Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. The “C grade person” — someone who has unconsciously decided they are insufficient and then lives out that identity as a self-fulfilling prophecy — is the governing image in this 85-minute public introduction to tantra by Ven Jampa Gendun. After opening by grounding going for refuge in commitment to one’s basic sanity, he maps the Buddhist vehicles to locate tantra within them, then explains why tantra is called the resultant vehicle: practitioners use Deity Yoga to assume the body, speech, and mind of Chenrezig, Tārā, or Mañjuśrī right now rather than working toward those qualities through causes alone. A Baba Ram Dass anecdote separates divine pride from delusion, while the C-grade and lottery-winner analogies spell out the self-image psychology Deity Yoga is designed to overturn. Aimed at general audiences with no prior tantric background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 1989 07 09 Intro to Tantra.mp3
UUID: 89528bae-3b18-4d80-a666-d21126783966
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: Public talks 1988-2010 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1989-07-09
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 84.7 minutes
Words: ~10,541
Just worried there for a moment. And before maybe we could pass out the the refuge sheets. If you’d like to read along, you know, the the idea of going for refuge, you know, before we engage in meditation or practice or talk, adjusting our motivation for why we’re doing what we’re doing. Can it can you hear me in the back? Yeah.
Now all the various actions, whatever type of activity we may be involved in, whether it’s Buddhist or whether we call it Buddhist or not, isn’t necessarily going to be a benefit to us intrinsically. That there’s nothing intrinsically beneficial about Buddhism or any type of activity. It’s purely dependent upon our motivation, our intention, why we’re doing what we’re doing. And the idea of committing oneself to a process of growth, committing oneself to one’s own basic sanity, to some kind of freeing up of a transformation of some types of inner energies or whatever we want to call them. And this is what we’re going to be talking about to a large degree, you know, when we talk about Tantra.
Committing oneself wholeheartedly with a diamond hard conviction, with trust, in one’s innate sanity, one’s intrinsic enlightened qualities. It seems as tantra deals with life. It’s kind of hard to get a handle on, I think. We’re always trying to figure out life. And in many ways, life is not something to figure out, it’s something to be experienced.
So life Tantra deals with the experience of life, of experience of enlightened qualities rather than trying to figure out how we’re going to become enlightened. You know, it’s there’s a I think it was one American by the name of Samuel Johnson who said life is learning how to play the violin while you’re giving the performance. At the same time, we simply cannot rehearse every possible situation that’s going to come up. Life is constantly confronting us without a moment’s pause. How are we going to deal with all these various situations?
We cannot simply try to figure out some formula which is going to apply to all the infinite number of possibilities which are going to arise. So we have to resolve to rely on our own innate sanity. We can trust in that that we’re going to be able to deal with all the various situations which arise. That we don’t have to, as it were, be in control constantly all the time. We can begin to relax and begin to commit ourselves more and more to our innate sanity, to our innate wisdom.
For example, no matter how faint and obscure that wisdom is, there’s still that quality is present with all of us and everyone in this room. And we can begin to commit ourselves, align ourselves with sanity, with our own love and compassion, no matter how limited and exclusive that love and compassion may be. It’s still there, that quality is present within our own continuum, within our own mind. To commit ourselves, to align ourselves, to trust ourselves, entrust ourselves to our own energy, mental and spiritual, physical energy, and the spontaneity, environmental generosity. No matter how unrefined, how unspontaneous that energy might be.
This is going for refuge. The willingness to entrust oneself to one’s own basic sanity. Beginning to take that as a fundamental principle in your life and expressing it more and more within the various situations as they begin to arrive to act out of that sanity which is in all of us. And this is very much the basis of Tantra. This is what we’re going to be, you know, we’re going to be looking at a little bit, you know, introduction, introductory sort of way.
We all have some intrinsic instinct toward wakefulness and beginning to allow that to to become a central part of our life, to allow its free play in our life, this drive toward wakefulness. So we commit ourselves and this is simply what we mean by refuge. But there’s various levels of refuge and we’ll talk about perhaps a more profound type of refuge. If whatever we’re doing is to be of real benefit, it has to be somehow transforming the experience of our life, the way we relate with, the way we experience, and our mentality which we bring to all the various situations. We’re not going to you know, life is real.
Life is earnest. And we can’t I don’t think we’re going to be able to figure it out. But we can commit ourselves to growth, to the that we have the basis for dealing with situations in a very sane, healthy, wholesome, harmonious manner. Very skillfully that we have that basis and to allow ourselves to develop that basis and trust in that basis to deal with all the various situations going to arise. In this sense, refuge.
Taking refuge in one’s own Buddha and knowing how things actually are, you know, very clearly without any misconceptions, without any preconceptions, without any mistakes, without any errors, simply knowing actual situation. We all know that. We all have some wisdom. Trusting, committing ourselves to love and compassion. Opening our hearts, beginning to see the necessity for communicating, for developing the aspect of ourselves.
And if we’re going to become happy, healthy, sane, loving human beings, have to make this effort to commit ourselves to opening our hearts and committing ourselves to working in the world, benefiting others. So aligning oneself with sanity, with committing oneself to growth, to open your hearts to a type of life which is seeking to penetrate beyond the continuous cycle of ego self justification and our aggrandizing daydreams which constitute almost our total existence. Now if we commit ourselves to that, if we trust ourselves to that, if we begin to communicate this trust, then we’re going to grow. Whatever we do with such a type of motivation, with such a type of intention, with such a type of approach to life is going to be transcended. It’s going to be something real.
It’s going to lead us to our own perfection. It’s going to lead us to becoming all that we can be. All that we should be. And this is the quality of going for refuge. However, what whatever type of formula we might make use of, whatever types of words we might use.
It’s the commitment to an inner transformation of becoming Buddha, of becoming Dharma, and becoming a spiritual community. You know, if we’re ever going to be happy. And if we remain, now we’ll get to that. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened. Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings.
To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened. Through the merit, I create by practicing giving and the other perfections. May I attain Buddha for the sake of all beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened. Through the merit I create by practicing the giving of the other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all being.
