Dharma - Merit - Meditation - Nectar - Liberation - Emptiness - Process - Awakening

 
 

Studies
in Buddhadharma

On Practices : Introduction

FIRST DEGREE : Preliminary Practices SECOND DEGREE : Foundational Practices THIRD DEGREE : Accumulative Practices FOURTH DEGREE : Preparative Practices FIFTH DEGREE : Finative Practices

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Generally speaking, spiritual practices are ways to enter total attention, a free, unconditioned insight without divisions, borders or central focus, without "me" or "mine", without "You" or "yours".

In Buddhism, spiritual practices or spiritual exercises are skillful methods introduced by enlightened wisdom-mind to aid sentient beings to attain liberation from "samsâra", realizing awakening or entry into "nirvâna" for the sake of all sentient beings.

Usually, practices are based on views giving birth to paths leading to fruits. Different views generate different paths and bring about different results. But the ultimate fruit of all Buddhist methods, irrespective of views & paths, is personal liberation (in the Lesser Vehicle) and/or awakening (in the Great Vehicle).

This non-sectarian approach is inspired by Tibetan "Ri-mé". "Ri" or "chik-ri" means "one-sided" or "sectarian" and "mé" is "no", the negation. So Ri-mé means "not taking sides" or nonpartisan. One of the unique features of the Buddhadharma is accepting different paths are appropriate for different people. The many schools of Buddhism are not "sects", but different instructions leading different people to liberation and awakening. All schools practice the teachings of Lord Buddha and so aim at the same ! Never to forget this, is fundamental to understand the variety of methods.

In the Buddhadharma, tradition speaks of 84.000 Dharma doors, or entries into the awakened mind. Indeed, over the millennia, an enormous variety of methods have been introduced by numerous Buddhas & Superior Bodhisattvas and discovered by spiritual masters and accomplished teachers & yogis. In India, China, Tibet, Japan etc. these have been practiced for centuries, refined and adapted to new circumstances, conditions & different types of practitioners.

Buddha Śâkyamuni himself made the Wheel of Dharma turn four times, gradually introducing new methods adapted to ever more sophisticated disciples :

• First Turn : the basics of mindfullness & Calm Abiding ;
• Second Turn : elaborating on compassion (Bodhicitta) and emptiness (Insight Meditation) ;
• Third Turn : directly seeing the nature of mind (Mahâmudrâ) ;
• Fourth Turn : actually transforming the deluded mind into the enlightened mind (Tantra, the most esoteric approach).

According to other classifications, the Third & Fourth Turn have to be considered as a single round of teachings, with Mahâmûdra & Dzogchen crowning Tantra.

In the section on meditation, the Eightfold Path points to :

• Right Effort : control the mind and gain positive states of mind ;
• Right Mindfulness : cultivate constant awareness ;
• Right Meditation : Calm Abiding & Insight Meditation.

This implies wrong effort, wrong mindfulness & wrong meditation must be avoided. The crucial element here is understanding & seeing emptiness, never fixating the mind, allowing it to grasp at the inherent existence of subjective and/or objective states. The idea is not to remain trapped in cyclic existence, even not as demi-gods or gods, but to escape suffering all-together !

The practices collected here are born out of three decades of study, reflection & personal experience. They stem from the Western, Indian, Chinese & Tibetan traditions. Clearly, the latter tradition was able to bring together a complete overview of the Buddhist path, albeit flavoured by a fundamental tantric interest.

The choice of practices proposed here is entirely my own, reflecting my personal experience with them. The organization in Five Degrees grew out of the effort to bring about coherency in the graduated path. It therefore mainly serves a pedagogic purpose.

Offering this overview to the WWW for free backs my intent to dedicate my work to the benefit of others, making it easy for them to access what is meant to be a gift of the enlightened immortals to humankind, luring all sentient beings into the Golden Age of Peace.

These practices are intended for Western students. This means they have been simplified to bring out their operational core, stripping unnecessary cultural overlays. Specific India, Chinese or Tibetan components have therefore been eliminated. In doing so, functionality & spatio-temporal efficacy have been optimalized. Western data on depth-psychology, ritualism, neurofeedback, suggestion, hypnosis, the placebo-effect, NLP etc. have been integrated.

These Five Degrees are :

  1. Preliminary : the elementary practices ;

  2. Foundational : building a foundation to accumulate merit ;

  3. Accumulative : practices to actually accumulate merit ;

  4. Preparative : preparing the mind to gather insight into reality ;

  5. Finative : actually realizing insight into ultimate reality.

Generally, each practice produces a fruit savoured by the student and witnessed by the teacher, mentor or guru. As the eye cannot see itself and, due to interferences, inner guidance is not always accessible, mostly an accomplished mentor or teacher is necessary to correct activities and reflect results. Of course, in human communication subjective factors always enter the equation. Given some of these may be detrimental to the spiritual development of the student, the student/teacher relationship is not without its pitfalls. However, thanks to recent advances in technology, psychosomatic science enables one to measure crucial results in a more objective way. Indeed, biofeedback offers additional measuring devices to back progress, adjust & speed up practices. In the subtle interactions between teacher & student, the more traditional take may complement these data, dramatically reducing transference & other negative factors, assisting both student & teacher !

Questions like : Have tensions been reduced (parasympathic response) ? Is a calm mind a fact (HRV coherency) ? Is visualization strong (strong Alpha) ? Can trance be attained (Theta) ? Has compassion effectively been generated (strong prefrontal Omega) ? etc. can be answered in a more objective, measurable way. And what is more, training is possible.

