Zen and the Pure Esoteric School
By : Michael Jordan B
The cultivation practices of Tibet evolved from the spiritual traditions of both India and China. The spiritual practices of other countries have also often been shaped by foreign imports. In the case of Japan, its spiritual history has many parallels to that of Tibet but to understand this country's cultivation practices, we must look to China rather than India for the roots of foreign influences. In particular, we must investigate the cultural influences of China's Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) since it was this period of Chinese history that had the greatest impact on Japan's spiritual schools.
China's Tang dynasty can be described as a great mixing period when Indian, Japanese, Korean and Tibetan cultural trends interacted with China at their fullest. The most obvious proof of even earlier foreign interaction is the fact that the word "China" comes from the Ch'in dynasty, when foreigners mistook the name of the dynasty for the name of the country. Anyway, the Tang dynasty itself was a period of continuous and concentrated contact between various countries and Mainland China.
During China's Tang dynasty, there were three main pillars of Chinese society and culture: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The Buddhism of this period had by now developed into ten different schools of study, but the central sect in Chinese Buddhism was the Zen school established by Bodhidharma. It was because of Bodhidharma's pilgrimage from India that the Indian form of Zen had entered China. After its initial introduction, the Zen transmission continued through five successive Patriarchs until Zen finally became fully assimilated into Chinese culture.
Bodhidharma and his five successors, including the famous monk Hui-neng, were called "Patriarchs" because they had all attained enlightenment. They could not be called "Buddhas" as they would be delineated as the second Buddha, the third Buddha and so on. They were the founders of the Chinese Zen school who had achieved enlightenment and greatly influenced Chinese culture, and this is why they were therefore honored with the title of "Patriarch."
The Sixth Patriarch of Zen, Master Hui-neng, was an illiterate peasant before he became enlightened. The very fact that an individual who could not read became the Sixth Patriarch says much about the Zen school and the nature of the times. The Sixth Patriarch dispensed with much of the religious trappings of Buddhism that had developed over the years, and his way of explaining spiritual teachings to the people was very down to earth. Zen therefore became quite popular because it touched the people's hearts and minds, and became embodied in a form of expression that the common man could understand. As a result of this development, Buddhism's impact on the politics and culture of the times became so substantial that it ended up transforming the co-existing schools of Confucianism and Taoism as well.
In the Tang dynasty, the Chinese cultural influences, such as Zen, spread all over Asia, and even reached distant regions. America today is considered a superpower and wants to exert this type of influence, but it has never seen its culture infiltrate Europe nor the Orient in the same way that Tang China established a presence throughout Asia. While United States has definitely influenced the world, the transmission of its influence has not been due to a world-wide recognition of American life as representing "high culture."
During the Tang dynasty, many scholars came to China from Japan and Korea because they respected the Tang culture and wanted to learn everything that it possibly had to offer. The Chinese Emperor built a gigantic complex in Xian for all these visiting scholars. He welcomed them to stay for as long as they liked and allowed them to leave whenever they desired. There was no pressure on these visiting scholars, and many stayed in China to become citizens or even court officials. Others took what they learned back to their home countries, thus influencing their native cultures.
When you go to another country, one of the first things that usually impresses you is the environment, particularly the architectural structure of the buildings and layout of the land. At that time, the Tang architecture was perhaps the best in the world, hence it was imitated in other countries and was one of the ways in which Tang culture made a big impact on other nations. The visiting scholars from other countries also closely observed China's arts, its political system, the people's clothing and every other facet of Chinese culture, including the cultivation concepts of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. In the world today, Japan and Korea are the only two remaining places that have preserved any of the highest cultural developments of the Tang dynasty, for in China itself, practically nothing is left. But both Japan and Korea are also quickly losing what is left of their Tang dynasty heritage.
At the beginning of the Tang dynasty, since Emperor Tang Taizong's family name was Li, he started searching for a great religious master of the same name among the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian schools of the time. The official state religion ended up becoming Taoism, rather than Buddhism, simply because of this emphasis on the last name; the founder of Taoism was Lao Tzu, who was also known as Li Lao-chun. Because of this similarity of names, Taoists priests during the Tang dynasty were accorded a slightly higher rank than Buddhist monks although both spiritual groups were greatly respected. Due to the imperial patronage, it was also during this period that Taoism finally congealed into a more formalized religion. Thus from the Tang dynasty on through to the Sung dynasty, Taoism became the official religion of the state.
Beneath the surface, most people felt that this was right because Buddhism was a cultural import whereas Taoism was "home-grown." However, the practice of Taoism in the Tang dynasty was entirely different from the original Taoism of the Han dynasty since anapana, the skeleton visualization method, Zen and many other features of Buddhist cultivation had already entered into it and become assimilated into its body of knowledge. In fact, one could say that Taoism had become a second Buddhism. As an example, when two Buddhists bumped into each other they would extend greetings by saying, "Amitofo." The Taoists, on the other hand, would say, "Wu liang shou fo," which meant, "The Buddha of Infinite Life." In fact, this was simply Amitofo's name translated into Taoist terms.
