Buddha Nature

[Phaelyn]

“Buddha nature is all-encompassing … This Buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky.” — Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

There is a certain kind of thought that appears uninvited and un-examined. Like I can choose to think about things. Contemplate them. That is me using thought for something. I "invited" these thoughts, they are serving me. But then I can be walking around and the thought comes, "I'm so bored," which is an uninvited thought. Knowing such a thing is not from "me" I can dismiss it without it causing an effect. In fact, this awareness or insight that it is just junk from mind, totally meaningless, just there to capture my attention, makes me "detached from the suffering" it would cause if I bought into whatever it is proclaiming or selling as some kind of truth.

That's true in each moment as well. A thought can come stating I need to be doing something, something is required that is not present, I am not ok as I am, there is something more to seek or achieve, stuff like that and I can recognize none of this is solicited advice and so dismiss it. Be free of it and it's effects. Buddha nature, which lies dormant within and without, has no expression in one that allows conflicts to flower within. The experience of it, our Buddha nature, the Buddha Realm (Buddhadhātu), a potential of experience in each moment.

The roots of a tree may be hidden by earth, but they are always there. Our Buddha Nature, likewise, maybe obscured by our ignorance, but it is always there. It’s not something we have (like a soul) but something we are.

In teachings by Khenop Tsultrim Tenzin, the teacher explained it this way: “Impurities and defilements are the fruition of mistaken view… When defilements are removed (it is like) when the sun is freed from the clouds, then all the sun quality is there.”

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche defined Buddha Nature as: “… our fundamental nature of mind is a luminous expanse of awareness that is beyond all conceptual fabrication and completely free from the movement of thoughts. It is the union of emptiness and clarity, of space and radiant awareness that is endowed with supreme and immeasurable qualities.”

https://buddhaweekly.com/buddha-natu...ture-not-soul/

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche defined Buddha Nature as: “… our fundamental nature of mind is a luminous expanse of awareness that is beyond all conceptual fabrication and completely free from the movement of thoughts. It is the union of emptiness and clarity, of space and radiant awareness that is endowed with supreme and immeasurable qualities.”

Reading that – one might conclude that he is describing Shunyata.
But instead of Shunyata, Buddha Nature is called Tathagatagarbha:
The womb" or "embryo" (garbha) of the "thus-gone" (Tathāgata).

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As I understand it, the mysteries of the universe are an Open Secret, everything is hidden in plain sight.

Shunyata to my understanding is like a gateless gate …. one nevertheless must realize/pass in order to “go” …… to the Central Sun (so to speak)

Buddha nature is all-encompassing … This Buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky.
— Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

But then again I am describing 'Shamanism' – which starts from what Buddhists call “Shunyata” & from there the “magnetizing-space/emptiness” brings about “Jhana and Samadhi” (a-trance-like-path) – to come into effect).


That is my take on it ……

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So easy, so hard.

Jl

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

“Buddha nature is all-encompassing … This Buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky.” — Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

There is a certain kind of thought that appears uninvited and un-examined. Like I can choose to think about things. Contemplate them. That is me using thought for something. I "invited" these thoughts, they are serving me. But then I can be walking around and the thought comes, "I'm so bored," which is an uninvited thought. Knowing such a thing is not from "me" I can dismiss it without it causing an effect. In fact, this awareness or insight that it is just junk from mind, totally meaningless, just there to capture my attention, makes me "detached from the suffering" it would cause if I bought into whatever it is proclaiming or selling as some kind of truth.

That's true in each moment as well. A thought can come stating I need to be doing something, something is required that is not present, I am not ok as I am, there is something more to seek or achieve, stuff like that and I can recognize none of this is solicited advice and so dismiss it. Be free of it and it's effects. Buddha nature, which lies dormant within and without, has no expression in one that allows conflicts to flower within. The experience of it, our Buddha nature, the Buddha Realm (Buddhadhātu), a potential of experience in each moment.

