Update: You can now find the English version here! ChatGPT Translation: Why It's Not Easy to Start Practicing - A Lecture by Dr. Hong Wenliang + Biography of Zen Master Hong Wen Liang

 [8:27 AM, 8/21/2020] John Tan: Wow did u read all?  Essentially covers all the important points. 👍

I think 洪文亮 is probably the only Zen master that is in perfect alignment with all my insights and experiences.
[8:52 AM, 8/21/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Havent read.. going to read
[8:52 AM, 8/21/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[8:53 AM, 8/21/2020] John Tan: Read the whole piece...many important points.
[8:53 AM, 8/21/2020] John Tan: A bit long
[12:19 PM, 8/21/2020] John Tan: But his explanation on the part between appearance and external reality imo opinion is no good.
[7:05 PM, 8/21/2020] Soh Wei Yu: This article is from 1992 [it says Dilgo Khyentse passed way 1 year before that speech was made]

修行为何不易上路——洪文亮医师演讲实录（转贴）

Link to article: http://zhunti.shixiu.net/thread-298-1-1.html

 (Zen Master Hong Wen Liang also received Dzogchen teachings from Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in the USA)

1995年，在另一個機緣下，洪師在美國和「南開諾布」仁波切見了面。仁波切見到洪師非常高興，立刻邀請洪師到仁波切在美國的道場，並且將大圓滿法傳給洪師，並在洪師離開的時候，仁波切把所有密法的法本都交給洪師帶回台灣。- http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_62ea3f0a0100ge2q.html

p.s. for my compilation of Zen Master Hong Wen Liang's articles, check out https://app.box.com/file/259267347989?s=ceb9i7wsk0lkfl2sjex97ai56l1k52pf

Ven. Chi Chern 釋繼程

Flipped through the following books:

https://www.ddc.com.tw/search_list.php?c=1&s=2&k=%E9%87%8B%E7%B9%BC%E7%A8%8B

 默照365

 禪悟之道

禪觀生死

John Tan and I thinks this book by Peter Brown is good. Worth reading. As JT says, his insight is higher than anatta/post anatta. I wrote a critique in 2013 and said his insight sounded substantialist/one mind, but clearly his insights have deepened since (or I simply misjudged him earlier on).

Amazon's A.I. is getting more intelligent at recommending me good books.

His new book ($2.99 for ebook, $10 for hardcopy):

https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Radiant-Presence-Peter-Brown-ebook/dp/B088PXCQF7/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&fbclid=IwAR0QBlGVlZGkCP2x5LGn05MrECWwthRTpw0Y2xy-s536JU5zy1F7JZ3pkM4

 

 

Update: Seems like John Tan didn't find it as impressive as he thought it will be, nonetheless I still think it's a good read and the insight of anatta is there.

 

 

John tan said

“U can really sell .

After reading half of the book...so so only. Initially I was quite impressed with certain passages u sent me about his understandings on:

1. appearances as presence

2. how he sees through conventions.

3. vibrancy of aliveness through Yoga.

The word "yoga" in his book title misled me...lol. I thought he was a yogi with deep anatta insight, clear abt deconstruction techniques on conventional and conceptual constructs and more importantly on yoga energy system which will b quite rare.

But nothing about that after buying and reading the book...”

 

[9:00 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: U finished reading?
[9:50 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Almost
[9:56 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Im still beginning.. think his insight is anatta but a bit of subsuming
[9:56 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: ?
[9:58 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Depends, seems like he feels that presence is real...
[10:05 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Also how one deconstructs conventional reality also crucial.  Not mentioned at all...clearly knowing the relationship between mental constructs and presence is pivotal...he talked too much abt presence...lol
[10:05 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[10:05 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: He said presence cannot be found besides experienced characteristics?
[10:06 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Yes that is good
[10:06 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Seems like dogen and soto zen people also talk about everything being real
[10:06 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: But they dont necessarily use the word presencr
[10:06 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Their definition is different
[10:07 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Coz the word "existence" has different meaning.
[10:07 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: All Buddhism need to know the importance of 幻
[10:08 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: 如梦幻泡影 (like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow)
[10:08 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[10:09 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: But the emphasis that things appear but do not exist may not b clear to many.
[10:11 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: “So, this is a very strange state of affairs we find; ultimately unfindable experiential characteristics that turn out to be nothing more than Presence, and ultimately unfindable Presence that turns out to be nothing more than experiential characteristics. Unfindable Presence appearing as actual Radiance (energetic experiential characteristics),”
[10:11 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: So to him presence is both unfindable and actual
[10:11 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Lol
[10:12 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Just different words
[10:12 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: “and unfindable Radiance appearing as actual Presence.”
[10:13 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: As long as the insight is there is good enough
[10:13 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Unfortunately nothing about energy system
[10:13 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: And deconstruction clarity
[10:14 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: Rob is much better quality book
[10:16 AM, 8/16/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[10:16 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: He use ultimate analysis for example to deconstruct time
[10:16 AM, 8/16/2020] John Tan: And talk about not being attached to even eternal now

