The nature of reality explained

Finally a definitive discussion that will answer all your questions about the nature of the universe. Two highly ranked bodhisattvas go tooth and nail to bring us all closer to real understanding.. NOT TO BE MISSED. At 1:47 you will see and hear a very clear explanation of the Big Bang!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY&feature=player_detailpage

Who Are You?

I found this story on a blog entitled The Avaith, a blog dedicated to the Vedas. It seems to encapsulate a fundamental truth about the nature of conciousness, or the nature of the self.


Once many years ago, I had a "chance" meeting with an Indian saint. He asked, in broken English, "Been India?" Since I had been in India for a number of years, the best, most easily demonstrable answer was to wobble my head in the characteristic side to side manner known to most Indians. The moment he saw that "wobble", he got a big grin on his face, entered the room, and closed the door behind him. He asked me, "Who you?" Having lived in India and being used to this type of English and being young and polite I began to answer him, "I am John Grimes," but just as I reached the G of Grimes, he said "Bas, family name, who you?" (Bas is Hindi for "stop, enough.") Again, since I have lived in India and studied Indian thought, I very confidently and boldly began to reply, "I am the immortal Atman," but just as I reached the A of Atman, again he stopped me with another "Bas, book name, who you?" With the first "stop", he wiped out my physical body. With the second "stop", he wiped out my entire mental universe. What was left? With two small words, he had succeded in conveying to me that I was neither my physical body nor my mental knowledge. How to answer him? So I said, "I donot know." Quick as a wink, he responded, "Find out." I replied, "How?" He responded, "Not how, find out." Again I asked, "How?" He was holding a handkerchief in his hand and he opened his fingers and let the handkerchief drop to the ground and as it fell he said, "Let go." Again I asked, "How [to let go]?" He responded, "Not how, let go." And then he turned and left the room.



Almost twenty years passed before I learned that this monk supposedly did not speak English. How interesting! A person who did not speak English magnificiently managed to teach the Vedantic truth that one is neither one's body not one's thoughts, all in two words, As if that was not enough, he proceeded to teach me how to "find out who I really am" with another two words ("let go"). We all know how to let go, we do it every night when we go to sleep. We never ask out mother, "Mom, how do I go to sleep?" We just "let go" and sleep came. However, we become confused, disturbed, when someone asks us to "let go" of out preconceived notions as to who we are. Like this, we look for a technique in order to meditate or to find an answer to the question, Who am I?
 
 
From chapter "Who am I?" (page 139) from the Ganapati by Prof. Grimes:

Deepak Chopra: How to Create a New Self

Talk by Deepak on the nature of conciousness. Filmed by the Commonwealth Club in 2009. Chapters include:
1. What is Conciousness
2. Perception and Conciousness
3.You are not in the body, the body is in you
4. Continuity and discontinuity
5.Five attributes of discontinuity
6. Five breakthroughs for the body
7. Five breakthroughs for the soul

Follow the link:

http://fora.tv/2009/10/22/Deepak_Chopra_How_to_Create_a_New_Self#fullprogram

Abiding in the bodhi heart

The images of sufferig coming from Japan cause a mixture of feelings to arise; fear, compassion, helplessness, and anger being formost in my own experience. Often I feel myself drifting into a state of paralysis regarding the really apocalyptic events that seem to come with increasing regularity. It is tempting to see myself as being powerless to do anything.

It is helpful to remember that though I am unable to bend the laws of physics which implacably govern  the nature of physical reality, I do have the potentially limitless power to govern how I respond to the events that overtake me. 

For me this means using these events to remind me of how I am connected to the images that I see, and how one person's suffering on the other side of the ocean is really my own suffering. This helps me to become more compassionate, and this affects my behavior. 

The bodhi heart, or heart of compassion dwells in every human, but it is not always awake. However, when we nourish this aspect of our nature, through practicing openness to the real connections that link all reality, and especially to all sentient beings, we touch a sort of super being within ourselves, and this is the energy that has the power to change us in a very positive way, as well as to potentially change the world. 

I am reminded of the importance of seeing the world in the context of inter-being; seeing the interconnections and the inter-dependance of all life.  It is not possible to hide out on the web of life forever. Eventually, every little ripple will make it's way to our safe cave and in some way rock our boat.

Rather than prepare for this absolute eventuality with a defensive, protective posture, I feel that nourishing the bodhi heart with the water of suffering can give us the strength to remain open and hopeful.

We will all deal with these events in a myriad of ways. It is not important to calculate the degree to which varying responses will be of benefit. What is important is to respond in a way that connects you to the people who suffer around you; to actively allow your heart to be touched, however unpleasant that might become.

We are all in the same boat, and these events can help us to see that reality more clearly and guide us in how we embrace the future. We can become more loving to those around us. We can become more active in choosing courses that reduce overall suffering. As Yoko Ono said recently, we can reach down into ourselves and find that super power that will allow us to perform miracles of love.

Shambala library of Buddhist teachings

Follow the link for a library of available mp3 files and video files on various topics related to Buddhist practice

http://www.shambhala.org/teachings/

N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa Elder) on the sacred

Here the Pulitzer prize winner N. Scott. Momaday speaks about the importance of the sacred, especially the concept of place as sacred, a fundamental tenant of native American indigenous philosophy. Echoing the words of Marcia Elliad (Romanian writer) he says...The sacred in all times is the revelation of the real; an encounter with that which saves us by giving meaning to our existence. In otherwords, in order for our existence to have meaning we must reconnect with and protect that which is sacred. This is a hard concept to understand in a society that relegates sacredness to the church and essentially removes God from the natural world by making him solely the creator and not the inhabitor of all creation. If we hold to that idea, we would have to treat the planet in a sacred (or at least respectful) way, something akin to the way some (if not all) native americans did before having their culture largely obliterated through contact with the european; every particle of the natural world embued with the sacred. Follow the link for an audio file of this talk

http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/program01.html

Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche

Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche web page containing many recorded teachings based on the teachings of CTR who was the teacher of Pema Chodron and the founder of the Shambala center.

http://www.chronicleproject.com/index.html