Tibetan buddhist Meditation, Part III – Ultimate Guide

Inner Tantras – Maha, Anu, and Ati

Tibetan Buddhist Meditation can be roughly divided into 3 components: lower yanas, outer tantras, and inner tantras. This post covers the inner tantras. These have to do with self-visualization of the Yidam, working with subtle body energies, and directly uniting with the profound reality.

Part I, Part II

Mahayoga yana – Tibetan Buddhist Meditation on the Deity

Maha means great. This yana is characterized by strongly detailed visualizations, especially self visualizations. Seeing oneself as the deity and seeing the deity in front of oneself, communicating using forms of light and so forth, depending on the practice. The point of mahayoga is to dissolve one’s ordinary conceptions of reality and ordinary conceptions of the self. External reality becomes the mandala of the yidam (enlightened deity). Internal reality becomes the 3 Vajras – indestructible body, speech and mind.

At this point, one typically receives the principal Tibetan meditation instruments: ghanta or bell, and dorje. Also, one uses a damaru, a hand drum.

By visualizing yourself as an enlightened being, manifesting in a body of light, rather than a physical body, you have the full virtues of Buddha – compassion, wisdom, fearlessness, generosity, discipline, patience and so forth. The implements and accouterments are seen as the actual manifestations of these virtues. You are buddha, manifesting as a deity, rather than a human form.

In Mahayoga, every single aspect of the visualization is deeply symbolic. Simply by practicing the 3 recollections, the practice will be effective.

• Recollection of the form / clarity – having a clear image of each aspect of the visualized image and the total image
• Recollection of the meaning – what does each aspect (hand implement, accouterments, physical features, internal elements, etc.) symbolize? ie, compassion, generosity, luminosity, patience, etc.
• Recollection of purity – maintaining a sense of the basis of reality or suchness from which the deity arises

_{^{The 3 recollections for visualization.}}

By maintaining these recollections during practice, while visualizing and repeating the mantra, the meditation purifies and clarifies the 3 gates – body, speech, and mind. These then arise as vajra (indestructible) body, speech, and mind. The meditator sees him/herself as the deity, a non-self wisdom being created from clear light of awareness. Speech takes on enlightened tones, a musical echo of the truth of reality as sound-emptiness. Only truth occurs. Mind expands, dissolving at the edges, feeling and experiencing the insubstantiality of relative existence. A more profound, evanescent reality, beyond concept, but vividly felt, reveals itself. It was always there, but conventional approaches to relative experience, solidification and emotion, blocked this deeper truth.

Mahayoga, and all the inner tantras, are secret for a reason. This explanation does not reveal the specific secrets – how to do a particular practice such as Vajrayogini or Hayagriva. This is more of a general explanation. Particulars are secret because results from these meditations are not achievable without proper initiation – abhisheka/empowerment. If someone practices a sadhana (liturgy) without abhisheka, it will be useless at best, harmful at worst.

One of the dangers is solidification of the deity. Instead of a nonself deity, ego takes on the role of the deity. Narcissism can result in a deep intensification of arrogance and pride. This outcome is even possible with abhisheka, if the meditator fails to maintain the proper background of compassion and insight into emptiness.

Though it’s unlikely to do much, it can potentially lead to insanity. Meditation must be intensive for this, basically a longish retreat situation. A good meditator can put their state of mind into a completely spun reality in a few weeks. I personally know of several people who have done so and I have experienced this myself. It’s extremely frightening.

At any rate, the point of Mahayoga is to overcome solidified / ordinary perceptions of self and phenomena. The result is seeing oneself as the deity – a clear light form of buddha, and, just as important, to see all others that way as well. The buddha mandalas – pure perceptions of enlightened reality – appear as the basis of perception. For this to happen in a meaningful, real way takes decades, even lifetimes, of serious practice. Faking it is highly inadvisable. That road leads to madness. Instead, realize that this is a practice. One is imagining it for a long, long time.

However, that imagination can take on its own life. If this happens organically in meditation, with a balanced, very stable mind, without forcing, then it will slowly and steadily deepen. Reality will unveil itself. Relative being will subside and become more dreamlike. Being a ‘child of illusion’ will be a natural, felt sense, not a practice, but an experience. This is more readily achievable.

Why? Because so much of our reality is simply our concepts about it. As we reform these concepts into enlightened concepts, our perception becomes much closer to that of the buddhas. In this sense, meditation is simply directing the mind toward deeper and deeper truths, to more genuine ‘realities.’

Anuyoga

Mahayoga has embedded hints of anuyoga. These are the inner aspects of the visualization. Mahayoga is associated more with vajra body. Anuyoga is associated with vajra speech. Interestingly, one of the main practices of anuyoga – tummo – refers to the subtle body. Anuyoga focuses on nadi, prana, and Bindu – inner channels/chakras, energy/breath, and consciousness. A series of breathing exercises provides the basis for this. Notably, the Wim Hof exercises are not actually based on tummo. They are very, very different in even the basic method. They also lack any visualization component and have no view of the inner profound reality. Wim Hof is NOT teaching tummo.

Tummo is part of the 6 yogas / 4 root dharmas of Naropa. It’s a method of taking more and more powerful control of the subtle body, which includes the energetic system underlying life. Purifying this system with these practices, and clearing the prana of impurities, is the point of the practice. The wisdom prana can then be stabilized in the central channel of the subtle body.

This description is extremely general and completely insufficient to do such a practice.

Many people have overdone tummo and had very negative outcomes – incurable physical sickness, madness, and more. Please do not try to do intensive tummo practice without proper support. It will not work at all if you’re lucky. If you push it and are unlucky, it could be catastrophic. Most of the people with negative outcomes even had good guidance and appropriate authorizations, but in retreat they were alone with it and pushed too hard in the wrong direction.

