Затеялся читать online книжку по Ваджраяне

[dmm]

Есть такой замечательный человек по имени David Chapman, который пишет всякие философские интернетные книжки, и вот он недавно сделал "tweetstorm" на тему о рисках медитатации: twitter.com/Meaningness/status/1357113012356714497

vividness.live/meditation-risks

Надо сказать, что в реальности, в которой я обитал, не было никаких рисков, связанных с медитацией, пока Пелевин не выпустил осенью 2018-го "Тайные виды на гору Фудзи", в которой риски медитации - центральная тема. Тут-то сразу пошли статьи в разных местах про риски и побочные эффекты, связанные с медитацией, и я, вдруг, оказался в реальности, где уже лет 10, а то и больше, люди пишут разные тексты про эти самые риски и изучают эту тематику. Вот что Пелевин животворящий делает с реальностью (и это не в первый раз).

Система медитации, которой я занимаюсь примерно с лета 2012-го года (хотя в последнее время менее систематически), по книжке "The Presence Process" by Michael Brown, она, как раз, не переходит ту границу, за которой начинаются риски, но, при этом, крайне эффективна (Дэвид Чапмен, как раз, пишет про то, где "граница безопасности", и, замечательным образом, книжка "The Presence Process" как раз живёт в точности на этой границе). И она вполне в западном мейнстриме по определению Чапмена.

Но, в общем, ясно, что надо бы найти новую систему, в дополнение к той, которой я занимаюсь, и вот, эта книжка Чапмена, как раз, выглядит как то, что нужно: vividness.live/

А та сложная книжка, про которую я писал некоторое время назад, к ней, как раз, применима критика Чапмена (я посмотрел-посмотрел на неё, и решил, в итоге, "на фиг, на фиг"; и Чапмен как раз хорошо вербализует, почему я так решил, а "Тайные виды на гору Фудзи" это прямо-таки живописно и в ярких красках объясняет): dmm.dreamwidth.org/21712.html

UPDATE: It's a very good book, but it's not a "self-facilitated practice book" (I don't think the author even believes in self-facilitated tantric practices).

What is good about "The Presence Process" book is that one can use it for a rather far-reaching self-facilitated practice. (It's not even "officially Buddhist", it's a very secular and rather effective practice.)

But this book, while quite remarkable, can't be used to build a self-guided practice (as far as I can tell at the moment).

UPDATE 2: Actually, I think, some subset ("Yidams" and "Pure Land") should not be too difficult to transform into a self-facilitated practice (the author does not like the idea of self-facilitated practices, but so what; a lot of us don't like the idea of dependence on a "spiritual teacher" even more): dmm.dreamwidth.org/37665.html?thread=97057#cmt97057

Comments

[dmm]

https://vividness.live/pure-land

'That is the tantric practice of “pure vision.” [... like the previous one ...] it is a “practice of view,” which means developing the habit of interpreting the world in a particular way.'

***

'There are technical methods for developing this “divine perception.” However, as in earlier pages, I would rather emphasize the power of the attitude.

What is important is relating to people as though they were Buddhas, and relating to circumstances as though they were a “Pure Land.”'

***

'Pure vision is the antidote to misperceiving people and things as ordinary. Conceiving them as “ordinary,” you tune out their specifics and relate to them only to manipulate them for boring, necessary purposes. They lose most of their ability to surprise or delight you.

Nothing is objectively “ordinary,” and nothing is objectively “sacred.” These are strictly in the eye of the beholder. So which would you prefer to live with?'

***

'Obligatory sexual metaphor

(This is tantra, after all!)

* The six senses are six beautiful naked deities (of your sexual preference) offering you bowls of nectar, plates of ambrosia, and, um, other delights.'

***

'Tantra reverses [Mainstream Buddhism]. The physical world is nirvana. You should want to be connected to it, as much as possible, because it is thoroughly enjoyable, and because the real world is the place you can be most useful. Your emotions (stripped of fixed meanings) provide the energy that drives usefulness.

You should, therefore, honor the senses as sacred. You should also get to know them better by paying more attention to what they do and how. Personifying them as sexy deities is a tantric trick to help with that.

Of course, these deities are devoted to serving you. They bring you all the world’s wonderful experiences, offering them as gifts.'

***

'Dissolving fixed meanings

Ordinarily, we automatically interpret people and situations as intrinsically good, bad, or uninteresting; as supports or threats.[...]

The kleshas are supposed to be the cause of dukkha (unsatisfactoriness); but we can turn that around. Unsatisfactoriness is the cause of the kleshas. Habitually seeing life as a nasty problem is what makes you interpret people and things as good, bad, or uninteresting.

In pure vision’s paradise, nothing is unsatisfactory or threatening. So, you can relax. There’s no need to categorize people and situations as good, bad, or uninteresting.

This is a method for developing spaciousness, which is a key to tantra. Alternatively, you can understand this as the transformation of the tantric five kleshas into the corresponding five wisdoms. The wisdoms are the energies of the kleshas, minus fixation.'

