Seed Syllable Visualization Method
An even more brilliant method would be to visualize the source of the white light. I also have discussed this before — the white light can be imagined as originating from one's altar,the Dharma realm, or the mandala of the Personal Deity. For example, if one has hung a tangka before one, then the white light can be visualized emanating from the tangka! If one has hung a mandala of the vajradhatu or garbadhatu, a representation of the Dharma realm, then such a mandala can serve as a source of the Personal Deity's luminosity. A more subtle technique is to visualize the light emerging from the nostril(s) of one's Personal Deity. This is the key to the Zen saying, "The Buddha and I breathe out through the same nostril." A still more advanced form of this practice is to visualize a seed syllable emerging as the breath of the deity.
Let us consider how this would be applied in the practice of Amitabha Deity Yoga. In this case it would be the seed syllable "hri" which is radiating a red light. It flies out of Amitabha' s right nostril and enters through one's own right nostril, to make a circuit through one's body before exiting through the other nostril to return to the nostril of Amitabha. After this circuit, or round, another "hri" emerges from the left nostril of the Buddha and enters into one's left nostril. It makes its circuit and then flies out to re-enter the right nostril of Amitabha. Next, two seed syllables emerge simultaneously from both the left and right nostrils of Amitabha. They simultaneously enter one's left and right nostrils and descend the side channels to rise up the central channel to swirl to the top of the skull where there is no exit.
From there they descend the middle channel to re-enter the two side channels to exit through one's two nostrils and return to the two nostrils of Amitabha. Is not this visualization more intricate and subtle? One visualizes the seed syllable, its color, as well as the nose and nostrils of Amitabha. Thus one invokes the original Buddha Nature of the Personal Deity to intermingle with one's own original Buddha Nature. Both Buddha and practitioner are one in essence, and both inhale and exhale the same breath. The Buddha's breath enters into the practitioner's body, and the practitioner's seed of Buddha Nature enters into the body of the Buddha. It is a mutual exchange of breath — this is what "breathing through the same nostril" means.
Thus there is a fundamental correspondence between the practices of Tantra and Zen. This is what "the Buddha and I breathe through the same nostril" means. The Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise is a very profound method. What eventually happens after prolonged practice of this exercise? There won't be just one syllable! One visualizes one seed syllable but, eventually, what emerges from Amitabha will be one hundred or more of these seed syllables and this chain of seed syllables enter one's body. What one breathes out then is also one hundred or more of the "hri" linked together and, one by one, they re-enter the body of Amitabha. At this moment, a most profound insight occurs: the Buddha Nature of Amitabha is that of oneself. The two become unified; and at this point one's mind becomes extremely stable. One performs this visualization with the white light, red light, and the emerging blue (black) light, and at a further level of sophistication, one visualizes the Nine Round of channel movements, using the seed syllable "hri." Thus the Buddha Nature of Amitabha (the Personal Deity) and oneself will be exchanged through reciprocal
movements of the breath.
To Practice is to Do Repentance
The methods of Tantrayana are very profound and oriented towards yogic practices. By comparison, many of Sutrayana's teachings are more theoretical. Realistically speaking, what actual practice methods does Sutrayana teach? The reverends preach, "Go home and chant!" Then one goes to chant If one wants to deepen one's Buddhist knowledge, they tell one to go read the sutras! Then one goes to read the sutras. Chanting and reading the sutras are what they teach. Otherwise, they engage in some morning and evening rituals, such as striking the wooden fish [a percussion instrument that accompanies chanting], knock, knock, knock... [audience laughter]
Or else, they recite some repentance liturgies together, such as those of Amitabha, the Lotus Sutra, the Medicine Buddha, the Great Compassion Dharani, or the Ksitigharba Bodhisattva Repentance, among some others.
What are repentance liturgies? They are, in essence, the equivalent of the Great Homage. To bow is to do repentance. Therefore, in Sutrayana or exoteric schools, one chants the sutra and bows to the Buddhas to perform the liturgy. This is valid and meritorious, but one needs to know the deep meaning of the sutras one is reading and the kind of repentance liturgy being performed. Does one know that the purpose of the repentance liturgies is to teach one to become purified in body, speech, and mind ? How many non-virtuous deeds has one's body committed? How many non-virtuous speeches has one uttered? How many non-virtuous thoughts has one had? One needs to repent for all of these transgressions committed by the body, speech, and mind ! How many transgressions have the body, speech, and mind committed? All these transgressions are chanted aloud and consciously acknowledged and purified through bowing in the repentance liturgy.
Actually, when one is doing the daily True Buddha Tantric practice, one is also doing repentance or purification. The Tantric practice is, in reality, a repentance practice. I have described before that it is a means of purifying one' body, speech, and mind. To concentrate the mind on virtuous archetypes is to purify the mind When one forms the mudras, one's body cannot engage in non-virtuous deeds, hence one is purifying one's body karma. When one chants the mantra, one cannot also scold, slander, lie, flirt, gossip, or engage in double-talk, so one is purifying one's speech. Thus, during ritual practice the practitioner effectively purifies and transforms the faculties of action, expression, and intuition! This is repentance. In Sutrayana' s repentance liturgies, one finds out what one has done wrong through the chanting of the sutras, and one bows to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and repents. It achieves the same goal as the Tantric daily practice. Therefore, all Buddhist schools, be they Sutric or Tantric, share the same fundamental orientation.
The Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise is a focusing technique. To unify all mental activities into a single point, one-pointed mindfulness of the breath is employed to stop all other thoughts. The mind is purified when one visualizes the entering of white light, exiting of black vapor, the presence of red light inside the body, the mantra syllable of Buddha Nature flying into one's body, flying out to enter the Buddha's body and then re-entering one's own body. This system of exchange is also a process of purification of the body. It enhances the revelation of the Buddha Nature in one by purifying the body, speech, and mind This is the Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise. What is the Buddha Breath? Buddha Breath is the inhalation and exhalation of the Buddha. The mutual exchange of inhalation and exhalation between oneself
and the Buddha is the Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise.
Basics [24]. More to come.....
Readers can write to purekarmaservices@gmail.com for a .pdf or .doc copy of this book.
Om Guru Lian Sheng Siddhi Hom
Lama Lotuschef
An even more brilliant method would be to visualize the source of the white light. I also have discussed this before — the white light can be imagined as originating from one's altar,the Dharma realm, or the mandala of the Personal Deity. For example, if one has hung a tangka before one, then the white light can be visualized emanating from the tangka! If one has hung a mandala of the vajradhatu or garbadhatu, a representation of the Dharma realm, then such a mandala can serve as a source of the Personal Deity's luminosity. A more subtle technique is to visualize the light emerging from the nostril(s) of one's Personal Deity. This is the key to the Zen saying, "The Buddha and I breathe out through the same nostril." A still more advanced form of this practice is to visualize a seed syllable emerging as the breath of the deity.
Let us consider how this would be applied in the practice of Amitabha Deity Yoga. In this case it would be the seed syllable "hri" which is radiating a red light. It flies out of Amitabha' s right nostril and enters through one's own right nostril, to make a circuit through one's body before exiting through the other nostril to return to the nostril of Amitabha. After this circuit, or round, another "hri" emerges from the left nostril of the Buddha and enters into one's left nostril. It makes its circuit and then flies out to re-enter the right nostril of Amitabha. Next, two seed syllables emerge simultaneously from both the left and right nostrils of Amitabha. They simultaneously enter one's left and right nostrils and descend the side channels to rise up the central channel to swirl to the top of the skull where there is no exit.
From there they descend the middle channel to re-enter the two side channels to exit through one's two nostrils and return to the two nostrils of Amitabha. Is not this visualization more intricate and subtle? One visualizes the seed syllable, its color, as well as the nose and nostrils of Amitabha. Thus one invokes the original Buddha Nature of the Personal Deity to intermingle with one's own original Buddha Nature. Both Buddha and practitioner are one in essence, and both inhale and exhale the same breath. The Buddha's breath enters into the practitioner's body, and the practitioner's seed of Buddha Nature enters into the body of the Buddha. It is a mutual exchange of breath — this is what "breathing through the same nostril" means.
Thus there is a fundamental correspondence between the practices of Tantra and Zen. This is what "the Buddha and I breathe through the same nostril" means. The Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise is a very profound method. What eventually happens after prolonged practice of this exercise? There won't be just one syllable! One visualizes one seed syllable but, eventually, what emerges from Amitabha will be one hundred or more of these seed syllables and this chain of seed syllables enter one's body. What one breathes out then is also one hundred or more of the "hri" linked together and, one by one, they re-enter the body of Amitabha. At this moment, a most profound insight occurs: the Buddha Nature of Amitabha is that of oneself. The two become unified; and at this point one's mind becomes extremely stable. One performs this visualization with the white light, red light, and the emerging blue (black) light, and at a further level of sophistication, one visualizes the Nine Round of channel movements, using the seed syllable "hri." Thus the Buddha Nature of Amitabha (the Personal Deity) and oneself will be exchanged through reciprocal
movements of the breath.
To Practice is to Do Repentance
The methods of Tantrayana are very profound and oriented towards yogic practices. By comparison, many of Sutrayana's teachings are more theoretical. Realistically speaking, what actual practice methods does Sutrayana teach? The reverends preach, "Go home and chant!" Then one goes to chant If one wants to deepen one's Buddhist knowledge, they tell one to go read the sutras! Then one goes to read the sutras. Chanting and reading the sutras are what they teach. Otherwise, they engage in some morning and evening rituals, such as striking the wooden fish [a percussion instrument that accompanies chanting], knock, knock, knock... [audience laughter]
Or else, they recite some repentance liturgies together, such as those of Amitabha, the Lotus Sutra, the Medicine Buddha, the Great Compassion Dharani, or the Ksitigharba Bodhisattva Repentance, among some others.
What are repentance liturgies? They are, in essence, the equivalent of the Great Homage. To bow is to do repentance. Therefore, in Sutrayana or exoteric schools, one chants the sutra and bows to the Buddhas to perform the liturgy. This is valid and meritorious, but one needs to know the deep meaning of the sutras one is reading and the kind of repentance liturgy being performed. Does one know that the purpose of the repentance liturgies is to teach one to become purified in body, speech, and mind ? How many non-virtuous deeds has one's body committed? How many non-virtuous speeches has one uttered? How many non-virtuous thoughts has one had? One needs to repent for all of these transgressions committed by the body, speech, and mind ! How many transgressions have the body, speech, and mind committed? All these transgressions are chanted aloud and consciously acknowledged and purified through bowing in the repentance liturgy.
Actually, when one is doing the daily True Buddha Tantric practice, one is also doing repentance or purification. The Tantric practice is, in reality, a repentance practice. I have described before that it is a means of purifying one' body, speech, and mind. To concentrate the mind on virtuous archetypes is to purify the mind When one forms the mudras, one's body cannot engage in non-virtuous deeds, hence one is purifying one's body karma. When one chants the mantra, one cannot also scold, slander, lie, flirt, gossip, or engage in double-talk, so one is purifying one's speech. Thus, during ritual practice the practitioner effectively purifies and transforms the faculties of action, expression, and intuition! This is repentance. In Sutrayana' s repentance liturgies, one finds out what one has done wrong through the chanting of the sutras, and one bows to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and repents. It achieves the same goal as the Tantric daily practice. Therefore, all Buddhist schools, be they Sutric or Tantric, share the same fundamental orientation.
The Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise is a focusing technique. To unify all mental activities into a single point, one-pointed mindfulness of the breath is employed to stop all other thoughts. The mind is purified when one visualizes the entering of white light, exiting of black vapor, the presence of red light inside the body, the mantra syllable of Buddha Nature flying into one's body, flying out to enter the Buddha's body and then re-entering one's own body. This system of exchange is also a process of purification of the body. It enhances the revelation of the Buddha Nature in one by purifying the body, speech, and mind This is the Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise. What is the Buddha Breath? Buddha Breath is the inhalation and exhalation of the Buddha. The mutual exchange of inhalation and exhalation between oneself
and the Buddha is the Nine Round Buddha Breath Exercise.
Basics [24]. More to come.....
Readers can write to purekarmaservices@gmail.com for a .pdf or .doc copy of this book.
Om Guru Lian Sheng Siddhi Hom
Lama Lotuschef
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