Do Enlightened Masters Exist Today?
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- Опубліковано 13 гру 2019
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In agreement, a quote from somewhere..."enlightenment is the knowledge that all experience is transitory
including the experience of enlightenment".
Nice one!
Sums up what I have been experiencing quite nicely. Learning to let go and just be still is new to me.
Enlightenment isn't an experience. If it is being an experience, it can't be enlightenment.
I love Zen for the stability, not so much the boom boom.
I really like this perspective on satori. I think we fall into a trap in thinking that those who have glimpsed at "other things," that somehow they are a changed person--much like Christians getting saved. It makes perfect sense that it can be nothing more than a passing moment in time that gives you a certain perspective.
I totally agree! I had a kensho moment once. It was wonderful but fleeting. Then I went back to being me. I get a kick out of Christians who act like once they are "saved" they are a totally different person who has no bad thoughts or desires anymore. As someone who got "saved" in my youth I know that is nonsense. You still have the same desires. You just have to know how to deal with them.
@@Octoberfurst Then there is elephant in the room, the question that needs to be seen... Who gets saved? ;)
to be fair tho while a glimpse like you said does not make a person morally better not necessarily I think there is a more permanent effect that these glimpses can have I am not sure what that effect is, but I do now that there is some new default that replaces your former way of functioning and understanding things, but yes I agree nothing about this would make you morally better.
Ah Brad, the mark of a true teacher! You are awaiting questions and are excited to get them! Some comments and more questions. First the comments: a) Hey we had dinner at Charmaines' house! Remember! That was after 1982 but I forgot what year that was too LOL. b) Consider my Patreon sponsorship payment for your gig at my party HAHAHA!!!!! c) I only read a little bit of a couple of your books and never got to the part where you described your experiences but I knew you had the authentic experience which you describe based on your devotion to the dharma and based on general observation of you, d) your answers make perfect sense in the context of your definition of enlightenment and teachers going bad. So when you write your book on this topic, you should include these definitions so you don't piss off us Vajrayana/Dzogchen people. If we know the system under which you are operating, we'll be like, oh, OK, I get where he's coming from, e) you have to buy my book after I get it written so I can tell our side of the story, but you don't have to read it LOL. Here are some more questions: In the Tibetan tradition, we have this thing that's referred to as the "introduction to the nature of mind" or "pointing out instructions" in which the master directly introduces us to this sartori experience. Does Zen have this too? 2) Do you believe that it's possible for this experience, or some variation of it, to be a living, 24x7 experience?
Thanks for paying for the gig! And after I put up the video I remembered that we did meet after '82. Although I didn't remember it was at Charmaine's place or any other details. I will buy your book for sure -- and read it! As to your first question, in the Soto tradition there's not so much of that. At least it's not stated that way. On the other hand, if you read Dogen, it often seems like he is doing something like "pointing out instructions." He never wrote about any satori/kensho/enlightenment experience in an obvious way. But I feel like a lot of his writings are about the contents of such experiences. As far as 24x7, I'm not really sure. In a sense, it is always a 24x7 experience. You cannot stop living in enlightenment. The mistake is that we assume we're not. But as far as someone who is consciously aware of the fullness of the experience all the time, maybe it's not possible. That is to say, it may not be possible to stay in that universal awareness all the time because then the human form this experience inhabits would have a very hard time getting through the day.
Would be interested to read your imagined book, Cynthia ...When teachers engage in apparently unethical behavior one can either acknowledge that it is unethical, decide that it must in some way be ethical from a higher perspective, or decide that ethics are completely irrelevant. How does one decide between these competing possibilities. If one has a prior allegiance to the belief that the teacher is enlightened, one must convince oneself that the teachers actions serve some higher purpose, or that ethics are meaningless to an enlightened one. But if you are not yourself enlightened how could you know this for sure? Of all the possibilities Brad's explanation seems the most parsimonious.
Thank you for the comments around your experience being free of confusion. That differentiation is helpful. Also, “squeezing itself out of a person” feels genuine and maybe the most real explanation I have heard.
See Jack Kornfield's After The Ecstasy, The Laundry Chapter 10 The Dirty Laundry - he talks about how some people 'enter the stream' as you talk about, but this is not the same level as 'full awakening', therefore open to abusive behaviour etc, especially with all the temptations available in the West.
