Foundation for Vajrayana Practice
Vajrayana Buddhism, like all other Buddhist traditions, has the goal of liberation from suffering and attainment of enlightenment. Buddha has presented his understanding of suffering and its causes in his first teaching of the Four Noble Truths. Through comprehending the nature of suffering and its causes--the destructive mental states of greed, hatred and delusion, we are urged to develop the intention to be completely liberated from them. This attitude of renunciation is the foundation of Vajrayana practices.
More specifically, Vajrayana emphasizes the need to cultivate an altruistic motivation wishing to benefit all sentient beings and striving to attain the state of a Buddha in order to work for their welfare. Such a motivation is called bodhicitta in Sanskrit and someone who has generated a genuine bodhicitta motivation is called a bodhisattva.
Since the root source of our suffering is identified by the Buddha to be our fundamental delusion or ignorance that misunderstand reality, we need to develop the correct view that dispels our misperceptions and free our mind from all the distorted mind states that derive from delusion.
 These three principal aspects of renunciation, bodhicitta and correct view are the basis of the spiritual path of Vajrayana. For someone interested in pursuing the study and practice of Vajrayana, he or she would first be instructed in these fundamental teachings of Buddhism. Within the Gelug tradition, this set of explanations is arranged in a specific order that makes it easy for a beginner to understand and put into practice and is known as the "Lam Rim", the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Many Lam Rim texts have been composed by past Tibetan masters and commented on by contemporary teachers. The most famous and definitive text in this genre is the one composed by the founder of the Gelug tradition, Lama Tsong Khapa. His text is called The Great Treatise on the Path to Enlightenment or Lam Rim Chen Mo in Tibetan.
A student devotes time and energy to listening to oral explanations on the Lam Rim and reading the different commentaries as part of her study. She reflects again and again on the main ideas presented and meditates so as to familiarize with them, with the aim of gradually integrating the words and meanings into her own experiences. The oral tradition of Lam Rim has identified three stages of development in understanding and realizing these teachings:
- When the student gains confident in her own understanding of the teachings and knows how to bring about a change in her perspective and responses through applying the various reflections and meditations taught in the Lam Rim, she is said to have gained proficiency in relation to that particular topic.
- When she reflects on a particular teaching or line of reasoning, she is able to elicit the appropriate response in terms of a change in her mind and heart, but such response does not arise spontaneously in the absence of deliberate reflection and meditation, she is said to have gain a contrived realization of that topic.
- When her mind responds spontaneously without deliberate reflection or meditation in accordance with the teachings, she is said to have attained an uncontrived realization of the topic.
However, this does not mean that a student must have a perfect, uncontrived realization of the three principal aspects before embarking on vajrayana practices. As Lama Yeshe explained:
As we have discussed, renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct view of emptiness are three of the prerequisites for the practice of tantra. This does not mean, however, that our realization of these three has to be complete and perfect before we can start following the tantric path. An approximate understanding is sufficient for us to begin. (Introduction to Tantra by Lama Thubten Yeshe, Wisdom Publications)
On the basis of a firm foundation of understanding these three principal aspects of the path, a student is generally directed to cultivate a series of preliminary practices that creates favourable conditions for spiritual development and removes unfavourable conditions.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 August 2010 07:01 )
Preliminary Practices of Vajrayana
The preliminary practices are designed to create the most favourable circumstances for transformation of our heart and mind to take place. A common analogy used in the teachings describes our current state of mind as a field that is littered with rocks and pebbles, overgrown with weeds, and deprived of the necessary conditions, like moisture, nutrients and space, to produce a bountiful harvest. This is where the preliminary practices come in.
They include practices for removing the obstructions to change and transformation (known as purification practices), for gathering favourable conditions (known as accumulation of merit), and for nourishing the heart with inspiration and blessings (known as request for blessings). Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an explanation on the rationale behind doing preliminary practices and Lam Rim meditation:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the following advice on why he recommends students to perform preliminary practices.
