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I'd be interested in seeing the answer to that too, Jeffrey.
@SherabDorje The Buddhist groups who practice rituals may not give them up, but individuals who participate in those groups may. Participating on this forum has really opened my eyes to other viewpoints, not to mention basic Buddhist texts, so being open-minded, I'm taking a second look at my choice of Vajrayana for a path. These discussions are very informative and constructive, IMO, even though some may find them a little abrasive.
I read a recent teaching with great interest; it could almost have been me that asked the question you replied to. You may not remember me, I came to see you at the Hermitage about a year ago, we talked about me going for refuge, and I expressed concerns about the rituals involved. I have since left the Sangha, and feel a bit adrift.
However, I am feeling more positive that I have found the beginnings of my path. I have been reading a lot by Steven Batchelor and feel that a genuinely agnostic approach is right for me at this time.
I do feel that the work you are doing is so good and I love the simple approach of Discovering the Heart of Buddhism, I started to get a bit concerned about some of the aspects of Trusting the Heart of Buddhism.
Is there a place for someone like me within the Sangha, when, if I'm going to be true to myself, can't accept the rituals and prayers etc?
Lama Shenpen replies:
Yes I remember you. I hope you will find a place in the Sangha for yourself that feels right for you. The important quality that we all need is an open mind and deep respect for the Buddha's teaching. Then we listen to the teachings and ponder them for ourselves and notice where our sticking points are.
If we have respect for the Buddha’s teachings and admit to ourselves that we do not as yet understand them, we can simply practise what we can understand and sometimes maybe open out a bit more to what we cannot. There is no need for us to force ourselves to do practices such as rituals just because everyone else does. Neither do we have to exclude ourselves from the Sangha just because there are rituals and practices that others - maybe the majority - do that we are not drawn to and which we cannot understand the point of. It may help you to know that many students come into Buddhism highly sceptical about teachings such as rebirth, karma and ritual (me included).
My advice to you is not to limit yourself by deciding before you start to reduce the Buddha’s teaching to something you already think and believe …. somehow trying to push it into the straightjacket of your preconceived ideas. The Dharma is realised through giving up all 'views' which might perhaps be translated as preconceived ideas in this context. Just because in our modern western society it is regarded as normal to not believe in past and future lives, in the efficacy of rituals and in supernormal powers, beings outside the field of our senses and so on, doesn’t mean that these views are proven, true or even particularly rational. They are part of our conditioning..... that is why they seem so normal and sensible - that is why they are easier to accept.
There is much to ponder here and I hope you decide to stick around long enough to feel the benefit of keeping an open mind on all these things.
"I would love to come and spend some time in retreat but there are two issues. One is simply the time to drop work and come and do it. Work family commitments etc. all the excuses in the world.
Also, if I'm honest about it, I think that I'm a bit frightened that I'll find out that I cant really do this - that I don't really fit. Do you know what I mean?"
Lama Shenpen:
Not really, although I know lots of people have this kind of worry. So I suppose I do know what you are talking about but I don't see it as a problem.
I think you might be surprised at what a wide range of background and personality types are attracted to this way of working with their experience and who therefore form this sangha.
Everyone is so individual and different and yet when it comes to exploring their direct experience in a genuine way - they all find they are their own unique expression of exactly the same openness, clarity and sensitivity and its just marvellous to see that and be part of that exploration and path to Awakening.
That is my experience anyway.
Student:
"There are many things in traditional Tibetan Buddhism that I know just now that I can't fully believe."
Lama Shenpen:
Oh - I see - you are not talking about us but about the tradition as a whole. Please do not worry about that.
There are many things in Tibetan Buddhism that I can't fully believe or even agree with even.
Tibetan Buddhism is a vast and complex thing and there are a lot of elements in it that are merely social convention, historical accident, culturally conditioned, over-simplifications and even misrepresentations caused by the difficulty of expressing the inexpressible in terms and images that don't quite do it - and which in principle can never do it adequately.
It's just the nature of things - the outward form of any religion is not the reality - it cannot be.
So I wouldn't worry about things that haven't happened! I wouldn't worry if you find other people in the sangha like things that you cannot relate to. I wouldn't worry if you find that you are just humming along or sitting through chants and rituals or even songs you don't think much of.
You don't have to think that matters. It doesn't make you a second rate citizen just because there are things that you don't much go for or even dislike.
