The Buddha said:
"Desire is the root cause of all misery."
let go of the past
let go of the future....
Dhammapada 348
desire is the bane of mankind....
Dhammapada 359
It is this desire that causes us to create a future, projecting ourselves into make believe and causing anxiety.
When we create a tomorrow and start to live in it, that's when
today dissapears.
We cannot see today, when our eyes are clouded by what tomorrow may bring.
So, desire is born out of the past and projected into the future, where once again, we can repeat our mistakes from the past.
This causes anxiety, which causes more desire, to be something other than what, and who, we really are.
We believe that the past and the future constitutes the entire mind.
Should we analyse and dissect our daily thoughts,
we find only two thoughts,
past and future.
We don't find a present.
The present is the only reality,
the only existence,
the only joy.
Present moment can only be found when the mind ceases it's chatter.
When it is stilled.
Silent.
Bliss.
Only then does anxiety cease.
Be still.....
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Monday, 21 April 2014
Friday, 18 April 2014
My friend
My friend:
Dongshan Liangjie
807-869 AD
Tang Dynasty
Ch-an Monk
Once said;
"How amazing
How amazing
Birds and trees expound the Dharma
It cannot be heard with the ear-
but when the sound is heard with the eye
It is understood."
I love this
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Dongshan Liangjie
807-869 AD
Tang Dynasty
Ch-an Monk
Once said;
"How amazing
How amazing
Birds and trees expound the Dharma
It cannot be heard with the ear-
but when the sound is heard with the eye
It is understood."
I love this
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
My thought number 23:
My thought number 23:
Enlightenment is not something we achieve.
It is the absence of something.
All our lives we go after something,
pursuing some goal.
Enlightenment is dropping all that.
Talking of it is of little use.
Practice has to be done
There is no substitute but to practice.
What to practice?
Nothing, but the breath.
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Enlightenment is not something we achieve.
It is the absence of something.
All our lives we go after something,
pursuing some goal.
Enlightenment is dropping all that.
Talking of it is of little use.
Practice has to be done
There is no substitute but to practice.
What to practice?
Nothing, but the breath.
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Thursday, 17 April 2014
Where is the mind?
Where is the mind?
For many years I have immersed myself in spiritual contemplation and growth.
Over the years I have locked myself in a pagoda in a Vipassana retreat.
Spent weeks in a Wat in far northern Thailand being a novice Therevadan Monk.
Spent time in an Ashram in Malaysia, and in China,
spent time as a barefoot doctor in a hospital run by blind masseurs, learning how the body and mind works.
I have even studied, for a short time, with a Chassidic Rabbi in a local Synagogue and a Holy Master in a I-Kuan Tao Temple, in Australia,
in Malaysia, and Taiwan.
To what end?
Did I find something that most don't know?
I do know that this morning I was reading a short discussion on what the mind is and how we should see our mind.
The next thing was where the mind is situated.
The article was written by the late Traleg Rinpoche.
From a Vajrayana point of view, Traleg Rinpoche showed me that I may have got it wrong.
Needless to say, I should start all over again.
Forget what I think I know, and begin again with a blank screen.
In understanding mind and what it is,
Tantric texts tell us that:
Mind is empty
Mind is luminous,
Mind is bliss.
Where the mind is,
is another matter.
Firstly, I thought of the emptiness of the mind.
Tantric tradition says that mind is something that cannot be grasped.
We cannot identify it with brain processes,
or with the heart.
The mind cannot be found either within,
or outside our physical selves.
Mind is not an entity,
or a thing, and that is why
the mind is empty.
Unlike inanimate objects, the mind is able to illuminate both itself and other things.
This luminosity is not discovered outside our ordinary experience.
Our experience of anger, jealousy, pride, are illuminated with a sense of clarity well before we put our interpretations on our emotions.
Luminosity of the mind comes in two situations:
when the mind is calm,
as during meditation,
and when the mind is disturbed.
With both these situations we should identify and see with clarity and not make any distinctions.
We then will see the luminosity of the mind.
