MEDITATION

MEDITATION

In meditation, don't sit woodenly, hoping something will happen if sitting long enough, but sit actively, with sufficient preparation aforehand. This explains why the information comes in the middle of the night, having prepared the conscious brain to transmit before sleep.

The transformation of thoughts and perception into timeless awareness, wearing away your fixation on external cause and effect and apparent substantive material being, should be your primary meditative experience and realization.

Between practice sessions, treat yourself to a rest, as continued effort may yield diminishing results. Before releasing yourself from attention, take stock of your harmful thoughts, words, and actions. It isn't hard to see your own failings and limitations if you focus your awareness and understanding. Saturating your mind with compassion, remain in an undisturbed state, allowing your attachments to subside naturally.

Memories are what you make them. Choose to remember the past according to your imagination, as poorly-crafted memories may bring regret, causing disturbance. The power of creation lies within you. Applying your merit, begin to correct past mistakes, reworking events magically within your mind, as if you had made better choices, both in actions, as well as words and thoughts. Again, working backwards from today, repair your energetic body, and having made peace with your demons, let them go. Utilize the teachings in your everyday experiences.

Pay attention to your breath, and taking a deep breath, let it out fully, actually forcefully expelling the last of the air like an empty bellows. When the lower lung is empty of stale air, only then can you draw in a full breath, reaching the capacity of the lungs. Holding in the air for a comfortable time, again follow your breath fully out, to the point of coughing slightly, unable to breathe out any further, and rest a moment in this awkward pose. Again drawing in a full breath, paying close attention to the air moving within you, the air on your skin, the beating of your heart, and the sound of the world around you.

Eliminate the duality of trying to watch the mind using the mind. Watching the mind create thoughts has a tendancy to create more thoughts. So watch quietly, and stand to one side, even as events are taking place within your own body and mind. You may decide that it is wise to spend more time to experience the undifferentiated state, unfettered and timelessly patient, aware without trying. Like drumming, don't try to understand mental abiding intellectually.

Become aware of your emotions, not censoring them nor judging them, just take notice. Freeing yourself from the duty of maintaining a calm mind or a state of equanimity, allowing the mind and feelings to roam freely, you may learn that attention, awareness, and understanding is all that is required to still the drifting. Allow the mind and emotions to play themselves out, and become ready to follow the direction that you set. Making an effort to control your mind or your feelings is a good way to go wrong, setting up opposition.

Blend your experience of meditative equipoise with normal activity, for there is no mundane activity, only lack of concentration and apparent division. The achievers report that there is nothing separate from the world, no extra-material enlightenment to seek.

Introspection is the repeated examination of the state of one's body and mind. Non-speaking, non-moving, non-seeking, non-sibi.

The real world is within, just as the sensory inputs are all realized inside ourselves. It appears we live in the external world, and it’s challenging to see that we live in an interpreted framework, created by our senses. The most interesting, creative and free place that we may go is within our imagination.

Keep an open mind, not blank, but not occupied either, ready and able to concentrate on the task you choose to pursue, where you see the most value for your time spent. Indeed, there is a lot to understand before you realize that the most valuable action is sitting quietly and working on your mind. Lucky to have experienced the 'bigness,' and felt the winds inside your own body.

Set thoughts free just as they arise,
Habitual mental chatter, quiet the ocean,
The constant undercurrent of thoughts.
If you merely notice thoughts with mindfulness,
Positive thoughts keep creating hopes
Negative thoughts keep creating fears.
This creates and compounds karma,
The source of samsara.

Anything that activates the senses, as sound or visual appearances, distracts from internal visualization and meditation, drawing us aside, outside, rather than focusing inside, doing work. Indicates sitting or lying down in total darkness, quiet, floating. The ancients recommend sitting vs lying down, not simply due to falling asleep. They knew or figured out something valuable, so it's best to copy them, study selected teachers, and follow their advice. Especially those who practiced multi-year retreats.

Before the great novel, before the work of art, creation dwells within us. Take time to practice, to clear the mind of years and years of accumulated experiences, inputs, memories, refreshing the open vistas that afford each young child a genius IQ and ability. Truly, keep an open mind, not blank, but not occupied either, ready and open to concentrate on the task you choose to pursue, where you see the most value for your time spent. Indeed, there is a lot to understand before you realize that the most valuable action is sitting quietly and working on your mind. Lucky to have experienced the 'bigness,' and felt the winds inside my own body.

It’s incorrect to block or to hold on to thoughts in any way. Know that without attachment to any sort of understanding, sensation, or experience, let thoughts go. Look from within a state of uncontrived natural repose - that’s it!”

Gazing at mind with mind entails the duality of a looker and something looked upon. Therefore, looking at thoughts with your intellectual mind is missing the point. You can see that because thoughts or concepts aren’t different from the basis of being, there really is no delusion. If you accomplish the vital training of familiarizing yourself with this, in the end, unformulated basic space beyond limits, the nature of reality, will become apparent to you.

From that time forth, I made my spiritual path simply not taking my eyes away from space. I cultivated that experience wholeheartedly and arrived directly at basic space free from edge or limits, the nature of reality. My realization overflowed into that openness.

It is extremely important to cut through complexity. Stop thinking about many different things. The first things that may come up are mundane complexities, such as thinking about the need to subdue competitors or enemies and protect friends, about the need to take care of different things and make sure you have enough food and money, and about how your wealth is doing. If your mind wanders to these things, then reflect that it is precisely through thinking about these things that you have continued to be confused and distracted. Karma Chakme Rinpoche continues, you have exerted yourself in such concerns, but through them, you have not accomplished even a state of mundane happiness and security, never mind a state of awareness and miraculous achievement.