The reasons I give preliminary practices and meditation on the lam-rim, explaining which deity to practice, are as follows:
Because it is just this one time that we have this precious human body, which is most rare. Not only that, we have a perfect human rebirth, which is even rarer and with which we have this incredible opportunity to achieve our present happiness and future lives' happiness...
By the way, by doing these practices, you will create merit for a long life and happiness now and in future lives, whatever you need; then liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness, and full enlightenment—all this can be achieved...
The purpose of the preliminary practices, and the reason I give all these numbers of preliminary practices and meditations on the lam-rim, is to complete the works for the self -- ceasing the defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and completing all the realizations -- so as to be able to perform perfect works for countless sentient beings, so they can actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. For that we need to purify the obstacles, negative karma and defilements, and create the necessary conditions, the merits. Then we need to receive blessings from the guru; for that we need to practice guru yoga. That is why these practices are given, to purify the mind and collect merit.
In this way, life is not wasted. By doing these practices, as advised - little by little, over time, doing some every day - slowly they get done. In this way, you collect vast amounts of merit, especially, if you perform the practices with bodhicitta; you purify many eons of negative karma each day by practicing...
It is difficult to meet other lamas and teachers. Even if you are able to meet them, many lamas do not speak English, so you need a qualified translator, and sometimes those are quite difficult to find, too. Then, also, I don’t get to meet you very often to discuss what practices you are doing. That is the reason I give them all now, so you know what to focus on, so you have something to do for quite a number of years. In this way, you can make your life most meaningful. You are preparing for happiness, starting from now up to enlightenment.
With much love and prayers...
(Lama Zopa Rinpoche)
( Abridged. Posted on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website, www.lamayeshe.com)
 Among the preliminary practices, those emphasizing purification include
- prostrations to 35 Buddhas,
- recitation of Vajrasattva mantra,
- recitation of Samayavajra mantra, and
- the burnt offering to Vajradaka (Dorje Khadro in Tibetan).
To accumulate merits, there are
- mandala offering,
- water bowl offering, and
- making images of the Buddhas.
To request for inspiration and blessings,
- there is the practice of guru yoga.
Given that the state of mind of going for refuge is the foundation of all Buddhist studies and practices,
- there is also a practice of reciting the refuge formulae and generating the altruistic bodhicitta motivation.
This set of nine preliminary practices is often carried out for 100,000 repetitions for each of them, i.e., doing 100,000 prostrations, making 100,000 water bowl offerings, and so forth.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 August 2010 06:32 )
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Four Classes of Tantra
There are four classes within the Buddhist tantric system: action, performance, yoga, and highest yoga tantras.
All four classes of tantra involve various methods for utilizing desire as a part of the spiritual path. However, they differ in the level of desire employed for doing so. This is also related to an individual's ability to successfully make use of the different intensities of desirous energy. Traditionally, this distinction is illustrated by four examples:
- In Action Tantra, a practitioner can make use of the desire that arises from merely looking at an attractive partner.
- In Performance Tantra, it is the desire produced by smiling and laughing with a partner.
- In Yoga tantra, it is the desire involved in touching and holding hands.
- Finally, in Highest Yoga Tantra, a practitioner is able to make use of the desire involved in sexual union.
Another way of distinguishing the four classes of tantra, according to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is based on their different functions and features.
- Action Tantra emphasizes the external activities of cleanliness, cleansing, mudra (symbolic hand gestures), and so forth over inner yogic practice. This, however, does not mean that one does not meditate while practising Action Tantra.
- Performance Tantra has an equal emphasis on both the inner and outer aspects of practice.
- In Yoga Tantra, the inner meditative yoga takes precedence over the external activities.
- The Highest Yoga Tantra emphasizes the importance of inner yoga and there is no class of tantra more superior than it.
There are also other ways of classifying the different divisions of tantra, such as the Nine Vehicles in Dzog Chen tradition.
