Ever since I check out a book by the Dalai Lama I have been hooked on Tibetan Buddhism. I even invested a year as a Buddhist monk in 2003/2004. I spent six years studying full time whilst residing in a retreat hut at a Tibetan Buddhist centre in Queensland Australia, where I found out a great deal about the subject and had some remarkable realisations about my self and the world. I have actually given that gone my own method trying to equate the deep wisdom I have actually discovered into understandable and modern methods.
Tibetan Buddhism is an unique depository of Eastern thought. The nation is situated between China and India, Kashmir and Nepal and has adopted elements of different customs including Shaivism, Indian Tantra, Japanese Zen, obviously, Indian Buddhism. It also includes aspects of the shamanistic tradition of Bon, which was native to Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism in the 8th century. Tibetan Buddhism is an eclectic mix of the very best of the Orient, which can make it difficult to permeate, so different Tibetan masters for many years have actually summed it up into numerous primary classifications. It has even end up being a curriculum of gradual stages to knowledge, revealing all the great traditions in an action by action path to finish and complete knowledge. This blog is in that vein– trying to summarize the lots of and different practices of Tibetan Buddhism into a simple to understand spiritual path.
Buddhism has drawn from a range of Eastern customs. The 4 main spiritual practices of Tibetan Buddhism are Renunciation, Bodhicitta, Vacuum, and Vajrayana.
Renunciation
Renunciation has the undertone of turning away from something. What is not as widely understood is that it’s also a turning toward something. It suggests to turn away from worldly pursuits to attain happiness and turn towards inner and spiritual methods to achieve happiness and fulfilment. It is the start of the spiritual mission after realising the limitations of wealth, popularity and product possessions to bring lasting happiness.
Often in the West, we think “If I’m just successful in my profession and have abundant wealth, I will undoubtedly be truly happy”. Of course, people who have actually attained these measures of success have discovered the ancient reality for themselves; that these things are not inherently satisfying, and have no significance besides what we attribute them. Sometimes it takes an unbelievably rich and effective person like Russell Brand to advise us of this reality:
Increasingly I’ve realised; everybody has appeal within themselves, and if you find this and accept this, then you will more than happy despite external attributes or material things.
Joy comes from within’ Cash can’t purchase happiness’is a cliché, however, the Buddhists go further and meditate on the fact that whatever modifications, and therefore no material belongings can bring long lasting fulfillment.
It is composed as a worthy fact that all conditions of the world are unsatisfactory, constantly changing, and have no long lasting compound. Through meditation and pondering this honorable reality, a person turns away from pursuing these things. Instead, they turn towards what mystics and masters have actually encouraged will bring long lasting joy and fulfilment– or enlightenment– and freedom from clinging onto worldly conditions, in order to please our desires.
When you are persuaded of these truths right down to your bones, you have actually entered a spiritual course and have actually realised renunciation.
Renunciation releases us from viewed restrictions and social conditionings.
Bodhicitta
Bodhicitta is a kind of fantastic love and empathy that notifies and encourages our spiritual pursuits. Upon reflection of the insubstantial nature of the world and the vicious circle of trying to find complete satisfaction in objects– which are naturally unfulfilling– we understand the unneeded suffering of ourselves and everyone else in the world who is still caught by the delusions of desirous accessory to things. This gives rise to a kind of natural compassion that is motivated to help others, which is cultivated by first assisting ourselves to become free of our own accessories.
The wish to be totally free to be the most benefit to all other beings is based on an acknowledgment of the equality of all people. The intimate connection we have with every living creature comes from many life times of interrelating, our shared suffering, and our shared pursuit of happiness. All of us want to be happy and we all wish to prevent suffering, but regrettably, we are caught in patterns that weaken our own, and others’ happiness.Bodhicitta is the bold mindset that we are all in this together, and if I am to end suffering, I aim to end all suffering. Bodhicitta is therefore as simple as it is grand. Humbly bowing in regard to all living creatures in deep gratitude of our shared suffering and shared pursuit of emancipation. I can not accomplish my own peace when my brothers and siblings of the world are still trapped in suffering. It would be like taking all the lifeboats on a sinking ship simply for yourself.< img src="https://upliftconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wheelchair-lady-and-kitten.jpg"alt="Alt text here"/ > We need not be rich to provide the present of empathy. Fortunately this type of excellent love and compassion for all beings is also a fantastic protector of our own
minds. It’s impossible to feel love and hate for someone at the same time. When we can like even our enemies, our own minds and hearts are transformed with strength and function, helping to make life significant. As the Dalai Lama has ensured us: I have found that the best degree of inner serenity comes from the advancement of love and compassion. Emptiness As the Dalai Lama has jokingly
stated:” for something that is indescribable there sure are a lot of books blogged about it.”He is referring to Sunyata or what has been most typically equated as emptiness.
