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Tibetan Buddhists
This is a question for Tibetan Buddhist practioners. In a nut shell, why?
Basically I have read the Tibetan book of the dead and its a life changing book, truly inspirational. But I also practise Theravada meditation at a Samatha/Vippassana group.
I just dont know what I should be following, or does it really matter. Its just that certain things I read I find hard to study because I just cant bring myself to believe they can be possible. For example the phowa practise, how can people believe that just through visualization you can evoke a Buddha to purify the karma of a dying person?
And stories such as a hole in the head of the dying person appearing where the consciousness leaves the body; I mean if the continuity of consciousness is not a physical aspect then why would it need a hole to leave.
And other stories like the body completly vanishing after 3 days after death leaving nothing but nails.
To me it seems very ritualistic, did the Buddha not just gain nirvana through develped Samatha and wisdom meditation. But on the other hand there have been many enlightened Tibetan masters... so what study do I follow?
Basically I have read the Tibetan book of the dead and its a life changing book, truly inspirational. But I also practise Theravada meditation at a Samatha/Vippassana group.
I just dont know what I should be following, or does it really matter. Its just that certain things I read I find hard to study because I just cant bring myself to believe they can be possible. For example the phowa practise, how can people believe that just through visualization you can evoke a Buddha to purify the karma of a dying person?
And stories such as a hole in the head of the dying person appearing where the consciousness leaves the body; I mean if the continuity of consciousness is not a physical aspect then why would it need a hole to leave.
And other stories like the body completly vanishing after 3 days after death leaving nothing but nails.
To me it seems very ritualistic, did the Buddha not just gain nirvana through develped Samatha and wisdom meditation. But on the other hand there have been many enlightened Tibetan masters... so what study do I follow?
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Comments
Whatever makes sense to you, whatever helps you. Different people learn in different ways. Ultimately, all paths leads to the same point, and when you strip them down to the fundementals, they're essentially the same. No matter which path you choose, you'll have to do some digging to get to the heart, so you can really benefit from the rest of it.
For a long time, the ritualistic aspects of Tibetan Buddhism was what I was after, it was comforting and it was what I needed at the time. Now, I prefer to just cut to the chase, and don't see the rituals in the same way... there are definitely beneficial practices to be found, but only when understood correctly. Otherwise, they're just superstitious, like wishing on a shooting star, and missing the real point. Theravada is certainly more straight-forward, no bs... but that has to be what you're looking for.
Its up to you vajrayana is renowned as the quick path to great enlightenment, there where many aspects of it i found difficult to accept but strange things do happen i didnt really beleive the powa practise untill id actually seen it done for one of my dieing relatives.
That sounds incredible, do you mind talking about it; or perhaps you could p.m me.
If you have a question friend you are welcome to PM me and ask, be specific.
Ayang Rinpoche is a well known teacher of Phowa in Tibetan Buddhism and some information can be found here:
http://ayangrinpoche.org/an-introduction-to-phowa/
Kind regards,
Dazzle
He is certainly a great recommendation for anyone interested in phowa or Amitabha.
There are two important reasons to perform it:
1. Becuase it is helpful for the dying and recently dead
2. Because is is helpful to those grieving
It would be worth doing even if only for the second reason.
Now I find myself really struggling with my doubts, and with my practice.
How do I figure out whether Buddha nature exists? How do I develop faith in myself?
I doubt my abilities and my capacity for improvement/compassion/realization, which I know is a very large hindrance on the path. How to believe that enlightenment is real and something I can actually achieve when I have no example walking around in my daily life? I do realize that I have no idea where my thoughts are coming from or going to, but this mystery is easily buried underneath my neurotic activity that I cram every second of my life with. When I am all alone, I feel like this stuff is a fairy tale that I made up and yet I remember that spiritual honeymoon when I felt so strongly about the teachings. I know the Buddha didn't want people to have blind faith, but to know and experience--but the experience that gave me faith in the esoteric practices is now a memory. Please help by giving me your thoughts? thanks
remember that your achievements, for surely you have to have some, are not nothing, and you most likely have made progress. there are always things blocking the path, but if you keep enough faith in the good, you'll eventually be able to overcome anything.
there are other forms of buddhism too, maybe tibetan isn't right for you. i know i have trouble with tibetan practices sometimes because they take a lot of will and effort. i find zen to be much easier and simpler.
I can only tell you that for me my practice and faith grew the more I practiced and then added additional practices after I became comfortable with the ones I was practicing. I feel very fortunate now for choosing this path. You have to find what is best for you. Someone once told me , that it's kind of like trying on shoes. You try them out and see which one best fits. Just curious, did you experiment with other traditions of Tibetan Buddhism before choosing your current path ?
