© Susan Willett
2 Timothy 2 Verse 14
“That
there must be no wrangling about words.
All
that this ever achieves is the
Destruction
of those who are listening”
Milarepa, a Tibetan Saint
“Cling
not to meaningless words and empty talk,
Deeming
them to be truth,
Even
heretics can play with them,
One
can waste two and thirty lives and gain naught.”
A
spiritual master is one who has total compassion for all living beings that
they are willing to lay down their life as a living sacrifice. Their life is one of continual devotion and
dedication to showing the way out of a world of delusion ruled by man’s ideals
to a unification with the Father, ( God,spirit, luminosity) – Glory of God.
Before
Jesus’ disciples went out to teach this ‘way’ to the father, they had to have
experienced this for themselves. First
they climbed the ‘spiritual’ mountain with their teacher and they witnessed his
transfiguration. Also a series of ‘realizations,
insight’, takes place.
When
Jesus asks the question to his disciples, ‘who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter
replied, “You are Christ, Son of the Living God”. Jesus’ response to this was that ‘It was no
human agency that revealed this to you, but my Father in Heaven”. So there is
this revelation, this insight, this recognition of the spirit, and because of
this revelation, this understanding, Jesus then says to Peter, “so now I say
unto you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my community”. Jesus was building the ‘spiritual’ church,
the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Again
we see in Luke 24 verse 49 when Jesus appears after his crucifixion, they
receive the instruction, “”stay in the city then, until you are clothed with
power from on high’. They also had the
kingdom conferred on them, as Jesus had the kingdom conferred on himself, Luke
22 verse 29. Jesus opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures, Luke 24 verse 45.
It
is interesting to observe in Mahayana Buddhism, in
Also
in Mahayana Buddhism, there is this same recognition of the spiritual within
the teacher.
“If
you see your guru as a Buddha[1]
you will receive a Buddha’s blessing. If
you see him as a Bodhisattva.[2]
If you see him as a Bodhisattva, you will receive a Bodhisattva’s
blessing. If you see him as a siddha,[3]
you will receive a siddha’s blessing. If
you seem him as an ordinary person, a good spiritual friend, such is the
blessing you will receive. If you feel
no devotion or reverence for him, you will receive absolutely no blessing”.[4]
If
we return to Matthew 16, where Jesus asks the question “Who do you say I am?” When Simon Peter replies, “You are Christ,
the son of the living God”, Jesus responds, “Simon, son of Jonah, you are a
blessed man, because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my
Father in Heaven”.
Also
Jesus returns to this same theme when he talks about people receiving the
reward with how they see him, like in the passage mentioned above in the Kagyu
tradition. People that see him as a
prophet will reap a prophet’s reward, and if they recognize him as “Christ’,
the same reward as Simon Peter.
The
Mahayana Buddhist also believes in the conferring of an empowerment from the
luminosity itself (The Father, God, the Spirit) rather like Jesus conferring
the Kingdom in Luke 22 verse 28,29. “You
are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials, and now I confer a
Kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me”.