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Transmission through Empowerment
 A tantric practice generally involves focusing on a meditational deity, who is an embodiment of the enlightened mind, and its enlightened environment. The resident deity and its residential environment together comprises a mandala. To begin our practice of such a mandala, we have to be introduced into this sacred circle by a fully qualified spiritual teacher. This is known as an empowerment or initiation. The empowerment serves to awaken our inner potential and ensure that our subsequent practice will further nourish and develop this potential until it brings forth an actual transformation of our mind.
In relation to transmission through empowerment, Lama Yeshe emphasized that:
- There must be an unbroken lineage of practitioners for the practice of the meditational deity.
- This lineage must be able to trace its source to a fully enlightened experience of a true master in order to be authentic and reliable.
- This enlightened experience must be passed down to the present days through an unbroken lineage of accomplished practitioners, each of whom has attained realizations.
When we receive an empowerment, there is a coming together of our mind and the mind of our spiritual teacher or vajra master, as the one who grants the empowerment is called. Lama Yeshe said, "Initiation is a shared act of meditation." He emphasizes that an initiation or empowerment is not merely about the ritual, the chanting, the bell-ringing and so forth. Rather, it is best viewed as a form of intimate communication, taking place in a particular setting, between the spiritual teacher and the student(s). As in all other forms of communicating, it is dependent on various factors: the openness on the side of the student and the spiritual realization and skill in conducting the initiation on the side of the teacher. Moreover, it is not enough to just be physically present at an empowerment ceremony, there is also a need to actively participate in it through paying attention and doing our best to follow the meditation instructions given by the vajra master.
Receiving Empowerment
Lama Yeshe explained the significance of receiving an empowerment or initiation:
Why then do we call it an initiation? Because it is the beginning of the experience of meditation, the beginning of activating somehow our concentration, meditation and penetration into the reality of all things. Through the power of such an initiation you use the wisdom, skill and great openness of loving kindness that you already possess. There is an awakening of what already exists.
It is very important to recognize that you already have these qualities of wisdom, skill and compassion. It is a mistake to think that through empowerment we receive qualities that are totally alien to what already exists deep within us. The buddhist teachings in general and the tantric experience in particular stress that there is a limitless resource of profound wisdom and great loving kindness within each one of us already. What is necessary is that we tap this resource and activate this potential energy for enlightenment.
For an initiation to be effective, both guru and disciple must participate in creating the proper atmosphere. The guru is responsible for conducting the empowerment in such a way that it actually touches the disciples' minds, and must have the skill and flexibility to mould the initiation to fit the disciples' aptitudes. And the disciple must know how to generate an open, spacious attitude and leave the mind in such a receptive state... When the guru and disciple are both properly qualified, the empowerment is pervaded by great blissful wisdom. Instead of remaining a requirement that must be fulfilled before you can enter the tantric path, the empowerment embodies the transcendentally blissful experience of the path itself...
It is customary to receive initiation into a particular tantric practice again and again, each time being better able to receive deeper and deeper levels of experience. So we should not be disappointed if at first our meditation stays only at the level of mere imagination rather than true experience. That is still good enough; don't think that it's not. Merely to imagine an experience plants seeds in the vast field of your consciousness and eventually these seeds will ripen into the actual experience itself. This is a natural progression. So you should always remain open and relaxed and be satisfied with whatever happens.
(Taken from Introduction to Tantra by Lama Thubten Yeshe, Wisdom Publications.)
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 August 2010 05:58 )
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Introduction to Vajrayana
Vajrayana Buddhism is one of the several traditions of Buddhism, all of which are based on the Buddha's enlightenment and his teachings. It is also known as Tantric Buddhism, coming from the word "tantra," which refers to the discourses of the Buddha that present the unique explanations and meditation techniques of Vajrayana. Tantra, with a literal meaning of "continuous" or "continuity," also refers to the preservation and transmission of the enlightened experience through a continuous, unbroken lineage of practitioners.
Vajrayana tradition flourished in Tibet, having been transmitted from India due to the great effort and sacrifice of many Indian and Tibetan Buddhist masters. It also exists in Japan as the Shingon tradition. Its influence can be found in the different practices and rituals in Chinese Buddhism, although a separate tradition of Vajrayana does not survive in China.