Harmony of The Way

Harmony of The Way Harmony Of The Way - A Meditation School of the Nyingma Buddhist and Universal Awakening Traditions.

Today friendship is understood either in biological terms or in economic terms, or in sociological terms — in terms of a...
19/08/2025

Today friendship is understood either in biological terms or in economic terms, or in sociological terms — in terms of acquaintance, a kind of acquaintance. But friendship means that if the need arises you will be ready even to sacrifice yourself. Friendship means that you have made somebody else more important than yourself; somebody else has become more precious than you yourself. It is not a business. It is love in its purity.

This friendship is possible even the way you are now. Even unconscious people can have such a friendship. But if you start becoming more conscious of your being, then friendship starts turning into friendliness.

Friendliness has a wider connotation, a far bigger sky.

Friendship is a small thing compared to friendliness.

Friendship can be broken, the friend can turn into an enemy. That possibility remains intrinsic in the very fact of friendship.

I am reminded of Machiavelli giving guidance to the princes of the world in his great work, The Prince. One of his guidelines is, Never tell anything to your friend which you would not be able to say to your enemy, because the person who is a friend today may turn into an enemy tomorrow.

And the suggestion following that is, Never say anything against the enemy, because the enemy can turn into a friend tomorrow. Then you will be very embarrassed.

Machiavelli is giving a very clear insight: that our ordinary love can change into hate, our friendship can become enmity any moment.

This is the unconscious state of man — where love is hiding hate just behind it, where you hate the same person you love but you are not aware of it.

Friendliness becomes possible only when you are real, you are authentic, and you are absolutely aware of your being

And out of this awareness, if love arises it will be friendliness.

Friendliness can never change into its opposite.

Remember this as a criterion, that the greatest values of life are only those which cannot change into their opposite; in fact there is no opposite...

0sho

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Tomorrow aug 19th we begin a daily exploration of the Gnostic path or Lamrim, for one cycle, in preperation of our new t...
18/08/2025

Tomorrow aug 19th we begin a daily exploration of the Gnostic path or Lamrim, for one cycle, in preperation of our new term on Ta**ra. The internal realisations of reality.
The root, growth and flourishing of the path is faith or confidence. To attain faith or confidence it is impossible to do this by thinking alone. As human beings it is a scientific fact that we learn by mirroring through other humans. The Mahayana path begins when love emerges in our being as our motivator. It is impossible to develop love if we don't engage with people. In Ta**ra, the Vajrayana path, we see God here and now in everyone. This is impossible unless we can see God here and now in at least one person.
This view of seeing humans as divine is called Yoga of the beloved friend - Guru Yoga.
Who is a spiritual friend?
At the very least, it is said, they are someone with a good heart and know a bit more than us on the path. This can be enough for us to develop faith or confidence in spiritual realities and to know that we ourselves can improve.

A good Lama will be a 10 on the enneagram.
They will be constant and engage in the divine work. Sober and patient they will be a type 1 at their best moving into the 7.
They will be very clear, present, able to answer your questions in an impartial manner. They will be logical, studious and knowledgeable. They will be a type 7 at their best moving into the 5.
They will be truthful, merciful and innocent. Totally passionate about the dharma and challenging us to live life in truth. They will be a type 5 at their best moving into the 8.
They will be totally free in their expression and humble in their honesty. Naturally giving their energy to others through the dharmic path they will be a type 8 at their best moving into the 2.
They will be a contemplative, grateful and emotionally balanced. Naturally able to creatively explore themselves. They will be a type 2 at their best moving into the 4.
They will live a right way of life, in peace and serenity. Everything is taken to be perfect as it is. They will be a type 4 at their best moving into the 1.
They will have complete confidence in the path, faith in their Guru and totally loyal to the dharma. Their courage to be themselves will shine. They will be a type 3 at their best moving into the 6.
They will be able to see all sides, positions and reveal solutions. They will be loving, engaged and manifest right action. They will be a type 6 at their best moving into the 9.
They will be authentic and honest with a profound sense of knowing it's all good. Living from the heart they will work tirelessly on the path. They will be a type 9 at their best moving into the 3.

