A
Complete and Detailed Exposition on the True Buddha Tantric Dharma
By Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
Translated by Janny Chow
Generation
Stage Practice
What is Generation
stage practice? Generation stage practice is analogous to
the pursuit of formal education in that it starts at the
kindergarten level and progresses through grade school,
junior high, high school, bachelor, master, and doctoral
levels. Of course there are some individuals who are
prodigies. At the age when other student are still
in high school. These people of superior faculties are
already enrolled in doctoral programs.
The people who do
not follow a prescribed pathway of graduated practice, but
begin by entering directly into doctoral programs, are
geniuses. I consider myself far from being a genius.
My brain is mediocre, and it definitely does not function
like a computer. Therefore, since the age of twenty
six (when I first embarked on the Generation Stage
practice) till now (the age of forty eight), it has taken
me more that twenty years of studying to finally arrive at
the Completion Stage practice.
In the Generation Stage practice of the True Buddha
Tantric Dharma or in Tantric cultivation in general, one
has to first practice the Four Preliminary Practices which
together are the cornerstone for all other Tantric
practices. A
new refuge student should practice the Four Preliminary
Practices until a yogic response is achieved, before
attempting the practice of guru Yoga.
After achieving a yogic response in the guru Yoga,
one may advance to the Personal Deity Yoga.
When one succeeds in obtaining a yogic response in
the Personal deity Yoga practice, one may move on to
practice Fierce [Wrathful] Deity Yoga.
After receiving a yogic response in the Fierce
Deity Yoga, one then finally practices the Highest Tantra
yoga and Great Perfection.
When one reaches the level of highest Tantra Yoga,
one arrives at the completion Stage.
This is one structure of the graduated pathway of
practice.
However, along the path from the level of Personal deity
Yoga to that of the Fierce Deity Yoga, several other steps
also exist. For
example, one does not immediately embark on the practice
of Fierce deity Yoga, even if one has achieved a yogic
response in the Personal deity Yoga; one still has to
build a foundation for the Fierce Deity Yoga.
I can illustrate this with my own experience and practices
from the last twenty years.
I first practiced the Four Preliminary Practices,
then Guru Yoga, followed by the Personal Deity Yoga.
When one attains a yogic response in the Personal
deity Yoga, one has already attained Buddhahood, albeit
“Buddhahood by Guidance.”
I remarked several days ago that, as long as one is
able to see in one’s mind the manifestation of the
Personal deity when one close one’s eyes, there is
assurance that one will obtain Buddhahood [when one dies].
At the moment of dying, when one’s closes one’s eyes,
the Personal Deity will immediately manifest and guide one
away. Under
such circumstance, “Buddhahood by Guidance” is
absolutely assured.
What advance practices is there the Personal Deity yoga?
One needs to build a foundation for the Fierce
Deity Yoga by starting with the Treasure Vase Breathing
Exercise. Why is necessary to practice the Treasure Vase
Breathing Exercise? Because
it is the key to the building up of inner fire.
A full and vigorous vital energy (chi) is conducive
to the kindling of inner fire.
If the inner fire is an elevator, then a full and
vigorous vital energy (chi) that moves inside the body is
the electrical source of energy behind the elevator.
In other words, when one’s chi is full, one in
possession of an electrical source that can maneuver the
elevator along the middle channel.
By dong the Treasure Vase Breathing Exercise,
one’s chi becomes strengthened and one can start doing
the inner fire practice.
As soon as the inner fire is kindled and ascends
along the middle subtle energy channel, it will open up
the middle channel. This is the practice of opening up the
middle channel.
What is the middle channel?
It is the track between the root chakra and the
crown chakra along which the elevator moves up and down.
The chi is the electrical source for the elevator.
After obtaining a full and vigorous chi with the Treasure
Base breathing Exercise, one can practice the inner fire.
If the inner fire is an elevator, what then is
transported by the elevator? Light drops. What are light
drops? Light
drops are the crystallizations of the body’s essences
know as ching, chi and shen. When the crystallizations of
the body’s essences are transported upwards through the
elevator, the middle channel will open up and one will
perceive the Clear Light.
What is the practice which follows the opening of the
middle channel? One works on opening up the (middle) five
chakras or energy centers in the body.
When the heart chakra opens up, the Bliss Body of
Buddhahood is established.
When the throat chakra opens up, the Emanation Body
of the Buddhahood is established.
After the three bodies of Buddhahood are thus
established, one goes on to establish the Five Fierce
Deities in five chakras – this is the Fierce deity Yoga
practice. When one succeeds in the practice of the Fierce
Deity Yoga, one can proceed to the next level of highest
Tantra Yoga.
The structure of my practice is as follows: the Four
Preliminary Practices the Guru Yoga, the Personal deity
Yoga, the Treasure Vase Breathing Exercise, the opening of
the middle channel, the opening of the five chakras, the
Highest Tantra Yoga, and Great Protection.