Buddhism by the period of the Tang dynasty had filled in most of the teaching gaps left by the lack of original Indian material. The Mahayana and Hinayana schools of Buddhism therefore existed side-by-side together due to the fact that a lot of the original source material had already been transmitted to China from India. The famous monk Xuan Zang (Hsuan-tsang) also returned from his studies in India during the reign of Emperor Tang Taizong. The Emperor so respected him that he had a team of nearly a thousand scholars assembled to help translate the Buddhist materials that Xuan Zang had brought back. All sorts of people helped in this translation project--Taoists, Confucians, even Manichaeists--and the result was a body of work that had a tremendous, almost immeasurable impact on Chinese culture. Because of this translation effort, the Consciousness-only prajna teachings of Maitreya Buddha (which form the Yogacara tradition) finally became available in Chinese, and this made the set of Chinese Buddhist translations virtually complete.
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วันพุธที่ 27 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2550
"100 days of Celibacy is Killing Me," He said ..."But Only When I Think About It."
"100 days of Celibacy is Killing Me," He said ..."But Only When I Think About It."
By : Michael Jordan B
You can succeed in cultivating 100 days of celibacy not by forceful physical restraint, but by not dwelling in lust or sexual desire when they arise.
That's how you do it because it's gonna arise and hit you whether you like it or not.
Since the Tao is formless, remaining in harmony with the Tao is to give sexual feelings no mind and to liberate them through mental formlessness. All desires are equally liberated this way, and in being resolved through emptiness, they totally disappear. When sexual desires do happen to arise, then you simply cultivate emptiness so as to let them pass away, and then they will transform spontaneously because transient thoughts, emotions or sensations just cannot stay.
In all of reality no experiential realm can stay, and so neither can sexual desire. No experiential realm can stay because everything is always being transformed at each and every moment. Being transformed, it changes into something else, and so the original state cannot last.
That's why both good fortune and bad fortune never last, and why you don't have to push away your thoughts in spiritual cultivation for they will leave you quite naturally.
All you have to do when engaged in spiritual cultivation is bide your time peacefully in the state of awareness without letting sexual desire grab onto you, knowing full well that sexual desires will pass if you don't cling to or mentally abide in that state. This is how you should always conduct your spiritual practice.
This topic is something you must definitely consider when you view aged monks and nuns (of any religious school) with "dried up" or "sunken" faces who through sheer willpower may have restrained themselves from any sort of sexual activities, including masturbation.
They may not have lost their jing because of this forceful restraint, but they certainly have not achieved even the rudiments of true spiritual progress. They haven't achieved any part of the spiritual stage of jing transforming into chi because they failed to cultivate mental emptiness and mental unmindfulness of (detachment from) the physical nature during their practice.
As a result of this failure these practitioners, even though they are "living the holy life," can never give birth to the stage of inner light, or warming, which is naturally to be expected on the spiritual path. Only when you let your chi circulate freely, without attachments or restriction, can it experience this sort of spiritual transformation.
What these monks and nuns did was use pressure, strictness and force of will to suppress or deny sexual urges instead of letting the vital forces within have free range to circulate and become transformed. That's why they never achieved any samadhi in their spiritual practice, for they failed to follow the genuine principles of spiritual practice.
So the key to achieving 100 days of celibacy is not to think about it. Simple but hard, hard but simple. There's no answer except for this.
Does accomplishing 100 days of celibacy mean you've transformed your jing to chi? No way! It just means 100 days of celibacy and that's it. Only when you cultivate some degree of emptiness and 100 days can you make major progress on the spiritual path.
There are definite merits to restraint -- you're probably more energetic and healthier because of it, but don't think you're a spiritual marvel just because you don't have sex or play with yourself for 100 days. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things and the things we suppress or restrain ourselves from are the things we clammer after in a following incarnation when born into a different culture or situation where those restraints are removed. So you have to liberate the mental problem into emptiness.
Tough medicine but true story ... Sorry, but this website is all about the true facts of spiritual cultivation and this is one of them. Only the Tao school and Esoteric Buddhism even talk about the topic of using sex on the path whereas Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the other religions all avoid the issue.
Hard topic to discuss, but hope that helps.
About the Author
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
By : Michael Jordan B
You can succeed in cultivating 100 days of celibacy not by forceful physical restraint, but by not dwelling in lust or sexual desire when they arise.
That's how you do it because it's gonna arise and hit you whether you like it or not.
Since the Tao is formless, remaining in harmony with the Tao is to give sexual feelings no mind and to liberate them through mental formlessness. All desires are equally liberated this way, and in being resolved through emptiness, they totally disappear. When sexual desires do happen to arise, then you simply cultivate emptiness so as to let them pass away, and then they will transform spontaneously because transient thoughts, emotions or sensations just cannot stay.
In all of reality no experiential realm can stay, and so neither can sexual desire. No experiential realm can stay because everything is always being transformed at each and every moment. Being transformed, it changes into something else, and so the original state cannot last.