And actually, even giving a talk, when you open your mouth and you don’t quite know what’s going to come up, out. It’s like trusting you. You know, that maybe something worthwhile is going to arise if you don’t inhibit, if you don’t get in the way, let us say if your ego doesn’t get in the way, if you have correct motivation, some positive attitude for doing what you’re doing, then you can trust that things are going to go well. I’m going to talk about a little bit about Tantra. Just an introduction to give some ideas about Perhaps there are many misconceptions about what Tantra is.
And maybe just put it in some kind of context. What is the what Tantra concerns itself with and how it’s easy to be seen in the overall context of Buddhism as one of the vehicles of Buddhism. You know, we talk about within Buddhism, talk about vehicles. Vehicles of yana in Sanskrit. You know, we we sometimes talk about the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna, the lesser vehicle and the greater vehicle.
Vehicle is something simply most, something which carries a burden. You know, something which takes a load from here to there. And so this is what Buddhism is concerned with. You know, it’s simply trying to take us from being an ordinary being, you might say, with our ordinary problems, our feelings of dissatisfaction, insufficiency, negativity, limitations with all our hang ups, with all our problems, and trying to take us to becoming within the paradigm of Buddhism, happy, loving, sane human being. In this paradigm, we we make use of the Buddha.
This is our our model of sanity, if you like. The model of our potential, of what it means to have actualized everything that we can be. So there’s a vehicle which takes us there. It’s the means. Within Buddhism, we talk about the lesser vehicle and the greater vehicle.
So the goals of these two vehicles, the destination of these two vehicles are different. The lesser vehicle, the destination is the solitary peace of one person. It carries a light weight. It’s a light weight vehicle. It carries the burden of one individual.
On the other hand, the burden of the great vehicle and the goal of the great vehicle. The goal of the great vehicle is Buddhahood, a complete actualization of all our inherent potential of whatever it means to be a human being. The culmination of our evolutionary progress on the spiritual path. This is our goal. It’s done for the sake of all sentient beings.
You know, without any bias, without any discrimination, every sentient being, every being, infinite number of being, countless numbers of being, is done for their purpose, to bring them happiness. It carries the burden of an infinite number of sentient beings. It carries a heavy load. Therefore, it’s termed a great vehicle. So we have the lesser vehicle and the greater vehicle.
One carries a light load to a limited goal, the solitary peace of one individual. The other carries a very heavy load, all sentient beings, to the ultimate realization of their potential of Buddhahood, the ultimate goal. So the vehicle and the goals are slightly different within these two. Both of them achieve the welfare of that practitioner. Each of them can take you to complete cessation of your suffering, which we call nirvana.
nirvana simply means beyond suffering, beyond sorrow. You don’t have any problems anymore. Everything’s okay. You have no dissatisfaction. You know, the very I remember when I first read my first Buddhist book and it mentioned this word nirvana, I imagined it to be something placed up in the sky that you go to, you know, if you’re very good or something like that.
You get some kind of become some kind of Buddhist angel. You know, it’s not as if we’re going anywhere. There’s no other place to go to. The bhiyansara is is experienced within one’s own mind. You know, the mind by its very nature is pure.
Just as in the case of water, you know, crystal clear spring water, just as it bubbles up from out of the ground without any of the pollution. In all the various pollutions, all which are occurring in the world, most of the waters in the world are polluted to some degree or other. We can find some means, we can employ some kind of method to purify those pollutions out, to filter them out. By some means, we can take out all the impurities and be left with again with crystal clear pure water. No matter how much garbage you may have around the H2O molecule, a molecule of water, that molecule of water maintains its integrity.
It’s not changed. It’s always H2O. It’s always water. If we can just find some method to remove these pollutants, we’re going to be left with that original crystal clear pure water. And this is the same quality with respect to the nature of the mind.
The mind by its very nature is crystal clear and most importantly its nature is at peace. This is the intrinsic inherent quality of the mind. It is at peace. But just like the polluted waters, you know, with the garbage around the H2O molecule, the mind, this natural inherent peaceful intrinsic quality of the mind is polluted as it were with disturbing factors. We call these afflictive emotions.
You know, just by the name, afflictive emotions, they disturb the peace of the mind. Desire, hatred, attachment, miserliness, jealousy, spite. We’re not saying that these are somehow nasty things, bad things. Desire, hatred. We’re not making any value judgment.
We cannot say what is right and what is wrong. The Buddha said, we’re not handing down any tablets from the sky that this is good, this is bad, this is right, this is wrong. The Buddha took as a standard, a practice, as a standard of gross suffering. He said these types of attitudes are experienced as dissatisfactory and have a dissatisfactory consequence result. These types of attitudes are experienced as satisfaction, as contentment, as peace and they have a result of happiness, of bliss.
So if it doesn’t matter whether you’re happy or sad, if it doesn’t matter whether you’re at peace or in pain, then it doesn’t matter what you do or what types of qualities you manifest within your mind. But if it does matter to you, which it probably does, whether you’re happy or unhappy, then it matters a great deal what you do the various states of mind that you create, the various types of attitudes that you develop. That’s all. And if you want to be attachment, if you want to have hatred, if you want to have jealousy, that’s okay. But you’re going to suffer.
And you don’t want to suffer. I don’t want to suffer. Therefore, we have to make we have to make some effort to begin to, as in the case of purifying waters, removing the pollutants, to begin to use techniques, methods to remove these disturbing factors from the mind. Once we can do that, because they are not an inherent property of the mind, and all these disturbing factors of hatred, jealousy, spite, Once they are removed, then we’re left with the intrinsic, peaceful, pure nature of the mind. The mind attains a going beyond sorrow that attains nirvana.
So we’re not going anywhere when we attain nirvana. When we go beyond sorrow, We’re simply changing the nature of our mind to its original nature. So both of these vehicles can attain this going beyond sorrow, a piece of an individual practitioner, a piece for oneself. Within Buddhism, one way of looking at all the various teachings is from the point of view of wisdom and method. All of the teachings, all of the doctrines, all of the practices can be either categorized as wisdom or method, one of these two.