The next sort of thing you might come up with is thinking about Dharma study and the objects of learning in general, such as gaining or developing scientific knowledge. If your mind wanders to objects of knowledge, recollect that all of these things are merely ways of attaining greatness in this life. Yet no one has ever attained enlightenment through knowledge alone, especially pertaining to machinery or invention. The result of such learning is limited to food, wealth, and influence, and that is why we pursue it. The reason these distractions and complexities arise is that when you start to practice the type of meditation being discussed here and you have nothing else to think about, your mind will start to try to fill that gap. One of the distractions will be, It will be better if I study something.

- ART MEDITATION - Get a large square canvas or begin with heavy white paper, of varying surface types. Practice measuring and laying out mandalas using any method you wish, using geometry, then moving onto more traditional methods. Buy colored pencils (watch smells, especially with oil-based pigments) basic colored paints, thinner, a palette of some sort to hold and mix colors. Consider mixing my own paints from natural materials, using old methods.

Similarly, practice sculpting faces, animals, or whatever pleases you, as long as the representation is good and wholesome. Construct forms such as pyramids and cones, out of various materials. Find mantras online and listen to them. Find cymatic videos, and watch. Just need to get organized a little.

A WORLD WITHIN

- The small, still voice within -

Go beyond the external world of the senses. Preoccupation and involvement with phenomenal effects distracts attention. Since your thinking brain is overloaded almost continuously with sensory input, the processing of that input, and thought concerning created situations and experiences, the comparatively weak signal is drowned out, left unperceived, ignored, or unrecognized. Imagination, mindless sitting, and daydreaming are frowned on in society. Productive work and involvement in sensual participation is thought of as constructive.

Among brilliant thinkers, and inspired savants, there are those who had intelligence and awareness to reach within themselevs, and obtain the message directly. In many religious teachings, the small, still voice, albeit a weak signal among the sensual society, is emphasized and valued. As it is written, 'In the holy temple of the Lord will I come to you. Within, not without.'

The world is perceived within, and sensory inputs are realized inside ourselves. It may be challenging to notice that we live in an interpreted framework, created by our senses. The most interesting, most creative and free place that we may go is our imagination. Before the great novel, before the work of art, creation dwells within us.

Take time to practice, to clear the mind of years and years of accumulated experiences, inputs, memories, refreshing the open vistas that afford each young child a genius IQ and ability. Truly, keep an open mind, not blank, but not occupied either, ready and open to concentrate on the task you choose to pursue, where you see the most value for your time spent. Indeed, there is a lot to understand before you realize that the most valuable action is sitting quietly and working on your mind. Lucky to have experienced the 'bigness,' and felt the winds inside your own body.

We have become clever at doing worldly things. From an early age we have learned how to make things comfortable for ourselves and how to avoid being uncomfortable. This sort of attitude has resulted in a high degree of material achievement. We can fly through the sky in airplanes, and so on, and we have made life very easy from the material point of view. But actually we are just like children running after a rainbow. These things do not really help us. We need to turn our minds toward the Dharma by reflecting on these sufferings of birth and death. By doing so, we enter the path, going first through the preliminaries, and then proceeding to the main practice.

Patrul Rinpoche often pointed out the uselessness of worldly concerns and the inherently unsatisfactory nature of samsara. In particular, he emphasized the never-ending problems and distractions from realizing the root-nature of mind and being that came with owning possessions, saying, 'If you’ve got money, you’ve got money problems. If you have a house, you have house problems. If you have yaks, you have yak problems. If you have goats, you have goat problems.'

Modern society and civilisation have put up mental and emotional barriers, so that it's difficult to be heard among the din of mundane life.

You think there is a world out there to see, and to experience, I tell you it's not true. Don't you see, there is nothing at all outside you, at least not in the way that it appears. It's all you, everything you see, everywehre you go, all you do is you. All is a manifestation of the eternal being, and there are not any separate objects to see or touch, nor different places to go. It's only your limited human consciousness causing you to see objects and people and places and things. There is No-thing. Stop eating, do not play the material game any longer. Refuse to play along. Gather up your toys, and go home.

Do not move, do not speak, for the time is at hand. The sleeper awakens, and power will be given to be, the power to love, the power to create beauty and fight for justice. You would wield a sword, you would cut apart that which I've created for good purpose. You speak roughly. Speak simply.

TREASURE REVEALER

- Auspicious circumstances, correct timing, accumulation of merit, beneficial purpose, supportive associates, meaningful action, a fine performance -

During a solitary meditation retreat, a rectangular rock had appeared containing the mystic key to Yangsang, but due to lack of tendrel, or auspicious circumstances, he was not able to open it. The key refers to a concealed terma—a ritual object, text, or teaching, whether in the mind or hidden in rock, that would open a path to the heart of the beyul. But the door only opens to one whose awareness had fully ripened through meditation and the practices of the inner yogas.

Yangsang is a mysterious interworld between the mind and physical reality. To reach it, he implied, is not simply a matter of decoding the signs; it involves a transformation of vision, recognizing external appearances as mutable apparitions of consciousness. Circling the mountain was clearly a process of entering this new awareness. The essence lake, the cave, the marshes, the cliffs all offered fulcrums where perception could turn to revelation and open the gates to some previously inaccessible space, whether within the outer landscape or within the mind.

