Mon, 08 Mar 2010
Correcting mistakes
The pugnacious, but always interesting, Bill Scwartz misquotes the First Karmapa, saying:
As the 1st Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa put it, "To see the mountain on the other side, you must look at the mountain on this side."
The way I remember the quote, it goes, "To see the mountain on the other side, you must stand on the mountain on this side." Which makes more sense. If my memory is not faulty, the meaning of the quote is that to realize mahamudra (the mountain on the other side) you must meditate using the seven points of posture of Vairochana (the mountain on this side.)
Nathan, who I met at Khenpo Karthar's teaching on mahamudra in Crestone and at Thrungu Rinpoche's phowa teaching in Toronto, said:
Sattva is a Sanskrit term translated roughly as "one who walks the path of."
Sattva is best translated as "being." "Sat" is the Sanskrit verb that means to be or to exist and "-tva" is the gerund endig, which is "-ing" in English. So sattva is being, the act of existing.
