Alex Wilding
Appearances
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
From time to time, this is punctuated by blowing the kangling, a sort of trumpet. Originally, and still quite often, a kangling is made of a human thigh bone, although these days wooden and resin versions are also used for a number of reasons. The fact that a human thigh bone is not easy to come by is only one of them. The requirements of travel is another.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The rules and the laws about taking human body parts across borders will all differ according to the countries concerned. And in many cases, it is in fact legal to take such an object, even though it does consist of human remains across borders.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
But not in all cases, and not all border cards are in any case likely to know the detailed rules about the difference between human tissue and an antique artifact. My own teacher recently told me a nice story about one of his teachers, the late Yeshe Dorje, a powerful Churd practitioner, also noted as a rainmaker. There is a biography of him referring to that very name, the rainmaker.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
He had travelled across the border between Nepal and India quite a number of times with his real kangling without any problem. But on one occasion, the Indian border staff decided that this was just not a good thing, and they wanted to confiscate the kangling. Yeshe Dorji said something like, ''Oh, very well, but give me a couple of minutes first.''
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
He then picked up the kangling and blew it fiercely in the four directions, before offering it to them, saying, Now you may confiscate it, but if anything bad happens, I accept no responsibility. The guards, by now quite nervous, wouldn't touch it, saying, No, no, no, take it away. Off you go and take it with you. So...
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
How did our practitioner out in the dark and haunted cemetery, a kilometre away from the Double Dorje extension guesthouse, react? Did she scream and run away in terror? Or did she overpower you all with the splendour of her spiritual realisation? That part of the story is for another time. So, with that, we've reached the end of today's episode.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
It's night-time, and the room is dark, lit only by a couple of candles. The conversation It is witty, but you find you just do have to go outside for a leak. It does happen. Not wanting to pollute the ground right next to the inn, you walk 50 yards up the path. It's not difficult. There is a quarter moon hanging low in the west, giving enough light.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Don't forget to like, share and subscribe, and keep letting go. Bye!
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
As you arrange your clothing again after relieving yourself, you hear something in the distance. Bop, bop, bop, bop, along with ting, ting, ting, ting. You strain your ears.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The blare of what is in fact a human thigh bone being used as a trumpet. Whoa! Back in the double dorge, because this guest house that we are picturing is an emanation of the real virtual double dorge restaurant, you tell your companions what you heard. Ooh, they say, so we have a chur par in the neighbourhood, do we? Let's check him out.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Do you suppose he's up at the old cemetery, the one that got too full of bodies? See if we can scare him, see if he's the real deal. You troop out and head that way, staying very close to one another. If by daylight you wonder whether the place is haunted by ghouls and ghosts, at this time of night you have very few doubts indeed. Twenty minutes later, you're getting close.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The sound does indeed lead you to the graveyard. say your companions. When you've crept to within 20 metres of the source of the sound, the voice tells you that the practitioner is a woman, which is even braver than a man, if that is for other, less ghostly reasons.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
10 metres, creeping, creeping, getting closer, just 5 metres, and then altogether, woo-hoo, boobly, holla, holla, boobly, boobly, waving your arms about in the darkness. If this practitioner jumps up and runs away in terror, she will have to find another site to look for support.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
But if she calmly continues with the bop, bop, bop, bop, the ting, ting, ting, ting, and the sonorous melodies of the chant, then yoghurt, barley flour, butter and fruit are going to be offered over the coming days and even weeks. So what then is this church? The simple answer is that it's a method of spiritual practice. A fuller answer is that it's a whole bunch of methods of spiritual practice.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
So much so that it is counted as one of the eight great chariots of Buddhism in Tibet. It's described that way in the Treasury of Knowledge, which was composed in the 19th century by the one and only Jamgon Kontrol the Great.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The first Jamgon Kontrol was a towering figure in the spiritual life of the Tibet of his time and was one of the founders of the Primae movement, the movement that dismantled at least some of the artificial walls between the established schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The founders of the movement worked very hard to make sure that it wasn't creating some kind of mishmash and that it was preserving all the traditions in their full individuality. The implication of this seems to me that the movement may have been as significant politically as it was spiritually.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Let me say straight away that I'm not a great practitioner, but I have been doing it for quite a lot of years now. Inevitably, one of my visitors, my niece as it happens, asked me just what this churd practice is. I gave her a bit of an explanation, but it was muddled and it was unclear. So I made the excuse that because I haven't done a podcast about it yet, I haven't got my thoughts into order.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
As part of his work, Jamgon Kontrol produced an enormous literary output, including the Treasury of Knowledge, which is something of an encyclopedia of Buddhism. In it, he refers to these eight chariots, the eight practice lineages, or we might also think of them as eight great rivers running through the Buddhist continent of the time.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
They include, amongst others, the Nyingma tradition, which is based on the early translations, the Kadam, which emphasised strict discipline and study, the teachings known as Path and Fruit of the Sakyas school, the tradition of the Kalachakra Tantra, which was perhaps the last major Tantra to develop in India and reach Tibet, two quite distinct varieties of cardew, and the tradition of churn.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
As usual, there's more to it than I have just mentioned, and in the description I will include some technical terms if you want to look them up later.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
I don't really think there is an equivalent in Western culture, but for a very, very rough suggestion, you might think of these rivers as having a parallel with, say, the Presbyterians, the high church Protestants like the Anglicans, the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox Church. All have a lot in common, but they are quite different in other ways.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
There are two particular unique features of the church tradition. Firstly, although its origins are closely connected to an Indian figure, Padampa Sanjay, Chert as we know it now is a tradition indigenous to Tibet. Its main teachings and practices were formulated by an extraordinary woman, Machig Labdron.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
If you only want to look up one of the things I mention in this episode, I would suggest that Machig Labdron would be your best starting point. Iconographically, she is most often painted as a white darkiny figure, dancing on her left leg, holding a rather large raised double-sided drum, known as a damaru in her right hand, and a bell in her left.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Oh, she also has a third eye in the middle of her forehead. In these pictures she is, obviously enough, raised pretty much to the status of a deity in her own right, although it remains perfectly clear that she was a very real human being. I'll not say more about her here, as the episode would then become altogether too long.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
And what were those teachings that eventually became so popular and that we still practice today? I think it might help to distinguish two sides, which is to say the ritual practice and the underlying thrust of her teachings. The first is perhaps better known, and the second perhaps more important. The name Ch'er itself means cutting. It refers to the cutting of all attachments.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
On a conceptual level, this means recognising the emptiness of all phenomena, a vital Buddhist theme, as you almost certainly know. This is the focus of the perfection of wisdom teachings, and it is, so to speak, the soil from which the Chö practice grows.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
More personally, it means cutting attachment to ourselves and not being carried away by what are known as the Four Maras, something you'll hear a lot about if you do study Machik Labdron's teachings. The explanations she provides to this are extensive, they are subtle, and they are profound.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
If you're interested in learning more detail, Machik's complete explanation might well be the book to go for. Now, the thing to which the majority of us are most tightly attached is our own bodies, and the ritual practice of Chöd is aimed at letting go of that attachment.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
In our visualization and meditation, we think of our bodies as being chopped up, cooked up, and offered to the four guests, or rather the four classes of guests. The first of these classes is the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to whom we have devotion, and these are called the guests of honour.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
So here we are doing just that. Before we get started, I want to encourage you to take a moment to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends in whatever way is appropriate for the channel you're listening on. At the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean, but it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The second class are the powerful deities who may not be fully enlightened Buddhas, but who can offer us protection and help on the path. The third class is quite simply all sentient beings. Every one. And the fourth class, which actually is a subdivision of the third, it's all those beings to whom we specifically owe a karmic debt.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Those who have done things for us that we have not acknowledged, and those whom we have harmed or exploited, are karmic creditors. Shortly before the COVID pandemic struck, I was attending some teachings in Vienna. One of the students also in attendance was a wonderful young woman from South America. Argentina, if I remember correctly. In any event, she had a great fondness for mate tea.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
She had been learning chud from her teacher. I'm not sure who that was. And a few months before this occasion had developed a very nasty rash on one side of her face. The teacher told her she should be delighted because it was a sign that the practice was working. Provided she continued, it would clear up. I certainly hope that it did.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
On the side of ritual practice, there is an enormous variety in both the extent of the rituals and in the intensity with which they are practiced. The simplest one I've come across is a single four-line verse recited about once a day as part of a regular preliminary practice.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
The tradition associated with the medical tantras has a Chö practice that's a couple of pages long and can be done in 10 or even perhaps as little as five minutes. The Karmacarya tradition has a popular and very beautiful practice, which can be shortened, but which can easily take some hours.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
While the tradition from the Dudum Tersa is a large compendium of Chö practices, which might perhaps take half an hour each. but there are hundreds more Chö practices in circulation. In parallel with all these variations in length, the intensity with which the practice is performed also varies.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Obviously enough, a single verse, what we might call recognition of the principle of Chö, of offering our own bodies to others, is likely to be just a small element in some other larger practice. At the other extreme, practitioners who are specifically devoted to this practice may perhaps make a tour of 108 cemeteries, moving to a different one each day to perform the offering.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
One related tradition, not quite the same, is to use a sling, something like what David must have used against Goliath. In the morning, the practitioner would shoot off a stone with this sling, move to wherever it fell, and that would be the campsite for the next night.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
And for yet more variety, hundreds or I believe even thousands of practitioners of the Dujum Tersa tradition gather each year in Bhutan to practice together. It's impressive. Look for it on YouTube. That's the sound of thousands of practitioners at one of the huge meetings in Bhutan. Here is the sound of a lone practitioner.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Hello, and a warm, warm welcome again to this Double Dorje podcast. Come in, sit down, have a cup of tea, and let's talk about chud. A week ago I had a rare but welcome visit from members of my family. None of them are Buddhists, but they are naturally curious about some of the things I get up to, and it came into conversation that churd is one of my regular practices.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
If you want to see the brief comments, but they don't appear in your channel, you will find them on Podbean. So, picture yourself now, if you will, in some kind of primitive guesthouse in remote, well, where? Maybe Nepal, or Tibet, or Sikkim, or even Scotland. We do have practicing Buddhists and Buddhist centres in the West, after all, as well as haunted houses and haunted graveyards.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Here is the rather charming sound of 40 or 50 chirpers practicing together, most of them women, which to my mind gives something rather beautiful to the tone. We should not forget that the cemeteries known to the tradition were not the peaceful, hygienic, almost sterile graveyards known to us in the West.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
Bodies would be laid out and left to wild animals or, quite commonly in Tibet, chopped up for vultures. In any event, not places of pretty polished marble stone. These very serious chirp practitioners would, was more, have an appearance that is perhaps best described as unconventional. An internet search for images of chirpas will show you what I mean.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
And finally, we should take a look at the equipment that's typical of Chö practice. The first thing you will notice when you see somebody practicing Chö is the large, double-sided drum, or damaru. A smaller Damaru, perhaps six inches across, is widely used in a lot of Tibetan rituals. But the one used for Chö is very roughly twice as big in each direction.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Cut and chop, cut and chop! Yes, it's Chöd.