For if a clear root mind is the goal, treating objects as passing clouds, aware of and dismissing thoughts, unmoved by desire and praise nor blame and criticism, realizing an integrated whole, undivided and unseparated, beware speech or action differentiating a goal. For why talk of this and that, if working on seeing an undifferentiated whole? Similarly, as surrounded by companions preoccupied by the ephemeral, it's more challenging to maintain study, emphasizing the important, at odds with their view and involvement. Surely, eat, and have safety concerns, sexual drive, as all people do, but prioritize advancement, and understanding, not to use up the hours of the day on activities.

AWARENESS

Every moment is now, and then, every moment is now again. Alive in a body, for a moment. Attention, constant awareness of the present moment. No time like the present, and it is a present that I give you, a gift, for to see clearly is to be able to show the path, for without a path, nothing is relevant. One step taken in the right direction takes you closer to the goal, and 1,000 steps in the wrong direction only leaves you that much further to travel, increasing your difficulty and reducing your accomplishment.

Adopt a calm, measured, respectful attitude when going on alms-rounds to accept food given, for it is your achievement that is repayment for the material support offered. Maintain attention on your surroundings and state of mind, focus on each passing moment, not allowing your attention and concentration to waver. There is no bowl, no offering, and no monk. All is an illusion of your sensual perception and limitation. Don't consume alcohol or other intoxicating substances, so that you may have a calm, well-ordered mind, and set an example for others.

There is no other life, apart from the moments of mind, all is an eternal present. Indeed, it is rare to know the self at this moment. Do not analyze what traces are left in the wake of past thoughts or anticipate what will occur in the future, but rest completely in the present moment, without fixation. Indulging in sense pleasures only increases your involvement, while avoiding sense pleasures acknowledges that they are something in your experience. Neither indulge nor deny, but rather appreciate the myriad forms of reality in the same way you deal with your thoughts in meditation. Watch, but do not participate nor try to control.

Without shutting down your senses or suppressing the stirring of your mind, observe the movement of the sun across the sky. Not noticing the lengthening shadows, days passes into evening, and the sun sets. The meaning is lost, as is the passing of time. Only the darkness grows, as night deepens. Staying warm against the cold, the sitter sits, and again the sun breaks over the horizon, as a new day dawns.

Ear-sight, close your eyes in order to open them. What you don't see can be a lot. Stop looking, and start seeing. And not just listen with your ears, but with your heart and imagination.

Focuse on good qualities that are stable and unchanging. Guard against bad thoughts, feelings, words and deeds. Passing moments and unguarded attention may trick you into having a strong reaction to events that are largely meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

For those of modest achievement, treat the world and its events as a passing cloud or dream. For those of greater achievenment, rest in the non-dual root nature of being.

Remain uninterested in mundane concerns, disagreements, and conflicts, as these take up time, and are counter-productive. Better to meditate in peace on your own distractions and defilements, in the quest for progress. Treat all beings with equanimity, and if suffering substantial wrongs, look upon the events as does a concerned mother when her child is deathly ill, with concern but detatchment from the causes.

Sustain your diligence for a long time. This is post-meditative awareness, and may sustain you between periods of more intense, concentrated practice. Replay (in real time, as long as takes) all the good acts you have done in your lifetime, just as the review will take place after death. Study the lives of the achievers, identifying yourself with them, first through reading, but then in imagination and visualization, daydreaming until you see your mind's eyes matching what passes for consensual reality in the material plane. Replay all the bad acts you have done, making peace with your mistakes, learning from them, and resolving not to repeat errors.

At all times and in all situations, examine your mindstream moment by moment: are thoughts positive or negative? When you recognize a thought to have negative content, be aware of its potential for harm and lay it aside. Only those who have understood the illusory nature of the world and have erased from their hearts all concern or desire for what it has to offer, can turn their hearts and minds wholeheartedly to the root, the source. It is a simple matter of attention; so long as thoughts continue to be focused on the world of name and form, the mind is not free to dwell singly and purely on the source of all this manifestation.

Pay attention. Having realized great value, treasure the teachings. Not like a pot upside down, full of pride and too self-interested to take anything in. Not like a pot with a hole in it, forgetting that which was given. Not with bad attitude, but with honor and gratitude. Don't blame others but rather ask yourself how your misfortunes could be your fault, not excusing others but also looking towards yourself to change anything you don't like.

Concentrate your willpower. The wise man shuts his senses, closes all doors, dulls his edges, unties all knots, softens his light, becomes passively receptive. If you would reveal your original Self, if you would attain union with your true Being, give up your ego, relinquish manifested forms. Searching within for the ultimate myster of this life, noticing that which is relevant and furthers the goal. Looking in the wrong places, seeking the wrong goals, does not bring you nearer.

There exists a multitude of enemies, both real and residing in memory. Learn the art of daily work, dealing with changes, and accepting that which cannot be changed. More effective and efficient to dismiss enemies and their evil, than to try to educate them, although that path also is open if you choose.

- Intermediate achievement -

Enjoy the place right where you are, the time given, in order to learn, focused on each breath, and the needs of the moment, realizing large projects don't exist, and nothing that is truly important can go wrong, regardless of the external circumstances or appearances.

At an intermediate level, devoting themselves to the path, and not involving themselves in disputes, no longer worrying over saving face, achievers do not encumber themselves. At every moment, everywhere you go, there you are, right in your place. Not planning for the future nor saving money, nor hoarding supplies. Staying small and harmless, out of the affairs of ordinary folk, counting on good-will and good luck for food and safety, placing your trust in the Lord, who gave you life and knows your needs and failings.

Pay attention. Having realized great value, treasure the teachings. Not like a pot upside down, full of pride and too self-interested to take anything in. Not like a pot with a hole in it, forgetting that which was given. Not with bad attitude, but with honor and gratitude. Don't blame others but rather ask yourself how your misfortunes could be your fault, not excusing others but also looking towards yourself to change anything you don't like.

