Luminous Wisdom

Sexuality & Spirituality

I think I am not unusual to have grown up with a deeply entrenched split between body and spirituality. In our culture this division is expressed as the split between matter and spirit, or, more specifically, between the body’s sexuality and spirituality. It is worth considering whether this is the predisposition of all established religions, or predominantly that of the Judeo-Christian cultures of the West.

While living in the East in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds, it became apparent that within Eastern religions there are two distinct schools. One sees the relationship to the body and matter ideologically as the foundation of suffering and confusion; the other views the body and the elemental energies in nature as fundamental to the vitality of our spiritual life.

These two views exemplify the difference between the exoteric and the esoteric traditions.

Throughout the history of Eastern religions there have been cultural periods of Puritanism that saw the body as something to be overcome, interspersed with times of renaissance when the teachings of yogic practices flourished, focusing upon the vital energy of sexuality and eroticism.

The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece

Stupa

On what we may call the level of archetypes, a stupa incorporates five basic geometric shapes corresponding to the five elements- earth, water, fire, air and space – out of which the world and all the atoms within it are composed.

Images of Enlightenment – Tibetan Art in Practice, Jonathon Landaw & Andy Weber

Devotion to the Masters

All that I have realized I have realized through devotion to my masters. Increasingly, as I go on teaching, I become aware, humbly and with real awe, of how their blessings are beginning to work through me. I am nothing without their blessing, and if there is anything I feel I can do, it is acting as a bridge between you and them. Again and again, I notice that when I speak of my masters in my teaching, my devotion to them inspires a vision of devotion in those listening; and in those marvelous moments I feel my masters are present, blessing and opening the hearts of my students to the truth.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche

Buddha Nature

Whether a being is a tiny bug or a human endowed with the opportunities and conditions to achieve the doctrine, each has his own share of Buddha nature. At present it is obscured by the temporary defilements of desire, hatred, and ignorance, but these are not part of a person’s essential nature; they are accidental and can be removed.
When a person becomes capable of removing these temporary defilements, he will turn into a Buddha in and of himself. He does not have to acquire a Buddha nature because he has always had it.

Tantric Practice in Nying-Ma, Khetsun Sangpo, Translated and Edited by Jeffrey Hopkins

Spiritual Awakening & the Body

From a tantric perspective the intimate relationship between spiritual awakening and the body has always been central, and the body is viewed as a vehicle for the underlying forces that are being cultivated and transformed. For this reason there are specific tantric precepts that specify not harming or abusing the body in order that practice not be hindered. Certain tantras describe how being born into a human body with its elements and energies is the most auspicious birth one can receive. It is said that only with these qualities is it possible to practice Tantra and attain full Buddhahood within one lifetime.

The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, Rob Preece

Effortless Activity

Effortless activity [is found] at moments in dance and in sports at the highest levels of performance; when it does, it takes everybody’s breath away. But it also happens in every area of human activity, from painting to car repair to parenting. Years of practice and experience combine on some occasions, giving rise to a new capacity. You let execution unfold beyond technique, beyond exertion, beyond thinking. Action then becomes a pure expression of art, of being, of letting go of all doing – a merging of mind and body in motion. We thrill in watching a superb performance, whether athletic or artistic, because it allows is to participate in the magic of true mastery, to be uplifted, if only briefly, and perhaps to share in the intention that each of is, in our own way, might touch such moments of grace and harmony in the living of our own lives.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Effortless Effort, Doerless Doing

Non-doing has nothing to do with being indolent or passive. Quite the contrary. It takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity. Nor is it easy to make a special time for non-doing and to keep at it in the face of everything in our lives which needs to be done.

But non-doing doesn’t have to be threatening to people who feel they always have to get things done. They might find they get even more ‘done,’ and done better, by practicing non-doing. Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way. Enormous effort can be involved, but it is graceful, knowledgeable, effortless effort, a ‘doerless doing,’ cultivated over a lifetime.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Other Names for Mind

As for this apparent and distinct [phenomenon] which is called ‘mind’:

In terms of existence, it has no [inherent] existence whatsoever.

In terms of origination, it is the source of the diverse joys and sorrows of cyclic existence and nirvana,

In terms of [philosophical] opinion, it is subject to opinions in accordance with the eleven vehicles.

In terms of designation, it has an inconceivable number of distinct names:

Some call it ‘the nature of the mind’, the ‘nature of mind itself’,

Some eternalists give it the name ‘self’,

Pious attendants call it ‘selflessness of the individual’,

Cittamātrins call it ‘mind’,

Some call it the ‘Perfection of Discriminative Awareness’,

Some call it the ‘Nucleus of the Sugata’,

Some call it the ‘Great Seal’,

Some call it the ‘Unique Seminal Point’,

Some call it the ‘Expanse of Reality’,

Some call it the ‘Ground-of-all’,

And some call it ‘ordinary [unfabricated consciousness]’.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Understand

O fortunate children, listen to these words!
The term ‘mind’ is commonplace and widely used,
Yet there are those who don’t understand it, those who partially understand it,
And those who have not quite understood its genuine reality.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Translated by Gyurme Dorje, Edited by Graham Coleman with Thupten Jinpa

Mental Stability

Bodhisattvas strive to attain a state of mental balance and equanimity. This is impossible as long as the mind is troubled by passions and desire to engage in harmful activities. Training in ethics serves to calm the mind, to diminish the force of afflictive emotions, and thus provide an important precondition to advanced meditative training, which requires mental stability.

Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, John Powers