You the Contemplator and Contemplation
Why you are reading this text? Do you want to enter into the practices of the Dakini or develop the Dakini practice you are engaged in? Then I have bad news for you. You will fail. You will fail because there is no “you” who can perform any practice, particularly at this time when the human creature is busy destroying the world and producing practices for the blind, taught by the blind.
In the Diamond sutra Subuti asked Buddha, “ Are there, O Lord, any beings in the future, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last 500 years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, on hearing such dharmas, will truly believe?”
Buddha replied, “They, Subhuti, are neither beings nor no-beings. And why? 'Beings, beings', Subhuti, the Tathagata has taught that they are all no-beings. Therefore has he spoken of 'all beings'.
What precisely did Buddha mean by that? It is really quite simple really, but very difficult for most to accept except intellectually. You as an individual do not exist. Your existence is just an illusion. There are no individual human creatures. Being a “human being” is just an idea, words like all words that is dual in every way. Thus the idea of human being encompasses all human beings. When in practices you declare “ I do this or that for the benefit of all human creatures”, you undoubtedly think of a world full of individual living creatures. But the concept “living creature” is just one thing not many. “Living creature” is a whole concept and cannot be divided into parts.
If you take an orange and look at it you perceive a “whole orange”, is that not so. If someone cuts the orange into eleven parts what do you perceive? You perceive eleven parts of one orange. But eleven parts of an orange do not make an orange, because before there can be eleven parts there has to be an orange which has been cut up. Think about that and you will see that that is so. It is the same way with Buddhas vision. “living creature” must to be cut up into pieces before they can be recognized as individual. But they are really just artificial sectioning of the “one orange”.
Now cutting up the orange makes it easier to eat and cutting up “living creature” in parts makes the world easier to understand. And if we give each slice of the “living creature” a label, such as tree, bush, flower, insect, reptile, anthropoid, homo sapiens etc. that is very useful for communication and survival. In fact we go further and subdivide the “living creature” slices even further and call them Chinese, Tibetan, Indian, Indo Europian etc. then even further into nations, provinces, towns, and then right down to man, woman and child, until we get down to John, Mary, Peter and Paul.
Very useful as a tool certainly, but unfortunately we have forgotten that we are just names and forms generated by the mind from the “great orange”, the “living creature”. We actually like fools every second of the day believe that we exist as an individual separate from all other phenomenon. We transform by this folly the wonderful and useful ILLUSION into a debilitating DELUSION.
When we do that we arrogantly generate an “I” that is so egocentric that it cares little about anything except itself.
Every time that you declare, “for the benefit of all sentient creatures,” you are reinforcing this absurd idea that you and others exist as “real” beings that have a separate existence.
Buddha made sense when he declared, ““They, Subhuti, are neither beings nor no-beings. And why? 'Beings, beings', Subhuti, the Tathagata has taught that they are all no-beings. Therefore has he spoken of 'all beings'.”
This becomes even more important to understand when you realize that if there is no “human creature” that you do not exist, then it is impossible that you can really own anything even your own apparent life. It is impossible that you suffer, that you age and that you can die.
So begin the practices of the Dakini with the certainty that YOU do not exist, and since YOU do not exist YOU there is no one to be practicing at all. You cannot enter into the Dakini practice and you cannot develop the Dakini practice.
Where then do we go from there? You can accept the fact that this illusory YOU is involved in an apparent practice which has the label Dakini.”
Now why would this apparent YOU wish to enter into a Dakini practice? Is it to end your suffering? Is it to discover a better way of living in this world? Is it to discover Awakening? If your answer is now “YES”, then you have not understood, for There is no YOU to suffer, to discover a better world or to discover anything. What a terrible Pandora’s box we have opened. Then there is no Suffering, there is no Better World and there is no Awakening.
It is easy to see that since there is no identity there is no Suffering, for there is no-one to suffer, but can there not be a better world apart from the individual? No there cannot be. A better world can only exist if there is an idea of an “inferior world”. There really is no inferior world nor a superior world, nor even a world. These are just words. When in practices you speak of a “pure land, either internal or external then this is just an illusion created by the mind with words. Neither a pure land nor an impure land can exist.
You, the illusion will undoubtedly protest and declare “but Awakening must exist!”. I’m afraid not. Look what Buddha declared in the Diamond sutra.
“What do you think, Subhuti, is there any dharma by which the Tathagata has fully known the utmost, right and perfect Awakening?”
¬Subhuti replied, “ no indeed, O Lord, there is not any dharma by which the Tathagata has fully known the utmost, right and perfect Awakening.
Buddha continued, “so it is, Subhuti, so it is. Not even the least (anu) dharma is there found or got at. Therefore is it called 'utmost (anuttara), right and perfect Awakening'. ¬Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical (sama) is that dharma, and nothing is therein at variance (vishama). Therefore is it called 'utmost, right (samyak) and perfect (sam-) Awakening'. Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person, the utmost, right and perfect Awakening is fully known as the totality of all the wholesome dharmas. 'Wholesome dharmas, wholesome dharmas', Subhuti ¬yet as no-dharmas have they been taught by the Tathagata. Therefore are they called 'wholesome dharmas'.
Do you see the main points that Buddha is making:
1. There is nothing to be found.
2. It is called Perfect Awakening precisely because of that point.
3. There is no self involved
4. it is just one whole thing that neither exists nor does not exist
We may ask then what in blazes are we doing looking for this awakening. What use is it? Is it useful to set one free? Buddha once again provided the answer in this same sutra.
