Wealth Vases

[Scott Hutton]

You have to kick the tires for yourself.  If the wealth vases don't feel right, then pass.

Regarding craving, the Buddha's craving for the enlightenment of all who feel is the source of his indescribable energy.  You'll never stop craving; get over it - but you can redirect the energy.  And the only difference between you and Buddha is that the Buddha grokked that (s)he is a Buddha.

If you think that the efforts and energies that the lamas pour into the wealth vases count for nothing, I submit:  you fear superstition more than you appreciate the transpondence of spiritual energies.  Superstition = reliance on the unproved and, to the extent wealth vases in your reality have not proven themselves, I suggest that you hold on to your reticence.

On the other had, I must also suggest that you examine the reticence - deeply - for it may be ego's way of protecting you from All That Is Possible.

I am acquiring a wealth vase not on the basis of what Rimpoche says, nor the write ups - I am acquiring one because it "waved" (in the quantum sense of the verb) again and again, and I learned long ago to "listen" to the waves.  Superstition?  Perhaps.   But I think not, and I think you should beware of shortchanging yourself, paying more attention to your nervous system than to your heart.

On the other hand, I just work here.    Fell free to tell me to f-word myself.  I'll still lust after your awakening.

Scott

[Scott Hutton]

Addendum:

I just posted here using the term "All That Is Possible".  I must confess:  that is a phrase I borrowed from Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche.

As Karmapa 16's body lay dead in Zion, Illinois, still warm after days, still supple,  anyone with the grand karma to enter that little hospital cell (I was NOT one of them but had several close friends who were so blessed), including Trungpa Rimpoche and (unless my memory is lying to me, his unfortunate regent too), experienced a karmic "clensing", a sense that all the old shit was washed away, simply being in the presence of this vessel which once housed a Karmapa.

Trungpa Rimpoche was the one to say, "See, see what is possible!"

That offhand remark has remained with me for years as a great, great teaching.  I know many of you here in the book club are living with Trungpa Rimpoche right now - please accept this little anecdote as a tonic to your studies.

Scott

[AnattaAnica]

Dear Scott, asking you to f***off? That would be very rude of me. 

Thanks for your thoughts though. I do see your points. The only thing I know, the older I get, is that I know very little. So I am open to all thoughts. Transpondence of energy, the various jhanas of the Theravada tradition that apparently enable one to carry out siddhic astral projections, read minds etc. etc. - so incredible but who am I to say whether they are real or not?

The thing is, I come from a region rife with superstitions. And I grew up among various superstitions. Buddha did exhort us to not take anything at face value. And indeed some Zen master do asks us to kill the Buddha when we see him walking down the street. I thought that was very sound advice. But that does not mean I am closed minded.

Nevertheless, thanks for your comments. I do undestand what you are getting at and will bear them in mind.

Cheers and may us all be enlightened!

[Scott Hutton]

As I posted elsewhere, I just began reading THE STORY OF TIBET - conversations with the Dalai Lama.  His Holiness trots out the terms "common" and "uncommon" views.  The common ones are common sense based; the uncommon ones allow the magic.  Both can occur at once.

I'm now thinking that your ambivalence towards wealth vases is a case of both views being experienced simultaneously and, with respect, I suggest you examine the richness of their going off together.

I live in a very superstitious area too:  Manhattan.  It is believed here without reflection that Having brings happiness and Getting is a spiritual discipline all its own.  While I've blabbed here a lot about the notion of wealth vases, and the wonderful one just a few yards away from me as I type, I haven't said a word to anyone here about them.  That would be like gifting viagra to the already over-sexed.  The people who notice the one here, if they ask questions, are simply told that it's a special object and don't even think of asking me to take it out of the case.

About getting older and knowing less:  I thoroughly agree.  I knew much, much more at 25 than I do at 65.

Stay well,

Scott

[Scott Hutton]

A stupid error:

"blabbed here" refers to this list

all the other "here"'s mean back here in New York

I apologize for the ambiguity.

Ambiguity is a hideous habit.

Scott

[Russ]

Also if your worried about the selfish issue think of it like this.

It's kind of hard to focus on meditation and spiritual achievements when it is all you can do to put food on the table and your struggling to scratch out an existence.

[Scott Hutton]

Indeed, Russ, no argument there.

Some schools of Christianity, which will go here unnamed, show an odd cherishing of suffering, as though suffering were some sort of sublime practice in itself.

Let's face it:  suffering may burn up undesirable karma and heighten one's awareness but, taken too far, it is as deadening as morphine.

The Buddha saw that far more clearly than the rest of us and spoke up.  Thus, the four noble truths.  The magnificent four noble truths.

When it's a struggle to put food on the table, or pay the electric bill, or the latest breakdown of one's elderly automobile, yes, serene calm practice may seem like a pipe dream.

No argument about that at all....

Scott

[AnattaAnica]

Russ, Scott, good points. Walking on the razor edge, the middle way, can be so darn difficult but that's where the riches (spiritual) are, no? It is easy falling into either extreme - fearful closed mindedness and wanton chasing after the latest spiritual trend. Perhaps sometimes I think too much, reason too much, talk too much, verbiage that brings me nowhere. Using the ordinary mind to understand the primordial mind is like an ant trying to understand an elephant. 

[Joey]

Perhaps sometimes I think too much, reason too much, talk too much, verbiage that brings me nowhere. Using the ordinary mind to understand the primordial mind is like an ant trying to understand an elephant. 

correction: using the mind saddled with wrong preception and wrong views is like an ant trying to understand an elephant. when questioning something, please always be very clear of your intentions because questioning with the wrong ones in mind can lead to one supplicating one's own ego rather than clearing doubts.

[Scott Hutton]

Regarding the ant and the elephant, let's pretend in front of us are two vases.  One is tiny, the other huge - yet when either is smashed, its contents rejoin the allness around them, which was always there, but they could never contain, no matter how much they liked to think otherwise.

Scott

[Scott Hutton]

Footnote:

The only real service we can render to that which we perceive and interpret in phenomenal existence as 'others' is by awakening to universal consciousness ourselves. - Ask the Awakened by Wei Wu Wei

[sampa]

Real service ONLY upon awakening to the ever present buddha's consciousness.How true,but few are prepared to accepts this revelation.

[Joey]

Regarding the ant and the elephant, let's pretend in front of us are two vases.  One is tiny, the other huge - yet when either is smashed, its contents rejoin the allness around them, which was always there, but they could never contain, no matter how much they liked to think otherwise.

Scott

That's another more seemingly complex way to put it, although if we really understand that, I mean, like really, we'd be enlightened, or at the very least be a suitable vessel for the dharma

[sampa]

In Scott's word.All is there with or without the vessels,the allness is there unmoved[not possible anyway].There is no inside and outside.This duality arises when we become attached to concept of a vase with it's content inside and non-content outside.When the nature of the vase is seen through,the insight of Scott is too obvious.When things get too simple,the mind is lost by it sheer simplicity.

[Scott Hutton]

Indeed; ego thrives on complications - the more, the better, as far as "I" is concerned.  The problem with simplicity is that it requires one to give up one's bull shit, and that is a great offering indeed.

Scott