So, obviously enough, it has a deeper tone and is played more slowly. It goes bop-bop, where the standard one rattles. Oh, you can hear a standard one. It just occurs to me in the intro and outro I'm using for this podcast. It's played along with the bell, which is, again, something very common in Tibetan rituals, to accompany a chant that tends to be slow and in its own way very melodious.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Some of these things will be given away, some will be burnt. For a similar reason, Tibetans will generally avoid ever saying the name of the deceased person. I do recall Alethea, the wife of the sadly recently deceased Atto Rinpoche, explaining how, after he had been visiting family in Tibet, he came back saying, My uncle died.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
She asked which one, but he didn't know because nobody had said his name. So believe me, they do take these matters seriously. When it comes to the deaths of revered religious figures, there are a number of things that sometimes happen that you might not expect. Perhaps I might talk about some of these in more detail in future episodes, but today I'll just give them a brief mention.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
First is a word you may come across, Tugdam. When a person with this high status, or at least a revered person, dies, it is held that they may well enter a state of extremely profound meditation in which their body has essentially stopped functioning, but without quite having come to a complete halt.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The body will remain, often with the legs locked in a meditation posture, and without collapsing for hours or even days, without showing the usual signs of rigor mortis or indeed of collapsing. The tradition then is to leave the body as undisturbed as possible until that point comes when death is complete and the body does collapse.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The longer this period of tukdam lasts, the more impressive it is. If the person was of high status, their body may well be kept. One technique is for it to be packed in salt and kept in a box for weeks or months to become desiccated, after which it may well then be gilded, dressed and kept in an appropriate place. It's a technique calling for quite a bit of skill and experience.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The Buddhist view is rather different and suggests that the way we think about death, the way we react to it, our motivation and intention continue to operate and influence where we go next. Of course, the thoughts that we've habitually cultivated in this life will have a very strong effect, forming our mental states after we've left our bodies.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The salt that was used may then be distributed in little packets to the devotees, but I stress that this is for use in emergencies, and it's not for general culinary purposes. One of the top things to do in Kathmandu for people with a connection to the Nyingma tradition, and in particular to the Dujum branch of that tradition, is to visit Dujum Rinpoche's temple not far from the Bauda stupa.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
where a large golden stupa, or at least large for indoors, holds his body, with his face peeping out of a window in the main bulbous part of the stupa. And then we have the rainbow body, which is demonstrated by some practitioners of the Dzogchen teachings.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In this, the body shrinks away, evaporating into rainbow light, to a greater or lesser extent after death, becoming very small or even vanishing. Looking more closely at that would definitely go over the boundaries of this episode. Just don't be surprised when you hear about it. And now I think I've probably said enough.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Please, again, if you haven't already, remember to like this episode of The Double Dorje, to subscribe, or to do whatever it is that suits your channel. And remember that death does come to us all, although most of us have a lot to do before that. Bye!
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
And there are many teachings and practices designed to help during that drastic phase. But as I like to emphasise, I'm not here to be your Buddhist teacher, but rather just to be a fellow traveller with a little bit of experience. So I shan't be looking at those things very much. When somebody close to us dies, it is, of course, a time of considerable sadness and grief.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
It's not my intention in this episode to touch on any of the themes that you might call grief-cancelling. I just want to look at some practical things that might make your dealings with this in the Tibetan Buddhist context go a bit more smoothly. You may, for example, hear of a practice known as Powa, meaning transference.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The term actually refers to all sorts of ways involving gentle and subtle meditations as much as forceful techniques for ejecting our consciousness out of the top of our head. Talking about any of these things would be above my pay grade.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
I had planned to do an episode related to death sometime in the future, but a near neighbour of mine died two days ago, and I went to the funeral yesterday, which brought the subject of death to mind. This neighbour was quite old, and had been experiencing heavy dementia for quite some time, but as the grandmother of the family, it was, of course, a sombre day.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Not being a Christian myself, I didn't want to intrude by trying to get into the tiny church, but I did simply stand around amongst the quiet, small crowd outside. As we waited for the service to unfold, another neighbour, I'll call him Eddie, not related to me or to the Paride family, asked me what I, seeing as how I am a Buddhist, wanted done when it's my turn.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
But to follow the motto of first take care of business, it'd really be great if you would take a moment to press the like button, the subscribe button, or whatever it is that you have on your listening platform. It really will help to grow and maintain the podcast. And tell your friends too. And there's one more thing that I say every time.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
I laughed and told him that I didn't really care very much. Nobody's going to build a large white stupa up a nearby mountain and put my preserved remains in there, that's for sure. Eddie wondered whether I might want to be cremated. He had realised that cremation is quite common in India, but also that there are some religions that disapprove of it or actually forbid it.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
After all, it was a practice that only began to be carried out in the UK towards the end of the 19th century. The thing is that while some religions do indeed approve or disapprove of various ways of disposing of dead bodies, Buddhism is in fact not very interested in that question. Local customs and practices will often enough be the deciding factor. Cremation is popular.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
as the historical Buddha was cremated, and that set naturally something of an example, but it's not a requirement. As it happens, my own personal number one teacher, Ngadpa Kamalundup, quite frequently oversees funerals in Dharamsala where he lives. His father before him had been what I think is known as a funeral master.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
These cremations are accompanied by a variety of rites, particularly the recitation of sacred texts, and need someone skilled in those things to carry the ceremony out properly. Many of you are probably quite aware that a lot of things that make us feel uncomfortable are not hidden in the East in the way that they are in the modern world.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Sickness and death are quite simply out there on the street for all to see. Typically at such a cremation the body would indeed be wrapped up in a funeral shroud of some sort, but the observer can very easily see what it is and watch the process of it being consumed by the flames. Burning ghats, that's G-H-A-T-S, are to be found on the banks of important rivers in the Indian subcontinent.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In Kathmandu, perhaps the main site is Pashupatinath, where bodies are cremated along the banks of the river, and where many people try to come to spend the last days of their life before being cremated there. Generally speaking, Hindus do have a high awareness of what we might call the cycle of life and death.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
So, just as Pashupatinath is associated with death and cremation, it is also associated, particularly on the opposite bank, with betrothal. It is essentially a Hindu site and people who are not Hindu cannot enter the main temple. And that, by the way, includes the Hare Krishna lot. Nevertheless, it's a special site for Buddhists as well.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
On one side of the river, there are two tiny caves very close to one another. The Naropa Cave and the Tilopa Cave. Naropa and Tilopa, important figures in particularly the Kaju lineage, are believed to have meditated in these caves, and they are said to be the place where Tilopa gave teachings to Naropa, who had a vision there of Vajrayogini.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
At the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean, but it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else. If you do want to see the brief comments, or indeed the transcript or the other document that I'm going to include in the notes, and they don't appear on your channel, or if you want to see a bit more about the episode in any way, you'll find that information on Podbean.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
As a general rule, they're locked, but it is possible we'd like to spend a little time in them. I don't honestly know whether I was particularly fortunate to get that chance, which I did, or whether it is in fact quite easy to get access. If there's a listener out there who knows, please add a comment.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Pashupatinath is also a highly appropriate place for the practice of Chö, although that's not something that I got a chance to do. In short, cremation is quite a common way in which Buddhists dispose of dead bodies. However, a funeral pyre that will burn hot enough to reduce the human body to ashes does take quite a lot of wood.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
This is one reason why half-burned bodies are so often cast into some rivers in India, which, amongst other things, is very obviously a serious health hazard. In Tibet, the fuel situation is even more acute. The country is arid, and many people would probably never ever have wood to just burn, even for a funeral. The main fuel for domestic use would be dried animal dung.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In Tibet, of course, the animals might well be yaks. In Nepal, more likely ordinary cattle. Now, this fuel, which is used in many parts of the world, may well burn and give heat, but not ferocious heat, and that's therefore not enough for a serious cremation. Another technique, known as sky burial, is therefore not uncommon. This involves the body being cut up and fed to vultures.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Even the bones are crushed, and there are some species of vulture who live on little else. To western eyes, this is a gruesome sight. But realistically, what is the alternative? Feeding the vultures is an honourable way to deal with the body. Ecologically, it's probably much more sound than cremation.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
I remember in my late teens and early twenties, which, yes, I know, that was back in history, but then I was a keen reader of science fiction. And I remember one story, which could in fact be quite a well-known one, because mostly I read paperbacks from famous writers.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In this story, a space-travelling human enters a lost spacecraft to find that an alien, who is still there, has eaten the original human pilot.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Hello everybody, including those who are listening regularly and those who've just stumbled across this podcast. Please feel truly welcome to the Double Doge. I'm Alex Wilding and in this episode I'm going to talk a little bit about death and what Buddhists do about it.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Details I don't remember, but somehow it turns out that the alien had found this a very unpleasant thing to do, but had felt obliged to do it in order to properly honour the pilot who had died in some kind of accident, rather than leaving the body to low-grade lifeforms such as bacteria.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Offering to the birds, while it may be shocking to some of our eyes, is in fact a respectful and ecologically sound method. It's just a pity that it is, like so many other interesting things on this planet, becoming just a tourist attraction.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
There is a prayer that is commonly sung on such occasions, and quite a number of Western Tibetan-style Buddhists do know it because of the way it comes in two slightly different versions. It's known as the prayer for rebirth in Deva-chen, Deva-chen being the name of a pure land overseen by Amitabha, who is the Buddha of infinite light.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In one version of this prayer, there are two syllables whose grammar makes the prayer refer to ourselves, singular or plural, or indeed to all sentient beings in general. And this is the version that's quite often sung without reference to any particular death, simply in recognition of the fact that we all will die.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
Now, first things first. There are two obvious sides to teachings about death. Firstly, there is the question of how we should think about, prepare for and ultimately handle our own death. Secondly, the question of what we do when somebody close to us dies. Preparing for our own death is a major issue in Buddhist teaching.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In the other version, the two syllables are changed, and that makes it refer to this particular person, he or she, who has just died. You may have suffered the sound of my chanting in one or two other episodes, so I will not be shy about singing it here now. I'm also going to include a PDF of the text in the episode notes, or you can download a version from this link. I'll read it carefully.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
www.tibetanlanguage.com Needless to say, there are no spaces in anything that I've just read. And Dewachen is D-E-W-A-C-H-E-N.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The text shown there is the general purpose version, and if you want to use it for a specific person in your circle who's recently died, you can replace the first two syllables on the first line of the second page, that is, dagjen, meaning something like self and others, with semde, meaning something like this being.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
If you know it well enough, you can recite it silently, as I did at yesterday's funeral, to lend your own best wishes without offending anybody by showing off the fact that you are not a Christian. Chanting This general purpose version was regularly sung at teachings I used to attend some years ago.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
The technique there was that it was sung three times, and after the third time there was then a pause, a very silent, profound pause. Finally, the chant leader would shout a very loud, sharp, which everybody would attempt to shout at the same time.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