Our Lama, our guide, our teacher is a mirror for us to establish faith and confidence in ourselves. To find the freedom, fluidity and joy of presence, that is beyond a fixed personality type.
Put in a more colloquial way our spiritual friend who exemplifies for us the type 10 (that is someone who moves into all 9 types of energy and is not identified with any)
Will be goofy, silly, comfortable in what seem to us 'childlike' things. Reading comic books, playing games with children, and dancing. In dharma they are not fixed to any dogmatic system but move consistently to any new ground like an adventurer. The 7.
They will be good students, readers, able to study scripture and apply logical and critical thinking. It will be clear they enjoy studying the dharma. The 5.
It will be clear they are passionate about the dharma, as Tsongkhapa said 'one will have an insatiable desire for the dharma'. They will demonstrate challenging the self, striving to go deeper into the path. They will be difficult to ignore. The 8.
They will always be available to help, guide, protect and be a good friend. They will appear sweet and friendly able to chat about anything and make everyone feel included. The 2.
They will be creative, poetic, able to express metaphoric language. Easily able to be alone and to be at total ease with the shadow side of life. Able to stand outside the normal perspective and give balanced knowledge. The 4.
Our guide will be serene, not provoked by anger or angry people. They will be endlessly patient with our progress on the path like a loving parent. The 1.
They will by loyal, no matter when we go astray they will welcome us back. They will have courage in the dharma, courage to express themselves creatively, new and fresh. Loyal to truth not dogmas. The 6.
They will have the gift of listening, able to see all sides and perspectives. They are very good at discerning what is the right action. They will be engaged with you when you're with them as if they are just a simple ordinary person exactly like you. The 9.
They will practice, they will know and enjoy techniques. They will speak from their heart, not politically correct, but present what the person needs to hear to feel comfortable. Their intensity for the dharma will be obvious. The 3.

In our lineage we grapple with a very challenging statement made by the master 'In these times I would rather you were spiritual guides than buddhas.'
We can understand this to mean it is not enough just to have internal freedom we must develop the ability to express and guide others.
A symbol for this is becoming an enneagram type 10 or type 0 however you want to look at that?
Find someone and develop the totality of the self.
Be loose, playful, childlike, studious, logical, challenging, passionate, helpful, humble, kind, alone, deep, adult, illogical, serene, patient, courageous, loyal, open, engaged, practical, and loving.
Be unable to pin down. This doesn't mean in terms of what people think about you. It means you cannot define yourself, you don't define yourself, you cannot find yourself. You are freedom itself.
May God guide us to knowing and love.

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A disciple asked a master of Zen Buddhism:"Master, Do I possess Buddha's nature?”And the master answered him. "No, you d...
13/08/2025

A disciple asked a master of Zen Buddhism:

"Master, Do I possess Buddha's nature?”

And the master answered him. "No, you do not.

The disciple replies, "But, I heard that the stones have Buddha nature; the plants have their Buddha nature; animals have theirs, and all of us people have Buddha nature."

Then the Zen master says "Yes, it is true: the stones, plants, animals, people have Buddha nature, but you do not."

“Why?” Asked the disciple.

“Because you are asking about it.”

In our Dharma lineage the internal realisation of knowledge is called refuge. Our internal realisations of direct experience creates a trust in the Buddha.
The internal knowledge of transformation is called 'path', like every single thing in existence this follows law or Dharma.
We will start our practice group into the depth of this law unfolding on Monday 18th.
In our lineage this is called 'Lamrim' which means stages of the path.

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Ta**ra is for those with a sense of humour. If you have bad knees sitting in full lotus is not a practice for you. If yo...
03/07/2025

Ta**ra is for those with a sense of humour. If you have bad knees sitting in full lotus is not a practice for you. If you have a bad back golf is not for you. If you have some kind of mental trauma one is very careful about what may trigger it and certain activities are not to be engaged in.
Like wise if you don't have an open heart and a sense of humour ta**ra is not your method.
If you are politically correct, if jokes have to be explained to you, if you can't take things with a pinch of salt, if you're 'thin' skinned ta**ra probably will not work for you.
Those with a sense of humour already, have an understanding of emptiness.
Chogyam Trungpa is reported to have said 'enlightenment is the perfection of humour'.
By understanding I do not mean intellectual, most people with a sense of humour will never have heard of 'emptiness' nevertheless their experience of life will be more fluid than someone who may have heard many teachings on non-duality but takes themselves too seriously.

Being able to laugh at oneself, seeing both sides of a situation, knowing things change - especially ourselves, an unshockable acceptance of the shadow side of ourselves and others. These are the qualities of someone for whom ta**ra will work.
Unfortunately most people take their personality very seriously and don't accept the diagnosis of Buddha doctors.

