A Fistful of Sand

Designed by NandanG Whether one takes or advocates a vaccine or does not is irrelevant to the Path to liberation in so far as the physical act is meaningless. It is the attachment or aversion to   the vaccine that actually and significantly matters. No one can say for certainty whether the vaccines are helpful or harmful any   more than anyone knows for sure that   anything happened yesterday. Both are constructs of the mind, many the ego. Most people are not interested in THE truth, they are interested in A truth, one which supports their narrative of an imaginary reality of karmic origin. The Buddha explains that as far as health or the lack of it is concerned is usually based on the fear of death. The fear of death is related to the erroneous belief that there is core essence of   the individual that survives after death. The choice to be fearful is a senseless act of dukkha creation. The true nature of the human mind, the egoic mind, is that   most people do...

  Courtesy Mystic Firs The expression "each one of us is in his own samsara, it is nowhere else to be found" is rooted in Buddhist philosophy and reflects the understanding of samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, from an individual perspective. Here's an explanation of this expression: In Buddhism, samsara refers to the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that sentient beings go through. It is marked by suffering, impermanence, and the continual experience of life's ups and downs. This cycle is perpetuated by karma, the law of cause and effect, as individuals accumulate actions and their consequences from one life to the next. The expression emphasizes that samsara is a personal and individual experience. Each sentient being, including each human, is caught in their own cycle of samsara, which is unique to them. While there are shared aspects of suffering and the cycle itself, the specific experiences and karma of each being are distinct. The concep...

from The Great Image Biography compiled by Yudra Nyingpo Then Vairotsana requested instruction from a wise Chinese mendicant, yoginī, and hermitess, who said: If you seek enlightenment, let go of striving. If you seek to watch the mind, focus on the breath. If you seek wisdom, constantly apply mindfulness. If you seek bliss, check whether you’ve found the essence of the five poisons. If you seek enlightenment, you have failed. This is what the ḍākinī said to Vairotsana. Then Vairotsana asked the Chinese yoginī about the definitive meaning. The hermitess Chudunma replied by saying: With the realization of space-like purity, Virtue and non-virtue are mere conventions; Suffering and saṃsāra have never existed. There is no effort towards unborn dharmas. There is no liberation, for there is no bondage. There has never been an 'essence of awakening'. Those childlike ones who fail to realize this And chase in vain after supposed enemies Entirely forsake all virtuous dharmas. They clin...

(Art by Nembutsu Art ) In the first volume of the Collection of Passages on the Land of it Peace and Bliss [by Tao-ch’o] we read:   One might ask, “If all sentient beings have the Buddha nature, and as each of them from ancient times to the present must have encountered many Buddhas, why then do they still continue through cycles of birth and death and fail to escape from this burning house?” To such a question, I should answer that according to the holy teaching of the Mahayana, it is actually because they have been unable to cast aside birth and death through exercising one of the two kinds of the excellent Dharma, that they have not been able to escape from the burning house. One is called the Holy Path and the other is called Rebirth in the Pure Land. In these days it is difficult to attain Enlightenment through the Holy Path. One reason for this is that the Great Enlightened One’s passing has now receded far into the distant past. Another is that the ultimate principle is prof...

  One of the problems of teaching Dharma int the United States is that not many people here actually speak English. They speak something similar to but not precisely like English. Let’s look at the word “meaning,” for example. As a noun it ought to have the definition of what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action. But as an adjective it refers to intended to communicate something that is not directly expressed. To say something has meaning is to say it has importance, consequence, moment, weight, significance mean a quality or aspect having great worth or significance. Importance may also imply a value judgment of the superior worth or influence of something or someone. To say that something has no meaning is an attempt to negate the experience of someone’s experience. In the reality of life, nothing is more important or less significant than anything else. Everything has the right to be simply because it does, conditions support the existence of a thought, a word, or a...