Ngondro – Purifying Karma through Practice and Vajrasattva

Within the schools of Mahayana Buddhism, there is a practice known as Ngondro, literally "proceeding ahead", a means for purifying negativity and accumulating merit. In the formal Sakya tradition it is known as The Excellent Path of Two Accumulations (Merit and Wisdom).

Across the traditions, there are common and uncommon practices, but in essence they all require accumulations of a combination of elements. These include:

• Reciting the refuge prayer 100,000 times.
  
• Creating the bodhicitta thought 100,000 times.
  
• Making the 7 and/or 37 heap mandala offering 100,000 times
  
• Reciting the 100 syllable Vajrasattva prayer 100,000 times
  
• Reciting the Guru Yoga prayer 100,000 times.
  
• While reciting the shorter prayers, one should also accumulate 100,000 prostrations.
  

There are visualisations associated with each of these elements. The Vajrasattva visualisation is usually with the consort, as shown above.


The 100 syllable Vajrasattva prayer and visualisation is the primary vehicle for cleansing the karma carried forward from all previous lifetimes.

A little bit of arithmetic highlights that these accumulations will have to take place over a number of years, preferably in a number of dedicated retreats. But the promise is the elimination of all previous negative karma, surely a worthwhile aspiration! Some traditions require that these accumulations be completed before moving on to the more intensive Vajrayana practices.

And there are short form practices that enable one to achieve a great deal, even if the time is not available to undertake the complete set of accumulations.

Personally I find the Vajrasattva prayer a source of great comfort. There are many translations or interpretations of its meaning, but in essence with the right visualisation you can very quickly get a strong sense of washing away loads and loads of negativity. It can trigger energetic flows in the body and generate a strong feeling of wellbeing.


Don't fuss the 100,000 repetitions too much. I still have a long way to go, but by not fussing it, just being aware, I feel I am receiving great blessings.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya or Gelugpa Buddhism? Or?

Which tradition should I follow? How do I choose?

Remember, I am commenting only in relation to Tibetan Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. The key thing to remember is that all schools base their teachings on the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, as described by great Indian mahasiddhis and scholars such as Aryadeva, Nagarjuna, Virupa, Shantideva, Atisha and Naropa. There are four main schools and many other traditions and lineages. New ones are being formed today with the take up of Buddhism by the West.

The oldest school is Nyingma, founded in Tibet in the 8^th century based on the work and teachings of Padmasambhava. The Kagyu tradition was established in the 11^th century by Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa and is based on the teachings of Naropa and Tilopa. The Sakya school was founded in the 11^th century by Khon Konchok Gyalpo and is based on the teachings of Virupa. The Gelugpa school was founded by Tsong-kha-pa in the 14^th century, based on the teachings of Nagarjuna and Asanga.

The differences between the main schools are mainly in tantric practice and variations of philosophical views, but the underlying philosophy is still that of the Buddha.

So let me ask another question – why choose?

My experience was that having listened to a number of teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I asked my mentor how to go about finding a teacher. His response was that it was not my choice – the teacher would find me. That happened 18 months later and Rinpoche happened to be from the Sakya lineage.

This image is of the five Sakya Masters.  The top one is Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, son of the founder Khon Konchok Gyalpo.

All teachers receive teachings from masters of other schools. As long as the authenticity of the transmission of the teachings is established, the teachings of the Buddha will be sustained. There is no way I would miss a teaching from the Dalai Lama just because he is not Sakya!

To exemplify this, I have just finished reading Treasures of the Sakya Lineage – Teachings from the Masters. It is compiled by Migmar Tseten, Buddhist chaplain at Harvard and of the Sakya tradition. One endorsement reads  "This volume is a treasure of heart teachings ...... expounded by the greatest masters of the glorious Sakya lineage. These are invaluable provisions for all travellers of any Buddhist path."  by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, a renowned author of the Nyingma tradition.

So my advice is to wander along the various paths that open up to you and at about the time you consider taking refuge, be clear on the lineage of the transmissions and make sure they carry the authenticity of being based on the early mahasiddhis and scholars. That way you can be sure you are receiving the Buddha's teachings.

If you like an intellectual challenge, go to Ken Wilber's Integral Spirituality and read Chapter 5 – Boomeritis Buddhism. In this chapter he draws on work by Traleg Rinpoche to highlight the dangers inherent in the Western world interpreting Buddhism and how the teachings can become distorted. It reinforces the need to be sure of the authenticity of the teaching lineage. The book is listed in my reading list.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

Of Five Skandhas, Emptiness and Prajnaparamita

At many teachings the Heart Sutra, or Prajnaparamita, is recited at the beginning. In our centre we recite it before every meditation session and at a five day teaching of the Stages of Meditation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama it was chanted at the beginning of each day, each time in a different language.

Although I joined in the recitations, it was some years before I acknowledged I had little idea of what it was about, except at a very superficial level, so I set about doing some research.

The teachings are complex and not within the charter of this blog. A good starting point to explore the actual teachings is the Dalai Lama's Essence of the Heart Sutra published by Wisdom Publications.

I will just try to convey the essence of what it was that I gathered that help make the recitation of the Heart Sutra much more meaningful to me.

To put it in perspective the Heart Sutra, in just one and a half A4 pages, encompasses all the teachings of the Buddha. So it is incredibly intense and dense.