It would be impossible to touch on this subject without saying a few words about the book, which has now become famous, known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Once again, this is something that has been hijacked by New Age wannabes.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
But people who are serious about their Buddhism should know that it is a highly specialized text of most interest to long-term practitioners of one or two particular traditions. It was not particularly widespread in Tibet. Its real name means something like liberation through hearing in the intermediate state. But commercialization and marketing go back a long way.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In the late 19th century, Egypt was an object of fascination in Western society. Decoration based on Egyptian originals was not uncommon and is often still to be seen. As witness, for example, Cleopatra's needle on the embankment in London and the various sphinx-like statuary that can be found around the city itself.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
In Christian thinking, and I believe in other Abrahamic religions, once one is dead, there is nothing left to do but to hope for some kind of resurrection in the future. What happens then will have been determined by things in our life, but death is the ultimate bottom line.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
There is an interesting article on Egyptomania in the United States on Wikipedia. As part of this Egyptomania, semi-occult circles became interested in what was known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. That gave this title a degree of cachet. At that point, the title Egyptian Book of the Dead wasn't so far off the mark.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
So when Evans Wentz, who lived in California and had long had an interest in semi-occult matters, published his edition of a translation of this Tibetan text, it was a natural marketing move to try to cash in on that familiar title by calling his work the Tibetan Book of the Dead. And this was not an unsuccessful bit of marketing, it must be said.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
When dear ones die
There are a couple of other Tibetan traditions that it could pay you to be aware of at some future time if you're around Tibetans where there has been a death. Firstly, great effort is made to dispose quickly of the personal possessions of the deceased. These are things that the deceased spirit is held to be maybe attracted to and which might make it more difficult for that spirit to move on.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Hello, hello and hello to all of you. Welcome or welcome back to the Double Doge podcast. I'm Alex Welding and in this episode I hope to give you, beginners in particular, some idea of what sock is about and what to expect when you go to one. But before we get to that, the usual bit.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
They should be left out for wild animals, and that doesn't include pets, and for birds. Buckets full of fruit, biscuits or even worse sweeties are not good for the environment and not good for the animals and birds. Too much remainder is actually a problem. Some years ago at Sechen Monastery in Bauda, I saw signs encouraging environmentally responsible puja and this is why.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
This eating and drinking phase may well also be accompanied by some sacred songs. If you are lucky, they will be very beautiful. There may also be a verse or two specifically encapsulating the point of this tsok, which might be repeated several times or even many times.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In some cases, a count of the number of times this verse has been recited is kept as an accumulation, in the same way as mantras are accumulated. Inserting extra liturgy is something that can always happen, and one insert that can easily be used here is something which is rather famous among the Nyingma, namely Jigme Lingpa's Concised Sok. It's about a dozen lines long,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
It touches all the essential points and it is rather beautiful. Being so short and remembering how Tibetans like to chant and chant and chant, it's very suitable for being recited three or seven times or for counting an accumulation of hundreds or thousands. Following the eating and drinking, the notional party, so to speak, it's very likely that there will be prayers to various protectors
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Sometimes again, each of them having their own tomas that are often taken outside. And confession prayers. It's always possible that there will be more confession prayers. And then the dedication of merit and the concluding prayers. In some ways, this description has been vague, and that's quite deliberate.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The point is that although there are themes in common, very strongly, tzokpushas vary hugely in detail as well as in extent. To learn the details of an extensive talk is going to take anybody quite a long time. The fact is that many of the people you're likely to meet at a typical Western centre will not have put that time in. Perhaps they haven't even had a chance to.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
You may find beautiful chant and music with the sacred songs performed to aching melodies, or you may find a monotonous drone from beginning to end. You may find taumas made closely in accordance with the traditional patterns, or you may find mere fantasies. The last case may not be so bad. Preparing elaborate taumas takes a lot of skill and a great deal of time.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
That's perhaps a bit of a linguistic mishmash, but it's no worse, I suppose, than a word like television. Sticking to Greek roots would have given us telescope, but that word was already taken, and I don't think there's anybody left who objects to the word television, so I'm sure we'll manage with sockbuja. The point is, in any case, that these are all just different terms for the same thing.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
If you are performing at Sok Puzha alone, for example, perhaps at home, it's not at all uncommon to use something like crackers for the same job. Everything, after all, is in the devotion, the focus and the understanding of the participants, and everything has to be appropriate for the circumstances.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
If you're going to do such a puja at home, maybe taking two hours, is it proportionate to have to spend four or five hours beforehand making fancy cakes? Is there not perhaps a better way of spending your time? As a contrast to what I've just been saying, And again to illustrate the variety of ways in which the idea of tsok is embodied, here is another case.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The taumas, which are the core offering in tsok bhushas, are traditionally made of barley flour, butter and other ingredients, particularly sweet ones such as sugar or honey to make them delicious. But in addition to this, they should have at least a small quantity of many other exotic ingredients, some of which should have been appropriately blessed.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
It's all very complicated, but there is no need to worry, because if you want to be this correct, you can buy this substance. It's called torze, and you can add a pinch to the mix. Now, the thing is, I did hear of a tradition It's not one that I'm part of, I should say.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In fact, I think it's somewhere in the Giluk scheme of things, in which the practitioner takes these ingredients, blessed as they are by including the special substances, and makes tiny pellets which are then dried. The practitioner then carries these pellets around with them in a little bag.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
One pellet can then be added to the practitioner's food or drink six times a day, I believe, so that the practitioner can easily and discreetly, by also reciting an appropriate offering verse, do sockpushers six times a day, even when travelling in foreign lands. Ingenious, is it not? I'd like to finish by mentioning a popular sockpusher, much simpler than the one I described a few minutes ago.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
This one is quite suitable for solo practice, and in fact I had a Dharma friend who took it as his regular daily practice. It's called, in translation, the Shower of Blessings, and it's a sok puja based on Guru Rinpoche, along with the seven-line prayer. The practice was composed by the famous Jhumipam Rinpoche. It is, in fact, the puja that I was privileged to take part in at Benjin Monastery.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
And I heard of a small center run by a Western Lama who is, as I happen to know, a guy who really, really knows his stuff, which uses this puja as its main regular practice. It is a Nyingma practice focused on Guru Rinpoche, and so for people who don't have a positive resonance with that tradition, it would not be very helpful. But for those who do, I would really strongly recommend it.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
It's the kind of thing that does need transmission, at the very least empowerment for Guru Rinpoche and a reading transmission for the text, although in a group setting it's quite likely that some of the people attending will not have those qualifications, but that's fine. That said, these things are relatively easy to obtain, so go for it if you can. And so we've reached the end.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Please remember to like this episode of the Double Doge, to subscribe, do whatever it is that suits your channel, and remember to maintain the sacred view. Bye.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
If you are that beginner, you will now naturally be wondering just what that thing is. I do recall in the early 90s being at a Buddhist summer school. In fact, it was a very relaxed affair and there was to be a tsok puja on the last day. My son was with me and asked what that was supposed to be.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
I can't remember my answer very well, but I do know that he was completely confused and that sitting through the proceedings didn't help at all. So let's try and get ourselves a little bit oriented. Anyway, I forgive myself for that poor performance. Even though I'd been in the Dharma for 20 years, very little explanation of these things was given in the circles in which I moved.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Many of the talks that were described as teachings were basically inspirational in nature. They were entertaining and encouraging, but it can't be said that they were terribly informative.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In the end, perhaps that was a good thing because I realised that if I was ever going to have an idea of what I was trying to do, I was going to have to find it out for myself, leading up to what some might say is the rather excessive library of Buddhist books I've collected over the years.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
To begin, so that you have at least a vague hook on which to hang your understanding, we should note that the word Tsok literally means multitudes.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In an ideal Tsok Puja, lots of Dharma brothers and sisters come together with their teacher and make mountains of offerings to the Buddhas, the deities, the lamas of the lineage, along with confession prayers and in combination with eating and drinking, singing and having a jolly time. The practice, however, can vary an awful lot.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The scope of a tsok puja, such as you'll find in real life, varies enormously. The liturgy, in some cases, can be boiled down to just a few lines, but it can also be expanded to many, many pages of prayers and offerings for this and that, taking an hour or, to be quite honest, even some hours to get through it.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
It is a joyful celebration, at least it should be joyful, in which we, the yogis and yoginis, that is the male and female practitioners respectively, come together to celebrate and renew their vows in the presence of their Lama.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Please pause briefly, if you will, to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends, and all that stuff, whatever way is suitable for the channel that you're listening on. And the other part of the standard message is, at the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Normally the Lama is present as the head of this assembly, but let me remind you of the broad meaning that Lama can have in these contexts which I talked about in an earlier episode. In a sense here, the Lama represents the tantric equivalent of the Buddha, while the yogis and yoginis are the tantric equivalent of the Sangha, that is to say, the community of Buddhist practitioners.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The other prominent figures in the tantric landscape, the protectors, the dakinis and so on, are also visualised and held to be present. This practice originated in India more than a thousand years ago, amongst communities who were at least to some extent on the edge of society.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
It does appear likely that not only the singing and dancing, but the consumption of plenty of intoxicants, along with the food, the singing, the dancing and lovemaking, were performed as written. A veritable orgy, in other words. Do not, however, expect or fear that that is what you will find at a Tibetan Buddhist centre these days.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Probably that kind of transgressive activity had a liberating effect breaking through the stiff and oppressive social structures of the time. But circumstances changed, both in the course of the transmission to Tibet and, believe it or not, in the course of the experience of many centuries.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Human nature being what it is, it's not impossible to find people with or without a proper background in traditional Tibetan Buddhism who would like to reinstate a literal reading of the old texts that describe Tzok Bujas. Whether or not that is in fact skillful, whether or not it is beneficial, and whether or not it represents the true Buddhist tradition,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
These are questions that you are welcome to ruminate on for yourself. But aside from the fact that you can meet a mugger every time you go around a street corner, but usually you don't, there is no real reason to imagine you are likely to find this approach at your local Buddhist centre.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Coming back to normal practice, Tsok Pujas also provide a time not only for celebrating the blessings that have been received, but for confessing failures to maintain our vows and for renewing them. Very many Western followers of Tibetan Buddhism will only do Tsok Pujas on special occasions, such as at the conclusion of a series of teachings.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
But the more serious practitioners, and no, I'm not going to try to define who they are, it's usual to perform a Sok Puja regularly, typically on the 10th and 25th days of the lunar month, for just the reason I mentioned a minute ago. Monks and nuns often gather to renew their vows on the full moon and new moon days, while the practice of the Sok Puja on the 10th and 25th days is parallel to this.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
