The Tree of Enlightenment

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that these general preliminaries are indispensable prerequisites to serious Vajrayana practice. No tradition within Tibetan Buddhism encourages the commencement of Vajrayana practice without having spent a really substantial amount of time on these preliminary practices. All the Tibetan Vajrayana traditions have extensive oral and written material on the cultivation and practice of these preliminaries. Although it does sometimes happen that people go on to Vajrayana practice without having spent an appropriate amount of time on these general preliminaries, they do so at their own risk. However, I do not mean to indulge in scare mongering. What I mean is that if you do somehow manage to go on to your university education without having undergone pre-university training, you are liable to have a much more difficult time in your university career. I would like to make one more observation before treating the particular preliminary practices that are special to the Vajrayana. I have gone to great lengths to show the integrated nature of the three major Buddhist traditions of eravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, and have tried to show that the Vajrayana represents a natural extension of elements found in other Buddhist traditions. I would therefore like to draw your attention to two steps in these general preliminary practices: the taking of refuge, and the awakening of the enlightenment thought, or acceptance of the Bodhisattva vows. I would like to suggest that these can be regarded as initiations of a kind. Another practice which may be seen as analogous to initiation is the novitiate, or entrance into the Buddhist Order. All three of these practices may be thought of as varieties of initiations. All involve entrance into a community with a partic- 284
ular set of practices: in the case of taking refuge, the ceremony represents entry into the Buddhist community; in the case of the novitiate, it represents entry into the monastic community; and in the case of the Bodhisattva vows, entry into the lineage or family of the Buddha. ese three ceremonies are, in a sense, initiations that involve taking on certain commitments: taking refuge brings along with it the commitment to try to observe the precepts of a layperson; entering the monastic order brings with it the commitment to observe the precepts of a novice; and taking the Bodhisattva vows brings with it the commitments of the Bodhisattva. ere are aspects of the institutions of refuge, novitiate, and Bodhisattva vows that are similar to important elements in the Vajrayana initiation. Let us go on to look at the specific preliminary practices generally required for Vajrayana practice. It is not imperative that one complete the preliminaries before beginning any kind of Vajrayana practice. It is also not imperative that one complete these preliminaries before receiving Vajrayana initiation. It is, however, imperative that one complete them before undertaking meditational retreat on one of the major Vajrayana tutelary deities. For really serious Vajrayana practice, these specific preliminaries are required. e term for these preliminaries in Tibetan is ngon-dro, which literally means ‘going before.’ Hence these practices go before serious practice. ere are four specific preliminary practices common to all the Vajrayana traditions: (1) refuge, (2) confession, (3) preceptor yoga, and (4) mandala offering. Each has to be performed one hundred thousand times. In addition to these four, certain traditions require the performance of prostrations, 285
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The Tree of Enlightenment Dr Peter
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CONTENTS About the Author..........
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Part ree he ajrayana Chapter Twenty
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out the uthor P eter Della Santina
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uthor’s ote F rom 1983 to 1985 wh
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ship. Finally, I want to thank all
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CHAPTER ONE uddhism: odern erspeiv
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mind, while in traditionally Buddhi
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is story illustrates the practical
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one’s own personal experience is
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e procedure adopted here is analyti
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transformation, whereas in Buddhism
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emained separate and distinct, but
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coveries at Mohenjo-daro and Harapp
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Whereas in the religion of the Indu
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look at some of the prominent facts
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Buddhism was a protest against, or
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CHAPTER THREE e ife of the uddha N
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inated by the correctives of renunc
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Siddhartha, being the faster runner
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permanently put an end to suffering
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CHAPTER FOUR e our oble ruths W ith
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the formula of the Four Noble Truth
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measures to remedy the disease. Suc
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lives often brings us into contact
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all right, but it would be still be
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as we take the tree stump to be a p
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ply because we have not experienced
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emedy the situation here and now, t
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earth, water, fire, and air, the su
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overly tight string produces an unp
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CHAPTER FIVE orality I n Chapter 4
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you will find that the basic rules
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In this context, right speech impli
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ever, some of the developments in r
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Very briefly, these are the origin,
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CHAPTER SIX ental evelopment I n th
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ing the way we experience things an
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itself. Indeed, if you look at the
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Recognizing the value and importanc
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the mind on the object without dist
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CHAPTER SEVEN isdom W ith this chap
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Buddhism, faith is preliminary and
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when you are sure you have understo
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will experience the happy effects o
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greed, anger, envy, and jealousy. I
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of samsara, the cycle of birth and
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others are less fortunate, why some
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In the same way, according to the l
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Here we can see at work the princip
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Similarly, there are five alternati
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in heaven can we escape our karma.
