The Wisdom Teachings of Buddhism with a New-Age Twist With the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva November 2-December 9, 2009

The Wisdom Teachings of Buddhism with a New-Age Twist

With the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva

November 2-December 9, 2009


• Purpose of The Class: To Commune with the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva

• To learn about the Jewel Tree of Tibet and meditate using it as a thoughtform

• To learn about Tibetan Buddhism from a Western perspective

• To work on our inner psychology using Tibetan Buddhist wisdom’s keys


• Who are the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva?

• Reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead by W.Y. Evans-Wentz (p. 78 of the large illustrated edition published by Metro Books of New York © 2008)


• Vairochana (Member of the Karmic Board)• Three heartstreams released to date: 11/13/05, 3/1/06, 12/30/06• Title: Radiating One• Wisdom: All-pervading wisdom• Perfections: Alms, precepts• Poisons to dispel: Ignorance, delusion• Color/Element: White/Ether• Direction/Clock Position: Center• Seed Syllable: OM


• Akshobhya• Three heartstreams released to date: 12/27/04, 3/2/06, 12/30/06• Title: Immovable, Unshakable One• Wisdom: Mirror-like Wisdom• Perfections: Renunciation, Wisdom• Poisons to dispel: Hatred, Anger• Color/Element: Blue/Water• Direction/Clock position: South/6• Seed Syllable: HUM


• Ratnasambhava• Three heartstreams released to date: 12/28/04, 3/3/06, 12/30/06• Title: Jewel-Born One• Wisdom: Equality• Perfections: Courage, Patience• Poisons: Spiritual, intellectual, human pride• Color/Element: Yellow/Earth• Direction/Clock Position: West/9• Seed Syllable: Tram


• Amitabha• Two heartstreams released to date: 3/4/06, 12/30/06• Title: Buddha of Infinite Light• Wisdom: Discriminating Wisdom• Perfections: Truth, Resolution• Poisons to dispel: Greed, lust, cravings• Color/Element: Ruby/Fire• Direction/Clock Position: North/12• Seed Syllable: Hrih


• Amoghasiddhi• Two heartstreams released thus far:

3/5/06, 12/30/06• Title: Almighty Conqueror• Wisdom: All-accomplishing Wisdom• Perfections: Good Will, Indifference• Poisons to dispel: Envy, jealousy• Color/Element: Green/Air• Direction/Clock position: East/3• Seed Syllable: Ah


• Vajrasattva• Three heartstreams released thus far: 7/17/05, 3/5/06, 12/30/06• Title: Indestructible Minded One• Wisdom: Diamond Will• Poisons to dispel: Non-will, non-being• Direction/Clock position: Above all• Seed Syllable: Hum


• The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism by Robert Thurman

• Who is Robert Thurman?

• The book is a compilation of teachings given during a Buddhist Retreat

• What is the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Tree?


“Envision the mentor as the Buddha and strive to emulate that model until you are able to understand and embody the teaching entirely yourself.” (p.9)


• Devotion to the Mentor Text (First Verse—p 10):

“Through the great bliss state,

I myself become the mentor deity.

From my luminous body,

Light rays shine all around,

Massively blessing beings and things,

Making the universe pure and fabulous,

Perfection in its every quality.”


• “… at the beginning of our practice, what we are doing is imagining ourselves as being already at the goal of awakening.”

(p. 12)


What is Buddhism? (page 13)

Have the students relate what Robert’s definition is…


• Read from the bottom of 13 and the top of 14… great quote!


• What was the first thing that Buddha gave as a teaching?

• What is the Buddha’s greatest expression?

(p. 15)


• What did Gautama Buddha conquer?

• What did he first emphasize because of the culture in India at the time?

(p. 17)


• What four “isms” began to arise as a shift in the society within India as a result of Gautama’s teachings?


• Devotionalism

• Universalism

• Vegetarianism

• Pacifism


• What were the three main stages through which Indian society developed?

(p. 21)


• Individualism

• Universalism

• Esotericism


• Who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th Century?


• Who do Tibetans claim was the first Tibetan to realize enlightenment within one lifetime?


• What is the Pure Land?

• Which Buddha is represented in the Pure Land teachings?


• Tibetans believe that we can all become ________ _________. (p.28)


• What are the Three Jewels of Buddhism that we take refuge in?


• What is dharma? (Have a discussion)


• Invoking Our Mentor (p. 36)

Read this as a live invocation


• Which recent heartstream encouraged us all to be teachers?


• Read the Mentor Devotion Text (p.41)

(See how this relates to what I shared this morning during our early morning prayers regarding a paragraph in prayer 9.007 regarding the Chohan of the day.)


• We have a term “electronic presence”.

• What is the Tibetan equivalent?