But since it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else, you may not be able to see the brief comments, or for that matter, the transcript. But if they don't appear in your channel... Or if you do want to see a bit more about the episode, you'll find all this on Podbean. Okay, tsok. The word is spelt in a variety of ways which you can see in the notes.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In the Nyingma tradition, the 10th day is particularly associated with Guru Rinpoche, and the Tsok of the 25th day, which is, as it were, the 10th day of the waning phase of the moon, focuses on the Dakinis, but that might be getting a bit technical and going beyond the scope of this episode. Having mentioned those particular occasions,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
I should also say that it is not at all uncommon for practitioners to perform some kind of sock puja every day or even in some cases several times a day. Sock pujas are therefore used both on a regular basis as well as to mark special occasions. In my life, like most of us I'm sure, I've not always been at the right place at the right time.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
On the other hand, sometimes I have been at the right place at the right time, and I was extremely lucky to be able to travel in the early 90s together with a group of students to Benchen Monastery in eastern Tibet, which was the home monastery of my teacher at that time, Chimi Rinpoche.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
One of the things our Lama most particularly wanted to achieve was for us to perform a sok puja, actually a rather simple one, in the practice hall of that monastery. It felt as if by doing that, we had really been there, we had made a connection, the whole pilgrimage was somehow made real.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
We mustn't forget that sock pujas can be much simpler, even just a few lines, and that it's also quite possible for a solo practitioner to perform a full sock puja. Let's take a look at what might happen at, for example, a monthly tzok organized by a center with an established community so that there are enough people to do all the various jobs. It's early evening.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
We've turned up wearing our Sunday best, our hands washed, hair brushed and nails scrubbed. Mummy would have been proud of us. We file into the practice room and find a seat. We notice that on the shrine, in addition to the usual statues and perhaps paintings, and with the usual offerings in front of them, bowls of water, the flowers, incense, candles and so forth, There is an array of objects.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
At first, you might think they were some kind of elaborate fairy cake. Mostly they are red, some are white, many are roughly the shape and size of an upside-down carrot, and many of them have a couple of decorative discs stuck to them. These are the taumas, or offering cakes. I shall make no further attempt to describe them. It's a whole art form.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
An internet search for images based on the word Torma will quickly give you an impression. You should realize that the examples that you see when you do such a search will be likely to show particularly elaborate Tormas. Those at our imaginary center are likely to be rather simpler. Nearby, there is a table on which other offerings such as food are arranged.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The full transliteration would be T-S-H-O-G-S. But you may already know that unless you've studied the rather complicated rules connecting Tibetan pronunciation to spelling, then it's probably better to stay with something simple like T-S-O-K.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Because people like to contribute to the chok but don't know what to do, we also see a pile of chocolates, potato crisps, sweets and snacks amounting to a worrying number of calories embedded in ultra-processed substrates. It is what it is. Any particular chok puja generally is associated with a particular deity, a Buddha, a dhagini or a lama.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
And the proceedings will begin with the usual sadhana practice for that deity. Refuge, bodhicitta, invocation of the deity, praise, recitation of the mantra and so forth will all be performed. It depends, it depends, it depends, but this might well take something between half an hour or an hour. The tsok puja proper then begins and the taumas now start to come into play.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Well, actually, that's not quite right. If there is to be a tsok, then some taumas may have been offered at or near the beginning of the whole proceeding to prepare the space that is to be used in a ritual or spiritual sense. But now the tsok starts to get into gear with more praises and invocations to the deities concerned.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
The offerings are blessed by being sprinkled with water and what is known as amrita, which usually takes the form of alcohol with special substances dissolved in it. At some point, slices are taken off the main tomah. One particularly nice piece is offered to the lama. Other pieces are offered, for example, particularly to represent confession. Confession prayers are likely to be recited.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Another slice is the liberation slice, which is offered to destroy the bad effects of our broken vows. And at some point, the body of the Torma is distributed to all the participants, along with some of the additional offerings, the sweeties and so on, to the general participants such as ourselves.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
If you want to look good, and who indeed doesn't, there are a couple of bits of etiquette that are worth knowing if you want to look like an ordinary beginner rather than a rank beginner. Firstly, when the food is brought round, remember that we are enacting a sacred space in which everything is to be seen as pure and sacred. So pick up a bit of whatever food comes to hand on the plate.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Hovering over it, deciding that this bit is my favourite, but that's not my favourite, picking it over and turning it round, is not only bad form, but is also not really within the spirit of the tsok. Secondly, when the Amrita drink comes round, the server will have a cup or bowl, notionally a skull bowl, but probably not, and a spoon. Hold out your cup left hand,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
with your cupped right hand supporting it from underneath. Accept the spoonful of liquid, which is likely to consist mostly of whiskey, though I have known creme de menthe to be used. Accept the liquid in the palm of your left hand and drink it all down straight away, no hesitation. This is not only in the spirit of the sock, but it also helps to make less mess. Third tip.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
I'm imagining that you are somebody who's reading the notice board at the Buddhist center you are visiting for one of the first times, or even the first time, and you see a tzok mentioned on the timetable. You might also see the words Ganachakra or Ganapuja, or the hybrid English version based on a mix of Tibetan and Indian, giving us the term Tsokpuja.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
keep a little bit of your food aside. Toward the end of the eating and drinking, someone will come with a bowl to collect these remainders, which will be offered by the lama to all those who were not qualified to be present to take part in the tsok itself. If you've scoffed every bit, then you will be the one who looks like a rank outsider.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
In some cases, these remainders are not actually collected from the general participants. and that part of the job is done by the llama on behalf of everyone else. If that turns out to be the case, then you can eat that last bit. And in this connection, there's one other beginner's mistake to avoid. There is no extra merit from giving back a lot of remainder. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Sock that never got given out, because perhaps there was just too much, may well be shared out later, perhaps taken away and shared with friends. But the remainders are not treated in the same way. They have been dedicated to all sorts of outsider spirits, so they are not for us, but neither should they just be thrown in the trash.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
The word has also been used as part of the cover for psychological, financial and sexual abuse. The Vajra vehicle or Vajrayana has a couple of other names which, although they do appear on the surface quite different, are in fact synonymous. And one of these is the secret mantra vehicle.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Knowing that, it should be no surprise that the term secret is centrally important and indeed as important as Vajra. I was on the point of saying that we should practically forget the meaning of secret in English and perhaps other Western languages, and start from scratch to understand its context here. Paradoxically, however, I don't think it's actually a bad translation.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is full of secret teachings. Wow. Wouldn't it be cool to know secret teachings? Well, hello, my listeners. Now, I know I say this every time, but I hope you do feel warmly welcome to this episode of the Double Doge podcast. I'm Alex Wilding, and in this episode, I want to talk about secrecy in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
One of the main possible meanings of sang is that something is not known to outsiders, exactly what our word secret means. So I think we might as well stick with it, rather than looking around for some weird and wonderful alternative that's never going to catch on.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
But in doing that, we really must realise, and we must make an effort to remember, that in our context of Tibetan-style Buddhism, although that meaning of secret may indeed be correct, it's only a seed of a much broader idea. you might say it's kind of a focal point for the whole wide idea called secret.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
In many cases, it doesn't at all mean that something is secret in this usual sense of outsiders don't know. Most importantly, it often means something intimate or private. The sangkang, for example, whose surface translation is secret room, is simply the toilet. The word toilet, of course, is our own indirect way of referring to the shithouse.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
More interestingly, the term sangyum, for which a word-for-word translation would be secret mother, secret consort, or secret lady, of, let's say, a high lama, in no way means that the couple are having a secret affair. Referring to the woman concerned as a sangyum is a respectable and respectful, almost a honorific way of referring to her as a consort, or you might say wife.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
To be honest, I would tend to avoid the word wife because it's liable to bring in its wake the whole Western Christian superstructure of, indeed, Christian marriage. And that's a superstructure that does not apply. The thing here is that there is no secret in the normal sense involved in such a case.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
So we need to leave aside the idea that secret always means secret in the sense of being unknown to others. It can mean that, but that side of the meaning can be almost irrelevant. This issue does get deeper. There is a structure, as opposed to the word we might use is a trope, that's used ever and again in Tibetan Buddhist liturgy, meditation instructions, commentary, and so on.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
And that is the structure of outer, inner, and secret levels, which are applied to both understanding and to practice. In other words, the secret level is even closer to you than the inner level. This scheme can be applied in a range of ways. But one example could be that, for instance, Outwardly, one maintains proper ethical behaviour.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Inwardly, one is motivated by compassion and by the understanding of emptiness, the Bodhisattva path, in other words. And that secretly, one maintains the tantric vows, holding to the vision of oneself as an enlightened Buddha and to the surrounding world as the mandala. This trope also appears with a fourfold expression, outer, inner, secret and ultimate.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
The idea here is much the same, but in this case, the ultimate inexpressible recognition of the empty radiant clarity of the mind essence is, as it were, split off from the secret level to give it more emphasis. This fourfold version, with that extra emphasis on the ultimate level,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
is therefore particularly useful in the traditions that emphasize Mahamudra or Dzogchen, the two approaches focusing on resting in the recognition of that non-conceptual wisdom that's at the heart of the highest levels of practice. This scheme is used for theoretical discussion, but the theory here is the theory of practice rather than of any rarefied philosophy.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
The outer aspect includes the obvious things like lifestyle and ethics. The inner aspect involves the cultivation of compassion and the wisdom of emptiness, referred to as bodhicitta. The secret aspect now particularly refers to tantric practice with visualisation, mantra recitation, Breath control, perhaps, and also perhaps physical yogas in which the internal channels and winds are manipulated.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
To begin, or rather before we begin, please, please would you pause for a moment to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends and so forth, in whatever way is appropriate for the channel on which you are listening. At the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean, but it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Exciting stuff. The ultimate level, then, on the basis of the inner practice, is Mahamudra or Dzogchen. In other words, practice based on the essence of mind. I want to emphasize again that this is a scheme that can be applied in ways other than those I have just mentioned.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
You can, for instance, have an outer section of a practice that involves the visualization of a deity, rather than being concerned with ethics in ordinary life, followed by an inner section involving a modified form of that deity, and a so-called secret section with a third form,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Perhaps then there might even be an ultimate section that does not involve visualisation, or at least only peripherally. So when we say something like, the teachings in this 500-page, brocade-wrapped book is a secret teaching, what does this really mean? It means that the teaching covered in this large text operates at the secret level.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
It's true that that does mean that practitioners are not, and indeed should not, going to talk about it with outsiders. But the reason they shouldn't do that is that it is too precious, too special, too deep, too intimate, too private for idle chatter.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
I'm sure that most listeners would not normally go into detail in casual conversation about what they get up to in private with their spouses and intimate partners. The secrecy of the teaching may therefore indeed mean that it is not immediately easy for an outsider to pry into the particular prayers, visualizations, mantras and practices described in the text.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
The fact is that if the outsider digs around enough, especially in these days of the Internet, they probably can find an awful lot of that out. But would this do the outsider any good? Probably not a lot, beyond perhaps a bit of curiosity being satisfied. Because, without the profound personal connection to these teachings...
