About Hinayana, Mahayana and Tantra

[Nitiananda]

There is such a thing as Truth. But what is Truth? A certain truth is, for example, that having money, a person can have some freedom of action and be happy. But such truths are not absolute. Why is this so? Because the possession of money under certain conditions can not give either freedom or happiness. Therefore this truth is relative. What is the absolute Truth? This is the Truth that does not change under any circumstances. For example: a person is mortal, a person necessarily grows old, a person is sick. Really aware of this, they strive to completely eliminate pollution in the soul, in order to defeat these three armies - death, old age, disease - and to find the only true state - Absolute Freedom, Absolute Happiness and Absolute Joy - the perfect, independent and highest state of Liberation.

Absolute Freedom means that now you are free to choose a new birth, you can by your own will reincarnate anywhere - create a body in the lower worlds or go to Maha Nirvana - and voluntarily leave these worlds. In other words, now you have learned to create karma or to get rid of it at will and consciously.

Absolute Happiness means that you do not experience any suffering. Because of the absence of harmful desires, your soul is in bliss and silence. And your past experience does not violate your state of mind at all, that is, you are completely free from the influence of past actions, which is called karma.

Absolute Joy is joy that results from the accumulation of your inner prana. If you achieve success in practice, your inner energy brings you the highest pleasure, even if you do not eat or do not experience sensual pleasures. It is a joy that does not need external objects for its origin. Therefore, it is called the Absolute.

Four practices

When the Great Sage of the Shakya-Shakyamuni clan gained this higher state, he felt a desire to give others the opportunity to escape quickly from this total suffering of the circle of existence. Therefore, he preached the Four Practices for Entering the Truth Stream. They are like that. First: to meet with a high guru who practices the Truth. Next, listen and study the Law - the Dharma that it gives. Then, think carefully about the Dharma and, based on it, analyze your current state. And, at last, in reality to take practical steps - to think, speak and act in everyday life - in accordance with this Law. Further, since Shakyamuni saw the innate roots of each individual's karma, he revealed the path of the Hinayana to the lay faithful who were committed to the lay faithful and gave them ways to distance themselves from worldly desires. For most of the disciples, he preached the mixed teachings of Hinayana and Mahayana, giving the opportunity to dive into the Causal World - the World Without Forms - and gain the level of the Arhat. And the highest disciples: Sariputte, Mahamoggallana, Anuruda, Punna-Mantanniputta, Uppalavanne, Maha Kheme and Yasodhara - he preached the secret teachings of the Diamond Chariot. However, since the latter teaching is secret, and only disciples who have already attained Liberation can practice it, we will deal here with Hinayana and Mahayana.
Hinayana

It is often said that many disciples of the Buddha Shakyamuni calmed the mind and entered a state of perfect silence, almost without experiencing the experience of other dimensions and only through intense meditation such as "The Four Stages of Mastery of Memorization" or "Five Accumulations of Captivations Is Not Me": my Form-Appearance is fickle, Feelings are fickle, Presentations are fickle, Experience accumulation is unstable, Distinction is impermanent. Since my body, attachments and even thoughts are impermanent, it means that I can not rely on them. So they are the cause of my suffering and are not me. Hence, I must separate myself and the body, myself and sensations, myself and images, myself and thoughts. From such work of consciousness, there came the state of Denial of This World, Renunciation from Attachments, and they reached Liberation.

This state can be imagined as a state of even water in a vessel, to which nothing is already working. Before it rocked, and now we have eliminated the circumstances, in view of which it rocked. Then, little by little, the vessel and the water in it by themselves will come to a perfectly calm state. The mud will settle and the water will be clear and transparent. That's what Nirvana is in Hinayana.

But, probably, someone thinks: "Is not Hinayana alone enough? Is not the state of separation from all phenomena and perfect calm of consciousness sufficient? Why do there exist other systems of practice? "There is one point to think about, namely: what will happen if an energetic impact is once again applied to this Nirvana Hinayana? Naturally, when there is no impact, everything is stable and stable. However, such a state, even in the absence of personal interference from within, will be upset during the intervention from the outside.

After all, what kind of thinking is practiced by Hinayana? He denies everything: this world is dirty, everything is vicious, all is suffering. He denies everything in this way. Then this world will appear to him an illusion, and he will eventually be able to enter Nirvana.

However, if something happens that partially undermines his denial, he will immediately lose the ability to enter Nirvana. Even if he has already visited it, he will be forced to descend again into this World of Phenomena.

The difference between Hinayana and Mahayana

Mahayana by method is very different from Hinayana. A person must meet people and love them, and not avoid them. And he must take on their karma and be able to destroy it by analyzing their own state. To do this, he needs some divine ability, superior to a person's abilities. He also needs strong will.

