(8.45) Although we jealously guard our lover from others’ advances, The Lord of Death will take him from us And his body will be burned or buried in the ground; So what is the point of our jealousy and attachment?
Where there is a strong attachment, usually there will arise some jealousy, too. When we see someone whom we are attached enjoying other people’s company, we become jealous. As bodhisattva’s or as Dharma teachers, we need to be particularly careful because if we develop attachment towards some, we will make others who come to us for help jealous. We need to have equanimity for others.
Meditation on death always works, doesn’t it? Venerable Tharchin said we should view our life from the perspective of our death bed. If it will not matter on our death bed, then why does it matter now? If it will make it harder on our death bed, do not do it now. What is the point of generating jealousy towards anybody. At the time of death, we will be separated from all of them.
(8.46) Others’ bodies to which we are very attached Are just collections of flesh and bone. At any moment, they could be destroyed by the Lord of Death; So why develop attachment to them?
(8.47) When we see a human corpse, which is a mere collection of flesh and bone, We develop fear even though it does not move; So why are we not fearful of living bodies, which are also just collections of flesh and bone Moving here and there like zombies?
(8.48) Since both dead bodies and living bodies Are mere collections of flesh and bone, Why am I attracted to living bodies but not to dead ones? Thinking in this way, I should stop attachment to others’ bodies.
It’s just bodies, just bodies, with holes and protrusions, here, there. We need to remind ourselves of this, all day long, not just when we are tempted by objects of attachment. We are all just collections of flesh and bone. This is equally true when they’re living and when they’re dead. So why do we prefer collections of flesh and bone when they’re living? From a physical perspective, there is no difference. We are just collections of flesh and bone. Why do we prefer ones that move to ones that don’t?
We need to check, what exactly is it that we are attracted to in other’s bodies. We would happily have sex with a beautiful person when they are living; but if one minute later they died, would we still want to have sex with them? It’s the same body. Our engaging in sex with them is physically exactly the same. Why the difference?
And now on to the uncleanliness.
(8.49) Both saliva and urine come from the same source – The intake of fluids into the body – So why is it that we like saliva when kissing But have no desire for urine?
Or anything else excreted from the body, for that matter. Why do we like to one person’s excretions and not another’s. Why do we like some types of excretions and not others? If it is the saliva we like, then why not anybody’s. If it is the saliva we like, then why not the saliva we see on the ground? Would we drink a cup of spit? Would we even want to put our tongue to it, thinking it disgusting? Yet we eagerly do so in somebody else’s mouth. Why?
(8.50) Although cotton is also soft to touch, You find no sexual pleasure in a pillow. Rather, you think the body does not emit foul smells – O desirous mind, you are so confused about what is unclean!
(8.51) Just as we sometimes get angry at other people, Why don’t we also get angry at pillows? For, although they too are soft to touch, We cannot copulate with them!
What is it about bodies? This is the question Shantideva is getting us to ask ourselves. What is it precisely about bodies we are so attached to? What is it about the body? What is it? He’s pushing us, isn’t he, to actually acknowledge the absurdity of being attached to such an object. Is it the touch, the smell, what is it? He is pushing us to recognize the absurdity of being attached to the body so we can drop our attachment.
Here, he is helping us realize it is not the softness we are attached to. There are many soft things, like pillows or flowers, but we don’t go around looking to have sex with them.
In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog. This is part 25 of a 44-part series.
HUM All you Tathagatas, Heroes, Yoginis, Dakas, and Dakinis, To all you I make this request: With a mind completely aroused by great bliss And a body in a dance of constant motion, I offer to the hosts of Dakinis The great bliss from enjoying the lotus of the mudra. AH LA LA, LA LA HO, AH I AH, AH RA LI HO May the assembly of stainless Dakinis Look with loving affection and accomplish all deeds.
The first four lines and the last three lines can be understood in exactly the same way as the verse above. With the fifth line of this verse, we recall our mind has been completely aroused by great bliss from the previous verse and we are experiencing joy at our throat chakra. With the sixth line, we imagine that ourself and our consort Vajrayogini are in fact a single body of inseparable bliss and emptiness engaged in a dance of constant motion – our act of engaging in spiritual union. Here, we offer this experience of great bliss to the host of Dakas and Dakinis of the body mandala. There are two ways of engaging in Heruka’s body mandala. In the first, as explained in Essence of Vajrayana, we imagine the deities of the body mandala surround us in concentric circles. In the second, as explained in the sadhana NewEssence of Vajrayana, we imagine all the deities of the body mandala at the twenty-four places of our body. In both cases, we imagine that the deities of the body mandala are by nature our channels and drops of our subtle body at these places. By mixing the deities of the body mandala with our channels and drops at the twenty-four places, we receive powerful blessings that function to heal our subtle body enabling all our winds to more easily find their way into our central channel at our heart and not become blocked by imperfections or blockages within our subtle body.
In the context of the practice of Song of the Spring Queen, we can imagine either the deities of the body mandala around us in concentric circles or at the twenty-four places of our body. In either case, we offer our experience of great bliss arising from engaging in union with the wisdom mudra Vajayogini to the Dakas and Dakinis, and as a result of them experiencing great bliss, we imagine that our subtle body is completely healed. The Dakas and Dakinis are then able to unobstructedly transmit their blessings through the principal channels of our subtle body causing all our inner winds to travel through them into the central channel at our heart. When we recite the ninth line, we imagine that once again Vajrayogini’s pure winds are blown up into our central channel, re-igniting our tummo fire, and causing the white bodhichitta at our throat to descend to our heart chakra, where we experience the second joy called supreme joy. It is as if all the pure winds from throughout our subtle body and the white bodhichitta descending from our crown all converge into our heart chakra in a concentration of indescribable bliss.
HUM All you Tathagatas,
Heroes, Yoginis,
Dakas, and Dakinis,
To all you I make this request:
You who dance with a beautiful and peaceful manner,
O Blissful Protector and the hosts of Dakinis,
Please come here before me and grant me your blessings,
And bestow upon me spontaneous great bliss.
AH LA LA, LA LA HO, AH I AH, AH RA LI HO
May the assembly of stainless Dakinis
Look with loving affection and accomplish all deeds.
In this verse, with the fifth line, we recall that the great bliss everyone is experiencing around us is by nature emptiness. There is nothing more beautiful nor peaceful than the emptiness of all phenomena. With the sixth and seventh lines, we invite the wisdom beings of all the deities of Heruka’s body mandala to enter into the commitment beings that we have been visualizing up to this point. We imagine that from the ten directions come countless collections of the 64 deities of the body mandala that all dissolve into ourselves as the self-generation. When they do so, we imagine that they bestow spontaneous great bliss upon us, mixed inseparably with a direct realization of the emptiness of all phenomena. When we recite the ninth line, we once again imagine Vajrayogini’s pure winds enter into us, strengthen and further power the tummo fire at our navel. This causes the white bodhichitta, which is still experiencing supreme joy at our heart from before, to descend to our naval channel where it mixes in separably with the tummo fire itself. As a result, we experience the third of the four joys, extraordinary joy, which is even more profound and intense then the supreme joy we generated before.
HUM All you Tathagatas, Heroes, Yoginis, Dakas, and Dakinis, To all you I make this request: You who have the characteristic of the liberation of great bliss, Do not say that deliverance can be gained in one lifetime Through various ascetic practices having abandoned great bliss, But that great bliss resides in the centre of the supreme lotus. AH LA LA, LA LA HO, AH I AH, AH RA LI HO May the assembly of stainless Dakinis Look with loving affection and accomplish all deeds.
