Anthony's View

2011-11-22T05:34:00.000-08:00

Non-Duality: The Way of Liberation

Part 5

By Anthony Court

‘Being Awake’ is the Non-Dual State- Dependant Origination

Analytical Meditation-Practice-Contemplation-

‘Being Awake’ is the Non-Dual State

The words enlightened, awake, self-realised are often used to describe saints, mystics and sages that have come to realise the nature of mind, and reality. This of course creates a great deal of confusion. Basically, all these words point to the experience of the non-dual state. Once this non-dual state is experienced, it is irreversible, and who ever reaches this point will not fall back into the stage of un-enlightened ignorance (fall back asleep regarding the nature of reality). Let us take for example the word ‘Enlightenment’ this has become the Standard English translation for word Bodhi. Bodhi, is both a Pali, and a Sanskrit word which means to be ‘awake’. The word ‘Buddha’ means awakened one.

It is possible that because of using the word ‘enlightenment’ instead of ‘bodhi’ in early translations of Buddhist, and other texts such as Advaita Vedanta, a great misunderstanding has arisen. We tend today to think of becoming an ‘enlightened being’ as something unobtainable, and far beyond our capacity to reach, so it would be more beneficial and more appropriate to use the word ‘realised’ or ‘awake’ as to be ‘realised’ or ‘awake’ this does not seem so unobtainable.

To ‘wake up’ is within every one’s field of possibility. We can also say that after a tremendous struggle and effort, the historical Buddha reach the full enlightened state, which is unobtainable for us (but not impossible) without a similar effort. However it is possible for anyone to suddenly ‘awaken’ in Zen Tradition this is called ‘Satori’ or a ‘little enlightenment’.

So how can we attain a state of ‘awakening’ and why would we want to? It is very simple really, to remain in the state of ‘ignorance’ as to the nature of mind and reality produces endless suffering. You may consider that you are already on a ‘spiritual path’ in fact this may be a complete delusion, as this ‘idea’ is created by thought (causes and conditions) and as we do not truly know the nature of mind and reality, we may believe that our ‘spiritual’ quest has some solid reality. To find that out, first we must inquire, so it is best to start with some analytical contemplation as to the how things are, and not how we think things are, or how other beings tell us things are….we have to question, analyse and remain independent

Dependant arising and origination.

Everything is interconnected. Everything affects everything else. Everything that is, is because other things are. This is the teaching of Dependent Origination. This teaching has many names. It is called Interdependent Origination, or (Inter) dependent Arising, or Co-Arising, or variations thereof. Dependent Origination is a core teaching of all schools of Buddhism-Nothing Is Absolute.

No beings or phenomena exist independently of other beings and phenomena. All beings and phenomena are caused to exist by other beings and phenomena. Further, the beings and phenomena thus caused to exist cause other beings and phenomena to exist. Things and beings perpetually arise, and perpetually cease, because other things and beings perpetually arise and perpetually cease. All this arising, being and ceasing go on in one vast field, or core of Beingness. And there we are. So what does that mean for us? What does this mean in plain English? It means all things that arise are based on cause and conditions. It means that everything that arises as phenomena have no independent existence, and do not exist independently from causes and conditions, or exists from their own side. All phenomena are no more that appearances, which we mistakenly take for a fixed, permanent, reality, and that includes us. We used a car as an example in the last article, so let’s make it simpler in this one. First the question…has a table any independent existence, or does it truly exist? No it does not truly exist. Why? Because it depends on causes and conditions to come into being. Some one to design it (creative imagination) some one to collect the material to built, it say in this case wood, the wood itself. The natural conditions for the wood to grow, soil, earth, water etc. the machines to shape the wood, or the skill to shape it (if it is hand made).The knowledge to put the parts together, etcetera. So anything that comes into being dependant on cause and conditions is impermanent and will eventually dissolve back into the ‘original primordial ground of being’. Our ‘Table’ only exists ‘relatively’ or sometimes it is said ‘conventionally’ in other words we all agree on what a table is, and how it is labelled (called, or named) In Buddhism, there is no teaching of a First Cause. How all this arising and ceasing began, or even if it had a beginning, is not explained. The Buddha emphasized understanding the nature of things as-they-are over speculation of what might have happened in the past or what might happen in the future. It might be said that the Buddhist version of Genesis is: Stuff happens, because other stuff happens. Also, things are the way they are because they are conditioned by other things. You are conditioned by other people and phenomena. Other people and phenomena are conditioned by you.

As the Buddha explained,

When this is, that is.

This arising, that arises.

When this is not, that is not.

This ceasing, that ceases.

Nothing Is Permanent

Dependent Origination relates to the doctrine of ‘No-Self’ no "self" in the sense of a permanent, integral, autonomous being within an individual existence. What we think of as our self, our personality and ego, are temporary creations of the form, sensation, perception, mental formation and consciousness. So there you are, an assembly of phenomena generating the idea that there's a permanent "you" separate and distinct from everything else. The reason I quote Buddhist and Taoist teachings is because they have gone beyond Monotheistic Religion which has created a ‘Creator God’ as the original source in some ways this is a cop-out. As all phenomena arise from cause and conditions…one has to ask “What created the Creator”. A similar question in Science would be “What created the Big Bang”?

These phenomena (form, sensation, etc.) were caused to arise and assemble in a certain way because of other phenomena. These same phenomena are perpetually causing other phenomena to arise. Eventually, they will be caused to cease. Everything in the phenomenal world is suffering or unsatisfying (the Sanskrit word is Dukkha), impermanent, and without individual essence; egoless. Put another way, "you" are a phenomenon of the Causal Nexus in much the same way a wave is a phenomenon of ocean. A wave is not a piece of the ocean in the same way a brick is a piece of a wall. A wave is ocean. Although a wave is a distinct phenomenon it cannot be separated from ocean in the way a brick can be taken out of a wall. When conditions cause a wave, nothing is added to ocean. When the activity of wave ceases, nothing is taken away from ocean. Commenting on Dependent Origination the Dalai Lama states that the teaching of Dependent Origination precludes two possibilities. "One is the possibility that things can arise from nowhere, with no causes and conditions, and the second is that things can arise on account of a transcendent designer or creator. Both these possibilities are negated." In other words they make no sense.

His Holiness also said, "Once we appreciate that fundamental disparity between appearance and reality, we gain a certain insight into the way our emotions work, and how we react to events and objects. Underlying the strong emotional responses we have to situations, we see that there is an assumption that some kind of independently existing reality exists out there. In this way, we develop an insight into the various functions of the mind and the different levels of consciousness within us. We also grow to understand that although certain types of mental or emotional states seem so real, and although objects appear to be so vivid, in reality they are mere illusions. They do not really exist in the way we think they do."

So at this point you may say “So what?” Well! At this point I am going to upset a lot of people-all religions, spiritual paths, ideologies, philosophies etc. only exist in conventional reality….they have no ultimate reality whatsoever! If you seriously believe that your spiritual path is valid, then please consider again. ‘Spiritual Paths’

may bring so kind of temporary relief, pleasure, interest and excitement initially, but as all these ‘Paths’ arise on cause and conditions; they are simply another distraction from waking-up.

Longchenpa the Great Dzogcghen Yogi

Analytical Meditation

So let us begin by analysing the above statements, and by asking pertinent questions to try and get a clearer picture, O.K., Google states that there are approximately 2.1 billion Christians in the World. So let me ask some questions…of these 2.1 billion, who’s got it just right? Do they all believe EXACTLY the same thing? At what point (because of so-called sin) does one cease to be a Christian? What is the ‘cut off’ point for getting into heaven…being a bit naughty, being a bit naughtier, or being downright sinful? The ‘concept’ of heaven and hell, good and evil, is of course the epitome of DUALISTIC thinking. By asking these questions we begin to see that there is no such thing ultimately as Christianity (in fact it’s all a bit silly) Christianity only exists based on causes and conditions….i.e. the bible, people who wrote the bible, people who believe, in fact billions and billions of causes and conditions (minds, people, nature, environment etc) created the ‘Concept’ the ‘Idea’ of Christianity. You can apply this analysis to any belief system be belief in angels, unicorns, spirit guides or Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Communism the list is infinite. But because we believe that our particular Religion orSpiritual Path is right, and then we create chaos in the world and suffering for ourselves and others. It is not that these paths do not bring comfort, peace of mind, abilities, or results of various kinds….it is just that they do not bring ultimate freedom from the prison of conditioning, because these paths have no inherent reality. We need to have a ‘practice’ that brings clarity, spaciousness, wisdom and insight. To give an example of ‘dependant origination’, let me make a statement….”Nothing special will happen on 21st of December 2012. This whole idea of the Apocalypse, or coming into new level of consciousness has no reality whatsoever” etc it is being hyped up on causes and conditions. Here are some of the causes-The Mayan Calendar itself, the new age movement, interpretation of the Bible and other similar books, creative imagination, commercial interests, subject of books and articles, topic of interest and conversation, and television, book and magazine articles etc. Wishful thinking that some how a ‘Golden Age’ will begin and the people will somehow become ‘beings of love and light’. Walk through your city centre on a Friday or Saturday night and tell yourself that all these people will become multidimensional light beings on 21st December 2012....”Now that would be a miracle” all that is happening is an event is being forecast, but this event has no inherent reality….it depends on the above causes to appear as an objective reality, but this is saying our Table is real in the ultimate sense. Remember the recent hype about 11/11/2011.

Practice

I think it’s as well to state here that our Western Culture does not have a tradition of ‘spiritual practice’ it has a religious tradition, a scientific tradition, a system of reason, logic, and philosophy. When I was growing up in the sixties and seventies, meditation was mentioned in the same breath as hippies, beards, sandals, drugs and weirdo’s. Today there is much scientific research into meditative and brainwave states (I hope to cover Non-duality and Science in the next issue) should you wish to look into some of the best research around go to www.mindandlife.org. Many people say they ‘meditate’ daily, usually this is not for very long periods, ten or twenty minutes a day is hardly serious practice. One thing I have learnt in my 40 years of research, practice and study is, without a strong energetic practice there is very little chance of real transformation. The Taoist (Daoism) tradition has Qigong, Taiji, Bagwa, and Hsing I. The Tibetan (Buddhist) tradition has Tsa lung, Trul khor and Kum Nye various forms and practices of Tibetan Spiritual Yoga (very different to what we normally understand as yoga) such as the Six Yoga’s of Naropa-these are restricted teaching and not taught without completion of the foundation practices-( Ngöndro) and empowerment, transmission and instruction given by a qualified Tibetan Lama. Transformation into the awaked state of Non-Duality is a mental, physical and energetic change which is irreversible, but needs effort to realise.

