Dharma Wheel

Is there a thanka of the refuge tree as explained in the short ngondro of the 17th karmapa?
Im about to start a ngondro retreat and it would be very helpfull.

I think its a good thing but i heard kalu rinpoche said that we should not confuse it with devotion

Any idea? I used the ninja approach, trying to grab them without killing them but i killed a few so i dont do it anymore. Im getting tired of using repelent.

I always get caught up on whether spiritual progression is worth it. You put in effort to it to gain higher happiness. In ordinary life you do just the same, just with material things you work towards. And oftentimes spiritually, you have to put in a lot more effort to gain that which is higher hap...

If the 6 realms exist not just a psychological states but as realms so to speak, why can we only see the human and animal realms,why can we only see 2 of the 6? Because ordinary consciousness has limits. Not everything is normally visible to ordinary beings. (Also, many of these unseen beings are u...

So I got a dream yoga/phowa practice teaching and i'm all fired up. I've tried in the past with teachings from books, but didn't quite sustain anything. Questions for those that do similar practices: Is there some trick (that you can publicly disclose) to lucid states other than simply generating t...

Buddhism for westeners by ringu tulku. (maybe the title is different in english, i have it in spanish)

I noticed the same thing after doing a goenka retreat. All that talk about no dogma/ritual ...etc ended up being quite dogmatic. Specially the part where almost every single day he says that mantras and deity visualization are not a suitable form of practice. It was to repetitive. And i also find so...

This seems like a go thread to post this.

Besides of the obvious point that near death expirience is not death you should think that there is no scientific way of determing if there is a consciousness or not in things. This sucks. Anesthesia works with a mix of chemicals that 1: Gives you amnesia, 2: Paralyses your body so we dont even have...

Luke wrote: At some Tibetan Buddhist empowerments there is that event in which a lama throws a flower at a picture of the five primordial buddhas and the buddha the flower lands on is the one which the group in attendance has the strongest connection to.

I think this is done in shingon also.

Maybe some shamata on the body and breath with énfasis on the relaxing aspect like alan Wallace teaches at the begining of shamata learning. This helped me a lot to set the body in its natural state.

Besides that. Stretching, yoga, good cushin and a propper teacher =)

Gerardo abboud has some nice dharma talks. (argentinian translator for the dalai lama)

There is a really nice small statue of a deity or yidam in a local store near my home but i don know who is it. It looks like chenrezig but the two outer arms have a dorje and a bell. Anyone?

Does anyone know if there is brain ativity during deep dhyana states?

I started more interested in theravada also but then as someone posted here the things that use to worry me are the things that i like now(postrations, tantra, prayers, devotion..). Its just a question of understanding. The thing that helped me a lot was practicing shamata and going slow, not gettin...

For me its ligeti's masterpiece "requiem". At least for the lower realms XD.



I wonder if he got the inspiration from tantric rituals XD.

Thank you. Yes thats the practice that im talking about. I im very intrested in that practice and the lama said its good for practicing during dreams wich is good for me because i tend to have a couple of lucid dreams a week and have discusse it with my lama. On the other hand i dont think ill have ...

Is anyone familiar with this practice? There will be a retreat/teaching of this but im a little short of money. I want to see some coments of this practice to see if i get tempted to make a little extra effort

I really recomend this. Although i only practiced it formally for one or two months it really helped my "non formal" meditation and awarness. You can do this whenever you are walking to the bus stop, or to work or anywhere. Just be mindfull of cars while crossing the street =)