What are empowerments?

[Songtsan]

You are blessed as in he/she is treating you as an equal ... its more of a greeting I think.

 

When I received my Kriya yoga initiation, the guru touched his forehead to our feet. That was pretty powerful - by his admitting that we were just as holy as he or anybody else, and that all of us in the room we equal, I immediately felt a sense of how powerful the belief systems of the lineage were.

[balance.]

In terms of the buddhist practices--- I'm fond of Vajrasattva recitation (and Namo Amituofu!).... I've never received an blessing in order to activate or open the Vajrasattva practice.............. and yet I experience heavy releases through it all the same---- so much so that I'm really careful about when I do it and how many times I recite it--- elsewise I'll spend the day crying (for reals) ..... but the next day I feel like a million bucks.

 

If you feel a strong resonance with a practice and have the openness to check with your higher-self to see if said practice is worth pursuing and will actually benefit you and lead you to your goals--- then rock on. No need to always wait for a lamas blessing IMO.

 

 

best.

 

 

balance.

Edited July 16, 2013 by balance.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

I AM SELF EMPOWERED.
CALL UPON THINE TRUE SELF AND FIND YOUR UNIQUE HARMONY.
Why seek a teacher when you are in a forum full of information which can initiate the mind to become its own master and breach the bondage of time and space with your own mind to procure the mysteries of the universe in a single thought???




This comment alone should initiate many as it is, should initiation truly be sought by its readers!

[BaguaKicksAss]

This rant has been simmering for awhile . I could be dead wrong, and hope I am actually... but...

 

To give some perspective for my rant, the only things I know about Buddhism are from TTBs and the local newagers who attend workshops every weekend in their lulumon tights, to get empowerments. The only stuff I know about Daoism is from 1.5 years of training with Sifu, but we mostly talk about Bagua and medical qigong; TTBs, and fortunately the posts of Michael Saso.

 

And this may sound really cynical and skeptical... well OK it is... but really, enlightened Lamas from Tibet and India travel to my city every week (we get new ones coming through here all the time) to charge more than minimum wage workers can afford, to give real empowerments to rooms full of people?! Is it just me, or does this not add up somehow?

 

I have been warned that when I do travel to India (I really do want to visit the temple of Kali ) that any guru I would meet over there is fake. OK so then why would the ones who travel around the world on planes to teach large roomfulls of people not be fake?

[Jetsun]

In India there is a professional Guru circuit who lure in gullible wealthy Westerners, but they aren't all fake and there are some diamonds. The Buddha in one of his sutra's spelled out what to look for in a realised teacher, I don't remember all of the signs he said but some of them were things like indefatigability and unbiassed compassion, so you can look at how a teacher conducts their life to see if you can see those sorts of signs because not that many do; some examples of those who do are Sri Mata Amritandamayi Devi (Amma) and the late Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche and the current Dalai Lama.

 

Edit; but yeah in terms of charging a lot I understand your point, it doesn't demonstrate compassion to charge a lot for mass teachings. In the examples I gave Amma's Darshan is free and the Dalai Lama doesn't charge excessively for his empowerments.

[BaguaKicksAss]

The current Dalai Lama is so awesome! He's one of those folks you can just feel it in him, all the time.

 

Hmmm, those two traits are difficult to find in people from all I have seen. Though sometimes....

[BaguaKicksAss]

I understand charging for teachings... but also feel that a sliding scale is good sometimes .

 

(on a side note, funny thing, when one undercharges people tend to give you raises lolol).

[yabyum24]

This rant has been simmering for awhile

They're the best kind of rants. Slow-cooked.

 

Yes & no. There are some shallow empowerment must-have shoppers out there and some gurus who don't give a monkey's who they distribute them to, as long as they've paid.

 

But this is not all cases by a long shot. Certain people will find that they have an affinity with a specific yidam and in such situations it's well worth them getting that specific empowerment. But the key thing is that no empowerment is of any use if the person makes no subsequent effort to follow the teachings and just arrives a few weeks later for the next one.

 

Empowerments are no substitute for meditative experience.

 

I also don't see the point in collecting loads of them. Highest Yoga Tantra systems all have complete generation and completion stage instructions within them, so why not stick with one you like and crack it?

[Jetsun]

I think Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche collected just about every single empowerment from every lineage in Tibet when he was alive, so if you can get an empowerment from one of his students then you get them all at once, so you get the entire spiritual history of Tibet downloaded into your brain in one go instead of having to go to Lama to Lama for the rest of your life (it probably doesn't work like that but it would be nice)

[yabyum24]

I think Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche collected just about every single empowerment from every lineage in Tibet when he was alive, so if you can get an empowerment from one of his students then you get them all at once, so you get the entire spiritual history of Tibet downloaded into your brain in one go instead of having to go to Lama to Lama for the rest of your life (it probably doesn't work like that but it would be nice)

Sounds like a deal to me

[BaguaKicksAss]

I think Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche collected just about every single empowerment from every lineage in Tibet when he was alive, so if you can get an empowerment from one of his students then you get them all at once, so you get the entire spiritual history of Tibet downloaded into your brain in one go instead of having to go to Lama to Lama for the rest of your life (it probably doesn't work like that but it would be nice)

 

How do folks not go insane from this? Or is it more like one only takes in the little bit they can handle at any given time and it grows as the person does?

[SonOfTheGods]

be careful who gives you one

[BaguaKicksAss]

be careful who gives you one

 

Yeah you get all the negative crap the teacher hasn't worked out yet along with it as well... I mean if they are anything like transmissions or initiations...