Practitioners of the Mahayana enjoy life in this world to some extent, because one can not practice the Mahayana, not being in any way sensitive to external influences, and practitioners of Hina

Six Perfections

The Six Perfection and the Four Diminities are the main practices of the Mahayana aimed at cultivating bodhichitta [1] actions and bodhichitta intentions, respectively.

What is the Six Perfection? This is the Giving or Sacrifice, the Observance of the Commandments and the Vows, Patience, Persevering Efforts, Meditation and Wisdom.

Order here is very important, because one follows from the other. If a person does not want to engage in disinterested service and sacrifice, he will not be able to keep the commandments. If a person can not keep the commandments, then his thoughts wander, he is unable to concentrate and will not be able to endure the return of bad karma, not to mention that he has no intention of making utmost efforts to develop meditative abilities.

So, the Paramità of Sacrifice. What is this step needed for? With the help of proper donations, karma is cleared and efforts are directed to become capable of realizing high worlds. And, as already mentioned, there are three main types of sacrifice or giving. The first is the material donations of money and things to a true guru or true teaching; then - the gift of peace of mind, bringing happiness to others; and the third type of sacrifice is the preaching of the True Law (Dharma) in order to spread it.

When you can easily keep the commandments, thanks to a persistent and consistent practice, your karma will be washed away, willpower will become stronger, and the ability to patience will appear during a long meditative practice. This is the third Paramita - the strengthening of the will, the perfection of patience. Then, on the basis of what has already been achieved, it is necessary to conduct in full force the practice, which has a form. And this will be the perfection of Persevering Effort. And at the stage when this state is reached, they pass to the fifth process, that is, they begin to persevere in meditation aimed directly at achievement. This is the fifth Paramita - the perfection of meditation. In fact, all the Paramitas become truly Paramitam, only when perfection is achieved in the latter - the Paramita of Wisdom. And if after the first achievements of the state of Wisdom cultivate it constantly, then in the end the Truth is achieved. This is the teaching of Mahayana Buddhism. And this way of practice is called the Sixth Perfection.

Four Dimensionalities

Then, the basic state of the soul in the Mahayana is the Four Dimensionalities: Holy Love, Holy Compassion, Holy Praise (joy of success and the happiness of others) and Holy Impartiality (equal treatment of all living beings, as well as an indifferent attitude to the return of one's own karma).

What is love in Mahayana? Meditation on the cultivation of this state begins with one person - from the one you prefer to everyone else, and then the consciousness expands and on others - the father, mother, spouse, friends and acquaintances. Remembering everyone you know, you gradually spread love to all living beings and sincerely wish them happiness, love, joy and meeting with the true Teachings: "Let this person, or this soul, or that living entity, let everyone I know , and everyone I do not know will be freed from suffering sooner, they will quickly free themselves from ignorance, quickly destroy worldly desires, quickly learn other worlds and find true happiness in Maha Nirvana. "

The next is Holy Compassion. Imagining all living beings in the same order, starting with the nearest ones, it is necessary to cultivate in their soul immeasurable compassion for them because their connection with the Truth is too weak, or because they continue to commit bad deeds. "This person is suffering now because of his past deeds, which he does now, without knowing the Law of Karma. He denies the Truth and believes that there are no worlds other than this. Even finding happiness, he does not understand how it is relative and fleeting. May he enter more quickly into the Stream of the True Law! "Compassion is a state of the soul, addressed to the primordial ignorance of all souls.

Human consciousness is an interesting thing. For all who surpass him in anything at all, it immediately reacts with jealousy and envy. But this dirt does not so much interfere with others as it does to itself. Conversely, sincere joy to the happiness and success of others makes a person strong and generous. The ability to rejoice over others is no less important than the ability to compassion. It also determines the tendency of man's spiritual development. It is not necessary to praise aloud at all - too frequent praise can lead to flattery on one side and conceit on the other. But admiration in the soul subconsciously will cause you to become the same. And it is especially useful to praise religious merit. To learn such qualities of the soul, it is necessary in the same order to imagine the faces of people, to find their good and wholeheartedly to praise them for it.

The final stage of meditation of the Four Dimensionalities involves two aspects: the outer - an immeasurably equal relation to all living beings - and the inner one - the immense indifference to the return of one's own karma - both good and bad. During this meditation, it is necessary to imagine two people next to you -

[Nitiananda]

Mahayana

So, let us consider further the Liberation in Mahayana. In Mahayana practice, we usually ignore for a long time the experience that we experience in meditation in the Astral World, and the emphasis is on the experience experienced in real life. Indeed, in order to achieve essential Liberation, there is no other way than to fill with love and gratitude every moment of its existence and already in this state to experience all the sensations, the whole experience of this world, to surpass them and come to Liberation. This method is the best.

