Today has soft blurry edges like an impressionist painting. So it will be harder for the next few days to undertake tasks that require disciplined thinking and logic. With the Moon conjunct Venus harmony and forms of entertainment are highlighted. There are benefits today in focusing on creating a beautiful place for spiritual pursuits. If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.~Marc Chagall
Today the Moon is Void of Course from 6.59 pm the day before until 2:16pm EST USA today. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.
The following prayer was taken from the Nam Cho Daily Practice from Palyul Ling International:
I pay homage to the continuously present and unmodified nature of pure presence (rigpa).
I offer the clear light, freedom from depths and limits.
I confess within the vast expanse, the equality of samsara and nirvana.
I rejoice in the great wearing out of reality, freedom from conception.
I ask you to always turn the Wheel of Dharma, the great perfection,
And to churn the depths of samsara,
Free from the limiting three conceptions, I dedicate this to reaching the far limit.
Our sense of purpose is in good aspect today. The energy is ripe for you to pursue the subjects of religion, philosophy and undertake long-distance travel and engage in deep transformation. However, in the realm of relationships things are more challenging. There is more likelihood of tempers flying more than usual and feeling thwarted or misunderstood. In a larger context there are adjustments being made in your overall relationships. A spiritual understanding helps. When we are holding onto our opinions with aggression, no matter how valid our cause, we are simply adding more aggression to the planet and violence and pain increase. Cultivating non-aggression is cultivating peace.~Pema Chodron
Today the Moon is Void of Course from 6.59 pm EST USA until 2.16 pm the next day. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.
It’s easy to hear Dharma, if you have the merit. It’s easy to keep a record of how many teachers we have sat in the presence of. It is much harder to change, to remain where we are and to deepen. It is harder still to rely on the advice of our Spiritual Master rather than on our own prideful, rigid, ordinary ideas.
The path of Dharma must renew for us a profound, living presence in our lives. It should never become stale or stiff, nor should we allow our minds to become hard, rigid or prideful. We should hold our hearts and minds in a confident posture of trembling, joyful expectancy. Then the path becomes our treasure, our food, our refuge. Then, gradually, we transform into that most precious jewel, the aspirant who actually gives rise to the Bodhicitta, who makes love and compassion a living presence in the world. This is the answer to all our longing.
May the power and potency of Dharma fill your lives. May virtue prevail. May compassion be born in our hearts and devotion nourish our minds, pouring forth to all sentient beings who remain in samsara. May they be liberated from the very causes of suffering. And may it be soon; may it be today. May samsara be emptied. Lord Guru, of the suffering of sentient beings, there has been enough. I dedicate all virtue I have accomplished, in this and every other lifetime, past, present and future, to this end.
With the Moon opposite the planetoid of the wounded healer Chiron today, there is an opportunity for healing others through looking at your own suffering. Adjustments are needed when one meets with obstacles. Expressions of generosity are helpful in dealing with these issues. There will be beneficial opportunities today. Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.~Hippocrates
Today it’s a mini Moon Void of Course! It’s from 11.14 am EST USA until 11.21 am. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.
It’s a good time to initiate new projects and endeavors. You will have more energy to accomplish tasks especially for the next few days. With the Sun close to the Moon there is harmony between your purpose and emotions. There is headstrong determination to accomplish your objectives – but try to avoid being a bulldozer. With Venus now in Scorpio for several weeks there is more intensity in relationships. And if I fail to practice patience, hindered by my own shortcomings, I myself create impediments…~Shantidevea
Let’s say you have become satisfied with an idea of what a practitioner should be. You are quiet, meek, gentle, and ever so passive. You attempt to be pure by never adorning your face, hair or body. You do what you think is right. Fine. But what if you stop there? What if you allow days, weeks, years, your whole life to pass by with no true sense of the need to eradicate hatred, greed and ignorance from your mindstream? What if you have no real understanding of the emptiness of phenomena? No true perception of the nature of mind? What have you really accomplished? What is yours to carry with you? How will you enter the afterlife state, the bardo? Will you not see as you have always seen? Will you not see the events within the bardo state as external phenomena? Will you not be excited, afraid? Will you not still be lost in the delusion of self and other?
On the Vajrayana path, true purity, true virtue is central and precious. Even one moment of true perception of the nature of mind is the only conceivable virtue. If you merely live according to the rules, you will definitely have merit. But in terms of the value of your own nature, your own mind, you will not have the purification that leads to true perception. The Vajrayana path is unique in its perspective on this. It adopts the morality and rules of the Hinayana path, as well as the Mahayana perspective of compassion and purity, yet it goes further into the understanding that true perception is the thing of value—the diamond.
The goal of the Vajrayana path is to realize the nature of mind. The nature of mind is absolute compassion. At that primordial-wisdom level, there is no good or bad. There is clear, uncontrived, pure, self-luminous nature. Primordial mind is unborn, yet perfectly complete. It is unmarked, un-measured by time or space. It is self-arising. True virtue is not a way of acting. Nor is it a way of thinking—as most people understand thought. There is only one real virtue: the realization of primordial mind. Naturally arising within that realization is a deep and abiding compassion—a compassion that is capable of manifesting in any form necessary in order to bring true benefit to beings.
Please understand that primordial mind itself is not filled with hatred, greed and ignorance. This is simply not possible. The mind is forever pure. It is unchanging. It cannot be defiled in any way. What then is the problem? Where is the defilement? Not in mind itself, but in perception. The real value of practicing on the Vajrayana path is that you are involved in a system by means of which your mind can arise with all the pure qualities of the Buddha. Think, for instance, of Buddha Vajrasattva. This is the practice of a Buddha who is the perfect union of wisdom and compassion. He represents that phase of mind as it first moves into manifestation from the primordial level. The pristine connection between the primordial nature of mind and its transition into an activity phase is not separate from that basic nature.
With three planets and one asteroid in Virgo today it’s a time to write, communicate and pay attention to details, including your daily routine. Virgo energy is also devoted to caring for the disenfranchised and is known also for a healing touch. There is a tendency to look both for stability and progressive change. I’m not silly! I’m very sensible! I’m a Virgo. I’m very…organized.You know? ~Vivian Campbell
Today the Moon is Void of Course from 9.32 am EST USA until 10.30 am. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.
An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series
Where does desire come from? It comes from the belief that self-nature is real. According to the Buddha, if you believe that you are a self, if you believe in self-nature as being real, as being truly existent, then there has to be desire, because in order to be a self or to have a self, you have to define a self. That’s how it is. If you believe in the nature of self, you have to have an underlying belief that self ends here and other begins there. You have to have some conceptualization in your mind about what the self is, because the idea of self cannot exist without some definition. Conceptual proliferation develops, and with that, desire.
Desires are not always fulfilled. There is always the contest between self and other, and from those contests the three root poisons of hatred, greed and ignorance occur. It is the presence of hatred, greed and ignorance in the mind that causes phenomena to appear as they do. If there were no hatred, greed and ignorance in the mind, there would be no cause for suffering and therefore we would not see the phenomena of war, hunger, old age, sickness and death in the world. There would be no cause. This is the understanding and commitment that you should think about and work with in your mind.
With the Sun coming exactly opposite with Neptune today, there are both dangers and opportunities as the structure of our ego ruled by the Sun is challenged by the most mystical energy, Neptune. Your ego boundaries will be tested today and confusion and uncertainty are likely. With spiritual awareness one can make great progress but if you are very materialistic it will be a difficult day. … Plant in my heart the seed of love, Plant in the deepest part of me the light of compassion. Take from me all self-absorption. Teach me to give myself over to love.~Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo
