Tibetan Buddhist Deity Energetics/visualization---wow!

[GrandTrinity]

So, I understand that the highest form of Buddhism (vajrayana) includes visualizing deities.

 

For example, Tara has 7 eyes (2 normal, each foot and hand & 3rd eye), she sits on a lotus, she is a 16 year old virgin, she is white, she helps longevity...???

 

Avaloketishvara has a thousand arms, and eyes on each hand...she sits on a lotus...???

 

I find that visualizing these deities, is doing some awesome things to my chi. Tara, with her 7 eyes is reorganizing my chi real nice, connecting my core channel to the macrocosm!!!!!!!!!

 

Avaloketishvara's 1000 arms (arms connect to neck energy...) is helping my neck chakra and empowering my hands chakras A LOT, also helping my shoulder energy and general arm chi, certainly opening my chest/heart more.

 

What can people add to this thread? Perhaps you know of websites with great images of these deities? Perhaps you know of other deities to use? Or whatnot? Keys about the energy flow/details. Who here loves Tara and Chenrezig (avalo..) as much as I do, these days???

Edited September 25, 2006 by GrandTrinity

[minimoke]

 

Avaloketishvara has a thousand arms, and eyes on each hand...she sits on a lotus...???

 

Avaloketishvara's 1000 arms (arms connect to neck energy...) is helping my neck chakra and empowering my hands chakras A LOT, also helping my shoulder energy and general arm chi, certainly opening my chest/heart more.

 

 

Found a pretty good image:

 

http://himalayanhouse.com/shopping/images/Th042.jpg

 

I didn't know she has 1000 arms. In this image it's a little hard to tell the border around her body are arms. Zen schools do not make much of a point in studying deities, or at least the ones I've encountered. I find it interesting all the different flavors of buddhism.

 

Bruce

[rex]

What can people add to this thread? Perhaps you know of websites with great images of these deities?

 

Good images of Tara in her 21 aspects here:

Twenty One Taras

 

 

Other deity pics here and here.

 

[Trunk]

What can people add to this thread? Perhaps you know of websites with great images of these deities? Perhaps you know of other deities to use? Or whatnot? Keys about the energy flow/details. Who here loves Tara and Chenrezig (avalo..) as much as I do, these days???

I've been chanting the mantra for kuan yin (om mani padme hung) in conjunction with simple offerings to a statue that I have of him/her. It's perhaps the most balanced and profound practice I've come across.

[GrandTrinity]

Trunk, there is many interpretations of that mantra, what is the one/s you use? I like to use it in a way that activates the yin and yang vessels.

[rex]

Trunk, there is many interpretations of that mantra, what is the one/s you use? I like to use it in a way that activates the yin and yang vessels.

 

Oh this sounds good GT. Is this a specific meditation or something that just happens spontaneously?

[Wayfarer64]

So, I understand that the highest form of Buddhism (vajrayana) includes visualizing deities.

 

For example, Tara has 7 eyes (2 normal, each foot and hand & 3rd eye), she sits on a lotus, she is a 16 year old virgin, she is white, she helps longevity...???

 

 

So, I understand that the highest form of Buddhism (vajrayana) includes visualizing deities.

 

For example, Tara has 7 eyes (2 normal, each foot and hand & 3rd eye), she sits on a lotus, she is a 16 year old virgin, she is white, she helps longevity...???

 

Avaloketishvara has a thousand arms, and eyes on each hand...she sits on a lotus...???

 

I find that visualizing these deities, is doing some awesome things to my chi. Tara, with her 7 eyes is reorganizing my chi real nice, connecting my core channel to the macrocosm!!!!!!!!!

 

Avaloketishvara's 1000 arms (arms connect to neck energy...) is helping my neck chakra and empowering my hands chakras A LOT, also helping my shoulder energy and general arm chi, certainly opening my chest/heart more.