The Pali sutras break enlightenment down into four stages: stream entrant, once returner, never returner, and arahant. As I understand it, the garden variety kensho corresponds to stream entry. I don't doubt that people alive today experience this. However, the sutras are very specific about the characteristics of the higher stages. They state such things and total absence of anger and ego. I've never met a person with these qualities. Do they exist, today?
Sometimes the best decisions are made in the wee hours of insomnia delirium: case in point-best beenie ever!
Thanks!
I like your longer videos. Sometimes it feels you're getting into some sort of "zone", which is cool.
Totally agree :-)
@@buddhistslacker Thanks!
Thank you for this! This parallels an experience I had playing music. And it is often talked about in musical circles. I was able to play a solo from such a relaxed, meditative state that I felt like I stopped existing, time was meaningless and place was meaningless. It is a strange experience, but enough to make me believe in more than meets the eye! It is life changing too.
Brad! Awesome! This seemed authentic, informative, and measured. In the middle I felt like you were building it up a lot, but by the end, you had talked about how someone, after these kinds of experiences, can remain flawed, and still make big mistakes etc.
I've read you calling this kind of exposition "enlightenment porn" before, and also say how it's discouraged in the Soto tradition. It seems like something that inspires you to speak though. You've had some kind of experiences, and you are sharing them honestly, and dealing with them, and living your life after you've had them. I much prefer your presentation, the implication of the importance, and also the lack of importance of these experiences, over the mystery, and something like air-of-superiority that surrounds them in much of what I've read and seen. Maybe, rather than talking about it less, and keeping it more hidden in mystery, it's a good thing to talk about it more openly, and honestly.
The way you talk about it increases my faith in the universe. (That doesn't seem quite right, but I don't know a better way to say it.) It couldn't give you super powers, or else we'd have actual super heroes (and maybe a methane problem :) ). Zazen really evens me out (in moderation at least), and I try not to worry about "achieving" some kind of experience like this (wouldn't know how to anyway), but "enlightenment" definitely floats across my mind weekly if not daily. I feel like your description here helps me to keep it in the category of intrigued curiosity, and out of the category of low key worship.
Thanks!
“I would only ever take teachings from
a enlightened master”
One should see everything as master/guru,this human experience itself is master/guru..
I think a lot of people think of enlightenment as a switch on you that is off and then it's on. I don't know if I agree with that idea. It is beyond states of being and it is beyond gradual ripening. The experience of kensho or satori in a moment is not necessarily "enlightenment" either. It's like saying an orgasm is the same as happiness, or a crush is the same as love. The experience is not the destination, but it helps, and is necessary to get what the idea is of the whole thing. But after the orgasm, or the crush, you are the same person, you just know something new.
But I don't know.
That's an interesting way to put it! Thank you.
I'm not sure I agree with that. A true Kensho experience is, in fact, very much like a switch being thrown. No. That's too simple. It changes everything. Once you have seen reality, you can never go back. You cannot 'unsee' it. However, that doesn't mean you suddenly become a 'zen master' who lives in full in a full samadhi state for the rest of your life. That may actually happen for a while, but without the proper guidance and training, the ego pushes back through to "deal with life" and before long, you're back to living a relatively normal life, dealing with normal struggles. Once it happens, it's always there though, even if you have to scrape away the mud a bit to see it.
@@syberchick70 It's true you can't ever really go back to the old way of looking at things. But it seems like you can always revert to your old behavioral patterns.
Love it!
"Marcus lit a cigarette and I have often thought that this act alone has changed my life irrevocably.''
The thing that happened to me like that was I realized I was a character in a play. I called it a near-death experience for the longest time. But the experience of trying to figure out if it was psychosis, shamanic invitation, mental breakdown was amazing. Whatever happened to me, it healed me. I don't want to define it in mystical terms anymore. I'd be fine if it were shamanic and be just as fine if it was psychosis.
true
what do you think made this happen can you make it happen even?
AlMighty lord bless you.
Love u Brad , be loved " let be love "
❤🧡💛💚💙💜🌾🌺🍇🏵🍋💖
I wonder what kind of karma you'd need to have to be able to fart so hard it propulses you in the air. If someone could point me in the right direction, I really want to accumulate this kind of karma. ^^
It would be useful. Probably less polluting than most forms of travel.
