The main way to practice is to see that your disturbing emotions and concepts exist only in relative reality. They do not exist in genuine reality, and ultimately they are self-liberated. See that is is the same for all contradictions and conflicting appearances—they exist only in relative reality. Ultimately, their nature is self-liberated equality. So whatever manifests in your …
Buddhism
Practice Notes: Alicorn
Was thinking of unicorns the other day—curious, in particular, about whether their one horn was also called a “unicorn.” It made sense to me that this would be the case, but I wasn’t certain, so set off to explore … A few Googles later, here’s what I had learned: The root of the word unicorn is the Latin adjective unicornis (having one horn)—from uni (one) and cornus (horn). The horn …
Two Moons, part two
In the previous post I offered the two-moons metaphor as a way of understanding the Bon Dzogchen suggestion that the Buddhist two-truths doctrine—viz. the distinction between relative truth and absolute truth—really makes no sense. Now, in the interest of fairness, let's have a closer look at the Buddhist two-truths doctrine, which (as I understand it) proposes a progressive path in which one …
Two Moons
Imagine … that it’s midnight, midsummer. A full moon hovers overhead, resplendent amidst an ocean of stars, bathing the warm air and shadowy objects (houses, trees, grass, humans) in its soft light. Now, for reasons unknown, you decide to press down hard with your fingers on your eyeballs—until your vision distorts: until what you see overhead are two moons instead of one. Which Is Real? With …
Self-Liberation Through Seeing with Naked Awareness
"Now, when you are introduced (to your own intrinsic awareness), the method for entering into it involves three considerations: Thoughts in the past are clear and empty and leave no traces behind. Thoughts in the future are fresh and unconditioned by anything. And in the present moment, when (your mind) remains in its own condition without constructing anything, Awareness at that moment in …
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Ways of Knowing
In a previous post—Mercury Rising—we considered various measuring devices—used by scientists to record information about large, medium-sized and very small phenomena. One device briefly considered was the human body-mind itself. Now, let’s continue our exploration by taking a closer look at the human body-mind as a measuring apparatus. In particular, let’s address the question: what counts as …