What is this?

On the Essence of Being - (Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation) 33 mentions

• 2500 2 600 years about a 300 year span of time around the time of the buddha and a few thousand miles sort of that
• and we arrive in india about the time of the buddha northern india which was a very
• starting a few hundred years before the buddha the upanishadic movement so it sort of group of basically meditators
• pressing question overwhelming question so when the buddha left his palace to get to seek the end of suffering his
• in a way that period of time when the buddha starved himself and denied his body part of the theory behind a part
• more insubstantial self atman's soul and part of one part of the buddha's incredible incredibly original genius
• non-spiritual circles so the buddha didn't go back to ignoring the effects of actions on suffering he
• cannot enter into any part of our knowledge so the buddha also was very aware of this
• exist so something incredibly subtle about the buddha's angle on all this laughs
• hmm the buddha the way he would teach around this is less about there is a self or
• okay and the buddha talked about five aggregates that you could um
• and that's what the self is it's a continuum but you don't find the buddha saying that either and that also
• different forms of three principle ones one is the notion of buddha nature one is the notion of awareness as
• comfort the real freedom is there to buddha nature as a concept can only just touch on this briefly it's it's
• there is something inside you called buddha nature that is permanent
• which seem to totally contradict what the buddha was saying if you probe deeply enough you also find that
• more thorough teachers of that notion of buddha nature saying we're only saying that to balance a tendency of people
• a raise as edge here so we hear this teaching of buddha nations and oftentimes you hear us your
• nations and oftentimes you hear us your buddha nature your buddha nature
• buddha nature your buddha nature and oftentimes it's kind of put out as
• yourself but just think you have a nice buddha nature inside and it's your buddha nature and you can
• buddha nature inside and it's your buddha nature and you can know your buddha nature
• and it's your buddha nature and you can know your buddha nature now that actually might be really
• this you might as well say well you know we all have buddha natures well we all have livers you know it's like what good
• the more sort of profound understanding what buddha nature means is the actual emptiness of self the emptiness of self
• something very important here and it has to do with going back to the buddha's fundamental question of what is helpful
• that's what we're in right now the buddha does not talk about the end of the path being some kind of openness
• there's the notion of flow there is the notion of buddha nature there's the notion of awareness the last one is the
• really a freedom that's indescribable so the buddha has a
• attachment to that conceiving so for the buddha there was this as i said before there was a radical shift in
• actually leads to suffering so the buddha's path is about
• someone questioned at one point sorry putra who was the one of the buddha's two chief disciples and he was said to
• something totally beyond that's totally beyond the buddha put it very beautifully we're all phenomena

The World and More: Immanence, Tantra, and Transcendence (Part 1) - (Eros Unfettered - Opening... 33 mentions

• out doesn't even bother to repeat uh when the buddha mentions again just as in as in this as in this sutter before
• body of the sort of um buddha if you like or an element of samantha badra as a primordial cosmic
• samantha badra as a primordial cosmic buddha that has to do with action not just meditation and if i dress up as
• very succinct way the whole of the buddha's teaching of dependent origination emptiness of the world of
• what arises is this diamond being vadra sappa is a buddha who arises with his or mandala
• mandala so buddhas in tantric buddhism and body settlers go with buddha realms buddha
• so buddhas in tantric buddhism and body settlers go with buddha realms buddha fields they go with worlds they're not
• my understanding of terror and buddhism um what the buddha taught there and uh and mahayana buddhism and in the second
• understanding of um the the buddhas to tantric fabrication of um of a divine and empty
• so that going back to the pali canon and and the buddha um delineating
• desire for material forms and what the buddha called the chords of sense pleasure and sense experience and all
• of a certain period and it certainly was there before the buddha so if you're like he inherited that it
• and were flatly material etc so the buddha chose that really chose to incorporate that to keep that to
• um implied in that is this um imaginal realm he's a buddha that's associated with the sambal gakaya with
• um the uh seeing of all appearances as divine and the and these tantric buddhas of adriana buddhas and deities and
• divine and the and these tantric buddhas of adriana buddhas and deities and bodhisattvas they're not separate from
• perhaps in infinite ways and very different from what the buddha called the uh or this word tanha actually means
• so as i said a buddha in in in in mayana teachings always comes with his
• mayana teachings always comes with his buddha field his buddha realm his uh buddha bodhisattva comes with that comes
• buddha field his buddha realm his uh buddha bodhisattva comes with that comes with the mandala with the world of
• experience you're playing at that midpoint mimicking the buddha's perception as we uh buddha's perception
• midpoint mimicking the buddha's perception as we uh buddha's perception who is able to know emptiness completely
• in the yabyum the erotic coupling or union of the buddha and his consort buddhas and their consorts
• union of the buddha and his consort buddhas and their consorts um
• and and as i said before in the buddhist iconography this buddha and his console bodhisattva and their consort are not
• actually separate they together make the buddha they make the buddha male female
• buddha they make the buddha male female neither both whatever not separate there
• the transcendent aspect of the nurses the transcendent aspect of the buddha's mind beyond appearance beyond any form
• what i can only only there's a mimicking of a buddha's nurses that can see emptiness and has some aspect that's
• um mimicking a buddha who is a buddha is the only kind of being that can um
• kind of skillful art for mimicking of that buddha gnosis and within that there's
• our very minds at one level are other buddha nature other buddha mind or the buddha noses already
• buddha nature other buddha mind or the buddha noses already and it's not separate from not other