The minds blissful aspect, is reliant on being able to cease in making distinctions, between our ordinary mind, and the meditative experiences of mental tranquility.
We no longer have to make distinctions within our mind saying
"this aspect is good and that aspect is bad so it must be destroyed."
When that conflict is solved, bliss takes place naturally.
Bliss is then discovered as another aspect of our own mind.
These three aspects of mind are indispensable in the tantric tradition.
Now to the question:
Where is the mind?
Traleg Rinpoche said that some identify the mind with our neural system, whilst others locate it somewhere in the heart.
If we are really sophisticated, we may think it is located in the brain.
Tantric logic tells us to identify the minds location as purely within the three aspects :
Empty, luminous and bliss.
My deepest thanks to the late Traleg Rinpoche for his insight into the tantric path.
He said that the greatest hindrance to our search is the fear of our own incompetence.
He said we need to have ultimate conviction.
Thank you dear man,
I am working on my conviction.
Nathan.
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
For many years I have immersed myself in spiritual contemplation and growth.
Over the years I have locked myself in a pagoda in a Vipassana retreat.
Spent weeks in a Wat in far northern Thailand being a novice Therevadan Monk.
Spent time in an Ashram in Malaysia, and in China,
spent time as a barefoot doctor in a hospital run by blind masseurs, learning how the body and mind works.
I have even studied, for a short time, with a Chassidic Rabbi in a local Synagogue and a Holy Master in a I-Kuan Tao Temple, in Australia,
in Malaysia, and Taiwan.
To what end?
Did I find something that most don't know?
I do know that this morning I was reading a short discussion on what the mind is and how we should see our mind.
The next thing was where the mind is situated.
The article was written by the late Traleg Rinpoche.
From a Vajrayana point of view, Traleg Rinpoche showed me that I may have got it wrong.
Needless to say, I should start all over again.
Forget what I think I know, and begin again with a blank screen.
In understanding mind and what it is,
Tantric texts tell us that:
Mind is empty
Mind is luminous,
Mind is bliss.
Where the mind is,
is another matter.
Firstly, I thought of the emptiness of the mind.
Tantric tradition says that mind is something that cannot be grasped.
We cannot identify it with brain processes,
or with the heart.
The mind cannot be found either within,
or outside our physical selves.
Mind is not an entity,
or a thing, and that is why
the mind is empty.
Unlike inanimate objects, the mind is able to illuminate both itself and other things.
This luminosity is not discovered outside our ordinary experience.
Our experience of anger, jealousy, pride, are illuminated with a sense of clarity well before we put our interpretations on our emotions.
Luminosity of the mind comes in two situations:
when the mind is calm,
as during meditation,
and when the mind is disturbed.
With both these situations we should identify and see with clarity and not make any distinctions.
We then will see the luminosity of the mind.
The minds blissful aspect, is reliant on being able to cease in making distinctions, between our ordinary mind, and the meditative experiences of mental tranquility.
We no longer have to make distinctions within our mind saying
"this aspect is good and that aspect is bad so it must be destroyed."
When that conflict is solved, bliss takes place naturally.
Bliss is then discovered as another aspect of our own mind.
These three aspects of mind are indispensable in the tantric tradition.
Now to the question:
Where is the mind?
Traleg Rinpoche said that some identify the mind with our neural system, whilst others locate it somewhere in the heart.
If we are really sophisticated, we may think it is located in the brain.
Tantric logic tells us to identify the minds location as purely within the three aspects :
Empty, luminous and bliss.
My deepest thanks to the late Traleg Rinpoche for his insight into the tantric path.
He said that the greatest hindrance to our search is the fear of our own incompetence.
He said we need to have ultimate conviction.
Thank you dear man,
I am working on my conviction.
Nathan.
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Thursday, 10 April 2014
"My cure for cancer"
"My cure for cancer"
Dear friends:
This morning I wanted to give thanks.
Who to give thanks to?
I am not Christian, I am not Indian, Muslim, Japanese or Chinese, so some thirty thousand and two Gods miss out on my thanks, although if they are listening;
I would like to think that a Quan Yin or LaoMu had a hand in my miracle.
