﻿Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 11:45 PM
Title: Re: How Madhyamika Philosophy Solves the Mystery of Quantum Physics
Content:
Kenneth Chan said:
the Madhyamaka view of reality.

Malcolm wrote:
The Madhyamaka view of reality is that whatever ordinary people with healthy sense organs (including minds) hold to be true is true as long is it a) functional b) is not subject to ultimate analysis.

For example, the Madhyamaka refutations of prime movers stem from this principle.

Therefore, Meru Cosmology, Newtonian Physics, Logical Positivism, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, etc. can all be considered valid from a Madhyamaka point of view as long as they work and are not subjected to ultimate analysis.

Now then, this does not mean that Madhyamaka precludes cosmologies and scientific theories from being deprecated and replaced with new ones. But Madhyamaka will never hold up any conventional model of the world as being definitive. I think this is the point you are missing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 11:27 PM
Title: Re: Kagyu refuge tree
Content:
lisasimmarco said:
Anyone can point me to a online detailed description of the Kagyu refuge tree?

Starting Ngondro. It's going to take a while, chronic health problems.

Also, anyone here performed Ngondro yet? Any experiences they would like to share?

Thank you!

Lisa

Malcolm wrote:
Which Kagyu lineage?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
DGA said:
1. what propaganda are you referring to?

BuddhaFollower said:
One liberal propaganda is "international law".

International law = nonsense.

Coëmgenu said:
Not the most relevant to the post but who wants to stick on topic these day?

Malcolm wrote:
That never happens.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
DGA said:
1. what propaganda are you referring to?

BuddhaFollower said:
One liberal propaganda is "international law".

International law = nonsense.

Malcolm wrote:
They are not, actually. For example, when the US Government signs an agreement with another country, all the legal provisions in that agreement become part of US Law.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 10:27 PM
Title: Re: Looking/feeling for "I"
Content:
rachmiel said:
Look for "I" ... and there is no-thing there.

And yet ... going about my daily life, "I" reveals itself in so many ways: thoughts, actions, fears, hopes.

What kind of a "thing" is this ... disappears on observation, yet drives the organism?

Malcolm wrote:
A habit of imputing a nonexistent permanent identity onto an impermanent set of aggregates.

For example, we use the identity "car" in order to drive one, but when examined no car can be found either together with it parts, separate from its parts, or within one part.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 10:03 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
binocular said:
It's an order that castrates people and takes away the meaning of life for many, if not most of them.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, in your opinion, not in mine. People have to wake up an understand that human beings have only one planet on which we live. They also have to understand that we all come from a very small population of humans that survived a global cataclysm 75,000 years ago.

The concept of races and nations is increasingly anachronistic. The various creeds in the world need to get along through recognition of a common ethical foundation, as HH Dalai Lama says:
Today, however, any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal, and so will be inadequate. What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics.
Dalai Lama, H.H. (2011-12-06). Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World . Mariner Books. Kindle Edition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 9:51 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Rakz said:
That's too bad. Do you want a safe space?

Have you been to the rustbelt? The area used to be prosperous with many decent paying jobs and strong middle class. You go there now and is full of crime, drugs, and poverty. We don't need to declare war to see what hell looks like, we already have it here. The people living there used to carry themselves with self respect by working hard and supporting their families with their hard earned wealth. Now they live from government handout to handout. Barely making it. That is like a dog's existence.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, but this is a result of the failure of American companies to meet the efficiencies found in other countries. In short, these manufacturing jobs are never going to come back to the rust belt, just as textile jobs are never coming back to New England. You should go take a look at Lawrence, Lowell, and Holyoke, MA, and Manchester, NH if you want to see another, older version of an American industry that feel on hard times because it was not nimble enough to adapt to changing world economic conditions. The same thing happened to the British Midlands.

The most expensive part of manufacturing is the price of human labor. The comparative advantage of labor costs on other countries, compared to the US, is too high for corporations to ignore. At the same time, we are giving corporations massive tax incentives (aka corporate welfare), shifting the burdens of their cost on the taxpayers. Corporate welfare in this country exceeds the social welfare you mention above by hundreds of billions of dollars in tax deferments, write-offs, and so on. And Trump, in his ineffable wisdom, wants to slash corporate tax rates from 35% to 15%. This might help small mom and pop businesses a little (well, until the recession hits us that Trump's policies will inevitably cause), but it will mean billions of dollars in less revenue to run the government and pay for roads, bridges, police, fire departments, schools, and so on.

Your economic nationalism will do nothing but impoverish everyone further, tipping us over into Hunger Games territory in the long run. Your economic nationalism, which will privatize all services, etc., will just in the long run create huge blocks controlled by corporations, rather than governments, as in  like Rollerball.

Frankly, the anger you feel is you not recognizing how you've been manipulated; but deep down underneath, your anger is an expression of your underlying anxiety that old boss is the same as the new boss.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 12:13 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:



Coëmgenu said:
Large corporations are the #1 welfare queens.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, and Trump is their new sugar daddy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 12:12 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
The Cicada said:
Americans possess a deep-seated quality for whining and complaining that is mostly absent from the Mexican disposition. That disposition is the keystone of our democracy. Thus, the people of Mexico have tolerated the abuses that their upper-class has heaped upon them for quite some time and will likely continue to do so until they find their own solution to their problems.

Malcolm wrote:
You really have no idea about Mexico at all. You should visit Mexico. You might learn something.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 10:04 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
To be fair, he reportedly played a large role in stopping the Carrier corporation from outsourcing out of America.

Malcolm wrote:
Um, no...check into it. Only 700 jobs are staying here, at the cost of 7 million dollars in tax breaks...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 10:03 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:


DGA said:
Behold, ladies and gentlemen:  the Trump team "draining the swamp"

Malcolm wrote:
I wonder how long it will take Rakz to experience Trumpgret.

Rakz said:
NEVER. I reject all liberal propaganda. He will not let the American working man down.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, he already has. For example, the Carrier deal was based on a 7 million dollar tax break that Indiana taxpayers have to swallow...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 10:01 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Another point is that American workers are incredibly lazy compared to Mexicans and so on.

The Cicada said:
Reverse racism...

Malcolm wrote:
Apparently you have never been to Mexico, http://www.businessinsider.com/united-tech-ceo-says-trump-deal-will-lead-to-more-automation-fewer-jobs-2016-12?utm_content=buffer5c68f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer:
JIM CRAMER: What's good about Mexico? What's good about going there? And obviously what's good about staying here?

GREG HAYES: So what's good about Mexico? We have a very talented workforce in Mexico. Wages are obviously significantly lower. About 80% lower on average. But absenteeism runs about 1%. Turnover runs about 2%. Very, very dedicated workforce.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 7:05 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
dreambow said:
Islam definitely contributed to the destruction of Buddhism  after Nalanda they continued plundering.
Widespread and almost industrial scale destruction of temples, places of worship. The word ‘butshikan’ gets coined meaning destroyer of Buts (or Buddhas)
Widespread looting  and excessive taxation - Entrenchment of local zamindars, imposition of jizya (tax on non-Muslim subjects). Religion inspired violence, mass forced conversions. They also played a big part in  the slave trade. Also an introduction of Persian as the official language. I have to mention Aurangzeb who was a religious zealot and the 'sword of Islam', one of the cruellest emperors out of an assortment of ruthless leaders.

Malcolm wrote:
And Muslims are responsible for introducing Europeans to the Upanishads, etc. Muslim regimes in general tended to be more tolerant than Christian ones, etc.

If you try to paint Islam with a single brush as you have done here, how can anyone assume you are free of bias?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 3:24 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:


Queequeg said:
Economic nationalism in the US will be good for the US...

Malcolm wrote:
No, it won't, which is why we abandoned the American system (mercantilism) for the British system (international capitalism) in the late 19th century.

To put it plainly, manufacturing jobs are never coming back to the US.
Another point is that American workers are incredibly lazy compared to Mexicans and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 3:14 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:


DGA said:
Behold, ladies and gentlemen:  the Trump team "draining the swamp"

Malcolm wrote:
I wonder how long it will take Rakz to experience Trumpgret.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 2:52 AM
Title: Re: "Tshogs kyi mchog"
Content:
Temicco said:
In the refuge recitation, why is "supreme assembly" written "tshogs kyi mchog"?

Given how adjectives are ordered, wouldn't it be either "tshogs mchog" or "mchog kyi tshogs"?

I've also seen the whole phrase written "tshogs kyi mchog dge 'dun" which makes more sense if the 'brel sgra is marking apposition rather than connecting an adjective. But most versions I've seen don't include the "dge 'dun".

Thoughts?


Malcolm wrote:
It is literally, "Supreme among assemblies, the Sangha." So yes, it is appositional. 'brel sgra have varied uses, not always strictly conforming to our notion of the genitive.

Temicco said:
Good to know; my textbook's examples of its use aren't very varied.

I think I get it now. It seems ultimately unimportant here whether "mchog" is acting as a noun or an adjective; the meaning is the same and it is syntactically trivial here. The phrase could seemingly also be translated as a superlative, although that would  be unnecessary given that the closer English translation is natural and grammatical. Is all that true?

Malcolm wrote:
Your textbook does not give idiomatic usages.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 2:28 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:


Queequeg said:
Economic nationalism in the US will be good for the US...

Malcolm wrote:
No, it won't, which is why we abandoned the American system (mercantilism) for the British system (international capitalism) in the late 19th century.

To put it plainly, manufacturing jobs are never coming back to the US.

Queequeg said:
Well, if we do have real economic nationalism implemented, we will see soon enough.

Malcolm wrote:
It will never happen, the house has already stated it to be so. Trump and his cabinet may be throwbacks, but our government remains firmly committed to neoliberalism. Why? Because that is what corporations want.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 2:21 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:


Queequeg said:
Economic nationalism in the US will be good for the US...

Malcolm wrote:
No, it won't, which is why we abandoned the American system (mercantilism) for the British system (international capitalism) in the late 19th century.

To put it plainly, manufacturing jobs are never coming back to the US.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 2:09 AM
Title: Re: Looking/feeling for "I"
Content:
rachmiel said:
So feelings -- gut feelings, intuition, heart, innate knowing -- are, for you, nothing more than cosmetically enhanced concepts?


Malcolm wrote:
Feelings are a mental factor, all mental factors are concepts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 2:08 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Queequeg said:
I am sure they were counting on another passive US administration with regard to Asia policy. Asian allies are probably nervous but hopeful that the US will flex its muscle in Asia. As an Asia-watcher, it is long over due.

Malcolm wrote:
We have never had a passive policy with respect to China. Our people wanted cheap shit, so we made a deal with China for them to manufacture all the crap people buy at Walmart. Messing with China hurts our economy more than theirs.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 12:44 AM
Title: Re: Looking/feeling for "I"
Content:
rachmiel said:
Ach Du liebes Madhyamakakarika!

Malcolm wrote:
No, being honest. When looking for something with the conceptual mind, you will never find anything but concepts. Since there is no other mind with which to investigate, well, draw your own conclusion.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: Looking/feeling for "I"
Content:
rachmiel said:
So even when you *feel* for an I ... all that arises is: concept?

What about in the midst of a strong emotion? Let's say one of your patients walked up to you and spat hatefully in your face. Would there be no sense of "How dare they do this to ME?!" in your reaction?

Malcolm wrote:
Which is just a concept.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 at 12:08 AM
Title: Re: Looking/feeling for "I"
Content:
rachmiel said:
When I look for "I" there is no-thing there. It's like looking at "solid" matter: the deeper you look the more the solidity goes away and you're left with ... no-thing (except, perhaps, energy).

It's different if I *feel* for my self/I. It takes a while, but I usually end up feeling a sense of ground, home, rightness.

What do you see when you look and feel for "I" ... ?

Malcolm wrote:
A concept.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 9:15 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
dreambow said:
No jihad wasn't on the agenda, just pointing out some info.

Malcolm wrote:
Your info about Islam is incorrect. Trying reading Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road by Johan Elverskog.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 9:10 PM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I'll be honest here. I am 90% sure that Trump accepting Taiwan's call was an ridiculous blunder on his part. I don't think he had any idea that what he was doing would be even slightly controversial.

But it seems like he is doubling down on it.

I am not a Trump fan, but if one good thing comes out of this mess, increased recognition of Taiwan's sovereignty could be that.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, war with China is always a great idea...

Rakz said:
Nobody is going war with China. This is just more liberal fear mongering, but a war with the communist hellhole would be brilliant. Bomb their factories and decimate their economy like they have decimated ours. After they are brought down to their knees, replace their communist dictatorship with a democracy that respects basic human rights. That way the Tibetans can also reclaim their sovereignty which you probably support.

Malcolm wrote:
Buddhist advocating for war are an abomination.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 10:22 AM
Title: Re: Best Wrathful Deity to use against malicious spirits?
Content:
MiphamFan said:
In translations of Hindu tantra, I've seen "fierce" used more often than wrathful and IIRC there was a Buddhist translator of Tibetan who also thinks "fierce" is more appropriate.

Malcolm wrote:
krodha: 1	krodha	m. anger , wrath , passion VS. xxx , 14 AV. S3Br. &c. ; (ifc. f. %{A}) Amar. ; Anger (personified as a child of Lobha and Nikr2iti ; or of Death ; or of Brahma1) VP. ; N. of a Da1nava MBh. i , 2543 Hariv. ; of the mystic syllable %{hum} or %{hrUM} , Ra1mat Up. ; (%{A}) f. N. of one of the thirteen daughters of Daksha and wife of Kas3yapa MBh. i , 2520 Hariv. ; (%{I}) f. (in music) N. of a S3ruti ; (%{am}) n. N. of the fifty-ninth year of the sixty years "' Br2ihaspati cycle VarBr2S.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 9:17 AM
Title: Re: Do you think Trump will recognize Taiwan as a state?
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I'll be honest here. I am 90% sure that Trump accepting Taiwan's call was an ridiculous blunder on his part. I don't think he had any idea that what he was doing would be even slightly controversial.

But it seems like he is doubling down on it.

I am not a Trump fan, but if one good thing comes out of this mess, increased recognition of Taiwan's sovereignty could be that.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, war with China is always a great idea...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 9:01 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Inherent existence does not exist at all, but it appears to mind.

Malcolm wrote:
Um no. Common peopled do not have concept "Inherent existence." It is a philosophical idea, not a common idea. The idea that common people have is "this [entity] exists." Inherent existence is not an appearance to the mind. Even Tsongkhapa admits this.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 8:38 AM
Title: Re: Best Wrathful Deity to use against malicious spirits?
Content:
crazy-man said:
Avalokiteśvara, spyan ras gzigs.
only the bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas can ultimately do this
In this world Hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible.
Buddha, Dhammapada

Malcolm wrote:
The wrathful form of Avalokiteśvara is the wrathful deity Hāyagriva.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 5:27 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
dreambow said:
"at the same time preserving a harmonious balance in different regions of the world that respect their culture and diversity."  Greed,  Christianity and Islam have done more to destroy diversity in India, Africa and South America, brow beating, proselytising,  and its still a work in progress. I forgot to mention Papua New Guinea where every second male is now named Pious or Mathew.

Malcolm wrote:
Right, so lets get all hot under the collar and wage a jihad against all those evil christians and muslims. Sure, that will really bring peace into the world. Have you even read HH Dalai Lama's point of view about these things?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 3:17 AM
Title: Re: "Tshogs kyi mchog"
Content:
Temicco said:
In the refuge recitation, why is "supreme assembly" written "tshogs kyi mchog"?

Given how adjectives are ordered, wouldn't it be either "tshogs mchog" or "mchog kyi tshogs"?

I've also seen the whole phrase written "tshogs kyi mchog dge 'dun" which makes more sense if the 'brel sgra is marking apposition rather than connecting an adjective. But most versions I've seen don't include the "dge 'dun".

Thoughts?


Malcolm wrote:
It is literally, "Supreme among assemblies, the Sangha." So yes, it is appositional. 'brel sgra have varied uses, not always strictly conforming to our notion of the genitive.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 2:22 AM
Title: Re: Original teachings of Padmasambhava and their reception in Tibet
Content:
AlexanderS said:
I believe guru rinpoche transcends any mundane reality.

BuddhaFollower said:
This is my position.


Malcolm wrote:
Having a position means you are primordially screwed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 2:21 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Hence the necessity of grounding social ethics in secular rather than religious values...

binocular said:
It's not clear how this can be done without such secular ethics being that very same materialistic value system that lead to the current problems of poverty, pollution etc. to begin with.

Malcolm wrote:
It would be a mistaken to equate secular ethics with capitalism. The point is that religions, including Buddhism, themselves do not address the total needs of the global population. The needs of our planet require us to go beyond the constraints of nations, religions, and borders, while at the same time preserving a harmonious balance in different regions of the world that respect their culture and diversity. A tall order, hopefully we will someday get there.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 1:46 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Lukeinaz said:
Another seeming contradiction I find within this system is that emptiness is dependent on the thing it is empty of.

For instance, if I am analyzing the table and get a sense of this object of negation, the inherent existence of this table,  I am then able to realize that the table exists in no such way.

So how can emptiness depend on inherent existence if inherent existence does not exist at all?

Malcolm wrote:
This all just points to the limitations of words and intellectual analysis. The reason why common Mahāyāna is a slow path is that it largely depends on words and analysis.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 1:12 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:


binocular said:
It's not clear whether you can help people without also pushing them toward Buddhism -- which they could experience as an infrigement on their religious freedom.

Malcolm wrote:
Hence the necessity of grounding social ethics in secular rather than religious values...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 10:21 PM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
CapNCrunch said:
Just ordered my copy!  What an accomplishment through merit, something worthy of praise and support!  I feel so fortunate to have access to the texts of the transmission lineage in my mother tongue through the work of gifted translators.   May you live long and have many more occasions to bless & inspire through your work, Malcolm!!!


Malcolm wrote:
Thanks again all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 10:20 PM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
dreambow said:
Don't put so much emphisis on statistics as they can be changed, modified, manipulated. When it comes to figures like in accountancy, its often called 'creative accounting'.


Malcolm wrote:
Another poisoning of the well. The new normal in a post-fact world.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 9:53 AM
Title: Re: Qualifications for giving empowerments
Content:
Lhasa said:
What is a major yidam retreat?


Malcolm wrote:
Hevajra, Kalacakra, Vajrayogini, Magyud, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 6:01 AM
Title: Re: Best Wrathful Deity to use against malicious spirits?
Content:
Tirisilex said:
What is the best Wrathful Deity to use against wrathful spirits that are bothering someone?

Malcolm wrote:
The one you have practiced the most.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 5:24 AM
Title: Re: Qualifications for giving empowerments
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
Wonderful, thank you for your prompt reply.

"a yidam" or " the yidam" (specific to the practice)?

Best,

Jens


Malcolm wrote:
A major Yidam. Sometimes Lamas give large collections of empowerments. There is no chance they have done the approach and accomplishment for every deity in that collection. In general, if you have done a major retreat, you can then given the transmission for any empowerment you have received.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 5:08 AM
Title: Re: Qualifications for giving empowerments
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
This is admittedly a vague, ignorant, and broad question:

What are the qualifications for a teacher to give tantric empowerments in the Tibetan tradition?

(Apologies if this topic already has been sliced and diced in another thread, kindly provide a link if that is the case.)

Malcolm wrote:
In general, they must have received the empowerment they are going to give, as well as the instructions on how to do the practice. They must have accomplished at least a major yidam retreat or failing that, have received permission from their own guru to bestow that empowerment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 12:34 AM
Title: Re: Hello
Content:
TheNonduality said:
Hello!

My name is TheNonduality.  I'm a Soto Zen monk on medical leave, and I'm super excited that I found this board!  It's really hard to spend most of my year cloistered at a remote monastery and then be in the middle of a big city.  So it's really nice to find a community of fellow practitioners to chat with about Buddhism.

As I said, I've been a Soto Zen Monk, but I've also spent time as a Rinzai Monk, and a Theravadan monk.  That being said, I really love studying all forms of Buddhism.  I've also spent a brief time training in Tendai and recently Hua Yen.  I'm excited to get to know people here and engage in deep and meaningful discussions.


Malcolm wrote:
That only leave Sakya, Kagyu, Nyingma, Gelug, and Bon to go!


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: Incenses and power substances
Content:
PadmaDorje said:
I am studying a red deity Khyentse sadhana and it says at some point to burn power substances as incense.

Would anyone be so kind as to give me examples of what "powerful substances" are in this case?

Malcolm wrote:
Red sandalwood, for example.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 10:57 PM
Title: Re: Original teachings of Padmasambhava and their reception in Tibet
Content:


heart said:
Yes, you are right, nutritional science is a joke. The history of Anthropology and Comparative Religion is pretty scary actually.

Malcolm wrote:
We can learn interesting things from text critical scholarship, but we should never mistake text criticism for history.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 10:55 PM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
So did the Buddha ever address individuals who thought others to be less deserving of proper treatment on account of perceived negative past karma? Or is that misunderstanding a strictly modern departure from the dharma?

Malcolm wrote:
No and yes.

Coëmgenu said:
"No and yes" to if the Buddha ever addressed discrimination based on perceived karma or "no and yes" to if this misreading of the purpose and function of karma is a distinctly modern departure from the dharma?

Malcolm wrote:
You asked two questions: no to the first, yes to the second.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 10:53 PM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
I find it sickening you won't even acknowledge the fact that divorce courts are in favor of women and instead blame it all on karma. Just because someone has made a poor choice doesn't give any court the right to unfairly treat that individual due to his or her gender. That's called sexism.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course they are in favor of women with children. Women typically experience a 73% loss in income after a divorce, well men typically experience a 43% boost in income. 40 percent of the households in the US headed by women live in poverty and more than half of impoverished children live with their mothers and not their fathers. For every dollar a man makes, a white women make 77 cents, a black women 63.5 cents, and hispanic woman makes 54 cents.

Thus, I contest your contention that the courts treat men unfairly in divorces. In fact, men, after a divorce, have far more advantages than their former spouses and children as we can see above. Moreover, only 61% of court-orderd child support is ever paid.

These are the facts.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 9:58 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
So did the Buddha ever address individuals who thought others to be less deserving of proper treatment on account of perceived negative past karma? Or is that misunderstanding a strictly modern departure from the dharma?

Malcolm wrote:
No and yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 8:30 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
You know better than they do? Do you have firsthand experience of what it is like to go through a divorce in the west as they have?

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, was taken to the cleaners too. But I am a man, not a child. So you know what? I don't complain because I am old school, not like these modern whiny man-babies of today.

Rakz said:
So you've supposedly been "taken to the cleaners" by your ex wife and you have not one negative thing to say about it? That's strange.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is not strange. It's called being a grown up. No one married her but me. My mistake, my karma. It's called "accepting to consequences of one's actions." It is also called being a man. But these days, there are simpering fools who think they can just appropriate the language of the oppressed because they're feelings have been hurt when they themselves should take responsibility in their own poor choices of partners.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 6:41 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
You know better than they do? Do you have firsthand experience of what it is like to go through a divorce in the west as they have?

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, was taken to the cleaners too. But I am a man, not a child. So you know what? I don't complain because I am old school, not like these modern whiny man-babies of today.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 6:21 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
You have a narrow minded view when it comes to the men's movement. I recommend this documentary for you.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, I think these guys are a bunch of [insert favorite Bill Maher insult here]. I have zero sympathy for them.

Rakz said:
Why shouldn't they be worthy of any sympathy?

Malcolm wrote:
If they were actually suffering from some real oppression, then I would have sympathy for them. But since they are behaving like hysterical children who are complaining of monsters they imagine to be under their bed...well, they are not children...so...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 6:05 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
You have a narrow minded view when it comes to the men's movement. I recommend this documentary for you.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, I think these guys are a bunch of [insert favorite Bill Maher insult here]. I have zero sympathy for them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 5:50 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Gyurme Kundrol said:
Even though white privilege is a thing, its not all its cracked up to be. Theres draw backs to being a white man...

For example in the eyes of society you have 0 excuse for not being successful and wealthy. Oh youre white? If your not wealthy/have a car/have a home then you are somehow a frak up and someone to avoid. People easily forgive anyone else for not having these things because of their disadvantages, but a white man without these? Worthless. Pathetic. A loser.

If you need help there are not organizations who will really help you. There is no support group. If you are gay you can easily find groups that will take you in, help you, take care of you. If you are a straight white male? Good luck! Same goes with other minorities who have groups focused solely on helping them. As a white man Ive never been able to get help from anyone except immediate friends or family. The government could care less if I fall through the cracks, and there are no real groups that help white men that are easily accessible. You are basically laughed at and ignored if you need help as a white guy.

If you end up homeless as a white man? Well good luck with that! Theres plenty of groups helping women, gays, youths and others but a white man? Again it goes back to this expectation that white = intelligent and competent and if you dont have it all youve done something terribly wrong.

So theres upsides and downsides, but its not all its cracked up to be. My main experience of being white is being held to an impossible standard that in my entire life Ive never been able to live up to.

Malcolm wrote:
No different than being a black man or a latino man. Men have zero access to social services apart from food stamps. It is not a white man thing, it is a man thing. Also if you are a women, it is the same, unless you have young kids. Of course, the amount of money spent on social services such as welfare are a tiny percentage of the budget, but no one ever notices this when they bitch about lack of access to social services they imagine "other" people have access to. In other words, your post is basically racist since you imagine you are being held up to a standard that people of color are not being held up to.

maybay said:
Another defiant use of the incendiary term "racist" where "prejudice" would suffice, and is clearly more representative of his post. Moreover, you've isolated the point about social services, the part government plays, which is only part of his grievance, and made a sharp edge of it.

Malcolm wrote:
When racist language is used, it is appropriate to term it racist. For example, there is a so called "men's movement" where men complain about how they are disadvantaged by their gender because of the success of the women's movement; but in reality they are basically upset that they cannot with impunity behave like sexist pigs anymore. When such complaints are lodged by such men, it is appropriate to call those complaints sexist. When an advantaged person complains that their advantage is a disadvantage by either ethnicity or gender, that complaint is wither racist or sexist because it involves pointing out something undesirable about another race or a gender.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 5:25 AM
Title: Re: Measurements of Mandala set
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Personally, I have never seen a wooden mandala set being used.

Malcolm wrote:
It was quite common in Tibet, which is why it is mentioned frequently in the literature. But it needs to be large, to compensate for the mandala being made of inferior material.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 5:21 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
It is a serious question, not a claim.  I am trying to ascertain (in terms of cause/condition) how far down it is all reduced.

Malcolm wrote:
Caittas and cittas are always conditioned. Negative cittas are conditioned by negative caittas, which in turn are conditioned by afflicted caittas; positive cittas are conditioned by positive caittas, which are conditioned by positive caittas. Neutral cittas are conditioned by the ten neutral caittas, in absence of either positive or afflicted caittas. The minimum number of caittas a sentient being in desire realm can possess is twelve — the ten neutral caittas that accompany all minds or cittas in the desire realm, including coarse attention and sustained attention. That number decreases in the form and formless realm.

That said, even positive and neutral cittas and caittas are contaminated if they are not connected with the path dharmas of the 37 adjuncts of awakening.

Sherab Dorje said:
Would it be true to say that ignorance is the ultimate cause of all afflicted relative mental states, positive or negative?

If Mahamudra/Dzogchen is unconditioned then it would not be associated with positive mental factors either.  Right?

Malcolm wrote:
In order to arrive at the realization of either, one must have first given rise to five faculties (faith, diligence, mindfulness, samadhi and wisdom), the first set within the 37 factors of awakening. These five faculties are found with neutral (mindfulness, samadhi and wisdom) and positive mental factors (faith and diligence), and when combined with the right path, lead to eventual buddhahood.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 3:00 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
That is a nonsequitur.

Sherab Dorje said:
It is a serious question, not a claim.  I am trying to ascertain (in terms of cause/condition) how far down it is all reduced.

Malcolm wrote:
Caittas and cittas are always conditioned. Negative cittas are conditioned by negative caittas, which in turn are conditioned by afflicted caittas; positive cittas are conditioned by positive caittas, which are conditioned by positive caittas. Neutral cittas are conditioned by the ten neutral caittas, in absence of either positive or afflicted caittas. The minimum number of caittas a sentient being in desire realm can possess is twelve — the ten neutral caittas that accompany all minds or cittas in the desire realm, including coarse attention and sustained attention. That number decreases in the form and formless realm.

That said, even positive and neutral cittas and caittas are contaminated if they are not connected with the path dharmas of the 37 adjuncts of awakening.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:50 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:


Sherab Dorje said:
You said there are positive, negative and neutral volitions.  You didn't say there is volition, and it can be conditioned by mental factors.

Malcolm wrote:
In fact I did say this https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=24243#p366715:

Sherab Dorje said:
Oooops... sorry, didn't remember this one!

So now mental factors are the unconditioned dharmas?

Malcolm wrote:
That is a nonsequitur.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:35 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This illustrates my point nicely.

Astus said:
It does illustrate the role of concepts in experience, but it also shows the presence of experience without conceptualisation.

Malcolm wrote:
No, experience is always conceptual. One has to be conceptually aware of something for to to be one's experience. It is fundamental fact of the meaning of the word in https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/experience.

It is also the meaning of the word in Sanskrit, anubhū: "to notice , perceive , understand ; to experience , to attempt."

There is no such thing as an actual nonconceptual experience. A so called nonconceptual experience is one that is attended by a very subtle level of conceptuality, not entirely absent of conceptuality, just as formless means "very subtle matter" but not actually immaterial in fact.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:12 AM
Title: Re: Measurements of Mandala set
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
Thank you.

By chance, do you happen to know of a source of wooden mandala sets?

Best,

Jens
Could someone kind send the measurements of a mandala set, i.e. the diameter and height of the base and the rings.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Jens


Malcolm wrote:
If it is wood or clay, or some other base material, the width should be about a cubit.

It is made of copper it should measure the width betweenthe tip of your outstretched thumb and the tip of the pinky.

A precious metal mandala can be very small.

M
You would have to make one yourself. The rings are optional and not practical when counting. Also you need a shrine mandala, generally, this one has the rings.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:06 AM
Title: Re: Original teachings of Padmasambhava and their reception in Tibet
Content:
MiphamFan said:
Pelliot 44 is a fragment of a text on Vajrakila from Dunhuang, which already links Padmasambhava to Vajrakila as well as Yeshe Tsogyal IIRC, as the later Vajrakila tradition says. Robert Mayer has written about it.

heart said:
So Padmasambhava is an existing person now? He was just a myth a few hours ago. (pelliot 44 is dated 800-900 A.D.)

/magnus


Malcolm wrote:
It is kind if like butter.  Butter for a long while was regarded as being the worst thing for your health ever. Then it was touted as the best thing ever. Now there is a swing back to saying it is the worst thing ever. Sentient beings are never satisfied.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 2:01 AM
Title: Re: Measurements of Mandala set
Content:
Dharmaswede said:
Could someone kind send the measurements of a mandala set, i.e. the diameter and height of the base and the rings.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Jens


Malcolm wrote:
If it is wood or clay, or some other base material, the width should be about a cubit.

It is made of copper it should measure the width betweenthe tip of your outstretched thumb and the tip of the pinky.

A precious metal mandala can be very small.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 1:52 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:


Sherab Dorje said:
You said there are positive, negative and neutral volitions.  You didn't say there is volition, and it can be conditioned by mental factors.

Malcolm wrote:
In fact I did say this https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=24243#p366715:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 11:03 PM
Title: Re: Namkhai Norbu and Vegetarianism
Content:


climb-up said:
Curious to hear thoughts on this.
Does that make me either a heretic or someone who should not be following the DC teachings?

Malcolm wrote:
We all work with all kinds of limitations all of the time. Some we impose on ourselves, like moral beliefs about diets, others are imposed upon us, such as lifespan, health and so on.

Being a Dzogchen practitioners means in part to recognize one's limitations and work with them.

There are no heretics.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 11:53 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Astus said:
Or when for instance one is unexpectedly talked to, and when the words were spoken they were not comprehended, but when they're recalled right after that they become understandable.

Malcolm wrote:
This illustrates my point nicely.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 3:43 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
Some folks who believe in bs like "white privilege" would also agree that those who are born white have much better karma than those born with a darker skin pigmentation. It is kind of like the Hindu caste system which the Buddha completely rejected.

Gyurme Kundrol said:
Even though white privilege is a thing, its not all its cracked up to be. Theres draw backs to being a white man...

For example in the eyes of society you have 0 excuse for not being successful and wealthy. Oh youre white? If your not wealthy/have a car/have a home then you are somehow a frak up and someone to avoid. People easily forgive anyone else for not having these things because of their disadvantages, but a white man without these? Worthless. Pathetic. A loser.

If you need help there are not organizations who will really help you. There is no support group. If you are gay you can easily find groups that will take you in, help you, take care of you. If you are a straight white male? Good luck! Same goes with other minorities who have groups focused solely on helping them. As a white man Ive never been able to get help from anyone except immediate friends or family. The government could care less if I fall through the cracks, and there are no real groups that help white men that are easily accessible. You are basically laughed at and ignored if you need help as a white guy.

If you end up homeless as a white man? Well good luck with that! Theres plenty of groups helping women, gays, youths and others but a white man? Again it goes back to this expectation that white = intelligent and competent and if you dont have it all youve done something terribly wrong.

So theres upsides and downsides, but its not all its cracked up to be. My main experience of being white is being held to an impossible standard that in my entire life Ive never been able to live up to.

Malcolm wrote:
No different than being a black man or a latino man. Men have zero access to social services apart from food stamps. It is not a white man thing, it is a man thing. Also if you are a women, it is the same, unless you have young kids. Of course, the amount of money spent on social services such as welfare are a tiny percentage of the budget, but no one ever notices this when they bitch about lack of access to social services they imagine "other" people have access to. In other words, your post is basically racist since you imagine you are being held up to a standard that people of color are not being held up to.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 2:33 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:


Sherab Dorje said:
Where do these unconditioned "volitions" abide then?

Malcolm wrote:
Who said volitions were unconditioned? I already explained clearly that in general volitions were included in among the neutral mental factors, and were colored by their association with positive minds (composed of the ten positive mental factors) or negative minds (composed of the six afflicted mental factors and of negative mental factors).

In any case, anyone who wishes to understand karma and vipaka clearly is directed to read the Abhidharmakośa and its commentary.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 10:47 PM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
As mentioned before, I will be introducing the book over Facebook here, on Dec 14th, 6:30 P.M. EST:
https://www.facebook.com/zangthal/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 10:19 PM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Secondly, direct perceptions are by definition nonconceptual, and are only experienced when they are coordinated through second order conceptual identification such as "this is blue," "this is red," and so on. We have many direct perceptions everyday which we never experience because we never notice them.

Astus said:
Do you say that one cannot be aware of one's environment without taking note of each element? That would make life quite difficult.

Malcolm wrote:
Awareness of our environment is a conceptual picture built up through familiarization. No one lives in the moment, apart from babies, who have not yet developed the conceptual framework to start organizing their direct perceptions into conceptual patterns and frames of reference. This is why a great deal of secular mindfulness literature and "live in the moment" slogans are total bunk.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 10:15 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Are you suggesting that money should be based on something like gold? The gold standard is a http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/:

Why would anyone want to go back to the bad old days? The gold standard limited central banks from printing money when economies needed central banks to print money, and limited governments from running deficits when economies needed governments to run deficits. It was a devilish device for turning recessions into depressions. The answer is that some people aren't worried about depressions. Some people are worried about inflation. Even when none exists. To them, these fetters are the feature, not a bug.

Gyurme Kundrol said:
Yes that is what I was suggesting. My understanding is that the economy is basically a bunch of fake money- not really backed by anything anymore. Its just...digits. Those digits have more value in some places on earth than others. They are backed maybe by labor, but thats a very emphemeral thing.

