Tantric
Yoga: Safe or Dangerous?
Question:
Do you think tantra is “safe” for mass practice? I would imagine
it could induce states of mania or psychosis and confuse many.
The
clinical definition of mania is not sleeping for seven days
(hypomania is four days), experiencing heightened energy that is
often directed toward a multitude of tasks that are not finished,
having rapid speech that cannot be interrupted, having flight of
ideas of rapidly evolving tangential thoughts, sometimes
self-grandiosity, and usually accompanied by a feeling of euphoria.
Mania is part of the bipolar spectrum disorders but can be drug
induced or accompany psychotic episodes.
I
would define safe parameters for the masses as that which requires
the least experience in order to practice without risking undue harm
or confusion. My sense is that concentration meditation or shamatha
is relatively safe with few “side effects” whereas tantric
technology can offer immense progress but may not be suitable for
everyone to manage “safely.” What are your thoughts and
experiences regarding this?
Kim:
Thank you for asking. It is a very good and interesting question,
since tantra is quite often described as a ”dangerous” path.
First, we have to hit a few reset
buttons, to get the basic view of samsara
and the purpose of practice right.
Dharma
and its various teachings are paths to liberation or enlightenment.
Liberation of what? Self-delusion, duality and confusion. Teachings
of dharma, through ethical guidelines and yogic practices, help us to
get out from confusion. They do not take us into
confusion or increase it, unless there is something very wrong with
the teaching or practice. Since buddhism is very clear with what is
correct and incorrect this is not really a problem in buddhism,
despite of its great variety. So, by definition, practice does not
increase confusion, pain or misery because when correctly applied it
doesn't increase our self-based habits and patterns but decreases
them. This means that through steady practice, one's mind becomes
more and more liberated, or in common terms, less attached, less
selfish, more alive and more spacious, that is, natural and
sane. Terms such as basic sanity
and basic goodness are often used as synonyms for our innate
buddhanature.
The
Process and Dark Nights
Fortunately,
it is becoming better known that all paths include rough patches, or
the so-called dark nights. We can define dark nights as
periods of emotional or depressive hardship. In the world of
meditation, buddhist or otherwise, dark nights are too little
discussed about. Meditation practices are sold to people with
peacefulness and happiness,
without explaining that serenity and increased mental freedom doesn't
come without hardship. There
should be a warning sign on the first page of every dharma book
available.
 |
| From the first page of Garchen Rinpoche's Vajrakilaya-training manual |
Carl
Jung, one of the historical key figures of Western psychology, hit
the nail on the head by saying,
”One
does not become enlightened
by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness
conscious.”
Jung
wasn't buddhist but it is evident that he understood the basic
mechanism of human liberation well.
So,
the main idea of buddhist meditation is to seek and look into
all and any dark corner of one's bodymind where the light of
awareness doesn't yet shine. It is in these dark corners where the
fuel for successful practice is hiding. However, if one
doesn't have a basic understanding what it is that buddhist practice
sets out to do, there is a chance of becoming more confused and
overwhelmed. When learning how to drive a car, we first have to have
a solid theoretical understanding about what driving is and how a
car works. Without it, it is not intelligent to jump behind the wheel
and hit the gas. Anyone with common sense can understand that that's
potentially harmful and dangerous, and yet this is exactly what
happens in the world of meditation.
It
is known that unexpectedly challenging silent meditation training can
trigger strong anxiety and outbursts of psychosis in people who
are perfectly healthy and stable. People end up sinking down into
the mud of their minds but are not told that this could happen and
are offered no means for digging themselves out. Commonly, when such
difficulties arise, students are simply told to continue the practice
without teachers' explaining (or understanding) what is happening to
them. In a sense this is correct but this is also highly insufficient
on behalf of teachers. Consequentially, some people end up becoming
mentally ill, instead of psychologically and spiritually illuminated.
Such accounts are many.
To
prevent beginners from getting into trouble, many (not all) teachers
have a policy of not accepting beginners for long and intensive
retreats. This is because one is required to have some familiarity
with practice, some sparring experience, if you will, to do
many hours of daily sitting. In Open Heart, we have a rule that if
people with mental illness wish to join teachings they are required
to give a detailed outline of their condition, medication and ongoing
treatments beforehand. As the head teacher, I also want to have some
sense of newcomers; their life situation, prior practice and social
relationships, before accepting them for retreats. Open Heart-retreats are very versatile and contain recitation, musical singing, various physical exercises such as walking and dancing meditations indoors and outdoors on top of sitting meditation. At our retreats, people are also encouraged to talk with others, and eat and rest well.