When one reaches the level of the Highest Tantra
Yoga and Great perfection, one arrives at the Completion
Stage practice. These
are the staged of spiritual cultivation.
A student has requested that I discuss the Four
Preliminary Practices (which include the Vajrasattvas
Practice) and the guru Yoga.
Actually I have already discussed three of the four
Preliminary Practices: the Great Homage, the Mandala
Offering, and the Fourfold Refuge.
What remains is the Vajrasattva Practice. The
liturgy of the Vajrasattva Practice and that of the basic
Tantric Dharma which I have been teaching are nearly
identical. There
are only minor differences. What are these differences?
The mudra, mantra, and visualization are different.
If you carefully study this teaching which I am now
giving on the complete and detailed exposition of the
basic true Buddha Tantric Dharma and, if you can
understand it in detail, you will be able to draw
inferences from this teaching which will enable you to
practice a complete Vajrasattva Practice.
Does everyone know wherein lie the differences
among the Vajrasattva Practice, the Guru Yoga, and the
Personal Deity Yoga? What
about the mudra, mantra, and visualization?
Hen you watch carefully the video tapes of this
teaching of the complete and detailed exposition of the
basic Tantric Dharma, you will be able to draw many
inferences from them.
Actually, in terms of external practices, no
Tantric practices deviate from the Four Preliminary
Practices, mudra, mantra, visualization, entering into
Samadhi, exiting from Samadhi, recitation of other
mantras, and dedication of merits. In a while I will
discuss the steps following emergence from Samadhi.
If one gives some careful thought to the teaching I am now
giving on the practice of Tantric Dharma, one should
realize that the four Preliminary Practices consist of the
three Preliminary Practices and the Vajrasattvas Practice.
When the Guru Yoga and Body Offering are added to
the Four Preliminary Practices, they become the Six
Preliminary Practices in Tantra.
If one continues to practice the Personal deity
Yoga and perfects it, resulting in a yogic response,
Buddhahood is certain.
If one can’t attain Buddhahood this way, one can
come after me! In
fact, there won’t be just the guru, one’s Personal
Deity alsi will come to give one guidance, bringing one to
the Personal deity’s pure Land! If, after practicing the
True Buddha Tantric Dharma in a continuum of mindfulness,
one still does not attain Buddhahood, and no Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas come to lead one away [at the time one’s
death], one can go to complain to the Yama King at the
Hell real to lead one away. That way, Buddhahood is still
certain. [audience applause].
I am making this bold statement: as ling as one practices
according to this liturgy of the true Buddha Tantric
Dharma, one will certainly receive yogic response.
Consider this, the Scriptural schools generally
only teach one to do chanting and that alone is supposed
to result in the manifestation of Amitabha and
“Buddhahood by Guidance”. There are, in our practice,
so many more elements besides chanting, such as the mudra,
mantra, visualization, Samadhi (stability) – almost
every single one of these elements can assure one of
Buddhahood. In
this world, it is no longer common for one to encounter a
teacher who can give such a lucid explanation of this
profound, precise, and effective Tantric Buddhist Dharma!
Of course there are many knowledgeable Tibetan Tulkus who
give teachings, but many of their students only learn of
the Four Preliminary Practices after seven or eight years
of tutelage. Reflects
on what you are learning today from this series of
teachings – a complete Tantric Dharma that enables one
to reach deeply into transcendental realm.
This complete liturgy is the fruit of more than
twenty years of painstaking labor.
I am sharing with everyone the keys of what I have
learned in my own practices.
Such as Dharma should be well cherished.
As long as one carefully practices this Dharma,
everyone will be able to meet with me again in Sukhavati.
[audience applause].
The Four Preliminary Oractices refer to the Great Homage,
Mandala Offering, Fourfold Refuge, and Vajrasattva
Practice. The
liturgy of the Vajrasattva Practice follows that of the
basic True Buddha Tantric Dharma, differing only in its
own version of mantra, mudra, and visualization.
It is the same with the liturgy of the Guru Yoga
Practice. The
Vajrasattva and Guru Yoga are two extremely important
practices.
One should note that the Vajrasattva Practice is a superb
purification and repentance yoga, a great yoga for
realizing the nature of emptiness, and also a wonderful
yoga for remedying deficiencies.
The Guru Yoga, on the other hand, is a great yoga
of affirmation, to bring forth rebirth in the
Pure
Land
. It is a
supplication for the power of reliance from the guru.
When one achieves yogic union with one’s guru,
one will never fall aside from the path.
Why it this so?
Because the guru himself has not fallen aside from
the path! I
have not yet deviated from the path, and, if a student has
already turned his or her back on the path, it is very
clear that he or she has not experienced yogic union with
the guru, isn’t it?
If, through the practices, one’s mind has become
one with the guru, one will not turn back from the path,
as I myself have not done so!
