Overflow crowd at UNR hears out Lama Sumati Marut
September 9, 2008
I attended last night an enjoyable, and easy to follow, talk on Guru Yoga: The Most Secret Practice of the Bhagavad Gita. The talk was given not by a Hindu or Vedantist (despite the key spiritual reference used for the talk) but an ordained Tibetan Buddhist Lama named Sumati Marut. See: http://lamamarut.org
I think the Lama was expressively very effective in addressing something very controversial (“Guru Yoga”) and also very unfamiliar and alien to most of us. His humorous and animated delivery kept the overflow crowd, gathered in rm 324 at the Joe Crowley Student Union Center, not only very focused but amused throughout the whole of his presentation.
“Maybe what drew you here was the ‘most secret practice’ part in the talk title!”
It was my impression that most of the over 75 attending (some in chairs out in the hallway) were likely part of the local Buddhist and Yoga scene. Speaking of which, here’s a resource a friend (also there) gave me: http://www.nevadadharma.net
The Lama (a white American, btw) observed that with all the bad experiences people had with Gurus in the 1970s and 1980s that people might think that his advice for a spiritual practice (he said the most “esoteric” of them all), “to find and serve a Guru”, might entail (among other things) having to buy the Guru a new Rolls-Royce.
He also noted that a long time ago there were no “isms”, only teachers and their lineages. For those of us today, he urged everyone to “rediscover the sacred in your daily life” and even go so far as to “insinuate yourself as much as possible in the daily life of the Guru”.
Given most everyone’s negative perspective nowadays related to the notion of Gurus, he promised to “help you find a Guru in a painless way” (and, he added, who won’t want a Rolls-Royce from you). First, we need to understand who or what the Guru really is. (At the end of the talk, he of course identified—correctly, lol—that the Guru was one’s own innermost essence. “The Guru is YOU!”) Guru Yoga, he said, involves the understanding that the Divine is fully present (and immanent) in life and is not divorced or apart from life. The Guru then is, he insisted, a special being (“from Angel HQ”) who is aligned with the ordinary human form (which we can all easily relate to).
The Lama suggested that everyone begin their hunt, and adoption of, a Guru with the folks closest to them: Mom, Dad, husband, wife, etc. Adopt and serve them as Guru. But, with the understanding that our feelings that arise in relation to Mom/Guru (or whoever is chosen) are merely our projections upon them and they are not ultimately the cause of the feeling. Now, he laughed, your Mom/Guru might not seem special to him, but certainly She should be to you, the disciple.
What we will have a tendency to do in this relationship is to project our images, feelings, ideas, etc onto the Guru, who is in fact (if truely awakened and realized) empty and a blank screen. Therefore, part of Guru Yoga involves the Guru serving as a mirror for the student.
The Lama went through various verses (we all had a nice printout of them) from the Bhagavad Gita to describe in more detail the nature of Guru Yoga. 7.16 9.14 9.27 12.6 12.7 6.29 6.30 6.31 6.32 18.61 18.62 18.63 18.64 18.65 18.66 18.67 18.68 18.69
Essentially, the Guru is not a “someone” outside of us. In fact, the Lama pointed to one of the verses, wherer it’s reported that “one who is fully perfected in yoga sees oneself in all beings and all beings in oneself, [that such a one) sees everything as coming from the same source”. A Buddha, he said, sees all as Divine and inherently perfect.
Still, Guru Yoga is a “hard practice”, which is why (according to the Lama) it’s the most esoteric of all practices. He quoted the late (and controversial Tibetan Rinpoche) Chogyam Trungpa: “the guru serves to insult the ego”. Central to Buddhist teaching, along with the notion of an endless chain of cause and effect (interdependent arising or dependent origination are some Buddhist terms associated with that), is the proposition that the “ego” or sense of a seperate and permanent self located in our heads is an illusion. The Lama described this “mini-me” as like Captain Kirk sitting in his command chair, in control of everything. So, it seems that the intent of Guru Yoga involves serving to help awaken others from this illusion, a key factor it would seem in keeping us distressed. And, it seems that the process of Guru Yoga requires a union with a seemingly ordinary human (who is in fact “special”, he asserted–direct from Angel HQ!) who can help untie the knots of suffering.
The Six Vajra Verses (of Dzogchen)
July 23, 2008
The following version of The Six Vajra Verses is from Namkhai Norbu’s book, The Crystal and Way of Light:
‘Although apparent phenomena manifest as diversity —
yet this diversity is non-dual.
And of all the multiplicity
of individual things that exist,
none can be confined in a limited concept.
Staying free from the trap of any attempt
to say ‘it’s like this’, or ‘like that’,
it becomes clear that all manifested forms are
aspects of the infinite formless,
and, indivisible from it,
are self-perfected.
Seeing that everything is self-perfected
from the very beginning,
the disease of striving for any achievement
is surrendered,
and just remaining in the natural state
as it is,
the presence of non-dual contemplation
continuously spontaneously arises.”
