Soh

John Tan and I likes this:


 PHENOMENA ARE THE DHARMADHĀTU

...as for all phenomena always abiding as nothing but the dharmadhātu (which is unconditioned like space), this is just like the space within a vase and the space outside not being different, even when the vase has not been destroyed. Once the vase has been destroyed, the indivisibility of this inner and outer space becomes manifest as this very indivisibility.Likewise, the nature of the mind, which is primordially present as the dharmadhātu, resembles the space within the vase. Similar to the indivisibility of inner and outer space [becoming manifest], once the vase has been destroyed, when the vaselike stream of formational conceptions and mind has come to an end, the nondifference of this dharmadhātu is manifested.Just as the extent of space [cannot] be gauged by anybody, the nature of the Tathāgata cannot be conceived by anybody. Just as space provides room for all entities, [the Tathāgata] serves as the support of all sentient beings. Just as space appears in [all entities], from a trichiliocosm down to the husks of a mustard seed, in a respectively matching extent, [the Tathāgata] appears for all those to be guided as [respectively suitable] kāyas that guide them. However, just as all these spaces cannot be designated as one or different, all buddhakāyas cannot be designated as one or different either.Though a single person who is endowed with a Tathāgata’s miraculous manner of moving may move only in the east with as many [physical appearances] as there are atoms in all eons and realms, one still cannot say that [this person] has moved through this many fractions of just the eastern space, while that many were left behind as [untraversed] remainders [of this space]. Likewise, each single part of [all] the qualities of a Tathāgata is as vast as space.As for the layers of obscurations, just as strands of hair may appear to those with blurred vision, they never existed through a nature of their own, but are nothing but appearances from the perspective of mistakenness, because [assumptions] such as something previously existing ceasing later and something previously nonexisting arising later are taught as the views of permanence and extinction. Therefore, all phenomena are not different in that their not being present as any forms of superimposition or denial (such as existence and nonexistence) whatsoever cannot be altered by anybody, be it at the time of being or not being a buddha.However, to engage in superimposition and denial by virtue of not realizing this is “the state of saṃsāra,” while understanding this fact for what it is is indeed labeled by the conventional expression “the attainment of buddhahood.”However, in this [“attainment”], there is nothing that is real as any conditioned or unconditioned substance or entity that is attained, nor is there anybody or anything that is an attainer and so on. Therefore, it is the mere exhaustion of error that is taught to be liberation. The sūtras say that, if a person wishes to search for space or be liberated from space, they will neither find nor be liberated from space. Similarly, all phenomena being not other than the dharmadhātu is just like that.Therefore, the attainment of buddhahood is also referred to as, “attaining nothing whatsoever,” or “attaining the supreme among [all] states”; “all phenomena being completely and perfectly realized in all aspects,” or “realization is a mere name, no phenomenon has been realized, is realized, or will be realized”; “having gone beyond all phenomena,” or “not having moved away in the slightest from any phenomenon”; “being empty in not being established as anything whatosever,” or “the permanent, enduring, immutable, and eternal kāya”; “not seeing any phenomena whatsoever as anything whatsoever at any time,” or “knowing and seeing all aspects.~ Pawo Rinpoche (Translated by Karl Brunnholzl in "Luminous Heart")
Soh

Totally agree with Anzan Hoshin Roshi and Dogen on this matter.


Excerpt from https://wwzc.org/dharma-text/cutting-cat-one-practice-bodhisattva-precepts



Beyond this is the fact that, no matter how much we like or dislike, or are hurt or maimed by a thought, action or event, our attitudes do not colour the event itself, only our relationship to it. As this is so, no matter how much we stomp or shout or cajole or whine, reality is what it is. In this is sacredness and dignity.

This can extend into territory we might not be comfortable with. Our personal ambitions and dreams and hopes and fears are meaningless, just sounds that don't even find an echo in a universe that extends forever, in all directions. An earthquake that kills ten thousand people is not evil; it is just plates of rock shifting. A bullet is not evil. The universe is simply not conditioned towards our personal convenience. The person who pulls the trigger that kills the mother of three is original purity. But at the same time, we recognize that person as being evil, as being tainted or deranged. There is horror at the memory of Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz and Hiroshima , of the fact that the molestation of a child is probably occurring somewhere at this moment. Yet even there, there is intrinsic purity. This is how it is. No one said (at least among the enlightened) that purity is necessarily what is pleasant. The fact that everything, every event, is intrinsically pure does not eliminate the fact of our responsibility. We can't just say. "Oh it's all Buddha Nature", and kick the cat. The fact is Buddha Nature, complete freedom from birth and death; the opposites of samsara and nirvana can both be transcended right here, now, but without that realization and in fact even more so after a good glimpse of it, the issue at point is meaning , and living in a way that honours this fact.