Normally when we speak of liberation, we are referring to abandoning all our delusions for ourselves. This is the final result of the Hinayana path and also the middle scope of the Lamrim teachings. However, as explained above, the mind of bodhichitta is the substantial cause of the mind of great bliss, and the practices of generation stage and completion stage are these circumstantial causes that enable us to transform the mind of bodhicitta into the very subtle mind of great bliss. Thus, with the fifth line, we recall that Vajrayogini, who we are engaged in union with, is by nature bodhicitta, which is the uncommon characteristic of the liberation of great bliss. The liberation of great bliss is an experience of great bliss that is equal to or greater than the bliss of individual liberation from samsara, otherwise known as nirvana, but whose special characteristic is to retain the bodhicitta motivation that prevents us from being content with solitary piece.
With the sixth and seventh line, we recall the importance of completely abandoning all attachment if we are to engage in qualified completion stage practice. Aesthetics principal practice is abandoning attachment, and they do so primarily through renouncing all pleasant experiences and achieving a mind that is completely at peace despite that. Aesthetic practices are similar to the practices of physical yoga. When we engage in physical yoga, we put our body into all sorts of extremely uncomfortable positions and stretches, but then we learn how to relax completely into that discomfort and tension completely fades away and we experience it as blissful relaxation of letting go into discomfort. In our practice of tantra, we do not abandon pleasant experiences, rather we learn how to transform them into the spiritual path of generating the mind of great bliss that we then use to meditate on emptiness. The sixth and seventh lines, therefore, remind us that our practices of generation stage and completion stage must be completely free from every trace of attachment just like the practices of an aesthetic must be. The difference is we do not need to renounce the pleasant experience, instead we use it spiritually. With the eighth line, we recall that great bliss can only be found through tantric practice, and in particular through completely loosening all the knots at our central channel as described above. It is only through tantric technology that we can attain enlightenment in one lifetime. This can only be done through relying upon both a wisdom and an action mudra. The supreme lotus refers to Vajrayogini’s bhaga.
When we recite the ninth line, we once again imagine that Vajrayogini’s pure winds flow up into our central channel where they envelop our white bodhichitta now at our navel chakra, and then they draw our white bodhichitta down to the tip of our sex organ. Technically speaking, the center of the chakra at the tip of our sex organ is slightly outside the tip, so we should feel as if the white bodhicitta is now residing inside the center of our lower door and we experience the fourth joy, spontaneous great bliss joy.
This is the third installment of the 12-part series sharing my understanding of the practice Liberation from Sorrow.
Homage to the Twenty-one Taras
OM Homage to Venerable Arya Tara
The main purpose of reciting the twenty-one homages is to generate faith in Arya Tara. Faith is what gives Buddhas power to help us. It is not they hold back their help waiting for our faith and respect, rather when we generate faith we open the blinds of our mind to allow the sunlight of their blessings to pour in. There are three types of faith: believing faith, admiring faith, and wishing faith. Believing faith believes in the qualities and abilities of holy beings. Admiring faith generates a feeling of wonder, amazed at their incredible good qualities. Wishing faith wishes to be the beneficiary of such power, and superior wishing faith wishes to gain these good qualities ourselves so we can do for others what the holy beings can do for us. The more faith we have, the more powerfully we will receive the blessings of the given Buddha. To paraphrase Lord Acton, faith empowers and absolute faith empowers absolutely.
When we recite the twenty-one homages, we can train in increasing our faith. Typically, we recite the twenty-one homages three times. With the first recitation, we can primarily train in believing faith; with the second recitation, we can focus on admiring faith; and with the final recitation, we can emphasize wishing faith. In this way, we will build up powerful potential energy in our mind for the remainder of the practice.
Praising Tara by her life story
Homage to Tara, the Swift One, the Heroine, Whose eyes are like a flash of lightning, Who arose from the opening of a lotus, Born from the tears of the Protector of the Three Worlds.
Each time we receive a Tara empowerment, we hear Tara’s life story. She has both a common and an uncommon life story. Her common life story is as a bodhisattva, some sexist monk said if she continues in this way, she can pray to be reborn as a man so she can become a Buddha. Upon hearing this, she vowed to always take rebirth in a female form and ultimately attain enlightenment in a female form. She was the first feminist. Her uncommon life story is Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion, wept as he looked at how many beings remained to be liberated. His tears fell into the clear light emptiness, and Arya Tara arose telling him to not worry, she would help him free all living beings. When we recite this verse, it is important to make this personal – she became Tara for us, and so we should generate a feeling of closeness and gratitude.
Praising Tara by the brightness and radiance of her face
Homage to you with a face like a hundred full moons in autumn Gathered together into one; Blazing with brilliant light Like a thousand constellations.
Sometimes people wonder how it is Buddhas can help all living beings directly and simultaneously. There are so many living beings, how exactly can we understand their emanations pervading all worlds? For me, there are two analogies that help, both of which are illustrated by this verse. First, while there is only one moon in the sky, it nonetheless spontaneously reflects on the surface of every body of water in the world without its light being diminished in the process. In the same way, the wisdom moon of Mother Tara shines in the sky of our mind, and spontaneously appears on the surface of every mind of faith in the world. Second, imagine a wheel with countless straw-like spokes. If you shined a light inside any one spoke, it would illuminate just that spoke, but if you moved the light into the hub of the wheel, it would illuminate all of the spokes directly and simultaneously. In the same way, Tara’s brilliant light shines into the spokes of our minds like a thousand constellations.
Praising Tara by her colour, what she holds and her causes
Homage to you who are bluish gold, Your hand perfectly adorned with a lotus flower; Who arose from practising giving, moral discipline, Patience, effort, concentration and wisdom.
Blue generally represents Buddha Akshobya, the completely purified aggregate of consciousness of all the Buddhas; and gold (yellow) represents Buddha Ratnasambhava, the completely purified aggregate of feeling of all the Buddhas. A purified aggregate of consciousness is one that is free from the two obstructions, and a purified aggregate of feeling experiences all phenomena equally as manifestions of bliss and emptiness. By praising Tara as being bluish gold, we recall her purified consciousness and feeling and generate faith. A lotus flower generally symbolizes how an object of complete beauty and purity (a lotus flower) emerges from a contaminated source (the mud in the pond). In the same way, our eventual enlightenment will emerge despite our origin being contaminated. Tara holding a lotus flower symbolizes her power to lead contaminated beings such as ourselves to enlightenment. All Buddhas attain enlightenment in exactly the same way – through training in the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom. We sometimes think Buddhas were always enlightened and they are somehow different than the rest of us, but they were suffering sentient beings once as well just like us, and through their practice of the six perfections they attained enlightenment. If we do the same, we too will attain the same results. Recalling Tara’s causes reminds us of that and shows her power to help us train in the six perfections ourselves.
Praising Tara by her being honoured by the Conquerors and the Bodhisattvas
Homage to you who surmount the Tathagatas’ ushnishas, Whose victorious actions are limitless; Who are greatly honoured by the Sons of the Conquerors, Who have attained every perfection.
The primary purpose of this verse is to increase our faith in Tara as an enlightened being. Normally, we view our spiritual guide on our crown. Tara being on the crown of all the Tathagatas indicates that she is the spiritual guide of all the Tathagatas. Victorious actions refer to her victory over the four maras, delusions, and all other objects of abandonment along the path. She is honoured by all the Bodhisattvas (Sons of the Conquerors) because she is their mother, and she has attained every perfection. Considering these qualities, we generate deep faith in her.
Praising Tara by her subduing unfavourable conditions
Homage to you who with the letters TUTTARA and HUM Fill the realms of desire, direction and space. With the seven classes of evil spirits beneath your feet, You are able to draw all beings to bliss.
Here, we imagine that from the mantra rosary at her heart, countless light rays radiate out in all directions, filling the entire universe and dispelling all unfavorable conditions and obstructions to our practice of Dharma. We imagine she is doing this for the benefit of ourself and all living beings. There are countless evil spirits (all empty) who wish to obstruct our Dharma practice, but she is able to overcome them all single-handedly. Through her powerful actions, we then imagine she draws all living beings into the bliss of her Dharmakaya where they are perfectly freed from all unfavorable conditions.
