Vajrasattva (Forgiveness and Purification) Practice

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.) 

In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a visualization practice including an enlightened being called Vajrasattva, and it is one of the preliminary practices that monks and nuns do to prepare themselves for the deeper Buddhist teachings.  Some good news about this practice: there is now scientific research that shows the physiological benefits.  There was a study done recently at the University of Oregon that tested the physical impact of performing visualizations that included positive imagery and that integrated the mind/body connection.  The results showed that these practices do in fact reduce our stress hormones, our cortisol levels, and through the use of fMRIs, they recorded that after about eleven hours of practice, students actually began to grow new axons, new neural pathways, just like we did when we were children.  Positive visualizations actually make our brains a little bit bigger and healthier!

It’s nice to know the scientific validation of the physiological impact, but equally valuable is the spiritual benefit of transforming how we experience ourselves and our circumstances in daily life.  The Vajrasattva practice is about purification and forgiveness.  It is an opportunity for us to let go of some of the baggage that most of us carry around, the “stuff” that gets in the way of living life fully.  Think about yourself as a newborn baby, fresh and open to all the possibilities.  Then, over time, we have experiences, thoughts, emotions and reactions that sometime do not serve us, that can drag us down and make life sometime seem like a struggle.  The practice of purification and forgiveness is an opportunity for us to let go, to free ourselves, from some of the old unskillful stuff that seems to get in the way of us simply experiencing the beauty of life moment to moment. 
As we begin this process, it’s helpful to visualize in great detail.  I can give you some ideas about what to “see” in your mind’s eye, but it’s important to make it your own, to connect deeply with your own experience.  Below are a series of steps included in the visualization.  I encourage you to experiment, and see what it might feel like, to forgive, to let go and to start fresh. 

Vajrasattva:  Name given to a Bodhisattva (enlightened being) who realized that every thought, emotion, word and action can be part of our transformation and encouraged the use of visualizations to experience forgiveness and fresh starts.

Vajrasattva Purification (based on Ven. Thubten Chodron’s Pearl of Wisdom, Book II)

1.      Begin by visualizing Vajrasattva (or a radiant being of love-kindness and 

compassion) above and in front of you

2.      Begin by reciting the refuge vows three times:

In Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

We go for refuge until fully awakened

Through the power of Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Enthusiastic Effort, Concentration and Wisdom

For the sake of all beings, may we realize and demonstrate our innate goodness.

3.      The Power of Regret – reflect, with deep regret, the specific negativities that you have created, and ask for Vajrasattva’s help in guiding you from this misery.

4.      The Power of Remedial Action – a process to purify all past experiences.  While reciting the 100 syllable mantra 21 times or the shorter version “om vajrasattva hum” 108 times, visualize the flow of purifying light and love from Vajrasattva down through the crown of your head cleansing and purifying your thoughts, emotions, words and actions.

5.      Purification of Body – Your disturbing attitudes and negativities take the form of black ink.  Flushed out by the healing light, they leave your body through the lower openings, like filthy liquid flowing down a drainpipe.  Feel completely empty of these problems; they no longer exist. 

6.      Purification of Speech - …take the form of liquid tar. ..flow out the upper openings of your body…

7.      Purification of the Mind/Emotions - …take the form of darkness in your heart…the darkness completely disappears…

8.      Simultaneous Purification – Do the three above visualizations simultaneously.  Feel completely free of these obscurations.

9.      The Power of the Promise – To create a fresh start, make the following promise, “From this moment forward, I vow to practice skillful thoughts, words and actions .”  Vajrasattva is extremely pleased and says, “My spiritual child, all your negativities, obscurations and degenerated vows have been completely purified.”

With delight, Vajrasattva melts into light and dissolves into you.  Your body, speech and mind become inseparably one with Vajrasattva’s luminous body, speech and mind. 

10.     Dedication – “Due to my purified thoughts, words and actions, may I soon attain the enlightened state of Vajrasattva, that I may be able to liberate all beings from their suffering.  May innate goodness and wisdom arise and grow.  May it have no decline, but increase forever more.”

