Tantra,
Buddhist Psychology
and
The Prince of Darkness
Question:
My friend did a Yamantaka
sadhana up on his farm and now he's being choked out by a dark spirit
regularly. I feel like it was irresponsible of the rinpoche to give
such a high tantric sadhana to him so early on and without support.
But maybe he's meant to go through this, who knows...
Kim:
All buddha dharma is based on the teaching of emptiness. You are
empty, I am empty, horrible monsterous dark spirits are empty.
Emptiness means that the self is not permanent, that there is no such
constant entity in me, in you or within the devil. If there is, it is
just a convincing mirage. In the desert people die after chasing
mirages. That's how convincing images and thoughts are. We are son of
a rich man, wandering around among the poor, as Hakuin put it.
Because of self stored in thoughts, we are confused.
Buddhist
view of emptiness, which is the ground without ground, puts a
very different spin on harmful entities, compared to religions of
dualistic view and exorcism. If there is no one here, and this is
known through first hand experience, who is there to fight,
who is there getting harmed, who is there doing the harming? If one
has no taste, no experience of emptiness/selflessness, then one is
likely to think in terms of self and other, and consequentially gets
into conflict and confusion. But it need not be that way.
If
one has a problem, like your friend, that she or he thinks she is
being attacked by a dark spirit, one first needs to remind what the
mahayana buddhist doctrine is and not get confused about duality. The
things is that there is no stronger protection or medicine than
emptiness which is both nondual and non-unitary. But if you think
that ”emptiness protects me”, then it again becomes topsy turvy.
In emptiness there is life in the form of beings who share the common
ground of empty awareness. Empty means being without self, without
me, without colour, without shape, without story, without excuse,
without fear, without being screwed. That is where all beings;
whether they are good, bad or liberated, meet, whether they know it
or not. In one way or the other, all buddhists seek to know
themselves as this basic awareness. So when discussing about
protection, it's not like we would surround ourselves with
some substance called emptiness so that the esoteric mafia couldn't
get to us. No. When we know ourselves as empty awareness, there is no
need for protection, for how could anyone fight or abuse space? You
can't make space scared, either. This is the beauty of buddhist
doctrine.
Regarding
your friend's problem. Adopting a different view would be helpful.
It'd be helpful if, what is first seen as a malefic entity, instead,
would be viewed as a traumatic energy or self of one's own mind. I
mean seeing the spirit to be part of one's own mind rather than
something external. How did she or he come to think it's a dark
spirit, in the first place? If a nasty presence or choking is felt,
it can be seen as a manifestation of stress, rather than being
attacked by an external being. This gives it a very different spin.
From there, apply common vipashyana instructions.
You
know, people can actually have such strong entities, emotional
selves, that cause very strong sensations like the one you mention.
The thing is that we may have very strong trauma or karma stored in
our subconscious mind. You can think of all the worst actions
committed by humans (that are abound!) and safely make the assumption
that you, me and everyone else has done it in some life, at some
stage in the past. What if you experience dark presence and getting
choked because you might have choked someone to death in the past? I
am merely suggesting that what if that is what is happening? What if
this has nothing to do with anyone else except you and your own
karma? Of course, understandably, it is difficult because of reactive
fear and anxiety. We get scared of things unknown. The main point is
that when we clarify our own stand (of emptiness), there isn't
anything for the demons, devils and Princes of Darkness to dig their
fangs on.
Samsaric
mind is tricky and complex but the principle is simple. Students of
vajrayana need to study and understand both sutra and tantra,
not only tantra. Without sutra studies, one doesn't necessarily
comprehend the psychological aspect of dharma, which is what I am
suggesting here.
I
do not know who the concerned rinpoche is or whether he gave the
practice based on clairvoyance (therefore the practice being suitable
despite of difficulties) but one thing that apparently is missing is
opportunity for one-on-one with the lama. This is common problem and
a lot of people complain about that. It's a valid complaint.
-Kim
Katami, 29.6.2019
Open
Heart Sangha,