Holy fuck! Where'd you get that Fuzztones box set?!
To see that I-phones are mistakes is indeed a valueable realization.
Yeah I also think that "Enlightenment" is a word that conjures up all sorts of associations of clouds parting and telekinesis and lots of weird things. While the doing/being it, is very understated and not too spectacular, but very important. -In an understated but powerful way. A bit like how sleeping at night is very boring to look at superficially, and at the same time it is enormously important for the body.
my first vid and a question right the way- don´t you think the easter-esoteric-stuff was always a kind of mindfuck? i wouldn´t search for enlightened people in cultures that never invented anything (except a casten-system and a fancy method to explain it)… like the beatles
You’re also quite good at this.
Yes. I used to go to Fire Lotus Zendo in Brooklyn. Beautiful place. Wonderful teachers. Associated with the Mountains and Rivers Order that have their Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Temper N.Y. They can also be found under the title "ZCNY"(Zen Center of New York). It was founded by John Daido Loori Roshi who transmitted the Dharma to several students who are now teachers before he passed. If you're in NYC, I highly recommend. I'm now in LA with no convenient sangha to join as I don't drive and can't get to the los Angeles Zen center easily to check it out. Wonder what they're like.?.🙏🍄🐛🦋💕🌈
Angel City Zen Center is in Echo Park. The 2 and the 4 bus stop very close by. 2526 Kent Street.
Joseph Campbell writes in chapter III-4 of the first part of The Hero With A Thousand Faces, "But how still teach what has been correctly taught and incorrectly assimilated thousands and thousands of times along the millenia of prudent folly of humanity?"
For Buddha I say there have been many, Gautama was not the first but the first to stay and teach. Teach this simple path of liberation from our own dis-satisfaction from our desires/ego. For satori, samadhi etc. I consider the experience as you say, and in a way as I used to say: 'a moment of clarity', an 'understanding' maybe in English. What you express is the 'ego-death' many entheogen practitioners compare to satori - and I would agree is impossible to achieve with external substances(including ritual and chants?). Having experienced the same I can understand their wish to repeat the experience at any cost. I hope you do not mind me sharing my understanding, a friend and I are literally torn right now because of Masters/teachers/sects, etc. We just discussed this. We would consider their actions as judge to their wisdom/enlightenment? I feel you can be a flawed practitioner - but devout in your following of the path/precepts matters most to me. Since waiting for the perfect being would be a long wait, for most? I agree with the perception, it is about how we react, how we take what is said or how we react to an outcome. How we choose to live leads to our outcomes: as ye sow so shall ye reap, cause and effect...
"ego-death" is only a part of the kensho experience and it can be a very unpleasant one. They call it 'death' for a reason. It is certainly an endless 'moment' of clarity though. It is possible for ordinary people to experience all levels of kensho without ever touching zen practice. I have reason to believe that, while still rare, it happens more often that most are aware of and likely many who experience it, never really understand what to call it. However, Zen practice is one of the best suited paths for dealing with the experience, in my opinion. This is because they, in fact, do NOT take it too seriously and instead, guide the practitioner to more practical things, ideally speaking.
Why can't people just accept the wonder of now? Why do they search for bigger and better? Maybe true enlightenment is finally figuring that out. Does it take a master to do that?
Buddhism began when the founder observed four kinds of NOW. An old man...now I'm old. A sick man...now I'm sick. A corpse...now I'm dead. And a man sitting in meditation...now I'm still. Only the last sign was wonder-ful. He realized...I dont want to be here in this world of suffering, not now or ever.
@@Teller3448 It's called life. You can live it or ignore it. Life doesn't care. It just is. Meditation is definitely a path to acceptance but oblivion?
