> On 23 Feb, 23:01, "Tom" comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>

>> In the previous chapter, Trungpa talks about dukkha (suffering) as the
>> source of our dissatisfaction with ourselves and the motivation for a
>> continual struggle for self-improvement.

>

>> "We go around and around, trying to improve ourselves through struggle,
>> until we realize that the ambition to improve ourselves is itself the
>> problem. Insights come only when there are gaps in our struggle, only when
>> we stop trying to rid ourselves of thought, when we cease siding with pious,
>> good thoughts against bad, impure thoughts, only when we allow ourselves
>> simply to see the nature of thought."

>

>> In the next chapter, "The Bodhisattva Way", we apply that process to our
>> emotions as well as our thoughts. Thoughts and emotions work together to
>> construct "the fantasy realm in which we live", the hallucination that is
>> called the Six Realms.

>

>> "In order to work with these realms we must begin t view situations in a
>> more panoramic way, whihc is vipashyana meditation. We must become aware
>> not only of the precise details of an activity, but also of the situation as
>> a whole."

>

>> I think that one of the greatest purposes for journalling one's magical
>> activities is the opportunity it presents us for looking back at ourselves
>> and seeing the patterns of our fantasies after we have moved beyond them.
>> When we journal, we are sending messages to our future self, so that the
>> self reading the record can understand how it felt while one is immersed in
>> it, as well as seeing more of the situation as a whole due to the distance
>> in time.

>

>> In the moment, our absorption with our fantasies make trivial things seem
>> important and important things seem trivial. As more and more time passes,
>> our view of the relative importance of this or that changes and we can
>> recognize, at least to some degree, the hallucinatory aspects of our
>> experience.

>

>> This "panoramic view" relates to Trungpa's earlier idea of "openness". The
>> method by which we attend to the panorama rather than the minutia of an
>> experience is called "mahavipashyana" meditation. Trungpa says that this
>> experience is the first "bhumi", the first step onto the Bodhisattva Path.

>

>> "In mahavipashyana meditation there is a vast amount of space between us and
>> objects. We are aware of the space between our situation and ourselves any
>> anything can happen in that space. Nothing is happening here or there in
>> terms of relationship or battle. In other words, we are not imposing our
>> conceptualized ideas, names, and categories on experience, but we feel the
>> openness of space in every situation. In this way awareness becomes very
>> precise and all-encompassing."

>

>> "Previously we discussed allowing space in order to communicate, but that
>> kind of practice is very deliberate and self-conscious. When we practice
>> mahavipashyana meditation, we do not simply watch ourselves communicate,
>> deliberately allowing a gap, deliberately waiting; but we communicate and
>> then just space out, so to speak. Let be and not care any more; don't
>> possess the letting be as belonging to you, as your creation. Open, let be,
>> and *disown*. Then the spontaneity of the awakened state springs out."

>

>> An intellectual study of this subject reflects the potential for openning.
>> You are interested but not yet ready to step on the path. You look at it,
>> consider it, try to conceptualize it, but you don't actually practice it.
>> When you begin the practice, you are very self-conscious about it. You
>> watch yourself, but you pay far too much attention to watching yourself.
>> You are not open yet, but you are just about ready to open. Those who are
>> completely ready to open are those who recognize that not only is it
>> possible to open, but that people have done it. It's real. It's not just
>> an experiment any more.

>

>> I think that Trungpa is suggesting here that the initiatory experience of
>> his lineage, the abhisheyka of openning to the guru, is the moment when you
>> realize that someone else, your guru, is awake and that you also can awaken.
>> The bodhisattva is not necessarily fully awake. The process evolves
>> throught ten bhumi, stages of development. The bodhisattva is "a brave
>> warrior who trusts his potential to complete the journey, who trusts in his
>> Buddha-nature".

>

>> The features of a bodhisattva are the six "paramitas", the transcendental
>> qualities of those who arrive (-ita) on the "other shore" (param-). These
>> qualities are generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and
>> knowledge.

>

>> Trungpa describes each quality at some length. Generosity, for example is
>> distinguished from alms-giving charity or rescuing, which assumes that the
>> giver is in some way superior to the givee, looking down on them, saving
>> them. "Generosity is a willingness to give, to open without philosophical
>> or pious or religious motives, just simply doing what is required at any
>> moment in any situation, not being afraid to receive anything... If we
>> attempt to judge or evaluate our experience, if we try to decide to what
>> extent we should open, to what extent we should be closed, then openness
>> will have no meaning at all and the idea of paramita, of trancendental
>> generosity, will be in vain. Our action will not transcend anything, will
>> cease to be the act of a bodhisattva."

>

>> The discipline of the bodhisattva is not a rigid adherence to rules or
>> morality. It's that the bodhisattva does not allow the illusions of ego, all
>> those preconceptions and expectations of the Six Realms, to distract him.
>> Because he is open, his actions are in accordance with what is, not what
>> should be.

>

>> "Even if life seems to be chaotic, he just falls in, participates in the
>> chaos and somehow things sort themselves out. The bodhisattva is able to
>> cross the river so to speak, without falling into its turbulence."

>

>> Patience is merely a matter of not having expectations. Without
>> expectations, we cannnot be impatient.

>

>> "The bodhisattva can accommodate himself to any situation because he never
>> desires or is fascinated by anything. The force behind transcendental
>> patience is not driven by premature impulse nor by anything of that nature.
>> It is very slow and sure and continuous, like the walk of an elephant."

>

>> The quality of transcendental energy is joyfulness. It is not the sort of
>> energy we use to do what we must, but the energy to do what we choose. No
>> situation is uninteresting. He sees it in all its details, but also sees it
>> panoramically. It is all very interesting and not the least bit tiring.
>> The Tibetan term for this joyous, fully-attentive energy is "virya".

>

>> The fifth transcendental quality is meditation. Here Trungpa specifies that
>> what he's talking about is dhyana. Yet, it's not the sort of dhyana that is
>> a particular practice, not something that you sit down and do deliberately.
>> It does not have the focus on the gods, which one finds in Hindu dhyana.
>> There is no central authority to it. It is a natural and ongoing sort of
>> dhyana which is not self-conscious, but a seamless unity of meditation and
>> action, dealing entirely with the actual situation.

>

>> The sixth and last of the paramitas is knowledge. This is not book
>> learning, but "prajna", a double-edged sword of cognitive acuity that cuts
>> through confusion and allows us to discover enlightenment. The term has two
>> syllables; "pra" meaning super or transcendent and "jna" meaning knowing.
>> Super-knowledge.

>

>> "Prajna is the intelligence, the basic pattern into which all these other
>> virtues lead and dissolve. It is that which cuts through all conceptualized
>> versions of bodhisattva action -- generosity, discipline, and all the rest.
>> The bodhisattva might perform his actions methodically and properly, but
>> without knowledge, without the sword that cuts through doubt and hesitation,
>> his actions are not really transcendental at all. Thus prajna is
>> intelligence, the all-seeing eye, the opposite of the ego's watching itself
>> doing everything."

>

>> "Developing prajna is like learning to walk. You might have to begin by
>> developing awareness of just one thing and then develop awareness of two
>> things, then three, four, five, six and so on. But finally, if you are to
>> walk properly, you must learn to expand your awareness to include the entire
>> situation you are in so that there is one awareness of everything in the
>> same situation."

>
> You're at your best in these talks Tom. That was perfect.

>Why you
> have to spoil it by taking on a role you're not suited for...ie. -
> battling in the empty realm? :))