Subj: Take four Kinnaras Date: 97-11-26 14: 43: 21 est from: Emmasirani We are so often depending on this religion or that, this 'ism' or that. Don't even think about Buddhism
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| Editor's Note More Sources on Padmasambhava 'The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava, by Yeshe Tsogyal, translated into English by Kenneth Douglas and Gwendolyn Bays, with an introduction by Tarthang Tulku. In two volumes, with 58 thankas reproduced in color. Dharma Publishing, 1978. If you are new to this material, you might read it in conjunction with W. Y. Evans-Wentz's 'Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation' which explains this same biography in detail, chapter by chapter. Some of what is confusing in this biography is explained in Crystal Mirror volume 4, which contains articles by Tarthang Tulku on the life of Padmasambhava, his 25 most famous disciples, and the beginnings of Buddhism in Tibet. 'The Life and Liberation' and 'Crystal Mirror 4' are available from Dharma Publishing in Berkeley (www.nyingma.org), and all three can be read for free by interlibrary loan. The Editor Subject: Re: Editor's Note: Padmasambhava Date: Sat 10 Jan 1998 3.38 AM EDT From: B 10 49 Message-id: <19980110073800.CAA27067@ladder02.news.aol.com> May i humbly say during this intermission break that i think this is the most charming presentation of teachings ever to be imagined. Dearest Emmasirani~, i hope you plan to publish these insights for the benefit of raising consciousness of all sentient beings! :) So many voice not being able to comprehend the books they have attempted, and become too frustrated. Your story forms are exquisit!! I fore see them as the "NewAge Grimm Fairy Tales" (so to speak) and the bed side companion of every child, if not adult who seeks a easy to follow flowing intro to BuddhaMind. Just my opinion As i gassho to this wonderous illusion B :) ______________ Profile for B 10 49: Screen Name: B 10 49 Member Name: BARBARA Location: MA Birthdate: late October Sex: Female Marital Status: Married... Hobbies: everything under the Sun and beyond Computers: yup Occupation: Dental Arts Personal Quote: The world is perfect at each moment; every stone is in it's place" _______________ Subject: to Barbara Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 3.56 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114195601.OAA19609@ladder01.news.aol.com> To Barbara 10 49, Thank you. The Editor _______________ Subject: In the Ramble Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.00 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114200000.PAA20110@ladder01.news.aol.com> At ten minutes to four in the morning, Beelzebub Satan strode through the Ramble in Central Park. He often came here at night, especially in Winter, to walk and think. Tonight he was particularly thoughtful, because he had not heard from Crombie since Halloween. This was unusual, as Crombie usually reported back to him every week or two. Beel had asked Laeticia to check, and she could not find him. She said Crombie's daughter Maria, and her two sons, Yeheshua and Wim, were also nowhere to be seen. There had been ice storms throughout eastern Canada, and in the northeastern states. Beel thought of the people there, many without food, heat or water. He prayed for them. He often prayed while out walking -- walking helped his concentration. There were few people in the park, because it was late and quite cold. Officially, the park closed at midnight, but there was no way the police could enforce the curfew. Beel noticed a bright light over the boat lake. As he looked, the light came closer. He squinted his eyes, but couldn't make out the shape. The light settled down on one of the banks of the lake. Beel walked towards it, curious. It was a flying saucer, about twenty feet in diameter, copper in color, with no ornamentation or lights. By the time he reached it, the occupants had disembarked and were standing a few feet from the ship -- a man and a woman, perhaps in their late twenties, or maybe early thirties. 'Hi,' said Beel. 'Hello,' said the man. He had dark hair to his shoulders, a full mustache, dark eyes, and wore a black double-breasted dinner jacket and blue-jeans. The woman, who was tall and pretty, also had long dark hair, and wore an off-white knit dress under a dark brown motorcycle jacket. 'Hi,' she said. 'Welcome to Manhattan,' said Beelzebub Satan. 'Thank you,' replied the man, with a slight, maybe European, accent. 'Thanks,' said the woman, who also had a slight, unrecognisable accent. 'Do you live here?' 'Sometimes,' said Beel. 'Do you know a good place for Ukrainian food?' asked the man. 'Veselka. It's on Second Avenue at Ninth Street, the southwest corner.' 'Want to join us?' asked the man. 'Sure.' Beel looked at his watch. 'Shall I call for my car?' 'I'd like to walk,' said the woman. 'Me too,' said the man. 'How far is it?' 'About three miles,' said Beel. 'Mind walking?' she asked. 