Mediumship and Beyond

It is as though you have an eye

That sees all forms

But does not see itself.

This is how your mind is.

Its light penetrates everywhere

And engulfs everything,

So why does it not know itself?
Foyan

There are  thousands upon thousands of students

who have practised meditation and obtained its fruits.

Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method.

If you can not find the truth right where you are,

Where else do you expect to find it?

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.

The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

Although its light is wide and great,

The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.

The whole moon and the entire sky

Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

“Dogen”

In every moment of every day,

 through a thousand individual manifestations of Itself,

is Divinity revealing Itself.

Yet we do not see. Or we see, but do not believe.

We do not believe the evidence of our own eyes.

We do not hear the truth in the sounds of silence.

Neale Donald Walsch

My fear and doubts have vanished like mist

into the distance, never to disturb me again.

I will die content and free from regrets.

This is the fruit of Dharma practice.

We all appreciate in others

the inner qualities of kindness,

patience, tolerance,

forgiveness and generosity.

“Dali Lama”

If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.

When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there – thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems – then the child is not really there for you.

The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvellous reality.

Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.

Meditation is not to escape from society,
but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on.
Once there is seeing, there must be acting.
With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things,
to just touch those things and make them bloom?

A Buddhist Quote worthy of note:

“When teachers break the precepts,
behaving in ways that are clearly damaging to themselves and others,
students must face the situation.

Even though this can be challenging.

Criticise openly. That’s the only way.”

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama”

BON ORIGINS

The Bon religion was well established in Tibet before the introduction of Buddhism. Over the centuries however, it appears that many Buddhist practices have taken root in Bon and reverse. For someone not too familiar with robes, iconography or rituals it may even be hard to spot the difference.

Astrology is important within the Bon system. Methods are given for divination, warding off negative influences, astrological calculations and medical diagnosis.

The four types of astrological calculation systems according to David Snellgrove are:

• The mirror of magicalhoroscopes
• The circle of Parkhas (trigrams) and Mewas (magic squares in 9 colours) – Chinese origin
• The Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) of the Elements
• The Jushak method: calculation of interdependence

A very important Bon deity is called Balchen Geko, who is said to govern time and the three world of existence. In this respect the deity is analogous to Kalachakra in Buddhism.

The Tibetan system works with a 360-day lunar year and cycles of 60 and 180 years. As a year is longer than 360 days, some days are doubled, and others are skipped. To make the calendar fit the observations, occasionally even an extra month is introduced.