From the viewpoint of wisdom, this is what removes the root of the disturbing factors from the mind. The root disturbing factor being ignorance, a misconception as to the nature of the self. We misconceive. We have a mistaken conception about who we in fact are, what I mean when I say Jampa. In this respect, Buddhism does not ask us to believe in a self or disbelieve in itself.
It simply says that when one examines, when you examine your emotional response to life, to various emotional situations, it is you act as if you had an unchanging, independently existing self. And this is the root of our problem. When we examine, we can never isolate such a type of self among the body and mind. No matter how much we may look, we’re never going to find an unchanging, independently existing self, though we believe to the depths of our being that such a type of self exists. This misconception is what we’re calling ignorance.
We use wisdom, understanding, selflessness to eradicate, to remove this particular pollutant from the mind. Based upon removing this foundation, all the various other afflictions which arise out of ignorance, attachment, hatred, spite, jealousy are removed from the mind forever. Once we remove ignorance from the mind such that it can never return, then none of the afflictive emotions can ever return to the mind, then the mind is forever at peace. And this is nirvana. So the wisdom aspect of lesser and greater vehicle is exactly the same.
The understanding of selflessness, the ability to eradicate ignorance and therefore to arrive at a state of beyond sorrow and nirvana. So there’s no difference with respect to wisdom between the lesser and greater vehicles. You know, we can talk you know, within the systems of Buddhist philosophy, there’s said to be four main schools. And both the lesser vehicle and the greater vehicle adhere or accept what is called the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school, which is the final thought of the Buddha as to the nature of reality. So there’s no difference here between these two vehicles.
Therefore, if there’s no difference between wisdom then there must be a difference between method, between the lesser and the greater vehicle because the goals are quite different. in dependence upon the lesser vehicle we obtain a solitary peace for oneself. in dependence upon the great vehicle, we can attain complete Buddhahood. If there’s no difference in wisdom, then the difference between these two vehicles must lie within method and we’re going to look at method. You know all of the it said all of the various teachings of the Buddha taught which lead one to understand emptiness, to understand selflessness.
Both of these vehicles, when we talk about method, have as their foundation of the determination to be free, renunciation. Beginning to understand very deeply that no state bounded by ego, that is to say, ego based existence is by its very nature dissatisfactory. In developing the determination to be free, to emerge out of all ego dominated states, all ego based ways of existence, ways of relating. Really developing this insight that I have to transcend this quality of eaglerhood. If I’m ever going to be truly at peace with myself, if I’m ever going to find any type of real satisfaction, lasting satisfaction, developing this determination to be free.
You know, it’s difficult to see. You know, generally we simply want to apply various types of cosmetics to our ego to make it a little bit prettier perhaps. And we generally are are because we don’t look at our situation very deeply, are superficially satisfied with these various modifications. Unless we begin to look very deeply into our situation and understand the very nature of ego based existence, we’re not going to develop this effort, energy, this determination, this motivation, this intention. Understanding that any state grounded by ego, any ego based existence is by its very nature dissatisfactory.
It doesn’t have the quality of peace. It’s not freedom. You know, there is examples of the various states. You know, trying to come to some feeling that it’s, you know, it’s fixed, the situation. We’re going to end up losers.
There’s and there was a like the story of the the idiot sitting in the corner, hitting himself over the head with a hammer. And somebody walks up and, what are you doing? Why are you hitting yourself over the head with a hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop. Most of our happiness is simply the cessation of prior deprivation.
That is to say, what I call happiness is just something which experience as something better than what was before. You know, I can never know happiness unless I know suffering. You know, within the dualistic what do you say, the dualistic puzzle of relativity, the dualistic puzzle of relativity. I I can only know good if I remember what bad felt like. Once I forget what bad is, good has no meaning to me.
I can only have friends if I have enemies. If I don’t have an enemy, friends, the concept has no meaning to me. Just as in the case of high and low, near and far, I can only know these things relative to something else. I can only know happiness if I remember what suffering was like. Relative to suffering, this is happiness.
It’s always conditioned by its opposite. This is the dualistic puzzle of relativity. This is the nature of ego based existence Right? It’s very nature. It always has to be involved in dissatisfaction.
If we are to satisfaction, it has to be involved in pain, we are to know happiness. You know, if we take, know, two people come together. Two people have a fight. One couple said they fight because it feels so good when they make up. Compared to what was before, this is bliss.
So there is a state which is unconditioned, which goes beyond this, which transcends this dualistic quality of the way ego operates, of an egoistic conception of the dualistic puzzle of relativity. You know, once one begins to experience this very deeply, I’m just on a roller coaster. Up and down, up and down, up and down by its very nature. My highs are connected to my lows. My happiness is connected to my pain.
I have to go through these cycles. I’m forced to go through these cycles. Otherwise, they don’t mean anything. Happiness doesn’t mean anything in a cycle. Remember what pain felt like.
Once I forget what that pain felt like, my happiness becomes boredom. I have to search anew, begin again. A cycle of beginning again, auspicious beginning again and again and again. Things become happiness initially, and then become boring and then become painful and then we find happiness again. Then it becomes boring and it becomes painful and then we find happiness again.
This is what we call cyclic existence, ego based existence. This is a situation which we’re bound up with, which we’re involved in. And we’re not going to go anywhere. There’s not you know, when we talk about this, I mentioned about nirvana. It’s not as if we’re going up in the sky.
We’re just going to develop types of attitudes which go beyond this condition quality of relativity. Which is the type of happiness which doesn’t depend upon this up and down quality of pain and happiness of good and bad. So this is the develops the determination to be free, to emerge from this dissatisfactory situation. All these neurotic patterns that we’re involved in, they’re once and for all determined to be free from them. And this takes a great deal of energy, a great deal of determination.
And we’re never going to muster up that courage, this determination until we really begin to get fed up and decide to grow and make a commitment toward growth. You know, continually in all the various situations which arise in the course of our day, seeing this is an opportunity toward growth. This is an opportunity toward stagnation, egohood. This is an opportunity for Buddhahood. Now we have a choice in all the various situations which arise in the course of our day.