If you have been practising ta**ra for a while and not experiencing any results chances are you need to understand monty python more than Padmasambhava. You probably need a Mcdonalds more than your meditation cushion. A pint more than spirulina. Consult your Lama and ask them whole heartedly, 'Do I take my self too seriously?' And if you get offended by the answer - no matter what answer it is - the answer is yes!

A lot of people interpret bodhichitta as saving the world like a crusade. This is a sign you are missing humour and taking yourself too seriously. If you go into ta**ra with that milieu chances are it wont have the desired result.

One can learn to laugh. You can laugh at this post. Or you can take it really seriously. As Osho said 'Be a joke unto yourself.' May you be blessed with laughter and joy.

Mahamudra is eternal laughter Om Hrih Ha Ha Hum Hum Phat!

Our eternal laughter retreat begins July 4th.

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Mahamudra is the heart of all religions.It is the meaning of religion.All the different ways and means. Every magnificen...
28/06/2025

Mahamudra is the heart of all religions.
It is the meaning of religion.
All the different ways and means. Every magnificent variation of human expression created. Everything we comprehend with our five senses and mental concepts is fulfilled in Mahamudra.
It is the clear light, it is Rigpa, it is the Self. Many different names are used as a means to nuance and guide the seeker out of themselves to this place. Mahamudra.
The human ego cannot 'do' God. It cannot 'do' Mahamudra.
But God helps those who help themselves to be no-self.
According to Buddha the reason why we suffer is, we are identified with s**te. Quite literally. Because we identify with this body, its pus, gunk, s**te, p**s, acid, snot, bones, eyeballs, hair and think 'I', we suffer.
Because we identify with thought patterns and object concepts given to us by the media, materialist education systems and other sources outside ourselves and think 'I', we suffer.
Mahamudra is identifying with clear light infinite space, unconditional love and bliss and being 'I' and NOT suffering.
But it is hard to convince people to stop thinking they are s**te, pus, eyeballs, gunk, media concepts and jedis.
These people tend to worship their own. Photos of Ronaldo on their walls, reverence for pieces of paper signed by actors. Awe for people who can hit a ball with a stick, great loyalty for people murdering children. Giving their taxes to their 'Royal' overlords who they wait in bowed reverence to merely behold from a distance.

Mahamudra frees us from all this s**t. Come on free yourself from identifying with s**te, you can do it! If you don't know how and want to do it join us on retreat where we spend weeks bathing in our own glory.

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The Buddha was a radical man. His awakening is announced after overcoming four intense forces.Death, lust, the survival ...
27/06/2025

The Buddha was a radical man.
His awakening is announced after overcoming four intense forces.
Death, lust, the survival instinct and social duty.
It is striking to note that social duty is considered by Buddha such a powerful obstacle to awakening.
The core representation of social duty is doing what you're told by the ruling powers and priests.
Today's priests, in the main, are what we call 'scientists'.
Doing what politicians and 'scientists' tell you blindly is a 'demon' preventing awakening according to Buddha.
Clearly this isn't the case with a lot of buddhists. As so many will attempt to manipulate us to follow social duty. They will use emotional blackmail like 'if you didn't have self cherishing you would do it'. 'A real bodhisattva would do it'. 'It's all empty or it's all mind so just do it.'
Their interpretation of being a Bodhisattva is essentially dictating like a medieval, Christian priest, infantilising us.
It is behave or else. It is don't rock the boat if you care about others.
And always but always they manipulate you for the benefit and health of those 'magical' others. Who when it is convenient for them tell you they don't exist.
Fitting in with a society that is utterly blind and crushed by mental illness, despair and subjugation of corporate technology doesn't make one a bodhisattva it makes one a coward.
Questioning the moral imperatives of politicians and their minions doesn't make you a 'conspiracy theorist' it makes you someone like the Buddha, someone who conquered being coerced blindly into social duty.
Buddha totally rebelled against the ruling classes and their dictates.
Be inspired by the Buddha and follow your truth, be especially wary of when people try to use the Buddha's teachings to manipulate you to follow the crowd.
May you roar like a lion, rest like a tiger and breeze about like a leopard.
Trust your consciousness not someone else's conditioned conscience.
May you be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
www.harmonyoftheway.co.uk

Meditation is nothing that you do.Meditation is something that you fall in, just like love.Meditation is something that ...
26/06/2025

Meditation is nothing that you do.
Meditation is something that you fall in, just like love.
Meditation is something that you can be, but you cannot do it, doing ceases.

