Tuesday, September 25, 2007
From "The Shape of Ancient Thought"
'Descartes proceeds to "reason with" himself in a discursive way, not in the least having taken leave of his normal consciousness. This is not what the word "meditation" means in relation to Hindu and Buddhist thought. In Patanjali's tradition it is said that when the mind is held immobile for the space of twelve restrained and elongated breaths the state of dharana may be said to begin. Dharana is the first stage of concentration in Patanjali's tradition. Dhyana, meditation, and samadhi, trance, are more demanding. One modern authority, Swami Vivekananda, says that samadhi begins after the mind has been immobile for half an hour. Even a minute of mental immobility usually takes training and practice. Descartes probably did not get beyond Patanjali's first stage - perhaps he did not even get to it, since his "withdrawal" from the senses was an accompaniment to discursive thinking, which is a fluctuation in the mind. He had not even begun to "meditate" in the yogic sense of the word.'
Thomas McEvilly, " The Shape of Ancient Thought ," pp 180 - 181
Thomas McEvilly, " The Shape of Ancient Thought ," pp 180 - 181
Some Dzogchen Quotes
Chapter 6, Twenty Seven Courses of Training in Dzogpa Chenpo
p. 308
CONTEMPLATING IN THE EQUAL STATE OF SPACE-LIKE ABSENCE OF EXTERNAL APPREHENDED OBJECTS
Various appearing objects are manifesting as dreams and magic, but if analyzed down to partless atoms, they are (seen to be) emptiness, as they do not exist. So contemplate naturally in the state of self-clarity and emptiness (of the objects) as well as of the apprehending senses, which comprehend the percepts of the objects. This is an important point for realizing the no-self of the objects and perceptions (gZung-Ba'i Shes-Pa).
THE INNER APPREHENDER IS ROOTLESS AND IS EMPTINESS
When one searches for the nature of the mind, which comprehends (phenomena) as objects and subjects, one will not find that it has any existence , past or present, material or immaterial, coming, abiding and going, or color and design, and so on. At that point, remain naturally in the state of baseless mind without apprehension. This will bring the realization of the emptiness of apprehending as "I" and "self."
CONTEMPLATION ON THE UNION (OF TRANQUILITY AND INSIGHT)
This is the unified training of tranquility and insight, whereas in the previous training they were practiced separately.... Whatever appears (in the mind), contemplate in the state that is naturally even, blissfully smooth, tracelessly clear, vastly free, and limitlessly open without any bounds of analysis. At that time the space-like realization arises, which has no (distinction of) outer, inner, or between. It is spontaneous accomplishment of tranquility as it is abiding, of insight as it is clear, and of single union as it is inseparable.
MEDITATION ON SPACE-LIKE EMPTINESS
The body remains in the seven-fold Vairocana posture without moving, like Mt. Meru. The senses remain clearly in self-clarity without ceasing, like the reflection of the moon in a pond. Whatever (appearance) arises (in the mind), do not focus (the mind) on the aspect of appearing but remain with the emptiness aspect of it, which is through clarity, floating and abundant without (differentiations and limitations of distinguishing) outer, inner, or between. Through that meditation, one realizes all phenomena as emptiness with no break, like space.
The way of meditation for beings of higher intellect.