(p. 42)


• What is the central crown of the jewel tree? (p. 42)

• Read second paragraph of p. 43 as it coincides with our own “living liquid crystal light”!


• The crux of our spiritual work is:

“…to turn our mind to a path of evolution, accelerating evolution for the sake of all beings.” (p. 43-44)

• The importance of visualization and imagination (p. 44)


• Class 2 of 6 (November 9, 2009)• Invocation• Chant to Akshobhya• Practical Assignment---Form 6 groups to

work on information on the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva for a future book

• Review Akshobhya’s information from Slide #5

• Read from the Tibetan Book of the Dead


• Read the Root verses of the Mentor Devotion text from pages 49-50


• Four Steps to Develop Transcendence (or a Transcendent Attitude)

1. Reevaluate our self-image

2. Realize the impermanence of ourselves

3. Concentrate on evolutionary causality

4. Confront egoistic mental process


• Cheryl Bench to lead Jewel Tree meditation (part 2) on pp. 53-55


• What are the Seven limbs of communion—ways to connect yourself with the Jewel Tree?


Seven Limbs

1. Saluting

2. Offering

3. Repentance

4. Rejoicing and congratulating

5. Thinking of beings above us (in vibration)

6. Remembering that these beings don’t need us

7. Dedication


• Have a student read from the Mentor Devotion text (pp. 55-57)


• Beautiful Visual of holding the planet (reminds me of our image of Mother Mary or Saint Germain holding the Earth)


• Quiz Question: What is a morphic resonance field? (p. 61)


• “Make some degree of transformation in your mind, because that will transform all the beings around you.” (p. 63)


• Discuss the liquid gems that Thurman mentions…

• What does this remind you of?

• What being has a large “belt” composed of glorious crystalline energy foci?

• What really is this belt?

• Is this being really a Buddha?


• Briefly describe the Buddhist view of human evolution.


• Briefly discuss Thurman’s cursory mention of the Vedic people and describe Anastasia’s view of the Vedic-Russ people (for those who have read her books by Vladimir Megre)


• The Enlightening Steps of Thought

• What are the 8 liberties and the 10 opportunities?

• Why are these important for us to know?


• Mary to read p. 73 bottom paragraph through the top of p. 74

• I suggest memorizing this paragraph!


• “Something will always transform into another realm and become something else.” (p. 75)


• Define reify. (p. 84)

• Define solipsistic. (p. 85)


• What does Thurman mean when he says that “You are not the one”?

• How do we reconcile this as we give Morya’s prayer, “I AM the One”?


• What are the Four Noble Truths?


• “The absolute, by definition, is ________.”

• (p. 89)


• Read the story on p. 91-92


• What three words does Thurman use as more accurately describing “ordination” in Buddhism? (p. 94)


• How did Milarepa redeem himself?


• Reinvoking the Jewel Tree (p. 95-96)


• Class 3 of 6 (November 16, 2009)• Invocation• Chant to Ratnasambhava• Practical Assignment---Form 6 groups to

work on information on the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva for a future book

• Review Ratnasambhava’s information from Slide #6



• Cheryl to lead the Jewel Tree Meditation (pp. 97-99)


• Which Buddha is associated with the Pure Land? (Question from last week…)


• Guru Rinpoche is another name for which Buddha whom we are familiar with?


• Read pp.104-105

• We can also maintain this same awareness of the presence of the angelic hosts, Buddhas and ascended masters around us always.


• Why is our motivation within our meditation practice important?

• What does Thurman suggest as the virtue that we should have at the center of our spiritual practice?

• What is the Sanskrit word for this?


• What flaws should we avoid in our spiritual work and learning?

• Discuss prideful thinking, the leaky vessel, the poison vessel


• What musical term does Thurman liken the stages of the path to?


• “Every little tiny thing in the present moment is infinite in its effects.” p 108


• Review the four stages again (p. 109)

1. Preciousness of our life

2. Immediacy of death

3. Our interconnection with all life

4. Suffering and inadequacy of egocentric living


• Why should we, like the Buddhist monks and nuns, always be smiling and cheerful?


• Have someone read paragraph 1 of p. 111 on Gautama Buddha


• Nagarjuna’s quote, “Voidness is the womb of compassion.” What does this mean?

• What God-quality does Thurman liken voidness to?


• Discuss what emptiness is and is not, and why oblivion is NOT the Buddhic way.

• Discuss why enlightenment is NOT escape.

• Is it okay to meditate on nothing?


• What are the two kinds of spirit of enlightenment?

• Discuss what aspiring and venturing mean in terms of enlightenment.


• Anecdote of when I decided to become a Buddha in the early 1990s.

• Have you decided to be a Buddha or to officially walk the bodhisattva path? If so, when? Did you make a statement to the universe, to God? Did you write it down as a life goal?


• “No one is completely happy until everyone is completely happy.” p. 117

• What does this mean for you and how does it change your attitude toward others?