The term 'buddha' was applied to Shakyamuni because he attained that state, as many may have done before him. Buddha comes from the Sanskrit root 'budh', meaning to awaken.
Buddha-nature would exist if Shakyamuni had never been born. What he did was provide a path to it.
I am not sure what you mean when you use the word "faith". The role of faith in Buddhism is not the same as the role of faith in Christianity. In Christianity, faith precedes experience (seeing as you have to die before you can have experience). In Buddhism, faith is the result of experience ... an understanding that A leads to B because you have seen that operate in your own life.
Remember the three P's: Practice, process, patience:
Practice: Buddha nature is not something we can "figure out". We are taught that if we practice, we will eventually encounter Buddha nature. Meditation is important, but Practice is just as important off the meditation cushion through every moment of the day. Practice.
Process: Approach Buddhism as a process, rather than a goal. If you define your goal before you personally know it exists, then when you do find it how will you know if you found it because it was there to find or if you found it because you created it? Therefore, learn to live the process and don't worry about the goal. Process.
Patience: If you want to eat an artichoke heart, you must peel off each leaf one at a time. Faith in yourself and in your abilities comes slowly as your practice on the process brings an upwelling of understanding that is the proof upon which you build your faith. It took my sister 10 years to start to have real faith, myself 8 years (and I still have more questions than answers). So patience is important ... but what else are you going to do with that time that has any real importance? Patience.
Best of luck.
Dear Zebra
It is important to have a close group of practitioners. Unlike the monastic environment, the monks make up the Sangha. Taking refuge in the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) will help us in our journey. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is utmost important to have a Guru to guide us on the path. For many of us who do not live in the monastic community, in general all practitioners make up the sangha.
I do stay very close to my group of dharma brothers and sisters and it does make a big difference in my spiritual journey.
All the best and may the right conditions arise for you
"In the Tantric Buddhism of Mahayana tradition, guru worship is a core practice. Without guru worship, it is impossible to achieve anything through all the various practices. The guru is a personified form of all the enlightened beings and he represents the complete blessings of Body, Speech and Mind, as well as the mission of the enlightened beings.
The guru is the closest point or the most accessible source of spiritual energy. For a common being, there is no better way then worshipping one's own guru in order to collect a great amount of merit and receive blessings from the enlightened beings. It is very important to recall the special emphasis put on guru worship in many great tantric treatises. In countless classical tantras, Vajradhara repeatedly stresses the importance of guru worship. This practice is also taught to be the highest form of worship in which common human beings can engage in this world."
yikes
Sadly, Shingon resources in the West are really scant besides the West Coast of the US and maybe the UK. Beware of fraudsters too. Your best bet to explore Shingon Buddhism is to just go to Japan, learn Japanese and find a teacher willing to take you on. There are some excellent non-Japanese teachers as well.
If anything else, studying the life and works of Kukai the founder is time well spent too.
This is just the Tantric way which originated in India. There are logical reasons for it.
First - devotion is important. Devotion opens you up and allows you to surrender. The Guru is a symbol of your own true nature so you're not surrendering to anybody external (there is no such thing as external, everything is your true nature but its easier to surrender to a human than a flower). When you have devotion, the ego is pacified and your true nature can bloom easily. Once you start meditating and awakening energies, you will notice that negative feelings are amplified extremely and can kill spiritual energies entirely, thus hindering progress. Positive feelings for example are amplified and increase spiritual energies allowing inner transformation to take place. Devotion is love and love is the most positive mind set.
Second - as I said earlier, devotion is not to an external being. When Diety yoga is done it is the same. These are all representations of your own true nature. Merging with the Diety or the Guru is surrendering to the non-dual nature of reality, and realizing there never has been a separation to begin with. It is a method to cut through grasping at a self.
Third - there are many blessings given by the Guru. So it's a little different than having devotion to a flower. On the absolute level, everything is empty and pure, but on the relative level of course there is suffering and negativity. The relative body of the teachre though is purified. I'm sure you've heard of the subtle energy body yes? Well someone who has purified their channels emits energy; it is contagious like perfume. Being in the same room as an awakened person, your energy bodies vibrational rate will naturally increase to match theirs. It's just how it works. This helps greatly in speeding up progress.
There are many valid reasons for the Tantric way of doing things. It's all logical, no faith required.. careful analysis is good
bwahahahahahaha
Not sure where you got this but its completely inaccurate.