I would love to be able to get on my knees and thank a deity, and get an answer, "that's ok, you deserve our help."
None of this happened.
The miracle did happen.
Some three years ago a blood test showed an elevated reading for prostate cancer.
Over the next three years and four very personal examinations, and a biopsy, showed increases in the size of the prostate and the presence of cancer.
Last Friday I had a biopsy to see if the cancer had spread.
Yesterday I got the result:
"You are cancer free."
The surgeon and I discussed the result and decided that a relaxed state of mind and a non ownership of the dis-ease is a great start to a cure.
It all started with my practice of Anapanasati
(breath meditation) http://youtu.be/sTQbxtD-y30
In my case, this practice helped me to remove my dis-ease.
The Buddha said that we are the total cause of our own suffering.
The Buddha included dis-ease as suffering.
The removal of suffering is the recognition that we are suffering and the way to remove suffering is in the practice.
The practice also includes the "eightfold path."
I am most pleased to say that I feel great.
For those who are suffering, and not feeling great, may I suggest to lesson the suffering,
try the practice.
With Metta,
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Dear friends:
This morning I wanted to give thanks.
Who to give thanks to?
I am not Christian, I am not Indian, Muslim, Japanese or Chinese, so some thirty thousand and two Gods miss out on my thanks, although if they are listening;
I would like to think that a Quan Yin or LaoMu had a hand in my miracle.
I would love to be able to get on my knees and thank a deity, and get an answer, "that's ok, you deserve our help."
None of this happened.
The miracle did happen.
Some three years ago a blood test showed an elevated reading for prostate cancer.
Over the next three years and four very personal examinations, and a biopsy, showed increases in the size of the prostate and the presence of cancer.
Last Friday I had a biopsy to see if the cancer had spread.
Yesterday I got the result:
"You are cancer free."
The surgeon and I discussed the result and decided that a relaxed state of mind and a non ownership of the dis-ease is a great start to a cure.
It all started with my practice of Anapanasati
(breath meditation) http://youtu.be/sTQbxtD-y30
In my case, this practice helped me to remove my dis-ease.
The Buddha said that we are the total cause of our own suffering.
The Buddha included dis-ease as suffering.
The removal of suffering is the recognition that we are suffering and the way to remove suffering is in the practice.
The practice also includes the "eightfold path."
I am most pleased to say that I feel great.
For those who are suffering, and not feeling great, may I suggest to lesson the suffering,
try the practice.
With Metta,
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Sunday, 6 April 2014
Once again:
Once again:
Buddha Dharma at practice:
The monk Huike came to Bodhidharma pleading:
"Bring me peace master,
there is a hole in me,
I am incomplete,
please help me."
"Bring me your mind,"
Bodhidharma replied,
"and I will set it at peace."
Huike looked and looked, without success,
finally came back to Bodhidharma and said:
"I've searched everywhere and can't find it."
"There,"
Bodhidharma said,
"I have set it at peace."
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Buddha Dharma at practice:
The monk Huike came to Bodhidharma pleading:
"Bring me peace master,
there is a hole in me,
I am incomplete,
please help me."
"Bring me your mind,"
Bodhidharma replied,
"and I will set it at peace."
Huike looked and looked, without success,
finally came back to Bodhidharma and said:
"I've searched everywhere and can't find it."
"There,"
Bodhidharma said,
"I have set it at peace."
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
The Buddha said
The Buddha said
"Attha dipa:"
"You are the light."
My latest copy of Buddhadharma:
The practitioners quarterly magazine, has an amazing article that has touched me profoundly.
"A glimmer of Dharma"
written by Patrick Brady, an inmate at a prison in Corcoran California.
Patrick is housed in a solitary confinement unit for twenty three hours a day. He has been there for fourteen years so far.
Patrick found the Dharma some two years ago and
he tells us that his path is difficult.
What an understatement when we consider our life of freedom.
To think of being locked in a cell, the size of a bathroom and try to clear the mind.
His food is pushed through a slot in the door twice a day.
No contact, visits are rare.
Phone calls are limited to death notification of family members only.
