LCZ Notes 7/26/2010

Doen- There are a lot of ways to look at the heart of the practice and its embodiement.

Tibetan Buddhism is more academic while Zen is a bit more close lipped.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead  (henceforth, TBD)- (online resource for an older translation with audio video links: http://www.summum.us/mummification/tbotd/ ) Caryn and I have a bit of karma tied to this book-

Back when I was 17 Timothy Leary was talking about TBD and we were doing legal LSD a friend was making. Leary’s recommendation was 500 µg while having someone read the TBD but we were taking 5000 µg. We would lay down and have someone read the only available part of the book while peaking.

Caryn read her dad from TBD while he was passing. And Genpo read TBD to his mother while she was passing- At one point Genpo passed the book to Doen to read for his mother. I asked Genpo later on a question about teaching and he gave a long detailed answer- I told him it could wait until afterwards if he wanted  to get back to his mother- and he replied: “Nothing is more important than teaching.” Which should give you an idea about how serious Zen is.

Doen Reads from TBD: (What follows we’ll call bad-jazz-para-translations Juris)

“-When this ordinary consciousness is examined
--free of observer--radiant--Not
-a mere nothing-- yet not emptiness and lack of existence
	essence of awareness itself--
		This
naturally pristine and uncreated--- unknowable”

I am This

Doen: The heart of the matter, you are not you. Inside you know this. And if not you are lieing to yourself.  Mind is the thing everything is inside. Emptiness is the thing itself. You are a kind of a medium- that is what you are you are that thing not a person.

You can see you are an empty field:

The Heart Sutra as spoken by Doen:

“No wisdom
No gain
No Hindrance
No Fear”

From: http://www.fpmt-osel.org/meditate/hrtsutra.htm
 in emptiness there is no form,
no feeling, no recognition, no volition, no
consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no
body, no mind; no visible form, no sound, no smell
no taste, no tangible, no mental object;
no eye-element, etc., up to no mind-element,
and no mental-consciousness element;
no ignorance and no extinction of ignorance, etc.,
up to no aging and death and no extinction of aging and
death; likewise there is no Suffering, Origin, Cessation
or Path, no wisdom-knowledge, no attainment and no

non-attainment.

Doen: To begin to understand this is the beginning of realization. To close the gap between what you know and what you experience- Understanding the self is empty is to understand you are not you.

You have an experience where you die “The great death’ to yourself-

The first reaction for me was sadness that everyone is suffering for something they don’t have to suffer. In Buddhism this is called the birth of compassion.

That all of our stories are just stories. The key is to practice harder. In the Tantric tradition as in practice so in life.

To see what emptiness is is to see what the potentialof practice is. It is easier for some to see unity than it is to see emptiness.

Remember everyone is trying to be happy! as part of your practice.

During the historical Buddha’s life there were three teaching or vehicles- sometimes seen as a progression in the teaching but rather they were a cyclic-

Hinayana, Mahayana and Tantrayana (Tantrayana I believe is not what Doen actually said, but it is what I found on this source: http://viewonbuddhism.org/vehicles.html Juris)

Hinayana or the small vessel is about the individual
Mahayana or the Great Vessel is about others

Mahayana includes both the individual and others- One can not feel differently about yourself and others its all a single field. So, start with your Sangha- make each other a part of your practice.

http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Book-Dead-Complete-Translation/dp/0143104942

http://www.amazon.com/Indestructible-Truth-Spirituality-Buddhism-Reginald/dp/1570629102/

http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Through-Spiritual-Materialism-Shambhala/dp/1590306392/