'No, that'd be fine,' said Beel. Subject: The weather is weird Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.02 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114200200.PAA20380@ladder01.news.aol.com> 'Well, the weather is weird -- all over the world.' Mandy wiped her mouth carefully with a paper napkin. 'And it's going to get worse and worse,' said the old man. 'And then what?' 'And then a terrific shock. And the few who survive will be forced to pull together.' 'What kind of shock?' 'What does it matter? It's best not to know the future. No matter what happens, try to do the right thing. Which is: think of others first.' 'Think of others first,' she repeated, sitting at her kitchen table with a blank look. 'What do you mean, exactly?' He picked up a fork. 'All our lives, it has been beaten into us -- look out for number one. You might say it has been bred into us. We are genetically programmed to be selfish. We are the inheritors of the habit of selfishness of millions of selfish men and women. Everything in us, and everything around us, tells us: think of yourself, and forget how everyone else feels. 'Of course genetics isn't the whole story. It is actually just a small part. The pressure to be selfish really comes from our own sanskaras. Do you know about sanskaras?' 'No,' said Mandy, looking a bit grey. She kept thinking of the destruction -- of much of the Earth, and of most of mankind. She hoped and prayed that this old man was wrong. 'Do you want to?' 'Want to what?' 'Want to know about sanskaras?' 'Of course.' She tried a half-smile. 'Not of course. Knowledge means responsibility. The more you know -- I mean the more you really know -- the more you have to do. Knowledge is power you can use to help others. That's what it's for.' 'But what about helping yourself?' 'Helping others IS helping yourself. That's the secret. There ARE no others. It is only YOU, in all these different forms.' 'I don't understand.' 'I know it seems difficult. You understand the idea of a soul, right?' 'A soul?' 'The idea that you are not just a body, not just a mind, but that you are also soul.' 'Yes. But I thought in Buddhism, there is no soul.' 'It's not that simple. There's been a lot of misunderstanding. The Buddha taught that there is no unchangeable, solid, fixed entity that, when you die, goes on to heaven or hell, or reincarnates. But he never taught that there is no Real Self. This is the thing: the self in us is the self of all. In other words, there is only one of us, one being, and that being lives in ALL forms. Not just in this one body (he touched her hand) but in ALL bodies.' 'You mean, it's the same soul in everyone.' 'Exactly.' She lit up. 'So that's why selfishness is a delusion. Because you are working for something that does not exist. There is no separate individual self.' 'That's it.' The old man sat back in his chair. 'Wow.' She looked at her fingers, at the table in front of her. She looked at the empty coffee cup. 'I've got a lot to think about.' Subject: Sanskaras Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.04 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114200400.PAA20651@ladder01.news.aol.com> 'It's one thing to understand intellectually. And quite another to experience it. To experience that we are all one.' 'Is this... an advanced teaching?' 'No.' He took a sip from his cup. 'It's the absolute beginning teaching. Until you get this, you can't even begin.' 'Begin what?' 'The journey. The spiritual path.' 'What about san... sankaras?' 'Sanskaras. Sanskaras are the imprints left on the mind by all we see, feel, experience, and by everything we do. These imprints then motivate us to think, speak and act in the future. 'They also determine what happens TO us. What I did yesterday creates how I feel, and what I experience today. And what I do today creates what will happen TO me tomorrow.' 'Are they in the brain?' she asked. 'The sanskaras, I mean.' 'No. They are in the mind. The brain, contrary to what scientists used to think, is not the seat of intelligence. The brain is a switchboard. The mind, which is invisible to us ordinarily, exists on the plane of mind. Sometimes it is called the Mental World. 'This physical world is only the outer layer of what exists. The inner layers are invisible to ordinary men and women. When you advance -- spiritually -- you begin to experience the inner worlds, the inner layers. And one of those layers is the Mental World, the world of mind. In that world, everything is determined by the sanskaras.' 'I think this is over my head,' said Mandy. 'Let me give you an example. Shall I?' 'Sure.' You go out to get the paper. You want to read the news. You walk to the corner to get the Times. You pay for it, and as you look at the headlines, a woman approaches you. She says, excuse me, ma'am, could you spare some money for food? You look up, and something moves you, and you start to give her your change. Then, you don't know why, you reach into your bag, and you give her a twenty. She lights up. She says, Oh, thank you. God bless you. And then she goes off.' 