Mental illness
James Neil Fox asked me If I think All Mentally Ill People are Failed Mystics LOL
Now I don’t Know!
All the cases of MENTAL ILLNESS I have seen are misunderstanding- miscommunication- a mercurial and moon issue- crossed wires due to pain, abuse, well it all boils down to fear.
If you think you are a famous person-say you think you are Napoleon- maybe you used to be Napoleon in a past life, maybe you knew him then and admired him, maybe you identify with his life story or his character or archetype; maybe he is the father you wish you had or the man you wish you could be. All of these reasons for thinking you are someone else are valid- who is to tell you otherwise? I don’t KNOW YOU- how could I- am not in your head with you. How could I possibly diagnose you? What gives me the right to tell you what you are?
Society Rules are restrictions on the spiritual life of mystics. No harm, no foul, just too imaginative? Sorry if my ART is too GRAND for your tiny perception- but it does not make one crazy. Crazy is the label used by the unimaginative!
All the “greats” of all times heard voices, spiritual transmission of genius for invention, literature, and arts of all kinds. Any great artist knows their visions do not originate from themselves- it’s true look it up. Even the GREAT Carl Jung heard voices.
I understand the truth can be explained through Tara (maybe green).
1) lions and pride
2) wild elephants and delusions
3) forest fires and hatred
4) snakes and envy
5) robbers and fanatical views
6) prisons and avarice
7) floods and lust
8) demons and doubt
It is said that, despite his having taken a vow before Amitabha Buddha to enable everyone without exception achieve liberation from the endless round of rebirth, Chenrezi became so discouraged at the untold numbers of sentient beings that he began to cry. From his tear was formed Tara.
Compassionate One who saves from samsara! Goddess born of the tears of the Lotus-bearer, by the power of the vow of Amitabha; most loving one who strives for the benefit of others … I cannot describe your infinite virtues … .”
My truth is I don’t want samsara to be samsara anymore
Tara shows me to look at the mustache or masculine side- then to come to an understanding of how to “Use” compassion.
The 21 Praises to Tara says ‘On the face of Chenrezi, she is born from a tear as a bud from a lotus’ or “born from the opening corolla of the lotus face of the Lord of the triple world.”
The apple of his eye?
A different account is that, while Chenrezig emerged from one of the eyes of compassionate Buddha Amitabha, Tara came from the other. In her iconography, the association with the red Buddha, Amitabha, is usually indicated by a tiny image of him in her topknot.
The Sanskrit root tar- means “to cross [over]” meaning that this deity serves as a bridge. But it also can mean “tree,” “particularly,” and is also related to “star” and “pupil of the eye.” Shri Tara Devi is, to Hindus, the second of ten Mahavidyas according to a Hindu tantra that associates her to the Tibetan Buddhist Tara tradition.
In Tibetan, she is called Dolma or Do’ma, though often we see Drolma because it follows the Tibetan spelling (a little more – if we transliterate, it is actually sgrolma).
Sri Mamua Devi
the saying at the top of this page states, E kō kakōu Nā wā mamua E huna ai I kō kakōu i Nā wā i hala (Our Future Is Hidden In Our Past); it is through understanding our past that will allow us to blaze a path toward our future.
Dolma Sermo (Yellow Tara) from a series of the 21 Taras.
epending upon how the initial letter is pronounced in the Indian languages, the name of Yellow Tara is variously transliterated Basundhara {Tib.: Norgyun, Norgyuma) Vasundhara, Yasundhara; Basudarini is a variant emphasizing her femininity, ie. Norguuma in Tibetan. Vasudhara is the consort of Vaisharavana (considered the same as Kubera or Jambhala).
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE PUSHTIM KURU OM is a version of her mantra according to one source.
She is related to Hindu great goddess Lakshmi, and her Sanskrit name Vasundhara indicates she is source of the eight ‘bountiful Vasus’- therefore according to the epic Mahabharat, she is the bounty that is the waters of the river Ganges – the goddess, Ganga whose origin is the snows of the Himalayas. (The Vasus are the attendants of Indra at the time of creation of the physical universe according to the Rig Veda, possibly the oldest hymn of the pre-Hindu [or Buddhist] culture.)
refers to Yellow Tara as Vajra Tara. In the ritual composed by Mahapandit Sthavira Dharmakaramatipada the essence mantra reveals her as a true form of Tara:
Om tare tuttare ture svaha.