All that is required is that you remain open and relaxed and in touch through your heart.
Student:
"I feel they are more cultural diversions than the heart of the matter. I think I'm afraid a little that if I get too close I'll find out that not to believe is not acceptable and so I'll have to drop the lot."
Lama Shenpen:
I think others have that fear at various times. It is important not to let such fears get the better of you because really they don't make sense do they?
If this is a genuine path to Awakening it cannot be that you are disqualified because you don't sign up for something that you cannot accept - not beyond the basic principles of wanting to Awaken and knowing that harming others is not the direction!
Student:
"Then of course your words come back to me. We each have our own path and you are where you are on the path. Just keep following it ... "
Lama Shenpen:
Absolutely.
Student:
"Again, thank you so much for the work that you do for us all."
I would like some more indications of the benefits of prostration practice. I have not understood what spiritual effects are likely to unfold particularly, so, any hints in this respect will be gratefully received.
I just note in me so far a dedication and intention to do prostrations to assist me with the ego and an interest to actually learn more their significance, if that makes sense.
Lama Shenpen replies:
Yes it does. I think the full and whole hearted involvement of ones body, speech and mind/heart in the prostration is highly significant.
Somehow doing things physically and verbally helps the mind relax into the movement of the heart in the direction of opening up to our deepest source of inspiration. This source of inspiration and adhistana is both in us and in the Universe, which is reaching out to us in the form of the lineage of Awakened Beings.
So physically and verbally opening allows the heart to open naturally. Mentally we need to be focused on the meaning of what we are prostrating or opening our hearts to in this way. If a visual image is the most effective way of focusing in this way then visualise the Buddhas, the teachers of the lineage, the Dharma and the Sangha in whatever way inspires you. Otherwise simply remember what is inspiring about them - and even better verbalise those qualities and why you are prostrating to them.
One way to verbalise it is to say 'I take Refuge in the Buddha, the Awakened Ones who reveal the eternal fearless path,' I take Refuge in the Dharma, the goal of Nirvana and the path that leads to it. I take Refuge in the Sangha, those who have verified this Dharma for themselves and all their followers who show the way.' You can make up words like that or use different forms of the Refuge prayer such as the ones you used in the actual Refuge ceremony.
Remember the instruction that as you touch you hands to your head, throat and heart and bow putting your head on the floor you think in this way you confess and lay down all your negative tendencies in regard to your bodily actions, speech and thoughts, praying that all this karma fall away and that as you rise all the wonderful qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind are awakened in you. As you do this try to do it with as much conviction as you can muster that this is actually happening. Somehow all times and places interpenetrate and you are instantly there at the end of the path, even as you set out at the beginning.
Think of your father on your right and your mother on your left and that they are prostrating with you - with all beings all around you, the beings of the six realms; you are doing it for all of them.
This makes an auspicious connection for them all. Really let your awareness open out into space and into the deepest insight into emptiness that you can muster, feeling happy and glad because of the connection and the adhistana* of the practice.
All the elements of Living the Awakened Heart are included in this practice and so all the benefits of all those elements. You are making very powerful pranidhanas* and generating immense punya*, and dedicating it for all beings - which is love and compassion for all beings; devotion and compassion together in one movement.......and renunciation of ego tendencies of course.
Well that is just some of the benefits!
Glossary:
Adhistana: Sustaining power, grace, blessing.
Pranidhana: A prayer that is like a blessing or curse, in the sense that somebody powerful utters their word of truth and this wish has the power of fulfilment.
Punya: Positive energy that by dedication to the benefit and Enlightenment of others is the source and means of the energy to realise Buddhahood
"I have experimented with a shift from 'formed' practice such as reading supplication, mantra, and so on to more 'formless.'
Since resting in the nature of mind is so simple, and since it is 'resting,' how come the mind resists this simplicity and dodges back into involvement with the forms, appearances and thought-emotions?
The newer resistance is a feeling that if I dwell in this nature too long, or continuously, I will lose the Dharma.
As I do the practice with great certainty, I feel as if the content of the dharma is slipping away from me, and a feeling of almost fear. I think, 'Well, this is just looking at stuff, it is just seeing mounds of dirt, houses, flowers.� It feels like nothing special.
