10.30.04
This morning, reading Samten Karmay's "The Arrow and the Spindle; Studies in History, Myths, Rituals, and Beliefs in Tibet". Amazing book.
Three chapters have really jumped out at me:
"rDzog chen in its Earliest Text: a Manuscript from Dunhuang" - a terse history of the Dzog Chen system of meditation, which is essentially a Tibetan form of Zen meditation. It's interesting to look at its early pre-Tantric formulations, which are very sparse. Includes a translation of the seminal "The Cuckoo of the Intellect", a 6-line early Dzog Chen text:
The nature of phenomenal existence is non-dual.
The parts themselvesare devoid of conceptualization.
They are as they are, not to be thought of.
All Good shines forth in all forms.
Having Grasped it, abandon the ill of striving.
Dwelling in spontenaeity, leave things as they are.
Pithy!
"The Fifth Dalai Lama and the Unification of Tibet": The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, is a fascinating figure. In addition to being a powerhouse political figure who unified Tibet in the 17th centry after seven hundred years of fragmentation, he was also a towering religious figure whose mystical visions transformed his life completely.
A cynical and ironic man of learning with few illusions about the church and state that he would ultimately lead, there's a lot of rich lessons to be gleaned from his life.
"The Interview between Phyva Keng-tse lan-med and Confucious": A very interesting myth about a traveller who encounters a boy that he can neither ignore nor make peace with nor defeat in combat. Reminds me of the line in Tozan Ryokai's Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi describing the ultimate nature of reality:
"Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire."
Also reminds me of Proteus in the Odyssey, or the Tar Baby. An interesting archetype of an ungovernable force of nature. Very compelling story.
This morning, reading Samten Karmay's "The Arrow and the Spindle; Studies in History, Myths, Rituals, and Beliefs in Tibet". Amazing book.
Three chapters have really jumped out at me:
"rDzog chen in its Earliest Text: a Manuscript from Dunhuang" - a terse history of the Dzog Chen system of meditation, which is essentially a Tibetan form of Zen meditation. It's interesting to look at its early pre-Tantric formulations, which are very sparse. Includes a translation of the seminal "The Cuckoo of the Intellect", a 6-line early Dzog Chen text:
The nature of phenomenal existence is non-dual.
The parts themselvesare devoid of conceptualization.
They are as they are, not to be thought of.
All Good shines forth in all forms.
Having Grasped it, abandon the ill of striving.
Dwelling in spontenaeity, leave things as they are.
Pithy!
"The Fifth Dalai Lama and the Unification of Tibet": The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, is a fascinating figure. In addition to being a powerhouse political figure who unified Tibet in the 17th centry after seven hundred years of fragmentation, he was also a towering religious figure whose mystical visions transformed his life completely.
A cynical and ironic man of learning with few illusions about the church and state that he would ultimately lead, there's a lot of rich lessons to be gleaned from his life.
"The Interview between Phyva Keng-tse lan-med and Confucious": A very interesting myth about a traveller who encounters a boy that he can neither ignore nor make peace with nor defeat in combat. Reminds me of the line in Tozan Ryokai's Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi describing the ultimate nature of reality:
"Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire."
Also reminds me of Proteus in the Odyssey, or the Tar Baby. An interesting archetype of an ungovernable force of nature. Very compelling story.