Osho

Mahamudra retreat starts 4th July. See website for further details.

www.harmonyoftheway.co.uk

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The intellect is a Divine pun. It is without doubt the most stupid thing in existence. It believes whatever it is told a...
22/06/2025

The intellect is a Divine pun. It is without doubt the most stupid thing in existence. It believes whatever it is told and can hold on to that from age 3 to 87. It repeats the same word formulas for decades with the same suffering results. It literally cannot learn.
And it's so self creatively stupid that it thinks the entire universe is devoid of intelligence because it cannot figure it out.
Let us pray for type 5 personalities who adore their own pop idol intellects, while feeling mountain like pride because they have learned how to read.
If you're on the spiritual path the intellect is used in the same way we need to know what food needs to be put on the shopping list.
The rest is buying, preparing, cooking, and eating.
This is love, compassion, wisdom, insight, clarity, bliss,
You don't need your intellect to figure out where to put your p*e p*e to feel good. Or do you? People have become so dumb through their intellect they need to be told that a bag of peanuts may contain nuts. Although this is possibly a zen koan being slipped into the masses?

Finding flowers beautiful, lilies dancing in a field, loving people, the way they move and amble like whimbling old badgers, seeing the grace of decaying leaves, knowing seasons turn forever, feeling out your days in the present moment, not missing a chance, but mainly overflowing with direct presence that one is Christ.
What have these to do with the intellect?
This is Mahamudra: radiant presence, love and joy.

Harmony of the Way is a meditation centre based in the Scottish Borders

A rose is a rose is a rose.If you come across anyone who dismisses your life, your job, your relationships as empty and ...
21/06/2025

A rose is a rose is a rose.
If you come across anyone who dismisses your life, your job, your relationships as empty and tells you there is no person, there is no good or bad. There is no politician, there is no house etc
Ask them to boil a large pan of water and tell them to stick their hand in it for 5 minutes. If they refuse on the basis that they know its hot take whatever they say very lightly about how things don't exist.
The sacred teachings on reality are not a mind game in which we shuffle concepts about neatly. You can't just decide that a peacock is a potato or a rock is the abstract space left after hearing a poem.
The sacred teachings simply reveal HOW a rock appears.
A rose is a rose is a rose.
But rather than engaging in futile debate. Debate is what emotionally re****ed people use to make their ego feel good that they know something. Instead get that kettle boiling and put their verbiage to the test.

Meditating on the secret oral instructions I had no use for didactic books.Having discovered a sanctuary within my own b...
20/06/2025

Meditating on the secret oral instructions
I had no use for didactic books.
Having discovered a sanctuary within my own body
I had no need for a monastery.
Having embraced the spirit rather than the words of the scriptures
I abandoned all misleading concepts.

Milarepa, 11th century

Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices, Ian A Baker

Mahamudra retreat starts 4th July. See website for further details.

www.harmonyoftheway.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCSHQz71nhhTteP5VpTPtzg

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**ra

Spiritual Events in Edinburgh
Open Heart Satsang
Buddhism, Zen, Tao & Meditation

Padmakara took birth on an island in the ocean and ruled the kingdom of Uddiyana.  He practiced in the eight charnel gro...
18/06/2025

Padmakara took birth on an island in the ocean and ruled the kingdom of Uddiyana. He practiced in the eight charnel grounds. Having undergone ascetic practices in India, through his compassion he came to Tibet. He fulfilled the wishes of the king of Tibet and established the kingdoms of India and Tibet in peace.

This kind master accepted as his spiritual consort, me, Lady Tsogyal, the princess of Karchen, from the time I was thirteen years of age. I was a mere girl who had faith, great compassion, an altruistic frame of mind, constancy, and sharp intelligence.

During the one hundred and eleven years (N.B.: counted in half years) the master remained in Tibet, I served him and pleased him. Without exception, he bestowed upon me the entire extract of his oral instructions, the essence of his mind. During this time, I collected and committed to writing all the teachings that he gave and kept them concealed as precious treasures.

Dakini Teachings: Padmasambhava's Oral Instructions to Lady Tsogyal

Mahamudra retreat starts 4th July. See website for further details.

www.harmonyoftheway.co.uk

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCSHQz71nhhTteP5VpTPtzg

Follow us on Spotify : Harmony of The Way

**ra

Spiritual Events in Edinburgh
Open Heart Satsang
Buddhism, Zen, Tao & Meditation

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