Contemplation

In Dzogchen the highest pinnacle of Tibetan Buddhist practice, contemplation is as important as meditation. In the Tibetan Tradition there is a saying: “Meditation isn’t, getting used to is” so what is this pointing to? It means getting used to the ‘Nature of Mind’ your inherent natural state. Ultimately there is no one who meditates, there is only the natural primordial ground of being on which everything arises. This is your natural

state. There is only ‘empty cognizance’; this is your natural state, a state of potentiality

(Emptiness) and awareness (luminosity-knowingness). To ‘wake up’ is to realise this natural state, and that your ultimate nature is a knowing potentiality- free from all conditioning. All so-called spiritual paths and religions are a distraction from ‘what is’ and from which we need to free ourselves, so you can experience the awakened state of non-duality, free from a centre and having no circumference, without limits, unbounded.

Many people have a great deal of difficulty with the Buddhist idea of ‘EMPTINESS’ but the great Tibetan translator Vairocana changed the Sanskrit word for ‘emptiness’ into the Tibetan word for potential, this makes more sense. An empty glass is ready to receive new contents, the full glass of rigid ideas, (such as religious dogma) is not, so meditate to clear the mind of obscuration’s this is the calm-abiding, stabilizing meditation, or Shamata. Then Vipashyana or insight can arise, and bring about non-duality or oneness, eventually leading to the state of non-meditation.

Samsara (the dimension of suffering) has no beginning, but has an end. Nivana (liberation) has a beginning, but no end.

Tony runs a three hour workshop each month on energetic and non-dual practice.

2011-09-15T04:27:00.000-07:00

Non-Duality and the Liberation of the Mind Part Four

Death, Impermanence, Emptiness & Meditation

Rising

In many of the great meditative traditions of the Far East, death and impermanence are the first things to be considered before any spiritual training is undertaken. This important exercise is deemed to be an essential prerequisite, because without this focusing of the mind on the inevitable outcome of sentient existence, the mind will remain in a state of ignorance (unquestioning) regarding this life. What emerge from this initial inquiry are questions that must inevitably be addressed before one can ‘see clearly’ the ‘ground’ on which all appearances (apparent objects) manifest. Then the questions that must arise should be ‘What is the nature of reality?’ and ‘what is the nature of mind?’ To ignore this vital and fundamental examination of ‘what is’, is like launching a boat out to sea without a rudder.
Here in the culture of the West, death and impermanence are generally ignored and avoided. The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibet they have a very famous saying; ‘Do not be distracted’ the ‘Western’ way of life has the very opposite outlook, distract yourself enough, and you can put off considering your inevitable demise. You don’t need me the name the distractions they are all around you, television, show business, sport, job, alcohol, drugs, family, home, religion, various philosophies and ideologies, together with the disturbing emotional states of ambition, greed, desire, the need to find security (you can make your own lists). To add to that list today you can also include the distraction of the new ‘spirituality movements’ everything that arises on the ‘Ground of all being’ (the inseparability of emptiness and cognition) is a distraction. By the focusing on death, the spiritual practioner is forced to question every aspect of their lives, and must ask…’what is real?’ In other words to repeat the earlier statement, ‘What is the nature of reality?’ and ‘what is the nature of mind?’ Very few cultures have studied the human mind and condition as deeply as the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. As the Dalai Lama famously quoted “While the West was exploring outer space, and going to the moon, we Tibetans (the yogis and sages) were exploring inner space and the nature of reality”.
The majority of human beings will ‘leap over’ these two questions about the nature of reality and mind, deeming them as impossible, or too difficult to answer. However without a serious attempt to examination these vital points, whatever we do, follow, believe, practice and how we live our lives, can never be totally satisfactory, because we have never discovered the ‘Ground’ on which everything appears, we will mistake the appearances for reality, and continue to live in the delusional realm of duality, in other words ‘remain asleep’ An intellectual understanding will be of some initial help, but without the experience of ‘awakening’ we remain in the ‘samsaric’ darkness of ignorance. No religion, ideology, faith, belief, spiritual or physic abilities will be of any uses when we are dying, as they are all conditioned constructs of the conceptually creating aspect of the mind. All suffering is the ‘conditioned’ the realization of the ‘unconditioned’ is the beginning of liberation.
When the culture of Tibet is considered, it is not normally thought of as a ‘literary’ nation, but it has an extremely long and rich tradition of spiritual writings, history, poetry, logic, language, debate and commentaries by many of the greatest masters, meditators, sages and yogis of the last few thousand years. As stated earlier through meditation, study, and practice, the understanding of the dying process has been long understood. What follows, is a description of the dying process that can be found in many various manuals relation to death and dying.
There are two common meditations on death in the Tibetan tradition. The first looks at the certainty and imminence of death and what will be of benefit at the time of death, in order to motivate us to make the best use of our lives. The second is a simulation or rehearsal of the actual death process, which familiarizes us with death and takes away the fear of the unknown, thus allowing us to die skilfully. Traditionally, in Buddhist countries, one is also encouraged to go to a cemetery or burial ground to contemplate on death and become familiar with this inevitable event.
The first of these meditations is known as the nine-round death meditation, in which we contemplate the three roots, the nine reasoning’s, and the three convictions, as described below:

Blue Morning Tide

A. DEATH IS CERTAIN

1. There is no possible way to escape death. No-one ever has, not even Jesus, Buddha, etc. Of the current world population of over 5 billion people, almost none will be alive in 100 years time.

2. Life has a definite, inflexible limit and each moment brings us closer to the finality of this life. We are dying from the moment we are born.

3. Death comes in a moment and its time is unexpected. All that separates us from the next life is one breath.

Conviction: To practise the spiritual path and ripen our inner potential by cultivating positive mental qualities and abandoning disturbing mental qualities.

B. THE TIME OF DEATH IS UNCERTAIN

4. The duration of our lifespan is uncertain. The young can die before the old, the healthy before the sick, etc.

5. There are many causes and circumstances that lead to death, but few that favour the sustenance of life. Even things that sustain life can kill us, for example food, motor vehicles, property.

6. The weakness and fragility of one's physical body contribute to life's uncertainty.

The body can be easily destroyed by disease or accident, for example cancer, AIDS, vehicle accidents, other disasters. Conviction: To ripen our inner potential now, without delay.

C. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN HELP US AT THE TIME OF DEATH IS OUR MENTAL/SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Because all that goes on to the next life is our subtle mind with its karmic (positive or negative) imprints.

7. Worldly possessions such as wealth, position, money can't help

8. Relatives and friends can neither prevent death nor go with us.

9. Even our own precious body is of no help to us. We have to leave it behind like a shell, an empty husk, an overcoat. Conviction: To ripen our inner potential purely, without staining our efforts with attachment to worldly concerns.
The second meditation simulates or rehearses the actual death process. Knowledge of this process is particularly important because advanced practitioners can engage in a series of yoga’s that are modelled on death, intermediate state (Tibetan: bar-do) and rebirth until they gain such control over them that they are no longer subject to ordinary uncontrolled death and rebirth. It is therefore essential for the practitioner to know the stages of death and the mind-body relationship behind them. The description of this is based on a presentation of the winds, or currents of energy that serve as foundations for various levels of consciousness and the channels in which they flow. Upon the serial collapse of the ability of these winds to serve as bases of consciousness, the internal and external events of death unfold. Through the power of meditation, the yogi makes the coarse winds dissolve into the very subtle life-bearing wind at the heart. This yoga mirrors the process that occurs at death and involves concentration on the psychic channels and the channel-centres (chakras) inside the body.
At the channel-centres there are white and red drops, upon which physical and mental health are based. The white is predominant at the top of the head and the red at the solar plexus. These drops have their origin in a white and red drop at the heart centre, and this drop is the size of a small pea and has a white top and red bottom. It is called the indestructible drop, since it lasts until death. The very subtle life-bearing wind dwells inside it and, at death, all winds ultimately dissolve into it, whereupon the clear light vision of death dawns.
The physiology of death revolves around changes in the winds, channels and drops. Psychologically, due to the fact that consciousnesses of varying grossness and subtlety depend on the winds, like a rider on a horse, their dissolving or loss of ability to serve as bases of consciousness induces radical changes in conscious experience.
Death begins with the sequential dissolution of the winds associated with the four elements (earth, water, fire and air). "Earth" refers to the hard factors of the body such as bone, and the dissolution of the wind associated with it means that that wind is no longer capable of serving as a mount or basis for consciousness. As a consequence of its dissolution, the capacity of the wind associated with "water" (the fluid factors of the body) to act as a mount for consciousness becomes more manifest. The ceasing of this capacity in one element and its greater manifestation in another is called "dissolution" - it is not, therefore, a case of gross earth dissolving into water.
Simultaneously with the dissolution of the earth element, four other factors dissolve (see Chart 1), accompanied by external signs (generally visible to others) and an internal sign (the inner experience of the dying person). The same is repeated in serial order for the other three elements (see Charts 2-4), with corresponding external and internal signs.

CHART 1: FIRST CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION

Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign

earth element body becomes very thin, limbs loose; sense that body is sinking under the earth

aggregate of forms limbs become smaller, body becomes weak and powerless

basic mirror-like wisdom (our ordinary consciousness that clearly perceives many objects simultaneously) sight becomes unclear and dark appearance of mirages

eye sense one cannot open or close eyes

colours and shapes luster of body diminishes; one's strength is consumed

. CHART 2: SECOND CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION

Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign

water element saliva, sweat, urine, blood and regenerative fluid dry greatly

aggregate of feelings (pleasure, pain and neutrality) body consciousness can no longer experience the three types of feelings that accompany sense consciousnesses

basic wisdom of equality (our ordinary consciousness mindful of pleasure, pain and neutral feelings as feelings) one is no longer mindful of the feelings accompanying the mental consciousness appearance of smoke

ear sense one no longer hears external or internal sounds

sounds 'ur' sound in ears no longer arises .

CHART 3: THIRD CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION

Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign

fire element one cannot digest food or drink

aggregate of discrimination one is no longer mindful of affairs of close persons

basic wisdom of analysis (our ordinary consciousness mindful of the individual names, purposes and so forth of close persons) one can no longer remember the names of close persons appearance of fireflies or sparks within smoke

nose sense inhalation weak, exhalation strong and lengthy

odors one cannot smell .