So I guess my question is... what is our money even based on anymore? It used to be based on gold and silver... now its just paper. Or so it seems!

Malcolm wrote:
I think you need to study some economic history. For example, the economic history of money, and the instability which is inevitable when the value of currency is pinned to a precious metal such as gold or silver, for example. So called commodity money is at the mercy of commodity prices, as history shows, when the Spaniards flooded the world markets with silver from Mexico:
For hundreds of years, China produced silk, porcelain, and tea to acquire a commodity, silver, which was needed to replace the paper notes that the government had made valueless. It was as if to buy a newspaper for a dollar one first had to make and sell something else to get the dollar banknote. Actually, it was worse: the silver stocks had to be constantly replenished, incurring further costs, because the metal was constantly worn away as it passed from hand to hand. (Paper money wears out, too, but costs next to nothing to replace.) Given the circumstances, acquiring the silver was entirely rational— it provided monetary stability. But it was also extremely costly. “Rather than pull silver out of their own ground (had China contained rich silver deposits, which it did not), the Chinese produced exports to buy silver that was pulled out of the ground somewhere else,” Flynn wrote in an e-mail to me. “Even scholars tend to impute mystical qualities to commodity monies like silver and gold, but we must recognize them as physical products that involve massive production costs. A significant hunk of the GDP of China— then the world’s biggest economy— was surrendered in order to secure a white metal that was produced mostly in Spanish America and Japan. Some people made enormous profits from doing this, but think about what else those resources could have been used for.”
Mann, Charles C. (2011-08-09). 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (pp. 162-163). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Also, the cost of our exports was too high, and thus was the main reason we got off the gold standard...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 9:58 PM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
So you have become a substance dualist? Amazing.

Astus said:
I am merely curious how you synchronise your idea of all experiences being conceptual with the teachings, where for instance the teachings on the dhatus do not seem to agree with that.

Malcolm wrote:
For example, when we talk about a nonconceptual experience, we are actually talking about an experience that has very little concept attached to, but it is still a subtle conceptual experience, which why it is can be a deviation if the conceptuality is not recognized.

Secondly, direct perceptions are by definition nonconceptual, and are only experienced when they are coordinated through second order conceptual identification such as "this is blue," "this is red," and so on. We have many direct perceptions everyday which we never experience because we never notice them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 9:52 PM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Rakz said:
Some folks who believe in bs like "white privilege" would also agree that those who are born white have much better karma than those born with a darker skin pigmentation. It is kind of like the Hindu caste system which the Buddha completely rejected.

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha did not reject the idea that people were born into higher and lower social classes as http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.135.nymo.html:
"Beings are owners of kammas, student, heirs of kammas, they have kammas as their progenitor, kammas as their kin, kammas as their homing-place. It is kammas that differentiate beings according to inferiority and superiority."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 8:50 PM
Title: Re: Invocation for dakas and dakinis
Content:
cck123 said:
Hi friends,

do you know an invocation for dakinis like these for the dharmapalas? As i know dharmapalas as well as dakas/dakinis help on our way.
Dharmapalapractice is very usual, the dakinis i know are only yidam practice and not for beginners like me. Is there a reason for this?

Thanks for your answers!

Chris


Malcolm wrote:
There is such a thing as the general torma offering of Ḍākinīs, very common in Sakya, Gelug and Kagyu.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 11:27 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You just answered your own question. In the first case, you are taking the five precepts out of deceit. This means that you have severed the root of the positive results from the start because your motivation is negative and therefore your action is negative. In the second, case, you havea positive motivation which leads you do something positive for others. Thus the rule still applies.

You might want to brush up on the karma chapter of the Kosha.

Sherab Dorje said:
In which case there are no essentially/intrinsically positive or negative actions.  They are conditioned by various factors.  Motivation is one of the four recognized factors which condition the outcome of an action.  That's all I have been saying the whole time.

Malcolm wrote:
Karma is volition. Those volitions can be positive, negative or neutral, and they will result in acts that are positive, negative, or neutral, with results that are correspondingly positive, negative or neutral.

Therefor, it is novel to claim that actions are  niether positive or negative by nature since volition itself is action, and all volitions are positive, negative or neutral by nature.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 5:10 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Since derived actions of body and speech arise on the basis of positive or negative intentions which are themselves karma by definition, it is novel to claim that actions cannot be essentially positive or negative. For example, taking the five precepts is an essentially positive action whose ripening is essentially positive. Breaking the five precepts is an essentially negative action whose ripening is essentially negative.

Sherab Dorje said:
So if I keep the five precepts because I want to curry favor and deceitfully nab a swag of cash (for example) I am doing something essentially good.  And if I break one of the five precepts in order to selflessly benefit sentient beings, I am doing something essentially bad.

Seriously?

I don't think so...

Malcolm wrote:
You just answered your own question. In the first case, you are taking the five precepts out of deceit. This means that you have severed the root of the positive results from the start because your motivation is negative and therefore your action is negative. In the second, case, you havea positive motivation which leads you do something positive for others. Thus the rule still applies.

You might want to brush up on the karma chapter of the Kosha.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 3:42 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I feel like, conventionally, there will always be negative karma as long as there are deluded mindsets. That's a fair enough statement I think.

Given that it is believed to be delusion that brings rise to the mindset that is susceptible to "negative and positive" conceptualizations, as long as delusion exist so will there exist positive and negative karma, right?

Because delusion brings rise to the negative, and by bringing rise to the negative, so too is positive created. Basic Dàodéjīng right?

I don't really know if this is in line with the Buddhavacana though.

Malcolm wrote:
It is fairly straight foward, actually. Cetana by itself is a neutral mental factor. But it is colored, positively or negatively,  by whether it is accompanied by positive mental factors or negative mental factors. Thus cetanas accompanied by positive mental factors are positive, cetanas acconpanied by negative mental factors are negative. It's not hard to understand.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 2:42 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The nature of actions is determined by the motivation that drives them. Actions motivated by hatred, greed or ignorance are essential negative and have negative results, measured by the relative amount of suffering the result of each entails.

Sherab Dorje said:
In which case there is no such thing as an ESSENTIALLY positive or negative action since the outcome of any action is conditioned by motivation (and other factors).  So, if you are agreeing with me, why do you find the position novel?

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha, Nāgārjuna and Vasubandu all say, "Action (karma) is volition (cetana) and what proceeds from volition."

Since derived actions of body and speech arise on the basis of positive or negative intentions which are themselves karma by definition, it is novel to claim that actions cannot be essentially positive or negative. For example, taking the five precepts is an essentially positive action whose ripening is essentially positive. Breaking the five precepts is an essentially negative action whose ripening is essentially negative.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 2:16 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Essentially there is no such thing as negative and positive karma...

Malcolm wrote:
Really? That is a novel position.

Sherab Dorje said:
Really?  So you believe there are actions that are ESSENTIALLY (the word I used in the above quote) positive or negative?  Seems like a novel position to me.


Malcolm wrote:
The nature of actions is determined by the motivation that drives them. Actions motivated by hatred, greed or ignorance are essential negative and have negative results, measured by the relative amount of suffering the result of each entails.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 2:13 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Not all appearances are the same. You cannot say that the object of a wrong awareness that cannot perform the function that it appears to possess is the same as an object to a valid mind that does. I cannot drink the water of a mirage but I can put my cup on a table. Mirage water does not exist, tables do. From the point of view of the things that we normally see, all appearances are deceptive but we must distinguish between functioning appearance and that which doesn't exist at all.

Malcolm wrote:
One day Candrakīrit was walking though the halls of Nalanda and distracted by a book he was reading, bumped his head on a pillar. A student noticed this and said "Ha, that pillar is not empty, is it!"

Candra, having regained his composure, said "Sure it is," and passed his hand right through it.

One time, a geshe went to see Milarepa. Thinking that he could defeat Mila in debate, he asked Mila whether space was conditioned or unconditioned. Mila replied, "Certainly space is conditioned."

The geshe, now thinking that Mila was a great fool, began to refute him with citations and reasonings, while Mila sat quietly until the geshe was finished. Mila then picked up a stick from the ground, and began beating out a rhythm on space, which made a tremendous sound.

If I were you, I would not place so much confidence in so called "functional appearances."

Tsongkhapafan said:
These are great stories, thank you. Chandrakirti also drew milk from a picture of a cow on a wall.

What does this prove? There is no inherent existence; someone with control of their mind can determine their appearances. However, for ordinary beings, there are still perceptions informed by ignorance and perceptions informed by wisdom and there is therefore a clear difference: there are wrong and correct perceptions.

Malcolm wrote:
The point of these stories is conventional perception is not reliable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 2:00 AM
Title: Re: Buddhism, Social Equity, and odd interpretations of karma
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Essentially there is no such thing as negative and positive karma...

Malcolm wrote:
Really? That is a novel position.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, December 2nd, 2016 at 1:48 AM
Title: Re: Resources on Dharma Protectors
Content:
tingdzin said:
You know, Nebesky_Wojkowitz is supposed to have died prematurely after he write "Oracles and Demons". Maybe there's a reason people don't write a lot on this stuff.

Karinos said:
so did Losang Tsering (David Gonsalez) ...

but then seeing this as a punishment from Dharma protectors is silly unless you are engaged in some sort of demon cult (which I cannot name here)

I personally see these cases as examples of accumulating merit enough to liberate themselves from human existence and possibly cycling existence.


Malcolm wrote:
Or unless you break samayas feeling no shame.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 11:38 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Hallucinations are completely deceptive because their objects do not exist at all. Objects in dreams do not actually exist because they are mere appearances but they function. The water of a mirage, however, cannot function. There is this subtle distinction.

The objects of hallucinations are not mere appearances because they are non-existents.

Malcolm wrote:
They exist as appearances, no different from any other appearance. You are heading into the rough when you start distinguishing appearances on the basis of correspondence to external objects which exist.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Not all appearances are the same. You cannot say that the object of a wrong awareness that cannot perform the function that it appears to possess is the same as an object to a valid mind that does. I cannot drink the water of a mirage but I can put my cup on a table. Mirage water does not exist, tables do. From the point of view of the things that we normally see, all appearances are deceptive but we must distinguish between functioning appearance and that which doesn't exist at all.

Malcolm wrote:
One day Candrakīrit was walking though the halls of Nalanda and distracted by a book he was reading, bumped his head on a pillar. A student noticed this and said "Ha, that pillar is not empty, is it!"

Candra, having regained his composure, said "Sure it is," and passed his hand right through it.

One time, a geshe went to see Milarepa. Thinking that he could defeat Mila in debate, he asked Mila whether space was conditioned or unconditioned. Mila replied, "Certainly space is conditioned."

The geshe, now thinking that Mila was a great fool, began to refute him with citations and reasonings, while Mila sat quietly until the geshe was finished. Mila then picked up a stick from the ground, and began beating out a rhythm on space, which made a tremendous sound.

If I were you, I would not place so much confidence in so called "functional appearances."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 11:29 PM
Title: Re: Calexit?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
We have Tesla. We can have a death ray.

Coëmgenu said:
I am highly unexposed to American culture. What do you mean by this? Tesla's death ray was never designed. It never existed. It is impossible to exist by the metrics that Tesla set forth for its building. Or did you mean "death ray" metaphorically?

Malcolm wrote:
I am pretty sure CW is referring to the company, not Nikolai Tesla...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 10:34 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Tenpa Rinpoche wrote a blog post about how he thought he could engage with anger constructively, and turn it around to his enlightened will.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't think BIll Cassidy is really someone you want to cite as an example of enlightened will.

Interesting blog? Sometimes. Awakened tulku? That depends on whether are you a rube or not. You are obviously a rube.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 10:32 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Whether you do nothing or everything, ultimately it doesn't make the slightest difference, and when you recognise that - you have found contentment.

Malcolm wrote:
Thus nihilism...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 10:07 PM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you are not using a proper mala, in secret, it does not matter how mantras you count. They don't count. Only mantras counted in formal sessions count.  But hey, we know that people are very fond of criticizing others for following traditions that have no basis in the teachings, while embracing novel traditions they make up on the spot.

aparajita said:
That's because some of the distinctions seem distinctly scholastic and/or like they were made up by people who need perfectly precise answers to questions when "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the circumstances." is the only reasonable answer that can be supplied. All of those things are entirely secondary and making them the standard of whether a recitation counts or not almost literally puts the cart before the horse by making the supporting factors more important than the thing they're supposed to support.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they are not entirely secondary. If they were, imperatives such as not displaying images and paintings, and samaya articles such as the vajra, bell, māla and so on, would not have been proclaimed by masters in the past. We may live in the time of the five degenerations, but that does not mean we have to be degenerates with respect to how to properly observe samayas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:14 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
As mere appearance to mind, like in a dream. Dream things appear and function, which is different to things that do not exist at all and do not function, such as the water of a mirage.

Malcolm wrote:
Hallucinations are also mere appearances to a mind, like a dream; during a hallucination, things seem to function.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Hallucinations are completely deceptive because their objects do not exist at all. Objects in dreams do not actually exist because they are mere appearances but they function. The water of a mirage, however, cannot function. There is this subtle distinction.

The objects of hallucinations are not mere appearances because they are non-existents.

Malcolm wrote:
They exist as appearances, no different from any other appearance. You are heading into the rough when you start distinguishing appearances on the basis of correspondence to external objects which exist.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:37 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
dreambow said:
If you deeply believe in tra la la it'll take you there. My point being that somewhere along the way when the time is
right/ripe you may drop it. Its spontaneous not something thought through.

Malcolm wrote:
This might have currency in some new age circles, but it has nothing to do with how mantra is understood in Vajrayāna.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:25 AM
Title: Re: taking samaya pills
Content:
Jangchup Donden said:
So I'm curious as to the best method for taking samaya pills.  Should you let it dissolve your mouth, chew, or swallow immediately? Or does it not matter?

Malcolm wrote:
samaya pills? You mean pills for purifying samaya? If so, you just scrape of a little.

Jangchup Donden said:
Probably using the wrong terminology.  Maybe medicine pills? The little things given away at the end of some blessing ceremonies/empowerments.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean bdud rtsi sman sgrub. It depends on lineage. Some are for use in the inner offering, others are liberation through taste. You need to ask.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:24 AM
Title: Re: taking samaya pills
Content:
Karma Jinpa said:
Garchen Rinpoche says to swallow blessing pills whole, while visualizing the seed-syllable of the deity inside them.

The pouches Rinpoche gives at his empowerments are supposed to last one year if you swallow one pill each day.  They can be taken with water and one's other medicines, according to him.

Malcolm wrote:
Those are myong grol, liberation through taste.

There are all kinds of pills. You need to find out which one this person is actually asking about.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:23 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
That consciousness is nonconceptual is not even slightly debatable. Conceptuality, and hence, experience, is the function of the caittas. Cittas are nonconceptual.

Astus said:
The physical senses and their objects are neither mind nor mental phenomena. In other words, 10 of the 18 realms are not even mental, and the 5 sensory consciousnesses are not mental phenomena, consequently the 15 dhatus related to the form aggregate cannot be conceptual. If you say that the five matter related functions of mind do not occur on their own, then you assume there are two instances of consciousness at the same time.

Malcolm wrote:
So you have become a substance dualist? Amazing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:19 AM
Title: Re: Calexit?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
California supported Reagan and Nixon. CA as a blue state is a new deal. It has a deeply conservative SoCal and farmland contingent. It wouldn't necessarily change anything. But as far as CA has no say in who becomes president despite our gigantic size, tells me, the USA doesn't need or want us. So frak the USA. We can arm as quickly as Japan. We have all the best engineers and all the resources we need. We have Tesla. We can have a death ray. We have smarter people. California could be a superpower.

Malcolm wrote:
Like everywhere else in the US, most of the smarter people are immigrants.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:15 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
These idiots have no idea what they're doing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:12 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Neither can be established as existing from their own side, but they do exist.

Malcolm wrote:
In what way?

Tsongkhapafan said:
As mere appearance to mind, like in a dream. Dream things appear and function, which is different to things that do not exist at all and do not function, such as the water of a mirage.

Malcolm wrote:
Hallucinations are also mere appearances to a mind, like a dream; during a hallucination, things seem to function.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 9:10 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
dreambow said:
Mantra is beneficial and a tool used to subdue the chattering mind.

Malcolm wrote:
If that is all you think it is, you might as well plug your ears and recite lalalalalalalalalalalalalala...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 6:01 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tsongkhapafan said:
If you cannot establish conditioned phenomena or unconditioned phenomena...

Malcolm wrote:
Nāgarjuna proves neither can be established:
Since arising, abiding and perishing cannot be established, the conditioned cannot be established. 
Since the condition can never be established, how can the unconditioned ever be established?

Tsongkhapafan said:
Neither can be established as existing from their own side, but they do exist.

Malcolm wrote:
In what way?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 5:48 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
In order for something to be experienced, it has to be noticed by the mind.

Astus said:
Then you're saying that the sensory consciousnesses do not exist, so there is only one sensory area, in which case it makes no sense to list six. But then, you should not have written that the sensory consciousnesses are non-conceptual. Furthermore, then what is the difference between visual perception and thoughts? Even Yogacara accepts the five sensory phenomena as distinct from thoughts.

Malcolm wrote:
In reality there aren't six. There is only one. The different names for sense consciousness do not describe six different consciousness, they describe one functioning through six different sense organs, for example, like a monkey in a house with six or eight windows.

That consciousness is nonconceptual is not even slightly debatable. Conceptuality, and hence, experience, is the function of the caittas. Cittas are nonconceptual.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 5:44 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
You don't need to read Tibetan or meet a nomad personally to know about their culture.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, actually you do. Otherwise, you are just an armchair bore waffling on about things of which you have no experience.

maybay said:
Appeal to consequence fallacy.

Malcolm wrote:
It's like wine. Unless you have tasted, you cannot speak about it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 5:37 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
boda said:
You are apparently arguing that disadvantaged people in society should accept their situation.

maybay said:
A lot of disadvantaged people have, for the most part, accepted their situation.

Malcolm wrote:
So let's just leave them that way. It is so much f@%king easier than assuring they have good educations, healthcare, job protection, equitable housing, and a clean environment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 4:43 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
The Buddha used metaphors in his teachings according to who he was speaking to, not according to the class he was born into.

Malcolm wrote:
And you are confident of this for what reason that is hidden to ordinary mortals?

maybay said:
Because I read the sutras. Its common knowledge to anyone who does the same.

Through his deep meditative attainments and his enlightened wisdom, the Buddha had the special ability to discover the precise way to teach the people who came to him for guidance. He could read deep into the hidden recesses of a person's heart, perceive that person's aptitudes and interests, and frame his teaching in the exact way needed to transform that person and lead him or her on to the path of freedom. Bhikkhu Bodhi

Malcolm wrote:
This does not preclude the Buddha from speaking about things according to the class to which he was born.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 4:41 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Disingenuous correlation. You just want to shout down the idea by painting me as an anachronistic snob. Well its not my idea.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am just pointing out that you are talking out of your ass since you don't read Tibetan and have never met an actual Tibetan nomad.

maybay said:
You don't need to read Tibetan or meet a nomad personally to know about their culture.

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, actually you do. Otherwise, you are just an armchair bore waffling on about things of which you have no experience.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 4:36 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tirisilex said:
Svātantrika and Prasaṅgika

Malcolm wrote:
Are a Tibetan category, applied with considerable inaccuracy to Indian Madhyamaka.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 4:36 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tsongkhapafan said:
If you cannot establish conditioned phenomena or unconditioned phenomena...

Malcolm wrote:
Nāgarjuna proves neither can be established:
Since arising, abiding and perishing cannot be established, the conditioned cannot be established. 
Since the condition can never be established, how can the unconditioned ever be established?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 4:33 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
I'll tell ya what whiteness is. The ability to set up the entire population in a huge scam. Mnuchin tapped for Treasury. REITs fall. Why? He is central to the housing crash of 2008. Trump is setting up for the biggest pump and dump scam EVER! The biggest insider trade EVER! Those who will end up with the losses are betting against the inevitable and hold to hope they will be in the winners' camp. Even when they know they are the losers, they will act like they are winners. And they will trash everyone else. That's whiteness in America.

Gyurme Kundrol said:
Yeah its coming. Its over due really. People have no clue about how the economy works. I dont really either, but my general idea is this: Print a bunch of fake monopoly money, use it for awhile. Then orchestrate a crisis so all the fake money disappears and nobody notices its monopoly money. Then rinse and repeat...

Malcolm wrote:
Are you suggesting that money should be based on something like gold? The gold standard is a http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/why-the-gold-standard-is-the-worlds-worst-economic-idea-in-2-charts/261552/:

Why would anyone want to go back to the bad old days? The gold standard limited central banks from printing money when economies needed central banks to print money, and limited governments from running deficits when economies needed governments to run deficits. It was a devilish device for turning recessions into depressions. The answer is that some people aren't worried about depressions. Some people are worried about inflation. Even when none exists. To them, these fetters are the feature, not a bug.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 3:08 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Minobu said:
...it must be hard dealing with the inarticulate and other rabble like me who inflict this sort of punishment upon your person..

Malcolm wrote:
I don't type particularly fast, and rather poorly at that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 3:07 AM
Title: Re: taking samaya pills
Content:
Jangchup Donden said:
So I'm curious as to the best method for taking samaya pills.  Should you let it dissolve your mouth, chew, or swallow immediately? Or does it not matter?

Malcolm wrote:
samaya pills? You mean pills for purifying samaya? If so, you just scrape of a little.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 2:06 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:


treehuggingoctopus said:
Also, I wonder what is the point of suggesting that what Sherab Dorje's teachers have told him about these things is wrong?

Malcolm wrote:
This discussion is not about what Greg does, nor whatever he has been told by his teachers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 1:56 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:


Minobu said:
Yeah well without a higher state , the secular could be just another muggle waving a placard.

Malcolm wrote:
Not that interested in higher states. Definitely interested in preserving as much life on the planet as possible.

Minobu said:
higher states of mind and body ,for me , is the goal of practicing any form of Buddhism.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't think there are higher and lower states. I think there are afflictive and nonafflictive states. Whether one is afflicted or not, helping other sentient beings is more important than one's own goals.

Minobu said:
you might disagree and i would welcome that, for your one liners in answer to me just sort of fall in the category of "Classic Nirvana Fallacy" , and it creates a sort of slumming for my use of the word Nirvana.

Malcolm wrote:
My time constraints require brevity.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 11:04 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
@ Kim a great blog post by one of my favorite authors. Nevertheless militancy is part of the language of resistance. Without it don't we become doormats? And I don't want to be a doormat. Ghandhi and Martin Luther King were "warriors" of "ahimsa". Paradoxical but true. If the word is in our language I say we use it for the sake of dharma, like Trungpa.

Malcolm wrote:
The language of Buddhadharma is kitted out in all kinds of martial metaphors. The Buddha, in this dispensation, was after all a member of the warrior class.

maybay said:
The Buddha used metaphors in his teachings according to who he was speaking to, not according to the class he was born into.

Malcolm wrote:
And you are confident of this for what reason that is hidden to ordinary mortals?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 11:03 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
The warrior features prominently in Tibetan nomadic culture where it is not defined by the appearance of violence, but by the quality of bravery.

Malcolm wrote:
You have apparently never met any Tibetan nomads. Thus you suffer from the noble savage bias.

maybay said:
Disingenuous correlation. You just want to shout down the idea by painting me as an anachronistic snob. Well its not my idea.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am just pointing out that you are talking out of your ass since you don't read Tibetan and have never met an actual Tibetan nomad.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Jeff H said:
...some of us are on a lower path which we need to cultivate fully before we are ready for more advanced direction.

Malcolm wrote:
Anyone who properly enters Vajrayāna should have confidence that they will, at worst, attain buddhahood within sixteen lives.

The final chapter of all Lamrim texts exhort the practitioner to enter Vajrayāna teachings if they wish to wake up in one, three, seven or at most, sixteen lifetimes.

This life is short. Not entering Vajrayāna teachings if one has the chance is a waste of this precious human birth with its eighteen freedoms and endowments. It is unlikely this chance will come around again soon. Lack of confidence in one's own capacity is a māra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:18 PM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
No, actually we don't experience the content of the five sense consciousness without conceptual layer. Experience is always conceptual.

Astus said:
What do you call then all the sensory phenomena that occur even while one is focused on a single object, or while one is thinking about something? Are they not experiences? Or do you think that one thinks about them at the same time?

Malcolm wrote:
In order for something to be experienced, it has to be noticed by the mind.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:06 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
@ Kim a great blog post by one of my favorite authors. Nevertheless militancy is part of the language of resistance. Without it don't we become doormats? And I don't want to be a doormat. Ghandhi and Martin Luther King were "warriors" of "ahimsa". Paradoxical but true. If the word is in our language I say we use it for the sake of dharma, like Trungpa.

Malcolm wrote:
The language of Buddhadharma is kitted out in all kinds of martial metaphors. The Buddha, in this dispensation, was after all a member of the warrior class.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:04 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
The warrior features prominently in Tibetan nomadic culture where it is not defined by the appearance of violence, but by the quality of bravery.

Malcolm wrote:
You have apparently never met any Tibetan nomads. Thus you suffer from the noble savage bias.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:50 PM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
drodul said:
What do we mean exactly when we say mantras "don't count?"  Is it that we can't report back to our lamas that we have accumulated some number of mantras we are supposed to say?  Or is it that the signs of accomplishment of the mantra won't arise unless we count them on the cushion and with a proper mala?  Will healing mantras not have any healing effect, or magnetizing mantras not magnetize, if they are not recited in a formally correct session?  Just wondering, since there's a lot of arguing, but I'm not sure what the criteria are for knowing if a mantra has counted or not.

(And how come, when I try to emphasize a word by using what looks like the italics button above, the program wants to create a quote instead?)

Malcolm wrote:
Mantras recited in a state of distraction are as useful as trying to make a needle by rubbing an iron bar with wool. In order to be free from distraction, one must be alone. In order to maintain the siddhis, they must be done in secret. It is really that simple.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 11:49 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
dreambow said:
"Sure, and recall that Fa Dao has been chief among those of us here hysterically decrying Muslims for being, well, Muslim" I may not agree with everything Fa Dao has to say but I don't find him hysterical anymore then I find you hysterical. Let people have their say!

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, you agree with him.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:25 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
boda said:
...it could be seen that you're simply trying to rationalize a desire to maintain your position in the status quo.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed, all supremacist ideology is predicated on reserving privilege, aka, the status quo.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:23 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
And in fact there is no experience beyond mind, given that the other five sense consciousness are totally nonconceptual, and thus not experiences per se.

Astus said:
One still experiences sights, sounds, etc. even without a conceptual layer, so I rather differentiate the two.

Malcolm wrote:
No, actually we don't experience the content of the five sense consciousness without conceptual layer. Experience is always conceptual.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 10:21 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
One would think even beginners in Buddhadharma could understand that it is wrong to condemn the religion of an entire group of people.

Fortyeightvows said:
condemning a religion is not the same as condemning people. Another example is  people whose religions practices involve hurting animals,  we can condemn those practices and beliefs without being mean to the people.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure it is. When you condemn a religion you automatically condemn the people who have a faith commitment to that religion.

There are many religions which validate animal sacrifice, Islam among them. There are other religions, such as Christianity, which proclaim that the entire domain of nonhuman nature has been divinely mandated to be under the suzerainty of humans, men in particular. I don't happen to subscribe to those particular beliefs, but I see no reason to condemn the whole of a religion merely because I disagree with some of its parts. All religions recommend  to their adherents love and compassion as the way of life they should follow.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama states:
“All the world’s religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness, can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether.”
This is, in large part, a statement which reinforces my commitment to the promulgation of humanist ethics as the bedrock upon which people of different faith commitments can find common ground.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 6:40 AM
Title: Re: Enlightened individuals as impossible to pin down linguistically
Content:
Dgj said:
Could you elaborate on this idea from a Buddhist perspective? There is only body and mind? As in just the immediate body and mind one is experiencing, singular? Or that there are only bodies and minds in general, ie no things or other realities, just many minds and bodies interacting and trees, rocks, houses, etc. are not real?

Astus said:
All experiences fall within the six sensory areas: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thoughts. The first five are the physical and the sixth is the mental. There is no experience beyond these six.


Malcolm wrote:
And in fact there is no experience beyond mind, given that the other five sense consciousness are totally nonconceptual, and thus not experiences per se.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:46 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Erroneous thinking is the same wherever it comes from.

Malcolm wrote:
You can't do much about the erroneous thinking of others.

maybay said:
You can learn from it.

Malcolm wrote:
First you have to make sure your own thinking is not erroneous. Otherwise, you are blind person begin led by other blind people.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:41 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
In this forum i care about protecting from the hazards of erroneous thinking.

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe you should examine the hazards of your own erroneous thinking.

maybay said:
Erroneous thinking is the same wherever it comes from.

Malcolm wrote:
You can't do much about the erroneous thinking of others.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:29 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
In this forum i care about protecting from the hazards of erroneous thinking.

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe you should examine the hazards of your own erroneous thinking.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:25 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tsongkhapafan said:
We are in the last five hundred years of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't be silly. We have been in the "last five hundred years" of the Buddha's teaching for over a thousand years. Sakya Pandita thought he was living in the last five hundred years, and so on. It is a trope, it needn't be taken literally.

Tsongkhapafan said:
I think it can. Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings were supposed to last five thousand years but due to the negative actions of people living in this world, that period has reduced and we are now down to the last five hundred years. We can see that interest and capacity for Dharma study and practice is decreasing. I have seen it change even in the past twenty years.

Malcolm wrote:
The length of the Buddha's teachings where actually supposed to cut off by the fact that the Buddha ordained women. In fact, there are different time spans for different yānas. But as is common, people mix up predictions for one with the other and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:17 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tsongkhapafan said:
We are in the last five hundred years of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't be silly. We have been in the "last five hundred years" of the Buddha's teaching for over a thousand years. Sakya Pandita thought he was living in the last five hundred years, and so on. It is a trope, it needn't be taken literally.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:10 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
As for this, this is a ridiculous sectarian fantasy.

Tsongkhapafan said:
No, it's just a fact. Dharma degenerates over time as living beings capacities and wisdom degenerates.

Malcolm wrote:
I was responding to this:
this is one reason why Chandrakirti produced 'Guide to the Middle Way', the clarify the correct meaning of Nagarjuna's 'Fundamental Wisdom'.
Candrakīrti's book is nice, but there are lots of nice books on Madhyamaka out there.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 5:04 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
But why would I advocate contentment if I didn't recognize social upheaval and accuse you of inciting it? You too misrepresent my argument.

Malcolm wrote:
The point is that you clearly do not understand the causes of social upheaval, and so you misdiagnose the illness and suggest remedies which only make it worse, just like an incompetent physician who prescribes camphor for a cold disease.

maybay said:
For one thing, I know that social upheaval is almost never a simple matter. I'm not handing out panaceas. But you won't even admit contentment into the pharmacopoeia.

Malcolm wrote:
The point is that at every turn when presented the opportunity to encourage people of color's education, social and economic advancement, you reply with idle simpers about how much better everything would be if colonially disadvantaged people would simply be happy and content with their lot. Your sentiments remind me of foul statements like http://www.dailystormer.com/blacks-loved-slavery-and-regretted-its-end-2/:
Clearly, as slaves, they had things that they never would have had otherwise. For one, they had a stable family structure. They were treated like children – but children that were loved, a part of the family – and the masters made sure that they married and stayed together. They were also given order, and knowledge of the joys of a hard days work. The comfort that they had living in houses built by Whites was something they never would have had if they hadn’t been slaves.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 4:53 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you listen to some people, no one before Tsongkhapa understood Madhyamaka before him(including Candrakīrti), so it makes you wonder how all those realized people became realized before he emanated to straighten everyone out.

Tsongkhapafan said:
That's incorrect.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Of course it is.There were myriad people who realized emptiness in India and Tibet before the time of Tsongkhapa, even before the time Atisha arrived in Tibet, and in Tibet even after Lang Dharma imposed a tax on monasteries which resulted in his assassination ( He did not destroy the Dharma in Tibet, he just decided the Tibetan economy could not afford the free ride monasteries had enjoyed up to 840 CE). To reject this is to slander many thousands of realized people in Tibet.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Also, over time, the meaning of Dharma is lost and this is one reason why Chandrakirti produced 'Guide to the Middle Way', the clarify the correct meaning of Nagarjuna's 'Fundamental Wisdom'.

Malcolm wrote:
As for this, this is a ridiculous sectarian fantasy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 4:43 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
AlexanderS said:
I often use my mala when in public. I just try to conceal under a table, or in a way that does not capture attention while I recite mantra's silently. I never thought that I wasnt allowed to. Most religous traditions use rosary's. I don't see really what problem is besides most people in secular countries not being used to see anyone use one.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not a question of allowed, it is question of what you are aiming to accomplish.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 3:42 AM
Title: Re: Help with protection against malefic psycho-magical interferences
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Hope and fear are suffering. Toss out hope. Abandon fear. When neither hope nor fear exist, one will be free of suffering.
—— Guru Rinpoche


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 3:15 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
dzogchungpa said:
I was thinking about this issue and I remembered this: Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche will be guiding a multi-year program for people over fifty based on intensive practice of the Vajra Guru mantra. This program is suitable for people who have faith in Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava and would like to recite his mantras ten million times over a three year period. For most people this would amount to a commitment of two or more hours a day of practice, which could be done during formal practice, or when walking, driving, sitting on public transit or similar activity. For those who have not completed the foundational practices—the ngondro—this would be an alternative gateway to becoming a Dzogchen student of Rinpoche’s.
from here: https://lotuscircle.wordpress.com, underlining added.

Just sayin'.


Malcolm wrote:
Merit accumulation is just not the same thing as approach and accomplishment, just saying...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Jeff H said:
This is my point exactly. It's helpful for me. And yet it seems we cannot have this discussion based in Tsongkhapa's terms on DW.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure you can. But even when you have them in the Gelug forum, there are also people who have strange ideas about them who claim to be Gelugpas, so what to do?

You should, at some point, just reconcile yourself to the notion that Tsongkhapa's ideas are at minimum controversial (it is why he is so famous). When someone comes along as raises an objection you don't want to deal with, ignore it, unless they are being too disruptive.

Frankly, it is precisely because Tibetans have so muddied the water with their own controversies and disputes, I generally tell folks they should study the original Indian texts first, Tibetan polemics later (if there is any need). If you listen to some people, no one before Tsongkhapa understood Madhyamaka before him(including Candrakīrti), so it makes you wonder how all those realized people became realized before he emanated to straighten everyone out.

Jeff H said:
Aha! You are certainly right here. Especially about "strange ideas" from people "who claim to be Gelugpas", myself included. I confess to wishfully thinking that there could be an in-depth discussion of Tsongkhapa's concepts here on DW that is both authoritative and sympathetic. What I haven't been reconciled to is the improbability of that.

Malcolm wrote:
I am afraid that is not possible.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 2:33 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Jeff H said:
This is my point exactly. It's helpful for me. And yet it seems we cannot have this discussion based in Tsongkhapa's terms on DW.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure you can. But even when you have them in the Gelug forum, there are also people who have strange ideas about them who claim to be Gelugpas, so what to do?

You should, at some point, just reconcile yourself to the notion that Tsongkhapa's ideas are at minimum controversial (it is why he is so famous). When someone comes along as raises an objection you don't want to deal with, ignore it, unless they are being too disruptive.