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
a connection that's brought about through empowerment, explanation, and what we call the blessing of the lineage, coming through the personal teacher, and without being actually engaged in the practice, then the outsider will not have the connection at the secret level that gives the practice power and meaning.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
For the practitioner, on the other hand, the practice and all its associated methods are profound and sacred. I don't know how well I'm getting this point across, so I want to give you a couple of contrasting cases. The first one is a misunderstanding of secret, although probably a rather harmless one.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
In an internet forum a few days ago, a user posted a picture of a rather odd-looking Dorjean bell. The design of the bell was rather unusual, but the doge even more so. In the place of the lotus petals that almost invariably, or I would have said invariably, emerge from the central sphere and support the prongs, there was a ring of what looked to be pieces of turquoise.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
If you do want to see the brief comments, but they don't appear in your channel, you will find them on Podbean. I venture to suggest that it is as important to come to grips with the whole nest of ideas surrounding secret and secrecy in Tibetan Buddhism as important as it is to understand, for example, the significance of a Vajra or Dorje.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
I couldn't say whether it was real or synthetic. I wouldn't know how to judge. These pieces are embedded like a mosaic in some kind of compound or other. The poster was asking for opinions as to whether this was, so to speak, serious, or whether it was something that had been made for the tourist market. One respondent then expressed the opinion that it's for tantric practitioners.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Their use, display and discussion are supposed to be fully secret. The implication seemed to be that posting the photograph and talking about it was, in the view of that respondent, very, very naughty, possibly involving a breakage of tantric vows, and who knows what consequences follow from that. Don't like to think. This kind of thinking, I'm sure, is far too literal.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
To be sure, one's Dorjean bell, one's mala, and all the other ritual things one may have, are secret rituals. One does not display them casually to all and sundry. They are kept, in whatever sacred corner or room is used for practice, away from the eyes of passing visitors.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
But this is because they are special and sacred, not because they are something that other people should not or cannot know about. Oh, by the way, you may know that I usually include a few technical terms that you might want to look up in the notes to each episode, and you'll see the picture of the unusual doji I've been talking about there.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
As a counterexample, consider a prayer composed by Tojum Rinpoche addressing the Dharma protector Ekajati. This prayer includes the line, please spread and expand the teachings of the great secret, might sound contradictory if we haven't understood the significance of secret in these contexts.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Clearly, Dujam Rinpoche is neither encouraging Ekajati nor encouraging his own students to stop treating their sacred texts, ritual objects, mantras and so on with the traditional level of respect. Far from it.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
The prayer is for the deep secret at the heart of the Vajrayana, something that's secret because it is so subtle and, although quite simple, very hard to comprehend and probably next to impossible to put into words, for this secret to be spread for the benefit of all beings.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
Needless to say, that great deep secret is not something conceptual like visualize a 17-petal pink lotus at your left shoulder and recite piddle-paddle-twiddle-quaddle 108 times while standing on your left leg and holding your breath. No, he's praying that those who have a connection to these teachings will reach the profound spiritual insight, the secret, at the heart of Vajrayana practice.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
As a final thought, but it's not one that I want to particularly develop in this episode, the emphasis on secrecy, especially when it's misunderstood in that over-literal way, does feed into the power structures that surround abusive lamas. Unfortunately, as we know, and I have spoken about this, such lamas do exist.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
And the idea of secrecy can be used to strengthen the feeling that calling the Lama out on these abuses instead of keeping them secret is somehow a breakage of one's sacred vows. Hmm. So after that final thought, here is a final, final question. How many Buddhists does it take to change a light bulb? The answer is none. Everything always is in a constant state of change.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
It's an essential concept in the Tantric approach to practice. Like the word Tantra itself, which, as we know, has been hijacked and distorted practically beyond recognition, secret has also been misunderstood. It's been abused, it's been used to generate fascination, because, like I said, it is cool to be in possession of deep yogic secrets, or even cooler, to be seen to be in possession of them.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Secret Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
And so, thankfully, we've come to the actual end. Please remember to like this episode of the Double Doge, to subscribe, or do whatever it is that suits your channel. And remember, shhh, some things are secret.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
dark as the night sky, to represent being beyond conceptual coverings. But in the cycles I'm talking about here, the primordial Buddha is shown as Samantabhadri. Note the change to the final syllable, Samantabhadri rather than Samantabhadra, and is female. The visionary realms that emerge from this very abstract level
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
are very often populated by well-known Buddhas, such as the Red Amitabha or Chenrezig, Buddha of Compassion. In the systems I'm now talking about, such a visionary figure may be seen as the Red Darkini Vajravarahi.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
And on the concrete level, where we might meet Enlightenment, if we are extremely fortunate, in physical form, she may well appear as Yeshe Tsogyal rather than a male form such as Guru Rinpoche. Another aspect of the darkening is a close association with activity.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
And we may be called on to see boundless darkenings, millions and billions emanating throughout the universe, in fact underlying the universe or even being this universe, if we can just overcome our conceptual grasping and purify our perception. It's a vision of reality that brings us back to the visions known to mystics across the world.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Later in this episode, I'll be mentioning some more specific points, but I think we have to begin by clearing the ground a bit. There are two themes, it seems to me, that it is best to address right at the start. These themes are gender and allegory. Let's take gender first.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Those of us who are old enough to recall the relatively early days of the Incredible String Band may remember the words of Thomas Traherne. We might or might not want to go along with his Christian framework of thinking, but the sentiment, I think, is something we can appreciate. When he said,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars. That's the frame of mind to understand darkenies. Well, gosh, that was a bit of a flight, wasn't it? I hope it did make sense. Please remember, once again, to like, subscribe and so on, and whatever you do, keep an eye open for the darkenies. Bye.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Whatever form she takes, young and beautiful, old and worn, dazzlingly divine or seemingly very plain, a darkenie is feminine. In a society where patriarchy is totally dominant and unquestioned, the femininity of the darkenie will also not be questioned. As we, however, push or struggle to move away from such patriarchal attitudes…
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
And as we see that, at least in some circles, there are just as many female students these days as there are male, it does make sense to ask whether there is a male equivalent. Up to a rather limited point, the answer is yes, for sure. Although it's not perfectly simple. The word dakinis and its Tibetan equivalent, khandroma, has a masculine equivalent in daka.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
And we do meet the expression dakinis and dakas. That particular male equivalent, however, is rarely used, and the partners and companions of Dakinis are more often called Veeras, which we can translate as heroes. In Tibetan, this male word is translated as Pao.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
All the same, I don't think that it's possible simply to mirror the gender roles and to say that a male partner, such as Yeshe Tsogyal's consort Atsara Saleh, was to her the same as a darkening might have been to him.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
If we take it as read that female and male practitioners do have the same value, the same potential for enlightenment and so on, that is not to say that the two genders have exactly the same qualities, strengths and weaknesses. Notwithstanding the variations between individuals, the tradition sees femininity as being more in touch with the mysterious truths and powers that underlie our existence.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
An encounter with a dharkini is often described as something that opens the practitioner's mind to things that had been ignored because of the practitioner's narrow focus. As we think about this gendering, we shouldn't forget that in the meditations related to this kind of Buddhism, male and female practitioners may conceive of themselves as male or female deities quite freely.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
In at least one system of practice with which I am familiar, almost every meditation deity from the top to the bottom is female. This is no more of an issue for male practitioners than it is for female practitioners when they are conceiving of themselves as a male deity. This leads to the second point for which I'm using the word allegory. I'm trying that word on for size up to a point.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
The idea is so complex and subtle, I'm almost bound to fail, but maybe it will be better than nothing. Before that, I must make the usual two comments. Firstly, it really would be helpful to this podcast if you would pause, press the like, follow or subscribe button, whatever there is on your listening platform. And secondly, this episode is being published, first of all, on Podbean.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
It could be that enactment or embodiment might fit better. I actually just don't know. These days, we find that kind of allegorical thinking hard to understand and tend to settle on the milk and water idea of symbolism. Tibetan Buddhist ritual is obviously fully packed with symbolism.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
As an example, we might say that Chenrezig's four arms symbolise the four immeasurables, that is, the loving-kindness, the compassion, the sympathetic joy and the equanimity that we so often hear about. Now, that's not wrong, and I would say it's actually quite good enough for the guide who's taking a group of tourists around a Tibetan-style temple in Tibet or Nepal or anywhere else.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
But it does rather beg the question, which is to say glides over the question, of why we would particularly want a symbol for those poor virtues at all. For the practising meditator, on the other hand, representations of this sort are intended to engage the imagination, the understanding, the devotion in a much more powerful way. Or at least they should do.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
This is to the extent that the meditator, while in no way mistaking those four arms for something just a simple concrete thing in front of him or her, experiences them as something real. Not real in quite the same way as the beads in the meditator's hand, but much more of a living experience than a mere symbol.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Many listeners will, of course, have a background in European culture, for which reason I find it interesting to compare this with the Christian Eucharist.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
I myself have never taken communion in any kind of Christian church, but it does seem beyond doubt that when the flock takes the biscuit into their mouths, the taste is not chewy and fleshy like raw pork, nor does the wine have that salty, rather metallic taste of blood. In appearance, the bread and wine are still bread and wine.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Yet to many Christian churches there is something much more going on, often given the name of transubstantiation. It may be that more recent interpretations have lent on the idea of this being simply a symbol or reminder of the Last Supper, as the theologians who are disposed to think in that way, if I may say so, give in to a more physicalist understanding of the world.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
I'm not remotely a scholar of Christianity, but I do believe that over the centuries there has been many a dispute about the nature of transubstantiation. Those disputes have, it seems likely, arisen in the attempt to accurately describe the way in which the communion is something much more real than a mere symbol, even while the bread and wine remain apparently, yes, bread and wine.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
These material substances could be said to be an allegory for something much deeper and more meaningful. This is why I feel that saying that the bread and wine embody the flesh and blood or that they are an allegory for the flesh and blood is at least a little bit closer to the mark than just saying that they represent or are symbols for the presence of Christ.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
If I have managed to make that clear, big if, then it may make more sense if we say that much of the imagery used in Vajrayana Buddhism is to be understood allegorically rather than literally, which in many cases would be ridiculous, or as simply symbolic. That raises the question of why bother?