It
seems that it is somewhat common for people to have psychological
trouble on vipassana, specifically Goenka-style, and zen buddhist
retreats. There are many accounts indicating this. This also happens
in tantric practice but the numbers are a lot less. I am aware of
less than five people who had some sort of mental illness for an
extended period of time. One of these cases was mentioned by Culadasa
John Yates, a well known author and buddhist teacher, in his webcast
in 2018 (sorry, no link available). He stated that, 40 years prior,
his ex-girlfriend became ill with schitzophrenia when she practiced
Tibetan buddhist tantric preliminary practices (tib. ngondro). He
also stated that she suffers of this illness up to this day. I do not
know any specifics of her case, about the type of practices she did
and how severe her illness is but this is the most severe case of
mental illness related to tantric practices I am aware of.
Sutric
and tantric methods are very different by nature. Both emphasize
practice and, should I say, deep forging but I would say that
the tantric approach is much more relaxed in terms of effort because
one doesn't need to generate the practice on one's own. Blessings
from one's guru, lineage and the deities make the practice much
easier and relaxed. As discussed above (dark nights), this doesn't
mean that it's always easy, just that it is easier. That has
certainly been my personal experience.
Sutric
meditation retreats, incl. Goenka and zen, put a lot of emphasis on
silent sitting, with limited rest and sleep, simplified vegetarian
diet and have very little, if any, social interaction with others.
Reason behind these features come from the sutric view of
renunciation which in many
ways looks exactly like asceticism. Tolerating
physical pain or sitting through pain, for example, is a common
instruction in zen buddhism. You don't move, even if you have great
physical pains. In some training halls you get scolded or even
physically hit, if you move during periods of sitting.
 |
| Shakyamuni as an ascetic, before he found the middle way between extremes |
Looking
at these features of sutric training, it seems very odd that so many
of these traditional forms of sutric buddhism forget Shakyamuni
Buddha's example. He didn't become awakened through ascetic practices
but by taking a good care of his body, after he realised that the
ascetic approach was just postponing solving his existential issues,
while physically killing him.
Tantra
is not based on the view of renunciation, so on tantric retreats for
laypeople one can usually talk with others, get enough sleep and more
options for food. Tantric retreats for professional
practitioners is a different matter but that's a whole different
context. Tantra is about transformation which means
that one doesn't necessarily need to change one's lifestyle at all.
One illuminates one's mind within the life and lifestyle one has. For
this reason, I feel that tantra is much better suited for Western
laypeople. It is not part of the tantric view to renounce family,
work or anything else. Sutra renounces the world and keeps distance
to it, tantra embraces and embodies it.
I've
heard of many people who had emotional trauma come up in sutric
training without receiving fitting instructions from their teachers
and therefore having no way to deal with it. In Japan, I knew a zen
monk with few years of monastic practice under his belt, who hit a
rough patch. As the master in charge of the training (apparently)
didn't have extensive enough understanding what the student was
experiencing, and had no other tools in his toolbox other than the
ones transmitted by the tradition, eventually, as the anxiousness
grew, the monk ended up leaving the monastery and in fact, his whole
career as an ordained monk. With correct know-how the monk's dark
night would have been entirely manageable and possible to overcome.
It is a classic example where the tradition failed the teacher, and
the teacher failed the student. It is crucial to realise that the
student did not fail.
That
this happens in one way or the other all the time, is one of the
reasons why I am a fan of the Western innovation of combining sutric
methods with Western psychology. However, as I
have written before,
I do not think buddha dharma lacks anything. Rather, it is the
fixedness of traditions and level of expertise and open-mindedness of
teachers that are lacking. I say lack of open-mindedness because
commonly, traditionalists do not seek answers outside of their
tradition. They trust that as their lineage is historically authentic
(although in many cases this has been debunked by scholars) and
time-tested, it couldn't lack anything. Whether training systems can
be perfected is highly questionable. Excessive self-sufficiency of
buddhists is an issue. This has been discussed in this blog here:
Jetsunma
Tenzin Palmo & Kim Katami: About Awakening
In
2017, we heard the sad news of a young American lady, who committed
a suicide
after a Goenka retreat, apparently because she experienced what I
describe above, sutric practice without proper support. This is the
only dharma practice-related suicide I've ever heard of. It is one
too many but at the same time considering the amount of anxiety,
depression, trauma and suicidal thoughts practitioners I have
wondered why the number is not higher. Perhaps this has something to
do with subtle protection coming from Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma
and Sangha. Needless to say if people went killing themselves after
retreats, there wouldn't be any sort of buddhist tradition existing.