Perhaps in the course of our life we have very few major decisions that need to be made, that can be made. But through the course of our everyday life, there are indeterminable number of small insignificant choices that we have to begin to, we necessarily are forced to choose. And it’s the consistent choice of commitment towards growth, towards sanity, towards love, compassion, towards wisdom, which makes an ordinary person, which makes a warrior, if you like, in the words of Don Juan. Different different than an ordinary person, different than an ego based person, different than a person who’s simply basing his life on self justification of his ego and living in a daydream in his own fantasy. Different than ego based existence, dissatisfaction, discontentment, frustration, disappointment.
Consist making it, you know, as if we’re going for refuge. Almost thousands of times in the course of the day, making that choice of growth rather than stagnation, rather than simply reinforcing your neurotic compulsive pattern. This requires determination. This is the foundation, this determination to be free. This is the method of both the lesser and the greater vehicle.
So, the wisdom of the lesser and greater vehicle exactly the same, the understanding of selflessness from the point of view of the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school. The method up to this point is exactly the same, developing the determination to be free, to go beyond these compulsive neurotic patterns which I’m bound up in, this prison of cyclic existence which constitutes my life, my experience of life. These two in combination, determination to be free and the wisdom understanding selflessness can take an individual practitioner to the goal of beyond sorrow, to peace, cessation of all their difficulties, of all their problems, all their suffering. So this is the foundation of both the lesser and the greater vehicle. Now the greater vehicle goes beyond this.
Its destination is further along. It’s going to have to employ further techniques, further methods, further practices. Now if we begin to look at the nature of the self, existentially there are two aspects to the person, to the persona, to our self, who I am. There’s the private experiential aspect to our self. Then there’s the social public aspect to ourselves.
It’s as if we can There’s two ways of conceiving, of looking at the self from two different angles, from two different points of view. It’s not as if we’re schizophrenic. Two aspects to the self. One is very private, experiential. It’s only been something that we know ourselves, that we experience, my pain, my happiness.
Then there’s the public social self, the self which exists in relationship to others, the social phenomenon. It stands in relationship to others. These are the two aspects to ourselves. So the cessation of an individual suffering brings about the full potential of only one aspect of ourselves, the experiential aspect, the private self. Privately, you know, I’m okay, no more pain, my problems are solved.
At least the my of experiential aspect of myself, the private part of myself. But from the point of view of the great vehicle, this is seen as the extreme of individuation. That in fact one has not realized all of one’s potential. The social aspect of our self has not been realized, has not been actualized, has not really been developed. You know, if we’re going to make this of a holistic method of mental health, It has to take into account both of these two aspects of ourselves.
The private experiential aspect of ourselves and the social public aspect of ourselves. This constitutes our being, our persona, who we in fact are, our self. The offshoot of this, the significance of this is if we’re going to be happy, we’re going to become, realize our complete potential, we have to be concerned about how we relate with others. We cannot avoid this. That human beings are social beings.
Enlightenment is a social phenomenon. Mental health is a social phenomenon. It’s one aspect of Therefore, it becomes very important how we relate with others as to realizing our own potential. We cannot become healthy people if we have hatred in our hearts, if we’re jealous, if we’re miserly. These things are working against our best interests.
We’re finding some proper way, some skillful way to relate with others and developing these modes of being in relationship to others, the social aspect of ourselves. The social aspect of ourselves, that part which exists in relationship to others. To the extent that we’re able to bring about the welfare of others, bring about our own welfare. The significance of this is. The more skillfully we’re able to relate with others, the more that we actualize of ourselves.
The happier that we’re going to be, the more of our potential that we become that becomes manifest. You know, bringing about the wealth of others is the wealth is the most skillful way that we can relate with others and therefore develop the social aspects of ourselves. So, you know, the great vehicle said, it’s not because we’re being romantic, but we think it would be great to help others. It’s such a nice thing to do. It’s saying if you want to actualize everything that you are, if you want to know everything that you can be, then you’re going to have to make this effort.
You’re going to you want to become a Buddha. If you want to become that paradigm of sanity, you’re going to have to make effort to become skillful in the way you relate with others. And that skillful method of relating with others is bringing about the welfare of others in the context of love and compassion. If you continue in the context of hatefulness, of spite, of miserliness and jealousy, then you’re only hurting yourself. It is experienced as suffering in itself as dissatisfaction in itself because there are afflictive emotions.
It’s going to have a consequence of dissatisfaction, of pain, and it’s going to forever act as a hindrance to realizing all that you can be. You’re never going to attain, you know, realize your potential. Now we simply cannot run away to a cave and become healthy people. This is the only place to become healthy in the context of our social situation. So to the extent that one is able to bring about the welfare of others, the social aspect of our self is realized.
This coupled with the deep realization that all sentient beings are equal, that all sentient beings want to be happy, that no sentient being wants to suffer brings about an opening of our heart. In a great vehicle, we’re seeking to open our hearts and leave it open as much as possible in our relationships. We talked about renunciation. In the lesser vehicle, we renounce the causes of suffering. In the greater vehicle, we renounce that which impedes, that which creates an obstacle to communicating with others, to relating skillfully with others.
We’re communicating. We’re going to talk about that idea of communicating, of expressing this potential of our social aspect of ourselves, fulfilling the needs of others as a way of realizing your maximum potential. In order to do that, you know, I have the more I’m able to help others, the more my potential is realized. Understanding that we take a paradigm, a model of that type of being which has maximized their potential, he or she. We call this a Buddha.
Such a type of being has the maximum skills, abilities, power to bring about the welfare of others. And therefore has fulfilled his own end, her own end, has actualized the fullest social and experiential aspects of themselves and is in the process of bringing about the welfare of others to the maximum ability of an individual to do that. We call this a Buddha. We develop the attitude, I must become a Buddha. Whatever that might be, I want to be that.
