Overview of the Vajrayana

I did my talk at Emaho. It was very hard for me to come up with something to say about the Vajrayana - it is so VAST! There are lots of things that I have left out here, but I wanted to relate my own experience with it, rather than relying on texts. So I hope this is helpful to somebody “out there”.

The Buddha taught that we already exist in the enlightened state, but we do not realize it – out of the ignorance of how we truly exist, we limit ourselves - we think that we have these great limitations to truly become happy and to make others happy. That’s how it feels. It feels like there is a big, giant world “out there” and just little me over here. It really feels that way. That is said to be the functioning of our ignorance. Vajrayana is a way to get past this ignorance very quickly.

Vajrayana means “Diamond Vehicle”. You hear the word vehicle in Buddhism a lot. A vehicle is something that gets you from one place to another. So in Buddhism, the vehicle is something that will take you from Ignorance to Enlightenment. Diamond has to do with the indestructible nature of diamonds and of the rarity of them. The diamond is a symbol for this rare Buddhist Vehicle. Another name for Vajrayana is Mantrayana which relates to ‘protecting the mind’. So Vajrayana, Tantrayana and Mantrayana are all referring to the same vehicle.

Vajrayana is the diamond like indestructible vehicle for attaining Buddhahood in one lifetime. This is in contrast to the more common vehicles of Hiniyana, the narrow vehicle, and Mahayana, the wide vehicle. Both of these vehicles, which are foundational to the Vajrayana, view Buddhahood as something that will be obtained in the future – we are operating from the view of limited beings trying to collect enough merit to someday, eventually become Buddhas ourselves. This approach is said to take a long time. The Mahayana scriptures say that it will take many limitless eons to become a Buddha – only very high Bodhisattvas can even catch a glimpse of Buddhahood. Vajrayana on the other hand provides methods for attaining Buddhahood now, instantly, in one lifetime. It is like practicing being a Buddha. This practice regards our biggest problem as our having a limited view of ourselves, so we practice instead seeing ourselves without limitations – we all have Buddha nature, our actual existence is totally open, totally compassionate, but we don’t see ourselves that way at all.

The method of Vajrayana is broken down into two stages. The first stage is the generation stage and the second is the completion stage. The generation stage is where we are practicing becoming a Buddha through various visualizations. These visualizations come from Sadhana, which is like the manual for manifesting as a Buddha in various forms. In generation stage Sadhanas we imagine that we have dissolved our ordinary aspect – the way we usually see ourselves is dissolved into ‘emptiness’. Emptiness here does not mean a void, it means empty of conceptual elaborations. It means we become what we are. (Of course, we can’t really dissolve into emptiness. There already is nothing that exists in the way we label things – nothing that exists in the way our conceptual mind takes them, everything is already emptiness. So we can’t really dissolve into emptiness. We don’t realize this, however, and so we go through the paces of our Sadhana practice). We dissolve ourselves into emptiness and then manifest as a Buddha figure, or a “Yidam”. Yidam means meditation deity, a form or representation of an aspect of Buddha nature. You can see these forms in the traditional paintings of Tibet, called Thangkas. Tara, Medicine Buddha, Chenrezig, Manjushri, Yamantaka, and Vajrayogini are all Yidams. There are thousands of these deities, because as humans we have very diverse minds. It is necessary to for practices to accord to the disposition of the practitioner. If we were all exactly the same we could practice in one way, but that is thankfully not the case. It is essential to note that these Yidams do not exist out there; they are not like gods and goddesses that we worship and ask for favors and approval. These Yidams are not out there in the astral plane, so to speak, but you could experience them that way. You can experience this whole thing on just about any wavelength that you approach it from, but it’s all relating to you and your trip from ignorance to a more harmonious connected sort of ground. You can relate to the world as if you really were Chenrezig. That is really powerful. It really helps to get over all the self-depreciation. You have some pride in your basic qualities of compassion. You are also seeing that you can profoundly change. Your personality doesn’t have to be concrete - you don’t have to be one way or another. At some point you can take on an aspect of Chenrezig, or Tara or Manjushri. Depending on the situation you can identify in your mind with these yidams and you can quickly adopt those excellent qualities.

The entire Buddhist journey is a journey within – we will find our happiness inside, and as a result, these Yidams are also found inside in the form of all of our emotions and mental states. Yidams are ways of connecting with our own Buddha nature. So Chenrezig represents our compassionate mind. Tara represents our compassionate mind in action. Manjushri represents our empty mind, our mind of wisdom. Yamantaka represents a more wrathful aspect of emptiness and bliss.

Let’s look at Chenrezig specifically. It is difficult for us to identify our compassionate mind. It is not so easy to grab hold of it. Compassion is something that is beyond the conceptual mind so how can we come closer to this nature? The Buddha related these very skillful practices to help us to get in touch with our true selves. The practices are said to be more skillful than those of the Hiniyana and Mahayana because we are able to move our minds closer to the final realization and do our practice from there. It is as if we are already there. For instance, we can take Chenrezig is a label for our compassion. In the Sadhana you do some preliminary activities that come straight out of the foundational vehicles. You remind yourself of your intention, clearly dedicating yourself to obtaining enlightenment for the benefit of others. You make requests to your True self and prayers for all sentient beings and then . . . you dissolve into emptiness. This dissolution is very important. We are not turning our ordinary bodies into Buddha bodies. That’s not really possible. Our ordinary bodies are very limited; they are prone to disease and death – to suffering in general. We are limited to one time and one place, while the Buddha can manifest all over the universe simultaneously according to the needs of sentient beings! We are accustomed to identifying with this limited mode of being which is said to be very gross or coarse. This identification obscures our more subtle state of being. So merely by thinking that we are like this, that our entire mode of being is limited, we have effectively obscured our more subtle and basic nature. Our job then is to suspend the occurrence of this wrong way of looking at ourselves long enough to recognize our fundamental, primordial nature. This turns out to be very difficult because we have to start with where we are. This means that we must start to look at our true situation from the perspective of ignorance. So in the Sadhana, we dissolve our ordinary way of looking at ourselves and then, out of emptiness, we manifest as Chenrezig. As Chenrezig we practice opening up our compassionate mind. Because we are Chenrezig this can be very simple, very down to earth. It is possible to be completely compassionate – to have complete equanimity and good will. This wouldn’t be as easy if we are identified with our limitations.

