Entering the Buddhadharma

8/11/2019 Entering the Buddhadharma

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Entering the Buddhadharma

by Sam Webster , August 2002In response to discussion the Chthonic-Auranian OTO list.

This is a lovely topic, one I've spent the last ten years cooking on. I'll attempt tosummarize what I now understand, but this understanding is always in process for me. Ihave done some writing about it. See Pagan Dharma-1 , Pagan Dharma-2 , and AThelemic Ganachakra (a thelemic-dharma gnostic mass) elsewhere on this site.

I find when exploring a new current the guardians of the current tend to take an interestin me until I resolve my relationship to that current. This is rarely a comfortable thing.

So, my exploration of things 'Buddhist' has not been easy or gentle, but it has been veryfruitful. It began simply by taking a class in seminary on "Tibetan ContemplativeTradition" along with other classes on various other religions as a way of broadeningmy knowledge.

It was in this class that I met Bhakha Tulku and was given the explanation of refuge"We all need help, Refuge is asking for help". For a variety of reasons this reallyworked for me. I'm guessing that Alobar [a list dweller] would be raising flags hereabout who the help is coming from and what strings are attached but I will come to thatlater.

While important, this understanding of refuge was not the most impactful thing I got

from Bhakha Tulku at the time. It was a practice called "Benefit for Beings PervadingSpace" and the reason why was because I could do it. This practice invokes Chenrezi,a.k.a Avalokitishvara, the Boddhisatva of Compassion and wields that compassionthrough the mantra "Om Mani Peme Hung" to remediate the suffering of the six classesof beings caught in samsara.

Samsara, some times translated as cyclical existence, is called 'Kor-wa' in Tibetan,meaning "Running in circles". The idea is that these are beings who have no control asto how they incarnate or the condition of their lives. They are entirely enmeshed in theirkarma and this is unsatisfactory to them. The six classes of beings benefited by thispractice are Gods, Jealous Gods (called Titans by the Greeks), Humans, Animals,

Hungry Ghosts and Hell Beings.

There is a lot in here that I have to gloss over but suffice it to say that the purpose of therite is to remove some of the suffering of each of these kinds of beings in turn throughthe power of the mantra. Where this gets interesting is that while driving home frompractice I kept finding myself filled with anger and other unpleasant emotions. And Icould not get them to stop.

They became overwhelming. I was curled up in bed screaming, overloaded with allkinds of anguish and could not get my grounding. Through round about means I got aquestion to the Lama describing my condition and asking for advice. His reply was that


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I should rejoice.

Apparently it usually takes years of practice before one learns how to tie into the groundof suffering. I had done so in just a few sessions. The ground of suffering is the space ornexus of the suffering of all beings. Those who wield compassion use it to drain thatdomain and transform it into pleasure or power or wisdom, or whatever.

I was tying into it but I was not performing the transformation because I did not realize

that the mantra was the tool with which to do the transform. Once this was explained tome, I knew exactly what to do. I wielded the mantra, fed it the suffering I was beingoverwhelmed with and instantly the feelings were transformed into intense pleasure andenergy.

None of this was because I am in any way special. It is because I am a mage and I canwork magick, like any of you.

So, I continued to study. The next big piece for me was Steven Beyer's "Cult of Tara".This work is a highly detailed study of set of Tibetan rituals. Interestingly to me, inorder to explain Tibetan ritual magick, Beyer had to turn to the western tradition, in fact

to all of those names we know and love. This work is for me a rosetta stone, one thatshowed me that the techniques of so-called oriental ritual magick are no different thanthose of the western tradition. It is just that their culture dedicated the same energy toritual the west dedicated to music, so when it comes to ritual while we are playing 3cord Rock & Roll, they are playing symphonies.

But, 'tech is tech'. The same principals used there are used here. In fact I found in thisbook the very method described in the Ascelepius, the brief description in the HermeticCorpus of drawing the damon of a star into a statue to animate it. In the Cult of Tara, thestatue was one of Tara, but here the full method and its theory were spelled out. I canattest to the fact that it works.

Now to Thelema. Uncle Al considered the Book of the Law as a sort of third testament.Cute, but as a student of western religion I've studied the genres of the scriptures and itdoesn't quite fit. The closest thing to it is an apocalypse since it reveals something, butthose usually involve some one being taken up to heaven or have a vision revealed inthe temple. This one is different.