The Meaning of Refuge - (New Year Retreat) 31 mentions

• say i go to refuge for the buddha dum monk sara language i go to refuge for the
• this notion of refuge actually was around before the buddha quite a while before the buddha in in india and
• around before the buddha quite a while before the buddha in in india and basically at that time if it was common
• practice this way of going about things was alive at that time and the buddha like as you did with many things took it
• take refuge not in these things but in the buddha the dharma the sangha and he had certain meanings in mind when he
• okay really really central question so the buddha actually said you know speaking at his time people people of
• projected getting rid of something so the buddha dharma sangha they're said to be the exceptional refuge and all the
• it's a it's a requirement for refuge so the buddha would encourage these kind of reflections
• something so with all that and the buddha comes as three refugees buddha dharma sangha what
• so with all that and the buddha comes as three refugees buddha dharma sangha what does that mean
• this but the ones i want to explore tonight to take refuge in the buddha what does that mean for us
• so that word buddha means actually awake it it's a little
• do that we can develop the same qualities that led to the buddha's awakening that's that's the the nub of
• we can relate to life to have faith in the buddha's awakening means that we have faith or conviction
• choices so in that in refuge in the body buddha is is very much this sense of
• ability the possibility exists for developing the buddha mind developing the mind of a buddha
• developing the buddha mind developing the mind of a buddha and or we could put it another we could
• of complementary way say discovering or uncovering the mind of the buddha this mind of the buddha is what we take
• uncovering the mind of the buddha this mind of the buddha is what we take what we're taking refuge in when we take
• what we're taking refuge in when we take refuge in the buddha he said a mind that when touched by the ways of
• so if i say that the buddha mind i'm aware i don't know how many people
• through practice it all comes down to practice and the buddha was aware of how people might hear that and said if it
• to do it other people might hear this buddha mind and immediately it's it's almost like
• there's a tantric text it says the buddhas do not wash away your bad deeds your
• with to bring awareness to etc too much faith in that the buddha taught an eightfold path the whole of the path is
• for it to really be part of our refuge as i say the buddha talks about the eightfold path it says wherever there is
• rigidly attached to unconscious views so when the buddha talks about right view it talks about right view
• in the heart and in the mind the dangers in what the buddha calls the afflictions of the heart and mind in greed and
• kind of wary of so the buddha points to this possibility of being free of the afflictions of
• the practice is really at the core at the core so buddha dharma dharma as practice and the last one sangha sangha
• sangha there beautiful and the buddha in particular talks about spending time with people who have more

Beauty and the Buddha - (Of Hermits and Lovers - The Alchemy of Desire) 30 mentions