Frankly, it is precisely because Tibetans have so muddied the water with their own controversies and disputes, I generally tell folks they should study the original Indian texts first, Tibetan polemics later (if there is any need). If you listen to some people, no one before Tsongkhapa understood Madhyamaka before him(including Candrakīrti), so it makes you wonder how all those realized people became realized before he emanated to straighten everyone out.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 1:32 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:



Lukeinaz said:
Malcom, I am interested in your second point here.  Can you give some examples?

Malcolm wrote:
I think I did so in my preceding post.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 1:26 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Jeff H said:
I do not consider the Gelug four tenet system teaching to be a matter of Buddhist intellectual history. Rather I think it is a useful structure to facilitate progressively refined ways of thinking about selflessness and emptiness, with Tsongkhapa’s distinction between intrinsic existence and inherent existence being the subtlest conceptual distinction.

Malcolm wrote:
1) This thread is not in the Gelug Forum. It is in the General Dharma forum.

2) What bothers me about this conversation is that no discussion of Tsongkhapa's views can take apparently take place without slandering one of the great Mādhyamaka authors by name and without grossly distorting his views.

3) The fact that you are not properly distinguishing svalakṣana, which here is incorrectly translated as "intrinsic existence," from svabhāva, here translated as "inherent existence," is just one of the myriad problems this conversation faces.

4) The four tenet system is indeed part of Buddhist intellectual history. It is not just a war game where one can try out intellectual strategies and tactics. The purpose of learning about the four tenet systems and so on is not to increase false concepts (which is what happens when one does not get things right), but rather to reduce one's false concepts altogether (thus necessitating getting things right). This cannot happen when one is cultivating false concepts about that object or that person being refuted.

Jeff H said:
I'm not renouncing my teacher or this tradition because I believe it is -- at the very least -- a useful, provisional means which fits my karmic propensities at this time. Your input is, of course, valuable, but not relevant to my present situation. I will be grateful in the future. Meanwhile, I respectfully cede the discussion to you.

Malcolm wrote:
This is the basic problem in Buddhist intellectual history: to whit, when Nāgārjuna was writing, there was general hostility in Buddhist circles to what we now call "logic," (Pramāṇa), as it evidenced in Nāgārjuna's Vigrahavyāvartanī, as well as some controversy over the notion of what exactly an intrinsic characteristic (svalakṣana) is. For pre-Pramāṇa Buddhism, the idea of svalakṣana was identical to the idea of svabhāva, to give you an example, heat is both the svabhāva as well as the svalakṣana of fire. Many Śrāvaka Buddhists regarded svalakṣanas as ultimate truths.

Enter the Prāmāṇikas such as Dignaga and Dharmakīrti. They used the term "svalakṣana" in a way distinct from the usage that was attacked by Nāgārjuna. They used the term merely to describe the identifying characteristics of a given object such as the blueness of a blue vase, without imposing upon this svalakṣana the idea it was somehow an ultimate truth or entity. Instead, for the Prāmāṇikas, a svalakṣana is merely the simplest percept we can perceive, one that we perceive without concepts.

Bhavaviveka was a post-Pramāṇa author, and by his time, the conventions of Pramāṇa has become so widespread in scholarly Buddhist discourse, that he took Buddhapalita to task in one spot in his MMK commentary for ignoring those conventions (this is Bhavaviveka's real fault). In reply to this, Candrakīrti, also conversant in the conventions of Pramāṇa, decided that Bhavaviveka was being quite unfair, and defended Buddhapalita's original formulation. But this dispute between the two of them should not cause us to ignore Bhavaviveka's enduring and important contributions to the Madhyamaka tradition, and sadly, today it is the case that his contribution has been marginalized precisely because of an overall Tibetan lack of attention to the intellectual history of Indian Buddhism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:


Jeff H said:
I do not consider the Gelug four tenet system teaching to be a matter of Buddhist intellectual history. Rather I think it is a useful structure to facilitate progressively refined ways of thinking about selflessness and emptiness, with Tsongkhapa’s distinction between intrinsic existence and inherent existence being the subtlest conceptual distinction.

Malcolm wrote:
1) This thread is not in the Gelug Forum. It is in the General Dharma forum.

2) What bothers me about this conversation is that no discussion of Tsongkhapa's views can take apparently take place without slandering one of the great Mādhyamaka authors by name and without grossly distorting his views.

3) The fact that you are not properly distinguishing svalakṣana, which here is incorrectly translated as "intrinsic existence," from svabhāva, here translated as "inherent existence," is just one of the myriad problems this conversation faces.

4) The four tenet system is indeed part of Buddhist intellectual history. It is not just a war game where one can try out intellectual strategies and tactics. The purpose of learning about the four tenet systems and so on is not to increase false concepts (which is what happens when one does not get things right), but rather to reduce one's false concepts altogether (thus necessitating getting things right). This cannot happen when one is cultivating false concepts about that object or that person being refuted.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:45 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:31 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:


Minobu said:
Yeah well without a higher state , the secular could be just another muggle waving a placard.

Malcolm wrote:
Not that interested in higher states. Definitely interested in preserving as much life on the planet as possible.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:30 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
but cannot be found upon ultimate analysis. On Tsong-kha-pa’s reading, Svatantrikas (like Bhavaviveka) are those Madhyamikas who accept that, at a conventional level, things actually do have intrinsic nature just as they are perceived.
No, this is not correct.

Bristollad said:
What is not correct? Are you saying that Tsong-kha-pa didn't teach that or that you think that what Tsong-kha-pa taught isn't correct?

Malcolm wrote:
The latter.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:


Minobu said:
the moment you learn to make stuff someone wants to profit in some way...hence the opinion that industrialized capitolism is inevatable...

Malcolm wrote:
Industrial capitalism is destroying nature. That means it is also destroying us.

Minobu said:
Your preaching to the choir here.
I agree 100%.
that being said , when dealing with the muggles this is what one gets, hence the advent of Buddhism.

Our only real chance for any reversal is to increase the education of the populace into what exactly they are.
Have them produce a higher state in them selves and then the enviroment will change.
I am speaking of the entire enviroment, in other words a sort of Shambahalla world in which to live.

I would love to have met you in person Malcolm, and actually share our ideas instead of argue semantics on the internet.

Malcolm wrote:
I would settle for a secular world based on ecological rationality.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 at 12:05 AM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
[snark ignored]

To the point:
All Madhyamikas agree that intrinsic nature appears to our senses
No, not all Madhyamakas agree with this proposition. If they did there would be no dispute at all.

Jeff H said:
but cannot be found upon ultimate analysis. On Tsong-kha-pa’s reading, Svatantrikas (like Bhavaviveka) are those Madhyamikas who accept that, at a conventional level, things actually do have intrinsic nature just as they are perceived.

Malcolm wrote:
No, this is not correct.

Jeff H said:
It is important to recognize that one does not find direct, unambiguous statements about this difference between Prasangika and Svatantrika in the Indian Madhyamaka texts.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, there is no such thing as "Prasangika and Svatantrika" in Indian Madhyamaka. These categories were invented by Batshab Nyima Drag.

Jeff H said:
Moreover, the earlier Tibetan scholars who first classified Madhyamikas as Prasangikas and Svatantrikas did not notice any philosophical difference in their views of ultimate reality. This was something Tsong-kha-pa discovered, inferring it from his close reading of the Indian texts.

Malcolm wrote:
And as we know, this reading is hotly contested.

Jeff H said:
Tsong-kha-pa argues that Bhavaviveka’s insistence on autonomous syllogisms is not just a difference in method but also evidences an underlying difference — a shortcoming — in his view of emptiness. The discussion of these points in the Great Treatise is famous as the most difficult portion of the text. Here, I simply offer a summary explanation of Tsong-kha-pa’s conclusions.

In order to understand emptiness, you do not necessarily have to understand or agree with Tsong-kha-pa’s argument about how Bhavaviveka betrays his belief in intrinsic nature. Nor do you have to be absolutely sure that Bhavaviveka really held the position Tsong-kha-pa claims to have discovered implicit in his arguments. Our purpose is to understand emptiness; it is not to debate the details of Buddhist intellectual history. For us, this controversy over how to reason about reality is an opportunity to become more familiar with Tsong-kha-pa’s view of emptiness itself.

Malcolm wrote:
In fact, if you create a Madhyamaka strawman to knock down (or Yogacara strawmen for that matter), you will never come close to understanding the real differences between various Mādhyamaka authors, just as if you insist on abiding by strawmen Buddhists built for refuting in Hindu tenets, you will never come close to understanding what is actually a valid object of rebuttal within Hindu tenet systems. We resist stereotypes and inaccurate characterizations of social and racial groups, why should we be lazy in applying rigor to our investigation of our own and others' tenet systems?

Newland is making an appeal to be callous and indifferent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 11:30 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Your advocacy of relentless social upheaval and strife is demagogic and irresponsible, and in the final analysis the extra layer of entirely unnecessary psychological pain is nothing short of cruel.
Your inability to recognize that there will continue to be social upheavals as long as there are social and environmental disparities based on race, class and gender is a sign that you have not absorbed the lessons to be learned from the outcomes of European colonialism.

maybay said:
But why would I advocate contentment if I didn't recognize social upheaval and accuse you of inciting it? You too misrepresent my argument.

Malcolm wrote:
The point is that you clearly do not understand the causes of social upheaval, and so you misdiagnose the illness and suggest remedies which only make it worse, just like an incompetent physician who prescribes camphor for a cold disease.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 11:05 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Lukeinaz said:
Chill out Jeff. I asked the question well aware of the answer specifically to spark the response of buddhafollower.  I think these are important discussions.

Jeff H said:
Chilling...

In my febrile mind (with thanks and a hat-tip to Malcolm for my new vocabulary word ) and because of the Prasangika distinction, I think of intrinsic as referring to defining qualities that exist within an object and inherent existence as referring to a fully independent object.

The difference is this:
From a Svatantrika perspective, an observing mind discovers an object’s intrinsic qualities and then imputes the correct label on the basis of those pre-existing qualities.

From a Prasangika perspective, however, the very presence of any intrinsic quality would necessarily imply independent, concrete existence, and that is impossible. Therefore, Prasangikas say that the observing mind imputes an object’s apparently intrinsic qualities, thus falsely imbuing it with inherent existence.

The important point is that inherent existence is an object of negation for both Svatantrika and Prasangika. Tsongkhapa postulated the distinction between inherent and intrinsic existence and strongly emphasized the necessity of identifying the object of negation in distinction from “mere existence”, which he identifies as our actual experience of being.

Malcolm wrote:
But this is not the actual difference between Bhava and Buddhapalita, which hinges solely on a pedagogical distinction based on the former's criticism of the latter for not using a formal syllogism to refute the Saṃkhya position of arising from self in the latter's prolegomena in his commentary on the MMK.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 10:43 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
My advocacy of contentment is Buddhist.

Bristollad said:
No, your advocacy of contentment is a call to inaction.

maybay said:
You're putting words in my mouth and misrepresenting my argument.

Malcolm wrote:
Your words speak for themselves. No one needs to put words in your mouth, you are very good at thoughtlessly spewing them on your own.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 9:57 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
My advocacy of contentment is Buddhist.

Bristollad said:
No, your advocacy of contentment is a call to inaction.  Inaction in the face of others' suffering is not Buddhist.

Malcolm wrote:
Thank you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 9:53 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You live in a country where white people live in beautiful houses and most black people who work for them live in appalling slums  close by with no indoor plumbing, colored people having it only slightly better.  Your advocacy of "contentment" is both classist and racist. You seem to have learned nothing since the fall of apartheid.

maybay said:
My advocacy of contentment is Buddhist.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it isn't. It is cruel and unnecessary.

maybay said:
If liberals like you could appreciate that people can be content with less wealth and opportunity so long as their goodness and purpose is acknowledged, then it wouldn't be an issue. When people know their place they can get on despite all the sufferings.
Your advocacy of relentless social upheaval and strife is demagogic and irresponsible, and in the final analysis the extra layer of entirely unnecessary psychological pain is nothing short of cruel.

Malcolm wrote:
Your inability to recognize that there will continue to be social upheavals as long as there are social and environmental disparities based on race, class and gender is a sign that you have not absorbed the lessons to be learned from the outcomes of European colonialism. I have been to South Africa, prayed with (genuine) Sangomas, and seen for myself the cruelty that century after century of European economic domination has had on the indigenous peoples in your land. For you to advocate "contentment" in the face of the brutal conditions under which Africans still live in their own country, post-apartheid, is nothing less than a sick joke. On the other hand, there is a sign of hope, since I have also met white South Africans who understand the problems which face South Africa and certainly do not broadcast the callous classist and racial privilege you spew here. For you to preach contentment, where in your country raw sewage runs in the streets of many black communities right next door to tidy, neatly kept, white communities (maintained by those very same Africans) is nothing short of appalling. Shame on you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 9:35 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Bristollad said:
For svatantrika, inherent existence is untrue but intrinsic (established by way of their own character as the referent of a conceptual consciousness) is true.

Malcolm wrote:
Only in the febrile imagination of the followers of Lama Tsongkhapa.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 9:33 PM
Title: Re: Emptiness
Content:
Tirisilex said:
First off the book I'm reading "Emptiness: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Volume 5" uses the words Inherent Existence and Intrinsic Existence. I do not know what these 2 things mean.. What is Inherent existence? What is Intrinsic existence? I have looked them both up on online dictionariesd but i still dont know what they really mean. I know the Intrinsic means Belonging Naturally and the Inherent means existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute. But what you put these together with existence and speak that this is reality I'm at a loss. I know I shouldnt be but I am. The book says that Intrinsic and Inherent existence is empty. But I dont understand that.

I was looking at my lamp and then my computer and I said to myself that I value the computer Intrinsicly but I do not value the lamp intrisicly. Then I compared the 2.. But I found that I'm really just looking at value and not intrinsic. I saw how my value is an Illusory exeprience but How do I Intriniscly see it? Is it Inrinsicly real? I'm at a loss with this.

BuddhaFollower said:
You do realize these are Gelug-only positions right?

Lukeinaz said:
Inherent existence is a Gelug only position?

Malcolm wrote:
The idea that inherent existence is the sole object of negation is a key feature of Tsongkhapa's thinking. This is his interpretation of a key feature of Candrakīriti's thinking, i.e., that the negation of inherent existence was common to both Mahāyāna and Śrāvaka tenet systems. What Tsongkhapa neglected was that the uncommon Mahāyāna formulation of emptiness however is the systematic negation of the four extremes. This is not found in Śrāvaka tenet systems at all. As a consequence, the followers of Tsongkhapa deride the profound Mahāyāna emptiness of freedom extremes as promulgated in Tibet by Batshab Nyima Drag (the translator of Candrakīrti's major works into Tibetan).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 9:14 PM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:


Minobu said:
the moment you learn to make stuff someone wants to profit in some way...hence the opinion that industrialized capitolism is inevatable...

Malcolm wrote:
Industrial capitalism is destroying nature. That means it is also destroying us.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 8:33 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:


maybay said:
If i remember correctly, all I have advocated for is contentment. I'm not a bigot.


Malcolm wrote:
You live in a country where white people live in beautiful houses and most black people who work for them live in appalling slums  close by with no indoor plumbing, colored people having it only slightly better.  Your advocacy of "contentment" is both classist and racist. You seem to have learned nothing since the fall of apartheid.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 4:57 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Bristollad said:
As you can see by his opening paragraph, he starts from a position " that Buddhism and Jainism were not movements for social reform directed against the caste system ", and interprets and picks quotes to show he's right

maybay said:
What would you have done?


Malcolm wrote:
The point is that you constantly advocate for class and race disparities, and try to erroneously justify with crappy scholarship, like most bigots.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 4:21 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
maybay said:
Kei river

Malcolm wrote:
This explains a lot about you.

maybay said:
Nothing to see here folks. Keep it moving.

Malcolm wrote:
It explains your inability to see the white privilege you possess in a country where only 1 in 10 people are white.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 4:08 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Some human societies are still hunter-gatherers.  The "hogwash" was in reference to the fact that all societies MUST develop into industrial capitalist societies sooner or later.

Minobu said:
i've tried but i don't see where i wrote that either.

where did i write all societies must develop into this.

Malcolm wrote:
Here:

Minobu said:
I feel industrialization is just part of human development. As I said it is inevitable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 3:53 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
maybay said:
Kei river

Malcolm wrote:
This explains a lot about you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Buddha didn't judge the caste system.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course he did, he completely refuted it. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.093.than.html:

"Now, Assalayana, when those seven brahman seers couldn't defend their own birth-statement when interrogated, pressed, & rebuked by the seer Devala the Dark, how can you now defend your own birth-statement when interrogated, pressed, & rebuked by me — you, their lineage holder, but not (the equal of) Punna, their ladle holder?"

maybay said:
You can read Buddhism and the Caste System by Y. Krishan.

Malcolm wrote:
I'd rather read the Buddha.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 1:15 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Minobu said:
What ever one poster said ,them being Canadian, we generally are not a racist society and try very hard to thwart those that are.

Malcolm wrote:
Tell that to the First Nations and the French Canadians.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016 at 1:14 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:


Minobu said:
Industrialized capitolism

Malcolm wrote:
You need to read Regarding Nature: Industrialism and Deep Ecology by Andrew Mclaughlin.

It is an eminently Buddhist project to stem the rise of industrialism. As Mclaughlin writes, "Industrialism requires a strong commitment to managing society's relations with the rest of nature in order to satisfy desire."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Buddha didn't judge the caste system.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course he did, he completely refuted it. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.093.than.html:

"Now, Assalayana, when those seven brahman seers couldn't defend their own birth-statement when interrogated, pressed, & rebuked by the seer Devala the Dark, how can you now defend your own birth-statement when interrogated, pressed, & rebuked by me — you, their lineage holder, but not (the equal of) Punna, their ladle holder?"


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
the "self righteous moral indignation" button is SO easy to push in some people....although you would think it would be more difficult in an "advanced" practitioner, apparently it isnt....I will stop now and try to be good..apologies

Malcolm wrote:
One would think even beginners in Buddhadharma could understand that it is wrong to condemn the religion of an entire group of people.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 11:10 PM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
saraswati said:
I've just come back from Nepal, and I saw so, so many Nepalese and Tibetans repeating and counting their mantras in public and displaying their malas.


Malcolm wrote:
I have heard many Tibetan teachers decry this Tibetan custom as being incorrect.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 9:10 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:



Johnny Dangerous said:
Really? How is mainstream liberalism "extreme", by supporting corporate interests, supporting gay marriage, what? If anything mainstream liberalism is mainly tepid.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, apparently in Fa Dao's view, Blacks Lives Matter, Greenpeace, the Southern Law Poverty Center, the ACLU, Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and NASA all qualify as extremist, whereas Brietbart has become reasonable.


Johnny Dangerous said:
It's that whole "it's biased to call out racism" argument, or something of the sort.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, and recall that Fa Dao has been chief among those of us here hysterically decrying Muslims for being, well, Muslim.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 9:08 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
1984

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, by all means, we must allow tacit segregation, otherwise this might happen and the game would be up:
If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to him and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate.
— the Goldstein Manifesto, chapter III.

maybay said:
Rather, it is because you have not convinced me...

Malcolm wrote:
I am not interested in convincing you of anything. However, http://prospect.org/article/battle-royal-over-segregation-queen-city-0:
In addition to sobering statistics on school segregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, new research out of Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that Charlotte ranks dead last in the nation in terms of upward mobility, and that racial segregation and school quality are two main culprits behind this.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:59 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
maybay said:
Its true, it just needs qualification.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is not true, unless you only selectively choose to read things you have read in the books of groovy french intellectuals.

maybay said:
What have you got against groovy French intellectuals? Was there a woman involved?

Malcolm wrote:
Nothing, I like groovy french intellectuals— some of them, at any rate. The point is that your assertion viz privacy is just not true.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:46 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
You cannot police tacit segregation.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure you can.

maybay said:
1984

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, by all means, we must allow tacit segregation, otherwise this might happen and the game would be up:
If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to him and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate.
— the Goldstein Manifesto, chapter III.

The above of course is why laws favoring poor whites were instituted in the 18th century in order to turn them against their African compatriots which whom they had previously found common cause with and with whom they often revolted together to protest the conditions of oppression they both found themselves in:
Fearful that such measures might not be sufficient to protect their interests, the planter class took an additional precautionary step, a step that would later come to be known as a “racial bribe.” Deliberately and strategically, the planter class extended special privileges to poor whites in an effort to drive a wedge between them and black slaves. White settlers were allowed greater access to Native American lands, white servants were allowed to police slaves through slave patrols and militias, and barriers were created so that free labor would not be placed in competition with slave labor. These measures effectively eliminated the risk of future alliances between black slaves and poor whites. Poor whites suddenly had a direct, personal stake in the existence of a race-based system of slavery. Their own plight had not improved by much, but at least they were not slaves. Once the planter elite split the labor force, poor whites responded to the logic of their situation and sought ways to expand their racially privileged position.
And of course, the reason why your objections are utterly racist:
During this period, conservatives gave lip service to the goal of racial equality but actively resisted desegregation, busing, and civil rights enforcement. They repeatedly raised the issue of welfare, subtly framing it as a contest between hardworking, blue-collar whites and poor blacks who refused to work. The not-so-subtle message to working-class whites was that their tax dollars were going to support special programs for blacks who most certainly did not deserve them.
And:
The Southern white elite, whether planters or industrialists, had successfully endeavored to make all whites think in racial rather than class terms, predictably leading whites to experience desegregation, as Derrick Bell put it, as a net “loss.”
— Alexander, Michelle (2012-01-16). The New Jim Crow

And as James Baldwin put it:
And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:32 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
maybay said:
What did Foucault say about humanists, they want to change the ideologies while leaving the institutions intact.

Malcolm wrote:
Your assertion is simply false. Hiding behind french intellectuals is not going to make your fallacious assertion any more valid.

maybay said:
Its true, it just needs qualification.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is not true, unless you only selectively choose to read things you have read in the books of groovy french intellectuals.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:31 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
There is nothing positive about industrial capitalism.

Minobu said:
coming late, only found out what alt right meant a few days ago when it hit toronto.

as for capitalism, isn't it inevitable once we evolved from hunter gatherers?
also did not Buddha approve of business and making money?
I thought he looked at it as a cause from Karmic reward or something?

Communism doesn't seem to work on the planet, socialism is a must from where i sit.
It's the rich's duty in this system to care for those who just cannot care for themselves.
there is a limit to socialism ,in the sense it is not meant to be a free ride "Just Cause"

as for industrialization of the planet...done right it can be almost pollution free , as we are finding ways to improve , and it can be a huge benefit to well being of the citizenry . Left to the greedy at heart it did the planet no favours, but with enforcement it could be a lot less of an impact and eventually possibly with the right science zero harm.
It's here to stay so...make lemonade!
You , malcolm seem to enjoy the fruits of it, case in point the internet.

If you did not take part in any of it you might be able to be a harsh critic of it, but as it stands you take part in it.


Malcolm wrote:
Classic nirvana fallacy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:05 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
maybay said:
Let's be clear on the terms here. The public/private paradigm is only a couple hundred years old.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it isn't.

maybay said:
What did Foucault say about humanists, they want to change the ideologies while leaving the institutions intact.

Malcolm wrote:
Your assertion is simply false. Hiding behind french intellectuals is not going to make your fallacious assertion any more valid.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 5:01 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
You cannot police tacit segregation.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure you can.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:59 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
maybay said:
Its how it works for people who insist on making everything black and white. It makes for terrible discussion.

Malcolm wrote:
There is nothing positive about industrial capitalism.

maybay said:
Case in point.

Malcolm wrote:
There is nothing to discuss. Industrial Capitalism is destroying the planet.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:39 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
heart said:
Counting mantras in public don't count. I am surprised that you would think it does.

maybay said:
Let's be clear on the terms here. The public/private paradigm is only a couple hundred years old.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it isn't.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:32 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The export of jobs from the US is the fault of American consumers and no one else. We wanted lots of cheap shit because we are cheap, and prefer variety over quality.

PuerAzaelis said:
Or maybe that's how capitalism works.

maybay said:
Its how it works for people who insist on making everything black and white. It makes for terrible discussion.

Malcolm wrote:
There is nothing positive about industrial capitalism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:31 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Dharmaraj said:
Guys

What are some ways of counting mantra which will not attract unnecessary attention, besides rosary and tally counters ?

Any technique or method to count mantra anytime, anywhere easily without attracting unnecessary attention

With rosary and tally counters,  it attracts too much attention

There is one way of counting on fingers but its complicated and cant be used as easily and readily  as tally counters

heart said:
Counting mantras in public don't count. I am surprised that you would think it does.

/magnus


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:27 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
You can't compel people to live together anymore than to live apart.

Sherab Dorje said:
Freedom of association is not about compelling people to live together, it is about allowing them the opportunity to live together if they wish.

maybay said:
Unless they don't, in which case you want to break apart their schools.

Malcolm wrote:
In fact, bussing forces people to get motivated to improve the schools their children are attending. It also eliminates racist funding patterns. But of course racists like you will have no sympathy with that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 4:13 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
My concern is for people that DON'T have the suitable (according to the book) external conditions and yet wish to practice.

Malcolm wrote:
They need to create them if they want their practice to succeed. It is called "arranging dependent origination."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 3:24 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
So do you think it is compassionate to tell somebody: "No, f*ckin' way are you going to be able to properly accumulate mantra like that.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Definitely. Why? Because if they do not practice in a proper way, there will be no benefit whatsoever in their practice.

As for why one does not practice in the presence of those who do not have samaya or who have impure samya:

The Samayasarvaviti-anusarvasani-tantra vimalaraja-nama states:
Associating with a samaya breaker, or appeasing a samaya breaker,
explaining the Dharma to samaya breakers and unsuitable vessels, 
and not shunning samaya breakers will cause one to be affected
with the contamination of the broken samaya of those samaya breakers.
I confess and reveal with shame and repentance
the negative conditions of this life and the obscurations of the next.

Patrul Rinpoche states:
In particular, the Dharmas of Secret Mantra Vajrayāna say “Reciting the visualizations of the creations is a doorway of words.” Those critical points of the creation stage are just words of a visualization. Without even facing the meaning of the creation and completion stage which is the reason for the visualizations, they summon with many kinds of ritual words which are empty talk such as visualize this, meditate that, focus on this, chanting to drums and horns. When they come to the actual approach recitation, the essential meaning, [225/b] they relax. In the end, their posture which has been straight up to now is released. They smoke tobacco, the source of one hundred nonvirtues. They open the treasure of much gossip with irrelevant talk of news in the valleys. They pass the time by counting a thousand malas, like pulling intestines. When the evening comes, they look once at the sky, saying “Vajra puṣpe, dhupe…” and release a crescendo of cymbals. Since their ersatz rituals are worse than imitation rites, it is definitely better  than that to recite the confession of downfalls or the Bhadracaryapranhidhana with pure motivation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 2:57 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
You call it desegregation, I call it forced association. You couldnt achieve a liberal utopia by provisioning rights so now you want the government to force it on citizens with heavy handed social engineering. Wishful thinking gasps its last dying breath.

Sherab Dorje said:
Whereas apartheid is not heavy handed social engineering?

maybay said:
Apartheid was worse than that. The situation in the states is not worth comparison.

Malcolm wrote:
Apartheid was justified on the basis of Jim Crow laws in the states.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 2:50 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
conebeckham said:
People like to think of the Mahasiddhas as "Working Joes," you know, and we think they obtained the fruit of the path while engaged in their "day jobs" or even as a result of their day jobs......

Sherab Dorje said:
It is pretty clear in some of the accounts.  Some of them were event sent to do menial tasks as part of their practice. but if you read their stories you do find they practiced the Two Stages--some of the stories even mention their yidams, etc.
Nobody is denying that. --but the idea that the weaver, or the pimp, or the sesame seed pounder, didn't do formal sessions, but engaged in the Two Stages in the midst of their work is not supported.
Neither is the idea that they DIDN'T engage in the Two Stages in the midst of their work.  There is not really enough evidence to support either view. And they kept their practice secret.
I don't think anybody here said that you should run around telling everybody your Yidam and the practice associated with it. But it doesn't mean that Vinapa used his lute playing as his method of obtaining realization.
In some of the stories they quite clearly use their daily life as a support for their practice.


Malcolm wrote:
These people were sent out to engage in these occupations once they had reached the stage of strong heat on the Mantra path of application. When one reaches the stage of strong heat, there are three things one should know: first, at this point the kind of vratyācarya ( brtul shugs spyod pa ) one before engaged in secretly should now be done in public. Secondly, at this point one cannot break one's samaya. Third, as a sign of one's practice, one's bell and vajra will float in space while one is practicing.

Prior to this, however, they did their practice in strict secrecy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 28th, 2016 at 12:14 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
Milo is the "sassy gay friend" archetype to homophobes everywhere: making them feel comfortable and justified in their backward thinking regarding gays.

Malcolm wrote:
Not to mention his rendering gay people of color as sex objects for his own exploitation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 11:46 PM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
fckw said:
It's a really fascinating thing. You practice a tantra that supposedly brings you to a level or realization beyond good and evil, holy and unholy, pure and impure, etc. However, it's extremely important that your mala actually is of the exact right substance, blessed by a master, nobody is allowed to see or touch it and so on. Otherwise, unfortunately, there is absolutely no way of success.

Reading the stories of the mahasiddhas, it's quite obvious that they used whatever circumstances were given to either teach or learn. If you could obtain a perfect mala and practice under the perfect circumstances, great. If not, still ok.

Malcolm wrote:
And if you read their stories, they kept secret things secret.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 9:20 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:



Quay said:
Alas the modern Republican party is neither conservative nor really republican (small r) in that it has been taken over by extremists of all flavors, ones that make the dreaded John Birchers of the past look like Boy Scout Headmasters.

Fa Dao said:
I dont entirely disagree with this...however the same thing has happened to the left as well...that's why I don't identify as being left/right, liberal/conservative any longer...


Johnny Dangerous said:
Really? How is mainstream liberalism "extreme", by supporting corporate interests, supporting gay marriage, what? If anything mainstream liberalism is mainly tepid.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, apparently in Fa Dao's view, Blacks Lives Matter, Greenpeace, the Southern Law Poverty Center, the ACLU, Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and NASA all qualify as extremist, whereas Brietbart has become reasonable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 9:14 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Fa Dao said:
I dont entirely disagree with this...however the same thing has happened to the left as well...that's why I don't identify as being left/right, liberal/conservative any longer...

Malcolm wrote:
A beautiful essay on white privilege by http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/why-i-left-white-nationalism.html?ref=opinion&_r=0, whose father started Stormfront:
Much has been made of the incoherence of Mr. Trump’s proposals, but what really matters is who does — and doesn’t — need to fear them. None of the ideas that Mr. Trump has put forward would endanger me, and I once enthusiastically advocated for most of what he says. No proposal to put more cops in black neighborhoods to stop and frisk residents would cause me to be harassed. A ban on Muslim immigration doesn’t implicate all people who look like me in terrorism. Overturning Roe v. Wade will not force me to make a dangerous choice about my health, nor will a man who personifies sexual assault without penalty make me any less safe. When the most powerful demographic in the United States came together to assert that making America great again meant asserting their supremacy, they were asserting my supremacy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 10:37 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Goodbye freedom of association.

Malcolm wrote:
Only you could equate the elimination of defacto apartheid in the US with a restriction on democracy.

maybay said:
With hyperboles like that no surprise media distrust then new president Trump.

What you propose is overextension of the system into the life world, which is precisely apartheid, denying people the choice of association.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry Charlie, but Seperate but Equal was knocked down by SCOTUS in the 1950's, but I guess you will be welcomed by those nazis who read brietbart


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 10:36 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
maybay said:
Goodbye freedom of association.

Malcolm wrote:
Only you could equate the elimination of defacto apartheid in the US with a restriction on democracy.

maybay said:
With hyperboles like that no surprise media distrust then new president Trump.

What you propose is overextension of the system into the life world, which is precisely apartheid, denying people the choice of association.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry Charlie, but Seperate but Equal was knocked down by SCOTUS in 1950's. I guess you are just another rascist idiot.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 10:30 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
And you did not refute ANY of the points he made...nice deflection. Besides I already know that more blacks are incarcerated than whites...he addressed that in the interview, and according to the facts and figures he cited it isn't due to "systemic racism"

Malcolm wrote:
Watch the movie, or better yet read the New Jim Crow, if you want "facts and figures":
I reached the conclusions presented in this book reluctantly. Ten years ago, I would have argued strenuously against the central claim made here—namely, that something akin to a racial caste system currently exists in the United States.

-- Michelle Alexander

Fa Dao said:
And so far you still have not refuted any of the points he made...I am open to reading the book etc..I am open to differing viewpoints...are you?? I used to be far left until I noticed that the far left sounded an awful lot like the far right that I,  at one time, would call "racist, misogynistic, homophobic, fascist, and lets not forget islamophobic". Then about a year ago I decided to open my mind a little...so instead of just reading Huffpo etc I started also reading Breitbart etc. to gain more than a one-sided viewpoint. If a person presents a view in a rational and fact based way I am open to listening..dont care if they are right/left, liberal/conservative. I refuse to buy into any narrative that is tried to be shoved down my throat by anyone. And I also look deeper with anyone that I am listening to, to find out what their agenda is...and EVERYONE has an agenda...even facts and figures can be skewed depending upon the persons personal agenda and the viewpoint they are trying to sell you. But I will say this...if a person starts their talk with "liberal america haters", "far right racist fascists" etc etc and liberally peppers their argument with name calling...I tend to tune them out....

Malcolm wrote:
I have no interest in convincing you of anything. But I am certain that Brietbart is a racist outlet for neonazis. That aside, a sober analysis of the facts, like the one presented by Alexander, should
awaken any thoughtful person to the fact that rascism remains systematically embedded in our society, so much so, that we are blind to it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 8:59 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Fa Dao said:
Yes...looks like an interesting show but does not negate any of the points that Larry Elder made. I admire the guy...takes a lot of courage to stand up against the current PC narrative and say what he did

Malcolm wrote:
So you didn't watch it. Figures.

Fa Dao said:
And you did not refute ANY of the points he made...nice deflection. Besides I already know that more blacks are incarcerated than whites...he addressed that in the interview, and according to the facts and figures he cited it isn't due to "systemic racism"

Malcolm wrote:
Watch the movie, or better yet read the New Jim Crow, if you want "facts and figures":
I reached the conclusions presented in this book reluctantly. Ten years ago, I would have argued strenuously against the central claim made here—namely, that something akin to a racial caste system currently exists in the United States.

-- Michelle Alexander


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 27th, 2016 at 7:49 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Fa Dao said:
Him or you? LOL  Seriously though, sounds like he has a relatively healthy attitude...and if you notice he's not saying that racism doesn't exist, just that it's not as prevalent and systemic as the left puts forth in their narrative...not to mention that he puts forth some interesting facts and figures on crime rates in the black community...I found this interview quite thought provoking...

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741


Fa Dao said:
Yes...looks like an interesting show but does not negate any of the points that Larry Elder made. I admire the guy...takes a lot of courage to stand up against the current PC narrative and say what he did

Malcolm wrote:
So you didn't watch it. Figures.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 11:49 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
binocular said:
So, again, I ask: What are your suggestions on how to change, reform racists? How to make them stop being racists?

Malcolm wrote:
Desegregating schools, eliminating charter schools, and generally enforcing laws which are designed to orotect the civil rights of minorities.

maybay said:
Goodbye freedom of association.

Malcolm wrote:
Only you could equate the elimination of defacto apartheid in the US with a restriction on democracy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 8:26 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Fa Dao said:
and how about the views of this guy?


Malcolm wrote:
Someone who is in deep denial.

