Longchempa & Eggnog Latte

Issan: The first question you must ask yourself is when are you going to make friends with your own mind?

Zenho: Good luck finding that. I’m making friends with an eggnog latte.

Zenho’s now famous eggnog latte teisho!

The realization that eventually settled upon me when I experienced this teaching is this: The spontaneous manifestation of all non-objectified phenomena is the play of ornamentation of primordial consciousness.

Pretending your mind doesn’t exist (for some, no pretending is necessary!) is your mind pretending your mind doesn’t exist. Confusion. Eggnog latte is simply the arising ornamentation of creativity. A manifestation from the basic space of timeless awareness. Subsumed in mind.

There is this idea in Dzogchen, (Tantric Buddhism), of magical display. It’s the manifestation of all things as the result of mind itself. Expounded upon by Longchen Rabjam:

“Just as all light is subsumed within the sun as its source, all phenomena are subsumed within awakened mind as their source, even the impurity and confusion in the universe of appearances and possibilities. Whatever occurs, by examining basic space as its matrix and abode you find that it has no foundation, but is subsumed within the timeless freedom of mind. Beyond labels and their meanings, confusion and its absence are subsumed within the true nature of phenomena- the timeless expanse, a supremely spacious state.”*

Soooooo… eggnog latte, you, me, Zenho, all phenomenon in fact, are by nature free of any objective frame of reference, subsumed within the basic space of timeless awareness, which is not the ordinary seeking mind.

Great realization awakened by an eggnog latte, a Dzogchen master and one great teacher!

Groovy how this stuff works!

-Issan

Longchen Rabjam

*A Treasure Trove of Spiritual Transmission: A Commentary on The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena by Longchen Rabjam Padma Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1-881847-30-6

SCHEDULE 11/27-12/4

MONDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE, someone will need to open

MONDAY, 7PM, DREAM KOAN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM

TUESDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE, someone will need to open

WEDNESDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM

THURSDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN & SERVICE AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM

         DOKUSAN WITH ISSAN SENSEI

FRIDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE

         DOKUSAN WITH ZENHO SENSEI

FRIDAY, 6PM-8PM, BEGIN ROHATSU, ZAZEN

SATURDAY, 6:30AM-11:30AM, ROHATSU ZAZEN, SERVICE

SUNDAY, 6:30 AM-11:30AM, ROHATSU ZAZEN, SERVICE

Here’s Noah’s Poem for the Sangha this week:

I dreamt of snakes

Piercing gold

Slithering in sensuality 

upon the Great Mother

Every movement an erotic 

Dance of 

Devotion 

And she saw me 

One of the snakes

She whipped her body

And I ran for her 

And I danced for her

But could not escape 

How naive to think that I could ever escape 

fangs that were meant for biting

skin that was meant for shedding

Oh snake

Bite my skin

Shed my soul

Put your poison

Where you please

And let me see as you see

And let me feel as you feel

And swallow my tail back to myself 

And know thyself and know myself  

As 

I must