Becoming Vajrasattva

The Tantric Path of Purification

Thubten Yeshe, Nicholas Ribush

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780861713899
• eBook ISBN: 9780861719020
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

"The practice of purification is one of the most important solutions to life's problems." - Lama Zopa RinpocheCommon to all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the practice of Vajrasattva is used to purify negative karma, illness, and obstacles to spiritual development. Lama Yeshe, the inspirational teacher who strongly influenced the development of Buddhism in the West, found that the practice of Vajrasattva brought dramatic results for his Western students. Becoming Vajrasattva is a complete guide to this purification practice, providing instruction on the method, commentary on the traditional texts, and insight into tantra. Also included is an entire section of complete retreat instructions - indispensable reading material for anyone undertaking a retreat in the Tibetan tradition.

PART 1

The Main Commentary

1~ Why and How We Purify

THIS TEACHING HAS COME at your request, not from my saying, “I want to give you teachings; come here and listen!” In your studies on the graduated path to enlightenment you have come to understand how powerful your minds are and how they create powerful positive and negative actions. Aware of this, you have examined your lives and seen the nature of the actions of your body, speech, and mind. Thus, with knowledge-wisdom, you have requested this teaching to be able to purify the negative forces within you.

The way you requested this teaching is also very good. Based on your understanding of the negative mind, your request is neither ignorant nor emotional. Since you are fortunate, intelligent, and wise enough to be able to practice this powerful yoga method and thereby destroy your negative energy forces completely, I feel that giving you this teaching will be of great benefit.

First of all, you are fortunate just to see that there really is a solution to the negative actions that arise from the ignorant mind. Most people are unaware of how they create actions; they also do not understand the difference between positive and negative actions and their results of happiness and suffering. Even when people discover this reality, it is very difficult for them to see how to purify and free themselves completely from the cycle of cause and effect to which they are bound. This is not easy; it takes a long time. You really are fortunate to know all this and to have reached the conclusion that you can purify yourselves.

Furthermore, you are very lucky that your wisdom can grasp the profound methods of tantric yoga. This is often very difficult for the Western mind. How difficult? Well, when Westerners first meet the Dharma they cannot even understand the purpose of making prostrations: “Why should I do prostrations? Sorry, that’s not for me.” Prostrations are so simple, so easy to understand! In contrast, the profound methods of tantric yoga are extremely deep, much more difficult to grasp.

Let me put this another way. We often find that when we meditate on the lamrim—the path to liberation and enlightened realizations—we encounter many hindrances. We cannot understand why it is so difficult to meditate, to control our minds, to gain realizations. “Why do I meet with so many obstacles whenever I try to do something positive? Leading a worldly life was much easier than this. Even an hour’s meditation is so difficult.” Many such thoughts and questions arise.

It is not just a lack of wisdom. It is that over countless lives the negative energy forces of our body, speech, and mind have accumulated such that now they fill us like a vast ocean. If they were to manifest in physical form, they would occupy all of space. By contrast, our knowledge-wisdom is as weak as the light of a flickering little candle. A little candle isn’t much help on a dark and windy night. It is the energy of our wrong conceptions, our negative mind, that makes it difficult for us to actualize the everlasting peaceful path of liberation and to receive realizations. Therefore, we need a powerful purification practice like the tantric yoga method of Heruka Vajrasattva to destroy both the energy of the ignorant mind and the negative actions of body and speech that arise from it.

The yoga method of Heruka Vajrasattva has the power to purify all negative energy, which is the main thing preventing you from actualizing the path. This impure energy creates both physical and mental hindrances, and also leaves certain imprints. Philosophically, we say that these are neither mind nor form. The negativity I am talking about is conceptually different from your previous understanding of the term. Most Westerners think that negativity refers to just the gross level of the emotions. It goes much deeper than that.

