Vajrayāna (Sanskrit वज्रयान, lit. "Diamond Vehicle" or "Thunderbolt Vehicle"), otherwise known as Mantra-yāna ("Mantra Vehicle"), Guhya-mantra-yāna ("Secret Mantra Vehicle"), Tantra-yāna ("Tantra Vehicle"), Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a vehicle (yāna) in the larger Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition.
It emphasizes esoteric practices and rituals aimed at rapid spiritual awakening. Emerging between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in medieval India [1, 2], Vajrayāna Buddhism incorporates a range of techniques.
These include the use of mantras (sacred sounds), dhāraṇīs (mnemonic codes), mudrās (symbolic hand gestures), mandalās (spiritual diagrams), [yoga asanas (spiritual positions, "seats," postures)], and the visualization of deities (devas) and buddhas. More
Yamabushi (山伏, one who prostrates oneself on the mountain) are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits [1]. They are generally part of the syncretic Shugendō religion,* which includes Tantric [Vajrayana] Buddhism and the indigenous Shinto [2].
Their origins can be traced back to the solitary yamabito ("wild hill people") and some hijiri (聖) ("wandering Buddhist ascetics and renunciants") of the eighth and ninth centuries [3].
According to American writer Frederik L. Schodt:
"These positively medieval-looking nature worshipers carry metal staves and conch shells and wear straw sandals and sometimes a hemp cloth over-robe with the Heart Sutra written on it. They follow a mixture of esoteric or tantric Buddhism mixed with Shinto, the native animistic religion of Japan" [4]. More
Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man by Gopi Krishna HAS 4.7 out of 5 stars with 230 reviews: Coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, "Kundalini" is the spiritual force that lies dormant in every human being. Once awakened, often through meditation and yogic practices, it rises up the spinal column and finds expression in the form of spiritual knowledge, mystical vision, psychic powers, and ultimately, "enlightenment." [This is not real enlightenment or bodhi as defined in Buddhism, but what other traditions consider "enlightenment."]
This book is the classic first-person account of Gopi Krishna, an ordinary Indian householder who, at the age of 34, after years of unsupervised meditation, suddenly experienced the awakening of kundalini during his morning practice.
The story of this transformative experience, and the author's struggle to regain balance amid a variety of powerful psychic and physiological side effects, forms the core of the book.
[This condition afflicts an estimated 100 or so Westerners a year who visit India and go "crazy" from either exposure to energies, the Himalayas, the Moon, mystics, god beings (possibly extraterrestrial or interdimensional), artifacts, or dedicated practice... It has happened to two young blond Americans we know of and one we met who, like Gopi Krishna, regained stability, earned an advanced degree, and tries to counsel victims to bring the chakras back into balance and stabilize this energetic kundalini force. One really can make it back to normal.]
His detailed descriptions of his dramatic inner experiences and symptoms such as mood swings, eating disorders, and agonizing sensations of heat—and of how, with the help of his wife, he finally stabilized at a higher level of consciousness—make this one of the most valuable classics of spiritual awakening available. More
*Shugen-dō (修験道, lit. "the Way [of] Trial [and] Practice," the "Way of Shugen or Gen-practice") [1] is a syncreticEsoteric Buddhist religion, a body of extreme ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan, having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines, and ritual systems drawn primarily from
The final purpose of Shugen-dō is for practitioners to find supernatural power and save themselves and the masses by conducting religious training while treading through steep mountain ranges. Practitioners are called Shugenja (修験者) or Yamabushi(山伏, lit. '"Mountain Prostrator"') [2]. More
What is the "Yoga" (system, tapas, austerity, program) he follows? It is surely Integral Yoga also generally known as Ashtanga or "Eight Limbs." He does not merely do poses or keep a vegetarian diet. He goes much further to include all aspects of the path:
The definition of "yoga"
The Sage Pātañjali (author of the Yoga Sutras or "Yoga Aphorisms") begins his treatise on yoga (1st–3rd century CE) by stating the purpose of writing his book in the first sutra, followed by defining the word "yoga" in his second sutra of Book 1:[2].
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥२॥
yogaś-citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ
— Yoga Sutras 1.2
This terse definition hinges on the meaning of three Sanskrit terms:
I. K. Taimni translates it as, "Yoga is the inhibition (nirodhaḥ [usually translated as "cessation"]) of the modifications (vṛtti) of the mind (citta)" [3].