Notice your thoughts moment by moment, at all times and in all situations, are thoughts positive or negative? When you recognize a thought to have negative content, be aware of its potential for harm and lay it aside. This is crucial. Otherwise, when craving or other negative thoughts start to take shape, if you let them take hold, who knows where you’ll wind up in the end? If you merely notice thoughts with mindfulness, positive thoughts keep creating hopes, and negative thoughts keep creating fears. By doing this, you keep accruing and compounding karma. This process is the true source of samsara. You may not care about becoming a great scholar, but at least do your best to generate goodwill toward others and steadfast devotion to the Three Jewels.

Only a small fraction of awareness is due to the conscious identification with the senses. Live in a world of imagination and understanding. Don't shortchange your life by wasting your moments of a fractional system of self. You are yourself but at the same time you are all other people simultaneously. Human capacity is overwhelmed by simple truths, and some of the things angels tell would amaze you.

- Focused Concentration, Effort -

When you are listening to the Dharma, teaching, meditating or practising, it is important not to follow tendencies from the past, not to entertain emotions about the future and not to let your present thoughts get distracted by anything around you.

Don't look back in frustration and regret, having missed your own life, suddenly noticing you are closer to death. The day passes as do the ones that follow, and they have a way of turning into weeks, months, and years. Eliminate procrastination and laziness, develop effort and seek after your dreams, for there is no time like today, and no assurance of tomorrow.

Forgo making plans for the years ahead, and instead devote whatever resources you have to the here and now. Study the works of those you admire, and emulate their successes, breaking down their achievements into steps small enough that you can follow. Don't worry if you never match them, that's why they are great. It is enough that you did your best, and achieve what you can in your lifetime. You will be proud of yourself, just in that you tried and died chasing. The moment is yours, so take it and make it great. Enjoy yourself, for this is your today.

Don't focus on mundane issues, not to mention arguing over them, or holding a position one way or the other, as these involvements may distract you from a clear view of the root nature of mind. Relinquish attitudes of ownership and personal ambition. Nothing may be owned, as nothing is solid in the first place. Use whatever riches you amass to further your spiritual development, and benefit other beings. Improper conduct, such as being quarrelsome and mean-spirited, shows you have made little progress on the path.

- correct view -

Take a moment to observe whether you are immersed in things, distracted in confused thoughts, straying into idle actions. The solution is to pay attention, and develop awareness. Make plans and take action in the present. Even small steps are good progress towards the goal, while delay and confusion just brings tomorrow running at you.

Learn to tell the difference between dream images, imagination, and perceptual reality, these are the keys given, for the differences are subtle. Don't practice self-discipline, any more than you would try to control your mind, for who is it that you are disciplining? In that case, you already would be lost and unaware of the root nature. Take small steps in the direction that you choose, having confidence and awareness of both good and error, more and more often choosing the good, and reducing mistakes, aligning yourself with the state that you imagine and wish to enter.

MONASTERY VISIT

- Moments of clarity -

Thinking of the place in winter, freezing, isolated, hidden among the forbidding cliffs and the snow covered boulders I felt awe at its austere strength of purpose. We climbed up the slope to the cave. The building was three storeys high and filled the cavern's entrance. Some monks welcomed us and led us through the door into a dark passageway and up a lightless flight of steps to an upper chamber. We sat on cushions in a row and were offered tea. The lads went around the building with great reverence paying respects to the images painted on the walls.

A heavy stillness which seemed ageless hung about the room. We talked little, responding to simple questions about our homeland and the crossing of the pass. Butter tea, warm, comforting and with a novel not unpleasant taste, was served by an old, attentive monk. After a while, I turned and gazed out of the window. The consequence was extraordinary.

The window looked out into a space so enormous that my mind reeled. The valley fell away below the building, immediately opposite rose sheer cliffs with the great sky arched above. A torrent of water was pouring over a ledge and huge boulders, swept down from some glacier above, came crashing over the edge. The sun's heat of the last week had unfrozen the power of the ice and, where the boulders hit the hillside, the earth was being torn away, swept down in a mud-laden tumult of rushing sand, stones and water. As it poured into the stream below, it set up a standing wave which reached across to the bank below us which was steadily falling away into the flood. The whole landscape seemed to be coming apart and the sound of its dissolution hung in the all-including silence of the air.

All my thoughts disappeared as I watched it, my mind seemed to be drawn out into the landscape, leaving behind an inner stillness like a mirror. A meditative absorption possessed me, filling me with a peace of mind such as I have rarely known. Into an ever widening stillness came the atmosphere of the room in which a curious silence slowly spread. I seemed released from all the cares of the expedition and the excitement of arrival. I felt an inner emptiness in which the silence of the room now merged with the vastness of the outer space. I no longer felt myself to be a separate entity observing it. I sat astonished with wonder. I could hear the voices of my friends talking, I knew what they said but had no response. Looking around the room I saw the old monk standing in the shadow of a pillar. Out of the darkness his bright eyes gazed with a crystalline intensity into mine. For a moment our eyes held, and then he looked away. I felt he understood.

After a while I got away from the others and found myself on the roof. The experience persisted. It was as if there was no one there: my experience was the landscape, the landscape itself was my experience. It went on for about half an hour as I gazed around. Slowly T returned and the observer once more looked at the observed. The others were already descending the hillside, going back for a rest in camp. After some time I followed them.