Praising Tara by her being worshipped by the great worldly gods
Homage to you who are worshipped by Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayu, and the other mighty gods; And before whom the host of evil spirits, Zombies, smell-eaters and givers of harm respectfully offer praise.
Normally living beings look up to the worldly gods, but worldly gods worship Tara. If we bow to them and they bow to her, then we certainly should also bow to her. Normally we fear evil spirits, but they too offer praise and respect to Tara. We would think evil spirits would also fear Tara since she is the opposite of evil and has the power to overcome them, but she is so loving and skillful, even her would-be enemies respectfully offer her praise. By relying upon her, we too can gain the ability to earn the respect of those who oppose our virtuous wishes.
The war currently unfolding in Ukraine is, in many ways, the biggest geopolitical event in most of our lifetimes. It’s the first ”great power conflict“ since the Cold War. Thousands of people are dying, millions are fleeing in terror, tens of millions are either trapped or choose to stay and fight, cities are being destroyed, and the geopolitical order that has (more or less) maintained the peace since WWII is potentially unravelling, with the risk of ushering in a 21st century version of the Cold War between Russia/China and the other major world powers. The rest of us can seemingly only watch on helplessly. All of this is coming on the heals of global pandemic which has killed millions. It’s hard to not feel like the world is falling apart and going to hell. So what do we, as Kadampas, do with all of this? How can we help? How do we transform such appearances into the path? What follows is my answer. How do we help? Geshe-la says our job is to pray. How do we transform these appearances into the path? Geshe-la says we should learn from this that the Dharma is the truth. But our ability to do this will depend on not falling into either of the two extremes associated with mixing Dharma with politics.
Our Job is to Pray
Gen-la Dekyong asked Geshe-la if he had a message to the Kadampa community regarding the war that is unfolding. During a special global Prayers for World Peace, she shared his answer. For those interested, they can hear her teaching and engage in the prayers by following the recording, which can be found here:
He said, “Our job is to pray.” My understanding is he then referred to the teaching he gave when he opened the temple in New York in which he said, “Nowadays, we can see in the world so many problems, people experiencing so many difficulties. Storms, famines, floods, incurable diseases, wars, earthquakes, etc. People are asking me, what should we Buddhists do to help these problems? I replied, we cannot be involved in any political problem or it becomes worse. Our job is, we pray, we pray for these obstacles to be pacified. We pray for people to pacify their negativity, wrong views, their extreme views, through prayer. Our job to solve these kinds of problems is we pray for everybody to become friends. To have harmony, good relationships, to pacify their wrong views of selfish intention. This is our job. I believe it is the best method to help. It is the best method to benefit. This is our job. If we try physically, verbally, it makes things worse. We pray for every area to pacify negative attitudes and intentions and for people to experience correct views and correct paths. So through receiving blessings our wishes will be fulfilled. I promise. This is our Buddhist way of helping; this is our Buddhist way of benefiting to solve these kinds of problems. I believe you will solve the world’s problems gradually through these methods. Our prayers work for three reasons. First is our pure intention. Second, the power of the prayers themselves. Third, the powerful blessings of the holy beings.”
Gen-la Dekyong then asked what particular prayers we should make for this situation? Geshe-la’s answer: “Of course, we engage in Prayers for World Peace – Tara prayers. It is very clear without compassion and wisdom, there is no possibility to be released from this kind of tragedy. We should learn from this that the Dharma is the truth.”
I don’t have a transcript of it, but when the Iraq war broke out, Geshe-la gave two main pieces of advice. First, he said ”we should pray that our leaders receive wisdom,” and “love is the nuclear bomb that destroys all enemies.”
How to Increase the Power of our Prayers
There was so much good advice in Gen-la Dekyong’s talk that I won’t try to paraphrase it. Those interested can listen to it. Instead, if our job is to pray, I want to say a few words about how we make our prayers powerful. We do so through our pure intention, our karmic connection with those we are praying for, our karmic connection with the Buddhas we are praying to, and the extent to which we can mix our prayers with the correct view of emptiness. All four of these factors can be strengthened. Buddhas primarily accomplish all of their deeds through the power of their prayer. Wishing to become a Buddha practically means wishing to gain their power of prayer. It is our main training.
Our pure intention, of course, is great compassion. Compassion is the wish to protect others from their suffering. Great compassion is vaster than normal compassion along two axes: first, it is compassion for all living beings. In this specific case, that means praying of course for the victims of the war, but also praying for those perpetrating the war (on both sides), and also praying for everyone else in the world looking on, generating delusions and negativity with regards to what they are seeing. The second axis is the three different types of suffering. Of course we pray for the alleviation of the manifest suffering of the war itself, but also the changing suffering realizing cease fires or even the end of the war is not happiness, but just a reduction in the suffering of war. Further, we pray for freedom from the pervasive suffering of being born with contaminated bodies and minds in realms where things like war happen.
The strength of our karmic connections with those we are praying for and with the Buddhas essentially determines the bandwidth through which the blessings can flow from the Buddhas to the objects of our prayers. The more karma we have (and the more pure that karma is), the greater the bandwidth and the more powerful the blessings. We can pray, for example, that wisdom enter Putin’s mind, but if we were his closest advisor or his mother and we made that prayer, it would be much more powerful due to our closer karmic connection. Likewise, if we almost never build karmic connections with the Buddhas, our prayers to them will not be as powerful as they would be if we are praying to them all the time and we have very close karma with them. We can strengthen our karma with those directly involved with the war by reading their stories or thinking about the situation and what they are experiencing. We can strengthen our karma with the leaders by trying to understand their respective perspectives and understanding how their decisions will shape the evolution of this. We can strengthen our karma with all those looking on by talking to people about it or simply thinking about the karma they are creating due to their views of the situation. Everyone in the world is creating karma with respect to the war right now.
We can strengthen our karma with the Buddhas by engaging in our practices in general and self-generation in particular. Every time we put any Dharma instruction into practice, we are creating karma with the source of that instruction (as a side note, this is how we find Geshe-la again in our future lives – by putting the instructions he has given us in this life into practice). Finally, we can purify our negative karma with respect to those directly involved in the war, those looking on, and all the Buddhas through purification practices such as Vajrasattva, 35 Confession Buddhas, etc. The more we purify our negative karma with respect to these three groups, the less obstructed our prayers will be.
And we infuse our prayers with the wisdom realizing emptiness by contemplating the emptiness of the three spheres – those we are praying for, those we are paying to, and ourselves doing the praying. Grasping at these three spheres as being inherently separate from one other essentially cuts completely the power of the prayers by erecting mental barriers to the blessings ever being able to reach their intended targets. How can the blessings flow if there is no point of intersection between the Buddhas, ourselves, and those we are praying for? In truth, all three spheres of our prayers are parts of our mind. None of the three spheres are separate from our mind, but rather different places within our mind. There is no creator other than mind, so all three spheres are created by and are parts of our mind. We are directing one part of our mind (the Buddhas) to channel the flow of their pure winds (their blessings) to another part of our mind (the objects of our prayers). It is like we are a magician who has the power to direct the currents of water within the ocean of our mind, which is itself, not separate from us. We, in effect, transform the aspect of our mind itself from the state of war to the state of eternal peace. In my view, prayer is emptiness in action. The more we understand the non-duality between appearance and emptiness and the non-duality between emptiness and the laws of karma, the more powerful and effective our prayers will be.
Some people are very engaged with this issue – reading updates on line many times a day – others are simply aware it is happening, but not too engaged. Regardless of what is our case, each time we engage we should recall Geshe-la’s advice: our job is to pray. With respect to everything you read, pray; every person in the story, pray for them; pray, pray, pray while strengthening our intention, our karma with the Buddhas, our karma with those we are praying for, and our wisdom realizing the emptiness of the three spheres. We are not limited to doing this with regard to the war in Ukraine, but can likewise do this with regard to every tragedy we see unfolding before us while we remain in samsara – pandemics, famines, sexual violence, racism, homophobia – whatever animates us and we feel passionate about.
