Dimensionally Barrett

Of late, a number of the great Tibetan older guard of teachers has passed, among whom are a couple I’ve had the honor of meeting and studying under/attending their teachings. These passings are reminders of the impermanence of phenomena and at the same time, the lessons of non-self/anatman/annata/བདག་མེད་, in a couple of ways.  One is that all phenomena is composite, each phenomenon the result of patternings of causes and conditions. No substantial self obtains from the impermanent, ever-shifting and metamorphosing of conditioned existence. Every Buddhist teacher I know - Tibetan and otherwise - stresses the transient,་insubstantial nature of the self. That said, and this is a doctrine that falls under scrutiny for reasons of suggesting otherwise, there is posited and particularly emphasized in Tibetan Mahayana, persistently existing mindstreams. Now, any good madhyamika is going to say that even that mindstream is subject to impermanence and therefore, the positing of such is a ...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2011. Photo by Bonnie Jenkins. Source:  https://fpmt.org/mandala/archives/mandala-issues-for-2011/october/remembering-the-kindness-of-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-and-the-courageous-people-of-tibet/ On July 6, 1935, the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara emanated into a small village in Amdo, Tibet. The child was recognized as the fourteenth Dalai Lama and enthroned as the leader of Tibet on his turning fifteen years of age, three years ahead of schedule.   With no exposure to the geopolitics of the world at the time and an inquisitive and far-reaching mind, Tenzin Gyatso assumed the duties of a leader of a state that was on the precipice of destruction. Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China had already made overtures and incursions to “peacefully liberate” the Tibetan people and bring Tibet back into the Motherland. There are enough lies in that last sentence to choke ten ...