Swami Vivekananda translates this aphorism as, "Yoga is restraining (nirodhah) the mind-stuff (citta) from taking various forms (vrittis)" [4].
When the mind is stilled, the seer or real Self is revealed: 1.3. Then the Seer is established in his [or her] own essential and fundamental nature. 1.4.
In other states there is assimilation (of the Seer) with the modifications (of the mind) [5].
Pātañjali set out his definition of "yoga" in the Yoga Sūtras as having eight limbs [following the popularity of the historical Buddha's Dharma being condensed into a Noble Eightfold Path] (अष्टाङ्ग, āṅga, "eight limbs") as follows. These are the Eight Limbs of Yoga:
yama (abstinences),
niyama (observances),
āsana (postures),
prāṇā-yāma (breath control),
pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the senses),
dhāraṇā (concentration),
dhyāna (meditation), and
samādhi (absorption)" [6].
The eightfold path of Pātañjali's yoga consists of a set of prescriptions for a morally disciplined and purposeful life, of which the āsana (yoga postures) form only one limb [7]. More
Buddhism has a different set of Eight Limbs to Enlightenment
What is the path to supreme liberation?
As in Buddhism's Noble Eightfold Path, all of these terms are loaded. They are full of meaning, leaving many aspects to each term or heading. They are not the same path and do NOT lead to the same goal. The goal of yoga is "union," whereas the goal of the Buddha-Dharma is enlightenment and nirvana.
Right View: various summaries of "right view" can be found in Buddhist texts. A stock phrase is the opening of the dhamma-eye, in which knowledge arises: "All that has the nature of arising has the nature of ending" [33, Note 2]; showing the futility of striving after worldly fulfillment. More extensive treatments state that our karma (actions) have consequences, death is not the end, and our words, actions, and beliefs have consequences after death. The Buddha himself followed and taught a successful path out of this world and the other world (heaven and underworld/hells),[36, 37, 38, Web 2] and his example can be followed to the same successful result. Later on, right view came to explicitly include karma and rebirth and the importance of the Four Noble Truths, when "insight" (vipassana) became central to Buddhist soteriology, especially in Theravada Buddhism [39, 40].
Right Intention (samyaka-saṃkalpa/sammā-saṅkappa) can also be known as "right thought," "right aspiration," "right resolve," or "right motivation" [41]. In this factor, one aspires to let go, renounce (stop clinging to) the worldly life and follow the Buddhist path [42] of purification and freedom. The practitioner is full of thoughts of and intends to strive toward non-violence (ahimsa) and avoid violent and hateful/aversive conduct [40].
Right Speech: avoiding lying, abuse, division, and idle chatter [43, 44].
Right Conduct: to avoid killing or injuring, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, intoxication.
Right Livelihood: avoiding trading in weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants/poisons.
Right Effort: preventing the arising of unwholesome mental states that not arisen, deposing ones that have, generating wholesome states, and maintaining them to their consummation. What are the profitable mental states? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhaṅgā). This includes "guarding the sense-doors" (indriya-samvara), restraint of the sense faculties [45, 46].
Right Mindfulness (sati; satipatthana; sampajañña): a quality that guards the heart/mind as it dispassionately watches over [47] and looks on. The stronger mindfulness becomes, the weaker unwholesome states of mind become, weakening their power "to take over and dominate thought, word, and deed" [48, Note 3]. In the insight meditation (vipassana) movement, mindfulness is interpreted as dispassionate "bare attention," watching, vigilance, remaining present and aware with whatever arises in this moment: not being absent minded, but rather being conscientious and conscious of what one is doing; this encourages the awareness of the impermanence of body, feelings, and mind, as well as to dispassionately examine the Five Aggregates clung to as self (skandhas), the Five Hindrances, the Four Noble Truths, and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment [46].
Right Samadhi (passaddhi; ekaggata; sampasadana): practicing the Four Stages of Jhana (Sanskrit dhyāna or "meditation"), which includes samadhi/absorption proper in the second stage and reinforces the development of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, culminating in equanimity (upekkhā) and mindfulness (sati) [50]. In the Theravada tradition and the insight meditation movement, this is interpreted as singlepointedness of mind (ekaggata), stillness, focus, concentration, one-pointedness of the mind, fulfilled through the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as vipassana meditation, which aims at liberating insight from all illusion. More
The TM corporation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi -- the Beatles', Beach Boys', and other celebrities' own guru -- used to sell "levitation" during meditation, which turned out to be a kind of flipper hopping by flapping the knees, a ridiculous compromise in the way we can bend reality and language to match. Even this wouldn't be "levitation" as we understand it even with the great hang time.
