a comfortable blankness, go to satsangs, smile a lot.
The original nature may be intrinsically enlightened, but in your case it's covered up by a ton of shit.
Forget Advaita, Gurdjieff, Zen, breathing-rituals, meditation, classes, gongs, incense, Master Po, Eckhart Tolle.
Your deeply compassionate task is to save all beings from suffering. Completely. Are you living up to that?
If you can't feel drunk "Here and Now" with the brilliant glory of all This, ablaze with gratitude, you've still got to smash through.
Everybody talks to me about being "depressed" and I cannot contain my amazement anymore. It no longer seems natural. "What? In all This?"
People insist on getting acclaim for the infinite specialness of their suffering, and became enraged when you will not give it to them.
My Tibetan teacher (not my "root-guru") kindly began instructing me with the words: "You must realize you are not a very special person."
I must say, this approach dazzled me a little. I think I even choked up with joy.
All my life I'd been told by droning fools that I was as special as a snowflake or a unique crystal dog or something.
Here, now, was perhaps the kindest person I'd ever met telling me I was a pretty mediocre piece of work. At last, the truth.
What I'm getting at here is that your suffering is pretty dull and ordinary, but your Enlightenment will be one-of-a-kind.
I wish I could be there to see it!

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