Posts
William Kong very kindly offered to create A.I. audio recordings of Kyle Dixon (Krodha)'s writings in dharmawheel based on the texts/pdf from Table of Contents for Malcolm Dharmawheel Posts + Astus, Krodha (Kyle Dixon), Geoff (Jnana), Meido Moore https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2023/05/table-of-contents-for-malcolm.html
Happy to present to all, these audio recordings (more will be uploaded in the following weeks and months to cover all posts up to present day) of Kyle Dixon's writings in Dharmawheel.
Very highly recommended to listen to all of Kyle Dixon (Krodha/asunthatneverset)'s posts! Very clear and spoken from deep experiential realization. John Tan and I liked Kyle Dixon's posts a lot.
Here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/soh-wei-yu/sets/writings-by-krodha-kyle-dixon
Those who wish to download the audios in MP3 can download from https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ams85yv8yviqy8jd3wxsw/Krodha-Dharmawheel-Soundcloud-MP3s.zip?rlkey=s9pr0w1v3ka2uv6d24eg47zg1&dl=0
Kyle began his journey with Dzogchen with Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, and later, around 2012, started learning from Acarya Malcolm Smith. I had the good karma to meet Acarya Malcolm Smith and Kyle in California in 2019, a meeting that was completely coincidental as Malcolm does not reside there and just happened to be visiting. I remember during that dinner, Acarya Malcolm Smith mentioned that Kyle was the first to totally understand his teachings. Additionally, in 2020, John Tan and I began attending Acarya Malcolm's Dzogchen teachings online, which we found to be enlightening.
A Cautionary Note on the Dangers of Nihilism and Kyle's 2011 Early Posts
"In 2011, some of the early posts by Krodha, also known as Kyle Dixon, might have shown a tendency towards nihilism. This was before his guidance by Acarya Malcolm Smith. It's essential to remember that everyone's understanding matures over time, and their present perspectives may differ from past statements. Nevertheless, most of Kyle's posts are enlightening. I believe he realized anatman in 2011 or even earlier, as highlighted in "Advice from Kyle Dixon". Even his earlier posts seem very clear and insightful, though some aspects of his understanding refined with time.
Kyle Dixon initially seemed to downplay concepts like rebirth, karma, and merits in 2011. His views shifted in 2012 after guidance from Malcolm. He shared with me, "Merit was something that I sort of passed off as a made up thing (like sin etc..) for a long time but I'm starting to see how that applies with one's intentions and that compassionate resonance.“ "Interesting.. My mentor hammers on merit so much and i used to just think he was being dogmatic but I see that it's a viable and legitimate facet of experience. I've just recently been starting to really focus on that and have been wanting to get back to doing more group practices like i used to... I noticed that when I was doing ganapujas regularly at the local practice center I was having far more peak insights and I never made that correlation til this last month. So interesting that it comes up here with you I feel that's no coincidence My mentor just said last week "Get your ass to the ganapujas I don't want you missing any more of them" ...he dedicates his merit everytime he does anything (especially before eating/drinking and after practice) and was really stressing that I do the same."
John remarked on the same day, "What Kyle said is important. Did you tell him about merit?" referencing the article "On the Importance of Merits".
In 2012, Thusness praised Kyle and compared his insights to those of great Buddhist masters. On March 14, John mentioned, "I went through posts by asunthatneversets, it is well written." Later, on April 15, John advised Soh Wei Yu, "ASunthatNeverSets (Kyle Dixon) has many good pointers. But there are certain aspects that need deeper insight and clarity. I would prefer you to look into it instead of dwelling into other matters. For you now it's not easy to find an article that can provide good pointers... so treasure it. Not to overlook it simply because it is written by some anonymous Internet forumer."
Later, Kyle reflected:
“And to clarify, I only harp on this issue like I do because I used to carry the same view: that everything is already perfect... there's nothing to realize... there's no one here to do anything... there's no such thing as "correct" or "incorrect"... or that concepts were the enemy, and so on, and so on, and so on. All the same narratives you see being spun by most neo-nondual teachers and systems. I remember I used to argue with a friend/mentor all the time about how he doesn't get it, and he's just fooling himself with practice and so on. And I used to cite the same quotations from Longchenpa and others that were speaking from the point of view of the ultimate, and I (in my delusion) provided them as proof that I was correct etc.
Then one day that changed, and I experientially tasted what all of these masters are pointing to. And I was shown directly that I had been wrong, and that was very humbling.