The essence is contained in these words:

"The five skandhas (or aggregates) are empty of intrinsic existence. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is not other than form, form too is not other than emptiness. Likewise, feelings, perceptions, mental formations (or volition) and consciousness are all empty."

At his point I was lost. This is what I have come to understand to some extent.

The five skandhas or aggregates are form, feeling, perception, mental formation/volition and consciousness. Mental formation is the aspect that comes from past lives and volition comes from our actions in this life. It is the combination of these skandhas that defines the illusory "Self" that we erroneously identify as who we are. "Self" is just a convenient term to describe a collection of two or more of these five factors. The Heart Sutra teaching is that the true or ultimate state is non-self or emptiness or shunyata. As each of the aggregates is in constant change, they are impermanent. So therefore is our traditional concept of Self.

At this point I came to understand the importance of realising that the Self we perceive and cling to is nothing more than an illusion, which the Mind needs to comprehend and transform to achieve reality, emptiness and purity.

It was when I came to Peter Della Santina's Tree of Enlightenment discourse that I became aware of the importance of understanding these skandhas.

In our impure condition of Mind, the skandhas are associated respectively with the five afflictions; ignorance, pride, attachment, envy and aversion. These in turn have these associations; ignorance- the realm of animals; pride – the realm of gods; attachment – the realm of hungry ghosts; envy – the realm of demigods; and aversion – the realm of hell beings. Note that these afflictions result in rebirth in the corresponding realms.

In the Perfection of Wisdom literature and Vajrayana teachings, as the Bodhisattva progresses towards Buddhahood the five skandhas are purified and transformed to appear in the form of the five celestial Buddhas. In Vajrayana physiology each Buddha is associated with a chakra. These are: form –Vairochana on the crown; feeling –Ratnasambhava at the navel; perception –Amitabha at the throat; volition –Amoghasiddhi at the genitals; and consciousness –Akshobhya at the heart.

Each of the Buddhas represents the transformation from the impure skandha to a specific knowledge; respectively reality, equality, discrimination, accomplishment and transcendental knowledge.

In this post I have set out to show the significance of understanding the skandhas or aggregates and the transformations that occur in our Mind as we progress towards Buddhahood. For me this understanding has enabled me to better grasp the various teachings as I receive them. It has also highlighted to me the need to better understand the roles of the five Buddha families in the scheme of practices.

The Tree of Enlightenment can be downloaded from http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dsantina/tree/

Be aware it is a very scholarly discourse.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.

Bringing our Life into Meditation

Greetings again.
I have just listened to a podcast on a site called
http://personallifemedia.com/podcast/236-buddhist-geeks

Go to episode 134 - The Erotic Embrace of Life and Meditation by Vidyuddeva to get the podcast.
Vidyuddeva makes the point that in meditation we tend to believe we need to shut out our life in order to have a "successful" meditation.
His view is that we are doing the meditation in the stream of our life, so we cannot exclude it. He also makes the point that if we don't allow our life to be present in our meditation, how can we then transcend the other way and bring meditation into our day to day life?
The list of Geeks is impressive including a number of Rinpoches and members of Integral Institute from Ken Wilber onwards.
I recommend this as a valuable source of discussions on Buddhism in the western world.
Yours in Dharma, Vajramate.

Introduction to the Blog

Welcome all viewers with an interest in Buddhism.

This Blog is the start of building a resource that will make it easier for you to get to understand Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist teachings and the activities that take place around those teachings.
In my six or so years of gradually easing into becoming a Buddhist and extending my practices from there, I experienced many confusing and almost incomprehensible concepts and teachings. Within our small group in Sydney, Australia I have found myself spending more and more time answering the questions of people new to Buddhism. I have also seen many who attended teachings a few times and then gave up because they couldn't follow what was happening.
I have had the benefit of having a Tibetan Rinpoche resident with our group in Sydney. He is my spiritual guide (or Guru). Much of what I have learnt has been from him and his teachers, all from the Sakya tradition.
It is my intention to post a short article at least once a fortnight. Initially those articles will be sequenced in a structure similar to the general approach to teaching Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.
These articles will not be about the teachings themselves - there are thousands of sources available to explore those and I will be referencing some of those.
To give a flavour of what is to come, in this post I have mentioned Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. What are they and what is the difference? They are both traditional aspects of Buddhism as taught by Buddha Shakyamuni 2,500 years ago, and represent what is known as the Middle Way. Both are based on the premise that all practice should be for the benefit of every sentient being ahead of our individual desires. Sentient beings are every life form that has a brain, including animals, fish and insects. The two approaches utilise meditation as the vehicle to contemplate the teachings. The main difference between them is that Vajrayana Buddhism uses esoteric or tantric practices as part of its practices, with emphasis on visualisations and mantras. This is considered to offer a faster path to enlightenment.

So next time, I guess I had better explain what is meant by "Teachings" and "Practices". It may sound simple, but I have been surprised at how many times I have been asked what these terms encompass.

Thank you for joining me in this adventure. I am learning and your responses and questions will help greatly to guide me as to where I take this.

I am facilitating ads on this blog in order to support my ability to spread the Dharma and assist people to assess what Buddhism has to offer them and how they might approach their exploration of it. I dedicate this post for the benefit of all sentient beings.