Here, (the state of meditation and realization) is a ceaseless continuum like the flow of a river. Because of one's realization of the awareness as the Dharmakaya, the (mental) projections and withdrawals arise and dissolve as the play of the ultimate nature. Hence, (everything) arises as the clarifying training for the realization, without abandonings or acceptances and deviations or obscurations. On an island of gold, ordinary stones and earth are hard to find even if they are searched for. Likewise, since whatever arises in the intellect has arisen as the spontaneously arisen wisdom, the subjective thoughts are nothing but the realization of the primordially liberated Samantabhadra (Kun-Tu bZang-Po). Whatever arises as the object has arisen as the emptiness-form. So, (for the yogi) the objective thoughts are nothing but the vast expanse of primordially liberated Samantabhadri (Kun-Tu bZang-Mo). (For him) all the phenomenal aspects, which were apprehended separately as the mind and the object, cease in the sphere of non-dual Great Perfection. (At that time, all the phenomenal existents have) arisen in the expanse of the wisdom without (distinctions of) outer and inner, have become equalness without top or bottom... This is the time when the yogi, whose intellect has been exhausted, is happy in the state of exhaustion (of phenomena) in the ultimate nature. Here, having been introduced to the uninterrupted realization, and the awareness having become denuded, one maintains the pure meditationless natural mind, floating nakedly and completely without hindrance, and with confidence in it. (p. 310)
The Practice of Dzogchen
Longchen Rabjam
Introduced, Translated and Annotated by Tulku Thondup
Edited by Harold Talbott
p. 308
CONTEMPLATING IN THE EQUAL STATE OF SPACE-LIKE ABSENCE OF EXTERNAL APPREHENDED OBJECTS
Various appearing objects are manifesting as dreams and magic, but if analyzed down to partless atoms, they are (seen to be) emptiness, as they do not exist. So contemplate naturally in the state of self-clarity and emptiness (of the objects) as well as of the apprehending senses, which comprehend the percepts of the objects. This is an important point for realizing the no-self of the objects and perceptions (gZung-Ba'i Shes-Pa).
THE INNER APPREHENDER IS ROOTLESS AND IS EMPTINESS
When one searches for the nature of the mind, which comprehends (phenomena) as objects and subjects, one will not find that it has any existence , past or present, material or immaterial, coming, abiding and going, or color and design, and so on. At that point, remain naturally in the state of baseless mind without apprehension. This will bring the realization of the emptiness of apprehending as "I" and "self."
CONTEMPLATION ON THE UNION (OF TRANQUILITY AND INSIGHT)
This is the unified training of tranquility and insight, whereas in the previous training they were practiced separately.... Whatever appears (in the mind), contemplate in the state that is naturally even, blissfully smooth, tracelessly clear, vastly free, and limitlessly open without any bounds of analysis. At that time the space-like realization arises, which has no (distinction of) outer, inner, or between. It is spontaneous accomplishment of tranquility as it is abiding, of insight as it is clear, and of single union as it is inseparable.
MEDITATION ON SPACE-LIKE EMPTINESS
The body remains in the seven-fold Vairocana posture without moving, like Mt. Meru. The senses remain clearly in self-clarity without ceasing, like the reflection of the moon in a pond. Whatever (appearance) arises (in the mind), do not focus (the mind) on the aspect of appearing but remain with the emptiness aspect of it, which is through clarity, floating and abundant without (differentiations and limitations of distinguishing) outer, inner, or between. Through that meditation, one realizes all phenomena as emptiness with no break, like space.
The way of meditation for beings of higher intellect.
Here, (the state of meditation and realization) is a ceaseless continuum like the flow of a river. Because of one's realization of the awareness as the Dharmakaya, the (mental) projections and withdrawals arise and dissolve as the play of the ultimate nature. Hence, (everything) arises as the clarifying training for the realization, without abandonings or acceptances and deviations or obscurations. On an island of gold, ordinary stones and earth are hard to find even if they are searched for. Likewise, since whatever arises in the intellect has arisen as the spontaneously arisen wisdom, the subjective thoughts are nothing but the realization of the primordially liberated Samantabhadra (Kun-Tu bZang-Po). Whatever arises as the object has arisen as the emptiness-form. So, (for the yogi) the objective thoughts are nothing but the vast expanse of primordially liberated Samantabhadri (Kun-Tu bZang-Mo). (For him) all the phenomenal aspects, which were apprehended separately as the mind and the object, cease in the sphere of non-dual Great Perfection. (At that time, all the phenomenal existents have) arisen in the expanse of the wisdom without (distinctions of) outer and inner, have become equalness without top or bottom... This is the time when the yogi, whose intellect has been exhausted, is happy in the state of exhaustion (of phenomena) in the ultimate nature. Here, having been introduced to the uninterrupted realization, and the awareness having become denuded, one maintains the pure meditationless natural mind, floating nakedly and completely without hindrance, and with confidence in it. (p. 310)
The Practice of Dzogchen
Longchen Rabjam
Introduced, Translated and Annotated by Tulku Thondup
Edited by Harold Talbott
Religion Before Adam
The use made of the Adam and Eve myth has been to de-legitimize nakedness and subjugate the sacred under the control of priests and the state. See for example Elaine Pagels book, "Adam, Eve and the Serpent," a book less about the first couple than the use made by a patriarchial culture of it's origen myth.
