These two teachings of Padmasambhava, The Fivefold Essential Instruction and A Section of Hidden Instruction, the Innermost Essence oft he Dakini
These two teachings of Padmasambhava, The Fivefold Essential Instruction and A Section of Hidden Instruction, the Innermost Essence ofthe Dakini, arc certainly of interest to the serious practitioner of the Vajrayana. They not only present well-known tantric teachings of channels (#a), energy (lung), and potencies (tigle) in a clear and practical way, but they also offer us a unique Dzogchen perspective on them. In addition, they give us a glimpse into life on retreat with two of the greatest masters of Tibetan Buddhism, Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal.
But these teachings also offer something to many other people who seek answers to the difficult problems of our time. These teachings attract us with the clarity of their vision and the practicality of their application. They speak to us as human beings who want to know how to master the often-overwhelming energies of life. I certainly found them personally instructive, both as a practitioner of the Vajrayana and of traditional Chinese medicine. In this introduction I will suggest how they may offer us answers to three basic questions:
i. What is a holistic world-view?
2. What is human energy (qi /prana/lung) and how do we master it?
3. What is the place of sexuality in the mastery of human energy for healing and enlightenment?
What Is a Holistic World-View?
The environmental challenges of our time demand a holistic view of nature and life. In terms of our texts, “holistic” means a view of life that includes all of its levels: external, physical reality; internal, psychic reality; and increasingly more subtle, esoteric levels. “Holistic” also means an understanding of how these levels function together in a practical way accessible to the practitioner. We live in an impressive and complicated technological civilization. Our abilities to understand and alter the natural world, including ourselves, are both wondrous and scary. Neither subatomic particles nor the global ecosystem are beyond our grasp. But given all this impressive scientific knowledge, what understanding of nature do I have that I can directly apply in my life? Or some may ask: how do I live a more natural life?
Whether we consciously reflect on it or not, we are applying a view of nature when we go to a doctor or adopt the latest dietary recommendations. But those are still rather passive applications of the scientific view of nature. Perhaps if we are active in following a regimen of treatment prescribed by our doctor, we might get an inkling of what it is to apply a view of nature to our life. Most of us are not scientists, even though we may appreciate the scientific view of nature and what it can understand about life. Most of us, however, do want a view of life that is more, well, lively, than what we can glean from the latest scientific information. We have myriad questions, some just passing thoughts, others more sus* tained inquiries, about the natural things we do every day: What and how much should I eat and drink? How can I improve my sleep and how much should I sleep? What can I do about my lack of energy in the afternoon? How much and what kind of exercise do I need? How does prayer aid healing? What effect is anger having on my whole system? What about this feng shui business? and so forth. Usually a more lively view is something that involves a search for something holistic.
What is holistic? Holism comes from a worldview, which in traditional wisdom teachings consists of metaphysics, cosmology, and psychology. These create an invisible landscape in which the practitioner lives. Metaphysics defines what reality is and thus what is really true and valuable, and the true and the valuable define what our purpose in life ought to be. Based on this metaphysics, cosmology tells us how the world comes to be as it is and its general features. Based on this cosmology, psychology explains what/who the human being is and what practices of healing/integration we need to perform to realign ourselves with the cosmos.
The metaphysics of these texts is nonduality. This means that the energies that drive us astray into attachment, aversion, and delusion still remain the expression of primordial wisdom in operation. The cosmology is that the elemental forces that make up our physical body and world are part of the magical apparition of samsara. The elements still remain, however, the expression of primordial forces that have never been split into matter and mind. They are the magical apparition of innumerable buddha-fields that pervade our body like light. (For an introduction to Buddhist cosmology, see appendix 1.) The psychology consists of special methods for the realization of our body as a buddha-field in this very life, without renouncing the physical world. All this is found here in a usable form for the initiate, but these teachings also show all of us that a practical, integrated view of reality is still possible in our fragmented, postmodern age.
What Is Human Energy (qi/motility/liwg)?
How do we master our energy for healing and enlightenment? How do we find a middle way between ascetic denial and destructive excess?
These texts reveal to us that what energy is depends on the level of development of an individual. Initially energy is something belonging to the body that we “have.” As one progresses, one goes beyond this possessive view of the body. One realizes that energy and mind are not separate. Sensing, feeling, and knowing are energetic phenomena. At bottom, energy is intelligent.
In the modern context, C. G. Jung has pointed the way to experiencing this understanding of energy:
Archetypes are, at the same time, both images and emotions. One can speak of an archetype only when these two aspects are simultaneous.
When there is merely the image, then there is simply a word picture of little consequence. But by being charged with emotion, the image gains numinosity (or psychic energy); it becomes dynamic, and consequences of some kind must flow from it.1
In the practice of tantric yoga, focused sensing can guide and control biological energy; archetypal visualization can channel emotional energy; and pure presence can unify energy and mind into a knowing beyond intellect.
We can all train our energy to be more intelligent and our mind to be more grounded in energy. This is the key, even if we are not masters of Vajrayana on extended retreat, to finding a balance between ascetic denial and destructive excess. This is the way to truly enjoy life without compulsive inhibition or attachment.
What Is the Place of Sexuality in the Mastery of Human Energy for Healing and Enlightenment?
Sexuality is human energy par excellence. It is a special opportunity for enlightenment. It is when we are naturally, most effortlessly, fully embodied. It epitomizes a natural oscillation of human energy between earth and heaven, of ascent and descent, between the base of the trunk of the body and the crown of the head. This bio-energetic oscillation is basic to all life, to all our experiences, whether they are sense perceptions, emotions, thinking, or sex. These texts teach us that the key to both relative and ultimate happiness is a kind of relaxed tension, what one contemporary psychological researcher calls “calm energy.”2
If there is too much tension, the polarity producing energy breaks prematurely. If there is not enough, energy cannot develop. In sexuality there is the dance between separation and union, fire and water. Separation and difference make for excitement, but too much of it makes for sex without love, power dramas of dominance and submission, and the fire of passion without the wisdom of appreciating one’s partner. On the other hand, lack of separation leads to loss of excitement, lack of energy, and the missed opportunity to experience union at higher and deeper levels? Experiencing the energizing flow of separation and union enables us to find a balance between ascetic denial and destructive excess, to truly enjoy life without compulsive inhibition or attachment.