The roots of a tree may be hidden by earth, but they are always there. Our Buddha Nature, likewise, maybe obscured by our ignorance, but it is always there. It’s not something we have (like a soul) but something we are.

In teachings by Khenop Tsultrim Tenzin, the teacher explained it this way: “Impurities and defilements are the fruition of mistaken view… When defilements are removed (it is like) when the sun is freed from the clouds, then all the sun quality is there.”

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche defined Buddha Nature as: “… our fundamental nature of mind is a luminous expanse of awareness that is beyond all conceptual fabrication and completely free from the movement of thoughts. It is the union of emptiness and clarity, of space and radiant awareness that is endowed with supreme and immeasurable qualities.”

https://buddhaweekly.com/buddha-natu...ture-not-soul/

That’s why ‘stillness’ is without claim.
Movement in stillness is without doubt.
All potentialities arise from that stillness..
Buddha nature ‘just knows’ because the light of all those unified connections, lights the ‘way’..

[sentient]

Originally Posted by JustBe

That’s why ‘stillness’ is without claim.
Movement in stillness is without doubt.
All potentialities arise from that stillness..
Buddha nature ‘just knows’ because the light of all those unified connections, lights the ‘way’..

That is lovely JustBe …

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I didn’t know whether to add the “Pole Star” as an equivalent to the "Central Sun” (in my last post), but then found this:

In the last talk from the Meditation: The Path of the Buddha series (Naropa 1974), Chögyam Trungpa gives us a taste of the desolation and power of Shunyata or Emptiness and how this experience leads to the dawning of Buddha Nature and the first glimpse of enlightenment.


…you begin to experience the dawn or glimmer of light, which in Western language is called the Star of Bethlehem. A birth of something is taking place. There’s a star in the deep black midnight sky.

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[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by sentient

As I understand it, the mysteries of the universe are an Open Secret, everything is hidden in plain sight.

The universe seems pretty straight forward to me as far as me having a theory how it all works. But I don't think anyone else thinks like I do about how the big questions are answered. Maybe a few. I was wondering why but then I realized only two options are offered up in our culture, Darwinism or a God (Intelligent Creator). Nobody seems to think outside those two possibilities. I'd say the obvious answer to who or what created all of this is hidden in plain sight.

Now the way to enlightenment is the difficult thing. Humans, at least by the time they are adults, are not only convinced they are this body, they also know of no other way to pursue things without the mental component. So we are heavily conditioned to operate as a body with it's mind. So add in a goal like enlightenment and we pursue it like we pursue everything else, as this person (body) with it's mental component. I , me, mine....will achieve this thing Buddha did. We start with, Tell me how! What do I do to get there? And the "I" there is a consciousness identified with the body and it's mind.

Buddhism is pretty clear one has to be free of those conditionings. But everything is mentally processed including religion, Buddhism, practices. It all goes through this "I" that is all wrapped up in the conditioning of this person we are convinced we are.

I get the feeling we have to give up everything, in a way, to get this thing. One has to give up even Buddhism to realize what Buddhism is pointing to. But it makes sense I think. Neither Buddha nor Jesus wrote anything down nor did either belong to an organized faith or belief system. We constantly look at teachings, ideas, as pointers.... when really just giving all that up is the way... give up all of it... yea easy and hard.....giving up this being centered as an "I" - Mind centered. Thought centered. Person centered,

If you pretend you never ever heard one word of religion or philosophy, it does feel like a big weight is off your shoulders, at least to me. I feel lighter, not stressed, and yet somehow I still have this knowing about the teachings. But not as ideas. Dwelling in ideas is energy draining.

[Phaelyn]

Ever read your own post later and none of it really makes sense.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

The universe seems pretty straight forward to me as far as me having a theory how it all works. But I don't think anyone else thinks like I do about how the big questions are answered. Maybe a few. I was wondering why but then I realized only two options are offered up in our culture, Darwinism or a God (Intelligent Creator). Nobody seems to think outside those two possibilities. I'd say the obvious answer to who or what created all of this is hidden in plain sight.