Happiness - Being in the Flow of Living

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We are finishing up a series of talks based on Matthieu Ricard’s book, Happiness:  A Guide to developing Life’s most important skill.    Finally, we’ll discuss how to be in the flow of living.  Sometimes, life can seem like a struggle, with battles to be fought and suffering to be overcome.  Each person tends to bring judgments, perceptions, beliefs, past experiences and habits into each moment, which might make contribute to a feeling that we are battling to stay afloat in the sea of life.  It might seem like each day a new set of issues arise.  Yet, Matthieu Ricard encourages us that there is an entirely different way of experiencing the world that brings a deeper, more long-lasting sense of happiness. 

Today, we’ll talk about being in the flow.  Martin Seligman, a pioneer in Applied Positive Psychology, has studied Matthieu Ricard and others, researching and measuring what actually causes a sense of happiness in the brain.  One of the key processes he identified is what he describes as “Flow”, a sense of being so absorbed in a task or activity that time seems to stand still. Flow is when we are able to effortlessly move through life, instead of getting stuck in negative self-talk, feelings of frustration or a myriad of obstacles.  There are many ways for us to practice being in the flow.

One example of flow is that there is something that each of you do well, so well that you sometime lose your sense of time and place in the process.  It can be playing a game like tennis or scrabble—we can get into the flow of playing a game well.  Or, you might have a musical talent, when you become one with the music as you play.  Or, it might be a type of work you do--we can learn to work and also be in the flow. 

We can also listen to music or watch a fire and feel in the flow, or simply walking in nature or staring out at the ocean.  In fact, it’s possible to do all activities in flow, each moment bringing a deeper sense of delight.  We can find the flow in what some might consider the mundane activities of life—washing the dishes, doing the laundry, making dinner.  How joyful life could be if we use each moment to practice being in the flow, being alive with the fullness of living?

Matthieu Ricard suggests another way to experience flow is to practice nonjudgmental curiosity, as if experiencing each activity for the very first time.  Try something as simple as brushing your teeth, and imagining that you are new at it.  Fascinating!

He also encourages us to practice listening as if we ar a blank sheet of paper, being completely open and available to the other person.  We can more deeply hear each other if we are not spending so much time judging or thinking about what we are going to say next.  Try this experiment with a dear friend—just simply listen to them and reply back with a summary of what they said—they will begin to feel truly heard! 

Here are some additional experiments for you to try:

·        Find your strengths and find ways to do use them more often.  There’s an excellent book by Marcus Buckingham, called, First, Break all the Rules. And in it, he shares the research that shows that instead of trying to make everyone good at everything, the best managers are the ones that pick people that are good at certain things, and set up an environment where they are able to do more of that thing they do well. 

·        Apply curiosity and focus to activities you do every day—getting in and out of the car, walking through doorways, opening the refrigerator door.  Imagine that everything you do can be an opportunity to get into the flow.  The wonderful Zen quote is that before enlightenment, chop wood carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water.

·        Practice listening with complete openness and availability.  Some Buddhist practices describe a process of being like a mirror where you are simply reflecting back exactly what the other person is sharing with you.  Not taking on their story, not overlaying our own past experience, just simply being present to hear and understand what they are saying.

·        Another great practice is the visualization of the offering prayer, offering up any sense of struggle or suffering.  We can use this visualization to create a sense of cleansing and purifying our perspective of ourselves, each moment and of others.  Start fresh again and again, the timeless time of each precious moment.

Happiness – Altruism

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.)