• certain states if you like so the fourth genre sometimes the buddha and the text refer to that as the
• and equanimity there or the buddha talks about equanimity based on multiplicity as a slightly
• the fourth genre and beyond or to a buddha's mind or an arahunt's mind free of defilements pure
• some kind of ways to um the body of the buddha the physical body of the buddha which is full of the
• um the body of the buddha the physical body of the buddha which is full of the 32 i think it's 32 marks of a great man
• and more than that even because the buddha talked about in the palikana's sense pleasures being like a snake's
• in the buddhist tradition um second really only after the buddha um also wrote in some of his main texts
• has however been expounded by the buddhas for practical purposes it's a stepping stone teaching
• there is no um there's no buddha nature there is no um metaphysical dimensions etc none of that
• um and so sometimes people i might use the word buddha nature and actually i could use them interchangeably as far as
• i'm concerned in buddhism buddha nature has you know there's a whole range of
• whole range of ways that word and that concept of buddha nature is used that's one one of the ways it's used especially
• um buddha nature just means your potential to be enlightened to become a buddha the
• buddha nature just means your potential to be enlightened to become a buddha the possibility of you becoming a buddha is
• to be enlightened to become a buddha the possibility of you becoming a buddha is your buddha nature why is that that
• possibility of you becoming a buddha is your buddha nature why is that that possibly just because the mind is
• and in cultivating them you grow towards a buddha there's another way which i would prefer
• when i talk about mostly when i talk about buddha nature that's in the tradition really refers to something
• respects and it really refers to uh the buddha mind the cosmic buddha awareness if you like but even it's not
• um it's the gnosis the uh ultimate knowing of a buddha the ultimate um
• subject inter-subjective field of a buddha mind but it's cosmic and so that's more what i would like to
• and so that's more what i would like to infer when we use the word buddha nature buddha nature comprises in the mayana
• infer when we use the word buddha nature buddha nature comprises in the mayana tradition dharma kaya as one aspect or
• just the body if you like the the collection of the buddha's mental factors of the buddha's mental dharmas
• collection of the buddha's mental factors of the buddha's mental dharmas of these dharmas
• um it it means much more than that it's not just the collection of the buddha's um mental factors
• there uh in this finite form their buddha nature or this person's buddha nature and and regard it more
• and much less dualistic as well with a certain understanding buddha nature that i would like to
• it's what it's what opens up and the possibility of a certain view of buddha nature of divinity
• neither existing or not existing neither is nor is not as the buddha said i teach uh neither is nor is not

Integrity and the Poetics of Unknowing - (Meditation on Emptiness) 30 mentions

• realm of appearance and our problem as far as the buddha is concerned is that we accept the reality of those
• present in the pali canon and in the original teachings of the buddha and there it's it's hard to say what the
• and there it's it's hard to say what the buddha is getting at but it seems to be pointing towards a sort of
• india if you read the original teachings of the buddha it's very hard to get away from the sense of going beyond things
• of bear attention and actually i don't actually know if the buddha even used this word bear attention i don't know of
• it's believable problem as far as the buddha is concerned is deep not in the thinking
• and it would be easy to interpret the teachings and what the buddha's message and we hear this it's it's present in
• some wisdom in that but it's not what the buddha was pointing at when he was talking about
• much part of the culture but the buddha comes along in the teachings of the world my teacher's
• stepping stone but there's more to it listen to this from the buddha he says the tatagata that was another
• therefore let go to move from that to what the buddha just said in that quote it's difficult it's a difficult uh
• that's not a distinction you find at all in the buddha in in the teachings of the buddha it just doesn't talk about the
• in the buddha in in the teachings of the buddha it just doesn't talk about the intuitive mind or intuitive knowing or
• place what the the distinction the buddha is always more interested in making is
• come down on either side but the question is more from buddha's perspective is the planning that i do in
• dual jewels sutra and the buddha is talking to kashyapan he's talking about how it works to use
• subject and object that's what the buddha calls delusion and as such is the seeds of suffering those are that's the
• and how much is it my conditioning the buddha the buddha talks about this um
• dogmatism of it who uh the buddha um
• when it's very clear and you see in the buddha talks about silas has to be the ethics there there has to
• anything more than anyone else the buddha didn't know anything the buddha had nothing that he could possibly give
• that sense of wonder is that enough so the buddha talks about knowledge and vision of things as they are knowledge
• sometimes again we hear the buddha was not a mystic roberto was not a mystic
• experiences oftentimes the people who say the buddha was not a mystic are people who
• express that it's gone beyond verbal definition as the buddha said we're all phenomenaies or ways of speaking cease
• phenomenaies or ways of speaking cease the buddha said that but that doesn't mean that emptiness
• themselves consciousness you know the buddha's dividing something up into concepts
• eventually it eats itself so depend on arising the buddha is extremely skillful because what he's
• ah what's the word uh genius really of of the buddha in terms of identifying these these concepts that actually lead
• you know it's very hard to communicate the buddha says you know when he was talking