Fa Dao said:
Him or you? LOL  Seriously though, sounds like he has a relatively healthy attitude...and if you notice he's not saying that racism doesn't exist, just that it's not as prevalent and systemic as the left puts forth in their narrative...not to mention that he puts forth some interesting facts and figures on crime rates in the black community...I found this interview quite thought provoking...

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 8:06 PM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Not sentient beings, people, humans.

Sherab Dorje said:
And what is the "logic" behind the idea that it is naughty to do it in front of humans that don't have samaya, but okay to do it in front of other sentient beings that don't have samaya?

Malcolm wrote:
Greg, I think you need a refresher course in what it means to keep samaya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 6:29 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
binocular said:
So, again, I ask: What are your suggestions on how to change, reform racists? How to make them stop being racists?

Malcolm wrote:
Desegregating schools, eliminating charter schools, and generally enforcing laws which are designed to orotect the civil rights of minorities.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 5:45 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Great, so now we turn Dharma practice into yet another object of neurotic obsession...  Excellent!

And this idea of "secret", or of not doing mantra in the presence of those without samaya...  At any point in time we are surrounded by thousands of beings that are not perceivable by us.  Some are non-corporeal, some are microscopic, etc...  There is NEVER a time or place where you will practice mantra, without sentient being that has not taken samaya being present.  NEVER.

Except, maybe, in some Pure Land.  Maybe.

Malcolm wrote:
Not sentient beings, people, humans.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 1:57 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you want to practice the two stages there is a precise way followed by those who became mahasiddhas. Even Guru Rinpoche observed the principles of strict practice when it came to Phurba and so on.

If you wish to practice Dzogchen, there is also a precise way, but it does not involve counting mantras necessarily, even though it could. But in the latter case, one would follow the procedures of creation and completion very precisely.

Sherab Dorje said:
One has to work with their circumstances.  Obviously if one can execute a practice "by-the-book" then one should.  But the internal mechanisms of the practice, seem to me, to be more important than the external forms.

As far as I am concerned it would be stupid to say to somebody that they cannot achieve liberation if they practice in the presence of people not bound by samaya, if they only have the opportunity to practice in the presence of those without samaya.  It would also fail to take into account that Dzogchen/Mahamudra is with us everywhere, and under all circumstances.  Dzogchen/Mahamudra is not restricted to those holding malas in the left hand, while hiding them from those that are not bound by samaya, and only within the physical confines of a sanctified space.  Dzogchen/Mahamudra is boundless, completely unrestricted by space and time.  So, it sees to me, that to say that it can only be realized under specific physical conditions is a recipe for failure.

Malcolm wrote:
You are making a classic error. There are many kinds of Dzogchen practice that must be done in complete secrecy. Secret Mantra is called "secret" for a reason.  There is a difference between working with circumstances and disregarding the proper way to do things. Dzogchen practitioners need to observe the same samayas as everyone else. Otherwise why observe your ngakpa commitments?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 1:31 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
It's probably why the Mahasiddhas, that had to do their practice while engaged in their worldly tasks (or whose worldly tasks were their practice), never reached a significant level of realization.

Malcolm wrote:
I think you need to their bios more carefully Greg.

Sherab Dorje said:
Sorry, I meant to write "some of the Mahasiddhas..."

Regardles...  Somehow I do not believe the Mahasiddhas relied on anal-retentive-obsessive-compulsiveness to achieve their aims.  Seems to me that that path would run contrary to the idea of just "letting go" and remaining in Mahamudra/Dzogchen.

Malcolm wrote:
If you want to practice the two stages there is a precise way followed by those who became mahasiddhas. Even Guru Rinpoche observed the principles of strict practice when it came to Phurba and so on.

If you wish to practice Dzogchen, there is also a precise way, but it does not involve counting mantras necessarily, even though it could. But in the latter case, one would follow the procedures of creation and completion very precisely.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 1:28 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Nyedrag Yeshe said:
Yes, I'm quite aware and agree the importance of ritual objects and its proper use in vajrayana practice. But the question remains, can you count in a formal session, or asana using a device when for some reason you dont have a mala at hand? I've counted mantras using my hands in some sessions when I realized I left my mala somewhere before starting and was too late to break the seating and go after it.

Malcolm wrote:
If you are doing a formal practice of approach and accomplishment, you need your mala. If you are doing any kind of serious practice, you need your mala. However, if you are doing a short thun, for example, in ChNN's system, you don't need a mala because you are not counting the recitations. If you are counting, you need, if you are not counting, you don't. Still, it is better to use a mala when reciting mantras.

pael said:
Do you need to count sutric mantras? I have counted them in my head. I can't use mala. I can't use my hand.

Malcolm wrote:
No.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 1:05 AM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Counting mantras where people who lack samaya can see you doesn't count.

Sherab Dorje said:
It's probably why the Mahasiddhas, that had to do their practice while engaged in their worldly tasks (or whose worldly tasks were their practice), never reached a significant level of realization.

Malcolm wrote:
I think you need to their bios more carefully Greg.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 11:11 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Fa Dao said:
and how about the views of this guy?


Malcolm wrote:
Someone who is in deep denial.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 11:07 PM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Nyedrag Yeshe said:
How about using these non-orthodox devices in a formal session when a proper mala is not at hand ? It makes the recitation less or not valid at all?

Malcolm wrote:
It is the responsibility of the practitioner to obtain the proper items for a given practice. There are dependent originations at play when a correctly made mala is used, counted with the left hand, etc, that cannot be duplicated with a digital counter and so on.

Nyedrag Yeshe said:
Yes, I'm quite aware and agree the importance of ritual objects and its proper use in vajrayana practice. But the question remains, can you count in a formal session, or asana using a device when for some reason you dont have a mala at hand? I've counted mantras using my hands in some sessions when I realized I left my mala somewhere before starting and was too late to break the seating and go after it.

Malcolm wrote:
If you are doing a formal practice of approach and accomplishment, you need your mala. If you are doing any kind of serious practice, you need your mala. However, if you are doing a short thun, for example, in ChNN's system, you don't need a mala because you are not counting the recitations. If you are counting, you need, if you are not counting, you don't. Still, it is better to use a mala when reciting mantras.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 10:37 PM
Title: Re: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you are not using a proper mala, in secret, it does not matter how mantras you count. They don't count. Only mantras counted in formal sessions count.  But hey, we know that people are very fond of criticizing others for following traditions that have no basis in the teachings, while embracing novel traditions they make up on the spot.

Nyedrag Yeshe said:
How about using these non-orthodox devices in a formal session when a proper mala is not at hand ? It makes the recitation less or not valid at all?

Malcolm wrote:
It is the responsibility of the practitioner to obtain the proper items for a given practice. There are dependent originations at play when a correctly made mala is used, counted with the left hand, etc, that cannot be duplicated with a digital counter and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 10:15 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Because it is so much better to feign indifference and lack of concern when observing the rise of fascism...

binocular said:
Fighting them or feigning indifference toward them aren't the only options.
Another option is that you could try to convert your opponents to your way of thinking and living -- but for that, you'd need to give up your doctrine of personal autonomy.

Malcolm wrote:
One could try, but it did not work very well in 1933.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 10:06 PM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you are not using a proper mala, in secret, it does not matter how mantras you count. They don't count. Only mantras counted in formal sessions count.  But hey, we know that people are very fond of criticizing others for following traditions that have no basis in the teachings, while embracing novel traditions they make up on the spot.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 10:47 AM
Title: Re: Innovative ways of mantra counting
Content:
Dharmaraj said:
Guys

What are some ways of counting mantra which will not attract unnecessary attention, besides rosary and tally counters ?

Any technique or method to count mantra anytime, anywhere easily without attracting unnecessary attention

With rosary and tally counters,  it attracts too much attention

There is one way of counting on fingers but its complicated and cant be used as easily and readily  as tally counters

Nyedrag Yeshe said:
https://western-hindu.org/2010/01/01/how-to-chant-a-mantra-108-times-without-mala-beads/

Malcolm wrote:
Which has nothing to do with our tradition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 7:27 AM
Title: When does counting mantras count?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Note of moderation: Topic split from here https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=24205#p365667

Dharmaraj said:
Guys

What are some ways of counting mantra which will not attract unnecessary attention, besides rosary and tally counters ?

Any technique or method to count mantra anytime, anywhere easily without attracting unnecessary attention

With rosary and tally counters,  it attracts too much attention

There is one way of counting on fingers but its complicated and cant be used as easily and readily  as tally counters

Malcolm wrote:
Counting mantras where people who lack samaya can see you doesn't count.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 4:12 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The export of jobs from the US is the fault of American consumers and no one else. We wanted lots of cheap shit because we are cheap, and prefer variety over quality.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 4:05 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Sometimes in evolution, species make nonadaptive choices. This would be one of those.

binocular said:
It's not clear how this is the case.
Look how much time, how much attention you give them. They've managed to get large amounts of your attention -- attention which you could have spent otherwise. They have psychologically conquered you, at least occasionally. Now that is evolutionary success! To gain power over someone's mind, over their time, over their attention!
People generally don't seem to think all that highly of economical wellbeing, even if they say they do. What seems to matter the most in life is to be in a particular psychological state -- to feel powerful, regardless of one's material state.

Malcolm wrote:
Because it is so much better to feign indifference and lack of concern when observing the rise of fascism...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 9:16 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
That does not make them Republicans, that just makes them suckers.

binocular said:
Or just an evolutionary success.


Malcolm wrote:
Sometimes in evolution, species make nonadaptive choices. This would be one of those.
There isn't single American culture, there are roughly three,  The culture of the coasts [The west coast largely settled by people from the Northeast], and the culture of fly-over country, and the culture of the South (which spread after the civil war into the western states in the eastern side of the Rockies).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 9:13 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
That does not make them Republicans, that just makes them suckers.

binocular said:
Or just an evolutionary success.


Malcolm wrote:
Sometimes in evolution, species make nonadaptive choices. This would be one of those.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 5:04 PM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
In July of 2016, BronyCon, the annual convention for infantilized adults who love all things related to the children's TV show My Little Pony, drew 7600 attendees to the Baltimore Convention Center. NPI's convention last week in DC drew 200 assholes plus Tila Tequila. Any "movement" that draws 38 times fewer people than one dedicated to "adults" who dress up like cartoon horses ain't shit.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/367002.php

dzoki said:
Actually this was more like "press conference" not an actual annual convention. We have same problem here in the EU. Nazis are still hiding, though they are increasingly coming into open. You might think their numbers are extremely low, but if you looked into how many people have nazi stickers (such as confederate flag, or in case of my country, Slovakia, WWII. nazi state's double cross) on their cars, you would see that numbers of sympathizers and active members are much much higher.

Malcolm wrote:
More amazingly, this conference took place in a federal building.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 9:02 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
conebeckham said:
well-
I learned the three types of compassion as:
1. Compassion focused on beings being free from suffering.
2. Compassion focused on beings not recognizing the impermanent nature of conditioned phenomena.
3. Non-Referential compassion manifested by those with direct experience of the True Nature, or Emptiness/Awareness, etc.

Frankly, all three are "true compassion," but the third is the Buddha's compassion.  Those on the path can experience the first two.

boda said:
So Malcolm was only referring to #2 for some reason, when there are in fact other ways in which compassion arises, including at least #1 from your list. Non-referential compassion does not sound like compassion but something else. If the Buddha felt no inclination to help others then why did he?


Malcolm wrote:
No, I was referring to something else entirely.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 3:39 AM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
dzogchungpa said:
Damn, I must be really out of it. I didn't know that Tila Tequila was a Nazi.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup:



dzogchungpa said:
In a series of Facebook messages, Tequila told the story of Hitler, describing the brutal German dictator as a misunderstood dreamer who was "bullied" and simply wanted to show Jewish people "love."

Malcolm wrote:
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/12/tila-tequila-dresses-like-a-nazi-shows-love-for-hitler/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 3:30 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
binocular said:
It's racists hiding behind the masks of democracy and liberalism that make racism so persistent and resistant to any effort to undo it.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, and such people are called Republicans.

PuerAzaelis said:
Good luck trying to switch the holodeck back on.

94% of the counties that voted for Obama either in 2008 or 2012 and 31% of the counties that voted for Obama *twice* - voted for Trump in 2016. That is, millions of Trump’s votes came from people who voted for the black guy with the Muslim name.

Malcolm wrote:
That does not make them Republicans, that just makes them suckers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2016 at 2:03 AM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
dzogchungpa said:
I kind of wish they had given it a cool name, like "Tromapalooza" or "Machig: The Gathering".

Malcolm wrote:
I will bring it up at the next meeting and specifically tell Lama Tsultrim you complained...

Lhasa said:
Maybe Lama Tsultrim might consider inviting her friend Ram Dass, not as a teacher, but to receive the healing benefits, they could have him sit in the center of the Chod practice circles. I'd love to have someone do Chod for me. Any way for remote participation...like putting names in the circle?

Malcolm wrote:
There will be an opportunity for remote healing.

Vasana said:
I hope they live-stream or record the conference.


Malcolm wrote:
At this point, there will not be live-streaming (but it may be possible), but the conference will be recorded/videoed.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 9:36 PM
Title: Re: Alt-right coming out of their ugly closet.
Content:
Ayu said:
Many of those rightist-racists on twitter (and facebook?) are Bots only. (Does anybody have a good source for this claim? They told so in German TV.)
This gives the nazis the feeling of "We are many!" - they need that sentiment urgently and it attracts more people also, who before had no opinion at all.


Malcolm wrote:
They are more than you want to believe.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 9:34 PM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
dzogchungpa said:
I kind of wish they had given it a cool name, like "Tromapalooza" or "Machig: The Gathering".

Malcolm wrote:
I will bring it up at the next meeting and specifically tell Lama Tsultrim you complained...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 4:46 AM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
Vasana said:
I hope they live-stream or record the conference.

Malcolm wrote:
I intend to bring this up. I am not sure streaming is an option however due to the remoteness of Tara Mandala.

Vasana said:
Good stuff. I assume past webcasts and transmissions from Lama Tsultrim Allione weren't from Tara Mandala then.

Malcolm wrote:
I have no idea.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
Vasana said:
I hope they live-stream or record the conference.

Malcolm wrote:
I intend to bring this up. I am not sure streaming is an option however due to the remoteness of Tara Mandala.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 4:28 AM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
DGA said:
I will try to attend this.

What is the topic of your presentation, Malcolm?

Malcolm wrote:
At this time, it is on the connection between Chod and Dzogchen, I may instead do a presentation on provocations. It is not completely decided.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 3:51 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
stumbled across it on youtube...watched it..found it interesting and thought I'd share it simply as an alternative narrative....sick to death of the far right AND the far left....both are about the same in my book...and both have the arrogant attitude that they know whats best for the majority of regular people in the middle...

Malcolm wrote:
All I know is that white men do not have their civil rights systematically violated, unlike Women, People of Color, Native Americans, and LGBT people.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 3:48 AM
Title: Re: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
161121_chod_conf_lo_res_cropped.jpg (377.18 KiB) Viewed 29800 times


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 at 3:10 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
binocular said:
I suppose I believe in such a self altogether a few minutes tops in an average day. For the most part, I don't think about such things.

Malcolm wrote:
The self is a habit, not a belief.

boda said:
Does that mean no-self is a belief rather than a habit?

I believe neural science informs that a sense of self is rather hardwired. There are cells in the human brain which are dedicated to the function. So it would be just as erroneous to classify it as a habit as it would to class it as a belief, I believe.

Malcolm wrote:
Habits can't be hardwired?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016 at 9:23 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
I found this to be a thought provoking video in line with some of the discussions in this thread....please, no knee-jerk reactions from either side..
thoughts?
if (typeof bbmedia == 'undefined') { bbmedia = true; var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = 'bbmedia.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(e, s); }
https://phpbbex.com/ [video]


Malcolm wrote:
White privilege is not about income. It's about the fact that white Americans (excluding Jews) run virtually no risk of having their civil rights systematically violated.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016 at 6:02 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:


sillyrabbit said:
Seperatism is not a solution, it's just more of the same.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed, separatists are not thinking clearly, if at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016 at 3:40 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
binocular said:
In that case, your quest was poorly conceived, and bound to result in a negative.

Malcolm wrote:
Apart from some inexpressible, unknowable identity that cannot be discerned no matter how much one searches for it, and thereby is itself a mere imputation, there is no identity which can be found upon analysis.

binocular said:
You simply didn't clearly define the objective of your quest, hence it is no wonder you ended up empty-handed.
The same happens with any poorly defined quest, not just with the search for a self.
If you set out to look for x, but you never define what x is, you're just not going to find it. That, however, doesn't yet mean that x doesn't exist.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, the subject of investigation is very well defined: find an immutable essence which serves as one's identity, a.k.a, soul or atman.

If such an immutable essence exists, since it is necessarily unconditioned, it cannot be found through analysis and cannot be known by the mind. In this case, it is still an imputation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016 at 1:00 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
binocular said:
It's racists hiding behind the masks of democracy and liberalism that make racism so persistent and resistant to any effort to undo it.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, and such people are called Republicans.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 11:08 PM
Title: Re: Reincarnation as a prison and gratitude
Content:
hareaza said:
...to whom would a Buddhist be grateful to since Buddhism doesn't consider that there's an anthropomorphic God , or a God in the traditional religious sense?

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha, for giving us teachings that allow us to find freedom from the suffering that is the endless wheel of samsara.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 8:42 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Rakz said:
...the whole place starts looking like the USSR.

Malcolm wrote:
Says that guy who admires Putin.

Rakz said:
USSR was dissolved in the early 90s. Putin came to power much later.
Putin was a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1991 to enter politics in Saint Petersburg.

Malcolm wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin

As I said...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Well, Mussolini was also a National Socialist. Recall, he was the editor of Avanti, the Socialist newspaper out of Milan, for 15 years. But when the First World War broke out, a dispute arose among Italian Socialists over whether socialists should fight in the war or not. Mussolini felt.

Sherab Dorje said:
Yes, originally he was a socialist, but then he decided that courting Italian capital and the monarchy was more personally lucrative, so...

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, of course, but that was some years later once he gained a seat in the Italian Gvt. and realized his fortunes lay with monied landowners in rural Italy rather than workers in northern cities such as Milan. He even made a show of being a faithful Catholic...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 4:29 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
conebeckham said:
Did you even read the article?  Not all Fascists were Hitler.

Sherab Dorje said:
Hitler was not a Fascist, he was a National Socialist.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, Mussolini was also a National Socialist. Recall, he was the editor of Avanti, the Socialist newspaper out of Milan, for 15 years. But when the First World War broke out, a dispute arose among Italian Socialists over whether socialists should fight in the war or not. Mussolini felt they should for nationalist reasons. The difference with the Italian Fascists (whom Hitler initially admired) hinged on the question of anti-semitism. Fascism was nationalist, and its racist tendencies were primarily pragmatic, not ideological, much like Mr. Trump's. But naturally, the latter's pragmatic racism appeals to ideological racists like that fellow Vidyaraja.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 4:17 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I don't think "racist" or "fascist" are particularly  confusing or ambiguous.

Sherab Dorje said:
It is actually fashionable amongst the fascists here in Greece to accuse anybody that opposes them, of acting like fascists.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, you see the same charge by the right here in the US, so called "Liberal Fascism." Of course it is absolutely ridiculous, but whatever.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 4:08 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
An identity of persons and things that was something other than a conventional attribution.

binocular said:
In that case, your quest was poorly conceived, and bound to result in a negative.

Malcolm wrote:
Apart from some inexpressible, unknowable identity that cannot be discerned no matter how much one searches for it, and thereby is itself a mere imputation, there is no identity which can be found upon analysis.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 3:56 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If one looks for a self and does not find one, that is not a view.

binocular said:
What were you looking for, when you set out to look for the self?

Malcolm wrote:
An identity of persons and things that was something other than a conventional attribution.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 2:16 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
binocular said:
"Self" is a reflexive pronoun; as such, I do not know what it refers to.

Malcolm wrote:
Then how can you meaningfully construct a sentence?

binocular said:
Tentatively.
Which is a problem only for those who cling to self-views.

Malcolm wrote:
I see, you consider the assertion that "there is no autonomous self" to be a self-view.

If one maintains conceptually the idea "there is not self," this is a self-view. If one looks for a self and does not find one, that is not a view.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 2:05 AM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
binocular said:
"Self" is a reflexive pronoun; as such, I do not know what it refers to.

Malcolm wrote:
Then how can you meaningfully construct a sentence?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 1:50 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Oh please. White people are not devils. They're nationalists (read Nazis). The cardinal sin is thinking that any nation that is not a minority is cool, especially if it's your own. Self hatred is the only acceptable perspective.

Malcolm wrote:
The United States was founded on three pillars: not capitalism, democracy and liberty, as many suppose, but rather, ethnic cleansing, genocide and human trafficking.

This needs to be honestly and openly addressed by our nation.

PuerAzaelis said:
It has been addressed.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it really hasn't been. You are conflating a desire for white guilt and self-flagellation (which I don't have and think is pointless) for a process of truth and reconciliation (which I think is important), since many Americans still think we had and have a right to remove Native people from their lands, and import other people as chattel. And of course now we are looking at an AG who calls black people "boy."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 1:41 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
In the other hand, Mr. Trump precisely matches Umberto Eco's http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/ that make one a fascist:

PuerAzaelis said:
LOL Christ right on cue the resident Godwin's law.


Malcolm wrote:
Interestingly, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/14/sure-call-trump-a-nazi-just-make-sure-you-know-what-youre-talking-about/?utm_term=.d1a05a07e900 said last year:
First, let me get this Donald Trump issue out of the way: If you’re thoughtful about it and show some real awareness of history, go ahead and refer to Hitler or Nazis when you talk about Trump. Or any other politician.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 1:37 AM
Title: Re: I declined the AirBnB commitment
Content:
maybay said:
Make up your mind already. Did Trump win or did Clinton lose?

Malcolm wrote:
Neither. One got a job that the other should have had the good sense to avoid.

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https://phpbbex.com/ [video]


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 12:57 AM
Title: Re: I declined the AirBnB commitment
Content:
rachmiel said:
maybay, howdy.

You might find this NY Times editorial interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&mtrref=undefined&gwh=748B62E21A471016468BC6B75A276C8A&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

rachMiel


Malcolm wrote:
The author is quite wrong here:
Identity politics, by contrast, is largely expressive, not persuasive. Which is why it never wins elections — but can lose them.
Identity politics did win this election, they just happened to be white identity politics.

maybay said:
Make up your mind already. Did Trump win or did Clinton lose?

Malcolm wrote:
Neither. One got a job that the other should have had the good sense to avoid.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 21st, 2016 at 12:08 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
You have been disinclined to provide an actual concrete statement about what exactly you have been talking about, hence the suspicion that "socialist" for you just means "dummies I don't like or agree with".

Malcolm wrote:
In the other hand, Mr. Trump precisely matches Umberto Eco's http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/ that make one a fascist:
1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition. Traditionalism is of course much older than fascism. Not only was it typical of counter-revolutionary Catholic thought after the French revolution, but it was born in the late Hellenistic era, as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of them indulgently accepted by the Roman Pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. This revelation, according to the traditionalist mystique, had remained for a long time concealed under the veil of forgotten languages—in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls of the little known religions of Asia.

This new culture had to be syncretistic. Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, “the combination of different forms of belief or practice”; such a combination must tolerate contradictions. Each of the original messages contains a silver of wisdom, and whenever they seem to say different or incompatible things it is only because all are alluding, allegorically, to the same primeval truth.

As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.

One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements. The most influential theoretical source of the theories of the new Italian right, Julius Evola, merged the Holy Grail with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alchemy with the Holy Roman and Germanic Empire. The very fact that the Italian right, in order to show its open-mindedness, recently broadened its syllabus to include works by De Maistre, Guenon, and Gramsci, is a blatant proof of syncretism.

If you browse in the shelves that, in American bookstores, are labeled as New Age, you can find there even Saint Augustine who, as far as I know, was not a fascist. But combining Saint Augustine and Stonehenge—that is a symptom of Ur-Fascism.

2. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshiped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.

3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering’s alleged statement (“When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun”) to the frequent use of such expressions as “degenerate intellectuals,” “eggheads,” “effete snobs,” “universities are a nest of reds.” The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.

4. No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.

5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
6. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.

7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the US, a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson’s The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.

8. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.

9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament.

10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism.

11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as “Long Live Death!”). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.

12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.

13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. To have a good instance of qualitative populism we no longer need the Piazza Venezia in Rome or the Nuremberg Stadium. There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.

Because of its qualitative populism Ur-Fascism must be against “rotten” parliamentary governments. One of the first sentences uttered by Mussolini in the Italian parliament was “I could have transformed this deaf and gloomy place into a bivouac for my maniples”—“maniples” being a subdivision of the traditional Roman legion. As a matter of fact, he immediately found better housing for his maniples, but a little later he liquidated the parliament. Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism.

14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in 1984, as the official language of Ingsoc, English Socialism. But elements of Ur-Fascism are common to different forms of dictatorship. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 10:40 PM
Title: Re: I declined the AirBnB commitment
Content:
rachmiel said:
maybay, howdy.

You might find this NY Times editorial interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&mtrref=undefined&gwh=748B62E21A471016468BC6B75A276C8A&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

rachMiel


Malcolm wrote:
The author is quite wrong here:
Identity politics, by contrast, is largely expressive, not persuasive. Which is why it never wins elections — but can lose them.
Identity politics did win this election, they just happened to be white identity politics.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 10:10 PM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:


PuerAzaelis said:
It seems to be the default approach for a lot of people round here. I.e. "There exists nothing to negate". I just don't see how that's not sophistry or nihilism.

Malcolm wrote:
Upon investigation, no entities can be found to negate. Prior to investigation, there is something to negate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 9:53 PM
Title: Re: Why do you All seek Enlightenment to avoid Suffering?
Content:
binocular said:
I suppose I believe in such a self altogether a few minutes tops in an average day. For the most part, I don't think about such things.

Malcolm wrote:
The self is a habit, not a belief.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 2:11 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This needs to be honestly and openly addressed by our nation.

Sherab Dorje said:
It was not addressed when you had a "black" man as president, you expect it to be addressed by the Trump administration?


Malcolm wrote:
Consciousness raising is a bitch.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 2:01 AM
Title: Re: Anadi on the Flawed Perfection of Dzogchen
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
I am going to set myself up as a NeoAdvaita teacher.

Just write a long rambling book, with a lot of references to Jesus.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't forget Babaji. And you need some references to Rumi...and Nasruddin, if you want humor.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 1:28 AM
Title: Re: Jobs or the Environment?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Returning to the gold standard is a very popular idea among Trumpistas.
DONALD TRUMP: Bringing back the gold standard would be very hard to do, but, boy, would it be wonderful. We'd have a standard on which to base our money.
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482279689/trump-favors-returning-to-the-gold-standard-few-economists-agree

Sherab Dorje said:
I cannot believe they made this man president of the U$...

Malcolm wrote:
The Dems did it to themselves by insisting on nominating HRC.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 1:18 AM
Title: Re: Jobs or the Environment?
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Economic nationalism?  How does that work in an international market?

Malcolm wrote:
It is the return of the discredited 19th century American system:

1. High tariffs on imports
2. Massive infrastructure pojects
3. Stringent central bank controls.



It won't work.

Sherab Dorje said:
With a major difference being we know have a global monetary system and there is no 1:1 ratio between currency and gold (or some other random internationally recognized physical object of trade).

Malcolm wrote:
Returning to the gold standard is a very popular idea among Trumpistas.

Sherab Dorje said:
DONALD TRUMP: Bringing back the gold standard would be very hard to do, but, boy, would it be wonderful. We'd have a standard on which to base our money.

Malcolm wrote:
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482279689/trump-favors-returning-to-the-gold-standard-few-economists-agree


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 1:10 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
The government decides...

The Cicada said:
And who runs the government? White devils.



PuerAzaelis said:
Oh please. White people are not devils. They're nationalists (read Nazis). The cardinal sin is thinking that any nation that is not a minority is cool, especially if it's your own. Self hatred is the only acceptable perspective.

Malcolm wrote:
The United States was founded on three pillars: not capitalism, democracy and liberty, as many suppose, but rather, ethnic cleansing, genocide and human trafficking.

This needs to be honestly and openly addressed by our nation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 1:06 AM
Title: Re: Jobs or the Environment?
Content:
Queequeg said:
Bannon also apparently confessed, he's an "economic nationalist"...

Sherab Dorje said:
Economic nationalism?  How does that work in an international market?

Malcolm wrote:
It is the return of the discredited 19th century American system:

1. High tariffs on imports
2. Massive infrastructure pojects
3. Stringent central bank controls.



It won't work.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 20th, 2016 at 12:54 AM
Title: Re: Anadi on the Flawed Perfection of Dzogchen
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Im not so sure. If compassion is simply the display, how compassionate can it really be?

Malcolm wrote:
Thugs rje, compassion, is the basis for the arising of the nirmanakāya. For example, the commentary on the Realms and Transformation of Sound Tantra states:
Thugs is the affection (brtse ba) in the heart for sentient beings. Rje is
the arising of a special empathy (gdung sems) for them.
And:
When analyzed, there is the compassion that exists in the basis, the compassion that appears on the path, and the compassion of the perfected result.

Among those, since the compassion that exists on the path is undivided, it exists as the basis for the arising of the diversity. Since it is undisclosed, it has no activities.

There is the compassion that appears on the path. From among the three pristine consciousnesses of the basis, since the essence is intrinsically pure, [compassion] is not disclosed in any way. Since the nature self-appears, compassionate deeds are diverse. Since all beings are pervaded by compassion, compassion seems to appear as the one who tames those to be tamed.

The compassion of the perfected result intrinsically exists in the dharmakāya, comes from invocation and supplication to the sambhogakāya, and is produced when the nirmāṇakāya meets conditions and objects.
-- Buddhahood in This Life, ppg. 14 and 17 respectively.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 19th, 2016 at 10:31 AM
Title: Re: Shamanistic influence on Tibetan Buddhism
Content:
Kim O'Hara said:
This is reminding me of a lot of issues which came up in the Shinto and Buddhism thread - http://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=24013.
More specifically, is it plausible that Bon and Shinto only began to define themselves as "a religion" after encountering "a religion" in the form of (imported) Buddhism? That practitioners only developed a systematic philosophical framework after encountering (and no doubt debating) Buddhism?


Kim


Johnny Dangerous said:
WIth Bon, from a perspective of historicity, there i some truth to this I think. AFAIK The Bonpo developed their own system of dialectics etc. in response to Buddhism. However, I -do- think that a part of their teaching is undeniably ancient, the part that is and the part that is not is a subject for debate..and that debate is more important to historians than to practitioners, I think.

I think if you're going to ask about the influence, you at least to consider that there is some kernel of truth to the Bonpo claim that their tradition is old, and has influenced Tibetan Buddhism, the first is harder to prove with modern methods, but the second is undeniable. There are all kinds of aspects of Vajrayana that come from Bon..and vice versa, but practitioners on both sides seem to find it a thorny area.

Anyway, the main point is that Bon is as "complete" as Vajrayana, just viewing it as "shamanism" hasn't been true for near1000 years, by the most conservative estimate, and it's influence on TB extends beyond Shamanism too.

Malcolm wrote:
We simply have very little idea what religion looked like in Tibet prior to the arrival of Buddhism. We have some guesses and attempts at reconstruction, but they are all very tentative.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 19th, 2016 at 6:58 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
-What job killing socialist policies?

Malcolm wrote:
He means the ones that build roads, bridges and fund the military— those socialist programs.

Rakz said:
Nope. That has nothing to do with the cancer known as socialism.

Malcolm wrote:
Pray tell, define "Socialism" for us?, as well as those socialist policies that kill jobs?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 19th, 2016 at 6:51 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
-What job killing socialist policies?

Malcolm wrote:
He means the ones that build roads, bridges and fund the military— those socialist programs.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 10:32 PM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
So I don't have to search for a teacher ... rather admit to myself that I already found one and act on it. Hopefully my inner teacher will learn what it needs from Anam to become a more effective and loving presence.

Malcolm wrote:
Compassion arises from observing that sentient don't know who they are.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 11:38 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The guru's job is to teach. Your job is to discover the meaning. It is not a situation where you have to meet with your teacher regularly on a private basis.

rachmiel said:
I accept that this is part of the tradition. But I don't like it. I like intense and regular one-on-one meetings. I like to develop an actual intimate relationship with my teacher. It has to be personal for me. If not, I'd rather get the lessons from books.

Malcolm wrote:
You will never be able to have an experience of the direction perception of your real nature by reading a book. It will never happen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 8:57 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
From what JD and Malcolm and a couple of others have said, my quest to awaken without an external guru sounds hopeless.

Which is, I think, an excellent starting point: absence of hope. I can work with that.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Might be a better starting point to ask why you are so adamant about not having one, or about not connecting to teachers.

rachmiel said:
Also a good place to dive in. Maybe I never met the right person, but of the dozen or so guru-ish figures I've had in my life -- teachers in school, college, therapists, shamans, "masters" from different spiritual traditions -- I ended up feeling NONE of them had much more of a clue than I did about what's really going on. They might have had their games down, believed deeply in their stories ... but I never met anyone I would trust to tell me how to "get it." With the possible exception of Anam Thubten, but I'll never know how that would have worked out because he doesn't offer the kind of personal relationship with regular private meetings that I want in a teacher.

I might give off the vibe that I've never bothered to try the guru/pupil thing ... but I have, several times, and it doesn't seem to work for me, for whatever reasons. The only "wisdom" I've ever acquired that's stuck is that which I've run into on my own, often painfully, head on, BOOM! I will only accept that which I discover myself.

Malcolm wrote:
The guru's job is to teach. Your job is to discover the meaning. It is not a situation where you have to meet with your teacher regularly on a private basis.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 8:18 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
From what JD and Malcolm and a couple of others have said, my quest to awaken without an external guru sounds hopeless.

Which is, I think, an excellent starting point: absence of hope. I can work with that.

Malcolm wrote:
None of us managed to learn anything in this life without a teacher, whether it was tying one's shoes or learning how to read and write. Why does anyone think that Dharma is any different? Following a teacher is not a commitment to indentured servitude. It is a commitment to one's own liberation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 7:07 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
Gotcha. Thanks for sharing your take, I can see the good sense in it.

Malcolm wrote:
Pandita Vimalamitra states in his commentary on the Secret Tantra Without Syllables:
Even if vidyā could be found through the imputation and scrutiny of intellectual analysis, it cannot be stabilized by necessary cultivation because it cannot be known whether one has indeed found vidyā or not. Therefore, in the beginning, a pure guru is very important. Afterwards, one’s own cultivation and familiarity is very important.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 6:21 AM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Rakz said:
The fact is that the people have chosen Trump to be their next President.

Malcolm wrote:
Well no, some people have chosen Trump to be their next president. Most of the people did not.

And of course, had the electoral college gone the other way, Trumpistas would have been out there screaming bloody murder about election "rigging."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 2:34 AM
Title: Historic Chod Conference July 12-16th
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
http://taramandala.org/chodconf/ at Tara Mandala, July 12-16th

Unknown said:
This historic First International Chöd-Zhije Conference will draw together leading scholars and practitioners researching and teaching this unique lineage in its various manifestations. Keynotes, panel discussions, and small group sessions will be held. They will explore the teachings of 11th century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön and her teacher, the renowned Indian yogi Padampa Sangye, the developments of the lineage over the last millennium, the role of women, as well as the application of these teachings to our modern world. Dharma teachings and performances of Chöd songs and dances will foster a rich and engaged experience. Follow-up retreats will offer the opportunity to learn some of the different Chöd practices.