 

 

[11:59 PM, 8/10/2020] John Tan: This is a really good quality book by Rob Burbea.  Easy to read, lots of tips for practice and full of valuable pointers. Should put into our blog, preferably "must read" section.
[12:00 AM, 8/11/2020] Soh Wei Yu: you mean the summary or the book itself?
[12:00 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Summary
[12:01 AM, 8/11/2020] Soh Wei Yu: ok i post
[12:03 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Almost attempts to integrate everything...
[12:03 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Lol
[12:04 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Maybe I should buy the book...but the section on cause and effect and production is too short.
[12:05 AM, 8/11/2020] Soh Wei Yu: ya i think so.. i remember hale oh likes it very much i think
[12:05 AM, 8/11/2020] Soh Wei Yu: too bad rob burbea died recently from cancer
[12:08 AM, 8/11/2020] Soh Wei Yu: haven't read the book before though. think will get it
[12:08 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Yes
[12:09 AM, 8/11/2020] John Tan: Go read about the summary...u will understand why it is good guide for practice.

Link to buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-That-Frees-Meditations-Emptiness-ebook/dp/B00SI7PQD8

[9:09 PM, 8/4/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Just saw this in chnn book [Crystal and the Way of Light]:

we could even go so far as to say that, essentially, in Dzogchen, the Base is the primordial state, the Path is the primordial state, and the Fruit is the primordial state—and that there is thus a perfect continuity between them in that they all refer to the same thing: the true condition of the individual and the universe.
[11:34 PM, 8/4/2020] John Tan: Yes.
[11:37 PM, 8/4/2020] John Tan: Practice as if you r buddha but u r not yet Buddha.
[11:38 PM, 8/4/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[11:41 PM, 8/4/2020] John Tan: I think U pasted to me right?  Something like result is taken as the basis.
[11:42 PM, 8/4/2020] John Tan: So not from the view that life is impermanent, no-self and suffering.
[12:14 AM, 8/5/2020] Soh Wei Yu: What do u mean
[12:14 AM, 8/5/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Oh taking buddha nature rather than impermanence no self suffering as basis and path of practicing?
[12:15 AM, 8/5/2020] John Tan: Yes
[12:34 AM, 8/5/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Do you mean these excerpts by Malcolm:

There are two ways be free of grasping: regarding all things as impure and rejecting them as such (Hinayāna and common Mahāyāna), and regarding all things as pure and accepting them as such. The latter method more rapid, but requires special methods, so that it is not merely an intellectual posture.

...

In sūtra there is no antidotal method of conceiving the appearance of things as pure which are typically conceived by ordinary sentient being as impure. Emptiness, in sutra, is provided as cure for this, in terms of nature, but not in terms of appearance. Vajrayāna address both nature and appearance; sūtra only addresses nature, not appearance.

...


In common Mahāyāna, like Hinayāna schools, relatively speaking, phenomena, other than path dharmas, are still compounded, suffering, and not-self, and hence impure. Their ultimate nature, emptiness, is pure.

In uncommon Mahāyāna Secret Mantra, phenomena are rendered pure through special methods which change our attitude towards phenomena.
[12:34 AM, 8/5/2020] Soh Wei Yu: Ok
[12:35 AM, 8/5/2020] John Tan: Yeah