The Union of Appearance and Emptiness - (Meditation on Emptiness) 29 mentions

• and those emphases and those tendencies uh in the buddha time within teachers within scriptures within writings within
• person who doesn't care much what the buddha is supposed to have said in the pali canon fine and i have no problem
• to go for a sense of authority to the words of the pali canon the buddha and the sutton etc and as i read last night
• i don't know how many quotes from the buddha very very clear very clear it's there people ignore it but it's there so
• and you have to recommend that you have to wrestle with it and the buddha says the cessation of our video the cessation
• last night the buddha talks or one translation for my teacher is actually unbinding nirvana
• so in that model and this one was the buddha kind of goes for there's no questioning of the world out there and
• through through deep practice and i've never read a text to the buddha and i've just practiced practice practice and
• say so i hope it's okay to talk about it so the buddha said no appearances for an arahan after death no appearances for a
• arahan after death no appearances for a buddha after death in the pali canon several hundred years after the buddha
• buddha after death in the pali canon several hundred years after the buddha died there was a kind of actually around
• and compassion and the notion of what a buddha was uh took took a transformation and you get this sort of split between
• teravada and mahayana and for a mayana buddha is a very different thing than a terravada buddha mayana buddha is
• buddha is a very different thing than a terravada buddha mayana buddha is around
• however if a buddha is also a person who's gotten rid of delusion how is that
• because they needed to find a way to make it work that a buddha could do this that doesn't sit okay with me i have too
• canon and i've shared several quotes with you where the buddha says this is this is like an illusion and he or she
• translates as the sutra elucidating the buddha's intention the fabricated realm and the definitive
• that arose a few hundred years after the buddha's death the whole notion of what then is a valid cognition
• in was that um house of buddha gonna abide knowing things
• so it was said or it is said in the mahayana that only a buddha not even an arahunt but only a buddha
• mahayana that only a buddha not even an arahunt but only a buddha can see conventional reality and
• when i don't it comes back only a buddha it said in the miami teachings only a buddha can see deeply
• only a buddha it said in the miami teachings only a buddha can see deeply and fully both the emptiness and the
• to a certain extent and that story of the buddha with mara's arrows and became flowers
• practice what tantra is is probably the attempt to imitate a buddha's mind of being able to see deeply the emptiness
• traditions and he said well if that's what a buddha understands this this coalescence this
• from the pali canon i think i told you the story buddha was talking to someone called katyana
• the world for the most part but i the buddha uh i