I have cherished the dharma, and I see my attachment to the 'special,' 'different' forms of dharma. Now I struggle with, in fact, falling back on an awareness that has always been there and that perhaps ordinary mind has labeled as 'too ordinary,' 'nothing special.'
Indeed it is, but so is the nature of mind said to be 'ordinary mind.' So I guess it is like the medicine's side effect.
Am I completely off-base and driving myself subtly crazy, and how do I regain a footing?"
Lama Shenpen:
You are not completely off-base. You are describing exactly the dilemma that faces every practitioner when it comes to changing horses as it were.
At various stages of the path we find we are riding one horse and need to pick up speed to jump onto another horse but it's a tricky moment. We may jump and miss and end up on the ground - both horses have bolted and we have to start again getting back on the first horse.
This is not a problem. We have to keep going through this process again and again until one day we find that instead of having fallen off, we are riding along just fine - no problem (well maybe a bit of adjustment might be needed from time to time).
So yes, we might be faced with this dilemma every few minutes. We may notice that every few hours, every few days, or weeks or years or whatever. When we notice we have fallen between the horses as it were, we have to pick ourselves up and get going again.
It doesn't matter that the horses bolted, the only thing that matters is that when we do notice (because we cannot do anything while we haven't noticed) we just get on back on to one or other of the horses.
We never really lose ground since there is no ground to lose - we just have to keep picking ourselves up and having another go!
So it is like that with formless and form practice. Sometimes its good to keep going with the formless as we open to the spontaneous compassion that pervades the true nature of our being and sometimes we give ourselves a bit of a prod or a poke by using a form practice to help us unstick certain negative patterns and expose certain false assumptions or to give us a burst of inspiration or energy.
It's all about balancing the indriyas ( faculties) really. What is needed is strong pranidhanas (wishing prayers powered by our volition) for reaching complete Buddhahood in order to bring all beings to Awakening. Although the power to accomplish this is in all of us, without making sufficiently strong pranidhanas it is slow to manifest.
It is important to realise that there is a reality to form (and all dharmas) that is beyond the conceptualised version of them that we cling to. So working with form is working with Awakening itself.
Even after we are Enlightened we will still be working with form in this sense. There are so many insights waiting for us from working with both form and the formless - and our every experience in life is a demonstration of both aspects of reality. So we can be working with form and the formless in every moment.
A form practice I find particularly helpful is to look at other people, any kind of being, and to think of the beings in the six realms and the limitlessness of samsara. When I notice that other beings have become somehow peripheral and 'out there' - as if my view of them defined them - that is when I know I am stuck in my view of self and other.
Then it is important to shift the focus of my practice a bit to bring my sense of what other beings are more alive - so that it's always a play of self and other - not just a static 'me' in my space of awareness, which easily happens with formless practice.
When we find the world closing in on us as dull and ordinary, then it's good to turn towards that dullness and notice its essence. If that doesn't work in the sense of bringing your practice to life, then opening your heart to the Guru may do the trick.
I find sharpening my vipasyana (insight) focus by gentle questioning works best to bring my practice to life. It is the same as turning towards but it has that inquisitive edge to it, �OK, so the experience is dull but what on earth is it? Where is it? How do I know it? Where am I in relation to it?�
Then the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary and that live sense of waking to reality takes over again.
"Following on from your reply to the student who wasn't sure about the Tibetan aspects of the sangha, and my own ponderings about wanting to integrate Buddhism with a more native and pagan spirituality, I wondered whether you might say something about your thoughts on how the Dharma might unfold in the UK.
How do you think it might integrate with British culture and spirituality?"
Shenpen:
Gosh! Goodness knows! I wonder if there is anything useful I can say about this.
British culture itself is evolving and very complex. I think you have to think that Dharma is already unfolding within our culture. It doesn't really need to be integrated; it's more a matter of drawing it out.
It's not a matter of whether that will happen or not; it's already happening. How deep an effect that will have on the society as a whole or not depends on so many things; it is really hard to say.
I am speaking about the Dharma as the truth here, not Dharma as of Buddhist traditions and customs. I suppose that is more what you are asking in fact.
There seem to be two trends going on at the moment. One is a trend towards Westerners taking up Buddhist cultural elements and responding to them. The other is Westerners taking up Buddhist practices and using whatever means available to make them work.
So there is a lot of integration going on with therapeutic approaches, group work, arts and so on, using Western skills and knowledge to get people to live more harmoniously and happily together instead of just banging on about 'you will make bad karma and go to hell if you do wrong'.