Avoiding the Extremes of Mixing Dharma and Politics
Geshe-la says when we see things like the war, we should learn how the Dharma is the truth. What appears is the war, but what we understand is the truth of the Dharma. In addition to praying, this is also our job.
Before we can get into how to do this, we first need to say a few words about mixing Dharma with politics. We all know we should not mix Dharma with politics, so sometimes the question arises as to how we can think about political developments in a Dharma way without mixing Dharma with politics? This especially becomes complicated when different Kadampas have different political opinions about what is happening in the world, such as different views about the pandemic, about masks, about the war, about political leaders, about racism, etc., etc., etc.
Knowing we should not mix Dharma with politics, sometimes Kadampas go to the extreme of saying we should not talk about political developments or politics at all. They say talking about political developments is ”non-Dharma” and therefore have no place in Dharma discussions. Other people think Kadampas need to be neutral on all political developments – some form of spiritual ”both-sidesism” or some sort of “false equivalency” with respect to every situation saying, ”everyone is equally bad.” For them, to be a Kadampa means to be some uber-Centrist on all things condemning everyone equally. Geshe-la says our job is to attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life. Political developments, such as wars, elections, protest movements, pandemics, whatever, are all part of modern life. Therefore, our job is to attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and these developments. How? Geshe-la says by having these developments teach us the truth of Dharma. Milarepa said he does not need Dharma books because all phenomena teach him the truth of Dharma. We should not run away from engaging with political developments in the world, we should view them clearly and learn Dharma truths from them.
There is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with Kadampas having political views – whatever they may be. Some people will be conservative, some liberal, some far right, some far left, some anarchist, some communist, whatever. It doesn’t matter. We should have political opinions about what is going on because our opinions matter for shaping the world around us. We have to have opinions about what is happening in the world because we have to act in the world. We should not renounce all political power we might have fearing it is somehow inherently tainted, we need to use whatever political power we have (our voice, our vote, our professional position, our activities, whatever) in virtuous, compassionate, and wise ways. This is part of attaining the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life.
The other extreme sometimes people fall on is saying ”if you believe in the Dharma, then you need to have XYZ political view,” or its cousin, ”holding that political view is contrary to the Dharma.” We see this all the time about the controversial issues in the world – race, the pandemic, wars, elections, whatever. This can become a real problem when Dharma practitioners of different political stripes start discussing political matters. Divisions can quickly arise in the Sangha, with both sides thinking, ”how can you possibly be a Kadampa and think that way?” This is why some people say, ”let’s not discuss divisive political matters at all to avoid creating divisions in the Sangha,” and they fall right back into the first extreme described above. It’s an understandable position to take because certainly no political issue is worth creating a division in the Sangha for. But simply silencing the conversation just pushes the division under the carpet where it festers and continues to divide. It doesn’t actually solve the division. Instead, we need a framework to allow for Kadampas to have a wide variety of political views, yet all remain equally, 100% Kadampas.
In my view, the middle way is understanding we each occupy a different karmic positionality, and as a result, the world will appear to us in different ways. The political views that make sense to us will be entirely dependent upon how the world appears to us. With the war, for example, some people will blame Russia, others will blame Ukraine, others will blame the United States, others will blame China, others will blame Europe, and from these perceptions, different political solutions will seem appropriate. The same is true for racism in society, the pandemic, whatever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. We don’t all need to see the world in the same way. What matters is that whatever political views we have be infused with wisdom and compassion relative to how we see the world. We need to respond to the world as it appears to us with wisdom and compassion. Since the world will appear to us in different ways, what is ”wise” and what is ”compassionate” policy will differ. There is nothing wrong with that at all.
In this way, we can all have different political views (based upon our karmic positionality) but we are all equally responding to how the world appears to us in wise and compassionate ways. This creates the space for ”everybody welcome” to also include everyone regardless of their political point of view. We don’t need to try convince others to see the world as we see it, we only need to help others respond to how they see the world in wise and compassionate ways. We can completely disagree in how we see the world and what political conclusions we arrive at, but be in total agreement that we all need to respond to whatever appears in wise and compassionate ways. It doesn’t matter how we see the world, it only matters that whatever is appearing teaches us the truth of Dharma. This, in my view, is how we attain the union of Kadampa Buddhism and modern life with respect to politics. No problems. No contradictions. No divisions.
We should learn from this that the Dharma is the truth
With this background in mind, how then can we have things like the war teach us the Dharma is the truth? It’s simple: We pray! We pray, ”please reveal to me how the war (as it appears to me) teaches the Dharma is the truth?” We apply the suggestions on praying above to our prayer that what appears reveals to us the truth of Dharma. We can contemplate and pray, ”how does this teach me the truth of the lower realms, karma, samsara, the faults of delusions (in particular self-cherishing), bodhichitta, emptiness, etc.” We can quite literally go through each of the 21 meditations of the stages of the path and ask ourselves (and ask our guru at our heart) how the war reveals the truth of each of the stages of the path of Sutra and Tantra. Then, as Geshe-la suggests, we can ”write our own commentary.” Then the war will be, for us, a Dharma book – just like Milarepa.
If we want, we can then share our perspective with others. But when we do, there is a risk some people may then start to ”debate” with us about differences of opinion with respect to how they see the war, so therefore they learn different Dharma lessons from what appears. Our answer to that should be, ”It doesn’t matter to me how you see the war, as long as how you are seeing it is teaching you some Dharma truth.” We can try understand their perspective and learn the Dharma lessons they are learning from how it is appearing to them, even if it is different than our own point of view. What matters is that we maximize the Dharma lessons we learn from what is appearing. If we refuse to learn the Dharma lessons those with different political views are learning, we are, in effect, prioritizing our political views over the Dharma. We are depriving ourselves of learning a Dharma lesson because we are unwilling to politically see the situation in the way the other person is. This is also mixing politics with Dharma. Instead, we should learn whatever Dharma lessons we can from our political view and then try to understand other’s political points of view and learn what Dharma lessons can be learned from that view as well. Then, no problems, just learning the truth of Dharma. And in the process, we may heal some political divides as well.
How Does the War Teach Me the Truth of Dharma?
So how do I see this? What Dharma lessons am I learning?
We can metaphorically say the vast ocean of samsara is comprised of countless water drops, each of which is a living being. Some are drops on the surface (humans), some are in the clouds (upper realms), but most are beneath the surface (lower realms). In the center of this ocean is the island of enlightenment which is by nature the wheel of Dharma. On its shores are all our Dharma temples, centers, teachers, sangha, Dharma books, etc. They are conventionally appearing in samsara (which is their true miracle power, since by nature they exist outside). The water drops that wash up onto the shore (a microscopic number of the total) are like refugees from the ocean of samsara that make it to our Dharma centers. Once somebody goes for refuge and starts embarking on the path, they enter the charnel grounds. The charnel grounds are like the foothills of Mount Meru. They are the bridge between where we are now and the pure land. From one perspective, they are still part of samsara, from another perspective they are part of Keajra pure land.
From a practical point of view, practitioners primarily remain in the charnel grounds from after they go for refuge until they reach the pure land. Within the charnel grounds, the primary practice is overcoming ordinary conceptions. Once we reach the pure land itself, the primary practice is overcoming ordinary appearances. To keep it simple, pure appearances are things that appear to be emanations of Buddhas and ordinary appearances are things that appear to be something other than an emanation of a Buddha. Pure conceptions are we understand appearances to be emanations of Buddhas and ordinary conceptions are we think things are something other than emanations of Buddhas. The function of a Buddha is to reveal the path and bestow blessings.
