Introduction to Vajrayana

How I came to Tantric Buddhism. In [date] I went to a ‘teaching’ with ZaChoeje Rinpoche. I had read about Buddhism quite a bit. I had read how the Buddha sat under a Bodhi Tree and had gained freedom from suffering. I was really inspired by his story and the directness of what I was reading. My take was that Shakyamuni Buddha, a prince, left the palace to seek a lasting happiness, free from suffering, old age and death. So basically you could say he freaked out. He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t bare to think of enjoying his palace when he was going to whither and die. He left his father and mother. He left his wife. He left his recently born son. Now I’m not saying he lost his shit. He was a deeply compassionate person and saw his potential to find a way for all beings to be free. He shaved his head and entered the mendicent lifestyle - he was homeless, had only robes and lived off of other’s charity so that his mind would be free of grasping. He learned from the most respected teachers various special mind states with names like, ‘neither perceiving nor not perceiving’. But they didn’t solve his problem - still his karma was there. Still there was sickness, old age and death. Shakyamuni decided to investigate the nature of suffering himself. He and a few others began practicing severe austieries - eating very little, like a grain of rice a day. They lived naked in the elements. I’ve heard that his spine showed through his stomach. He was very skinny and his mind strained for an answer. Day after day it was like this, “what am I?”. After 7 years like this he gets smart. He realized that this path of self-mortification was too extreme, he ate some nourishing food and suddenly felt a rush of stength and focus. He knew that he would become enlightened soon. Soon he was sitting under the Bodhi tree, resolved to solve his big problem or perish trying. I think he sat there for 7 days or something. He battled Mara, which means that he exposed every corner of his subconscious. His brint mind illuminated all of the dark corners. Mara sent armies of terrifying beings and this ex-prince just sat - open, receptive. So it is said that the arrows of the army turned to lotuses that showered down on this meditator. Then early in the morning Shakyamuni acheived enlightenment when he saw the north star. He smiled then. Rinpoche said he giggled. He was giggling because he saw that he was already free. He realized his Buddha-Nature and was freed from suffering and distress. What did he realize? He realized a mind free from like and dislike - the nature of peace. The Buddha was an ordinary human being who through his own human facilities realized a lasting peace of mind. I really dug that. So I asked

What is Tantric Buddhism?

Tantric Buddhism is a technique for getting to know yourself. If you know yourself very well then you will be happy.

What is Lamaism? Where did Tantra come from? What’s the deal with the sexual stuff in the Vajrayana? Why didn’t the Buddha talk about the Vajrayana much in the Basic Sutras?

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 Nirvana. Diamond has to do with the indestructable 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 refering to the same vehicle. Yana means vehicle. So really the names are different aspects of the same vehicle, but for the most part I’ll just use Vajrayana.

Guru

Tantrayana

Vajrayana

Mantrayana
The Vajrayana uses a lot of Mantra in it’s practice. Mantra is a phrase or sound that you repeat over and over in your mind. The classic one from Tibet is Om Mani Peme Hum. Mantra is really powerful on many levels I think. Om Mani Peme Hum is a mantra born out of compassion. It is as if the sound of compassion is “Om Mani Peme Hum”. Om Mani Peme hum is like another way of pointing at what the word compassion is pointing at. It’s another gate to understanding compassion - on a sound level. You can actually get pretty close to a feeling of compassion just with this sound. It’s initially difficult for the mind to stay focused on one thing and the mantra can bring you closer. So you can use this and really identify the idea of compassion with this sound. Also the mantra helps to develop focus. This quality of bringing you closer to the object of compassion and the concentration on that is a protection of the mind. Like if you are feeling angry at someone and you say this mantra silently in your head, it’s difficult to remain angry at that moment. Anger is really destructive even on a chemical level. When you get really pissed your body goes into like survival mode, adrennaline and other really hardcore chemicals are released into the bloodstream and its actually hard on the body. You can get out there on the internet and see how stress and anger affect people - we get Irritated Bowels and heart attacks and really nasty body problems because of stress and anger. So think about it, if you can start using a mantra like “Om Mani Peme Hum”, you are going to protect your mind and your body. It’s really simple on that level, but I suspect that the use of mantra can become even more profound. But I think a healthy mind and body is a pretty good benefit!

So Vajrayana uses a TON of mantra, you sometimes can’t even keep up. It’s like learning a whole new language in a way - really a very pure language that’s meaning doesn’t change much. Mantra can protect your mind in all kinds of situations.

If you feel compassion for someone its “Om Mani Peme Hum”, so this protects against anger and hatred and those kinds of things.
If you feel afraid you can say “Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Soha”, which is a mantra that means ‘fearlessness’
If you feel sick you can say “Bhekendze Bhekendze Maha Bhekendze Bhekendze Ronza Samungate Soha”
If you are getting hung up on some obessession you can say “Om Wakay De Na Ma” which means that everything is empty of being a problem.

It goes on and on, blessing mantra, protection mantra, invoking mantra, all kinds.

Each of these mantras have a symbol associated with them - the symbol is in the form of a Buddha. But it isn’t a Buddha that is out there, it’s not like a diety in that sense. It is a way of focusing or channeling your mind towards the object of the mantra. Like “Om Mani Peme Hum” is compassion. Another way of getting at compassion is through “Chenrezig” which is like a Buddha addorned with symbols that look show us compassion. In Vajrayana we can say the mantra and visualize the buddha figure, 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. He sits 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 his hands is an opening flower - a lotus which symbolizes wisdom. It’s a symbol of discrimination that really can focus that feeling of compasion. There is stupid compassion which kind of debilitates someone, without wisdom the feeling is too much. This wisdom can kind of see everything is in its place that everything is a natural outflowing 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 look at all we can see that harmony thing. So Chenrezig has a flower in the one hand and in the other hand he has a crystal mala and that has the whole clarity thing to it as a symbol. Compassion ultimately is this clarity. So he is 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 he is just counting away and he is counting all of the beings that are being benefited through compassion - like you probably couldn’t even see his fingers moving. So 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.

Vajra Pride
Now another thing that really is powerful with Vajrayana is called Vajra Pride. Vajra Pride means to idenitfy with the Yidam. The Yidam is the enlightened figure - the symbol of compassion or fearlessness or any of those. So Chenrezig is called a Yidam. You’ll hear ‘diety’ but that is turning out to not be such a good translation. 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 its all relating to you and your trip from ignorance to a more harmonious connected sort sort of ground. So Vajra Pride means that you take on all those qualities as your own. You sort of 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. Do you get that? It’s really amazing I think.