Religion before Adam, though, was an affair of naked, dark skinned, dancing, snake handling entheogen using shamans. In many cosmologies of many cultures the themes of serpent, cosmic, primordial or first man and or woman, nakedness and magic plant occur together. For example: Purusha and the couple Shiva and Parvati in India, Adam Kadmon and Adam and Eve in Jewish folklore, Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri in India, Tibet and Mahayana Buddhism.
One place to look for clues about religion before Adam is Africa and the ancient near East. On the southern coast of South Africa, about 200 miles east of Cape Town there is a cave at Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay. In the cave, there is evidence of habitation by anatomically modern human who engaged in symbolic behavior 164,000 years ago. It would have been easy since then for people to spread thoughout Africa, starting on the coast and spreading inland. In the Sahara Pump theory, North Africa is alternately wet and dry. When wet it's habitable. As it drys out, animals, people and their cattle migrate to the North, and East; to Egypt and the Middle East. The latest wet period was 12,500 b.c. to 4,000 b.c. at which time there was a migration away from the drying Sahara. Semitic languages like Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew are of the Afro-Asiatic family, not Indo-European.
At the Tsodilo Hills in Botswana, there is a stone python that apparently has been worshiped for the last 70,000 years. There was plenty of water and good hunting and fishing at the time. The site is about 25 miles from the Okavango River Delta, a remnant of Lake Makgadikgadi, a huge lake that dried up about 10,0000 years ago.
The people who live in the area today, the San or Bushmen, believe all humanity is descended from a python. According to the San the First Spirit knelt and prayed on the "male" hill after creating the world. and his knees left an impression in the rock. (Interestingly, there is a similar tradition at Sri Pada, a mountain also called "Adam's Peak" in Sri Lanka. An indentation at the peak is taken as the footprint of Adam, Buddha or Shiva by Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.)
At Tsodilo Hills, there was a chamber in which a shaman could hide. And he was probably naked. According to anthropologists, clothing was invented around that time in climates far colder than Botswana.
The San people of the Kalahari desert, also known as Bushmen, San, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe date far back in pre-history to at least 22,000 b.c. and by genetic evidence, are one of the oldest peoples of the world. They had an advanced culture 20,000 years ago. They call themselves "the first people," and may be right. As late as 1962, nakedness was common among the Nuer and San peoples.
In San religion a shaman enters trance to consult with "power animals." The San "Trickster" god seems similar to Shiva, the "wild god of power and ecstasy." In art, Shiva is depicted with a snake. In India, there are Naga: Naked Indian ascetics who worship Siva. "Naga" means a snake being that is associated with the elixir of life and immortality. One of the names of Siva is दिगम्बर or Digambara, Dik = Clothes, Ambara = Sky; a Sanskrit term for "clothed with the sky," i.e naked. Digambar is the name of one of the two Jain sects and also also one of the names of Siva.
The first or cosmic man in the Upanishads is the giant Purusha. In Samkhya, a school of Hindu philosophy, Purusha is pure consciousness, thought to be our true identity, and contrasted with Prakrti, or the material world.
Similarly, Samantabhadra or the Bodhisattva Universal Goodness (Tibetan Buddhism, Lotus and Flower Ornament Sutra) is a naked blue Buddha who represents ultimate reality: "Among those esoteric traditions that treat Samantabhadra as the Primordial Buddha, he is always represented naked, with a dark blue body, in union with his consort Samantabhadi."
"Samantabhadra is looked upon in certain Tantric Buddhist sects as the Primordial Buddha, awakened since the very beginning. Certain of the Yogacara sects claim that Samantabhadra, instead of Vairocana, is the founder of the Yoga system, and look upon him as a divinity of religious ecstasy. Those who practice ecstatic meditation in Japanese esoteric schools regard him as a special divinity central to their practice."
The name Samantabhadra = Saman hymn ? + Bhadra Auspicious?
The Samaveda "consists chiefly of hymns to be chanted by the Udgatar priests at the performance of those important sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation to various deities."