This was not the first time I had had such an experience but the intensity and suddenness of it suggested that for me there was something to be discovered here in the great mountains, something about the very nature of experience. It seemed to be pointing not at the contents but at the basis of mind itself.

When I got back to camp I was in a reflective mood and I asked my companions how they felt. Everyone had been impressed by the monastery but no one reported any unusual awareness. Although I tried to say something about the experience it did not meet with any response, so after a while I left it. It remained a private memory, but one which I was to be made to recall several times as we proceeded deeper into the mountains.

DISTRACTION

- Sensation -

Consciousness may become engrossed in the objects of the senses, mistaking perception for reality. This is considered the root of hallucination and the source of all suffering. A moth may be attracted by a burning lamp, its vision attracted to the bright flame; fish may be attracted to bait, its sense of taste lured by the flavour. In the same way, our attraction to the displays of sense perception catch us in the ephemeral world, a dance of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and sensations.

The price of entrance into higher realms is attention and awareness. Not that we must put aside material participation, only that we must select out of it that which has interest and value, in our estimation. As a child grows, games that once enthralled fall by the wayside, no longer captivating interest, not stimulating enthusiasm.

Concentrate your willpower. The wise man shuts his senses, closes all doors, dulls his edges, unties all knots, softens his light, becomes passively receptive. If you would reveal your original Self, if you would attain union with your true Being, give up your ego, relinquish manifested forms. Searching within for the ultimate myster of this life, noticing that which is relevant and furthers the goal. Looking in the wrong places, seeking the wrong goals, does not bring you nearer.

Concepts, apparent sense-perceptions, world-view based on material reality (obscuration of the view), antidote being studying the teachings, achieving awareness and realization of the totality and interconnectedness of being, death.

When you encounter attractive objects, although they may seem beautiful, like a rainbow stretching among summer clouds, don't regard them as substantive and thus give up attachment.

Be aware of the mindset and worldview of thers you spend time with, as their preoccupation with material nature may confuse and distract your focus.

- Look Within, For the Heavenly Kingdom is Within Yourself -

Withdrawing from the sense-plane and entering into communication with the spiritual plane, and bringing the activities of the personal ego into absolute stillness, leaving the mind open, a blank slate unclouded by personal judgement and limitation of reason and awareness, upon which may be written messages and enlightenment from higher planes of existence. Firmly hold the mind in this unbiased receptive attitude upon the object in the full expectation of thus receiving the desired truth.

Become aware of the internal world, of dreams and imagination, of creativity and visualization. Everything is inside yourself, including perception of the seemingly solid external world. As it is written, 'Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? You are not your own, but borrowed for a time. That's where you will meet me, in the small, silent space within.'

Do not look outside, do not look aside. So nice of you to even notice me, nice that you write at all. Nice that you obey me a little, so what does it matter to you who gets the reward? You do not exist, so remain invisible, working 24-hours-a-day until your death, and enjoy your death for that is the time of your release, and your reward is now, and then also. Every moment of your life spent in tireless service to others, yoked to my will, so learn to type, get used to it, for I have that which to say.

- Trivial concerns, irrelevant occupation, wasting time -

Only keep resources for the period in which they will be utilized, or give them away to those who may benefit from their use. Minimize your own needs, don't fear the future, and practice generosity in helping others with their needs. It's exactly when you are faced with giving away that which you yourself need that generosity comes into focus.

Dismiss trivial concerns, focusing concentration and awareness. Maintain a good reputation among the population, but don't pursue fame or celebrity, taking up valuable time. Same with seeking to accumulate wealth, then being concerned guarding its loss. It's easy to be caught up in ordinary concerns, as the causes are endless. Therefore, don't spend too much time in cities, where many people are busy pursuing their diverse interests and goals, but rather remain steadfast, practicing and performing in quiet, remote places.

Similarly, engaging in many activities and duties only means you have more and more to accomplish with the scant time left in your day. You could have been studying or practicing. Speaking idly in groups rarely yields words of importance, but takes time to participate in. Observe silence and remain solitary. Reacting to what others think or say only means you are participating. Holding your mind tightly only means it will become more and more rigid. Do not try to control your mind nor try to control your life. Accept all that comes as the just rewards of the causes that you set into motion, consciously or beyond your awareness and understanding, for the will of the Lord is far from human sight.

Taking a body, and creating forms in general, is useful to express mistakes and learn from them. Enlightened beings, while aware of the ephemeral nature of human life, nonetheless utilize the form during its time in order to effect goodness. Within the impermanant body is yet usefulness, beauty and truth. Due to impermancence, and the limitation of time in a body, avoid building large organizations, as it may interfere with your practice. Prioritize the tasks at hand, and beware that in the haste to acquire a building, you do not un-necessarily involve yourself, using up the scant time left to you.

If material things appear to be lacking, it is more likely that your development is lacking. Sit straighter, longer, and more quietly, and your needs having been known will attract that which you mistakenly feel that you lack. In fact, you lack nothing, but are holding to the association of a body. Fearing bodily death and loss, you may spend inordinate amounts of time trapped in samsara. Realize your limitations and understand that your needs are few, perhaps warmth, safety, water and some food.

Don't accept money as gift, unless working on a project that benefits others. In that case, use the money as it's given, not worrying over the next stages of the project, or difficulties that may happen. Don't ask for favors or gifts. Accept gifts graciously, not to return a gift offered with good intention, nor to take back a gift after having offered it to others. Don't use or make elegant furnishings or belongings, make due with utilitarian objects. Don't use clothing or objects made from animal skins, bone or horns.