CHART 4: FOURTH CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION

Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign

wind element the ten winds move to heart; inhalation and exhalation ceases

aggregate of compositional factors one cannot perform physical actions

basic wisdom of achieving activities (our ordinary consciousness mindful of external activities, purposes and so forth) one is no longer mindful of external worldly activities, purposes and so forth appearance of a sputtering butter-lamp about to go out

tongue sense tongue becomes thick and short; root of tongue becomes blue

tastes one cannot experience tastes

body sense and tangible objects one cannot experience smoothness or roughness

CHART 5: FIFTH TO EIGTH CYCLES OF DISSOLUTION

Factor dissolving Cause of appearance Internal sign

FIFTH CYCLE

eighty conceptions winds in right and left channels above heart enter central channel at top of head at first, burning butter-lamp; then, clear vacuity filled with white light

SIXTH CYCLE

mind of white appearance winds in right and left channels below heart enter central channel at base of spine very clear vacuity filled with red light

SEVENTH CYCLE

mind of red increase upper and lower winds gather at heart; then winds enter drop at heart at first, vacuity filled with thick darkness; then as if swooning unconsciously

EIGHTH CYCLE

mind of black near-attainment all winds dissolve into the very subtle life-bearing wind in the indestructible drop at the heart very clear vacuity free of the white, red and black appearances - the mind of clear light of death

(The above charts are taken from "Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism" by Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins)

Upon the inception of the fifth cycle the mind begins to dissolve, in the sense that coarser types cease and subtler minds become manifest. First, conceptuality ceases, dissolving into a mind of white appearance. This subtler mind, to which only a vacuity filled by white light appears, is free from coarse conceptuality. It, in turn, dissolves into a heightened mind of red appearance, which then dissolves into a mind of black appearance.
At this point all that appears is a vacuity filled by blackness, during which the person eventually becomes unconscious. In time this is cleared away, leaving a totally clear emptiness (the mind of clear light) free from the white, red and black appearances (see Chart 5). This is the final vision of death.
I would add a personal note here; the father of one of my teachers died a few years ago, and remained in a seated meditational posture for fifteen days, without any outward signs of decay. Many people in the West talk of experiencing previous lives, but mainly it comes from wishful and creative thinking. It is said in Tibet, that rebirth is inevitable (where there is no control to the outcome), but to consciously be able to reincarnate takes a life time of rigorous spiritual practice. It is normally high lamas and yogis who have to ability to choose to reincarnate as this goes with the vow, not to take enlightenment until all beings are freed from suffering. If Westerners genuinely believed in previous, and the possibility of future lives then their attention and practice would take on a considerably more intense mode of urgency.
The ultimate view and understanding of spiritual practice is impossible without some knowledge of voidness, or emptiness. All conditioned phenomenon are do not exist in the way we think that they do. They are empty of any fixed, permanent or objective reality (thing we take as being real) Nothing exists from its own side, including ourselves.
For example let’s apply some analytical thinking. Is there such a thing (object) as a car? Well relatively yes, but ultimately no. Let me explain. Is the sound ‘car’ the object car?
No, obviously it’s just a sound, so is the word ‘car’ also a car, no it’s just a word, and both the sound car and the written word car would probably be different in other languages. So for a moment imagine a big shiny car in front of you. Is that imagined car the real thing? No, of course not. Now stand in front of the actual thing. Now you say this is a car, this is the real thing. O.K. now say I take one of the wheels off. Is it still a car? I’ll take off some more bits and pieces; let’s say the bumper and the steering wheel. Is this still a car? You see, not only a car, but all conditioned phenomenon (things) are dependant on ‘other things’ they do not exist as permanent fixed objects. So a car exists on the conditioned/conventional level only, but not on the absolute/unconditioned level. Therefore all phenomenon are impermanent and transient, including ourselves, thinking otherwise is the cause of all suffering. We are identifying ourselves with an impossible way of being. We believe that this ‘I’ or ‘Me’ is a fixed permanent thing (object) this ‘egoic mind’, like the car, is dependant on, and created by all conditions and circumstances. So all modes of being are illusion in sense of any fixed, permanent unchanging self.
Whatever is undertaken in your life, and whatever you believed to be true, is the cause of suffering. No spiritual, religious or any other undertaking can free you from this unenlightened, unawake state of conditioned existence, because whatever phenomenon, visions, abilities, (of psychic or spiritual power) arise, will all arise within the ‘conditioned’ experience. That’s why when Catholics see visions, they see the Virgin Mary; they do not see Avalokiteshvara the Buddhist deity of compassion. Hindu visions will produce Vishnu, and not Jesus, and Muslims will see Allah and not Lao Tzu. Many visionaries may see ‘God’ but it will be there own conditioned idea of ‘god’. This is why all religions and spiritual traditions believe that they alone have the right way and everyone else is wrong. So now, apply what ‘you believe to be true’ to this way of seeing and answer you own questions. Is it any wonder that the whole world is in conflict?
It’s very much like everyone is skating on a frozen sea, trying this form of religion or that form of spirituality, but really just going around in circles. While the vast ocean of spaciousness and freedom is there beneath their feet. Breaking through the ice takes effort, not belief, or faith. Meditation on death and impermanence should initiate a serious investigation. At the time of death the dogma of religion and the spiritual games will be of no use here, or as Nietzsche said: “A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything”.
There are no answers in the world of duality; one must try seriously to break through. Release all conditioned ideas, and live spontaneously free from all restrictions. Our true self is unconditioned; clear away the clouds of obscuration’s and return to your enlightened, primordial, natural state of naked awareness, free of ‘this and that’.
Coming articles in this feature on non-duality will look at the Zen and Chan Traditions, Science and non duality, and Meditation, Contemplation and Non meditation

Zen Morning

Anthony Court- www.anthonycourt.com

Dzogchen and the Liberated State

2011-06-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Dawn of Blue Stones

Non-Duality: The Way of Liberation
Part Three-Questions and Answers

"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 that you have gathered. Like a madman, beyond all limits, go where you please, and live like a lion completely free of all fear." — Dzogchen tantra
With this continuing series about non-duality I had planned to look at the Zen tradition this week, but having received a number of questions regarding this subject, I thought that this maybe a good time to stop and reflect on what is the nature of non-duality.

(J. from Newport asked: Is this a Buddhist idea, and are you a Buddhist?)

O.K., thanks J. for the question. Let me use your question to illustrate the nature of duality. From a relative point of view of communication, and understanding the question appears to be a reasonable one; however from the point of view of non-duality the question is pointless. Please let me explain. If I answered yes to your question, your conditioned mind would immediately bring up an image of what you think a Buddhist is. Therefore, all the past ideas and limited, conditioned impressions would colour anything that is said in this article. Were I to say no, then this answer may be understood differently. The answer would emerge only from your own individual understanding of what you think a Buddhist or Non-Buddhist is. So from the perspective of non-duality the question is meaningless. All langue is dualistic, hence all the confusion in the world. For example millions of people call (label) themselves as Christian, but of all those millions of people, not any two would probably have the same understanding, so is it any wonder that there appears to be nothing but conflict and violence on the planet? The very nature of duality is confusion. What many so-called spiritual seekers do, is, after many years of suffering and unhappiness they find themselves a religious, or spiritual path of some kind, but in reality all they have done is to seek an antidote for their unsatisfactory feelings, and to some extent this may work for a while, but deep down the there is still the subtle suffering of the samsaric world which manifests as anger, depression, anxiety and so on. The root cause has not been addressed. J. had your original question been: Do Buddhist methods, and practice point to the non-dual state? Then, I would have said yes. I do not (like millions of others) consider Buddhism to be a religion; to me it is a science of the mind. It starts with the only possible questions that must be answered before any spiritual search is undertaken….what is the nature of reality, and what is the nature of mind? To start from any other viewpoint is doomed to not only failure, but a continuum of subtle anxiety, unease and a constant feeling of unsatisfactoriness. To blindly accept a belief, or religion is madness, one must investigate. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that the church believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. Copernicus, of course, proved this not to be true. As Eckhart Tolle said, “the history of man is the history of madness”. Religion has, and still is at the forefront of violence and war (nothing much has changed it the last few thousand years)

Yesterday I heard someone defending their religion, saying that it was a peaceful one, well, this peaceful religion “wiped out” Buddhism in India (a fact many have forgotten) and is responsible for most of the current world wide conflict. All the horrors of the world conflicts and violence stem from monotheistic religion (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam etc.) and monotheistic religions are dualistic; dualism by its very nature produces conflict. So why are monotheistic religions the cause of so much havoc? The answer is simple; they separate humankind from “what is” or reality. There is God (a creator), and there is human kind, (the created) so here we see instant separation! This fundamental creation by the human mind stops the realisation of “oneness” of all things, and separates and divides creating a dualistic state where all connection to the nature of reality is lost.

Buddhism, Taoism and other traditions have no creator God; they are neither theistic, nor atheistic. They are non-theistic. These traditions do not talk of sin and guilt, but of ignorance of the natural state of reality, and of mind. And it is from this ignorance of the natural state that all conflicts arise. In this state of ignorance we fail to see everything as a unified whole, and start to “label” things as “good and bad” “right or wrong” “them and us” this dualistic separating and dividing is the root cause of all suffering. “Waking up” to this understanding is the liberation of the human condition. How can there be conflict when everything is one (you)? Many today have rejected organised religion for a new (new age) type of spirituality, but unfortunately the beliefs of this new spiritual movement are just more of the same incredulous ideas which have little or nothing to do with reality. How many times have I heard that on December the 21st 2012 the world will either end, or we will all become enlightened multi dimensional beings of light etc, etc? Listen, most new age people I know can’t handle the dimensions they already have, let alone adding more. These beliefs are infantile, and only bring temporary comfort. Do you really think that some golden age is just around the corner, and that crime and violence will suddenly end. If you think 2012 is going to usher in the new age of enlightenment I suggest you take a stroll down Wind Street in Swansea on a Saturday night then ask yourself “Are all these drunken people going to turn into beings of light?” Also the participants of the Jeremy Kyle Show are unlikely to join Mesa in the immediate future, and mankind is unlikely to grow up (wake up) any time soon. Someone stated recently on the internet that “atheism has killed more people than religion” well is that true? Hardly! What this person was talking about was the political ideology of the Communism of Mao and Stalin, but this no different. It is just another form of belief, as is religion. Alan Watts once said “There is an up universe, and a down universe. Everyone wants the up universe and nobody wants the down universe” but you can’t just have one side of a coin, so religion gets around this by creating good and evil, so the good of course is God, and the evil the Devil, that is pure dualistic thinking, which abdicates any idea of personal responsibility.

Stonehenge Dreams

(G. of Swansea asks: What do you mean by “waking up”?)

