James Low is a disciple and teacher in the Byangter and Khordong lineages of the late Chhimed Rigdzin Lama. James regularly teaches the principles of dzogchen Buddhism in Europe and he publishes translations and commentaries from time to time. Many of his seminars have been recorded and transcribed. They are now being put on his website to provide access for those seeking to deepen their dharma understanding and explore how to apply it in the complexities of everyday life. www.simplybeing.co.uk
The teachings were recorded in different ways and devices, which compromised the pattern and volume of the recordings. We tried to smooth, increase and equalize this volume, but that is the best we could reach. I hope you can listen clearly turning up your device volume, Carly.
I’m always delighted to receive a new posting of James’ videos. Thank you so very much for sharing with your RU-vid audience. I’m so glad to see James looking and sounding so strong. Wishing health, happiness, and long life for James. … so precious!!!!
In buddhism when they are talking about ignorance it's not describing something that happened a long, long time ago, although that is also the case, it is referring to moment by moment the way we fall asleep into our assumptions. We take things for granted as if they were existing in themselves and as the buddha points out in many, many different teachings there are no self existing entities. It is your own misapprehension, your own taking in the wrong way which creates the fantasy of the truly existing object - James Low
You can only receive if your hands are open. If your hands are full of things you can't receive what is given to you. If your mind is full of your own thoughts, your interpretations, your habits, your memories, your likes, your dislikes, very difficult to receive what is there - James Low
Meaning is contingent, it is situational, it is not intrinsic. All the infinite diversity of phenomena is the infinite diversity of experience. If you understand this you free yourself from becoming a slave to materialism. To experience that you yourself are the centre of the world. This is your world. You have a unique, precise vision of existence. Nobody has the same vision as you - James Low
I'm three hours into this first video and am thrilled to be given this opportunity to take a deep dive into these teachings. Thank you James for making so much material available on this channel. These are treasures. COVID really threw a monkey wrench into everything, including the teaching of dharma. These older sessions are a treasure simply because they offer an opportunity for exchanges between those present. Responses to questions can be pithy and humorous but always insightful... enriching the teaching immensely. I appreciate hearing from a man immersed in Western experiences who is so deeply grounded in this Eastern tradition. As a trained psychotherapist myself I especially appreciate what you share out of your experience in the field of psychology. I loved the comment from one professor about our need for cookies for the mind... remembering the famous quote from Sri Nisargadatta that "the mind creates the abyss that the heart crosses." These teaching cross that abyss beautifully. Deep respect.
Gracias por tu gentileza y paciencia. Me encantan tus ejemplos y tono de voz. Haces la enseñanza más comprensible. Vivo en Alemania. Hay algún tipo de retiro próximamente? 🙏🏼
The thing about concepts is they need other concepts to be meaningful. Individual words don’t have much meaning in themselves. Its by the juxtaposition, the placing in close contact, that patterns of words generate meaning. The function of this movement of conceptualisation is to create a patch, a patch which will cover the whole process, the gap or the space which is the site of the lack in ourselves. What is it we lack; we lack direct access to our own nature. This nature is space, it's spacious, it's open. But if your used to looking at substance the space just looks like a hole. If you have a bucket and it has a hole in the bottom you don't look at the shape of the hole, what a fascinating aspect of space, you think the hole is destroying the bucket , the thing we have to do is to fill the hole then we have a proper bucket. This is exactly the state of the ego, the ego's full of holes but we would like to be intact, we would like to be complete we would like to be clear about who we are, we would like to be at peace, at home in our own skin but somehow bits of us leak out and bits of other stuff pour into us so we have to keep repairing all these holes. The hole seems to be an enemy but from a point of view of buddhism the hole is a friend, the hole is a messanger, it says don't be so busy ,these meaningful tasks that you are engaged in are nonsense, they are nonsense, they are a waste of time, don't do that - James Low
Thank you for this... I'm recalling where I was in 1992 and it was far removed from where I am today. I appreciate that this person whom I've come to encounter in the last few days has been offering these profound teachings through the years. I consider him my teacher and am devouring these videos. I first encountered Advaita Vedanta in 1989 when I met Jean Klein in Sausalito, CA. I'm one of those folks in the San Francisco Bay Area immersed in Buddhism. Green Gulch Zen Center and Spirit Rock Meditation Center are quite near. I'm grateful for it all, but Dzogchen really resonates for me and James Low offerings are brilliant and human. Deep respect..
I've come to James only recently and frankly, I'm blown away. This man is a true master. I've been drawn to non-duality for 35 years and have spent time with a number of well known teachers. The brilliance of this presentation can't be overstated. I feel as though I've found my teacher.
As concepts this is all familiar to me but this description of the how it all unfolds in awareness is brilliant. I'mr reminding of the Sri Nisargadatta quote... "The mind creates the abyss that the heart crosses." Non-dual teachings open up the world in unimaginable ways. I'm delighted to have encountered James Low.
Um oásis de clareza, nos ajudando a compreender a essência da prática do caminho do meio, na visão do Dzogchen. Palavras são muito pouco para agradecer ao professor e também aos que viabilizam a transmissão dos ensinamentos na nossa própria língua. Que lindo, compassivo e benéfico trabalho!
The clouds are not different from the sky, but if you fixate on the clouds you won't get the sky. This is particular teaching of mahamudra and dzogchen. You don't have to remove the clouds to find the sky. Without the sky there would be no clouds. So however your mind is, whether it's light and happy or heavy and confused, the presence of these flow of experiences indicates the presence of the mind. So don't try to relax but simply be present with the flow of experience without involvement, however it comes that's how it comes, however it goes that's how it goes. You can see quickly when you get lost because then you start to build up some picture or story about I like or I don't like or this is no good. So again this the central point for meditators; the clouds thenselves are not the problem, it is the commentator who is the problem. The commentator wants to organise what is happening, to make things according to its notion of how it should be, but the clouds are already part.of the sky. They are manifesting and vanishing, manifesting and vanishing like reflections in the mirror, like waves on the ocean, so stay with the simplicity of whatever is coming and going. Your activity is not necessary, not helpful, there's nothing to do. It's already OK - James Low
I learned about James via the Waking Up app, and just finished a nine-day solo retreat using these recordings. Absolutely phenomenal teachings! Much gratitude for making these publicly available. 🙏
4:48:47 or maybe 04:48:47 is where he starts talking about form is emptiness and emptiness is form and how it relates to water bowl offerings, etc. a few minutes before that, he is making the point that all particles can be broken down to more particles endlessly. When we use buddhist symbolism of water bowl offerings etc e are going beyond limitations. We're going beyond the limitations of our supposed reality.
We are driven by this notion that if we are not busy, we are not constructing something, we're not doing something, if we're not creating value we will have no value. This is the prime anxiety of the ego. The ego knows it is empty and fears that emptiness as if its a kind of bad smell, as if its shat its pants in some way and so it has to cover it up and cover it up by showing I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm useful, I'm useful, but it's actually empty and this emptiness is not shameful, it's the emptiness of all phenomena - James Low
The ego is over responsible but if you ask someone who is over responsible to relax they will find it very hard because they will imagine if I relax something terrible will happen. 'Its all up to me' this is what the ego feels 'its all up to me' if I don't hold it together it will fall apart. But sweetie it's always falling apart that's what impermanence is. Everything is impermanent its always falling apart. This is self-liberation - James Low