That's why both good fortune and bad fortune never last, and why you don't have to push away your thoughts in spiritual cultivation for they will leave you quite naturally.
All you have to do when engaged in spiritual cultivation is bide your time peacefully in the state of awareness without letting sexual desire grab onto you, knowing full well that sexual desires will pass if you don't cling to or mentally abide in that state. This is how you should always conduct your spiritual practice.
This topic is something you must definitely consider when you view aged monks and nuns (of any religious school) with "dried up" or "sunken" faces who through sheer willpower may have restrained themselves from any sort of sexual activities, including masturbation.
They may not have lost their jing because of this forceful restraint, but they certainly have not achieved even the rudiments of true spiritual progress. They haven't achieved any part of the spiritual stage of jing transforming into chi because they failed to cultivate mental emptiness and mental unmindfulness of (detachment from) the physical nature during their practice.
As a result of this failure these practitioners, even though they are "living the holy life," can never give birth to the stage of inner light, or warming, which is naturally to be expected on the spiritual path. Only when you let your chi circulate freely, without attachments or restriction, can it experience this sort of spiritual transformation.
What these monks and nuns did was use pressure, strictness and force of will to suppress or deny sexual urges instead of letting the vital forces within have free range to circulate and become transformed. That's why they never achieved any samadhi in their spiritual practice, for they failed to follow the genuine principles of spiritual practice.
So the key to achieving 100 days of celibacy is not to think about it. Simple but hard, hard but simple. There's no answer except for this.
Does accomplishing 100 days of celibacy mean you've transformed your jing to chi? No way! It just means 100 days of celibacy and that's it. Only when you cultivate some degree of emptiness and 100 days can you make major progress on the spiritual path.
There are definite merits to restraint -- you're probably more energetic and healthier because of it, but don't think you're a spiritual marvel just because you don't have sex or play with yourself for 100 days. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things and the things we suppress or restrain ourselves from are the things we clammer after in a following incarnation when born into a different culture or situation where those restraints are removed. So you have to liberate the mental problem into emptiness.
Tough medicine but true story ... Sorry, but this website is all about the true facts of spiritual cultivation and this is one of them. Only the Tao school and Esoteric Buddhism even talk about the topic of using sex on the path whereas Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the other religions all avoid the issue.
Hard topic to discuss, but hope that helps.
About the Author
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
Yoga Retreats and Meditation Retreats
Yoga Retreats and Meditation Retreats
By : Michael Jordan B
Over the past few years, I've started to see a new phenomena: meditation retreats and yoga retreats in all sorts of exotic locations. When I lived in Hong Kong I'd always see the Fiji, Australia, and Bali yoga vacations being advertised. Now that I'm back in the US, I see Mexico, Hawaii, and Costa Rica yoga retreats advertised all the time.
Hmmm....are these things useful?
A vacation of any sort is a blessing is a blessing is a blessing. It's a way to shed your mind of worries for awhile, and if it's in an exotic location, even more reason to pack the bags and go. So that's my take on island resorts and yoga vacations.
Use whatever reasoning you need to restore your sanity, and whatever method works for you -- it's all a function of what Buddha calls skillful expedient means. Frankly, I'd spend my time windsurfing, scuba diving and everything else in places like this, but if you want to stretch then go for it. Whatever excuse you need to tear yourself away from the mundane mindset for awhile and give yourself a break is a prescription for healing in today's stressful world.
Now on the other hand, don't expect to make any great spiritual progress at these things. Great food, perfect weather, lots of exercise and fun, but spiritual progress? I doubt it.
An exception arises regarding a few places in the US (and in Asia) where you sit for hours every day doing vipassana meditation, and other types of prolonged, structured meditation retreats. At meditation centers, you're probably going to make some "spiritual progress" if that's what you're after. Grueling hours with your legs crossed, and a still mind is the result if you can make it past day three. It all comes down to LOTS of hours of practice, on a disciplined schedule...and if the place actually has a real spiritual master with samadhi, then it's EXTREMELY worthwhile.
Yoga retreats, however, are usually mostly for fun.
There's nothing wrong with fun. In fact, these retreats come with packages that are quite inexpensive and lots of fun. Check around and you'll see they can be more inexpensive than comparable vacations. You meet interesting people and get to see a new place in a quite different atmosphere than the "all commercial" resorts.
But for real progress, remember it all comes down to devoted meditation practice. The rule is: Disciplined Practice Effort + Practice Method + Time + Patience = Progress. That's what you have to remember. Of course if you can do that in a beautiful location, why not? There's nothing wrong with that...it's all a matter of your finances. That's why people developed these things in the first place... because you need all sorts of skillful ways to attract people into the path.
So you have your choice of a local yoga center, local meditation workshop and the same thing in some far off location. Make sure you check out the teacher, because if you're looking for progress then that's what's extremely important. If a genuine master ever offers you a chance for a 7-day retreat, then go for it because they're rare and during that time, he can help you solve all sorts of problems through means I can't yet go into.