Thanks G., lets take the words (remembering all words are dualistic) Enlightenment, Awake, Self Realised. We come across these words frequently in spiritual literature. I believe they all point to, or mean the same thing which is a shift from the conditioned state into the natural non-dual aware state, which is beyond all conceptual thought and conditioned existence. This is our natural, primordial state which is beyond concepts and ideas. It is the “ground of all being” from which the appearances of the universe arises and return. I know how difficult this is to understand, but really it’s very simple. We all see ourselves as separate from world. This fabricated and conditioned idea we have of ourselves is fictitious. This is what Eckhart Tolle calls the “egoic mind” It is not real, but it certainly feels so. If through meditation, and contemplation, this false mind is truly seen for what it is, it can no longer continue to function. This unreal self and identification with it collapses. In the same way as belief in Father Christmas collapsed when you are at an age to realise the impossibility of such a person. But, we have invested so much in our self image, and who we think we are most of us would prefer to continue playing our spiritual games, than face the voidness of being. So, all of you who think you are on a spiritual path, take some time out to consider where do you think it is leading too? One of my Tibetan teachers, in most of his teachings, would stop as say… “If you could really see this, you could wake up now” So G., waking up is the realisation that you are already “awake”. In Dzogchen (see last issue) it is said that you are already enlightened, in the same way that the Sun is always shining, but the clouds of obscuration’s and ignorance are in the way. Clear away the clouds, and discover you natural state, shining like the Sun, free of all self delusion. To carry on the spiritual games is just buying time for the egoic mind to carry on surviving.

This is Frank

(S. of Neath asks could I recommend some books or websites to look at?)

Yes of course. Firstly I would like to recommend a book that I have recently discovered, and I have to say that it is probably the best book on “spirituality” that I have ever read. (My own person library consists of nearly 4,000 books on the subjects we have been discussing). This book is called No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten it’s available from www.wisdombooks.com and of course Amazon. For non-duality information try www.nondualitypress.com www.scienceandnonduality.com also www.nonduality.com for an insight to Science and Buddhism try www.mindandlife.org and www.alexberzinarchives.com Also go onto YouTube and type in non-duality as there are plenty of talks and interviews with many non-dual teachers.
A final word on the subject until next time, having glimpsed this natural state I have come to realise that breaking out of our dream like existence is difficult, as we do not realise that we are asleep in the first place. However, there is great hope with this view, because, as awakening slowly happens, the idea that we are separate from everything will be seen by more and more people for the illusion that it is, and they will begin to live in a harmonious way. But this change can only take place if you ask “What is my true nature-who or what am I?” and question everything anyone tells you.

(Finally S. also from Swansea asked: What do I think will happen on 21st of December 2012?)

Hi S., I think it will probably rain.

Bamboo Moon

Dzogchen Quotations by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Everything is naturally perfect just as it is.

All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no
significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they
present themselves.

This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is
a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment.
With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.

The everyday practice of Dzogchen is just everyday life itself.

Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some 'amazing goal' or 'advanced state.' To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind.

We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing. When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity.

We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation.

Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything.
Since everything that arises is simply the play of the mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own condition just as it is.
Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to
think 'I am meditating'
Our practice should be without effort, without strain,
without attempts to control or force and without trying to become 'peaceful'. If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our meditation.
If we have 'interesting experiences' either during or after
meditation we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of Mind.

All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.

The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and
inspiration which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity.
We should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of experience, which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being.

Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us. In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future - our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past is only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground? We should free ourselves from our present memories and preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory of hollow rhetoric. Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is - Enlightenment

The Birth of Morning

This is Zebby

Pointing to Liberation

2011-04-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

"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 that you have gathered. Like a madman beyond all limits go where you please and live like a lion completely free of all fear" Dzogchen tantra.

The Bride Stones

Dharma Quote of the Week

The spiritual path is truly simple. It is simple because it is not about acquiring, accumulating, or achieving anything. It is all about giving up what we don't need. It's about giving up what isn't useful instead of acquiring things with the idea of going somewhere or achieving something. That was the old game. That game which we have been playing for a long time is like a vicious circle. It has no end.

Sometimes the spiritual search itself prevents us from seeing the truth that is always one with us. We have to know when to stop the search. There are people who die while they are searching for the highest truth with philosophical formulas and esoteric techniques. For them spiritual practice becomes another egoic plot which simply maintains and feeds delusions. Amazing! Buddha, God, truth, the divine, the great mystery, whatever you have been searching for, is here right now. --from No Self, No Problem by Anam Thubten, edited by Sharon Roe, published by Snow Lion Publications

This is Storm!

Non-Duality: The Way of Liberation

Part Two-The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibet

By Anthony Court

“Truly, I have attained nothing from total enlightenment”. The Buddha

The author Arthur Koestler (Darkness at Noon, Ghost in the Machine) once said that the human race seems to have a fundamental flaw. Jed McKenna in his Enlightenment Trilogy (Spiritual Enlightenment-The Damnedest Thing, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, and Spiritual Warfare) suggests the human race is still in its infancy and has not as yet even emerged from the kinder garden stage. If we take a serious look at this proposition there seems to be an intuitive sense of truth behind these statements. There is nothing noble, mature, wise or compassionate about the way governments, religions, ideologies or any other human institutions work. They bully, squabble, argue and fight over possessions, and ideas. No different to kids in a playground. Well the possible reason for this madness, is that they (the majority of the human race) believe themselves to be awake, when in fact; they are asleep, steeped in Maya, or the illusion of appearances. These appearances are taken to be the real (reality)

I have always loved the image of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky sitting outside of a café in St Petersburg, Russia, and Gurdjieff telling Ouspensky to watch all the people hurriedly passing by and to comment on what he saw. When Ouspensky stated he was not sure how to answer. Gurdjieff said “Look, they are all asleep”. He went on to say “Man is asleep; he has no real consciousness or will. He is not free; to him, everything happens. He can become conscious and find his true place as a human being in the creation, but this requires a profound transformation”. "Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot even conceive a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But nothing can be attained in sleep. In the consciousness of a sleeping man his illusions, his 'dreams' are mixed with reality. (These dreams include religion and in many cases, spiritual systems) He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And this is the reason why he can never make use of all the powers he possesses and why he lives in only a small part of himself."

The Buddha said something similar “All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?” So in this series will look at non-duality in different traditions, as the path, or way of reaching the awakened state is an ancient one, but the core teaching of self-liberation has been covered up by cultural language and practices, dogma, ritual, religion and ignorance.

Dzogchen the Path of Liberation: Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection" or “Great Compleation” is a central teaching of Dzogchen and is considered the highest and most definitive path to awakening or enlightenment in both the Tibetan Buddhist and Bön Traditions of Tibet.

I have to add a personal note here. In 2001 under the auspicious direction of Lama Khemsar Rinpoche I completed the Dzogchen Ngondro (Foundation Teachings) called the ‘Aa-trid Kaloong Gya-tsho’ one of the three streams of Bön Dzogchen this comprised of 900,000 practices. I should add that this was one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life. As I was working during the day, and teaching many evenings. I sometimes practiced through the night for many hours to complete this practice. So in this article on Dzogchen, it would be inappropriate of me to talk of specific or personal practices or teachings.

From the perspective of Dzogchen, the ultimate nature of all sentient beings is said to be pure, all-encompassing, primordial awareness or naturally occurring timeless awareness. This "intrinsic awareness" has no form of its own and yet is capable of perceiving experiencing, reflecting, or expressing all form. It does so without being affected by those forms in any ultimate, permanent way. This pristine awareness is what Dzogchenpas (those who have the Dzogchen view) refer to as rigpa. Rigpa is a Tibetan word, which in general means ‘intelligence’ or ‘awareness’. In Dzogchen, however, the highest teaching in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, rigpa has a deeper connotation, ‘the innermost nature of the mind’. The whole of the teaching of Buddha is directed towards realizing this, our ultimate nature, the state of omniscience or enlightenment – a truth so universal, so primordial that it goes beyond all limits, and beyond even religion, spirituality or any philosophical standpoints whatsoever. The analogy given by Dzogchen masters is that one's nature is like a mirror which reflects with complete openness but is not affected by the reflections, or like a crystal ball that takes on the colour of the material on which it is placed without itself being changed. Having distinguished rigpa from mind, one is not distracted by the mind, i.e. one does not let thoughts lead oneself. This allows thoughts to naturally self-liberate without avoidance. A most important point is that rigpa is both empty and luminous; empty meaning…not nothingness, but unlimited possibility and luminosity means the “aware” or “knowing” aspect of the mind. These two aspects are inseparable, they are not two things.

So Dzogchen is a view, a way of seeing, as HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (one of the Dali Lama's main teachers) says: The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, openness to all situations without limit. We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy. We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentially is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life. Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.

When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection. We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a mouse. We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection and concentration. Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity. All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating. Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realise. The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true”. The Buddha

So Dzogchen is a serious approach to uncover our true and original nature. The fabrication of religions (especially mono-theistic religions) by the mind of man has produced untold suffering in this world. It is estimated that eighty-five percent of all current wars are caused by religion (are religions anymore than fairy stories for grown-ups?). Why don’t we start to reject these conceptual, man made ideas, and return to the sanity and wholesomeness of the naturalness of the original and primordial nature of mind?

“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed. Don't blindly believe what I say. Don't believe me because others convince you of my words. Don't believe anything you see, read, or hear from others, whether of authority, religious teachers or texts. Don't rely on logic alone, or speculation. Don't infer or be deceived by appearances Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion. Find out for yourself what is truth, what is real” The Buddha.

When we watch a film (our life story in time and space) on a cinema screen (our inherent present awareness) we mistake the film for who we are, and do not recognizes that the screen is our basic nature on which all things arise and return. The natural, primordial state (the screen, has no centre and no periphery) it is without limitations.

There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish, spiritual (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realising its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being.

Wei Wu Wei

Why are you unhappy? Because ninety nine, point nine per cent of everything you think,

and of everything you do, is for yourself - And there isn't one.