In the charnel grounds (where we are now), we are surrounded by seemingly ordinary appearances – things appear to us to be samsaric-like (wars, famines, disease, drug addiction, birth, aging, sickness, death, etc.). At the very beginning of the charnel grounds, we conceive of these appearances as mostly being ordinary; but then by the time we reach the end of the charnel grounds, we conceive of every appearance as mostly being pure, and indeed, things start to appear differently. Instead of seeing samsaric bodies, we see zombies, smell-eaters, etc. What is a samsaric body other than a walking corpse anyways?
In the early stages of the charnel grounds, we mostly overcoming our ordinary conceptions through the Lojong training of transforming adverse conditions into the path. In the latter stages of the charnel grounds, we mostly overcome our ordinary conceptions through the practices explaining in the tantric texts of how to practice during the meditation break of both generation stage and completion stage (the explanation in Tantric Grounds and Paths for how to train in isolated body during the meditation break is particularly sublime). The point is it’s like a volume knob in which we turn down our ordinary conceptions and turn up our pure conceptions. But all of it – Lojong and tantric meditation break practice – is fundamentally about changing our conceptions regarding what appears, while what actually appears gradually shifts. If we make it through the charnel grounds, it is quite easy to enter into Keajra Pure Land itself. It’s simply our next step along the path. It is not some distant place, but gradually starts to become our lived experience until it is stable and irreversible. This is how I see the charnel grounds. I believe all of us Kadampa practitioners currently are in the charnel grounds – sometimes we forget, but more and more we remember.
So where is the war taking place? Is it in Ukraine? Is it in samsara? For me, it is happening in the charnel grounds? The charnel grounds are like a hologram – from one perspective, it looks like samsara; from another perspective, it looks like the pure land. When I see it from a samsaric perspective, I generate delusions – such as hatred for Putin or frustration with China enabling the war. When I see it from a pure perspective, I generate virtues – such as compassion for the victims, gathering all blame into one, seeing how karma plays out in the world, etc. When I read the news, I at first wind up generating delusions, but then I try pray and contemplate what Dharma lesson this can teach me. When I discuss it with others, out of attachment to my views, at first I try get them to see the world the way I see it, but then I try help them respond to how they see it with wisdom and compassion. If all sides are responding to how they see the war with wisdom and compassion, we may all start out in different places, but we will all wind up in the same destination – peace.
For myself, I am a diplomat with the U.S. government stationed in China near the Russian border. Korea, Japan, Australia, France, and Germany are all diplomatically present here. I stand at the intersection of all of these forces. I’m engaging in conversations about the war with all of these different parties. The views I have will shape how they think about things and how they advise their governments how to respond. I view this as a profound responsibility. I need to make sure what I say is wise and compassionate, and conducive to peace not just in Europe, but in East Asia as well. This summer I will transition to India. The war or its aftermath will continue. Relations between great powers will forever be altered by this. I view my job as to be a Kadampa in the middle of all of this. I believe we need bodhisattvas in all walks of life, each bringing wisdom and compassion to their respective professional domains.
I have not found it helpful to debate the political aspects of the war with my fellow Kadampas. With them, I want to focus on the Dharma lessons (of which this entire post is what Dharma truth I’m learning from all of this). With my diplomat friends or with my old college debate buddies, I engage in different discussions. There, I try help everyone view this situation with greater wisdom and compassion. This is what I feel I need to do because this is my karmic positionality. Whether we are a Kadampa in the UK or a Kadampa mother in Russia or wherever we may find ourselves, we will all have different karmic positionalities and therefore need to respond in different ways depending upon what is appearing to us. There is nothing wrong with this. Indeed, this is us assuming our place in Geshe-la’s mandala. Our job is to pray. Our job is to learn how this situation reveals the truth of Dharma.
(8.43) When we are very attached to someone, We want to see their face again and again; But, whether we see their face or not,| The real face always remains covered with skin.
(8.44) If we were to remove that skin, We would realize that they are not an object of desire But an object of aversion; So why do we develop attachment for others’ bodies?
Appearances! Appearances are so deceptive, but we cannot ignore them, we are not prepared to ignore them because they can be so, so attractive. Advertisers know we just cannot look away. It does not matter what somebody is selling, put a near naked beautiful woman next to it, and we’re glued. We cannot resist attractive forms. Why else do they put naked women on billboards to sell anything and everything. If we are honest, we do not want to turn our mind away. We want to mix our mind even further with the object, feeling like there is happiness there. We think, “what is the harm,” “it doesn’t matter.”
And it is not just billboards. Pornography is huge business. Porn addiction is a huge problem. The two most popular porn sites get more monthly traffic than Amazon, Netflix, Twitter and Reddit. It’s estimated that 5-8% of all Americans suffers from porn addiction. That’s 15-24 million people. This is not just people who watch porn, but are addicted to it. That’s roughly the same number as those addicted to alcohol and drugs combined! Yet nobody talks about it because there is so much shame. And because it seems so harmless. And because it seems so good.
I wonder if we considered the suffering of the people we watch whether we would still want to look. We frankly do not want to even consider that because it might ruin our fun. Many of them are victims of trafficking. Many more have other serious problems with money, drugs, self-esteem, broken families, abuse (prior and current), and so forth. What drives somebody to become a porn model? Sure, some of them might just really like sex. But what percentage, really, do we think that is. Maybe it started for them that way, just like drug and alcohol use seemly starts with just wanting to have a little fun. But how does it proceed, how does it end?
Many of them are victims of child abuse who feel unclean, and who perversely seek to recreate their experiences voluntarily to feel as if they are reclaiming what was taken from them. Many of them are poor or on drugs and are exploited terribly by the people in this industry. We may think that they do things voluntarily, but we have to ask how lost they are to voluntarily allow themselves to be treated like a piece of meat or an object of exploitation and often abuse.
We also need to think about their suffering from a karmic perspective. They are provoking attachment in people, perhaps millions and millions of people. Look how much you suffer from people provoking attachment in you. They will suffer like that millions of times over in the future.
We also need to think about the karma that we create by being attracted to such things. I had a dream once where I was the sex toy of powerful people who did not even know that I was a living being. Certainly this is our future if we consume things like this. What realm do you think this sort of activity ripens in for rebirth – there is a special hell called the swamp of excrement. Is it worth a rebirth there just to get a few moments of contaminated pleasure. It is also worth recalling the moment of our death. Whatever attachments we have not resolved in life will flare up at the time of death, tempting us to come back into samsara. I had a lucid dream once where I was at the time of my death and I was tempted by various things to see if I would abandon my practice. I knew I was dreaming and I knew exactly what was going on. First, I was tempted by money, but I did not budge. Then, I was tempted by power. I hesitated, but did not move. Then, there were three beautiful women inviting me to their bed. I dived right in. If this was the time of my death, all the effort I had put into my Dharma practice to prepare for the moment of death would have been thrown away in an instant. And I knew what I was doing, but did it anyways. I woke up and thought, “for me, devaputra mara, no problem; tempting demonesses, big problem.” We need to think about these things. We need to force ourselves to consider their suffering and our own. If we do, eventually we will not be able to do this anymore – at a minimum, we might be able to reduce our attachment and cut our addiction. Compassion for their suffering will definitely put a dent in such bad habits.
In the end, it’s just bodies. As Shantideva goes on to describe, just moving bodies, collections of flesh and bone, moving here and there.
I think it’s a perfect example of how stupid attachment makes us. Really. How stupid. We are almost worse than an animal, so stupid.
The 29th of every month is Protector Day. This is part 2 of a 12-part series aimed at helping us remember our Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden and increase our faith in him on these special days.
We can learn to be happy all the time, regardless of our external circumstances. Normally, we are happy when things go well, but unhappy when things go badly. When we are a spiritual being, all situations, good or bad, equally provide us with an opportunity to train our mind and create good causes for the future, so we are equally happy with whatever happens. In this way, we can develop a real equanimity with respect to whatever happens in our life.