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CHAPTER NINE ebirth I n this chapte
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convincing case for the reality of
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death, we are reborn at every momen
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ey suffer from the human beings who
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ealms is undesirable. e three lower
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continue to circle endlessly among
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tinuity of cause and effect exists,
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On the basis of the Buddha’s own
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in this life result in rebirth in a
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less lives, combined with new actio
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impurities are eliminated, actions
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objective is admirably achieved thr
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can understand that fire is hot and
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is process of the constant change o
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emember the certainty of our own de
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their techniques of meditation and
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Although we know that certain thoug
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And when wisdom arises, we experien
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for a collection of trees. In this
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to turn an indefinite experience in
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We discussed this in Chapter 11, wh
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN e undamentals in r
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art wo e ahayana
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to have taught innumerable living b
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dissemination of the Dharma. During
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school of realistic pluralism known
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is compassion for all living beings
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN e otus utra T he pe
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physician who has been away from ho
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Just as each plant benefits from ra
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nations of his children, the father
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But because our ambitions and aspir
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the Mahayana tradition. It is also
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e passage from wisdom to the perfec
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independent existence of things. On
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ory as well as to meditation. In th
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN e ankavatara utra
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speaks does not participate in thes
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and nirvana, both the phenomenal wo
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(1) the transcendental dimension is
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN e hilosophy of the
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the sutras, and in the approach of
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It is interesting to note that thes
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far as cause and effect are identic
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say that perception is proved by it
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there’: they depend, rather, on t
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CHAPTER NINETEEN e hilosophy of ind
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opment of Buddhist thought. We all
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milk, but it would appear as nectar
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ern science. e atom as well as its
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the source of the phenomenalizing a
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to cause and effect, to samsara. e
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that the philosophy of emptiness wa
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Just as this was taking place withi
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ience suffused by great bliss. Whil
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it white, blue, or otherwise?’ Su
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the apparatus needed to produce a m
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ahayana uddhism
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for the practice of unwholesome act
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mothers to you, should continue to
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dom. Similarly, without a concentra
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tary reassociation with fictitious
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ese three bodies or dimensions of B
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO e rigins of the
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Page 236 and 237: throughout India. Nagarjuna and Asa
Page 238 and 239: Asanga asked, ‘Where have you bee
Page 240 and 241: was also a professor at Nalanda. On
Page 242 and 243: CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE hilosophical a
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Page 246 and 247: e object now appears to him without
Page 248 and 249: Mahayana both in its starting point
Page 250 and 251: CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ethodology A s
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Page 256 and 257: us we can see that not only are obj
Page 258 and 259: lizes a variety of phenomena, and t
Page 260 and 261: CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE yth and ymbolis
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Page 264 and 265: of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
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Page 268 and 269: Red, which is the color of fire, is
Page 270 and 271: On the broadest level, we have been
Page 272 and 273: e idea of interpenetration is found
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Page 278 and 279: ody of each individual person. ey a
Page 280 and 281: You can see how, in the Vajrayana t
Page 282 and 283: (4) death and impermanence, and (5)
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Page 290 and 291: it is then the task of the practiti
Page 292 and 293: CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT e ajrayana nit
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Page 304 and 305: ties, and his achievement of Buddha
Page 306 and 307: the tutelary deity, in other words,
Page 308 and 309: and the sound of the mantra so that
Page 310 and 311: CHAPTER THIRTY n ntroduion to the b
Page 312 and 313: is said that when he returned to ea
Page 314 and 315: and so forth. is is the difference
Page 316 and 317: ontology, which means the study of
Page 318 and 319: ticularly interested here. ese are
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Page 322 and 323: emained silent, and after a time Va
Page 324 and 325: CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO ethodology I n t
Page 326 and 327: already have some intellectual acqu
Page 328 and 329: To arrive at the ultimate picture o
Page 330 and 331: these component parts do not exist
Page 332 and 333: CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE nalysis of ons
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(lokiya) and are concerned with the
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ditioned by any of the three unwhol
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we have fifty-four types of conscio
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR e orm and ormle
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as evidence of the existence of a t
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‘striking,’ or ‘mounting.’
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formless-sphere absorption, which d
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE upramundane ons
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ness (the fruit consciousness of th
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consciousness, the fruit consciousn
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e clarity of that flash remains for
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX nalysis of ental
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to a particular object whereas atte
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e third group of unwholesome mental
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disassociated with knowledge, or as
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN nalysis of oug
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Heedlessness is the source of death
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ere are four types of physical thou
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sciousness, too, are either wholeso
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where he is. He stretches out his a
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ply have subjective and objective f
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porary thought about matter. Scient
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sciousness. is intermediate positio
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e only way we can avoid this plural
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existence, (12) repetition, (13) ka
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vious karma has an influence and se
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lar way identifiable in terms of th
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CHAPTER FORTY e irty-even aors of n
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Mindfulness with regard to the body
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Truths and in the destruction of th
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iver the eastern part and the other
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ment, equanimity is that integrated
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are the keys to self-development, a
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of right effort, right mindfulness,
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conditioned, relative, and empty na
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