Wei Wu Wei

2011-03-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

Here is an article that I have just written for a local free magazine which is produce by my good friends Jim Fox and Keira Jones which can be viewed and downloaded at www.labyrinthmagazine.co.uk/

Health, Healing, Martial Arts and Metaphysics

By Anthony Court

Part Three: Non-Duality Part One

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

Mark Twain

There’s someone in my head and it’s not me

Pink Floyd

This article is going to be the most difficult/easy/confusing and most fun of all of the articles I have written over the last twenty or so, years for magazines, local, national and international, it should also contain a government health warning. Carry on reading only if you want to “annihilate” yourself. Yes, I did just use the word “annihilate”. “Confused, you will be” as they used to say at the beginning of that brilliant comedy show “Soap” (O.K., so now I showing my age). Look it up on Google. The word “Nirvana”, means just that, annihilation, it can also mean extinction. So then, what am I saying or suggesting? Annihilation of what, well sorry about this, but it’s you. Relax! Its not the you….. you think you are…it’s the you, that you are not….got it? No I thought not.
Lets’ try another approach, who or what is it that, at this very moment you call me? Have you ever, since the day you were born, given this question any serious thought, probably not, and why should you? Well, it is only the most important question you could ever ask. If you would like the FIRST STEP on the journey of a THOUSAND MILES to be the LAST, and the ONLY step you ever need to take….then read on, if not carry on “travelling”. If you want to play the game of being a spiritual person on a spiritual path then be my guest, because I have just spent the last 40 years walking that very same path, and you probably will not want to hear this but “it goes nowhere” Why, because the person you consider yourself to be, “is just a concept”, a conditioned self created image, a “self” a “me” an “idea” created from all the conditions that have made up your “life” until this present moment, and as this self does not inherently exist, it can not become anything, or undertake any “spiritual journey”. The mind is conditioned, through all experiences, education, language, culture, parents and everything else. You call this conditioning ‘you’, or the “story of you” and every human being on this planet has “a story”. If the first step on your “spiritual journey” is from a point of view of incompleteness, or that you wish to be healed, awakened, or to reach some state of spiritual bliss, or enlightenment then you are starting from the wrong place. You are already complete, whole and perfect, except you have “bought into” this illusion idea that you are a permanent self that controls your life, there’s no such thing. You have identified with what you are not, instead of what you are. The prison door has always been open, but we have preferred to spend all our time redecorating the cell. Or as the modern saying goes, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Consider the words of Ramana Maharshi

“You impose limits on your true nature of infinite being. Then you get displeased to be only a limited creature. Then you begin spiritual practice to transcend these nonexistent limits. But if your practice itself implies the existence of these limits, how could they then allow you to transcend them?”

The so called “SPIRITUAL JOURNEY” is part of this illusion. The conditioned “SELF” is created by thought, and all of life’s experiences, but this SELF, if it is honestly, and ruthlessly examined it will not stand up to scrutiny. The only thing that is, is “PRESENT AWARENESS”…..non-dual, naked, present awareness. These non-dual teaching have been pointed to in the Taoist Tradition of the Tao Te Ching, and the Hindu Advaita Vedanta scriptures of India, the Hsing Hsing Ming by Chien-chih Seng-ts'an (Kanchi Sosan) Third Zen Patriarch, the Heart Sutra and the sermons of the great Renegade Zen Master Bankei, the writings of the Buddhist tradition especially Dzogchen such as the great Tibetan Dzogchen masters Longchenpa, and Jigme Lingpa, and today many western writers such as Jean Kline, Francis Lucille, John Wheeler and Bob Adamson.
Here are some examples of the above
Hsing Hsing Ming: (opening line) “The ‘Great Way’ is not difficult except, for those who pick and choose”.
The Heart Sutra: “Form is Emptiness, emptiness is form”.
Tao Te Ching: “Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature”.
Bankie: Reside in the ‘Unborn’
Longchenpa: “Gaze persistently at actual rigpa (Rigpa is a Tibetan word, which in general means ‘intelligence’ or ‘awareness’ in Dzogchen, however, the highest teachings in the Buddhist tradition of Tibet Rigpa has a deeper connotation, ‘the innermost nature of the mind).
And are there any virtues to practice?
Is there any samaya (spiritual practice) commitment to observe?
Any view, meditation, conduct, or goal to realize?
Is there any maturation, karma, heaven or hell?”
So the non-dual view (it cannot be called religion, philosophy, a spiritual path, or anything similar) has been pointed out for many centuries, however it’s simple, clear and obvious message has been clouded over by years of ignorance, beliefs, dogma, cultural conditioning and a general inability to see what is always here and now; innate knowing present awareness from which, you have never been, for even one moment, separated.
A few weeks before last Christmas, I had a glimpse into the non-dual state (words here become inadequate) while sitting in a local park, just before going to my Taiji Class, the world ‘stopped’ everything became silent, and for over half an hour there was complete silence, and stillness with no sense of self, self identification, or time, it became impossible to feel any separation with what is ‘the timeless, limitless, clear and shining present moment’ In this moment the whole structure of the ‘conditioned’ mind ‘collapsed’ and with it all the separation from what is. This seeing that occurred ‘illuminated’ the illusion the Hindus call Maya. Maya is like a MIRAGE, or the ROPE that’s mistaken for a SNAKE it is self created from the illusion of separateness. This self created illusion comes from fear, because if we are honest we are born into this world (actually we are born out of it) not knowing who, or what we are. When a child reaches about two, or three years old he or she goes from seeing the Universe in themselves, to seeing themselves in the Universe, suddenly, there is me and others. Rapidly life takes on a new perspective; it becomes different, alien, and separate. So the individual starts to assemble and accumulate beliefs from both inner, and outer conditioning that constructs a sense of being a separate individual, and this sense of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ this is the beginning of suffering either subtle, or obvious. As the child grows up, tremendous time, money, effort and energy is invested into this ‘sense of self’ and the greater the investment, the greater the expectation, whether it is materialistic, physiological, religious or a spiritual investment, it’s all the same moment away from who you are, to who you think you should become. In other words “Now is never good enough” because you feel that you are lacking in some way, so now, you become a seeker. The trouble with the seeker is that, however you wish to deal with your illusionary problems connected to your illusory self the answer is always in the future, and never now. So now the fabricated, self-constructed, imaginary self goes on a ‘spiritual journey’ to try and gain something which it feels it lacks to make it complete. This entire struggle is an utter waste of time. As Non-Dual sage Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj says “All spiritual paths are ego. A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part”. If there is no ‘I’ what need is there for spiritual practice. For many years having studied with Buddhist teachers this anomaly, this inconsistency, has always bothered me.
Buddhist would say for example the Dharma teaches "Non-Self" in order to save sentient beings from the tormenting sea of Samsara; however, "Non-Self" is not a conceptual tool or pedagogical instrument constructed for this purpose. "Non-Self" is a verifiable truth both in terms of philosophical analyses and of attainment of realization through practice. Therefore, the salvation through the Dharma does not involve blind faith, but points out the truth to help people become free from confinement and confusion.
Fine, but my argument is this “How can a non-self practice, and to attain what?” When Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj was asked by a Western student how much effort should he put into his Sadhana or (Spiritual practice) he replied. “Lots of effort, plenty of effort, as much effort as you can. Until you come to realize it’s a complete waste of time”.
The trap is that (and I fell for this-big time) most people who are following what they believe to be a ‘spiritual path’ are chasing ‘spiritual experiences’, and with enough practice all the spiritual experiences you have ever read about can be gained. Here’s the trap and here’s the problem….that’s all they are, experiences……. ‘appearances’ in consciousness. We have been lead to believe that theses so-called spiritual experiences are sign posts on the road to some sort of spiritual goal i.e. enlightenment, cosmic consciousness, ascendancy to some great spiritual goal etc. They are not. They are distractions from waking up out of the dream of ignorance, and delusion. We think that if we practice enough; meditate enough then one day, some how, we will gain some astounding spiritual state full of wisdom and insight. There is nothing to be gained, no state of enlightenment to reach, no becoming a high level avatar, or any thing else. It’s all egoism, its all nonsense, and chasing this illusion is the most powerful weapon of MAYA. To really ‘awaken’ is to see without doubt the undeniable reality of who you really are….clear, knowing present awareness, and nothing else. There will always be great resistance to these statements of the non-duality. Having invested over forty years in the so called spiritual research, inquiry and practice, I know this only too well, but as J. Krishnamurti said;
“If you have been going in the wrong direction for many years you have no choice, but to turn around, and go back the way you came”
So examine any person, teacher or guru who considers themselves spiritually advanced, the more spiritually advanced they claim, the more deluded they probably are. All spiritual teachers should be made redundant, only the individual can free themselves from the prison of self delusion. There is no method, or practice to do, only ruthless, rigorous and honest self investigation. When thoroughly, and exhaustively investigated the illusion of the permanent self will be seen through, and when seen through, it can no longer sustain its validity, and then, the self-shining, clear and present reality will be recognised, at that moment, all your questions will simply evaporate.
As the say in Australia, “Throw another guru on the barbie”
Or as Longchenpa (14th Century-Tibet) said
“Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter!”

Part two of Non-Duality will be in the next issue of Labyrinth in the mean time if you have any questions about this article please email me at: anthonycourt@ymail.com

Erle Montaigue

2011-02-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Red Morning

It's with incredible sadness, and pain that I have to inform you all, that my great friend and teacher Erle Montaigue has passed away. I have known Erle for many years I was privileged to know the real person, a kind, and compassionate human being, and in his own unique way, 'a genius'. There has always been an unspoken bond of friendship between us that was beyond the everyday way of things. I am most privileged to have known Erle and his wonderful family. I as you can imagine, I am devastated by the news. A true friend sticks with you through everything, the good, bad, rough, and the smooth,and Erle was that true friend, and a real friend is a very rare thing these days.....My love goes out to Sandy and the Family......I am lost for words, words are inadequate to describe the loss of such a kind and compassionate man.

HEALTH: East versus West

2011-01-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

Comparison between Western Exercise and Chinese Qigong/Tai Chi

A. Most forms of Western Exercise are very linear i.e. up & down, in and out.

A. Internal practice (Qigong & Tai Chi) is circular, spiral and open the joints rather than compress them.

B. Western forms of exercise focus on the mind and the body only.

B. Internal practice is concerned with brining the mind, body and the energy into alignment (harmony).

C. Western forms of exercise are more concern with “fitness” and have much less to do with health. Being fit is not necessarily being healthy.

C. Internal practice is concerned with total human potential, and not one or the other (fitness or health)

D. Most forms of Western Exercise will work various parts of the body separately.

D. Internal practice is concerned with “Whole” body movement and connection.

E. Western forms of exercise focus the “External” body or how we appear (what we look like on the outside).

E. Internal practice is more concerned with the energetic flow, internal connections and the balance of the glandular and nervous system. Our outward appearance reflects our inner health.

F. Western forms of exercise will eventually strain, and slow the body down as we get older.

F. Internal practice is concerned with keeping the body fluid and active by “Whole” body movement and stimulation between all the “Internal” organs, stomach, spleen, heart, liver etc. Many who practice these systems carry on into their 80s, 90s and even over 100 years old. (Check out YouTube for confirmation)

G. Western forms of exercise and sport often result in injuries.

G. For a practitioner of internal practices an injury is an extremely rare event. The body becomes so strong internally, that illness and injury are unknown to some serious practitioners.

