Although Culadasa's bio says that together with his hinayana lineage, he also has vajrayana lineage, I have never seen or found a reference that would state that he is a tantric practitioner or that he would teach tantra. If you know that my information lacks in this regard, please correct me. I have sought this bit of information for few years but never found it. In some webcasts he has mentioned vajrayana in general but I have never seen him talk about tantric practices in the sense that it was something that he and his students were actively involved with.
In the video he says that he has gone through buddhist meditation training and that, despite of some illumination, "buddhist meditation traditions" (in plural) have severe deficiencies. He goes on to say that combination of shamanism and buddhism would tap what his practices have left untapped. In this connection, he also mentions Tibetan buddhism and Bon-tradition. That he doesn't mention his own vajrayana teachings or practices, adds to my belief that he is not a vajrayana practitioner.
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| Culadasa John Yates |
As a practitioner of sutrayana, his statement about the deficiency of all buddhist traditions needs to be viewed with critical thought. I am aware that buddhism in general and Tibetan vajrayana
in particular has all kinds of problems but in general based on my
own observations vajrayana practitioners
go farther in their practice than practitioners of sutrayana. I leave
scholars, academics and doctors of buddhism entirely out of this. In
terms of bhumi analysis (OHBM) it can be clearly seen that tantrics
have more bhumis open and perfected, or in common terms have more
clarity
and purity
than sutrayana practitioners do. By saying this I do not deny the
benefits of sutrayana, because I
know from my own experience that sutra practice reaps benefits, though they are lesser. In my own experience as well as apparently Culadasa's, sutrayana leaves a
lot of the psyche into the shadow. It just "doesn't go far
enough". For this reason I have discussed the benefits
of joining sutra and tantra together.
The problem is that sutric meditation
practice is built on one's own effort, energy and ability of
attention which in the present samsaric condition are very limited.
On the other hand , tantric deities that are archetypes of the
enlightened mind cannot but reveal all the nooks and corners of the
mind or psyche, leaving nothing hidden. This is the unique gift and potential of
tantric practice, that non-tantric methods do not have.
Culadasa, "As
you progress on the paths of awakening, the changes of you
recognising them (parts of our pscyhe) as something that needs to be
purified, diminishes."
It
is such a strange thing to say... but this
precisely is Culadasa's testimony of the insufficiency of
sutric practice.
May All Beings Be Free,
-Kim Katami, 23.8.2019
Pemako Sangha
www.pemakobuddhism.com