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
The same principle can be applied to dakinis, whether they are visualized in a meditation practice, called on in prayers, or described in stories. They embody truths, experiences, and visions. Those truths can perhaps be pointed at through extensive and subtle intellectual analytical thinking, although perhaps even that won't work.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
But even if it does, it's still necessary for the mystic or the yogi to bring those truths into living experience. The darkening is one way in which that is embodied. These days we know vastly more about the physics that makes the weather happen than we did, say, a century ago. It has an almost entirely mechanical explanation.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
If you're listening somewhere else, but you do want to see the comments, the picture, the transcript, anything that doesn't appear on your platform, you will find it all on Podbean. It was fairly early in my involvement with Tibetan Buddhism that I first heard about dakinis. The explanations I could find were vague and unhelpful. There were reasons for that.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
If that modern, scientifically based and unquestionably correct knowledge prevents us from experiencing the wind as the dance of the spirits of nature,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
and if our knowledge of the physics of the sun prevents us from seeing the sunrise as hosts of angels, as William Blake might have said, or as hosts of darkenies, as we might say, singing to the morning, if we can't open up to that aspect of life, then perhaps, sadly, Tibetan Buddhism is not for us. We have to see these things as more than just symbolic, otherwise it simply won't quite add up.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Seeing this way of expression as poetry is perhaps one step closer than seeing it as merely symbolic. Okay, I hope that little stroll in rather abstract thought hasn't been too long. Let's take a look at how darkenings appear concretely in the literature and liturgy. As I hope is already clear, a darkenie is always female.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
She can take almost any form, sometimes very unpleasant, but to be honest, most often she is attractive or even seductive. I once saw a photo of my teacher in the kitchen of an old lady to whom he had been taking some food and other support. There was a poster or hoarding of some sort showing Jennifer Lopez and which could be seen at the back of the room.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
It turned out that it was simply being used to shut out the wind. The teacher had not recognised J-Lo, iconic as she may be to us, but thought that she was simply some kind of kitchen darkening, a case of very pure perception, I think. I was at this point going to say that there are three main types of darkening, but having had a little check-up,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
I realised that, surprise, surprise, it's not that clean and simple. There are all sorts of lists, and they don't all agree with one another, but some things do all the same stand out.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Firstly, starting from the top, so to speak, we have the Dakinis who are active expressions of enlightenment, and who inhabit what are known as the Buddha fields, which is why they might be known as field-born Dakinis. These include forms of the Buddha, such as the semi-wrathful Vajravarahi, or the peaceful Tara. Secondly, we have the Dakinis who inhabit cemeteries.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
To understand that, I think we need to remember the Indian origins of this line of thought, in which cemeteries are frightening, dangerous places, haunted by carrion-eaters, and some of those carrion-eaters may even have been human beings. Hmm...
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
So let's remember that if darkness of that sort are described in our visualization practices, they embody a dangerous and terrifying force, even if modern Western cemeteries are peaceful, tidy, and almost pretty. Somewhat similar to that are the dakinis of the 24 power places that are believed to have existed in India. These dakinis too may be invoked in some tantric visualizations.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Hello, good listeners, good morning, good evening, or good midnight. Welcome to this episode of the Double Doge podcast. I'm Alex Wilding, and this week I'm going to have a shot. It's perhaps a little bit of a Don Quixote shot because a lot of people have tried and not done very well. Anyway, a shot at making the meaning of darkening somewhat clear.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
There are dakinis who become dakinis by successfully taking up Vajrayana practice and achieving the results, who are then known as mantra-born dakinis. Then again, some dakinis just appear spontaneously. And it should not be forgotten that dakinis may also take human form.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
In any event, when they appear in tantric liturgies, or for that matter in life stories, they do embody an insight or a way of being that might previously have been closed to the yogi. Darkini might give a great meditator a teaching that she has been guarding in Darkiniland, written in Darkini's script. If the practitioner is capable of deciphering it, this may be a great treasure.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
The idea is really very complex, woven together of a number of quite varied cultural strands, and there is nothing in Western culture that corresponds closely. Maybe Angel is a vague shot, but it does actually miss the mark by quite a long way. I suspect that many of the sources I consulted at that time were themselves out of their depth in this field.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
One of the most famous human Darkinis was Yeshe Tsodyal. She was Guru Rinpoche's main consort when he was in Tibet and is remembered with great fondness today. And having mentioned the word consort, I think it's important to underline again that much of this material comes from cultures with a totally, totally, totally different mindset where sex is concerned.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Deities or significant human beings, like Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal for that matter, in sexual union, are perceived as beautiful, inspiring and pure. I suppose we could say holy. As I think I mentioned in a previous episode, such an image is not particularly seen as sexy.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Nor does it necessarily imply that followers have to practice concrete sexual yogas, although they do exist, in order to get anywhere on the path to enlightenment, any more than Christians are expected to nail themselves to a cross to become Christ-like. They might do that, of course, but that's another story. Of course, People are human. I guess you knew that.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Whether we're thinking of monastics who've taken vows of celibacy, or yogis who have not, sexual desire can disturb the balance. Imagine a yogi sitting in his retreat, appearing very holy and receiving offerings from the faithful.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
If such offerings one day are brought by an attractive young woman, and if he immediately then imagines that she is his destined darkening, and tries it on, there and then, he becomes nothing but a figure of fun, to Tibetans as well as to Westerners. I suppose it's what we might call the male gaze gone wrong again.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
And when a lama, surrounded by Western students, focuses on a pretty young woman and calls her a dharkini, what are we to think? It can be a Tibetan Buddhist equivalent to the way Joey Tribbiani in Friends would meet a young woman and come out with something like, Well, hello there, and how are you today? People are people.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Dakinis - what the **** are they?
Finally, I'd like to pay a bit of attention to those cycles of practice whose deities are all female and all, in a sense, forms of the dharkini. The ultimate primordial Buddha cannot really be represented, but that doesn't stop us from doing that. Most often, this Buddha is shown in male form. In the Nyingma tradition, this will be Samantabhadra. He is shown naked and dark blue.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
I was given a glimpse of this at a very early stage in my Buddhist journey. A Western-born teacher, then known as Namgyal Rinpoche, with a rather patchwork backstory in Buddhism, was visiting the centre with which I was then connected. He'd obtained some kind of recognition from the 16th Karmapa. How and why that happened is a mystery to me personally.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
though I suspect that some high Tibetan lamas are in many ways much more naive than we tend to assume, and are far less able to read the personality of Westerners who want to pull the wool over their eyes than, again, we might assume. I might mention Stephen Seagull, who, for instance, was recognised as a tulku. I haven't got the energy to figure out what lay behind that.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Anyway, this Namjial was due to give a Chenrezig empowerment. The Lama in charge of that center let his students know on the quiet
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
that, as a first point, Namjau was not the real deal and did not really know what he was doing, but, as the second point, because he had this acknowledgement from the Karmapa, he had to be shown respect and the students were asked to attend this empowerment even though they had no sense of trusting Namjau. Otherwise, face would have been lost.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
But more importantly than any list of bad gurus, bad lamas, it's in the first place necessary to acknowledge that they do in general exist, and then to be alert to the pretty much standard red flags that surround such people, Buddhist or not. The authoritarianism, the intolerance of criticism, the lack of financial transparency and the financial exploitation of members.
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Maybe I didn't switch off my natural radar even at the beginning and didn't come into serious contact with many wrong-uns. So be wary, be warned, but do go forth with hope in your heart. I'm strongly convinced that one of the most serious threats to the Buddhist teachings and to the benefits they can bring is not, as some would have it, the rocking of the boat through criticising bad teachers.
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The exclusivity, where the bubble of insiders are right and the outsiders, who supposedly do not understand, are all wrong. The threat that things will go very badly for anybody who leaves, either in a supernatural way or in a physical way. And so on. If you can use the internet, you can find advice about all this.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
The expectation that followers will have blind devotion to the leader is of course another flag. The article that triggered these comments here quotes a former follower of Trungpa by the name of Fred Coulson.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
He described Pema Chodron who, I now quote, was giving me a teaching on how serious devotion is and that she then told him that, I quote again, if she were shown photos of her guru Chogyam Trungpa molesting children, her devotion would be the same.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Now, if this was a piece of writing rather than audio, at this point I would insert a variety of emojis, exclamation marks, asterisks and other signs of startled or even horrified incomprehension. The people I've mentioned so far, and others, have their different styles of being wicked. But in most cases, an awareness of the dangers and of the red flags can provide at least some protection.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
For beginners, on the other hand, the gurus who simply teach Tosh might be harder to spot.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
These teachers may not be cultish at all, but they do tend to claim training, experience and authorisation that they simply don't have, or are just peddling feel-good pablum with perhaps a bit of tranquil meditation, talks on vague themes like Buddhism in everyday life or how to be more resilient in the modern world with the help of Buddhism.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
These people may even have good hearts, but are either providing milk and water, pap, or, in some cases, worse than that, selling sheer baloney. As an aside, when I was looking for the right words to use there, I looked up nonsense at thesaurus.com. You might get a laugh if you read all the suggestions made out loud in one string. It might cheer you up.
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Here, I will just provide two well-known, very old examples of such people, namely Madame Blavatsky from the late 19th century, founder of Theosophy, and Cyril Hoskin, who wrote under the pseudonym of Lobsang Rampa. Now, both of these, while they are very much in the past, still do have a few adherents, believe it or not. We don't need particularly to get hot under the collar about them.