F. Western forms of exercise often divided the body into separate physical and mental aspects i.e. physical training, as one aspect, and sports psychology as another.

F. For a practitioner of internal practices there is no separation between mind, body and energy.

H. By using the frequently repeated analogy of the “car” as a metaphor for the human body. We can say that Western forms of exercise are concerned with the outward appearance i.e. the body of the car, and the motor (the cardio vascular system, while totally ignoring the electrics. A car may look good, it’s engine prefect, but if the electrical wiring is faulty the car will never perform to its full potential.

H. Internal practice is concerned with the development of a strong energy flow around the body and so correct breathing methods are paramount to achieve this. The emphasis must be on “whole” body breathing (expansion and contraction) or “yang” expansion and “yin” contraction, and all internal methods contain this principle. Correct breathing methods are mostly overlooked in the Western culture, hence the prevalence of so much tension and stress.

I. Western forms of exercise often rely on practices such as weight lifting for strength, whereas the Internal practice of many of the Eastern countries rely on the development of “Chi” (Chinese) or Ki (Japanese) or vital energy. A little know fact is that many traditional training methods of Russia culture use these principles (including the Russian Special Services) The Chinese sum this up saying: “Physical strength is limited, but energy is infinite”.

I. Western exercise is mainly all “yang” (tension) this eventually creates a permanent condition of stress. Whereas Internal Methods constantly change between dynamic tension (yang) and a relaxed state (yin) so the mind, body and energy remain in a balanced state.

J. All Internal practice is base on the observation of Nature, especially animals.

J. Western exercise is based more on logic….i.e. “if I lift heaver and heavier weights I’ll become stronger and stronger”. Although this maybe initially true, if continued the body will eventually become imbalanced, and with imbalance comes ill health. External strength is limited, internal is not.

K. Very simply why Tai Chi, Qigong and other “Internal” systems get a bad press in the media is for the following reasons:

1. It is simply not understood. It is a completely different approach to what we understand as health/fitness. So a complete lack of real knowledge about the subject, so comparisons to Western forms should not really be made. And when there is a comparison, the criteria and values for judging the befits, are always Western.

2. Western exercise is simply that….exercise! (This includes all sport) Internal practice/systems/methods are base on traditional Chinese Medicine (not just Chinese, one could include Tibetan, Japanese, Indian and many other cultures) So, the Internal practice/systems/methods are about Health, Healing, Martial Arts and Medicine all to a greater or lesser degree depending on the knowledge and focus of the practitioner.

K. When the Internal practice/systems/methods are brought under the spotlight of the media, they tend to be repetitive, hackneyed and lacking in any depth or insight. This is very understandable because of the confusion surrounding these methods. After all, is for example, Tai Chi, a martial Art, or a Health Art, or a Sport, or form of exercise, or a form of Alternative Healing, is it all of these of none?

The above list could easily be added to infinitum. And the reason for our lack of knowledge about the above is very simple. (A.) it’s not our culture, and (B.) it takes a long time through study, and practice to begin to understand the potential of these systems.

Western journalist at the last Olympics in China were allowed (to some degree) to touch on some sensitive areas both cultural, and political. The only questions that were totally “off limits” to the Worlds Press were any questions about their training methods. Until we in the so called civilised world think we have the answer of developing our health, sports and our athletic world through more and more science, and technology, while ignoring our natural abilities, and unlimited potential, and at the same time failing to study these ancient systems. Then we will never realise that there is all this untapped power available. I’m sure the Chinese Olympic coaches and trainers will be delighted.

March 30th 2010

2010-03-30T03:59:00.000-07:00

30th March 2010:

Those of you who came to my recent Lucid Dreaming will recall that I was struggling to put over an important point from the Dzogchen Tradition which I stated, when understood, would bring mental freedom and relaxation form the incessant ramblings of our conditioned minds. Well I have been thinking about this important point ever since, so here is an attempt to try and clarify what I was trying to say. To help me with this explanation I have quoted freely from Russell Targ’s book “The End of Suffering” which I have recently re-read, and highly recommend. My comments on this subject will be in red. PLEASE NOTE: Russell Targ is a physicist and author, a pioneer in the development of the laser and laser applications (he work for Lockheed developing laser technology), and co-founder of the Stanford Research Institutes's investigation into psychic abilities (remote viewing) in the 1970s and 1980s. His web site is www.espresearch.com.
The non conceptual truth beyond duality:

This suggests that we can to be consciously in the world and, at the same time, not be restricted by it. In practical terms, when we give up seeing the world through the lens of our conditioning, we no longer project our fears, hopes, and prejudices onto everything we encounter. The importance of the "two truths" (relative and ultimate) teaching is to point this out. Then we can experience naked awareness, limitless mind, and unbounded consciousness. Nagarjuna's tetralemma,helps us to make this shift by destroying the idea that things have an independent existence.Anthony’s comment: O.K. time to stop here and ask “What the hell is a telralemma? We have all heard of a dilemma –offering two possible answers, or solutions. Well a tetralemma states that there are four possibilities. For example: 1. Things exists (affirmation). 2. Things do not exist (negation). 3. Things both exist and not exist (both-equivalent). 4. Things neither exist nor not exist (neither). The first two are clear and obvious, but I admit struggling to understand the subtle difference between the last two. However keep reading over and the meaning will reveal itself. The two point argument, things exists/things do not exist / comes from the logic of Aristotle. This Aristotelian logic says that there is a “law of the excluded middle” No middle ground means things are Yes, or No. Black, or White. Yin, or Yang. Look at the monotheistic religions, “We are right you are wrong”. “We have all the answers, you do not” To keep the mind free from these two extremes and bring in the other two possibilities creates a great sense of freedom for the mind. The idea of always having to choose one way or the other, is no longer necessary, or as it says in the Hsin Hsin Ming (verses on trust in the Mind) by Sengstau (3rd Zen Patriarch) “The great way is not difficult, except for those who pick and choose”Along this same line, the great physicist Werner Heisenberg taught that "The idea of an objective real world whose smallest parts exist objectively in the same sense that stones or trees exist, independently of whether or not we observe them ... is impossible.

The great eighth-century writer Shankara wrote in his “Crest Jewel of Discrimination" that our most significant life goal is to discern reality from illusion. Nagarjuna taught that when we cease reifying things and the self, we then drop our emotional attachments to objects, persona's, and concepts of the world. We surrender the ego by giving up the notion of "I" and "mine." Then we can experience the undifferentiated nature of ultimate reality. Until that point of realization, we misperceive existence. The illusion of separation inhibits our awareness of ultimate reality by confining our awareness to only a small part of reality. As Nagarjuna teaches, conventional reality and ultimate reality are not separate realities. He illuminates the truth of non duality through his teachings on emptiness and dependent arising in which he says that all things, concepts, and persons are empty of self nature and only arise to exist dependently on other factors. To be perfectly clear, the teaching here is that nothing at all exists independently. What we're describing here is not esoteric, but simply mental housecleaning. It should be done daily or at least every spring.This brings me to Dzogchen (of which I mention in class on a regular basis) Dzogchen doesn't ask you to change your religion, philosophy, or ideology, nor become something other than what you are. It only asks you to observe yourself, and to discover the "cage" you have built with your conditioning and limits. And it teaches you how to get out of the cage, without creating another one, in order to become a free, autonomous person. Dzogchen is a “VIEW” a way of “SEEING”For example, there is no greater absurdity than to imagine that who you are is who you see in the mirror in the morning. When we investigate "Who am I?" we discover that the "I" is just the story of me. The self that is seeking to become realized is the substrate of the individual. It is our limitless nonlocal awareness that is beginning to notice its connection to the infinite and the absolute. To discover this self, you don't have to go anywhere. Better not to go. Just be still. You don't have to change anything. Just be still and surrender to the love that is inside, trying to get your attention. By the eighth century, Dzogchen Buddhist teachers were telling us that who we are is the pristine energy of unconditional love without an object (they called it vajra, heart essence). The teaching is that when we finally stop our ongoing mental chatter, we can experience the flow of loving awareness, which is who we are. The eighth-century Buddhist master Shantideva teaches that there is no externally existing place called heaven or hell; our reality is a perception of our state of mind.
Or, one could say your reality is what you experience, and this “experienced reality” depends on your state of mind, which influences your perception. So the habituated mind is free to “see things as they are” free from all conditioning.
Discovering the DivineWho or what is obstructing the natural flow of loving awareness? Nothing else but our ego when we forget our true identity as Eternal. When engaged in practices such as remote viewing, as well as spiritual healing, a person no longer is operating solely as a biological organism. We realize we are not defined atomically in terms of particles and waves, but are part of a consciousness outside space-time, participating in a higher-dimensional nonlocal universe. And then we understand Nagarjuna's tetralemma: I am a body; I am not a body; I am both a body and not a body; and I am neither a body nor not a body. This is the true solution to the famous mind-body problem. As a bodily organism, we are finite, mortal, and subject to suffering, but at the same time, we are not a body but a consciousness, living in a multidimensional universe. What brings about this transcendent state of mind?
Surrendering the ego brings about the liberated consciousness of no mind and no expectation. It is known by various names in the East such as Moksha (liberation),Satori, The Awakened State or Enlightenment. In the Western traditions, it was known to the ancient Greeks as gaining Sophia, the indwelling of feminine higher wisdom or the mothering nature of the universe. In the Kabbalah, the same path to the Divine is called Shekinah. As we cultivate our intuitive nature, we enter into this wisdom.
We need to redefine our true nature, which is neither biological nor mythological, but functional and extensional. This expansion of awareness (extending to fill all of space and time) starts by understanding matter as cosmic energy, manifesting in endless numbers of transient forms. Within our spiritual self realization, the substructure of microcosm and macrocosm are wedded into Unity. In Western mystical tradition, this can be symbolized in the Tree of Life (Etz Chaim), known in the West within kabalistic literature in which humankind participates with its generative and regenerative process. This new criterion of human nature sees "Man" and "Woman" as a composite of energy embodiments and self-realizations.
If this is our true nature, why do we see ourselves as limited to these bodies and suffer from such a narrow perspective? And if we change our perspective, what happens to us as we emerge into the larger consciousness as an expanded "New Being"? As remote viewing and spiritual healing have shown, we are capable of transcending this time-binding linguistic, psychobiological existence. Remote viewing and spiritual healing are exceptionally well documented in the scientific literature. When we truly realize our inner connection with all life, we cease to suffer from a limited mental perception of life. Understanding our unboundedness, we still value life. This is very important. The three-dimensional realm can nurture our growth, learning, and sharing. It is not a place from which we must leave or physically depart. But as others join us in this expanded awareness, we will emerge into one of the greatest eras of growth our species has ever known, as we pass from an era of individualism to one of global conscious identity. Such passing, as history shows, has always been painful for some and joyful for others. It is shaped by the consequences of admitting the limitations of the traditional paradigms of our view of reality.
We can already see that many are joining in. There are transitions occurring at this time in science, even in the face of resistance to relinquishing concepts once accepted as "standard." Periods of bewilderment often accompany these transitions, as, for instance, the passing from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican view of the cosmos, from Euclidean to non-Euclidean, from Newtonian to non-Newtonian (Einsteinian)-and now from Einsteinian relativity to nonquantum nonlocality. Max Planck, the great German physicist, said that quantum mechanics will be accepted only after the old classical physicists die and are replaced by new ones who have grown up with the new quantum physics.

The End of Duality:

Only now, at this late stage of Western civilization, are we beginning to realize how pernicious and retarding the Aristotelian split has been. Einstein and Minkowski have helped us to understand that space and time cannot be split empirically without creating delusional worlds for ourselves. Only since their work have the accomplishments of modern subatomic and undivided space-time physics become possible. In this new physics of consciousness, we are a significant part of the reality we perceive. And we, too, change along with what is observed. It is understood today that you cannot separate the observer from the observed.
Now we are able to entertain the inner wonders of the diversity of life in the greater cosmos. No longer must we live with an artificial split between scientific rationalism and humanistic orientations. What is required is simply our humility and the openness and willingness to accept what is found within us. The New Being we experience is free to live in love, justice, truth, and harmony, leading to the discovery of universal Oneness.

Now we move away from seeing life purely on the basis of dualistic emotional, instinctual relations and logic-based, rational experience. Instead, we are to see life and its interactions in a nonconceptual objective and subjective unity that is Truth.
Finally, the end of suffering is accomplished when we co-shape or co-create each moment. Realizing we are not alone, we are never alone. Then the temporary nature of all material things, including our bodies, is no longer seen fearfully. We perceive ourselves in our true identity as eternal awareness.
In truth, time is actually not passing. We live in eternity and the days that pass are a continuum. We live in the eternal present and the only thing that matters is how we live our lives.
In the end, oceanic Love is the purest expression of human free will and human knowing of the Absolute. We are asked in the sacred texts to love all people equally because we are part of divinity-with compassion for each other and concern for all nations.
In conclusion, we have tried to show the need for each one of us to embrace the universal consciousness. Then we can step forward with a holistic perspective of life within and without, unifying science and spirituality. We integrate our contemporary experiences of psychical research and new science with higher states of consciousness that openly support expanded awareness.
With this, we introduce a new, fully conscious being. We recognize and use a fuller understanding of how to open the door of the mind and reconnect with the fuller universal consciousness. We internalize the idea that the key to this door is the understanding that the end of suffering comes when we no longer live our lives protecting and embellishing the story of me. We learn to quiet our mind, give up our conditioning, and move into the loving embrace of spacious awareness, which is who we are.

You may find that going over this article and writings by Russell Targ will begin to let you relax the mind back into it’s natural state (the state between thoughts) which brings with it a more natural and spacious way of living, which in turn takes away the dualistic, habituated, and incessant chatter of the conditioned mind.CONSIDER THIS:

in today’s Daily Mail is a two page spread called the “TOXIC TIME BOMB” about the chemicals added to our foods. For over forty years I have been saying that cancer, and many other serious illnesses are caused by these lethal substances (my brother and my late father were both chemists, so I did have some insight into what goes on with the Pharmaceutical Companies) Consider how much money has been given to researchers, drug companies for both the government and the charities all spent on looking for cures, and with little or no money spent on finding the causes. Sorry, but how stupid is that, or is it me being very cynical you do not continue to make money from illness if you find the cause. How many poor animals have been tortured to death by medical science, before they at last decide to make this announcement…that is so bloody obvious to anyone with an iota of common sense? But as Voltaire said “Common sense is not so common.” I’m not a fan of Voltaire but at least he got that right.

2010-03-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

Friday 26th March 2010
Hi Everyone: Now that the websites are up and running, although not completed as yet. It's time to go back to this Blog and I'll do my best to update it on a regular basis. I have decide to use this space for two things only. One, to make comments about current situations, and to keep up to date with information on my current reading, as we often discuss what books are worth looking into in our (Taiji) classes.

BOOKS: Well I have just waded my way through Graham Farmelo "The Strangest Man", the hidden life of Paul Dirac. This is a fabulous book about the genius of theoretical physicist Paul Dirac, I would recommend this book to anyone, who like myself ,is fascinated by the whole world of quantum physics, and the characters that inhabited the strange environment that produced such amazing minds such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Pauli. I have also recently begun reading an even thicker book. The biography of Arthur Koestler. I remember reading many of Koestler's books when in my twenties. An intellectual of some stature, if not a particularly endearing man. Also lined up by my bedside are "Brilliant Moon" the account of H.H.Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's amazing life. I was fortunate to receive teachings and empowerment's from this revered scholar and yogi a few years before he died. Finally also waiting in the wings is the "Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom". The life and times of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche.

CONSIDER THIS:
Reported in the Media: More than nine of of ten scientists who backed a drug at the centre of a safety scare had financial links to the pharmaceutical industry. Worse still ninety percent of scientists and doctors receiving financial remuneration see no conflict of interest whatever. SO WHAT 'S NEW?

Day One: Tuesday the 25th August 2009

2009-08-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Website: www.anthonycourt.com

Hi Everyone,
So here we go, the commencement of my online rantings and ravings, observations, views and general comments. I'll be adding plenty of research and information on this blog, plus book reviews, ideas and general comments about my interest in metaphysics, psychology, physics, biology, Taiji, Qigong, health, music, art and many more related subjects.
(The picture above shows Tony teaching at a Martial Arts seminar in Swansea)

I hope the title of the blog doesn't sound too pretentious a "view" is simply a "way" of "seeing" Having trained in the Tibetan Dzogchen Tradition, I understand that the "view" like Dzogchen itself, is not a philosophy, an ideal, an opinion tainted by religious indoctrination or any other conditioned state of mind, but a way of trying to see things just as they are, or as the Tibetans say seeing with "Naked Awareness".
Of course the papers are currently full of the Lockerbie bomber situation, but many of us will have forgotten that in July 1988, a certain Captain William Rogers of the U.S.S. Vincennes was involved in an action that resulted in the shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet full of pilgrims headed for Mecca. All 290 people on board were killed. The captain was cleared of any wrongdoing, and enjoys his retirement in sunny California. His actions were said to have precipitated the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. A year after Captain Rogers retirement, the self-serving George Bush administration awarded him America's Legion of Merit medal. Much to ponder. In any case if Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi had died in prison he would have become a martyr, and inevitably his release has made him a hero. A no win situation. Was he guilty? My own feeling is there is too much of a cover up around this incident to ever know, and also the strong smell of oil is in the air. And as usual, the dark forces of big business, compromise, corruption and greed are slithering around this whole tragic episode.
Well that was a heavy subject to start with, but this is just a way of putting things into perspective for myself. I have no wish influence anyone, it's simply trying looking at situations in a clear way, without any interference from the conditioned mind. As if that's possible!

Tuesday September 8th. 2009
I like the following sentiments that come from Peter Ragnar a Qigong teacher from the U.S. who recently started one of his newsletters with a quotation from Thoreau, below is his reply to some of the criticism he received. Peter is an unusual character, a strong man, qigong teacher, committed vegetarian (amongst many other things) who lives in the wilds of America. I definitely agree with him about taking responsibility for ones-self, and finding your own. Regions, ideologies, and political systems have never brought anything but trouble, to the world. Here's the important part..only if you see your self separate from the natural world, do you need to go looking for answers as provided by the religions etc, but if you are in tune with your natural, and self created world, you need nothing to believe in. Believing in something does not make it true. Awareness, and your natural inherent wisdom is all you ever need. All external chasing after religions, ideologies, political systems, and philosophies will leave you exhausted. I believe it was either Nietzsche or Goethe who said "There is nothing outside of ourselves, but we forget this every other second"
Here are Peter's own words:
I guess I must have stirred things up by presenting the enlightening words of Henry David Thoreau. Do I expect you to choose solitude over society? My wish is only that you spend enough time quietly by yourself that you can actually know what you think and why you think it.
Thoreau's conclusions born in silence led to his writing Civil Disobedience...
...which I quoted from in a recent Razor newsletter. As an example,
"There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived…"
When I declared I'm not a conservative, liberal, or independent, someone concluded, "Then you must be some sort of anarchist advocating a violent revolution or political disorder." "I believe all forms of government interfere unjustly with individual liberty and natural rights."
I believe the individual is a higher and more independent force for good than any organized gang. I believe liberty is the absence of physical coercion. If no one is attempting to force me to do what I do not wish, then the climate is right for liberty to prevail. This is why violent revolutions always fail. Freedom cannot be forced or mandated—the ends always reflect the means. "If you take care of the means, the end will take care of itself."
As an example, violent revolutions only end with piles of dead bodies. On the other hand, support is the lifeblood of any political system; when the people withdraw their support the system dies. If someone wanted to organize a gang in your community, which tactic might work better: suppress its membership by forcibly outlawing it, or simply educate people refusing to join? Someone is bound to protest, "Hey, a government isn't a gang!" I'll retort, "Really now? The only difference I see is that one activity is deemed 'lawful,' and the other, 'unlawful.'" Sy Leon wrote,
"A political party is a group of people trying to amass as much power as possible so they can implement their ideas of how we all should live. This is also true of a gang. Both a political party and a gang depend on power to put their ideas and goals into practice. A gang offers you the use of its power as protection in return for your money, cooperation, and favors. If you don't pay for the "protection," your property may be destroyed or you may beaten up. When in power, a political party offers you a "protection" in exchange for your money (taxes), and if you don't pay, your property is confiscated and you wind up in jail."
Thus, my view is in agreement with Sy Leon. He states in his book None of the Above:
"The politician is either deluded or lying when he claims to know better than you what is good for you."
I do not believe a person or persons claiming to rule by divine authority or those with imaginary spooks whispering in their ears to know more about my best interests than I do. Therefore, I totally reject a theocracy. I do not believe a king or queen knows any more of what's in my best interests than I do; therefore, I totally reject a monarchy. I do not believe a mob of my fellow citizens (most of whom have difficulty running their own lives) to know any more of what's in my best interests than I do. Therefore, I totally reject a democracy. I do not believe a government in which power belongs to a few ruling persons to know any more of what's in my best interests than I do. Therefore, I totally reject an oligarchy. "I'm simply a fellow who's said "no." Why should that seem so difficult?" You own your own mind; do not sell it or surrender it to things that make no sense. You, and only you, are the owner of your labor; do not allow it to be stolen from you. Therefore, do not lend your support to thieves. Freedom cannot be forced, nor can your ideas. Liberty can only flourish in the soil of reason and independence. The wise sage Chuang Tzu said, "He who rules men lives in confusion; he who is ruled by men lives in sorrow." Seek freedom and the way will appear. One of my favorite books is The Zen Works of Stonehouse. Stonehouse, a 14th century Chinese hermit, writes in his diary,
"Below high cliffs I face a thousand mountains. One sense finds the source. All six relax. White clouds drift, green water ripples, beyond movement and stillness there's another world."
"That other world is one that no government can find to intrude or trespass into."
It's a path no greedy soul can follow or find. As Thoreau states, "I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home." If I've stirred things up, please go on your solitary walk, and as soon as these ideas have settled, serenity will bathe you. Since you can't change the world, you can settle your soul. Take that walk with me.

An Open Letter to the Seeker of Human Excellence
You have been barked at, scowled at, discredited, and assigned a servant’s place. As new laws replace old ones, a tangled web is woven. Entrapment is the name of the game. How can you seek human excellence and in the same breath believe you are a criminal and a sinner?
The pursuit of human excellence is the state of trusting your own mind. You must seek out the soil of liberty on which to plant your feet and walk. All dictatorial states stifle human growth. It is only in a free society that human excellence becomes more than a dream.
Are you mentally tough enough to truly aspire to grapple with your conscience? To fight failings every day in order to present yourself as one improved human unit? It is indeed a noble quest. Yes, to create value where none existed yesterday is to become the architect of your life.
No one but you can create a being that is more than enough for itself. If your actions are not self-preserving, then they are self-destroying. You must have freedom in order to grow. That means your choices must be voluntary; any choice that is not voluntary is not yours, but another’s. If you are forced to forfeit the work of your hands or surrender the creations of your mind, you have been reduced to the status of a slave. When governments tether the people, they chain themselves. When the means are corrupt, the ends will reflect it.
Since morality is the science of self-preservation, anything that does not nourish and sustain the quest for human excellence is immoral. This has nothing to do with the arbitrary laws of convention; it has everything to do with the laws of nature. As with all things in the natural world, you are either growing or dying. In order to grow, you must create. In order to create, you must think. In order to think, you must reason.
When you couple reason with purpose, you have set your feet on rich soil. You must be free to choose your goals unimpeded. You must be free to choose value in order to exist. You must be free in order to trust your own mind. Trusting your own mind and knowing you are appropriate to life results in self-esteem.
Self-esteem, that is, honoring the self, must have an environment of freedom in order to fully flourish. You cannot blossom as a human if you are drowned in laws that haven’t a thing to do with nature.
I take it as a personal affront to be told not to steal, kill my fellow man, or lie, for I know only too well that the means reflect the end. These acts are by nature contrary to my ultimate value—life. In order to have life, I must be free to pursue it. Hands off! I also know the forces that oppose it, but refuse to rent them space in my head.
So, what should you do in order to seek human excellence? First, realize that conscious life is the highest of values. Consciousness must be cultivated in order for you to evolve to the state of becoming more than enough. When you are in a state of human excellence, cherishing life, then all life matters. If you take care of the means, the end will take care of itself.
What is the means? Virtue. Virtue comes from the root word vertu. It means moral strength, valor, excellence, and a particular power of efficacy: a virtuous person understands the means and ends of an issue and acts accordingly. Reason results in the means to pursue your highest value: conscious life. Thus, it can be said that reason is the ultimate virtue, for excellence is impossible without it.
Now, who should be its proper beneficiary? Naturally, the one who established the value and used reason to attain it. If the value is as lofty as presenting an enlightened being to the world, and rational means were used in its attainment, the end speaks for itself. The highest human flowering has occurred.
What does it mean to be enlightened? It means you are in an expanded state of identity. Suddenly, everything matters. The food you eat, the air you breathe, the water you drink, the earth you walk upon—yes, they all matter! You have become your own highest value—life.
Peters seven statements of living consciously.

1) I vow to respect, honor, and expand my conscious awareness of how precious life is to all creatures, and I will not knowingly bring pain, injury, or death to any of these, if it is within my power to refrain. However, I will protect the sanctity of the lives of others and my own as the nature of aggression dictates.
2) I vow that I will honor all human interrelationships as voluntary and will use no coercive behavior or action to the contrary. I know that the end is always reflected by the means, and I do not want my victories to be more disgraceful than my defeats.
3) I vow to consciously shun or eschew all organizations, clubs, political parties, and governments who are blind to the nature of cause and effect or the principle of how the means determine the ends.
4) I vow to live quietly, simply, and honestly, respecting the earth that shares its bounty with us all.
5) I vow to resist tyranny using nonviolent strategies and by the withdrawal of my cooperation.
6) I vow neither to be enslaved by anyone’s demands on my life nor to be robbed by their tears. My life is mine, and only I can choose how I want to live.
7) I vow not to pursue vain desires. I will use the razor of reason to cut away all things not in harmony with my major purpose in life.
Human excellence will always be elusive until you can honor and respect the person you are and what you stand for. You must first love yourself before you can follow any injunction such as “love your neighbor as yourself.” Once you have recognized your own human excellence, your eye will be keen to spot it in others. Then, you may realize that all injunctions, both civil and religious, are insults to your intelligence. They are morally criminal because they use force and coercion, thus alleviating your responsibility to reason the means and ends.
Any interactions, state, social, domestic, or otherwise, that are not based on a voluntary agreement will be coercive by nature and should be avoided. While some of us may wholeheartedly agree that you cannot create peace by creating war, because we recognize the voluntary means-end insight, we can yet remain blind to it in social, domestic, or religious issues. That’s where the second vow comes into play again. “I will honor all human interrelationships as voluntary and will use no coercive behavior or action to the contrary.” This means even refraining from disapproving facial expressions.
You may be thinking I’m just carping and overly fastidious. But remember, if a principle applies and it works, it works on subtle levels as well. This is why my first vow to expand conscious awareness applies to all interactions. As an example, how can you respect one life form without respecting all? Wouldn't you be led to question even your choice of what goes on the dinner plate?
On another issue of life extension, if conscious life is your highest value, wouldn’t you do everything possible to preserve it? Wouldn't reason now begin to govern your decisions regarding health, weight, exercise, diet, and lifestyle? Again we come around to the voluntary means-ends insight.
So, to seek human excellence requires scrutiny of every thought, action, and behavior. Remember, you can’t scrutinize what you do not see, recognize, or remain conscious of. For this reason, I stress the importance of stilling the mind and ridding it of “vain desires.” To dissipate your life force in folly and aimless fun is to rob yourself of the greatest fulfillment of attaining human excellence.
As you polish the many facets of your multidimensional self, you’ll realize it’s all a voluntary endeavor, but certainly worth the undertaking. Before you can polish, you must chip and cut—that’s the painful part. You must decide what your highest values are, how they can be attained, and the proper means to use. If you have done all you ought to, you will shine in the eyes of all who recognize human excellence!

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One of my pet hates is being told that "things have been scientifically proven" about this or that product, or situation. Thanks, but I can make up my own mind. Take the recent statements about "Organic Food" the papers have been stating that now its been proven that it is no better than chemical laden, unnaturally forced, high intensity crops. How stupid do they think we are? If I could wave a magic wand, and have one wish. It would be that a law will be passed that anyone claiming to have scientific proof of anything, will be thoroughly investigated to see who pays their wages, who pays for their research, and what connections do they have with the object/subject of their (so called) scientific proof.

Check out the article below.

India's farmers will gladly tell you why-they champion organic food
MOST OF us are now pretty well versed in the climatic consequences of consuming Food From Far Away, but I think it's fair to say that when it comes to organic food - a partiality of the middle classes, in particular - most selections are made in the belief that organic is better for you: 'thy body is a temple' and no chemicals shalt pass thy lips, even if a few do go up thy nose at weekend dinner parties.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) maintains that organic food has no additional health benefits compared to conventionally farmed foods, and has released another study this year supporting its stand. Various EU funded studies have found the opposite. The Soil Association maintains that "no food has higher amounts of beneficial minerals, essential amino acids and vitamins than organic food", and criticizes the FSA's "limited" research criteria.
An ecologist and community leader I met in Wayanad district in northern Kerala, India, made an alarming point. He said many of the district's farmers will not eat their own produce, having witnessed the volume of pesticides used in their cultivation. Instead, they grow their own pesticide-free vegetables organic, in effect - on small plots by their houses. The conventionally reared crops are sold at market, or exported.
What isn't under question, but not nearly as widely discussed, is the link between conventional farming methods and climate change. Our agricultural systems are one of the causes of climate change, and not just through food transport and storage. The synthetic nitrogen fertilizers used in conventional farming methods generate nitrous oxide, a gas 298 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, if you compare them tonne-totonne over a IOO-year time frame.
This is the same nitrous oxide that you suck up from balloons at parties (laughing gas) and is now the most potent destroyer of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. Ironically, and tragically, it is the effects of climate change, created in no small part by conventional farming methods, which are now pushing India's organic farmers to switch back to conventional methods.
Taken from 'Rainspotting', part of a Greenpeace project on climate change in India. Read it at independent.co.uk/rainspotting

Its a MAD WORLD: We think the Libyan government should pay compensation for IRA atrocities, because they supplied the arms. Interesting! America supplied a great deal of the money to buy the arms. And if suppliers and manufacturers of arms are now to pay out compensation to victims that should put Britain into debt for infinity. Ironically Britain is currently hosting a major Arms Fair, so now, do all rocket launchers come complete with a compensation claims forms, followed closley by WARFARE LAWYERS FOR YOU?

DISTANT HEALING I have decided to start the practice of "Distant Healing" for anyone who feels they may benefit. As I spend between 2 to 3 hours a day in my Meditation/Shrine Room I now also feel this should be included with my regular practice. I know that this is a controverial subject, but having been a member of the Qigong Research Institute, and the Institute of Noetic Science for over ten years, and seen much of the seriuos reseach I personal feel this methodology works. I have also to thank my Tibetan teachers for the instruction of these distant healing practices. So all you have to do is send me a passport size photo, with the persons name on the back, or inform me of the name, if you email a photo, and I'll include the person in the sessions every day.