bodhichitta

Vijayamala addresses the 2022 UK & IE Triratna Buddhist Order convention, exploring what breaking through and seeing the nature of reality means for us as an Order. The Buddha went forth to seek an end to suffering, to go beyond what binds us to the samsaric world. The theme of this event also encompasses ‘going beyond’ and the ways in which we are approaching that as an Order.

Part of the series Going Forth, Going Beyond: 2022 UK & Ireland Order Convention, 2022.

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Our FBA Podcast, this week is from the delightfully inspirational Parami titled “The Awakening Heart.”

This is the first talk in the series of the same name. It touches on aspects of Sangharakshita’s ‘system of meditation’, and most specifically the area of positive emotion. Parami is an ideal guide for this sort of material, steeped as she is in study and practice engaged with in the light of the ‘Bodhichitta’, and the Bodhisattva Ideal itself.

Parami is the International Women’s Order Convener for the Triratna Buddhist Order.

Although on the public level bodhichitta is usually described as the altruistic intention to reach enlightenment in order to bring all other beings there too, the real meaning of bodhichitta is far more profound. Learn about prana, rlung, Cheresig, Tara, Mani (Norbu), Christ, and much more.

This book is recommended in the lecture: Bodhicharyavatara (The Bodhisattva's Way of Life) by Shantideva.

"Ah, Lord God, my holy Lover, when You come into my heart, all that is within me will rejoice. You are my glory and the exultation of my heart. You are my hope and refuge in the day of my tribulation. But because my love is as yet weak and my virtue imperfect, I must be strengthened and comforted by You. Visit me often, therefore, and teach me Your holy discipline. Free me from evil passions and cleanse my heart of all disorderly affection so that, healed and purified within, I may be fit to love, strong to suffer, and firm to persevere. [...]Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle." - Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

"Bliss rises when the Vital Heat is fanned, When air from the nadis flows in the central channel, When Bodhichitta flows from above, When it is purified below, When red and white meet in the middle, And the joy of a leakless body satiates one, These are the Six Blissful Experiences of Yoga." - Milarepa

This is a lecture from the free online course Fuel for Spiritual Experience: Meditation and Energy

Course Description:

Spiritual experiences are not difficult to have if you know the laws of nature that manage them. Learn the exact science of spiritual practice that leads to the awakening of the consciousness, by means of harnessing the most powerful energies in the universe.

Within us are the energies that can empower the realization of our full potential, through which we can become completely developed beings. Learn about the steps of meditation, vital energy, ojas, sexual transmutation, pranayama, kundalini, and much more. With these tools, we can reach complete liberation from suffering, and thereby be of great service to others.

Lecture by Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi, Buddhist Chaplain, MIT, on the 9th of May 2010 at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston.

A profound, advanced lecture about the heights of the path to heaven and the development of objective reasoning within the superior realms of the Bodhisattva. Pertains to the Initiatic process of Resurrection, the complete psychological death of the ego and perfection within the world of Yetzirah. Also moves into the process of Ascension through the Kabbalistic worlds of Briah and Atziluth, whereby the Resurrected Master enters more elevated realms of consciousness until attaining complete and absolute liberation.

Lecture quote:

"When we read about the ascension of Jesus in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1: 9-11 regarding how He went to heaven, we read in Greek “Ouranon Poreuomenon” - Ouranon or Uranus meaning heaven and Poreuomenon which means a psychological initiatic development that the Initiate has undertaken. This means that the Bodhisattva - through initiation - went to a place where no believer can go; the Bodhisattva went to those spheres that in Kabbalah are named Sephiroth within the world of Yetzirah, that are hidden from the eyes of the flesh or to that which is earthly, tridimensional."

Read the lecture transcription.

Anastasis, or the process of Resurrection within the Initiate. The two types of Resurrection: with the physical body or the Body of Liberation, as well as the Ordeal of Job. Lecture relates to Binah, the Holy Spirit.

Lecture quote:

"There are many people who think that because they believe in the Bible or because they belong to a certain religion, especially one of the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity), that they will resurrect. They disregard what Jesus said: "God is not a God of the dead, but the God of the living."

Read the lecture transcription.

Prajna is the transcendent wisdom of the emptiness, the Absolute or Void, which the Bohisattva enters through the previous Paramitas. The fulfillment and expression of Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Action and Meditation, the direct experiential knowledge by which the spiritual aspirant can overcome and understand suffering. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Chesed, the world of Prajna or inner wisdom.

Lecture quote:

"By Prajna we do not mean the simple insight or simple wisdom that our intellect generally conceives, or attributes to that term "wisdom." We think of wisdom as something that an old person gathers or has, a wise old person, having gained wisdom through experience. This is not the kind of wisdom that we are describing. This kind of wisdom has nothing to do with age, it has nothing to do with time. It cannot be acquired; it cannot, because it exists already. We are starting to enter into something very profound. In order to understand Prajna, we have to move beyond the realm of the intellect."

Read the lecture transcription.

The descension and development of the Pneuma (Spirit) in relation to the Bodhisattva. The process of crucifixion within any Initiate upon the Mount of the Skull; the work of the dissolution of the ego in the Second Mountain. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Chesed, the Inner Spirit.