What is Awakening? (Part 2) - (The Mirrored Gates) 28 mentions

• such a stream entry the first stage um what the buddha outlined is the first stage
• you know for example a stream entrance is as i said the buddha in the party cannon talked about different stages of
• go with the flow in life and that made him what the buddha called the stream enter because the streams flow and if
• um so we could get into a whole argument with that and i said well the buddha did not teach going with the flow it's not
• of modern western notion um the buddha did talk about flow uh in in the word samsara
• um and it was exactly this flow that the buddha was interested in stopping um stopping that flowing on ending it
• striving and diligence and these are the buddha's words um one attains to a stage which which
• the text just a little bit having said all that um when the buddha kind of outlined
• was a term that already pre-existed the buddha it was something he picked up and it might have been a positive term and
• fit the framework of the inner critic to the buddha's teachings of the buddhist the framework of the buddha's teachings
• the buddha's teachings of the buddhist the framework of the buddha's teachings to the to the inner critic and that's
• and quite a lot in certain circles um the buddha also talks about often is a slightly enigmatic puzzling phrase
• it's like what's central in the dharma when the buddha talks about after waking this storm is hard to see hard to fathom
• notion of dependent origination when the buddha talks about madonna this is the diamond it's like it's like the nutshell
• stress this and point it out in various talks in the past the buddha says uh several times not just once
• beyond the fabrication of perception and is it's clear that what the buddha is talking about then so this dimension
• dimension that should be known that the buddha talks about uh quite a few times in the pali canon um
• so um sometimes the buddha talks about it as uh as a kind of awareness
• awareness without an object sometimes the buddha articulates this unfabricated that way at other times he
• that that dimension that should be known that unfabricated the buddha was at the point anyone who tries to articulate or
• dwell on this for a second the wisdom of the buddha comes in in focusing more on the fetters but what's gone now what's
• of the unfabricated this dimension that the buddha said should be known and also secondly and connected with what i
• secondly and connected with what i mentioned earlier about how the buddha talked about this realm
• to come up with an answer how does a buddha get reborn into the world of perception so that he can save other
• um with the world of form and all that when a buddha knows all the time 100 thoroughly
• um the utter emptiness of all things because if the buddha is in that in that knowledge and with that knowledge
• if we dwell again just a little bit on um on the ten fetters that the buddha outlined we touched on three of them for
• um according to that theoretical scaffolding that the buddha outlines with those 10 fetters the stream enter

No Self, No World - (IMS Forest Refuge) 28 mentions

• explore this teaching of the buddhas of anata the emptiness of self or no self not
• take one approach out of a number of possible ones that the buddha kind of offers and the teachings offer one
• and to take a step back and actually see that's not that wasn't the buddha's approach and out of his great compassion
• so the buddha didn't really make a statement this the historical buddha the
• the buddha didn't really make a statement this the historical buddha the pali canon didn't really make a
• um but it's still not the kind of deep freedom that the buddha is talking about still not that kind of deep for you
• of self at times and there the buddha is not giving us definitions of the self he's giving us ways to
• so there's a sutra sutra where um where the buddha talks about the possible
• possibility when the buddha goes on to say practitioner who is skilled in the
• really really important to see that the buddha's talking race pointing us to practicing
• side it's i say again the buddha is pointing us to practicing
• and the kind of insecurity and again what the buddha would i think there necessary to answer at a certain point
• um so the but the pali cannon buddha shies away
• that's what the self is and actually the buddha never said that i don't know one instance where he said that he really
• a way of looking that leads to freedom it's something that the buddha encourages us to practice
• and it's pr it another approach that the buddha took is actually present in in the original teachings
• they are concepts they're definitely concepts that the buddha introduced but they're concepts that lead to freedom to
• really really important because the buddha said that's actually not the truth of things you are not awareness
• this building of the world of experience so one time the buddha was sitting around
• because it won't take you to the end of the world that the buddha is talking about i need to understand
• some fancy story and the buddha picks these words interesting
• revealed is the unbuilt the on what the buddha called the unfabricated the unborn the uncompounded the
• we're very interested in exploring so the buddha said when one sees the origination of the
• a cosmologist a brahman cosmologist went up to the buddha and he said does everything exist
• does everything exist and the buddha said that's the most popular cosmological theory
• nothing exist and the buddha said that's the second most popular
• oneness and the buddha said aha that's the third most popular
• plurality is it just a manifold you know multiple and buddha said that's the fourth

Visions of the Beyond - (Of Hermits and Lovers - The Alchemy of Desire) 28 mentions