He is allowed one hour a day exercise, chained up, accompanied by two guards to walk in an enclosed space.
Patrick tells us that he finds relief in the Dharma, and that his suffering that he clings to, can dissipate by his letting go of it.
He says that is easier said than done, but he is practicing, albeit under most difficult circumstance.
He says that in his world of anger, hatred and pain, it is hard to draw much from the Dharma.
He says he grasps for it like a drowning man reaching for a life jacket.
One thing that strikes a chord with Patrick is that, he has learnt, that the Buddha teaches not to cling, not to grasp, and not to define things.
He says at this point in his practice, he does all three.
"I cling to the Dharma, I grasp at the precepts, and I define Buddhism, rather crudely, as a way to deal with the shiftiness of life." He says.
He tells us that meditation, as a space of clarity, alludes him.
However, he has just finished a book by Soto Zen teacher Katagiri who advises quite simply
"Just shut up and sit."
This message resonates with him and when his mind is full of monkeys, he says, he just shuts up and sits.
Finally he says that he stands on the edges of Buddhism and that keeps him real.
"In this spot from which I cannot move, I am beginning to recognize both myself and the walls I have built in my own mind.
I am starting, for the first time, to see a way to break through."
Consider our life, filled with love and joy.
His life filled with anger, hatred, and guilt.
He made life choices that maybe we would not have made.
This does, not sever him from finding peace and clarity of thought.
Whatever circumstance we find ourselves in,
we can find solace in the Buddha's Dharma.
I wrote recently to my friend Nanadhaja Bikkhu;
"Though this hut is small,
it includes the entire world."
This becomes truly clear in terms of the life of Patrick Brady.
May he and you all be guarded and guided.
With Metta
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
"Attha dipa:"
"You are the light."
My latest copy of Buddhadharma:
The practitioners quarterly magazine, has an amazing article that has touched me profoundly.
"A glimmer of Dharma"
written by Patrick Brady, an inmate at a prison in Corcoran California.
Patrick is housed in a solitary confinement unit for twenty three hours a day. He has been there for fourteen years so far.
Patrick found the Dharma some two years ago and
he tells us that his path is difficult.
What an understatement when we consider our life of freedom.
To think of being locked in a cell, the size of a bathroom and try to clear the mind.
His food is pushed through a slot in the door twice a day.
No contact, visits are rare.
Phone calls are limited to death notification of family members only.
He is allowed one hour a day exercise, chained up, accompanied by two guards to walk in an enclosed space.
Patrick tells us that he finds relief in the Dharma, and that his suffering that he clings to, can dissipate by his letting go of it.
He says that is easier said than done, but he is practicing, albeit under most difficult circumstance.
He says that in his world of anger, hatred and pain, it is hard to draw much from the Dharma.
He says he grasps for it like a drowning man reaching for a life jacket.
One thing that strikes a chord with Patrick is that, he has learnt, that the Buddha teaches not to cling, not to grasp, and not to define things.
He says at this point in his practice, he does all three.
"I cling to the Dharma, I grasp at the precepts, and I define Buddhism, rather crudely, as a way to deal with the shiftiness of life." He says.
He tells us that meditation, as a space of clarity, alludes him.
However, he has just finished a book by Soto Zen teacher Katagiri who advises quite simply
"Just shut up and sit."
This message resonates with him and when his mind is full of monkeys, he says, he just shuts up and sits.
Finally he says that he stands on the edges of Buddhism and that keeps him real.
"In this spot from which I cannot move, I am beginning to recognize both myself and the walls I have built in my own mind.
I am starting, for the first time, to see a way to break through."
Consider our life, filled with love and joy.
His life filled with anger, hatred, and guilt.
He made life choices that maybe we would not have made.
This does, not sever him from finding peace and clarity of thought.
Whatever circumstance we find ourselves in,
we can find solace in the Buddha's Dharma.
I wrote recently to my friend Nanadhaja Bikkhu;
"Though this hut is small,
it includes the entire world."
This becomes truly clear in terms of the life of Patrick Brady.
May he and you all be guarded and guided.
With Metta
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
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