The Shamarpa was never banned from "reincarnating", thats just stupid. The Shamarpa tulku line was banned from being recognized and enthroned.
Did you not read anything I said? You clearly don't understand the methodology of Tantric practice. It has nothing to do with control. That's just your ego talking. There is so much more to Vajrayana than 'Guru worship' and 'highly stylized ritual'. The essence of the path is Mahamudra or Dzogchen, depending on the lineage, which are direct methods for clearly cutting through delusion and seeing the true nature of mind, and all reality. Prior to receiving such teachings of course you have to go through preliminaries and other yogas, all of which serve to purify the subtle energy channels and develop good qualities in you. The purpose of which is to make you a good vehicle to proceed to the advanced teachings. Its a gradual developmental process and so a teacher is necessary; if a newbie was given the advanced practices he would get no where.
Worrying about the cultural and political context is a waste of time. Sure Tibet wasn't a mystical dreamland of a utopia, but it wasn't any worse than Europe a couple centuries back. Tibetans were isolated but now they aren't. It takes some getting used to. You're looking at all the negatives. Why don't you notice that Tibet has produced some of the most enlightened beings to ever graze this earth? Their literature is filled with so many teachings from very highly realized beings.
Practice the path that works for you.
Do you think Kagyu and Gelug are the only lineages in Tibetan Buddhism?
I know plenty of lama's from both of these lineages that dont give allegiance to either of the Karmapa selections, not to mention the other lineages.
Also, you say "at each others throats", in reference to just about all Gelug and Kagyu teachers. This is a really odd statement, there are only a handful of Karma Kagyu lama's who are intensely caught up in this issue. All the other Kagyu lineages, Gelug, Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, etc. dont really have much invested in it at all.
You're exaggerating a great deal.
Well, in order to be a lama you dont have to be an "incarnation" of anyone.
Personally I have at least 25 teachers/lama's of all the major lineages and I could say that only one of them is seriously invested in one of the Karmapa's, and even for him its barely even mentioned.
From my experience, Nyingmapa's and Sakyapa's arent very interested in the issue at all. A few have attempted to broker compromises between the two sides but thats about it.
There are more than four Tibetan Buddhist lineages by the way. This is a common misrepresentation.
I practice in the Nyingma tradition. It's the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism dating back to Padmasambhava who brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet from what is now Kashmir in the Himalayas. Generally nobody cares about the fiasco in our tradition. I doubt many Kagyus care either since Kagyu lineage is the practice lineage, meaning they're all about meditation. Buddhists in general aren't big into politics or drama, so all of this is just an exaggeration of small events, but you should be aware that Buddhists, like all humans within samsara, are not immune to the negativities present here. I don't think any religion can rightfully pretend that they are full of enlightened beings and are utopian. Buddhism is not immune to samsaric activity. Judging a whole spiritual tradition based on perceived negativities is wrong IMO.
The quote was from the wiki article, to its truthfulness I cannot say... but that sentence made me laugh at so many levels. A political organization rescinding someones right to incarnate is a hilarious idea, no matter how true/untrue.
I wouldn't be on one side or another even if I were standing in one of their schools. With correct intention, correct viewing and correct action comes my allegiance and respect. Lineage is unimportant to me. It reminds me of a Lex Luther quote from superman:
"Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe." - Lex Luther
Listen deeply and you'll know if the teacher is your teacher. Politics... bah!
one more time.
"In the 1790s, shortly before the recognition of the 14th Karmapa, the Tibetan government in Lhasa banned the Shamarpa from reincarnating as a result of alleged political intrigues."
Not sure where you (wiki) got this but its completely inaccurate.
The Shamarpa was never banned from "reincarnating", thats just stupid. The Shamarpa tulku line was banned from being recognized and enthroned.
I wouldnt trust Wiki to accurately interpret and portray the intricacies of Tibetan political history.
The link to the wiki article was directly above my initial post. Now you know!
Your "one more time." statement seems to me to be unnecessarily single pointed. The truth of the political controversy is of little importance to me... as I said. The idea itself is hilarious to me, regardless of its basis in political truth... as I said. Don't you think it is funny?
the "one more time" line was just to indicate that I was posting the same thing again. No other intention.
I do think its funny, the whole thing is way over-blown on the internet.
In actual practice and actual sangha's you rarely even hear about it.
peace, my dharma brothers,
armando
The topic is a weird one. It seems to primarily "live" on the internet.
People get their feathers ruffled about a lot of stuff.
no biggie
Yours in the Dharma,
Todd
Most Tibetan Buddhists are Rime whether or not they know it.