'Now why did you give her a twenty, instead of change? Why give her anything at all? Or why not give her everything you have? Your loft, your clothes, all your money, your paintings and dishes, everything? It is the sanskaras in your mind that determine how you will act. 'And the sanskaras were put there -- you might say they were engraved there -- by what you did before. By what you experienced before, by what you felt before, by how you were treated before -- but mostly by how you acted.' Subject: The Blitz Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.06 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114200600.PAA20887@ladder01.news.aol.com> Mandy said, 'What you do in the past creates what you are now?' 'Right. Now let's go back fifty years. You are living in London during the Blitz. Not in this form, but in your last incarnation. The Nazis are bombing England, and houses are catching fire. Missiles come out of the sky, and fall everywhere. Everyone is terrified. 'Now you are walking down the street in London, it's night time, and there is a strange whoosh, all of a sudden, and there's a light in the sky. You are petrified. A lady opens a door, she sees you, and she grabs you and pulls you in. You find yourself in a foyer. She says, Get down. You both get on the floor. Then there's a big explosion... and then silence. When you finally get up, you go outside, and you find a piece of a bomb hit the street right near where you were standing. This woman saved your life. You've never seen her before -- you don't know her at all. 'You thank her -- what else can you do? And you go on home, quite shaken. This woman has saved your life. But you never see her again. 'Now this is me?' asked Mandy. 'In my last life?" 'Yes. Fifty years pass, and the wheel of fate turns. Both of you have come again, each in a different body. Now you live in New York. One of you is doing well -- that's you. You have a good life, friends, money, a little security. And the other one -- the woman who, in your last life, saved you -- she is living on the street. Maybe her mother was a drug addict and threw her out. Maybe she is addicted herself, or turns tricks to survive. Anyhow, she asks you for money, and you give it to her. 'And whenever you see her again, you give her more. You give her your coat, because you see she is cold. You are driven to help this woman, but you don't know why. Why help her, out of all the thousands who live in the streets? 'It's because of sanskaras. She did you a good deed -- she saved your life -- back in London during the war. Now you are both back -- you have been recycled -- and you are drawn to help her. And neither of you remembers why. 'So,' said Mandy, 'the reason I give her money now is that she saved my life back then.' 'Right. Both your minds were engraved by the experiences. That engraving is the sanskaras. And they -- the sanskaras -- work like magnets, drawing the two of you together again, even briefly, to work out that particular bit of karma. She helped you then -- you help her now. You let her stay with you, and get her a job in a flower shop. 'And the sanskaras that you create now by interacting with her, will create a future time, perhaps fifty years from now, and you will meet again and have a new interaction. Maybe she will help you when you're in trouble. And neither of you will know why. Or maybe you won't be in trouble, you'll be two little boys who live next door. You feel attracted to each other. Of course you don't know the background. But you have this past in common, and you become friends for awhile. You like each other, or maybe you just feel a pull, a magnetism.' Subject: Is it endless? Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.09 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114200900.PAA21188@ladder01.news.aol.com> 'It sounds really complicated,' said Mandy. 'It is. Everything we do creates sanskaras, and the new sanskaras have to be worked out, which means lived. So we keep incarnating again and again.' 'Is it endless?' 'No. The goal of life is to get off the wheel. To become free of the impelling force of the sanskaras -- the impressions on our minds. All spiritual practice is to get free from -- to wipe away -- these sanskaras. When the sanskaras are finally, completely removed, all that is left is the one Real Self that is in everyone. That Real Self experiencing itself is Perfect Enlightenment.' 'But isn't that experience selfish? asked Mandy. 'I mean, I get liberated, or Nirvana, or whatever you call it. But you don't, and that woman doesn't. It's only me.' 'It is not a selfish experience, a separative experience. It is not a selfish goal. Because when you attain that highest experience -- and every culture, every tradition has a different name for it -- you become what you really were all along. The delusion of being a separate self disappears forever. And with it goes the illusion of the creation, and the illusion of time. There is only you being infinite, experiencing infinite bliss. And that you includes everyone, every thing.' 