***

'Exploding subjective and objective

It might seem that pure vision fixates everything as “good.” But that fixation is the klesha of neediness—“Gotta have it!” You take a subjective valuation (“I like it”) and project it as an objective quality (“it’s good”).

Pure vision makes everything interesting—not “good.” Interest is what makes everything enjoyable. Interest is a dynamic interaction: neither subjective nor objective, but a process that involves both self and other. Enjoyment is also interactive, whereas neurotic desire is subjective.'

***

"Is this realistic?" - an important discussion section

"the ultimate aim of pure vision is not to see anything that isn’t objectively there, nor to hide anything that is. The aim is to end the hallucination that subjective valuations (good, bad, uninteresting) are objective qualities."

"In tantric technical exercises, you do visualize things that are not there. For example, you try to see ordinary pebbles as precious jewels. The point of this, though, is to come to appreciate pebbles for their own real-world qualities.

“Ordinary” is a hallucination—an imposed meaning. It blinds you to the thing itself; to the beauty of the rock, which you can enjoy if you pay it attention. “Precious” is also a hallucination, but you can use it as a temporary antidote to “ordinary.” Visualizations are training wheels for the actual practice. Trying to see a pebble as precious, you open your eyes to what is there.

The technical practices of pure vision are probably best tried first in a safe space. Done properly, they won’t turn you into an idiot, however. The attitude of pure vision is realistic, not Pollyannaish. It does not blind you to harmful consequences.

What it can do is allow you to appreciate anything, including “bad” and “ordinary” things. There is a powerful social taboo that says you are only allowed to enjoy “good things.” (This is especially key to the middle classes, by the way. Things from your own sub-class are “ordinary,” and you shouldn’t enjoy them much. Things from the next grade down are “bad,” and you mustn’t enjoy them at all, or your status may slip and fall.)

You can enjoy even physical pain—almost always labeled “bad.” But athletes actively enjoy certain kinds of pain, as proofs of accomplishment. The same pain would cause suffering if it didn’t have that meaning. By stripping the meaning off other pains, you can enjoy them, too. (That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t rather avoid them, though.)"

***

"Is this possible?

Is it possible to see everyone as a Buddha, and all the world as a paradise?

My experience is that it’s hard work. Ideally, you are supposed to maintain pure vision at all times. I can’t do that, and I can’t know whether it is possible.

However, being able to do it even a little bit is enjoyable and useful. I think it’s certainly worth trying.

This is one of the many aspects of tantra where working closely with a teacher is invaluable. They can give advice on appreciation tailored for your personal patterns of aversion. They can give specific advice about how to enjoy particular things. You can also learn a lot simply by watching them relish unlikely pleasures."

***

"No heaven on earth

The pure land might sound like heaven, but it’s actually quite different.

Traditional Buddhism has heavens, which it considers no damn good. Everything is so blandly pleasurable that you turn into an indolent idiot. There is no motivation to do anything but soak in it. It is always mid-afternoon, and the weather is always perfect.

Nothing ever happens in heaven.[...]

A pure land, by contrast, is the ideal place for Buddhist practice. It’s comfortable enough that you can settle into meditation, but not stupefyingly pleasant. It’s varied enough to jolt you out of the mindless bliss states that can trap advanced meditators. In the pure land, the point is to wake up, train hard, and learn how to make yourself useful.

In heaven, it is always 78 degrees Fahrenheit—a soothing tropical warmth. In the pure land, there are bracing autumn mornings that say: wake up!"

***

"Here is the secret key to both practices:

* The pure land is the charnel ground.
* The charnel ground is the pure land.

It is not that things you like are the pure land, and ones you don’t are the charnel ground. That’s just the dualism of the kleshas—attraction and aversion.

It is not that reality is somewhere in-between heaven and hell. It is not that charnel ground practice is the antidote to liking things, and pure land the antidote to disliking them. That might be the approach of lukewarm mainstream Buddhism; but Tantra is not the middle way.

It is not that you alternate pure land and charnel ground practice. You do that in training, but it is not the ultimate, non-dual practice.

* All of reality is always simultaneously a pure land and a charnel ground.

Everything is sacred—perfect just as it is. Everything is a nightmare, horror heaped on horror.

The charnel ground is a paradise: there are always plenty of corpses to eat, and rivers of poison to drink. (Tantrikas are required to eat corpses—of cows, at least—and to drink rivers of poison—alcohol, at least.)

Everyone you meet is a shambling undead monstrosity and also a perfectly enlightened Buddha.

So are you.

It is not that you are a Buddha when you are “being good” and a monster when you are “bad.” These are two poetic descriptions of the same whole person.

The value of charnel ground and pure vision practice is in highlighting different feelings you have about the one non-dual reality. Charnel ground is the antidote to eternalism: the delusion that the universe has some ultimate metaphysical meaning that will save you. Pure vision is the antidote to nihilism: the delusion that the universe is only dead matter, and life—full of suffering—has no purpose."

(and don't forget comments at the end of the post on vividness.live)