We are continuing to mine the great spiritual riches from the book, Happiness by Matthieu Ricard.  There was a story included in Chapter 17 about a study that was done in Liverpool.  Researchers put a man in a public area, a park, and they positioned him near a walkway and he appeared to be in some distress and needing help. The researchers then observed people walking by to see how they reacted.  They simply counted how many people walked on by and how many people stopped to help.  They found that, out of hundred people passing by, only 15 people stopped to help.  Then, they ran the exact same experiment, but changed only one variable—they had the man wear a jersey from the local soccer team.   He was the same man; he was in the same distress, in the exact same place.  In this second scenario, 85 people stopped to help him.  By simply wearing a jersey for the home team, it appears they had a greater desire to help.  This experiment helps demonstrate our innate desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves, whether it be a soccer team or a spiritual community. 

There was also some interesting research done with a group of ministers.  Researchers went to a ministers conference and asked a some of the ministers to give a talk on the Good Samaritan story from the Bible.  They had each minister, one by one, meet in a room across the campus of this university where the conference was being held.  Part of the ministers were told that they had plenty of time to make it across campus to give their speech, then gave them directions how to get to the conference room.  On the way across campus, they positioned a man who appeared to be in some distress.   Of those ministers who were told they had plenty of time to make it to the conference room, about 90% of the ministers stopped and offered assistance.  Then, they did the exact same experiment, except for one variable--the researchers told the second set of the ministers, one by one, that they were running late, by about ten minutes, and that they would need to hurry to make it to the conference room in time to give their talk.  Of this second group, only 10% stopped to help the man in distress.  How ironic—they were going to give a talk about the Good Samaritan!

I think we can all relate to both a sense of wanting to belong to something greater than ourselves AND also those feelings of stress, depression or frustration that can cause us to close down and forget about others, becoming solely focused on our own suffering.   The entire 17^th chapter of the book on Happiness is devoted to altruism.  It turns out that altruism is actually good for us.   We’ve talked a great deal about having an innate sense of well-being, regardless of our external circumstances, as a key component of long term happiness, and we have discussed many practices to work on ourselves internally, about how we feel about ourselves.  Matthieu Ricard emphasizes that an equally important component of happiness is caring for others, of having and acting upon this sense of altruism.  We can practice and strengthen our altruistic muscle. 

It turns out when your mom told you to share and be nice to others, she was right!  It really is good for you!  Altruism has an incredible impact on us, not only psychologically but also physiologically.  There is a great deal of research that confirms this connection.  People who volunteer, for instance, are significantly less likely to die from a second heart attack, than others who do not—holding all other variables constant.   It turns out that being nice to each other is not only good for the planet, but it’s also good for us. 

There is an important distinction about Buddhism that is sometimes missed because many of us come to Buddhism in the midst of a crisis in our life.  It can be misunderstood that these practices are like any other self-help program.  One might assume that it’s just about mindfulness and meditation.  We might have thought that we were just trying to get better, so that we can get on with our life, but Buddhism is a way of life, not just medication for short term relief.

When we talk about taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, these three jewels are like a three-legged stool.  If we are only focused on ourself and our own practice, then we will miss the critical component of spiritual community.  We come together to help each other, and to also be willing to reach out and ask for help.  As we each sit together in this room, imagine that we are all part of this practice.  The fact that you are all here is part of what is making it all work.  Any sense of loving-kindness and compassion that you might be feeling is being shared with each and every person in this room.

Last year, several of us went to Arkansas to see the Dalai Lama.  We were so excited with anticipation!   We were there in the sport arena with 19,000 of his closest friends.  It was quite an ordeal—there was no assigned seating, so we had to get there at 7 am in the morning and wait in line, then get our seat and wait until he and some other panel members spoke from 9 am to 11 am, then they made us exit the arena and get back in line, just to go back inside, find our seats and wait until 1 pm, when the Dalai Lama returned and spoke until about 3 o’clock.  We were basically stuck in this sports arena from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon.  I kept thinking about the usual energy that probably filled the arena in the midst of a basketball game or concert.  We, however, were there with 19,000 people who were all focused on this experience of being with the Dalai Lama.  Of course, the Dalai Lama said some wonderful things, but when we left, the most powerful part of the experience had been that I spent a whole day with 19,000 people focusing on loving-kindness and compassion.  I left feeling spiritually intoxicated!

