Post Vajrayana in Kampuchea

13/12/24 The untamed ego is truly insidious, but can be mastered within the continuum of one’s tantric practice. The  lam dre   nong   sum  (‘The Three Visions’)   counsels isolation and limited social interaction once embarking upon its teachings. And for good reasons. For instance, late last night an old dharma friend, who spends a lot of time on the internet promoting the legitimate dharma, engaged me in vocal text messages after complaining of eye problems. I agreed, reluctantly, as vocal interactions are for me more ‘sticky’—sticking in my consciousness longer. Especially if the conversation carries a lot of baggage, as I knew this one would.  Indeed, consideration laden dreams followed once sleep overtook me. But the one that woke me up was a gift from the Buddhas. While it took place in a usual dreamscape, like a movie set merged with an airport departure lounge—and me only wearing bathing trunks while looking to get paid and then transported somewhe...

Most of Samsara is organized around relieving its own suffering. For example, medicines relieve minor symptoms, sometimes major ones, but then have side effects that can leads to other sicknesses or  even death. Commonly experienced sex is another one, creating tremendous carvings, jealousy, hatred—‘crimes and misdemeanors’ of passion. In reality, these ‘attacks,’ both internal and external, are opportunities for the transformation and rediscovery of the five  abhisambodas  (Wisdom Buddhas), negatively imagined as five causal sufferings related to the five  skandhas.  These five are  form  (of the four elements),  feelings ,  perceptions ,  thoughts and ideas , and  awareness  of the other three mental aggregates. The trick is to catch afflictions at their primary stage. Example, a stuttering child starts out with this problem, the causes of which are unknown, but soon develops a secondary psychological blocking after family me...

  11/17/24 Vajradharahood? After the yantra demonstration a little girl bounced out of the gompa imitating the crouched position of the instructor. She reminded me of a Vajradhara image I both saw and then visualized. The luscious light forms of Vajradharma and Vajrayogini (crimson red) I experienced in my Three months Vajrayogini retreat are occurring more frequently the last few days. It has something to do with the pooling of elements at the bottom of the three channels. Also, the conscious blocking of sun and moon there. But more than exhausting polluted elements or stopping grosser airs it’s just one’s generation of purities out of faith and diligence.  11/19 I’m trying to recover my experience of the Guru turning end over end—the image was something like that—in a post meditation extravaganza the other night. Now that I sleep little and dream less, it’s hard to keep track of circumstances from prolong periods of post meditation and siddhi enriched sessions. But it came t...

9/11/24   During post-meditation last night several significant things happened. My human bone mala kept sequestered on my altar back in Cambodia appeared very real and hung itself around my neck. It was like a blessing I didn’t quite understand until later the next day. Lying in bed in a state of profound pacification, I recited the King of Mantras. Remembering what the Guru said about the body of the Hevajra deity that day, I began to get a strong visual and feeling for his upper body like never before. All three spheres were abiding in a great deal of bliss and emptiness. And then my torso and limbs went into spontaneous yantras, with lots of contortions, writhing, and head shaking in a conscious spreading of the bodhicitta element. Not too long after that, while doing the fourth consecration wisdom meditation, with all the mandala chakras open and nectars and essence airs flowing, in a rush of upward moving energy I suddenly cried out, ‘I’ve had this dream before!’ It’s then a ...

From the accomplished yogi’s POV, all types of love have the same essential nature: great bliss, same as all beings and phenomena. I figured this out when I went to express feelings for my spiritual friend from whom I’ve been separated the majority of time since we met. “Perhaps we’ve become a source of great bliss for each other—having this is necessary—and we can experience that bliss merely by thinking of each other. But I feel we also need, at times, to be physically in the same space.” Since before, and at the time of this writing, the focus of my Buddhist practice has been essentially realizing the co-emergent wisdom of supreme nonduality (the natural state beyond the base luminosity of mind, the Great Bliss of Wisdom indicated above) then the possibilities of it’s various ‘delivery systems’ is naturally of great interest to me.   Starting from the ‘outermost’ first, there are the 24 peeta power places of yogini adepts either born there, or arisen out of a compassionate need,...

   17/10/24   The famous Nepali Temple, which is uniquely (in ancient Varanasi) decorated with scenes from the Kama Sutra, is  arrived at by traveling through the Kashi Temple Corridor to the new tomb-like tourist plaza (with food court!) and then turning left. There you arrive at the juncture of Amrut Bhavan, Somnath Bhavan, and Triyambakeshwar Bhavan—the latter being the rare Nepali Shiva Temple. Across from the temple, toward the Ganga Ji river, there’s a vantage point of the Mani Khani Ghat, which roughly translates, ‘having left a gem on the steps [of the the burning-ghats.’] This suggests the loss of loved ones who are cremated there.   A three thousand year old flame is kept by a family who runs the ghat and that flame they use to ignite the wealthy and Brahmins’ pyres of sandalwood, on the highest platform. They also collect money for a lesser fire wood that’s three to five times cheaper for the lowest cast bodies that are burned on the river’s shore. At...