Showing secret substances to an unsuitable person. 

We incur this downfall if without a good reason we show our Tantric ritual objects to those without empowerments or to those who have received empowerments but who have no faith.  However, if our motivation is to encourage others to develop faith in Secret Mantra we do not incur a downfall.

Our tantric ritual objects include our vajra, bell, inner offering substance and the different objects that are used during Tantric empowerments.  Generally speaking, we keep a cloth over these objects when they are on our meditation table and we are not meditating so that people coming by don’t see them.  We can also put them in a cupboard if we wish.

The reasons for not showing these ritual objects is fairly straightforward.  First, if people have no understanding of Buddhist practices in general and Tantric practices in particular, upon seeing these objects people could generate skeptical or critical minds towards Tantric practice, thinking it is weird or cult-like.  As a result of such thought patterns, they create terrible karmic tendencies to reject the Tantric path in the future when they encounter it again.  In this way, they get close to finding the Tantric path (something exceedingly rare) but then again and again they turn away from it.  To protect people from creating such karma for themselves we need to be skillful.  In a similar way, it is possible that people can see these objects and think they are meaningless.  While not as bad as having a critical mind towards them, such negative tendencies of thought likewise make it harder for people to take up the Tantric path in the future.

An additional reason to not show our ritual objects is to remind ourselves that the Tantric path is a “secret path.”  Secret here does not mean like a “secret society”, but rather secret in the sense of outer, inner and secret practices.  Je Tsongkhapa’s tradition unites Sutra and Tantra by explaining that externally we show the aspect of observing pure Pratimoksha vows, internally we generate a mind of bodhichitta and with this mind engage in the six perfections, and secretly we engage in highest yoga tantra.  It is not secret from others, rather it is hidden within our Bodhichitta motivation and indeed within our subtle body.

A further reason is some types of realization or inner experience get destroyed when we externalize them.  Just as old-style camera film gets ruined when exposed to light, so too many tantric realizations can be lost if they are prematurely externalized before they are fully ripened.  In particular, when we are on retreat we need to be careful in that externalizing our experiences might bring them to an end.  In general, we do not speak openly about our tantric experiences, but rather do so privately with trusted Sangha friends and teachers.

We might ask, “if all of this is true, why then do we put these ritual objects on sale to the public in the Dharma shops in our centers?”  The reason this is OK is within the context of a Dharma center it is perfectly normal to have such objects, so nobody would think it is strange.  Likewise, most of the people who come into a Dharma center will have at least enough faith to have wanted to seek out instructions, so there is no downfall.

Engaging in union without three recognitions.

The three recognitions are to recognize our body as the body of a Deity, to recognize our speech as mantra, and to recognize our mind as the Truth Body.  When we engage in union with somebody, we should strive to maintain these three recognitions.  Our motivation for doing so should be as qualified of a bodhichitta as we can generate.  Of course our motivation will not be fully qualified, but we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  Our motivation will be mixed, but we strive to move it in the direction of being increasingly qualified.

To recognize our body as the body of the deity does not mean we should look at our ordinary body and impute upon it “deity body.”  Our ordinary body is not a valid basis of imputation for a deity body, though it is a valid basis of imputation for imputing a human body.  Rather, the meaning here is within our mind we generate the deity body per the instructions explained in the Tantric teachings, and upon this mentally generated deity body we impute “my body.”  In this way, the deity body becomes “our body” and then with this deity body we engage in union.  Likewise, we should mentally generate our tantric consort, and then upon that mental generation impute “my partner’s body.”  Then, mentally we imagine that it is these two imagined deity bodies who are engaging in union.  Of course, there will quite likely still be some awareness of the fact that the two human bodies are also engaging in union, and while still remaining natural in the act, we should mentally practice “non-ascertaining perceivers” with respect to the ordinary bodies engaging in union, and instead focus our attention on the imagined deity bodies doing so.

To recognize our speech as the mantra has two layers of meaning.  The first is whatever sounds arise while we are engaging in union, we should mentally imagine that they are the mantra appearing in the aspect of these sounds.  Alternatively, while our ordinary human ears may be hearing ordinary sounds, we imagine that our pure deity ears are hearing the mantra in exactly the same way as we do with our deity body.  The second layer of meaning is the inner essence of mantra is our inner energy winds.  In Tantric Grounds and Paths it explains the relationship between our inner energy winds and mantras.  The meaning here is as we engage in union, we try stay focused on the flows of our inner energy winds, recognizing them as being inseparable from the mantra.  In Essence of Vajrayana it explains a special practice where we can imagine mantras circling between the two central channels as you engage in union with your consort.  This can be done, while mentally reciting mantras, while you are engaging in union.  Additionally, in a variety of the tantric texts, it explains how we can imagine our winds and drops rising and descending within our central channel giving rise to the four joys.  These can also be done in the context of viewing our speech as the deity’s mantra.

To recognize our mind as the Truth Body likewise has two layers of meaning.  The first is we mentally imagine that the imagined deity bodies engaging in union are like pure waves arising from the ocean of the clear light emptiness of the Truth Body.  While conventionally there are appearances, they are seen as inseparable from the underlying Truth Body, like a wave is inseparable from its ocean or a coin is inseparable from its gold.  If it helps, we can mentally recite “thought it appears, it does not truly exist” over and over to help us maintain this mental recognition.  It is important to remember that in our tantric practices, bliss and emptiness are united inseparably.  An easy way to think about this is while our mental factor discrimination cognizes emptiness, our aggregate of feeling experiences great bliss – or quite simply, bliss is what emptiness feels like.