• “There is not one buddha and there are not many buddhas. Buddhas are neither one nor many.” from Maitreyanatha’s Universal Vehicle Discourse (p. 118)


• Have someone read the Mentor Devotion on pp. 118-119


• Which four masters transmitted what now is known as the eleven steps?

• Who is Maitreya?

• Who is Asanga?

• Who is Manjushri?

• Who is Shantideva?


• Discuss the concept of the “Exchange of Self and Other.”

• Who does Thurman say is the main holder of this precept in today’s world?

• Who else is holding this precept?


• “In Buddha’s perception of time, since our future moment is ever present, we already have all attained enlightenment.” (p. 120)

• This reminds me of absolute bodhicitta

• Give prayer 80.008 together


• The 11 Steps to Enlightenment, Love and Happiness:

1. Equanimity

2. Mother recognition

3. Remembering the kindness of the mother

4. Repayment of kindness (gratitude)

5. Equal exchange of self and other

6. Universal love


• The 11 Steps to Enlightenment, Love and Happiness (continued):

7. Universal compassion8. Thinking on the disadvantages of cherishing

self vs. cherishing others9. Thinking on the advantages of other-

cherishing; others are the source of our happiness

10. Messianic resolution11. It takes a buddha to help other beings become

free and enlightened.


• Discuss messianic resolution


• Have someone read what the 22 similes are (p. 136)


• “We daily overcome the boundaries between self and other.” (p. 137)

• Discuss how we can do this.


• “In fact, buddhas get so much into this cloudlike multiple embodiment possibility that they can be many beings simultaneously and still feel themselves as the other beings that they are not.”(p.138)

• Discuss how this is different from schizophrenia or psychosis.


• “The venturing spirit of enlightenment is engaged when we actually take the bodhisattva vow.” (p. 138)

• Give the Bodhisattva Vision Prayer 9.008 (if there is time) and the Bodhisattva Prayer 9.010


• Answer students’ questions


• Live sharing by Ratnasambhava


• Class 4 of 6 (November 23, 2009)

• Invocation

• Chant to Amitabha

• Review more details of the practical assignment

• Review Amitabha’s information from Slide #7





• Have someone read the Mentor Devotion text on pages 146-147


• Discuss the five forces, the essence of all Dharma (p. 147)


• Discuss the enlightenment spirits: the relative spirit and the ultimate spirit

• What does this remind you of?

• Read the next stanza of the Mentor Devotion text (p.148)


• Discuss the four practices:

Gathering merit (good works, karma yoga)

Overcoming negativities (violet fire and work on our psychology)

Making offerings to demonic obstructors (Elohim and powerful cosmic beings)

Seeking help from protective angels (Michael, archangels, archeiai—rosaries)


• Read the short story on p. 149

• Discuss Geshe Chekawa’s mind reform commitments and how we can employ them, as Amitabha says that these lead directly toward mastery of the five secret rays in our life!


• DO NOT EXPLOIT THE DHARMA TO PROMOTE YOURSELF! (p. 151)

• Many so-called yogis end up in devachan caught in a web of self-deceit because of self-promotion.


• Discuss how some of these teachings may be diametrically opposed to some of the New Age self-help methodologies of the West…

• How can we reconcile this on our spiritual path?


• Have someone read the story of Milarepa on p. 153-154

• What can we learn from this story?


• “Buddha is as Buddha does.” (p. 154)

• What does this mean to you?


• Read and discuss the stories on pages 155, 156


• The Bodhisattva Vow

• What is its significance?

• You shouldn’t rush to take the bodhisattva vow (p. 161)

• Discuss how to prepare to take the bodhisattva vow

• Discuss the difference between a buddha and a bodhisattva.


• Discuss the 18 root downfalls or transgressions of the bodhisattva vow (p. 158-160)


• Read Shantideva’s words (p. 163-164)


• Have someone read the story of Shantideva that we have heard before.

• It was while hearing this story told at Wellspring during a class on the Path of the Bodhisattva in early 2005 that I was shown that embodiment.


• Have someone read the rest of the Mentor Devotion texts (pp. 165-171)


Bodhisattva Deeds:

• Discuss the 3 Ethics (p. 168)

• Discuss the 6 Trancendent Virtues (p. 169, 173) Which one is considered the most important?

• Discuss the 3 Vows (p. 170)


• Discuss the 9 stages of mind control as part of transcendent meditation

• How do these differ from what we have called mind control in the west?