This is my all time favorite,you finally rocked i me my world ,,,,,the vertical insertion,why it happens don’t know,whether the vessel is deserving don’t know/?if findinding correct direction is the result or one just now teachs for the hell of it>?? Don’t know,,SON [TAO] PROVIDES NO DEFINITE ANSWERS BUT CERTAINLY YOUR DHARMA TALK HAS HIT THE NAIL HEAD OUTSIDE OF REASON../.I FELT NO NEED TO SUSPENDINGJUGDGEMENT, THERE WAS NO THING TO VIEW JUST VISIONNOR WAS THERRE ANYTHING WHICH ASKED FOR CESSATION..mindlessness HWAOM STYLE,,
There are "people" beyond Buddha alive today too; frank yang, Jim newman, Tony parsons etc
About the fart analogy- couldn't you develop a siddhi that levitated you via fart?
I'll work on it!
It sounds like enlightened people are a dime a dozen, and the bar for enlightenment is much lower than I would have thought. While my comments are not meant to come across as, snarky, I know they are. It's just that what I thought of as the ultimate goal for an individual has been reduced to a fleeting experience that, afterward, a person could just continue their day in a normal way. I never would have thought that there were different degrees of enlightenment where someone like the Buddha was more enlightened than someone else. To me, enlightenment is enlightenment. You either are or you are not. Sure, a person can be wise. They can be deeply spiritual, and as much as I dislike the word, they might even be a "master" but still not have attained enlightenment. In my view, and it is only my personal view, enlightenment is a state of spiritual perfection. It is a life-changing event and as you can not have varying degrees of perfection, you can not have varying degrees of enlightenment. I just don't think the universe grades on a curve.
Not to come across as snarky, but I bet you have your own view of Christian Salvation too. It insulting when you say that enlightened people are a dime a dozen.If you are so wise and know what Enlightenment is then why don't you stop criticizing, Fuck off and start your own religion.
Well, weird thing to say. I don't know if you can "have" enlightenment. Like, a perfect and permanent state of anything just doesn't exist anywhere in nature. It seems like you are a little fundamentalist and black and white in your thinking. Perfect states never exist with permanence. Everything is fleeting. I'm not enlightened but I understand enough about life to know that the only constant IS change. This is the real world. Nobody achieves a permanent state of oneness with the universe and remains in that state forever. Probably because eventually, you have to make some perogies, take a shit and walk the dog.
There are no grades. One can see smaller, or larger glimpses of 'the truth'.
How much can you endure?
If you are enlightened can you still dislike the band Journey?
I secretly always liked that song that goes "When the lights... go down... in thuh sit-taaaaay... and the sun shines on the bay-ay..."
@@HardcoreZen I went to my first concert in 1969 and bought my first Journey album in 2019. But I haven't told anyone but you.
Disliking the band called Journey, is enlightenment itself. ua-cam.com/video/qUHs2HS0yLo/v-deo.html
Ramakrishna (died 1886) and Ramana Maharshi (died 1950) were two pretty extraordinary enlightened people of fairly recent times i would say. Don't know of any living today though, although i'm sure they exist, they probably don't want to be known or become famous and having thousands of crazy people trying to get near them!!
I would be really interested what your opinion is on Sadhguru. You must have heard about him. Next to the fact that he is a businessman, would you say he is an actual enlightened being? I would love you to make a video about this, but maybe you would have already done so if it weren’t an issue?
Andrew Levin thanks, that’s very zen of you to point out. Have a good life.
@@seeingthedots still talking nonsense ?
are you're toes feeling warm right now?
I've had an experience very similar to what you describe. Was it satori? I don't know, and frankly i don't care. Just a strange meditation artifact that's both profound and completely mundane. Like an infant discovering that they have hands.
The risk of making a long video is that random commenters want to comment on two or three points. I’d really like to see you expand on the ethics thing; I think I understand what you’re referring to but I’d sure like to know if I’m right.
On the topic the old man, some of my Japanese friends reacted like “an old Buddhist monk got handsy with some of his students? How surprised am I not?” He was, what, 108 years old when he died?
He was 108 or maybe 107. But he was doing that stuff much earlier. The thing is, even though many of his students complained that his behavior was inappropriate, many others had the same sorts of experiences and didn't interpret them as inappropriate. Which makes it difficult to judge. Most people who comment upon Sasaki's conduct assume something like, "Sasaki's conduct was always inappropriate, and those who interpreted it otherwise were mistaken or deluded." I'm not sure that's the correct interpretation. It might be. But I don't have 100% confidence in that interpretation. If we pretend for the sake of argument that what Sasaki did was intended as a teaching technique rather than as the actions of a lecherous old man (and I'm not saying it was that, I'm just saying "if we pretend..."), then I think that if there's a risk that many students will interpret a certain teaching technique as inappropriate, it's best not to use that technique. Therefore, even if I were to give Sasaki every benefit of the doubt (and I'm not saying I am doing that, I'm saying "IF I did"), then my opinion is that he shouldn't have done that stuff.
