As in other Buddhist traditions, an attitude of reverence for the teacher, or guru, is highly prized. A guru, or lama, is seen as an essential guide during tantric practice. Without the guru's example, blessings, and guidance, genuine progress in tantra is held to be impossible for all but the most keen and gifted. One particular feature of the Tantric view of the teacher-student relationship is that in Tibetan Buddhist tantra, one is instructed to regard one's guru as an awakened Buddha.
A journey to a mysterious Himalaya snow land and it's unique Vajrayana Buddhism and the threatening culture.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
What is guru yoga in Vajrayana Buddhism?
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
The Three Trikaya in Vajrayana Buddhism - Nirmanakaya (3/3)
Trikaya (Sanskrit: three bodies), in Mahayana Buddhism, is the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha:
Why is Trikaya important? In essence, the Trikaya doctrine offers a profound framework for understanding the diverse dimensions of Buddhahood. It demonstrates how a Buddha can simultaneously exist in multiple realms and embody a spectrum of qualities, guiding practitioners towards liberation and awakening through various aspects of their being.
The Nirmanakaya body is subject to sickness, old age, and death like any other living being. It is often said, however, that Nirmanakaya Buddhas, or any enlightened individual, may take on the form of Sambhogakaya Buddhas upon their deaths.
The emanation body (Nirmanakaya) is the form of the Buddha that appears in the world to teach people the path to liberation. The enjoyment (or bliss) body (Sambhogakaya) is the celestial body of the Buddha to which contemplation can ascend.Nirmanakayas are enlightened beings who have attained liberation from the cycle of birth and death. They are free from all suffering and have a complete understanding of the true nature of reality. Nirmanakayas often take on a human form in order to teach others the path to liberation.
The word “nirmanakaya” comes from the Sanskrit words nirvana (liberation) and kaya (body). So, a nirmanakaya is literally an “enlightened body." used to describe both Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Buddhas are those who have attained full enlightenment, while bodhisattvas are those who have partially reached enlightenment but have vowed to remain in the physical world until all beings have achieved liberation.
There are many stories and legends about Nirmanakayas throughout Buddhist history. One of the most famous is the story of Milarepa, an 11th-century Tibetan saint who is said to have attained enlightenment in just one lifetime through his intense study and practice of Buddhism.
Friday, February 2, 2024
The Three Trikaya in Vajrayana Buddhism - Sambhogakaya (2/3)
Trikaya (Sanskrit: three bodies), in Mahayana Buddhism, is the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha:
Why is Trikaya important? In essence, the Trikaya doctrine offers a profound framework for understanding the diverse dimensions of Buddhahood. It demonstrates how a Buddha can simultaneously exist in multiple realms and embody a spectrum of qualities, guiding practitioners towards liberation and awakening through various aspects of their being.
Sambhogakaya is the dimension of complete enjoyment, the field of total plenitude, beyond dualistic limitations and beyond space and time.
Those Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifest themselves in their specific pure lands. These worlds are created for the benefit of others. In those lands, it is easy to hear and practice the Dharma. A person can be reborn in such a pure land by "the transfer of some of the huge stock of'merit' of a land's presiding Buddha, stimulated by devout prayer.
One of the places where the Sambhogakaya appears is the extra-cosmic realm, or pure land, called Akanistha. This realm should not be confused with the akanistha of the pure abodes, for it is a realm that completely transcends it.
Absolutely seen, only Dharmakāya is real; Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakāya are "provisional ways of talking about and apprehending it.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
The Three Trikaya in Vajrayana Buddhism - Dharmakaya (1/3 )
Trikaya (Sanskrit: three bodies), in Mahayana Buddhism, is the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha:
Why is Trikaya important? In essence, the Trikaya doctrine offers a profound framework for understanding the diverse dimensions of Buddhahood. It demonstrates how a Buddha can simultaneously exist in multiple realms and embody a spectrum of qualities, guiding practitioners towards liberation and awakening through various aspects of their being.
The Dharmakaya is one of the three bodies (Trikāya) of a Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Dharmakāya constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (acintya) aspect of a buddha out of which buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution.
The Trikaya doctrine (Sanskrit, literally "three bodies" or "three personalities") is a Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality and the appearances of a Buddha.
In Vajrayana Buddhism,the term chos sku has been defined as "Buddha-body of reality," which is a rendering of the Tibetan chos-sku and the Sanskrit dharmakāya as:The ultimate nature or essence of the enlightened mind is uncreated, free from the limits of conceptual elaboration, empty of inherent existence, naturally radiant, beyond duality, and spacious like the sky. The intermediate state of the time of death is considered to be an optimum time for the realisation of the Buddha-body of reality.
The Dalai Lama defines the dharmakaya as "the realm of the dharmakaya—the space of emptiness—where all phenomena, pure and impure, are dissolved. This is the explanation taught by the Sutras and Tantras." However, he also states that it is distinct from the Hindu concept of Brahman because Buddhism adheres to the doctrine of emptiness (sunyata).
- Great purity
- Great realisation
- Great mind
Monday, January 22, 2024
What does Trikaya mean in Vajrayana Buddhism?
Trikaya (Sanskrit: three bodies), in Mahayana Buddhism, is the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha: the Dharmakaya (body of essence), the unmanifested mode, and the supreme state of absolute knowledge; the Sambhogakaya (body of enjoyment), the heavenly mode; and the Nirmanakaya (body of transformation).
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
The Six Yogas of Naropa - Phowa (6/6)
The six yogas are a main practice of the Kagyu school (and were originally unique to that school), and key Kagyu figures such as Milarepa, Gampopa, Phagmo Drugpa, and Jigten Sumgon taught and practiced these yogas. They taught in the Gelugpa lineage and were introduced by Je Tsongkhapa, who received the lineage through his Kagyu teachers.
Lama Thubten Yeshe taught on the subject of phowa that "we have to choose the right time to transfer our consciousness; we’re not allowed to do it at the wrong time because that becomes suicide."
The method can be applied at the moment of death to, according to Vajrayana Buddhist belief, transfer one's consciousness through the top of the head directly into a Buddha-field of one's choice. By so doing, one bypasses some of the typical experiences that are said to occur after death.
Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practise! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practise, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain that Bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.
Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods that, if practised in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practise is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power, or self-interest.