So,
dark nights are periods when dark corners of the mind are revealed,
and just like when cleaning a dusty storage room, in the process of
cleaning, the dust momentarily fills the air and blocks one's
airways. That is not a comfortable experience but it is an
unavoidable part of cleaning. Since all buddhist paths are about
cleaning, there is no buddhist path entirely without discomfort. The
sooner one becomes comfortable with the idea that at times practice
stings, the easier it becomes. Suffering and discomfort
(dukkha) is typical for existentially confused mind, and so any path
that aims to sort it out, must go through it, rather than
around it. Buddhist meditation is not about bypassing
suffering. It is about suffering voluntarily, not for the sake of
enduring suffering but for the sake of releasing the root cause of
suffering which is always, without exception, in selfing. To
accomplish this we need to, as Mr. Jung suggests, go in the midst of
darkness. That's what the path is.
I
tell my students to prepare for the worst when it comes to dark
nights. I once heard of a Danish practitioner who got depressed for
15 years after his awakening. It took so long to sort out itself
because he had no access to suitable yogic knowhow. I recently wrote,
”What
is Depression and How to Heal It”.
Types
of Mental Illness
Psychosis
and schitzophrenia prevent the person from distinquishing between
reality and fantasy. One can still practice with these illnesses, but
close supervision of both a skilled dharma teacher and doctor are
required. As long as the illness persists, I do not think it is a
good idea for a person with these illnesses to practice without the
supervision of both professionals. Depression and anxiety do not make
one lose sight of the reality and for this reason people with these
predicaments, expect in severe cases, require no medical supervision,
when practicing meditation.
As
a tantric teacher, I have the requirement that those with any
mental illness need to discuss with me before learning Open Heart
Yoga, the main tantric practice of the Open Heart-system.
Yogic
Take On Causes Behind Mental Illnesses
All
mental illnesses are in the mind.
Although there is evidence that genetics (typically associated with
the physical body) play a part in some mental illnesses, these are
conditions that prevail in the mind. For this reason they have to do
with energetic circulation and karmic records stored in the energy
body. This means that like all
other states of mind, such as trance and concentration (skt.
samadhi), mental illnesses have to do with the state of one's energy
body. This means that, since all beings have buddhanature as their
ground of being, all states of mind are momentary
and are necessarily caused by life force (skt. prana, tib. lung)
flowing through certain kinds of karmic records, hence creating some
momentary bubble of illness.
Lifestyle
without responsibilities, as often in the case of young people with
no jobs, study or regular sleeping times can induce depression. One's
lifestyle momentarily creates a certain kind of way how the energy
circulates in the bodymind. Use of intoxicating substances, such as
alcohol and various types of drugs can induce depression, anxiety and
psychosis.
I
have myself, for brief moments (up to 1 hour in duration),
experienced psychosis caused by mixed use of alcohol and cannabis
(1), physical overtraining (2) and overtraining in pranayama
(3), or yogic breathing
practices. In all three, the mental state was same or similar. In all
of them life force circulated in same or similar manner, strangely
and unnaturally, producing convincing ideas and thoughts that
afterwards, when normal circulation was returned through rest,
healthy food and healthy lifestyle, were seen as weird and
unrational. These are examples of momentary mental illnesses caused
by lifestyle.
Sometimes
practitioners of buddhist meditation, both sutra and tantra, come up
with psychotic illnesses that persist.
In my limited understanding, these are caused by one's harmful
actions in the past. In this connection it is logical for one to
question if it is the practice that causes it but like stated above,
correct dharma practice based on ethics, does not increase bad karma.
Because our mental states are directly related to our karma, it is
actually the seeds of karma, revealed through practice, that causes
it. We really need to understand that practice brings stuff
up. To nullify negative karma,
one really needs to exercise ethics, wisdom and compassion, through
whatever instructions one's teacher gives. Needless, to say students
should only choose and learn from teachers who they trust and respect
for these is no point learning from bad teachers. It is common for
tantric teachers, including myself, to give specific advice and
practices when problems arise to quicken their resolve.
That
one might reveal karmic seeds that cause psychotic illness is of
course an unexpected and unpleasant surprise. However, we can also
look at this in the expanded timeframe longer than a single life and
understand that perhaps one is fortunate to have these outbreaks as a
dharma practitioner, being guided and protected by the Three Jewels,
which are the common source of refuge for all buddhists, as well as
Guru, who is the main refuge for tantrics. The other option would be
to suffer of one's bad karma without this protection and without any
guidance. That these negative karmic causes are brought into the open
in the context of dharma practice, is good in the long run, although
it might ruin one's plans in this life. In such situation one should
find a tantric lama who has some realisation and is able to give
specific instructions for sorting it out. If one has very bad karma
without guidance and protection of the Guru and the Three Jewels, we
could end up being insane for many lifetimes.
