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.

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.

Meditation and Vajrayana Tantric Buddhist Practice

In my early years as a Buddhist I lacked clarity on what was meditation and what was practice. To some extent I now realise this lack of clarity reduced the value of my practice.

In some traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism, Mahamudra meditation is the path to achieving an enlightened or wisdom Mind. This is not a state of Mind. It is a transcendental experience or state of being. The word mahamudra symbolises the nature of Mind.

The objective of Mahamudra meditation is to achieve what is known as a Clear Light Mind or Luminous Bliss. "Luminous Bliss" is the title of a definitive book on Mahamudra Meditation by Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche of the Kagyu tradition. His main centres are in Melbourne, Australia and New York and he features in Ken Wilbur's recent book Integral Spirituality. The Kagyu tradition maintains achievement of the Mahamudra state leads to enlightenment through purely meditative practices. This is a form of tantric practice, moving through many phases.

Other traditions, such as the Sakya tradition that I follow, advocate a different tantric practice approach. Both practices offer the possibility of enlightenment in a single lifetime.

This is where my confusion evolved. I did not set about discovering the differences between meditation and practice until I did my retreat in Eastern Tibet a couple of years ago. I will now attempt to pass on my limited understanding to you.

In a previous post I described the sadhana, the text for undertaking a specific practice. There is a beginning, where we acknowledge our teachers, purify our current state and declare our motivation to do the practice for the benefit of all sentient beings. Then there is the middle, on which I elaborate later, and the end, which is the dedication of any virtue and merit that may have been earned for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Now – about the middle.

The main part of the practice consists of a number of elements in what can be considered as an active meditation. It is active in that the meditation focuses on a specific aspect of the Buddha's teachings and involves visualisations and mantras. Mantras are usually counted on a 108 bead mala.

The visualisations generally involve bodhisattvas such as Chenrezig (Compassion), Tara (Healing), Dzambala (Prosperity or Wealth), Manjushri (Wisdom) and the wrathful deities Mahakala and Vajrapani. The term wrathful is a bit misleading, and they are also known as the dharma protectors. Their role is to protect one from illusions, negativities and the assaults of various spirits that may result in corrupting the dharma practice. As such, they are benevolent rather than malevolent.

The picture is of Chenrezig, also known as Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit . The Chinese Buddhist emanation is female in form and known as Quan Yin or Kwan Yin. The two guardians or supporting bodhisattvas are Manjushri, with the sword of wisdom, and Vajrapani.

In order to undertake these practices, one must be initiated into the lineage of teachings by a qualified teacher, usually a Rinpoche or Tulku. A Tulku is a being who has been recognised within their tradition, and quite often by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as a reincarnation of a previously recognised teacher. Traleg Rinpoche is one such being.

The visualisations themselves are quite often very complex, but the objective behind them is really quite simple. As we all know, in traditional meditation it is difficult to stay in the meditative state for extended periods, even if measured in seconds. The tantric approach says that if you are concentrating on a visualisation which in itself has many aspects, and you are reciting a mantra and counting on a mala, whenever your concentration strays, you can come back to another aspect and regain the concentration. While this does not meet our western understanding of meditation as being "relaxing and calming", it is meditation or contemplation in its own right. In envisaging oneself as the bodhisattva, you are not worshipping (in western terminology) the bodhisattva. Rather you are training your Mind to develop the attributes of the bodhisattva.

However, do not expect to get up from a tantric practice in a touchy/feely relaxed state of being. The practices are active and you come out of them embodying the active aspects of the bodhisattva on whom you've been practicing. Personally most of my daily practices, and my retreat in Eastern Tibet, are around Vajrapani Bhutadamara, a particularly powerful aspect of Vajrapani. The visualisation is on the removal of illnesses, obscurations, negativities and evil spirits. After half an hour of him, you are ready to take on anything!

My feeling is that the tantric approach is well suited to my western background. There is still the dichotomy of doing versus being, and at times I have to remind myself to BE Vajrapani rather than DO Vajrapani.

I hope this provides some clarity on aspects of Vajrayana tantric meditation.

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.

The Buddhist Eightfold Path can end Suffering

At the weekend a young person, new to Buddhism, asked why Buddhists considered life was meant to be suffering. This was after hearing our Rinpoche talk of the Four Noble Truths.

This is a common question in the western world and stems from the distinctions Buddhism makes between the conventional reality, within which we live, and the ultimate reality of Emptiness (Which I am still promising to talk about later).

The confusion comes from the first two of the four Noble Truths as stated by Shakyamuni Buddha.

• Life means suffering
  
• Suffering has causes (Attachment and Aversion)
  

As the Four Noble Truths tend to be one of the first concepts that a newcomer will hear, it catapults the person straight into fundamental Buddhist philosophy with very little preparation.

To the unprepared western mind, the immediate implication is that to be a Buddhist, you will need to suffer and that is an inevitability of life – not a very attractive proposition!

To calm that runaway mind, I would like to make this suggestion:

What is being said is that, whether we know it or not, we are all experiencing suffering.

The first level is that of physical suffering from injury and illness, treatable by the medical profession.

The second level of suffering is in the Mind. In Buddhist philosophy that is treatable by becoming aware of how our rampaging Mind creates suffering. Through understanding we can dispel the ignorance that exists. This is when the promise of the next two Noble Truths cuts in:

• Cessation of suffering is attainable
  
• There is a Noble Eightfold Path to achieve the cessation of suffering
  

So for the newcomer the acceptance to embrace is that there is a way to overcome the suffering we experience. That way is through developing a clear understanding of how our Mind creates that suffering, why it does so and how to stop what is currently a never ending cycle, lifetime after lifetime. The path to that understanding is the Noble Eightfold Path.

Part of the development of that understanding is consideration of what is happiness, the opposite of suffering and our ultimate goal. It may come as a surprise, but the happiness we tend to recognise in our day to day lives is really a potential cause of suffering. How can that be? Just think how quickly happiness fades and even at times when we are experiencing happiness, we are fearful of seeing it dissipate – that is, we are suffering in the impermanency.

So in the Buddhist philosophy, happiness has a different meaning. It can be considered to be contentment with what we have, pleasurable or not.

I hope this encourages you to explore the deeper meaning of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. I would recommend you go to the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other revered teachers of the four main traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Master, is also a good source of teachings for westerners, even though he is not of the Mahayana tradition. I found his "Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" particularly easy to read in my early days. While there are a multitude of entries on the web, they do not necessarily have the authenticity of the teachings as handed down through the recognised lineages. That is why I endeavour not to "teach", but rather to explore what is confusing and give guidance on where to go.

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.