The second layer of meaning is the purpose of generating bliss is to meditate on emptiness.  It is often said that Tantric practices gives us methods for transforming attachment into the path.  This is not exactly accurate.  Actually, it is transforming the pleasant feelings that normally arise from our objects of attachment into the path.  The way we do this according to Tantra is as follows.  Imagine by engaging in union you generate some pleasant feelings (hopefully, at least!).  Normally, we generate attachment thinking that it is the external object that has some power to give us good feelings.  Instead, here, we try to decouple the external object from the experience of the pleasant feelings.  We meditate on the emptiness of the external object giving rise to our pleasant feelings, in this case our partner we are engaging in union with, while still trying to maintain the continuum of the pleasant feelings themselves.  So whereas before what appeared to our aggregate of discrimination was our partner and what was experienced by our aggregate of feeling was something pleasant, now what appears to our aggregate of discrimination is the clear light emptiness of our partner but our aggregate of feeling still experiences the same pleasant feelings.  Indeed, if done correctly, the pleasant feelings should feel infinitely more qualified and sublime, as if the separation between ourself and the pleasant feelings dissolves away completely.  We then focus our attention on this union of bliss and emptiness for as long as possible.

Of course in the beginning, our practice of any of these methods will not be very qualified.  That’s entirely normal and perfectly OK.  The only way we get good at anything is through practice.  We do not need to actively seek out engaging in union with others for this purpose, rather when through the course of the normal flow of our karma we find ourselves engaging in union, we try to transform it in these ways.

The Gross Downfalls of the Secret Mantra Vows

The gross downfalls of the Secret Mantra vows primarily relate to sustaining the circumstantial causes for maintaining our other Tantric vows.  The other Tantric vows can be likened to the substantial causes for maintaining the uninterrupted continuum of our Tantric practice until we attain enlightenment, and the gross downfalls relate to abandoning the circumstantial conditions that could cause us to abandon the Tantric path.

Relying upon an unqualified mudra. 

An action mudra must have received a Tantric empowerment, keep the Tantric commitments, and understand the meaning of the two stages of Secret Mantra.  If we rely upon an unqualified consort solely out of desirous attachment we incur a gross downfall.

This vow often gives rise to a good deal of confusion.  First, what is an action mudra?  An action mudra is an imagined or real tantric consort with whom we engage in union in the context of our Tantric practice.

Second, why do Tantric practitioners rely upon Action Mudras?  We could doubt thinking it was explained earlier that qualified tantric practice has nothing to with the popular cultural conceptions surrounding “Tantric Sex” and now there is discussion of precisely this.  Tantric sex as understood in popular culture has as its goal to spice up our sex life and make it seem more exotic.  Engaging in union with an action mudra has as its goal to cause all of our inner winds to gather, absorb and dissolve into our central channel at our heart, so that we may make manifest the mind of great bliss.  We do so not because it is a supremely pleasant mind, but rather because it is only our very subtle mind of great bliss that can mix inseparably with the very subtle object emptiness, like water mixing with water.  When we realize emptiness directly with our very subtle mind of great bliss, it has the power to uproot all of the contaminated karma we have accumulated since beginningless time in as little as three years or even three months.  Due to the special blessings and flows of the inner energy winds when engaging in qualified union, we can untie completely the last remaining knots, or obstructions, within our subtle body preventing all of the inner winds to gather and absorb into our central channel at our heart.  Besides the clear light of death, engaging in union with an action mudra, or realizing our very subtle mind through the Ganden Oral Lineage instructions of transforming the clear light of sleep explained in Mahamudra Tantra, there is no other way to untie completely all of our inner knots.

Third, when should we engage in union with an action mudra?  If we are an ordained person, we should not do so.  Doing so would bring the Sangha into disrepute.  While it is true, by doing so we may in theory attain enlightenment a few years earlier than we otherwise would if we waited until the clear light of death, in reality the harm we would do by conventionally appearing to break our vows, etc, far outweighs the marginal benefits of attaining enlightenment slightly sooner.  While I don’t know, it would seem to me that breaking our vows in this way would actually make it impossible to attain enlightenment sooner, so I highly doubt such a strategy would even work.  But I am not sure about this point.  Regardless, the conclusion is the same, if we are an ordained person we do not take an action mudra.

If we are lay Tantric practitioner, the appropriate time to take an action mudra is once we have attained isolated speech of completion stage.  This is an extremely advanced realization only attained when we are very near enlightenment.  While I cannot say about anybody else, this realization appears to be a very long way off in my mind.  I struggle to hold my meditation objects for more than a few seconds, much less be anywhere near isolated speech.  This does not mean we must wait to attain isolated speech before we engage in union with an Action Mudra, but according to the Tantric teachings that is time at which it becomes appropriate and indeed advised to do so.

A qualified Action Mudra is somebody who has received highest yoga tantra empowerments, is keeping their commitments purely and understands the meaning of the two tantric stages.  Sometimes this can give rise to a doubt, “since my spouse does not have all (or any) of these qualifications, does it mean that I am breaking my Tantric vows every time I engage in union with him or her?  Does this mean we need to divorce our spouse and marry somebody from the Sangha?  Of course not. First, since we have not yet attained isolated speech our engaging in union now is at most a similitude of engaging in union with an action mudra, like practicing before the actual thing.  Second, if we mentally imagine that our partner is Heruka or Vajrayogini while we are engaging in union, then there is no fault because Heruka and Vajrayogini are qualified action mudras.  Third, this downfall only occurs if we engage in union solely out of desirous attachment.  If part of our motivation is spiritual, even just love of our partner wanting to make them happy, then our motivation is not solely desirous attachment.