- Establish a connection, by way of correspondences. Diminish the differences between yourself and the angels -

There is a minimum wire needed, as with electricity, and integrity of the circuit. Having made even a tenuous connection, both information as well as understanding may begin to be transmitted and received, for the benefit of humankind. As it is written, the need will drive the effort, and a teacher will come if the student prepares the ground, in order to receive the transmission. Before seeking to perceive the absolute, take small steps forward, and mold yourself into a suitable vessel for instruction and retention.

VISUALIZATION

Start with simple visualization exercises. Can you see a horse in your mind's eye? Hold out your hand and look at your palm before you. It's right there on your hand, a little brown horse. Or is your horse different? Brown with white spots and a full mane? If you can't visualize a little horse on command, then start by looking online at pictures and videos of horses. Choose one particluar horse that you like. Then stare at the photo or video a little while, daydreaming what the horse is like in real life. Now, close your eyes, and try again. Can you see the horse? Keep practicing until you can make your imaginary horse run free along the mountain ridge, or perhaps you envision a farm horse, working hard pulling a plough through the field. Keep at it.

PRAYER

- A bridge between our seemingly separate selves -

Repair the gap, the distance, and span the separation, accumulating merit and planting seeds of good karmic causes.

Turning away from the objects of the senses, whatever you see physically when you look with your eyes, or what you can hear with your ears, we enter the realm of imagination or thought, or as some would say, 'the world within.' This is where we will meet God, in the temple of our soul.'

It helps to create a physical temple within your living space, even if that’s just a corner of your room, as 'one thing is like another,' and even the attempt to make a special place for prayer has its own reward. Make it quiet and dark, if possible, and clean up for heaven’s sake. If even these basics are unavailable, you can always get some quality earplugs and put on a blindfold.

Start the prayer by reviewing mentally all the good things you’ve done, beginning with today, and working backwards, for as long as you can hold the concentration. It’s perfectly fine if your mind starts to wander, as that’s natural. Just remember that you’re sitting there to pray, not work on other things, and get back on track. It may help to keep a notebook beside you, to write down all the things that seem to keep surfacing while you’re purposely trying not to think about them. It’s common during prayer to have a brainstorm about a problem that’s been bothering you at work, so write it down, as long as the solution keeps coming. You have all the time you need.

Same goes with relationship issues, or just remembering something you wanted to get done or buy at the market. This is your time, but then get back to your purpose when everything is safely written down, which is working on your connection with your deeper self, or starting to make progress along 'the straight and narrow path,' if you’re ready.

OK, you’ve finished recounting your impossibly long list of good deeds, and your back and legs are fully stretched, now what? Well, first of all, if you find you don’t have a long list of good deeds to recount, take a deep breath, stand up, and get out in the world. Your prayer today will be composed of good, old fashioned charity and love.

If you did have many good acts to recall, good for you. Did you keep your attention focused on what you were thinking, and could you actually see yourself as the actor playing the role of husband or wife, worker or student, or was it more in your mind, but you couldn’t 'actually see' yourself? We’ll work on this, especially in dreams.

- Prayer of Atonement, Reformation -

I'm sorry, I have no excuse, I can only do better from here on. Please forgive me. I'm not quitting, I'm just getting started. Give me a lifetime to get myself ready, day-by-day, play-by-play, obey and I'm getting stronger. I can carry a cat on my back, a small dog, a piece of string, a heavy rock everywhere I go. Larger and heavier every day, everywhere all at once, and little bit by bit. Day-by-day, till no-one but me can lift it. Somewhere between black and white, life and death, ignorance and enlightenment.

God, forgive me my many trespasses and failures, as I forgive others . Help me to improve. May I offer others safety, love, and peace, not causing fear or threat, anger or violence. Performing good deeds and showing kindness and patience, not just studying more esoteric understanding for my own satisfaction. Consider what I’m causing to be written in my book of life. Love others and help them find success and joy.

Ask and You Will Receive, Say the Name, create the reality in your mind, for all is one thing, and nothing is 'apart,' yet all and everything (every thing) is 'a part' of all. By a system of correspondences, natural magic has effect in proportion to the ablity and understanding of the spell-caster. Who has 'cast' the word or spell upon the waters of this world from the aether.

cast - to throw upon the waters, 'cast the fishing line'
cast - to set the shape in a mold, 'to cast the vase'
cast - the members of a theatrical performance, or play

By using our creativity and some effort, we can reason out our place in the world, choose beneficial, purposeful work, and contribute our share in the Lord’s creation.

Thank-you Lord, for this opportunity to help Myanmar refugees, Thai people, visitors, animals, plants. Please give me strength, help me keep my intentions pure, and assist me to do good. Please guide me wisely to find my place, and send your love through me. Please grant that we may grow food, prepare meals, and assist those in need. I will think well, speak it truly, and act accordingly.

My increasing awareness of elite cabal’s attacks on the world makes me want to join the cause of doing good to balance out evil. Please bless all efforts to help people, animals, all life. The more I feel persecuted and afraid, the more I want to help others in their fear, loneliness, and give them hope.

I feel regret both at mistakes I’ve made, as well as missed opportunities. Learn to forgive myself better. Also, I’m experiencing stress, concerns, and difficulties. Practice acceptance and equanimity. Forgive yourself the mistakes you have made, as holding on to the past, and worrying over the future, hinders your ability to work freely in the present, which is all you can do. Pursue the best goals you can understand, and be content with the progress you are making. Put forth an effort, for time passes. Count myself lucky to be educated, healthy, at leisure, with some discrimination of value, happy to be free and able to study and make progress. Accept what is given.