As cosmic person, Samantabhadra shrank from cosmic proportions to human size: "The Bodhisattva Universal Virtue is boundless in the size of his body, boundless in the sound of his voice, and boundless in the form of his imate. Desiring to come to this world, he makes use of his free trancendent powers and shrinks his stature to the small size [of a human being]."
The Threefold Lotus Sutra: The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue pp. 348 - 349
As Samantabhadra is shown with his consort Samantabhadri, Shiva is said to have shared half of His body for Shakti and is known as ardhanarishwara (half woman, half man.) Shiva is said to have shared half of His body with Shakti and is known as Ardhanarishwara (half woman, half man) in this form.
In "Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism," 160 p. 129 - 130
Adam the Giant: Adam was as tall as the sky. The angels complained, and God reduced him to human stature. also: 162, Adam's body of light: when Adam's brightness vanished, he was naked.
In Sri Lanka, At Sri Pada or "Adam's Peak" Sinhalese Samanalakanda "butterfly mountain" in Tamil Shivanolipatha Malai and Shiva padam, there is a rock formation with an indentation resembling a foot at the top. The foot is variously taken as the footprint of Adam, Buddha or Shiva. Saman is the local deity of the place.
It would be interesting to investigate, for example, the roots of the words for naked and serpent. In the Hebrew bible, Nakedness and the serpent are associated through a pun:
- aw-rome nude or naked
and
- aw-room subtil.
"... and they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked (6174 aw-rome),
the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed." Gen 2:24-2:25 6174
also, maybe there is a connection with the serpent here:
6191, 6192 aram - prim root; to make bare, smoothness, cunning, prudent, gather together
6193 orem - strategem, craftiness
Now the serpent was more subtil (Gen. 3:1 6175 aw-room cunning, crafty, prudent, subtil) Note: 5904 is Iyr Nachash: city of a serpent Serpent in Genesis - 5175 Nachash - snake, serpent hiss, to whisper a magic spell, prognosticate, divine, enchanter, diligently observe Matthew 10:16 3789 "be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Greek ophis - sharp vision, snake, sly cunning person
Also, Moses compatriots were apt to get naked at the most inconvenient times: "Moses saw that the people were naked ... "
Ex 32:25 6544 paw-rah loosen, expose, make naked.
Religion before Adam, though, was an affair of naked, dark skinned, dancing, snake handling entheogen using shamans. In many cosmologies of many cultures the themes of serpent, cosmic, primordial or first man and or woman, nakedness and magic plant occur together. For example: Purusha and the couple Shiva and Parvati in India, Adam Kadmon and Adam and Eve in Jewish folklore, Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri in India, Tibet and Mahayana Buddhism.
One place to look for clues about religion before Adam is Africa and the ancient near East. On the southern coast of South Africa, about 200 miles east of Cape Town there is a cave at Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay. In the cave, there is evidence of habitation by anatomically modern human who engaged in symbolic behavior 164,000 years ago. It would have been easy since then for people to spread thoughout Africa, starting on the coast and spreading inland. In the Sahara Pump theory, North Africa is alternately wet and dry. When wet it's habitable. As it drys out, animals, people and their cattle migrate to the North, and East; to Egypt and the Middle East. The latest wet period was 12,500 b.c. to 4,000 b.c. at which time there was a migration away from the drying Sahara. Semitic languages like Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew are of the Afro-Asiatic family, not Indo-European.
At the Tsodilo Hills in Botswana, there is a stone python that apparently has been worshiped for the last 70,000 years. There was plenty of water and good hunting and fishing at the time. The site is about 25 miles from the Okavango River Delta, a remnant of Lake Makgadikgadi, a huge lake that dried up about 10,0000 years ago.
The people who live in the area today, the San or Bushmen, believe all humanity is descended from a python. According to the San the First Spirit knelt and prayed on the "male" hill after creating the world. and his knees left an impression in the rock. (Interestingly, there is a similar tradition at Sri Pada, a mountain also called "Adam's Peak" in Sri Lanka. An indentation at the peak is taken as the footprint of Adam, Buddha or Shiva by Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.)
At Tsodilo Hills, there was a chamber in which a shaman could hide. And he was probably naked. According to anthropologists, clothing was invented around that time in climates far colder than Botswana.
