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Are there any other "awakening" practices other than meditation, chanting, and yoga?
I've done some research and haven't found anything else yet but i was wondering if there are any other ways some buddhist traditions practice for enlightenment.
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Pranidhanas - skillful wishes
studying
contemplating
ever heard of tantric buddhism?
There all pretty much the same but have alot of defferent names.
They practice three main yogas (that i know of)
Mindfullness Yoga (General Yoga)
Death Yoga
and Sexual Yoga
look them up, its quite interesting
Oh yeah and it IS influenced from the hindu tradition, but it isn't hindu
in my opinion, its one of my favorite fields of buddhism because they practice pretty much all the techniques in buddhism and not just a portion of them.
They follow all the paths, they meditate, practice yoga, chant both prayers and the diamond sutra, and have spiritual rituals (which is the Hindu like part)
The name yogatantra (if that is what is causing confusion) actually has to do with some classifications. In the beggining tantric texts were more of the categories of caryatantra and kriyatantra, which, despite their status as religious teachings of Buddhism, were concerned with supernatural attainments, such as locating treasure, flying, invisibility, and so on.
In yogatantra, tantric methodologies, such as rites of consecration, mantras, and mandalas, are concerned with enlightenment.
I might be terribly wrong though x-)
I was hoping to hear from a person of tibetan buddhism because they are knowledgeable of alot of techniques like that
Oh its nice, I think Pema Chodron has some material on it, where she talks about some slogans and does some guided Tonglen. What is the name...I think it's This Moment is The Perfect Teacher (gotta love Pema) :P
Im not posting this thread because i want to start going to a tibetin temple and do tantrayoga, im posted this because im interested in the other ways.
so what ways do you know of besides ones that have been talked about already?
I guess your question could be rephrased as "how to attain right view without meditation?"
I think it is important to see that meditation isnt the only way to read the mental/wisdom/concentration development parts of the path, especially when we see what is advised in other of the "cardinal" suttras.
Don't forget that, if we believe the suttras, many people became enlightened with no meditation whatsoever, so seem entitled to assume that meditation isn't necessary for enlightenment.
Maybe try the philosophical path, ask yourself, from first principles, can you end up at the eightfold path and all in between:)
Mat
Contemplatyion, analysyis, reason
Nios.
If you are interested in pursuing the various yogas of Tibetan Buddhism, Eric, I would suggest you look into the annual month-long retreat held every July-August in New York at Palyul Ling. They teach the whole ball of wax there, starting with ngondro (preliminary practice), tsa lung (physical practices aimed at balancing the winds and channels), trekchod, togyal and dzogchen. It's a 7 year course of study and practice. The retreat was begun by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, and he attended each year until his death last year. Now His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the current throneholder of Palyul (one of the six main branches of Nyingma), runs it and is in attendance every year. He is assisted by various khenpos and teachers from Namdroling Monastery in India. You can learn more at palyul.org. These advanced practices are not taught anywhere else, not even at Namdroling, so it is a rare opportunity.
Palzang
How about...seeking out an awakened teacher? It may fall under 'tantric', not sure, and I know the official 'Buddhist' view is that 'one cannot give'...but isn't it true that being in presence of an awakened teacher can cause this state?
What has he seen that isn't in The Four Noble Truths, I wonder?
Just to boggle your noodle, but... how would you know he was enlightened if we, ourselves, are not?
Yantra yoga is a system of physical asana's that are Buddhist.
There are also other physical Buddhists techniques that are associated with Dzogchen, Mahamudra, and Lamdre. For the most part they are only transmitted from teacher to student.
Palzang
Maybe he simply sees the truth as it really is? Knowing the truth and living perfectly in accord with the truth are two distinct things.
There is an element of this when one is practicing Dzogchen or Mahamudra.
There are methods of transmission or empowerment such as the Rigpai Tsal Wang ( empowerment into the dynamic energy of rigpa/awareness) where one must receive this transmission from a teacher who is recognized as an embodiment of the realization that is associated with the practice.
Great to see you again!
Absolutely agree! I have had a few moments of "pure mindfullness", not many, but i see it as an awakening. The first time was with a swan, incidentally. Though I dont think the swan had the same kind of "raw" experience
I don't really believe Ekhart Tolle's philosophy and don't take to his quaismystecism but he really speaks well about the momement and in that sense perhaps provides another awakening of sorts. I dont think I really saw how impermeince (as opposed to negativity) is a cause of Dukka until I got the low down on the now from Mr "Funny Jumper" Tolle:)
Is the path perhaps made of little awakenings?
Mat
I think the path is full of awakenings. But I found that someone could have pure minduflness while drawing something, let's say rather complicated. I'm not a good at drawing myself, but when i draw sketches, I try to draw them to the last detail. Like in real life...
I see you placed this a a question but it sounds rather rhetorical, if it wasn't meant to be rhetorical, please correct me.
However, is not that idea in contrast to what you have claimed so frequently in other threads that awakening was instant and abundent in Buddha's time and should be in our time?
I meant to get back and add this information, and got side tract. : ^ (
I believe some marshal art are considered to be a Buddhist meditations. I Googled this and the Shoaling and the Samurai were mentioned as two of these.
Any way that you can disassociate from automatic action seems to be helpful in seeing that action, even very discipline action, is not you.
Disciplined action by becoming exceedingly skillful, puts you in the zone, and becomes very automatic, leaving you quite free of it. This is a bit like ritual in that it occupies both body and mind, but doesn’t keep you enthralled in it. This free time allows a deeper noticing.
Hope this is helpful,
S9