If you think you are just here to help yourself, that’s a good thing, that’s a good place to start.  But, we’re also here to change the world.  We may not change every single person, but we can make a very large impact on the person sitting next to us, and on every person in this room, and maybe even several people in this city.  As you begin to explore walking this Buddhist path, there is a lot of talk about mindfulness and meditation, and they are important components.  But, I encourage you to focus equally on the Sangha, the spiritual community, considering what that can do for your happiness and the happiness of those around you. 

Many of us can relate to times of depression, when we feel like we want to isolate, that we don’t want to leave the house, or maybe not even get out of bed. There might have been times when we felt sure that no one ever felt what we were feeling, no one could understand what we were going through.  Once again, the research shows that depression symptoms can be diminished if they can convince that person to find any volunteer activity, anything that is about working for the well-being of others, even a pet.  This innate desire for connectedness, even in the midst of suffering, is more evidence that we are inseparably interconnected to each other .  Beyond our unskillful thoughts, words and actions, each of us wants and needs the same thing—to feel loved and cared for.   

It can be a very good thing—by getting outside of just worrying about our own happiness, we can actually find some relief in worrying about the happiness of another.  It can actually make us feel better.  The research proving this fact is overwhelming. 

Sometimes this message gets confused with being all or nothing, a misunderstanding that “I just have to forget about me and ONLY care about others, then it’ll be okay.”  That isn’t part of the process either.  It is a balancing of caring for ourselves and caring for others, in the middle way, where the deepest happiness can be found.    I love a term that Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used in the 1970’s when he was trying to teach Buddhism to hippies, who were trying to practice “free” love and giving away all their stuff.  He said that you need to beware of “idiot compassion”, compassion without wisdom.  This is not about giving away all your possessions so that your own family doesn’t have enough food to eat.  It is about finding the balance where we take care of ourselves in order to be able to take care of others.  Beware of idiot compassion.

An excellent tool for strengthening our altruistic muscle is the guided meditation of loving-kindness.  Like an athlete who mentally pictures effortlessly achieving his sport, we too can imagine being more loving, kind and compassionate to ourselves and to each and every person on the planet.  This practice enables us to cultivate a sense of love for ourselves and through that love, realize that we have an unlimited supply to share with others.  In Buddha, Dharma AND Sangha, we can take refuge and find relief from suffering.  Ahhhhhhh.  How sweet it is…

The Four Immeasurables talk given by Joe Goodding

July 8, 2012

This talk represents my understanding of the Four Immeasurables, loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity. These are qualities or states of mind that we can cultivate within ourselves through our spiritual practice.

My references are The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless Heart  by B. Alan Wallace and a pdf document, The Jhanas and The Brahma Viharas by Lloyd Burton. The Buddha’s teachings were written down in the Pali and Sanskrit languages. As recorded in the Pali Canon, the Brahma Viharas are translated as “divine abodes” or “four immeasurables”.

I understand that describing these four qualities as “The Four Immeasurables” means that they have the potential of being experienced, felt and expressed by us as limitless, boundless, encompassing the entire universe. However, I also know that as human beings, we may often not experience ourselves as open to such mental and emotional states. We do not always feel loving and kind or compassionate or joyful or equanimous.  I believe that it is important for each of us to respect our limits, our boundaries, and not try to make ourselves feel something that we don’t. Likewise, I think that it is harmful for us to judge ourselves and criticize ourselves for not being more loving, kind, compassionate and joyful than we are.

Buddhism is a practice and when we notice that we have emotional reactions towards ourselves or others, I believe that it is important to acknowledge at least to ourselves how we feel. Take notice of your reactions, feelings or perceptions and perhaps simply wonder, “What is this reaction about?” As much as one can, do this without judging yourself. And even if we do judge ourselves, then that is also something to notice and be inquisitive about in our practice. In this way we can increase our compassion and understanding of ourselves as we acknowledge our humanness that we have in common with all other human beings.

