It doesn't look like Avalokitesharava to me either...although I might be wrong as well..

At any given moment you are the complete manifestation of your karma.  And I don't not think that Karma is opposed to free will.  If one is only up in their head and never present to the moment in front of them then they will always be bounded by Karma, since Karma moves from past and pushes you into the future.  Yet if you are fully in grossed in the present moment that you transcend Karma, since Karma doesn't exist in the present, Karma exist in time, the present is timeless...A Buddha is simply a being who is fully present, which is why he has no Karma.... 

There is nothing wrong with Homosexuality. There is even cases of Homosexuality in the animal kingdom. It is only our culture which tags things as natural or un natural.  Saying it might be a ripped karma sounds like in a way the homosexual is being punished.  And this is wrong view.   

There is as much free will involved with someone being homosexual as there is for someone being heterosexual. 

Everyone is in the problem of attachment for thirst and pleasure.  Wanting pleasure is not bad, we are in physical bodies, the body likes pleasure, there is nothing wrong in it, it is the constant chasing of pleasure that becomes a problem...

some thoughts...


Rafael 

From my limited point of view, Sex can be a type of mediation.  There is nothing wrong with sex from the side of sex itself, instead our ideas, attachments, culture up-bringing turn sex from something natural into something with so much bad press attached to it. 

If one sees sex as only bad, then one stills has an attachment to sex, mainly an attachment to the idea that it is something to be avoided.  Sex is natural. Like drinking water and sleeping.  We do not hold negative views against sleeping, why should we hold negative views against sex?

Mediating on sex can drop our attachment to the notion that sex is bad, or that sex is great.  Engaging in sex with awareness, with someone you really connect with, can be one of the most profound physical and spiritual experiences you can ever have.   If one holds a view for or against anything then one still is harboring some attachment to that thing.

The world is not good or bad. The world just is.  Our practice should allow us to slowly begin to see this...

Once again this is from my limited and deluded view


Gassho


Rafael

I am going to re-post the question I sumbitted to Rinpoche here.  I like the toptic and Rinpoche's answer and hope that it can spark a discussion =)

Plus I also want to re-post Sandy's response to that question(hope that's ok) since I find it very insightful.  So, enough of the preamble here it goes:

~Dear Rinpoche,

I heard someone saying that if we look close enough the “Me” that exists in the morning is not the same “Me” that goes to sleep at night. Since we are a collection of moments due to cause and effect. This had me thinking; if the “Me” that is alive right now, is not going to be the same “Me” in a future life; then why bother striving for Buddha hood in the first place? It won’t be “Me” who finally fulfills the vow of becoming a fully enlightened being for the benefit of all. Can you please share your thoughts on this? -from Rafael

********************************************

Dear Rafael,

That is a good question…I like it.

The me in the morning and night are ‘different’. The me now and in future lives are ‘different’. But that is because this me is still subject to impermanence due to it’s unenlightened nature.

Once enlightened..it remains the same me…LOL.

Thanks, TR~

~Sandy's Response
Two amazing questions in one day – AND it’s sunny outside. It’s times like these I’m saddened by impermanence…

I think the “me” most of us refer to isn’t the “me” who will work towards and eventually attain Enlightenment. I have to say first of all that this is an excellent question from Rafael. I used to ask the same question all the time (only, with God): If everything is how it should be, if every experience is a result of karma, if God has designed me in this way, then why bother to change anything, especially spiritual practice? If karma has deemed me selfish in this life, who am I to argue?

But let’s say (for extreme effect, and to quickly illustrate the point) that you are attacked and left badly wounded in the street. You wouldn’t just lie there because, naturally, the bleeding wounds will heal in their own time or – if you run out of time and bleed to death, well, that’s just how it’s meant to be. No, you’d scream for help, call a doctor, get to hospital – whatever it takes. If you had any means of bettering your condition, you’d do everything in your power to do so.

It’s similar with the mind. I’m not the 5-year old child I was 23 years ago (cringe!). If I see a balloon now, or an ice-cream truck, they are not the most important things in the universe any more (pretty close, though).
However, everything I have been and everything I have experienced is the sum of who I am now. If, at the age of eight, the young boy didn’t ask the school minister about people who are reborn again, and if he was satisfied with being told it was nonsense, I might be a Christian now. But thanks to the eight-year old boy feeling something didn’t quite add up, it lit a spark and eventually helped me to where I am now in spiritual practice.