Other than that, if you can't take off a week, then sure, take a vacation for a day or so in some local vacation spot. Don't consider it spiritual progress, but mental healing from the stressful world. We work far too hard today, and it's sometimes what the doctor orders.
About the Author
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
By : Michael Jordan B
Over the past few years, I've started to see a new phenomena: meditation retreats and yoga retreats in all sorts of exotic locations. When I lived in Hong Kong I'd always see the Fiji, Australia, and Bali yoga vacations being advertised. Now that I'm back in the US, I see Mexico, Hawaii, and Costa Rica yoga retreats advertised all the time.
Hmmm....are these things useful?
A vacation of any sort is a blessing is a blessing is a blessing. It's a way to shed your mind of worries for awhile, and if it's in an exotic location, even more reason to pack the bags and go. So that's my take on island resorts and yoga vacations.
Use whatever reasoning you need to restore your sanity, and whatever method works for you -- it's all a function of what Buddha calls skillful expedient means. Frankly, I'd spend my time windsurfing, scuba diving and everything else in places like this, but if you want to stretch then go for it. Whatever excuse you need to tear yourself away from the mundane mindset for awhile and give yourself a break is a prescription for healing in today's stressful world.
Now on the other hand, don't expect to make any great spiritual progress at these things. Great food, perfect weather, lots of exercise and fun, but spiritual progress? I doubt it.
An exception arises regarding a few places in the US (and in Asia) where you sit for hours every day doing vipassana meditation, and other types of prolonged, structured meditation retreats. At meditation centers, you're probably going to make some "spiritual progress" if that's what you're after. Grueling hours with your legs crossed, and a still mind is the result if you can make it past day three. It all comes down to LOTS of hours of practice, on a disciplined schedule...and if the place actually has a real spiritual master with samadhi, then it's EXTREMELY worthwhile.
Yoga retreats, however, are usually mostly for fun.
There's nothing wrong with fun. In fact, these retreats come with packages that are quite inexpensive and lots of fun. Check around and you'll see they can be more inexpensive than comparable vacations. You meet interesting people and get to see a new place in a quite different atmosphere than the "all commercial" resorts.
But for real progress, remember it all comes down to devoted meditation practice. The rule is: Disciplined Practice Effort + Practice Method + Time + Patience = Progress. That's what you have to remember. Of course if you can do that in a beautiful location, why not? There's nothing wrong with that...it's all a matter of your finances. That's why people developed these things in the first place... because you need all sorts of skillful ways to attract people into the path.
So you have your choice of a local yoga center, local meditation workshop and the same thing in some far off location. Make sure you check out the teacher, because if you're looking for progress then that's what's extremely important. If a genuine master ever offers you a chance for a 7-day retreat, then go for it because they're rare and during that time, he can help you solve all sorts of problems through means I can't yet go into.
Other than that, if you can't take off a week, then sure, take a vacation for a day or so in some local vacation spot. Don't consider it spiritual progress, but mental healing from the stressful world. We work far too hard today, and it's sometimes what the doctor orders.
About the Author
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
Here's the Yoga Meditation Method for Quickly Opening Up Your Sushumna Central Qi Channel
Here's the Yoga Meditation Method for Quickly Opening Up Your Sushumna Central Qi Channel
By : Michael Jordan B
If we analyze the various esoteric exercises and teachings of Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana, and Tibetan Buddhism with its Generation and Completion Stage yogas, all these various practices can essentially be classified into two stages.
First, there are the yogic exercises for getting the chi to enter into the central channel, which is also known as the sushumna or middle mai. Next, there is a second stage consisting of cultivation exercises, or yogas, that are performed once the energies have been withdrawn from other areas and concentrated in this channel.
Thus, the first requirement of the Tantras is to get the chi to enter into the central channel, but to do so, you must first prepositionally cultivate the chi and mai otherwise it will not be possible. That is why you have the preliminary generation stage practices on the tantric paths. If the mai are not already cleansed of obstructions to some degree, this latter step is an impossibility, just as it is impossible to cultivate chi if you let your jing leak away.
Through the eyes of other cultivation schools, we might say that the tantric purification process is one of purifying the wind and water elements of the body, for this is akin to cultivating the chi and mai. To do this, you have to cultivate merit, virtue, discipline (not losing the jing semenal essence) and engage in devoted meditation of some sort. You can ingest special medicines to help speed this process a little, as is done in the wai-dan practices of Taoism, but science will never discover or invent a substance that will refine the chi or open the mai. The process of cultivation will always require the discipline of emptiness meditation.
Of course, after the chi and mai have been cultivated to a sufficient extent, one's kundalini will be activated, meaning that the state of hsi will appear if one is sufficiently successful. Kundalini activation, we already know, is akin to cultivating the fire element of the body, or having the shakti become activated so as to initiate one on the path.
In fact, this is the real fire empowerment spoken of in esoteric circles.
