a gift from my big brother

"As a bee seeks nectar

from all kinds of flowers,

seek teachings everywhere.

Like a deer that finds a quiet place to graze,

seek seclusion to digest all you have gathered.

Like a Lion, live completely free of all fear.

And finally, like a madman, beyond limits,

go wherever you please."

~A Tantra of Dzogchen

Comments

ProfoundAlchemy said…

It is said in a Tantra of Dzogchen that it is practiced in 13 solar systems or world systems , so it cannot even be said to come from this world much less any of its religions.

Wisdom from an Old Lady ~

"For ninety-nine years,
I have worked for the benefit of beings.
now this work is almost complete.
I will not take birth again
in this human realm in a physical form,
nor will I leave behind any remains or relics.
But my emanations in the world will be innumerable;
and many will recognize them.
They will be perceived in different ways,
depending on karma, pure or impure.
In the same way, mind itself has no support, has no object:
let it rest in its natural expanse without any fabrication.
When the bonds (of negative thoughts) are released,
you will be free, there is no doubt.
As when gazing into space, all other visual objects disappear,
so it is for mind itself.
When mind is looking at mind,
all discursive thoughts cease and
enlightenment is attained.
As in the sky all clouds disappear into sky itself:
wherever they go, they go nowhere,
wherever they are, they are nowhere.
This is the same for thoughts in the mind:
when the mind looks at mind,
the waves of conceptual thought disappear.
This body of ours is impermanent,
like a feather on a high mountain pass.
This mind of ours is empty and
clear like the depth of space.
Relax in that natural state, free of fabrication.
When mind is without any support, that is mahamudra.
Becoming familiar with this, blending your mind with it
– that is buddhahood.
Supreme view is beyond all duality of subject and object.
Supreme meditation is without distraction.
Supreme activity is action without effort.
Supreme fruition is without hope and fear.
This old lady has no instructions more profound
than this to give you.”
- Machig Labdron (the founder of the Mahāmudra Chöd practices)
11th century

and intro to Dzogchen

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/advanced/dzogchen/basic_points/introduction_dzogchen.html

May 26, 2011 at 9:55 AM

tree digging

Yes, I know it doesn't look like much. It was only about 5 inches in diameter and 8 feet tall. The root ball was no more than 3 feet deep. But it was a sweet red-bud tree that we planted the year Bodhi was born, his placenta was buried in it's roots and like many of the trees in our neighborhood, it died (see this post to understand why) . I can't say that I mourned its death in a tangible way, rather it produced in me a sort of unnameable melancholy. I am a woman who loves the spring. I nearly live for it. When the first signs of life emerge like a haze of hope, I drink in green with the passion of a desert crawling woman sipping at an oasis. I gorge. This year has been hard. Our neighborhood isn't leafing out in native splendor, instead the tired trees seem to begrudge the effort, only offering a tender shoot or bud occasionally. The north side of many trees appear to have given up all together, too tired after a long winter...

Coraggio

When everything looks bleak and the darkness cramps against the cold, it takes courage to simply look out from imagined isolation toward the wide horizon of beauty available in every moment. It takes courage to lean into the sea of life and trust the tide. When weary limbs no longer support us, it takes courage to trust our inner buoyancy and float. It takes courage, in the face of darkness, to remember the light and sit in all our apparent blindness and listen, silently, to the still, small whisper within. It takes courage, in that dark hour, when nothing else remains. Eyes closed. Eyes opened. A glimpse, a memory, a fleeting vision of a light so bright it blurs the borders of things seen and things perceived into a comprehensive wholeness of being. It takes courage.

the way of the sunflower

A few weeks ago, I sat holding a sunflower seed in my hand, just prior to the mouth popping, mastication phase, when it's perfect elegance floored me. I stared in awe at the tiny seed nestled in my palm and saw it, in all of it's possibility, for the first time. A flower, a million seeds, a million flowers. Each unique, each the same. And suddenly I was dumbfounded by the arrogance of human. A small seed, with no big beefy brain to catalogue, categorize, prioritize, conceptualize, quantify, qualify, justify and deify, had within it the flower it could become. Dissect the seed and there's no flower, nor any glimmer of the life that will unfold when the seed surrenders to soil, light, water. I wondered. What arrogant assuming is it, to think, with our over indulged brains and narcissistic lens of "self", that we need "do", "think", "struggle", "fight", "hustle", "cajole" and otherwise dance our way...

angelbirdflies

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