PRACTICE (SANGHA)

Supplication is the most common form of prayer, wherein a person asks God to provide something, either for the person who is doing the praying or on behalf of someone else,

SUPPLICATION

THE CROWN OF GODS AND DEMI GODS
ARE BOWED TO THEIR TWO LOTUS FEET,
I PROSTRATE TO THE BUDDHAS,
THE SAVIOURESS FROM ALL IGNORANCE AND POVERTY.

ChakraSamvara Center provides on going practices so emotional blockages can be healed and removed; as EMPTIEDNESS is to be attained.

Emanator of VAJRAYOGINI

TIBETAN BUDDHISM

Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism: the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna. The Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of Buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the bodhicitta mind of enlightenment  an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings. Tibetan Buddhism teaches methods for achieving Buddhahood more quickly by including the Vajrayāna path in Mahāyāna.

Buddhahood is defined as a state free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When, in Buddhahood, one is freed from all mental obscurations,one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, the true nature of reality. In this state, all limitations on one’s ability to help other living beings are removed.

It is said that there are countless beings who have attained Buddhahoods.  Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to benefit all sentient beings However it is believed that one’s karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them. Thus, although Buddhas possess no limitation from their side on their ability to help others, sentient beings continue to experience suffering as a result of the limitations of their own former negative actions.

PRACTICES & PRAYERS THAT WE ENGAGE:

1.  OPEN HEART SUTRA RECITATION (AWAKENING & CONNECTING TO EMPTINESS)

2.  MALE & FEMALE BUDDHAS:  GREEN TARA SADHANA, WHITE TARA SADHANA (DISSOLUTION & SELF GENERATION)

3.  RECITATION OF THE KING OF NOBLE PRAYERS (SENDING LOVE AND LIGHTS TO THOSE WHO ARE SICK OR DYING)

4.  BARDO SONG (PRAYING & HELPING THOSE IN BARDO/LIMBO TO ENTER INTO THE CLEAR LIGHTS)

GREEN TARA SELF GENERATION:

{VIDEO FR YOU TUBE}  http://youtu.be/HdiLUkJJ3fE

WHITE TARA PRACTICE:

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YOGA

In pre-tractor agricultural societies, draft animals could only work together if they were kept in unison by means of a yoke. The English word is derived from the Sanskrit yug from which we get the familiar yoga. But yoga originally just meant “yoke,” a hoop or collar worn by a draught (draft) animal that can be attached to a long shaft or tied to a set of reins so that both the animal and the plough (plow) or wagon can be controlled by just one person. In fact, yoga is a way of referring to a tantric tradition. In tantrism, the student and teacher are yoked or linked by the teachings, and by obligations and responsibilities. The individual is linked to past masters. The aspects of the teaching are linked: word with action, thought and sound, visualization and gesture, etc. Not least, the outer actions and words link to the practitioner’s psychology and other characteristics and inclinations. The connotation of the word “yoga” is “discipline” in the sense of training to learn a technique. In the ancient Indian worldview, there was little division between mental, physical and spiritual aspirations. If a person wanted to be a better fighter, they had to learn to be a better thinker and concentrator, too. And they also had to consider why they wanted to achieve their physical goals, and what usethat might be in the long run. So, in yoga, the various aspects of the person are yoked to accomplish a task or a goal.

Student and teacher are yoked in a special relationship of confidence and trust. Students of the same teacher, school or lineage may consider themselves to be yoked together, too. In the West, that comprehensive kind of training is fairly new. For example, deliberate visualization as a means of obtaining improved results in sports has only been used for about a generation. In India and later, in Tibet and in China too, the body-mind connection has been understood and practiced for thousands of years. There are various types of yoga, any and all of which may form part of a tantric system. The physical exercises of hatha yoga are the most widely known type of yoga. Working with muscle flexibility, breathing and concentration, nowadays it is practised primarily to improve the health of the physical body and to relieve stress. Kriya yoga uses visualization, gesture and ritual worship. Karma yoga works on, and through, the perfection of the tasks of daily life.

