GOVINDA, LAMA

OM MANI PADME HUM: God, in unmanifest form (OM) is like a jewel (MANI) in the middle of a lotus (PADME) manifest in my heart (HUM)

(Source: Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism)

· The mantra has power and meaning only for the initiated, i.e. one who has gone through a particular kind of experience connected with the mantra…However, this experience can usually only be acquired under guidance of a competent Guru (being the embodiment of a living tradition) and by constant practice. If after each preparation the mantra is used, all the necessary associations and the forces of previous accumulated experiences are aroused in the initiate and produces the atmosphere and power for which the mantra was intended.

· He who has found the Philosopher’s Stone, the radiant jewel (MANI) of the enlightened mind (bodhi-citta) within his own heart, transforms his mortal consciousness into that of immortality, perceives the infinite in the finite and turns Samsara into Nirvana – this is the teaching of the Diamond Vehicle.

· The wise ones do not use the Elixir of Life to preserve the body beyond its time, but to attain the higher life, which does not know the fear of death.

· The greater the spiritual progress and the quicker the psychic growth within one and the same span of life, the greater will be the distance between bodily form and spiritual attainment, because the body, due to its greater density, has a lesser degree of movability and therefore a longer amplitude of vibration, which cannot keep pace with that of the mind. The body adapts itself only slowly and within certain limits, which depend on the conditions of organic growth, the structural laws of matter and the nature of its primary elements.

· The main difference between Buddhist Tantra and Hindu Tantra is that Buddhist Tantra is not Saktism. The concept of Sakti - of divine POWER, of the creative female aspect of the highest God (Siva) or his emanations - does not play any role in Buddhism. While in the Hindu Tantras the concept of power (Sakti) forms the focus of interest, the central idea of Buddhist Tantrism is prajña: Knowledge/Wisdom.

[Hence the enlightenment ‘flow’ is from upper to lower, opposite to Hindu]

The authors of the Buddhist Tantras knew that knowledge based on vision is stronger than the power of the subconscious drives and urges, that PRAJÑA is stronger than SAKTI. For sakti is the blind world-creating power (MAYA), which leads deeper and deeper into the realm of becoming, of matter and differentiation. Its effect can only be polarized or reversed by its opposite: inner vision, which transforms the power of becoming into that of liberation.

- - - By becoming conscious of the world and of these powers which create it, we become their masters. As long as these forces remain dormant and unperceived within us, we have no access to them. For this reason it is necessary to project them into the realm of the visible in the form of images. The symbols which serve this purpose act like a chemical catalyst, through which a liquid is suddenly converted into solid crystals, revealing its true nature and structure. The spiritual process of crystallization which forms the productive phase of meditation is called the process of unfoldment, or CREATION. And subsequent to crystallization it is necessary to dissolve, or integrate, the crystallized forms back into the normal stream of life and consciousness – the mutability of all form. He who realizes that actuality (i.e. reality) is the product of our own actions (which start in the mind) will be freed from the materialistic concept of the world as a self-existing or ‘given’ reality. The ability to create a world and to liquefy or dissolve it again demonstrates better than any intellectual analysis the true nature of all phenomena and the senselessness of all clinging and craving.

· It is the power of MAYA (Sakti) which produces the illusory forms of appearance of our mundane reality. Maya itself, however, is not illusion. He who masters this power, has got the tool of liberation in his hand, the magic power of yoga, the power of creation, transformation and re-integration.

· Silence and secrecy should be maintained by initiates concerning the rites of initiation and their experiences in meditation – not to speak of these things with merely curious people. To do so is to risk loss of one’s own power of inner contact and devotion. The sacred dragged down to the profane. By glibly talking about the mystery we destroy the purity and spontaneity of our inner attitude and the deep reverence which is the key to the temple of revelations. The mystery of inner transformation can only take place if the secret force of its symbols is hidden from the profane eyes and the idle talk of the world.

· When men look up into the space of heaven and invoke heaven, or a power that is supposed to reside there, they invoke in reality forces within themselves which, by being projected outwards, are visualized or felt as heaven or cosmic space. If we contemplate the mysterious depth and blueness of the firmament, we contemplate the depth of our own inner being, of our own mysterious all-comprising consciousness in its primordial, unsullied purity: unsullied by thoughts and mental representations, undivided by discriminations, desires and aversions. Herein lies the indescribable and inexplicable happiness which fills us during such contemplation.