However, this still only constitutes a minor step in cultivation since it still only encompasses the first prayoga stage of heat, or warming. Nevertheless, if at this point--where your real chi circulation becomes initiated through embryo breathing--you can forget your body and mind, then you can begin to attain the various ranks of samadhi. By gaining proficiency in the samadhi, you can then scale the ranks of cultivation attainment, break through the confining nature of the skandhas, and ultimately attain enlightenment.
There is no great mystery to the process of cultivation, for it is as simple as this. All along the way you will encounter various mental experiences and physical changes called kung-fu, such as the progressive purification of your body, the generation of a nonobstructive thought-born body (called the illusory in the Tibet school), an experiencing of the emptiness nature of awareness, and so on. All these things, however, are just the extraneous scenery along the way to the goal rather than the destination itself. In fact, experiencing the clear light through prajna wisdom is only the stage of "seeing the path," and after that there is still a long way of cultivation to go.
Once you realize the clear light of awareness--or empty clarity of awareness--because you have trained at purifying the mind through mastering various samadhi and cultivating your prajna wisdom, then you can finally understand what all the masters and spiritual schools have been talking about all along. Then and only then can you really understand how to cultivate practice correctly after you reach this stage of seeing the Tao and recognizing the mind's true essence, so this is the point after which you can really start cultivating realization.
If you are successful on that road of True Cultivation Practice, then you will end up with the true attainment of Buddhahood. But the entire process requires merit, discipline, and the hard diligent work of ceaselessly cultivating practice, which means purifying the body and mind while forgetting the body and mind. Hence, spiritual cultivation follows the principle of detachment from form the entire way, and we can also call this the cultivation of emptiness.
The Esoteric school, on the other hand, takes one tiny footnote out of this larger process--the fact that you can attain samadhi when the chi starts to enter the central channel--and constructs a big edifice out of it. Then it starts to add all sorts of special stages that typically confuse practitioners and serve as objects of attachment. It is not necessary to know any of this information as to the overall process of attainment, but that is how this particular school is structured.
The Esoteric school is constantly focusing on this micro level of analysis and asking, "What exercises do you perform to achieve this particular level of attainment? What happens next?" Without relying solely on prajna wisdom, it tries to specify everything down to the tiniest detail so that you have an encyclopedic catalog of what to do in such-and-such a situation. And, it tries to bring results into the causes of the path, rather than have the causes naturally produce results in the forward direction, as they should. In a way, its practices are like a set of parents that put too much pressure on their child by hurrying him along too much.
What is the problem in all of this?
You cannot say that this esoteric material is wrong, but that esoteric practitioners become too attached to form. And once you become attached to form, your cultivation method is all wrong.
Why does the Esoteric school focus on the existence aspect of Tao? The answer is because it is based on the Consciousness-Only school. The Consciousness-Only or Mind-Only school always talks of consciousness, which the Esoteric school takes as "existence." However, in actuality the Consciousness-Only school is actually only talking of emptiness.
The Hinayana school says all existence is impermanent, so conventional existence is only a "false existence." The Mahayana, however, calls it "miraculous existence," even though it is empty, because it stresses compassionate activity in this realm to help all sentient beings. So the Esoteric school just turns cultivation matters around and focuses on attainment from the aspect of miraculous existence.
If we turn to the Flower Ornament Sutra, we would find that this, too, introduces some of the existence teachings found within Esoteric Buddhism. Of course these teachings are not the esotericism that the Japanese and Tibetans talk about, for Buddha taught the Flower Ornament teachings when he was in the heavens of the Realm of Form, and his audience was all the high level Bodhisattvas. Yet in that sutra, Buddha makes the point that everything--all phenomena--are generated from the capacity of the original nature: all form comes from emptiness, so it is no different than emptiness.
In Mahayana Buddhism you try to see emptiness, and from there you can accept the realm of false existence with its compassionate call for activity to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. But this existence realm is empty, as we know, and from that aspect there is no such thing as a sentient being. Yet from the aspect of conventional existence, there is still need to act, and so the activity should be as virtuous, compassionate and helpful as possible. This is what requires skillful means.
The Lotus Sutra has a phrase: "All Three Realms are due to mind, all the infinite methods are consciousness." Hence, this is how we have the name of the Consciousness-Only school, which is the basis of the Tibetan school of Esoteric Buddhism. We have the self-nature, or fundamental nature, and we have form and appearance both born of this fundamental, empty self-nature.
Hence, in the esoteric schools, or even in Orthodox Buddhism, we can say that there are thousands of special consciousness meditations available for cultivation, such as the Six Yogas of Naropa. Most cultivation methods concentrate on emptiness, but a large number of the Esoteric methods use form as an entry vehicle for realizing emptiness. Unfortunately, this emphasis on realizing emptiness is what the form-school practitioners most often forget after they enter into the Esoteric school.
On the one hand you can be broad in scope and say that the purpose of all these techniques is to help you attain samadhi, and ultimately the Tao. On the other hand, you can be more specific and say their primary purpose is aimed at getting the chi to enter, abide and "dissolve" within the central channel. Why should the chi enter into the central channel if spirituality is essentially just a mind-only path? Because if it enters the central channel, then you can quickly transform your physical body of form, clarify consciousness, and more readily attain the Tao.