However there is a genre that very nicely matches Liber AL. In this genre a cosmologyis often expressed, a specific view to practice is given and a godform is presented for thepractitioner to wear. This genre is the kind of text called a tantra.

When I got exposed to the Buddhadharma I began to see Thelema in the stream of thoseworking for the greater evolutionary purpose. It, and the rest of the western stream, theHermetic, Rosicrucian, Alchymical, and others, I saw as part of one large process goingon on this world, transcendent to any particular culture. (There have also been hints of this going on on other worlds). As I discovered the unity of western and eastern tech andso began to press on my understanding of the split, I came to realize that there was nonesave a historical division caused by the arisal of Islam.

In the Nyngma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism there is a peculiar version of continuousrevelation. Texts, called 'termas' or treasures would be delivered to individuals whowould be given the task of writing them down or figuring out how to apply them.


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Pick your mythology as you will, essentially, the texts come from the fundamentalground of being out of which we all arise and which is compassionate, intelligent andprovident. In its continual process of trying to help us, it creates things like tantric texts.I think Liber AL is one of these.

While Uncle Al had a hard time accepting "existence is pure joy" being a rationalistBuddhist at the time, that was mostly due to a lack of education. From the fact that inthe Thoth Deck we see in the 2 of wands and the 10 of wands that he does not know the

difference between a dorje and a phurba we can tell he never made contact with theTantric or Vajrayana stream of Buddhism. This is the magick-using part of buddhism.This is also the part of Buddhism that would very well understand what is going on thein the Book of the Law, if they could only get through the code.

I'm not going to do a complete analysis here but for instance many people have troublewith the presentation of the RHK in the third chapter. However, anyone who has readthe practice of a wrathful buddha would consider RHK only mildly wrathful. Stampingdown on the wretched and the weak is a gentle approach to correcting sufferingcompared to some of the actions of the dakinis.

However this I will point out. Thelema is the first current in the west that roots itself inthe Not, which the Buddhists call shunyata, poorly translated as the void. H.V. Gunther,one of the the greatest living Tibetologists today, translates it as "the sphere whosecenter is everywhere and its circumference is nowhere. Also, the Dharma tr. Law, isbased on the awareness of shunyata and is its fundamental key, i.e., 61, 8, 80, 418, if you take my meaning.

So these are the parallels I make: Nuit is Pranjnaparamita, the perfection of wisdomembodied, Shunyata given a face and form the mother of all the buddhas (buddha meansawakened one), and the basis for all refuge. Hadit is the inherent buddha nature with ineach of us, already enlightened or 'perfect.' Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the union of entitativebeing (Hadit) and world (Nuit) and is the god form or Yi-dam for Thelemites to take inin their practice as a way or articulating their will. (Not necessarily all the time but as anarchetype).

I've shared with you a refuge verse I composed on the spot previously: "In the ground of being, from which all things arise, In the inherently enlightened nature within each andeveryone, In the inexorable causation the magi know, I take refuge"

If I were to spin this back around to Thelemic terminology it would be: "Nu is myrefuge as Hadit my light and Ra-Hoor-Khu is the strength, force, vigor of my arms."

Now for me the proof is in the pudding. I used the methodology mentioned above andmany of its components to build a set of rituals using the thelemic godforms andsymbolism and used the View, the insight gained from the buddhadharms to focus it. Inone of these Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the deity-form the practitioner takes on in exactly thesame 'buddhist' manner. Yet the ritual is entirely Thelemic.

In this way I think I'm making Buddhism more Thelemic than making Thelema moreBuddhist.

There is a lot more to all this but I will have to stop here. I am willing to answerquestions. But to conclude. . .


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For me there is that which lies beyond all of our cultural view points that drives allsentient beings towards their complete happiness. The Buddhadharma and Thelema aretwo manifestations of this same source and as such have harmonious union.

I took refuge to make peace with the guardians of the Buddhadharma, to further commitmyself to the great work of bringing happiness to all beings, and to unite within myself two approaches to the same goal.

For me, I have one life, thus one path, and I find value in uniting in that path the truthhowever and where ever I find it.

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Entering the Buddhadharma