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As far as I know, neither of them did anything much worse than selling fantasy as if it were truth. There are plenty of that kind about these days. But because they are not so bad, the red flags may not be so obvious. You just have to listen carefully, think, take advice, and keep your intelligence switched on.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Frankly, all this talk of the wicked and the stupid does leave a bad taste in my mouth, although I think it must be faced up to. So that's why I now want to turn from the wicked and the stupid to the good. In my experience, that is the great majority of lamas. This, of course, is only my personal snapshot, and you could argue,
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that even at an early stage I was sensitive enough to recognize flakes, that I somehow avoided most of the wicked and stupid, and led me to make contact with a prime selection of teachers, those whose devotion to their own teachers or lineage is palpable, or whose care for students shines out of them, or who do in fact teach the actual steps of the regular Buddhist path as the tradition knows it,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
In terms of the Tibetan styles of Buddhism, of course, that is the four revolting thoughts, refuge and compassion, I'm talking about teachers who perhaps give empowerments to just a few students at a time, in person, and who see to it that those students do know how to perform the practices associated with that empowerment.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
In fact, it's the opposite. It's the turning of the blind eye, the secrecy, the sweeping under the carpet. Did those things help the Roman Catholic Church? At first, perhaps they did, but long term, hardly. I was going to do... an episode about bad teachers sometime.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Perhaps these teachers will take some of the students on through the more advanced things, like the physical yogas, or even the Hayadzogchen and Mahamudra teachings. I'm talking about teachers who are relaxed, human, approachable, kind, responsible, humble. I've met quite a few of those. They are out there. And so it's time to say goodbye.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Please remember to like this episode of the Double Doge, to subscribe or to provide support in whatever way suits you. And remember, don't despair, but do take care. Bye.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
But I was spurred to have a quick look at this topic right now because of an article recently released on the internet by an author known as B. Schofield, or B. Schofield, I'm not sure. An article that genuinely does seem to have gone viral. I've been seeing the link on the pages of all sorts of friends. The article is called Secrets of Shambhala in Pema Chodron's Shadow.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
It contains a few bits of information that are new to me, and perhaps therefore to most people, but for the greater part it's an assembly of stuff about Trungpa's behaviour that is already publicly available if only one has the determination to do some digging. I previously knew nothing about Schofield and would not venture to pass judgment on the quality of the journalism.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
But since so much of the content is familiar to people who've kept their ear even halfway to the ground, I'm inclined to give a fair degree of credence to the new material. What the article does, and why I think it has been spread so first and widely, is that it brings together information which...
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as I said, has been publicly available, but has been scattered in little corners, archives and blogs. The effect of seeing it all described in one place is rather like seeing a car crash and watching it turn into a massive pile-up.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
I myself am not really an expert on Trungpa either as a critic or an enthusiast, except for one little corner of his story, which is the fable that he studied at Oxford University. This fable is widely circulated and believed amongst his followers and is touted as evidence of his exceptional genius. The only problem is, it turns out not to be true.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
If anyone wants to know more, contact me and I will point you to a blog post that goes into this story in some detail and with plenty of checkable references. Now, it's entirely clear that in his early days, Trungpa was quite charismatic. And that's exactly why I now count myself lucky never to have met him.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
I'm not going to attempt a list of llamas to avoid, partly because that kind of list is in fact easy to find on the internet if you want them, and in part because it is at least in some cases more a question of there being a lot of red flags around a particular teacher, rather than of them having conclusively proven themselves to be bad.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
I got into the Dharma scene in the UK not long after he had been obliged to leave Samye Ling in Scotland. In those days, of course, I was young. I was a naive seeker, and who knows, I might well have fallen under his spell. But I escaped. However, while his behaviour got him ejected from Samye Ling...
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
His charisma found fertile ground in the United States, particularly amongst the hippie community, and some of his followers from those days, I think they refer to themselves now as the Old Dogs, are still around. He does have his supporters and defenders. One of the supporters, William Cassidy, who styles himself Urgen Tenpa and sometimes adds Rinpoche to that name,
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
recently wrote that, and I quote, these gals crying about sexual matters are either just plain stupid or totally down for it. I trust you, my listeners, not to need a lengthy explanation of how unregenerate such an attitude is. Those who want to know more can simply do an internet search, putting in the two names Cassidy and Zeoli into the search box.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
You'll soon get an impression of who we are dealing with here. Zeoli, I will just explain now, is the legal surname of the woman widely known as Ahon Llamo. What's interesting to me is that, at least at the time that I'm recording this podcast, And, as far as I have seen, none of Trungpa's defenders have yet stood up to say that any particular points in the article concerned are false.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
It has, again, as far as I have seen so far, just been a matter of personal attacks. Schofield has, for example, been attacked for being transgender. Now look, I'm an old, white, middle-class, straight, cis male, and I will admit that sometimes I find the way today's media focuses on the question of whether people are or are not transgender is a little bit strange. But hey, each to their own.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
When it comes to the content of such an article, surely the gender orientation of the writer is no more relevant than whether he or she is black, white, brown, tall, short, or anything else. It's the facts that matter in it. Fact-based criticism might be interesting, but irrelevant personal insults certainly aren't.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Along with the general claims that the article is rubbish, that it is mean, or that the author is transgender, we also find the tired excuse that Trungpa was a mahasiddha, implying that anything he did the collapsing drunk on stage, the animal cruelty, the obvious egomania, was in some mysterious way enlightened and enlightening, actually good for the people subjected to it.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
This same William Cassidy wrote very recently, and I quote, Trungpa Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha. His conduct cannot and should not be judged by ordinary eyes. End of quote. I say that that is precisely the poisoned chalice, the noose that he and others who share his view are putting around their own necks. Calling someone a Mahasiddha is in fact empty of any serious meaning.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Attaching that high-sounding name to someone does not excuse cruelty or abuse. Attaching it to a narcissistic egomaniac is beyond ridiculous. Cassidy supported his opinion with the claim that if someone thinks that they are a Vajrayana practitioner but has a low opinion of Trungpa, they should know that they have utterly failed and evidently don't have the slightest idea of what is entailed.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
For similar reasons, I won't be naming all the names that I might refer to. It's not pleasant having to do this, but cover-ups and secrecy are, as any fool knows, exactly what will make an organisation become poisoned from top to bottom.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Do I need to say any more about that view? My position is that if anyone wants to have such an astonishingly high opinion of Trungpa or of any other supposed guru, that is their affair. They may be happy with it, and they are, of course, free to express that opinion in public.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
But what is quite ludicrous, bizarre and arrogant, stupid and unworthy of any Buddhist of whatever type is to insist that other people should or even must share their view.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
If every Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to shut down their intelligence about every and any guru who they've never met and with whom they have no spiritual connection, but who is idolized by one or another random dude on the internet,
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
If that means that the Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to abandon all ethical judgment and therefore, let it be said, all basic Buddhism, just because that random dude says so or says that the teacher is a Mahasiddha, well, words actually fail me. But enough of that.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
I mention it in such detail here because it is something that has recently erupted across the Tibetan Buddhist corners of the internet, and because the structures illustrated by this particular case are, sadly enough but unsurprisingly, really quite widespread. Some listeners might by now have wondered about what a Mahasiddha is in any case. You may even have heard of the 84 Mahasiddhas.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
These are figures who put a strong stamp on the thinking and practice of the Vajrayana, especially in Tibet. The historical details about these Mahasiddhas are sometimes a bit hazy, and many of the stories we have are quite short, don't have a lot of detail in them. There are different lists of the 84 Mahasiddhas.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Some different Mahasiddhas have shared names and some names have applied to more than one Mahasiddha. So that's all a bit confusing, but the general thrust of what the 84 Mahasiddhas represent is fairly consistent. They represent a willingness to step outside of convention in order to really and truly practice in the pursuit of enlightenment.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Firstly, though, let me encourage you to pause for a moment, to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, to tell your friends in whatever way is appropriate for the channel that you're listening on. At the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean, but it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else.
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Their stories do demonstrate how any circumstances can, if only we can rise to them, be circumstances for attaining enlightenment. A small fraction of these Mahasiddhas were rich and powerful, but many of them follow the more popular Buddhist pattern of riches to rags and then onward to enlightenment. This is, after all, very much what the Buddha himself did two and a half thousand years ago.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
The Mahasiddhas themselves lived, roughly speaking, in the later part of the first Christian millennium. One of my favourites is the story of Lakshminkara, the Mad Princess. She was born, as you might guess from that title, as a princess, and was given a good education, including in religious matters, including the tantras and so on.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
She was promised in marriage, in one version that I read, this was when she was about seven years old, to a prince of Sri Lanka. A few years later, as a teenager, she was sent with her royal party and significant wealth to marry her prince.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Due to some mix-up, the party arrived late at the royal palace, and the astrologers of the place said that the day was not auspicious, so the party had to wait outside for another day.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
As it happened, while they were waiting, a hunting party returned from the hunt, and she was quite upset to see the leader of the hunt spattered in blood, carrying the dead animal that had been caught casually across his shoulders. she realised that the huntsman was in fact her betrothed. At this point, it seems that her thinking amounted to something very much like, No!
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
She gave all her dowry, jewels and the rest of her wealth to her servants and sent them off. Nevertheless, she was taken into the palace, where she shut herself in her room, covered herself in ashes and threw things at anyone who tried to approach her. Since she was now perceived as mad…
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the wedding was called off, and at some later stage she was able to escape to live in cemeteries and dark, deep parts of the forest, where she was assisted, and I suppose that also means, to some extent at least, fed, by a cleaner of the royal latrines. Eventually, as it is said, she achieved city. Her assistant was the first person to whom she gave empowerment,
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
And when at some later stage the king, that is to say the father of her former fiancé, her former betrothed, sought her teachings, she declined, but assigned him to the latrine cleaner. As far as I know, he accepted that assignment, and that, I think, speaks rather well for him, don't you think?
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
This, in my opinion, giving up wealth, status, prestige and protection and accepting danger, poverty and bad food in the pursuit of enlightenment is worthy of the name of crazy wisdom. If someone's happy to dress in rags, eat scraps like fish entrails as Tilopa did, sleep among the dead bodies in cemeteries and be happy in all this,
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So if you do want to see the brief comments that I provide, but they don't appear in your particular channel, you will find them on Podbean. Before I get into this, and I will repeat this point at the end, I want to make it very clear that in my personal experience, the bad ones are few and far between. Maybe I've been lucky.
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then I too would be willing to say, well, perhaps this person is a Mahasiddha. Admittedly, as one or two of the other Mahasiddha stories show, it is also possible to be rich and powerful, and yet pursue enlightenment with this focus and intensity. But if it's not clear that such a person isn't actually attached to the enjoyments which they do continue to indulge in, then I'm sorry.
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Hello to all my friends, and in fact, all my listeners, of course. Please be welcome to this episode of the Double Dorje podcast. I'm Alex Wilding, and in this episode, I want to talk a little bit about a few of the bad gurus who are sadly out there.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
If the person wants to be a king, wants to eat using the finest cutlery, drink the finest wines from the finest cut glass, and have a copious supply of drink drugs and girls, then, well, what can I say? It is pretty bad. What word would you choose? Now, I've been speaking here about Trungpa most of all because of the way his story has suddenly flared up across the internet.