And now a brief description of The Four Immeasurables”.

Loving Kindness – Maitri in the Sanskrit language and Metta in the Pali language. This is the quality of open heartedness for ourselves and others that we may be happy, peaceful, safe, etc. and that we may experience well being.

Compassion – Karuna in Sanskrit and perhaps also in Pali. This is the experience of being touched by the suffering in ourselves and others.

Empathetic Joy – Mudita, perhaps both Pali and Sanskrit. This may also be called Altruistic Joy or Selfless Joy. This is rejoicing in the well being of ourselves and others.

Equanimity – Upekkha in Pali and Upeksa in Sanskrit. This represents balance, calmness, evenness in our reactions and responses. This does not mean we are to be indifferent or non-feeling in our reactions. Sometimes action may be required and it becomes our responsibility to determine how to respond without acting out.  

We often practice The Four Immeasurables when we recite  a Metta prayer, a prayer of loving kindness. This prayer encompasses all Four Immeasurables as loving kindness is expressed through all four. In this practice we then come face to face with how we regard ourselves, our loved ones, neutral persons and those with whom we have difficulty. This becomes a practice of living with our experience of how we incorporate The Four Immeasurables into our lives.

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Brahma Vihara Bhavana – Cultivation of the Four Immeasurables

Lloyd Burton

Conciliation and Atonement

If there is any way I have harmed myself, either knowingly or unknowingly, through action of body, speech, or mind, I ask forgiveness.

If there is any way I have suffered harm by reason of anything I have thought, or said, or done, I forgive myself.

If there is any way I have harmed another, either on purpose or by accident, by reason of anything I have thought, or said, or done, I ask forgiveness.

If there is any way another has harmed me, either knowingly or unknowingly, through action of body, speech, or mind, I forgive them.

Karuna - Compassion

May I live with ease and in safety, free from physical affliction.

May I open to any physical suffering in me with courage, caring, and kindness.

May I live with ease, free of physical suffering.

May I live with ease, free of mental anguish.

May I open to any mental suffering in me with courage, caring, and kindness.

May I live with ease, free of mental suffering.

May I live with ease, free of suffering and the roots of suffering.

May I open to the suffering I see in others.

May we open to each other’s suffering with courage, caring, and kindness.

May we live with ease, free of suffering and the roots of suffering.

Mudita - Selfless Joy

May I open to the joy that is in me, and be happy.

May I open to the joy in others, and be happy.

May we open to each other’s joy, and be happy.

Upekkha - Equanimity

May I open to the silence and stillness within me, and be at peace.

May we open to the silence and stillness in each other, and be at peace.

Metta – Loving Kindness

May I let go the bounds of the heart-mind, awaken, and be free.

May all here live with ease, free from suffering and the roots of suffering.

May we open to the joy within us, and be happy.

May we open to the silence and stillness within us, and be at peace.

May we let go the bounds of the heart-mind, awaken, and be free.

May my friends, family, and loved ones – all whom I hold dear, be free from suffering and the roots of suffering.

May we be happy. May we be peaceful. May we be free.

May all in my community and place of work, those whom I know and do not know, whom I like and do not like, with whom I have had some difficulty, may we all live with ease. May we all be happy. May we all be peaceful. May we all be free.

May all those who have suffered violence and all those who have committed violence against them live with ease, free of suffering and the roots of suffering. May they again be happy. May they again live in peace. May they be awakened.

Just as a mother protects her child, her only child, with her life if need be, so too with a boundless heart may we cherish all living beings, suffusing the entire world with unobstructed loving kindness.

May all beings live with ease, free from suffering and the roots of suffering.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

All Beings who walk the Earth, All Beings who fly in the skies above, All Beings who swim in the waters below, All Beings now living, All Beings gone beyond, All Beings yet to be born, All Beings in all the realms of existence, May All Beings live with ease. May all beings be happy. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.