I want to develop myself to develop those potentials, those abilities, those skills, those methods whereby I’m empowered to bring about the welfare of others. Developing this aspiration for the sake of all sentient beings, equal to space, I must attain purest, complete, perfect enlightenment. Enlightenment, actualization of our wisdom, the actualization of our love and compassion, the actualization of our mental and spiritual energy, environmental generosity, radiating out benefit to all sentient beings without discrimination spontaneously and ceaselessly. This is Buddha. This is what I must become.
This is what I have to begin to make the central guiding principle in my life. To begin to see in the various situations opportunities which present themselves, the consistent choice towards this goal. When this aspiration arises, it is the awakening heart in the bodhicitta, in the mind of enlightenment. This is the doorway into the great vehicle. Determination to be free is the doorway into the lesser vehicle.
The awakening heart, this aspiration to become all that you can be for the sake of others is the doorway into the greater vehicle. The Mahāyāna. One has accepted the great burden of bringing peace to all sentient beings, taking sole responsibility and bringing happiness to all sentient beings. You make these aspirations, a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is one who has awakened his or her heart, has this aspiration.
A bodhisattva makes unimaginable aspiration, prayer. Some of them are illogical. They cannot be fulfilled. But, you know, our teacher here, Khensur Rinpoche, just a few days ago, he he was giving a talk. And I guess that it was very interesting.
I liked it very much. If we have great aspiration, unimaginable aspiration, if we change just half of that, it’s really a wonderful thing. But if we have small aspirations, even if we achieve those, it’s no big deal. It’s not all that great. So just allowing your heart to awaken, to open, and making these tremendous aspirations And begin to allow that force of love and compassion to operate, that energy to begin more and more a guiding force in your life.
And if it’s achieved something very great, very wonderful, They become unlimited. They become we have something to do something. They can accomplish something. Something great. We’ve entered into the great vehicle.
That’s why it’s great. Within the great vehicle, there are two vehicles, two further vehicles. There’s the perfection vehicle and the tantric vehicle. Sometimes the perfection vehicle is called sūtra vehicle, the bodhisattva vehicle perhaps. Sometimes the tantric vehicle is called mantric vehicle, vajrayana, the vajraya vehicle.
These three, mantra, tantra, vajraya, same thing. There’s different names for the same vehicle. This thing which is going to take you from where you’re at now to where you want to ride to Buddhahood, perfect enlightenment. The goal of these two vehicles exactly the same, Buddhahood. There’s no difference between the Buddhahood of the perfection vehicle and the perfection of the Tantra vehicle.
There’s no difference as was said in the wisdom. Both possessing the wisdom of the understanding of selflessness according to the Consequentialist Middle Way school, the highest, the final thought of the Buddha with respect to the nature of reality. So there must be some difference here in the way of means. What is the difference between the lesser and the greater vehicle? They’re both exactly the same with respect to wisdom.
They both have renunciation, the determination to be free. They both have an awakening of the heart, there’s aspiration to benefit all sentient beings. So There’s no differentiation, there’s no difference up to this point. The basis of the practice of the perfection vehicle is just that, the six perfections. Generosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditative stabilization, and wisdom.
The six perfections. This is the basis of practice within the perfection vehicle. This is how an individual, according to this particular vehicle, the techniques, the means, the method is going to achieve his goal, her goal of Buddhahood, by engaging in the actions of these six perfections. Now, the goal, mental health, is constituted of the social aspect and the experiential aspect. So, you know, within the terminology of Buddhism, when these aspects of the self are completely developed, fulfilled, we call these the truth body and the form body.
The truth body, the dharmakaya, that’s the experiential aspect of our self, completely fulfilled, completely at peace. The form body, the Rūpakāya, that is the social aspect of ourselves, completely actualized, completely fulfilled, working in the world skillfully motivated by love and compassion to bring about the benefit of others. These six perfections are directed toward the achievement of those two bodies. The social aspect and the experiential aspect, the social aspect, the form body, the experiential aspect, the truth body. The first three perfections: generosity, effort, patience, generosity, ethics, and patience assisted by effort mainly develop the social aspect of the self, the form body.
The latter two of the six perfections, meditative stabilization and wisdom, assisted by effort mainly develop the experiential quality of the self, that is the dharmakaya or the truth body. So we’re trying to achieve these two bodies. We call these bodies the two aspects of the persona, of the personality of the self, the person. Simply the public self and the private self. This is what we want to achieve.
This is what we want to develop. The cOminative development of these we’re calling Buddhahood. Giving names for these things. This is what we’re going to use these means. Generosity.
Each of these can be gone into. Ethics, patience, in order to develop the social aspects of ourselves. Assistance by effort, meditative stabilization, wisdom. Assisted by effort to develop the private aspect of our body, personality, our persona, our self. This is what the means, the techniques that the Bodhisattva is employing in the perfection vehicle.
Now, in the in the perfection vehicle and the tantric vehicle, there’s no difference with respect to the actualization, to the Buddha that they’re achieving. The tantric vehicle makes use of the six perfection in achieving Buddhahood. But, and this is a big but, it employs a special technique which is not found in the perfection vehicle to quickly develop that social aspect of ourselves. This is the extraordinary quality of the tantric vehicle. This technique is called Deity Yoga.
The difference between the perfection vehicle and the tantric vehicle is in the skillful method of developing the form body, of the skillful method of developing the social aspect of our self. This is the aspect of our self which exists with whose sole function it is to bring about the welfare of others. So to be able to develop such an aspect of our personality whose sole function is to bring about the welfare of others, we make use of Deity Yoga. To develop that mentality, that attitude of mind whose sole function is to seek to help others, to have the skill to bring up the welfare of others. All of the practices of tantra are either deity yoga or tantra, or Deity Yoga or Emptiness Yoga.
Emptiness, that which understands the nature of reality. We can give it another name, selflessness. All the practices of tantra are either involved in Deity Yoga or Emptiness Yoga or practices which enhance these two. Through the means of emptiness yoga, we’re going to achieve what? The cessation of our own suffering, the fulfillment of our private experiential aspect of ourselves, our own peace.