Take, for example, the physical body. The first time people come to a meditation course they have great trouble just sitting. Something in their nervous system pulls their energy down to the base of their spine. The reason we recommend the classical cross-legged meditation posture is that when you sit with your back straight, the psychic energy flows properly, and thus it is much easier for you to control your mind. However, this change in the alignment of the nervous system makes it feel as if all your energy is falling down from your crown chakra to your lower chakra. This gives some people the terrifying sensation that they are losing their minds. Not only do new students have trouble sitting, but they also have difficulty concentrating for long periods while listening to totally new and often unsettling ideas. These physical and mental problems may make them wonder why on earth they are sitting there.

The pressure in the lower chakra is caused by negative physical energy, which comes from the negative mind. In Mahayana Buddhism we place less emphasis on such physical reactions and focus on the root of all problems, the ignorant, negative mind.

While insight meditation on the graduated path is the actual way to liberation, when you feel that you cannot meditate—there are too many interruptions, you cannot concentrate, you cannot solve your problems—remember that there is something else you can do to remove obstacles: purification. In the experience of Tibetan lamas, sessions of insight meditation on the path should alternate with sessions of a powerful purification practice, such as the yoga method of Heruka Vajrasattva. This combined approach ensures that you will gain the realizations you seek without frustration.

Do not, however, have unrealistic expectations: “If I meditate today, tomorrow I’ll be completely pure.” You cannot purify yourself overnight, not even in retreat. Such expectations themselves become obstacles. Just relax; all you need to feel is that in this life you will act as positively as possible. If you can do that, good results will come whether you expect them or not. You won’t have to keep asking your lama for a prediction: “If I control my body, speech, and mind, avoid all negativities, and do only good, will I experience positive results?” If you understand karma, you will always act wisely and keep your actions positive. What need is there to ask?

Just think: “From now until I die, whether realizations come to me or not, I shall act as positively as I can, trying to make my life as beneficial as possible.” What more can you expect? That sort of expectation is far more reasonable and logical than thinking, “If I meditate for a month I’ll become Heruka Vajrasattva.” Such expectations only disturb your mind.

In order to gain higher realizations, it is most important to practice the powerful methods of purification found in the Vajrayana path. Many lamas have found that purification overcomes the hindrances of both negative energy and its imprints. While other Vajrasattva practices emphasize physical purification, the Heruka Vajrasattva yoga method emphasizes mental purification. This makes it especially powerful.

THE FOUR OPPONENT POWERS

The Heruka Vajrasattva sadhana is divided into three parts: taking refuge, generating bodhichitta, and the actual yoga method. Why are taking refuge and generating bodhichitta parts of this purification practice? Because negative actions are usually created in relation either to holy objects such as the Three Jewels of refuge, or to other sentient beings.

You can see for yourself that this is true. Most of your problems arise from the people around you, not from bricks, rocks, or trees. And the most common problems can be found between people who are close to each other—the closer the connection, the more mental complications arise. For example, if you stay away from tar, you’ll be okay; but if you touch it, it will get all over you, will be hard to get rid of, and will cause you much difficulty. In the same way, proximity to other people can lead to sticky situations.

Some simple examples of common negativities will clarify this. We ourselves, the subject, act under the influence of our negative minds, but we usually need an object upon which to act. For example, when we kill, there has to be another being whose life we take; when we steal, there has to be an owner of the thing we take; when we lie, there has to be someone to lie to. Of course, our ignorant, dissatisfied, greedy, selfish mind is always there, but other beings have to be there, too. In this way we create negativities in dependence upon others. We purify this kind of negative karma by generating bodhichitta.

We also create negativities in dependence upon holy objects. Sometimes, with a negative mind, we might criticize a buddha, denigrate a bodhisattva, treat books or statues disrespectfully, or complain about monks or nuns. There are countless ways to create such negative karma, and we purify it by taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

To generate bodhichitta we must feel unbearable great compassion for all sentient beings, irrespective of their species, race, nationality, or philosophical and religious beliefs. As well, we must have the strong, enthusiastic will to lead them to perfect enlightenment, taking the responsibility for doing so upon ourselves alone. Simply having this attitude releases us from a great deal of negativity.