Student:
"How long might that process take?"
Shenpen:
Both trends might gain more and more in momentum with time. Who would have thought Tibet would ever have taken up Indian Buddhism in the way it did? Or the West take up what was essentially a Judaic tradition? So who knows what might happen!
Student:
"Might the aspects that are more about Tibetan culture fade away over time?"
Shenpen:
Probably, but there again what might happen is that things that used to be Tibetan get reinterpreted as something that Tibetans wouldn't even recognise because, out of the context in which cultural forms arise, they do not actually perform the same function. It's a fascinating area.
Student:
"And do you think this will happen fairly quickly or over hundreds of years?"
Shenpen:
Who knows? We can't really go on past experience since it is such a different world to what it has ever been before � mass literacy, mass media, the internet, travel as we have never seen it before. Who knows?
Student:
"Is it possible for a British form of Kagyu Buddhism to develop whilst still remaining true to the lineage?"
Shenpen:
There is no reason why not. It began in India and became Tibetan. There was a greater difference in language and culture between Tibet and India than there is between Indian culture and our language and culture.
At least we have Indo-Aryan roots in common both linguistically and culturally. If Indian Buddhism can become Tibetan, it can become British. No problem at all, I would say.
To bring us back on topic, how does ritual influence you in your practice? What have you noticed positive or negative about people who are doing rituals?
For me I experienced rituals in my church growing up. Different pieces of artwork were embedded in the church at various places. Our teacher walked us children to various places. When the church was not gathering the whole congregation there. The symbols sounded like they made sense. I mean a circle meant wholeness. A sun meant hope. But it was still kind of creepy. Something about it.
since most of my experience with rituals comes from catholicism, it may not apply but: religions rituals have a tendency to make the participants feel good without actually doing any improvement. that someone dutifully goes to all the rituals of their religion doesn't make them better.
since we are talking religion, better spiritually. it will be more helpful if people of all religions simply practiced ahimsa, instead of going to "feel good" rituals are thinking they will be saved by going to rituals.
I can relate in a sense. I have highs and lows where my awareness gets caught in myself as the best and worst. So it seems hard for me to connect ahimsa with not experiencing reality in an intoxicating feel good (or bad) way. This may be a part of my karma.
Comments
@SherabDorje The Buddhist groups who practice rituals may not give them up, but individuals who participate in those groups may. Participating on this forum has really opened my eyes to other viewpoints, not to mention basic Buddhist texts, so being open-minded, I'm taking a second look at my choice of Vajrayana for a path. These discussions are very informative and constructive, IMO, even though some may find them a little abrasive.
I read a recent teaching with great interest; it could almost have been me that asked the question you replied to. You may not remember me, I came to see you at the Hermitage about a year ago, we talked about me going for refuge, and I expressed concerns about the rituals involved. I have since left the Sangha, and feel a bit adrift.
However, I am feeling more positive that I have found the beginnings of my path. I have been reading a lot by Steven Batchelor and feel that a genuinely agnostic approach is right for me at this time.
I do feel that the work you are doing is so good and I love the simple approach of Discovering the Heart of Buddhism, I started to get a bit concerned about some of the aspects of Trusting the Heart of Buddhism.
Is there a place for someone like me within the Sangha, when, if I'm going to be true to myself, can't accept the rituals and prayers etc?
Lama Shenpen replies:
Yes I remember you. I hope you will find a place in the Sangha for yourself that feels right for you. The important quality that we all need is an open mind and deep respect for the Buddha's teaching. Then we listen to the teachings and ponder them for ourselves and notice where our sticking points are.
If we have respect for the Buddha’s teachings and admit to ourselves that we do not as yet understand them, we can simply practise what we can understand and sometimes maybe open out a bit more to what we cannot. There is no need for us to force ourselves to do practices such as rituals just because everyone else does. Neither do we have to exclude ourselves from the Sangha just because there are rituals and practices that others - maybe the majority - do that we are not drawn to and which we cannot understand the point of. It may help you to know that many students come into Buddhism highly sceptical about teachings such as rebirth, karma and ritual (me included).