To
quote from the Buddhist prayer;
“The moment I make these requests, the whole
assembly dissolves into light and merges into the body of the principal who is
the embodiment of the three jewels clearly apparent in my Lama’s form. White light radiates from his forehead and
enters my forehead, purifying the obscuration of my body, thus receiving the
vase empowerment. I am empowered to
practice the development aspect of meditation and thus have become worthy of accomplishing
Nirmanakaya. Nirmanakaya, represents the variety of roles Buddha may play among
ordinary people. He may appear for
example as a type or artistic talent, as an apparently ordinary being such as a
Karmapa, or as a Buddha born in a given era, such as Shakyamuni. The latter is the ‘supreme’ type of
Nirmanakaya. The Nirmanakaya is often
called the ‘transformation’ or ‘illusory body’ because of its ability to appear
and function exactly as do the beings around it. This enables Buddha to communicate with all
types of beings and influence them most effectively.[5] Red light radiates from his throat and enters
my throat, purifying me of the obscurations of speech. Thus receiving the secret empowerment, I am
empowered to meditate on channels and winds, and thus have become worthy of
accomplishing the Sambhogakaya. The Sambhogakaya symbolizes the Buddha’s
activity among higher Bodhisattvas. Its
five certainties are;
a) The Sambhogakaya Buddha
abides only in the highest Buddha realm where he;
b) Appears only as the Sambhogakaya and
c) Teaches only the Mahayana
while
d) Surrounded only by 10th
level Bodhisattvas
e) He abides until Samsara
(world) is empty[6]
Blue
light radiates from his heart and enters my heart, purifying me of mental
obscurations. Thus receiving the wisdom
empowerment, I am empowered to meditate on union (entering together) and thus
have become worthy of accomplishing the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya, the only
one of the three considered to be ultimately real and thus incomprehensible
through concepts, is pure transcending awareness devoid of characteristics.[7] From the three places of the guru radiate
white, red and blue lights and these enter my three places, purifying me of
obscurations of body speech and mind, thus receiving the fourth empowerment, I
am empowered to meditate on Mahamudra and thus have become worthy of
accomplishing the Svabhavkiakaya, that is realizing the above three together.[8]
Then the guru dissolves into light and merges with me. My body speech and mind and the vajra body
speech (indestructible body, heavenly body) and mind of the guru become
inseparable and of one taste and possessing these three awareness’s, self
liberation is spontaneous.”
In
the Ascetic Discourse, St [10]Neilos,
we read; “understandably,
the entry must precede the planting, for when a man has not yet reached
perfection and lacks stability, the qualities he tries to implant in others will
not take root. In the spiritual life,
more than anywhere else, the proper order and sequence must be observed from
the start. Guests at dinner may not like
the introductory dishes and may feel more attracted by what comes later, but
they are forced to comply with the order of the courses.”
However, here comes a warning very much in evidence
today from the same discourse;
“Most people, however,
without exerting any effort or making any real progress, small or great in the
practice of virtue, simply chase after the status of spiritual director, not
realizing how dangerous this is. When
others urge them to undertake the work of teaching they do not refuse, indeed
they even wander about the back streets recruiting anyone they can find and
they promise all kinds of perquisites as if making a contract with servants
about food and clothing”. Spiritual Directors of this kind like to appear in
public, supported by a large crowd of attendants and to have all the outward
pomp of an abbot as if playing a part on a stage… such teachers should note how
Ezekiel condemns those who indulge the pleasures of others. In giving way to everyone’s wishes they are
treasuring up future punishment for themselves. “Woe to the women that sew
patches on every elbow”, says Ezekiel, “and puts veils on the heads of people
of every age… and so slay souls for a handful of barley and a piece of
bread”. (Ezekiel 13 verse 18,19.
Jesus
admonished Peter and John and the rest of the disciples to avoid such work and
consider themselves unworthy of such a position. How can anyone imagine himself superior to
them and claim for himself the office from which they were debarred. For in saying “Do not be called Rabbi”, he
does not mean that we are free to assume the office, so long as avoid the
title.. that is why the saints tried to leave behind them disciples whose
holiness was no less than their own, and to change these disciples from their
original condition to a better state”.[11]
So it is important to imitate the “true’ saint, the
“true” teacher.
If
the ego does not trap us in the world, it will sure try to raise its head in
the spiritual and under the influence of self esteem. A man may perhaps enter the priesthood or the
life of monastic perfection and because many come to him for help, his self
esteem makes him think highly of himself, thanks to what he says and does.
But,
we are told, to First Seek the
FAITH: dispassionate understanding of God.
HOPE: the flight of the intellect in love towards
that for which it hopes.
PATIENCE: With the eyes of the mind always to see
the Invisible as visible.
FREEDOM
FROM AVARICE: to desire not to have
possessions with the same fervor as men generally desire to have possessions.