· The Bardo Thödol is first of all a book for the living, to prepare them not only for the dangers of death, but to give them an opportunity to make use of the great possibilities which offer themselves in the moment of relinquishing the body – either for a better rebirth or for final liberation. In Buddhist philosophy, birth and death are not phenomena that happen only once in human life, but something that happens uninterruptedly within us. At every moment something within us dies and something is reborn. The different bardos are the different states of consciousness (the normal consciousness of a being born into our human world); the state of dream-consciousness; the state of trance-consciousness, in profound meditation; the state of experiencing death; the state of experiencing Reality; the state of rebirth-consciousness.

· The experiences connected with the breaking-through towards highest knowledge or awareness of reality, are represented in the Bardo Thödol by the terrifying images of ‘blood drinking dieties’, associated with the Brain Centre, whereas the peaceful/benign forms are associated with the Heart Centre. The blood that is drunk by the ‘terrible dieties’ is the elixir of knowledge (the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge), which, in its pure unmitigated form, - i.e. without being combined with the qualities of compassion and love – acts upon man as a deadly poison.

· The Principle of Movement is the breath of life, the all-powerful, all-pervading rhythm of the universe, in which world-creations and world-destructions follow each other like inhalation and exhalation in the human body, and in which the course of suns and planets plays a similar role as the circulation of the blood and the currents of psychic energy in the human organism. All forces of the universe, like those of the human mind - from the highest consciousness to the depths of the sub-conscious - are modifications of PRANA.

· Even if this our world and what we call our personality are mind-made and illusory, this does not mean that they are unreal. They are as real as the mind that creates them. The body, which we have created, does not disappear at the moment we recognize it as a product of our mind or when we get tired of it. As soon as the products of our mind have taken material shape, they obey the laws of matter, or whatever we may call the laws governing them. Even a saint cannot arbitrarily change or annihilate the material properties and functions of the body. He can only transform them step by step by controlling them in their initial states or in the moment they come into existence. Materialization can be influenced, directed and modified only while it is still in the process of formation.

· The compassion of a Bodhisattva is not blind emotion, but love combined with wisdom. Wisdom is the pre-condition of compassion and is therefore inseparable from it; because wisdom consists in the recognition of the inner identity of all beings - and the experience of this solidarity results in the capacity of feeling others’ sufferings as one’s own. Compassion is not based on the feeling of mortal or mental superiority, but on the essential equality with others. To recognize oneself in others, is the key to mutual understanding, the foundation of true ethics.

· The Bodhisattva’s example awakens forces within others which may help them overcome Karma.

(Source: Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness)

§ The practical side of Buddhism has a theoretical foundation, a “philosophy of becoming”, which is unique in the spiritual history of humanity, in so far as it explains everything that exists through the co-operation of only momentary existing forces, arising and disappearing in functional dependence of each other. Due to this, Buddhism can renounce the concept of eternal substances (matter, soul, God) which in all other teachings form the supporting basis.

§ The greatest artist is he who expresses what is felt by everybody. But how does he do it? By being more subjective than others. The more he expresses HIMSELF, i.e. his innermost being, the nearer he comes to others.

§ People who speak of absolute truth, absolute reality, absolute unity, absolute oneness, an absolute God, or the Absolute in or by itself, indulge in empty words, words that do not relate to any experience, because experience is based on relationship, while the Absolute means unrelatedness, non-relationship.

§ There is no time for the Enlightened Ones. This, however, does not mean that for an Enlightened One the past has been extinguished or memory blotted out. On the contrary, the past ceases to be a quality of time and becomes a new order of space, which we may call the Fourth Dimension, in which things and events which we have experienced piecemeal can be seen simultaneously, in their entirety, and in the present. .... Only if we recognize the past as "a true dimension of ourselves," and not only as an abstract property of time, shall we be able to see ourselves in proper perspective to the universe, which is not an alien element that surrounds us mysteriously, but the very body of our past, in whose womb we dream until we awake into the freedom of enlightenment.

- - - - - - - -

(Source: in dialogue with Renée Weber - “Dialogues With Sages and Saints: Search for Unity”)

· The fundamental element of this cosmos is space. Space is the all-embracing principle of higher unity. Space…therefore, is not only a conditio sine qua non of all existence, but a fundamental property of our consciousness.

Our consciousness determines the kind of space in which we live. The infinity of space and the infinity of consciousness are identical. In the moment in which a being becomes conscious of his consciousness, he becomes conscious of space. In the moment in which he becomes conscious of this infinity of space, he realizes the infinity of consciousness. If, therefore, space is a property of our consciousness, then it may be said with equal justification that the experience of space is a criterion of spiritual activity and of a higher form of awareness. The way in which we experience space, or in which we are aware of space, is characteristic of the dimension of our consciousness. The three-dimensional space, which we perceive through our bodies and its senses, is only one among many possible dimensions.