My advice to you is not to limit yourself by deciding before you start to reduce the Buddha’s teaching to something you already think and believe …. somehow trying to push it into the straightjacket of your preconceived ideas. The Dharma is realised through giving up all 'views' which might perhaps be translated as preconceived ideas in this context. Just because in our modern western society it is regarded as normal to not believe in past and future lives, in the efficacy of rituals and in supernormal powers, beings outside the field of our senses and so on, doesn’t mean that these views are proven, true or even particularly rational. They are part of our conditioning..... that is why they seem so normal and sensible - that is why they are easier to accept.
There is much to ponder here and I hope you decide to stick around long enough to feel the benefit of keeping an open mind on all these things.
I hope this answer is helpful
"I would love to come and spend some time in retreat but there are two issues. One is simply the time to drop work and come and do it. Work family commitments etc. all the excuses in the world.
Also, if I'm honest about it, I think that I'm a bit frightened that I'll find out that I cant really do this - that I don't really fit. Do you know what I mean?"
Lama Shenpen:
Not really, although I know lots of people have this kind of worry. So I suppose I do know what you are talking about but I don't see it as a problem.
I think you might be surprised at what a wide range of background and personality types are attracted to this way of working with their experience and who therefore form this sangha.
Everyone is so individual and different and yet when it comes to exploring their direct experience in a genuine way - they all find they are their own unique expression of exactly the same openness, clarity and sensitivity and its just marvellous to see that and be part of that exploration and path to Awakening.
That is my experience anyway.
Student:
"There are many things in traditional Tibetan Buddhism that I know just now that I can't fully believe."
Lama Shenpen:
Oh - I see - you are not talking about us but about the tradition as a whole. Please do not worry about that.
There are many things in Tibetan Buddhism that I can't fully believe or even agree with even.
Tibetan Buddhism is a vast and complex thing and there are a lot of elements in it that are merely social convention, historical accident, culturally conditioned, over-simplifications and even misrepresentations caused by the difficulty of expressing the inexpressible in terms and images that don't quite do it - and which in principle can never do it adequately.
It's just the nature of things - the outward form of any religion is not the reality - it cannot be.
So I wouldn't worry about things that haven't happened! I wouldn't worry if you find other people in the sangha like things that you cannot relate to. I wouldn't worry if you find that you are just humming along or sitting through chants and rituals or even songs you don't think much of.
You don't have to think that matters. It doesn't make you a second rate citizen just because there are things that you don't much go for or even dislike.
All that is required is that you remain open and relaxed and in touch through your heart.
Student:
"I feel they are more cultural diversions than the heart of the matter. I think I'm afraid a little that if I get too close I'll find out that not to believe is not acceptable and so I'll have to drop the lot."
Lama Shenpen:
I think others have that fear at various times. It is important not to let such fears get the better of you because really they don't make sense do they?
If this is a genuine path to Awakening it cannot be that you are disqualified because you don't sign up for something that you cannot accept - not beyond the basic principles of wanting to Awaken and knowing that harming others is not the direction!
Student:
"Then of course your words come back to me. We each have our own path and you are where you are on the path. Just keep following it ...
Lama Shenpen:
Absolutely.
Student:
"Again, thank you so much for the work that you do for us all."
Lama Shenpen:
It's a privilege.
I would like some more indications of the benefits of prostration practice. I have not understood what spiritual effects are likely to unfold particularly, so, any hints in this respect will be gratefully received.
I just note in me so far a dedication and intention to do prostrations to assist me with the ego and an interest to actually learn more their significance, if that makes sense.
Lama Shenpen replies:
Yes it does. I think the full and whole hearted involvement of ones body, speech and mind/heart in the prostration is highly significant.
Somehow doing things physically and verbally helps the mind relax into the movement of the heart in the direction of opening up to our deepest source of inspiration. This source of inspiration and adhistana is both in us and in the Universe, which is reaching out to us in the form of the lineage of Awakened Beings.
So physically and verbally opening allows the heart to open naturally. Mentally we need to be focused on the meaning of what we are prostrating or opening our hearts to in this way. If a visual image is the most effective way of focusing in this way then visualise the Buddhas, the teachers of the lineage, the Dharma and the Sangha in whatever way inspires you. Otherwise simply remember what is inspiring about them - and even better verbalise those qualities and why you are prostrating to them.
One way to verbalise it is to say 'I take Refuge in the Buddha, the Awakened Ones who reveal the eternal fearless path,' I take Refuge in the Dharma, the goal of Nirvana and the path that leads to it. I take Refuge in the Sangha, those who have verified this Dharma for themselves and all their followers who show the way.' You can make up words like that or use different forms of the Refuge prayer such as the ones you used in the actual Refuge ceremony.