There is a famous koan about a Chinese Chan master called Nanquan or Nanzan, who cut a cat in two in order to teach his students about grasping. It appears in many different koan collections and is the ninth case of the "Shoyoroku" :

"One day the monks of the western and eastern halls of Nanquan's monastery were squabbling over a cat. When Nanquan saw this going on he seized the cat and held it up before them and said, 'Say one true word or I'll cut it.'
"No one could say anything. Nanquan cut the cat in two."

Dogen zenji saw this as an immense failure; he saw it as a Teacher with bloody hands standing before embarrassed, horrified, and confused students. He said that Nanzan may have been able to cut the cat into two, but had no realization at all of being able to cut the cat into one. Bringing together body and mind, self and other, time and space, bringing everything back into its original wholeness and bringing all that we are aware of into Awareness itself through cutting away separateness with the sword of insight, the thin blade of this moment, is cutting the cat into one.

At first kensho, the student sees into Ordinary Mind. So what? If you can't live here, there is no point in standing outside in the flower bed, peering in between the window blinds. It is not a matter of taking some particular moment of practice and setting that up as the entirety of the path. Realization must be embodied and unfolded completely. If you refuse to take responsibility for your body, breath, speech and mind, and unfold each moment as this Original Nature itself, then get the hell out or I'll throw you out. We can't excuse ourselves from true wholehearted practice just because we have a note from our Teacher saying: "Congratulations. Here's inka-shomei, you're a Sensei." How much more so if we have only had one or two satoris and have read too much Alan Watts, or D. T. Suzuki out of context, or buji zen ("doesn't matter zen").

Great Faith is abiding in True Nature as the root of practice so that practice acts to expose us to this True Nature always and in every moment. No experiences, no attainments define or limit this Way. Everything is this Way. Great Doubt shows us the outflows in our practice clearly. Great Practice is coming back to just this, again and again.

The Ten Grave Precepts reflect this. "There is no wrong action" is followed not by "nothing matters", but by "There is only the arising of benefit". Acting fully and responsibly from Awakened Mind, from that which sees tracelessness, is the Buddhaway. From such a mind, not only can wrong action not arise, all that is becomes of benefit to all beings.

Having taken your suffering and delusion seriously, opened it to see what's inside it, you work thoroughly with everything that arises as the world in which you live. As this is so, you recognize that this suffering is true for others, that this dignity and clarity are true for others. Thus, the bodhisattva brings forth benefit clearly and with open hands. A thousand eyes and hands are one's whole body. Free from the klesas of passion, aggression, and ignorance, one's action is clear and truly spontaneous -- not governed by impulse (which the usual mind likes to believe is spontaneity). There is only the benefit of all beings. The universe in which the bodhisattva lives is "all beings", he or she is "all beings", rocks and air and nostril hair are "all beings". Kannon's "thousand eyes and hands" are the whole universe itself.

This benefit is not a matter of self-congratulatory goody-two-shoed-ness, or deprecation of another's essential dignity through pity. It is simply a raw and open heart that does what needs to be done. It does not force others to be what it wants -- it is only a heart, it doesn't want anything. It does not seduce or console or convert. It is simply a raw and open heart.

Traditionally, there are said to be four ways in which the Bodhisattva manifests dana paramita: material benefit; giving what each needs to promote well-being; giving freedom from fear; giving the Teachings. Actually there is no number or limit to this benefit. There is only the benefit of all beings.

Soh

 Interesting that Thrangu Rinpoche attained rainbow body/Buddhahood. I enjoy reading his teachings very much.


From an email I received:


     

 

Thrangu Rinpoche's Passing

   

Namo Buddha Publications

The Miracle of Thrangu Rinpoche's Passing

Thrangu Rinpoche was in the hospital in June, 2023 and being quite ill, he asked to return to his Namo Buddha Monastery. There he went into meditation posture and passed away on June 4th doing the Rainbow Body (jalung) which is done only by advanced practitioners. His heart and breathing stopped and he remained in this position for four days. His skin was fresh and there were no signs of deterioration. There are two kinds of Rainbow Body: one in which the lama vanishes into thin air leaving behind only hair and fingernails, and the other is for the body to shrink. Thrangu Rinpoche's body began to shrink in perfect proportion, which included his bones, to less than his half size. These are pictures that I took at Thrangu Rinpoche's cremation on November 4, 2023.

