Go get-um, cowperson!
From a reply to someone:
...A lot of what you wrote resonated with me. Often I wonder why I bother collecting scholarly books on mahamudra or other meditation techniques, although 'sifting the sand' occasionally I come upon a jewel -- such as a book I'm currently reading on a Sufi-based heartbeat-listening meditation that discusses the differences between the Hindu/Buddhist 'upward'-tending meditation paths (away from the body) and the Sufi 'downward'-tending into the heart. Inasmuch as a lot of what I'm experiencing has been in the heart area, I've found the book quite helpful.
As for how experiences dim with time and so forth, I think if we cling to past events, even grand and glorious openings into higher states, they just slow us down and out of the NOW. Yes? The same can even be true of Buddhism itself, where the study of ancient slats takes the place of direct experience. After all, didn't the Buddha himself say somewhere that his teaching was only good for 500 hundred years?
Speaking of ancient slats and gems:
"Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen" by Karma Chagmé, commentary by Gyatrul Rimpoche, translated by B. Alan Wallace
Another quote I ran across (excuse if I'm repeating myself) from "Buddhist Women On The Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier: by Marianne Dresser, North Atlantic Books.
Go get-um, cowperson!
...A lot of what you wrote resonated with me. Often I wonder why I bother collecting scholarly books on mahamudra or other meditation techniques, although 'sifting the sand' occasionally I come upon a jewel -- such as a book I'm currently reading on a Sufi-based heartbeat-listening meditation that discusses the differences between the Hindu/Buddhist 'upward'-tending meditation paths (away from the body) and the Sufi 'downward'-tending into the heart. Inasmuch as a lot of what I'm experiencing has been in the heart area, I've found the book quite helpful.
As for how experiences dim with time and so forth, I think if we cling to past events, even grand and glorious openings into higher states, they just slow us down and out of the NOW. Yes? The same can even be true of Buddhism itself, where the study of ancient slats takes the place of direct experience. After all, didn't the Buddha himself say somewhere that his teaching was only good for 500 hundred years?
Speaking of ancient slats and gems:
"As a result of meditation, eventually realization arises. . . and as you sustain and cultivate such realization,you finally achieve the view of the fruition. At that point you are completely beyond any doubts or questions; your ascertainment is utterly complete. You are so absolutely confident in your realization that even if all the buddhas and bodhisattvas were to tell you that you are wrong, you would be totally unmoved."
"Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen" by Karma Chagmé, commentary by Gyatrul Rimpoche, translated by B. Alan Wallace
Another quote I ran across (excuse if I'm repeating myself) from "Buddhist Women On The Edge: Contemporary Perspectives from the Western Frontier: by Marianne Dresser, North Atlantic Books.
"There is a saying that 'the disciple must surpass the master." This recognizes that each person will express enlightenment in a unique way. There is an understanding that enlightenment must be embodied anew in each generation, adapted to changing contexts and expressed in new aesthetic and intellectual forms in response to the infinite needs of sentient beings." pps 11-12
Go get-um, cowperson!