Memo to self

[robinturner]

1. Never do tong-len again

2. Remind all sentient beings to stop suffering all over me.

Comments

[kochanie.livejournal.com]

oh, dear.. just got on to respond to your mail, and then this..

i don't very much about tonglen.. I mean the formal kind, I was taught very simply by a yogi.. but I hope everything is alright.. You can say what happened if you'd like, or no...

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

My first tong-len was at Gampo, in a practice intensive with Ani Pema ... thought I was drowning.

[solri.livejournal.com]

Actually that post was an over-reaction, and I was blaming tong-len for other crap that's going on at the moment, I think. It did make me feel very strange, though. Probably best not done without proper guidance.

Makes me think of my beloved demon magic(k)...

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

You invoke - or rathe E-voke - the wildest and and most dangerous fucks you can find, let them romp around burning up all your 'bad-karma' (whatever that is), bursting carbunkles and squeezing blackheads all over the place, then you bring them under control with the bell, the book, and the candle, constraining them to clean-up all the dodgy theological shit they've left lying around since the beginnings of creation. A sort of cosmic version of getting unruly teenagers to tidy up their bedrooms. Naturally, your own 'bedroom' has to be in good order, or they'll just have a party in it and make even more mess. (This happened to me recently.) Positive or negative, it's very cathartic (ask my psychiatrist !).

Aumgn Ha !

[solri.livejournal.com]

Drowning sums it up well, except that I'm told drowning is relatively painless.

I think it's Chöd for me - with a background in Indian Tantra, it's much more my style.

Re: Makes me think of my beloved demon magic(k)...

[solri.livejournal.com]

I'm familiar (no pun intended) with that kind of demon magick from my old Chaos Magick days, though I didn't get as mcuh into it as some of my cronies (Phil Hine was a master of that kind of thing).
My own demons are no problem - it's other people's demons that are a PITA.

Memo to self - must make these entries friends-only - I dread to think what my new students will make of all this!

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

... painless. Maybe it is, but I've had my showdown with pain (ok, not 3rd degree burns, but still) and compared to that helpless panic ... dunno ...

Chöd! One of my most precious souvenirs of my time at the Abbey is a slim text of this. Since I didn't get transmission it's for inspiration and edification rather than practice, but yet ... yes, quite.
A slightly related sidebar: my refuge name (Karma Chöpal) is most routinely translated as "glorious dharma", in the sense of "teachings", but I like "Glorious phenomenal world!", a phrase I've often used and which my teacher used when he granted me this life-long double entendre. Clever fellow, he is!