We have the power to free all the beings we know and love from this world of suffering. We have the opportunity to become a fully enlightened Buddha who has the power to lead each and every living being to full enlightenment. So eventually we can save everyone we know and love. We can understand this at a deeper level by understanding that we are dreaming a world of suffering. By purifying our own mind, we dream a different dream, a pure dream, and thereby free all these beings.
With this background in mind, in this series of posts I will explain a special practice we can do to make the most out of our precious human life, namely surrendering our life completely to the protection and guidance of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden.
Normally we explain what to do in the meditation session first, but I wanted to explain how we rely upon Dorje Shugden in the meditation break first because this is where we first gain experience of him and see how useful he is. Then, we naturally want to deepen our practice of him in the meditation session.
I would like to explain two key practices for the meditation break: taking personal responsibility to remove the faults we perceive in others and viewing our life as a training ground for becoming the Buddha we need to become. I will explain these over the next two posts.
Taking personal responsibility for removing the faults you perceive in others
Normally, we think it is the responsibility of others to remove the faults we perceive in them, but if we think about this carefully, we will realize that actually we are uniquely responsible for all the faults we perceive in others. At a simple level, we can say that the world we experience is the world we pay attention to. If we pay 90% of our attention on the 10% of faults in the other person, then it will seem to us that the person is 90% faulty. This is how we will experience the other person. This is how we make ‘enemies,’ ‘friends,’ ‘sangha,’ and even ‘Buddhas.’ In the same way, we ‘make’ faulty people.
We can also understand this by considering emptiness. If we consider emptiness according to Sutra, we understand that everything is just a dream-like projection of our mind. Where does this faulty person come from? Our own projections of mind. There is no other person other than emptiness. Are we responsible for the appearance of faults in the people of our dreams? If yes, then we are likewise responsible for the faults in the people of the dream of our gross mind. If we consider karma and emptiness together, we realize that others are mere appearances arising from our own karma. We engaged in actions in the past which are now creating the appearance of a ‘faulty’ person. So it is our own past faulty actions which created this appearance of a faulty person.
If we consider emptiness according to Tantra, we understand that these faulty people are actually different aspects, or parts, of our own mind. We consider our right and left hands to be aspects or parts of our body. In the same way, when we understand emptiness according to Tantra, we realize that others are merely aspects or parts of our mind. Just as I am an appearance in my mind, so too is the ‘faulty’ person. Both are equally appearances to my mind inside my mind. They are different aspects of my mind. So this is the ‘me’ part of me and that is the ‘faulty’ part of me. When we meditate deeply on these things, we will come to the clear realization that there is no ‘other person’ other than the one created by my mind, so we are uniquely responsible for all the faults we perceive in others.
Given this, how do we actually remove the faults we perceive in others? There are several things we can do. First, we should make a distinction between the person and their delusion. Just as a cancer patient is not their cancer, so too somebody sick with delusions is not their delusions. By making a separation between the person and their delusions, we no longer see faulty people, rather we see pure people sick with delusions. We see faulty delusions, but pure beings.
Second, we need to develop a mind of patient acceptance that can transform everything. The mind of patient acceptance is a special wisdom that has the power to transform anything into the spiritual path. This wisdom enables practitioners to ‘accept’ everything without resistance because the bodhisattva can ‘use’ everything. When we have this mind, what would otherwise be a fault is considered to us to be perfect because it gives us a great opportunity to further train our mind. If we can learn to use whatever others do for our spiritual development, then their otherwise ‘faulty’ actions for us will be perfect.
Third, it is also very helpful to create a space of 100% freedom and non-judgment of others, and in that space, set a good example. A bodhisattva does not try or need to change others. When people feel controlled or judged, they become defensive. If they are defensive, then it blocks them from changing because they are engaging in a process of self-justification. For change to take place, it has to take place from the side of the person. Internal change can only come from the inside. Therefore, in the space of not controlling or judging others, we set a good example. This will naturally inspire people to change from their own side.
Fourth, Venerable Tharchin once explained to me that we need to “own other’s faults as our own.” Since the faults of others are projections of our own mind, the only reason why others appear to have any faults is because we possess those faults ourself. Our job then is to find these faults in ourselves and purge them like bad blood. We take the time to find where we have these same faults, and then we use the Dharma to eliminate them from ourself with a bodhichitta intention to be able to help the other person, and anyone else, who appears to have this fault. If we practice like this, there are many different benefits. We will gain the realizations we need to be able to help the other person overcome their problem because we have personal experience of having done that ourselves. We will show the perfect example for the other person of somebody striving to overcome and eventually becoming free from what troubles them the most. Our example often helps much more than our words. More profoundly, the problem will actually disappear in the other person because it is coming from our own mind anyways. And at the very least, we ourselves will have one less fault.
Finally, we can adopt a pure view of others as emanations of Dorje Shugden. I will explain this is greater detail in the next post.
As bodhisattva’s we need to be particularly careful, don’t we? Attachment creates the causes to be separated from the objects of our attachment. We are, in many ways, the connection between the living beings in our life and the Dharma. They don’t really have other connections to the Dharma other than through us. If we mess up our relationship with them by generating sexual attachment for them, and it then creeps them out or we destroy our special spiritual relationship with the person, we are – in effect – destroying their spiritual life. If we allow attachment to arise within our mind, we are creating the causes for this person to be separated from us, and therefore separated from all the Buddhas. It’s bad enough that we are willing to risk our own spiritual life for the sake of a few moments of sexual pleasure, but are we willing to throw away their spiritual life for the sake of our own selfish sexual purposes? Dharma teachers need to be especially careful because if they are doing this sort of thing towards our students, then people will lose faith in us and lose faith in the Dharma. Again, we have seen this story many times, even in our own tradition.
(8.41) Although we engage in harmful actions And even sacrifice all our wealth for them, What is the real nature of these bodies That we like so much to embrace?
(8.42) They are nothing other than skeletons That are neither autonomous nor inherently existent. Rather than being so desirous and attached to them, Why do I not strive to pass beyond sorrow instead?
At least in the beginning, and especially when we are young, we go through great lengths and terrible expense all with the goal of hopefully being able to engage in sexual embrace with the other person. Think of how much mental anguish, how much time, how much money, and for what? The pleasure of it hardly lasts long, and then there are many problems we encounter afterwards. Even putting spiritual considerations aside, we have to ask ourselves the question: is it really worth it? Is the reward worth the cost? When looked at objectively, it hardly seems to.
But as Dharma practitioners, we have to ask ourselves the question, are we willing to let go of our sexual attachment for the sake of liberation and enlightenment? We immediately go to “we don’t have to, we have tantra!” But that is wrong. Even tantric bodhisattvas must overcome all of their sexual attachment. We need to leave it all behind. Are we willing for forever forswear sexual attachment? Is that a prices we are willing to pay for spiritual progress? For many people, the answer is no. But think about just how insane that is. We are willing to forsake the eternal bliss of liberation and enlightenment for a few moments of sexual pleasure. It’s ridiculous!
In order to remember and mark our tsog days, holy days on the Kadampa calendar, I am sharing my understanding of the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide with tsog. This is part 24 of a 44-part series.
Song of the Spring Queen
HUM All you Tathagatas, Heroes, Yoginis, Dakas, and Dakinis, To all you I make this request: O Heruka who delight in great bliss, You engage in the Union of spontaneous bliss, By attending the Lady intoxicated with bliss And enjoying in accordance with the rituals. AH LA LA, LA LA HO, AH I AH, AH RA LI HO May the assembly of stainless Dakinis Look with loving affection and accomplish all deeds.