(AS) This "yogic flying" TM style "levitation" is more embarrassing than Heshers' sill trick above.
It only took us two views to see how he's doing it, and we guarantee anyone with the right camera set up can do this tonight, with less stress on his plastic drawers from the pushing.
Buddhism's Path of Purification on levitation
95. Uplifting happiness can be powerful enough to levitate the body and
make it spring up into the air. For this was what happened to the Elder
Mahá Tissa, residing at Punnavallika.
He went to the shrine terrace on the
evening of the full-moon day. Seeing the moonlight, he turned in the direction
of the Great Shrine [at Anurádhapura], thinking:
“At this very hour the four assemblies [Note 29] are worshipping at the Great Shrine!” By means of objects
formerly seen [there] he aroused uplifting happiness with the Enlightened
One [the Buddha] as object, and he rose into the air like a painted ball bounced off a
plastered floor and alighted on the terrace of the Great Shrine.
[Note 29: Four assemblies (parisá) Buddhist monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen.]
96. And this was what happened to the daughter of a clan in the village of
Vattakálaka near the Girikandaka Monastery when she sprang up into the air
owing to strong uplifting happiness with the Enlightened One as object.
As her
parents were about to go to the monastery in the evening, it seems, in order to
hear the Dhamma [144], they told her:
“My dear, you are expecting a child; you
cannot go out at an unsuitable time. We shall hear the Dhamma [the Buddha's Teachings] and gain merit
for you.” So they went out. And though she wanted to go, too, she could not very well
object to what they said. She stepped out of the house onto a balcony and stood
looking at the Ákásacetiya Shrine at Girikandaka lit by the moon.
She saw the
offering of lamps at the shrine and the four communities [assemblies] as they circumambulated
it to the right after making their offerings of flowers and perfumes. And she
heard the sound of the massed recital by the Community of Monastics. Then she
thought:
“How lucky they are to be able to go to the monastery and wander round
such a shrine terrace and listen to such sweet preaching of Dhamma!”
Seeing the
shrine as a mound of pearls and arousing uplifting happiness, she sprang up into
the air, and before her parents arrived she came down from the air into the shrine
terrace, where she paid homage and stood listening to the Dhamma.
97. When her parents arrived, they asked her: “What road did you come by, my dear?”
She answered, “I came through the air, not by the road.”
And when they told her, “My
dear, those whose cankers are destroyed [the enlightened] come through the air, but how did you
come?”
She replied, “As I was standing looking at the shrine in the moonlight a
strong sense of happiness arose in me with the Enlightened One as its object.
Then I knew no more whether I was standing or sitting, but only that I was
springing up into the air with the [mental] sign that I had grasped [apprehended], and I came to rest on
this shrine terrace.”
So uplifting happiness can be powerful enough to levitate the body and make it
spring up into the air.
98. But when pervading (rapturous) happiness arises, the whole body is
completely pervaded [like soap powder suffused with water], like a filled bladder, like a rock cavern invaded by a huge
inundation.
99. Now this fivefold happiness, when conceived and matured, perfects the twofold
tranquility, that is, bodily and mental tranquility. When tranquility is conceived
and matured, it perfects the twofold bliss, that is, bodily and mental bliss. When bliss
is conceived and matured, it perfects the threefold concentration, that is,
Of these, what is intended by happiness in this context is pervading happiness,
which is the root of absorption and comes by growth into association with
absorption [145].
CHAPTER IV
The Earth Kasina
100. But as to the other word: pleasing (sukhana) is bliss (sukha). Or alternatively:
it thoroughly... More: Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)
Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), The Path of Purification edit
Shocking superpowers beyond human limits science can't explain
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Key Moments
00:27 Number 21: Rickshaw saver violating the laws of physics
01:21 Number 20: The mystic who survived without food and water
03:09 Number 19. The Iceman Wim Hoff
05:06 Number 18. The girl with X-ray vision
06:31 Number 17. The Monkey King
07:14 Number 16. The King Tooth
08:36 Number 15. The Rubber Boy
09:26 Number 14. Man with the Stretchiest Skin
10:31 Number 13. The Magnet Man
11:44 Number 12. The Battery Man
13:21 Number 11. The Wolverine
14:11 Number 10. Telekinetic office worker
15:36 Number 9. The Bee Man
17:26 Number 8. The Masai jumpers
18:59 Number 7. Children who see like dolphins
20:48 Number 6. Buddhist monks who warm their bodies with just their minds
22:38 Number 5. Indian chef with magic (fireproof) hands
24:11 Number 4. The lion whisperer
25:20 Number 3. Teleportation girl
26:19 Number 2. The fastest human calculator
27:16 Number 1. The incredible memory
👇 Watch more fascinating videos about cultures and people around the world: 👇
People who are at another level | amazing skills and talents
(Retrocast) Sept. 22, 2024: People who practiced to progress are now at another level altogether with these amazing skills and talents. Subscribe: @retrocast1
The Mystery of Tibetan Monastics' Paranormal Abilities: Unparalleled Skills and Secrets of Practice
(Mr. Y Talks) May 18, 2023: This video goes deep into the extraordinary paranormal abilities of Tibetan nuns and monks and reveals the secrets of their practice. Some are "living buddhas," which is a misleading translation for bodhisattvas ("being bent on supreme enlightenment, buddhas-to-be"). Westerner Alexandra David-Neel traveled to Tibet in the 1930s and wrote about her experiences in Magic and Mystery in Tibet.
COMMENTARY
Are such things really possible, Wisdom Quarterly? Yes, they are. The basis is samadhi (stillness, superconsciousness, states of emerging from single pointed focus or concentration, which temporarily purifies the mind/heart, leading to a breakthrough in recovering our innate ability as a human species). These powers are known in Buddhism as the abhinnas or iddhis (Sanskrit siddhis). They are well known even outside Buddhism, where they are also warned against. Hinduism and the older Vedic religion is well aware of these miraculous powers and calls those who master samadhi "saints."
These are not saints in Buddhism, which reserves the term for those proficient in calm and insight, who are liberated from the mental hindrances and defilements. The Buddha possessed these powers but was very reluctant to use them, seeing great danger in them. It is hard to attain these powers and they are fickle. They may easily drop away. The Buddha spoke of 11 imperfections in their development to be mindful of if one should wish to exercise them.
But a more telling event about the Buddha's attitude towards them is found in a story in the ancient texts. One day the Buddha and his attendant monk, Ananda, were walking down the road and saw some old yogis who possessed these powers. They were renowned and respected.
The Buddha turned to Ananda and said something to the effect of, "How sad these two."
Ananda replied, "But they are well respected and possess supernormal powers."
"Yeah, but had they developed those powers in this Dharma (herein within the Buddha's Doctrine and Discipline), they would not only have those powers, but they would also be liberated (enlightened and free from suffering and rebirth).
"As it is, although they have spent many years of spiritual effort to develop these trifling 'powers,' they have not worked on the much more important skill of release, of making an end of ignorance, of uprooting the defilements of the heart/mind greed, hatred, and delusion. Now they have these powers, but they will eventually lose them. Having gained nothing else because they were so busy to develop them, if they are not destroyed by these very powers, what will they have? They will have wasted all those years and, what's worse, wasted the opportunity to strive for real liberation (moksha) and actually be free."
Who needs Buddhism? Let's do magic instead
This is a shocking thing to say because within their own tradition, they were regarded as "saints" the way a Catholic nun or monk could live cloistered, fasting, praying, purifying their morality, faith, karma, and concentration and, in doing so, may indeed gain mysterious abilities, magic powers. If anyone sees them displaying such powers, they will be hailed as "holy" and "saved" and "destined for heaven," objects of veneration, respect, and petitionary prayers and prayers to intercede on behalf of the faithful.
But they will not be "saints" in the Buddhist sense. They are not free of the defilements (which have only been suppressed by many and various spiritual practices). They will not have made an end of greed, hatred, and delusion only of obvious and overt signs of them while they are still latent in their psyches (layers of their personality bundles within the Five Aggregates clung to as self). They may even be reborn into a heaven, but as that heaven is not the end all be all it is advertised as being, they will neither be "saved," purified, free, attaining to the deathless, nor anything else of note. It will be as if all those side effects were for not nothing but not anything really worthwhile, admirable, or spiritually desirable like nirvana, awakening, the end of rebirth or, there is a remainder of defilements, rebirth in exalted worlds where they are able to complete the training in very conducive circumstances and be freed from there.