So I wouldn’t say the “me” from this morning ever vanishes entirely. Elements of who we have been all our lives are still with us in some form or other. As with all things, spirituality to me seems a progressive thing. Without the “me” of this moment, there’s no possibility of the “me” of the future attaining Enlightenment.

Therefore, as I see it, one must “bother” because one has every possibility of bettering the state of the mind. You are the you of your future lives – your mind now contributes to the mind you will have 20 lifetimes from now.

The “wrong” perception of “me” is when you look at “Rafael” who (I make the following up, since I don’t know your likes) enjoys coffee or plays guitar or loves to read poetry. We define ourselves (usually) by external labels. “I’m a Buddhist” “I’m a musician” “I’m a writer”. In my next life, perhaps I won’t be able to play a single note or write a single word, so I have to conclude that these things aren’t “me”, even though my gross mind thinks these things are exactly who I am.

When you reach Enlightenment (so I’ve read), you don’t stop making mistakes, and you don’t suddenly become divine (there’s a story that suggests directly after his Enlightenment, the Buddha encountered a merchant who asked him what he had discovered. The Buddha gave such a fanciful explanation of what he had attained and the merchant thought him a mad man. Later – post Enlightenment – the Buddha realised he made a mistake and that he would have to explain what he had discovered more skilfully in future).

Enlightenment seems to be the way to true happiness, to cease suffering through desires, attachments and aversions. You don’t stop facing problems, but whatever you face, you truly recognise the nature of it and – as a result – are able to let go and enjoy lasting happiness and contentment because of that ability.

Seems worthwhile enough to me to continue to bother… ~

Hope you enjoy

Rafael...or am I?



 

Actually I do not see the heart sutra as a contradiction at all. 

The Buddha taught that there is suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path.

Yet, if all those things we absolutely true, then we never be able to get out of this samsara.  If suffering was a fixed thing, then why even bother to try?

It is because there is no suffering,(at least lasting and inherent suffering) there is no cause, no cessation, and no path.  It is because of the inherent emptiness of all of this that we are able to realize ourselves as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. 

But just like you've mentioned, if the Buddha stared teaching; "hey guess what? there is no suffering!" I'm sure those first students would have beat him with his own bodhi tree.   

And as Epictetus once said;  it's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Rafael

Osho once said; "A Buddha is a Buddha, a Krishna is a Krishna, and you are you.  And you are not in any way less than anybody else.  Respect yourself, respect your inner voice and follow it."

I would not say anyone is special.  Not in a "no one is good"  type of way, but we are all so uniquely us that we cannot really compare ourselves to anyone to be able to say I'm special or not.  Einstein was special to the degree that he understood the physical workings of the universe better than other people in that category, but  Einstein as a whole was not better or worse than anyone, because Einstein as a whole was a unique thing.  Special in what? Worse in what?

I don't think there is a standard to which we all can compare ourselves with, instead we just are who we are.  In that sense we are not special, we are perfect.  Perfect in the sense that we are lacking nothing at all.  We are already complete.  Even in our spiritual  journey we are not looking to become a Buddha, instead we are only trying to realize that we were already Buddhas all along. 

Anyway...I guess I won't off- topic here...hehehe

Rafael

Ok, it is not really a guitar but it is part of the guitar family. It is called a 'cuatro' and it is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. I made this video a while back and sort of re-found it today. so I thought I'd share it here...

Rafael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh5cY1ajtV4

Hi!

I love the heart sutra.  I think it is very profound and direct.  But there is a part in it that seems like it is directly in oppostion to the fundamental teachings of the Buddha; the four noble truths. 

"No suffering , no cause of suffering, no extinguishing,
no path, no wisdom and no gain."

No suffering-No First noble truth
No cause of Suffering-No second noble truth
No extinguishing- No third noble truth
No path, no wisdom, and no gain- No fourth noble truth, no noble eight fold path, no understanding the nature of the mind, and no enlightenment

Then the sutra  goes on to say, that it is because of this that the Bodhisattva lives in prajna wisdom.

I find this very interesting and intriguing. 

would like to hear some insights 


Rafael 

Your words are very inspiring!

