Phil Nguyen

Fear of the emptiness of not-knowing gives rise to cynicism and blind faith. Although these seem like opposites, they are really the same thing. They are personal rigidity, as a defense against uncertainty. Both are dysfunctional. They cut us off from ambiguous situations.

Coming to a meaningful, informed opinion might take a lot of work. There is no need for one unless I am deciding whether to become a student. Otherwise, all that matters is curiosity —or lack of it.

From the Dzogchen perspective, tantra is a bunch of cool things for Buddhas to do .

What happens is so far ahead of our

Thoughts, our intentions, that we can never catch

Up to it or ever really come to know it.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

If we take emptiness seriously, we must realize that we cannot use Buddhism to confirm our selves. There is never any way to be absolutely sure we have found the right lineage or teacher. We cannot rely on Buddhism to provide absolute certainty about anything other than the non-duality of form and emptiness.

When a word has two unrelated meanings, as with bank , linguists call them homonyms. When a word has two closely related meanings, as with magazine , linguists call it polysemy.

For tantra, the energy that drives bad habits is the same as a specific form of wisdom. For example, irritation and mental clarity are produced by the same energy. (I do think very clearly about software.) The methods of tantra allow you to flip each klesha into the corresponding wisdom.

Being married changes people’s lifestyles and habits in ways that are personally and socially beneficial. Marriage is a “seedbed” of prosocial behavior.

Once they get into the trenches of practice, many clinicians discover, as I did, that patients are not coming for interventions. They are coming for a professional who understands.