Now the way to enlightenment is the difficult thing. Humans, at least by the time they are adults, are not only convinced they are this body, they also know of no other way to pursue things without the mental component. So we are heavily conditioned to operate as a body with it's mind. So add in a goal like enlightenment and we pursue it like we pursue everything else, as this person (body) with it's mental component. I , me, mine....will achieve this thing Buddha did. We start with, Tell me how! What do I do to get there? And the "I" there is a consciousness identified with the body and it's mind.

Buddhism is pretty clear one has to be free of those conditionings. But everything is mentally processed including religion, Buddhism, practices. It all goes through this "I" that is all wrapped up in the conditioning of this person we are convinced we are.

I get the feeling we have to give up everything, in a way, to get this thing. One has to give up even Buddhism to realize what Buddhism is pointing to. But it makes sense I think. Neither Buddha nor Jesus wrote anything down nor did either belong to an organized faith or belief system. We constantly look at teachings, ideas, as pointers.... when really just giving all that up is the way... give up all of it... yea easy and hard.....giving up this being centered as an "I" - Mind centered. Thought centered. Person centered,

If you pretend you never ever heard one word of religion or philosophy, it does feel like a big weight is off your shoulders, at least to me. I feel lighter, not stressed, and yet somehow I still have this knowing about the teachings. But not as ideas. Dwelling in ideas is energy draining.

Everything is a marker-pointing towards ‘something’ yet within all that, it’s leading you back to you.

Drain is about balance.
Balance is about understanding yourself balanced.
To become balanced everything becomes an integration.
A balanced transient flow, nothing remaining static.
The whole ‘mind/body/spiritual’ nature when open, flowing and balanced, doesn’t remain ‘stuck’ in anything.
The teachings eventually become known as you, whether you understand yourself through them, intellectually as practice or whether you understand yourself in them through ‘being’ ‘aware’ of yourself as to what they ‘point’ too, through any ‘self reflective’ practice.

When you start to ‘realize’ that ‘holding’ on to the pointer/markers doesn’t allow you to open deeper, you start to ‘realize’ that you have to let go of everything, because there is no where else to go. The state of emptiness becomes a movement where you walk ‘open’ ‘aware’ and centred and you just ‘feel’ complete.
Their is nothing to hold onto, there is awareness in this way of being, you no longer direct your life through external means, but through the ‘clarity’ of your being ‘aware’.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Ever read your own post later and none of it really makes sense.

At times I have, but now I’m more integrated and aware of what I’m saying.

When your opening before you integrate it becomes preparation, your opening to know before you know fully what your sharing. This is entering the unknown of yourself. Often it occurs to shake things up, challenge how you feel with the unknown leading. The mind likes to know, so it’s another undoing..or reveal.

Some might say. ‘Just not self realised yet’

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

The universe seems pretty straight forward to me as far as me having a theory how it all works.

We do have our conventional/habitual conceptual fabrications, our ‘mind maps’ …. and as Gnostic Mr. Aun Weor pointed out:

Our intellectual hallucination is fascinating, and we want all the phenomena of nature to be, by force, the same as our dialectic logic.

Then we change our ‘mind maps’ to a Buddhist one and become just another version of bible bashers.

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

I get the feeling we have to give up everything, in a way, to get this thing. One has to give up even Buddhism to realize what Buddhism is pointing to.

Yes, because ultimately Buddhism doesn’t exist either since ‘Reality-What-Is” is not a conceptual projection so it doesn’t have any “isms” in it.

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Dwelling in ideas is energy draining.

To me real renunciation also means an intent to discover “What Is” by ourselves and for ourselves - moment to moment - which helps to drop a lot of baggage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idrfVWvxPuY

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