Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

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Matt J
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Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Matt J »

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"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
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Malcolm
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Malcolm »

Matt J wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:07 pm
fixed it for you.
Archie2009
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Archie2009 »

So what?
Genjo Conan
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Genjo Conan »

Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
Malcolm
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Malcolm »

Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Sometimes people do shit.
Well, if one can't shit, it becomes a real problem.
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by FiveSkandhas »

Ugh, if you must be a perennialist please do it in private.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
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KeithA
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by KeithA »

Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
Googling the cult he got sucked into was an interesting rabbit hole to go down. Funny ol’ world.
When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking,
being silent, moving, being still.
At all times, in all places, without interruption - what is this?
One mind is infinite kalpas.

New Haven Zen Center
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Matt J
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Matt J »

Well, not quite on the same level as "diverse religions point to a the same underlying truth," but I enjoy the DW take.
Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
--- Muriel Rukeyser
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Queequeg
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Queequeg »

Malcolm wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:20 pm
Matt J wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:07 pm
fixed it for you.
48 minutes? No thanks. What's the tl;dr?

Its a red flag when people hang their diplomas and certificates on the wall, IMHO.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Arnoud »

For those who listened to the whole thing, which I didn’t, how would Buddhism explain his experience?
Archie2009
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Archie2009 »

Arnoud wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 2:03 pm For those who listened to the whole thing, which I didn’t, how would Buddhism explain his experience?
I didn't watch the video, but it must be just another samsaric experience. We're fortunate for not being the ones having to be brought back to life.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Bodhidhamma »

Arnoud wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 2:03 pm For those who listened to the whole thing, which I didn’t, how would Buddhism explain his experience?
He talks about entering what he called the Light (which he also said could be described as the Dharmakaya). But he wasn't ready to stay there, so he made a relatively reluctant decision to come back into the body. He referred to relative bodhicitta and absolute bodhicitta, the latter which he said was inherent in the Light. He talked about how he did not feel any separation from the Light, but he was also intent upon not describing the Light as his "self" (because that would imply separation, and the Light was not separate from anything). We have flashes of brief experiences of the Light, but we soon forget them.

While in this state of non-twoness with the Light, he said that the Light exhibited awareness, but he differentiated that "awareness" from "consciousness" (which only applies to separate entities). Instead, consciousness would arise out of this Light "awareness".

He does say towards the end that the Buddha, the Christ, and many other teachers have taught (in different ways, and their followers argue over minor details) a path to the same Reality, the "Open, Luminous, Timeless State", but my impression is that the NDE didn't cause him to adopt this perspective; he had this perspective as a Buddhist long before his NDE.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Life IS your
near-death experience.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

He evidently has a book on this experience sold on Amazon.
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Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Genjo Conan »

Matt J wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:49 am Well, not quite on the same level as "diverse religions point to a the same underlying truth," but I enjoy the DW take.
Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
No, not on the same level--I mean, I know who I'd rather hang out with at a party--but equally incorrect as far as the buddhadharma is concerned.
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Sādhaka
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Sādhaka »

There are many people now believing that if you “go towards the light” when you die, that it’s a trick of the Demiurge and the archons to make you come back to this plane again; something about “the light” actually being the moon, which sends you back to another womb, and also that archons will appear as your past friends & relatives beckoning you as to trick you into “going towards the light”. And then in the astral between death and the next rebirth archons try to convince you that “you have to go back to the school of life, because you didn’t learn everything that you needed to”.

They’re right in some ways actually, if you read the Bardo texts; they’re just not right in the way they think they are, because for one, they’re probably believing in a reincarnating self, and also not distinguishing the Clear Light (that from what I understand won’t even be seen without having done Vajrayana or Dzogchen practice in this lifetime) from the dim lights. And then there wouldn’t be any creator-Demiurge either, aside from maybe it being an symbol of ignorance.

And of course they’d be better off having access to the Bardo texts, rather than the above-mentioned paradigm of paranoid self-grasping….


About the Bardo texts:

From the Elio Guarisco translation wrote:This teaching is called the Great Liberation through Hearing because even those who have committed the five inexpiable crimes will certainly attain liberation on hearing the recitation of its words. Therefore, read it aloud in public places. The text should be circulated. Since awareness becomes nine times clearer during the intermediate state, even if this teaching is heard only once and even if its meaning is not comprehended, at the moment of death it will be remembered without a single word forgotten. For this reason, it should be read aloud to everyone during their lifetime. Read it aloud next to the pillow of those who are sick, next to the bodies of the dead. It should be spread near and far.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Knotty Veneer »

Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
That guy had mental health issues I think. Talked about demons and such and clearly some evangelical christian types took advantage of that.
This is not the wrong life.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Knotty Veneer »

Arnoud wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 2:03 pm For those who listened to the whole thing, which I didn’t, how would Buddhism explain his experience?
The mind creates all sorts of fantastic stuff. It's what makes us, in part, such a successful species.

The problem is NDEs can't ever be corroborated. And even if what happened to him was real - how do you know it's what will happen to you when you die? You can't know.

It's a waste of time wondering about this kinda stuff.
This is not the wrong life.
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Re: Western Dzogchenpa has NDE, Becomes Perennialist

Post by Genjo Conan »

Knotty Veneer wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:51 pm
Genjo Conan wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 4:51 pm Ten years ago maybe, the owner of the website Sweeping Zen had what seems to have been a mental break, converted to evangelical Christianity, and renounced Buddhism as a tool of the devil. Sometimes people do shit.
That guy had mental health issues I think. Talked about demons and such and clearly some evangelical christian types took advantage of that.
I think clearly he had some mental health issues. I'm not sure whether anyone took advantage of him, or whether he was simply ripe for the message. I think either could be true. But it's a sad situation either way. His current blog is all about being "gangstalked" and how to avoid being persecuted by demonic forces; despite protestations of how happy he is to be embraced by Christ, it seems like there's a lot of fear there.
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