The
history of humanity is horrible and very dark. In this samsaric realm
of human beings, good
people have turned into killers, murderers, rapists, robbers and
tyrants. We have done
extremely bad things to other people, animals and the planet. We are
deluded if we think that we couldn't do what people at their worst,
in deep distress have done. To see what people do to other people,
all we need is today's newspaper. Dharma is a way out of this.
Going
Round and Round in the Wonder Wheel of Pain
Samsara
is hell of a pressure cooker, abound with immense pain and suffering.
Here countless beings inflict harm on themselves and others, not even
knowing the difference between honesty and lying or violence and
non-harming. For this reason, for those who understand the theory of
reincarnation, it is logical to expect that we, now having the
extremely fortunate opportunity to practice the dharma, have in the
past caused tremendous hurt and pain for others. If not because of
genes, because of our past actions, we are deluded, lost and ill.
When
sorting out our karma, we don't get to choose what our karma is
because it is already recorded in our subconscious mind. For this
reason, if by ”safety” we think of the path as something comfy
without much psychological challenges, I'm sorry to say that such a
buddhist path doesn't
exist. Whether we choose to do the big cleaning with sutra or tantra,
or combination of both approaches, is up to us. But again, whatever
path we choose or don't choose, or if we choose to not practice at
all, it is best to be prepared
for great hardship. From there we do our practice and little by
little bring the dark corners to light.
Vajrayana
For The Masses?
Recently
Mr.
Brad Warner published a wonderful short video
discussing big dharma organisations vs. small ones, in the context of
abuse in buddhism. I highly recommend watching it.
I
think that vajrayana
or tantric vehicle, explained in common sensical, de-mystifying,
down-to-earth, practice-related manner with solid basic pedagogical
skills from the teacher's side, is the best option for the people of
our time. The tantric study also includes sutric study and yogic
psychology, so it makes a profound path. The reason why I think that
tantra, combined with teachings of the natural state (skt. atiyoga,
tib. dzogchen) is the best of paths, is because tantric practices
accomplish more with less effort. Sutrayana is slow because the
practitioner has to do so much more heavy lifting by her- or himself.
Plus, I think sutra is unsuitable for laypeople because of the view
of renunciation, as discussed above.
In
tantra, students are empowered
by the guru or guru's representative. It is because of these
empowerments and one's personal practice afterwards what makes it so
much more easier. By cultivating an enlightened archetype of the
mind, i.e. deity or deities, the practitioner automatically and
inevitably recognises the nature of mind correctly and returns to the
basic state of wakefulness on daily basis. Again, I wish I didn't
need to say this but I think it is questionable whether sutric
practices actually enable practitioners to recognise their true being
because in sutra-teachings distinction between substrate conciousness
(skt. alaya vijnana, tib. kun gzhi) is almost never made. In
consequence, most followers of sutrayana confuse the samsaric state
of subtle dullness with the natural state of wakefulness. It is
incorrect. If you cultivate a dull blank stare for a lifetime, where
do you think you're heading next? Incorrect cultivation also creates
karmic causes.
As
an additional point, I personally think that all paths that do not
discuss knowing awareness
(tib. rigpa, skt. vidya) from the beginning and start with
concentration practices (skt. shamatha), have it backwards. Besides,
those who have their hair on fire wishing to wake up, they don't have
much if any use for shamatha training.
Buddhist
practitioners really need to begin to correctly distinquish between
liberated (skt. nirvana) and confused (skt. samsara) states from the
beginning because if they don't, they'll just make their paths
unnecessarily longer, numerous lifetimes longer. For those who are
seeking complete liberation, this matter is very very
serious. Buddhists trust their ”time-tested” traditions way too
blindly. I did too, until I started realising that most traditions
and teachers don't have the full picture or methods from deluded to
fully liberated state. Traditions, like everything else in the world,
age and when they do, they loose their essential message and meaning.
Despite
of trust towards my gurus and their teachings, I don't think tantra
is suitable to be taught through big organisations. Both teachers and
students need to know each other personally and have one-on-one
access. That's impossible if retreats are attended by more than few
dozen people, not to mention hundreds or thousands. If you never
even had a chat with the lama, you are not a student,
though you can be a follower of a certain system. Sure, it is
possible to disseminate teachings of tantra and dzogchen in mass
events but it is far fetched to say that people would really get the
essential meaning that way.
Tantra and dzogchen are best transmitted in intimate setting.
My
answer to your first question is that, yes, tantra is suitable for
masses but it is not suitable for one teacher to teach masses for
other purpose than very basics which is coincidentally what is taught
at mass events. A lot of beneficial points can be shared, of course.
Both mahayana and vajrayana paths of sutra and tantra are aiming at
full enlightenment or buddhahood, though, so this is important to
keep in mind.
Hope
this helps. Thanks again for asking.
-Kim
Katami, 14.7.2019
Open
Heart Sangha,