Hardcore Zen I don’t think that’s the way that my Japanese friends interpreted so much as “he was an letcherous old man? And?” I hung around a lot at Naropa in the early to mid-70s and it seems like the general attitude was “and he’s a drunk! Isn’t that hilarious?!” But then the attitude there at the time was that you also had sex before your first date just to make sure that you were compatible in bed. So you know I don’t know. I think maybe what this comes down to is I don’t know how to judge other people’s behavior I have enough trouble with my own.
I know nothing of the teacher that was mentioned, but I will say this. If we were to steadfastly reject the good teachings of everyone who did bad things, there would be no teachings. It is our job to allow our own Buddha Nature to spit out the seeds of the fruit.
I know everyone out there has heard this one. The only difference between a normal person, and a Buddha is that a Buddha knows that there's no difference. I feel that Buddha nature is like water, and we all (Sentient beings) have the same amount. Some of us have dirty water, some of have cleaner water, and there are those who's water is pure. Dirty, or pure, the nature of the water is the same. To say that one can achieve enlightenment may be kind of misleading. One does not achieve ones true nature. You can't achieve what you already have. But one can discover it. But maybe I'm just splitting hairs. Who said, "There's no beginning to practice, and no end to enlightenment. I don't think that enlightenment makes one perfect, it just helps to clear ones vision so we an continue the work.
Accurate
Interesting questions and responses based in your own personal experience. According to TNH, Buddha means Awakened and not enlightened as you stated. Since we all live in forgetfulness it makes sense.
The experience you keep given a description about, it happens in similar line to most zen budhist practitioners who are diligent in the practice and have received the transmisión from a reliable Teacher and Tradition. If I were you wouldn’t dwell too much in that past experience as it was just a first glimpse into something. You opened a gate door always there not just in you but also in all of us . It comes as a kind of profound revelation when that door opens for a moment to show us a reality never experienced before. But that experience is only the beginning into real zen direct experience. It is not for dwelling on it as everything is impermanent. Everything is continuously moving and changing. A past experience is just a past experience and therefore no real any longer.
What people don't realize is that enlightenment exists on a spectrum. Satori is only at the 1st stage of enlightenment or stream-entry. It takes 10-30+ years post-stream-entry to move to the 2nd and 3rd stages (if they move beyond the first stage at all). I personally don't know anyone who had attained the 4th stage where all three poisons (greed, anger, delusion) are eradicated permanently. Most public teachers and Buddhist masters are at the 1st or 2nd stage, you'll be lucky to run into someone at the 3rd stage where ethical perfections happen. People in 1st and 2nd stages of enlightenment still can wreak havoc and haven't perfected ethical behaviours. It's my personal experience that most people who are serious about their meditation practice don't want the publicity and following to feed their ego. They practice quietly to quell the three poisons and try to remain ethical by avoiding temptations that come with being a famous teacher or someone endowed with power over students. You won't find many of them being fond of a large following or staying in the public realm very often.
It's a complete feel out experience caused by suppression of the default network or mental image mental talk and emotional body sensations. So the experience helps people to notice what most would usually miss without the experience. It allows everyone to become human. The animals are mostly feel out in my opinion so they live in kensho. I have a complex default network as do all humans so we are born into kensho but as we grow up we switch to the default network. So the animals are both enlightened and not enlightened since most of them lack such a default network. It's why the moment I saw your videos I knew you knew but I figured you doubted since the first video I noticed you in was you asking if your a hack when I can tell your not. Kensho is not knowledge though so yeah life is life we live we learn. The others in my opinion mess up because they think kensho bestows knowledge or wisdom when it does not. Not knowing this they assume they know when they don't. Because they know they don't focus on building on the experience through empathy. So let's say a man that is sexually repressed attains kensho and then feels they are enlightened chances are they will no notice that it is just a startin point. They will then teach but not knowing they make mistakes. A woman comes for lessons they begin to teach. Her eyes ask for more he misunderstands her because he still has not spent time learning about women. As she opens up to him he fixates on her and knowingly or unknowingly he abuses his position of trust and knowingly or unknowingly places her in a position she did not expect to occur. She submits and is hurt. He gets what he did not know he wanted bit fails to see her inner turmoil because at this point she might have closed herself off to him while pretending to still be open to him. I mean who wants to call an enlightened master a rapist within the community of the blind one that thinks he is enlightened. On this path this is known as the trap of clarity and power.