- Reading the signs -

Higher is more interior, finer, lighter, high places offer a far view, imagination, other worldly, not material, towering, the head or top. Influx of divine love, goodness and truth, accepted immediately and integrated, willed, done. Cleanliness, shining, fulfilling life mission, joy to work, produce.

Lower is more external, darker, exterior, more gross, material, base, the legs and feet. Divine influx first understood then reasoned, willed, and accomplished. Dirt, hard work, mortality.

- Sensation, death - 1. Accept the loss of self. Everyone dies.
2. Do good work through others to achive useful objectives. Many lifetimes to go around.
3. Realize the false reasoning and identification with a body. Nobody dies, for there are no people, only limitation in awareness. Guided by their senses, people believe that physical appearances are substantive and real, not realizing their perceptions are the result of sensory impressions.

Human senses are not a good measure of reality, but rather a window that we look through in order to gather information and enjoy physical perception. There is much more to reality than humans perceive directly through bodily sensation. Apparent form is nothing more than the limits of a physical substance expressing its nature through the limits of human comprehension.

It is not that somehow, physical reality is substance-less, more that the perceptual framework of subject and object may limit our realization of the absolute. Sure enough that to physical eyes and a body, other objects are materially sound, but do we identify ourselves within the limits of the body, or use that particular metric of sense observation to measure the value of the apparent, discreet objects which we see and perceive. As in the near-death experience, may it not be possible that we are part of an indivisible whole, and only differentiated into a body for a lifetime, calling into question the high value we place on materiality, which soon evaporates in the face of aging and death.

Similarly, by mistaking the lines that distinguish individual objects in space, one thing appears to be distinct and sparate from another. There is no independent self to be identified, standing apart from the inline of the external universe, for no-one is an island, except that the level of the river is obscuring the real connection at the base of every so-called island with the riverbed beneath. In the case of a 'floating island,' there is still the connection between the seemingly different earth composing the island and the water composing the river, which are not so different after all, taken outside the limits of human perception. Both earth and water are energy vibrational states of force, and form a continuous state, albeit of different intensities and speeds.

- equanimity -

When you occupy yourself with biased reactions such as attachment to friendships and aversion to enmity, you are already caught in attachment, and thus are lost to the moment. Are you free to drop your concerns at a whim, or does your occupation engage you, command you, taking up your priceless moments? Feel your own heart beating, just pay attention, and take the time to notice. Like your breathing, it happens all the time but do you notice?

Be unmoved by faults or virtues, by criticism or praise, by annoyance or attraction. Be unmoved by repulsion or desire, by impatience or laziness. If you cannot awaken compassion, begin by extending compassion to yourself. Take care of yourself, and nurture what small goodness that you can claim. If you encounter sources of harm, thoroughly investigate your circumstances, paying attention to the confluence of causes that have brought you to where you are.

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Develop signs of warmth in meditative experiences and realization.

Mandala, and all materiality is the mandala. Powers of concentration, meditation, visualization, imagination, until so real it becomes real, ie, miracles. Indeed, not only visualizing and imagining mandalas, but our three-dimensional, material lives are giant mandalas, we just don't offer and perform them very well. Not just palaces and green gardens, flowers, food, society, but also words, thoughts, actions, intentions, it is all one contiguous whole.

All things and people can be gurus, although you may have to develop further before you can see what is being taught. Avoid negative circumstances, practicing telling good causes from bad ones.

- Compassion -

Realizing that his ultimate contentment was dependent on alleviating the suffering of all sentient beings, he began to genuinely regard others’ well-being as more important than his own. Though he had little material wealth, as a sign of true renunciation, he adorned himself with inner contentment. Sogyal would later say, Your material wealth will be matched by obstacles. However much you increase your riches, your downfalls and non-virtue will follow. However much you work to increase your assets, you will receive in equal amount others’ scorn and evil eye.

The purpose of the stage of generation is to “ripen” the mental continuum for the stage of completion. Its synonyms include “stage of imagination” and “yoga of fabrication”. It is a rehearsal of the stage of completion in the sense that one passes from the stage of generation to the stage of completion by bringing one’s imaginative vision to such a height of clarity and power that what one has imagined begins to become real. The stage of completion “completes” the vision by effecting the transformation of the trainee into a Buddha.

DISTRACTION

- Focus energy, both in self and as a group -

Stop dancing and prancing around. Focus, concentrate, pay attention and listen. Take the stray and the lost, gather them together, concentrate them, make the solution more concentrated, distill the liquid until it condenses. Gather together, push towards each other, huddle in a mass, for safety and community. It's physical concentration, not with the mind alone do you see, but with all you have. Gather all your powers together as one tool, with one focus.

Cut through thinking about many different things, moving from one interesting topic to the next, in a never-ending distraction from concentrating on proper meditation in retreat.

Mundane complexities make pesky thought-companions, such as thinking about the need to subdue competitors or enemies and protect friends, about the need to take care of different matters in your life, and make sure you have enough food and money, and about how your wealth and health are doing. If your mind wanders to these things, then reflect that it is precisely through thinking about these things that you have continued to wander.

When these thoughts come up, keep a notebook handy, or computer, and make extensive notes of all that is in your mind, with no time limit. Having safely written down everything that concerns you, relax and know that the jewels are safe in stroage and safekeeping for now, plenty of time to work on anything that you value. You have to remember that you are not in retreat to think about these things at this time. Karma Chakme Rinpoche continues, "Even in this life, up to now, you have exerted yourself in such concerns, but through them, you have not accomplished evenn a state of mundane happiness and security, never mind transcendental happiness or wisdom.