• Live sharing by Amitabha

• Request to repeat his name as often as possible throughout this week as a mantra

• Discuss reading assignment for next class


• Class 5 of 6 (November 30, 2009)

• Invocation

• Chant to Amoghasiddhi

• Review Amoghasiddhi’s information from Slide #8


• Review group work and questions on the practical assignment




• Western Culture vs. Transcendent Wisdom• Discuss Thurman’s point about “no thought”

(p.175-6) and others noted below:• “…you can’t separate your meditative states

from how you live in the world, and how you interact with others.” (p. 176-7)

• “…the Buddha and the great Buddhist teachers and masters were the leading scientists of the earth—the supreme knowers of the nature of reality.” (p.177)


• What is shila? (p. 178)

• What does Thurman opine about Christian vs. Buddhist monasteries?


• If the intellect and thought are not the problem, then what is the problem?

• Discuss Thurman’s “New Way of Thinking” (p. 181)

• What is Gary Holthaus’ truth totem?


• What three wisdoms does Thurman describe? (p. 183)

• Discuss these.

• What is Buddhists’ “royal reason of relativity”? Why is this important?


• What is the first negative path of evolutionary action?

• What is the first positive path of karmic evolution?


• Discuss the two types of meditation in Buddhist traditions:

• Shamatha meditation

• Vipassana meditation


• “Science was originally a branch of philosophy.” (p. 188)

• What is philos?

• What is sophia?


• Have someone read the Mentor Devotion on p. 194

• Discuss transcendent wisdom (p. 195)

• Discuss why Buddhists debate (p. 196)


• Discuss the analogy of the mirror and of the world being “like an illusion; it’s somewhat unreal…” (p. 198)

• Discuss how emptiness is not nothingness.


• Meditation on Selflessness, 4 keys:

1. Identification of what is to be negated.

2. Admit that if you can’t fine the self, then you will cope with the fact it’s not there.

3. Investigating our body-mind processes to discover if the self is the same as they are or different.

4. Introspective inventory of our five systems to see whether we can uncover an absolute self.


• Have someone read aloud the story on page 205 about Nagarjuna and Matangipa


• Read the final Mentor Devotion excerpts on pages 209-213.


• Sharing and questions by/from the students.


• Live sharing by Amoghasiddhi


• Class 6 of 6 (December 7, 2009)

• Invocation

• Chant to Vajrasattva; Prayer 80.008

• Review Vajrasattva’s information from Slide #9


• Review group assignment work status


• Read the Mentor Text pages 215-216


• Cheryl to lead the Jewel Tree Meditation (pages 217-220)


• David to read “Woman in Buddhism” (p.142) from The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhism


• David to read chapter 16 from The Buddhic Essence


• What is Tantra as defined by Thurman?• Spiritual technologies and arts that

accelerate enlightenment• Tantra means “continuity” (p. 224)• Tara Tulku: “Once critical wisdom

demolishes the world built on … ignorance… you are free to build a new world… of wisdom. Tantra is the art of building such a world of wisdom.” (p. 224)


• Discussion on some teachers desire to have tantra remain esoteric


• Importance of memorization of the steps and stages of meditation (p. 221)

• Many of us have memorized certain prayers by giving them over and over. It can be the same with some of these Buddhist techniques.


• Thurman’s discussion about discovering new levels of understanding and knowing as he had insights, then new insights that made his old ones seem archaic (p. 222)


• “Buddha decreed that for at least eleven centuries Tantra should be kept secret, and even after that time it should be treated reverently and esoteric.” (p. 225)

• “The final essential prerequisite of Tantra is some degree of wisdom.”


• “The doorway into Tantra itself is the guru, the mentor, the person already adept at the method. The mentor creates a mandala, a sacred place, a magical circle, a divine palace and environment that is totally secure and ultimately beautiful.”


• Four main kinds of Tantras:1. Outer ritual Tantras2. Inner ritual Tantras3. Yoga Tantras4. Unexcelled Yoga Tantras

Discuss the creation and perfection stages (p. 230)


• “…the way we have been meditating on the wish-granting gem tree path is a kind of Tantra.” (p. 231)

• Discuss mandalas.


• The Tibetan Book of the Dead– No one is really dead– Death is a doorway into further existence– How we really die– The yogis’ ability to remain conscious during

the death process– The stages or levels– 49 days or immediate transcendence?


• Padma Sambhava as the real author of the Tibetan Book of the Dead 6 centuries before it was rediscovered

• Karma Lingpa discovered the text in the 14th century.


• Read from The New Civilization (Anastasia book #8.1) p. 45 about immediate reincarnation and retaining the memory of past lives.


• “People pretend that Tibet was a feudal theocracy, but the fact that Tibet was one of the most psychically free countries that history has perhaps ever seen is proven…

(p. 239-240)


• OM MANI PADME HUM!


• Live Sharing by Vajrasattva


• Thank you to the students, to Cheryl and a reminder to turn in your group assignments by next Monday, December 14, 2009 at 11 pm MST

Documents

The Wisdom Teachings of Buddhism with a New-Age Twist With the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Vajrasattva November 2-December 9, 2009