But there is one "but" here. People easily forget that it was even a while ago. Almost completely do not remember what happened to them in childhood. And if some vivid memories are preserved, this does not mean that they are able to give them a correct interpretation according to the Dharma.

In other words, if for every specific Mahayana experience there is no initial elimination of ignorance as such, there is little sense in this experience. And if, in the process of acquiring new experience, everything that has been experienced before, everything is forgotten in succession, then this experience as such will certainly be completely useless and in no way affect spiritual development.

Now, why is a different mystical experience ignored for a long time if it appears? Firstly, it is very useful for eliminating pride - an obstacle on which almost all practitioners stumble. Secondly, it is difficult for novice practitioners to distinguish the mystical experience of other dimensions from the play of the inflamed imagination. And, thirdly, the mystical experience is in fact little different from the experience of this world: it is forgotten as quickly and does not at all affect the spirituality of the person, unless the person has learned to perceive it correctly, as we talked about above.

But when the spiritual practice is progressing and the practitioner is already close to perfection and Liberation, a rich experience of astral travel or experience of the Supernatural Ability of Knowledge of Past Lives comes, and such a rich experience is not forgotten. The reason is that in time it passes very intensively in a short space. And again: this very experience of experience due to the light of Sattva allows you to simultaneously experience the experience of the past and the experience of even earlier rebirths, or the experience of future lives, or the experience of worlds different from what is experienced now. Then the person will really be convinced that everything is impermanent, that everything is without exception subject to change, that the underside of pleasure is suffering or that even if now he is happy, there can be a misfortune or, even if he is rich now, he could drag out a miserable existence in the past. He will see the reality of the universe. In other words, he knows the perfect and complete Samadhi, through which he can wisely assess reality - such as it is. Now he knows everything. And then, thanks to this knowledge, a state is created, when in relation to any phenomenon - even if it does any actions - in relation to this phenomenon, its consciousness is unaffected, it does not take part in it. This is called Distancing from This World. And again: the thirst for this action, attachment to this action, disappears. This is called Distancing from Attachments. And if there comes a state of Distancing from This World and Removing from Attachments, the essence of the soul will be cut off and remote from each and every phenomenon and Liberation will come.

[Nitiananda]

Tantraiana

Next, what is Tantra? In Tantra there are three ways: Left, Right and Medium. What is the Left Way? This is a high-level technique, by means of which the one who attains a higher dimension pulls the consciousness of another person upwards, using subtle spiritual energy. Initially there is such a thing as man's worldly desires. So, to affirm affirmatively these worldly desires, to revive them, to activate and begin to satisfy, and, further, with the help of yogic techniques, to direct to the spiritual practice the primordial ignorance of man - his consciousness desiring to receive one pleasures, or in other words, to bring out the worldly desire , and the desire to sublimate through the mantra or through a special technique of breathing is the essence of the Left Path.

What is the Right Way? It is a way of strengthening, raising and purifying energy through the practice of overcoming pain, overcoming suffering, and also by reading special mantras.

Finally, what is the Medium Path? It is largely intertwined with the Left Path, but progress is mainly through the use of images, special mantras or special meditations.

The peculiarity of Tantra is that, however, the primary source of energy is the guru. Why is this so? The fact is that, even if there is a God, we can not see it; whom we can see-this is our guru-is a manifestation of the inner essence of God descending into this World of Phenomena, and therefore the guru is considered the primary source of all energy. And in order to reach the Achievement as quickly as possible, it is worthwhile for a long time to concentrate the mind on the guru.

That's what the teaching of Tantra is, and that's why it's so important to find a true guru who has achieved samadhi, that is, Liberation. If there is no true guru, then the practice of Tantra can lead to a grave devilish state (schizophrenia), to a total waste of merit and the accumulation of bad karma. Therefore, independent practice of Tantra or practice with a false teacher is very dangerous. Tantra, using the energy of worldly desires, strengthens and lifts consciousness extremely quickly, due to which it reaches the astral and causal world. In the event that a person has unconscious subconsciousness and superconsciousness, then, facing face to face with his pollution, he begins to satisfy worldly desires and falls. But the essence of Tantra is not to satisfy worldly desires, but to use the energy of worldly desires for a quick cleansing. Therefore, without the accumulation of great merit and without adherence to a true guru, this practice is extremely dangerous.

Now, between what is usually called Tantra, and Tantra, in the true sense, there is a big discrepancy. What is it? The first essential point is whether or not a complete sublimation of energy is possible. If the situation is such that sublimation does not occur, then we can say that this is a simple hedonism, the primacy of the principle of worldly desires. It can be explained by the following figurative comparison. Let there be some kind of food. And the person is told: "Eat before the blade". At the same time he is created such a state of consciousness that a person really was able to eat before the dump, even though there is suffering in passing. Of course, we proceed from the fact that there is a Guru who is able to influence the pupil so. And if so, in this situation there is a consciousness of commitment. Outwardly, everything looks like that, because of taking a huge amount of food, energy should be lowered, as it were. But thanks to adherence, energy is pulled up. This is because consciousness has merged with the guru.