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to a Tathagata, 'by me have beings been set free'? Not thus should you see it, Subhuti! And why? There is not any being whom the Tathagata has set free. Again, if there had been any being whom the Tathagata had set free, then surely there would have been on the part of the Tathagata a seizing of a self, of a being, of a soul, of a person. 'Seizing of a self', as a no-seizing, Subhuti, has that been taught by the Tathagata. And yet the foolish common people have seized upon it. 'Foolish common people', Subhuti, as really no people have they been taught by the Tathagata. Therefore are they called 'foolish common people'.
It is clear enough, is it not. No-one can be set free. Then what are these practices all about? That is an important question which we will answer in the chapter three, but before we move on, let us begin by being very clear about one more thing.
There are no individual human creatures, no-one can be freed, there is no Pure land and so there are no Dakinis. No marvellous Vajrayoguini, no Buddhas of the Ten directions, no Guardians, no Tara, no Chenresig and no Vajrasattva. All that apparently exists are simply products of the mind.
How can we differentiate then between the generated ideas of individual existence and the existence of a Dakini?
Imagine that in the world there was “really in existence”, an ultimate truth consisting of two wheels with spokes, tyres, various bars of metal, two pedals, a seat and a set of gears and a chain, but that there was no relationship between them. Let us further suppose that we could capture precisely each of these separate elements in our mind, and then project upon our internal perceptual space screen each one in the form of a distinct neurological code for each one, believing that what was recorded upon our internal screen was actually what was in the world outside.
There would be a correspondence, would there not between what was perceived and what was “outside”. Now supposing that by a wonderful trick of imagination we put al the pieces together to form one unit and projected that upon our internal screen, which we then called a bicycle, would there be correspondence between the bicycle and the outside world? Clearly if no one copied our plan using what was on our screen and made a bicycle outside there would not be correspondence.
That does not mean that the bicycle was not perceived equally as the separate parts may have been, but without correspondence we would say that the bicycle was just an internal visual phenomenon. Clearly you could not ride the bicycle, but you could build one if you were really skilful and if you really could read well the image on your internal screen.
Now let us take a different situation. Supposing that there were no parts of that bicycle at all in the external world, but only raw material. One day you conceived of the idea of bicycle. Could you build one. Once more with skill and the ability to read the model you could do so. The question is where did that idea of bicycle come from, for in the first case all we had was the parts projected from outside and placed in memory? In the second case we had no parts. But we did have in memory all the concepts necessary to invent wheel, seat, metal bars, cogs, and all the other components necessary. We may not have been conscious of those necessary elements, but they were in our subconscious waiting to be used. So we could build a bicycle.
But now let us look at Vajrayoguini. There never was a Vajrayoguini in the external world to perceive and place in memory. But there were, between ten and fifteen thousand years ago natural balance and harmony within the “whole orange”. When the human words permitted concepts and ideas to generate the “self” and all other phenomenon as separate things then the essential components of that balance and harmony were pushed into an obscure and dark corner of the human consciousness and forgotten. But that memory was not lost.
Then the spiritual Siddhis in India using exclusively Indian methods of meditation which included visualizations began looking for the truth once more. Somewhere, somehow, someone or a group began to visualize various aspects of that ultimate and natural balance and harmony, which we call in Chan Dharma the LIFE FORCE. Naturally these aspects were personified in casi human form, but with divine aspects. But it is clear that these aspects were not and are not real, they simply represent as they are presented today as characteristics of that life force. Tara, for example, represents all correct human intentions, Vajrasattva all correct human actions and Avoloketeshvara all correct human attitudes. We can look at the Dakinis as representing human “homeostasis”, the way to regain the stability of the life force. They are all then today magnificent tools. But if these tools are transformed into a belief in legends, supernatural powers, mindless dogma, ceremony and ritual then they become a liability. Buddha warned against such folly. The solution then is to relly understand in depth the true method and significance of the practices without falling into the traps of clinging to the images, the beauty of the ceremonies, the mystery of a foreign language, the romance of robes and titles and more.
THE ONLY CORRECT FOCUS IS TO USE THE PRACTICES AS USEFUL ILLUSION NOT TO CONVERT THEM IN DELUSION.
Vajrayouguini does not really exist, neither does any Dakini or other imaginary figure generated from the mind. Buddha himself is just an illusion, a useful tool. That is why we declare in Chan, if you encounter a Buddha on the road, kill him and when it is cold with impunity and without ceremony burn a wooden Buddha.
Therefore if you encounter Tara, Avoloketeshvara or Vajrasattva on the path kill them. But first extract the essence of them first. If you meet Vajrayoguini, be even more careful, because if youtry to catch her with your Identity you will be in Mara’s camp. Kill her quickly and then listen to the essence which remains. If you don’t know how to kill a Dakini you will learn how to do so here. You will also learn how to recognise her, know her and listen to her in your daily life and in your meditations. Cling to her image or the ceremonies or the mantras and mudras and you will be in a quagmire that will suck you down more and more, while you imagine that you are floating on Vajra clouds at the door of awakening.
We present here the important words of Buddha in the Kalama Sutra 9-10
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'Come Kalamas.
Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing;
nor upon tradition;
nor upon rumor;
nor upon what is in a scripture;
nor upon surmise;
nor upon an axiom;
nor upon specious reasoning;
nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over;
nor upon another's seeming ability;
nor upon the consideration, "The monk is our teacher."
Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are bad; these things are blamable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill," abandon them.'
… Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them.
But beware a misunderstanding of these words “lead to benefit and happiness”, for you must remember that there is no YOU nor are there INDIVIDUALS. Buddha then speaks of the benefit and natural happiness of the whole orange. That benefit and natural happiness is only achieved with an internal balance and harmony that correlates perfectly with the life force.