Malcolm wrote:
I will continue to post more details to this thread as they become available.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 18th, 2016 at 12:43 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:


Crazywisdom said:
East Coast white Protestant culture.


Malcolm wrote:
Southern Protestants, not East Coast. East Coast is the belt from New England to DC that is by and large very liberal and very diverse.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 9:37 PM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Unknown said:
My sites were picked up by Trump supporters all the time. I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything. His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact. Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/11/17/facebook-fake-news-writer-i-think-donald-trump-is-in-the-white-house-because-of-me/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 8:40 PM
Title: Re: Liberal fear mongering vs Reality
Content:
Rakz said:
...funded by George Soros...

Malcolm wrote:
...must be a shadowy international conspiracy.

Funded by the Mercers and the Kochs? Just honest Americans funding American causes for freedom and democracy (sure).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 8:35 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
So the man bleeding by the side of the road should have known better after all.

Malcolm wrote:
A man bleeding out by the side of the road is a man bleeding out by the side of road. Someone either happens along and gives him aid, or not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 6:11 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Yes well some people indeed have the emotional or mental intelligence of children. I suppose they're as morally autonomous as the guy lying bleeding by the side of the road. Perhaps we should immediately teach him about emptiness after all. Or about eating cake.

It's odd that things are so interdependent, yet an individual's moral autonomy so absolute.

Malcolm wrote:
Personal moral authority is absolute because karma is unerring. If karma were erring, if it were possible for someone to be removed from the result of acting out their own intentions. However, they are not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 5:42 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Speech without agency is impotent, and is therefore neither right nor wrong. Like any other action, when I speak I have created something in the world that was not there before. To the extent that speech, like any other object, affects the listener, beyond the listener's capacity to investigate, to that extent speech has agency over the listener, and the listener has no autonomy.

Malcolm wrote:
The listener has a moral obligation to himself to evaluate all that he or she hears and judge whether it is valid or not. No one can make those determinations for anyone but themselves. A person can certainly hand over their agency by willingly choosing to believe everything a given person says, but they are never stripped of their moral autonomy with respect to making decisions about things that are right and wrong. Thus, if someone hears from Donald Trump that most Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, and then proceeds to go out and beat and harass Mexicans, getting arrested for it, Donald Trump is not responsible for their actions to the extent that he cannot be found liable for incitement. Of course, if it is found that he is guilty of incitement, this in no way mitigates all those people who were incited to act criminally. Those people turned over their agency to another, but this does not remove their autonomous moral authority, unless they are children.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 5:00 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
... Eichmann was not able to deflect blame for his crimes.

PuerAzaelis said:
And if you do not speak up against Eichmann, you are likewise not responsible for those he is deceiving? Others just have to "investigate"?

And if you do speak up, that has not increased or affected in any way the moral responsibility of those who listen to "investigate"?

If speech has meaning, it has a moral power to affect circumstances just like any other object of perception, and those who use it are responsible for it.

If I refuse to have a conversation with some "deplorable", can I really blame that person if they take some action which I might not appreciate?

If I see someone with a knife in his hand and refuse to tell him how to remove it, can I really blame that person if they do something in some passion which harms them and others even more?

Your absolute view of moral autonomy is merciless and inapplicable to the circumstances of the relative world. The consequence of your view is to create some "safe space" which really is some isolated cave up on a hill.

Malcolm wrote:
We are talking at cross purposes.

One is one's own authority. One cannot rely on another for authority. Eichman sought to excuse his actions by claiming his responsibility was deferred because he was following orders. The point is that he was passing the buck.

People following Trump are responsible for their own decision. I am not responsible for their decision. It is no failing of mine personally that Trump was elected. I did not vote for him.

People are autonomous authorities. They can choose to relinquish that authority, but that choice also autonomous. A person's agency can be stripped away from them, but never their authority.

You are confusing agency with authority. As an agent in the world, I have responsibility for actions of mine that harm others. But agency and authority are different. When we make moral arguments, we can only do so by respecting the fact that people are morally autonomous. For example, if we have a conversation with someone who voted for Trump, we have to respect their moral autonomy in making that decision. We have to respect Eichmann's moral autonomy too. Indeed, the whole premise upon which convicting him of genocide, etc., rests, is that he was morally autonomous and made criminal choices which arose from his autonomy. He was not a minor, for example, whose moral autonomy is limited and therefore, his crimes might be ascribed to his parents, or in Eichmanns case, his superiors. The recognition of the moral autonomy of the individual is the basis for all distinctions of right and wrong in an individual's conduct.

With respect to your knife example: you have no agency to interfere with that person unless the knife they are holding is illegal, or they appear to be actively harming someone. People have the moral autonomy to make bad choices.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 4:24 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The minute one abrogates one's own discrimination and investigations of things, it is at that moment when one becomes a slave of blind ignorance.

PuerAzaelis said:
That is a merciless, existential view of moral autonomy which exists only in utopia. In the relative world, existence does not precede essence. I am morally responsible for my right speech not because it affects me alone, but because it has the power to deceive others who may not have the capacity to "investigate".

Malcolm wrote:
In fact, you are not responsible for the effects of your speech in this sense: when a person has jaundice, they will see everything as yellow. No matter now much you may want to correct them, you cannot.

Your speech as not power to deceive another. You cannot lie in a language you do not know. If you can speak in a language however, even if you are lying, it is the responsibility of others to ascertain this. For example, Eichmann was not able to deflect blame for his crimes. This is why it is up the student to check a teacher's qualities out beforehand.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 4:09 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
but those who speak, have "actual authority" or "actual responsibility" for the faith placed in such generalizations by society.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they don't. The responsibility lies upon oneself to ascertain what is true or false. If one gives over one's confidence to others to ascertain for oneself what is true or false, one is no better than the blind person in your thought experiment.

Consensus does not arise because we are told what it is we are supposed to agree upon; consensus arises individuals investigate things and agree upon common findings. The minute one abrogates one's own discrimination and investigations of things, it is at that moment when one becomes a slave of blind ignorance.

Thus, when someone shouts fire in a theater, I am going to find out if there is a fire before getting up in a panic, because it is my responsibility to do so.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 3:12 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
So can you choose to live from ultimate truth, "the transcendent state of the tathāgatas," like you might choose to live as a responsible mature adult instead of a narcissistic selfish adolescent?

Or does "the transcendent state" choose you once you have eightfold-path-ishly prepared the soil?

I ask because I am not interested in adopting a moral code or following a prescriptive path (grew up Catholic, been there done that, done *with* that) ... but I AM interested and drawn to living from emptiness.

Malcolm wrote:
When you understand what vidyā is, and you cultivate that, eventually, while performing virtuous acts (with respect to cultivating a path) becomes unnecessary, equally one has no impetus to engage in nonvirtuous acts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:50 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
If you think the point of conversation is to "make others responsible for my own views", that says a lot. If I am not responsible for the hope and faith of other people, then I am indeed living in a cave. To speak at all is to be responsible.

Malcolm wrote:
Nope. The only true authority is oneself. One hopes that authority is not mislead through lack of investigation and so on.

PuerAzaelis said:
If the only true authority is oneself, how could it ever be "mislead"?

Malcolm wrote:
"True" meaning actual, not "true" meaning undeceived.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:44 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
If I am not responsible for the hope and faith of other people, then I am indeed living in a cave. To speak at all is to be responsible.

Malcolm wrote:
There are two issues here being conflated:

The only true authority is oneself. One hopes that authority is not mislead through lack of investigation and so on. Thus, in matters of faith and so on, one must take responsibility for what one believes.

As to the second issue:

In a society based on freedom of discourse, we are responsible for our speech only to the extent that it does not incite riots and cause harm. But for example, Bernie Sanders is not responsible for the Democrats that did not believe he was a better candidate than Clinton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:37 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The faith that others may or may not have is not my responsibility.

PuerAzaelis said:
That, in a nutshell, is why the blinders will never come off those living inside the "safe spaces". Of course you're responsible, we all are.

Malcolm wrote:
Nope. In matters of faith, you are your own authority. You cannot make others responsible for your own views.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:30 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


PuerAzaelis said:
There are a lot more white people out there who are not racist and therefore do not like being called racist or being berated about how their country is racist. They also sense that the “everything is about race” crowd is using race as a cudgel to silence critics and have their way.

Malcolm wrote:
While not all "white" people are racists, unfortunately for us all America is a place where racism is systematic. We have not yet dealt with this reality as a country.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:08 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It was the context of the thread. A previous poster castigated me for causing people to lose their faith. You then replied you have lost your faith, the normal implication being you were holding me at fault. So I wanted to know how. Simple.

binocular said:
We're talking about people losing faith in the Buddhadharma. Losing faith in the Buddhadharma.
If the Buddhadharma as you teach is true, then loss of faith in it is tremendous. Such loss should not be taken lightly.

Malcolm wrote:
The faith that others may or may not have is not my responsibility.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 2:01 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
DGA said:
people who correspond to the category "white" come from diverse backgrounds, and which backgrounds count as white has changed dramatically over time.  Jews of European descent didn't used to be regarded as white; now they are.  Arabs--white or not?

Depends who and when you ask.

binocular said:
Many people are not philosophers, and they think and speak like Humpty Dumpty, making words mean whatever they want them to mean. And they are so much better off for that!

Malcolm wrote:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 12:46 AM
Title: Re: Living from ultimate truth
Content:
rachmiel said:
Is it possible to live from ultimate truth?

I.e. to grok ultimate truth and let the grokking inform all aspects of your life?

Since there is finally no difference between ultimate and conventional truth, is living from ultimate truth simply ... living?

Malcolm wrote:
In Dzogchen this is called "the transcendent state of the tathāgatas," which is defined as being in a continuous one pointed state of mind on the meaning.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 12:06 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Violence changes society, but never for the good.

Sherab Dorje said:
Nonsense.  Violent resistance to Nazi occupation (for example) did society a world of good.

Malcolm wrote:
It was necessary, but it was never good, and it led to the invention of nuclear weapons. There is never anything good about war, ever.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 17th, 2016 at 12:05 AM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:


Sentient Light said:
But you're correct that white consciousness must also mean conscious of the privilege that it affords, because if there is no honesty about that, then how can we (the confederation of "Other" cultures) possibly interact and engage with white American culture? There's room for all of us here if we could just talk to each other and be honest with one another and, somehow, drop away the fear we have that the other's viewpoint is a threat to our own existence.

Malcolm wrote:
The problem with the normalization of a "white ethnic consciousness" is that it is not a true consciousness, it is a false consciousness, a dangerous one.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:30 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
binocular said:
And you let me down at the first opportunity.

Malcolm wrote:
How?

binocular said:
I said I lost my faith in the Buddhadharma, and the first thing you reply is suggesting that I blame you for that loss.

Malcolm wrote:
It was the context of the thread. A previous poster castigated me for causing people to lose their faith. You then replied you have lost your faith, the normal implication being you were holding me at fault. So I wanted to know how. Simple.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:26 PM
Title: Re: what is whiteness? what is it to be "white" in the USA?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Interview with http://www.salon.com/2010/03/23/history_of_white_people_nell_irvin_painter/, author of The History of White People:
As you write in the book, there were four great expansions of what America considers whiteness. What were they?

The first three are expansions of whiteness, because the assumption was that to be American you first had to be white. The first occurred in the Jacksonian era, in the first half of the 19th century, when citizenship criteria were changed from wealth to race. That’s when adult males of any income were allowed to vote, as long as they were considered white. Things changed in the 20th century, when different groups came in as immigrants and people of Irish background were incorporated into the notion of American whiteness. The third great enlargement took place in the mid-20th century, starting with the New Deal in the 1930s and WWII. Politics and the mobilization of Americans to fight the Great Depression and to fight the Second World War opened up American-ness to people who had been considered alien races and their children and grandchildren.

We’re currently in the midst of the fourth great expansion, which is an expansion of the idea of the American — that an American doesn’t necessarily need to be white to be considered American. “American” now includes Hispanics, for example, and people who identify themselves as multiracial. Because of this sort of great enlargement, we can no longer sum up the American as one person or the white man as one person.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:11 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
MiphamFan said:
I just want to note that this place is kinda a "safe space" -- I know plenty of Buddhists who don't have leftist proclivities, both lamas and students. Most Tibetans I've met are not exactly sanguine about Islam for example.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Many Tibetans are also quite racist when it comes to black people. And I have heard some pretty outrageous lies about Muslims that Tibetans tell each other to keep the hate going.



MiphamFan said:
On the other hand it is rather silly for someone to be a white nationalist and a Buddhist at the same time.

Malcolm wrote:
The era of Buddhist alignment with national interests is nearly at an end. Those nations where Buddhism is most aligned with national interests — Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, and Shri Lanka— have serious issues with discrimination against minorities.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:



BuddhaFollower said:
Attitudes like yours is why Trump won.

conebeckham said:
Wrong again.
Trump won because Democratic voter turnout was pathetically low.  3rd party voting didn't have much effect, overall.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/11/the-10-most-common-post-election-narratives-and-wh.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/11/14/how-third-party-voters-influenced-election-2016/

BuddhaFollower said:
Jill Stein constantly attacked Clinton right up to the election.

You don't think that might have depressed turnout?

Malcolm wrote:
The amazing thing about that is that she recycled memes about Clinton which originated in the batshit crazy far right. For that reason Stein has forever lost my respect.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 11:21 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Admin_PC said:
Mod note:
Locking thread for clean up. White nationalists & those sympathetic to the white nationalist cause have no business posting on DharmaWheel as their behavior explicitly violates the Terms of Service.

Malcolm wrote:
Thank you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 8:25 AM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:


WuMing said:
Haven't been able to watch the stream, unfortunately! Was this event recorded? Can it be watched somewhere?

Malcolm wrote:
It has not happened yet.

M

WuMing said:
that's too bad!maybe it will appear sometime somewhere ...

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it will appear next month, on December 14th, 2016.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016 at 1:28 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
Unless the antiTrump people here voted for Clinton, they have no credibility.

Malcolm wrote:
Voted for Clinton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 11:43 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Ok, so you accept that  guns and violence are necessary to effect social change. I don't. Therefore, I don't accept your notion of revolution.

Sherab Dorje said:
"Can be" necessary, not "are" necessary.  History tends to lean towards the "are", that is why I am not willing to write them off as tools for social change.

Malcolm wrote:
Violence changes society, but never for the good.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 11:02 PM
Title: Re: Edward Henning (kalacakra.org) passed away
Content:
Karinos said:
via Chime Rinpoche (UK) post on Facebook:

Edward Henning passed away today at Barnet Hospital just before 7pm. at his bedside was Lama Chime Rinpoche, Edward's wife, his step daughter and John Howard. We pray for Edward to be reborn in `the pure land Dewachen, We will miss him greatly


Edward was great scholar on Kalachakra and Tibetan Astrology, close disciple on Bokar Rinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche and Chime Rinpoche UK. He shared some of his expertise knowledge on this page http://kalacakra.org. Please join in prayers.



Malcolm wrote:
Truly a loss.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 9:35 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Providing your concept of revolution does not involved guns and violence, fine.

Sherab Dorje said:
Of course it is not going to involve guns and violence.  I mean Trump and Clinton and the various neo-Nazis and tin-pot dictators of this world are all going to say:  "You know what Malcolm?  We are convinced by the veracity of your logical and intelligent argumentation.  Here, take all our power and privilege and divide it up amongst the weak and needy, so that they no longer suffer oppression or want for anything."

And then harp playing angels (ghandarva) will descend from the heavens and everything will be light and fluffy and a pale pink color...

That's the way change will come about.  Definitely.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok, so you accept that  guns and violence are necessary to effect social change. I don't. Therefore, I don't accept your notion of revolution.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 9:23 PM
Title: Re: a true flame? a true jewel?
Content:
DGA said:
Did Leonard Cohen know about the abuse, or no?

asking for a friend.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course he knew. I have friends who travelled there to do sesshin years before any of Sasaki's Roshi's actions were well known to the general public, and they found out right away (and were very upset by it). http://sweepingzen.com/anka-rick-spencer-on-joshu-sasaki/

DGA said:
More than once I heard ordained members of the Rinzai-ji sangha say, “If you have a problem with roshi’s behaviour, it’s your problem.” The implication was that Sasaki had no problems. If you thought he did, that just proved your own lack of understanding.

This was “old news” in the 1980’s. It’s very sad.

Anka Rick Spencer


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 8:53 PM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Dear Friends:

We at Zangthal Editions are pleased to announce a book release https://www.facebook.com/events/347201122292286/ on December 14th, 2016, 6:00 PM EST, which will be streamed live on Facebook for the benefit of those of you who reside far away from Vermont (most of you.)

WuMing said:
Haven't been able to watch the stream, unfortunately! Was this event recorded? Can it be watched somewhere?

Malcolm wrote:
It has not happened yet.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 11:49 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
It's not working.


Malcolm wrote:
The justice system is not working because racism is embedded in it systematically. Therefore, racists and bigots need to called out for their actions.

Quay said:
Calling out the racists and bigots is working. It will take some time, though, to translate that into election actions. Many interesting statistics happening recently such as as huge surge in memberships in the ACLU and the Souther Poverty Law Center, plus the actions of countless protesters nationwide.

Things are just really getting started.

And as I think Malcolm rightly points out, progressive change will take a while since racism is baked-in to the justice system and many other parts of the federal and state governments. Meanwhile, people who engage in racist behavior should be held accountable in every peaceful way possible. This begins with speaking truth to power as plainly and loudly as can be done.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
gzodzilpa said:
Thanks Malcolm for your efforts, the book is great! The translation is clear, the forward is insightful, and the text is very well organized.

Malcolm wrote:
Glad you are enjoying it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 11:07 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
It's not working.


Malcolm wrote:
The justice system is not working because racism is embedded in it systematically. Therefore, racists and bigots need to called out for their actions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 3:21 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
conebeckham said:
Yes, but he is apparently learning.  Maybe not quickly, and maybe not well enough....but I think we've seen a few signs that he's either learned a few things, or been told to back-pedal on some issues,in his first few days as Prez-Elect.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean like finding out that he has to hire a staff all at once, and not piecemeal?

Nemo said:
You put an orange real estate agent in control of the world's last remaining super power with the world's most complex economy.
This will make for some great TV.

Malcolm wrote:
Don't blame me, I voted for Bernie.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 3:12 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2020, part 1
Content:
Rakz said:
I think he will rock it in his first term.

DGA said:
For the sake of our country and the world, I hope Trump succeeds at the following (in no particular order):

1. addressing climate change

Malcolm wrote:
Dream on.

DGA said:
2. addressing income inequality

Malcolm wrote:
As above.

DGA said:
3. addressing the racial and ethnic animus that got him elected

Malcolm wrote:
Betray his base? No chance.

DGA said:
4. creating jobs...

Malcolm wrote:
The prison-industrial complex will thrive on all the undocumented immigrants he plans to incarcerate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 3:03 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
But then he knows nothing of governance or law.

conebeckham said:
Yes, but he is apparently learning.  Maybe not quickly, and maybe not well enough....but I think we've seen a few signs that he's either learned a few things, or been told to back-pedal on some issues,in his first few days as Prez-Elect.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean like finding out that he has to hire a staff all at once, and not piecemeal?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 2:32 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Revolution or evolution.  Depending on how one defines either term.

Malcolm wrote:
How are you defining revolution?

Sherab Dorje said:
A complete and radical (as in root) change of attitude.

Malcolm wrote:
Providing your concept of revolution does not involved guns and violence, fine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:44 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:



BuddhaFollower said:
If you don't understand there are various regulations for H1B visas, greencards etc., you are beyond help.

Malcolm wrote:
These issues are governed by the Immigration Act of 1990.

BuddhaFollower said:
According to justsit, this act violates the Constitution.

Malcolm wrote:
I suspect what justsit is getting at is that is not considered legal to bar someone admission to the united states solely on the basis of their race, political creed (unless one is a member of the Communist or National Socialist Parties), or gender preference or religion. For this purpose we have set up a quota system governing how many people can emigrate here yearly in a country by country basis. The idea that Trump floated— barring people admission to the US because they are Muslims — is illegal. But then he knows nothing of governance or law.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:37 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The alternative being?

Sherab Dorje said:
Revolution or evolution.  Depending on how one defines either term.

Malcolm wrote:
How are you defining revolution?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:08 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
One can gear-up movements, and I am all for that, but eventually, those movements have to effect change in government and policy, and in a republic,  in the end it means the ballot box.

Sherab Dorje said:
Sure, if you want to stay within the bounds of reformism...

Malcolm wrote:
The alternative being?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:07 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:


Sherab Dorje said:
Seems that you benefitted from left-wing intellectuals demanding universal access to education though.

Malcolm wrote:
I am not so sure. Being able to read and write does not guarantee that one has received an adequate education. But it's a start.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:03 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You mean like voting for the candidates of conspiracy-theory laden political parties? Hmmmm, that leaves, sadly, only the Democratic Party. The other three parties, the GOP, the Green Party and the Libertarians are lead by lunatics who subscribe to many of the same conspiracy theories. For example, the idea that Clinton was bent on starting a nuclear war with Russia.

Sherab Dorje said:
Who said anything about voting for parties?  Not me, that's for sure.

Malcolm wrote:
One can gear-up movements, and I am all for that, but eventually, those movements have to effect change in government and policy, and in a republic,  in the end it means the ballot box.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 1:00 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
The Cicada said:
But isn't obvious, from current events, that you all have failed us?

Malcolm wrote:
You've failed yourselves.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 12:55 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
justsit said:
DGA - Thanks, you beat me to it. He obviously didn't do his homework.


BuddhaFollower said:
If you don't understand there are various regulations for H1B visas, greencards etc., you are beyond help.

Malcolm wrote:
These issues are governed by the Immigration Act of 1990.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 12:45 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
The sooner you realise that, the sooner you will start to make semi-intelligent political choices.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean like voting for the candidates of conspiracy-theory laden political parties? Hmmmm, that leaves, sadly, only the Democratic Party. The other three parties, the GOP, the Green Party and the Libertarians are lead by lunatics who subscribe to many of the same conspiracy theories. For example, the idea that Clinton was bent on starting a nuclear war with Russia.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 12:39 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
binocular said:
And you let me down at the first opportunity.

Malcolm wrote:
How?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 11:53 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Rakz said:
Maybe it has nothing to do with envy, but more to do with a distrust for crooks?

Sherab Dorje said:
Nah, that's not it.  If it was a distrust for crooks they wouldn't have voted for Trump, coz he is currently under investigation for thievery too...

Rakz said:
Most of it are BS allegations. Hillary on the other hand is pure slime. I will be very upset with Donald if he doesn't go through with his promise in getting her prosecuted and throwing her crooked a$$ in jail for a long time.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean prosecuted for things for which she has already been exonerated? Honestly, you GOP people have an irrational hardon for Clinton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 10:15 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


maybay said:
The moment you accuse someone of racism you distance them, you objectify them, and you'll never get that distance back.

Malcolm wrote:
When one person violates or denies the civil rights of another through word or deed, that person's act is racist or bigoted. A person who acts in a racist or bigoted manner has already set the distance between themselves and the person they have objectified. They will never get that distance back until they engage the truth of their actions and begin the process of reconciliation with the objects of their hatred.

Calling out someone such as Donald Trump for their acts of racism and bigotry (which include hiring racist antisemites such as Steve Bannon, and bigots such as Mike Pence) is the only way to impress upon all racists and bigots that they are acting in a wrong and harmful manner to society.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 10:02 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Rakz said:
Liberal fear mongering at its best. You talk as though we are still living in the Jim Crow era where blacks are getting lynched left and right.

Malcolm wrote:
Black people are disproportionally victims of extrajudicial killings by the police. This is a statistical fact.


Rakz said:
We are nowhere close to some sort of post-racial society but it is much better than before.


Malcolm wrote:
No, it isn't. African Americans account for 13.5 percent of the population, but they represent 40% of incarcerated males, or 2,306 people per 100,000 people who are incarcerated. In other words, for every 100,000 people there are five times of number of African American prisoners than white prisoners, a 5:1 ratio. In 1980 there were 319,598 people in prison, 182,288 in jail, 220,438 on parole, and 1,118,097 on probation. That number in 2013 is 1,574,700 in prison, 731,200 in jail, 853,200 on parole, and 3,910,600 on probation. That stats simply do not bear out the GOP fantasy that "it is much better than it was before."


Rakz said:
And if you really cared about minorities you would be in full support of the second amendment so that they may be able to defend themselves against acts of extreme violence.

Malcolm wrote:
Against the police? Black men are being shot because the police fear they have guns. How is spreading more guns going to help people in the black community?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 11:43 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Speaking from an economic growth point of view, right now we are already in a phase of sluggish trade, etc. Going all isolationist ala Herr Trump will destroy the recovery from 2008.

Political discontent is almost always divorced from economic reality.

Karma Dorje said:
There was no recovery from 2008. Quantitative easing has delayed any real recovery. ZIRP has been bleeding people on fixed income dry. The only jobs that have been created are at the low end of the market, everything else has been either hollowed out, shipped out or filled by foreigners on H1Bs. This is exactly why Trump's message resonated with enough people to win.

Economic "reality" is totally divorced from actual reality. Witness how a bad jobs report or CPI read leads to the stock market climbing on anticipation of further easing. Conversely a good jobs report bleeds points off the stock market as investors fear the QE party will end and/or interest rates will climb. The incentives are entirely perverse and not at all what Keynes intended to stimulate the economy during a bust.

If Obama had actually locked up the Blankfein's and Geitner's and Summers of the world for their role in the crash, the Democrats might have some credibility. The fact of the matter is, right now they are the Vampire Squid Party. You can't run an economy on financial "engineering". You need to actually make stuff. There will be a day of reckoning for us either way. The pendulum has swung far too far towards globalism. It's time for it to swing back, and yes it won't be fun for a lot of people, particularly with the fascists controlling all three branches of government.

Malcolm wrote:
The stock market is not an indicator of how the economy is doing, either.

You missed an important point— I was making the observation that there is discontinuity between how people think they are doing, and how they are actually doing. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/09/how-americans-compare-with-the-global-middle-class/ occupy the high income bracket when considering wealth on a global scale:
Nonetheless, the majority of Americans are part of the global high-income population that resides almost exclusively in Europe and North America. These two regions accounted for 87% of the global high-income population in 2011 – only slightly less than in 2001, when their share stood at 91%. The rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 11:28 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The neoliberal solution of making sure everyone has cellphones and flatscreen tvs is not working. Ergo, we need to revive the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the labor movement, and most importantly of all, the environmental movement.

PuerAzaelis said:
Why would something which is already an anachronism return to the anachronism which it replaced?

Malcolm wrote:
These four movements are not anachronisms, they were never brought to their conclusion.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 6:31 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
dreambow said:
The shifting around of great swathes of people, millions around the globe has to be addressed; this has resulted in cheap labour flourishing around the world undermining and undercutting wages and living conditions. In addition Chinese money buying up housing in Canada, Australia and the rest of the western world, often not living there but going back to China and Hong Kong, leaving empty  investment properties, this has driven up the rental market so the locals can ill afford to buy or even find property to rent. I know its a global phenomenon but this needs a serious look in. Brexit and the newly elected Trump are the long suffering echo of the people's discontent.

Malcolm wrote:
I think you need to study some economic history. You ever hear of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act?

dreambow said:
At first, the tariff seemed to be a success. According to historian Robert Sobel, "Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all increased sharply." However, larger economic problems loomed in the guise of weak banks. When the Creditanstalt of Austria failed in 1931, the global deficiencies of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff became apparent.[17]

U.S. imports decreased 66% from $4.4 billion (1929) to $1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from $5.4 billion to $2.1 billion. GNP fell from $103.1 billion in 1929 to $75.8 billion in 1931 and bottomed out at $55.6 billion in 1933.[21] Imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1.3 billion to just $390 million during 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe decreased from $2.3 billion in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934

Malcolm wrote:
Speaking from an economic growth point of view, right now we are already in a phase of sluggish trade, etc. Going all isolationist ala Herr Trump will destroy the recovery from 2008.

Political discontent is almost always divorced from economic reality.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 5:14 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Really?  Is there a poll that shows that "most Americans" think this way?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, for example http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/not-worth-it-huge-majority-regret-iraq-war-exclusive-poll-n139686: Seventy-one percent of Americans now say that the war in Iraq “wasn’t worth it,” a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll shows, with skepticism about the lengthy war effort up substantially even in the last 18 months.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 4:24 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:


Sherab Dorje said:
Are you insane?  1.  Why the frak would they give U$ troops immunity?  2.  ISIS are funded and armed by the Saudis, who happen to be the U$'s major buddy in the Middle East and who are currently invading a sovereign nation (Yemen), committing all sorts of atrocities in the process, with the U$ not even batting an eyelid.

Vietnam taught the U$ the value of private mercenary troops to do their dirty work.  Afghanistan and Iraq has taught them the value of proxy military forces.

Malcolm wrote:
We knew all these lessons already.

As a condition for any "peacetime" deployment, the US always insists on immunity, meaning that only the US can charge and try US soldiers.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 3:29 AM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Dear Friends:

We at Zangthal Editions are pleased to announce a book release https://www.facebook.com/events/347201122292286/ on December 14th, 2016, 6:00 PM EST, which will be streamed live on Facebook for the benefit of those of you who reside far away from Vermont (most of you.)

Jeff H said:
Cool beans, man!! Northern Daughters Art Gallery is two blocks from my house. Hope to meet you!

Malcolm wrote:
I am sure we will meet then.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 2:51 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
Breitbart

Malcolm wrote:
Get your head out of the gutter, man! It will rot your mind.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 2:07 AM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We have to make sure we do not become http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Good%20German

Sherab Dorje said:
I think most modern U$ citizens are already "good Germans" and have been for quite some time, especially when they turned a blind-eye to the excesses of the U$ military in Asia, the Middle East and to their governments support of murderous dictatorships in Central and South America.

And let us not forget the treatment of their own citizens in U$ jail facilities.

I reckon (if one was not to take into account the methodical genocide of Native Americans, which is why I am referring to MODERN U$ citizens), that U$ citizens have been "good Germans" since the mass murder of 230,000 civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Malcolm wrote:
I can understand why you see it that way. I think it is bit more complicated than that, however.

During the Cold War, most Americans thought that our governments actions were totally justified in the face of the spread of communism. It was not the case that Americans sought to deflect blame, they actually supported our actions overseas and abroad (including the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Now, most Americans, once they woke up from the fog of 9/11, realize that the Iraq War was deeply wrong, even those who voted for Trump. Many Americans understand that the destruction of Libya was wrong. And Syria is not on us, that's on Assad and Putin, despite our blunders with respect to the the Syrian opposition. The Iraqis would not give US troops immunity, so we pulled them all out in 2011, hence ISIS.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 1:19 AM
Title: Re: Buddhahood in This Life
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Dear Friends:

We at Zangthal Editions are pleased to announce a book release https://www.facebook.com/events/347201122292286/ on December 14th, 2016, 6:00 PM EST, which will be streamed live on Facebook for the benefit of those of you who reside far away from Vermont (most of you.)


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 1:09 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
I go here to discuss things from a Buddhist perspective.

Malcolm wrote:
And I go here to discuss things from a Buddhist's perspective.

Minobu said:
cherry picking is fun.

Malcolm wrote:
When we have conversations with each other, we do not respond point by point, word by word, to what was said to us. It is only in online communication where people have the idea that if you respond only to one thing that they have said, that you are not responding to the whole of their communication. This is a false idea. And of course, in online communication it does help matters if one frames one's ideas clearly, in complete, well-formatted sentences.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2016 at 12:43 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
I go here to discuss things from a Buddhist perspective.

Malcolm wrote:
And I go here to discuss things from a Buddhist's perspective.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 11:47 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Jeff H said:
Instead of focusing on the malcontent extremists Trump used to get elected, find common ground with the legitimately discontented majority.

Malcolm wrote:
Good question. Is their discontent legitimate? After all, the average Trump voter makes $75,000 a year.

MiphamFan said:
Trump has a larger share of https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/10/there-probably-is-no-new-donald-trump-voting-coalition/ than Clinton.

The low income vote, regardless of race, dropped from Obama to Clinton for the Democrat side.

Malcolm wrote:
In actuality, what happened was that Obama revived the ideals of the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women's movement and the environmental movement...then there was a gaping silence...and everyone started to stay home.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 10:51 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Nemo said:
Minobu likes living in a bubble. Canada is a post racial socialist paradise in his mind. I replied to him about my daughter's experiences of extreme racism but got no reply. Hateful graffiti at the elementary school just down the street now.
http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/hateful-message-spray-painted-on-ottawa-elementary-school-1.3149695#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=Facebook&_gsc=S94lNAL

Malcolm wrote:
Day before the US Election. Chilling.

Nemo said:
Voting is not how you get anything done politically.

Malcolm wrote:
In their pursuit of unfettered global trade, which they imagined was going to create a consumer paradise (instead it created a Walmart Nation of cheap shit that breaks easily and unhealthy food), the Democrats ceded the civil rights movement (we should include the LGBT movement here), the labor movement, the women's movement, and the environmental movement. To whom? To no one. They just dropped it.

Meanwhile, the religious right got their shit together. They 1) created a movement to oppose a woman's right to reproductive health, 2) manufactured the myth that America was post-racial and that civil rights for all people were in fact guaranteed (it isn't and they are not), 3) manufactured the myth that climate change is debatable science (it isn't), and 4) seeing an opportunity with Trump to hijack areas where in the United States the labor movement used to be powerful, they won this time.

You need real movements in order to generate electoral results. The neoliberal solution of making sure everyone has cellphones and flatscreen tvs is not working. Ergo, we need to revive the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the labor movement, and most importantly of all, the environmental movement.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 10:30 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:


Jeff H said:
The important thing now is to accept what has happened and find ways to generate a counter balancing force. That will not happen by labeling all Trump supporters as evil and heaping insults on them.


Malcolm wrote:
We have to make sure we do not become http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Good%20German

Jeff H said:
A citizen of Nazi Germany who participated in or overlooked atrocities while denying personal moral responsibility by appeal to his submission to supposedly legitimate authority.

Malcolm wrote:
Tolerating the forcible removal of 11 million people, for example, would make one a "good German."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 9:42 PM
Title: Re: anti-intellectualism
Content:
Jeff H said:
Instead of focusing on the malcontent extremists Trump used to get elected, find common ground with the legitimately discontented majority.

Malcolm wrote:
Good question. Is their discontent legitimate? After all, the average Trump voter makes $75,000 a year.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 9:23 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Minobu said:
same point I've been making for days.
this is a Buddhist site with Buddhist ideals and philosophy.

Malcolm wrote:
And you are the arbiter of those ideals and philosophy?


Minobu said:
All this other stuff is just there to show you what you do not want to be part of.

Malcolm wrote:
Then follow your own advice and cease participating in political discussions. This is the kind of lack of discipline to which I was referring before. You have spent several days now engaging trenchant criticisms of those of us who choose to be engaged in the political process, even recognizing that you've been, in your words, "sucked in again." But you are not in fact an unwilling participant. Rather than trying to cover the world with leather, I suggest you put on some damn shoes.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 8:34 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
and this is my fault because?

binocular said:
There you go. I never said it was your fault that I have lost faith in the Buddhadharma. But you're certainly not helping to build that faith.
In the end, you are every bit the proponent of rugged individualism as Trump.


Malcolm wrote:
Bait and switch. Got it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 10:30 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
So you are saying that you are now bereft of faith in Buddhadharma in toto?
Yes.

and this is my fault because?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:35 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


PuerAzaelis said:
You seem to me to be going in circles which happens I think when people argue for the sake of arguing.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed, I have often thought that maybay's avatar should be this:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:31 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Minobu said:
What did Obama do in the eight years he was president to thwart real climate change. Nothing.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, he did quite a bit. It is not obvious because he was forced to do things through executive orders since the GOP position is that science is not science.

