Practicing Nonduality - Introduction into the View of Tantric Buddhism from Sita Vajramati

An Introduction into the View of Tantric Buddhism

from Sita Vajramati

The word Tantra triggers ambivalent feelings, attraction and defense. Our ability to perceive and to absorbe knowledge is hindered. There are Hindu and Buddhist Tantra.They differ fundamentally. In order to find an approach to Buddhist Tantra, it is vital to understand its specific point of view. The view is the way you look at yourself, the world and its phenomena. This determines a certain understanding a corresponding behavior and the sense you give to your life. Nowadays one would refer to paradigm instead of view.
Tantra interprets life in a particular paradigm. The underlying point of the Tantric paradigm is nonduality. In that way Tantra makes the objective of the path of liberation the starting point.

1. Life is sacred - because everything is life, everything is sacred.

Theoretically, we may agree with this statement, but it is difficult to apply it to everyday life. Nature, plants and animals, beauty, a newborn baby - all this we can easily perceive as sacred. But our human world with its injustice, distress, and the violence, that we encounter every day? In this respect our common mind says: „No“ .
Correct! – It is not about conquering our intellect but to look more deeply. What is the tantric view based on? To what extent is everything to be regarded as sacred?

Everything that appears, expresses life, there are endless forms. Some forms of life have already disappeared, as have certain plants and animal species. New species emerge, large, small, male, female, beautiful, ugly, thick and thin; minerals, plants, animals and humans, all these forms manifest life and do not differ from each other in this respect.

Evolution shows the unlimited creative expression of life, and in this sense all forms are equally holy. All forms of life are perfect in themselves. They have their own inner order, they grow, flourish, replant themselves, and perish. They regenerate, they are in contact with other forms of life, and they are creative by re-creating and nourishing other beings. In the extremely sensitive ecological circuits, we realize that everything is related to one another in a harmonious order and expresses the wisdom of life.

The term tantra expresses this view symbolically.Tantra literally translates into fabric.
We can imagine a piece of fabric: nothing is better, neither the lower nor the higher, neither the left nor the right. A fabric can be turned in all directions and woven on. In this respect, there is no center and no periphery. Every point of the fabric is equally important, nothing can be dispensed with, nothing can be extracted without the complete fabric being destroyed. The crossing point of the horizontal (weft) and the vertical thread (chain) is connected to all other crossing points. Each transverse thread is cut from all longitudinal threads and inverted. The fabric bears and holds only as one piece. With the transverse thread, beautiful as well as unsightly patterns can be woven in. They do not harm the whole tissue.
These patterns symbolize the designs of life – may they create happpiness or suffering -nevertheless life goes on. This indestructible continuity is symbolized by the longitudinal thread. The image of the fabric is compatible only with egalitarian democratic structures and not with conceptions of hierarchy. In today's language we would use the term matrix.

Historically, Tantra was a religious movement with social effects too. It took up large sections of the population and reached its heyday in the eighth century in the northern part of India. Consequently in the nondualistic view of Tantra all beings, men and women were to be regarded as equals with the same value. It was a provocation for the cast system of the Indian society. Today Tantra is a living practice of Buddhism all over the world.

Back to the application of the nondualistic view in our everday life.
If we try to make it our own, how do we regard what is obviously unholy? Natural catastrophes and man-caused ecological crises are expressions of life too. In 1870, a huge volcano erupted in Indonesia, the sun darkened so much that a famine broke out in Switzerland. What is unholy about it? It is difficult for the humans to survive but you can`t judge it morally. But when people build nuclear power stations in earthquake areas, this means disregarding natural laws and disregarding life. It is only a matter of time until the consequences occur. If a human being under ego-delusion thinks to be able to control life as he or she wishes, than negative consequences will follow. These consequences will occur through the laws of nature. They do not suddenly drop out from the sky . They are calculable and occur with certainty. It is only a matter of time.

In Buddhism, this inner conditional context is called Karma: All causes have effects. In the sacred tissue of life, everything is continuous because everything is linked to one another.
The effect as such is an expression of life. It shows us the wisdom of life and is sacred, no matter whether it hurts us or not. Whoever sees conditioned development sees the Dhamma, the Buddha teaches.

We see that we can maintain the nondual perspective "Everything is sacred" even with regard to unwelcome effects. Life itself becomes the spiritual teacher for us as individuals and for mankind as a whole. If we are hostile to life in our small private environment, we will sooner or later experience an ecological catastrophe, for example in the form of illness.
We can learn from this.

Suffering is caused in our mind by the difference between the wisdom of life and our egocentric blindness. Suffering is also holy because it wakens us up.
Buddha did not morally condemn the blindness, he described it as a basic ignorance, which can be overcome by spiritual training. But we are in danger of condemning ourselves and others.

2. Once all is holy, we too are holy.

The nondual view leads to the logical conclusion: once all is holy, we too are holy. For all living things are an expression of life. It is difficult to accept this conclusion for ourselves. Is this not bordering on blasphemy? We are aware of our mistakes, weaknesses and imperfections. We are by no means the perfect person, we would like to be. And if that were the case, it would also apply to violators and all those who have hurt us and done us wrong.