• Tummo – inner heat and bliss
• Illusory Body
• Dream yoga – practicing in dreams
• Deep sleep yoga – experiencing luminosity in non-dreaming, deeper sleep
• Bardo practice – preparing for the state between lives
• Phowa – ejection of consciousness at death into the deity’s form or pureland

Tummo practice takes years and years of preparation to begin. It’s a graduated path, relying on lower levels of attainment and deep understanding. It’s critical to have a skillful touch with one’s mind and body, sensing when things are destabilizing, when the limits of skill are reached, so that a period of easing up happens. One of the methods of tummo is to rapidly ripen vast amounts of karma very quickly, melting the ice as it were. This karma, untold lifetimes of it, must be experienced. That is the iron law of karma.

However, a skilled meditator can ripen karma while seeing the empty, illusory nature of it in meditation. The sheer volume released so quickly will be highly disorienting unless the mind is extremely stable in both shamatha and insight. Maintaining meditative stability and seeing the emptiness of the arising karma is the path through this dangerous, but highly fruitional approach.

One of the saving graces here is that karma is asymmetrical. It is not proportional. A terrible act can be ripened as a very minor consequence or vice versa. This allows a huge amount of karma to be ripened and released in a controlled manner.

The other practices listed above are more generally open and unlikely to cause significant issues for people. Dream yoga is a favorite and is routinely taught to beginners. Results will be unlikely or much less profound unless tummo forms the basis for attainment.

Ati Yoga

Maha Ati is also called Dzogchen, which means the Great Perfection or Great Completion.

The less said about Ati, the better until one practices it. It is a leap into enlightenment. It’s difficult, if not impossible for most people, even advanced practitioners. One of the features of Ati is effortlessness. It’s the path without effort. But that only works if the person can do it.

Ati is simply waking up to the most profound and genuine reality. Of course, it’s effortless because reality is already reality. You can’t change it or do anything to it or about it. All anyone can do is experience it. Effort creates an obscuration of mind, hence effort blocks reality. Any cognitive or emotional activity undetected in the mind will obscure reality through, for example, an undue focus on emptiness.

Ati has, by reputation, 6 million verses. There are many unusual practices and approaches. From the point of view of lower yanas, Ati can appear odd, bizarre, even a perversion of the dharma. (I’ve heard a longtime practitioner say this about a specific Ati stream).

Ati can broken down into 3 components. (though other divisions exist): Preparatory aspects (ngöndro), trekchö, and thögal.

The preparatory aspects are a type of ngöndro, but they differ from the lower ngöndros. One of the preparations is called korde rushen. The practitioner goes to a retreat place and reenacts the six realms. They go through the terrible fear and suffering of the hell realms, the wantingness of the hungry ghosts, the stupidity of the animals, the desire and emotional mixing of the human realm, the jealousy of the demi-gods, and the pride of the gods.

It’s important to penetrate these feelings as deeply as possible. Experience them without reservation. This helps to release the karma of them and prepares the mind for dealing with all the various situations that can be encountered in practice. Vast karma can be purified. Other ngöndros exist as well.

The principal practice of Ati is called Trekchö or cutting through. This practice simply cuts through any obscurations by using meditative techniques into the pure nature of awareness. Concentrating on the nature of awareness itself. Trekchö focuses on the pure and empty essence that underlies mind itself, the luminous emptiness beneath and infusing all experience. This is the essential character of all beings.

Cutting through to that and resting in it is the essential practice of Trekchö. The practice is not restricted to the cushion. In fact, meditation is said to mean when the mind experiences this reality and postmeditation is when it does not. One of the keys to trekchö, especially for beginners, is

Open up to the true nature, then don’t try to maintain it. Let it maintain itself. Don’t ‘try.’ Just let go of all else and see. Don’t judge it – did it work or not? Drop that. Drop all thought, but don’t block thought. Just open up completely and keep doing what you’re doing. The moment will subside. Then do it again. And again and again. No big deal. No one even needs to know because nothing changes. Don’t obsess, just remember – short moments repeated many times. Slowly and steadily, something in the mind will shift.

This is practicing with the Dharmakaya – the body of truth, or essence of direct reality.

A pith instruction for this practice is 3 Words that Strike the Vital Point.

• Determine the essential nature of mind directly
• Deciding on one point – deepening what is seen
• Gain confidence in liberation – knowing, by experience, that this is the one key to enlightenment

Thögal means spontaneous presence. The mandala of deities appears spontaneously and effortlessly with no attempt to visualize it. There are a series of steps and visions through which this unfolds. Various forms of meditation on colored lights and different postures function as supports for the meditation.

Natural phenomena that occur in deeper meditation as the seeming solidity of the world begins to dissolve. Objects do not represent as objects as such anymore. Other objects without physical substance take their place. The sense fields change and alter, manifesting in more profound ways. Experience is more direct without the filter of concepts.

The senses perceive illusory forms – the more subtle elements that make up our seemingly solid experience. Through meditating directly on these various sensory representations properly, rapid progress is possible. Karma

In essence, this is the appearance of the Sambhogakaya – the enjoyment body. When stabilized, it represents the final stage of enlightenment.

Summary

Tibetan Buddhist meditation comprises a vast field. This is merely the tiniest fraction. But I have tried to provide a faithful broad overview. Many more things could be said, so if it interests you, use this as a launch pad to a great adventure.

The path consists of the 3 yana journey (broken out into nine yanas). The not-self and longing for liberation of Hinayana. Selflessness of phenomena and compassion of the Mahayana. The sacred outlook and direct seeing of the Vajrayana.

May all beings be happy

May all beings be peaceful

May all beings be safe

May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature

May all beings be free