http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl Random jots and scribbles of Bernie Simon en http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/without_difficulty.html Tonight's quote is by Putowa, one of the early Kadampa masters. pu to ba 'i zhal nas/ khyod kyis 'chi ba mi rtag pa mang du soms dang/ der 'chi nges pa'i blo gcig byung na/ sdig pa spong ba la dka' rgyu med/ dge ba sgrub pa la dka' rgyu med pa zhig 'ong gi/ de'i steng du khyed kyi byams pa dang ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/some_analogies.html Tonight's translation is a quote from Gampopa, the founder of the Kagyu lineage. I'm pretty sure the quote is from the Precious Rosary, but I don't have a copy to check it. Those who do can check my translation against a more accurate one. mnyam med dwags po rin po che'i zhal nas/ dang po skyed ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/milarepa_on_mahamudra.html So here is a quote by Milarepa explaining mahamudra, the path that transcends the intellect. rnal 'byor gyi dbang phyug rje mi las/ lar bu khyed stong nyid bsgom par shor sa bzhi la ma shor ba byed dgos pa dang/ sems kyi gzhi rtsa ma chod na bde gsal mi rtog pa'i nyams ji tsam bzod yang khams gsum ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/atisha_on_whats_best.html Here's another quote, this time from Atisha, the most illustrious master of the Sarma (new) school of Tibetan Buddhism. jo bo'i zhal nas / mkhas pa'i mchog bdag med kyi don rtogs pa yin/ btsun pa'i mchog sems rgyud dul ba yin/ yon tan gyi mchog phan sems che ba yin/ gdams ngag gi mchog rtag tu ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/orgyens_mahamudra.html As you know, I have been spending most of my free time working on my computer software, which is an alternative to Wordpress for smal sites. I got it running under Apache, which is a milestone of sorts, but I'm working on it some more and right now it's thoroughly broken. Every Tibetan lama I've ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/what_the_hell_is_buddha_nature.html The Tuesday night mahamudra class was buddha nature and, as usual, we read the explanation from Traleg Rinpoche's book. I thoght he danced around the topic. Afterwards there were a few questions about buddha nature, which Lama Phurbu Tashi answered. I wanted to stick in my opinion, but kept my ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/a_new_beginning.html After re-translating the quote in my previous post, I decided to go back to the start and revise my translations. Here's my new translation of the first quote in Lama Phurbu Tashi's notebook. It's on the importance of taking the three year retreat seriously. bal ma rin po che'i zhal nas/ chos sgor ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/meditation_briefly.html Lama Phurbu Tashi has been teaching a class on mahamudra meditation and he made a big deal about some meditation instructions that I had translated earlier. My previous translation was not so great, so this new translation incorporates Rinpoche's and Michael Hess's helpful changes. As Lama Phurbu ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/luminous_emptiness.html Someone asked what luminious emptiness means during Lama Phurbu Tashi's class last Tuesday night. There still seemed to be some misunderstanding after the explanation, so I thought I would have my say here. First, emptiness is the absence of a characteristic in something we attribute it to. It ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/question_i_never_asked.html Way back in 1980, during the 16th Karmapa's last visit to America, he came to Washington DC, which was a big deal. And during that visit Trungpa Rinpoche also came to Washington, which made it a doubly big deal. During that visit I was part of a group interview with Trungpa Rinpoche. I wanted to ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/nothing_to_gain.html I'm still spending my most of my time on my side programming project, and that is the reason for my infrequent posts. I won't bore you with the details, but they are many and they are varied. Tonight I have a few minutes to post my notes from last week's talk by Lama Phurbu Tashi on mahamudra. http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/politics/altruism_unleashed.html You may wonder what has taken me away from blogging. I've been spending most of my free time coding a replacement for the software that runs this website. The software is written in Perl and goes by the ungodly name CMS::Onsite::Editor. It's a project that literally been years in the making and ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/confession_prayer.html Great Lama, Vajradhara, Buddhas residing in the ten directions and all Bodhisattvas, please look upon me. I, (your name), since the time of beginningless samsara until now, through the power of the conflicting emotions of anger, attachment and bewilderment, have committed the following negative ... http://www.carelesshand.net/weblog.pl/dharma/lobotomy_with_fries.html Someone on Reddit pointed to this rant, Mindful Lobotomy . The author's point is fierce emotions are good. I've got nothing to say to that but suit yourself, go ahead and smash your furniture. But I did comment on Reddit on the creepy culture of mindfulness that has grown up around Buddhism: ...