KNOWLEDGE: to lose awareness of oneself through
going out to God in ecstasy
HUMILITY: attentive forgetfulness of what one has
accomplished.
FREEDOM FROM ANGER: a real longing not to lose one’s
temper.
PURITY: unwavering perception of God.
LOVE: growing affection for those who abuse us
TOTAL
TRANSFORMATION: through delight in God, to look on the repulsiveness of death
as a joy.
The
first requirement is Faith. It is an
unknown journey. The disciples did not
always understand what Jesus was pointing to, that Jesus himself is quite
exasperated at times. But they followed
him with faith; they recognized ‘that something’ about him that drew them to
him. Everything Jesus did have meaning,
the outer symbology had spiritual implications.
So
they had to take Jesus at trust, and there is no end of literature written on
the disciple is ‘tested’. Jesus leaves
the disciple to see how serious they are in their seeking. This of course takes many many years. Eventually the reward comes as Jesus promises
for ‘staying awake’, for ‘keeping guard’ and faith is turned to certainty in
spiritual knowledge which gives rise to hope and certainty. The brief ‘inward glimpses’ are given so that
one can endure until the end.
I WAS IN PRISION AND YOU VISITED ME
I WAS NAKED AND YOU CLOTHED ME (Mathew)
These
sayings are analogous to the spiritual journey.
The spirit is imprisoned in a heart of darkness, its intuitive voice
ignored, the person is thus in a state of ‘death’.
Job
declared the heavens are luminous. Job
25 verse 13. “His breath has made the heaven luminous.” That the heavenly, or Buddha field is
luminous is found in all traditions. In
Mahayana Buddhism one of the great teachings, “One moment’s experience of
luminous mind dispels an entire aeon of ignorance’.
In
Hebrew ruah means spirit, wind. In
Tibetan Buddhism there is emphasis on the oral transmission of the ‘lung, again
meaning wind. This spirit is the subtle
energy which one ‘awakens’ to. It is
spoken of by St. Teresa of
When
Adam fell, he found himself naked. In
the Jewish mystical tradition the word Adam, unlike Ish (Heb.), which also
means man, stands for a man over 40 years who has embarked upon the spiritual
path. Jesus states he was the second
‘Adam’. Adam realized he had done wrong
when he became aware he was ‘naked’. He
was naked in the sense that he had lost his spiritual sight; he no longer had
access to the heavenly. He was blind, a prisoner.
Jesus
states’ “ ‘I was naked’ and you did not clothe me.” You left me a prisoner in the world of
darkness, delusion, ignorance, when you could have taught me the way to my
original splendor. Adam, instead of
following the intuitive knowledge of God, he chose the knowledge which leads to
death. Jesus says in John “the way of
the world is not the way of the Father”.
As
we witness today, knowledge is a two edged sword, good and evil, and to partake
of it is death. If you partake of it you
become caught up in it, and worship it as a ‘god’ and turn and close the eyes
and ears to God’s spiritual knowledge and intuition. The intuitive voice of the spirit is stifled,
and we expend all our energy on something which is going to perish and keeps us
bound in the cycle of birth and death.
We are not awakened to the luminosity; we are ‘dead’ to the spirit and
in ‘death there is no remembrance’ Who
remembers anything other than this present life? Only an enlightened being has full memory of
what went before and comes after.
This
is why Jesus, speaking of being naked, and being clothed, places much emphasis
of preaching the Kingdom of heaven, which without, is impossible to break the
cycle of poor/rich, rich/poor. The poor
become rich and they in turn repress the poor.
Only when the kingdom is found will all these things be had. By preaching the kingdom of heaven, great
compassion is been shown to beings drowning in an ocean of suffering, who in
their blindness do not see their own nakedness.
But the spiritual teacher does.
Jesus saw mankind’s nakedness.