In the Chenrezig Sadhana, your compassion manifests as light that radiates brightly from your heart and fills all beings, everywhere, with the light of Great Compassion. Light fills the universe and as it does you recite the mantra – Om Mani Peme Hum. Over and over you recite this mantra focusing deeply on a real wish for all beings to be free from suffering. Then after 7, 21, 108 or as many mantra as you can say, Chenrezig also dissolves into emptiness and from that emptiness, your ordinary aspect reappears. You’ve all heard of the phrase, ‘what would Jesus do?’ That’s what you can do with Chenrezig throughout the day. You can imagine that you are Chenrezig and that your heart is full of compassion. Your compassion helps all beings. Operating from this perspective can help in so many ways. But you do not have to think, ‘what would Chenrezig do?’, because you are Chenrezig. You are coming from that point of view, so the question becomes, ‘what am I going to do?’ which is much more realistic.

I remember, for instance, reading about a practice where you manifest as Chenrezig according to the Sadhana and then bring to mind an old memory where you got in a big fighting argument with someone. You bring that to mind and then enter the scene as Chenrezig – there is your ordinary self, you are screaming, red faced, crying, totally upset and out of control. The other person is very distraught and also yelling. Nobody is understanding each other. Light suddenly bursts from your heart and fills the two fighters with great compassion. Suddenly they are not able to fight, they have so much love for everything. They have so much love for everything and so they become Chenrezig too! Everyone is saying Om Mani Peme Hum, Om Mani Peme Hum. After doing a practice like this it can be very easy to forgive people.

Vajrayana uses mantra to protect the mind. We say the mantra and visualize ourselves as Chenrezig so our mind is focusing on the mantra and the Buddha symbol and that is helping our concentration on compassion a great deal. Chenrezig is white - which I think represents the clarity of mind and of compassion in general, like you need this clear mind to be compassionate. If you are all hung up in your own game then there won’t be really any room for compassion. You sit in the lotus position which has a lot of meaning but maybe think of it as a symbol of meditation. So throw that in there - meditation and clarity. In one of your hands is an opening flower - a lotus which symbolizes wisdom. It’s a symbol of discrimination that really can focus that feeling of compassion. There is stupid compassion which kind of debilitates someone - without wisdom the feeling is too much. Wisdom sees everything is in its place, that everything is a natural out-flowing of harmony. So maybe the compassion is focused on the individual thing - the direct suffering in front of you, but the wisdom is focused on the whole harmony thing, which is there. I think if we really look we can see that harmony thing. Chenrezig has a flower in the one hand and in the other hand is a crystal mala and that has the whole clarity thing to it as a symbol. Compassion ultimately is this clarity. So as Chenrezig, you are counting like crazy on that mala - a mala is a bunch of beads that you can use to focus your mantra more. You can count one bead for each mantra and that really helps with your focus. So you are just counting all of the beings that are being benefited through compassion - like you probably couldn’t even see his fingers moving, they are going so fast. Now the mind is focusing on this aspect of compassion - this way of labeling or relating to compassion and then a genuine feeling comes up. That’s the real protection when that starts to happen. At this point you really start to see how these things protect the mind because automatically you are able to deal with things that were hard before.
So that is kind of some of the Vajrayana setup with compassion, but there are kits for Fearlessness, and Emptiness, and Healing, and Wisdom and Purification and on and on.

Now I mentioned that there are two stages in the Vajrayana. Working with the visualizations like I have detailed here is called the generation stage, but then there is the completion stage. The completion stage is where you actually start to transform into a living, breathing Buddha on the spot. The completion stage involves moving energies through your body to purify the old knots we have made in our emotions since beginningless time. This still uses visualization but the practice becomes very subtle. It is said that the practitioner should have really stabilized the visualization first, before moving into the completion stages – you should be able to see yourself completely as Chenrezig, with every detail. This is called Vajra Pride. When one actually is able to identify with the yidam in Sadhana practice, then it is possible to move on to the completion stages. I can’t say much more about this because I personally have had no experience with the completion stage.

Vajrayana is very powerful because it gets our mind very close to the fruit of our Buddhist practice. It creates a very joyful and subtle state of mind that can become unmistaken in its understanding of reality, or emptiness. This does not mean we run around proclaiming ourselves as enlightened. Some pragmatism is still necessary and we can see that we are still on the path. It is said, however, in Vajrayana that the basis, path, and fruition are one. The basis is our ordinary self. The path means that we have started to apply these methods and the fruition is the attainment of Buddhahood. The Vajrayana says that these three are actually one. We are Buddha trying to become Buddha! We will soon see this is true and like Buddha under the Bodhi tree, we will smile at the cosmic joke.