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
Sogiel Lacher, who still has his followers, fell very publicly into deep disgrace before his death. There are other cases, such as Robert Spatz, who seems still to be at large in France, while Ole Noudal, who has been surrounded by a lot of red flags, seems to have become less of a problem as a result of age-related dementia. How did these people get away with it for so long?
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Bad gurus, tosh gurus and good gurus
This question is often asked, and I have to say that while a large part of the answer is simply that they used the same techniques as any other cult leader, another large part of the answer lies right in the middle of Tibetan culture. Tibetans simply loathe to speak ill of people with high status, especially high religious status, and especially in public.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Way back decades ago, I knew a group of people who happened to be Roman Catholics. Some had been born into that religion and some were new converts to a circle, mostly consisting of students, who had gathered around an apparently somewhat charismatic priest.
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One of the things that bonded them together was taking part in a pilgrimage in the east of England in which they took turns carrying a heavy wooden crucifix. It's possible that it's the one that finishes at Walsingham, which you can Google, although to be quite honest, I can't remember that for a fact. I wasn't properly a Buddhist then, but I certainly wasn't leaning towards Catholicism.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Anyway, good or bad, it was clearly an experience they valued very much, and it did, as I said, bond them tightly together. If you dig around, you'll find quite a number of pilgrimage sites in Europe, many of them not well known to the wider public. While we're about it, my guess is that the Muslim Hajj is probably the best known pilgrimage in the whole world.
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Every Muslim is supposed to make that pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime if they possibly can. And I read recently that the number of pilgrims each year passes two million. The Hindus too have at least one massive, massive pilgrimage, the Kumbh Mela, that takes place approximately once in every 12 years.
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The last one was in 2019, and apparently the estimate of the total number of participants is an astonishing 200 million. The authorities estimate that the busiest day involved 50 million people. Thank goodness, not all at one single site, but it's still a mind-boggling number. So it is very clear that pilgrimage is something that resonates strongly in the religious part of the human mind.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Buddhism doesn't feature any such gargantuan pilgrimages, and maybe that might be partly due to the idea that performing some religious act, such as a pilgrimage, will bring you salvation. Or, on the other hand, the other side of the coin,
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
that failure to perform some religious act will send you down to the bad, bad realms below, is not an idea that sits as well within Buddhist thought as it does within theistic thought. All the same, while going on pilgrimage might not be seen as essential, it can even so be helpful, it can be inspiring and even healthy, and a number of sites are well known as pilgrimage destinations.
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A very short list of some of the most important would include Lumbini in Nepal, where the Buddha of our age was born, Bodhgaya in Bihar, where he reached enlightenment, Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, where he gave his first sermon, and Kushinagara, where he died. These four, and a few others, would be recognised by Buddhists of every stripe.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
And finally, I will tell you whether the chair practitioner who appeared in the previous episode was scared out of her wits or whether she triumphantly rose above fear. Firstly, though, may I take a moment to encourage you to take a moment of yours to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends in whatever way is appropriate for the channel you're listening on
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
but there are famous destinations that are perhaps more closely associated with particular schools. One most notable one that comes to mind is the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka, or the mountains of Wutai Shan in China, and the temples of Kyoto in Japan.
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I won't go on, as you'll find plenty of good information if you search the net and look at sites such as Buddhist pilgrimage sites on Wikipedia. But myself, as a student of Tibetan styles of Buddhism, I do really have to mention at least the Patala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and Mount Kailash and its nearby lakes.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Mount Kailash is looked on as a sacred site, not only by Buddhists and burnt Tibetans, but also by Hindus who see it as an abode of Shiva, and by the Jains.
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Having been on an all too brief visit to the Potala years ago, a pilgrimage to Kailash is one that I would still love to do, although I don't really see it happening, either when I peer into the tea leaves or when I look up into the stars and constellations.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
As if the hardships of these pilgrimages were not already enough, you'll even see those who prostrate their way around Kailash, measuring their length, as it is said. and around special sites such as the Jokhang. Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as I said, is most famous for the Patala Palace, which is of course extremely photogenic. You must have seen pictures.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
But the Jokhang in the centre of town comes higher up on the scale of sacredness. So how can we think about this? When Buddhism puts so much emphasis on the state of our mind and our motivation, how can we tie that in with something as obviously external as a pilgrimage?
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
I think quite a lot of the answer lies in a principle that's quite central to the Vajrayana approach, and that is the power of enactment. We often speak of the Vajrayana rather than the Tantrayana largely because of the way the word Tantra has been hijacked and distorted in the West by cheap jack would-be gurus and exploiters.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Another term, which is in fact quite synonymous with this, and widely used in Tibetan writings, is the Mantrayana, or the secret mantra vehicle. It is, after all, well known that practitioners of this style of Buddhism spend large amounts of time reciting mantras.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
And when they do this, the mantra is not just some sort of soothing spiritual sound that we repeat in the same way as we might put on a CD of Buddhist chant, together with a candle and some incense and go, oh, peaceful. Rather, the mantra is a statement of the deity concerned. It almost is the deity concerned. It embodies the deity and often does not contains the deity's name.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
It's an enactment of the deity's speech. In the same way, we might consider the famous preliminaries. When a practitioner does, over a period of months or years, a basic set of preliminaries, they actually do throw themselves down on the ground in a full-length prostration 100,000 times, usually while reciting a version of the refuge prayer.
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the practitioner will not just meditatively think about feeling remorse for the harmful things they have undoubtedly done, and wishing to do better and make amends, they actually do recite the hundred-syllable mantra of Dorje Sempa, also called Bhajrasattva in his Sanskrit name, reciting it out loud, even though perhaps quietly, 100,000 times.
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Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
they actually do hold a circular disc representing the golden ground of this world system, placing piles of rice on it representing continents and the wealth of that world system, offering all this to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and doing it 100,000 times, and so on. When reciting some sadhana or liturgy,
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
At the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean, but it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else. If you do want to see the brief comments, but they don't appear in your channel, you will find them on Podbean. So, pilgrimage. It's something that's known and treasured by many, many religious traditions around the world. Catholic Christians...
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
A feature that comes up regularly is the offering of washing and drinking water, flowers, incense, lights, perfume, food and music. And while this is done with a mantra for each, it's accompanied at the same time with a set of hand gestures that represent each of these things, rather than simply sitting there and thinking. Once again, the power of enactment is at work.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
The statement of truth out loud once more is a verbal enactment used again and again in Vajrayana ritual. An expression in Sanskrit stating the purity and emptiness of all things is often made immediately before starting to visualize a deity. While at the end of such a practice, it's quite possible that a standard formula stating the essence of Buddhism is recited.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
In the translation that I use, that I've had for so long I can't remember where I got it from, it goes like this. Namo, all phenomena arise from a cause, and the cause was taught by the Buddha, along with the cessation of that cause. This has been taught by the Buddha. Refrain from the slightest evil, accumulate virtue, and tame your own mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
It's held that actually making this statement out loud is itself a thing of power. With that in mind, it is, I think, easy to see that undertaking a journey, particularly a difficult one that's going to involve hardship, yet one in which camaraderie and friendship may also have opportunities to grow, is a very positive action.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Being away from the ordinary habits that grow up in the course of normal life cleaning our teeth, scrolling the internet, checking the weather forecast and so on.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
And while being away from those, at the same time slowing up and opening our minds in inspiring settings where the memories and, many would say, the blessings of former great practitioners are strong, can lead to a deep-seated shift, for the better, let it be said, in our minds and, hopefully, our lives. That being said, We must not ignore the elephant in the room here.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Travel, flying in particular, and the burning of fossil fuels that goes with it are things that we have to start doing less of. I don't know what the solution is or where the balance should be found, but it is something that we have to start weighing in the scales. Because of the short history of Buddhism in the West, We don't have very many obvious nearby pilgrimage sites. We need more.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Has our practice developed to the stage where we can identify suitable places, practice in them, and turn them into pilgrimage sites through the power of our own practice? That's another question to which I don't have an answer, but I think it is worth asking.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Maybe at least we can, through our practice, bring a few special sites into the Buddhist mandala, imbuing them with some magic and practicing there. Who knows, perhaps someday they will become pilgrimage sites.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Having indulged in some of these lovely images, I guess I should finish by putting on my Solomon's series hat and return to the emphasis that Buddhism puts on motivation, on the heart and mind, and on the way we look at our surroundings and our companions in this life.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
The true pilgrimage is indeed, and I think you will agree, the journey through refuge, bodhicitta, yidam practice, guru yoga, and to the guru or Buddha in the heart. If we have pure perception, wherever we are is already a true pilgrimage site. And this isn't just my fancy idea. This is part of the tradition. But that kind of very high view does, of course, slip away only too easily.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
may make a pilgrimage to Rome to see the Pope giving blessings in the square of St. Peter's, or to Lourdes in France in the hope of healing. Less often they may make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, poor suffering Palestine, and perhaps more often to more local sites, such as Croke Patrick in Ireland. That's the one that serious pilgrims climb barefoot.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
And that means that enacting an outer pilgrimage, whether it's to a famous site that gives us bragging rights, or just to an awesome site nearer to our home where we more easily come into touch with the deeper parts of our mind, this can be of huge value. And now for something less serious. You may well not have known this, but the tune that I learnt at school for the hymn To Be a Pilgrim
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
can be used to sing the Guru Rinpoche mantra. I say this partly by way of warning, as you may have heard me croaking in one or two other episodes, so you may want to skip the next 20 seconds or so.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Hello, hello and hello. You are truly welcome to this Double Droger podcast. I'm Alex Wilding and in this episode I want to share some thoughts about pilgrimages and how they fit into the Buddhist way of doing things. I will sing the Guru Rinpoche mantra to a tune that you might not expect.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
And so we float off to the copper-coloured mountain. And just before I go, perhaps you guessed what happened to that cheer practitioner in the cemetery I told you about in the previous episode. Of course, she did not miss a drumbeat and her melody did not waver. But she looked up the light of the low moon gleaming in her eyes.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
A smile spread across her face, and she gave a gentle tilt of the head as if to say welcome. Your party all felt a bit foolish. Dave, one of your friends, even offered three prostrations, and you all backed out of the graveyard with folded hands. I'm guessing that she did all right for offerings over the next few days.
The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Pilgrimage. And did those feet...
Okay, so with the tune of the pilgrim hymn still perhaps ringing in your ears, I will say goodbye for this episode. Don't forget to like it, subscribe, share with your friends, or whatever is appropriate for your podcast channel, and don't forget the power of enactment. Bye.