Tantra in Sanskrit meant loom; also specifically, the warp thread that dresses the loom and gives support to the fabric formed by the moving shuttle or, in a rug, the individual knots. Without it, there can be no cloth. It can also refer to the cord used for stringing beads to make a necklace, a rosary, mala or garland. Tantric or more rarely, tantrik, is the adjectival form of tantra and it has come to mean continuous, or continuity in the sense of unbroken.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HINDU AND BUDDHIST TANTRISM

In 1977, Khyabje Trijang Rinpoche explained the distinction between Hindu and Buddhist tantrism very well. [<lamayeshe.com missing link]

• According to Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute, Nepal:

Vajrayana and Hindu Tantra are NOT the Same. Vajrayana Buddhism is also called the path of skilful means, secret path or effect vehicle. It is not limited to the Tantric process only. Its main principle is based on Madhayamika and Vijnanavada doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism.
The main goal of Hindu Tantra is to actualize the permanent, eternal Brahma as the realisation of the ultimate truth. In Vajrayana Buddhism, on the other hand, there is the system of meditation of the unity of Samatha and Vipashyana according to the Tantric or Sutra Mahamudra systems. These methods are unknown to Hindu Tantric systems. The purpose of Vajrayana Buddhist practice is to attain the perfect enlightenment of Buddha whereas in [the] Hindu Tantric system, the basis is to realize the Ten Mahavidyas as the highest forms of deities.
In Vajrayana Tantric meditation, the method is the generation and completion stage of the meditation whereas in Hindu Tantric meditation system, the method is limited to the generation stage. As a result of these meditation[s,] … Vajrayana practitioners achieve the state of complete enlightenment, whereas in Hindu Tantric system, the attainment is the Brahma realm. Therefore, it is a gross mistake to state that Vajrayana and Hindu Tantra are similar. Furthermore, in Vajrayana Buddhism, there are innumerable methods of meditations on Gurus, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Istadevatas, [Tib. yidam] Dakinis and Dharmapalas. The Ten Mahavidyas . . . considered [the] highest deities in [the] Hindu Tantric system, are relegated to the positions of [mere] . . . protectors of the Dharma (ie. Dharmapalas,) who can only clear obscurations in a practitioner’s practice but not really give enlightenment.

The deities in Buddhist Tantras are considered as the manifestation of our mind, whereas in [the] Hindu system it is the ultimate principle itself.
~ edited from 1993 paper on Newar Buddhist Culture.

• Nitin Kumar on bridging Hindu and Buddhist tantric visions.

BUDDHIST TANTRIC TRADITION

As a method in Buddhism, the objective is enlightenment “in this very lifetime,” but in both traditions, Hindu and Buddhist, it is acknowledged that the path of tantra is a risky one, indeed. In a well-known warning given by master to student, he or she who embarks upon the tantric path may be compared to a small snake inside a hollow bamboo tube. That is, once you get in there are only two ways out — up to enlightenment, or down to hell.

There has also been some misunderstandings about the nature and role of Buddhist teachers, generally. It is not necessary to be a celibate monk in order to mentor others on the Buddhist path. Many married people are also disciplined practitioners of meditation and other tantric techniques. Many others have partners or consorts with whom they work towards achieving the highest realization.
Buddhist tantric practitioners, ngakpas — they are not monks — generally do not take a consort until they are middle-aged when their meditation and other practices are stable.

CRAZY WISDOM

There is in the Buddhist Mahayana tradition, a long and respected tradition of the enlightened teacher who, according to general social norms, may appear to be very eccentric. But that is not to say that if a teacher behaves in an improper way towards a student, he or she ought to be excused as a “crazy yogi.” There is no excuse for the abuse of power or the manipulation of those who are vulnerable and trusting.
Students, too, must be careful, as it will surely result in very bad karmic consequences to cause any ordained teacher, celibate or not, to break their vows.

MAGIC

The word magic means “activity that the mages of Persia (and other Easter lands) were known for.” They bedazzled their audiences by seeming to be able to transform one thing into another. As with other skills or arts of human beings, we can only know what they accomplished long ago once their deeds were recorded for posterity by means of the written word. It is highly likely that many ancient practices were never written down.
The 20th-century saw a revival of the European expression of this training (to practice transformation by extraordinary means) in Wicca. Wicca is a Norse word that is related to wicker [wic > vik = to bend] the product of skill, training and imagination where witheys [thin willow branches] are bent, braided or twisted to form baskets and other useful objects. The word for any work of this kind iscraft, as in arts and crafts. A crafter of wicker objects was called a wicca or wicce [f. form, pron. witch.] Hence the northern European “tantric” tradition is called Witchcraft.
Of course, we know that the word witch took on another meaning entirely, so that today, people who do self-transformative practices in the European tradition are often reluctant to to use that expression.

Because of the terrible persecution inflicted upon anyone suspected of following the early European wisdom traditions, intact ancient lineages do not exist any longer. Today, the western rituals and practices stem mainly from 19th-century Britain, though there are some others. The same is true of the West African traditions that came to the West as Macumba and Vaudun (voodoo) Therefore, sadly there are very few genuine, intact tantric traditions still remaining.