The San people of the Kalahari desert, also known as Bushmen, San, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe date far back in pre-history to at least 22,000 b.c. and by genetic evidence, are one of the oldest peoples of the world. They had an advanced culture 20,000 years ago. They call themselves "the first people," and may be right. As late as 1962, nakedness was common among the Nuer and San peoples.
In San religion a shaman enters trance to consult with "power animals." The San "Trickster" god seems similar to Shiva, the "wild god of power and ecstasy." In art, Shiva is depicted with a snake. In India, there are Naga: Naked Indian ascetics who worship Siva. "Naga" means a snake being that is associated with the elixir of life and immortality. One of the names of Siva is दिगम्बर or Digambara, Dik = Clothes, Ambara = Sky; a Sanskrit term for "clothed with the sky," i.e naked. Digambar is the name of one of the two Jain sects and also also one of the names of Siva.
The first or cosmic man in the Upanishads is the giant Purusha. In Samkhya, a school of Hindu philosophy, Purusha is pure consciousness, thought to be our true identity, and contrasted with Prakrti, or the material world.
Similarly, Samantabhadra or the Bodhisattva Universal Goodness (Tibetan Buddhism, Lotus and Flower Ornament Sutra) is a naked blue Buddha who represents ultimate reality: "Among those esoteric traditions that treat Samantabhadra as the Primordial Buddha, he is always represented naked, with a dark blue body, in union with his consort Samantabhadi."
"Samantabhadra is looked upon in certain Tantric Buddhist sects as the Primordial Buddha, awakened since the very beginning. Certain of the Yogacara sects claim that Samantabhadra, instead of Vairocana, is the founder of the Yoga system, and look upon him as a divinity of religious ecstasy. Those who practice ecstatic meditation in Japanese esoteric schools regard him as a special divinity central to their practice."
The name Samantabhadra = Saman hymn ? + Bhadra Auspicious?
The Samaveda "consists chiefly of hymns to be chanted by the Udgatar priests at the performance of those important sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation to various deities."
As cosmic person, Samantabhadra shrank from cosmic proportions to human size: "The Bodhisattva Universal Virtue is boundless in the size of his body, boundless in the sound of his voice, and boundless in the form of his imate. Desiring to come to this world, he makes use of his free trancendent powers and shrinks his stature to the small size [of a human being]."
The Threefold Lotus Sutra: The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue pp. 348 - 349
As Samantabhadra is shown with his consort Samantabhadri, Shiva is said to have shared half of His body for Shakti and is known as ardhanarishwara (half woman, half man.) Shiva is said to have shared half of His body with Shakti and is known as Ardhanarishwara (half woman, half man) in this form.
In "Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism," 160 p. 129 - 130
Adam the Giant: Adam was as tall as the sky. The angels complained, and God reduced him to human stature. also: 162, Adam's body of light: when Adam's brightness vanished, he was naked.
In Sri Lanka, At Sri Pada or "Adam's Peak" Sinhalese Samanalakanda "butterfly mountain" in Tamil Shivanolipatha Malai and Shiva padam, there is a rock formation with an indentation resembling a foot at the top. The foot is variously taken as the footprint of Adam, Buddha or Shiva. Saman is the local deity of the place.
It would be interesting to investigate, for example, the roots of the words for naked and serpent. In the Hebrew bible, Nakedness and the serpent are associated through a pun:
- aw-rome nude or naked
and
- aw-room subtil.
"... and they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked (6174 aw-rome),
the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed." Gen 2:24-2:25 6174
also, maybe there is a connection with the serpent here:
6191, 6192 aram - prim root; to make bare, smoothness, cunning, prudent, gather together
6193 orem - strategem, craftiness
Now the serpent was more subtil (Gen. 3:1 6175 aw-room cunning, crafty, prudent, subtil) Note: 5904 is Iyr Nachash: city of a serpent Serpent in Genesis - 5175 Nachash - snake, serpent hiss, to whisper a magic spell, prognosticate, divine, enchanter, diligently observe Matthew 10:16 3789 "be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Greek ophis - sharp vision, snake, sly cunning person
Also, Moses compatriots were apt to get naked at the most inconvenient times: "Moses saw that the people were naked ... "
Ex 32:25 6544 paw-rah loosen, expose, make naked.
