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Vajra Diaries: Four Erroneous Ways of Construing a Self & A Sign One’s Ego is Finally Dissolving

20/1 Conventional—I, me, mine—existence is suffering. It’s not a bug, it’s the main feature of our ignorance continuum. Once you realize this, then nothing is the same. The truth revealing this was pronounced over    2500 years ago. But inside us it’s always been there. Perhaps this young sage can motivate us to rediscover at least this one Noble Truth so we can do something with our lives other than that which he rails against.  Classical Buddhist analysis identifies four erroneous ways of construing a self in relation to the aggregates: identifying the aggregate as the self, regarding the self as possessing the aggregate, conceiving the aggregate as existing within the self, or the self as existing within the aggregate. This schema, found already in early discourses such as the  Saṃyutta Nikāya  and later systematized in Abhidharma literature, functions as a diagnostic tool for ego-grasping (satkāyadṛṣṭi). Tibetan scholastic traditions continue to employ this ...
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Vajra Comment: Vajrasattva’s Rival Purifier (inspired by ‘The Abhisambodhi of Vairocana’ Lecture Given by HH Orgyen Trinley, the 17th Karmapa)

A Digest and Commentary of ‘The Abhisambodhi of Vairocana’ Lecture Given by HH Orgyen Trinley, the 17th Karmapa, on the Occasion of     the 40th Monlam in Bodhgaya.     [Introduction, Part I…] (This article is based on a talk in Tibetan and interpreted into English by Ven. David Karma Choephel. Taken off YouTube, not all of it could be clearly discerned and transcribed. While quoting and paraphrasing I’ve tried to use only that which is clear and verifiable. In some cases I’ve clarified information, through logic and research, when the sound is garbled or the sense unclear. This kind of restoration has only been done when it’s obvious or certain. Everything here, when seemingly necessary, has been fact-checked and researched with sources given at the end.) The Duragati Parashodani dharani compared to the 100 syllable Vajrasattva mantra feels atavistic, and it’s necessarily so. As recently as the 40th Kagyu Monlam, December 2025, H.H. Karmapa Orgyen Trinley gave a tea...
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Vajra Dairies: Raw Feed 4 Plus Advice to Vajra Siblings on Jealousy and Abhisambodhi of Vairocana Tantra

9/1/26 The Duragati Parashodani dharani compared to the 100 syllable Vajrasattva mantra feels atavistic, but necessarily so. As recently as the 40th Kagyu Monlam, December 2025, HH Karmapa Orgyen Trinley gave a teaching on the Abhisambodhi Mahavairocana tantra, emphasizing its hinge position in the middle part of tantra’s development. He stressed knowing, if not training in lower kriya, acharya, and yoga tantras (like the Abhisambodhi Vairocana) before moving on to the later Unexcelled yoga tantras with their fourfold structuring as exemplified in the four consecrations. In studying and practicing the later  Lagumsavara tantra, Vajrasattva is at the heart of the yidam Chakrasamvara’s manifestation. This sixth Buddha, self-arisen and self purifying has no antecedents. Or so from the sadhana practice this it seems. From the developmental view of four tantras within three periods, with the yoga tantras being referred to as ‘pure tantras’ (as referenced by Karmapa) then because of...
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