As for the rest of your post, it merely shows a lack of discipline in thought.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:28 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
This is getting personal. Ok, you hold them accountable. I don't think anyone is suggesting you wouldn't. Time to hold each other accountable then. This will be force. Not something we can discuss. Better to watch your mind and act decisively.

Malcolm wrote:
The only force I need to use is the force of bearing witness.

maybay said:
If you believe in effective justice and not just some ideal of justice then you will need a police force.

Malcolm wrote:
I have no problem with peace officers, as the police were once known.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:25 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Umm...guys I'm saying "The entire point of dharma is that any degree of violence at all is unacceptable" is blatantly untrue.

Malcolm wrote:
What degree of violence is acceptable to you?

maybay said:
Definition: As a defence against the illegitimate use of force when rational negotiation proves impossible.
Example: Noble Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela's paramilitary group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umkhonto_we_Sizwe


Malcolm wrote:
I hope it does not come to that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
I want to understand them. You seem to want to damn them.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am simply going to hold them accountable for their harmful words and actions.

I already understand them. They are my relatives and neighbors.

maybay said:
This is getting personal. Ok, you hold them accountable. I don't think anyone is suggesting you wouldn't. Time to hold each other accountable then. This will be force. Not something we can discuss. Better to watch your mind and act decisively.

Malcolm wrote:
The only force I need to use is the force of bearing witness.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:12 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Umm...guys I'm saying "The entire point of dharma is that any degree of violence at all is unacceptable" is blatantly untrue.

Malcolm wrote:
What degree of violence is acceptable to you?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 2:08 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
I want to understand them. You seem to want to damn them.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I am simply going to hold them accountable for their harmful words and actions.

I already understand them. They are my relatives and neighbors.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:59 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Violence is the use of force against the person or property of a nonconsenting other adult. By this definition, we have indeed seen many acts of violence in these past days, on the level of the body. The entire point of dharma is that any degree of violence at all is unacceptable for our greater happiness, and that we can apply the remedy to it.

maybay said:
I suppose you think they called Padmasambhava in to Tibet for his masonry skills or something

Malcolm wrote:
Skills in irrigation planning and implementation, actually, according to the very earliest records we have on him.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:57 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
I guess what you all don't understand is that I was raised in the protest culture of the 1960's—  my momma was a dedicated civil rights activist, and later, a dedicated feminist activist. A desire for social, economic and environmental justice is in my blood. YMMV.

maybay said:
Well then, now we know who we're really to.

Malcolm wrote:
This sentence is incoherent— but apart from that, I have never made any secret of the above.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:56 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
i don't think you actually want to hear what i have to say...

Malcolm wrote:
I think you don't have a real grasp of the situation. If you did, you would not be advocating passivity [just the climate change ramifications of the Trump Administration are really terrible].

As for hate, I have no wish to harm anyone. Therefore, your accusation of hate is unfounded. You should apologize.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:53 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
The entire point of dharma is that any degree of violence at all is unacceptable for our greater happiness, and that we can apply the remedy to it.

Malcolm wrote:
And "harming" includes not intervening when sentient beings are being harmed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:52 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
In fact it is all hidden to most of them. They understand neither the science nor the technology, and they are excluded from most of the media.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, but this statement is truly idiotic and elitist.

maybay said:
Idiotic in the sense of politically ignorant? Elitism is a fact Malcolm. You of all people should know this.

Malcolm wrote:
Idiotic in the sense of falling into the All True Scotsman fallacy.


maybay said:
But I wouldn't say this to anyone in the video. And I'm not criticising them for being racist. And I'm not excusing them. And not having an understanding of science and technology, or a stake in the media, is not the same as being mentally inferior.

Malcolm wrote:
See above.

maybay said:
I agree they know what they are doing and saying, but obviously that is not the issue. I was highlighting their ignorance as a contributing factor of their fear and anger.

Malcolm wrote:
You highlighted the wrong ignorance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:36 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
Brahman is not pristine consciousness?

Malcolm wrote:
Nope. Pristine consciousness ( ye shes, jñāna ) is not transpersonal.

BuddhaFollower said:
Okay, then this is the same as the Upanishads.

Remember there is a difference between the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta formulated by Adi Shankara etc.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not the same as the Upanishads, since jñāna in the Upanishads is not empty.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:33 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Mkoll said:
Again, no excuse for any for it. Perhaps the Trump people are more to blame for violent acts, perhaps not. What I know for sure is that there is a lot of hate on both sides. And when there is only demonization of the other side without acknowledging the demons on one's own, there is little chance for positive change.

Malcolm wrote:
I am not going to patronize racists the way maybay does, and I am not demonizing anyone. I am pointing out the real consequences of the Trump election. If you can't handle it, just go ahead, be passive, and close your eyes. My momma raised me better than that.

I guess what you all don't understand is that I was raised in the protest culture of the 1960's—  my momma was a dedicated civil rights activist, and later, a dedicated feminist activist. A desire for social, economic and environmental justice is in my blood. YMMV.


BuddhaFollower said:
You don't understand that minorities have ALWAYS experienced racism.

I've had shit yelled at me as gas stations or walking on a sidewalk ALWAYS.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, I do know this. I have intervened every time I have personally been witness to it. The way to deal with this is to continue to share your experience with people who care.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:30 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
Do you have a specific course of action in mind, sign me up.

Malcolm wrote:
Keep posting, do not let this memory fade. Hit the streets when necessary.


PuerAzaelis said:
You're not saying that dharma is not the best way to do those three things, are you?

Malcolm wrote:
There are two kinds of Dharma: secular Dharma (mi chos) and higher Dharma (lha chos). Right now, the appropriate Dharma is mi chos. But some people where have not been properly taught, so they do not know that there is a right time and right place for everything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:27 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
I am sorry, my friend, but we have had over https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/11/over-200-incidents-hateful-harassment-and-intimidation-election-day incidents of racial attacks etc., in the past four days.

Incidents such as the one you picture were exceedingly rare during the campaign. The Trump campaign owns the vast majority of violent incidents. And now, since the election, it has gotten a great deal worse.

Mkoll said:
Again, no excuse for any for it. Perhaps the Trump people are more to blame for violent acts, perhaps not. What I know for sure is that there is a lot of hate on both sides. And when there is only demonization of the other side without acknowledging the demons on one's own, there is little chance for positive change.

Malcolm wrote:
I am not going to patronize racists the way maybay does, and I am not demonizing anyone. I am pointing out the real consequences of the Trump election. If you can't handle it, just go ahead, be passive, and close your eyes. My momma raised me better than that.

I guess what you all don't understand is that I was raised in the protest culture of the 1960's—  my momma was a dedicated civil rights activist, and later, a dedicated feminist activist. A desire for social, economic and environmental justice is in my blood. YMMV.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:22 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
In fact it is all hidden to most of them. They understand neither the science nor the technology, and they are excluded from most of the media.

Malcolm wrote:
Sorry, but this statement is truly idiotic and elitist.

maybay said:
I'm presenting my understanding of their sociological context. And you are predictably returning to the legal bureaucratic talk which they feel is an illegitimate basis for common understanding.

Malcolm wrote:
If you ever said this to any one of the people in that video, they would beat the shit out of you because it is so patronizing. Feel free to criticize them for being racist, but don't excuse it on the basis that they are somehow mentally inferior and too stupid to know better. They know exactly what they are doing and saying.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:19 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
you made your point months ago.

Malcolm wrote:
Obviously not, since you continue to make excuses for racist violence in the guise of "We can't do anything about it anyway."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:17 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Excuses, anyone?

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https://phpbbex.com/ [video]

Mkoll said:
The fact is that there is deplorable speech and action on both sides. One can't single out just Trump supporters for being hateful, as the video below evidences.

if (typeof bbmedia == 'undefined') { bbmedia = true; var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = 'bbmedia.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(e, s); }
https://phpbbex.com/ [video]

Malcolm wrote:
I am sorry, my friend, but we have had over https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/11/over-200-incidents-hateful-harassment-and-intimidation-election-day incidents of racial attacks etc., in the past four days.

Incidents such as the one you picture were exceedingly rare during the campaign. The Trump campaign owns the vast majority of violent incidents. And now, since the election, it has gotten a great deal worse.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:12 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Minobu said:
No I do care.
There will always be hate in this world. Some Americans are white supremacist and some are tree huggers and some are etc.

Malcolm wrote:
Pathetic rationalization.

Minobu said:
Trump did not create American Nazis , he just wanted their vote. It is proven now that so called ,racist white people  by the droves came out to vote , mostly for the first time.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, this is false. It is not born out by voter registration records. It is a myth.

Minobu said:
It's the way of the world Malcolm , that there is this sort of thing in it.

Malcolm wrote:
The old, "You can't fix samsara" is getting rather old. Of course you cannot fix samsara. But you can help sentient beings.

Minobu said:
My point is politicians for the most part are con men and women and will do and say anything to the great unwashed to get in power.
To get caught up in it to the point where it becomes an obsession is not healthy.

The only way to change it is from within. the more you try to do exactly what you are doing is only creating people without your view to get angrier, and it's all so moot anyway and a waste of energy.

Malcolm wrote:
This is a rational for passivity in the face of the suffering of others. What happened to your bodhisattva commitments? There are certain kinds of views that are pernicious in society and they need to be shut down when they spill over into violence and harm. Of course some idiot is going to come back with a quip about liberal intolerance, it is to be expected from people who do not think clearly and are solely interested in justifying racism.

Minobu said:
The only way to change it is the change from within the individual . Every time you connect to the Primordial Buddha by focusing with the Dharma that brings you to that state within ,you actually affect the entire universe in a positive way only a Buddha can fathom.

This is what we are taught.

Malcolm wrote:
Your theory contradicts what you stated above.

Minobu said:
all this stuff you are doing , seriously, makes you look like as much a hate monger as what you are hating.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, protesting against racist violence and environmental disaster makes one a hate monger.

Minobu said:
in any case i am trying to help.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't need your help. But thanks anyway.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 1:00 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


maybay said:
They find the whole idea of someone creeping around with hidden technology to catch people saying swear words utterly spineless, miserable, underhanded and completely lacking in self respect.

Malcolm wrote:
Those were cell phone videos and video cameras. No secret technology needed. That is what people like Project Veritas do, creep about with hidden cameras. You are basically defending the right of some people to violate the civil rights of others with impunity. Shame on you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 12:58 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
They fear for their way of life. They feel ignored, ganged up on by an elite bureaucracy.

Malcolm wrote:
This is no excuse. This same excuse was used to explain why whites in the South reacted to the Civil Rights Movement.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 12:53 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
lso As someone said before however the hardest thing to do is not to pray for the victims, but the murderers, racists, terrorists, fascists.

Malcolm wrote:
One has to bear witness and not shut one's eyes. We have not seen such a surge in racism and bigotry in the USA since the Civil Rights Movement. When you combine this with the fact that there have been 832 extrajudicial killings this year by the police as of today, how can anyone in their right mind not speak out? How can anyone excuse this? Please, explain it to me. I am all ears.

When you excuse the hatred, violence and bigotry in these videos, and pictures, you are excusing the oppression of human beings.

People who float the "This is samsara, what do you expect" argument are betraying their bodhisattva commitments.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 12:44 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Minobu said:
I mean really now if you listen to what some people post in this thread you wonder how much they are conning themselves and are wrapped up in the delusion.


Malcolm wrote:
You need to take a look at https://medium.com/@seanokane/day-1-in-trumps-america-9e4d58381001#.uzo8r6knv and https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/11/over-200-incidents-hateful-harassment-and-intimidation-election-day.

This is about bearing witness to the bigotry, racism and xenophobia unleashed by Trump in the American Electorate. If you don't care, don't comment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 13th, 2016 at 12:11 AM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:
DGA said:
... arugula munching ...

PuerAzaelis said:
As a spokesperson for the rights and responsibilities of arugula I take exception to this characterization. Redneck racists munch arugula as well as Euro commie pinkos, Muslim terrorists and Canadians. It's time for this great country to heal by coming together over the arugula. We all belong to one salad bowl. Let's seize this opportunity to munch the arugula as a team, and avoid the soup.

Malcolm wrote:
Make Arugula Great Again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 11:55 PM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
When was the last time a President was impeached?

Malcolm wrote:
Clinton, 1998-1999. He was acquitted.  Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 11:31 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Excuses, anyone?

if (typeof bbmedia == 'undefined') { bbmedia = true; var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = 'bbmedia.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(e, s); }
https://phpbbex.com/ [video]


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 8:54 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:



BuddhaFollower said:
Why did you translate the bolded part like that?

Sounds like Advaita Vedanta.

Malcolm wrote:
then you have not studied well enough.

BuddhaFollower said:
Brahman is not pristine consciousness?

Malcolm wrote:
Nope. Pristine consciousness ( ye shes, jñāna ) is not transpersonal.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 11:44 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
FINALLY!!  a voice of reason...wisdom AND compassion!

Malcolm wrote:
Compassion for racist clowns is a given, compassion for their racism, no chance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 11:38 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:



BuddhaFollower said:
Why did you translate the bolded part like that?

Sounds like Advaita Vedanta.

Malcolm wrote:
then you have not studied well enough.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 5:42 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


dzogchungpa said:
Well, as ChNN says in The Supreme Source, "the state of consciousness of each individual is the center of the universe."

.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much eliminates the possibility for a transpersonal interpretation of Dzogchen now, doesn't it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 5:41 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Vasana said:
But i suppose this isn't the time for that when so many people are pissed and fearful of their future.

Malcolm wrote:
My future is not an issue. It is the future of others that has me concerned.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 5:28 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
how many more Kalpas is Malcolm going to produce this ...

Malcolm wrote:
None. After this life, no more rebirth in samsara for me. But your concern is noted and appreciated.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 3:51 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Also, it is useful to understand how insignificant we are at the same time, and how vast the universe is. It is also useful to understand that the universe is of course naturally pure. There is no buddhahood anywhere else.

Vasana said:
I never buy the remark that we're insignificant based on the sole fact that the universal existence of a sentience that can formulate a scale-of-significance in the first place is in it's self, pretty significant for that very reason. Then there's the profound but overlooked significance of 'being' anything at all.


Malcolm wrote:
Ok, well, glory in your significance then.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 3:23 AM
Title: Re: When Karma gets produced
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Though I am not really convinced about the Arhat thing. Why? Arhats have no clinging to life.

maybay said:
What's to be convinced about. It's specifically mentioned.

Hsuan-tsang: 'There is killing even when there is doubt: a person, with respect to the object
that he desires to kill, is in doubt: Is this a living being or not? And, if it is living, is it such a one or
another?' then he makes the decision: 'Whether this is one or the other, I shall kill him': by reason
of this parityaga thought, if he kills a living being, he commits the action." Paramartha: " . . . by
reason of these three factors, there is the action (above, note 312). If this is the case,then a person
can be in doubt and kill (=commit the transgression of murder): 'Is this a living being or not? Is this
such a one or not?' This person, with respect to the object to be killed, is determined to kill:
'Whether this be one or the other, I shall kill him.' There is thus production of a parityaga thought.
If he kills, he obtains the transgression of killing."

Malcolm wrote:
No, you misunderstand. Greg was saying:

Sherab Dorje said:
Or it will be different if you kill one Arhat as opposed to 100 ants.

Malcolm wrote:
I was expressing some doubt about this.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 2:23 AM
Title: Re: When Karma gets produced
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Yes, these are the details. Though I am not really convinced about the Arhat thing. Why? Arhats have no clinging to life.

Sherab Dorje said:
I think it has more to do with the positive influence that an Arhat exercises on an environment and their rarity, that makes killing them a greater "offence".


Malcolm wrote:
Yes, this is the rational, still not convinced.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 2:03 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Minobu said:
also you have sparked a deep question me , Malcolm.

you refer to Mahayanist view. You also talked of this in another thread.


Malcolm wrote:
You don't get it. We live inside of the body of Mahavairocana. There are no budhafields not included in Mahavairocana's body. We live in a world system which is contained in the palm of his hand, Kusumatalagarbha-alamkara. From that point of view, the goings on in our own little Sahaloka are but trifles.


Minobu said:
This has gnawed at me and i need to know what you know....

have you discussed this in this forum...is there a thread where i can learn more about it and this Mahayanist view you hold. I think i might be skewed a tad...lol...and you might be helpful...

so if you have the time...it won't be ill spent.

i retain stuff for life...and i think my view needs a tad tweaking for my paradigm might be off...

also i won't be such a delicate flower when it comes to my ego with you any more...Sorry for being so samsaricly frail to your posts at times.

Malcolm wrote:
Being neglectful of others' suffering is the antithesis of Mahāyāna motivation. We may not be physically able to do much for others, but we should always been aware and sympathetic for the sufferings of others, event the suffering of fascist shitheads who out of ignorance seek their own happiness through inflicting misery on others.

Also, it is useful to understand how insignificant we are at the same time, and how vast the universe is. It is also useful to understand that the universe is of course naturally pure. There is no buddhahood anywhere else.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 1:57 AM
Title: Re: When Karma gets produced
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
My completely baseless opinion on the matter is that the intention to commit an action is the defining/determining factor, but the action itself (according to Jigten Sumgon), the extent of the action, the object of the action and whether one takes delight or feels remorse about the action, affect the final overall outcome.

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha, Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu have declared with one voice: "Karma is volition and that which proceeds from volition." Thus volitions are primary actions and the deeds of body and voice are derived action.

Thus, there are three kinds of volition, positive, negative and neutral. Positive thoughts are positive karma, a.k.a., merit. Etc.

Sherab Dorje said:
I don't disagree, but there is no doubt, for example, that if you have the intention to kill then the karma accrued will be different if you kill one being than if you kill 100.  Or it will be different if you kill one Arhat as opposed to 100 ants.  Or that the effect on the mindstream will differ depending on whether you feel joy regarding the killing, or regret.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, these are the details. Though I am not really convinced about the Arhat thing. Why? Arhats have no clinging to life.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 12th, 2016 at 1:44 AM
Title: Re: When Karma gets produced
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
My completely baseless opinion on the matter is that the intention to commit an action is the defining/determining factor, but the action itself (according to Jigten Sumgon), the extent of the action, the object of the action and whether one takes delight or feels remorse about the action, affect the final overall outcome.

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha, Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu have declared with one voice: "Karma is volition and that which proceeds from volition." Thus volitions are primary actions and the deeds of body and voice are derived action.

Thus, there are three kinds of volition, positive, negative and neutral. Positive thoughts are positive karma, a.k.a., merit. Etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 11:37 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Jeff H said:
How exactly to “we” – especially those like me, who’ve been politically asleep for years – fight this? I don’t know where to turn.

Malcolm wrote:
Educate yourself.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 7:21 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
In Trumpland today:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-kkk-group-hold-victory-parade-donald-trump-article-1.2868491


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 11:13 AM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
The electoral college should not be abolished.

The popular vote should be abolished. It is a useless and pointless circus designed to make American feel like they are actually in control of something.

Abolish the popular vote and let Americans get properly angry about the state of their democracy, and the foolishness of electing a member of the 1% to "stick it to" the 1%.

Clinton was in the 1%'s pocket.

Trump is not in the 1%'s pocket.

Why?

That's his pocket.

Malcolm wrote:
Very poor reasoning, my friend.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 11:02 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Just go look at the racist, misogynist Id of the http://www.dailystormer.com

PuerAzaelis said:
Agree 100%, but something else occurs to me. If "racist" has been used since the 60s as a brush to tar every GOP candidate, it's like the boy who cried wolf. Finally the power and significance of the word - which should be a word of disgrace and shame and terror - is lost. I mean I remember some people talking about Mitt Romney like he was Genghis Khan for Christ's sake, I mean Mitt f*ckin Romney - that crash test dummy wasn't important enough to be denounced as any goddam thing. But now, finally, we really do have a wolf, a real wolf, who has a genuinely dangerous fringe supporting his base. But everyone's become so desensitized to the word, it's become meaningless. If everybody's "racist", no-one is.

Rakz said:
I agree. racist is a worthless word thrown around these days. Thank the white liberals for making it meaningless.

Malcolm wrote:
That's strange. It has a been a GOP narrative since Regan that racism is over. But you are probably to young to remember this.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 11:01 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
RikudouSennin said:
Hmmm, so there are errors in the translations, bummer.
My copy of the Golden Garland seemed okay but then again I don't know the original language, so finding out about errors in the translation...glad my other order was refunded.

Malcolm wrote:
Translators are works in progress.

RikudouSennin said:
True. I don't mean to sound like I don't appreciate translators hard works. Was just worried about potential errors in the text. Also the text come with the Tibetan script so that's cool as well.

As a side note Eric is sending my order even after refunding me, so I thought that was pretty cool of him.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, that was understood.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 8:09 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
dreambow said:
'The cave is out back, up on the hill'  As I see it you can meditate in an apartment in London if you want. Why are you so fascinated by your thoughts?

Malcolm wrote:
The real question is, why are you are so fascinated by my thoughts?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 5:05 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
dreambow said:
Ultimately if you can stop the tyranny of the chattering mind....you know its the truth!

Malcolm wrote:
The cave is out back, up on the hill.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 4:44 AM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
However:

Trump can still be stopped. The Founding Fathers foresaw just this catastrophe, and built a fail-safe into the Constitution. It’s called the Electoral College. Alexander Hamilton was explicit: this mechanism was designed to ensure that “the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” In short, it was designed to prevent just this situation: the rise of an unqualified demagogue like Donald Trump.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-anthony-cooper/the-electoral-college-was_b_12897066.html

Sherab Dorje said:
Didn't stop GB Jr, Ronald Reagan and a number of other demagogues.  Ain't gonna stop this one.

Malcolm wrote:
If a sitting president is convicted of a felony, even a civil one, this is firm grounds for impeachment. If he is found guilty of fraud in the Trump U case, this could upend him. He has to appear in court in Dec.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 4:39 AM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:


DGA said:
electors at the electoral college are obligated to carry out the will of the state's voters... most days.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really, see post above.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Electoral College
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
However:

Trump can still be stopped. The Founding Fathers foresaw just this catastrophe, and built a fail-safe into the Constitution. It’s called the Electoral College. Alexander Hamilton was explicit: this mechanism was designed to ensure that “the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” In short, it was designed to prevent just this situation: the rise of an unqualified demagogue like Donald Trump.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-anthony-cooper/the-electoral-college-was_b_12897066.html


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 4:29 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Kalacakra Tantra is Buddha's vision. It makes no difference that there is/was a temporal equivalent. Myth/vision is timeless.

Ok, so how do your propose to make the world one happy Vajra family? It did not even work in Tibet, let alone India.
Indeed, they practised it in India and in Tibet.


Malcolm wrote:
The Kalacakra Tantra, according even the traditional histories, did not exist in India until the middle of the 9th century. It circulated among a very small group and it was brought to Tibet in 1027 (the date the 60 year cycle starts in). In Tibet, it spread in small circles again, since everything but Nyingma was small at that point. By 1200, Indian Buddhist was more or less finished and there was never a chance in India for the Kalacakra social vision to spread far, if at all, because people were mainly interested in its yogic novelties, and astrology system.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 3:24 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Just go look at the racist, misogynist Id of the http://www.dailystormer.com

PuerAzaelis said:
Agree 100%, but something else occurs to me. If "racist" has been used since the 60s as a brush to tar every GOP candidate, it's like the boy who cried wolf.

Malcolm wrote:
Or, every GOP candidate who has run since Nixon has tried to stir up white racism since the latter's Southern Strategy.The difference now is the speed with which people can share ideas and create virtual communities.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 2:58 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Kalacakra Tantra is Buddha's vision. It makes no difference that there is/was a temporal equivalent. Myth/vision is timeless.

Ok, so how do your propose to make the world one happy Vajra family? It did not even work in Tibet, let alone India.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Jeff H said:
I think it matters how you fight. I strongly disagree with Moore's third point:

Trump has rocked the system and the system needed rocking. Now is the time to distinguish between changes to the system that benefit as opposed to those that harm both society and our system of government itself. Obstructionism lacks discernment. Obstruct what is wrong; empower what is right.

Malcolm wrote:
With all due respect, the Dems need to be as obstructionist as they can. It is necessary for the sake of the environment. #nodapl

Jeff H said:
From Sean Wilentz' The Rise of American Democracy it sounds like the country has been divided very much the way it is now right from the beginning, including the fact that both sides think the other side is deluded and dangerous. The issues and the players change, but the divisions remain pretty similar.

The Republicans have demonstrated obstructionism-for-its-own-sake, like https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23179&hilit=obstruction&start=760#p363209. I just think that can only result in a non-functioning government. That may be your point, but I think someone has to be willing to look for that which is somewhat beneficial from the opposition.

Malcolm wrote:
Not to be rude, but "It's the environment, stupid," among many other things.

We have a President Elect who does not believe climate change is real, who has promised to re-certify Keystone, who has pledged to auction off federal land for drilling, and whose followers have begun to terrorize muslims, blacks, latinos, etc. within hours of the election.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 1:59 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
Lord Sakyamuni walked away from the system He was born into and never looked back.


Malcolm wrote:
The example above was for Hinayāna practitioners, not Mahāyānis.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 1:35 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
Your concerning yourself with a red neck polulace Malcolm.  along with all other Buddhists in this thread ... you are supposed to be above the circus of red neck ville.

PuerAzaelis said:
This sentiment is vile, and, again, is a microcosm of the entire election. I suppose "all other Buddhists in this thread" are meant to adopt some kind of gnostic elitism? I don't recall that Lord Buddha used the phrase "basket of deplorables" in any sutta, in fact my recollection is that he said some things that were quite in the opposite train of thought.


Malcolm wrote:
Well, he did have some pretty harsh words for some brahmins who he thought were crooks playing on people's fear. And you have to admit, the alt-right is pretty damn deplorable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 1:02 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Jeff H said:
I think it matters how you fight. I strongly disagree with Moore's third point:
Moore said:
3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that's about to begin.

Jeff H said:
Trump has rocked the system and the system needed rocking. Now is the time to distinguish between changes to the system that benefit as opposed to those that harm both society and our system of government itself. Obstructionism lacks discernment. Obstruct what is wrong; empower what is right.

Malcolm wrote:
With all due respect, the Dems need to be as obstructionist as they can. It is necessary for the sake of the environment. #nodapl


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 12:54 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Minobu said:
Your vote and your impetus in an election has no effect on the sentient's liberation.

Malcolm wrote:
I quite disagree.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 12:45 AM
Title: Re: Constitutional Amendment
Content:
DGA said:
I like the direct election of senators rather than the election of senators by state legislators, so I say keep 17.  I don't think the federal income tax has anything to do with federal elections, so there's no reason to consider nixing 16.

That leaves us with 12, which establishes the electoral college.  I'm totally on board with drowning that baby if a reasonable alternative is proposed.

AlexMcLeod said:
17 makes the Senate up for direct purchase.

As a Jeffersonian Liberal, of course I want 16 gone.

12 doesn't establish the Electoral College. It forces the party that won into both President and VP. Before, the runner up got VP. I think that more accurately represents the electorate.

Malcolm wrote:
!6 was voted in because the US Government abandoned the practice of collecting revenue based on import tariffs. Returning to a tariff system is, quite frankly, stupid.

As for the idea that reverting to the old system where the loser became VP, this never worked in practice and was a result of much discord.

I am ok with 17.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, November 11th, 2016 at 12:26 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
The Dems have no one to blame but themselves. It was turnout, in the end, that did them in. As Sanders pointed out, again and again, in low turnout elections like this one, the GOP wins it. In high voter turn out elections, the Dems win it. Were the DNC buffoons and idiots? Yes, and this is all Podesta's emails show. Did the Dems become apathetic overall and willingly permit this to happen? Yes. And we Bernistas saw it coming.

Minobu said:
To be honest..I view the entire political systems of the world as folly . it's all a con from top to bottom form sideways to bothways..

they are all schooled in the art of the dodge and deception.
If you view my posts in this thread sarcasm and a total flippant personage appears.

that being said ..

Bernie would do worse than Hilary did. The american people obviously are not ready for anyone of intellect  and would dismiss the guy as some tree hugging flake. which is not my opinion of him.


Your concerning yourself with a red neck polulace Malcolm.  along with all other Buddhists in this thread.
your lost in something that will have only ill effects on your path . It's all moot.it's the greatest of all delusions to get sucked into.

you are supposed to be above the circus of red neck ville.

Malcolm wrote:
I disagree. I think Mahāyāna Buddhists have an ethical obligation to be active in civil and social life.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 11:38 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
justsit said:
I'm curious to see exactly how Mr. Trump plans to fulfill his campaign promise to provide 25 million jobs.

25 million. Really?

PuerAzaelis said:
He's been talking about 4-5% GDP growth per annum which is fantasy, it hasn't happened since WW2.

Malcolm wrote:
Not to mention, that kind of growth is ecologically irrational; in fact any growth in the world economy is ecologically irrational.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 11:15 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
... there was a depressed turnout in this election compared with  2008 and 2012 ...

PuerAzaelis said:
If that's true, that's extraordinary given Sanders' plea to his own base. I guess after the nomination and the DNC revelations they really did all just go home. Even knowing they had an unusual populist opponent. That's really amazing. Sanders knew.

You know I read this article somewhere a couple of months ago (I can't remember where) that the author had polled a lot of Sanders' supporters and a lot of them had told him that if Sanders didn't get nominated they were voting Trump. The writer was like, I know this is hard to believe, but this is a thing. I disregarded it at the time. I underestimated the extent to which the Dems, too, are now split.

Queequeg said:
Ive been saying this all along. Bernie supporters and Trump supporters are largely from the same socio-economic class. As Bill said, 'its the economy, stupid.' this was primarily about an economy that has been broken for a lot of former middle class people. They are pissed and want it fixed. Identity politics don't mean much when you're worried about paying the mortgage.


Malcolm wrote:
Oh for lords sake, low voter turn out cost the Dems the election, as Bernie warned, allowing racist and sexist white people to dominate the election. It's that simple.

Just go look at the racist, misogynist Id of the http://www.dailystormer.com


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 11:06 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
... there was a depressed turnout in this election compared with  2008 and 2012 ...


PuerAzaelis said:
If that's true,

Malcolm wrote:
It is a fact. Not even a speculation. The hard numbers prove it.


PuerAzaelis said:
...that's extraordinary given Sanders' plea to his own base. I guess after the nomination and the DNC revelations they really did all just go home. Even knowing they had an unusual populist opponent. That's really amazing. Sanders knew.

Malcolm wrote:
Sanders own base, those of us who wandered off into Libertarian and Green Lalaland, should have known better. The Libertarian vote may have actually swayed the Florida election. It is hard to say how many people who voted for "Allepo" Johnson might have voted for Sanders, and certainly, many of the 64K Green party voters would have voted for Sanders. One thing is certain. In 2012, only 44,726 people voted Libertarian; and only 8,947 voted Green (16651 votes went to other fringe parties of Fla.), compared with 2016 where there were 206,007 Libertarian votes, 64,019 Green votes and 25,464 votes for fringe candidates, for a total of 9,318,789. By contrast, in 2012, only 8,474,179 total votes were counted.


PuerAzaelis said:
You know I read this article somewhere a couple of months ago (I can't remember where) that the author had polled a lot of Sanders' supporters and a lot of them had told him that if Sanders didn't get nominated they were voting Trump. The writer was like, I know this is hard to believe, but this is a thing. I disregarded it at the time. I underestimated the extent to which the Dems, too, are now split.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, hatred of HRC runs deep in many white men.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:44 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
I know is tempting to pin all the blame on CNN, MSNBC, the Times and so on. But the reality of it is that POC and young people did not turn out because they just didn't care. "An old white guy? An old white women? Meh. Who cares."

Queequeg said:
Yes.

That is a great point. It was disappointing to see that Bernie never got traction with POC. The exception was young POC who were and are still on the Bernie wavelength. In places like NY, older POC stuck with HRC because she was perceived to be their best friend through the decades.

Tulsi Gabbert?


Malcolm wrote:
I was actually talking about Trump, but I can see how you went to Bernie.

Tulsi Gabbard is a congressperson, she does not have the clout yet to make a run. Let her win a governorship in Hawaii, then she would have a more solid chance. However, her religion may not go down well with main stream America.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:31 PM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
RikudouSennin said:
Hmmm, so there are errors in the translations, bummer.
My copy of the Golden Garland seemed okay but then again I don't know the original language, so finding out about errors in the translation...glad my other order was refunded.

Malcolm wrote:
Translators are works in progress.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:29 PM
Title: Re: Quitting cigarettes
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I've been addicted to cigarettes for about a year.

If you have managed to quit smoking, how did you do it?

Malcolm wrote:
I decided to stop. Then I did stop (in 1989, after smoking for 13 years).

Coëmgenu said:
Fair enough. Did any practical methods help you though? Did you use nicorette gum? Was it effective?

Malcolm wrote:
I just stopped. As a support, I drank a lot of water, avoided coffee and alcohol for a few weeks, and other people who smoked.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:27 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
maybay said:
Close on 60 million people voted for Trump.

Malcolm wrote:
Less than the number who voted for McCain and Romney (more than 60 million in both cases).

maybay said:
Shambhala

Malcolm wrote:
Shambhala was not Buddha's vision; according to Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, it was a real country which no longer exists at present.

maybay said:
Because everyone involved is basically good.

Malcolm wrote:
If someone does not recognize their own basic goodness, their basic goodness is like a gem concealed under the lintel of a pauper's home.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:16 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Nemo said:
Bernie is just the latest Henry Wallace. The Democrats created super delegates so that another FDR could NEVER take over the party again. If you think you can get a real candidate in charge of the Dems you are naive. .

Malcolm wrote:
Um, not they created superdelegates so that another Eugene McCarthy would not be nominated.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 8:19 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
He is spot on.

Malcolm wrote:
It was voter turnout. All this bullshit about a forgotten America who turned out in droves is bullshit. 10 million less voters turned out in this election than in 2008. The same number +- of GOP voters turned out in all three.

Queequeg said:
That too. They're the same crowd that wanted HRC and only begrudgingly covered Bernie, casting him as the 'bro' candidate because these people run in the same circles as the DNC establishment.

Voter turnout was down because HRC never gave us something to be inspire about; she just waited for Trump to implode. Hate the game, but that's how it's played. You need charisma by the truck load to be president. Charisma comes in many forms. Young people and POC never felt her message outside of the habitual voters.

Malcolm wrote:
I know is tempting to pin all the blame on CNN, MSNBC, the Times and so on. But the reality of it is that POC and young people did not turn out because they just didn't care. "An old white guy? An old white women? Meh. Who cares."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 8:03 PM
Title: Re: comparing paths, uniting paths, and practicing a path
Content:


muni said:
Furthermore H H Dalai Lama said when such as these dividing actions cannot stop, there is the need to find a solution beyond religion.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, that solution is called "Secular Humanism."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 8:01 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
mossy said:
so, who will be the new leader/face of the DNC?

Queequeg said:
Us. The people marching last night. Everyone who feels like we really lost something with such an oaf elected POTUS.

We've got a fight on our hands because all those vampires and sycophants who joined the Democrats out of fancy schools looking for consultant jobs and to otherwise ride the coattails of the inevitable choice are still going to try and make a career out of politics and those ass holes cannot be trusted.

Malcolm wrote:
The Dems have no one to blame but themselves. It was turnout, in the end, that did them in. As Sanders pointed out, again and again, in low turnout elections like this one, the GOP wins it. In high voter turn out elections, the Dems win it. Were the DNC buffoons and idiots? Yes, and this is all Podesta's emails show. Did the Dems become apathetic overall and willingly permit this to happen? Yes. And we Bernistas saw it coming.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 7:55 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
He is spot on.