 

What can people add to this thread? Perhaps you know of websites with great images of these deities? Perhaps you know of other deities to use? Or whatnot? Keys about the energy flow/details. Who here loves Tara and Chenrezig (avalo..) as much as I do, these days???

 

 

I have a few jpgs of Tibetan Thangkas with images of Dieties on my web site one of which I am trying to research... There is a Green Tara representing the compassionate nature of the Diety. and more... As well as links to other sites with Thangkas and images

 

http://www.pdgart.com/Thangkas1.html

 

I hope there is enough info to answer most of yr questions! Enjoy!

Edited September 26, 2006 by Wayfarer64

[Wayfarer64]

I've been chanting the mantra for kuan yin (om mani padme hung) in conjunction with simple offerings to a statue that I have of him/her. It's perhaps the most balanced and profound practice I've come across.

 

I've been using a variation of the same chant for some 30 years and I think it may have saved my life!

I'm pretty sure that when I was in Nepal the pronounciation that was taught to me was closer to Om Mani Padme Hum "HOME: rather than the "ng" sound... But there could be dialectic and pronunciation differences that I am not aware of...

Peace- Pat

[Trunk]

Trunk, there is many interpretations of that mantra, what is the one/s you use? I like to use it in a way that activates the yin and yang vessels.

My experience is that the sounds activate, purify, connect and blend the centers sequentially, spontaneously. It's built into the mantra, naturally. The sounds tap into some deep natural resonance of the centers. This is how I pronounce them; not certain if it's traditional.

om - head, and the mmm glides into the next sound,

mahnee - heart

pehmeh - solar plexus, sort of a pivot between up and down

hung - everything below the solar plexus

 

There's a progression of experience that occurs with the mantra, that runs very very deep, that simply occurs by doing the practice, especially if you include some version of deity yoga with Kuan Yin at least occasionally.

[GrandTrinity]

Very nice trunk! I will have to practice that...

 

Everyone check out this MYSTerious website for awesome vajrayana peoems:

http://www.buddhanature.com/

 

I have been using a Chenrezig or Tara Thankga to go into samadhi before sleep the past few nights. Now, I am sleeping very very well and having interesting spiritual dreams about tibetan buddhism which I tend to forget.

 

I wonder how well a newbie to meditation could take flight using that technique Trunk mentions??? It seems very powerful.

[Yoda]

the exact sound varies by culture. If you dig the practice, consider attending an empowerment ceremony from a lama for the deity in question. If you are *really* into a deity, get your paws on a Sadhana practice... sort of a chanting practice about the positive qualities of the deity in question. Maybe a shortened form and see if you like it. I think they must be free online, google "sadhana of Tara" etc.

 

On another subject, if the Sadhana of Mahamudra is free online by Trungpa, it's a hoot. Trungpa borrowed the chanting style from a sect of Japanese Pureland Buddhism--it's very aggressive sounding. Lots of gnarly wrathful dieties are crawling all over that one! Maybe there's an audio download? It's the only gnarly Sadhana that's intended for the public. Trungpa channelled it while drunk in a cave in Bhutan.

[Wayfarer64]

Now that is very interesting...There seems to be a definate alteration of the mantra's transcendent qualities in using the ng rather than the MM sounding.

It may be part of the universal nature of the MM sound?!

The MMM sound is usually the first used by human babies. The enunciated " Ma" sound is almost universally found in the word for mother. ie ma in Chinese...

That you are feeling this variation with the ng sound in your third chakra level is a profound idea to me. The third chakra is the heart and "soul" of my meditative practice. I have always concentrated on trying to start my meditations from that level and work my consciousness up and out of my third eye or even the top of my head... which happens much less often...

I have a sense that the mmm in the "Home" sound I have been using is a resonance in my head and seems to be emitted out from my head! That is after at least half an hour or so of reaching a deep trance-like practice.

It is not so hard to believe that that small change can alter the experience... I shall try your pronounciation soon and see if I sense a difference...

