Thoughts on tantra for a beginner

Sept. 18, 2010

Many non-Buddhists and beginner Buddhists consider attending tantric empowerments. Here are a few brief thoughts that I sent to a colleague regarding how secret tantra and wrathful practices fit into the path. I specifically make reference to the practice of Chod, or 'Cutting off the Self.'
http://www.bodhicitta.net/Chod.htm

Tantra traditionally requires extensive foundational practices such as refuge, ethics, purification etc. Its effectiveness also relies on some experience of Bodhicitta and emptiness (some say at least a good intellectual understanding). It is seen by many as a completion practice, not an introductory one. Historically, entrance into tantra would be determined in conjunction with a qualified teacher. Nowadays, there is a lot of tantra...everywhere you go you can get empowerments, grab books off the shelf...even before doing any other training...and it is hardly secret. We could see this as a degeneration of the system, or a necessary adaptation. His Holiness the Dalai Lama sometimes says that exposure to things like tantric chanting and ritual plants seeds on people's minds, at this point where we are not really qualified to enter into tantra, following the karmic logic that the seeds will ripen in the future and make it easier for us to enter tantra (which some texts say is required to achieve full enlightenment) in the future when we are ready. This is how Kundun justifies tantric monk tours and His own conferring of so many initiations, especially Sri Kalachakra. One also definitely makes a karmic connection with the tantric Guru. One needs to consider carefully if one wants this connection because it has implications for future lives.

There are different ways to approach it. Often tantric masters require students to have taken refuge, have bodhisattva vows (both of which can be done in advance and is often repeated during the ceremony proceedings), and require the taking of tantric vows and a commitment to do a daily practice, before allowing them to receive an empowerment. This is if one is taking the initiation fully. One can also receive empowerments as a blessing, and the requirements of the student are reduced. Lastly, one can sometimes just merely witness the ceremony. This could be out of a sense of curiosity or even, by extension, as an ethnographer. In these latter 2 approaches, a Buddhist might see such an act in the way that Kundun mentions...from the exposure, there is the planting karmic seeds on the mindstream for future ripening under the right causes and conditions.

Chod is a wrathful practice. I mention it because it can be quite shocking and even seem barbaric at the surface. One is offering the parts of one's corpse to different categories of beings in the cosmos...especially those most in need. I personally think the practice is profoundly powerful...it reduces attachment to the 'self' and body which can lead to realizations now and in the future, and prepare us for death most effectively. I have great reverence for Padampa Sangye (the Mahasiddha who brought the tradition to Tibet from India) and Machig Lhadron, his chief Yogini disciple. Fortunately, the best teachers will give great context to the practice so that people approach it in awareness and knowing the purpose of this novel and seemingly violent technique.

A book i found really helpful to clarify how to approach tantra in this age is a book on the Kalachakra by Alexander Berzin. I think you can read it all here:
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/published_books/kalachakra_initiation/pt1/kalachakra_initiation_02.html