Regardless as to how you describe matters, you cannot attain this achievement unless you have already cultivated the chi and mai. If you have already accomplished this preliminary stage of attainment--meaning the yoga of marks, the generation stage yogas or the Mahayana stage of preparatory practices--the esoteric schools tell you to use special visualization, mantra, mudra and breathing practices for forcing the chi into the central channels, once they have been sufficiently prepared.
The cultivation methods employed in the world may vary considerably from school to school, but we must always remember that the ultimate target of all these methods is the same. As a single example, the various esoteric schools like to practice vajra chanting (where you do not move your lips or teeth) to get rid of all the miscellaneous thoughts of the sixth consciousness.
About the Author
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
By : Michael Jordan B
If we analyze the various esoteric exercises and teachings of Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana, and Tibetan Buddhism with its Generation and Completion Stage yogas, all these various practices can essentially be classified into two stages.
First, there are the yogic exercises for getting the chi to enter into the central channel, which is also known as the sushumna or middle mai. Next, there is a second stage consisting of cultivation exercises, or yogas, that are performed once the energies have been withdrawn from other areas and concentrated in this channel.
Thus, the first requirement of the Tantras is to get the chi to enter into the central channel, but to do so, you must first prepositionally cultivate the chi and mai otherwise it will not be possible. That is why you have the preliminary generation stage practices on the tantric paths. If the mai are not already cleansed of obstructions to some degree, this latter step is an impossibility, just as it is impossible to cultivate chi if you let your jing leak away.
Through the eyes of other cultivation schools, we might say that the tantric purification process is one of purifying the wind and water elements of the body, for this is akin to cultivating the chi and mai. To do this, you have to cultivate merit, virtue, discipline (not losing the jing semenal essence) and engage in devoted meditation of some sort. You can ingest special medicines to help speed this process a little, as is done in the wai-dan practices of Taoism, but science will never discover or invent a substance that will refine the chi or open the mai. The process of cultivation will always require the discipline of emptiness meditation.
Of course, after the chi and mai have been cultivated to a sufficient extent, one's kundalini will be activated, meaning that the state of hsi will appear if one is sufficiently successful. Kundalini activation, we already know, is akin to cultivating the fire element of the body, or having the shakti become activated so as to initiate one on the path.
In fact, this is the real fire empowerment spoken of in esoteric circles.
However, this still only constitutes a minor step in cultivation since it still only encompasses the first prayoga stage of heat, or warming. Nevertheless, if at this point--where your real chi circulation becomes initiated through embryo breathing--you can forget your body and mind, then you can begin to attain the various ranks of samadhi. By gaining proficiency in the samadhi, you can then scale the ranks of cultivation attainment, break through the confining nature of the skandhas, and ultimately attain enlightenment.
There is no great mystery to the process of cultivation, for it is as simple as this. All along the way you will encounter various mental experiences and physical changes called kung-fu, such as the progressive purification of your body, the generation of a nonobstructive thought-born body (called the illusory in the Tibet school), an experiencing of the emptiness nature of awareness, and so on. All these things, however, are just the extraneous scenery along the way to the goal rather than the destination itself. In fact, experiencing the clear light through prajna wisdom is only the stage of "seeing the path," and after that there is still a long way of cultivation to go.
Once you realize the clear light of awareness--or empty clarity of awareness--because you have trained at purifying the mind through mastering various samadhi and cultivating your prajna wisdom, then you can finally understand what all the masters and spiritual schools have been talking about all along. Then and only then can you really understand how to cultivate practice correctly after you reach this stage of seeing the Tao and recognizing the mind's true essence, so this is the point after which you can really start cultivating realization.
If you are successful on that road of True Cultivation Practice, then you will end up with the true attainment of Buddhahood. But the entire process requires merit, discipline, and the hard diligent work of ceaselessly cultivating practice, which means purifying the body and mind while forgetting the body and mind. Hence, spiritual cultivation follows the principle of detachment from form the entire way, and we can also call this the cultivation of emptiness.
The Esoteric school, on the other hand, takes one tiny footnote out of this larger process--the fact that you can attain samadhi when the chi starts to enter the central channel--and constructs a big edifice out of it. Then it starts to add all sorts of special stages that typically confuse practitioners and serve as objects of attachment. It is not necessary to know any of this information as to the overall process of attainment, but that is how this particular school is structured.
The Esoteric school is constantly focusing on this micro level of analysis and asking, "What exercises do you perform to achieve this particular level of attainment? What happens next?" Without relying solely on prajna wisdom, it tries to specify everything down to the tiniest detail so that you have an encyclopedic catalog of what to do in such-and-such a situation. And, it tries to bring results into the causes of the path, rather than have the causes naturally produce results in the forward direction, as they should. In a way, its practices are like a set of parents that put too much pressure on their child by hurrying him along too much.
What is the problem in all of this?
You cannot say that this esoteric material is wrong, but that esoteric practitioners become too attached to form. And once you become attached to form, your cultivation method is all wrong.