Imagine a similar situation, but without the consciousness of adherence. There is food, the person zealously absorbs it, and, being full, thinks: "Oh, I ate, ate well." It turns out that he simply spent Saman-vay, and he could not get any good for himself. The same can be said about the Tantra of the Left Path.

We need to get rid of everything and everything that we possess. For example, it is necessary to perform liberation in relation to the Form-Appearance, that is, the physical body, with respect to Sensations, with respect to Representations, with respect to Will, or Formed Experience, with respect to Discernment, that is, data in deep layers of consciousness. And it is possible to reach a certain stage of this liberation by tantric means, but Tantra, especially the Left Path, in principle asserts worldly desires as such, and therefore pulling up, raising consciousness to absolute tranquility in Tantra is impossible.

What is the reason for this? There are worldly desires, and these worldly desires are met. And while they are satisfied with the sublimation of energy, everything is in order. Further, when the energy is completely sublimated, the state of Nirvana Tantrayani comes. But in this state of Nirvana, Karma is left in the form of experience and actions that were raised up to that time. Consequently, until there is no other way of spiritual practice interrupting this karma, it will be impossible to set foot on the final frontier.

Can you comment on theravada too?
As the Pali canon is at the basis of the 3 you write about above, I wonder how you think they connect.

With Love
Eelco

[Nitiananda]

YES, my teacher has collected a collection of the sutras of the northern branch of Buddhism (tantra-vajrayana) and southern (tehrovada) Which of the exercises are you interested in? I think if the moderators will not remove my posts, I can publish a lot here.

I am mostly interested in how something as basic and clear as the Pali canon. becomes something so "hidden, esoteric and convoluted" as the rites and rituals of the greater vehicles.

Now not wanting to argue or get into heated debates about the subject.
The Satipatthana sutta may be a nice starting point.

With Love
Eelco

[happy soul]

Nitiananda,

I checked out Pilot Baba's website, and enjoyed reading some of his teachings. Thanks for telling me about him!

One of his teaching is the same in A Course in Miracles.

Pilot Baba said, 'Be it pain and pleasure, birth and death - all are the product of mind. Once this has been seen absolutely, the conjurer drops away and then what is left is truth. This leads to liberation.'

ACIM teaches the same thing. It say that 'salvation has one law' - that we understand that we are creating everything, that 'you create your own reality', everything we ever experience, we have created.

I needed to hear this because it might be the key to liberation. ACIM says that the key to 'creating Heaven on earth' is simply to see that you create everything you experience. Then Heaven and positive change come into being spontaneously.

[Nitiananda]

Originally Posted by catsquotl

I am mostly interested in how something as basic and clear as the Pali canon. becomes something so "hidden, esoteric and convoluted" as the rites and rituals of the greater vehicles.

Now not wanting to argue or get into heated debates about the subject.
The Satipatthana sutta may be a nice starting point.

With Love
Eelco

You forgive me, but I'm not familiar with this sutra. In general, the southern branch is something that in Buddhism is called Hinayana (spiritual practice in isolation for oneself) and now it has almost no power for us people living in society. For modern people are suited to the teachings of Mahayana or better tantra.
And the central teaching in it is the practice of six perfections.

[Nitiananda]

Originally Posted by happy soul

Nitiananda,

I checked out Pilot Baba's website, and enjoyed reading some of his teachings. Thanks for telling me about him!

.

What is good about Pilot Baba is that it gives a very wide variety of breathing techniques. I only received about 10 bhastraki from him.
And his teaching is mainly inspired by the followers to practice.
He is very hospitable to his pupils. Especially someone with a pure verdict strives to practice. He gives very beautiful names to his disciples. My name is nityananda given to them.
An example of good respiratory technology:

http://www.yogamax.net/pranayama/bhastrika

BUT, this is similar in breathing to your Vayvia Kumbaka.

This one is more similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSFbOlgfxyk

Originally Posted by Nitiananda

You forgive me, but I'm not familiar with this sutra. In general, the southern branch is something that in Buddhism is called Hinayana (spiritual practice in isolation for oneself) and now it has almost no power for us people living in society. For modern people are suited to the teachings of Mahayana or better tantra.
And the central teaching in it is the practice of six perfections.

Hinayana is supposedly an inferior(lesser) vehicle.
Which as I understand it has no relevance to the theravada tradition.

Mainly because when the term was conjured up by mahayana followers (to belittle that path) there was already little to no communication between the different schools. As for its usefulness for people in todays society. I'd encourage everyone to go, taste and see for themselves.

With Love
Eelco