I'll share a short bit of something that I wrote after I got off a bus.  I was sitting on a crowed bus contemplating how I want to be a Buddha, on the deep philosophical meaning of this and that-and in front of me was an old Chinese guy just trying to hang on.  and in the midst of all my deep Buddhist thinking was the thought "I ain't getting up, I got here first" and then right back to the thoughts of Buddha. 

Then I realized what I was doing.  I was doing Dharma! I was just feeding my ego by tricking myself to feel intellcualy good for understanind(misunderstanding) some basic Buddhit concepts. 

So I got up and gave him my seat, and really tried to reflect on what happened.  Here are some my thoughts from that day:

~If you want to affect the world, when you get up in the morning, smile, speak kindly to your co-workers do not get upset if your boss yells at you.  Act more peaceful and set an example for others, because if you are sincere in this, you will help affect the minds of others. By helping people in your immediately surroundings, you, in turn help the whole world.               

 We mediate, chant, and pray to train us to deal with everyday life. If you think that everything will go well just because you mediate for an hour, or do a long prayer and then you go out and complain to everyone because the world is not the way you want it to be then you are wasting your time. It does not matter which religion you follow or which spiritual path you walk, what is important are the results. Are you a better person after your prayers? Are you more accepting of others? If not, then you need to practice harder. No matter the religion, the goal is the same, to have a happy, more compassionate life. This is the true goal of religion, to help you become the best person you can be. True religious practice brings people together; it does not separate or condemn them. Any religion that does that is not a true religion. Do not get stuck on the practice, the practice can also be let go, what is important are the results. See for yourself if spiritual practice has made a fundamental change in you.~


I think this also fits in with our discussion.

Deep Bow

Raael
 

Thank you for liking what I write.  I have thought about posting the stuff from my Facebook to hear-one day I will add more when I feel more confident about what I write. 

 

But I do very much enjoy reading your writings.

Rafael

Hi Sandy,

I recently wrote a note on something similar on Facebook...here is an excerpt...I think it address the issues at hand as I made the distinction between a religious person and a spiritual one

...A religious person without being spiritual only sees the words and ideas that make up their religion.  So of course there will be problems.  If someone does something else, or if someone does something wrong, they will argue, get mad, be annoyed all because there tradition doesn’t say to do such and such.

 A spiritual person sees beyond words and ideas and sees into the meaning behind the words and ideas.  They will see that the teachings of their religious traditions are just pointing to the fundamental truth of reality, and the words and ideas are not the truth themselves.  They will see that the words and ideas are a map to the truth, not the truth itself.  Which is why a true spiritual person, of any religious background will never say a negative word about any other religion traditions, they will never say a negative words about any other religious teachings because they will realize that it is all pointing to the exact same thing. 

Rafael

This video really struck me.

This is part three of a short teaching with the Dalai lama. He was teaching about having a compassionate heart to benefit others, and then he started crying from being emotional. (Which got me tearing up as well)

But what amazed me was, a feeling rose up in him, he fully experienced in, then he let it pass away.

Like our mediation practice. Deny nothing. See it, acknowledge it, then simply let it go.  I pray that I will be like him one day.

_/\_

Rafael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4aXOUZrtRE&feature=related

Thank you so much for that reply Paris! 

I will begin as soon as I finish writing this!  Right now I am going to try to learn Guru Yoga in Tibetan so wish me luck with that


Many thanks!!


Rafael

I would say there is no point.  No point as in goal, since goal and point imply a future goal, whereas I feel to really practice the dharma is a reminder that there is no future.  When we realize that we can only live in the present moment outside of past and future we realize that everything we want is available to us right here, right now.  Not in some time that we formulate in our heads, but in this moment, in our lives exactly as it is. 

There is no point to practice, because there is no end to practice.  Practice is just an extension of ourselves, the dharma is just an extension of ourselves, so how can there be an end to it?  If someone is looking for a point to practice then they do not yet understand what practice is...the dharma, just like ourselves is already whole and complete, so there can not be some point to it.

We practice to realize our potential to be compassionate, humble and wise, but this is not a point to be acheived it is just another step along the way.

What we are trying to do is just realize that we are already whole and complete...but once realized, it is not the end, but a new beginning...


Rafael

What is a Puja? How are they done?  I have heard H.E speak of them many times in teaching, are they different from sadhana?

I have no dharma books in this tradition, so all I can learn can come from talks. 

Thank you