Jesus
says in John, “If God were your father, you would love me”. As well a physically feeding and clothing the
poor, which is essential, without this other knowledge one will not break the
endless cycle of suffering.
Isaiah
49:8-15. The passage is about the day of
salvation, “I will say to the prisoners, come out”. Again in the Daily Missal during the 5th
week of lent, the Tuesday reading from the book of psalms and revelation we
read, “For the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high. He looked down from heaven to the earth, that
he might hear the groans of the prisoners and free those condemned to die.”
Romans
11:32 states “God has imprisoned all human beings in their own disobedience
only to show mercy to them all”, and again in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “That is why
we do not waver, indeed, though this outer human nature of ours may be falling
into decay, at the same time our inner human nature is renewed day by day.” In v18 “Visible things are transitory, but
invisible things are eternal.
In
2 Corinthians 5;1 we read “For we are well aware that when the tent that houses
us on earth is folded up, there is a house for us from God, not made by human
hands, but everlasting in the heavens, v 4, “but because we want to be covered
with a second garment on top, so that what is mortal in us may be swallowed up
in life”.
YOU MUST BE BORN OF THE SPIRIT TO ENTER THE
The
Christian New Testament speaks of being ‘born of the spirit’, of being one with
the ‘Father’. In Mahayana Buddhism, one
has to have obtained the Vajra body, the indestructible body of luminosity, of
light. In the Book of Wisdom 2:1, 12-22
it says of the virtuous, “if they are God’s son’. The early desert fathers cite the
following. “For unless his Divinity
actively illumines the inner shrine of our heart, we shall not be able to taste
God’s goodness with the perceptive faculty undivided that is unified
aspiration”.[14] ‘One
must first deny oneself’, and then, taking up the cross must follow the master
towards the supreme state of deification.[15] “This is not only to behold the Trinity, supreme
in Kingship, but also to receive an influx of the divine and, as it were, to
suffer deification”.[16]
The
whole aim of the Mahayana Buddhist Sahdanas is so that one can understand the
stages of the path as the deity unfolds within one. The prayers have been designed so that the
student who has no knowledge of the spiritual will recognize the initiation of
the spirit when it happens, from the ‘root guru’.
Before
this can take place, one has to be purified.
One has to ender the Dark Night of the Spirit. This is a very alarming experience if one has
never been told what can happen at a certain depth of meditation, trance. In Mahayana Buddhism, this is called the
night of Black near Attainment. At a certain
point one feels all ones consciousness drawn to a single point sometimes within
the head, but mostly the descent will be to the heart, what the Christians
refer to as the Sacred Heart, Buddhists refer to this as all the ‘winds’ abiding
in the central channel. But Geshe
Kelsang describes this very well in his book Clear Light of bless.[17]
“There
are also two signs indicating that the winds are abiding in the central
channel.
After
this descent one experiences darkness, then luminosity, what the Mahayana
Buddhism terms ‘clear light’. This clear
light is the five Buddha families, the wisdom deities, which will unite with
one. Christians would understand this,
as the ‘luminous cloud’, the ‘glory of god with all his angels’. The Heavenly Jerusalem which is the ‘square
city’ mentioned in Revelation 21:18. The
Five Trees of
St
Teresa of
This
is because the ‘Dark night’ can bring with it many terrifying visions, one sees
one’s own though in luminosity, which one mistakes as ‘real’ if not properly
taught. The Tibetans again, enter what
is known as a ‘Bardo’ retreat which deals with this. Scripture has endless quotes that this night
is purgative and terrifying.
Wisdom 17:5, “illuminate that dreadful night”.
17:14
“Immediately, dreams and gruesome visions overwhelmed them with terror,
unexpected fears assailed them, but the retribution did not last long, for a
blameless man turned to their defense, wielding the weapons of his sacred
office, prayer and expiating incense”.
This
is where one feels Tabandoned by Jesus’ and one enters the darkness of the
abyss. This is where many do not face
their enemies and enter the Promised Land as the story in the Old Testament
demonstrates. The people were afraid to
enter the Promised Land because of their enemies. In fact only two did!