For example, your karmic connection with your parents is very strong, but it is out of control. Although they have been so kind to you, you cause them great suffering. You cannot cut the connection with your parents by saying that you are completely fed up with them and running off to the mountains. Separating yourself from them physically is not enough. To exhaust the negative karma with your parents you have to purify it by experiencing great compassion for them and generating bodhichitta with them in mind. Similarly, your karmic connection with other people can’t be cut intellectually, by just saying you’re finished with them. These bonds have to be severed by purification.

The best way to purify negativities is by using the four opponent powers. The first of these is the power of the object, which means taking refuge and generating bodhichitta. In the practice I am describing here, the object of refuge is Heruka Vajrasattva, who is one with the Three Jewels of refuge: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We can also say he is one with the guru, the absolute guru, but I’ll discuss that more fully later. His divine wisdom understands the nature of both positive and negative energy. He becomes your liberator, and you go to him for refuge.

The second power is the power of release. It is sometimes called the power of regret, but this is misleading, for this power derives from wisdom, not from some kind of emotional sorrow or guilt. Such feelings actually reinforce our negative propensities. Think instead of a person who suddenly realizes that he has just swallowed poison: he wants to take the antidote right away. The power of release is the wisdom that understands the negative repercussions of unwholesome actions so well that the moment you become aware that you have created a negative action, you want to purify it immediately.

The third is the power of remedy. It is with this power that you counteract the force of your amassed negativities. With single-pointed concentration on Heruka Vajrasattva—the manifestation of blissful, transcendental, divine wisdom who is one with your guru—you do the yoga method and powerfully recite the purifying mantra. This practice is the actual remedy.

I’m not sure that the fourth power can be succinctly translated into English. It is something like the power of indestructible determination. It is not so much a vow or a promise or a resolution or a decision. Simultaneous with the power of the remedy you have this great determination never to create any negative actions again. There is something complete about it. It is firm and strong and comes from wisdom. Within you there is a subtle energy that protects you from moral falls. It is far more than an intellectually motivated decision; it is a force that totally counteracts the old habits, a realization that instinctively protects you. Of course this power has degrees, but when fully developed it offers perfect protection.

For example, when you take the eight Mahayana precepts for a day, in the early morning you generate the great determination to keep the vows intact. From that moment on you must practice perfect awareness to maintain them throughout the day. Determination to keep the precepts at the time of the ceremony alone is not enough; it has to be maintained minute by minute for the duration of the commitment. Otherwise, as soon as the ordination ceremony is over, you will fall straight back into your old samsaric ways, as if unconscious, completely unaware of what you are doing.

Vows are not broken spontaneously. The motivation for an action that will break a vow evolves gradually in the mind. You have a long history of similarly uncontrolled energy patterns. Therefore, if your early morning determination is accompanied by exceptional continuous conscious awareness, there is no way you can break your vows. Within you there is that very subtle, accumulated energy that completely protects you from defiled actions.

KARMA

The same thing applies to following the law of karma. When we take refuge, our main obligation is to keep our karma straight, to avoid defiled, negative actions. But often we cannot do so, even though we understand on an intellectual level that if we keep on creating such actions again and again, we shall continue endlessly in the cycle of suffering and conflict. This is because we do not have a deeply integrated understanding of karma. Those with such an understanding never recklessly create negative actions.

I know Westerners quite well. They are intelligent, but their minds are divided. On the one hand they desire to have perfect wisdom and to keep their karma straight. On the other they are impelled by the force of their bad habits, which prevents them from keeping their karma straight. This causes them a lot of suffering. When difficult circumstances arise, the negative energy overpowers the positive because many Westerners have never built up within themselves the force of good habits; they also lack deep, internal understanding of the nature of karma, of cause and effect.

Some people argue that karma is experienced only by those who believe in it; in other words, those who don’t believe in karma don’t experience its effects. This is completely incorrect. Th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Editor’s Introduction
• Prologue
• Part 1: The Main Commentary
• Part 2: Retreat Instructions
• Part 3: Discourses
• Part 4: Heruka Vajrasattva Tsok
• Appendices
• Notes
• Glossary
• Chronology
• Suggested Further Reading
• About Wisdom
• The Wisdom Trust