Malcolm wrote:
It was voter turnout. All this bullshit about a forgotten America who turned out in droves is bullshit. 10 million less voters turned out in this election than in 2008. The same number +- of GOP voters turned out in all three.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 7:53 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
PuerAzaelis said:
It's also curious no-one has remarked on Julian Assange after this result. He had a personal vendetta against Clinton, and intended to destroy her - and he did. He may have been the single most influential person in this whole election.

Malcolm wrote:
The story is, according to turn out, a not surge from a forgotten America — there was a depressed turnout in this election compared with  2008 and 2012, which showed a precipitous decline in Democratic voters between 2008 and 2016.

2008: 69.5 million for Obama; 60 million for MacCain
2012: 66 million for Obama; 61 million for Romney
2016 59.8 million votes for Clinton, 59.6 million votes for Trump.

Trump lost, but given how the electoral college works, he won. In a nutshell, Clinton failed to energize voters in the right places. (The gutting of the Voting Rights Act sure did not help her either).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 11:24 AM
Title: Re: Quitting cigarettes
Content:
Coëmgenu said:
I've been addicted to cigarettes for about a year.

If you have managed to quit smoking, how did you do it?

Malcolm wrote:
I decided to stop. Then I did stop (in 1989, after smoking for 13 years).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 10:52 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Bernie in a Trump cabinet? Really? (*&^ an aye, use your brain.

Queequeg said:
Bernie is the head of the opposition.

He's going to get the megaphone from the media. We gotta come through when he calls.
“To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him," Sanders said. "To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 5:34 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Fa Dao said:
to all of you doomsayers who are to say the least not happy with the election results...be honest...if the situation were reversed all of you would be saying "sour grapes"..."get over it"....and "accept it, we all have to pull together now under OUR new president".

Malcolm wrote:
Not at all. I would be saying, "Now it is time to sharpen the knives to make sure Clinton keeps her promises to Sanders."

#StillSanders

The thing is, at least Clinton accepts that anthropogenic climate change is a problem we have to face up. Now, we have to deal with thin-skinned narcissist who wants to role back Roe V Wade; change the first Amendment; frack on federal lands; impose trade tariffs, etc.

Essentially, he wants to (without understanding any of the history) dismantle the Federal Government and put us back on the so-called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_System_%28economic_plan%29 of the Whigs:
*Support for a high tariff to protect American industries and generate revenue for the federal government
*Maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue
*Preservation of the Bank of the United States to stabilize the currency and rein in risky state and local banks
*Development of a system of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) which would knit the nation together and be financed by the tariff and land sales revenues.
In simpler terms, he wishes to implement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neomercantilism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 4:24 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
drodul said:
"Somehow, I think Guru Rinpoche is not going to influence an election."  - Malcolm

Thanks for the encouraging words, Malcolm, but the election is over in any case.  I was thinking more of the election's horrific consequences.  Guru Rinpoche was even said to have stopped wars, but I suppose he is really only a "method" rather than a great being, as I hear from wiser people than I, and thus unable to influence worldly events.  Still, if you check back with your basic Vajrayana vows, you might find something about "uprooting the attitude of those who have faith."

Malcolm wrote:
So you are saying that you are now bereft of faith in Buddhadharma in toto?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 3:27 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
So what does one see?

Malcolm wrote:
Everything.

BuddhaFollower said:
So you see the five pure lights and conventional objects?

Malcolm wrote:
Since conventional objects are made of the five pure lights...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 1:15 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
drodul said:
This dark, nightmarish day is also Guru Rinpoche Day.  As my lama once said in discussing the inevitability of the impending Kali Yuga, "Still, if we supplicate Guru Rinpoche, perhaps something can be done."

Malcolm wrote:
Somehow, I think Guru Rinpoche is not going to influence an election.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 1:04 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
The Cicada said:
Exactly. But where are our pious academics who, full of great compassion and insight in their opposition of Trump,

Malcolm wrote:
Will be watching and waiting for him to fail again, as he failed to win this election without the voter suppression and district rigging that permitted his technical, but not actual, victory.

The GOP cannot win an election fairly.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 1:02 AM
Title: Re: Chomsky on Lesser Evil Voting
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
As Michael Moore warned some days ago, the pollsters did not know how to properly poll the rust belt.

However, Trump does not have a clear mandate. Clinton still won the popular vote.

Sherab Dorje said:
Mandates don't mean squat.  It is the result that counts.  It's not like the "popular voters" are going to rise up against Trump and bring down the political-economic system that sustains them (them being the US public).

Malcolm wrote:
Greg, what it means is that more than half of the country did not vote for Trump. His win is technical, based on voter suppression and district rigging.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 12:13 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
Y?


Malcolm wrote:
Because it is not correct, because it does not correspond to the meaning, because there is no locative particle before chos nyid— for many reasons.

Khyentse Wangpo explains that because all phenomena (dharmin) are exhausted, also their dharmatā is exhausted.

BuddhaFollower said:
So what does one see?

Malcolm wrote:
Everything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, November 10th, 2016 at 12:04 AM
Title: Re: Chomsky on Lesser Evil Voting
Content:



Johnny Dangerous said:
Gah, Trump supporters can't even gloat without resort to conspiracy theories, Clinton just conceded.

You guys have it, all three branches soon, it's not anyone else's problem any more. So now, when the place goes even farther to shit, the liberal/elite/reptile/muslim/whatever conspiracy cannot be blamed.

WeiHan said:
How do you explain that all prior polls predicted a landslide clinton victory with 70-80% and even 100% probability as Malcolm stated while it turn out to the opposite?

Malcolm wrote:
As Michael Moore warned some days ago, the pollsters did not know how to properly poll the rust belt.

However, Trump does not have a clear mandate. Clinton still won the popular vote.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 11:45 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Nemo said:
The Democratic Party elite take full blame for this. They had a winning candidate in Bernie Sanders. Voting Democrat is not voting for change. It is a vote for inertia and neoliberal corporatism. Now you are in danger of losing many fundamental rights and know that the Democratic Party will betray you to their corporate overlords at every opportunity.

Join grassroots movements to stop the misogyny, racism, xenophobia and fascism that is growing in America. Get involved and know that voting Democrat every few years does absolutely nothing to support those changes. Get to work.

Malcolm wrote:
Agreed. #StillSanders.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 11:44 PM
Title: Re: Constitutional Amendment
Content:
AlexMcLeod said:
Now that the shitstorm is basically done, let's talk preventative measures.

First, I propose an Amendment to repeal Amendments 16, 17 and 12. These amendments made it easier for the system to be manipulated.

Next, an Amendment to prevent all of a state's electoral votes from going to the same candidate because of majority. Basically, outlawing first past the post. This would destroy the two party hold on the Presidency, and allow the people to choose actual best options when voting.

Finally, a term limit Amendment for Congress, and a number of years limit on SCOTUS Justices. This removes people from lifetime membership to federal ruling class, and prevents the nation from moving too far in one direction because of entrenched politicians.

Finally, amendment to eliminate non-elected regulatory bodies. All laws need to run through Congress, who, by this point should actually represent the people in the manner designed.

What do you all think?

Malcolm wrote:
Libertarian fantasy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 1:48 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
MiphamFan said:
I never trusted any of the polls after Brexit, but even then, I didn't expect Trump would win, and by a pretty big margin.


Malcolm wrote:
The Dems f#%king blew it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 4:51 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
How accurate is this:


This is the vision of being consumed into reality.

Malcolm wrote:
This is not correct.

BuddhaFollower said:
Y?


Malcolm wrote:
Because it is not correct, because it does not correspond to the meaning, because there is no locative particle before chos nyid— for many reasons.

Khyentse Wangpo explains that because all phenomena (dharmin) are exhausted, also their dharmatā is exhausted.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 4:51 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Heart Bindu of the Dakinis...
Is an incorrect translation of ḍākkini citta, a.k.a, mkha' 'gro snying thig.

Temicco said:
Why does snying thig here correspond to citta?

Malcolm wrote:
Because the title of the cycle, given within the gter ma text itself is ḍākkini citta.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 4:35 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
Lewis Decottes said:
Is an incorrect translation of ḍākkini citta , a.k.a, mkha' 'gro snying thig.
What would be a more accurate translation?

Malcolm wrote:
Literally speaking, snying thig means "the core [thig] of the center [snying]," like the heartwood of a tree. The term "bindu" is not justified in the Sanskrit title, neither is "drop" ([ thigs pa ])

The standard conventions, "heart essence" or "innermost heart" are perfectly fine since here citta simply means heart. The thig in this case is an intensifier.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 4:29 AM
Title: Re: New Longchenpa translations from Eric Fry-Miller
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
How accurate is this:


This is the vision of being consumed into reality.

Malcolm wrote:
This is not correct.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 12:22 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
DGA said:
I voted this morning.  I live in a nominally swing state, Virginia, so my vote does count.

This summarizes why this election matters.
This is not a joke. This is one of the moments in history when the republic is at the brink.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/final-answer-trump-or-the-republic.html

PuerAzaelis said:
I think Virginia is leaning way Clinton now. I'm far more worried about his surge in Florida and NC yesterday. If he can get Florida and NC anything becomes possible. All he'd need then would be Nevada and NH. This could be much closer than anyone thought.

PS: What happens if they both only get 269 college votes?

Malcolm wrote:
She is ahead in florida by 210,000 votes right now. She is also narrowly ahead in NV.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, November 9th, 2016 at 12:18 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Mkoll said:
Sadly, getting a new SCOTUS justice in a Clinton presidency is not a given. Hopefully they won't follow through on this further destabilization of our political system.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/clinton-wins-gop-say-no-9-supreme-court/

kirtu said:
There is no way that the obstructing forces can continue this tactic.  It is simply unconstitutional and President Obama should have been more forceful in countering them.

Kirt

DGA said:
He has exhausted all options this side of the Pentagon to get them to do their Constitutionally-defined jobs.  Should ask the army to ensure that the Senate does its work?

Malcolm wrote:
He can appoint garland during the congressional recess.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 10:50 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
Dharmatā means a number of thing, depending on context. In logic is refers to the predicate of an argument, for example, the dharmin, water, has the dharmatā, wetness.

When used in as it is being used here, it refers to one's own nature.

With respect to your question above, the emptiness of a subject is dharmatā; the emptiness of all things collectively is the dharmadhātu.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Thanks, just to clarify, when you say 'subject' do you mean mind? So are you therefore saying that dharmata is specifically the emptiness of the mind?

Malcolm wrote:
If we are talking dharmatā śunyatā, it refers in general to the emptiness of a person. When used with respect to the mind it is called cittadharmatā.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 8:48 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
And your reasons for stating this are?

You obviously deny the existence of the Illusory Body of Highest Yoga Tantra which possesses limbs and appears in the aspect of the Deity. Looks like Father Tantra is a waste of time then according to you!

Malcolm wrote:
The Diamond Sūtra states, famously:
Anyone who sees me as form, 
anyone who knows me as sound,
engage in mistaken effort.
Those people who do not see me,
see the dharmatā of the buddhas. 
Since the dharmakāya of the guides
is not a knowable entity,
it cannot be known.
The creation stage is not necessary as many Indian scholars such as Śri Simha and so on have argued. In the Śrīsarvaguhyavidhigarbhālaṃkāra-nāma, Mañjuśrīkīrti records their position:
The teaching of the creation stage and its means of conduct are taught as methods for refuting annihilationists, for proponents of the dependently originated result, and for some worldly people who are terrified of the profound meaning. Utterly pure, perfect buddhahood itself is an inconceivable pristine consciousness. Since that cannot arise from a dissimilar cause, here, emptiness —which is not perceptible as a sign, inconceivable, and the eliminator proliferation— is the supreme result that possessed when the yogi relies on the absence of thoughts.
Of course he complains that these Dzogchen practitioners have an invalid point of view, but this is because he does not understand the meaning of "absence of thoughts," in this case, the absence of thoughts referred refers to the nonconceptual direct perception of dharmatā. The latter does not require the creation stage since dharmatā is innate.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Thanks for your response. Of course the principal basis of imputation for a Buddha is the truth body, but Buddhas manifest as subtle and gross form to help sentient beings. The path body that is the principal cause of these is the Illusory body developed through completion stage meditation.

Malcolm wrote:
Your objection is already noted in here: "The teaching of the creation stage and its means of conduct are taught as methods for refuting annihilationists, for proponents of the dependently originated result, and for some worldly people who are terrified of the profound meaning."



Tsongkhapafan said:
I completely disagree that generation stage is not necessary and this is in contradiction with the views of the great Indian adepts such as Saraha and Nagarjuna. They are clear that generation stage is the cause of completion stage and completion stage is where we manifest and purify our very subtle mind and turn it into the pristine consciousness of a Buddha.

Malcolm wrote:
As above.


Tsongkhapafan said:
Furthermore, an absence of thoughts does not lead to such a result because stones lack thought but they don't become Buddhas! A mere absence of conceptual thought is not a realization.

Malcolm wrote:
Are there thoughts in pristine consciousness? If not, then what makes one think that one can realize it based on the conceptuality of the creation stage? If there are thoughts in pristine consciousness, how is this different than ordinary dualistic consciousness?

[/quote]
I've heard the term dharmata before, can you explain what it is? I've read that it is the true nature of things, but the true nature of things is emptiness and in Tantra, the union of appearance and emptiness.[/quote]

Dharmatā means a number of thing, depending on context. In logic is refers to the predicate of an argument, for example, the dharmin, water, has the dharmatā, wetness.

When used in as it is being used here, it refers to one's own nature.

With respect to your question above, the emptiness of a subject is dharmatā; the emptiness of all things collectively is the dharmadhātu.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 8:40 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
MiphamFan said:
It's these people you need to convince, and you can't do that if you just tar them with the label of "racist", "redneck" etc.

Malcolm wrote:
But in fact a lot of these people are racists, and didn't know it until Obama was elected.

rory said:
Ah the intellect spraying everyone who isn't on the Clinton train with the terms: "racist", "misogynist".

Malcolm wrote:
On http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/the_majority_of_trump_supporters_surveyed_described_black_people_as_less.html today:
These results are not limited to groups of whites that are often stereotyped as racially prejudiced. For instance, 33 percent of white Democrats and 34 percent of high-income whites rated black people as less evolved than white people, compared with 39 percent of white Republicans and 41 percent of low-income whites. Dehumanizing views are pervasive across white social groups.

That said, there is one group of whites that stands out in the degree to which it holds dehumanizing views of black people: Trump supporters. To measure evaluations of Trump, we asked our subjects to describe how warm they feel toward Trump on a 0-100 scale. Here we compare Trump’s strongest opponents (defined here as those who rate Trump at a 25 or below) to Trump’s strongest supporters (those who rate Trump higher than 75). Twenty-eight percent of white Trump opponents rate blacks as less evolved than they rate whites. In contrast, a majority of Trump supporters—52 percent—rate blacks as less evolved than whites.

rory said:
Marc Lamont Hill...The distinguished professor of African American studies at Morehouse college and New York Times best-selling author explained that making the short-term “political sacrifice” of four years of Donald Trump in the White House is a small price to pay to for the long-term goal of setting “the groundwork to imagine a new world, a new politics, and a new order

Malcolm wrote:
He is an intelligent idiot, like Jill Stein. There will be no chance of setting “the groundwork to imagine a new world, a new politics, and a new order" if we permit fascists to take power.


rory said:
It's being a true feminist to loathe HRC who aided and abetted her husband's vile sexual predatory behavior.  Frankly I fear her warmongering and $ from Saudi and the corporate interests that want constant war far more than I fear Trump. And so I voted for Gary Johnson.

Malcolm wrote:
You have no evidence that Clinton "aided and abetted" Bill's philandering. You have no evidence that Clinton is anything other than a Liberal Interventionist (Wilsonian), who is merely following the general foreign policy we have had in this country for nearly a century. That policy is, I agree, flawed, but nothing she did either in the Senate nor State is inconsistent with the general tenor of US foreign policy. Pragmatically speaking, dismantling the Pax Americana means permitting power vacuums to be occupied by China and Russia , and ensuring decades of unrest around the world. As far as the money from the Saudis go, the US Government has been accepting money from the Saudis for decades: for example, the Saudis transerred 100 Billion dollars to the US in the '70's and '80's for administration, construction, weapons. The pittance that the Clinton Foundation received is hardly grounds for alarm considering how much money the Saudis have invested in the US for the past 40 years.

The myth of perpetual war is saddening, because it is false. The war on drugs, now that has been a real perpetual war, and has gained no ground. It was lost before it began. The war on terror is similar, but these are not real wars. Right now we are in one of the most peaceful eras in world history. But people are made hysterical by the media, and when they are hysterical they tend to vote for fascists like Trump, fantasists like Stein, and irresponsible, ignorant stoners like Gary "Aleppo" Johnson (whose libertarian platform is an environmental nightmare). At least Clinton and Sanders are sane, unlike the other three candidates in the race.

If you are a real Sanders supporter, you are heading out to the polls to vote the way Bernie votes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 10:19 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
MiphamFan said:
It's these people you need to convince, and you can't do that if you just tar them with the label of "racist", "redneck" etc.

Malcolm wrote:
But in fact a lot of these people are racists, and didn't know it until Obama was elected.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 9:35 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
This is the position of some, but not others.

Malcolm wrote:
It is the position of man ngag sde.

BuddhaFollower said:
Where in the 17 tantras?

Malcolm wrote:
Many places.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 9:34 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
This is the position of some, but not others.

Malcolm wrote:
It is the position of man ngag sde.

conebeckham said:
Malcolm, just as an aside, have you read Ringu Tulkus' comments regarding the Togal visions and correspondences between Sarma tantra, found in the "Ri-Me Philosophy" book?  His comments stem from Shechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche.  Has anyone refuted this position?

Malcolm wrote:
I asked him about this personally, he walked it back.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 6:37 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you want to see buddhas, you must receive a shitro empowerment, etc.

BuddhaFollower said:
This is the position of some, but not others.

Malcolm wrote:
It is the position of man ngag sde.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 6:36 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you want to see buddhas, you must receive a shitro empowerment, etc.


BuddhaFollower said:
This is the position of some, but not others.

And its seems to be wrong, when you read how the visions enfolded for a certain western couple.

Malcolm wrote:
Hahaha, dude, they were students of Chagdud Tulku — they received many empowerments and did tons of sadhana practice, I know people who know them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 3:59 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


BuddhaFollower said:
You see Buddhas with topknots etc. in the visions of thogal.

Malcolm wrote:
Those buddha are inert appearances. They are like images projected onto a movie screen.

BuddhaFollower said:
I understand that actually.

But you made it sound like these images are artifacts of Indian culture, when they are actually primordial to the elemental vayus flowing through the heart.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they are artifacts. If you want to see buddhas, you must receive a shitro empowerment, etc. The idea that these shapes etc, exist in the body with faces and hands is a deviation of Mahāyoga.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 3:08 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You better hope the people in power stay in power. The alternative is overt fascism.

Queequeg said:
And that is the line that will go down in history as the theme of this election.

Nothing to vote for. The only choice is to vote against the apocalypse.

That's a heads I win, tails you lose proposition if I ever saw one. And the reason I'm probably not wasting my time at the polls tomorrow. I got shit to do, man.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, because the GOP have proven themselves, time and again, to be absolutely incompetent with respect to governing the country.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 3:06 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
Nor this:



Buddhas possess none of these forms.

M

BuddhaFollower said:
You see Buddhas with topknots etc. in the visions of thogal.

Malcolm wrote:
Those buddha are inert appearances. They are like images projected onto a movie screen.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 3:00 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This liberal status quo is necessary so we have the social and economic stability needed to further transform our healthcare system, our educational system, and to address the climate crisis effectively.

Queequeg said:
Robert Reich:
I’ve known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have.

But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change.

The upcoming election isn’t about detailed policy proposals. It’s about power – whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.
If its Clinton, its the people in power keeping the power.

Malcolm wrote:
You better hope the people in power stay in power. The alternative is overt fascism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
We see her voting record: a good New York Senator, adequately representing the social views of the of Upper East and West Sides, Park Slope, Westchester - "liberal" but not one to lead the way (she was OK with civil unions but not marriage, until marriage was declared the law by the judiciary - and that basic timidity on social issues is definitive). Supportive of the financial industry - she talks about regulation, but she will never do anything that might upset Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, let alone try to put any of them in jail. If you're looking for the corruption, that's where it is - circulating at the top of the NYC food chain. She has enough empathy for working people to get the endorsement of the SEIU and Teacher's Union, but don't expect her to stick her neck out when it comes time to strike. She appeals to soccer moms. Don't expect her to excel at retail level politics, showing up to cut ribbons at newly opened youth centers the way Schumer does.

We see her decision making is uninspired and sometimes poor because she seems she stays safely within the parameters of "Conventional Wisdom". She has conservative instincts. She will not take a position unless its clear that the support is already there. She is not a leader in the sense that she leads. She is a leader in the sense that she can get things done in bureaucratic/administrative environments.

Malcolm wrote:
She is a strong believer in the Pax Americana, and every decision she has made points to this. Yes, she is not going to shake up the status quo, and as I explained to dreambow, we do not want the status quo shaken, since it will result in social, economic, and environmental calamity. we actually wish the Liberal status quo to continue. When the GOP and the far left complain about the status quo, they are complaining about the Liberal status quo. Anyone who is not a) a social conservative b) a bat shit crazy anarchist from the right or the left wants this liberal status quo. This liberal status quo is necessary so we have the social and economic stability needed to further transform our healthcare system, our educational system, and to address the climate crisis effectively.

Queequeg said:
Her decision making, though, is what leaves the most to be desired. And the people she is going to have in her inner circle are not going to help her overcome her limitations. Unless she surprises, its going to be the same crowd as Clinton I.

Malcolm wrote:
As above, she is a strong believer in the Pax Americana.

Queequeg said:
I suspect, she has promised significant concessions to Bernie, and he is going to get some major power in the Senate - head of finance committee? Maybe some of his people at the heads of some the agencies, maybe even a cabinet position or two?

Bernie's agitation is going to be critical. However, don't be surprised that after she fulfills whatever promises she made to him, that she will box him out. Bernie's power will depend on him being able to call on us when needed to turn the electoral pressure on.

Indeed, long life for Bernie.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup, but I still insist that she has gotten far more unfair criticism than fair criticism and it has clouded people's abilities to make a fair assessment of her as a person.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 1:56 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
And your reasons for stating this are?

You obviously deny the existence of the Illusory Body of Highest Yoga Tantra which possesses limbs and appears in the aspect of the Deity. Looks like Father Tantra is a waste of time then according to you!

Malcolm wrote:
The Diamond Sūtra states, famously:
Anyone who sees me as form, 
anyone who knows me as sound,
engage in mistaken effort.
Those people who do not see me,
see the dharmatā of the buddhas. 
Since the dharmakāya of the guides
is not a knowable entity,
it cannot be known.
The creation stage is not necessary as many Indian scholars such as Śri Simha and so on have argued. In the Śrīsarvaguhyavidhigarbhālaṃkāra-nāma, Mañjuśrīkīrti records their position:
The teaching of the creation stage and its means of conduct are taught as methods for refuting annihilationists, for proponents of the dependently originated result, and for some worldly people who are terrified of the profound meaning. Utterly pure, perfect buddhahood itself is an inconceivable pristine consciousness. Since that cannot arise from a dissimilar cause, here, emptiness —which is not perceptible as a sign, inconceivable, and the eliminator proliferation— is the supreme result that possessed when the yogi relies on the absence of thoughts.
Of course he complains that these Dzogchen practitioners have an invalid point of view, but this is because he does not understand the meaning of "absence of thoughts," in this case, the absence of thoughts referred refers to the nonconceptual direct perception of dharmatā. The latter does not require the creation stage since dharmatā is innate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 at 12:00 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
No, but the reason so many people dislike her is largely because of the mysogynistic criticisms of her, originating from a GOP hardon, that she has endured for decades. My point is that people are buying unto this uncritically. Bernie never did. Bernie always made it very clear that he thought most of the flack directed her way was completely unwarranted, and clouded the real differences between them over trade, foreign policy and so on.

Queequeg said:
The Clintons have been around a long time. Long enough for observers to know who they are.

.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, it is the opposite. People really don't know who HRC is due to the fact that she has developed a very intense shell as a result of being subjected to years of attacks.

She has been repeatedly tried by the GOP in public, convicted and executed without anyone being able to show that she is actually corrupt or criminal.

Citizen's United pretty much closed the the lid on the idea that taking money necessitated a quid pro quo arrangement, and as a consequence of Citizen's United, it is now very difficult to show quid pro quo arrangements without specific documents proving, for example, that HRC granted favors to to people as a direct result of cash donations to the Clinton Foundation, etc.

In any case, she will at minimum be a competent executive, and if the Dems win the senate, which is a toss up right now, at least we will have liberal supreme court justices on the bench.

And we still have Bernie to keep her honest. And if the Dems win the senate, he is in line to become a very powerful senator indeed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 11:37 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Emptiness is permanent but not necessarily eternal because it depends on conventional truth.

Malcolm wrote:
Therefore, buddhahood too is merely a convention and does not exist apart from a designation. That's ok with me.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 11:34 PM
Title: Re: Ayn Rand Sucks - Split from POTUS Part 3
Content:
AlexMcLeod said:
B. If you want to keep the innovation and incredibly high standard of care that exists here, it's a bad thing. All those countries with "better healthcare" than the U.S. send their rich leaders here when they require medical attention.

The way we did things before was kinda bad, but at least you would receive care a vast majority of the time if you needed it.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok, this is truly nonsensical. We do not have a higher standard of care here. Our standard of care is appalling when compared to other first world nations, we come in below Costa Rica, we are 37th on the list.

AlexMcLeod said:
Besides that, our government is notoriously bad at providing healthcare. Look at the VA.

Malcolm wrote:
No, our Goverment is isn't notoriously bad at providing healthcare, in fact it is quite good at it. Medicare and Medicaid are very successful programs which are hampered only Congress' unwillingness to extend the system to everyone.

The VA is run by the the Department of Veteran's affairs, and the problems it faces is due to chronic https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-05-23/the-graphic-reality-of-the-va-s-funding-woes courtesy of who? You guessed, Congress.

I get that you lean conservative, but your opinions are not backed up by the investigation. As the American philosopher, http://www.peirce.org/writings/p119.html observes,
The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 10:16 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
AlexMcLeod said:
The problem with Wikileaks is that at least one document has been proven to have been tampered with. The sender was changed to look more damaging. The sender of the original email came out and provided it to the media.

Mkoll said:
Indeed, there are a lot of uncertainties with Wikileaks and organizations like it. It wouldn't be hard for them to edit documents themselves to push an agenda. Or even for an actor to allow themselves to be hacked only to provide doctored material. And as another poster implied, Assange might be getting blackmailed and forced to further someone else's agenda. Heck, Wikileaks may have been set up by a state actor.

And who is to stop those things from happening future Wikileaks-like organizations?

Malcolm wrote:
RIght, who blows whistles on the whistleblowers? Any way Assange is a fool. A broken down hacker who lost any skillz he might have had decades ago, a narcissist who spends most of his time on the net obsessively looking for comments about himself. Even Snowden castigated him for being irresponsible.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 10:10 PM
Title: Re: Living near an old war zone. Bad spirits?
Content:
Ayu said:
And those obstacle-creating spirtits, that are brushed off before an empowerment - what kind of bad spirits are those?

Malcolm wrote:
Concepts.

Ayu said:
Thanks.
My question wasn't precise enough: In an empowerment there are so-called "inner" and "outer obstacles" being brushed off. Probably concepts are inner hindrances, right? I meant: what kind of fellows are those outer obstacles?

Malcolm wrote:
Outer obstacles are appearance generated by one's karma, which is in turn created by afflictive concepts. Inner obstacles are concepts themselves.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:56 PM
Title: Re: Living near an old war zone. Bad spirits?
Content:
Ayu said:
And those obstacle-creating spirtits, that are brushed off before an empowerment - what kind of bad spirits are those?

Malcolm wrote:
Concepts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:33 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
Tsongkhapafan said:
Buddhahood is clearly created as before following a spiritual path there was no Buddhahood.  In Tantra, sometimes generation stage is called 'creation stage'. It's the realisation of a creative yoga. Generation stage creates a blueprint for enlightenment in the form of the Deity body, mandala and so forth. Before this practice, there is no Deity, mandala, etc. The Illusory body is created by completion stage yogas so you cannot say that Buddhahood is not created.

Malcolm wrote:
If Buddhahood is created, it is conditioned, and if it is conditioned, it is impermanent. "All conditioned phenomena are impermanent."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
treehuggingoctopus said:
If it were happening in the UK, the polls would mean Trump will be the new POTUS, albeit by a narrow margin. I am genuinely curious how different the American society is in this respect.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not 50/50. It is 65/35 according to https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=2016-forecast. There is, at this point, only a very narrow pathway for Trump. He must win all the tossup states, like http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-democrats-take-slender-early-voting-1478354705-htmlstory.html, and turn at least one blue state red. It is unlikely this will happen. All HRC has to do is to win http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/clinton-trump-paths-to-win-election.html?_r=0very%20narrow%20pathway anywhere and he is toast. Buh bye.

The http://predictwise.com/politics/2016-president-winner give him a 1:9 chance of winning, i.e. HRC has 9:1 chance of winning.

http://election.princeton.edu/2016/11/06/is-99-a-reasonable-probability/#more-18522 gives HRC a 99% chance,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:26 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


MiphamFan said:
I think at most he's a useful pawn.

Malcolm wrote:
A useful idiot, as Lenin put it, like Trump.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:25 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
I might be taking anti nausea medicine Tuesday. Not decided yet. I'm in a place where my vote makes no difference.

Malcolm wrote:
Sad to see you have been taken in by the blatant mysogyny that has permeated this campaign from the outset.

Queequeg said:
Lol. Ok. Not actually liking HRC makes me a misogynist. Couldn't be any other reason!

Malcolm wrote:
No, but the reason so many people dislike her is largely because of the mysogynistic criticisms of her, originating from a GOP hardon, that she has endured for decades. My point is that people are buying unto this uncritically. Bernie never did. Bernie always made it very clear that he thought most of the flack directed her way was completely unwarranted, and clouded the real differences between them over trade, foreign policy and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 6:09 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:



conebeckham said:
Our aggregates are in reality the male and female Buddhas.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, you mean they look like this?

vairocanayabyum.jpg

Come on cone, this is merely a symbol used in order to make sure that we do not reify the yidam as a self. But our aggregates, etc., do not have faces and arms, nor do they wear medieval Indian costumes. At least mine don't. YMMV.

Tsongkhapafan said:
So you deny that Buddhas appear as Enjoyment Bodies or Supreme Emanations Bodies in these aspects to disciples? How else are they to communicate with them? Disciples cannot communicate with the Dharmakaya.

Practitioners of the past have seen Manjushri and so forth in the forms that are represented in drawings and paintings and received teachings directly from them. I don't understand your problem with this unless you disbelieve these stories.

Malcolm wrote:
My friend, Buddhas do not possess these forms. More to the point, your aggregates, etc, do not have faces, arms, and ornaments. They not look like this:



Nor this:



Nor this:



Nor this:



Buddhas possess none of these forms.

M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 5:56 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
On a side note, I'm not interested in people's academic qualifications - there are many scholars who have an incorrect understanding of Dharma just as there are many Yogis who have not studied extensively but who have pure experiences of Sutra and Tantra because of their faith and pure view. I'm interested in the meanings that people convey. If they convey meanings that do not agree with my own understanding and experience of Dharma, I will question that. If they cannot provide logical support for their position, again I will challenge that. Anyone can quote scripture just as a parrot can repeat human speech, what is important is the meaning of the scripture, not just the words. Also, actions speak louder than words. It doesn't give me much faith when someone who appears to have extensive learning denigrates others when they simply disagree with their views.

Malcolm wrote:
Great justification for continuing in a state of ignorance about the real meaning of Secret Mantra Vajrayāna.

BTW, TKF, you are not as lily-white as you try to come off. Just review some of your own replies to me, for example.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 5:38 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
conebeckham said:
Primordial purity is beyond the distinctions "pure" vs. "Impure" of convention.

Suffering is due to ignorance, not due to a change in purity or impurity with regard to reality.  Ignorance of our nature, which is due to habits and other obscurations.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Erm, ignorance is impurity, thus our aggregates are not pure. Of course the purity or impurity of reality doesn't change.



conebeckham said:
Our aggregates are in reality the male and female Buddhas.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, you mean they look like this?
vairocanayabyum.jpg (44.4 KiB) Viewed 4220 times
Come on cone, this is merely a symbol used in order to make sure that we do not reify the yidam as a self. But our aggregates, etc., do not have faces and arms, nor do they wear medieval Indian costumes. At least mine don't. YMMV.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 5:33 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
dreambow said:
Hillary is a hawk; just look at the mess in Iraq, Libya and the Yemen.

Malcolm wrote:
Iraq, that is squarely on the GOP. They started the Iraq war, and even though Clinton voted for funding (unlike Sanders) W wanted, one cannot blame her for it. In terms of what happened in 2011, the Iraqi gvt. refused to pass a law granting legal protections to US Forces on the ground. You can't blame CLinton because the Iraqi's refused to provide legal protection to US troops fielded to protect their government.

Syria: Clinton advocated not permitted a vacuum in Syria. Mistakes in Syria rest mainly on Obama's shoulders.

Libya: started by NATO, with Clinton's support in response to the 2011 Libyan Civil War. Definitely a geopolitical error on the part of NATO.

Yemen: Every administration has been arming the Saudi's with the latest in high tech weapons. This is a problem wth US foreign policy in general, not Clinton specifically.

You forgot to mention Honduras— now here was twisted reasoning used by State: if they cut off Honduras because of the coup, they would have immediately had to end all humanitarian aid to the region by US law, so they sought to finesse the deal. Bad reasoning by my estimate, but there you have it.

The thing is, she gets no credit for the Iran deal, which is a good thing. A very good thing, despite the GOP hysteria is caused.

A impartial review of her tenure at State https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/was-hillary-clinton-a-good-secretary-of-state/2014/05/30/16daf9c0-e5d4-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html:
The verdict? Clinton brought a clear vision of U.S. interests and power to the job, and future presidents and secretaries of state will find many of her ideas essential. Yet she struggled to bring together the different elements of her vision into a coherent set of policies. The tension between America’s role as a revolutionary power and its role as a status quo power predates Clinton; the struggle to reconcile those two opposed but equally indispensable aspects of American foreign policy has survived her tenure at the State Department.

dreambow said:
She has Wall Street backing her, the bankers and the corporations  don't want any change in the status quo.

Malcolm wrote:
And neither do you. Do you really wish to go through the the global economic, political, and social disruption a sudden radical change in the "status quo" would entail? We enjoy certain advantages from the "Pax Americana." Surely you don't wish to throw these away? Nothing good comes from outright revolution. Right now in the world, the only place where there is outright war is in the Middle East and parts of Africa. The Western Hemisphere is free of war, apart from social conflict in Venezuela and Central America. Asia is free of war. Europe is free of war. Changing the status quo, as you call it, will result in war over much of the planet. We need to have stable economies and governments so we can tackle the problems posed by climate change properly. If we do not tackle those problems, then we really will be facing a change of the status quo and not one for which anyone will be able to see a favorable outcome.

dreambow said:
Its obvious the main stream media is backing her to the hilt....just trot out a few more singers and celebrities...

