The title of this post is self-explanatory. Despite being a longer post (with section headers), it isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but part of an ongoing process to understand how people work and what it takes to develop a healthy baseline for thinking about both teachers and spiritual companions/friends. This post is going to combine … Continue reading Teachers, Students, and Community: A Few Initial Thoughts
Tag: buddhism
A Miscellany of Quotations — Damascius and Kongtrul
From Damascius' Lectures on the Philebus First, the translator, L.G. Westerink — or the Prometheus Trust when they did their monograph — capitalizes Gods. I only just admitted that was a good decision after waffling for more than a decade, but this is a happy thing to see in a book. The Philebus is the Platonic dialogue in … Continue reading A Miscellany of Quotations — Damascius and Kongtrul
A Miscellany of Quotations — Shaw and Kongtrul (with some Addey)
I finished my Goodreads annual book challenge about a month ahead. There are still more books I absolutely need to read. Such is the struggle of a bookworm 📖🐛. From Theurgy and the Soul Gregory Shaw "Heat" (tapas/yoga : thermon/theurgy) is awakened by, or directly related to, the "breath" (prana/yoga : pneuma/theurgy). When sufficiently heated, … Continue reading A Miscellany of Quotations — Shaw and Kongtrul (with some Addey)
Returning to the Lojong Slogans (with Iamblichus This Time)
I'm working my way through G. Shaw's Theurgy and the Soul (2nd ed.) While at the laundromat yesterday, I read the chapters "Ritual and the Human Hierarchy" and "Ritual as Cosmogony." The chapters rely on De Mysteriis, with injections of De Anima and some other texts. Essentially, human souls are divided into three groups, with different types of … Continue reading Returning to the Lojong Slogans (with Iamblichus This Time)
Plato-Related Thoughts After Reading a Few Lojong Slogans
Recently, my girlfriend and I have been attending a Buddhist LGBTQ sangha, which holds a meditation once a week, in the Shambhala tradition. It's 90 minutes long, with a combination of sitting and walking meditation followed by scriptural discussions. While I am not a Buddhist, I can appreciate a lot of Buddhism — the discipline … Continue reading Plato-Related Thoughts After Reading a Few Lojong Slogans