Understanding the truth of emptiness generates the deepest wisdom, and the power to cleanse lack of knowledge and transcend suffering. Therefore it is probably the most widely practiced meditation and consideration of Tibetan Buddhism. In its easiest type, emptiness is the truth that whatever changes and for that reason has no lasting identity or compound. When we look at anything and label it, that thing remains in no other way fixed and what we are labelling is today moment look of something that is in flux. Since labels don’t alter but things do, we only get an approximation of the world, yet we are persuaded that we are seeing the entire truth of things. Monks frequently practice impermanence by making sand Mandalas, which they ruin upon conclusion. Another method of looking at vacuum is that the map(labels/thoughts)is
not the area. No matter how great the photo or representation of something is, it is constantly different from the lived experience of it. That is why with mindfulness, we are taught to try and know the present minute in a non-judgemental way, and therefore taking in more of truth and less of our viewpoints about reality. Truth is only genuinely touched fully when we experience things directly without the mediation of language. Seng Tsan a terrific Zen master says: If you want to experience the fact simply give up your viewpoints for or against anything and the fact with expose itself. All of human knowledge is stored in language and concepts, so what happens when you give up the obvious intelligence of
not the area. No matter how great the photo or representation of something is, it is constantly different from the lived experience of it. That is why with mindfulness, we are taught to try and know the present minute in a non-judgemental way, and therefore taking in more of truth and less of our viewpoints about reality. Truth is only genuinely touched fully when we experience things directly without the mediation of language. Seng Tsan a terrific Zen master says: If you want to experience the fact simply give up your viewpoints for or against anything and the fact with expose itself. All of human knowledge is stored in language and concepts, so what happens when you give up the obvious intelligence ofconcepts? A huge void opens up. This void transcends language and ideas and is the direct experience of countless mystics throughout the ages. Existence and non-judgement allows area for the fact. It turns out the void is not empty at all. Those who have directly experienced this transcendent reality report a fullness
By dealing with energy channels in the body and Chakras, the meditator experiences the unity of all beings, and transforms mundane libido into a powerful fuel, sparking a supercharged path to the enlightened state. This untapped euphoric energy is within all beings, and Vajrayana brings it to the surface where it is literally working with the euphoric rays of the underlying source of reality. As Lama Yeshe says: All of us have a significant energy within us more effective than an atomic bomb which is a fantastic resource to attain the greatest objective of knowledge. With practice, we can all find out to harness the power of our minds
, a interconnectivity of all things, and most frequently of all, a deep sense of love and peace are found in this most magical of experiences. Contemplating vacuum by seeing things without judgement or labels, and especially seeing yourself without any judgement or labels, opens up an entire new mystical world filled with its own deep knowledge, unconditional love, and radiant bliss. Vajrayana Actually it indicates the diamond path, and it is normally practiced after the realisations of renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. The void filled with love, knowledge, and happiness are understood to be the nature of all beings and all things and is often called the ground or source of being. Vajrayana is a skilled methods to straight relate with this underlying reality, and bring it into the world through visualisation, mantras and blissful energy. We have the power to produce that which we focus our attention on. The structure of Vajrayana is 
faking it until you make it, or to put it simply, visualising yourself as an emanation or extension of the underlying fabric of truth which has actually been comprehended to be void, love and bliss. There are several divine beings or informed figures in Tibetan Buddhism which a practitioner can imagine themselves as, but essentially it has to do with imagining and envisioning yourself as a fully enlightened being made from love and light. As the contemporary stating goes ‘whatever you can develop, you can attain’ so there’s fantastic intelligence in this ancient inner technology, which uses the imagination to conceive yourself as an informed being; radiating love, happiness and benefitting every sentient being in the universe. The 2nd stage of Vajrayana, is utilizing the body’s subtle energy system to assist get in touch with happiness and access ever much deeper states of consciousness. 
. Bringing Eastern Practices and Teachings to the Western World I have actually practiced all four of these spiritual paths and can testify that they are incredibly
beneficial and significant. I teach these kinds of meditation and motivate people to engage with them to the very best of their capability. Every one contains its own knowledge and has its own positive results on my life. After many years of practicing these spiritual courses, I came across the secret mentors of Tibetan Dzogchen in books concealed at the back of the library in the Tibetan Buddhist centre where I lived. Dzogchen, which is in some cases referred to as the highest course of Tibetan Buddhism, consists of all the above gradual paths, however it likewise consists of an extreme meditation on the non-dual, or instantaneous course to knowledge. The extreme rapid approach recognises that renunciation, love and empathy, deep space filled with wisdom and happiness, is actually currently existing in a total and eternal way within all sentient beings. The teachings say that all that is required is to give up all pursuits and efforts to get anywhere else, and instead rest in your natural state of completion and fulfilment. Because our nature is already best– often referred to as pure awareness, or merely’Being’– we just have to stop all fabrication and manipulation, and come to rest in the terrific natural peace of who we truly are. Love is our real essence. After years of effort, study, retreats 
, and thousands of hours of practice, I did finally rest and found the reality of these teachings. To this day I am unsure if I might realise it instantaneously due to the fact that of all the previous work I had done, or if it existed the whole time waiting on me to see it, so today I teach both the steady, and immediate approaches in order to meet people where they are at, and with what they require at the time. Source
