Countdown to 2008 : time to reset ur goal and main practice
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As 2008
I wishes everyone a happy new year 2008
Whatever your unfulfilled career plans , studies , and planning , do hurriedly make it done
and start counting down to ur time for Strong Main practice out of Samsara
I will intro new thread in 2008 for everyone viewing pleasure and invite Buddhist academic on forum to discuss
Happy new year
Auld Lang Syne -
Unfulfilled things are never ending in life... I also have thoughts of wishing to 'clear off stuff' but would quickly remind myself that we should never expect that we can finally 'clear off' stuff for practicing -- of course we can make retirement plans, but life is impermanent, what if we pass away before that?
What is important is we grasp the opportunity NOW... like my dharma teacher say, convert vow/resolution into strength, and start practicing it now... Bodhisattva practitioner cultivates in the midst of activities, in fact, the Bodhisattva cannot find Enlightenment apart from realizing it within activities.. as my teacher said, no Enlightenment apart from activities. And she always stress that we Act FOR cultivation, the purpose of acting, serving, doing, is to Cultivate. This is how important it is. -
Here is an old article by my dharma teacher, Source: Xin Fu Wen Hua magazine, Volume 9, January 2002.
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Oh yes... happy new year btw The fireworks were spectacular. Cant beat some other countries though.
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"The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation." – Milarepa
(Do note that Milarepa's meaning of 'meditation' does not just mean solely sitting down. Also see: Milarepa's Mahamudra) -
Here's a good song album, the singer is a spiritual author and singer. Click play to listen.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/astin6
A note from the artist:
“Already Shining” points the listener back to the simple light of awareness that is taking in this moment right now. This is a light like no other, a light that is self-luminous, self-sustaining, and effortlessly present. It is the light of knowing that makes everything visible and yet itself can never be seen. There is no practice we can engage in that will keep the lamp of awareness lit, no technique we can employ to keep this light from going out, for there is no existence, no mind, or self apart from it. The self and awareness—they are one and the same thing. There is nothing that needs to be done to make awareness shine. It is already shining. This is your nature. It is what you have always been…
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His signature song (my favourite), 'Love, Serve & Remember': http://cdbaby.com/cd/astin1
When Ram Dass asked his teacher Maharaji how he'd be able to carry on in his spiritual work once he'd returned to the U.S. and was no longer in his physical company, Maharaji said, "It is very simple. Just love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God." Love, serve, and remember...the simplicity and profound message contained in these three words served as the inspiration behind the song of the same name that appears on this recording "Remembrance." May this song and the other titles on this album inspire you to remember the truth of who you are and to love and serve this world from that place of remembrance.
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His albums:
Remembrance
Reflections
Voice of the Mystics
Clear Blue Mind
Now is the Time
Already Shining -
I quoted this somewhere in this forum before:
What appears is at the same time disappearing, the arising and the passing away, a single movement, without beginning or end. This is the preciousness of life, this amazing constellation of feelings, thoughts, sensations, and the mystery of wakefulness that illuminates them all, here and then gone in a flash.
And the extraordinary paradox is that this which is ever changing is, at the same time, changeless. A bird, a tear, a star- all the movement of a single life, one ocean dancing as a thousand different waves and yet always remaining itself.
~ John Astin -
Wonderful poetry on Non-Duality by John Astin: http://www.integrativearts.com/writings.html#
Pathless Path
The path to God, the path to ultimate reality is as Krishnamurti said, a "pathless path." In the end, there is no path to the ultimate because there is only the ultimate. Everything is made of That, the source and suchness of all things - every tree, every person, every flower, every atom, every star - all of them made of the same ineffable mystery, the wetness in every wave...
We may imagine that we are on a journey back to God, but how can there be a journey to something that is everywhere and everything? We walk to our temples and mosques, our churches and synagogues, our yoga centers and meditation cushions, to find God, to find Truth, but what is sought is already present, present before the first step is ever taken, and present as that very step. What is sought is here before the first thought ever arises to seek It, and It is here as that very thought. Truth is present, before the mind ever imagines it has been lost. But Truth is also the imagining, God seeking God...
We seek God but there is no escaping God for there is only God, only Spirit dancing as everything that is seen, everything that is touched, everything that is felt. We search for something else that will make us happy, some other experience or moment, but the happiness and freedom we seek is already here as this - this experience, this state of mind, this moment. Every breath, every sensation, the clarity, the confusion, the seeking, and the end of seeking, all of them God, all of them the Truth, all of them, enough.
©2007 John Astin -
Living Dharma
Why cling to some idea
or philosophy uttered
thousands of years
(or maybe just a moment)
ago?
Why, when there is already
this explosion of life,
would we ever look back?
The real dharma lives here,
breathing as this that has
never been seen
or heard before -
this symphony of sounds
and sensations outside my
window right now -
the rustle of leaves,
a chorus of birds,
the ache in my back,
the rush of color everywhere,
this wondrous mystery of thought,
appearing then disappearing
like everything else...
This is the living dharma,
this timeless presence
that welcomes everything
that has come before but
is defined by none of it -
every teaching, every tradition,
the words you are reading now,
all of them, gone,
consumed in the fires
of this living truth...
©2007 John Astin -
Gateless Gate
Because of the tendency to be identified with the content of consciousness, it can be very liberating to realize that consciousness is and always has been free from (not identified with) that which appears within it. But in actuality, there really isn't awareness with objects appearing in it. There is only awareness, only Life appearing as everything. And as this understanding deepens, it is seen that no experience is the truth and every experience is the Truth, for there is only Truth. So, no experience need be resisted.
After all, what need could there be to become free from appearances when the appearances themselves are freedom? When what appears is simply met - not by the "me" but by the awake space in which everything arises - whatever appears is realized to be just another movement of awakeness, another expression of Life. Then, every experience becomes a doorway, even though there really is no doorway, for we are always and already beyond the gateless gate.
©2006 John Astin