THE UPS AND DOWNS OF SECRET MANTRA
This week I was leading a workshop on Mindfulness and Heartfulness.
The participants all expressed how exhausted they were, how little time they have to practice and how easy it is to get off-centre in their busy worlds.
Then I was speaking with several dear friends of mine who all said how exhausted they were.
So I wanted to touch the heart of what is happening to many of us, using the example of exhaustion, and a possible way to deal with it through the principles of Secret Mantra.
I am not about to teach you Secret Mantra.
I am just a lazy shoeless monk, and the Dalai Lama who is my teacher, does a better job than almost anyone on our planet.
He has a series of books out called The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra which clearly guide you through the stages with photographs and exercises.
So what I wanted to share is how we might apply ourselves practically, no matter what our path is, using the sacred and ancient understanding of Secret Mantra.
“STICK WITH IT” SECRET MANTRA
No matter what your path is, be faithful to it, stick with it through the ups and downs, make “much effort”. It is said in the teachings that secret mantra can be achieved with much effort, well the same is true for any of our paths.
If you check the life story of Shakyamuni Buddha or Yeshua the Christ or any other great master like Tilopa, or Marpa, or Milarepa you will see the incredible stories of what they had to face. Milarepa had to build a tower three times. Each time after he built the tower he had to put the stones back exactly where they came from. Even when he faced great physical suffering, he had to “stick with it” following the instructions of his guru.
Our inner guru is like that. We all suffer exhaustion just by looking at our world and seeing what great suffering there is in every corner of our planet. We came from worlds of Light so are naturally very sensitive to the “dense atmosphere” of earth where there are so many asking for support and love. And we are here because we want to help. No matter how many souls we help there are 100 more where that person came from. And our inner guru says to keep helping, don’t stop, even with our dying breath. That is the path of true compassion.
SAMAYAS OF SECRET MANTRA
When you take initiation into secret mantra you have Vajrayana precepts, or pledges called samayas. No matter how difficult they are to observe, you have to keep the tantric samayas. You take care of them as if they have more value than your own life. That is the way you achieve secret mantra.
We all make deep internal vows like these to ourselves.
I observe a very simple one.
“From my Heart I go for refuge to the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Christ, Krishna, Divine Mother. I will release all sentient beings from pain, and set all in final bliss.To do that I will generate an altruistic intention to attain perfect enlightenment, and thereupon will train in the learnings of Bodhisattvas, Archangels and Elders.”
I say this every night and morning.
You could make your own. I would love you to share it so that I can listen deeply.
There are so many examples, from the Christian commandments to the Bodhisattva Vows to be inspired by.
Shingon Buddhism in Japan has four simple precepts in its esoteric lineage that you could apply to any path.
- Keep the True Dharma (the teachings of the True Self)
- Practice bodhicitta (enlightenment-mind of awakening, empathy and compassion)
- Be open with the Teachings towards others
- Do not cause any sentient being harm.
We all suffer exhaustion from the distractions of this physical world. That is a common Ascension symptom. When we truly keep our pledge to the True Self we activate the faith and will to deal with tiredness compassionately, by directing self-compassion and kindness to our own being when we need it, because we have been cultivating that practice constantly with others. We take time out to breathe “Breathing in I feel calm and at peace, Breathing out I feel calm and at peace” and we nurture ourselves, as one Japanese palm reader told me, for longevity take long baths or “Bathe, and feel calm at and at peace”
THE SECRECY OF SECRET MANTRA
It is said that the teachings of secret mantra can be achieved by keeping them secret.
This includes the Mantrayana deity yoga practices, the mantras of the deities, the symbolic implements, such as vajras, bells and rosaries, which signify the path of secret mantra.
Although these may be secret and precious to us, there are mantras we can use to great effect that are well known.
The meaning of mantra is to guard the mind (man = mind and tra = protection),
For example, the six syllable mantra OM MANI PADME HUM contains the whole path, the whole Dharma, where MANI is method and PADME is wisdom.
The whole path of enlightenment is about all the method and all the wisdom that help you enlighten, to be in the Light. To say this mantra one time with pure deep intention is to remember your whole path and the qualities of the Buddha or Christ within. It is the same with any prayer or mantra or sacred sound you become part of mindfully.
Just by reciting it mindfully and heartfully we invoke the power of the sacred sounds that are produced when our body speech mind and heart are in perfect unified harmony which is what yogis call samadhi.
With pure concentration the sound can bring about profound transformation.
We all know this from listening to sacred sounds or chants or hymns. Even when we are exhausted we can be revived just through the sheer power of intoning them.
DHARANI IN SECRET MANTRA
One of the most amazing things about the sacred, ancient paths is the amount of simple wisdom they contain which is so very practical and useful to us, whether we follow an Ascension Path, a Christian or Buddhist Teaching or any of the Great Paths available to us on this planet.
