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Preface

The main subject of this book, Essence of Vajrayana, is training in the stages of the path of Highest Yoga Tantra. Gaining authentic realizations of the uncommon paths of Buddhist Tantra depends upon training in the common paths of Buddha’s Sutra teachings, such as the twenty-one meditations of the stages of the path. These are explained in the books Joyful Path of Good Fortune and The New Meditation Handbook.

To begin with we need to understand what meditation is and how important meditation is for the attainment of both the temporary happiness of this and future lives, and the ultimate happiness of liberation and full enlightenment. Meditation is a mental awareness that concentrates on a virtuous object. It is necessarily mental awareness and not sense awareness. The sense awarenesses of a Buddha are virtuous whereas the sense awarenesses of sentient beings are always neutral. For example, although our bodily actions can be virtuous or non-virtuous depending upon our motivation, our body awareness itself is always neutral. In the same way, the actions of our eye awareness can be virtuous or non-virtuous but our eye awareness itself is always neutral. Therefore, as meditation is necessarily a virtuous mind whereas our sense awarenesses are necessarily neutral, it follows that we cannot meditate with our sense awarenesses.

Another reason why we cannot meditate with our sense awarenesses is that for us the direct object of meditation is the generic image of an object, and our sense awarenesses cannot perceive generic images. Moreover, although eye, ear, nose, tongue and body awarenesses can focus on forms, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile objects respectively, they cannot remember them. Since meditation involves remembering, or holding with mindfulness, the object for an extended period of time, the only type of awareness that we can meditate with is mental awareness.

Meditation is a mental action, or mental karma, that causes us to experience mental peace. At the beginning it does not matter if our meditation is successful or not, because simply by generating a good motivation and trying to meditate we are creating the cause for future mental peace. As humans, we need certain basic conditions such as food, clothing, accommodation and money; but whether or not these things bring us happiness depends upon our peace of mind. If our mind is not at peace we will not be happy, even in the best external conditions.

Meditation is the source of all mental peace and happiness. It is true that people who do not meditate, and even animals, occasionally experience peace of mind, but this is only as a result of the virtuous mental karma they created through meditation in previous lives. By training in meditation we can attain a permanent cessation of delusions and thereby experience the permanent inner peace of liberation, or nirvana. We need to attain liberation because for as long as we are trapped in samsara, the vicious cycle of uncontrolled death and rebirth, we will never find real peace and happiness.

We can attain the ultimate peace of enlightenment by training in the meditations explained in this book. We need to attain enlightenment so that we can benefit all living beings. At present our mind is obscured by the inner darkness of ignorance, which prevents us from seeing the true nature of all phenomena; but by training in wisdom and compassion we can completely remove this inner darkness. Once we have done this, our very subtle body, speech and mind become inner light, the nature of omniscient wisdom. This is enlightenment, or Buddhahood. Having dispelled all darkness from our mind, we become a Buddha and can see all phenomena of the past, present and future directly and simultaneously. We are then in a position to benefit all living beings without exception by bestowing blessings, emanating whatever they need, and guiding them along spiritual paths.

To encourage ourself to train in the stages of the path to enlightenment, we should continually recall the three special characteristics of our human life: its freedom and endowment, its rarity, and its great meaning. Due to the limitations of their body and mind, those who have taken rebirth as animals, for example, have no opportunity to understand or practise the path to liberation. Only humans are free from such hindrances and have all the necessary conditions, known as ‘endowments’, to engage in spiritual paths, which alone lead to everlasting happiness. This freedom and endowment is the first special characteristic that makes our human life so precious.

The second special characteristic of our human life is its rarity. Although there are many humans in this world, each one of us has only one life. One person may own many cars and houses, but even the richest person in the world cannot possess more than one life, and, when that is drawing to an end, he or she cannot buy, borrow or manufacture another. When we lose this life, it will be very difficult to find another similarly qualified life in the future. Our human life is therefore very rare.

The third special characteristic of our human life is its great meaning. If we use our human life to accomplish spiritual realizations, our life is immensely meaningful. By using it in this way, we actualize our full potential and progress from the state of an ordinary, deluded being to that of a fully enlightened being, the highest of all beings; and when we have done this we will have the power to benefit all living beings without exception. Thus, by using our human life for spiritual development we can solve all our human problems and fulfil all our own and others’ wishes. What could be more meaningful than this?

Through contemplating these three characteristics we arrive at the determination:

I will not waste my human life because it is so precious, so rare and so meaningful. Instead, I will use it in the most beneficial way.

We hold this determination as our object of meditation without forgetting it, and meditate on it single-pointedly for as long as possible.

Having developed this deep desire to make our life meaningful, we then ask ourself, ‘What is the essential meaning of a human life?’ Finding good external conditions cannot be its essential meaning, for even animals can do this. Many animals are very skilled at finding food, protecting their families, destroying their enemies, and so forth; these abilities are not exclusively human. However, it is only humans who have the opportunity to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings. This is the real meaning of our human life. With this understanding, we can extract the full meaning of our human life by receiving the empowerment and commentary to Heruka body mandala and then putting the instructions into practice.

In general, Vajrayana is the actual quick path to enlightenment, but whether or not we attain enlightenment quickly through Vajrayana practice depends upon our faith, motivation and understanding. In particular, gaining the realizations of Heruka body mandala – the very essence of Vajrayana – depends upon our having strong faith in the instructions and a clear understanding of their meaning. Then, with a pure motivation, free from selfish intention, we should practise these instructions sincerely and continually until we attain our final goal.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,

Dallas, Texas,

March 1997.