But if we look at everything, the fabric of the matrix of life, there is no rational reason to exclude any person or ourselves from holiness. Each individual is - as it is - a unique incarnation of life and has the whole universe as its base, so Lama Anagarika Govinda says.

How can we approach this view? Only when we look deeper into the essence of what is meant: What is holiness? To what extent does this apply to us?
Like all living things, we humans are self-regulating, adaptable, dynamic units. We are creative and transformable. We are endowed with sensitivity, awareness, perception and the ability to act. We are perfect, but not in a moral sense. We embody a harmonious order, which can sustain itself in life, which grows, unfolds, multiplies, and dissolves its form and which is capable of wisdom and love. These qualities and faculties are applied in every human individual. All have the same potential. In Buddhism, it is called Buddhanature.
Seen from this fundamental dimension, it is easier to consider humans as such and ourselves as beeing sacred.

Through such considerations, we can theoretically approach the nondual perspective.
To feel and to experience it, is a totally different matter. But that's the point. The tantric exercises of visualisation are aligned with this. It represents our natural holiness in the form of deities. The concept of divinity can easily be misunderstood. We are thinking of the Greek gods, or of the gods of the nature religions, who oppressed man with their mighty and powerful forces. People believed in their objective existence. But the deities of Tantric Buddhism have nothing to do with faith. They are visualized in meditation. The aim of the exercise is to make our consciousness familiar with the universal forces that shape life. These forces work in us and through us, bringing forth the world of phenomena that we perceive with our senses. In order to support the meditative visualization they are symbolically represented on thangkas (roll images) and as sculptures. That is why they are called meditation deities. These divinities and ourselves are not different from each other. They reflect our essential divine potential, for whose liberation and development we practice . Through imagination and identification, we can grow into our true Buddhanature. This is the meaning of the yoga of divinity

Isn`t there a new dualism between our divine potential and our behavior in empirical reality? These two poles are not seen separately in Tantra. The process of unfolding is understood as an organic continuum: just as a flower unfolds its essence to a complete flowering through various phases of growth. In the bud, everything is laid out including the development plan.

In the nondual perspective of the Buddhist Tantra, nothing is excluded and nothing is rejected. Happiness and misfortune, joys and sorrows - all experiences and all forces have their meaning and importance for the unfolding of the whole. Personal misfortune reveals conditioned and interdependent being and is a driving force for spiritual awakening. In this respect, all beings are on the way to Buddhahood. And all beings will reach it because the impulse to grow, to aspire and to mature is the nature of life.

As long as the attachment to suffering is not yet overcome, it promotes our realization and our awakening. To this extent, it has its necessary value. In suffering, liberating forces manifest themselves which lead us back to the truth and the wisdom of life. These powers are portrayed as angry Buddhas, but they are not angry with us. In Buddhism there are no punishing gods. Rather, it is understood that very dynamic energies are called into the plan as a result of our disregard for life. The angry Buddhas with their attributes symbolize our sometimes painful and frightening experiences on the path of liberation.

3. Nondual Practicing

When we start practicing nonduality, we stop complaining and accusing others. We no longer identify ourselves and others as perpetrators or victims. Instead of that we take responsibility for what we have done in the past, its consequences in the present, and learn from it. We are aware that we are now setting the course for the future. This requires considerable courage. The Buddhist word for that is heroism. Those who consistently follow this path until they are completely liberated are called victors"Jinas".

We cease to criticize reality, but we recognize that everything that appears is a consistent continuation of the past. In this respect, everything is coherent, if not pleasing. This results in a completely different attitude towards difficulties and problems. Usually, we think about problems to eliminate them. But how can we make something disappear, that consequently appears as a result of the past that we are unable to influence? Nothing can be undone in retrospect. Our longing for that is understandable but leads into a dead end. We are stuck in regret and impotence. It is possible to change something for the future, we can create other reasons, then the outcome will be different.

The key question for nondual practicing is: What is that good for? We don`t ask why? - rather, for what reason is this happening? How can I use it as an opportunity to develop my spirituality? The following questions may help: what is the root of my suffering, what is to be acknowledged, what is my attachment and what should I let go of – in order to be in deeper harmony with the sacred ground of life. This points forward. We are supported by life when we want to liberate and to unfold ourselves.

Everything that happens in life, has the same importance for the process of spiritual awakening, regardless of where and when - within the family, at work, on your meditation cushion, outside or inside. Everything becomes practice, nothing is excepted. The separation between everyday life and spiritual life ceases to exist. Practicing is always, because everything gives an opportunity to practice: clear perception, insight, love, compassion and wisdom.

4. Embody nonduality

The aim of this permanent exercise is to embody our imminent holiness - our potential for enlightenment - in our human body here and now. That is, to become a fully liberated and awakened human being: a Buddha - in this present life.

Translated from German by Sita Vajramati and Heidi Bigmore