As our texts make clear, the same flow can be realized with or without a sexual partner. Sexual practice is only a special method. As The Fivefold Essential Instruction says:
At the time of intercourse, passionate attachment and the concepts associated with it arise: this is experienced as the creative energy of pristine awareness. If one does not know this, it is just attachment.
Our texts also help us to understand the place of technique in sexual practices. There will always be interest in esoteric or secret techniques, but technique must take us beyond the realm of manipulation and control. As we said above, initially energy is something belonging to the body that we have. Such energy can seemingly be controlled and manipulated, but if we really wish to find buddhahood in this very body, we must go beyond such control, manipulation, and possession.
Padmasambhava directly discusses this transcendence of technique when he discusses methods of drawing sexual energy upward: One returns the active aspect of the energy thus retained upward and scatters it through the eyes. Some claim that the energy is returned upward through the contributory condition of a means of concentration such as the pupils. This is not so. The unique controlling point is the utilization of the active aspect of energy and mind together; doing this one stores the active energy within. At the time of retaining the active energy, relax the mind in a state beyond concepts. In this way holding and scattering can happen at the same time. This is very profound.
The key point is to “relax the mind in a state beyond concepts.” This is not a technique; it is the understanding of Dzogchen. The profoundest view is the best technique. That is the teaching of Dzogchen, in which view, practice, and result are one. (For a discussion of the application of the Dzogchen view to yogic practice, see chapter 5.)
great outer and inner crisis. In any case, the secrets are already out there in the marketplace. But just because the secrets are out does not mean they can be applied indiscriminately. We should not disregard the importance of view in regard to these teachings. As Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey has said in regard to tantric teachings:
If one is deficient in these three aspects, renunciation [of samsara], bodhicitta [commitment to enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings], and realistic view [[[emptiness]]], which are found in Buddhist tantra, and [if one] engages, for example, in the vaselike meditation on the retention of breath, it has no more significance than the bellows used for a fire; and even if one is engaging in a very elaborate practice of the stage of generation, it has no more significance than walking around a temple and looking at all the pictures.4
View helps ensure that one’s motivation is healthy in approaching esoteric or secret subjects. The Dzogchen view of the world found in our texts is nonduality. It is summed up beautifully in A Section of Hidden Instruction, the Innermost Essence of the Dakini, which describes the phenomena of our world as follows:
These are not bom or manufactured. Although they arise from the motivating cause of going astray due to a lack of pure presence, they remain the functioning of spontaneously self-originating pristine awareness. The Historical Origin of the Texts
These texts are found in the fourteenth-century collection of Upadesha teachings compiled by Longchenpa (1308-1363), the Four Collections of Innermost Essence (Nyingtig Yajhi). They are attributed to Padmasambhava, probably coming to Longchenpa through the “treasures” (terma) of Padma Lendreltsel (end of the thirteenth century). The Khadro Nyingtig itself tells the story of the origin of these teachings? The story concerns the great king Tri Songdetsen’s daughter, who apparendy died at the age of eight and was brought back to life by Padmasambhava. After she revives, the guru teaches her the Khadro Nyingtig and she is eventually reborn as Padma Lendrelstsel.
To try and date these teachings raises all the issues that surround separating fact from later embellishment in the life of Padmasambhava. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, a wealth of treasures were brought forth that were said to have been concealed throughout Tibet, and these treasures established Padmasambhava as a kind of patron saint of Tibet. In this literature, Padmasambhava is a central figure who brought Buddhism to Tibet during its imperial age, especially the founding of Samye Monastery in about 779 c.e. The narrative states that the Indian sage Shantarakshita was invited first, but after he encountered resistance, Padmasambhava was invited to dispel the negative forces that opposed the establishment of Buddhism as the national religion. One must remember that Tibet was a great power in central Asia at this time, having even occupied the capital of the Tang dynasty in 763 C.E. The struggle to bring in a new religion must have been considerable, and thus it has become the source of many chronicles and legends.
Some of the oldest information about Padmasambhava is found in one of the earliest chronicles of Tibetan history, the Testament ofBa, of which R. A. Stein says, expressing the scholarly consensus:
It is a relatively ancient, novelized narrative of the eighth century. It has been obviously manipulated, but contains historical elements verified by independent and ancient sources/ Based on the Testament of Ba and other early sources, such as the tenth-century Dunhuang documents, Matthew Kapstein gives a fair conjecture about the historical Padmasambhava:
Padmasambhava was a charismatic tantric master with a following in Nepal and a growing group of disciples in southern Tibet,... in the early legends of Padmasambhava we may perhaps discern the recollection of a popular eighth-century guru who met with a king, rather like those among contemporary Buddhist teachers who have attracted large followings and on one occasion or other have met with leading political figures. From this perspective it becomes possible to imagine that the several lineages of lay tantric practitioners that during the late tenth and early eleventh centuries traced their antecedents back to Padmasambhava
. . . would have laid great stress upon the royal meeting, whatever the facts of the matter may have been.7 Whatever the historical origins of these texts may have been, this does not detract from their vision and power. To think that historical analysis diminishes the authenticity of traditional teachings is to commit the “fallacy of origins,” the belief that the origin of a cultural phenomenon forever limits its meaning and importance.