This
‘night’ is important, because as the prophet Daniel states, a lot is ‘revealed
in this night’. This is the ‘state’ that
yogis receive their own mantra in luminosity.
What Christian’s refer to as the living ‘word’. Wisdom 17:14”When peaceful silence lay over
all and ‘Night’ had run half her swift course, down from the heaven, from the
royal throne, leapt your ‘all powerful word’ like a pitiless warrior into the
heart of a land doomed to destruction.
Carrying your unambiguous command like a sharp sword, it stood and
filled the universe with depth, though standing on earth it toughed the sky’.
Of
course your own ego, your self, that which in us want forever to seek after
things that do not satisfy, like a land that is alien has to be made
waste. In Hebrew this is referred to as
In
the Gospel of :
John
8:31-42, “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you
will learn the truth and the truth will make you free”.
John
Now
the Tibetan Buddhist has an initiation of the ‘word’, where you are given a
word unique to yourself that you never reveal to anyone. This of course is an outward acting out of an
inner meaning, so that when you receive your own initiation of the word, you
will use the short syllable ‘Ah’ of the Buddhists, where you go ‘Ah, now I
understand’.
So
the spiritual seed that lies dormant within one has to be awakened.
So
once again in the mantra recitation of Buddhism they visualize the mantra in
‘light’ which revolves around the heart.
This we also observe in Jewish Mysticism, of the visualization of the
combinations of the 72 names of God around the heart. Also Judaism mentions on p84 of Jewish Mysticism
“when I came to the night in which this power was conferred on me, and
This
spiritual ‘essence’ is liked to the golden head in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of
the statue. God because it is
metaphorical for indestructible, like the ‘diamond’ sutra, and Vajra body. The Buddhist visualize the mandala offering
as the ‘golden’ ground. In Josephus the
Now
Mahayana Buddhism calls this meditation upon the essence, secret mantra. This is because until one has had direct
experience of luminosity of the clear light, experience of the subtle body, it
will appear unbelievable, ridiculed and it was because of this that the gospel
writers wrote ‘do not cast your pearls before swine’. This is because we are dealing with something
very profound and very sacred. All spiritual
writers have warned, for the knowledge to be passed only to the true
seeker. So in Tibetan Buddhism, one does
not do the Guru yoga until one has complete compassion for all beings. One does not become a teacher until one has
experienced ‘luminosity’. And again the
practice is looking towards the time when the wisdom beings will bless the
channels. One becomes ‘ordained’ from
the spirit. One becomes a ‘true priest’
after the order of Melchizadek.
“The
Holy Spirit overshadows them like a luminous cloud, and from the cloud they
hear the voice of mystical theology, initiating them into the mystery of the
tri-hypostatic Divinity and saying, “This is my beloved, the Logos of
perfection made manifest in whom I take delight. Become for me perfect sons in the perfect
Spirit”.[21] Also
on page 144:16, “When through assiduous ascetic labor we have purged ourselves
of the crudity of evil and have reconciled our inner discord through the power
of the Spirit, we then participate in the ineffable blessings of the mystical
Eucharist with God the Logos in hi supracelestial and spiritual sanctuary, for
we have become initiates and priests of his immortal mysteries.,[22]
and in passage 22 – “then we in our turn must pass on to others images and
intimations of this knowledge, conveying its hidden meaning to the purified
while withholding it from the profane, lest holy things be given to dogs, or
the pearl of the logos be cast before swine-like souls that would defile it’.[23]
To
Ezekiel the luminous cloud becomes an object of a detailed description. The prophet at first sees the luminous cloud
which as it approaches nearer, is seen to contain the brilliance of Yahweh
himself. Apocraphon of John, “They went
into a place and hid themselves in a luminous cloud” 28:10.
Again
certain drum rituals in Tibetan Buddhism are similar to the ‘sound’ you hear
when one makes the descent to the heart.