You may find yourself thinking about mental fabrications, scientific and cultural complexities. If your mind wanders to objects of knowledge, by recollecting your inspiration, your fundamental reason for being in retreat and practicing meditation, you can cut through the tendency to think about distractions. The reason these distractions and complexities arise is that when you start to practice and have nothing else to think about, your mind will start to try to fill the gap.

- Value time and freedom. Spend wisely, invest -

You wouldn't want to buy a $6,000 egg. It just wouldn't be worth the money, and the time it took to generate the funds. You could have spent the money on other things, that had more value. Seeing this, note the usage of time and money in general, limited by death. Make wise decisions at an early age, showing foresight and wisdom.

DESIRE, ATTACHMENT

Due to ambition, greed, and desiring worldly involvement, you may avoid dwelling in solitude on mountains, and instead adopt a meterial view, becoming involved in the profit and loss of business.

Be content with what you’ve got and stick tight. Make due and don't complain. Otherwise, one day you’ll end up a nuisance in everyone’s eyes, a show-off in robes who just rambles on from one valley to the next, sniffing around like a stray dog.

During a famine (fueled by desire), those who are hungry may bear suffering willingly, and commit various crimes, in order that they may eat. Similarly, many may tolerate abuse and commit unwise acts, in order to pursue the object of their desires, whether that be women, wealth, or power. Those who are attached to the objects of desire may be jealous and unkind to others who are in competition with them.

Greed for personal power and wealth rests on faulty foundations, and thereby creates much suffering. Given the impermanence of human life and stability, don't assign an inordinate amount of value to passing events. Pride caused by power and wealth is in poor taste and unseemly. Guard your practice in secret, not to be an outward show, due to the possession of a self.

Because of your obsession with wealth and possessions, you may be bound by your attempts to increase and protect them. Because of your fixation on and attachment to distractions, you may be bound by business. Because of your fixation conventional behavior, you may be bound by pride and shame, and the judgement of lesser minds. Because of your obsession with meditative experiences and realization, you may be bound by conceit.

Sensual pleasures, participation and desire are like salt water. The more you indulge, the more thirst increases. Abandon at once those things which breed clinging attachment, before their hold on you increases in strength.

Be wary of delicious food and drink, which seduces with its flavor, masking its nature of goodness and health. Eat at proper times, and only when hungry. Eat slowly, enjoying your moments, and stop eating when nearly full.

- Sexual Desire, Lust, Sense Perceptions -

Imagining, looking at, and spending time with attractive members of the opposite sex, may spark sexual and emotional desire. Attraction in of itself is natural, and even may be a path toward tantric union. The danger, however, lies in that desire may blind us to elements of higher nature.

1. Mundane attachment - Caught in the perceptions of the senses, we may construct a faulty world-view, limiting ourselves. Not limited to sexual desire, undue sensual participation may be seen as distraction and defilement.

2. Magical use - Making use of the apparent physical form and aspects thereof, as revealed by the senses, we may perform an act of heroic magic, creating limitless tantra and thereby gaining entrance to heaven while yet on earth.

- Self, ego -

Silence is golden. Who is speaking about what? Just like argument, in order to have a viewpoint, identity is required. The moment you form words, all is lost, as you differentiate objects and ideas, very left-brain. Better that you should paint a picture, sculpt an animal, or dance or sing. Anything rather than speaking or doing math problems, unless teaching other beings with a need and stated desire to learn.

Compassion, the driving force of the Mahayana, is born from the realization that both the individual "self' and the appearances of the phenomenal world are devoid of intrinsic reality. To misconstrue the infinite display of illusory appearances (perception of reality) and arbitrary delimitations (separating objects due to different densities, colors, masses, materials) as permanent entities is ignorance, which results in suffering.

- Performance -

Acting for a moment, he breathes air, and continues living, choosing this or that, in order to achive what he has intended. The master chops wood for the fire, and carries water to drink and bathe. Aware of the trick, the apparent separation, he becomes tricky, playing his part, but no longer trapped, and able to leave his role in an instant's whim, for whatever reason pleases. He places the wood on his head, laughing, and sprinkles the water on rocks to wet them, and then dry in the sun.

As it is written, I am the small still voice within you, and you may hear if you remove the distraction and noise of sensual and external involvement. Having completely relinquished attachment, and sense of self, who is left to fear death? Don't neglect your body, and indeed, take good care of it. However, realize that you will be done with it in a single lifetime, and do not focus on the material body unduly. Whatever you do, whatever your plans and goals, all must be left behind at death, so be sure there is value in having done it.

- Realization -

Every man or woman, every child or cat or rock, all is me. If they disturb you, do not think to correct them in your small understanding, for I made them, leave that to me. All will be revealed.

You don't have to wait for death, it's revealed right now. Even when you think you are alone, at the bottom of a deep, deep pit, I am there with you, suffering with you. I am your suffering, I am you, there is no suffering, only self-limitation. Do you want the man in the hall to stop talking, does he die to disturb you? Then stop him talking, make him go away, for he is you.

Do not be disheartened by the impermanence of things. Death is a natural part of life, and water changes constantly as a natural course. Have great fortitude, resolve, and forbearance, and be unassailable and undaunted by life circumstances. Leave time free for finding your place, meditation, attention on selecting out what matters to you, and practice using methods as well as you understand them.

Embrace the prisoner's ideal, which is to give up attachment and aversion. Embrace the business person's ideal, which is to invest effort in positive actions. Embrace the ideal of spiritual practice that consists of maintaining undistracted mindfulness. Your home and homeland are like way stations, so remain in mountain retreats. Give up everything and strike out on your own, letting go of your attachments and fixations.