1VRL  Entrance to Namo Buddha complex Photo 1&2. Namo Buddha is about 20 miles from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Thrangu Rinpoche had his attendant, Lekshe buy the land from a Nepali farmer. Namo Buddha is the third most sacred Buddhist spot in all of Nepal where a previous Buddha gave his flesh to a starving tigress.

 

2VR. Namo Buddha  Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery is very large with a large shrine room quarters of over 100 monks. This dining hall is to the left. There were 2,000 persons from all over the world attending the cremation

3VR. Front of Shrine Room Photo 3: This is the large shrine room at Namo Buddha where practitioners went up and made offerings and bowed their head on the edge of the shrine. The kundun with yellow curtains is where Rinpoche’s body is the square box on the shrine which is about two feet square and three feet high.

4VR. Closeup of Kundun Photo 4: This is a close up of the kundun and the yellow brocade was lifted a little on the last day when I took this picture.

 

5VR. Cremation ground Outside Photo 5 This is the outside of the area where the cremation took place. The white coverings were to protect the audience and the four Rinpoche’s from the four lineages who sat in each of the four directions of the crematorium. This stadium had over a 1,000 chairs. This area specially prepared held 2,000 people and was just a short walk from the monastery. You can see trees covering the whole mountain that Vajra Vidya is on.

 

6VR.  Cremation Ground inside Photo 6 I did my knowledgeable estimation of the number who attended and came up with 2,000 people. A staff member who said that is what they also estimated.

 

7VR. Crematorum Photo 7and 8. This is the crematorium which had four opening in each direction. There was a procession of high lamas and monks carrying the kundun in and then placing Rinpoche’s body in the crematorium.

 

8VR. Placing Body in creamatorum Here we can see one of the lamas helping place the body in the crematorium.

9VR. Burning of body Photo 9. At 10:30 the fire was lit and sacred grass, oils, and precious substances were added to the burning body. It burned for about an hour. 3 days later the ashes will be recovered to see if there are any relics among them.

 

10. Body in Crematorium Photo 10: Through one of the four holes in the crematorium, you can see Thrangu Rinpoche’s body. My camera is not that good, but it looks to me like he is facing (north) toward us and has an elaborate headdress on.

 

11VR. Mahkala Rock decorated hoto 11: I almost forgot. There was a large black rock that Thrangu Rinpoche identified as being Mahakala or representing Mahakala (I am not sure) but they dug it up and turned it over and displayed it very prominently at the cremation.

 

It is important that we Buddhist share what we know. If you are really interested, you can email me and I will send you 43 pictures that are 20 inches long and 13 inches wide and of high quality for printing (300DPI) along with 4 short videos (total of 1.6 gigs).

 

Clark Johnson

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——-


John Tan/Thusness talked positively about Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings since the very first year I talked with him, back in 2004. He also recommended me to read his books.

2007:

(10:39 PM) Thusness: there are so many good articles and clarity in writings and explanations by some tibetan guru.

(10:39 PM) AEN: icic like who

(10:39 PM) Thusness: thrangu rinpoche

(10:40 PM) Thusness: there are quite a few but i forgotten who..

(10:40 PM) Thusness: read them b4 on the web.