I consider this the most powerful mantra I have ever used to move through the chakras and feel at peace with the one and all.

I have never used an image when meditating for pure transcendence. I do use my Happy Buddha statue that I found in Burma and that only when I hope to gain something on the karmic or artha levels and then I use the Nichiren shoshu chant - nom myoho renge kyo...

[GrandTrinity]

Who else loves Tara? My 3rd eye has been pusling ever since we got to know each other...

 

http://www.dharma-media.org is a great resource

[Trunk]

http://www.dharma-media.org is a great resource

 

You might enjoy meditating on this guy.

[GrandTrinity]

What is the big deal with Karmapa/meditating on Karmapa?

 

(Other than his great elf shoes and fun buddhist robes.)

[Mitch]

... What can people add to this thread? Perhaps you know of websites with great images of these deities? Perhaps you know of other deities to use? Or whatnot? Keys about the energy flow/details. Who here loves Tara and Chenrezig (avalo..) as much as I do, these days???

 

In the "The 6 Yogas of Naropa" it includes meditation on higher deities to become like them. I found that meditating on the qualities of the deity you want, and becoming those qualities, results in shifting your self limiting ideas about yourself.

 

So you could just make up your own super being and meditate on having the same qualities. Though their could be some advantages in using traditional deities because joining with an established thought form could bring faster results.

[rex]

[Trunk]

What is the big deal with Karmapa/meditating on Karmapa?

So you could just make up your own super being and meditate on having the same qualities.

As an answer to both of your comments:

In my experience, and my resulting view, this stuff is real. By meditating on extremely advanced teachers, and/or deities, your body is coming into contact with their body and learning from it. Any visualization that you might create is not so much the end-point as it is a bridge to get you to focus toward the mind-stream of the actual being. By choosing beings that are .. far along, it opens up possibilities of very progressive learning.

 

And, btw, I'm stating my view - not asserting that it be yours. I respect that everyone needs to come to their own conclusions, as a premise of personal integrity.

[Antares]

My experience is that the sounds activate, purify, connect and blend the centers sequentially, spontaneously. It's built into the mantra, naturally. The sounds tap into some deep natural resonance of the centers. This is how I pronounce them; not certain if it's traditional.

om - head, and the mmm glides into the next sound,

mahnee - heart

pehmeh - solar plexus, sort of a pivot between up and down

hung - everything below the solar plexus

 

There's a progression of experience that occurs with the mantra, that runs very very deep, that simply occurs by doing the practice, especially if you include some version of deity yoga with Kuan Yin at least occasionally.

 

Nice report. Could you explain broader how sounds resound between heart and sloar plexus? How is it up and down exactly?

[GrandmasterP]

We had this on Dharma Wheel a while back.

Apparently there has to be six syllables in the mantra for it to work.

No more, no less.

[ralis]

We had this on Dharma Wheel a while back.

Apparently there has to be six syllables in the mantra for it to work.

No more, no less.

 

Which mantra?

[Antares]

Yeah, six. Om - ma- ni - pe-me-hum.

 

What shoul be at the end - Unnn or Ummm? And why there is up and down pivot at the center?

[Alchemistgeorge]

By meditating on extremely advanced teachers, and/or deities, your body is coming into contact with their body and learning from it. Any visualization that you might create is not so much the end-point as it is a bridge to get you to focus toward the mind-stream of the actual being.

 

As far as I can tell, this sort of thing can be extremely helpful along the path.

 

However, I know some folks who believe these kind of "connections" or "relationships" with deities or advanced teachers are "two way streets" - that you get, but you also give. In most situations I've seen, the cost to the student is low.

 

Not everybody always reads the fine print, so I thought I'd mention it.

[idiot_stimpy]

So what exactly is given?

 

Vital energy?

[Seth Ananda]

I still like Om Ah Hum/Hung for 3 Dantiens. om being the top, ah the middle, and Hum or Hung being the LDT