Fourth, just as it would be inappropriate and bring the Dharma into disrepute for an ordained person to engage in union with an action mudra while still ordained, it would also bring the Dharma into disrepute if it came to be understood to mean people are required to divorce their partners if they are not highest yoga tantra practitioners. I would argue that if a lay Tantric practitioner has likewise attained isolated mind and it is time for them to engage in union with an Action Mudra but their spouse is not a qualified action mudra, then it is equally appropriate for this practitioner to delay their loosening of the final knots of the central channel at the heart until the clear light of death.  The one exception to this would be if the practitioner’s spouse gave them permission to do so as an act of love and compassion.  While at present, that may seem unthinkable that our partner would grant such permission, we never know how the karma will be ripening at the time of our attainment of isolated speech.  Until then, we really shouldn’t worry about such things and instead focus on transforming our engaging in union with our spouse into the path as explained earlier and as will be explained later.

The additional commitments of abandonment. 

These are to abandon the causes of turning away from the Mahayana, to avoid scorning gods and to avoid stepping over sacred objects.

The causes of turning away from the Mahayana are the opposite of the causes of turning to it.  The causes of turning to it are the minds of wishing love, bodhichitta, confidence that we can succeed at becoming a Buddha if we persevere and allowing ourselves to come under the influence of our Sangha friends.  Therefore, the causes of turning away from the Mahayana is abandoning love or generating hatred for others; abandoning the wish to attain enlightenment, settling for a lesser goal; becoming discouraged thinking we will never succeed in our spiritual training; and coming under the influence of those who think the spiritual path is a waste of time.

We tend to think of our practice as something we do, as opposed to an actual life.  Just as we need to feed our body and maintain good health to keep our normal life alive, so too we need to feed our spiritual body and maintain good spiritual health to keep our spiritual life alive.  If we neglect the health and well being of our normal life, or we engage in reckless behavior, there is a danger we may lose our life, or at least die sooner.  In exactly the same way, if we neglect the health and well being of our spiritual life, or we engage in reckless spiritual behavior, there is a danger we may lose our spiritual life, or at least have it end sooner.  It is perfectly possible, indeed common, for someone’s spiritual life to die long before their ordinary life does.  We feed our spiritual life by eating a rich diet of virtue, primarily through meditation and accumulating merit.  We keep our spiritual life healthy by maintaining our moral discipline.  Moral discipline, especially done with a spiritual motivation, creates the substantial cause for higher and higher forms of spiritual life.  We do not have to die and take rebirth for such seeds to ripen, but within our present human body have our spiritual life progress from being an ordinary small being all the way to a fully enlightened being.  Moral discipline is a true wish fulfilling jewel.

Ordinary beings often worship gods and demi-gods, turning to them for help and protection.  But there is a danger that bodhisattvas can out of pride wind up scorning such beings.  It is true that a spiritual being is a higher form of rebirth than being born as a god or a demi-god.  The reason for this is clear:  gods and demi-gods have little to no opportunity to engage in the spiritual path, whereas humans can.  But gods and demi-gods are preoccupied with the pleasures and struggles of samsara, and so they have little interest in making spiritual progress.  It is not at all uncommon for Dharma practitioners to develop haughty minds thinking that they are better than others because they are spiritual practitioners.  The fact that such minds are completely at odds with the Dharma doesn’t seem to stop us from generating them.  In the same way, even high bodhisattvas can generate similar minds towards gods and demi-gods.  It is also possible that we can fail to understand and generate compassion for the sufferings of gods and demi-gods, and as a result they fall outside the scope of our compassion and love.  We may effortlessly generate love for those who suffer samsara’s manifest sufferings, but struggle to do so for the rich, powerful and sublime.  We do so only because we still think samsara’s pleasures are good as opposed to deceptive.  Finally, just as it is a fault to scorn women or men in general because there are many emanations amongst them, so too it is a fault to scorn gods and demi-gods because there are many emanations amongst them.  Emanations do not just appear in the human realm, but they do so in all six realms.  They do not just take the form of spiritual teachers, but can take any form, from a crazy person to a spoon.  Since we cannot say for certain who is and who is not an emanation, better to scorn nobody.

Finally, we also need to abandon mistreating sacred objects.  Stepping over them is just one example, the actual meaning here is mistreating them in any way.  We should view our Buddha statues as actual emanations of Buddhas.  What appears to our eye awareness may be some finely shaped metal, but with our mental awareness we see a living Buddha sitting there, ready to communicate with us and bestow upon us their blessings.  Recently, they started making statues of Geshe-la.  We should not think of this as a mere statue, but as a living emanation of Geshe-la in our very room.  If we have faith and pure view, we can learn to communicate with him in almost exactly the same way we would with anybody else in our room.