    Soh Wei Yu
    Jan
    03
    All Thrangu Rinpoche 58 Books at $35 (only 60 cents per book!)
    Tan Jui Horng shared a link.
    Admin
    · tg6678a8063oshlu ·
    Can't remember if this deal was already around when the website was mentioned sometime back. But you can get all of Thrangu Rinpoche's books for $35 now in pdf. Incredible
    ALL 58 OF THRANGU RINPOCHE'S BOOKS (ON SPECIAL DOWNLOAD) [PDF02] - $35.00 : Namo Buddha Publications
    Namo Buddha Publications ALL 58 OF THRANGU RINPOCHE'S BOOKS (ON SPECIAL DOWNLOAD) [PDF02] - Thrangu Rinpoche is author of 60 books on Buddhism. You need only to peruse this book section to see all the different topics Thrangu Rinpoche has taught on. We have made PDFs of each of these books and made...
    2 Comments
    Soh Wei Yu
    Admin
    Thrangu Rinpoche materials are all highly recommended.
    See also Kyle Dixon’s recommendation: https://www.reddit.com/.../best_resources_for_vajrayana.../
    User avatar
    level 1
    krodha
    · 2 mo. ago
    Thrangu Rinpoche’s Pointing out the dharmakāya is good.
    Also Dakpo Tashi Namgyal’s Clarifying the natural state and the associated commentary Crystal clear.
    3
    May be an image of text
    ·
    (Soh's comments: I highly recommend reading the three books recommended by Krodha at least - "
    Thrangu Rinpoche’s Pointing out the dharmakāya is good.
    Also Dakpo Tashi Namgyal’s Clarifying the natural state and the associated commentary Crystal clear.")
    Reply
    · 7h
    Mr. KOÖ
    Soh Wei Yu pointing out the Dharmakaya is really great.
    1
    ·
    Reply
    ·
    · 48m
    Labels: Books and Websites Recommendations, Mahamudra, Thrangu Rinpoche |
    Namo Buddha Publications , Namo Buddha Publications Source of Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings
    NAMOBUDDHAPUB.ORG
    Namo Buddha Publications , Namo Buddha Publications Source of Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings
    Namo Buddha Publications , Namo Buddha Publications Source of Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings

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    Love Koh
    Soh Wei Yu Hi Mr Soh 🙏 , Thankyou very much for sharing 👍💎👑✨💟🙏








  • Mr. UM
    Wow, great to hear! Thanks for sharing. Just checked my mails and found it as well 🙂

    • Reply
    • Edited

  • Norge Leone
    Interesting that there was no real rainbow body witnessed in this century?


    Soh Wei Yu
    Norge Leone Thrangu Rinpoche attained real rainbow body, and several others this century and the last.


  • Love Koh
    Norge Leone There is , in the early 90's , during Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's parinirvana , he manifested the sign of the rainbow body in which his body shrink in size , due to his Compassionate Bodhicitta to save & benefit sentient being , he has return to his world as the young Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche 🙏

    • Reply
    • Edited

  • Norge Leone
    Soh Wei Yu no, you obviously don't know what is rainbow body, read the text again. This one is a 'small' rainbow body like all others in this century.


  • Soh Wei Yu
    Norge Leone Dzogchen teacher Acarya Malcolm Smith said before, "Rainbow body where the body shrinks and disappears is a sign of incompletely finishing the fourth vision in this life." " A body disappearing does not equal rainbow body. Often, when people realize rainbow body, their bodies just shrink."
    But as far as I know, all are still rainbow body, regardless of the type. They are all Buddhahood.


  • Soh Wei Yu
    Acarya Malcolm Smith:
    “ Most people who achieve realization from Dzogchen do so in the bardo of dharmatā. Only the best of best obtain rainbow body in this life or have small rainbow body.”
    “The body of light aka rainbow body is simply the body reverting back to the five lights of wisdom. The sign of this is that at death the body shrinks to a very small size."
    " Rainbow body is buddhahood. So any standard description of a Buddha's experience of the inexhaustible ornamental wheel of the body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities of the Buddha would apply. "
    " "Rainbow body" is a name for what happens when the elements of body reverts back to their original nature as pristine consciousness as a result of the process of Dzogchen practice or completion stage practice. A key point of Vajrayāna is that there is no buddhahood that is not grounded in the body. Hence, the attainment of rainbow body, or the body of light, is regarded as proof that a practitioner has attained buddhahood. This is never mentioned in sūtra because sūtra has no methods of practice that involve the body as a vehicle for awakening."
    As for the type of Buddhahood that is the rainbow body where body shrinks vs disappear entirely:
    Someone asked, "I have read of two kinds of rainbow bodies: the one where the body shrinks and the second where the body disappears entirely."
    Acarya Malcolm said, "The first is partial rainbow body."
    Tomamundsen: "Is partial rainbow body the 16th bhumi, buddhahood without remainder?"
    Acarya Malcolm said, "No. It is Buddhahood with signs."





  • William Lim
    Are there photos... as mentioned in the text?


    Soh Wei Yu
    William Lim pass me your email and i will forward you

 

 

Update: 


There's another book by Thrangu Rinpoche recommended by John Tan around 2009 - 

Essentials of Mahamudra: Looking Directly at Mind

https://namobuddhapub.org/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=98