ua-cam.com/video/Kh1uoWKords/v-deo.html
So for me enlightenment does and does not exist. It's like some people fumble in the dark on their way through the forest and become dismayed. Kensho is like giving them a candle so they still have to fumble through the forest but now they have a little light to help them on their way. If they mistake the light for the forest they will not move around much.
It's why I really like this song. For me it reminds me that a lot of hard work went into my practice and that I must hande what I have learned as best I can. For me this is not a game it is life itself. As shinzens is fond of saying from what ether did he pull this out of. I would reply from his own life experiences knowingly or unknowingly. He certainly sings as though he is aware of the trials one must face on this path. These abilities are Conditioned and you will hear a death bracket by the whisper of my name. This world construct carved into existence through practice by conditioning is my only rival which I myself have created. A moment experienced that cannot be crushed. I will have to let my fears dissolve and then evolve if I am to overcome the obstacles placed before me. Shit this man is a fucking poet. Lyrically sublime. A call to arms. So it is that we are all enlightened and unenlightened. A song that to me pays tribute to the Buddhas enlightenment.
ua-cam.com/video/luKVhuUsGMc/v-deo.html
Yeah... I think it's something like that.
@@HardcoreZen we live in a great age. We can find things out now that would have been impossible before. Who knows the real mechanism all I have are my experiences and my opinions but science will dig where we cannot. I cant wait to see what they uncover. 🐒
Gautama of Kapilavastu was a mahatma. He possessed not only knowledge and control of the elemental forces and had ceased to make karma by which he would be bound to reincarnate, but he worked out in that life through his physical body the effects remaining over from previous lives. He could consciously, intelligently and at will, pass into or know any thing concerning any or all of the manifested worlds. He lived and acted in the physical, he moved in and controlled the powers of the astral, he sympathized with and guided the thoughts and ideals of the mental, he knew and realized the ideas of the spiritual, and was able to act consciously in all these worlds. As an individual mind, he had lived through all phases of the universal mind and having attained to a perfect knowledge of all phases of the universal mind, passed into or beyond it and was therefore a mahat-ma.
- HW Percival
How does HW Percival know this?
@@HardcoreZen
•
From November of 1892 I passed through astonishing and crucial experiences, following which, in the spring of 1893, there occurred the most extraordinary event of my life. I had crossed 14th Street at 4th Avenue, in New York City. Cars and people were hurrying by. While stepping up to the northeast corner curbstone, Light, greater than that of myriads of suns opened in the center of my head. In that instant or point, eternities were apprehended. There was no time. Distance and dimensions were not in evidence. Nature was composed of units. I was conscious of the units of nature and of units as Intelligences. Within and beyond, so to say, there were greater and lesser Lights; the greater pervading the lesser Lights, which revealed the different kinds of units. The Lights were not of nature; they were Lights as Intelligences, Conscious Lights. Compared with the brightness or lightness of those Lights, the surrounding sunlight was a dense fog. And in and through all Lights and units and objects I was conscious of the Presence of Consciousness. I was conscious of Consciousness as the Ultimate and Absolute Reality, and conscious of the relation of things. I experienced no thrills, emotions, or ecstasy. Words fail utterly to describe or explain CONSCIOUSNESS. It would be futile to attempt description of the sublime grandeur and power and order and relation in poise of what I was then conscious. Twice during the next fourteen years, for a long time on each occasion, I was conscious of Consciousness. But during that time I was conscious of no more than I had been conscious of in that first moment.
Being 'conscious of Consciousness' is the set of related words I have chosen as a phrase to speak of that most potent and remarkable moment of my life.
