If
you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
- Ajhan Chah
a householder's life is something like this... dusty.....crowded.......
I am very confused as to what to practice. I received vajrayana initiations, boddhisattva vow, dzogchen transmission, did a little zazen and a ten days vipassana retreat. I feel great atraction for devotional buddhism ( I practiced bhakti-yoga - hare krishna- for 16 years ). So sometimes I do a little practice of Tara, Amitabha and Guru Rinpoche. Sometimes I do guru yoga, anapana and vipassana. I read buddhist books of all schools. Maybe I am searching for an " easy way" to practice. At the moment, I try the best to not cause harm and to help beings if possible. I feel vey sad with how beings are suffering and I can't do nothing. I want to get enlightement so that I could help beings in samsara. I do not want to enter nirvana and let beings suffering in samsara. I am 42 years old. I need to stop reading and practice some real thing.
Thanks !
W
Brazil
Hi Waldik, welcome.
Dzogchen is good, zazen is good, vipassana is good. You need to know which one resonates with you more then follow in that direction. I personally have my own path that I practiced as well (i.e. http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.sg/2010/12/my-e-booke-journal.html) but this is not to say my path must be everyone's path.
Ultimately you should make a decision which path and practice to follow... What resonates with you most? Do you have a sangha which you can go to at your place? Which city do you stay in?
Dear Friend,
Thank you very much !
I live in the city of Campina Grande, northeast region of Brazil. It has about 350.000 inhabitantes. There is a very small zen group here. I will take part in it next month. I feel great atraction for theravada, specialy anapana and vipassana. At the same time, I feel conected with dzogchen teachings of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, but I feel dzogchen is very high for me and I do not have a dzogchen sanga here. I think that I should practice both. The essential practice of Guru Yoga combined with anapana and vipassana.
Sarva Mangalam !
Yes. You can do whatever methods you want but unify it with guru yoga.
"when we do Guru Yoga we can unify all knowledge and masters into Guru
Yoga including the knowledge we might have learned from non-Buddhist
masters" - loppon namdrol
By the way if you are interested in dzogchen you can also find out about rushan and semdzins, they are considered 'self-introduction' to rigpa.
Originally posted by Waldik108:Dear Friend,
Thank you very much !
I live in the city of Campina Grande, northeast region of Brazil. It has about 350.000 inhabitantes. There is a very small zen group here. I will take part in it next month. I feel great atraction for theravada, specialy anapana and vipassana. At the same time, I feel conected with dzogchen teachings of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, but I feel dzogchen is very high for me and I do not have a dzogchen sanga here. I think that I should practice both. The essential practice of Guru Yoga combined with anapana and vipassana.
Sarva Mangalam !
Hi Waldik108, Dzogchen teachings may entail the highest realisation or wisdom on the path, but you shouldn't consider it too high for you. If you have interest in it, it signifies that you have some kind of affinity with it already. So you should make an effort and try. Within the Dzogchen teachings, there are also graduated paths. So it is not that either you realise your true nature totally right at once or else you can't practice Dzogchen. You can also go by the gradual way.
By the way dharmawheel and vajracakra forum has many Dzogchen community followers. U can find out info on chnnr teachings there as well.
Something I wrote in FB:
Hi
John, all appearances can teach us, but only few lend ears to suffering
and the lessons in samsara, while most people continue or choose to
delude themselves with worldly foolishness. First of all, not many
people know about the dharma, but among those that knows, many continue
giving themselves excuses for dwelling deeper into "worldly foolishness"
and not bothering to learn and practice the dharma. Of the countless
excuses, some may include foolish reasonings like "maybe I'll practice
the dharma when I get old, now earning money is more important" (well,
how do you even know if you'll live until oldage or even to tomorrow?),
or even more foolish statements like "why do I need the dharma?" or
"dharma are for monks, I'm just a lay person and probably can't achieve
much from spiritual practices", etc etc.
First
of all, we have to consider that we have undergone countless lifetimes
(as stated in the "Life is like a passing cloud," thread) suffering
birth, ageing, sickness, death, and countless untold sufferings in the
wheel of samsara. Not knowing this truth itself is folly, and we can say
majority of mankind is foolish or short sighted. Ignorance in fact was
defined by Buddha as the ignorance of the four noble truths. i.e. Most
people are not only unaware of the circumstance of samsaric cycles of
rebirth, they actually consciously ignore the "bad things" in life like
"sickness, ageing, death", they try to block these things off their mind
with endless sensual distractions, or they reason to themselves "I'm
brave, I can deal with death, no problem" (but nonetheless when the time
comes they can't cope with the psychological trauma and attachments and
fears), or the materialists ignorantly think "well, sickness and death
will come anyway and then we'll be gone forever, we can't do anything
about it, so why bother about spiritual practices, just enjoy life while
it lasts" (but actually, you CAN do something to overcome mental
suffering and the cycle of birth and death, i.e. practise the dharma).
These
endless sensual distractions and worldly foolishness and trying to
ignore the facts of suffering, death, etc, do not in fact change the
reality of life (and afterlife). Ignorance isn't bliss. When suffering
comes, when death, ageing, sickness, loss, etc etc comes they suffer
more because they are not prepared for it. They are confused, attached,
in deep sorrow, agony, fear, etc.
Even
if we have found the dharma, the circumstances and importance of dharma
may not have sunk in deeply. We still consciously or subconsciously
choose self-denial, denial of suffering, denial of the circumstances we
are in, ignorance or denial of the fact of the preciousness of our human
birth, denial of the importance of dharma, or we indulge in worldly
foolishness with lots of lame excuses, procrastinations, etc.
i.e.
The Buddha said that the chance of obtaining a human life is as rare as
the chance that a blind turtle which surfaces from the bottom of the
ocean once every hundred years, will surface and his head will enter a
ring that is being tossed around on the waves of the ocean.
Just
think: what is the ratio of mankind to ants and other animals, needless
to speak about other lower and higher realms of existence?
And among mankind, how many have the opportunity to encounter dharma and practise it for their liberation?
Since this opportunity is more rare than striking a million dollar jackpot, are we going to let it go to waste?
I
actually had a dream before that sums this up: we are in a collapsing
building that is going down by the moment, and people ignore it and are
glued to the TV regardless.
Just
as Buddha says: "But whatever priests or contemplatives who have dwelt
or will dwell or are dwelling free from thirst, their minds inwardly at
peace, all have done so having realized — as it actually is present —
the origination & disappearance, the allure, the danger, & the
escape from sensual pleasures, having abandoned sensual craving and
removed sensual fever."