The Song of the Spring Queen is for many practitioners the highlight of the tsog offering. Not only is the song beautiful and a delight to sing, it also explains how we engage in the practice of relying upon a wisdom mudra according to Highest Yoga Tantra. As explained above, there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the nature of tantric practice. Many people feel it is simply a method for having better worldly sex. The purpose of tantric practice is to explain how to transform pleasant experiences into the path to enlightenment. With our Lojong practice, we learn how to transform unpleasant experiences into the path to enlightenment. By learning both Lojong and tantra, we will be able to transform any experience into the path.
Our ability to engage and qualified Lojong or tantric practice depends upon whether our motivation to progress along the path is stronger than our worldly concerns. For example, if what we wish for is to never experience unpleasant experiences, then our practice of Lojong will lack power because we will not care that it is a cause of our enlightenment, we simply do not want to experience unpleasant things. But if our wish to progress along the path is stronger, then we will be able to accept our unpleasant experiences and use them to advance along the path. The experience will still be unpleasant, but it will no longer be a problem for us. In the same way, if our wish to experience worldly pleasures is stronger than our wish to progress along the path, we will not be able to use tantric technology to transform pleasant experiences into the path. Instead, our experience of pleasant experiences will just fuel our attachment. Thus, our motivation for engaging in tantric practice must be to end our attachment, not use tantra as an excuse to indulge in our attachment. This is very important. We should not underestimate the ability of our mind to hijack our Dharma understandings to do what our delusions want us to do.
The first four lines and the last three lines of each verse of Song of the Spring Queen are the same. The explanation that follows can be applied to every verse. With the first three lines, we recall the visualization of our spiritual guide in the aspect of father Heruka and mother Vajraygoini in union, surrounded by all the deities of Heruka’s body mandala. We likewise recall all the other Buddhas and holy beings filling the ten directions. We recognize all these holy beings as emanations, or limbs, of our principal spiritual guide Heruka. We additionally recall that all these appearances are like waves on the ocean of our definitive spiritual guide, dharmakaya Heruka, which is the nature of indivisible bliss and emptiness. Thus, every holy being is like an aspect of the Truth Body. With the fourth line, we generate a faithful mind requesting all the holy beings to perform the action we are about to describe with the next four lines of the verse.
With the ninth line of every verse, AH LA LA, LA LA HO, AH I AH, AH RA LI HO, we imagine that we are Heruka engaged in union with Vajrayogini who is riding up and down on our vajra. As a result of this movement, we should imagine that Vajrayogini’s pure winds flowing through her central channel enter into our central channel flowing upwards, igniting our inner tummo fire, causing the white bodhicitta at our crown to melt through our central channel giving rise to an experience of great bliss. The great bliss we generate as a result of engaging in union with a wisdom mudra functions to loosen the knots at our heart chakra. When these knots are completely loosened, all our inner winds can enter, absorb, and dissolve into our central channel at our heart, which then gives rise to a direct experience of the eight dissolutions, the last of which is a fully qualified mind of clear light. With this clear light mind, we can then meditate on the emptiness of all phenomena, and in particular of our very subtle mind of the clear light itself. This meditation functions to purify our very subtle mind of all delusion obstructions and obstructions to omniscience. When our mind is completely purified of the two obstructions, we attain enlightenment. Thus, the purpose of this meditation is not to enjoy union with Vajrayogini – though that is certainly a pleasant experience – rather it is to loosen the channel knots at our heart so that we can complete our spiritual training. We must be very clear with our motivation for engaging in this practice. More explanations on how to engage in tummo meditation and how to rely upon wisdom and action mudras can be found in Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Essence of Vajrayana, Clear Light of Bliss, and Tantric Grounds and Paths. All the explanations explained in these texts can be incorporated into our practice of Song of the Spring Queen.
With the last two lines of each verse, we imagine that all the Tathagatas, heroes, yoginis, Dakas, and Dakinis generate great delight knowing that we will soon attain enlightenment. Everyone is collectively enjoying a festival of great bliss!
The fifth through the eighth line of each verse of Song of the Spring Queen is slightly different, emphasizing different aspects of the practice and calling upon different aspects of the visualization to strengthen our practice of relying upon a wisdom mudra. With the first four verses, we can imagine we generate the four joys in serial order, then with the fifth verse we imagine we attain the union a bliss and emptiness, and finally with the last verse we attain the union of Vajradhara.
With this first verse, we focus on the outer aspects of our self-generated as Heruka and our consort generated as Vajrayogini. We imagine that we are engaging in union with her and that she is completely filled with great bliss, as if her mind has been intoxicated thoroughly by this experience. She then concentrates all her great bliss into her central channel, which she then blows lovingly into our central channel through our engaging in union. “Enjoying in accordance with the rituals” refers to the 64 arts of love which are explained in Great Treasury of Merit. Recalling all this, when we engage in union and ignite the tummo fire, we imagine the white bodhichitta at our crown melts and descends down into our throat chakra where are we experienced the first of the four joys, called joy.
Now we come to a number of verses under the outline in Meaningful to Behold, “How to abandon the wild disturbances that pervert the mind.”
(8.38) Having given up all other desires And being motivated solely by bodhichitta, I will strive to attain single-pointed concentration And control my mind by recollecting the meaning of emptiness.
(8.39) Deluded desires give rise to misfortune In both this and future lives. In this life they cause injury, incarceration, and death, And in the next the sufferings of the lower realms.
We are such desirous beings, constantly hankering, as it says in Meaningful to Behold, hankering after the pleasures of samsara. One of our main jobs is to reduce at least our ordinary desires so that we can actually concentrate on the path to liberation. Otherwise, it is impossible to make spiritual progress.
But Shantideva knows us. One of our strongest desires is sexual desire. In many ways, sexual desire drives all of our other desires. For Game of Thrones fans, there is a famous scene where Sir Jamie and Bronn are discussing the meaning of life as they prepare for the fateful battle with an army of “unsullied (eunuchs).” When you look at the history of humanity, there is a certain amount of truth to their exchange.
Knowing how fundamental sexual attachment is to the structure of delusions within our mind, Shantideva spends the next thirty verses or so dismantling this delusion. Before we dive in, please note, Shantideva is not saying there is anything wrong with sexual activity – the problem is sexual attachment. Sexual attachment is a delusion that mistakenly thinks our happiness can be found in sexual activity – we think it is a cause of our happiness and that we can’t be happy without it. Indeed, there is an entire community of incels, or involuntary celibates, that has grown out of this delusion believing they can’t be happy without sexual activity and all women are cruel who fail to give them what they need. They have emerged as a misogynistic sub-culture that in some cases has even turned to terrorism.
Shantideva explains all of this to reduce our sexual attachment. All delusions exaggerate, and his analysis directly counters that exaggeration. The goal is not to turn us all into ordained monks and nuns, but rather to significantly reduce this deluded poison in our mind and view things objectively. Some people find Shantideva extreme in his descriptions, but in truth, he is being perfectly objective about what is going on. It is we who are on an extreme of total exaggeration when it comes to sexual issues – he is just bringing us down to reality so we have a more balanced mind.
According to Tantra, there are methods for transforming sexual activity into the path, but we can only do these if we have first significantly reduced our sexual attachment to manageable levels. There are countless courses available these days on “tantric sex,” but from a Kadampa perspective, all of these courses should spend the first several weeks teaching Shantideva. The fact that they couldn’t and still have any students shows the true nature of such courses.
(8.40) For the sake of acquiring a sexual partner, People send messages through go-betweens And, disregarding any harm to their reputation, Commit all manner of non-virtue.
We do not need go-betweens these days, we just send text messages, don’t we? We long for a physical relationship with someone, and we wish to give and to receive physical affection. We wish to express our love for someone in a physical way and feel close to someone in this way, to be intimate with someone. Of course, there is some sexual attachment in our mind. Urging us, urging us to make approaches. Often it begins with a few text messages. So perhaps we flirt a little with someone, maybe even somebody we shouldn’t, maybe that person flirts back with us a little, which also is very nice, very appealing, and then we go a little bit further, don’t we, we begin to take one or two risks. Our mind starts becoming increasingly agitated and obsessed. We plan what we will say and try to manage the other person so that they think good things about us.