Thich Nhat Hanh talks about the power of “holding fast to” or dharani.
These are words or phrases that have great powers of insight and transformation like OM MANI PADME HUM (above) and Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi swāhā (below).
This has great importance for all of our paths.
The dharani re-connects us with great Beings, Buddhas, Christs, Krishnas and Divine Mothers where we receive their spiritual energy.
This week after three intense rehearsals I arrived home deeply exhausted and fell asleep. When I woke up I did yoga and Secret Mantra practice from the Kalachakra Tantra and instantly felt rejuvenated by connecting to the Five Dhyani Buddhas and Mothers and allowing their Light to enter me.
We never walk the spiritual path alone, we walk in the footsteps of our Light Family, our teachers and friends, of all those who have practiced before us.
The practice of the principles of Secret Mantra opens a door, a portal to Presence, that allows us to receive the energy of all those who are there to support us in our practice.
THE DEITY OF SECRET MANTRA
Generally, when we embark on any spiritual path we train our minds and hearts, in some practice of mindfulness and presence, to fully be open to the energies, the portal, available to us in the present moment.
I did my training in this through Thich Nhat Hanh and Jack Kornfield.
We find a qualified master or teacher. This can be a guru, an enlightened Being or our own True Self.
My own masters in this life are the Dalai Lama and Paramahansa Yogananda.
We request empowerment. This can be an empowerment or activation from your qualified master or teacher or through an activation of your own True Self.
Through the karma of past lives training I requested empowerment in Kriya Yoga through Krishna, Babaji, Christ, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda, and empowerment in Kalachakra Tantra through Avalokiteshvara/Guan Yin/Chenrezig and the Dalai Lama.
We enter the mandala of the lineage we choose and receive empowerment.
In action tantra for example there are three lineages, the tathagata, the lotus and the vajra. In general Manjushri is the protector of the tathagata lineage, Avalokiteshvara the protector of the lotus lineage and Vajrapani the protector of the vajra lineage.
The mandala means the pure realm of the deity.
In relation to Avalokiteshvara you visualize now as if you have already become that future Buddha. You visualize your own body in the aspect of the deity you want to achieve in the future. You transform yourself into the aspect of Avalokiteshvara which is what you will achieve in the future which also transforms the now.
So it is with Christ.
You become Christ-like.
You transform yourself into the aspect of Christ which is what you will achieve in the future which then becomes the now.
Avalokiteshvara and Christ become the doorway, the portal, that allow us to receive the energies of Avalokiteshvara and Christ.
That is why Yeshua said
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he/she will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture”
So when you are exhausted find the door.
And open it.
No matter what.
He will always be waiting.
THE BASIC PRACTICES OF SECRET MANTRA
The basic practices of the secret mantra are common to all our paths.
Lama Yeshe says it so succinctly.
Purify the body, purify the place, purify the enjoyments, purify the actions.
When we receive an initiation and meditate on the path of our deity, we understand that to completely purify our body means to visualize ourself in the holy body of the deity, to become the Christ and the Buddha.
When we purify the place we visualize it as the mandala or pure realm of the deity. We transform the place. The earth we walk upon becomes the pure realm or heaven or mandala of the Christ and the Buddha.
When we purify the enjoyments, such as our material possessions, we transform them into the form of offerings to give to our fellow Christs and Buddhas.
When we purify our actions, everything we do in our day and in our dreams becomes the actions of the Christ and the Buddha in this mandala of the earth.
THE WISDOM OF ONE SHARED HEART
All the great saints and sages, Masters, gurus and angels speak with the same One Heart.
Pray single-mindedly with faith and devotion to the enlightened form of the Christs, Buddhas, Krishnas and Divine Mothers within you.
Obtain the empowerment of immortality through the sacred breath you breathe.
Liberate from birth and death through mindful heartful practice, breathing, breathing, walking, walking.
Make enlightened connections in this world and all worlds through the Divine Romance and the Secret Mantra.
We will become endowed with the noble enlightened qualities of the Christs, Buddhas, Krishnas and Divine Mothers.
We will be led to the realm of the Pure Light of Being.
We will mingle indivisibly in the space, the Ocean of the Great Mother.
We carry this sacred flame of enlightenment, the miracle of the inner fire of bliss, within us.
Let it shine.
This is the mantra of the Heart Sutra, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Sutra of the Blessed Mother.
ག༌ཏེ༌ག༌ཏེ༌པཱ༌ར༌ག༌ཏེ༌པཱ༌ར༌སཾ༌ག༌ཏེ༌བོ༌དྷི༌སྭཱ༌ཧཱ།
Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi swāhā
Go beyond your self, go beyond what you know, go beyond the breath, empty yourself, bathe yourself in the miracle of the fire and bliss of Divine Love and the Secret Mantra and the Light within you.
Love and soul blessings
Altair and Mother