That made these teachings real for me. And surprisingly, instead of continuing to reject practice, and all of these other aspects of these systems that I had previously thought to be extraneous and a waste of time... I saw their value and their place for the first time. It became clear how and why they are applied, where they fit into the scheme of things... and I saw the sheer wisdom behind the structures that I had once mistakenly rejected.
So I only speak out against those who attempt to propagate the same mistakes because I've been there. I was so certain that I was right, and that I "got it", and that others didn't understand. And I was so wrong... unbelievably wrong.
I'm no teacher or messiah, I don't have a superiority complex or have some strange need to be "right", it's nothing like that. I simply speak out because when I see others who appear to be passionate about these teachings, making the same mistakes I made, I see myself, I can't help but to want to say "hey, it really isn't that way." And if all I accomplish is at least planting some shred of a seed of a possibility that X person may think twice and consider being open to the fact that they don't have it completely figured out, then that is good enough for me. If not, that is alright too, but at least I can say I tried......”
In a dialogue with Mr. J, Kyle shared:
"Stian, Mr. J is implying that there is nothing to do, because all notions of 'anything to do', 'emptiness', 'right view', 'wrong view', 'ignorance', 'defilement' etc., are nothing more than concepts which arise and fall within the space of 'awareness' which cannot be improved upon or defiled... that is his view he is proposing. I beg to differ... to me this view is nothing more than a license for stagnation and complacency which only serves to perpetuate the issue. It is a false sense of security that one has already 'arrived' so to speak.
The quote applies to Mr. J, because he claims precisely what Jigme Lingpa is describing in that statement to be true, and did so directly above that quotation: Jackson's view being, nothing need be done, because all concepts (including those of the dharma such as emptiness etc.), are nothing more than thoughts which arise in what is already complete, as expressions of what is already complete. His logic therefore being, there is no need to even entertain such notions, one is already innately realized. Jigme Lingpa is stating that such a notion is an incorrect view which actually severs one from the profound dharma. Mr. J’s assertion that 'nothing needs fixin' is a view he has touted for a very long time now, it is very unskillful and misleading."
Kyle further responded to Stian:
"Stian, Yes, right and wrong should surely be understood as a necessary and indispensable duality when it comes to the dharma. Right view is that which will lead to realization, wrong view is that which will perpetuate delusion.
Right and wrong are conventional as well, any conceptual structure we are implementing here is conventional.
'Full' can only be a conventional designation, the ultimate nature of 'full' is it's emptiness."，
Also of relevance here is a passage by Longchenpa that me (Soh) and John Tan liked a lot:
Longchenpa on Nihilism
From Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind.
"Those who scorn the law of karmic cause and fruit
Are students of the nihilist view outside the Dharma.
They rely on the thought that all is void;
They fall in the extreme of nothingness
And go from higher to lower states.
They have embarked on an evil path
And from the evil destinies will have no freedom,
Casting happy states of being far away.
”The law of karmic cause and fruit,
Compassion and the gathering of merit -
All this is but provisional teaching fit for children:
Enlightenment will not be gained thereby.
Great yogis should remain without intentional action.
They should meditate upon reality that is like space.
Such is the definitive instruction.”
The view of those who speak like this
Of all views is the most nihilist:
They have embraced the lowest of all paths.
How strange is this!
They want a fruit but have annulled its cause.
If reality is but a space-like void,
What need is there to meditate?
And if it is not so, then even if one meditates
Such efforts are to no avail.
If meditation on mere voidness leads to liberation,
Even those with minds completely blank
Attain enlightenment!
But since those people have asserted meditation,
Cause and its result they thus establish!
Throw far away such faulty paths as these!
The true, authentic path asserts
The arising in dependence of both cause and fruit,
The natural union of skillful means and wisdom.
Through the causality of nonexistent but appearing acts,
Through meditation on the nonexistent but appearing path,
The fruit is gained, appearing and yet nonexistent;
And for the sake of nonexistent but appearing beings,
Enlightened acts, appearing and yet nonexistent, manifest.
Such is pure causality’s profound interdependence.
This is the essential pith
Of all the Sutra texts whose meaning is definitive
And indeed of all the tantras.
Through the joining of the two accumulations,
The generation and completion stages,
Perfect buddhahood is swiftly gained.
Thus all the causal processes
Whereby samsara is contrived should be abandoned,
And all acts that are the cause of liberation
Should be earnestly performed.
High position in samsara
And the final excellence of buddhahood
Will speedily be gained."
from Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind (Volume 1)
Also by Longchenpa:
"To reject practice by saying, ‘it is conceptual!’ is the path of fools. A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided.”
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