In a similar way, we should view our Dharma books as the living speech of Buddha in this world.  Geshe-la said that he has blessed his books, Joyful Path in particular, where we can with faith ask it a question, then flip randomly to some page, and the answer to our question will be on that page.  I have tried this many times, and it definitely works.  It is not always immediately obvious how what is on that page is the answer to our question, but it will be revealed to us over time.  In the Lamrim teachings, Geshe-la advises us to read our Dharma books in a particular way.  We should do so understanding we are sick with delusions and the words we are reading are the remedy.  As we read, we should feel as if it is our spiritual guide speaking to us directly, compassionately explaining to us how to overcome our troubles.  If we approach our Dharma books in this way, we will come to view them as magical telephones through which we can communicate directly with our spiritual guide.  The words on the page may be the same each time, but due to the special blessings we will receive in dependence upon reading them with faith and a wish to get better, the understandings we gain from reading will be different every time.  We can read the same book 100 times, but with a different mind each time, and get something completely different out of our reading every time.  The secret is to not read the books as intellectual information, but rather to clearly have our inner problem in mind and to read the books as our personal advice for how to solve our problem.  If we do this, our Dharma books will come to be seen as our most precious possessions, our most trusted friends.

In a similar way, our vajra can be seen as our realization of great bliss, our bell can be seen as our realization of emptiness, our mala can be seen as the speech of all the Buddhas, our mandala kit can be seen as an inexhaustible fountain from which we can draw merit and good fortune at will, and so forth.  These objects are ordinary if we relate to them with an ordinary mind, but they become magical when we relate to them with a magical, spiritual mind.

If we come to view our Dharma objects in these ways, we will naturally come to treat them with respect without having to make a special effort to do so.  In the meantime, everytime we see that our Dharma objects are not being treated with the respect they deserve we can use that as a reminder to consider how truly miraculous they are and then we set things right by treating them respectfully.  If we train in this way, it won’t be long before treating them with respect becomes second nature.

The commitments of reliance.

The commitments of reliance are to rely sincerely upon our Spiritual Guide, to be respectful towards our vajra brothers and sisters and to observe the ten virtuous actions.

To rely sincerely upon our spiritual guide means, quite simply, to regard him or her as a Buddha and to sincerely put into practice the instructions we have received.  It is said that we have the realization of reliance upon the spiritual guide if when we think of Buddha, we think our spiritual guide; and when we think of our spiritual guide, we think Buddha.  When we have both directions simultaneously our understanding is correct.

The reason why it is important to view our spiritual guide as a Buddha is because if we view him in this way, we will receive the blessings of all of the Buddhas through him.  The spiritual guide acts like a focal point through which all of the Buddhas can help us.  He is like the internet browser through which you access the enlightened internet.  If we view our spiritual guide as an ordinary being, we will only receive the blessings of an ordinary being.  Ultimately, our ability to gain Dharma realizations depends entirely upon receiveing the blessings of our spiritual guide.

Likewise, the benefit we receive when listening to teachings depends almost entirely upon our view of our spiritual guide.  Two people, one full of faith the other full of criticism can listen to the exact same teaching and the former will receive great benefit whereas the latter will actually just accumulate negative karma.  The former will feel like they are being given the answers to all of their biggest problems, whereas the latter will spend the whole time cataloging all the faults of the teacher in front of them.  Geshe-la explains that when we receive teachings, we should believe the living Je Tsongkhapa enters into our spiritual guide and teaches through him.  Our actual spiritual guide is Lama Tsonngkhapa, and the person sitting on the throne in front of us is like a stereo speaker.

Additionally, if we ourselves are a teacher we could try give the teachings ourselves, but we would most likely just make a mess of things.  Instead, we should bring our living spiritual guide into our heart, generate a pure motivation wishing to transmit the Dharma that the people in front of us need, and then request him with faith to teach through us.  If we do this correctly, we will feel the spiritual guide enter into us and we will sometimes be amazed at what comes out of our mouth, things we have never understood before.  We can also do this when we are simply with friends, listening to their troubles.  We imagine that they are not telling us their difficulties, but rather they are telling our spiritual guide at our heart, and we don’t give any answers, but we request him to speak through us.

Further, regarding our spiritual guide as a Buddha is the lifeblood of our tantric practice.  When we engage in our self-generation practice we imagine not simply that we are generating as our Tantric Yidam, but rather we are actually mixing our mind completely with our guru’s mind in the aspect of our Yidam.  By doing this, all of the Buddhas of the ten directions enter into our self-generation practice and give it great power.  During the meditation break, we view all forms as the guru-deity’s body, all sounds as his pure speech, and all thoughts as arising from his omniscient wisdom.

To sincerely put his instructions into practice means to just be happy to do our best.  There is no expectation that we be able to put the instructions into practice perfectly.  All of our Dharma training ultimately is a process of creating new mental habits for ourselves.  This takes time and it takes effort.  So we need to be patient and not expect immediate results.  Likewise, we should not expect the virtuous habits we are trying to cultivate to feel “natural” or “spontaneous” in any way.  Many people think that feelings like love, compassion and bodhichitta should be natural and spontaneous to be genuine, and so when it doesn’t feel that way they conclude it is “artificial” and “not real.”  Gen-la Losang explains that what is natural is simply what is familiar.  Right now, delusions come naturally and spontaneously and our virtues feel forced and weak.  This is normal.  But with enough effort over a long enough period of time, we will gradually develop new habits of mind.  At that point minds of love, compassion and so forth will come naturally and spontaneously.