First, an old classic Advaita Vedanta Sanskrit text called the Ashtavakra Gita shares a conversation between a student and a Realized teacher. I’ve had a printed out copy of this for a long time. This work was a favorite of Ramana Maharshi’s as well as other contemporary Realized teachers.
See this freely available translation of the Ashtavakra Gita (by John Richards) here:
http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0004.htm
Now, shifting to the Buddhist (and Dzogchen) tradition, I recently came across a sampling of 12th century writings in an article by a Tibetan teacher, Dilgo Khyentse (1910-1991), that was part of an anthology called The Best Buddhist Writings (2004; published by Shambhala Sun and edited by Melvin McLeod). Dilgo Khyentse provided in-depth commentary on 19 of 100 verses from The Hundred Verses of Advice by an Indian teacher (Kamashila) who shared his advice (shortly before his death) to the people of the Tibetan village of Tingri. Dilgo Khyentse’s article in the anthology is called: Like a Mirror, Like a Rainbow, Like the Heart of the Sun.
He provided commentary for these 19 verses (#51 – 69):
~ In a state of emptiness, whirl the spear of pure awareness; People of Tingri, the view is free of being caught by anything at all.
~ In a state without thoughts, without distraction abandon the watcher; People of Tingri, the meditation is free of any torpor or excitement.
~ In a state of natural spontaneity, train in being free of any holding back; People of Tingri, in the action there is nothing to abandon or adopt.
~ The four bodies, indivisible, are complete in your mind; People of Tingri, the fruit is beyond all hope and doubt.
~ The root of both samsara [illusion] and nirvana [reality] is to be found within your mind; People of Tingri, the mind is free of any true reality.
~ Desire and hate appear, but like birds in flight should leave no trace behind; People of Tingri, in meditation be free of clinging to experiences.
~ The unborn absolute body is like the very heart of the sun; People of Tingri, there is no waxing or waning of its radiant clarity.
~ Thoughts come and go like a thief in an empty house; People of Tingri, in fact there is nothing to be gained or lost.
~ Sensations leave no imprints, like drawings made on water; People of Tingri, don’t perpetuate deluded appearances.
~ Thoughts of attachment and aversion are like rainbows in the sky; People of Tingri, there is nothing in them to be grasped or apprehended.
~ Mind’s movements dissolve by themselves, like clouds in the sky; People of Tingri, in the mind there are no reference points.
~ Without fixation, thoughts are freed by themselves — like the wind; People of Tingri, which never clings to any object.
~ Pure awareness is without fixation, like a rainbow in the sky; People of Tingri, experiences arise quite unimpededly.
~ Realization of the absolute nature is like the dream of a mute; People of Tingri, there are no words to express it.
~ Realization is like a youthful maiden’s pleasure; People of Tingri, joy and bliss just cannot be described.
~ Clarity and emptiness united are like the moon reflected in water; People of Tingri, there is nothing to be attached to and nothing to impede.
~ Appearances and emptiness inseperable are like the empty sky; People of Tingri, the mind is without center or periphery.
~ The mind with no thought and no distraction is like the mirror of a beauty; People of Tingri, it is free of any theoretical tenets.
~ Awareness and emptiness inseperable are like reflections in a mirror; People of Tingri, nothing is born there and nothing ceases.
Okay, my notes here will entail the use of a different terminology and vocabulary.
Dzogchen is regarded by many as the highest expression of Buddhist teachings and is associated with Tibetan Buddhism (in particular one “school” of that) and also was incorporated into the native Tibetan shamanic “religion” of Bon. Even though the Dalai Lama is the leader of a school different than the one which Dzogchen reportedly arose out of, he has written about, and taught, it.
I personally resonate with it’s teachings, probably because (for me) it outshines even notions that perhaps are fostered in so many other non-dualistic teachings, like the notion “I am Enlightened” or “I am Realized” or “I am Liberated”. (Ramana Maharshi, btw, also confronts these forms of self-imagery in various recorded conversations he had with those visiting him.)
I first read about Dzogchen in some depth in a book by a Dzogchen teacher, Namkhai Norbu: The Crystal and the Way of Light.
Namkhai Norbu asserted that this way of the “Great Completeness or Perfection” involved awakening to the “primordial” conditon of all that is, pure and non-dual awareness. Like the crystal that reflects all shifting conditions, this awareness (void and spacious) remains inherently unaffected by the flux of ever changing conditions.
In the Dzogchen teaching, the teacher initiates the student via a “Great Introduction” to this primordial condition. Spiritual practice then involves a process of “learning” to abide in that condition in the face of all arising circumstances. Over time, presumably, the sense of an underlying distress evaporates. (This is what the Buddha meant by the “end of suffering” in his Four Noble Truths.)
The reader can read a summary introduction here:
