“I have been wondering about how the emulation of Ramana Maharshi can in any way be practical. Anyone who wishes to respond to this question is invited to give hard evidence direct from their own life. I’m talking about jobs, family, fights with the spouse. I’m not talking about a review of what Ramana Maharshi said.”
I remember the first time I met a Buddhist teacher. A zen Roshi came to give a public talk.
Roshi began by saying that since we had all come to see him – he would take off his clothes if we liked.
Then, after a short Dharma talk – he made the assembled crowd stand up, put our hands on our hips, lean back, stick out our bellys and laugh.
At first the attempt was pretty pathetic, we were a very intense group – but, eventually we were rolling around on the floor laughing. A good laugh is the fastest way out of clinging that I have ever found.
Joyce Short is a contributor to both the HarshaSatsangh and NondualitySalon mailing lists.
The image was taken by Jason Gregory
A common issue that often comes up in the minds of aspirants of Truth is, “Of what value is sustained practice? Is it necessary?” As a long-term Buddhist practitioner and someone who has dabbled in Advaita Vedanta, I have come to see practice as an absolute necessity. I find that in my own practice, it has helped me achieve, what is the most poignant answer to the most revealing question that the aspirant can ask his or herself. This simply being, “What is it that I really want in life?” I have found that the answer to this question, if one is completely honest with oneself, directly points to the need to practice.
I remember when I used to do the exercise, “I Am”.
For years I did that exercise. I thought it would lead me to the discovery of who or what I was. There was “Who Am I?,” “I Am That” and “Thou Art That.” I did those exercises for a long time. I loved Ramana Maharshi and Nisargatta Maharaj and Ramesh Balsekar, the great non-dualists who propound those exercises. They certainly found out a lot about who they were. I read their books with a fervor and I adored the way I felt when I read them and I was propelled into a tremendous longing to find out what they found. And I was assured that this particular wanting was OK because it was about the one thing that matters; who “I” am. That wanting was real strong. And it made me happy because I felt like I could know. After all, those guys, they knew!
Whether ultimate reality is fullness of the Self or Emptiness has always been a fascinating problem. It had been for long a debate between Buddhists and Advaitins, and among Buddhists themselves (Yogacara with the Mind-Only theory and Madhyamika with the Shunyata or Emptiness theory).
Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Ch’an (Chinese Zen) but sometimes is regarded as the real father of this tradition, in his famous Platform Sutra said that “seeing one’s own original nature is enlightenment.” His view was condemned by other Buddhists as heretic because orthodox Buddhism believed in (absolute) No-Self. His Platform Sutra was burned after his death.
Nirvana, the Third Dharma Seal, is the ground of being, the substance of all that is. A wave does not have to die in order to become water. Water is the substance of the wave. The wave is already water. We are also like that. We carry in us the ground of interbeing, nirvana, the world of no-birth and no-death, no permanence and no impermanence, no self and no nonself.Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts. The notions of impermanence and nonself were offered by the Buddha as instruments of practice, not as doctrines to worship, fight or die for. “My dear friends,” the Buddha said,” the Dharma I offer you is only a raft to help you to cross over to the other shore.” The raft is not to be held onto as an object of worship. It is an instrument for crossing over to the shore of well-being. If you are caught in the Dharma, it is no longer the Dharma. Continue reading
KUAN-YIN
They say you cannot say
When will she appear,
Wherefrom will she come.
For ages I searched perfections
Continue reading
WATERFALL AT LU-SHAN
Sunlight streams on the river stones.
From high above,the river steadily plunges-
Three thousand feet of sparkling water-
The Milky Way pouring down from heaven.
Li T’ai-po
A chariot is not asserted to be other than its parts,
Nor non-other. It also does not possess them.
It is not in the parts, nor are the parts in it.
It is not the mere collection [of its parts], nor is it their shape.
[The self and the aggregates are] similar.
– Chandrakirti, Supplement to (Nagarjuna’s)
“Treatise on the Middle Way”
Luthar.com 