Manvantara
Is there a 4th kaya?
In “Transforming Poison into Nectar,” Drikung Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche teaches about empowerment with reference to four kayas.
The 4th kaya is called, Svabhavikakaya (of an essence, or essential.)
H.E. Tai Situpa, explaining Mahamudra, says,” … svabhavikakaya (Tib. ngo wo nyi kyi ku) is not a further form of manifestation, but denotes the fact that the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya are not separate from each other. They are just three different aspects of the state of a buddha, which is indivisible.”
If we were to compare Dharmakaya to vapor, Sambhogakaya to clouds, and Nirmanakaya to rain, then Svabhavikakaya is the essential nature of them all — water-ness or moisture.
A Further Example of Levels of Manifestation and Activity
Yeshe Tsogyel was once a merchant who lived during the time of a former Buddha when she went before him and swore not to be reborn except for the benefit of beings. She manifested as Ganga, the Indian goddess who sprang from Lord Shiva’s topknot to flow as the Ganges, the river watering the plain of north India, and then as Saraswati, the Indian goddess of the flow of language and music. She was once a disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni, as well. Then, according to Nyingma tradition, in 8th century Tibet, Guru Padmasambhava invoked Saraswati to manifest as a woman who would help disseminate the Mantrayana.
http://www.khandro.net/doctrine_higher_teachings.htm
In the same tradition, Yeshe Tsogyel is an emanation of Samantabhadri, consort of primordial Samantabhadra. Both are Samboghakaya Buddhas. In tangkas, he is depicted as dark blue in colour, and she as pure white. Due to their union, Yeshe Tsogyel was born into this world, first as an Indian princess.
Mahamudra
Mahamudra is Sanskrit for the Tibetan Chagchen (spelled phyag-rgya-chen -po, or -mo) associated with the Kagyu. In the prayers that accompany the ngondro or “extraordinary preliminary practices,” we pray to achieve the fruition of our practices, Mahamudra.
Mahamudra is like being immersed in the ocean, while Maha Ati is like looking over the expanse of that ocean.
Being free from mind-productions, it is the Mahamudra. Free from extremes, it is the great Madhyamika. Since it is the consummation of everything, it is called the Great [Maha] Ati. May I have the confidence that, by understanding one, all are realized.”
http://www.shenpen-osel.org/
“Karmapa says, being beyond any kind of conceptual limitation is Mahamudra. Being beyond any kind of extreme like nihilism, eternalism, etc. is the middle way, the Great Middle Way. The essence of all together, the unity of everything, is called the great completeness, Dzogchen. Then he says, by knowing any one of these, one realizes the essence of everything.”
Dzogchen and Mahamudra can both be taught as a progression of Ground, Path, and Fruition. Ground establishes the view and includes information including principles which we can use for orientation; Path involves the implementation of Ground and may refer to specific meditation techniques, and Fruition is the result of the Path — in the case of Mahamudra and Maha-Ati, it is Enlightenment.
These kinds of practices are considered to correspond to 10 steps on the road to enlightenment called, in Sanskrit, bhumis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Brooke
*the snakes I saw die- one pearl essence white, the other black- vishnua’s couch?
Adisesha (Sanskrit) (from adi first + sesha from the verbal root sish to leave remainders)
Primeval residue; the mythological thousand-headed serpent (naga) upon which Vishnu “sleeps” during the pralayas (intervals between manifestations); also represented as supporting the seven patalas (hells) with the seven regions above them and therefore the entire world (VP 2:5). More often called simply Sesha; or Ananta, infinite; or Ananta-sesha.
As sesha means “remainder,” “what is left over,” the main significance is that during the pralayas Vishnu, representing the cosmic divinity, is conceived as sleeping upon the substance of a spiritual character remaining over after the dissolution of the worlds. Thus Adisesha (primeval substance or remainder) is the cosmic spatial ocean of consciousness-substance left over from the previous cosmic manvantara which acts as the mother-substance or chaos from and in which the future worlds of manifestation will be born when pralaya ends.
**Maha-vishnu
The first of the three Purushas, incarnations of the Supreme Lord for the creation of the material universe. He lies down in the Causal Ocean on the bed of Ananta Sesha and initiates the creation by glancing at His personified material energy, Maya.
the followers of the doctrine taught in a branch of the black Yajur-Veda.
