NaturalAwareness

03/07/2023

"If people are quiet, they can be quiet anywhere. If people aren't quiet, they won't be quiet here. Everything depends on you. Life is transient, like a flash of lightening or a dream. Eighty years pass like a cloud. We're born, and then we die. But before we receive this form, we had another face, our original face. We can't see it with our eyes. We can only know it with our wisdom. The sutras say, "That which is beyond form is the buddha." We all have the buddha nature. We're all destined to become buddhas. But buddhahood isn't something that can be achieved in a couple of days. You have to practice before you can become aware of your original nature, your original face."

- Chi-ch'eng
From 'Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits' by Bill Porter.
Counterpoint Books, 1993.

02/07/2023

Foundations of Buddhism with George Draffan, part 2: in which we explore the three characteristics of all things, the five phases in every moment of experience, and the 12 links of dependent arising -- three different maps showing how confusion and reactions shape our experience.

This Foundations of Buddhism class is co-sponsored by Dekeling.community and NaturalAwareness.net. This is the second of four classes. In this class we take ...

01/29/2023

The first of four classes on the Foundations of Buddhism is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jynfBC2eXw . You can register for the rest of the classes at NaturalAwareness.net

Foundations of Buddhism (Class 1 of 4), January 26, 2023. Sponsored by Dekeling.Community and NaturalAwareness.net

12/24/2022

Foundations of Buddhism class ~ Online Thursday evenings from January 26 to February 16 ~ https://www.naturalawareness.net/foundations-of-buddhism

12/24/2022

Sitting and Moving in Awareness ~ Online classes on Tuesdays, Thursday, and last Saturdays https://www.naturalawareness.net/sittingandmoving

02/24/2022

https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/thangtong-gyalpo/prayer-pacifying-fear-illness

༄༅། །གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཐང་སྟོང་རྒྱལ་པོའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་ནད་ཀྱི་འཇིགས་པ་ཞི་བའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ས་སྐྱ་ནད་གྲོལ་མ་ནི།

02/24/2022

https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/thangtong-gyalpo/prayer-pacifying-fears-of-war

བྱམས་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་བ་འཕགས་མཆོག་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། །

02/13/2022

Perhaps the best exercise ever for getting back in shape after a long winter

Gently mix breathing, moving, and awareness. Rely on body awareness more than on effort. More at http://NaturalAwareness.net/qigong/Here are the 18 movement...

04/03/2021

[The bodhisattva] generates the love that is truly a refuge for all living beings,
the love that is peaceful because it is free of grasping,
the love that is not burning because it is free of afflictions,
the love that accords with reality because it is equanimous in all three times,
the love that is without conflict because it is free of the violence of the afflictions,
the love that is nondual because it is involved neither with the external nor the internal,
the love that is imperturbable because it carries through to the end.

thereby he generates the love that is form, its high resolve unbreakable, like a diamond,
the love that is pure, purified in its nature,
the love that is even, its aspirations being equal,
the ary's love that has eliminated its enemy anger,
the bodhisattva's love that continuously develops living beings,
the Tathatgata's love that understands reality,
the Buddha's love that causes living beings to awaken from their sleep,
the love that is spontaneous because it is full awakened spontaneously,
the love that is awakening because it is unity of experience,
the love that has no presumption because it has eliminated attachment and aversion,
the love that is great compassion because it infuses the mahayana with radiance,
the love that is never exhausted because it knows that all (persons and phenomena] is empty and selfless,
the love that is giving because it bestows the gift of Dharma free of the tight fist of a bad teacher,
the love that is ethical because it improves unethical living beings,
the love that is fortitude because it protects both self and others,
the love that is joyous effort because it takes responsibility for all living beings,
the love that is meditative stability because it refrains from indulgence in tastes,
the love that is wisdom because it causes attainment at the proper time,
the love that is skillful means because it has manifestations suited for every occasion,
the love that hides nothing because it is pure in motivation,
the love that is without deviation because it acts from decisive motivation,
the love that is high resolve because it is without afflictions,
the love that is without deceit because it is not artificial,
the love that is happiness because it introduces living beings to the happiness of the Buddha.

Such, Manjusri, is the great love of a bodhisattva.

Manjusri: What is the great compassion of a bodhisattva?
Vimalakirti: It is the giving of all accumulated roots of virtue to all living beings.

Manjusri: What is the great joy of a bodhisattva?
Vimalakirti: It is to be joyful and without regret in giving.

Manjusri: What is the great equanimity of a bodhisattva?
Vimalakirti: It is what benefits both self and others.

~ Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, chapter 7. English translation from: In Praise of Great Compassion, by the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron, p.43-44

03/21/2021

Writing by hand increases brain activity in recall tasks over taking notes on a tablet or smartphone. Additionally, those who write by hand on paper are 25% quicker at note-taking tasks than those who use digital technology.