Tony
28th June 2011, 10:15
DEVOTION.
(These are notes taken at a retreat I attended. Devotion is not an easy subject for westerners, it can make us feel quite uncomfortable. But maybe these note will give you confidence on what it is all about).
When one starts to understand the main point of the Dharma and realises the point of the teachings, because of the joy and appreciation of that, devotion arises.
What is the advantage of experiencing devotion? We can receive blessings (spiritual influence) and in our subtle body and basic consciousness (alaya vidyana) we have a lot of bonds that tie us up and devotion melts away this bondage and opens up our subtle body.
Devotion is also a feeling, but a healthy type of expression without the side effect of binding us even more. We are human – we are not vegetables and it is part of our nature to express.
Emotion of devotion is the antithesis of other emotions: usually emotions make us more uptight but devotion releases.
But if we don't know what the essence of devotion is, then there is some danger. That's why in the Dharma it is said that devotion has to go along with intelligence and knowledge
Slowly the sticky devotion will be refined. But first we have to find the sticky devotion.
Many things that block the arousal of devotion – in the body there may be physical tiredness, stress, imbalance in the subtle body, and the mind may have hopes and fears and thoughts and preoccupations. These things will prevent the expression of devotion.
Fear can be a cultural inheritance.
Devotion is not 'you' because at the culmination of devotion there should be freedom from dualistic clinging. But the beginning we need some raw material of devotion which we refine. Don't do too much checking – just express.
Within us, there is a longing. We encounter many situations that prevent us from trusting so we are in 2 minds – we spend our lives like this. Trust is affected by many conditions that prevent it – how do we deal with this? We have to resort to intelligence to think and understand and on this basis we can enhance trust. It's very hard to teach devotion as it is can be done wrongly. There has to be a certain element of blind faith. (To a westerner this is like a red flag to a bull. I had this problem, but through this retreat saw that I was stuck and needed some help.)
So we have to recreate that open hearted innocent trust. ..we want to meet people who have these qualities – a joy to see positive things. We want to see goodness etc, but because of experiences, maybe of betrayal, we are wary. The inclination to find such a person is there. But maybe we don't meet a person who has these qualities: maybe they don't exist, or maybe the problem is within us.
So we need confidence to develop devotion within us, and we need to study and reflect to enhance this confidence. Trust: in many ways it has been affected by life experiences- it's been tainted, tarnished. We always designate so much value on external objects and don't put enough trust in inner values – in the western society there is so much promotion of the outer and we are convinced that we can get happiness from that. But there is always something missing – our expectations are not met and this tarnishes our trust.
4 types of teacher, embodied in our teacher –
1 Main (root) who has gained realisation through transmission of the lineage ( it is safer this way).
2 Lineage lama
3 Through relating to the above 2 we realise rigpa – the ultimate teacher of our own natural mind.
4 The whole of the phenomenal world is perceived as being naturally liberated – all that is perceived – so the phenomenal world is a symbolic teacher as it acts as the basis for realising the nature of phenomena. (another way to understand this one – when things happen to us, on the basis of this we train ourselves to clarify negative emotions in order to purify eg compassion counteracting the reaction of anger. If you want to perfect the paramitas, you have to rely on sentient beings). Good practitioners take into account that when we face situations, they can induce a way to transform a situation that is negative into positive: it is the way that our practice can transform.
( Losing the stickiness is not so easy, but worth looking out for. If devotion brings up defences or aggression then maybe the devotion is a little sticky. There are many forms of devotional practice. Here is just a guide line. The whole point is to lose the feeling of self cherishing. It could be thought as psychological, but it does work. )
Just chanting or singing can do it. It has an effect on the subtle body
(the internal channel/wind/bindu). Basically it takes the downward wind back to below the navel. When we get agitated, energy rises up to the head or heart, where it should 'not' be.
Gentle breath control is another way, just imagine your breath taking these tensions to below the navel, hold gently for a count of six or so and release. Do this until the whole system relaxes.
Another way is deity practice, here one supplicates to that which reflects one own true nature, but I've gone on too long...next time.