Through the means of Deity Yoga, we’re going to bring about the fulfillment of the social aspect of ourselves, the ability to communicate, relate with others in a skillful fashion. It is here in the method of developing the social aspect of ourselves which makes tantra unique. But it has to be seen as a progression of first the lesser vehicle and then within the context of the great vehicle as a progression from the perfection vehicle. Tantra employs the six perfections, but additionally has the technique of Deity Yoga, which is not contained within the perfection vehicle. Everything that we’re going to do in our practice of Tantra is simply trying to develop these two aspects of ourselves, the private experiential, the social public self.
Private experiential is realized as peace, experienced as peace. The social public aspect of ourselves is realized as a skillful way of relating with others to bring about their welfare. This is our aim. This is our goal. Whatever goal that we’re trying to set for ourselves, whatever result that we’re trying to achieve, the causes must always be in accordance with the result that we’re looking for, that we’re trying to develop.
If you want to grow wheat, you have to plant a wheat seed. If you plant some other type of seed, you’re not going to get that result. Results are always in accordance with their cause. If we want to achieve a particular result, we have to create causes which are related, which are similar in nature to the results that we’re seeking. We’re trying to develop both aspects for ourselves, to achieve peace within and without working skillfully to benefit others.
For the one we make use of, for the former, we make use of emptiness yoga. We’re able to eliminate ignorance from our mind, bringing about a cessation of suffering, and we experience peace. To bring about the other, the way we relate with others, we use Deity Yoga. And this is what we’re going to talk a little bit about, Deity Yoga, because this is the significant difference. This is the extraordinary practice which makes tantra the most profound vehicle of all the vehicles.
Within the perfection vehicle, sometimes perfection vehicle is called the causal vehicle. We’re trying to create causes to become something that we’re looking for, our goal. We create those causes by engaging in the six perfections, as I just mentioned. You know, the first three perfections assisted by the fourth perfection of effort, are the congruent, are the causes for bringing about the result of the form body, the social aspect of the Buddha. The meditative stabilization and wisdom, perfection, assisted by effort are the causes for bringing about the experiential aspect of the Buddha, the truth body.
So these are the concordant causes that we’re trying to engage in, that a Bodhisattva is engaging in order to achieve his goal. Therefore, he’s creating causes which are similar to what he wants to become or she wants to become, which are going to be the result. This is why it’s called the causal vehicle, creating causes to become that’s what you’re seeking, to achieve those two bodies of the Buddha. Through Deity Yoga, we are seeking to quickly achieve, manifest, realize the social aspect of ourselves, to develop that aspect of ourselves. Tantra is often time referred to as the resultant vehicle.
The resultant vehicle. It takes the result which we’re seeking and brings it into the path. It takes, and we’re trying to achieve a truth body and a form body. Know, these are the bodies of a Buddha. It makes use of these by bringing them into the path.
It takes the results and we make use of results. We take what we call a similitude of the result. You know, we’re trying to become a Buddha. We’re trying to achieve a form body and a truth body. We take a similitude of that form body and in the context of a meditational deity motivated by compassion, with an understanding of selflessness.
We try to develop an open fluid state, induced by the understanding of the wisdom, understanding selflessness. An open fluid state, and we manifest in the form of a deity. And all these various figures that you see around us, these strange figures, are meditational deities. For example, this is Chindrissy in Sanskrit, who is the embodiment of compassion. You can see that one.
These figures these images on the altar, On the far, you know, on the second rung on the on your far left is Tārā, you know, one of the first feminine radical radical feminists. Next to her is Chenrezig. Then the guy with the sword is Mañjuśrī, the embodiment of wisdom. So, you know, we’re going to make use of these meditation or deities as a way of actualizing a potential within us. We’re going to create a cause which is very similar to the effect we’re trying to achieve, and we actually take that effect and make use of it.
We mentally assume the body, speech, and mind of that which we’re trying to become. We mentally assume the body, speech, and mind of, for example, Tārā. Tārā, you know, a radiant, beautiful, sixteen year old woman made a, you know, completely radiating with some energy, environmental generosity. You know, how would that feel to be completely involved in compassion, working to benefit others with the skillfulness of wisdom? We can talk about it.
We’re taking the enlightened activities of Buddha and we’re making use of our imagination to engage in their various practices so that we can actually bring about that mentality, that aspect of our self to full fruition. You know, it’s not we have to dig into differentiate between delusions of grandeur and Deity Yoga and divine pride, for example. You know, someone walked up to Baba Ram Dass and he said, you know, I’m I’m Jesus Christ. Oh, fantastic. And Baba Ram Dass answered, that’s why I really love to hear when people say that.
I mean, we’re all Jesus Christ, aren’t we? No. You don’t understand. I really am Jesus Christ. And Baba Ram Dass just said, I’m sorry to hear that, and walked away.
There’s a big difference between saying, I’m Jesus Christ, and I really am Jesus Christ. There’s a big difference between affirming one’s own divinity and in that context, the divinity of all beings on the one hand and simply having delusions of grandeur or thinking of Jesus Christ at the expense of others, at the exclusion of others. You know, one is simply in the context of our tantric practice, because we are making use of the wisdom, understanding, and selflessness, because there’s no ego grasping, there’s no possibility for the development of pride. Because we are motivated by compassion, any type of self centeredness is temporarily obstructive, is temporarily pacifying. So it’s not as if we’re simply putting costumes on our ego and thinking, you know, what a fine person I am.
That we’re, you know, we’re actually re identifying who we in fact are. And this becomes something very important. This is the basis of tantra. It’s not as if we’re trying to become Napoleon or something other than what we are. We are simply trying to become who we are.
A quotation from Trungpa Rinpoche. The Buddhist path which leads to seeing one’s situation as a mandala begins with taking refuge. We take refuge in the Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. This can happen on various levels. There is the ordinary physical level of just repeating the formula.
But this also involves a process happening within us. Regarding this inner level, we have the instruction to take refuge in something which is abiding, something which can actually offer refuge. We can only take refuge in something certain. Otherwise, taking refuge would be a pure fiction. It would not provide the security we want.