Lecture quote:

"The path of the cross is the path of the bodhisattva. This is why we stated that we are not the first ones to teach this, just as Jesus was not the first one who took the cross and was crucified on the mount of the skulls. There were many initiates who did it before, because this is an alchemical process in which you have to work with the spirit of God."

Read the lecture transcription.

Dhyana, or meditation, as the fulfillment and unfoldment of the previous Paramitas. The importance, practice and science of meditation, the methodology by which the aspirant may comprehend their own suffering. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Geburah, or the Divine Consciousness.

Lecture quote:

"When we talk about meditation, we are talking about the cultivation of a particular kind of conscious attitude. The word meditation is really misused in the West. When the teachings from Asia began to arrive into Western world, the people who were involved with translating that knowledge and bringing that knowledge to the Western mind used this word 'meditation' in place of a whole variety of words from Tibetan on Sanskrit. So, because of that, Western students who have adopted concepts of Yoga or Buddhism or Hinduism have in their mind "meditation" in a very imprecise way. There is not a clear understanding among Westerners, even Gnostics, that we need to analyze the actual terminology and experience it. We have to arrive at our own experience of the differences between all the terms states of consciousness because our very development is dependant on it; our own liberation depends upon us understanding our own consciousness."

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The psychological relationship of the Bodhichitta through the union of Buddhi, the Divine Consciousness, with Tiphereth, the Human Soul. Also explicates the nature of Objective Reasoning in relation to one's level of spiritual development. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Geburah.

Lecture quote:

"In essence, the symbiosis of the Bodhisattva is the psychological relationship of the Bodhichitta and the Bodhisattva through Buddhi (Wisdom), which is related with the Sephirah Geburah, by means of Nemesis, Karma. Within the initiate of the straight path, Sophia (wisdom) is the concrete outcome of a symbiosis, that is, the psychological initiatic relationship between the Bodhisattva and the Bodhichitta, a mixture of the light of Chokmah (Wisdom – Christ), with the darkness or sapience of sin. This symbiosis is shown in “Ecce Homo” (the Bodhisattva, the Superior Manas) with Objective Reasoning, which emerges on the sixth day of Genesis."

Read the lecture transcription.

How the aspirant must utilize the virtue of Heroic Action (diligence) and confidence in order to overcome the obstacles of laziness and defeatism. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Tiphereth, the world of willpower.

Lecture quote:

"When the ego is taken out of the way, a joyful quality erupts into view, it emerges, because that is the nature of our free, unconditioned consciousness. When you see a sour practitioner, or a meditator who has a very bitter flavor about their practice, then they are not accessing Samadhi. Someone who is really cultivating the science of developing Samadhi is a joyful person, a very happy person, a peaceful person, because those are the qualities of the real, free consciousness. In that way, you can understand that the more you develop your connection with the consciousness through the repeated moment to moment effort to be aware of yourself, to be conscious, the more that natural joyfulness will arise, the more natural, spontaneous serenity becomes present for you. And in that context, the work to liberate yourself no longer is a matter of defeatism, it is no longer a matter of "Oh, it is going to take forever," or "Oh, I am not at my goal yet. I still do not have my astral body." Those attitudes fall away. It no longer is the point, because the joyfulness of the Buddha nature has emerged."

Read the lecture transcription.

How Christ manifests in front of the Bodhisattva and guides him: how God guides the human being. The revelation of Theos (God) or Khrestos (Christ) upon the Mountain of Initiation and throughout the esoteric path. Lecture relates to the Sephirah Tiphereth, the world of the prophets.

Lecture quote:

"Do you want to talk with your Being? Do you want to know who your Being is, or the name of your own Spirit? Listen: you can receive that in your own Mount of the Olives. In the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Sinai, is how you see God face to face."

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The Paramita of Patience or Endurance, how through Generosity and Ethics the student initiates spiritual practice, yet through the virtue of patience how one endures the resistance and difficulties that arrive within any spiritual endeavor. Relates to Netzach or how we deal with the mind.

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The entrance of Jesus into the Holy City, symbolic of dominating the lunar mind and achieving union of the Solar Christified Mental Body with the Spirit. Lecture refers specifically to the Sephirah Netzach.

Lecture quote:

"... the Bodhisattva, instead of identifying himself/herself with those two minds (Pharisees and Sadducees, believers and skeptics), what he does is to utilize his mind, he controls his mind, he works his Bodhichitta. This is why Jesus rides the animal when going to enter into Jerusalem, into the world of the mind, which is the world of Buddha, because in order to be enlightened you have to control completely your mind..."

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The Paramita of Ethics or Discipline, the necessary psychological parameters by which to produce any profound spiritual change.

Lecture quote:

"The discipline to come out of the cage cannot be imposed upon us by an external source. No person can come to us and say, "Follow all these rules and you will be free." It doesn't work like that. If someone comes to us and says, "The teachings say you must renounce anger, so never be angry." And so then we take this attitude, a discipline upon ourselves, "I will not be angry," so we begin to resist anger. What will happen? What will happen is that we will modify our external behavior, we will act sweet, we will act patient, we will behave as if anger has been vanished, and we may even convince ourselves of it. But at a certain moment, circumstances and Karma will conspire against us, something will happen to make us angry, and then we will explode. This is because the more we reject something, the more we push away, the more we resist it, the less is our understanding."

Read the lecture transcription.