Remember the instruction that as you touch you hands to your head, throat and heart and bow putting your head on the floor you think in this way you confess and lay down all your negative tendencies in regard to your bodily actions, speech and thoughts, praying that all this karma fall away and that as you rise all the wonderful qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind are awakened in you. As you do this try to do it with as much conviction as you can muster that this is actually happening. Somehow all times and places interpenetrate and you are instantly there at the end of the path, even as you set out at the beginning.
Think of your father on your right and your mother on your left and that they are prostrating with you - with all beings all around you, the beings of the six realms; you are doing it for all of them.
This makes an auspicious connection for them all. Really let your awareness open out into space and into the deepest insight into emptiness that you can muster, feeling happy and glad because of the connection and the adhistana* of the practice.
All the elements of Living the Awakened Heart are included in this practice and so all the benefits of all those elements. You are making very powerful pranidhanas* and generating immense punya*, and dedicating it for all beings - which is love and compassion for all beings; devotion and compassion together in one movement.......and renunciation of ego tendencies of course.
Well that is just some of the benefits!
Glossary:
Adhistana: Sustaining power, grace, blessing.
Pranidhana: A prayer that is like a blessing or curse, in the sense that somebody powerful utters their word of truth and this wish has the power of fulfilment.
Punya: Positive energy that by dedication to the benefit and Enlightenment of others is the source and means of the energy to realise Buddhahood
"I have experimented with a shift from 'formed' practice such as reading supplication, mantra, and so on to more 'formless.'
Since resting in the nature of mind is so simple, and since it is 'resting,' how come the mind resists this simplicity and dodges back into involvement with the forms, appearances and thought-emotions?
The newer resistance is a feeling that if I dwell in this nature too long, or continuously, I will lose the Dharma.
As I do the practice with great certainty, I feel as if the content of the dharma is slipping away from me, and a feeling of almost fear. I think, 'Well, this is just looking at stuff, it is just seeing mounds of dirt, houses, flowers.� It feels like nothing special.
I have cherished the dharma, and I see my attachment to the 'special,' 'different' forms of dharma. Now I struggle with, in fact, falling back on an awareness that has always been there and that perhaps ordinary mind has labeled as 'too ordinary,' 'nothing special.'
Indeed it is, but so is the nature of mind said to be 'ordinary mind.' So I guess it is like the medicine's side effect.
Am I completely off-base and driving myself subtly crazy, and how do I regain a footing?"
Lama Shenpen:
You are not completely off-base. You are describing exactly the dilemma that faces every practitioner when it comes to changing horses as it were.
At various stages of the path we find we are riding one horse and need to pick up speed to jump onto another horse but it's a tricky moment. We may jump and miss and end up on the ground - both horses have bolted and we have to start again getting back on the first horse.
This is not a problem. We have to keep going through this process again and again until one day we find that instead of having fallen off, we are riding along just fine - no problem (well maybe a bit of adjustment might be needed from time to time).
So yes, we might be faced with this dilemma every few minutes. We may notice that every few hours, every few days, or weeks or years or whatever. When we notice we have fallen between the horses as it were, we have to pick ourselves up and get going again.
It doesn't matter that the horses bolted, the only thing that matters is that when we do notice (because we cannot do anything while we haven't noticed) we just get on back on to one or other of the horses.
We never really lose ground since there is no ground to lose - we just have to keep picking ourselves up and having another go!
So it is like that with formless and form practice. Sometimes its good to keep going with the formless as we open to the spontaneous compassion that pervades the true nature of our being and sometimes we give ourselves a bit of a prod or a poke by using a form practice to help us unstick certain negative patterns and expose certain false assumptions or to give us a burst of inspiration or energy.
It's all about balancing the indriyas ( faculties) really. What is needed is strong pranidhanas (wishing prayers powered by our volition) for reaching complete Buddhahood in order to bring all beings to Awakening. Although the power to accomplish this is in all of us, without making sufficiently strong pranidhanas it is slow to manifest.
It is important to realise that there is a reality to form (and all dharmas) that is beyond the conceptualised version of them that we cling to. So working with form is working with Awakening itself.