· Those who think that form is unimportant will miss the spirit as well, while those who cling to form lose the very spirit which they tried to preserve. Form and movement are the secret of life, and the key to immortality

· You are only free from that which you can create and destroy at the same time. It is like the process of meditation, which moves from the construction to the dissolution of forms.

· “Liberation” is freedom from ignorance, from wrong confinement in the ego. That means complete openness, which is nirvana. Nirvana is not a sterile end-point – not eternal bliss, but rather an openness which allows us to proceed. Yet I do not point to the extinction of the illusion of the ego entirely, but rather the overcoming of the illusion of the ego as being something static and confined. See that your ego is only something which you need in order to center your mind – i.e. a device for action. The ego shouldn’t be too important in one’s life. The middle way of Buddhism lies between the extremes.

· One of the best meditations is on the breath – it is one of the best ways to convince yourself of Anatman, the doctrine that there is no static self in man. Anatman does not mean that there is nothing eternal in us but rather that the eternal consists of a continuous giving and taking. You draw in your breath from outside yourself and you transform it within yourself and then return it to nature. You cannot take anything which you don’t give back. Everything in life – whether your breath, or your food, or your material possessions – everything which is taken in must be given back.

· A meditation which cannot prove itself in action is useless. In such a case you believe that you have achieved something, while you have achieved nothing. But if you prove the result of your meditation in action, then you will gain a kind of control. Meditation should be an opening of ourselves to all the possibilities. Just as a flower opens to let the sun come in, so whatever comes up in your meditation should be accepted. You should become like a vessel which is being filled again. And through the strength which has been accumulated you can perform your actions.

Then it's completely natural. In the Tibetan tradition, for instance, people go about their work: they fill their day, they cook their meal, they do their tasks, they clean their rooms, and make all these actions a part of their meditation. That is really the highest form of meditative accomplishment. Whatever they do, whatever they think, whatever they experience - all belongs to the state of meditation. But these people have very little contact with the outer world.

· Actually, meditation is a much more natural thing than we believe. Most people think of meditation as a special state outside life and our usual activities but don't take the time to find out who they are or what is happening to them. Meditation is merely a natural state of quietness in which all those things which are ordinarily suppressed in us are allowed to well up. Today many people are giving out a lot of rules about meditation: what to do and what not to do and how to do it. But I always say, don't try to force anything; simply collect yourself. Simply be centered in yourself for a while. Then whatever comes to you, whatever rises up within you, is significant. And the less you expect, the more you will get. I think the attitude of meditation should be a kind of interested joy. The quality of joy is the best proof of the efficacy of meditation. If it gives you more joy, it is worthwhile. If it doesn't, don't force it.

· The ultimate concepts of physics may lead us to a greater understanding. It is very interesting, for instance, that in modern physics the more logical you are, the more wrong you are. This shows very clearly the limits of our logic. Actually, the universe often seems unreasonable to us because we apply our own logic to something which is not of the same category. We never can say where a particle is and what it does, and so we can only guess, or define it as either particle or a wave. Yet it is neither one nor the other, but both.

You may ask, for example, about the "logic" of reincarnation. I don't feel we can reduce the idea of reincarnation to pure logic. Since our beginnings are infinite, and the causes are also infinite, the combinations must necessarily be infinite. It is impossible to explain such things with our linear logic since the cause and effect, from the universal point of view, are multi-dimensional. For instance in the Lankavatara Sutra, I was impressed by the description of karma as "habit energy." Having done something once, we are impelled to do the same thing again under similar circumstances.

Karma is indeed habit energy, and the moment we get out of the habit of something, it is gone.

· Individuality is only a focal point of the universe. You see, individuality is not confined to limits. It is rather a focal point of radiation which contains the whole universe. So individuality is no contradiction to universality.

· The analysis of the symptoms of suffering show that in each of them our desire is in conflict with the laws of existence, and as we are not able to change these laws, THE ONLY THING THAT REMAINS IS TO CHANGE OUR DESIRE.

(Source: ‘Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy’ quoted in Charles Tart’s “Transpersonal Psychologies”)

Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site

Home	Our Stories	The Sublime	Our World and Times	Book Reviews
Marnie's Images	The Journal	Gleanings	From The Writings Of. . .	Allegories