Named Charaka, as he had come to the earth as a wanderer, he then composed a new work on medicine based on the older works of Agnivesa. He is commonly accepted as an avatara of the Serpent Sesha, “an embodiment of divine Wisdom, since Sesha-Naga, the King of the ‘Serpent’ race, is synonymous with Ananta, the seven-headed Serpent, on which Vishnu sleeps during the pralayas. Ananta is the ‘endless’ and the symbol of eternity, and as such, one with Space, while Sesha is only periodical in his manifestations. Hence while Vishnu is identified with Ananta, Charaka is only the Avatar of Sesha” (TG 78).
Remainder; the karmic remainders of the preceding cosmic manvantara which become the basis for the manifestation of the present manvantara. Also the name of the seven-headed serpent of space on which Vishnu rests during pralaya, representing the seven principles of the cosmos in which the spiritual or unmanifested universe remains until the period for its new manifestation arrives, thereafter to become manifest by degrees. Sesha or Ananta, the couch of Vishnu, is an abstraction symbolizing ever-continuing cosmic life in space, which contains the remainders or germs of the future manvantara, and throws off periodically the efflorescence of these germs as the manifested universe. But during a solar pralaya, the cosmic spirit from which all flows forth, reposes sleeping upon Sesha, the serpent of eternity, in the midst of the kosmic Deep. Hence Sesha is considered Vishnu’s first vahana (vehicle) in the primordial water of space, before manvantaric activity begins.
Makara as the Vahana (vehicle) of the goddess Ganga
The problem we are facing, as students in the Kagyu lineage, it seems, is the seeming contradiction between the teachings of the second and third turnings of the Dharmachakra. Briefly put, the second turning emphasizes the emptiness of self and phenomena, the absolute nonexistence of any permanent, unchanging essence. This is the Madhayamaka view. Yet, the third turning, as exemplified by the Uttaratantra Shastra, espouses a permanent, unchanging Buddha Nature, inherent in all sentient beings, which is both the cause for their eventual enlightenment, and the fruit of said enlightenment.
It is very important to gain a proper understanding of these two different
views. What is mainly taught in the system to which the Uttaratantra Shastra belongs is the aspect of awareness (Tib. rig pa) or clear light (Tib. od gsal), whereas in the system of the Madhyamaka the aspect of emptiness in the sense of freedom from conceptual elaboration is exclusively taught.
By contrast, rigpa in Dzogchen [cf. the name of Sogyal Rinpoche’s organization] is [short for] rang.’byung rig.pa’i ye.shes, ie. the wisdom of self-originated awareness. What does self-originated awareness mean? It means that it is discovered for oneself through one’s own experience. Since it is discovered without reference to any outer object, it is called the “wisdom of independent self-awareness.”
“A mantra is like meeting the Buddha or Bodhisattva himself.” ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
Vehicle of the Great Goddess
Anyone observant of the behaviour of lions in the prides, will recognize that the maned, male lion is not the leader as far as hunting goes; the lionesses certainly out-perform him. And it is the lioness — in fact, a pair of them — that are associated with the Great Goddess of very ancient times, who was later called (by the classical Greeks) Kybele (Cybele, pron. Koubili.) In fact, In a Chariot Drawn by Lions is the title of Asphodel Long’s book on the subject of this deity, who is not merely a consort or divine aspect, but a representation of Supreme Being.
Qadesh or Qetesh, the Egyptian goddess of love and beauty was generally depicted nude and standing or riding upon a lion. She holds flowers, sometimes, a mirror, or snakes. She is one of the rare deities to be depicted full-face (rather than in profile.) Later, she is called “Beloved of Ptah,” and is the consort of Min and the mother of Reshep. However, that she originated as a form of the Syrian love/fertility goddess seems obvious, for in Semitic languages her very name means “Holy.”
Popular fiction writer, Anne Rice, wrote one of her earlier (1993) vampire novels, Queen of the Damned, inspired by this figure.
Not surprisingly, the lion is the vahana of Devi, India’s Great Goddess.
A mythological turquoise or lapis lazuli blue-maned white lion known as a snow lion has become the national symbol of Tibet. And Achi Chokey Dolma is the protector who rides this lion. In that way, she is the counterpart of India’s protector-goddess, Durga, who is also associated with the tiger.
Ras Tafari took the name Hailie Selassie on becoming first emperor of Ethiopia (1929.) To emphasize his link with the tradition that the Queen of Sheba (widely thought of as Ethiopia, although scholars think it was Yemen) was a consort of Solomon, King of Israel, he adopted the Lion as his emblem and Lion of Judah as one of his titles.