'If you come back -- I mean, if you regain consciousness of the creation, and you come back to your old body and identity -- then you can help liberate others. You have the insight and the power to help free them. Finally you are of some real use. Not just patching something that is falling apart, but helping to liberate others -- who are really aspects of your own self -- from the wheel of birth and death.' 'Does everyone come back? I mean after getting free?' Mandy poured two glasses of water. 'No. Only a few return after Realisation. They are the saviours of mankind -- the Buddhas.' _______________ 'First time in New York?' asked Beelzebub Satan. 'No, but we haven't been here in awhile.' The man smiled at him. Where are you from?' 'All over,' said the man. 'India, originally,' said the woman. 'Have we met before?' asked Beel. 'Could be,' replied the man. 'Do you like Ukrainian food?' 'Very much. But its hard to find without meat.' 'They still eat flesh here?' asked the man. Beel took a deep breath. He was shaking. 'Yes. But just for a few more years.' They crossed Central Park South, and walked to Fifth Avenue. 'I'm Beel,' said Beelzebub Satan. 'Peym,' said the man. He extended a hand. 'And this is Mondo.' 'I'm happy to meet you. Both of you.' The woman smiled at him, and pulled up the collar of her jacket. from The Bunnysattva Sutra Subject: OH NO -- A MIXUP Date: Wed 14 Jan 1998 4.30 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980114203001.PAA23737@ladder01.news.aol.com> Editor's Note Allright, if this isn't confusing enough already, the order of the posts has been mixed up. The proper sequence should be: In the Ramble The weather is weird Sanskaras The Blitz Is it endless? Somehow they got posted wrong. If they don't make sense (and they don't, in the wrong sequence) you might read them again in the right order. Sorry. The Editor [ THE MIXUP HAS BEEN CORRECTED ALREADY IN THIS COPY OF THE BUNNYSATTVA SUTRA ] Subject: Renshenfengwangjiang Date: Sat 17 Jan 1998 4.29 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980117082901.DAA13892@ladder02.news.aol.com> 'The world of spirit is not closed. Your consciousness is closed. Your heart is dead.' Goethe 'Cheese blintzes, with apple sauce and sour cream,' said Mondo. 'I'll have the same,' said Peym. 'How's the coffee.' 'Bad,' said Beel. 'Do you like Celery Soda?' 'Too sweet,' said Peym. Beelzebub Satan looked up at the waitress, who had purple hair tied in knots, and two gold rings in her left nostril. 'I'd like eight potato perogin, fried. And a poppy roll with butter. Is the butter fresh?' 'Dunno,' said the waitress, scribbling. 'Wanna drink?' 'Tea. With milk.' 'Anyting else?' 'No, that's all.' 'Danks,' said the waitress, looking stressed. She put the pencil behind her ear, and walked off. 'I wish they'd get incandescent lights,' said Beel. 'Gas lights would be nice,' said Mondo. 'They don't use them now, do they?' 'It's been a while,' said Beel. She took off her jacket. 'We've come here for a class. Tomorrow evening. It's called Buddhism for Idiots.' 'Want to come?' said Peym. 'The teacher is Patra Chosnyid Skybamedpa -- a student of the Bunnysattva. This is his first teaching.' 'Thank you. I'd be honored. May I bring someone?' 'Of course. It's at seven-thirty, at the Washington Square Arch.' Peym took a sip of water. 'Outdoors?' 'At the Arch.' 'Do you need a place to stay?' asked Beel. 'I think,' said Peym, 'we'll stay at the Soho Grand. But thank you.' 'If you change your mind, I have lots of room.' 'Thanks,' said Mondo. 'If we don't like the Grand, we might take you up on it. Where shall we go to dance? ______________ 'Did he recognise us?' asked Mondo, straightening her dress before a gold-framed mirror. 'Of course.' Peym was brushing out his hair. 'How do you know?' Peym smiled at her. 'I thought the saucer might throw him off,' said Mondo. 'I mean, it being contemporary and all. And our clothes...' 'He doesn't miss much.' 'How long has this been going on.' 'What?' 'You and he meeting this way?' 'Thousands of years.' 'Doesn't it get tiresome?' 'Do you get tired of me?' asked Peym. 'Well... not yet,' she said, and kissed him. _____________ 'They're here.' Beelzebub Satan, visibly shaken, leaned on a lamp-post at the corner of Ninth Street and Second Avenue. He spoke into a tiny black cell-phone.' 'They?' asked Laeticia, his secretary, half-asleep. 'Sorry to wake you.' 'Tsokay. I've slept enough. Almost time to get up and sit.' 'It's Padmasambhava and his consort, Mandharava. It took me a minute before I recognised...' 'They're HERE? NOW?' 'I just left them. They've gone to the Soho Grand -- and then they're going dancing.' 'Oh my God. I'll be right there. Where are you?' 'Veselka. But I need to walk. How about the all-night donut shop, the one just off Sixth Avenue near Bleecker? You know, facing that triangle with benches, by the big Catholic church. 'You sure you're okay?' 'I just need some air... Wear something nice.' 'I can't believe it. I...' 