Why does the Esoteric school focus on the existence aspect of Tao? The answer is because it is based on the Consciousness-Only school. The Consciousness-Only or Mind-Only school always talks of consciousness, which the Esoteric school takes as "existence." However, in actuality the Consciousness-Only school is actually only talking of emptiness.
The Hinayana school says all existence is impermanent, so conventional existence is only a "false existence." The Mahayana, however, calls it "miraculous existence," even though it is empty, because it stresses compassionate activity in this realm to help all sentient beings. So the Esoteric school just turns cultivation matters around and focuses on attainment from the aspect of miraculous existence.
If we turn to the Flower Ornament Sutra, we would find that this, too, introduces some of the existence teachings found within Esoteric Buddhism. Of course these teachings are not the esotericism that the Japanese and Tibetans talk about, for Buddha taught the Flower Ornament teachings when he was in the heavens of the Realm of Form, and his audience was all the high level Bodhisattvas. Yet in that sutra, Buddha makes the point that everything--all phenomena--are generated from the capacity of the original nature: all form comes from emptiness, so it is no different than emptiness.
In Mahayana Buddhism you try to see emptiness, and from there you can accept the realm of false existence with its compassionate call for activity to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. But this existence realm is empty, as we know, and from that aspect there is no such thing as a sentient being. Yet from the aspect of conventional existence, there is still need to act, and so the activity should be as virtuous, compassionate and helpful as possible. This is what requires skillful means.
The Lotus Sutra has a phrase: "All Three Realms are due to mind, all the infinite methods are consciousness." Hence, this is how we have the name of the Consciousness-Only school, which is the basis of the Tibetan school of Esoteric Buddhism. We have the self-nature, or fundamental nature, and we have form and appearance both born of this fundamental, empty self-nature.
Hence, in the esoteric schools, or even in Orthodox Buddhism, we can say that there are thousands of special consciousness meditations available for cultivation, such as the Six Yogas of Naropa. Most cultivation methods concentrate on emptiness, but a large number of the Esoteric methods use form as an entry vehicle for realizing emptiness. Unfortunately, this emphasis on realizing emptiness is what the form-school practitioners most often forget after they enter into the Esoteric school.
On the one hand you can be broad in scope and say that the purpose of all these techniques is to help you attain samadhi, and ultimately the Tao. On the other hand, you can be more specific and say their primary purpose is aimed at getting the chi to enter, abide and "dissolve" within the central channel. Why should the chi enter into the central channel if spirituality is essentially just a mind-only path? Because if it enters the central channel, then you can quickly transform your physical body of form, clarify consciousness, and more readily attain the Tao.
Regardless as to how you describe matters, you cannot attain this achievement unless you have already cultivated the chi and mai. If you have already accomplished this preliminary stage of attainment--meaning the yoga of marks, the generation stage yogas or the Mahayana stage of preparatory practices--the esoteric schools tell you to use special visualization, mantra, mudra and breathing practices for forcing the chi into the central channels, once they have been sufficiently prepared.
The cultivation methods employed in the world may vary considerably from school to school, but we must always remember that the ultimate target of all these methods is the same. As a single example, the various esoteric schools like to practice vajra chanting (where you do not move your lips or teeth) to get rid of all the miscellaneous thoughts of the sixth consciousness.
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http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
Your Authenticity and Integrity
Your Authenticity and Integrity
By : Dr. Sheri Rosenthal
In spirituality we read much about authenticity and integrity, but I'm not always sure we have a clear understanding of these terms. Some folks have told me they believe these words refer to being honest and true to themselves, but I most often feel that they are speaking about their ego-self rather than the true self inspired by the divine within.
By the time we are adults we actually believe that the way we are is our authentic self, but normally this is far from the truth. We've been deceived into believing that what we think about ourselves is what's real - rather than the no-thingness of the Infinite within us.
François de La Rochefoucauld, the French noble and writer, has been noted to have said; We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. When we are young, we mold ourselves to become what others tell us to be until we finally believe that is who we are. Since we are domesticated using punishment and reward, we seek the reward, which comes from doing and becoming what others expect from us. Fear of punishment is a strong incentive. Eventually we no longer even know who we truly are - only what we believe ourselves to be. The disguise is complete, our integrity and authenticity gone, traded for a biscuit or a shred of love.
It is this very observation that we must be on guard for in ourselves in every moment. By questioning our motives and our thinking, we can begin to get clarity on what is truth and what is not. It takes persistence and faith that what is ultimately true will reveal itself. In the end, it is harder and requires more energy to be what we are not, than what we really are. The disguise takes personal power to maintain and requires constant internal dialogue to uphold. In other words, our constant reiteration of what we believe about ourselves and our world in our mind, helps keep the construct of the disguise in place.