We should understand that progress with realizations is not a linear, where day after day, year after year, things get better.  Sometimes we will be focusing really intently on overcoming a particular delusion and then for many years it will not arise strongly.  We may think we’ve got that one down, and then all of a sudden, out of left field, the delusion rises up with a vengeance.  When this happens, it is easy to become despondent thinking we are regressing.  But actually, this is just the beginning of Round 2 with that particular delusion!  We have countless deluded tendencies similar to the cause on our mind, and just because we work through one doesn’t mean there are not more after that.  But normally we will found Round 2 easier than Round 1, and Round 3, when it comes, will be easier still.  Even if it does get harder, that will merely mean we are opposing a stronger deluded seed, not that our mind is any weaker.

The commitments of reliance also mean we should act respectfully to our vajra brothers and sisters.  The reality is we are social beings.  Whoever we spend time with, we naturally become socialized into their way of being.  It is said we become the average of the five people we spend the most time with, so choose who that is wisely!  If we spend time with people who get drunk all of the time, we will probably do the same; if we spend time with people who practice virtue all of the time, we will likewise probably do the same.  We often think we learn the most from the teachings we listen to, but the reality is we learn the most through osmosis of hanging out with our spiritual friends.  It is very easy for us to neglect the importance of the Sangha Jewel.  We know the Dharma jewel is our ultimate refuge and we see the value of the Buddha Jewel in our life, but we tend to forget about or belittle the importance of the Sangha Jewel.  As a result, it is very easy for us to begin to drift away from our Sangha friends more and more until eventually we never see any of them.  Then we become re-socialized into being a samsaric being.  It is said that everytime we do a puja with our Sangha friends we create the collective karmic causes to do the same thing again in the future.  When we deeply understand how truly hard it is to find a precious human life, spending time with Sangha will become a big priority for us.  We don’t have to do pujas all of the time, we can just go get a coffee together or even chat on Facebook.  The point is make it a priority to cultivate close relationships with your Sangha friends.

Lastly, the commitments of reliance also mean relying upon the 10 virtuous actions.  The 10 virtuous actions are the karmic opposites of the 10 non-virtuous actions.  It is not enough to just abandon our non-virtue, we must also train in their opposites.  It is not enough to just abandon killing, we need to proactively save life.  It is not enough to avoid divisive speech, we need to proactively try heal divisions between people, and so forth.  Engaging in the 10 virtuous actions are called paths because engaging in such actions lead us to the higher realms, liberation and full enlightenment.

The commitments of abandonment. 

These are to abandon negative actions, especially killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and taking intoxicants.

In a general sense, the commitments of abandonment encompass all of our other vows, but with a particular emphasis on refraining from any type of negativity.  The entire practice of the moral discipline of restraint in all of its various forms is included within this.  In particular, outwardly we need to train in the Pratimoksha vows.

Earlier in this series, I explored in detail each of the Pratimoksha vows.  For a more information on each one, you can consult those posts.  But here, I want to discuss the Pratimoksha vows from the perspective of highest yoga tantra.  Each of the Pratimoksha vows takes on a different level of meaning when looked at from the perspective of highest yoga tantra.  The path of Tantra can most easily be understood as “bringing the future result into the path.”  We first generate within our mind an enlightened being, and then we try identify with that.  In the meditation session, we primarily focus on our inner training of bodhichitta and on our secret training in bliss and emptiness.  But during the meditation break, we primarily focus on observing the moral discipline of the Pratimoksha and engaging in the actions of a Buddha in this world (which, at our level, means training in the bodhisattva’s way of life, or the practice of the six perfections).

In essence, even though we are not yet a Buddha, we try act like a Buddha would act.  A Buddha would never kill, steal, engage in sexual misconduct, lie or take intoxicants.  So as a Tantric practitioner trying to bring the future result into the path, neither should we.  It is not different than young Christians who wear bracelets that say, “what would Jesus do?”  We ask ourselves, “what would Heruka do?”

The key to understanding tantric moral discipline is to understand that built into our self-generation is a tantric exchanging of self with others.  According to Sutra, exchanging self with others means exchanging the object of our cherishing from self to others.  According to Tantra, exchanging self with others means actually exchanging the basis of imputation for “I” and “others.”  At present, we look at our ordinary body and mind and we think, “I.”  Likewise, we look at the bodies and minds of others and we think, “others.”  When we exchange ourself with others according to Tantra, when we look at the bodies and minds of what we used to think of as others we think, “I” and when we look at the body and mind of what we used to think of as I we think, “others.”

Viewed in this way, violating the Pratimoksha vows becomes almost impossible.  It would be as hard for us to kill others as it currently would be to kill ourselves.  At present we are extremely miserly and we would resist mightily if somebody tried to steal from us, but after we have exchanged ourself with others according to Tantra it becomes equally difficult to steal from anybody else because for us it would be like stealing from ourself and giving it to others.  At present, we would become quite upset if our partner cheated on us with somebody else.  We would quite rightly feel betrayed by such an action.  When we have exchanged self with others according to Tantra, we would become quite upset if “others” (or old self) were to cheat on “us” (formerly others).  Right now, we absolutely can’t stand it when people lie to us, and we always want them to tell us the truth and never deceive us.  When we have exchanged ourself with others according to Tantra, we similarly would find it completely unacceptable that “others” (or former self) lie to “us” (formerly others).  Finally, right now we can’t stand it when people blow smoke in our face or if they get intoxicated in our presence and act all stupid.  When we see people indulging in intoxicants, we naturally think they have no self-discipline nor self-respect.  We also will do everything we can to help people not fall into the abyss of using intoxicants and we naturally feel respect for those who abstain from such behavior.  When we have exchanged self with others according to Tantra, we wouldn’t want “others” (our former self) to blow smoke in our face, get intoxicated or become dependent upon such substances.  And we would naturally respect our former self (now seen as “others”) for their restraint in not indulging in such things.

