Who am I? Buddhist approaches to the mystery of me being me. London 01.2018

January 18th - 20th 2018. James Low was invited by Shang Shung UK to give a public talk held at Lekdanling in London, followed by a 2-day seminar on the same topic.

"The diverse buddhist lineages are united in seeing that suffering arises from ignoring what is and attaching to what is not. Once we attach to a sense of being a separate self, an individual with our own essence and substance, we establish a territory to be defended and experience the anxiety this generates. In this meeting we will explore several buddhist views of how to deconstruct our sense of self and reveal what this illusion has obscured."
~ James Low

Audio recordings:

[reachinreachout]

I'm grateful for this gem of a teaching to be posted for easy access.

[robdowling]

Everything you cling to will cheat you, but you are good at clinging. Everything you release will free you, but you are not good at releasing. So this is the work of meditation; feeling the arousal, the intoxication, the emeshment, ho, let it go, let it go

- James Low

[donaldreid]

James Low, David Parrish and Lama Lena are the most direct teachers of the Dharma today. If you don’t know the others it would benefit you ur understanding to check them out as well

[edamameedamame]

🌈Thank you for the lecture, 5 hours of enlightenment 🌈

[robdowling]

This is the main focus of the practice; whatever arises is ungraspable

- James Low

[GetMeThere]

Amazing stuff. And where (when) else can you hear something like this -- nowhere, that I've seen. I'm grateful you're able to tell us these things, and that we're able to hear them.

[carlywong]

Thank you very much for your teaching.

[robdowling]

We are the recipients of the great freedom, the future is open to us, who are we going to be, how are we going to be, these are not questions the ego can answer but if we find the ground it's clear

- James Low

[robdowling]

The worst, worst notion that you can ever have is that you are knowable, that you are a thing that has a beginning, a middle and an end

- James Low

[robdowling]

So the central principles are very clear; the ground is infinite, awareness inseparable from the ground is infinite. It is our choice whether we open to that infinity or not. All finite's are within the infinite. There is no finite outside the infinite otherwise the infinite wouldn't be infinite. If you have something outside the infinite, infinite is now in relation to the finite and so you have comparing and contrasting and the infinite is diminished. So really understanding the infinite nature of the mind means whatever us occuring, whither it is happy or sad, war or peace, hospital appointments, difficult medical treatments, happiness, long life, falling in love, whatever is arising this is the energy of the movement of the mind within the great completion which is the infinity of awareness

- James Low

[robdowling]

All the meditation problems that arise are problems of belief. We believe that it is good, we beleive that it is bad. We determine not just the shaping and the impact of what is arising but its true validity. Which is why in this style of meditation, which is called the meditation of non-meditation we don't have an intention, we are not trying to achieve anything, we are simply being present with the mind as it is and allowing the intensity of the mind, the seductive and entrancing pattern formations which we are so habitually oriented to succumbing to, we are allowing them to come and go. Our participation in thought production as thought maintenence and thought validation is being relaxed

- James Low

[robdowling]

The lack of effort is very important. We have all been trained to try hard and this is a very misguided direction. Human effort is destroying the planet. Everybody tries too hard. Making effort is manipulating the patterns of energy but if you don't understand the ground of the energy then you misinterpret what it is

- James Low

[petermartin]

Provocative question: do you identify yourself as a teacher of aspects of Buddhism or would that be self defeating?!

[kas]

Is this a 5+ hour lecture? Not that it’s a bad thing.

[zardoz]

I love listening to James Low but I also like Putin.

[Project_Cy]

I am showing my identity and being myself by leaving a sarcastic comment here. Because that's who I am. And that is who you are not.

I get the dependent origination and sunyata arguments and believe in those concepts in part, but we can act against ourselves, and act against., and those actions are no delusions. They are real. Yes, we may be all the same source and go back to it, or not, or all manifestations of the eternal and nodual Tao, but I am not sure the no-self concept is fully realistic here on planet Earth. Tell that to a group being tortured or mistreated by another. While we may know we are all one, are we in that scenario?

This post is just an illusion. It did not happen. Because none of this is real.

[cesarmo]

Please stop bashing Trump and Republicans. More government never brings more freedom or economic prosperity. Harris wants to tax unrealized capital gains; that’s not an illusion.

[dewinjarju]

Lost it at the moment the mr said, when you walking down the street in London and you dont understand what people are saying is GREAT!?
Hahahah what? Whats the greatness about that? I really dont understand, have no clue if the rest of the talk follow along that narrative or if it contradict itself later on. 👍🏽