Consciousness is present in every unit. Therefore the presence of Consciousness makes every unit conscious as the function it performs in the degree in which it is conscious.
Being conscious of Consciousness reveals the “unknown” to the one who has been so conscious. Then it will be the duty of that one to make known what he can of being conscious of Consciousness.
The great worth in being conscious of Consciousness is that it enables one to know about any subject, by thinking. Thinking is the steady holding of the Conscious Light within on the subject of the thinking. Briefly stated, thinking is of four stages: selecting the subject; holding the Conscious Light on that subject; focusing the Light; and, the focus of the Light. When the Light is focused, the subject is known. By this method, Thinking and Destiny has been written. - HW Percival, Thinking and Destiny (intro)
@@phillipanthony2402 That's a pretty cool story. Thanks.
@@HardcoreZen thank you, love your work. have you had an enlightenment/samadhi experience? if so, do you have a video on it?
What’s the old saying?
One or two big moments
A thousand that make men dance.
Something like that
So: what is your iPhone really, Brad?
Don't want to be clever in asking this question but is there anything you can say to.further my understanding?
Because it definitely looks like a pink iPhone with a dinosaur on it to me!
Condensed energy. Like all matter. Among other things. It's also my belief that I have an iPhone.
Squozen. Perfect. ;)
Thanks. It's a useful word.
like bees in a hive
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev claims to be enlightened. I did Isha yoga for several years. It didn't really work in a sustainable way. They have a center in Tennessee.
First, no disrespect intended to your friend, but it concerns me that someone would say they would ‘only accept teaching from an ‘enlightened master’’. This phrase may be a bit trite, but I believe that “We are all teachers, we are all students”. We all are Buddha Nature and even those who may be ‘wrong’ on many counts, will occasionally offer pearls of great wisdom. Moving on.
I was curious to learn that people refer to ‘The Buddha’ as actually becoming a different being after he became aware of our infinite nature. That seems to demonstrate a lack of understanding about Kensho (the word I prefer to use), which is more about becoming aware of the reality of things than transforming into a different being. We become more of who we truly are, if that makes sense.
I appreciate the point you were making regarding Kensho. It is, absolutely real and objectively demonstrable, but it does NOT indicate that one is an ‘enlightened master’! In fact, I’ve decided to write a book in this very subject based on personal experience. It’s called “Beyond Awakening: An ordinary person’s journey” and it’s all about how Kensho is a real thing, and it does change your life, but perhaps not in the ways that most people think it does. To become an Enlightened Master (which I certainly am not), from MY perspective at least, requires a person to both have a deep Kensho experience AND be able to integrate that awareness into the way we actually live in this human body. So, an ‘enlightened master’ walks the walk, talks the talk and further truly understands why they live in that way. I know that enlightened masters exist here and now, I’ve met some of them. I also know that, even these people are still filtering their experiences through the very limited human senses we are graced with, and so are perfectly, and beautifully, fallible.
Thank you for your practice and the opportunity to share insights. _/\_
Tat's a good idea. Someone should write that book. In a sense, I feel like all of my Zen books are trying to demonstrate that. The problem is that some people will think "oh he didn't have a GENUINE kensho experience, because if he did... etc., etc." It's hard to get around that objection.
@@HardcoreZen I think it's impossible for those who haven't had a genuine kensho experience to know one when they see one, and impossible for those who HAVE had a genuine kensho experience to not recognize one when they see it. At least that's my experience.
There will always be criticism when we put ourselves out there in the public. There will always be those whose human body perception filter is telling them that everyone else is full of shit because we don't see it the way they do. It can take some effort for people to even realize that they might need to clean their filter, much less get it done (through practice). Hell, I'd venture to say that most people don't even know they have one to start with.
Anyway, I hope that what I'm working on will speak to those who may be frustrated and *stuck* around the whole kensho experience, overly mystifying it and putting it on an unattainable platform, or seeing it as the thing that creates instant zen masters (maybe it does in some cases, but certainly not most). I'm also hoping it will encourage people to stick with their practice because I didn't all those years ago, and it caused unnecessary complications.
Look at the thumbnail to get your answer.
IF Nirvana is about the cessation of drive or will in thought/perception surely there is no master drive of an authority, hence enlightened master is an oxymoron.
you may not have the charisma one would expect from a spiritually advanced person, but i don't give a s... about that, what you communicate through your books is important. so i think you have another approach but a better one, because you don't run the risk of blending someone by your charisma or charakter-which can be misleading for a person who is searching for help- but you are a great teacher for everyone who opens up to your teachings, worldwide. and get a new camera, the sound doesnt match the movements of your mouth and the video quality is bad. please ;)
Thanks. The reason the video quality is poor is because this video is so long. I made the quality lower so that the file wouldn't be too large. My other shorter videos look better. I assume most people are listening to my videos rather than watching them.
What are your thoughts on Mooji?
I don't know what/who Mooji is.
whatever i call "i"
is enlightened enough...
Couldn't some "enlightenment " be different than others ,than strictly classifiable "satori".....isn't ALL "enlightenment " PARTIAL, temporal, incomplete, HUMAN????????????????are we, They, perfect , God?.....this dishonoring of those considered " unenlightened", lesser than, REVEALS these " special " people are actually less developed less humble less actually Loving than those commoners......a good saying...directed to all, everywhere. "you are my equal, you have just as much to give me as I have to give you". If a person don't feel that way, to me they are blind, not "en. light. end"
But I'm sorry, but I know from first hand that Sogyal was a real jerk. And it really seems that ethics for him was a remote concern.
Yes, I've met several enlightened people, mostly Vajrayanists, but it is still extremely rare.
One who sees, sees who sees, sees who doesn't.
One who doesn't see, doesn't see who sees, doesn't see who doesn't.
Yes, the Buddha achieved enlightenment according to logic and reasoning.
Brad, the answer to these questions are in the text Light Rays From the Jewel of the Excellent Teaching by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal.
Starla Whitson These Vajrayanista practitioners: how did you determine their spiritual attainment?
@Dean Miller Read the text and then reply to me.
@@bobg.7976 By the criteria listed in the suttas.
Starla Whitson if true quite something - even His Holiness the Dalai Lama says he is not enlightened
Starla Whitson i
You’re Japanese tradition. Expecting you to pronounce Sanskrit is probably a little much.
It sounds like you're saying one experience you had for one day is the equivalent of being enlightened? My understanding was that enlightenment was the ending of attachment, aversion, and delusion.
At the beginning he explains that there are two ways if seeing it.
One is as an event that happened, to Brad.
That's the way most people can understand.
John got enlightenment in October. Ted still hasn't, etc. It's personal and in time.
BUT he says that actually at the same time it was out of time and impersonal. He was the universe.
We are all the universe I guess but cannot see it.
In that sense, it's not Brad who became the universe (this will never happen I guess, look at what hats he's wearing, he cannot become the universe, how would that even be possible).
Brad didn't awake.
It's the universe which awakened, >>from Brad.
The universe realized it was the universe. And not just the little Brad.
So the universe is free from attachment, aversion and delusion, because it has always been.
But I don't think that *the person* to whom this "happens" will ever get completely and totally free of attachment, aversion and delusion.
I don't know for sure about that.
It just seems to me that enlightened masters keep having their personalities, their person and stuff, because again it's not the person who awakened.
Also, further on in the video, he says he can get in and out of this experience.
So yes, it happened once very strongly on the bridge, but it seems that through his zazen practice he has entered that "state" several times.
I don't know if this framework I'm proposing here is correct, but for me, it helps me intellectually understand the paradoxes.
I got the "it's the universe that awakens from the person"
from an interesting guy called Benjamin Smythe, aka Jack Saturday.
@@ytonaona I think Brad Warner is just not enlightened. Or he if is he's doing a really good job of hiding it.
@@OldSchopenhauer Maybe so!
enlightenment is just a certain sort of understanding, but the hidden clause is it requires you to live to a certain level of consistency with that understanding which is hard
why would you have to fight tooth and nail to defend your views which most seem to do
what stands alone can support itself thank-you
@@OldSchopenhauer HAHAHA!!!
No one exists. 🤡
Note to self. 😁
sogyal and sasaki are ok? and you removed my comment, you are as bad as them !
it stung did it ? so you're enlightened are you ?
a million monkeys
at a million typewriters
every sentence they write
makes
a
religion