The amazing thing about exchanging self with others according to Tantra is after the exchange what were delusions become virtues!  Our self-grasping becomes abandoning killing, our miserliness and possessiveness becomes abandoning stealing, our jealousy becomes abandoning sexual misconduct, our self-cherishing becomes abandoning lying, and our aversion to others acting in stupid ways becomes abandoning intoxicants.  We find it effortless to generate such delusions, so all we need to do is exchange self with others according to Tantra and then act as “deluded” as we possibly can.  The more “deluded” we are after the exchanging, the more “virtuous” we wind up acting.  No need to develop new mental habits, just exchange self with others!

More detail on this practice can be found in Chapter 8 of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and in its commentary Meaningful to Behold.

Scorning women. 

If a male practitioner criticizes women, saying ‘women are bad’, he incurs a root downfall.  Among women there are many emanations of Vajrayogini, and by criticizing women in general we criticize these emanations and thereby block our development of bliss.  Female practitioners incur a similar root downfall if they criticize men.

Most societies around the world contain a good deal of sexism.  This is the legacy of times when physical strength was at a premium for productive activity.  But in modern times where it is our social and intellectual capabilities that matter, there is no place for sexist attitudes.  Indeed, such attitudes are a downfall of our tantric vows.

It is important that we make a distinction between acknowledging gender differences and passing value judgments about those differences.  For a variety of social and cultural reasons, it is true that women are more likely to get socialized into certain values and behaviors and men are more likely to get socialized into different values and behaviors.  Different life experiences will naturally wire our mind in different ways.  Acknowledging this is not a problem.  The problems come when we grasp at these differences as being somehow inherent between the two different genders.  Such differences are the product of cultural and social forces, as well as a question of what karmic tendencies happen to be ripening in any particular life.  The second problem comes when we pass value judgments about these differences saying some qualities and characteristics are better than others in a universal sense, and so therefore one gender is better than another.  The most we can say is for certain activities certain characteristics or qualities are more effective, for example being really strong will make you a better lumberjack and being very patient will make you a better kindergarten teacher.

Fortunately, modern societies are definitively moving in the direction of a more balanced attitude between women and men, though there still remains many negative stereotypes.  But professionally speaking, a modern economy tends to favor qualities typically associated with women, such as patience, a caring and nurturing attitude, social sense and so forth.  Jobs in medicine, education, basically any service are more geared towards these qualities.  Unsurprisingly, women today are graduating at higher rates than men, and entering the professional work force at higher rates than men.  But there still tends to be prejudice against women who occupy higher positions where decisions are made, and in the math and sciences.  We should make a point to be mindful where we might have prejudicial attitudes against women, and actively seek to correct them.

Likewise, there is also a growing tendency for some women to realize that the modern world is breaking in their direction and they conclude that they are better than men in some universal sense.  It is perfectly conceivable as the economy evolves for in a few hundred years attitudes reverse and we have a societal problem of reverse sexism against men.  Both attitudes are equally wrong.

Finally, it should also be noted that there still tends to be a great deal of prejudicial attitudes that show up with respect to fixed notions of sexual identity and preference.  Sexual identity is how much one conventionally identifies with being male or female.  Previously, thinking was if you have a male body you should identify with being male, and if you don’t, then there is something wrong with you.  Highly effeminate individuals who happen to be in a male body are considered an aberration. Likewise highly masculine individuals who happen to be in a female body are considered an aberration.  The reality is there is a full spectrum of possibilities of highly effeminate individuals in female bodies to highly masculine individuals in male bodies, and all sorts of permutations in between.

What we identify with is the fruit of what ripened effects, what tendencies similar to the cause ripened in any given life, and what environmental effects one is exposed to.  The ripened effect determines what body we take on, the tendencies similar to the cause determine what qualities we identify with.  Our life experience, upbringing and socio-cultural environment are all the fruit of karmic environmental effects.  Just as there are infinite karmic combinations possible, so too there will be infinite combinations of bodies and senses of identity.  All are equally good, just different.

In the same way, there is a wide variety of sexual preferences one could have.  What we are attracted to sexually is likewise a product of different ripened effects, tendencies similar to the cause and environmental effects.  For a variety of biological reasons, those born male are more likely to be attracted to those born female, but not absolutely so.  For purely karmic reasons, it is perfect possible that the tendencies similar to the cause of being attracted to women could ripen at the same time as the ripened effect of being born a woman ripens.  This would karmically create a lesbian.  Someone could grow up in a social environment where different sexual preferences are fully respected or fully persecuted.  This will also have an effect on how the different karma ripens over the course of an individual’s lifetime.  Once again, there is a full spectrum of possibilities of a highly effeminate individual born into a female body who is intensely and unambiguously attracted to men to a highly masculine individual born into a male body who is intensely and unambiguously attracted to women, and there is every possible combination in between.  From a spiritual point of view, all of these different combinations are equally good, just in different ways.  From a Buddhist point of view, there is no basis for discriminatory or judgmental attitudes towards any of these combinations.