 FEEDBACK

To complement the practices, the following biofeedback techniques will be discussed :

  • GSK (Galvanic Skin Response) : measures & trains the depth of the relaxation or arousal responses ;

  • HRV (Hearth Rate Variability) : measures & trains the coherency of the heart function, defining the overall stress-factor and the depth of mental calm ;

  • NM (Neuromonitoring) : enables one to monitor the activity of the brain and correlate it with states of consciousness ;

  • NF (Neurofeedback) :  actually trains the brain to become more attuned and integrate altered states of consciousness ;

  • AVS (Audio Visual Stimuli) : allows one, using  light and sound stimulation, to target specific brain states, accommodate altered states of consciousness and adapt the overall functionality of the nervous system in terms of preset tasks (concentration, creativity, tranquility, insight, peak-performance, etc.) ;

  • NS (Neurological Scripting) : implants hypnotic suggestions using GSK, HRV, NM, NF & AVS combined to induce trance-states ; helpful to clear blocks, invite a smooth learning-curve and bring about constructive changes in mentality, habit-formation, well-being, etc.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER

The above mentioned technologies, in particular AVS & NS, are intended for spirito-educational purposes (like monitoring & stimulating spiritual growth) and are not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment or cure of any physical or mental dysfunction ! Moreover, they should not be used by persons with neurological and psychiatric disorders (like for example epilepsy, severe neurosis or psychosis), especially when these may be triggered or aggravated by rapid light fluctuations, binaural beats or NS (trance) techniques.

Meditation is not meant to cure physical or mental illness.

 DETAILS OF THE PRACTICES

  • First Degree : PRELIMINARY

    1. Postures : assuming a stable & comfortable body posture sustainable for a long period of time. In the East, the Lotus (or Vajra) Posture is the most common, while in the West, the Pharaonic Posture suits most practitioners ;

    2. Simple Mindfullness Practice : cultivating awareness of contents of mind without adding or eliminating ;

    3. Four Breaths Practice : concentration on the out-breath, concentration on the in-breath, concentration on the pores, concentration on the nose-breath ;

    4. Nine Breaths Practice : concentration on the flow of breath through the right nostril, concentration on the flow of breath through the left nostril, concentration of breath through both nostrils together ;

    5. Calm Abiding on a Coarse Object : place meditation on an external object ;

    6. Calm Abiding on a Subtle Object : place meditation on an internal object ;

  • Second Degree : FOUNDATIONAL

    1. Four Thoughts Practice : analytical meditation on one's precious human birth, on suffering, impermanence and cause & effect ;

    2. Analytical Meditations : discursive meditations on a variety of core themes of the Buddhadharma ;

    3. Prosternation : Outer, Inner & Secret practice of humbling body, speech & mind ;

    4. Refuge Practice : preliminary to Refuge and the practices of Outer, Inner & Secret Refuge in the Triple Gem in its coarse, subtle & very subtle manifestations ;

    5. Bodhicitta Practice : generating the mind of enlightenment for all sentient beings by meditations on the Four Immeasurables : Joy, Love, Compassion & Equanimity ;

    6. The Hundred-Syllable Mantra Practice : purifying defilements of body, speech & mind by the Vajrasattva visualization & mantra recitations ;

    7. Dedication Practice : practice of transferring one's acquired merits to the benefit for all sentient beings ;

  • Third Degree : ACCUMULATIVE

    1. Light & Incense Offerings : practice of offering light & incense to the Living Buddha, Buddhas & Bodhisattvas ;

    2. Water Offerings to the Five Buddhas : practice of offering blessed water to the Five Buddha Families ;

    3. The Seven Limbs Practice : practice of reciting the Seven Limbs : humbling, offering, confessing, rejoicing, supplicating, turning the wheel & dedicating ;

    4. Mandala Offering : practice of offering everything to one's root Guru(s) ;

    5. Guru Yoga : practice of attuning to & receiving blessings from one's Outer, Inner & Secret Guru(s) ;

    6. The Bodhisattva Vow : taking the vow to generate the mind of enlightenement for the sake of all sentient beings and accomplishing the stages of the Bodhisattva training ;

    7. Mani Practice : practice of the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra of Avalokiteśvara ;

    8. Prayer Wheel Practice : practice of the extensive accumulation of compassion using the Prayer Wheel ;

  • Fourth Degree : PREPARATIVE

    1. Insight Meditation on Selflessnes of Persons : analytical meditations on the absence of inherent existence of persons ;

    2. Insight Meditation on Selflessness of Phenomena : analytical meditations on the absence of inherent existence of phenomena ;

    3. Wisdom Sûtra Practice : practice of the recitation of the Heart Sûtra for the extensive accumulation of wisdom ;

    4. Garland Sûtra Practice : practice of the Net of Indra ;
  • First Degree : FINATIVE
    1. Lower Tantra Practices
    2. Higher Tantra Practices
    3. Sâdhanas

  
 

© Wim van den Dungen, Antwerp - 2012
 philo@sofiatopia.org l Acknowledgments l SiteMap l Bibliography

Mistakes are due to my own ignorance and not to the Buddhadharma.
May all who encounter the Dharma accumulate compassion & wisdom.
May sentient beings recognize their Buddha-nature and find true peace.

   

initiated : 27 IV 2009 - last update : nil - version n°1

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