'Put on your dancing shoes. And bring Renshenfengwangjiang -- as much as you have. And four sets of earplugs.' from The Bunnysattva Sutra Subject: Editor's Note: Background Date: Sat 17 Jan 1998 4.34 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980117083401.DAA14266@ladder02.news.aol.com> Padmasambhava by Tarthang Tulku As the dispeller of darkness, and the immediate expression of Buddhahood, Guru Rinpoche addresses himself to the consciousness of all beings... He challenges every manifestation of negativity with an attitude that each situation in life, regardless of its outward appearance, can prove to be an instruction in truth.' ... The Great Guru is more than human -- he is the incarnation of Sakyamuni Buddha and an emanation of Arya Maitreya (the coming Buddha), and so the beingness of his existence is beyond the matrix of temporality and spatiality. The power of his mind is beyond the limited domain of origination and dissolution, and thus far exceeds the concretizing tendencies of the human intellect. Consequently, we as humans find it most difficult to apprehend the magnificent abilities of this great Master. It would not be an error to say that he simultaneously dwelled in caves, jungles, gardens and groves, near rivers and lakes, and on mountains. At these various locations he performed initiations and sadhanas with his disciples and other followers. According to Indian reckoning, it is said that the Lotus-born Guru lived for 3,000 years, which in sidereal time would be 1,500 years. During this period he journeyed to Persia, Afghanistan, South India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Burma, China, Russia, and many other distant lands -- and even to other worlds. Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche 'Buddhism in Tibet: The Early Chronicles' Crystal Mirror, volume 4, p. 5, 95 Mandharava by Tarthang Tulku Daughter of the Zahor king, Mandharava was regarded by everyone as an incarnate goddess. The entire village, as well as forty royal suitors from the kingdoms of India, Persia, Turkey and China, admired her pleasing, captivating features. But, thinking over her past lives, she decided to follow a spiritual path. Exercising his prescience, Padmasambhava discerned that the time had come to instruct Mandharava, and flew on a cloud from the Dhanakosha Lake to Zahor. There he found her on retreat with her followers, and instructed them in the Mantrayana teachings. The king, however, was outraged. Misunderstanding Padma's seclusion with his daughter, he decreed that she be tossed into a dark pit, without sight of the blue sky, and that Padma be burned at the stake. Stripped naked, Padma's hands were tied behind his back, a rope was placed around his neck, and he was bound to a stake and wrapped in oil. Thus was he set aflame, and the smoke hid the sun and the sky. But all the Deities and Buddhas came to Padma's aid, and he transformed the pyre into a rainbow-enhaloed lake, in the middle of which he sat on the pollen bed of an enormous white lotus. Under Guru Rinpoche's guidance, Mandharava renounced all worldly attachments and practiced meditation. On one occasion Amitayus appeared to them as they were meditating in a cave, and placed on their heads the urn of boundless life, the nectar of immortality. Thereafter Mandharava traveled throughout the border regions of northern India and into Tibet. Never dying, she manifests in many places at different times to teach the way to Liberation. Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche 'Buddhism in Tibet: The Early Chronicles' Crystal Mirror, volume 4, p. 71 Om Ah Hum Vajra Bunnysattva Siddhi Hum Subject: Terma Text? Date: Tue 20 Jan 1998 5.07 AM EDT From: PooDee 49 Message-id: <19980120090701.EAA27718@ladder01.news.aol.com> While wandering the buddha-fields of rolling readers usa where the hosts of buddhas and bodhisattvasgladden and edify youth by story telling and instruction in bookyana generally, I discovered a set of handsomely boxed scriptures entitled BUNNICULA THE VAMPIRE BUNNY AND HIS FRIENDS. by one James Howe (Avon press). Honest. The four book set comes recommended by my friends at rolling readers, a volunteer tutoring service which distributes a lot of books in the elementary schools. Thought to myself, "But of course, the Bunnysattva must emanate in wrathful aspect... practicing chod perhaps?" Avon Camelot books. Tashi friends.... Subject: Re: Terma Text? Date: Fri 23 Jan 1998 3.49 AM EDT From: Gymnopedie Message-id: <19980123074901.CAA26411@ladder01.news.aol.com> Dear Emm asirani What is Renshenfangwangjang? Dear Poo Dee 49 What is chod? Thank you. Subject: To Gymnopedie Date: Sat 24 Jan 1998 4.42 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980124084201.DAA19787@ladder01.news.aol.com> Editor's Note Renshenfengwangjiang, a liquid tonic taken in hot water, comes in tiny brown glass bottles. The main ingredients are Ginseng and Royal Jelly, and the most common brand is Hsiang Yang, which is made in Harbin, China. It can sometimes be found in natural food stores, but is more reasonably priced in Chinese groceries. Subject: Blodgett Funni Date: Sat 24 Jan 1998 4.47 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980124084701.DAA20084@ladder01.news.aol.com> Download 182.86 Kb. Share with your friends:
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