All the best
Tony
(These are notes taken at a retreat I attended. Devotion is not an easy subject for westerners, it can make us feel quite uncomfortable. But maybe these note will give you confidence on what it is all about).
When one starts to understand the main point of the Dharma and realises the point of the teachings, because of the joy and appreciation of that, devotion arises.
What is the advantage of experiencing devotion? We can receive blessings (spiritual influence) and in our subtle body and basic consciousness (alaya vidyana) we have a lot of bonds that tie us up and devotion melts away this bondage and opens up our subtle body.
Devotion is also a feeling, but a healthy type of expression without the side effect of binding us even more. We are human – we are not vegetables and it is part of our nature to express.
Emotion of devotion is the antithesis of other emotions: usually emotions make us more uptight but devotion releases.
But if we don't know what the essence of devotion is, then there is some danger. That's why in the Dharma it is said that devotion has to go along with intelligence and knowledge
Slowly the sticky devotion will be refined. But first we have to find the sticky devotion.
Many things that block the arousal of devotion – in the body there may be physical tiredness, stress, imbalance in the subtle body, and the mind may have hopes and fears and thoughts and preoccupations. These things will prevent the expression of devotion.
Fear can be a cultural inheritance.
Devotion is not 'you' because at the culmination of devotion there should be freedom from dualistic clinging. But the beginning we need some raw material of devotion which we refine. Don't do too much checking – just express.
Within us, there is a longing. We encounter many situations that prevent us from trusting so we are in 2 minds – we spend our lives like this. Trust is affected by many conditions that prevent it – how do we deal with this? We have to resort to intelligence to think and understand and on this basis we can enhance trust. It's very hard to teach devotion as it is can be done wrongly. There has to be a certain element of blind faith. (To a westerner this is like a red flag to a bull. I had this problem, but through this retreat saw that I was stuck and needed some help.)
So we have to recreate that open hearted innocent trust. ..we want to meet people who have these qualities – a joy to see positive things. We want to see goodness etc, but because of experiences, maybe of betrayal, we are wary. The inclination to find such a person is there. But maybe we don't meet a person who has these qualities: maybe they don't exist, or maybe the problem is within us.
So we need confidence to develop devotion within us, and we need to study and reflect to enhance this confidence. Trust: in many ways it has been affected by life experiences- it's been tainted, tarnished. We always designate so much value on external objects and don't put enough trust in inner values – in the western society there is so much promotion of the outer and we are convinced that we can get happiness from that. But there is always something missing – our expectations are not met and this tarnishes our trust.
4 types of teacher, embodied in our teacher –
1 Main (root) who has gained realisation through transmission of the lineage ( it is safer this way).
2 Lineage lama
3 Through relating to the above 2 we realise rigpa – the ultimate teacher of our own natural mind.
4 The whole of the phenomenal world is perceived as being naturally liberated – all that is perceived – so the phenomenal world is a symbolic teacher as it acts as the basis for realising the nature of phenomena. (another way to understand this one – when things happen to us, on the basis of this we train ourselves to clarify negative emotions in order to purify eg compassion counteracting the reaction of anger. If you want to perfect the paramitas, you have to rely on sentient beings). Good practitioners take into account that when we face situations, they can induce a way to transform a situation that is negative into positive: it is the way that our practice can transform.
( Losing the stickiness is not so easy, but worth looking out for. If devotion brings up defences or aggression then maybe the devotion is a little sticky. There are many forms of devotional practice. Here is just a guide line. The whole point is to lose the feeling of self cherishing. It could be thought as psychological, but it does work. )
Just chanting or singing can do it. It has an effect on the subtle body
(the internal channel/wind/bindu). Basically it takes the downward wind back to below the navel. When we get agitated, energy rises up to the head or heart, where it should 'not' be.
Gentle breath control is another way, just imagine your breath taking these tensions to below the navel, hold gently for a count of six or so and release. Do this until the whole system relaxes.
Another way is deity practice, here one supplicates to that which reflects one own true nature, but I've gone on too long...next time.
All the best
Tony