We know that we are falling under the influence of attachment, but we do not care. It feels so good. We would be willing to throw away our practice for the sake of making it work. Look at how many great leaders – in politics, business, or religion – who have been brought down by their sexual attachment. Scandal after scandal – people lose it all. How do they get to the point where they are willing to risk and lose everything for the sake of sexual intrigue? Such is the power of sexual attachment. Even in our own spiritual tradition, there have been many, many unfortunate stories of truly amazing holy beings who have been laid low by their sexual attachment. Gen Thubten. Gen-la Samden. Gen Lodro. The list goes on. All these people who have been brought down by their sexual attachment are not stupid. They knew what they were risking. We perhaps do the same in subtle ways. We know we’re stepping over the line, even endangering our position, our reputation – not to mention lower rebirth. Sexual misconduct is just one step away. All for the sake of acquiring a sexual partner.
This is part two of a 12-part series on how to skillfully train in the Eight Mahayana Precepts. The 15th of every month is Precepts Day, when Kadampa practitioners around the world typically take and observe the Precepts.
Most of us know the teachings Geshe-la has given on the correct attitude to have towards our vows and commitments, but sadly we sometimes don’t really believe him when he explains it. We still tend to think of them in absolutist, black and white terms, when in reality each vow has many, many different levels at which we can keep it. We think in terms of our ability to “keep” our vows instead of viewing them as trainings we engage in.
When we go to the gym, there are all sorts of different exercise machines. Each one works out a different muscle, and each person who uses the machine uses it at a different level (different amounts of weight, different number of repetitions, etc.). But everyone in the gym uses the same equipment. It is exactly the same with our vows. Each vow is something we train in, not something we are already expected to be able to do perfectly at the maximum. Each vow focus on strengthening different mental muscles, but doing all of them strengthens the whole of our mind. We each train in the vow at different levels according to our capacity, but we know the more we train, the more our capacity will grow. Everyone in the spiritual gym trains with the same vows regardless of our level. In almost every way, the correct attitude towards a physical exercise regimen is exactly the same attitude we should cultivate towards our spiritual exercise regimen of the Eight Mahayana Precepts, and indeed all of our vows. I often find it helpful to read the sports training literature, especially that of long-distance tri-athletes. Our journey is very long and will require almost unthinkable stamina, but we must recall every Iron Man Champion was once a baby who couldn’t even lift their head.
Geshe-la explains there are four main causes of the degeneration of our vows and commitments. These are known as the ‘four doors of receiving downfalls’. He says to close these doors we should practice as follows:
Closing the door of not knowing what the downfalls are. We should learn what the downfalls are by committing them to memory. We should learn how they are incurred. We should make plans to avoid such situations. In this series of posts, I will try explain all of these things for each of the Eight Mahayana Precepts.
Closing the door of lack of respect for Buddha’s instructions. We can protect ourselves from this primarily by training in the refuge vows. Refuge is not a difficult concept. When we have a toothache, what do we do? We turn to the dentist. When we have a legal problem, what do we do? We turn to a lawyer. When we have an internal problem with our mind, what do we do? We turn to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Dentists can fix our teeth and lawyers can solve our legal problems, but only the three jewels can help us with our inner mental problems. In particular, we need to contemplate the benefits of each of the Eight Mahayana Precepts. We need to think about how much better our life would be and all the karmic fruit that flows from training in them. When we see the value of keeping the Precepts, we will naturally have respect for them. Geshe-la said we should contemplate as follows:
“Since Buddha is omniscient, knowing all past, present, and future phenomena simultaneously and directly, and since he has great compassion for all living beings without exception, there is no valid reason for developing disrespect towards his teachings. It is only due to ignorance that I sometimes disbelieve them.”
Closing the third door of strong delusions. The reason why we engage in non-virtuous actions is we are currently slaves to our delusions. They take control of our mind and then compel us to engage in harmful actions. We may voluntarily participate in the process, but that is only because our delusions have so deceived us, we actually believe their lies. Largely, the Eight Mahayana Precepts oppose our delusion of attachment. Our attachment does not want to keep the precepts, and frankly views them as standing in the way of our fun. We cannot keep our vows through will power alone. Perhaps we can for Precepts Day itself, but if in our heart we still want to engage in these behaviors, what we will really do is simply do slightly more negativity before and after Precepts Day, so for the month as a whole, it is exactly the same amount of negativity. That’s obviously not the point! Our goal should be to train in the Precepts and gradually expand the scope of keeping their meaning throughout the month and indeed throughout our whole life. To do this, we need to want to keep them more than we want the objects of attachment they oppose. We are desire realm beings, which means we have no choice but to do whatever we desire. The only way to sustainably train in moral discipline is to change our desires away from delusions and towards virtue. This is primarily accomplished through a sincre and consistent practice of Lamrim. Lamrim is a systematic method for changing our desires from worldly ones to spiritual ones.
Closing the fourth door of non-conscientiousness. We should repeatedly bring to mind the disadvantages of incurring downfalls, and the advantages of pure moral discipline. These have been explained in the previous post, and the specific karmic benefits of each Precept will be explained in the explanation of each Precept.
In brief, Geshe-la explains, we prevent our vows from degenerating by practicing the Dharma of renunciation, bodhichitta, correct view, generation stage, and completion stage.
It is important to be skillful in our approach to all of our vows, including the Eight Mahayana Precepts. We should not have unrealistic expectations or make promises we cannot keep. It will happen to all of us in the early stages of our Dharma practice that when we are at some festival and feeling very inspired, we make these outlandish vows that we (at the time) intend to keep our whole life. Then we get home, try at first, but eventually are forced to abandon the vow. Venerable Tharchin says when making promises, we should ask ourselves, “what can I do on my absolute worst day?” We promise only to do that. On any given day we will most likely do better than our promise, but then we will not actually break it. It is a bad habit to make spiritual promises which we later break. We will all make all sorts of what I call “beginner’s errors” with this one. It does not matter. When you break the promise, realize your mistake, recalibrate your promise and try again. Eventually you will get the right balance.
We should adopt our vows gradually, as each can be kept on many levels. In this way, we can gradually deepen the level we are able to keep the vows. If we are a teacher, we should explain the vows well and not encourage our students to promise to keep them all perfectly from the beginning. Getting the correct attitude towards our vows is well over half the battle. But keeping the vows gradually does not mean that we can temporarily put to one side the vows that we do not like. We have to work with all the vows, gradually improving the way we observe them.
Finally, Geshe-la says we should begin to practice all the vows as soon as we have taken them. Then we practice them to the best of our ability. Geshe-la says we should never lose the determination to keep our vows perfectly in the future. He says by keeping the intention to keep them purely in the future we keep our commitments, even if along the way we repeatedly fall short. I can’t remember who, but some wise person once said, “the day you can keep all of your vows and commitments perfectly is the day you will no longer need them. It is because we can’t keep our vows and commitments perfectly that we do need them.” This is useful to always keep in mind.
All of that being said, the Eight Mahayana Precepts are unique in our training in moral discipline because on Precepts Days we do strive to keep them perfectly. On Precepts Days we make a point of emphasizing the practice of moral discipline and we strive our best to observe the the vows as purely as we can. The literal meaning of many of the precepts is quite black and white, we either keep the vow or we do not. In this sense, we can say it is an exception to the otherwise gradual approach we take to our practice of moral discipline. But if we look beyond the literal meaning of the precept, we realize that they all also have many different levels at which they can be kept. Further, we can gradually expand the scope with which we engage in our precepts practice by observing their essential meaning throughout the month, not just on Precepts Days. In any case, we should not worry but always simply try our best. If we break our precepts, we can learn our lesson, retake them, and try again.
Kadampa Working Dad 