If someone were to verbally abuse me or even beat me to
death, it would not affect my determination to stay on the
path. If one
loses the will to continue on the path, it indicates that
one has not attained a spiritual union with the guru. How
can student who has attained a spiritual union with the
guru deviate from the path? “When the guru partakes of
sweet potatoes, one also partakes of sweet potatoes!”
[spoken in Taiwanese dialect]
The guru has attained Buddhahood, so will one
attain Buddhahood when one achieves spiritual union with
the guru! The
guru has become the Flower Light Self-Mastery Buddha.
One should therefore ask oneself if one has
attained the “Flower and Light” or not? Has one
attained self-mastery? If one gets upset, loses appetite
and sleep over criticism from others, one has not yet
achieved self-mastery!
Someone approached a Zen master and asked him, “Have you
been working hard lately on your spiritual cultivation?”
The Zen master replied, “I have been practicing
very hard. I
eat and I sleep.” Well,
one might ask, if eating and sleeping are cultivation,
then isn’t every human being in the world also doing
spiritual cultivation?
The Zen master explained, “I don’t eat and
sleep the way ordinary peopled do.
I eat majestically.
My appetite is good and I digest my food well. I
pay total attention to the moment that I am eating.”
Do not think that one cannot be majestic when one is
eating. Although
I do not have the best etiquette in the world, as I
sometimes just pick up my bowl and slurp the soup down, my
mind is completely in a state of majestic mindfulness when
I am doing that. [audience laughter] I eat well every
meal. Would I act like a spoiled child by refusing to eat
lunch or dinner because of, say, bad dishes, bad mood, or
stomachache? No. I have a good appetite and eat big
portions at every meal. What distinguishes this normal
activity of eating as a spiritual practice is that it is
totally integrated with a majestic state of mindful
stability.
When I sleep, I sleep very deeply and never suffer from
insomnia. As
soon as I lie down, I transform myself into a firm vajra.
In my sleep, I practice the “Sleep Light” and
radiate a red light with envelopes me like a canopy. With
protection from the vajra, the demons will not take
advantage while one is sleep. This way, one can sleep very
deeply and wake up with vibrant energy the next morning.
I practice “non-outflow” even when I am asleep.
This is not simple at all! Although I was married
in the past and have a son and a daughter, I have been
celibate for the last six to seven years.
This is tantamount to a renewal of or reverting to
the state of being a virgin. [audience laughter]
I have arrived at this point that I can retain the chi so
that there is no outflow on the physical or subtle level,
day or night.
With this practice of “non-outflow” of chi, the body
spontaneously emits light. I practice even when I am
sleeping and, instead of being led by my dreams, I am in
conscious control of my own dreams. Without practice, one
is not aware that one is dreaming when one dreams.
At night, all kinds of grasping can take place in
one’s dreams – the boyfriend comes, the girlfriend
comes – what happen next?
We can only borrow a theatrical device from the
Taiwanese puppet show: dong, dong, dong, the sounding of
the gong three times, signaling that one is
“finished”. [audience laughter]
It is more important to practice at night that at daytime.
Because at night, when one sleeps, one will be led
astray by the dreams if one is not aware that one is
dreaming. Under
such circumstances, it is very easy to lose one’s
essences. Once
one losses one’s essences, one’s previous efforts in
cultivation go down to drain. When one gets out of the
bed, one is dizzy and completely enervated.
What kind of spiritual cultivation is that? Maybe
one should stay as an ordinary person. It is easier that
way. It is
quite difficult to be a sage.
Image one is a holy monk during the daytime, able
to attract a large audience when lecturing on the sutras
but, at night, one has lustful dreams. Would that be
acceptable?
Definitely not! One has to practice the Sleep Light, Dream
Mahamudra, and The Armor Protection – elements found
only in Tantric Practice and not in the Scriptural
schools. Therefore, a good sleep, a good digestion, and
assimilation of meals are indications that one is a
skillful practitioner. In Tantric practice, one practices
both day and night, throughout everyday life.
When one attain self-mastery and freedom from the
interferences of demonic forces, when one sees through the
illusion and let’s go of the grasping of the ego that is
Ichiban. [Japanese for number one!]
From this complete and detailed exposition of the Tantric
Dharma, one can draw inferences to do practices on the
Vajrasattva and Guru Yoga.
Everyone should have now a velar understanding of
the Generation Stage pathway. In this teaching, I have
used the Amithaba Yogas as illustrations, and I hope
everyone can use this example to make inferences for other
practices. What
is the training for beginning refuge students? The Four
Preliminary Practices (Great Homage, Fourfold Refuge,
Mandala Offering, and Vajrasattva Practice) followed by
the Guru Yoga and Personal deity. Buddhahood is certain
when one perfects the Personal Deity Yoga and attains
yogic union with one’s Personal deity.
Next, one practices the Treasure Vase Breathing
Exercise, the cultivation of inner fire and light drops,
the opening in the middle channel, the opening of the five
chakras, the Fierce Deity Practices, the Highest Tantra,
and the Great Perfection. Does everyone understand this?
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