The Tantric solution to all of these forms of prejudicial attitudes is to view everyone equally as emanations of Heruka and Vajrayogini.  Whether you view somebody as Heruka or as Vajrayogini, both deities are there.  Both are filled with great and powerful sexual energy, both male and female, in perfect harmony though slightly different balances.  Whether somebody is a Heruka or Vajrayogini practitioner has absolutely nothing to do with whether they are male or female, gay or straight, or anything else.  It is all a function of different karmic feeling and predisposition.  From a spiritual point of view, both are equally good just in different ways.

Not maintaining commitment objects.

Our Tantric texts explain three ways of incurring this downfall.  One way is if we refuse to accept the various commitment substances passed round during an empowerment or in a tsog offering puja, thinking that these substances are unclean.  A second way is not keeping a vajra and bell thinking that these objects are meaningless.  Yogis and Yoginis who have attained the realization of isolated mind also incur this downfall if they refuse to accept and action mudra without good reason.

During the empowerment or during tsog offering pujas, various substances are passed around that we partake of.  All tantric practices are aimed at overcoming ordinary appearance and ordinary conceptions.  We can take, for example, our inner offering.  Conventionally speaking, it is a nectar pill inside some alcohol.  The nectar pill itself is made of various plants and other normal substances.  Mentally, however, we imagine that it is the five meats and the five nectars.  The five meats and the five nectars (before being purified and transformed) are understood to be five 5 disgusting solids and liquids in a human body.  We then mentally imagine we purify and transform these disgusting substances through the ritual prayer into a completely pure inner offering, which we then partake of and imagine we generate uncontaminated bliss.  This action can be engaged in with three very different minds, each with different effects.  We could mentally think it is just some plants in some alcohol and we would think the whole exercise is meaningless.  We could think it really is the disgusting solids and liquids of the body and become grossed out and not want to do it.  Or we could think we have actually purified and transformed the substances and it is medicine nectar which heals our mind and bestows upon us uncontaminated wisdom.  If we fall into the second of these possibilities, we incur a downfall.  An exception to this would be if we are allergic to the substances passed around.  If we are allergic, it is fine to imagine you are partaking of the substance but not actually do so.  There is no need to go into anaphylactic shock during an empowerment or tsog puja!

The second way we incur a downfall is by not keeping a vajra and bell thinking that such objects are meaningless.  During the empowerment, we assume the commitment to maintain a vajra and bell viewing them as bliss and emptiness respectively.  There are two types of vajra and bell – namely the outer and inner vajra and bell.  The outer vajra and bell are the actual ritual objects, usually made of metal that we can buy in the Dharma shop at festivals or at our local center.  The inner vajra and bell are the realizations of bliss and emptiness within our own mind.  Our final goal is to develop within our mind the inner vajra and bell.  Our outer vajra and bell are physical reminders of this final goal.  A very common mistake is to think because the inner vajra and bell is the final goal that the outer vajra and bell are meaningless.  If we think this, we incur this downfall.  The outer vajra and bell are meaningful precisely because they do remind us of our final goal, and we need constant reminders of this.  In any given day, we encounter countless different objects.  How many of these objects remind us of bliss and emptiness?  Not many, if any at all.  Just as having a Buddha statue reminds us of Buddha in our lives, so too maintaining an outer vajra and bell helps remind us of the importance of developing within our mind the inner vajra and bell of bliss and emptiness.  It is not enough to simply “own” a vajra and bell and feel like we have checked the box of this vow.  We need to make a point of looking at and/or holding our vajra and bell, and when we do so we make a point of reminding ourselves of the inner vajra and bell.  If we fail to do this, we encounter this downfall.  It is for this reason that practitioners are encouraged to hold their vajra and playing the bell when they are engaging in their self-generation sadhanas to serve as a reminder.  But if for practical reasons, such as waking up your family members, this is not possible, there is no fault for not doing so.

The third way we incur this downfall is, without a good reason, we do not accept an action mudra if we have attained isolated mind of completion stage.  Isolated mind of completion stage is a very advanced realization.  It occurs when we have effectively gathered, dissolved and absorbed almost all of our winds into our central channel at our heart.  When we rely upon an action mudra correctly, it functions to untie the last knots within our subtle body enabling all of our winds to gather and dissolve into our central channel at our heart.  Once this has happened, we can generate a fully qualified mind of clear light, first as ultimate example clear light and finally as meaning clear light of completion stage.  If we attain the realization of meaning clear light, it is said we can attain full enlightenment in three years or even three months.  When we consider we have been planting contaminated karma on our root mind for countless aeons, the prospect of being able to uproot all of that contaminated karma in such a short period of time is inconceivably fortunate.

The reason why it is a downfall to not accept an action mudra once we have attained isolated mind is the longer we take to attain enlightenment, the longer those beings we would otherwise help if we did attain enlightenment will remain trapped in samsara.  Since our goal is to help all living beings, even delaying our enlightenment for a short period of time gets multiplied by the number of living beings and so the consequences are quite significant.  What are some good reasons, then, for not accepting an action mudra.  The most obvious one is we are an ordained monk or nun!  Because in modern times for a monk or nun to take an action mudra would be seen as a sexual scandal which would bring the individual, the Sangha and the Tantric path itself into disrepute, it is perfectly valid to delay taking an action mudra until the practitioner gets to the pure land!  This does not mean, however, that it is a fault for the ordained tantric practitioner to take an inner action mudra, imagining that they are engaging in qualified union with their Tantric consort in the context of their training in the Tantric path.  Such a practice will bring the ordained tantric practitioner almost all of the way so that it will be possible to untie the last knots at the time of death, thus making taking an action mudra unnecessary, or essentially guaranteeing that they will take rebirth in a tantric pure land where they can complete their training.