So on the inner level, taking refuge means surrendering to those forces which we are, so to speak, the last transformation. These forces have, in a way, become frozen in us. Taking refuge thus means to commit ourselves to a process of unfreezing so that life’s energy, or whatever you want to call these forces, that operate through us and somehow get blocked, can flow freely. Our presence involves an embodiment, an activity of communication, and patterns of thinking. This is what constitutes our being, an embodiment, activities of communication, and processes of thinking.
This is what we are. This is who we are. So these are expressed. Our presence is expressed through these three modes. This is the way we relate to the world, to situations, physically, verbally, and mentally.
Rather than aiming at the attainment of enlightenment, which is something far away from us, you know, some enlightened state, which is far removed from us. The Tantric approach is to see the continuity of the enlightened state in all our situations, to begin to see the spark of enlightenment, which we are continually manifesting, expressing in all our situations. Beginning to see the spark of sanity behind our neurosis. In other words, our present body, speech, mind are manifestations of a rather miserable deity. You know, we we are acting you know, we have been practicing tantra our entire life.
Know, tantra is life. It’s just the type of deity that we’ve chosen to identify with. You know, there’s a there’s a little karmic here. It’s two boys walking home from school. The one boy’s just taking examination and he has his result in his hand.
And he says to the second boy, that new teacher really did a number on me. The second boy says, I thought I’d thought I’d get a B on that test, and he gave me a C. The third boy says, how did he know I was a C student? You know, how did he know I did how did he know I was a C student? You know, he tried to you know, he couldn’t quite cover it up.
His c ness was kind of oozing out of his skin. You know? He couldn’t he tried to pretend. He tried to deceive the teacher, but the teacher was just saw through his pretense. You know?
But, you know, I’m a c grade person. This this I’m gonna marry a c grade wife. I’m gonna get a c grade job. I’m gonna have a c grade life, and I’m gonna raise c grade children and teach them how to be great become c grade people. You know, we’ve chosen a C grade deity for our practice of Tantra.
You know, we’re locked in to certain roles, to certain concepts. We’re frozen. We’re stuck with this image, this identity we now have. No matter what you may conceive of yourself, no matter what identity you may hold to, that is in fact not who you are. The process of selecting, focusing, filtering out those types of expressions of our sanity, of our love and compassion which are not consistent to the type of image that we’re trying to hold of ourselves in order to gain some security, some feeling out of the fear of an open fluid state of relating.
This is the way I am, this is the way I always have been, and this is the way I’m always going to be. So don’t bother me with this deity business, this tantric business. It may not be satisfactory but at least it’s home. I’m familiar with it. I know who it is.
I might not like it but it’s better than taking a chance, becoming something other than I don’t know. Within the you’re trying to in this way all our energy become blocked. You know, tantra is seeking to unfreeze our concepts. Unfreeze our energies and get them flowing again. A quotation from Lama Yeshe.
On the topmost altar there’s two pictures side by side. And on your right side is Lama Yeshe. He was the founder of the foundation for the preservation of Mahāyāna tradition, of which Buddha House is a member. He died about four years ago. Quotation from one of his teachings.
The tantra main dealing, the main dealing, the problem, what is the problem? It is the ordinary recognition that I am poor man, poor woman. You understand? Perceiving, holding as poor one, poor object, poor quality and perceiving also as such poor ugly, having lower opinion of ourselves, of our body, a lower opinion of our quality. That is the worst symptom.
To be healthy, to be liberated, that is the main dealing, to eradicate, to cut. As long as you’ve decided, having preconception that I am the self pitying one, you decided, you decided already that you are this bad guy. You decided already. When you decided you are a bad guy, you always are bad guy, bad action, of course. That way it’s true.
This is psychology. This is psychological reality. You’ve chosen. You’ve decided almost consciously, but definitely unconsciously, that you’re insufficient, negative, that you don’t quite have what it takes, that you aren’t a beautiful divine being. And this is the way you’re going to experience your reality.
And this is the way your life is going to be led. This is your life. You’ve decided what type of life. Now it’s just making minor adjustments along the way. And you pretty much know the course of you have chosen the type of existence you’re going to live.
You’ve chosen. You’ve decided. And now life becomes simply a self defeating, self fulfilling prophecy which you’ve determined for yourself. By identifying with a meditational deity, know, Tārā. Tārā is the embodiment of the Buddha activities, working in the world to bring about the welfare of others.
A vibrant sixteen year old woman with all the creative potentials of a woman, with all the nurturing qualities, the caring qualities, radiating out wisdom and compassion, just like environmental generosity, just radiating light being, everything, benefiting everything within its environment. Chenrezig, embodiment of compassion, and Mañjuśrī, embodiment of wisdom. We assume this identity. Assume the identity. You you can do something.
This is feeling. We don’t have to We can give up clinging to one’s present conception about who you are. This continual grasping towards this is who I am, this is the way I’ve always been, this is the way I’m always going to be, this great C person, this negative person. We can give up clinging to that because we know that there’s something else that we are, that we can develop divine pride. Divine pride comes out of facing the reality of who you are, of one’s very nature, that you have something, that you can do something, that you have love, compassion, that you have wisdom.
It’s not as if you don’t have these things. In fact, you do. This is the reality of who you are. That you’re a beautiful person, that you have these divine qualities. This is who you are.
That the seeds of Buddha, that potential of an enlightened being are within you right now. That we are not going to cease to exist if we cease to be the type of particular identity that we’re holding now. I can give up that identity. I’m not going to go out of existence. This is simply a concept.
This type of grade C person is simply an idea, a viewpoint, an attitude within my own mind. It is not who I am. I don’t have to cling to this any longer. I can become everything that I know I can be. I can experience that within the moment.
You know, we’re not trying to become something what one would like to be. It’s not a matter of but rather bringing one’s innate qualities to full blossom. And these qualities are wisdom, love, and compassion, and infinite spiritual and mental energy. And if the confused ego pride simply indulges in wishful thinking, just trying to become something else. We’re not trying to become something else.
