Strengthening the Motivation for Vajrayana Practice

In talking about this blog, I was asked why am I doing it. What is my motivation?

My answer is that I want to progress my practice and help spread understanding of the dharma of Buddhism for the benefit of other sentient beings. This then lead to the question of how do we maintain motivation to undertake and continue our practices.

I have been taught that before commencing any practice, we should remind ourselves of what is the benefit of practice and what is the danger of not practice.

The underlying belief that must exist is that we are in a never-ending cycle of reincarnations, samsara, and that we wish to escape by helping all sentient beings to escape. That is the premise of Mahayana Buddhism.

Before starting any practice it is beneficial to recall what the Sakya tradition calls the four common foundations to help turn the mind towards Dharma.

1. Recall the suffering nature of samsaric existence. By understanding suffering and its causes, we become very clear on the unsatisfactoriness of samsaric existence and create the strong desire to escape by achieving enlightenment.
   
2. Recognise the preciousness in obtaining human rebirth. Of all the possibilities, this is one that gives us the opportunity to encounter the teachers and the dharma and move along the path. Just think how fortunate we are to have access to so many wonderful teachers and to have the opportunity to learn and study.
   
3. Renew the awareness of the impermanence of all phenomena, particularly that the time and place of our own death is unknown yet inevitable.
   
4. Re-emphasise the understanding of the infallibility of the cause and effect of karma. Outcomes follow from creating the right causes and conditions in this life.
   

In the Kagyu and Nyigma traditions, these are commonly referred to as the traditional framework of the Four Reminders - the preciousness of human rebirth, the truth of impermanence, the reality of suffering, and the inescapability of karma. These traditions have a different definition of the Four Foundations, related to meditation practice.

Reflecting on these four common foundations, just for a few minutes, instils in us clarity of why we wish to continue to follow the path. It should also instil a sense of urgency – we could be dead tomorrow. It should raise awareness in our day to day life – is what I am currently doing generating merit and virtue or negativity, or is it, like more than 90% of our daily effort, just a filler or waste of time? It doesn't matter whether these reflections raise fear or hope. All that matters is that there is a call to action.

These reflections will stir our motivation to escape samsara and make the most of this precious opportunity to practice. Then the practice we do will be for the right motivation and of so much greater benefit.

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.

Visualisation in Vajrayana Tantric Buddhist Practice

I have become aware of my tendency to stray from my objective of talking about those things not part of the actual teachings into the realm of teaching. I will try to keep away from actual teachings in this post.

This time I will cover the issues that arise around practices that require some quite complex visualisations. This came from a question posed to me on how to visualise when you are not a visual person. Good dilemma!

The image is of the wrathful deity Mahakala. It is a good example of how much detail needs to be visualised. As well, there is a requirement to visualise a mantra-mala at the heart, with the appropriate symbol on it and a variety of different coloured and formed rays of light emerging from the mantra.
Let's go back to the structure of the practices. In the Sakya version of Ngondro or The Excellent Path of the Two Accumulations there are five aspects – Refuge, Generation of Bodhicitta, 100 Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra, Mandala Offering and Guru Yoga. These are called the Preliminaries, as they purify karma from previous lives and accumulate merit. Prostrations may be done as part of Refuge or Bodhicitta. Other traditions may have more or fewer parts, but they all recommend 100,000 repetitions of each to achieve purification before undertaking more advanced practices.
Similarly, the Vajrapani practice recommends recitation of 1,000,000 short mantras and 100,000 long mantras.

When I enquired about the exactness of these numbers, I was told that experience shows by the time you have reached the nominated count, you will have habituated your Mind into a new way of being and you will have moved along the path towards to enlightenment. No great magic, just practice.

In the words of that great philosopher, Groucho Marx, when asked about Sincerity he said "Sincerity is all that matters. When you can fake that, you've got it made". Likewise, the Buddhist practice is keep faking it in your Mind until it becomes your Mind.

But how do we keep visualising when we are not of a visual nature?

We expect too much of ourselves to be able to fully visualise the complex image that is presented to us when we are doing a Vajrayana practice. The level of concentration just to remember the image, let alone be an embodiment of the image, just drives our Mind to distraction.
It becomes easier if we view a visualisation as a process of experiencing rather than seeing. When we assume the state of the Bodhisattva upon whom we are meditating, think of it as just being that Bodhisattva. Try to capture a sense of the essence of the Bodhisattva, not an identical image. It helps to consider the image as if it were seen in a mirror and not as a substantive figure.

Then consider the roles of all the senses. Sight gives us an image, which may be blurred, hazy, imprecise. It doesn't matter that much.


Sound from recitation of the mantra gives us another avenue to capture the essence of the Boddhisattva. If concentration is waning, up the volume of your voice or change the rhythm. That will quickly bring you back to the essence.

You may use incense or candles to add perfume to the air, and bring in an appropriate aroma that relates to the nature of the particular Bodhisattva. Soothing lavender for Tara, fire and brimstone for Mahakala.

Again, by varying your voice and breathing you can generate vibration, so you can feel the essence of the Boddhisattva.

I am struggling with taste, maybe I'll come up with something another time.

In summary, visualisation is more about experiencing rather than seeing. Keep faking as much as you can and over time some parts will become natural and you will invoke other parts to focus on. Play with your senses to experience different aspects of being the nature or essence of the Bodhisattva. If it all falls apart, come back to looking out from the third eye and slowly extend your sense of body from there.
And never let go of what it is about that Bodhisattva that will enhance your journey along the Path.

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 Mind and Karma and Reincarnation

A concept I have struggled with for years is what is it that transfers from lifetime to lifetime? I became very confused by the terms Mind and Karma.

The endless knot symbolises the nature of reality where everything is interrelated and only exists as part of a web of karma and its effect. Initially, it also represented the confusion in my human mind.

Whatever you look at in the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, the predominant references are to the Mind. But what is it?

OM AH HUM are sometimes equated to Body Speech and Mind, represented physically as Third Eye, Throat and Heart. The Mind is often envisaged as being located at the Heart.

Then again, the Mind is depicted as being Self/Non-Self, incapable of being identified with any bodily location.

The understanding I have developed over time is that in the Buddhist context the Mind is also known as the Mind Stream or Mind Continuum. This is what transfers from physical embodiment to physical embodiment and carries with it the accumulation of karma from all the previous lifetimes.

Then I got confused by the practice of Lojong, literally Lo (Mind) jong (to Train) because it implies there is some THING to train, whereas Mind is ineffable. Then what is it we are supposed to be training?

As I understand it, we are training our thinking or conventional mind, as we experience it, to overcome the illusions and obscurations that create our suffering. The training leads to the development of loving kindness and compassion that eventually leads to enlightenment and the realisation of the ultimate Mind.

The human condition is determined by the five aggregates or skandas - form, feelings, perceptions, volition and consciousness. These are all interdependent and in combination represent what we experience in the conventional world and what experiences we have of suffering and (transient) happiness.

To me, the key element for understanding reincarnation is volition or action. What we perceive as happening to and driving us is a combination of our karma from previous lives and our actions in this life. It can be considered that the karma of previous lives is carried through in our mind stream/continuum.

Being a rational human being, I found these explanations lead me to be more comfortable with the concept of Mind and Reincarnation. I can now sit with this simplistic conceptualisation and get on with my practices. Hopefully this will lead me to a greater understanding in which the need to understand the process of reincarnation becomes irrelevant, anyway.

Just keep on training that Mind, whatever and wherever it is.

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.