2/4 The Practice of Meditation. Wiesen 07.2024

[@robdowling2124]

It's very important to enjoy the freedom of being nobody special - James Low

[@robertjones8887]

These videos are the life raft in the storm for me

[@robdowling2124]

Trying too hard is not helpful, not trying at all is not helpful, so we are the children of the middle way - James Low

[@robdowling2124]

Where ever you are something is always going on. You're always on the inside. So, again, this is very important in dharma, because if your always on the inside, being on the outside is a delusion and that's called samsara. Where everybody feels I'm an isolated individual, I'm not sure if I belong, I'm sure if people like me and these thoughts create a kind of igloo around you and the igloo's made of ice and the nature of ice is water, so the more we allow the flow of experience the igloo starts to melt and we find we are always in it, we are always in it. And what is it we are in the dharmadatu, the original nature of the mind, so many names for that - James Low

[@robdowling2124]

Preparing for death is a big, big issue in Tibetan buddhism. It's seen as a critical point because you're existence doesn't end at death. Now why doesn't it end; because the mind is unborn and unceasing. It is because you have the possibility of enlightenment, because you have awareness, this awareness doesn't die, it can't end, it can't vanish and because it can't vanish it just goes on taking one formulation, one positioning after another. So that's why we have rebirth because of the indestructible nature of awareness, this vajra self. So the best way to deal with the happenstance of death is to integrate the vagaries of lived experience into the open ground. Which is why we are doing the practice whatever comes, comes - James Low

[@robdowling2124]

So in this practice of the guru yoga of the white A, guru here means your original nature. The guru is the truth, or if you like in terms of the two truths, it is the absolute truth and the yoga means to join in the naturalness of the guru. In Tibetan yoga is naljor, nal natural but especially relaxed at ease, jorwa, to join, to release yourself into the ease with being at one with the guru, that's the function of guru yoga - James Low

[@chrisd6982]

The Power of HOW. I love the tree example - dharma reroutes da roots!

[@davidmickles5012]

Brilliant ❤🙏

[@robdowling2124]

Too much thinking makes the world very, very stale. That's why we have a saying english 'someone can know the price of everything and the value of nothing' because your so used to calculating how this relates to that and that and that and it takes you away from the immediacy of 'this is precious because it touches me' - James Low

[@pedro_gomes]

9:17:08 “Do you think that learning basics of DEBATE would be useful?”

[@pedro_gomes]

48:40 “Why should meditation be done with open eyes?”

[@DarkToast121]

One point is that less fatigue arises. Another is that you don't develop the feeling that everything inside me is wonderful and relaxed and outside it's chaos. Simply less separation between you and the outside world.

[@robdowling2124]

Does dharma come first or do people come first; people come first, people come first. So texts describe kind of visualisations, some people can visualise very easily, some people have lots of dreams and can remember their dreams, other people don't visualise, they don't have any visual images that arise in their mind. If you, as always with these things, if you make a vertical axis and we think this is what I should be able to do but I can't do what I should be able to do, you have an abasement, you are denigrated, you are lowered and this is not helpful in anyway. So we read the text and it could be very useful if I can access it, but as I am I don't access it and therefore it is irrelevant for me. Because if you put it on the crown of your head it will shrink you and we have already had enough people in our life shrinking us. So we take the vertical axis and we bring it down and it is a horizontal open plane and these are possibilities. So if this pathway is not going to work for you, you can do another pathway. That's why the buddha taught 84,000 dharmas...dharma is a buffet, choose what to eat and choose enough not to make you too fat - James Low