We can meditate to purify the mind then practice for insight to be free?
Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism is very esoteric, partly because it is mixed with the more ancient indigenous Himalayan shamanic practice of Bon and partly because it is a Mahayana school, which itself is very much mixed with Hindu, Vedic, yogic, and Brahmanical ideas. These are ideas and assumptions the historical Buddha rejected and went to great pains to point out for disciples to avoid.
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Trying to explain "meditation" after a long Buddhist meditation retreat of hundreds of hours of sitting is tough.
But it's about the only time one might be able to explain what happens or what's "supposed" to happen. That's because things are fresh and pre-verbal.
Once the talking (verbalizing) starts up again in the mind, concepts, assumptions, connotations, and confusion come in.
What hasn't been said before and much more cleverly?
Buddha Balloon art (Banksy)
But my mother asked me to, and an example sprang to mind, one never heard before: It could be called "Balloon Meditation."
If one were to get on a balloon laden with the weight of the world and lots of luggage (psychological baggage), one might wonder why the floating, the rapture, the blissful uplift, didn't start right away.
One is ready and gung-ho for a journey, an adventure, a wild ride into the unknown celestial spheres above mundane human experience.
One might think to make more heat, blow more hot air, or jump up and down to shake the basket.
One might well become restless on top of being over-eager (full of craving for the experience), experiencing aversion about not getting off the ground already, confused about what's not happening for all the desire one is generating for something to happen.
How high can a "balloon" go? All the way to the moon because it's really in the atmosphere.
How not to meditate
Sukhothai, Thailand (Alamy)
I sat down, strapped in (braced myself), and wished to go. But nothing happened! A wise meditation instructor might then point out a very simple thing: This isn't a plane, a crane, or other mechanical transport moved by force or combustion power.
Struggling and striving, wanting, craving, needing to go -- and getting angry, reacting, or getting confused -- will keep one on the ground and soon out of the basket. (One can overdo blowing hot air, overheating and burning up the balloon: Just enough heat is enough, let go of everything, and wait without expectations).
How to meditate
The way to go, wherever it is one might go, is very easy: Let go. Not only let go of whatever binds one to the ground. That's easy. Now do the hard part: Throw the luggage (baggage) out. Get rid of all excess weight. And as one does, whaddyaknow, it works.
Think of "meditation" not as what one does but as what happens to us when we are not doing anything but sitting mindfully and still, dispassionate and content, full of wholesome states of mind. It's natural. It doesn't need "doing."
It needs allowing, patience/forgiveness (khanti), and contentment (Pali santutthitā, Sanskrit santosha) coupled with the balanced effort to persist without pushing.
I did it, and now I know how others did it.
It can't be faked. One can't "let go" by appearance and hold on in secret. That doesn't work. One actually has to let go.
One can let go with the help of faith (saddha, confidence/conviction) in one's meditation teacher or the historical Buddha or the noble sangha (the invisible community of attained practitioners who followed the Buddha's instructions, most of them while not wearing monastic robes).
It's hard to let go out using reason and logic and certainty; that tends to bind one up in uncertainty, circular questioning, skepticism, and doubt.
Doubt is good inasmuch as it leads to investigation. It does no good now, sitting waiting to go. It's time to go (now), so let go (now). Allow to go. There's no need to push.
Instead, look around the basket. Let go (get rid) of all that dead weight, all that baggage holding the balloon to the ground. The balloon is enough to carry one to lofty heights but not if it's laden with cares, worries, concerns, attachments, fear, or the weight of the world on one's shoulders.
There's a line of inquiry that might unload some of the weight or make it possible to cast off the weight we were formerly cherishing and holding onto for protection. What? Contemplating how harmful it's been, how it holds us back (in a sad attempt to protect us).
Aversion (dosa, hatred, fear, boredom, hesitation) is fundamentally an attempt to protect ourselves. Now when we don't need it, it's still here doing its job. Let it go.
Look at the harm being done by not letting go, and it may just be possible to wipe the sticky glue from the hand and be free of it. Better things are waiting.
If not rocket force and thrust from below, what will be the "propulsion"? Rapture (piti), effervescence, joy, a floaty sense of weightlessness, taking oneself lightly. It works! But it's closer to play than work. It plays! Play.
Okay, now what? We have the balloon. We have the fire. - Okay, let go. Just let go.
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