Again equipping the disciple with knowledge. According to the historian Josephus, “the
high Priest’s dress was embroidered with pomegranates and golden bells. Bells signified Thunder. Pomegranates Lightning”.[24]
When Jesus was truly empty of self at his death on the Cross, there was an
earthquake and darkness. On the passage
through the red sea, Psalm 76 states;
“The waters saw you, O god;
The waters saw you and shuddered;
The very depths were troubled.
The clouds poured down water
The skies gave forth their voice
Your arrows also sped abroad.
Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind;
Your lightning illumined the world;
The earth quivered and quaked’.
Deep
in meditation when empty of self, there is a noise like might waters and
thunder, then the Gory of God appears.
Without
this spiritual knowledge, many will recoil in fear from the very threshold to
the kingdom, and the Gospel of Luke 19:44 recognizes this. “You did not recognize at the moment of your
visitation”. One does not understand the
raging of the beast within, and like the foolish virgins were unprepared. This is why knowledge of scripture is
paramount, for it can only be a way to cut away defilement, delusion, ignorance
and hatred, become a shield in the time of distress, if you are acquainted with
it. Mark
So
stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming,
evening,
© Susan Willett
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE
NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, Reader’s Edition, Darton, Longman and Todd,
THE
COLLECTED WORKS OF ST JOHN CROSS, Institute of Carmelite Studies,
CLEAR LIGHT OF BLISS, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa
Publications,
GUIDE TO
TANTRIC
GROUNDS AND PATHS, Geshe Kelsang Syatso,
Tharpa Publications,
COMPLETE
WORKS OF JOSEPHUS, Flavius Josephus, Kregel Publications,
TORCH OF CERTAINTY, Jamgon Kongtrul, Shambhala,
Boston/London, 1994
THE
PHILOKALIA THE COMPLETE TEXT, Volume One, Faber and Faber, London/Boston 1983
THE
PHILOKALIA THE COMPLETE TEXT, Volume Two, Faber and Faber, London/Boston 1984
THE
PHILOKALIA THE COMPLETE TEXT, Volume Three, Faber and Faber, London/Boston,
1995.
NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY, James M. Robinson, Harper
Collins,
THE
SCHOKEN BOOK OF JEWISH MYSTICAL TESTIMONIES, Compiled and with Commentary by Louis
Jacobs,
[1] Buddha, a being who has completely abandoned all delusions and their imprints.
[2] Bodhisattva, a person who has generated spontaneous bodhichitta. From the first moment a practitioner generates a non-artificial, or spontaneous bodhichitta (mind of enlightenment) he/she becomes a Bodhisattva and enters the first Mahayana path, the path of accumulation.
[3] Siddha, attainment of power. The ordinary type includes worldly influence or wealth. Supreme type is spiritual attainment such as Mahamudra realization.
The above three definitions are taken from Guide to
[4] P128
Torch of Certainty, by Jamgon Kongtrul, Shambhala,
[5] Ibid.,
[6] Ibid.,
[7] Ibid.,
[8] Ibid.,
[9] P622,
The Collected Works of
[10] P222, The Philokalia The Complete Text, Vol., I
[11] Ibid., p 222/3
[12] Ibid., p252
[13]
[14] P261, The Philokalia The Complete Text, Vol., I.
[15] Theoretikon, The Philokalia The Complete Text, VoII. P39.
[16] Ibid., p43
[17] P 74, Clear Light of Bliss, Geshe kelsang Gyatso.
[18] P 172, Tantric Ground and Paths, Geshe Kelsang.
[19] P 29, The Four Who Entered the king’s Orchard. The Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies.
[20] Ibid., p 77, The Prophetic Mysticism of Abraham Abulatia.
[21] Philokalia Vo., III p 155 No53.
[22] Ibid., p144, No:16
[23] Ibid No:22
[24] Josephus Bk. 5, Ch 5, no 7