Even after we are Enlightened we will still be working with form in this sense. There are so many insights waiting for us from working with both form and the formless - and our every experience in life is a demonstration of both aspects of reality. So we can be working with form and the formless in every moment.
A form practice I find particularly helpful is to look at other people, any kind of being, and to think of the beings in the six realms and the limitlessness of samsara. When I notice that other beings have become somehow peripheral and 'out there' - as if my view of them defined them - that is when I know I am stuck in my view of self and other.
Then it is important to shift the focus of my practice a bit to bring my sense of what other beings are more alive - so that it's always a play of self and other - not just a static 'me' in my space of awareness, which easily happens with formless practice.
When we find the world closing in on us as dull and ordinary, then it's good to turn towards that dullness and notice its essence. If that doesn't work in the sense of bringing your practice to life, then opening your heart to the Guru may do the trick.
I find sharpening my vipasyana (insight) focus by gentle questioning works best to bring my practice to life. It is the same as turning towards but it has that inquisitive edge to it, �OK, so the experience is dull but what on earth is it? Where is it? How do I know it? Where am I in relation to it?�
Then the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary and that live sense of waking to reality takes over again.
"Following on from your reply to the student who wasn't sure about the Tibetan aspects of the sangha, and my own ponderings about wanting to integrate Buddhism with a more native and pagan spirituality, I wondered whether you might say something about your thoughts on how the Dharma might unfold in the UK.
How do you think it might integrate with British culture and spirituality?"
Shenpen:
Gosh! Goodness knows! I wonder if there is anything useful I can say about this.
British culture itself is evolving and very complex. I think you have to think that Dharma is already unfolding within our culture. It doesn't really need to be integrated; it's more a matter of drawing it out.
It's not a matter of whether that will happen or not; it's already happening. How deep an effect that will have on the society as a whole or not depends on so many things; it is really hard to say.
I am speaking about the Dharma as the truth here, not Dharma as of Buddhist traditions and customs. I suppose that is more what you are asking in fact.
There seem to be two trends going on at the moment. One is a trend towards Westerners taking up Buddhist cultural elements and responding to them. The other is Westerners taking up Buddhist practices and using whatever means available to make them work.
So there is a lot of integration going on with therapeutic approaches, group work, arts and so on, using Western skills and knowledge to get people to live more harmoniously and happily together instead of just banging on about 'you will make bad karma and go to hell if you do wrong'.
Student:
"How long might that process take?"
Shenpen:
Both trends might gain more and more in momentum with time. Who would have thought Tibet would ever have taken up Indian Buddhism in the way it did? Or the West take up what was essentially a Judaic tradition? So who knows what might happen!
Student:
"Might the aspects that are more about Tibetan culture fade away over time?"
Shenpen:
Probably, but there again what might happen is that things that used to be Tibetan get reinterpreted as something that Tibetans wouldn't even recognise because, out of the context in which cultural forms arise, they do not actually perform the same function. It's a fascinating area.
Student:
"And do you think this will happen fairly quickly or over hundreds of years?"
Shenpen:
Who knows? We can't really go on past experience since it is such a different world to what it has ever been before � mass literacy, mass media, the internet, travel as we have never seen it before. Who knows?
Student:
"Is it possible for a British form of Kagyu Buddhism to develop whilst still remaining true to the lineage?"
Shenpen:
There is no reason why not. It began in India and became Tibetan. There was a greater difference in language and culture between Tibet and India than there is between Indian culture and our language and culture.
At least we have Indo-Aryan roots in common both linguistically and culturally. If Indian Buddhism can become Tibetan, it can become British. No problem at all, I would say.
Jeffrey, maybe you could start a separate thread for your lama's wisdom. Not a bad idea.
For me I experienced rituals in my church growing up. Different pieces of artwork were embedded in the church at various places. Our teacher walked us children to various places. When the church was not gathering the whole congregation there. The symbols sounded like they made sense. I mean a circle meant wholeness. A sun meant hope. But it was still kind of creepy. Something about it.
since most of my experience with rituals comes from catholicism, it may not apply but:
religions rituals have a tendency to make the participants feel good without actually doing any improvement.
that someone dutifully goes to all the rituals of their religion doesn't make them better.
it will be more helpful if people of all religions simply practiced ahimsa, instead of going to "feel good" rituals are thinking they will be saved by going to rituals.
Just sharing.