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Top Must Reads

Must Reads
Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau Roshi
Soh

 


I flipped through Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau Roshi. Seems like there are many good instructions on self-enquiry and self-realisation. Going to put it as a book recommendation in AtR guide.
(It's also highly recommended by
Angelo Gerangelo
)
 
    Aaron Dorje
    My favourite book on Zen by a mile. Indeed, for me, a rare case in which one book covers almost everything you'd need to know about a particular area of Buddhism
    Guides to meditation (the one on the koan 'mu' helped me have a major En experience),
    doctrine,
    teacher exchanges with students
    and wonderful stories of enlightenment (a rare thing: but its comforting that at least one tradition is evidence of the fact that a determined person can reach at least some of the enlightenments with a determined effort within a finite time).
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    • Angelo Gerangelo
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      It’s an awesome book. Anyone reading should check out the “enlightenment stories” which are kensho stories written by people who have gone through it. Personal and varied. Also the “private encounter with ten westerners” it’s about dokusan. Rare recordings of what goes on in there.
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A Mirroring Mirror is Redundant
Soh

Dzogchen's term 'mirror' is merely conventional but empty. Try telling that to Mr. J, though. Always unchanging unchanging unchanging.



Unread post by PadmaVonSamba » Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:25 pm
If Nagarjuna had a mirror, would he say the mirror is a different mirror each time something different is reflected in it, or is it the same mirror?

Dzogchen teacher Arcaya Malcolm Smith:

"Apart from what has been mirrored and not been mirrored, there is no [present] mirroring. A mirroring mirror is redundant, just like moving movers." - https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=561377#p561377

(Also check out this great thread on moving movers: Choosing)


Another Dzogchen teacher Yogi Prabodha Jnana said "It is not only about recognizing the reflections as reflections, but also recognizing that there is no mirror (no mind)!"

(See Awakening to Reality: Way of Bodhi)


[12:53 PM, 11/15/2020] Soh Wei Yu: He [Yogi Prabodha Jnana] said [years ago that] your stages are in line with the essence of buddhism
[12:53 PM, 11/15/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Haha
[1:01 PM, 11/15/2020] John Tan: Yes I find his teachings very interesting also.
[1:02 PM, 11/15/2020] John Tan: His emphasis on anatta and no mirror esp.
[1:05 PM, 11/15/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ic.. yeah
[1:11 PM, 11/15/2020] Soh Wei Yu: his partner Abhaya Devi Yogini is also clear about it
 
 
 
.............
 
Update, more quotes:
 

“It's like MMK, mover and movement or fire and heat. There are no 2 parts. The purpose is the insight that sees through reification of mental constructs. Once it is seen through in real time experientially, all appearances become naturally pellucid, transparent, crystal and pure. No amount of effort can bring us to this natural luminosity, it is not man-made (unconditioned).

 

Mirror is precisely the abstraction and the cause of all the confusions. It is as clear as daylight once it is seen through. Not only that, the same insight must be applied to phenomena, cause and effect, production and cessation. 

 

Imo, the analogy of mirror is a bad example and analogy, upon seeing one should stop emphasizing it.


The descriptions of zen master 洪文亮 (Soh: see https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2017/01/excerpts-from-jewel-mirror-samadhi.html) and 慧律 (see: https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2020/05/zen-master-hui-lu-on-hua-yan-anatta-and.html and https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2012/12/true-mind-and-unconditioned-dharma_18.html) are much clearer as a lived experience.” – John Tan, August 2020

“Once we are free from subject-object duality, consciousness/appearance is without feature, without end and luminous all around. So is there realization about mere appearances is key, otherwise it is just reification of consciousness.” – John Tan, November 2020

 

[11:35 AM, 8/19/2020] John Tan: Pellucidity can be I AM mistaken and reified...one must separate experience from the insight that sees through.

[11:36 AM, 8/19/2020] John Tan: You can have the experience, but the experience being reified...therefore the arising insight is important...I call that Prajna...

[11:42 AM, 8/19/2020] John Tan: Appearance has always been clean, pure and pellucidity, the recognition makes the difference. What is the term for this insight that pierces through reification to allow this experiential taste in dzogchen?

[12:25 PM, 8/19/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Kyle Dixon said yesterday

 

“Kyle Dixon

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Cognitive clarity is your cognizance reified as a subject, a self, while zangthal is that same aspect totally freed of all extremes and conditions.

9”

Kyle: The insight that pierces through reification is rig pa’i ye shes or the pristine consciousness of rigpa that is equivalent to prajñā

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Malcolm said vidyā is actually a jñāna that experientially sees the way things really are for oneself

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It is pratyātma-vid

paccataṃ veditabbena ñāṇa


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