Malcolm wrote:
Oh sure, as opposed to the egregious lies the far right and left "media" have united over in their impotence (thank goodness) to be of any real effect in changing things .

dreambow said:
anyway Assange has pointed this out already, I say the situation is going to get really murky!

Malcolm wrote:
Assange is a self-serving twit. He is distracted by the wrong problems. He is still views the world through the lens of 1980's style radicalism. He is an anachronism, like Trump.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 4:19 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Rakz said:
It's because of patriarchy that she's an evil dirtbag? What are you trying to say?

Malcolm wrote:
What I am saying is that she is not an evil dirtbag, and it there is blatant mysogyny in the GOP and its alt-right Id, represented by its nominee, who is in fact an evil bag of shit.

Rakz said:
So her war record and blatant corruption is just false propaganda in your mind?

Malcolm wrote:
I see no evidence of blatant corruption on her part. In other words, I don't see any proof that she accepted bribes from anyone for any reason.

As far as her diplomatic record is concerned, I think she made some errors, but the not the kind of errors that wold rule her out from being an effective President.

Trump, on the other hand, in addition to being a sexist, racist, piece of shit, is a terribly dishonest and unsuccessful businessman (four casinos of his went bankrupt? Come on.), who lies merely for the sake of lying because his fan base eats it up.

In other words, the Clinton base are actually quite a bit more discerning about their candidate (virtually no-one is excited about HRC becoming president) than the Trump base, who seem to regard Trump as a political messiah who will magically restore the 1950's White America they erroneously remember via Happy Days and Leave it to Beaver.

In other words, rational people who actually read newspapers and who bother to understand the world as it really is, rather than favoring Fox News and Breitbart, think he is unfit. As even the Wall Street Journal points out:
The case for Donald Trump is political disruption. A broken Washington needs to be shaken up and refocused on the public good, and who better to do it than an outsider beholden to neither political party? If only that reform possibility didn’t arrive as a flawed personality who has few convictions and knows little about the world.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gamble-of-trump-1478299393

Trump is dangerous primarily because he is an ignorant fool, something he has proven time and again while campaigning. He is also dangerous because he is a deeply racist man, who indicates his racism with almost every speech he gives, especially when he goes off the message that has been carefully scripted for him by Conway et al (which is also filled with the most egregious lies).  His racism has awoken a kind of xenophobia in the US, a xenophobia that was scripted by the alt-right and something he buys into uncritically. It is no mistake that he and his sons regularly retweet tweets from  @WhiteGenocideTM, Jason Bergkamp, etc. Melania Trump, for example, claimed that Julie Ioffe provoked anti-semitic attacks against herself because Ioffe wrote an piece for http://www.gq.com/story/melania-trump-gq-interview that was not merely a puff-piece profile. Racism is a systematic problem in the Trump clan, despite Ivanka's having married into the tribe.

Quite frankly, when stacked up against Clinton, the only reason he has gotten as far as he has is because of the unreasonable hatred for Clinton which has been fueled by right wing mysogyny since the 1970's.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 3:30 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
I might be taking anti nausea medicine Tuesday. Not decided yet. I'm in a place where my vote makes no difference.

Malcolm wrote:
Sad to see you have been taken in by the blatant mysogyny that has permeated this campaign from the outset.

Rakz said:
It's because of patriarchy that she's an evil dirtbag? What are you trying to say?

Malcolm wrote:
What I am saying is that she is not an evil dirtbag, and it there is blatant mysogyny in the GOP and its alt-right Id, represented by its nominee, who is in fact an evil bag of shit.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 3:20 AM
Title: Re: Lam Rim Discussion: Part 1
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
I don't suppose you know that lamrim is both Sutra and Tantra because the presentation of lamrim contains all the Buddha's teachings?

Malcolm wrote:
You don't suppose you know that in the Gelug system, Sngags rim (stages of mantra) follows Lam rim (stages of the path), in the order of presentation? This thread concerns Lam Rim. While it true that in Lam Rim literature, there is always at the end a brief pitch for the necessity of practicing Vajrayāna for attaining the aims of Mahāyāna, the stages of mantra are not presented in any detail whatsoever in the 18 famous Lam Rim treatises, not even in the Lam Rim treatise of your beloved Pabhongkha.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 3:17 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


amanitamusc said:
I hope Bernie's influence plays strong if she does get in.

I would feel much better with all of Bernie in there.

Malcolm wrote:
Bernie is not going anywhere. We should all be doing longevity practice for the Bern.

As for your latter sentiment, I agree of course. But since he is the one in whom I place my trust, and since he has strongly recommended we Berners line up behind HRC, any true Sanders supporter should follow his advice. Anyone who claims he sold out has never understood Sanders from the outset.

Queequeg said:
I might be taking anti nausea medicine Tuesday. Not decided yet. I'm in a place where my vote makes no difference.

Malcolm wrote:
Sad to see you have been taken in by the blatant mysogyny that has permeated this campaign from the outset.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 2:42 AM
Title: Re: Lam Rim Discussion: Part 1
Content:
Jeff H said:
From the point of view of the vajrayana, our worst problem is self-denigration, the denigration of our aggregates, elements, and senses as impure. From the point of view of the sutras, in particular of the Vinaya and so forth — the common vehicle — these aggregates, elements, and sense are stated to be impure, troublesome, filthy, and so on. One attempts to cultivate disgust for them as a basis for the achievement of freedom. But in the vajrayana one does not cultivate disgust for the aggregates, elements, and senses.

[From a teaching on Essence of Wisdom: Stages of The Path, Part 3 by Lama Tashi Topgyal. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. Full teaching available from the KPL bookstore as an MP3 download.]

Tsongkhapafan said:
I think this is incorrect. The reason for practising generation stage and completion stage of Tantra is the recognition that the ordinary appearances of our aggregates is impure. We want to practise generating new, pure appearances of the body, mind, enjoyments, environment and deeds of an enlightened being. Through this correct imagination, we will attain the supreme state of enlightenment.

Malcolm wrote:
Hahahah TKF imagines that his form aggregate looks like this in actuality:
vairocanayabyum.jpg (44.4 KiB) Viewed 24268 times

Anyway, TKF, the subject of the thread is LAM RIM not SNGAGS RIM.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 2:02 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
How different is the Buddhist weather procedure from the Sakta procedure:

http://www.alexissanderson.com/uploads/6/2/7/6/6276908/garud%CC%A3ika_materials_in_jy.pdf

Malcolm wrote:
Very different and generally far more simple in execution.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 1:48 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
I examined several commentarial sources and these two asuras are never mentioned. Sumbha means intensely brilliant, etc, and seems to have nothing at all with this legend,

Fortyeightvows said:
Thanks for doing that Malcolm. I guess I was wrong on this one. (About this particular mantra) Sure seems like quite a coincidence though.

For what it's worth the english book 'sublime path to kechara paradise' gives it as overpower.

Malcolm wrote:
The commentaries give it the meaning bjid, brilliance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 1:45 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Gyurme Kundrol said:
Im curious about the meaning of "Dakinis living in the hair". What is this about, and why is hair specifically an important residence for Dakinis? Is it meant that quite literally Dakinis will somehow reside in your hair, or is it more metaphorical like "Dakini energy" will somehow reside in the practitioner and become focused in ones hair? Also what is Dakini energy? What would it be called in Sanskrit? Is it one of the forms of Shakti? Is it Kundalini? Not sure if these are questions that can be answered publicly or not.

Does seeing/touching/tasting the hair of a "true ngakpa" therefore contain some special blessing due to it carrying this special energy?

Malcolm wrote:
When one receives a hair empowerment, one's hair is theoretically blessed as a mandala, thus you are not to cut it, much as when one takes general empowerments, one must not harm the five aggregates since they are blessed as the mandala of male and female buddhas.

Ngakpa Yeshe Dorje gave me some of his hair from his brush, and told me that if I faced serious obstacles, I could burn it and they would be removed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 10:53 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


amanitamusc said:
I hope Bernie's influence plays strong if she does get in.

I would feel much better with all of Bernie in there.

Malcolm wrote:
Bernie is not going anywhere. We should all be doing longevity practice for the Bern.

As for your latter sentiment, I agree of course. But since he is the one in whom I place my trust, and since he has strongly recommended we Berners line up behind HRC, any true Sanders supporter should follow his advice. Anyone who claims he sold out has never understood Sanders from the outset.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 10:51 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
Hawley, MA


kirtu said:
Can this site be visited?

Kirt

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it sure can.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 10:50 PM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
For example, my teacher, the famed late Ngakpa Yeshe Dorje (d. 1993], made it quite clear that not everyone could just become a weather controller. In order to become a weather controller, you have to have the ability in your bone lineage (father line).

Quay said:
Bone lineage. What an interesting phrase & not one I'd heard before in this context. I would very much like to know if that is that a translation and/or one of the qualities from the father's line or lineage in Tibetan culture/language. Thank you.

Malcolm wrote:
The mother line is called the khrag rgyud, the "blood line." The father line is called rus brgyud, the "bone line."

This is based on the fact that the father's elements contributes to the formation of bone tissue, nerves and so on; while the mother's elements contributes to the development of flesh, muscle, blood and so on.

For example, since Terdag Lingpa never had a son, but only a daughter, the Mindroling paternal line ceased, and only the maternal line continued via his daughter.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 10:45 PM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
DGA said:
We're talking about ngakpas such as Sherab Dorje who are living in Europe or North America and whose reputations are formed by a different set of traditional norms than those of the Tibetan cultural sphere.

Malcolm wrote:
In general in traditional Tibetan society, no one would dream of calling themselves a Ngakpa based on having received an empowerment, or even a hair empowerment.

Ngakpas are people who have shown some juice from their practice of mantra. When I see some practitioners who develop some real juice in their practice, then I will call them ngakpas. Until then, for me, they are just earnest practitioners with aspirations.

My teachers, Ngakpa Yeshe Dorje and Kunzang Dechen Lingpa (both "heart sons" of Dudjom Rinpoche who were with him in Tibet for many years) demonstrated the juice of their practice. The former did several years of retreat on Throma in remote caves in Kongpo, the latter did one week of Vajrakīlaya practice and achieved siddhi (the latter was recognized by Dudjom Rinpoche as the tulku of Terton Longsal Nyingpo).

Ordinations do not create Ngakpas, siddhis do. That is my main point here. Since I do not have siddhis, I don't call myself a Ngakpa, even though I have all the requisite empowerments and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 8:45 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
amanitamusc said:
Trump is outrageous But

If Hill wins and appoints Joe biden sec of state we will be looking at increased carnage .

Whoever wins.The people lose.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but I do not think this is how it is going to go. Clinton's platform is 2/3rds of Sanders. She adopted 2/3rds! Bernie is still around to keep her in line.

The alternative will represent a decrease in freedom for everyone but white men.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 8:26 PM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Fortyeightvows said:
So you really think that a mantra that really just consists of two names (with hum phet added) isn't related to those two names? But other mantras with names or titles are? But not this one?
So saying the names of these two deity's has nothing to do with those two deity's?   Even you would have to admit then, it's quite a coincidence !

Malcolm wrote:
I examined several commentarial sources and these two asuras are never mentioned. Sumbha means intensely brilliant, etc, and seems to have nothing at all with this legend,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 9:23 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Unlike the Ngakpa lineages.

Malcolm wrote:
Good luck piercing the aristocratic foundation of the Ngakpa tradition. In Tibet, in terms of one's reputation, one's family comes first, then one's teacher, then one's personal qualities.

For example, I have seen doctors presented as good teachers (who were horrible actually) because their qualities were listed in that order. It really does not fit with the egalitarian model you have in your head, Greg, that "anyone" become a Ngakpa in the traditional Tibetan sense. For example, my teacher, the famed late Ngakpa Yeshe Dorje (d. 1993], made it quite clear that not everyone could just become a weather controller. In order to become a weather controller, you have to have the ability in your bone lineage (father line).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 9:15 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
BuddhaFollower said:
I think you guys mean varna mobility.

Caste is a British invention, and recorded by the Government of India.  It cannot be changed.

Sherab Dorje said:
It ain't shit, it's pooh.  The British just simplified, renamed and ossified a pre-existing system, in order to fortify their "divide and rule" tactics.


BuddhaFollower said:
No they are literally different things.

Varna refers to Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.

Caste refers to the various Patels, Kapus, Velamas etc.

Malcolm wrote:
Tibetans translate the term varna as rigs, which means caste, derived from Spanish and Portuguese "casta", ‘lineage, race, breed." But we can also say "color" if you insist, which just shows that Indian civilization is inherently racist, but we knew this already, right?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 9:06 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Awakened people don't get jaundice, but they may appear to from our point of view. By awakened I assume you mean enlightened, not just liberated.

Malcolm wrote:
Nirmanakāyas have physical bodies, which suffer from erosion, just like ours do. In the Mahaparinibbana sutta it is said:
But when the Blessed One had entered upon the rainy season, there arose in him a severe illness, and sharp and deadly pains came upon him. And the Blessed One endured them mindfully, clearly comprehending and unperturbed..."Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathagata is kept going only with supports. It is, Ananda, only when the Tathagata, disregarding external objects, with the cessation of certain feelings, attains to and abides in the signless concentration of mind, [19] that his body is more comfortable."
Now, I am sure you have some fantasy answer, but I think the Buddha's words are more reliable than yours.

Tsongkhapafan said:
These are ordinary appearances to ordinary minds; Buddha sees things differently. You'll be telling me that Buddha died next!

Malcolm wrote:
Uhuh, you should go on Fox News, your capacity of self-deception matches theirs.


Tsongkhapafan said:
You really should study Tantra. Buddha's Tantric teachings are very reliable.

Malcolm wrote:
You really have no clue.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 9:03 AM
Title: Re: Ayn Rand Sucks - Split from POTUS Part 3
Content:


kirtu said:
There's a lot of false analysis in US media.  The failure of Millenials to sign up for so-called Obamacare is likely to be one of these.  One of the contributing factors is likely the multiplicity of implementations since Obamacare appears to be implemented at a state level rather than a federal level.

Malcolm wrote:
Massachusetts' system works quite well. You should think about moving north of the Mason/Dixon line.

Despite flaws in the ACA, these days the main factor undermining the program is the 32 states whose governors refuse to implement state exchanges, forcing their citizens onto federal exchanges the law was never designed manage.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 3:33 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
... 6 miles away from Jigme Lingpa's thumb relic and 4 miles away from Khandrol Ling...

kirtu said:
Where is Jigme Lingpa's thumb relic?

Kirt

AlexMcLeod said:
I'm going to make a wild guess based on the other information in his post and say somewhere in Buckland, Ma

Malcolm wrote:
Hawley, MA


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 3:32 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Awakened people don't get jaundice, but they may appear to from our point of view. By awakened I assume you mean enlightened, not just liberated.

Malcolm wrote:
Nirmanakāyas have physical bodies, which suffer from erosion, just like ours do. In the Mahaparinibbana sutta it is said:
But when the Blessed One had entered upon the rainy season, there arose in him a severe illness, and sharp and deadly pains came upon him. And the Blessed One endured them mindfully, clearly comprehending and unperturbed..."Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathagata is kept going only with supports. It is, Ananda, only when the Tathagata, disregarding external objects, with the cessation of certain feelings, attains to and abides in the signless concentration of mind, [19] that his body is more comfortable."
Now, I am sure you have some fantasy answer, but I think the Buddha's words are more reliable than yours.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 3:21 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If you care sufficiently, you can do some research and find out that what I said about brahmins is factual.

Sherab Dorje said:
If I didn't care I wouldn't ask you.  I guessed that since you stated it so authoritatively, you would have some specific examples/sources in mind.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, Greg. It is something I read in some book on India some years ago. It struck me because caste fluidity is not something that is discussed much. Here is a paper that discusses it:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/28091/6/06_chapter%203.pdf


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 2:53 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Do you have any examples?

Malcolm wrote:
If you care sufficiently, you can do some research and find out that what I said about brahmins is factual.

Sherab Dorje said:
But that is like saying that to receive an empowerment for and utilize a phurba (for example) you have to be proficient in it's methods of application.

Malcolm wrote:
To receive an empowerment for a kīla, no; to utilize a kīla, one should do the approach before wielding a kīla.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 2:42 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


kirtu said:
No,

Malcolm wrote:
It must be terrible to live where you live. I hope you can move back to the pureland of Europe ASAP.

kirtu said:
It is terrible to live in the US and watch as the people throw away their great advantages and never (or almost never) try to improve their society.

I have to wait a few years until I can return to Europe and hopefully take dual citizenship and then help to build a democratic society.  And even inch our way towards a Pure Land .....

Kirt


Malcolm wrote:
Hopefully trump won't win, and I will just stay here in my little hidden land in Western  Ma, 6 miles away from Jigme Lingpa's thumb relic and 4 miles away from Khandro Ling...and even if he does, it is very, very liberal in my neck of the woods. But it is not like this everywhere in the US.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 2:32 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
Have you actually studied Tantra? Just asking. Are you saying that Pure Lands don't exist? If you are, then you are denying Buddha's teachings. What makes pure lands pure? The absence of impurity. This is not a dualistic concept any more than the absence of delusion is a dualistic concept. The six realms of samsara don't exist for Buddhas because they are creations of deluded mind and Buddhas are not deluded. Not only does shit not exist for them, any ordinary thing that is perceived by an impure human mind doesn't exist for them, otherwise you are saying that a person with clear sight sees the appearance of floating hairs, they just don't grasp at them! Hallucinations don't exist for people who are not hallucinating.

You do understand that appearances are relative and dependent on the mind, right?

Malcolm wrote:
If an awakened person has jaundice, they will see conches as yellow, just like anyone else.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 1:42 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


kirtu said:
Which furthermore means that in the US, practically all politicians are egregious liars.

Malcolm wrote:
In every country, practically all politicians are egregious liars. Why? Because the populace is swayed by hope and fear. Thus, politicians tell lies to both instill fear of their opponents (though in Trump's case, everything negative said about him is true, while in her case, very little is) and to rouse hope in their promises (which often turn out if not to be outright false, impracticable and unachievable).

kirtu said:
No,

Malcolm wrote:
It must be terrible to live where you live. I hope you can move back to the pureland of Europe ASAP.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 12:18 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:


heart said:
More or less what many westerners think as well, or will be thinking soon.

kirtu said:
We have an opportunity to turn this around,

Kirt

heart said:
Would be great, but I don't see that happening.

Malcolm wrote:
This kind of behavior is baked into patriarchal cultures.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, November 6th, 2016 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


kirtu said:
Which furthermore means that in the US, practically all politicians are egregious liars.

Malcolm wrote:
In every country, practically all politicians are egregious liars. Why? Because the populace is swayed by hope and fear. Thus, politicians tell lies to both instill fear of their opponents (though in Trump's case, everything negative said about him is true, while in her case, very little is) and to rouse hope in their promises (which often turn out if not to be outright false, impracticable and unachievable).

On a side note, I can't wait for the GOP and their pathetic minions to start blaming Hillary for the outpouring of national mysogyny that will follow her win, just as they are presently blaming Obama for white racism.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 11:12 PM
Title: Re: The importance of direct experience
Content:
LastLegend said:
How do you eat "emptiness is form?"

Malcolm wrote:
With both hands.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 11:01 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
So Buddhas have impure minds? This is a contradiction.

Malcolm wrote:
No, there is no contradiction. The problem is not appearances, the problem is clinging; so whether a buddha perceives shit or gold, they are regarded them the same way — a buddha regards them without any accepting or rejecting. But it does not mean that a buddha perceives that all shit smells like roses. For a  buddha, roses smell like roses and shit smells like shit.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Impurity isn't related to Buddha's mind. Buddha's don't see shit, these are hallucinations for impure beings like ourselves. If even gods perceive fluids are nectar, it goes without saying that Buddhas do not perceive impure things.

Malcolm wrote:
Things are neither pure nor impure, "pure and impure" are the dualistic concepts of sentient beings. Buddhas see shit, they just don't relate to it as impure or something to avoid, nor to they relate to gold as something pure to acquire.

Since this is case, if you insist that Buddhas in the human realm do not see water (or do not see pus and blood in a preta realm), I think you are deluded and you do not understand the meaning of conventional truth.

If on the other hand you opine that buddhas do not perceive phenomena such as shit and gold in terms of purity or impurity, then I can go along with this. But to believe that buddhas live in a comic book world of pure lands is naive beyond belief, and it means, as far as I am concerned, you have not understood the real import of the generation stage nor the completion stage.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 10:39 PM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
There is one VERY significant difference though:  One can only be born as a Brahmin, whereas anyone can become a Ngakpa.

Malcolm wrote:
No, this isn't true. Buddha explains to one brahmin boy that in the distant past, his family were slaves of the Buddha's clan and were not in fact brahmins. And we know that practically speaking, families do in fact move up and down through the caste system, it is not a fixed as many believe unless you belong to one of the so called "unscheduled castes."

And while it is true that anyone can take some vow and not cut their hair, that is not really what a ngakpa is. A real ngakpa is someone who actually has some realization, someone who has at least generated some heat through practicing Secret Mantra. It is for this reason I don't place very much importance on the so called "ngakpa ordination" or necessarily have a lot of respect for all these people who want to take "ngakpa vows" and go about in religious gear. For example, at base, to really be a candidate for wearing the white lower robe, you must be proficient in tummo, and so on. To really be a candidate for not cutting your hair, you must have the great compassion necessary that ḍākinīs will take up residence in it, etc. Ḍākinīs are not going to inhabit your hair just because you took a vow not to cut it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 10:30 PM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
But there is nothing in regular sūtra to suggest that a buddha perceives only pure appearances.

Tsongkhapafan said:
So Buddhas have impure minds? This is a contradiction.

Malcolm wrote:
No, there is no contradiction. The problem is not appearances, the problem is clinging; so whether a buddha perceives shit or gold, they are regarded them the same way — a buddha regards them without any accepting or rejecting. But it does not mean that a buddha perceives that all shit smells like roses. For a  buddha, roses smell like roses and shit smells like shit.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 10:24 PM
Title: Re: The importance of direct experience
Content:
rachmiel said:
I remember having no problem understanding "Form is emptiness" but scratching my head over "Emptiness is form." Maybe I was overthinking it (as I tend to do), but form seems to unravel nicely into emptiness while emptiness is kinda sorta no-thing to begin with ... so how could it "ravel" into form?

Malcolm wrote:
It is an identity proposition: if the material skandha is empty [the rūpa referred to in the sūtra], then emptiness has to be the material skandha since the material skandha cannot be other than emptiness, and emptiness cannot be other than the material skandha. It is the same for the other four skandhas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 10:20 PM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Tongnyid Dorje said:
when Lopon Ogyan T.Rinpoche gave ngakpa ordination first time in my country, he was giving Vajrakilaya wang. after that he asked us to leave those who dont want this ordination and added short ritual with special visualisation for hair empowerment. recently i saw text for this among John Reynolds traslations of different Throma texts.

then there is this famous Throma Nagmo in Dudjom Tersar.it contains everything, including weapons, and so on, and full ngakpa garment. as i understood, its is conected with this upasaka tradition, but actually also with style how tantrikas used to dress in Oddiyana. Rinpoche explained to us, that you can still se there yogis dressing white (he believes that Oddiyana was in present day Orissa. i was lucky to make pilgrimage with him there).

also, when he gave as Simhamukha in Dudjom tersar, he said there is also everything for become a ngakpa.

im not wearing ngakpa robe all the time, of course. hovewer Rinpoche explained, that robe is something like armour for practicioner, cos when you are wearing a robe, you will not go to pub, and so on. i do wear a robe mainly on the retreats, or when im doing practice. also Dzongsar K.Rinpoche said in his book (Not for happiness, that it is good for us to wear smthing "special" for practice.


Malcolm wrote:
I can't comment on the Oḍḍiyāna thing, it is very unclear. There is a strong Indian tradition that witches (ḍākinīs) live the Swat region, perhaps because many people there have blue eyes and red hair. Further, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu maintains that it was in Pakistan. So what to do?

In terms of Ngapa dress, I have said many times that Ngakpas are kind of like the brahmins of Tibetan society, fulfilling many of the same functions. In Thiland, for example, there are brahmins and this is how they appear:





Like Brahmins, in Tibet we have family Ngakpa lineages, which are generally held to be very important. For example, this person is something like the head Ngakpa:



It is fine by me if people like to wear outfits when they practice. I have no need for it personally. What other people do is their business, not mine. But I do like to use an indian blanket to keep warm if the room is a little cold:



M


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 9:08 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
This was post Citizen's United. It changed when Wasserman Schultz became head of the DNC. I'll try to find the exact rule I'm referring to.

Malcolm wrote:
DWS was Obama's pick.



Queequeg said:
What? That makes no sense.

Malcolm wrote:
You have any better explanation of the largely unwarranted persecution of her by the GOP for the past 30 years? She is just a much a target of GOP mysogyny as anyone we have ever seen on the national stage.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 12:42 PM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
if (typeof bbmedia == 'undefined') { bbmedia = true; var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true; e.src = 'bbmedia.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(e, s); }
https://phpbbex.com/ [video]


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:42 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
heart said:
The "om subhana..." mantra? No, I think not.

Fortyeightvows said:
You learned that it is the name of deity's, how different is that?

Malcolm wrote:
It is not the name of a deity. It is a mantra for setting a protective boundary, etc. Really, if you want to know about mantras, you have to become a practitioner of Secret Mantra. These things are secret for a reason.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:36 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:



conebeckham said:
Shentong is still a Sutra view, as I understand things. I'm not sure your example applies.  As for the deity being ultimate, however, this is indeed the case....but if by the deity being ultimate, one understands the ultimate to be, say, a blue-black many armed anthropomorphic figure holding weapons, etc., that is mistaken view of the "ultimate deity."

Tsongkhapafan said:
Buddha's mind, the Dharmakaya and Buddha's body, the Sambogakaya, are one nature, therefore they are both ultimate in that how they exist is how they appear; this is not mistaken.

The Enjoyment Body arises from the Truth Body like a rainbow arising out of an empty sky but they are one nature.

Malcolm wrote:
So you mean the three kāyas exist inherently?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:34 AM
Title: Re: POTUS 2016, part 3
Content:


Queequeg said:
Assuming that your opinions are objective fact, does that substantially affect the import of the documents he releases?

Malcolm wrote:
You know, the Podesta emails just show a campaign in full swing, with the standard amount of partisan assholishness. There is nothing mind-blowing or significant in them. Is the DNC corrupt? Yes, but we already knew this. So while it is certainly interesting and entertaining to see what a stunning jerk Podesta et al are, the emails are really of no significance whatsoever,

Queequeg said:
I don't agree that this is par. Obama has not been like that, and there are plenty of accounts about how the DNC under Obama was not this dirty. It was only when HRC started gearing up to run and Obama handed over the reigns of the DNC to the Clinton crowd that it started getting slimy again. I don't recall the details, but when Obama was calling the shots, he was not permitting certain types of donations, for instance.

Malcolm wrote:
You mean pre-Citizen's United? Anyway, the corruption in the DNC is precisely Obama's fault.


Queequeg said:
The Clinton crowd came in and they rescinded that restriction and opened it up to the full tilt of the law.

Malcolm wrote:
And you blame them? You do recall Citizen's United was a ruling in favor of a movie that was basically a witch hunt against Clinton?

Queequeg said:
This is not politics as it has to be. People who think politics is just going to be more of what we saw under Obama are going to be in for a rude awakening as the Clinton crowd takes over everything and starts calling shots.


Malcolm wrote:
This politics courtesy of the GOP. You know, like blaming a wife for her philandering husband.

Queequeg said:
The Clintons are uniquely slimy.

Malcolm wrote:
Bill is creep. HRC is a women who has tried, with many errors, to deal with the patriarchal hand she was dealt.


Queequeg said:
The same crowd that is gunning for Clinton have been gunning for Obama. The difference is, Obama is clean - he's got nothing, and so the best they could do is this birther crap and straight up race bating. With the Clintons, they're so dirty, there's endless ammo to go after them.

Malcolm wrote:
But they aren't, actually. The GOP has made up tremendous bullshit about them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:30 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:


heart said:
That is not what that mantra do, sorry.

/magnus


Malcolm wrote:
Yes, of course they do Magnus. When you recite Om ah huṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ you are invoking the awakened continuum of Padmasabhava. You can do this externally, like a supplication, or you can do this internally, as a means of realizing the nature of your mind, and so on.

heart said:
The "om subhana..." mantra? No, I think not. But perhaps someone could feel like that about the vajra guru mantra.

/magnus

Malcolm wrote:
I already clarified, the sumba mantra is an activity mantra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:29 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Tsongkhapafan said:
If you grasp at inherent existence, you're right. Beings appear as enlightened to pure minds and as suffering to impure minds, no contradiction. What something is depends upon how it is viewed.

Malcolm wrote:
This means that the Buddha's view of sentient beings as pure something relative, and not ultimate, in contradiction to your previous claim.

Tsongkhapafan said:
Ultimate doesn't mean absolute, it simply means that there is no contradiction between how something appears and how it exists. Buddhas see all phenomena as manifestations of bliss and emptiness and that's how they exist.

Malcolm wrote:
When you say ultimate, which Tibetan/Sanskrit term do you mean? Otherwise, it becomes confusing. When I say ultimate, I mean don dam, paramārtha.

Still, even if you maintain the above, the Buddhas perception of phenomena is still relative.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:04 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Fortyeightvows said:
Propitiate, supplicate, appease, whatever it's called...

heart said:
That is not what that mantra do, sorry.

/magnus


Malcolm wrote:
Yes, of course they do Magnus. When you recite Om ah huṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ you are invoking the awakened continuum of Padmasabhava. You can do this externally, like a supplication, or you can do this internally, as a means of realizing the nature of your mind, and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 5:01 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Fortyeightvows said:
What's a vidyamantra?

Malcolm wrote:
A mantra from kriya tantra. However,  the origin of the term guhyamantras are mantras that are associated with Vajrapani, and should be kept secret, since they are related to controlling guhyakas.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:55 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:


Fortyeightvows said:
Saying the names of deity's, which many mantras are is seems like a form of propitation. Sumba and nisumba, the pali parittas , mantras for protection, etc..

heart said:
Just because it seems like that doesn't mean it is like that, in tantra that is.

/magnus

Fortyeightvows said:
I think generally what you are saying is true about the use of mantras in tantra vs sutra
But....
How about mantras like sumba nisumba? That's from tantra. so...?

Malcolm wrote:
These are action mantras because they are responsible for actions. For example, the mantra you mention is for frightening obstructors and used for purification of offerings. But this is the realm of secret mantra and so you really need empowerment to use these.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:32 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Fortyeightvows said:
Thanks for that.
So what about the idea of a mantra as a device to aid in memorization or understanding of a text? Like the mantra in the heart sutra, or the mantra of dependent origination ?

Malcolm wrote:
That is a dhāraṇī, which means roughly, something that aids one in retention.

Fortyeightvows said:
I'm not trying to be difficult but in the heart sutra it is called a mantra...
Really I'm not trying be difficult. Just want to understand better.


Malcolm wrote:
Yes, it is called a mantra, but it is not a secret mantra (guhyamantra) nor a knowledge mantra (vidyāmantra).


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:24 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
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https://phpbbex.com/ [video]


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:21 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
Fortyeightvows said:
Thanks for that.
So what about the idea of a mantra as a device to aid in memorization or understanding of a text? Like the mantra in the heart sutra, or the mantra of dependent origination ?

Malcolm wrote:
That is a dhāraṇī, which means roughly, something that aids one in retention.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:18 AM
Title: Re: Power of mantras
Content:
heart said:
Nevertheless, your quote doesn't correspond to the meaning you give it.

Fortyeightvows said:
Sorry to reopen this old thread but...

Please explain.


Malcolm wrote:
The words mantra simply means "the protect (tra) the mind (manas)."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:14 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:


Astus said:
"Hence, the ultimate wrong conceptual consciousness that conceives the object of negation is the innate ignorance which is the first of the twelve factors of dependent-arising. Acquired objects of negation are merely superimpositions based on this. Thus, it is not at all the case that reason negates all of the cognitive processes through which non-conceptual consciousnesses - e.g., sensory consciousnesses - apprehend things. Therefore, only conceptual mental consciousnesses have cognitive processes that are negated by reason; more specifically, reason refutes the cognitive processes of the two conceptions of self and the cognitive processes of those conceptual consciousnesses that superimpose further attributes on objects that have been imputed by those two conceptions of self. It is not that reason refutes the cognitive processes of all conceptual consciousnesses of any kind."
(Tsongkhapa: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path, vol 3, p 212)

Malcolm wrote:
The problem, here, is that what is being discussed is a discussion from the point of Vajrayāna. For example, some people who adhere versions of gzhan to stong theory, will indeed claim that the deity, whose representation is meditated in the creation stage, is ultimate.

But there is nothing in regular sūtra to suggest that a buddha perceives only pure appearances.


conebeckham said:
Shentong is still a Sutra view, as I understand things. I'm not sure your example applies.  As for the deity being ultimate, however, this is indeed the case....but if by the deity being ultimate, one understands the ultimate to be, say, a blue-black many armed anthropomorphic figure holding weapons, etc., that is mistaken view of the "ultimate deity."

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, this is what some versions of gzhan stong hold.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 4:03 AM
Title: Re: Ultimate Truth
Content:
conebeckham said:
He does not negate appearances.  Nor does he claim appearances, as such, "change."

Astus said:
"Hence, the ultimate wrong conceptual consciousness that conceives the object of negation is the innate ignorance which is the first of the twelve factors of dependent-arising. Acquired objects of negation are merely superimpositions based on this. Thus, it is not at all the case that reason negates all of the cognitive processes through which non-conceptual consciousnesses - e.g., sensory consciousnesses - apprehend things. Therefore, only conceptual mental consciousnesses have cognitive processes that are negated by reason; more specifically, reason refutes the cognitive processes of the two conceptions of self and the cognitive processes of those conceptual consciousnesses that superimpose further attributes on objects that have been imputed by those two conceptions of self. It is not that reason refutes the cognitive processes of all conceptual consciousnesses of any kind."
(Tsongkhapa: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path, vol 3, p 212)

Malcolm wrote:
The problem, here, is that what is being discussed is a discussion from the point of Vajrayāna. For example, some people who adhere versions of gzhan to stong theory, will indeed claim that the deity, whose representation is meditated in the creation stage, is ultimate.

But there is nothing in regular sūtra to suggest that a buddha perceives only pure appearances.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 3:48 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
dzogchungpa said:
As much as it pains me to say this...

Malcolm wrote:
You feel pain?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 3:26 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
The reality is that all these specific and "special" empowerments and commitments are completely relative.

Sherab Dorje said:
Nobody said they are absolute.  You are projecting again.  But, given you are not a mind reader, you cannot know the motivation that each individual being has for practicing in these lineages.  You are quick to judge though and that is a nasty habit.

Malcolm wrote:
I assume the motivation for practicing in any Vajrayāna lineage is to attain buddhahood for the benefit of others. No mind reading needed at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 3:01 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Sherab Dorje said:
Special and specific are not synonyms.  You are projecting.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much the same.

Sherab Dorje said:
Not at all.  You are projecting (again).

Malcolm wrote:
No, Greg.

The reality is that all these specific and "special" empowerments and commitments are completely relative.

There is one passage where Saraha derides people for running around in kapalika outfits...another where Jigme Lingpa taunts so called ngakpas...YMMV


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 2:55 AM
Title: Re: Ngakpa tradition & magic
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We all want our traditions to be special, but in reality they are just variations on a general theme.

Sherab Dorje said:
Special and specific are not synonyms.  You are projecting.

Malcolm wrote:
Pretty much the same. But if you want to feel special, who am I to stop you? You have enough problems working with refugees, that is more important than all this bullshit we argue about.


