|
THE SNOW LION BUDDHIST NEWS & CATALOG
544 pp., cloth, TRKN84
$39.95, Snow Lion special $31.96
Order Now |
The Path of Dreaming—The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part Four Book Excerpt
by Sarah Harding
Lucid dreaming and other dream yogas are some of the broad range of esoteric practices described in The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part Four: Esoteric Instructions, A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayana by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, translated by Sarah Harding. This brief excerpt is taken from a larger section describing the Kagyu approach to these practices.
Dreams arise due to the particular ways that the energy currents and mind congregate in the channel locations. The essence of dream is that it is the arising of various appearances of habitual tendencies within the sleeping state.
The body in that dream may or may not separate from this gross body. In either case, it is essentially a body of energy-mind. Since it mimics the habitual tendencies of the present body it is also called the habitual body. That time of dreaming is double delusion, because the power of the habitual tendencies of this delusion, the current waking relative appearances, give rise to various appearances in the dream that do not exist even on a relative level. The instructions that enable one to take the dream state as the path are known as "dream instructions" (rmi lam gyi gdams pa).
|
The Practice
The esoteric instructions of recognizing, training, and combining
Ascertain appearance, including death, to be like that.
In the beginning, in order to take dreams as the path, one must embrace two vital points: unbroken mindfulness in the day and the rigorous techniques of esoteric instructions at night. There are four impediments to recognition: excessive emptiness, excessive sleepiness, excessive wakefulness, and excessive complacency. Once these are dispelled by remedial esoteric instructions, the dream is recognized to be just that, and that is dream recognition [or lucid dreaming]. Moreover, like the dream, all phenomena are essentially empty and as such can appear as anything at all. Thus the two truths are combined. The dream practice in the causal vehicle is to think, "How amazing-these reflected forms arise interdependently with no separation between the relative phenomenon (chos can, Skt. dharmin) and its nature (chos nyid, Skt. dharmata)." The dream practice in this context of the completion phase is when one can arouse dreams themselves as mahamudra illusory body deities.
|
Sarah Harding
|
In the middle, once dreams are recognized, one must train in emanating deities, transforming the four elements, and so forth. One refines the illusion by deliberately forcing the knowledge that it is not real, and attains mastery in the meditative absorption in which one trains in worldly and transcendent liberating actions.
In the end, one blends dreams and luminous clarity. Using the esoteric instruction for combining dreams with a meditation on suchness, the illusion-like daytime appearances blend with the dream appearances of the night, and then dreams will arise as illusory bodies. One must mix and integrate those illusory bodies in the luminous clarity [that arises during the meditative stabilities] of instant and subsequent dissipation. In particular, one applies the example of night dreaming to the actual appearances of the day to ascertain their unreality and then meditates on that. By that one ascertains that the death appearances are dreams. Meditating in that way obviates the difficult passage of the intermediate state. Just as in a sleeping dream it might appear that one has died and wandered in the intermediate state and again taken rebirth, and yet none of that was real, in the same way the death and intermediate state and rebirth of actual appearance occur but they are merely like that, without any true nature. Ascertaining that is the breakthrough.
* * *
More about the book . . .
Jamgon Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge in ten volumes is a unique encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were presented in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist teachers expected their students to study Buddhist philosophical texts as well as practice reflection and meditation; present-day students have also realized that awakening has its source in study as well as in reflection and practice.
This volume, Esoteric Instructions, A Detailed Presentation of the Process of Meditation in Vajrayana, deals with meditation, specifically tantric meditation. Esoteric Instructions is a collection of intimate records of personal teachings by masters, that simplify tantric meditations by providing pertinent examples and very personal and helpful hints to disciples based on the master's own experience. Although originally oral in nature, they have been codified and passed down through specific lineages from teacher to student.
"This comprehensive masterpiece...has brought immeasurable benefit to beings in the past and present and will continue to benefit far into the future. I am pleased it is translated by Sarah Harding, whom I respect as an eminent and experienced translator and senior student of the late Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche--one of the five emanations of Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye himself. I highly encourage anyone interested in the study and practice of Dharma to study this text, as it holds great blessings."--Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
* * *
More about the authors . . .
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé (1813-1900), a pivotal figure in eastern Tibet's nonsectarian movement, was one of the most outstanding writers and teachers of his time.
Sarah Harding has been a Tibetan Buddhist translator and practitioner since 1974. Her publications include Machik's Complete Explanation, Creation and Completion and The Life and Revelations of Pema Lingpa. She has served for over ten years as a faculty member at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Esoteric Instructions is translated as part of the Tsadra Foundation Series published by Snow Lion Publications.
Books by Sarah Harding
|
 |