Two things that can cause confusion:
1. not distinguishing between mind & wisdom: Wisdom is self-originated in the sense that it cannot be produced from outside oneself; it arises from one’s realization of reality, ie. Emptiness. Mind is ever dependent on causes and conditions.
Lady Peldarbum said to Jetsun Milarepa
When you run after your thoughts you are like a dog chasing a stick; every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. But if, instead, you look at where your thoughts are coming from, you will see that each thought arises and dissolves within the space of that awareness, without engendering other thoughts. Be like a lion, who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. You only throw a stick at a lion once.
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47893 Rupert Brooke
http://www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/
in all their hearts
they just want to
steal us all
and take us all apart
but not in
love my way
it’s a new road
i follow where
my mind goes
swallow all your tears my love
put on your new face
you can never win or lose
if you don’t run the race
Like a Mirror, Like a Rainbow, Like the Heart of the Sun.
He provided commentary for these 19 verses (#51 – 69):
~ In a state of emptiness, whirl the spear of pure awareness; People of Tingri, the view is free of being caught by anything at all.
~ In a state without thoughts, without distraction abandon the watcher; People of Tingri, the meditation is free of any torpor or excitement.
~ In a state of natural spontaneity, train in being free of any holding back; People of Tingri, in the action there is nothing to abandon or adopt.
~ The four bodies, indivisible, are complete in your mind; People of Tingri, the fruit is beyond all hope and doubt.
~ The root of both samsara [illusion] and nirvana [reality] is to be found within your mind; People of Tingri, the mind is free of any true reality.
~ Desire and hate appear, but like birds in flight should leave no trace behind; People of Tingri, in meditation be free of clinging to experiences.
~ The unborn absolute body is like the very heart of the sun; People of Tingri, there is no waxing or waning of its radiant clarity.
~ Thoughts come and go like a thief in an empty house; People of Tingri, in fact there is nothing to be gained or lost.
~ Sensations leave no imprints, like drawings made on water; People of Tingri, don’t perpetuate deluded appearances.
~ Thoughts of attachment and aversion are like rainbows in the sky; People of Tingri, there is nothing in them to be grasped or apprehended.
~ Mind’s movements dissolve by themselves, like clouds in the sky; People of Tingri, in the mind there are no reference points.
~ Without fixation, thoughts are freed by themselves — like the wind; People of Tingri, which never clings to any object.
~ Pure awareness is without fixation, like a rainbow in the sky; People of Tingri, experiences arise quite unimpededly.
~ Realization of the absolute nature is like the dream of a mute; People of Tingri, there are no words to express it.
~ Realization is like a youthful maiden’s pleasure; People of Tingri, joy and bliss just cannot be described.
~ Clarity and emptiness united are like the moon reflected in water; People of Tingri, there is nothing to be attached to and nothing to impede.
~ Appearances and emptiness inseperable are like the empty sky; People of Tingri, the mind is without center or periphery.
~ The mind with no thought and no distraction is like the mirror of a beauty; People of Tingri, it is free of any theoretical tenets.
~ Awareness and emptiness inseperable are like reflections in a mirror; People of Tingri, nothing is born there and nothing ceases.
Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realisation that all this that we see is unreal, and that I am the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness. 2.16
The body, heaven and hell, bondage and liberation, and fear too, all this is pure imagination. What is there left to do for me whose very nature is consciousness? 2.20
I do not even see dualism in a crowd of people, so what do I gain if it is replaced by a desert? 2.21
I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am not a living being. I am consciousness. It was my thirst for living that was my bondage. 2.22
Truly it is in the infinite ocean of myself, that, stimulated by the colourful waves of the world, everything suddenly arises in the wind of consciousness. 2.23
In the infinite ocean of myself, the wind of thought subsides, and the world boat of the living-being traders is wrecked by lack of goods. 2.24
How wonderful it is that in the infinite ocean of myself the waves of living beings arise, collide, play, and disappear, in accordance with their nature. 2.25
Of all four categories of beings, from Brahma down to the last clump of grass, only the man of knowledge is capable of eliminating desire and aversion. 4.5
Rare is the man who knows himself as the nondual Lord of the world, and he who knows this is not afraid of anything. 4.6
http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0004.htm
The Occultist in the Corner 