Rather just being willing to be what one is, who we in fact are. Another quotation from Lama Yeshe. So using the skillful method, it is possible life becomes a transcendental experience. Life becomes enlightened experience. That is, isn’t it?
I don’t know. Maybe I cannot use that word. I think that it is enlightenment experience. One way is that Tantrayāna. Tantrayāna, tantrayana.
One having comprehension, recognition that I am Tārā, that I am Chenrezig, that I am Mañjuśrī. Tantric, the reason perhaps this way we put it together. Each of us, we do have a psyche or consciousness or physical body. We have. This body, this bloody body, born this body, we’re not transforming.
Radically, my body becomes? No. Tārā, no. Perhaps we can say, no but my consciousness, my psyche is transformed. Perhaps you can say, one of my psychic aspects is Tārā.
One of my psychic aspects is Tārā, is Chenrezig, is Mañjuśrī. One of my psychic aspects is Tārā, is Chenrezig, is Mañjuśrī. For example, our life each day, each month we manifest different. Sometimes wrathful manifestation when anger comes out. Sometimes like Chenrezig, loving kindness, try to keep all body, speech and mind on others.
You can see an entirely different person that we know according to our life we know. We check up, we know. Our dear friend sometimes becomes so good like Chenrezig and sometimes so wrathful, hurt, brokenhearted. The various potentials which exist within our psyche, Whether we can talk about it from the point of archetypal psychology. That these deities, these meditation deities act as archetypal combinations of potentials within the human psyche.
And we’re giving them a chance to develop, giving them a creative imaginative space to express themselves. As long as we hold on to this C grade identity, there’s never a chance. We’ve got all the blocking and we’ve got energy tied up. So by identifying with a meditation deity, this deity yoga, for example, Chenrezig, we are bringing all the embodiment, the psychic potential, our compassion to full development, to blossom. We begin to relate with the situations with the body, speech and mind of Chenrezig.
I am a compassionate person. The various opportunities, the choices which begin to present themselves in all our daily activities, we act out Mañjuśrī, as Chenrezig, as Tārā, from that attitude, from that mentality of an embodiment, of activity of communication as a mental pattern. You know, the element, the spark of Chenrezig is within us. And we identify with that. We begin to continue to identify with that.
This is what tantra means. The word tantra means continuity, continuous continuation. We find a proper way of relating to situations and we continue that type of relating in that manner. Taking the personified aspect of wisdom, of love, of compassion, of skillful action. We begin to create the imaginative space for these qualities to manifest themselves.
Now we have love, we have compassion, we have wisdom, we have creative activities, spontaneous energy. It’s creating the space to allow the free flow of your expression to taking these personified aspects. It’s as if we’re momentarily pushing aside all these weeds of self grasping at a very negative type of identity, allowing these seeds the light of day, allowing them to express themselves. Know, giving them a chance to grow. We become aware of the fleeting moments of enlightened quality within our daily life.
Our everyday life that we usually select out which aren’t consistent with the type of great C person that I’m trying to hold on to. Sparks of enlightenment. This is why we’re taking a result and bringing it into the path because we have the sparks of enlightenment. As long as you identify yourself as a sick person, there’s no remedy. You’re always going to have to make an effort to become a well person.
So the situation becomes very much like a poor person who just won a million dollars. Having been poor, they have a mentality of poverty about them. This is the way they relate with the world and dependent upon that way of relating, this is the way they experience their reality. And this feeds back and reinforces their mentality of poverty. But now they just want a million dollars.
So sometimes, from time to time to the force of mindfulness and awareness. And what? Why am I acting this way? Why am I relating as if I’m a poor man, poor woman? I’ve got a million dollars in my pocket.
So the certain instances of relation when this mindfulness manifests themselves in this individual that he in fact has a million dollars. He relates a little bit differently. And therefore the way he relates determines how he experiences his reality. He begins to experience his reality slightly differently. And the way he experiences reality feeds back and slowly develops the mentality of richness, of wealth.
He keeps reinforcing, he keeps asking through his mindfulness, I am a rich person. Why am I keep consistently acting out, relating to the world as if I’m poor? This changes the way he experiences reality. This reinforces his feeling, I’m not a poor person. I can do something.
I have some abilities. I have some love. I have some compassion. I have some wisdom. And this in turn changes the way he relates, in turn changing the way he experiences until finally he becomes a rich person, a wealthy person.
Know wealthy people, some of them are miserly, some of them are generous, some of them are intelligent, some of them are not so intelligent, but they all have the mentality of wealth. This is what they bring to the situation, the feeling of wealth. We can all bring however we may be in a peculiarity. We’re not going to become robots, but we can all begin to bring the feelings of wealth to a situation of I can do something. I can bring my wisdom.
I can trust in that. I can bring my compassion, my love to this situation. I can do that. I can act out of this spontaneous energy in the way I relate. All of this manifests itself and is peculiar to you as individuals in the various situations.
We cannot rehearse all these parts but we can act out of this mentality of richness, out of divine pride which is in fact based upon the reality of who we in fact are. Through this practice of tantra we become made aware of ourselves, that we’re beautiful beings, that we can do something with our lives, we can do something to benefit of others, that we have our Buddha nature, We have the qualities of wisdom, love and compassion and skillful actions benefiting others. And though presently these qualities might be limited, though they might be unrefined, through this process of Deity Yoga, through this process of Tantra, we become mindful of them and begin to use them as the basis for our way of relating. We take refuge in them, we commit ourselves to them. Committing yourself to everything that you in fact are, to trust in yourself, trusting your wisdom, trusting your love and compassion.
This is going to bring you real happiness. This is the way you can really benefit others. It’s not going to figure out all the various situations. You made many mistakes, but in the ultimate end. There is no other choice but to begin to trust in fact who you are and allow it to develop itself.
You know committing yourself to grow. Committing yourself to becoming everything you can become. We begin to trust in our innate qualities, our basic sanity, our basic goodness that life is a wonderful spring and we are wonderful beings. This is the tantric attitude toward life.