• than they were in in the time of the of the buddha in india everyone just has to read the sutures to
• conception of fancy the past is not a question that uh the buddha and other um spiritual teachers of different ages
• and choice it just didn't exist back then the buddha would never have asked what's an authentic conception for you
• um transcendent realm was something that buddha put a lot of emphasis for and one way of
• talking it talking about it for the most part in the negative as the buddha mostly does not this not that beyond
• awakening of enlightenment of realization of the buddha who showed the way or other teachers in the past and
• um a set of fantasies of the south and the path and the buddha and what awakening is constellate around that
• important questions not is it right is it wrong is it what the buddha said is it
• paintings or something sculptures there's the depiction of a buddha as actually
• so usually it's male female and the buddha and the concept but the totality is actually conceived as the buddha so
• buddha and the concept but the totality is actually conceived as the buddha so it's not like the buddha and something
• is actually conceived as the buddha so it's not like the buddha and something else the totality of that union
• um is is the buddha or is a buddha and that is it represents it conveys through an
• is this wisdom consciousness this wisdom awareness this gnosis of of a buddha of a fully enlightened being which is what
• in the in the vadriana conception because only a buddha has that kind of awareness is actually able to fully for
• um perceiving fading it's only only a buddha not an arah hunt not anyone else um is is is is able to both fully
• awareness of emptiness and divinity um at the same time only a buddha and no one's going to say i'm a buddha or i
• um at the same time only a buddha and no one's going to say i'm a buddha or i have reached or even think i have
• our fantasy of the path of awakening of buddha of self on the path um is is fantasy is grounded in image
• constellated there but there is fantasy of the buddha fantasy of what awakening is fantasies
• medical doctor this is actually the buddha's original teaching presented his path in the the what was then the
• receiving the medicine the prescription from the buddha from the teacher or some of you teaching already and in that case
• text in the explanations where the buddha said this the buddha this the buddha there
• buddha said this the buddha this the buddha there um and then what i'm trying to do is
• um replicating the awakening of the buddha head that's the kind of awakening i'm going for
• how i view again authority the past of the buddha etc um the the the the tradition
• this sense of like well he was the buddha or they are this teacher and they must know and therefore i i'm trying to
• our relationship in our conception of path of awakening of buddha of teacher of self on the path

Buddhism Beyond Modernism - (November Solitary) 27 mentions

• freedom that should not work it should not work according to buddha's theory
• would be silly the monks and nuns and the buddha in the time of the buddha did not live a life
• the monks and nuns and the buddha in the time of the buddha did not live a life of bare attention
• there is a cosmology and those monks and nuns and the buddhist buddha had their cosmology which involved the appearance
• cosmology which involved the appearance of the buddha the holy buddha in our midst and the path to not be reborn into
• could be even the dogma of buddhism and maybe part of the you know buddha say we think we're not dogmatic maybe that's
• an asian nun reporting all kinds of images and crazy visions of buddhas and bodhisattvas and stuff i said well this
• it will lead to realizing that actually when we talk about the buddha we're talking about a fantasy of the buddha
• when we talk about the buddha we're talking about a fantasy of the buddha where there's meaningfulness where
• only need to open up a few histories or documents of the buddha tikna hans buddha stephen bachelor's
• histories or documents of the buddha tikna hans buddha stephen bachelor's buddha etc fantasy can you not
• tikna hans buddha stephen bachelor's buddha etc fantasy can you not see it written there it's very different
• see it written there it's very different buddha's there etc we could get buddha created in one's
• buddha's there etc we could get buddha created in one's own image sometimes
• own image sometimes this fantasy of the buddha a fantasy of what an awakened person looks like and
• generally fantasy of awakening it says fantasy of the buddha and with that a fantasy operates of his authority
• the fantasy of the authority of the buddha taboo
• to trace this back taboo to question the authority of the buddha taboo to question so everything is framed through
• 2500 years of history and still today is framed not as questioning the buddha but in the style of this is what he said or
• the whole mahayana tradition that came several hundred years after the buddha said this was hidden teaching that the
• said this was hidden teaching that the buddha gave that he only gave to certain disciples the vadriana that came the
• teaching that he only gave to sin no one says this was an advance the buddha got so far and now the mahayana was an
• and then you have the question is it what the buddha said or what the buddha meant or is it not
• meant or is it not never met the buddha never met him none of these people ever
• it was at least 100 years after he died never met the buddha some of these people for sure wouldn't like the buddha
• never met the buddha some of these people for sure wouldn't like the buddha because it's such a different
• original teachings to a fantasy of the weaves of fantasy of the buddha and does not question or admit uh its own