Once we take the time to quiet our thoughts, we can see the construct of the mind fall apart and we are no longer certain that what we believe about ourselves, or anyone else for that matter, is truth. It is in these moments that the truth reveals itself, and we see the light of our integrity and authenticity shining through. We glimpse the perfection of our divinity and see that our faith has been sorely misplaced. And even if letting the disguise fall away is uncertain and oftentimes frightening, our ultimate freedom of expression is well worth the temporary fear we experience in letting go.
In that moment we no longer seek approval or love from others through our words and actions; we no longer need the biscuit or the shred of love. Our actions are genuine expressions of life moving through us, rather than from the neediness of our wounded ego. We are no longer diminished by the disguise; we expand to the width and breadth of the universe, knowing we no longer are trapped and bounded by falsehood. We realize deeply that when we are no longer beholding to anyone for approval or love, we are whole or one unto ourselves and we have embodied our integrity fully and completely.
This is the reward of our spiritual path: Ultimate freedom from the masks we wear that seemingly keep us safe, but steal our greatness and our personal power. I encourage you to go beyond your comfort zone and challenge yourself to let your disguise go, it never really looked that great on you anyway...
You are welcome to reprint this article with the following information at the conclusion of the text: Dr. Sheri Rosenthal is a master Toltec teacher and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom and WITH Forgiveness. Having trained with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, she currently takes students on spiritual journeys, works with personal apprentices and enjoys being extremely happy. You can reach her at http://www.sherirosenthal.com, http://www.journeysofthespirit.com and http://www.withforgiveness.com.
About the Author
Dr. Sheri Rosenthal is a master Toltec teacher and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom and WITH Forgiveness. Having trained with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, she currently takes students on spiritual journeys, works with personal apprentices and enjoys being extremely happy. You can reach her at http://www.sherirosenthal.com, http://www.journeysofthespirit.com and http://www.withforgiveness.com.
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
By : Dr. Sheri Rosenthal
In spirituality we read much about authenticity and integrity, but I'm not always sure we have a clear understanding of these terms. Some folks have told me they believe these words refer to being honest and true to themselves, but I most often feel that they are speaking about their ego-self rather than the true self inspired by the divine within.
By the time we are adults we actually believe that the way we are is our authentic self, but normally this is far from the truth. We've been deceived into believing that what we think about ourselves is what's real - rather than the no-thingness of the Infinite within us.
François de La Rochefoucauld, the French noble and writer, has been noted to have said; We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. When we are young, we mold ourselves to become what others tell us to be until we finally believe that is who we are. Since we are domesticated using punishment and reward, we seek the reward, which comes from doing and becoming what others expect from us. Fear of punishment is a strong incentive. Eventually we no longer even know who we truly are - only what we believe ourselves to be. The disguise is complete, our integrity and authenticity gone, traded for a biscuit or a shred of love.
It is this very observation that we must be on guard for in ourselves in every moment. By questioning our motives and our thinking, we can begin to get clarity on what is truth and what is not. It takes persistence and faith that what is ultimately true will reveal itself. In the end, it is harder and requires more energy to be what we are not, than what we really are. The disguise takes personal power to maintain and requires constant internal dialogue to uphold. In other words, our constant reiteration of what we believe about ourselves and our world in our mind, helps keep the construct of the disguise in place.
Once we take the time to quiet our thoughts, we can see the construct of the mind fall apart and we are no longer certain that what we believe about ourselves, or anyone else for that matter, is truth. It is in these moments that the truth reveals itself, and we see the light of our integrity and authenticity shining through. We glimpse the perfection of our divinity and see that our faith has been sorely misplaced. And even if letting the disguise fall away is uncertain and oftentimes frightening, our ultimate freedom of expression is well worth the temporary fear we experience in letting go.
In that moment we no longer seek approval or love from others through our words and actions; we no longer need the biscuit or the shred of love. Our actions are genuine expressions of life moving through us, rather than from the neediness of our wounded ego. We are no longer diminished by the disguise; we expand to the width and breadth of the universe, knowing we no longer are trapped and bounded by falsehood. We realize deeply that when we are no longer beholding to anyone for approval or love, we are whole or one unto ourselves and we have embodied our integrity fully and completely.
This is the reward of our spiritual path: Ultimate freedom from the masks we wear that seemingly keep us safe, but steal our greatness and our personal power. I encourage you to go beyond your comfort zone and challenge yourself to let your disguise go, it never really looked that great on you anyway...
You are welcome to reprint this article with the following information at the conclusion of the text: Dr. Sheri Rosenthal is a master Toltec teacher and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom and WITH Forgiveness. Having trained with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, she currently takes students on spiritual journeys, works with personal apprentices and enjoys being extremely happy. You can reach her at http://www.sherirosenthal.com, http://www.journeysofthespirit.com and http://www.withforgiveness.com.
About the Author
Dr. Sheri Rosenthal is a master Toltec teacher and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom and WITH Forgiveness. Having trained with don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements, she currently takes students on spiritual journeys, works with personal apprentices and enjoys being extremely happy. You can reach her at http://www.sherirosenthal.com, http://www.journeysofthespirit.com and http://www.withforgiveness.com.
http://www.AdSenseThai.Net
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