Destroying others’ faith.

If we cause someone’s faith in Secret Mantra to degenerate by telling them that the practice of Secret Mantra is dangerous and advising them to remain with Sutra practices we incur a root downfall.

Venerable Tharchin says that if we take full advantage of the spiritual opportunities that appear to us we create the causes to have even better spiritual opportunities in the future, but if we do not take full advantage of these opportunities we will burn up the karma that gave rise to them and we will have even fewer spiritual opportunities in the future.

It is said in the Lamrim that the odds of us finding the Dharma are equivalent to the odds of a blind turtle putting its head through a golden yoke floating on top of the ocean when that turtle surfaces only once every 100 years.  If you assume that the surface area of the yoke is one square meter (a yoke for an elephant), the surface of the earth is 510 million square kilometers, and the average life span of a person is 100 years, then it means we only find the Dharma once every 510 trillion lifetimes!  To find the teachings on Tantra is rarer still.  It is said of the 1,000 Buddhas of this fortunate aeon, only the 4^th, 11^th and last will teach Tantra.  So at a minimum, this means the odds of finding Tantra is equivalent to the blind turtle only surfacing once every 33,333 years (1000 Buddhas divided by only 3 teaching Tantra times the 100 years of finding Sutra), or once every 170 quadrillion lifetimes (170,000 trillion lifetimes).  Such numbers are so large we lose all grasp of their meaning, but try let that sink in – once every 17 million trillion years.  The odds of this are so infinitesimally small as to mean once in forever.

If somebody has the karma to encounter and begin their tantric path, and we unskillfully encourage them to not enter that path because it is dangerous to do so, we are effectively condemning them to spend another 170,000 trillion lifetimes in samsara.  There is no enlightenment outside of the Tantric path.  Sutra practitioners can practice for many aeons just to create the causes to find the Tantric path, and only once they do is it possible to attain enlightenment.   But we have found a fully qualified tantric path in this very life.  We have won the spiritual lottery of lotteries.  The odds of winning the MegaMillions lottery (the biggest lottery) is one in 260 million.  The odds of finding the Tantric path are equivalent to winning the MegaMillions lottery, then waiting until there are 260 million more such winners of the MegaMillions lottery, then winning another such lottery from among those winners.  Then waiting until a second person does the exact same thing, then holding a coin-toss to see who wins between the two of you.  That’s us in this life.  We just won that.

To throw away this opportunity and not engage in the Tantric path when we have found it is equivalent to winning the above lottery of lottery winners and then not bothering to go cash in your winning ticket, but to instead throw it away.  Only the greatest fool would ever do such a thing.

To destroy somebody’s faith and encourage them to abandon such a Tantric path creates the karma for us to be such a fool.  It creates the causes for once we are such a winner for somebody to come along and convince us to throw away our winning ticket.  Imagine somebody posts on-line some words which serve to destroy the faith of the readers in a certain tantric spiritual guide.  Imagine one thousand people read such words and only 10 become convinced by them and they abandon the path.   This person’s words just created the karmic causes to be such a fool 10 times in succession.  If our heart does not melt with compassion for such a person, we are not paying attention.  If our heart does not crack open in fear of becoming such a person with our own unskillful actions, we are definitely not paying attention.

Why would engaging in the Tantric path possibly be considered dangerous?  The reason is simple enough to understand:  it’s just so powerful.  Playing irresponsibly with matches is dangerous, playing irresponsibly with nuclear power much more so.  In the same way, playing irresponsibly with the Dharma is dangerous, playing irresponsibly with the Tantric teachings much more so.  When you think of all the people teaching “Tantra” classes where the only requirement is loose-fitting shorts, you can see how common of a problem this is.

What protects us from these dangers?  Quite simply, a pure motivation, enough humility to learn from our mistakes, and a sincere mind of faith. A pure motivation means we are practicing out of concern for our future lives, not just this life alone.  Humility means we don’t kid ourselves into thinking we are doing it right, but instead we are constantly striving to do things in a more qualified way.  Sincere faith means we are constantly requesting blessings from the holy beings that they internally and externally guide us along the tantric path.  If we have these three things, we do not need to worry.

When we first start the tantric path, we are mere beginners and are not doing it in a very qualified way.  As long as our motivation, humility and faith are more developed than our tantric practice, we are safe.  If our tantric practice starts to outstrip our motivation, humility and faith, then we can quickly get ourselves into trouble.  This is why it is said we need to practice Tantra on the foundation of Lamrim.

The good news is just as destroying people’s faith in a Tantric spiritual guide or path is unparalleled in negative karma, so too cultivating people’s faith in a Tantric spiritual guide is unparalleled in creating virtuous karma.  If we seize the opportunity we currently have to train in the tantric path, we create the causes to continue to do so in our next life.  If we encourage others to do the same, we create the causes to quickly refind the tantric path if we lose it somewhere along the way.  Encouraging faith in the Tantric path is like buying insurance for maintaining the continuum of your Tantric path without interruption until you attain enlightenment.